Stuck in Dallas

This post comes to you live (um) from Dallas, where I am officially stuck. I'm here at the public library, with16 minutes remaining on my Internet session. I guess I better type fast :-)

The plan for this week was that Mosch and I would drive to Dallas on Saturday (done), I'd drive to Houston on Sunday (done) and spend the week with my mom and the dogs (done), drive back to Dallas on Friday (done), and Mosch, Terpsichore, and I would drive back to Denver starting today (not done).

Terpsichore, Mosch's girlfriend, is moving to Denver, so Mosch's plan for the week was to pack up her apartment and get ready for us to leave this morning. At this point I personally doubt we'll be ready to leave even tomorrow morning, and I should probably be at the apartment helping to make sure that happens, but I pretty much am just not willing to do it. I think I'm leaving in the morning whatever happens, so...we'll see if anyone is in the car with me or not. (In the plan, Mosch drives the U-Haul, towing Terpsi's car, and Terpsi and her cat Cybele ride with me.)

I'll post more later when my clock resets. 13 minutes to go!

End of Semester To-Do

This is the list of what I still have to do for the rest of the semester. I'm dividing it by due date.

For Monday
Finish the 3 (short) sections of Proofs homework assigned last week.
Finish up the last homework, which was returned pending the final, so that it's complete when I turn in it - I have to complete one short additional section for that.
Write a 4-5 page "axiomatic development" paper on hyperbolic geometry.
Study for the final exam.

For Wednesday
Complete as many sections of homework as I can manage, but at least 4-5 so I don't have to do extremely well on the final to get an A. (I am about 10 sections behind in total.)
Study for the final exam.

See, that's all ;-)

Successful and Exhausting Campus Trip

I went to campus today at lunchtime to accomplish various tasks related to graduating, passing classes, etc., and I managed to miraculously accomplish all of them. I drove to campus and got 12-hour parking for $5, and then walked over to the library.

I went there last night to try to get some books on hyperbolic geometry (the topic for my Proofs paper due Monday) and I found two good books (both slim - whew) and went to check them out, figuring I could pay my years-old fine at the circulation desk. But no. My fine is in collections and I had to pay it at the admin office, which was already closed.

So that was my first stop today, and I found the admin office (in a far-flung corner of the extremely large library we have; I never realized how huge it is before) and waited a few minutes until the fine guy showed up so I could pay the money I owed. Then I got my two books from where they were held from me and checked them out. Score!

Next I went to the Math Department office, where they were holding my signed Individualized Degree Plan. It got signed two weeks ago, and I had them hold it for me so I could pick it up, but I never got around to actually picking it up. That was dumb. But after I retrieved it, I carried it over to a different building where the Center for Individualized Studies is to deliver it.

Of course, the guy there who I talked to last semester about wanting to do an IDP was pretty huffy that I had gotten it signed by the department folks without running the final one by him first. "Did I tell you to get it signed?" he asked. But once I backed down and explained that yes, I knew I was doing everything in the wrong order, but that I kept not getting it done and was trying to get it finalized this semester so I can graduate on time (because you can't file an IDP with fewer than a certain number of hours remaining to take), he became helpful and kind, and told me he would look it over and email me with any problems.

The one problem I already know about is that, when the transfer office evaluated my transcripts, they transferred 12 hours of German credits from Rice, but did not count any of it as having satisfied my "Communications" general studies requirement. For that, you need the second semester of a foreign language sequence, and I was able to skip that at Rice because I had 3 years of German in high school. So I needed to get a form from the Modern Languages department, via the head of the German sub-department (whatever they call it), stating that I've met the requirement.

I've been trying to contact the German person by email and phone, but she hadn't replied yet. I went by her office (in another far-flung building) and, amazingly, she was there, about to go to her class starting in 10 minutes. I explained my situation ("oh, you emailed me" she said) and, after she was done sternly correcting me for making mistakes - like saying I needed my "foreign language general studies requirement" (which they don't have here; it's 'Communications' and I guess you don't have to take a foreign language if you can meet it another way) - she said I could leave my transfer evaluation form and she would do the form I need and forward it to the registrar, leaving me a copy (which I already know I'll never pick up) in her mailbox. Catching her like that was pure luck.

After all that, I ate lunch in yet another building on campus, and then walked back downtown. I have classes tonight, so I'll walk down and then be able to drive straight home. So right now I'm pretty tired, but very pleased to have accomplished all of my missions, even the improbable ones.

Best Birthday Present Ever!

While I was in Houston for TG, my mom gave me my birthday present(s). I got a couple of neat CD's, but in addition, I got the best birthday present ever! No, really!

A few years ago, my mom started reorganizing various photos of me from my childhood, and she actually finished this project and made two giant photo albums with everything in them. There are even sections at the end with pictures of my two cousins on that side of the family.

She claims her main observation about my childhood, from seeing the pictures, is something like, "Damn, you had nice clothes." And this is true. Pictures show me out in the yard in gorgeous little cotton outfits that look classy and beautiful even now. (I mean, as opposed to how clothing from other decades typically looks dated and silly.)

Later, of course, I grew up and became the slouch and sloppy dresser you all know today. Poor Mom :-
My main observation about my childhood, from seeing the pictures, is that I had a ton of relatives and they all thought I was the cutest thing ever. Of course, every little child is pretty much the cutest thing ever. But that was good to see, all the same :-)

I do not actually have the albums, because they seemed too heavy to lug through the airport and I didn't want to check them, but I'll bring them home after Christmas and scan something in for you guys :-)

Brrrrrr!

Today we are supposed to have a high of 19°, with windchills below 10° or something crazy like that. Brrr! (But even though they said a high of 19°, it's currently 22°, so go figure.)

It has been super warm lately - warm enough for t-shirts during the day. Yesterday it started snowing, and snowed all night. Fortunately, my car cooled down before most of the snow fell, so the only ice was on the hood where I didn't need to scrape it off. I cleared the snow off the rest of the car using the child-sized plastic snow shovel we keep in the car. It was faster than using the telescoping brush/scraper that we also keep in the car.

It's still snowing. The low tonight is supposed to be 1° or something. And I'm supposed to go to classes tonight! (I usually walk, but maybe I'll drive.)

Thanksgiving Feast

I have to admit, when my mom said we were cooking for Thanksgiving, I was a little apprehensive. I've never been part of making a meal with a bunch of parts. But it was fun, and we ended up with quite a feast.

We made these things ourselves:

broccoli-cheese-rice casserole
green bean casserole
a baked cauliflower dish with a lot of delicious cream, topped in buttery breadcrumbs - yum!

in addition, from Whole Foods, we had

dressing (of course!)
mushroom gravy
mashed potatoes
roasted brussels sprouts

There were also rolls & butter, and, for dessert (hours later), an assortment of tiny cheesecakes.

"But wait? What about the turkey?" For our ritual poultry, we had Quorn Chik'n Cutlets (like a fried chicken breast, but made of quorn, which is a vegetarian protein source). I know the idea of vegetarian meats makes some people nervous, but whenever you see them served up as a fried thing, you can be pretty sure they'll be delicious, and these quorn chick'n things were no different. Plain, they would be a fine substitute for a frozen breaded chicken breast, and with dressing and mushroom gravy, they were just great.

All in all, the whole thing was very easy to put together, and we had fun. And also enough food for about 10 people. Yum!

Holiday Adventures

Next Wednesday, Mosch is flying to Dallas to visit his girlfriend T for two weeks.

The following Wednesday, I am flying to Houston for Thanksgiving. (Most commonly asked coworker question: Is your mom going to cook?) (Yes, my vegetarian mom is going to cook a whole Thanksgiving dinner for the two of us. Right, mom? Mom???)

But these aren't the real Holiday Adventures. The real adventure is that Mosch's visit to Dallas to visit T will be their last visit in Dallas, because at Christmas time, T is moving here to Denver!

The idea is that Denver will be a better place for her to live than Dallas, and since Mosch will be here about another 18 months, he can help her get settled in. (T is completely disabled with debilitating headaches - a condition that manages to destroy your quality of life and remove any possibility of supporting yourself while being very difficult to prove for social security disability purposes.)

The plan is this. The weekend before Christmas, Mosch and I will drive my car to Dallas. The next day, I will drive to Houston, where I'll spend Christmas week with my mom. That Friday or so, I'll drive back to Dallas, and then the next day, Mosch and T and I will drive back to Denver. T, along with her psychotic cat, will be in my car, and Mosch will drive a U-Haul towing T's car. We'll drive back over two days assuming all goes well (no blizzards shut down I-70, etc.)

Now that's an adventure! T will then stay with us for a few weeks while she finds a place to live here. I'm really excited about her moving here, and I think she'll like Denver a lot.

Weight Routine Adjustments

During the semester, I'm trying to get to the gym to do strength training at least twice a week. I don't always meet that goal, of course, but last week I finally used up the last blank on the chart I printed in August.

I work out with arms/abs and legs/back on different days, so these days I'm basically doing each one only once per week. This results in slow progress, but I'm still progressing, so that's good.

My arms/abs routine consists of assisted pull-ups, assisted dips, shoulder presses, one-armed rows, bench presses, and ab crunches (with weight). My legs/back routine has traditionally had squats, stiff-legged deadlifts, calf raises, and back hyperextensions. (The links are to pictures, most of them from the wonderful stumptuous.com.) I do two sets of each thing, with about 8-12 reps per set, depending on what I can handle. When I can do two sets of 12 reps of anything, I increase the amount of weight I use, and for some of the moves, I increase the weight even earlier than that.

Up until very recently, I wasn't ready to try squats using a bar. I was just doing the squats with my body weight, and that was plenty. The first time I ever tried them, I did 5 or 6 and was basically crippled for a week. Now I can do two sets of 15! So it's time to move on to using a bar and, eventually, a bar with weights on it.

So last night I did a lot of experimenting, using the large aluminum bar at our rec center. The regular bars are made of iron or something, and they weigh 45 pounds, but this aluminum one is an easy-to-handle 15 pounds. I set everything up in the squat cage and had Mosch help me figure out the mechanics of the movement. I eventually did 2 sets of 10 squats with this bar.

Afterwards, I wasn't able to do the stiff-legged deadlifts, because my thighs were so weak that I couldn't stand without locking my knees, and that's not a good way to do those. The stiff-legged deadlifts are questionable in my mind anyway: they can be dangerous if you do them wrong (which is easy to do, it seems to me) and, although they are supposed to work your hamstrings (back of the thigh), the back hyperextensions seem to work my hamstrings much more.

So I think I'm dropping them from my routine completely. That pushes my legs/back routine down to just three things - squats, calf raises, and back hyperextensions. (I was able to do the calf raises and back hyperextensions even with my weak legs, so there's no major conflict there.)

I'm thinking of adding the machine that is for hamstrings and glutes to the routine to bring it up to 4 things again. I'm not sure what the machine is called, but it is similar to this picture. I don't normally use these types of machines, but I think it will help round out the workout, plus give me some intense work on that area (hamstrings are my primary concern, but anywhere I can build muscle is good).

Anyway, I absolutely love strength training. I don't like that my progress is so slow with it lately, but still, every other week or so I am raising at least one weight, and sometimes several, so things are going well.

Initiative Results

Via Andrew Sullivan, this summary on results of initiatives in various states including Colorado.

Election Results

Well, it looks like the Democrats have taken the House with a decent margin. The Senate, as of this morning, is still up for grabs, with two seats (per MSNBC) still un-called. Democrats need both and (again, as of the last time I looked) are leading in both counts, but by very small margins. Those are Virginia and Montana. So we'll see.

Here in Colorado, both of the gay rights issues went against me - Coloradans voted to amend the Constitution to enshrine heterosexual marriage, and against a referendum creating domestic partnerships for same-sex marriage. Apparently our Constitution is pretty easy to amend (seeing as we do it several times every election), so I'm disappointed but not terrifically concerned about the amendment. I'm more disappointed with the rejection of domestic partnerships. Still, both items had small enough margins to indicate continuing progress on these issues.

The local Republican I voted for despite the approximately 1000 pieces of mail I got about how much she hates seniors (Ramey Johnson) lost to Democrat Gwyn Green (the "fighting grandma" or somesuch). Now, I really don't think people should treat the political parties like sport teams ("I root for the Democrats, and whoever is playing the Republicans!"). I am non-partisan enough to try to vote for the better candidate in many races regardless of party. But I have to admit I am still partisan enough that, when I vote for a Republican and she loses, I feel mostly glad and relieved. So that's kind of crazy, but whatever.

Ed Perlmutter, my Democratic House candidate, won a previously Republican seat, and our Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter defeated Bob Beauprez. And it looks like a good picture nationally. I still have my fingers crossed for the Senate.

One funny thing was last night on MSNBC, they were interviewing a guy (I don't know who) who was talking about the language that Democrats need to use to make themselves look good (e.g., referring to "oversight" rather than "investigations"). That's all well and good, but then the guy said that when he heard Newt Gingrich in 1994 refer to a "Republican Revolution," he knew the Republicans were in trouble.

Oh, really?

I Voted

So I voted this morning at the nearby church that was my polling place. I had to show ID, which I didn't know was required to vote here. And I got to use one of those wonderful paper-trail-free touch-screen machines, so there's no telling if my vote really got counted properly. (Aside from that, the machine was very pleasant and easy to use. Granted, not knowing if your vote is counted pretty much invalidates the whole thing no matter how nice the interface is.)

I got some pushback from Mosch on Referendum H, the one that "eliminates tax breaks for employers who hire illegal immigrants" (that's more or less how it's presented), so let me elaborate a bit on that. Referendum H basically says that if an employer claims deductions for wages paid to illegal immigrants on their federal tax returns, they will owe that money to the state, provided that they knew the workers were illegal at the time of hiring. (Just to be clear, there is not some state or federal tax exemption for hiring illegals; it's just that wages in general are a cost of business and are thus deductible from your income for tax purposes.)

So basically, if you knowingly hire illegal immigrants, claim their wages as a deduction on your federal taxes, and then admit this to the state on your state tax form, you will have to pay extra state taxes. The state gets to keep up to $150,000 of this money; the rest would be returned to taxpayers. (We get an income tax refund every year that the state has a surplus relative to some formula; the state doesn't get to keep the money and spend it on new things).

Let's assume I was pro-immigration (which I am) and unequivocally committed to enforcement of existing immigration laws (when in fact I am equivocally committed to it). I would still have to conclude that the only purpose of this almost completely ineffective ballot measure was to draw anti-immigration folks to vote so that they would (presumably) support related candidates and causes. Since I am not one of those anti-immigration folks, I am definitely not going to respond to this pathetic ploy by voting yes.

It'll be nice not to have the phone ring a thousand times a day for a while. And maybe I'll be getting less mail about how some people are grandmas and others hate seniors and want to make their drugs really expensive.

Of course, a Democratic takeover of Congress would be good too. We'll see!

How I'm Voting

Tomorrow is Election Day! Just today I found out where my polling place is and downloaded a sample ballot, and I've just finished marking it up.

I am basically a slightly-libertarian-leaning Democrat, sort of a Clinton Democrat if you will, and I take this voting stuff seriously. Here is how I made the decisions below.

For the national congressional races, I am voting Democratic. I think it's important that control of Congress pass from the Republicans at this time. (We don't have a Senate race here, so it's just the one House district.) For the major local races, I consulted the endorsements of the two major local papers (the Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Post). Where they agreed, I am following the endorsement. Where they differed, I read both endorsements and decided which was more credible. For the minor local races (where the papers had no endorsements), I consulted the web pages of each candidate and made my decision that way. For the referendums and other measures, I used the endorsements of the papers as described earlier except as noted below. For any issues or candidates for which the above methods did not yield an answer, I am abstaining.

My decisions are as follows.

U.S. Congressional District 110 - Rick O'Donnell (R) vs. Ed Perlmutter (D)
I am voting for Perlmutter along party lines.

Governor of Colorado - Bob Beauprez (R) vs. Bill Ritter Jr. (D)
I am voting for Bill Ritter. It looks like he's going to win. He seems like a much stronger candidate than Beauprez, who I have somewhat vague bad feelings about.

Secretary of State
I am voting for the Republican Mike Coffman against the Democrat Ken Gordon due to the text of the Denver Post's endorsement.

State Treasurer
Democrat Cary Kennedy received the endorsement of the Denver Post; I found their endorsement more convincing (especially given that I'm a Democrat) than the Rocky Mountain News's for Republican Mike Coffman.

Attorney General
Republican John Suthers received the endorsement of both papers.

Other Local Races
I'll mostly skip these, but for the benefit of any mythical local readers, note that I'm voting for Democrats Karen Middleton, Stephen Ludwig, Maryanne Moe Keller, and Linda Rockwell, Republicans Ramey Johnson and Dave Auburn, and abstaining in four other races.

Amendment 38
Amends the state Constitution in mysterious ways relating to initiative and referendum petitions. All or nearly all of the papers statewide came out against it. I am voting No.

Amendment 39
Amends the Constitution to require that at least 65% of school budgets are used for direct educational expenses. I am voting No. I haven't seen any convincing arguments about why this needs to be in the Constitution, even if it's a good idea, which I'm not sure about.

Amendment 40
Amends the Constitution to implement Term limits for state judges. I am voting No following the recommendations of the papers, which regard this as a move to further politicize the judiciary.

Amendment 41
Amends the Constitution to severely limit gift-giving by lobbyists to all state employees, and imposes a 2-year cooling-off period for retiring public officials. The major papers were split, and I read both positions. I was leaning towards voting yes on this, but given that I'm not sure it's a good idea, I think it's best to leave it alone. There is a good argument to be made that this is better left to legislation than to a Constitutional Amendment. I am voting No.

Amendment 42
This is a big one locally. It amends the Constitution to raise the Colorado minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.85, and mandates that the minimum wage continue to grow, indexed to inflation in the Denver/Boulder area. I am voting No on this. Although increasing the minimum wage always sounds like a good idea (given that it doesn't seem to cost me anything as a taxpayer, and I like for other people to make more money), there are several problems with this increase. Putting it in the Constitution makes it difficult to adjust if needed. Indexing wages to inflation risks increasing inflation. And indexing statewide wages to inflation in Denver/Boulder risks hurting areas that are experiencing slower growth. Also, increasing the minimum wage is not a very effective way of helping the poor, most of whom do not make minimum wage. (Many people who do make minimum wage are middle class teenagers.)

Amendment 43
Amends the Constitution to forbid gay marriage. I support gay marriage, so obviously I am voting No.

Amendment 44
Amends the state statutes to make possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana legal. (Right now you just get a fine anyway, and growing and selling it remain illegal.) Even though the papers are not endorsing this one, I'm voting Yes on general principles.

Referendum E
Exempts completely disabled veterans from paying property taxes. I guess I'm voting Yes. I don't feel very strongly about this one either way, but the estimated fiscal impact is low. It's not a great way to help disabled veterans given that the ones who own homes propably need the least help, but...eh.

Referendum F
Something about recall provisions being updated. I'm voting Yes following the Post's endorsement.

Referendum G
Elimination of obsolete Constitutional provisions. Yes.

Referendum H
Exempts local businesses from tax exemptions for wages if they do not verify that their employees are not illegal aliens. The fiscal impact is expected to be minimal, and I don't really see the point of this. To the extent that I do, I'm basically in favor of immigration, and I plan to vote No even though the Post and Rocky Mt News are endorsing it. I'm sure it will pass anyway. (I am actually in favor of enforcing immigration laws, but I think this is best done at the border. I think suddenly making illegal aliens who already live here unable to work is foolish.)

Referendum I
Creates domestic partnerships for same-sex couples. I'm voting Yes. I really hope this one passes.

Referendum J
This is a "lite" version of Amendment 39. It wouldn't change anything since all schools already meet its requirements. I'm voting No.

Referendum K
Requires our Attorney General to sue the federal government for not enforcing immigration laws. I am voting No because this is a pointless waste of resources.

That's it. I welcome comments, of course, and I'll try to report back on how the election went afterwards.

American Accents

Via Note of the Living Deb, there is a quiz here to determine what (American) accent you have. It's tricky to answer the questions correctly because sometimes your idea of what is right conflicts with how you actually speak. I tried my best to tell by using the words in real sentences.

Anyway, my results:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The South
The Inland North
The West
The Northeast
Philadelphia
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Go take it and let me know what you get!

The Tyranny of Objects

I really try not to accumulate stuff, as I may have mentioned before. It's not that I'm not materialistic or anything like that - I'm naturally acquisitive, like most people, and, if there were no costs to it, I'd like to live in an infinitely large space with an infinite collection of things that I could access instantaneously.

But here in the real world, keeping stuff has costs. It takes up your living space. You can't buy anything because you don't have space to put it. You're afraid to move. You can't find the things you want among your possessions. Plus you should probably occasionally dust all that crap.

A few months ago, I went through all of my books. I kept the children's books that were in good condition because I might have a child. I kept non-fiction books that I enjoyed. I kept books I have not yet read but intend to read (of which there are only a few). I kept a very small number of books where the actual copy of the book has sentimental value to me. And I kept some books that I like to read over and over.

All other books (about half of all the books I owned) went to a thrift store. If I ever want to read one of them again, I'll be able to find it at a library. Meanwhile, I have a lot more space in my room and, as a bonus, someone else will get to enjoy those books for cheap.

I also went through my knick-knacks, of which I really own very few. Knick-knacks are dangerous because, the longer you keep something, the more meaning accrues to it, until suddenly that ribbon that meant nothing to you when you were 8 and got it for participating in a 1k run is something you can't bear to part with, just because you've seen it so many times. This can happen in just a couple of years. A mug from a job you hated will become a treasure because it reminds you of a prior era in your life. Throw it out early before it starts to accumulate significance.

Objects are not memories. I believe in keeping a real minimum of memory-objects. This includes family heirlooms. If a thing is useful to you, or looks good in your home, then keep it. But you don't have to keep everything your grandparents, great-grandparents, etc., ever owned just because they owned it. I feel like we should really fight the way that meaning accrues to objects over time, because it leads to owning way too much crap just because, you know, "Oh, that was the pan my mom always made brownies in." Get rid of it! Take a picture first as a keepsake. You can store a lot of pictures in the space it takes to store one artifact.

Another thing people keep is objects that might be useful one day. Say you bought a pickax a few years ago for a project. It's a pretty nice pickax, so you've been keeping it in case you ever need to use it again. Maybe you think you'll need a pickax once every 10 years. Is the cost of a new pickax in 10 years really worth storing a pickax for 10 years? Think about this carefully. Many useful things can be rented or borrowed when you need them. And there is probably someone else out there who really does need a pickax, and would be happy to have your old one if they found it at a pawn shop or thrift store. Pickaxes are made for use, not sitting around, and yours will thank you for getting it back into work rather than leaving it propping up your garage wall for years at a time.

Clothing is also good to consider giving away. How many t-shirts do you have, and how many do you need? Do you wear one daily and do laundry twice a month? Keep 15 or 20 of them, then, and get rid of the rest. If you're keeping them for sentimental value, take a picture instead. Do you have more than one set of clothes that you'd only wear to a funeral? Is this in case you have to go to two funerals on the same day and you get dirty inbetween? How about interview clothes? Do you have some items that you could, in theory, wear, except that they don't fit quite right, or for some other reason you don't ever actually wear them? Do you have clothes that are a size you probably will never be again? Are you hoarding these things because you're afraid they will stop making new clothes for you to buy if you need some in the future? Or is a hypothetical $200 you might someday have to spend on a few new pairs of pants or a business suit really worth storing dozens or hundreds of items for years?

Objects are not memories. Useful things can often be rented or borrowed. You don't need to own things you can readily get access to for free, or for very cheap. Storing items has a cost. Fight the tyranny of objects!

Spring Preview

Metro's class schedule for next semester was just released Monday, and I finally went to have a look at it. I can register on the 30th.

Those of you who have seen this process in the past know that I typically change my mind a lot before the semester starts, or right as the semester starts. However, I only have six more courses to take for my degree. Six! So I'm running out of options.

After this semester, I'll have all prereqs out of the way for everything, except that two of my upcoming courses are a sequence: Software Engineering Principles, and Software Engineering Practices. The CS department sets these up so that one is in the evening and one during the day each semester, staggered so that you can take them in consecutive semesters either both in the evening or both during the day. The Spring is when I need to take Principles in order to have them at night, and Spring of 2008 is my last semester, so I have to take Principles this semester. It's on Tuesday and Thursday nights from 7:00 to 8:50. Yuck!

Fortunately, two of the other classes I need are at adjacent times. I can either take Linear Algebra from 5:00-6:50 on those same nights, or I can take Foundations of Geometry from 5:30-6:45. (It's a 3-hour class, which is why it's shorter than the others, which are all 4 credit hours.)

Given that I have this grant project going on, and how late the second class will run, I think I'll go for the shorter one, Foundations of Geometry. That lets me leave work half an hour later, and gives me a few extra minutes between classes (probably wasted time, but I don't mind).

I keep thinking I have two years of school left, but after this semester, it's just 3 semesters! (OK, so that's one and a half years. Still, I'm impressed.)

Registering for next semester's classes always makes me feel better about the current semester. It's like the light at the end of the tunnel - something to look forward to. (I always, always look forward to future classes.)

Debt Reduction via Snowball

I was going to title this post "Snowballin'," but I have a bad feeling that might be a term for some kind of sex act. (If you find out, don't tell me. If I wanted to know I could google it myself.)
Anyway, the "snowball" method of debt reduction generally means paying all your minimum payments and then sending any extra money to one particular debt. Once that one is paid off, you'll have even more extra money to send to the next priority.

Generally, people either advocate paying off your high-interest debts first (thus paying the least amount of money overall) or paying off your smallest balances first (thus keeping yourself motivated because your number of debts shrinks faster).

Recently I've been looking at this handy snowball calculator, which lets you calculate your debt schedule either way. You can do this yourself with Excel, but it takes a while, and this little website is pretty nifty and quick. Plus it makes a nice compact spreadsheet for you.

I put in my existing debts, and the amount I have available every month. In the past, I've based this monthly number on my budget, but this time, I looked at the past 5 months and took an average of what I've actually paid to my debts each month. (I didn't go before that because I got a raise and some other financial details changed.) So I think that's the most realistic number I can have. It does not take into account any bonuses or other additional money I might get - I'm actually expecting $3000 in grant money this year, plus probably a Christmas bonus at work.

It's good that this schedule isn't too optimistic, because according to the calculator, it'll take me 32 months to pay off my debts. That's too slow! I really want to be out of debt when I graduate in May of 2008. So I hope I can speed it up.

Anyway, according to this, it will take me 32 months to pay off my debts regardless of whether I do smallest-first or least-interest first. Doing smallest-first will cost me an additional $252 in interest over the entire 32 months. It allows me to pay off my first four debts in 2/07, 5/07, 12/07, and 10/08 rather than in 2/07, 10/07, 8/08, and 6/09, so it should be more psychologically satisfying. I estimate that the greater motivation of paying off more debts more quickly is worth the $252 (not that I'd pay $252 for the satisfaction; more that I think I'll send in more than enough extra to compensate as a result of the additional motivation).

Anyway, without further ado, here is the full chart. I hope to reference this later with good news about how I'm doing in relation to what it says here. Hopefully this will expand if you click on it.

Google Spreadsheets

I keep this big ole spreadsheet about my budget. It has a tab for the budget, tabs for each of my checking & savings accounts (1 checking, 3 savings, 1 HSA), a tab on which I track my debts, and various other things that all interact to let me know what's going on financially.

I keep the file on my data stick, which mostly lives its life in parasitic attachment to my work computer. (A few years ago, I decided to keep all of my personal files on that type of storage device so that I can always just take them with me from work, instead of having them live on my work computer at the mercy of my company. But I usually just leave the stick here.)

Sometimes I want to look at my checkbook at home, but then I'm just SOL.

So I'd heard that Google now has an online suite of Office-type products, and I decided to see if keeping my big budget spreadsheet online was feasible. I knew their spreadsheet program had fewer features than Excel, so I wasn't sure if it would have everything I needed (formulas, freezing panes, formatting, multiple tabs - I had no idea what might be missing).

So I went to Google Spreadsheets and I was able to import the whole thing, and format it, and the formulas still work, and basically it's just super. It's slightly slower than Excel (since it's online rather than running on my computer), but not very slow. And I can access it from anywhere! That's pretty cool. Good job (as usual), Google.

Should you be so inclined, you can also share your Google Spreadsheets with other people, either for viewing or for editing, and if they look at it at the same time as you, you can chat with them right there next to the spreadsheet. Nifty!

The Circularity of Work

Something happened today at work that happens all the time in my office. To some extent it's probably unavoidable, but it can be a bit maddening. All names below have been changed to protect...well, me.

So yesterday, Peter asked Rich for some pieces of information for the SEC. Peter suggested to Rich that I might be a good source for some of the info, so Rich came and asked me to get it to him today. This morning, I did the research and emailed him the info. He forwarded the email to Peter.

Just now, Peter asked Kristin, a woman who works with me and is slightly junior to me in the department, for some of the exact same information. Fortunately, Kristin came to me to ask for help with it, since she wasn't sure exactly what he wanted, so I was able to call up Rich and let him know Peter was asking for this still. We don't know if Peter didn't read the email, or if he did and still had questions, or what, but it's kind of odd that he would ask Rich to ask me, and then would himself ask Kristin.

Usually it's more like our boss Steve asks my immediate boss Ken for something, Ken says he will get me to do it, he assigns it to me, and then Steve asks my pseudo-boss Brenda for the same thing, and she asks me for it, and I say, "Is this for the same thing Ken is asking me for?" (since sometimes people just happen to want the same thing for their own diverse purposes) and then Brenda and Ken both get annoyed at Steve because he can't remember (or doesn't care) that he already asked Ken to handle it.

I'm sure this happens in every office, and sometimes it can't be helped. Today it was just amusing.

Follow-Up to Proofs Quiz

I posted the other day about my Proofs quiz that nobody seemed to complete. Last night we got the quizzes back. I got 10/10 on it, but unfortunately my professor doesn't discuss the overall grades with us, so I don't know how other people did. (The woman next to me got 6/10.)

But there were hints. The professor told us he would drop our lowest hundred consecutive points. He also told a long story about taking his grad school prelims and totally blanking out and feeling like he knew nothing and could not even get started on the things he had to do. So he said he understands how you can blank out or have a bad day.

I conclude from this that my surmise was correct.

He did also go over the proofs that were on the quiz, in detail, and at least one of them could have been done in a much shorter way than how I did it. His grading is kind of capricious, and it's hard to guess how much explicitness he wants in the proofs, so I tend to err on the verbose side.

Proofs Quiz on Set Theory

I am fast at taking tests. My speed is pretty much independent of whether I know the test material or not - I am often the first to finish a test whether I make an A or an F. I'm just quick (perhaps careless, or unusually self-assured, or a fast reader - I don't know).

On Monday, we started on Set Theory in our Proofs class. As a short primer, here goes:

A set is a collection of objects. It can be defined by a list, like {1, 2, 3}, or by a rule, like "numbers between 1 and 3, inclusive."

The basic set operations are union, intersection, and complement. The complement of a set is everything not in that set. The union of two sets is anything in either set. The intersection of two sets is anything that is in both sets. Easy-peasy.

There are properties that define various things about these operations. For instance, if A is a subset of B, every element in A is also in B (just like it sounds), and if A = B, that means that A is a subset of B and B is a subset of A (again, just like it sounds).

So on Monday, we were introduced to these concepts. We did one small proof, and then we were told we'd have a quiz Wednesday. I didn't really have time to study for this quiz or anything, so I didn't.

Quizzes in our class are designed to take about 35 minutes. They typically consist of some questions (including a "short essay" where you write a few sentences about something) and some proofs. This quiz was no different. In addition to a short essay and a definition question, it had 3 proofs for us to write.

When I saw what we had to prove, I probably literally paled, because I thought there was just no way I could do them. They were actually pretty simple relative to the realm of set theory proofs, but having never done a single one of those on my own (in recent years, at least), I was nonplussed.

Nevertheless, I started working on them. After I had finished one of the three, Dr. Johnson noted that only I and one other person were still working. I started the second one and the other guy turned in his paper.

"I can go out in the hall," I said.

"No, it's OK, we'll wait," said Dr. Johnson. Then, "Wait, how much more do you have to do?"

"At least a proof and a half!" I said, perhaps somewhat obstreperously.

So he had me go into the hall. With my second proof done, I had completely filled up the back of the paper the quiz was printed on, and had only the tiny spaces between questions on the front side to write my third proof in. I contemplated interrupting the class for more paper, but decided against it. So I ended up writing the third proof in the space under where it was written. I used it as two columns and, instead of writing statements and reasons separately, I put the reasons in brackets after the statements. And I wrote really small. And I barely fit it into the space.

When I turned in my quiz, I noticed that the backs of all the other quizzes that I could see were...blank.

So either the other people in my class have some amazing proof-writing mojo that lets them write a 20-line proof in 4 or 5 lines, or the majority didn't really try the proofs at all. I will find out on Monday. I suspect he's going to have to make this quiz extra credit or something; I doubt he will actually flunk the entire class.