- Lots of students understand the merit of cross-training at the gym. They willingly endure the tedium of repetitive exercises for isolated muscle groups in order to improve overall fitness. Nobody really lifts weights to get better at lifting weights (with the exception of, like, Olympic weight-lifters) - they do it to get stronger for other stuff. Similarly, most people won't use calculus every day, but learning calculus contributes to overall mental agility. A proper education should provide intellectual cross-training.
- Successful students in math classes typically figure out that methodical, well-organized approaches to problem solving are much more effective than random, haphazard attempts. This is a valuable skill that translates well to anyone's life.
- Taking a math class is simply part of a well-rounded education, like taking an art class, or a foreign language.
- Mathematics exercises the brain, making students stronger thinkers in general. (This is kinda going back to the intellectual cross-training idea.) Math courses present a series of puzzles to solve and rules and procedures to use in solving them, with the purpose of strengthening analytical thinking skills.
- As long as we're on the subject, let's talk about this "analytical" word for a second. "Analytical thinking" is a term that's bandied about a lot without people necessarily understanding it. The word "analyze" means "to break apart", so what you're doing is chopping what looks like an insurmountable problem into several pieces that you DO know how to solve. This is another one of those valuable life skills.
- Students possessing the math skills found in these courses will be promoted more quickly in many jobs, will avoid being prey for financial scams, and will have the skills necessary to make informed decisions on significant issues. It's numerical literacy, and it's becoming more and more important in our world.
- From a math graduate student: "On my first co-op job, I got hired to work at a bank helping the company implement/transition over to some new software that is used to evaluate stocks, bonds, etc. I asked my boss why he hired mathematicians for this job when there wasn't any "math" involved. "Wouldn't it be better to hire someone with a strong business/finance background instead of someone from math who doesn't know much about business?" I asked. He told me that he hires math students because of how they're trained to think, not what they know about the business world. Math students are trained to take apart a big problem, troubleshoot those pieces, and then troubleshoot putting the pieces back together again." (There's that "analytical thinking" thing again.)
Monday, December 21, 2009
Why math?
The following was on the latest math department newsletter. It is a collection of responses of faculty and graduate students to the question "Why math?", compiled by Kelly MacArthur, the undergraduate advisor at Utah. Hopefully, if you're in another department and wondering why you have to take a math class, this will help you see how you'll benefit.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Grading
I'm compiling a list of surefire ways to piss off a grader. This post will probably be added to as I encounter more atrocities.
- Write your solution on multiple pages, then don't staple them together. Bonus points if you can get your pages to separate from each other in a stack of solutions!
- Don't write your name on your paper. Pretend you were absent that day in kindergarten when they discussed this.
- Put your solutions in a stack of solutions to a different assignment, so when the grader thought s/he was finished grading a particular assignment, they can be overjoyed to discover SEVERAL MORE! Bonus points if you can get a solution to a homework set that was due multiple weeks ago into the current stack!
- Staple several different assignments together. Bonus points if you can achieve page crossover, so the grader can't just separate your assignments and put them in the proper stacks!
- Put your solutions in the stack for the other section of the class. This way, the grader gets to dig through all of their papers to find the *other* grade sheet so you actually get a score.
- Make your solution as disorganized and messy as possible, and don't include any sort of indications of your thought process. That way, if you get the wrong answer, but are close to the right answer, the grader will start removing their hair by the fistful as s/he wades through your work and tries to figure out how much partial credit to give you.
- Write with a really light pencil on graph/engineering paper with extremely dark lines. Bonus points if you have extra tiny handwriting!
- Do the wrong problem. Double bonus points if you manage to combine this with both 1 and 6!
- Staple your pages on the right-hand side. Never mind the fact that everybody else on the planet, nay, in the known universe staples their pages in the top left-hand corner. Just go ahead and be different for no conceivable reason.
- Or, staple your pages in the top center. This has the added advantage that it is extremely difficult to fold the pages over and look at the backside of the page. Naturally, you should distribute your work as evenly as possible across the two sides of the page, so that the grader has to do plenty of flipping back and forth if he wishes to continue to grade in a sequential manner.
- Trace your friend's answers. Bonus points if you trace it in class. Double bonus points if the professor is actually watching. (Real-life story, brought to you by a a friend of mine who was said professor.)
- Write something completely incorrect, then copy the answer out of the back of the book. Make sure to include any formatting peculiarities the book has. This won't tip the grader off at all.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
An open letter.
Dear The Mtn.,
When are you going to stop using your Fisher-Price My First Video Camera to provide footage of football games? Or is it someone's cellphone camera? I bet it's someone's cellphone camera. Seriously guys, you can't even see the ball on kickoffs. Join the twenty-first century, take the money you're saving in your sportscasting budget (remember, if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys!), and buy some dang HD cameras.
Love,
Me
*grumble grumble crappy telecast grumble*
When are you going to stop using your Fisher-Price My First Video Camera to provide footage of football games? Or is it someone's cellphone camera? I bet it's someone's cellphone camera. Seriously guys, you can't even see the ball on kickoffs. Join the twenty-first century, take the money you're saving in your sportscasting budget (remember, if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys!), and buy some dang HD cameras.
Love,
Me
*grumble grumble crappy telecast grumble*
Monday, September 21, 2009
ROAD TRIP!!
I would be remiss in my duties as a blogger if I failed to blog about road tripping to Eugene for the Utah - Oregon football game.
- Left before 6am Friday morning. Idaho was boring. Got some manifolds homework done. Ate lunch at a KFC in La Grande, Oregon. They didn't have macaroni and cheese. Watched several movies in the car, played iPod DJ. X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a terrible movie unless you completely turn your brain off. Stopped at Multnomah Falls and saw some other Ute fans. Watched (and, albeit loath to admit it, enjoyed) 17 Again. Was surprised by the acting talent of Zac Efron. Arrived in Eugene at approximately IT-SUCKED-BECAUSE-IT-WAS-LATE O'CLOCK.
- Awoke Saturday morning, went to breakfast at Brail's Restaurant - total greasy spoon, probably really bad for you, but really delicious. Went to the Saturday market and purchased the perfect souvenir of Eugene - a t-shirt tie-dyed with the UO logo.
- FOOTBALL GAME. Autzen Stadium is loud.
It was rainingIT NEVER RAINS AT AUTZEN STADIUM. The Muss broke a bench during a third-down jump. Obtained a small piece of Autzen Stadium as a souvenir. Terrance Cain looked really, really bad, and the offensive play calling was even worse than Ludwig, if such a crazy thing is even possible. Utes lost. Bah. - Delicious dinner provided by my friend's aunt and uncle. He makes the best dang salmon I've ever had. Watched the Cougars lose. It was consoling to note that they looked EVEN WORSE THAN WE DID.
- Awoke at WAY-TOO-FREAKING-EARLY-O'CLOCK Sunday morning and started driving back. Drove through half of Stardust (weird movie) and all of Enchanted, but enjoyed the audio. Thinking it'd be fun to dress up as Giselle for Halloween, just because she is so amusingly cheerful. Halfway through Oregon, ran out of food and had to shoot some deer. Someone died of dysentery and we lost three days. (Come on, you knew there'd be an Oregon Trail joke in here.) Idaho: STILL BORING but at least the speed limit is 75. Watched four episodes of Chuck and regretted not having watched it on TV from the beginning. Detoured to Ogden to drop off Swifty. Freaking Swifty. Arrived home at ten-something.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
[LaTeX] \noqed
So you're writing up a big multi-part proof in LaTeX, and you don't want the halmos (□) to appear at the end of one of your sub-lemmas. You were hoping you could just use the \noqed command, but unfortunately it doesn't exist. Here's what you can do instead.
In general, if you want to change what symbol happens at the end of a proof, you use \renewcommand{\qedsymbol}{ --stuff goes here-- }, and if you want there to be no qed symbol, you define it to be blank: \renewcommand{\qedsymbol}{}. But if you want qed symbols in some of your theorems but just not one or two in particular, you don't want to declare this globally. The trick I've found is to
\def\noqed{\renewcommand{\qedsymbol}{}}
and then drop in a \noqed right before the \end of the proof you don't want qed'd. This works because this \renewcommand only happens locally, inside this particular proof environment.
So there you have it: a \noqed command that works exactly like you think it should.
In general, if you want to change what symbol happens at the end of a proof, you use \renewcommand{\qedsymbol}{ --stuff goes here-- }, and if you want there to be no qed symbol, you define it to be blank: \renewcommand{\qedsymbol}{}. But if you want qed symbols in some of your theorems but just not one or two in particular, you don't want to declare this globally. The trick I've found is to
\def\noqed{\renewcommand{\qedsymbol}{}}
and then drop in a \noqed right before the \end of the proof you don't want qed'd. This works because this \renewcommand only happens locally, inside this particular proof environment.
So there you have it: a \noqed command that works exactly like you think it should.
Monday, September 07, 2009
Rescue
[Christian-based content ahead! If you're an anti-religious sort, avert your eyes lest you melt like that guy in Raiders of the Lost Ark! Just kidding.]
Today (okay, fine, yesterday, since it is 2:30) I taught a lesson in Sunday school about the Martin and Willie handcart companies. The backstory is, they left for the Salt Lake valley a little late in the season and got caught 700 miles from Salt Lake in early blizzards and bitter cold in early October. Their supplies running low, without the provisions they had expected at Fort Laramie, without adequate clothing or blankets, they needed rescue. They could go no further on their own.
A man named Franklin D. Richards and his company, outfitted with light wagons and fast horses, had passed the company in September, and upon arriving in Utah on October 4, informed Church president Brigham Young of the handcart company's plight. President Young, in the general conference of the Church that "just happened" to be scheduled for the next day, called for 60 mule teams, 12 wagons and 12 tons of flour. The next morning 16 mule teams pulled out, with 250 on the trail by the end of October. Many stories of heroism, bravery and sheer determination later, the handcart companies made it to Salt Lake.
Those reading this blog who are Mormons have certainly heard this story before, and there's a reason we retell it so often. First of all, we've all been there. Remember when you were a little kid, and you got separated from your parents at the store? Remember the fear you felt while you were lost, and the peace and safety you felt when your parents found you again? If it wasn't at the store, it was when you made a difficult decision, or were very sick, or were working harder than you thought you could, or one of a hundred other situations common to us all. Perhaps you've been on the rescuing end, and you've watched the fear clear from their eyes, and felt that warm glow inside that comes from doing something for someone that they can't do for themselves. We can learn many valuable lessons about love, preparation, sacrifice and diligence from the example of these Saints. But most importantly, it points our minds towards Jesus Christ, our Savior, Deliverer, Redeemer, and indeed, our Rescuer.
"It is because of the sacrificial redemption wrought by the Savior of the world that the great plan of the eternal gospel is made available to us, under which those who die in the Lord shall not taste of death but shall have the opportunity of going on to a celestial and eternal glory," said late Church President Gordon B. Hinckley. "In times of despair, in seasons of loneliness and fear, He is there on the horizon to bring succor and comfort and assurance and faith. He is our King, our Savior, our Deliverer, our Lord and our God."
How many of us have been through times of despair? How many of us will go through seasons of loneliness and fear? How many of us feel, or have felt, or will feel our inadequacies, our shortcomings, cutting into our confidence like the cold, cruel winds of the Wyoming plains? How many of us will at some point be stranded on the high prairie with short rations and blizzards blowing in? How many of us, in short, need to be rescued? The answer is, all of us. And this is the raison d'etre of Christ.
Jesus came into the world (among other reasons, of course) to suffer like we do. He took upon Himself not only our sins, but also our pains, our weaknesses, our faults, our flaws, our feelings of inadequacy, our sicknesses and death, so that He could know what it is like to be us - so that He could know, in that visceral way that experience alone can bring, how best to help us through the doubt, uncertainty and fear that is being human. He came to help us be better, to help us transcend our weakness. He came to bring us flour and warm blankets and fresh mule teams when we are stranded in the snow. Jesus came, in short, to rescue.
This is why I am striving to be better, why I am trying to take up Christ's offer to leave old things behind and follow Him to a better way. It's why I've decided to try to use my time more wisely (says the man who's up at three in the morning writing in his blog), to seek more balance, to pursue first the things that are real - because Jesus did all this for me, and I'll be a fool if I don't try to become who and what He is showing me I can be.
Today (okay, fine, yesterday, since it is 2:30) I taught a lesson in Sunday school about the Martin and Willie handcart companies. The backstory is, they left for the Salt Lake valley a little late in the season and got caught 700 miles from Salt Lake in early blizzards and bitter cold in early October. Their supplies running low, without the provisions they had expected at Fort Laramie, without adequate clothing or blankets, they needed rescue. They could go no further on their own.
A man named Franklin D. Richards and his company, outfitted with light wagons and fast horses, had passed the company in September, and upon arriving in Utah on October 4, informed Church president Brigham Young of the handcart company's plight. President Young, in the general conference of the Church that "just happened" to be scheduled for the next day, called for 60 mule teams, 12 wagons and 12 tons of flour. The next morning 16 mule teams pulled out, with 250 on the trail by the end of October. Many stories of heroism, bravery and sheer determination later, the handcart companies made it to Salt Lake.
Those reading this blog who are Mormons have certainly heard this story before, and there's a reason we retell it so often. First of all, we've all been there. Remember when you were a little kid, and you got separated from your parents at the store? Remember the fear you felt while you were lost, and the peace and safety you felt when your parents found you again? If it wasn't at the store, it was when you made a difficult decision, or were very sick, or were working harder than you thought you could, or one of a hundred other situations common to us all. Perhaps you've been on the rescuing end, and you've watched the fear clear from their eyes, and felt that warm glow inside that comes from doing something for someone that they can't do for themselves. We can learn many valuable lessons about love, preparation, sacrifice and diligence from the example of these Saints. But most importantly, it points our minds towards Jesus Christ, our Savior, Deliverer, Redeemer, and indeed, our Rescuer.
"It is because of the sacrificial redemption wrought by the Savior of the world that the great plan of the eternal gospel is made available to us, under which those who die in the Lord shall not taste of death but shall have the opportunity of going on to a celestial and eternal glory," said late Church President Gordon B. Hinckley. "In times of despair, in seasons of loneliness and fear, He is there on the horizon to bring succor and comfort and assurance and faith. He is our King, our Savior, our Deliverer, our Lord and our God."
How many of us have been through times of despair? How many of us will go through seasons of loneliness and fear? How many of us feel, or have felt, or will feel our inadequacies, our shortcomings, cutting into our confidence like the cold, cruel winds of the Wyoming plains? How many of us will at some point be stranded on the high prairie with short rations and blizzards blowing in? How many of us, in short, need to be rescued? The answer is, all of us. And this is the raison d'etre of Christ.
Jesus came into the world (among other reasons, of course) to suffer like we do. He took upon Himself not only our sins, but also our pains, our weaknesses, our faults, our flaws, our feelings of inadequacy, our sicknesses and death, so that He could know what it is like to be us - so that He could know, in that visceral way that experience alone can bring, how best to help us through the doubt, uncertainty and fear that is being human. He came to help us be better, to help us transcend our weakness. He came to bring us flour and warm blankets and fresh mule teams when we are stranded in the snow. Jesus came, in short, to rescue.
This is why I am striving to be better, why I am trying to take up Christ's offer to leave old things behind and follow Him to a better way. It's why I've decided to try to use my time more wisely (says the man who's up at three in the morning writing in his blog), to seek more balance, to pursue first the things that are real - because Jesus did all this for me, and I'll be a fool if I don't try to become who and what He is showing me I can be.
Friday, September 04, 2009
Three things
1. I went to the doctor today. The good news is, I don't have testicular cancer. The bad news is, I uh... yeah.
2. Work was really rather long today, and I had to work until 8:15, even though 7:00 was the time of the start of the
3. FOOTBALL GAME. Cain looked pretty okay, if a little floaty. I'm not sure how much I liked the defense, but apparently Whit said he felt pretty good about 'em.
4. Sean Smith made this incredible one-handed interception in the end zone AND managed to get both feet in. Man, it's going to be so much fun to watch his career.
5. I enjoy adding more things than I said there were going to be.
2. Work was really rather long today, and I had to work until 8:15, even though 7:00 was the time of the start of the
3. FOOTBALL GAME. Cain looked pretty okay, if a little floaty. I'm not sure how much I liked the defense, but apparently Whit said he felt pretty good about 'em.
4. Sean Smith made this incredible one-handed interception in the end zone AND managed to get both feet in. Man, it's going to be so much fun to watch his career.
5. I enjoy adding more things than I said there were going to be.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Parking
So I had to run to Albertson's a minute ago to purchase some cream and half-n-half (homemade ice cream tomorrow!). As anyone who has ever visited the Albertson's on 23rd and 39th in Salt Lake City has undoubtedly noted, the parking spaces are quite roomy, to the point of being palatial. You see, not only are the spaces themselves wide, but there are also, in lieu of the standard single yellow stripes, rather large buffer zones - six inches of asphalt enclosed by TWO yellow stripes. The practical upshot of this is that it is virtually impossible to park in such a manner as to obstruct the parking ability of another driver.
But as I'm sure you can guess, I wouldn't be writing this post if somebody hadn't managed to do exactly that.
I pulled into the parking lot and saw a pull-through spot right by the door I want to go in. (I have a thing for pull-through spots, because I hate backing up in parking lots, especially at night.) As I pulled in, I noticed that, gee, that car next to me is parked rather close, but didn't think much of it until I rolled up my windows, opened my door and attempted to get out.
With the aid of a handy ruler I found on my desk, I just ascertained that I am approximately 7" wide if I suck it in pretty hard. It took every bit of suck I could muster, as well as a contortionist routine that would do Cirque du Soleil proud, to get out of my door. Good heavens, I thought, these people really suck at parking. (My real thoughts were more colorful, and may even have included the French word for "shower", but I try to keep this blog family-friendly.)
The offending car, in case you were wondering, was a pearl-white BMW. I will refrain from observations involving the supposed ownership of any and all roadways by drivers of such vehicles, but will indulge myself so far as to say OF COURSE IT WAS A DANG BMW. (No offense to any of you who may happen to drive a BMW - if you have the good taste to be reading my blog, I'm sure you don't fail this badly at parking.)
So I went in and procured the sought-after dairy items, and returned to my car to find the owner of the BMW standing there staring at it while his wife returned their shopping cart. I walked past them (with a perfectly civil, nay, friendly greeting, I may add) and made quite a show of squeezing carefully into my car.
As I drove off, a note of bitter vindictiveness may have entered into my mind, and I may have hoped for an instant that their door was now slightly scratched or even dented, such unfortunate happening being no more than their due, but I'm sure this tacit admission can be our little secret.
But as I'm sure you can guess, I wouldn't be writing this post if somebody hadn't managed to do exactly that.
I pulled into the parking lot and saw a pull-through spot right by the door I want to go in. (I have a thing for pull-through spots, because I hate backing up in parking lots, especially at night.) As I pulled in, I noticed that, gee, that car next to me is parked rather close, but didn't think much of it until I rolled up my windows, opened my door and attempted to get out.
With the aid of a handy ruler I found on my desk, I just ascertained that I am approximately 7" wide if I suck it in pretty hard. It took every bit of suck I could muster, as well as a contortionist routine that would do Cirque du Soleil proud, to get out of my door. Good heavens, I thought, these people really suck at parking. (My real thoughts were more colorful, and may even have included the French word for "shower", but I try to keep this blog family-friendly.)
The offending car, in case you were wondering, was a pearl-white BMW. I will refrain from observations involving the supposed ownership of any and all roadways by drivers of such vehicles, but will indulge myself so far as to say OF COURSE IT WAS A DANG BMW. (No offense to any of you who may happen to drive a BMW - if you have the good taste to be reading my blog, I'm sure you don't fail this badly at parking.)
So I went in and procured the sought-after dairy items, and returned to my car to find the owner of the BMW standing there staring at it while his wife returned their shopping cart. I walked past them (with a perfectly civil, nay, friendly greeting, I may add) and made quite a show of squeezing carefully into my car.
As I drove off, a note of bitter vindictiveness may have entered into my mind, and I may have hoped for an instant that their door was now slightly scratched or even dented, such unfortunate happening being no more than their due, but I'm sure this tacit admission can be our little secret.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Guys, this is hilarious.
Alton Brown is the Chuck Norris of the culinary world - and as such, he deserves his facts. With no further ado, I present to you:
Good Eats, Amazing Feats
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Good Eats, Amazing Feats
Shared via AddThis
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Things that are good
- Harper Lee's classic To Kill a Mockingbird. I promise that it's been too long since you've read this book. Here's a few gem quotes:
- "Naw, Jem, I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks."
- "The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."
- "Well, I'm gonna be a new kind of clown. I'm gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks."
- Bob Marley. There's a good reason he'll go down as the best reggae artist ever.
- Holst's "Jupiter" - especially his artful combination of two rather disparate themes.
- The Killers' "Shadowplay".
- Can you tell I went to the music store twice in as many days?
- The OTHER birthday present I got my mom!
- Being done with RAing math summer camp!
- The bread pudding I'll be making tomorrow (the bread for which is sitting out on some hastily improvised and completely AWESOME staling-out racks).
- Planetariums, Hoberman spheres, and Foucalt pendulums.
And just for variety, two things that is not good:
- Inconsistent naming schemes in IDV3 tags for classical music.
- Inconsistent labeling of artists that makes an album split into several pieces when you import it into iTunes.
- Both my grammar and numbering skills.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Blogworthy
Today has been rather blogworthy, I'm not gonna lie.
1) I think I understand the class equation a lot better now.
2) I went to the UMNH with the math campers today. DINOSAURS! Also, ROCKS THAT GLOW IN ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT! Also, SCORPIONS THAT DO THE SAME THING!
3) I am surrounded by people who actually laugh at my jokes. You have no idea how gratifying that is.
4) We played on the playground today and pushed swings over the rails and tried to keep our balance on those things... at the playground... with the spring... on the bottom... you know.
5) We just played BS modulo 7.
1) I think I understand the class equation a lot better now.
2) I went to the UMNH with the math campers today. DINOSAURS! Also, ROCKS THAT GLOW IN ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT! Also, SCORPIONS THAT DO THE SAME THING!
3) I am surrounded by people who actually laugh at my jokes. You have no idea how gratifying that is.
4) We played on the playground today and pushed swings over the rails and tried to keep our balance on those things... at the playground... with the spring... on the bottom... you know.
5) We just played BS modulo 7.
Monday, June 08, 2009
Cooking: Marinades.
We all love marinades, because they add moisture and flavor to our favorite meats when we're grilling. But buying them? No way jose, that's money better spent elsewhere, if you ask me. Make your own dang marinade! It's not as hard as you think it is.
Marinades typically comprise three things: a salt or an acid (or both!), something sweet to balance it out, and then some spices and flavorings. I bet you're wondering why. Well, I'll tell you why!
1) Salt or acid. Acids denature proteins. What does that mean when it's at home? Well, proteins are naturally folded up in quite complex patterns. Acids disrupt some of the bonds that keep proteins folded. The end result of this process is a bunch of little tunnels through which flavor can seep in to your meat.
If you go the salt route, you're adding moisture to the meat because of osmosis. Because the fluid inside the cells in the meat is less salty than the fluid outside, water wants to flow out of the cells to dilute the saltiness. Wait wait, you say, I thought you said you're adding moisture, and this sounds like the moisture is flowing out. Ah, but the salt then dissolves some of the proteins in the meat's cell structure and the meat's cell fluids become more concentrated, and the osmotic pressure sucks the water back in. (Brining, a related technique, involves immersing meat in a salt-water bath, and is great for such meats as turkey and pork that tend to dry out when cooked.)
2) Something sweet. Now, the first reason is obvious - you've just put a whole lot of salt or acid on your meat, and if you don't balance it out, it's going to taste like straight-up table salt, or taking a pull from a bottle of vinegar. Yum. But there is another reason to put sugar in a marinade, and that is caramelization. That's when sugars under heat turn brown and gain complex flavors. (How much better does caramel taste than just a handful of sugar?) Putting sugar in your marinade helps to give meats (especially light-colored ones like turkey or chicken) that pretty brown crust when it's grilled.
3) Flavorings. Well, you wanted it to taste like something, didn't you?
In case you're wondering what are some good options for these three marinade components, here you go: Soy sauce is a great place to get salt (especially for marinating beef - the flavors go very well together), vinegar (in all its delicious varieties) and citrus juices are nice acids, and you can take your pick of your entire spice cabinet to flavor it (just make sure everything plays well together).
I'll give you a sample of a marinade I just made. I wish I could give you a better idea of amounts, but I didn't really measure anything.
Soy sauce (Salt)
Rice wine vinegar (Acid)
Honey (Sugar)
Orange juice (I squeezed some fresh and also used some orange-tangerine blend.)
Orange zest (about half an orange worth)
Fresh ginger, grated fine
Sesame oil (careful - a little goes a long way! Available at Asian markets and most grocery stores.)
My preferred method for making marinades is to put everything together in one-a-them glass canning jars, because then you can just put a lid on and shake it. Start off with a goodly amount of soy sauce and a goodly amount of vinegar - probably at least half of your regular-size canning jar - because this is the base of your marinade. Then add the other stuff until it smells and tastes right. I went with orange zest because the citrus flavor was getting buried, but I didn't want to wash everything out with too much juice. Orange zest is powerfully orangey, so it worked well.
My favorite way to actually marinate the meat is to stick it in a ziploc bag, pour enough marinade in to cover it (less than you think, because of the next step!) and then squeeze the excess air out. The marinade makes good contact with the meat and it's easy to turn it around for even coverage.
A note on marinating time. If you're marinating pork or beef, you can leave it in there pretty much all day, but if you're marinating chicken or fish, you only need 30 minutes - one hour TOPS! This is because chicken and fish aren't as dense (so they need less time to soak up flavor) and the surface will actually start to be chemically cooked by the acid in the marinade, and the meat will be dry. Go try some ceviche if you don't believe me.
Once you're done marinating, cook and enjoy! See, that wasn't so bad.
ps - I marinated a tri-tip in this, then gave it a post-cook soak in the marinade in a little tinfoil canoe.
Marinades typically comprise three things: a salt or an acid (or both!), something sweet to balance it out, and then some spices and flavorings. I bet you're wondering why. Well, I'll tell you why!
1) Salt or acid. Acids denature proteins. What does that mean when it's at home? Well, proteins are naturally folded up in quite complex patterns. Acids disrupt some of the bonds that keep proteins folded. The end result of this process is a bunch of little tunnels through which flavor can seep in to your meat.
If you go the salt route, you're adding moisture to the meat because of osmosis. Because the fluid inside the cells in the meat is less salty than the fluid outside, water wants to flow out of the cells to dilute the saltiness. Wait wait, you say, I thought you said you're adding moisture, and this sounds like the moisture is flowing out. Ah, but the salt then dissolves some of the proteins in the meat's cell structure and the meat's cell fluids become more concentrated, and the osmotic pressure sucks the water back in. (Brining, a related technique, involves immersing meat in a salt-water bath, and is great for such meats as turkey and pork that tend to dry out when cooked.)
2) Something sweet. Now, the first reason is obvious - you've just put a whole lot of salt or acid on your meat, and if you don't balance it out, it's going to taste like straight-up table salt, or taking a pull from a bottle of vinegar. Yum. But there is another reason to put sugar in a marinade, and that is caramelization. That's when sugars under heat turn brown and gain complex flavors. (How much better does caramel taste than just a handful of sugar?) Putting sugar in your marinade helps to give meats (especially light-colored ones like turkey or chicken) that pretty brown crust when it's grilled.
3) Flavorings. Well, you wanted it to taste like something, didn't you?
In case you're wondering what are some good options for these three marinade components, here you go: Soy sauce is a great place to get salt (especially for marinating beef - the flavors go very well together), vinegar (in all its delicious varieties) and citrus juices are nice acids, and you can take your pick of your entire spice cabinet to flavor it (just make sure everything plays well together).
I'll give you a sample of a marinade I just made. I wish I could give you a better idea of amounts, but I didn't really measure anything.
Soy sauce (Salt)
Rice wine vinegar (Acid)
Honey (Sugar)
Orange juice (I squeezed some fresh and also used some orange-tangerine blend.)
Orange zest (about half an orange worth)
Fresh ginger, grated fine
Sesame oil (careful - a little goes a long way! Available at Asian markets and most grocery stores.)
My preferred method for making marinades is to put everything together in one-a-them glass canning jars, because then you can just put a lid on and shake it. Start off with a goodly amount of soy sauce and a goodly amount of vinegar - probably at least half of your regular-size canning jar - because this is the base of your marinade. Then add the other stuff until it smells and tastes right. I went with orange zest because the citrus flavor was getting buried, but I didn't want to wash everything out with too much juice. Orange zest is powerfully orangey, so it worked well.
My favorite way to actually marinate the meat is to stick it in a ziploc bag, pour enough marinade in to cover it (less than you think, because of the next step!) and then squeeze the excess air out. The marinade makes good contact with the meat and it's easy to turn it around for even coverage.
A note on marinating time. If you're marinating pork or beef, you can leave it in there pretty much all day, but if you're marinating chicken or fish, you only need 30 minutes - one hour TOPS! This is because chicken and fish aren't as dense (so they need less time to soak up flavor) and the surface will actually start to be chemically cooked by the acid in the marinade, and the meat will be dry. Go try some ceviche if you don't believe me.
Once you're done marinating, cook and enjoy! See, that wasn't so bad.
ps - I marinated a tri-tip in this, then gave it a post-cook soak in the marinade in a little tinfoil canoe.
Monday, June 01, 2009
Cooking: Raspberry Bread Pudding
This is a pretty fakey recipe but I think you can make it work.
Things you'll need:
Bread (something good and thick, that can soak up a lot of custard)
Half-and-half or cream or milk
Eggs (probably a half dozen by the time you're all done)
Raspberries and some raspberry puree
Sugar
Vanilla extract
First, you get a bowl, and tear up some bread until it fills the bowl. Old bread is probably good here, and you probably don't want to use a sliced loaf because it'll be too thin. I used some old French-ish rolls we had sitting around. Dump the bread in a pan, turn your oven on as low as it goes, and put the bread in there for a few minutes to stale it out (unless, of course, you want to wait 24 hours or so for it to get stale naturally). This works surprisingly well.
Now, take the bowl you ripped the bread into, fill it about half full of half-and-half (or cream, or whatever - we didn't quite have enough half-and-half, so I put some regular milk in it too). Add one or two eggs (depending on how big your bowl is) and some sugar (enough to make it sweet) and a good slosh of vanilla, then whisk it until the eggs are completely blended. Then dump the bread in to soak. Stir it around every few minutes until the bread has absorbed as much custard as it can possibly hold.
So we were making raspberry jam, and I had some leftover raspberry puree with the seeds strained out. Put some of that, about half as much sugar, and enough lemon juice to make it tart in a pan and cook it down until it's syrupy.
Once the bread has absorbed as much custard as it can, dump 3/4 of it in a lightly greased baking pan (size depending again on how much bread you used - I used a 9"x9", I think), then cover it with the raspberry sauce and put some frozen raspberries in there (I don't see why you couldn't use fresh, except maybe they would bake funny), then put the rest of the bread-custard mix on top. Bake at 350-375°F for about 40 minutes or until a knife stuck in the middle comes out clean.
While it's baking, make some creme anglaise (this recipe came out a little bit eggy for me - maybe because I didn't have cream - but you might consider going down to 3 yolks) and put it in the refrigerator to cool. (Actually, it would probably be a good idea to make before-hand so it's actually cold.)
Serve the pudding warm with the cold sauce on it, garnish with fresh raspberries. Yum.
Things you'll need:
Bread (something good and thick, that can soak up a lot of custard)
Half-and-half or cream or milk
Eggs (probably a half dozen by the time you're all done)
Raspberries and some raspberry puree
Sugar
Vanilla extract
First, you get a bowl, and tear up some bread until it fills the bowl. Old bread is probably good here, and you probably don't want to use a sliced loaf because it'll be too thin. I used some old French-ish rolls we had sitting around. Dump the bread in a pan, turn your oven on as low as it goes, and put the bread in there for a few minutes to stale it out (unless, of course, you want to wait 24 hours or so for it to get stale naturally). This works surprisingly well.
Now, take the bowl you ripped the bread into, fill it about half full of half-and-half (or cream, or whatever - we didn't quite have enough half-and-half, so I put some regular milk in it too). Add one or two eggs (depending on how big your bowl is) and some sugar (enough to make it sweet) and a good slosh of vanilla, then whisk it until the eggs are completely blended. Then dump the bread in to soak. Stir it around every few minutes until the bread has absorbed as much custard as it can possibly hold.
So we were making raspberry jam, and I had some leftover raspberry puree with the seeds strained out. Put some of that, about half as much sugar, and enough lemon juice to make it tart in a pan and cook it down until it's syrupy.
Once the bread has absorbed as much custard as it can, dump 3/4 of it in a lightly greased baking pan (size depending again on how much bread you used - I used a 9"x9", I think), then cover it with the raspberry sauce and put some frozen raspberries in there (I don't see why you couldn't use fresh, except maybe they would bake funny), then put the rest of the bread-custard mix on top. Bake at 350-375°F for about 40 minutes or until a knife stuck in the middle comes out clean.
While it's baking, make some creme anglaise (this recipe came out a little bit eggy for me - maybe because I didn't have cream - but you might consider going down to 3 yolks) and put it in the refrigerator to cool. (Actually, it would probably be a good idea to make before-hand so it's actually cold.)
Serve the pudding warm with the cold sauce on it, garnish with fresh raspberries. Yum.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Teaching: Calculators and technology
So someday I want to be a teacher, and so I find myself thinking about teachery things every once in a while. I've decided to record some of these on this here blogomathing.
I had an interesting philosophical discussion with a student in the tutoring center about the use of calculators in math classes - or, specifically, to what extent calculators should be allowed. On the one hand, calculators are fantastic for helping you grind through tedious calculations that sometimes get in the way of actual learning. On the other hand, I was just tutoring a girl who said, and I quote, "I took calc 2 back in high school, but we always did it with our calculators, so I don't remember how to do it" - so sometimes calculators can become a crutch and prevent the student from learning.
So the stage is set - you find yourself on a battleground with the champions of the calculator trumpeting their technological battle-cry on the one side, and the partisans of pencil-and-paper standing defiant on the other. I think that the best solution is, as is often the case, to be found somewhere in the middle, and my views will be explained through the rest of this post.
First of all, I believe in quantitative literacy, and by this I mean that I think people should have a good idea of numbers and sizes and should be able to do mental "ballpark calculations" to get a rough idea of an answer. (This is a skill that will serve you well throughout your life. If oranges are $1.29 a pound, you should be able to figure out whether or not buying a 4-lb bag for $4.79 is a good deal.) I also believe, especially in a math-class setting, in algebraic literacy - you should know about factoring numbers and canceling top and bottom and when you can split up a fraction. These are basic skills that should be a common denominator, if you'll pardon the pun, for all math classes, and I think that this is where calculators turn into a crutch. If you're taking a math class, you should be able to multiply, subtract, divide, etc. by hand - BUT I don't think you should be compelled to. If a class does not allow calculators on tests (and more on that later), then the teacher should be willing to accept unsimplified answers, or at least be appropriately lenient on simple calculational mistakes (especially when that's not what the class is about). It's a calculus class, after all, not an algebra class, and the student should be graded on how well they do calculus, not algebra.
On the subject of calculators on tests, the student I was talking to yesterday had a really great idea. He said, why doesn't the math department get together and come up with a standard calculator that can be used on all the tests (a TI-83, say), then buy 150 of them, nuke the memory, and keep them in the department office? It'd be really hard to tamper with them, but you'd still be able to do all the basic things. And if you wanted more control, I'm sure you could get your friends in the computer science department to write you some new firmware so you could lock out, say, the graphing capabilities on demand. I really like this idea, and I think it solves the problem of calculators on tests once and for all.
Now, with modern calculators and computer algebra systems and so forth, we find ourselves in an interesting quandary. Things that were computationally intractable ten years ago (indefinite integrals, Taylor expansions, etc.) are now easy to do on your plain vanilla TI-89. This lets lazy students type things into their calculators and get answers without knowing the math behind it. The underlying phenomenon is nothing new, and we even have a word for it. It's called cheating, and this kind of thing is easily detectable (if you bother to look at their paper for 3.7 seconds) and doesn't really worry me. What worries me is that these "middle-ground" students are the ones who would probably learn the subject if pushed to do it, but they are instead letting the calculator do it for them.
Instead of dwelling on why calculators can be bad, let's talk about appropriate uses of technology. I think the most powerful thing about technology is the opportunity it gives students to explore. I've learned a heck of a lot about math by dinking around with a calculator. The beauty here is that again, calculators take care of tedious calculations for you, and allow you to see the Big Picture without a ton of needless effort (you ever try to plot a slope field by hand? Yeah, have fun with that). When you play around with a grapher, you can quickly develop your visual intuition for the rough shape of common functions, how polar coordinates work, and get a good handle on parametric equations. It's also super cool to graph a function along with its first five or so Taylor polynomials - you can immediately see how it converges, and what exactly that radius of convergence means.
For these reasons listed above, I find myself right in the middle of the road when it comes to technology in math classes. I think both of the extrema, whether it be the "CALCULATORS ARE EVIL" school or the "USE CALCULATORS FOR EVERYTHING" school, are rather dogmatic - and rather silly.
I had an interesting philosophical discussion with a student in the tutoring center about the use of calculators in math classes - or, specifically, to what extent calculators should be allowed. On the one hand, calculators are fantastic for helping you grind through tedious calculations that sometimes get in the way of actual learning. On the other hand, I was just tutoring a girl who said, and I quote, "I took calc 2 back in high school, but we always did it with our calculators, so I don't remember how to do it" - so sometimes calculators can become a crutch and prevent the student from learning.
So the stage is set - you find yourself on a battleground with the champions of the calculator trumpeting their technological battle-cry on the one side, and the partisans of pencil-and-paper standing defiant on the other. I think that the best solution is, as is often the case, to be found somewhere in the middle, and my views will be explained through the rest of this post.
First of all, I believe in quantitative literacy, and by this I mean that I think people should have a good idea of numbers and sizes and should be able to do mental "ballpark calculations" to get a rough idea of an answer. (This is a skill that will serve you well throughout your life. If oranges are $1.29 a pound, you should be able to figure out whether or not buying a 4-lb bag for $4.79 is a good deal.) I also believe, especially in a math-class setting, in algebraic literacy - you should know about factoring numbers and canceling top and bottom and when you can split up a fraction. These are basic skills that should be a common denominator, if you'll pardon the pun, for all math classes, and I think that this is where calculators turn into a crutch. If you're taking a math class, you should be able to multiply, subtract, divide, etc. by hand - BUT I don't think you should be compelled to. If a class does not allow calculators on tests (and more on that later), then the teacher should be willing to accept unsimplified answers, or at least be appropriately lenient on simple calculational mistakes (especially when that's not what the class is about). It's a calculus class, after all, not an algebra class, and the student should be graded on how well they do calculus, not algebra.
On the subject of calculators on tests, the student I was talking to yesterday had a really great idea. He said, why doesn't the math department get together and come up with a standard calculator that can be used on all the tests (a TI-83, say), then buy 150 of them, nuke the memory, and keep them in the department office? It'd be really hard to tamper with them, but you'd still be able to do all the basic things. And if you wanted more control, I'm sure you could get your friends in the computer science department to write you some new firmware so you could lock out, say, the graphing capabilities on demand. I really like this idea, and I think it solves the problem of calculators on tests once and for all.
Now, with modern calculators and computer algebra systems and so forth, we find ourselves in an interesting quandary. Things that were computationally intractable ten years ago (indefinite integrals, Taylor expansions, etc.) are now easy to do on your plain vanilla TI-89. This lets lazy students type things into their calculators and get answers without knowing the math behind it. The underlying phenomenon is nothing new, and we even have a word for it. It's called cheating, and this kind of thing is easily detectable (if you bother to look at their paper for 3.7 seconds) and doesn't really worry me. What worries me is that these "middle-ground" students are the ones who would probably learn the subject if pushed to do it, but they are instead letting the calculator do it for them.
Instead of dwelling on why calculators can be bad, let's talk about appropriate uses of technology. I think the most powerful thing about technology is the opportunity it gives students to explore. I've learned a heck of a lot about math by dinking around with a calculator. The beauty here is that again, calculators take care of tedious calculations for you, and allow you to see the Big Picture without a ton of needless effort (you ever try to plot a slope field by hand? Yeah, have fun with that). When you play around with a grapher, you can quickly develop your visual intuition for the rough shape of common functions, how polar coordinates work, and get a good handle on parametric equations. It's also super cool to graph a function along with its first five or so Taylor polynomials - you can immediately see how it converges, and what exactly that radius of convergence means.
For these reasons listed above, I find myself right in the middle of the road when it comes to technology in math classes. I think both of the extrema, whether it be the "CALCULATORS ARE EVIL" school or the "USE CALCULATORS FOR EVERYTHING" school, are rather dogmatic - and rather silly.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Mmmmcake
The chocolate chipotle cakes turned out friggin' amazing, but I would recommend eating them with vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt instead of one of the sauces listed. But do whatever floats your boat.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Crowning Moments of Awesome
This is the first in what may become a series of posts on moments in history that are completely, undeniably, and irrevocably awesome.
- The British Double Cross System during World War II, by which MI5 controlled, as was confirmed after the war, all of the spies sent to the U.K. by Germany, with the possible exception of one who committed suicide. The spies were allowed to report such details as insignia on uniforms and markings on vehicles, which, of course, was so accurate that several of them were awarded the Iron Cross - while working for the British.
- The concept of earthquake bombs - conventional bombs that were designed to be extremely heavy, with a sharp nose, so they would penetrate the ground and thus do more damage - was developed by the British engineer Barnes Wallis. One of these bombs was used shortly after D-Day to prevent German reinforcements from moving by train. Instead of bombing the train tracks, which would be quickly and easily repaired, the RAF dropped a Tallboy on a mountain through which there was a railroad tunnel. The bomb drilled itself through the mountain into the tunnel and brought the whole dang tunnel down. The entire rail line was unusable through the rest of the war.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Help me choose my cellphone ringer!
So for the last few months, my cellphone ringer has been a snippet from Weezer's Buddy Holly, but I'm starting to get a little tired of it - it's time for a change. I've got a few ideas, and I want to know what you think. (The following are in alphabetical order because I am going through my iTunes library here.)
1. Something by Beck. Maybe the Speak'n'Spell bit from No Complaints? Or E-Pro?
2. The Bravery - Bad Sun (I'd have the whistling lick from the chorus.)
3. Something by Cake. I'm thinking Commissioning a Symphony in C.
4. Coldplay - Viva la Vida
5. Donavon Frankenreiter - Life, Love and Laughter. (If you don't know who this is, you should look him up.)
6. Jack Johnson? Maybe Hope, or Monsoon, or Bubble Toes, or If I Had Eyes?
7. Led Zeppelin - Black Dog
8. Moby - We Are All Made of Stars
9. Modest Mouse - Float On
10. A little Paolo Nutini?
11. The Republic Tigers - Buildings and Mountains (Another kinda obscure band you should look up.)
12. Snow Patrol?
13. U2. Lots of choices: Elevation, Love and Peace or Else, Where the Streets Have No Name, Pride...
14. The Who - Who Are You. I think this would be apropos. :)
Endorse your favorite or suggest something else!
1. Something by Beck. Maybe the Speak'n'Spell bit from No Complaints? Or E-Pro?
2. The Bravery - Bad Sun (I'd have the whistling lick from the chorus.)
3. Something by Cake. I'm thinking Commissioning a Symphony in C.
4. Coldplay - Viva la Vida
5. Donavon Frankenreiter - Life, Love and Laughter. (If you don't know who this is, you should look him up.)
6. Jack Johnson? Maybe Hope, or Monsoon, or Bubble Toes, or If I Had Eyes?
7. Led Zeppelin - Black Dog
8. Moby - We Are All Made of Stars
9. Modest Mouse - Float On
10. A little Paolo Nutini?
11. The Republic Tigers - Buildings and Mountains (Another kinda obscure band you should look up.)
12. Snow Patrol?
13. U2. Lots of choices: Elevation, Love and Peace or Else, Where the Streets Have No Name, Pride...
14. The Who - Who Are You. I think this would be apropos. :)
Endorse your favorite or suggest something else!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Things
I am feeling kind of guilty today, because I didn't go in to work because I felt kinda sick (and still do, tyvm). I hate shirking responsibilities. I also felt completely unmotivated to finish my homework properly, and couldn't figure out several of the problems. I also hate failure. (This, btw, is why I am wary of commitment - it's not the commitment that I'm afraid of, it's the failure that happens if I don't or can't follow through.)
In happier news, the new MoTab CD is amazing, and I got two free songs from iTunes, both of which are pretty decent.
Blah.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Recipe
I friggin' will make this someday.
Boca Negra Chocolate Chipotle Cakes
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, plus additional for greasing ramekins
1 cup sugar plus additional for dusting
6 medium dried chipotle chiles (1 ounce)
6 tablespoons fresh orange juice
10 oz Valrhona semisweet chocolate (56%) or fine-quality bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
4 large eggs
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
Special equipment: 8 (4-oz) ramekins
Preparation:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 325°F. Butter ramekins and dust with sugar, knocking out excess.
Toast chiles in a dry heavy skillet over moderate heat, turning, until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Discard stems, seeds, and ribs, then soak chiles in hot water to cover until softened, about 30 minutes. Drain, reserving soaking liquid. Purée chiles in a mini food processor or a blender, adding 2 to 3 tablespoons soaking liquid as needed to form a paste. Force paste through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl and discard solids. Set aside 1 1/2 tablespoons chile paste and freeze remainder for another use.
Bring juice and 1 cup sugar to a boil in a 1- to 1 1/2-quart saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Pour hot syrup over chocolate in a large bowl, stirring until chocolate is melted. Add butter and stir until melted.
Add eggs 1 at a time, whisking after each addition, then stir in chile paste, flour, and salt. Divide among ramekins and bake in hot water bath , uncovered, until just firm and top is starting to crust, 50 to 60 minutes. Transfer ramekins with tongs to a work surface and let stand 2 minutes.
Unmold warm cakes directly onto dessert plates (they will be difficult to move once they adhere).
And then you put this stuff on top.
Boca Negra Chocolate Chipotle Cakes
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, plus additional for greasing ramekins
1 cup sugar plus additional for dusting
6 medium dried chipotle chiles (1 ounce)
6 tablespoons fresh orange juice
10 oz Valrhona semisweet chocolate (56%) or fine-quality bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
4 large eggs
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
Special equipment: 8 (4-oz) ramekins
Preparation:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 325°F. Butter ramekins and dust with sugar, knocking out excess.
Toast chiles in a dry heavy skillet over moderate heat, turning, until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Discard stems, seeds, and ribs, then soak chiles in hot water to cover until softened, about 30 minutes. Drain, reserving soaking liquid. Purée chiles in a mini food processor or a blender, adding 2 to 3 tablespoons soaking liquid as needed to form a paste. Force paste through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl and discard solids. Set aside 1 1/2 tablespoons chile paste and freeze remainder for another use.
Bring juice and 1 cup sugar to a boil in a 1- to 1 1/2-quart saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Pour hot syrup over chocolate in a large bowl, stirring until chocolate is melted. Add butter and stir until melted.
Add eggs 1 at a time, whisking after each addition, then stir in chile paste, flour, and salt. Divide among ramekins and bake in hot water bath , uncovered, until just firm and top is starting to crust, 50 to 60 minutes. Transfer ramekins with tongs to a work surface and let stand 2 minutes.
Unmold warm cakes directly onto dessert plates (they will be difficult to move once they adhere).
And then you put this stuff on top.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Ten things that are pretty cool
- Me. (Just thought I'd get that one out of the way right off the bat.)
- Last night, I decided that inasmuch as I was getting a paycheck today, I would purchase a CD that's been going through my head lately. It's a guy named Paolo Nutini, or to Cara, "Italian Guy". It is good musics. Pretty laid-back, acoustic, but with enough rock and pop influences to keep things interesting. I recommend it, especially if you can pick it up for cheap.
- The story of how I actually got it last night is also pretty cool. I went to the FYE on 7th and 21st (because I thought about it after I had already driven past Graywhale, which is my preferred CD buying location). I'm all about buying used CD's, because I think it helps the CD's feel good about life again, after being abandoned by their previous owners. Plus it's cheap, and I'm cheap. So I checked the used racks, couldn't find it. So I checked the new racks, couldn't find it. Dang! I went up to the counter to ask the lady if all their stock was out, but found myself poking through the alluring 40% Off box right by the checkout line. Lo and behold, the very CD I had wished to purchase! So I ended up getting it for like $10. Sweet.
- Rubio's fish tacos.
- TurboTax online free federal e-filing. Easy, user-friendly, fast and accurate.
- My anticipated $220 tax return.
- Having lunch at Red Robin with my sisters and some cousins.
- Holy cow, the weather today!
- Getting paid to work on your homework. (I watched the desk at the department office for an hour today during a staff meeting. One of my classmates dropped by to give someone something, and we ended up solving one of the problems. Nice.)
- Ice.
- I had sushi for dinner tonight.
- Getting two extra things that are pretty cool for free!
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