Trips and tooths and other things which start with T

So here we are, back in Columbia. Bri and I went to San Diego over our spring break; four days of fun, sun, and family, interspersed with about 6 hours in a dentist's office, where C's (she prefers it if I do not use her full name: works for me) dad used the power of SCIENCE and LASERs to cut out my wisdom teeth and repair a few cavities on both Bri and myself. He's an exceptional dentist, and the trauma was minimal as a result.

We spent much of the day with my brother and his wife, eating out at many an excellent restaurant and just generally enjoying the life of a southern californian for a few days.

We left for Columbia at roughly the same time a Storm of Ridiculous Proportions decided to attack the entire midwest like a drunken wrestler after a high school student. This caused a certain degree of problem, since apparently Albuqurque, Amarillo, and Oklahoma City were basically non-existent from the standpoint of highway driving. This left Texas. Miles and Miles of freaking Texas--the state that's so ludicrously big you can go to sleep in El Paso, sleep eight full hours, and wake up and STILL BE IN FREAKING TEXAS.


It, in short, sucked. A lot. Also, Yuma Arizona is an awful, awful place. But that's a digression from the story, which is centered mainly on Texas sucking. When we finally left Texas(about eight-thousand hours after entering), we went to Little Rock, then up through the Ozark mountains to Springfield, followed by the Lake of the Ozarks, dodging sleet, snow, and sheeting ice the whole way.

So we are back home, as is clearly the case, since I am writing this and classes have been back in swing for two straight days now. School becomes more and more onerous, as it becomes clearer that further advanced mathematics is fundamentally irrelevant to my new goals re computer science and a software development career. Bri is also struggling with the end-of-semester-slacking difficulty, which always makes complicates the completion of the spring semester. Still, it is six more weeks, and so we will simply have to straggle on.

Further information will, I think, have to wait until interesting things happen.

Too tired to be eloquent, too full to be functional

Today Bri and I started our trek through the states Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California to visit San Diego, in order that we may see Steve, Candice, and anyone else interested in visiting with us.

We started from Columbia at 6:30AM, and were in Kansas City by about 8-ish. Going around on I-435 took us a little extra time, but we avoided heavy traffic and got out of there in a reasonable amount of time, heading south on I-35 through Wichita to Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City is a surprisingly large city, with skyscrapers and everything. In Oklahoma City is the interchange with I-40, which took us to Amarillo. All in all, it took us a little under 12 hours in all to get to our hotel in Amarillo, which is startlingly nice, and from which I am writing this now while watching the Princess Bride.

Upon arrival, we decided that we would try to find some decent Mexican food--which we did! We went to a little diner-type mexican nearly-hut called El Bracero. I'm pretty sure that it was a former fast-food joint, and it doesn't look like the sort of place that we would enjoy, so we were leary upon entering, but feeling adventurous, we girded ourselves and entered. It was very casual, but pleasant, so we sat down and received our nachos--the most ridiculously awesome nachos we have had. Ever! Bar none! And then we had food--except that neither Bri nor I knew enough Spanish/mexican food items to know what it was that we ordered--Bri ordered off of our server's recommendation, and I made an essentially random stab at an order. Bri ended up with some rather excellent Steak tacos, and I managed a Pork steak that was quite possibly made entirely from habaneros. So spicy we were sweating and nearly crying, but so good we wanted to go back for a second dinner! Delicious!

Anyway, after having raved about this restaurant for the same amount of time as we spent speaking of the trip itself, we are about out of interesting things of which to speak. Tomorrow its up at 6-ish again, and on to Pheonix, AZ. We are super-psyched for the desert adventure!

We're slow dancing in a burning room

Not much to report. Life goes on, and all that. Except that we leave for San Diego on Friday, and I got my conditional acceptance letter from the MU Computer Science Department. This means that I am going to be cross-listed as a Mathematics ph.D. student AND a Computer Science M.S. student. I have to stay in Mathematics because they are who are paying for my Teaching Assistantship, and they aren't obligated to do that unless I'm a member of their department; this isn't great--it means I still have to study for qualifying exams and take math classes and stuff like that. Still, it's good news--I just have to keep pretending to be getting a math ph.D. for two more years. So that's good, and all that.

Otherwise, no news to report that you haven't heard yesterday.

Something Something with a cherry on top

So Bri posted recently regarding our inexorably oncoming wedding. It is now five months away, and approaching with what can only be called frightening velocity. Much like an avalanche, or a landslide, we can't get out of its way--we just have to run as far as we can, hide behind a rock, and hope that the Red Cross can dig us out before we run out of crackers.

In two weeks we are going to San Diego, so that Doc Goodman can blast out my wisdom teeth with the power of SCIENCE! Which is always to be preferred to a guy with pair of pliers and a pitching wedge. We are also going to go to the beach. A lot. Probably all the time that we are not spending with Steve and Candice and company (We like water).

In the interests of keeping this in some way relevant and, not to point too fine a point on it, entertaining, I will ignore the normal day-to-day trappings of our existence and focus on the neat, big things which occupy our lives--a global vision, if you will. Bri, who loves details, among other things, will almost surely focus her contributions on plans and logistics and all those fun, interesting things that she's so good at keeping track of. She will be a very detailed atlas, while I will be more like a picture from space--mine might look cool, but hers will help you get somewhere. The advantage of this approach is that she's better at keeping logistical things interesting, while I...well, I have no positive contributions, but this is my website, so I get to post anyway! So there!

We went to St. Louis today. Took Bri's little sister Corissa home for her spring break; her dad and I worked a bit on maintaining Bri's car. We got a nice dinner and Bri's dad gave her car an oil change, so that worked out rather nicely. Now it will be possible for us to take her car to San Diego when we go.

I've been trying to teach Bri how to drive a stick shift, and it's actually going pretty well--when I can get her out to practice. She suffers from a chronic lack of confidence in her ability to keep the car going on hills, so she would probably appreciate any funny stories/interesting tips that you'd like to give her. Please, though, for my sake, omit the horror stories of pushing four cars off of a mountainous cliff because you couldn't stop the car from rolling backward--that is NOT something which would encourage her to continue with the learning experience. Of course, if she learns, then we won't have to take her somewhat older car every time we make a major trip (Which happens on the order of at LEAST once per day, it seems sometimes), so there's a bit of a motivation on her part there, at least.

I never really realized how racked Dad's nerve had to have been every time we went practicing--I'll bet he had to come home and have a nice quiet lay-down in the dark after every session; Bri is doing rather well, and the number of times my feet are twitching is STILL enough to make my feet sore after less than an hour. So there's a life-lesson in here, I think, though I can't find it yet. Probably "Don't teach someone how to drive without first inbibing considerable ulcer medication", though it could also be " Wear comfortable shoes which will not bruise your feet every time you stomp on the floorboards". I'm working on this one--more when progress is made.

In another strange and totally inexplicable fashion, I've been reciting Psalm 23 in my head a lot--you know: "Lo, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death" and all that jazz. Not really understanding why, though--my religious beliefs are the psychological equivalent to stumbling blindfolded through the amazon rainforests at midnight, wearing nothing but deer repellant and a stick of dynamite. Who knows, though--maybe I'm having an epiphany, in the biblical sense. Then again, maybe I'm just watching too many comic book movies. Who can tell? Not me.

wedding update from bri

As a consequence of leaving in May for an internship in Washington, D.C. (and not returning to Columbia until a week before the wedding), most of the wedding stuff is getting squeezed into the next few months. Our officiant offers nonreligious premarital counseling, so we are doing some sessions with him starting on Thursday, which should be interesting.

The major parts (venue, officiant, dress, tuxedos, and cake) are done, but there are some odds and ends that I've been trying to tie up. Our cake baker is a woman that is in my law school class, but who used to provide the desserts for the Governor's Mansion, so she's very talented. I'm 99% that the cake is now finalized--black and white, butter cream, four tier--but we still have no idea what the cake topper will be.

I have to schedule my first (of two or three) dress fittings for May still, but I imagine that I can wait until after Spring Break for that. Both bridesmaids have their dresses, which is relieving, and tuxedo fittings don't have to happen until June or July.

We still have to sit down with the people at Stephens to decide the food, but we have a plan in place (buffet with five choices of entree and sides). Alcohol is still being debated, but beer, wine, and champagne will definitely be there.

The only things left that really haven't been decided yet (from what I can remember): setting up a makeup person, setting up an organist, getting an aisle runner, figuring out the ceremony structure, ordering fortune cookies for the favors, setting up a hair appointment for positioning my feather/veil thing, choosing a cake topper, and buying wedding insurance. The most relieving checked-off task is reserving a block of rooms for guests, which is now done as well. The hotel even set up a website for us so out-of-towners can easily reserve rooms.

All in all, it hasn't been stressful yet, but I (and Scott) will definitely be happy when it's over, due, in part, to the honeymoon we just booked to Ireland. I get the impression that every married couple feels similarly.

A Summary of Life's Rich Pageantry

I suppose that it's about time I make some semblance of a formal discussion of the chosen career paths/life changes that have swept through the existence of Yours Truly and his frankly much more stable fiance Bri. So here goes.

January. I took the qualifying exam in Analysis. The way the quals work in my department is that you are required to take two separate exams: One in Algebra, the other in Analysis. A single exam usually consists of 6 questions (usually two or three parts per question), and you are allotted four hours to take the exam. There are no tutors, no study sessions, and nothing standardized about it. The only study guide we get is a sheet of paper with a list of topics and the last ten years of qualifying exams to compare, and the only way to study is to read as many books as you can get your hands on, and do as many problems as you can.

Then you go in, you take a test, and that's it. The closest analogy that I can think of is that of law's BAR exams, except in no way standardized--it's just four people putting problems that they think are worth doing together, and throwing them at the students whose poor fate it is to take it. There were twenty or so students who took it, and most of us failed. Not, as it turned out, because we didn't know our subject, or because we somehow needed to study more, or because we needed help with some topic or another--half the time we're expected to pull those same writers out from their own holes--but because we were doing one of two things: not thinking in exactly the same way as the writers, or not writing the answer in exactly the same way as the writers. I came to the conclusion, looking at my score report, and comparing it with my answers, that I will not pass this exam as long as these people are responsible for writing it. I do not think in the same way that they do, and I do not write in the same way that they do, and until I do, I will.not.pass. End of story.

So I failed. And then I moved on. My anger at the powers-that-be has not subsided (as you can probably tell), but I moved on. Permanently. In an abrupt about-face I decided it would be better if I was not in mathematics with these people. Having a Master's in Applied Mathematics as of May, and having taken nearly all the courses that I'm actually interested in taking, I resolved to pursue what was pretty much going to be my career anyway, which is that of computer science. So I applied to the Computer Science department here, in order to pick up a second Master's Degree in Computer Science. No more ph.D. for me--at least, not that I can determine.

This was actually coming for a long time, despite this story. I had been debating with Bri for several months prior about how useful or even helpful a ph.D. would be in working towards my actual goal. Though I am excited about Numerical Analysis, I love implementation--That is, actually creating something that I can program, rather than spending hours over a chalkboard proving something that we already know is true. I want to program them..One of my major goals is to create a new Scientific Computing package (there hasn't been a truly NEW one for about 25 years now) And while I love mathematics, and always will probably be reading math books, I no longer have ANY desire to enter into the world of childish antics and juvenile ego-trips that consists of Academia. This department pretty quickly beat that out of me, and I'm honestly grateful for it--I would hate myself if I turned into one of these people.

So that's the current plan. Bri has two more years to finish her Master's in Public Policy and her Law Degree, and possibly a few more if she decides to get her ph.D. in Public Policy, and so it's convenient for me to stick around here and take some courses in a different subject, which will help me find a job anyway. Thus, a masters' of Science in Computer science.

So that's it. Explanation for those who may have been more or less confused about the current career swing, and why it might be happening. Or at least an explanation. It's really not all that relevant to existence as a whole, but the most useful thing for me right now is that I be able to put this shit(excuse the french) behind me so that I can get on with my life, and can accomplish what I actually WANT to accomplish, rather than waste another 6 useless months trying to jump through a hoop with no relavence or importance. So I write this, cathartically, in the hopes that I can put it away and concentrate on something else for once.