This weekend was a rather uneventful weekend. It consisted of me doing homework, listening to the Whitehall Basketball games at divisionals, and walking Shiloh.
Ok, I'll elaborate slightly so that the post might actually be worth reading. For homework, I have been working on my take-home test for Complex Analysis. I had done quite a bit of it last week and haven't made much progress since then, but I wrote up the answers I do have on the final version over the weekend. Biophysics homework is really tough. I really like to do the readings, but when it comes time to actually apply the things that we were supposed to have learned about, I just don't know which things we are supposed to use. I imagine this is how physics will be in real life... you don't have just a chapter's worth of equations to look through, you have to remember everything that you have done up to that point and you have to apply only what is necessary. Anyway, I didn't make much progress on that homework, but will go in for office hours later. We are studying viscosity and the like in that class. One interesting thing that I learned was that on the micrometer scale, water acts to bacteria and tiny particles like corn syrup does to us; thick and sticky. This is due to the fact that the way a liquid behaves with an object completely relies on the forces of the object. On the forces of everyday life for us, the forces are much to large and water acts slippery, but when you look at the tiny scale, they exert MUCH smaller forces so water is really viscous. I also worked on my Rings and Fields homework, which is the last one before break. I finished all but 4 of the homework problems.
My research is also going well. I can't explain to you guys what is actually going on very well since I can barely understand it, but I have been using the computer program mathematica along with the high performance computing cluster at AU to compute matrices of transformations from one representation of the 3 dimensional harmonic oscillator to another representation. One of the calculations took the supercomputer around an hour and a half to do, so I am quite glad I haven't been trying to do it on my computer. It is actually through my computer, but I just submit a problem for the computer to work on and then it outputs the result into a file that I can look at whenever I log back in to the system.
I have also been dog sitting Shiloh, the person whose house I am staying at's dog. It is a cute little Beagle and she likes to be walked. It is handy for the owner, since I am right here and I'm easy to make plans with, and it is nice for me too, since it is easy money, since I am right here always.
This Sunday, I went to church and to potluck afterwards and had some great potato soup and girl scout cookies, but I was in a bit of a hurry to get back to walk Shiloh and to then go to a recital. Two girls from our chamber singers group had their junior and senior recitals, which are similar to capstone projects for music and vocal performance majors. They were really good and each had about an hour concert. Between concerts, I went and played Frisbee with a few of the chamber singers people. It was fun! I haven't just wasted time playing outside in quite a while. It was also nice to talk to them. Anyway, Amy is in Montana now, so I didn't go see her this weekend...
Spring break is next week. I have lots of work to do, but I am thinking to go down and visit the Drake's on Tuesday for a day or two. It should be fun! I also have 2 big projects to work on. First, the preliminary research on my biophysics final paper/presentation, and also my third textbook report for Quantum Mechanics.
Anywho, I had realized that I was wasting time on facebook, so I thought I would write instead. Good Night!
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
It has been quite a while...
Dear people who used to read my blog. I am very sorry for not having kept it up for a long long time. I realize that I do have more time than I claim, since really, facebook and checking my email every hour is not that useful. I have decided that I will try harder to just post things on here instead. I don't have a lot of time at the moment, but I did write an email to my grandparents recently about what I have been doing this semester.
"I have been staying at an apartment since the first week of classes this "Spring" semester and it is a wonderful location. It is 1.5 miles from American University and 1.25 from where Amy is staying at Georgetown. It usually takes me about 15 minutes to get to classes in the mornings and about 5 to get back, since it is quite a bit down hill and I can really get flying. I have a nice head light and tail light for my bike and I ride it everywhere. This semester though, "everywhere" isn't quite as far as last semester.
As far as classes, I am taking Rings and Fields, a math group theory class, Complex Analysis, (another math class), Biophysics, Quantum Mechanics (by far my hardest class, averaging probably 15-20 hrs per week), and Chamber Singers. I am also doing research with a professor in the Physics department about finding coefficients for different representations of quantum harmonic oscillators. (Basically like imaginary springs that hold atoms and other things in place on the quantum scale). Then I am a teaching assistant for one of the lower level physics classes, which uses up my Friday's grading. Lastly I work at the front desk of the Physics and Computer Science departments.
Aside from that I am also a boyfriend.... Amy is doing well, but has a pretty difficult semester too. She is still doing her tutoring program, ASK (After School Kids), but is not a coordinator this semester, since it took up too much time. Amy and I are training for the "Tough Mudder" a really tough obstacle course that is 10-12 miles long, so we have been going to exercise classes at our respective campuses and have been running a good amount. This morning, we met and ran down along the river, past the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Memorial, along the reflecting pool, almost to the Washington Monument, and then up past the White House and back towards Georgetown, about 7 miles. It is so nice to be able to run down along the waterfront and to the national mall whenever we have time."
That was from this past Sunday. Anyway, that is all for now, but I will post things that I think were interesting or fun.
Oh yeah, 2 other awesome things that I am going to do this summer: 1) Go to Russia with my Chamber Singers group to tour around and sing. 2) Go to CERN the huge particle physics laboratory in Switzerland to do research.
My sisters and I are doing a no snacking challenge. Here is the last snack I had before we started the competition.
"I have been staying at an apartment since the first week of classes this "Spring" semester and it is a wonderful location. It is 1.5 miles from American University and 1.25 from where Amy is staying at Georgetown. It usually takes me about 15 minutes to get to classes in the mornings and about 5 to get back, since it is quite a bit down hill and I can really get flying. I have a nice head light and tail light for my bike and I ride it everywhere. This semester though, "everywhere" isn't quite as far as last semester.
As far as classes, I am taking Rings and Fields, a math group theory class, Complex Analysis, (another math class), Biophysics, Quantum Mechanics (by far my hardest class, averaging probably 15-20 hrs per week), and Chamber Singers. I am also doing research with a professor in the Physics department about finding coefficients for different representations of quantum harmonic oscillators. (Basically like imaginary springs that hold atoms and other things in place on the quantum scale). Then I am a teaching assistant for one of the lower level physics classes, which uses up my Friday's grading. Lastly I work at the front desk of the Physics and Computer Science departments.
Aside from that I am also a boyfriend.... Amy is doing well, but has a pretty difficult semester too. She is still doing her tutoring program, ASK (After School Kids), but is not a coordinator this semester, since it took up too much time. Amy and I are training for the "Tough Mudder" a really tough obstacle course that is 10-12 miles long, so we have been going to exercise classes at our respective campuses and have been running a good amount. This morning, we met and ran down along the river, past the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Memorial, along the reflecting pool, almost to the Washington Monument, and then up past the White House and back towards Georgetown, about 7 miles. It is so nice to be able to run down along the waterfront and to the national mall whenever we have time."
That was from this past Sunday. Anyway, that is all for now, but I will post things that I think were interesting or fun.
Oh yeah, 2 other awesome things that I am going to do this summer: 1) Go to Russia with my Chamber Singers group to tour around and sing. 2) Go to CERN the huge particle physics laboratory in Switzerland to do research.
My sisters and I are doing a no snacking challenge. Here is the last snack I had before we started the competition.
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