Caltech

Music, Pool, RC Cars, and New Beginnings

Last Friday a big group of us went to Pomona College for a Lupe Fiasco concert. It was an awesome experience because it was my first time on another California college campus and because we got to mingle with students outside of Tech. B.o.B opened for Mr. Fiasco, and had the crowd roaring from the very beginning (you might know him for his currently #1 song in LA, "Nothin' on You"). After the concert we stayed to tour the large campus and hung out at their student center for a little bit before heading back to Tech.

The rest of the weekend was also relaxing (good for us because this week is finals week!) and we decided to enjoy Saturday afternoon by doing what we do best in the Ricketts lounge: play pool -- although that's debatable because we recently acquired and refurbished a ping pong table and many Skurves have been seen taking turns at the paddles. But anyhow, at one moment we I was able to capture a big group of our frosh gathered around the pool table on that mellow Saturday afternoon. You will agree with me that their faces reflect the passion for the game in our house:

   

We've also been big on documentaries lately. Saturday night we played a documentary on sharks in the lounge, and followed it with another on aquatic life. When I first came down to the lounge I thought it was strange that we were watching this instead of a movie, but I stuck around (you had to see the look on people's faces, they seemed to be hypnotized by the screening) and I became really fascinated, especially by the segment on the enormous size of schools of fish and their homogeneous movements. Later that night, we passed by Ruddock to check out their Interhouse party, OPI. Although the dance floor was in the courtyard and it was pouring outside, the Rudds covered the dance floor with a tarp to make an impermeable dance floor. In the silent seconds between the end of a song and the beginning of the next, it was funny to hear the rain hitting the tarp because it sounded like when you take a shower with a shower cap on over your ears. After dancing the night away, we want back to Ricketts for a good night's rest.

Yesterday the ME 72 (Mech E Design Class) Competition took place in the Braun Gym. The competition involved a number of concurrent challenges, including flying blimps through hoops and collecting and depositing ping pong balls with an rc car. The bleachers were full with curious students (like my friends and me!), faculty, and potential employers. The atmosphere was very fun and quirky. I'll let the photographs speak for themselves:

This one makes me think of Quidditch:

Basically what's going on here is that the car on the platform (left) is preventing the other (right) from coming up the ramp by smashing it. The "clank" noise was very loud and exciting.

 

And now my friends, finals have officially begun (And we're done with Pass-Fail!). The Fleming Cannon has just been fired (at 5:01:08 PM to be precise)! The math and physics finals were handed out today, and the others will be released by Friday. Tonight my European Civilizations class is meeting at our professor's house for a dinner and then some casual conversation, that should be a very nice experience. I'm off now to start studying for my math final, I will tell you guys more at the end of the week. Cheers! Oh, and best of luck with all the admissions decisions.

Planning ahead

This past Wednesday I met with my advisor to discuss the possibility of taking an overload (more than 51 units for freshman). We talked about extracurriculars, social life, and sleeping patterns -- you know, just to make sure that I am a balanced individual -- and he approved my overload. The follow-up step to this conversation was to take the overload form to the Dean's Office. I turned it in to the deans and they told me to wait about a week for an official response. Without further ado, here is my awesome tentative schedule:

 

Let me run you guys through what each class is (for a detailed view of all courses offered next term you can go to the REGIS page):

Ma 3: Number Theory, this class is recommended as a prep course for students who are interested in taking Ma 5 (Abstract Algebra) during their sophomore year. I'm taking the class because it sounds fun, and I hope that it'll help me decide between majoring in math or applied math.

Ma 1c: Multivariable Calculus, this is part of core (the core curriculum) and I'm taking the practical track.

Ph 1c: Special Relativity (practical track), this is also part of core.

Bi 1x: This class is an alternative to Bi 1 and it is only accessible by lottery. I had the luck to win this lottery so I'm taking this class next term. Different from the lecture-oriented Bi 1, this is a relatively new lab course and many of the upperclassmen recommend it. I hope we get to touch neuroscience topics, my favorite.

Ay 1: Intro to Astrophysics, this meets our menu requirement --  the menu requirement is intended to be an introductory class to a subject which we don't plan to major in. It was a tough call between geology and astrophysics, but astro got the better of me, I'll have much to learn about it.

E 10: Technical Seminar Presentations, this class is an option requirement and it's basically a presentation skills class. I chose to take it next term because I miss public speaking so this will give me a chance to do something I enjoy.

Ec 11: Introduction to Economics, this is part of our social science requirements and I'm taking it so I can take advanced social sciences during my sophomore year. Sometimes it's nice to get ahead early.

I managed to make all my days start with a class at 9 AM, that way I force myself to wake up early (and go to sleep early too). I also tried to leave space before lunchtime so that I can go to the gym at around 11AM and then be able to follow the workout with a feast at Chandler or the South Kitchen. Also, I managed to reduce the number of days that I have class at night (it was fun having night classes for the past two terms but I need to take a break). Now I'll have to do work when the sun is down, so I'm in the search for a good lamp for my desk.

There are a lot of visitors in our house this weekend. Peggy, a Mech E junior, has two friends from San Diego over; our President is hosting his older brother; and my girlfriend is visiting me! Yesterday we went out with all my friends to a theater in North Hollywood, Zombie Joe's Underground Theater, it was a very interesting experience. Afterwards we stopped at Canter's for a milkshake and mac and cheese before heading back to Tech (Canter's has become a tradition of our going-out nights in LA). All in all, this week has been very exciting and I am grateful to have loved ones visiting me for the past two weekends. Right now I'm off to Santa Monica to take pictures of the Shangri La hotel and other architectural landmarks, I'll be back with sweet photographs.

Cheers!

Excomm, Parent Day, and Beyond

Let's begin with last Thursday, when we had Ricketts Hovse elections. The elections started at 10 pm and went very smoothly. Every candidate for each position had a chance to talk and answer questions. As a house tradition, the freshmen are to chase and capture the newly elected president and throw him/her in the gene pool --  we kept the tradition alive this year. A number of freshmen were elected to offices, namely for BoC (Board of Control) Rep, Ath Men, Historian and the Social Team (I'm in this one!). Again, as when I talked about ASCIT elections, it was very cool to see how easily frosh are integrated into the governmental systems at school. A coveted benefit that comes with an elected position in the house is room picks -- each position, depending on level of importance, is granted a full or half pick. This becomes important, especially for rising sophomores, because it lets you pick a room before most people in your class and may be the deciding factor of whether you stay in on- or off-campus housing on a crowded year (such as next year).

Along these lines, last night we had our first Excomm (Executive Committee) meeting in the library of the house. Although I cannot share many details about it, I will say that we got some great ideas flowing for the coming year. My prior experience with student governments came from my school's Student Council, where our meetings were moderated and people had to be disciplined due to the large numbers in the auditorium. It was an exceptional experience and we did great things through our Student Council, but I have to say I was impressed at how smoothly our Excomm meeting was run. We were all students in a small room having a respectful, creative discussion (I'm sure this is how it was when Washington met with his Cabinet). Here's the roster for this year's Excomm -- you may note that there is no name for the Food Rep position, that is because we are having a cook-off tonight between the three candidates (vote for me!).

A big event that happened this weekend was Parent Day. I was so happy to see my parents here after such a long time -- well, I guess winter break wasn't that far away but since time moves so quickly here we are misled to believe a long time has passed. Anyways, the parents had a series of chats and presentations where they were able to learn more about our workload, progress, and voice their concerns. Afterwards, the students were allowed to meet the parents for refreshments at Dabney Gardens and sit on an awesome Fluid Dynamics showcase (one of our a cappella groups). Cheers:

When the night came I took my parents and a few friends to a Cuban restaurant in West Hollywood called El Floridita. We almost didn't get in because the place was so packed. The food was amazing, reminiscent of the Cuban food that is so popular in Miami; the dance floor was full and the salsa orchestra had an exquisite rhythm. We danced all night until the parents got tired and then we headed home. Here's a sneak peek, taken from Dev's phone. On Sunday, my RA, Edgardo, invited me to play a GSC (Graduate Student Council) soccer game for his team and I went along to make my contribution. We won 3-2 which brought the day to a good start. My parents picked me up in the afternoon to go for lunch on Lake Avenue and then I took them to Beverly Hills for some house-watching (one of mom's favorite pastimes). They flew back home later that evening and I worked the rest of the night on my sets.

As I usually do, let me update you on what we are currently studying in our core classes. In math, we are studying eigenvalues/eigenspaces and their applications. (Prof. Wilson introduced the concept with a comical example of a system of functions of the population of rabbits that were infected, uninfected, or had become immune to a sickness spread throughout their habitat over time.) In physics, we just finished capacitance and dielectrics (and working with the fun Van de Graaff generators) and are beginning magnetism. Finally, in chemistry we are studying reactivity trends in relation to pKa's and soon will begin working on organometallics. Also, as I mentioned last week, the spring schedule is up online. I'm working on my schedule right now because course registration begins this Thursday at 8 AM, and I'm excited about it because there's a lottery class (classes with limited enrollment, they pick names at random, and they tend to be more interesting than their ordinary counterparts) that I signed up for, Bi 1x. I'm off to a meeting with my advisor now but I'll let you guys know soon what my schedule will look like.

Bravo, Interhouse, bravo!

Our Interhouse party was a fantastic success! Last Friday after dinner we began building for it, and we finished by 2 AM. Basically what we do is cover the walls of our lounge with black paper, by that point we take a break and enjoy an order of 100 cheeseburgers from In-N-Out (if you haven't tried these, think of a Krabby Patty -- yeah, they're that good!). The next step is to hook wires on the walls to create a skeleton for a lowered ceiling, and cover that with black paper too. The piano is the only thing that stays inside the pitch black lounge, which is illuminated by a single lamp. Every year we hire a jazz band and they play in this dark room adding a classy environment to the party. In order to get in to the party, people have to enter through the underground tunnels at Tech. Guests are directed by stationed freshmen with flashlights who guide the way (I was one of these!) until they reach a ladder that leads to the house. Awesome setup I tell you, right from the start. Check out all the workers behind the best jam of the year:

 

The Sunday following Interhouse was cleanup day. A lot of alumni showed up to the Interhouse so on Sunday our whole house plus the alums gathered to go to the pool and enjoy some chit chat under the sunny weather. After that it was time for work, like in any good weekend. I worked on my math set (determinants), and studied for physics and chemistry, where we are studying RC circuits and kinetic theory, respectively. Surprisingly, the experience from being here for just over 6 months has already made us very efficient workers, and early into the evening I had finished my work. We decided to go out as we hadn't done so in a while. Searching for a place to dine in Downtown LA was the toughest problem of the day, as a lot of places close early on Sunday. Eventually we serendipitously arrived to the Staples Center and its surroundings, and this place was packed with people and (expensive) fancy restaurants. We chose a very nice Mexican restaurant, Rosa Mexicano, which had its waiters make the most delicious guacamole right before your eyes (of course I took note of the recipe!). The place definitely exceeded expectations in terms of taste. After paying the check, however, our pockets grew holes in them so we headed back to campus -- stopping on the way for chocolate milkshakes at Canter's, a big temptation. The night ended with a funny story telling conversation on the Olive Walk, and the weather was great.

Monday was President's day and an Institute Holiday, which was greatly appreciated by the student body. I went to the Coffeehouse to try the special, Cherry Pie Milkshake, and it was phenomenal. Other than relaxing I also did some Cuban cuisine cooking with my roommate (both having Cuban heritage) and highly enjoyed the potaje de frijoles colorados (kidney beans stew). The following day, Tuesday, we had our second and most important Interhouse soccer game. The matchup was versus Fleming, the house that holds about 90% of the men's soccer team, so it was a very intense game. We lost 5-1 but our RA and I managed to save our dignity by scoring a GOLAZO on them. All in all the game was very fun and went without complications. One of the nicest things for me was shaking hands with the Flems at the end of the game because I know all the guys from the soccer team. Today we have another big game against Page, I'll try to get pictures of that because we all know shots in action are the sweetest. Well, I must leave you guys now because the schedule for the Spring term is up now and I want to play around with all the scheduling possibilities (who knew it would be so fun?). I'll post soon because this weekend is Parent Day Weekend and there are a lot of events tonight too so be on the lookout!

Cheers.

The Best of All Worlds: Midterms, Pomodoro, Bollywood, and Futbol

This past weekend was very heavy on work, we had midterms! They were actually very fun -- it's nice to have a lengthy test to do all on your own every now and then, since we're used to the collaboration policy of the weekly sets. But as you can tell I was very busy (no going out this past weekend). In addition to midterms, we also had Ricketts Hovse initiations on Friday night, and that was an awesome opportunity to bond with other members of the Hovse that one was not so acquainted with. This weekend we have another Ricketts event, our Interhouse. Last night we had a meeting where we signed up for shifts to work the tunnels we build. This Friday after dinner we will start building for the Interhouse, the plan is to build everything in 24 hours. I'll be sure amply photograph the building marathon.

Yesterday we had elections for ASCIT, our student government, and sometime soon we will hear the results. The two candidates for the presidency seem to be well-qualified and sociable people, so it will be interesting and good news to find out who won. But the reason why I'm mentioning elections is because a fellow freshman in our house, Addie Rice, is running for the Office of Social Director. From what I have seen, the Social Director is in charge of planning events, concerts, and other social activities on campus. I was very pleased to find out that first year students can partake in a high office of our government, so go Addie!

Saturday night we made use of the groceries we purchased a few weeks back from Whole Foods. Gourmet groceries to be more precise. We cooked spinach linguine (for some reason green pasta looks so appetizing!) with a very sweet, orange Pomodoro sauce and mixed in some steamed chicken seasoned with paprika, onion, garlic, and veggies. Meal of champions. Speaking of delicious foods, let me tell you about the Coffeehouse, or as some call it "the Chouse." It's open Sunday to Thursday from 10 PM to 2 AM; they sell coffee, desserts, burgers, fries, chicken fingers and jalapeno poppers (my favorite). Last night at the Chouse we had two guest chefs, and they cooked Bleu Cheese Burgers and Chicken Teriyaki Bowls. The night was a huge success, the Chouse was packed with people, and the special recipes were delicious. Dining Services plans to continue bringing more guest chefs on a weekly basis.

I was listening to some jams with Dev on Sunday, and we both ended up sharing a lot from our music libraries with each other. I play a lot of house and Spanish music, it's an odd combination, I know. Basically the house music I use to focus when I'm doing work, and the Spanish music is for dancing (Salsa, merengue, and reggaeton all the way, baby). I'm a huge fan of the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, A.R. Rahman is the man, so I asked Dev to share with me some of the popular music they listen to in India. Now I have a huge Bollywood playlist to boast over. I'll share with you my favorite:

I actually recognized this song from an awesome Doritos commercial. Doritos made it huge during the Super Bowl, I think I saw five or six different commercials from them. Watching the Super Bowl at Ricketts was awesome. Our awesome RA from Puerto Rico, Edgardo, ordered 500 wings from Hot Wings for the game. We watched the bowl on the large projector screen we set up in the lounge last term. It was like a big family sitting on the couches almost unanimously cheering for the Colts. Jordan, a loud and proud sophomore from Louisiana, had the "best day of her life."

Now that midterms are over, we get to breathe for a few days. This week has good things in store for us. Interhouse soccer began last night, and it's going to be very popular. We're getting ready to kick some Lloydie butt tonight to avenge our loss to Ruddock last night. The expected outcome is high, we certainly have some ballers in the team. Valentine's Day is this weekend, so I'm going to send cards to family and friends today. I'm also gonna pump some iron later and then start work. Just to keep you up-to-date, we're currently doing orthogonal bases and projections in linear algebra; chemical equilibria in chemistry; and capacitance and dielectrics in physics. Politzer's demo this week is supposed to be a big attraction. 

Well fellers, duty calls! I wish you a great start to your week and we'll talk soon.

These Are Good Times

February is when it's at. This past weekend we had the Batman-themed Lloyd Interhouse (Interhouse is a party that each house throws every year for all the other houses to partake in). This weekend we have midterms and Ricketts Hovse initiations (nothing like balancing work with a little fun); the following weekend we have the Ricketts Interhouse; fast forward another seven days and it's Parent Day Weekend (I can't wait to see you mom and dad), and finally, the last weekend I will also be visited by a loved one. Tell me if that doesn't sound like an eventful month. I should have a lot of pictures from the upcoming weekends.

This past Friday we went to BCD Tofuhouse near Downtown LA. It was an awesome Korean tofuhouse with very generous servings. My inexperience led me to believe that we were supposed to crack and eat raw eggs, but in due time I learned the course of action was actually crack and cook the eggs in the boiling soup. Slowly our list of twenty-four hour operating restaurants increases: Pantry, Canter's Deli, and now the tofuhouse. I'm getting to know you better, LA. On a similar but fancier note, Sunday night we went The Melting Pot in "Old Pas" (Old Pasadena). We enjoyed the cheese fondue, cooking our meats (which made me reminisce about BCD Tofuhouse), and the dark chocolate fondue for dessert. Eating has been great for 2010 thus far.

I started going to the gym last week. I used to do weight training back home, so now I'm picking it up again here. I have to note that it's certainly a different gym experience when you work out at school. In Miami, I went to LA Fitness -- picture yourself in a big commercial gym surrounded by strangers, a large portion of them huge strangers. In the gym at Tech, you know everyone around you, students and faculty. It's kind of funny knowing that you're working out a few feet from your Humanities teacher. And seeing people you know certainly hinders your ability to focus, but it's a good experience overall. A new thing that I've incorporated into my workouts is swimming. Although I have a pool at home, I never really used it, go figure. But now I'm digging the swimming, and it leaves you really tired. I'm going back today for some more.

I have compiled a wish list of things that I would like to have that would enhance my lifestyle and room: external hard drive, 5.1 speaker system, and a monitor. The first one is because I have too much music and I don't want to clog up the space in my mac's hard drive. Second one is to play my music at a higher wattage than the alarm clock/iPod dock we have in the room (although we have hardcore floor speakers in the Hovse's library, it's nice to jam out in the room too). Finally, the last one is just a comfort issue. Aesthetically, our room is doing very well. We have, over time, acquired a futon, an Ikea table, a palm tree, and we keep a clean desk. We also have a nice sculpture by the window, made from the bearings of some of the trees at school, it's called "Fruity Pebbles":

 Until next time.

That Was Then, This Is Now

The Food Representative of our House, Noah, is taking the term off so I asked him if I could sub in his stead -- he said yes. I really enjoy all types of food and discovering healthy and delicious combinations, so I figured I could learn and do more by trying out the food rep position. My first meeting was Monday during lunchtime. The committee consists of the CDS Managers and each House's representative. Basically, we run through the previous week's dinner menu and each House's representative relays the comments of their fellow House members on the taste and provocativeness of each meal. (The fresh oven-baked cookies always get five star reviews.) Once this process is over, the panel is opened for any other suggestions and/or comments. 

Monday's meeting was extended because we had a special guest: Chuck B. Jones of Jones Coffee, a Pasadena based coffee company that roasts its beans locally. Chuck gave us a presentation about his plantation in Guatemala and described the long process that a coffee bean goes through before we drink from the cup. He also explained that acidity and body are inversely proportional, where a light roast has high acidity and low body, and a dark roast vice versa. Then, the coolest part was when we got to try small cups of light, medium, and dark roast coffee and assess the validity of this relationship. It was accurate, and the committee's almost unanimous favorite was the light roast -- coincidentally, the one with the highest caffeine content. The meeting was very fun; talking about food was a great way to detach from all the pending work in the background, and I look forward to more.

Did you know that up until 2001 the estate tax in the US was 55%? And up to last year it had only gone down to 45% . Our Intro to Accounting prof was telling us stories of how this tax has ruined families' finances over time. This year, 2010, the estate tax was repealed (so the rate is 0%), but it is supposed to be reinstated on January 1, 2011 at the full-fledged 55%. So it should be interesting to see to what extent this duty-free year will be taken advantage of. "If you need to buy time you can always fly west to the international date line," joked Prof. Wang.

Yesterday, the House of Admissions hosted the Class of 2013 in our official Freshmen Welcome Lunch. We had gigantic pizzas from Big Mama's & Papa's Pizzeria; they were delicious. This experience was certainly different from our Welcome Dinner in President Chameau's house during Orientation Week. At that point, nobody really knew each other, so the UCC's (Upperclassmen Camp Counselors) had to instigate conversation. I still remember I had met Dev a few days before Welcome Dinner, but that evening I forgot his name; I didn't want to ask him for his name again, so I said, "How do you spell your name again?" So after he spelled it out for me, he followed with "How do you spell your name again?" We laughed, and then recognized we had completely forgotten each others' names. But anyways, although that dinner was relatively quiet and more focused on eating our food, yesterday's lunch was the opposite -- I looked around and saw everyone sitting with their group of friends, laughing and talking while handling pizza. Nothing more casual than that. It was nice to see how over the course of just 14 weeks everyone already looked comfortable and was having a good time socializing.

Tonight is grill night! It's about time for some juicy burgers, today was very heavy on work, but we all succeeded. I'll leave you guys with a picture of one of the murals in Ricketts Hovse:

Cowabunga

Adventures of the Techers

This past Saturday a group of us woke up early to go on a day trip in the Zipcar. Sebastian, an international from Costa Rica, contributed some delicious gallo pinto to our breakfast. (You should really click on that link, it looks so good.) Then we were off the Getty Center, a pre-20th century art museum and research institute. My favorite sighting was Gauguin's Head With Horns; and I was also very pleased to see a piece by Toledo's esteemed El Greco. Aside from their collection, the Getty's modern minimalist architecture is astounding. I will spoil you with three pictures this entry, but I won't expose pictures of the Getty itself as you have to experience it on your own. However, this is the view from one of the Getty's gardens:

After the Getty, we went to Beverly Hills. We walked into Ralph Lauren to look for a nice sport coat, and the cheapest one we found was marked at $4000. Although we couldn't afford any of it, we reassured ourselves that in a few years these expenses would represent change from our pockets. In short, the Hills is a beautiful piece of LA filled with mansions, high-end stores, neat buildings, sporty cars, and very tall palm trees. Check out this bad boy we stumbled upon (From left to right: me, Dev)

 

Next stop: Malibu Beach. This was the first time I touched Pacific waters of the States (the first time was in Acapulco , Mexico -- great vacation spot). We were having a great time walking on the beach until we got too close to shore, underestimating the waves that are home to the surfing titans -- and yes, we got soaked. It was too late to ask the sun to dry us up, however, because he was already waving goodbye:

 

It was a spectacular sunset. I would take on another dozen waves to see that again. And it's a great picture, isn't it? Lan borrowed a Canon SLR from the Caltech Y (So know that this and many other resources are available to you here). After Malibu, we added Payless ShoeSource to our "Places to visit in LA" list and got some dry sneakers and socks. Then we ended up in Westfield Mall on Santa Monica Boulevard, where we enjoyed a fancy dinner at a candlelit Italian restaurant. Finally, we drove around Downtown and in the UCLA campus before heading back to Pasadena. (We decided we will go back to UCLA to meet people and make some friends outside of Tech.)

This week is fun in terms of work. We started DC circuits in physics, vector spaces in math, and kinetic theory in chemistry. We have a quiz due tomorrow night for chem, which I'm very excited to take because it should have a good amount of organic chem on it (my favorite). Politzer's demos this Friday should be very interesting as well. Also, as of last week I started attending ACM95 (Intro to Applied & Computational Mathematics). I'm taking the class next year, but since my schedule allows for some "free time" I decided to get a head start. Now I'm off to get ready for my Intro to Accounting class, so I hope you all have a great start to your week!

Downpour!

It hasn't stopped raining since Monday. It's kind of inconvenient because campus doesn't have drainage so the walkways flood somewhat. But it's definitely fun to get a different taste of campus. Yesterday I was walking back from chemistry lecture when it started to pour. I tried to avoid getting wet, but then my friend Rocio and I just decided to make a run for it. I also went to the Paseo Mall and bought a nice Italian coat for the cold. Today I got soaked again on the way back from chemistry recitation, but it's always great consolation warming up in my alley's shower (the largest shower shower in Ricketts.)

The weekend was awesome. We took the Zipcar out to Santa Monica. We found parking at the Santa Monica Pier and had dinner at Bubba Gump. Afterwards we walked Promenade Street, famous for its shops, white lighting and dinosaur-shaped bushes. Once we covered all of Promenade, we got back in the car for a one hour expedition to Mount Wilson. I had never driven up a mountain before, it was exhilarating. The road meandered so much, and I forced myself not to look to the side until we finally got to the top. We finally reached the peak and parked on a side road; we got out of the car and walked to the edge to admire the view:

This week we're doing vector spaces in math; Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry in chemistry; and electric currents in physics. I actually finished my sets for this week so I have a lot of "free time" for the next few days, which I will need to use wisely. I started reading a book on topology, which I might be interested in doing a SURF on. Also, I now have a plant in my room --  a palm tree! I bought it at IKEA on Monday. It reminds me of South Florida, and it's so big and green that it brings a lot of life into the room. Anyways, I'm off to do some topology reading. For those of you interested, it's called Geometry, Topology and Physics by M. Nakahara. I'll post something interesting from what I read later this week.

Cheers

The Art of Exploration

Wow! This week was awesome. Let's start with Wednesday, when I took a walk around campus with my fellow skurve Chris Estrada. We went to Millikan Library (the tallest building in Pasadena), and first stopped on the fifth floor. The fifth floor and its two neighbors have the nicest layouts, very modern office cubicles. Then we elevated to the top floor (9th) to see the panoramic view of Tech, Pasadena, Downtown LA, and the other surroundings. The timing was perfect, it was sunset. Also, the windows of Millikan have rounded edges, which make you feel like you're looking out of a submarine, very retro. Our last stop in Millikan was the basement, where we found the greatest collection of reference books. There was a star atlas from 1925 that was made in Germany, a collection of volumes of immigrants to the United States, another set of volumes of Facts on File, so many interesting things. I even read some books in Chinese -- well, more like flipped through the pages. It was so strange but fascinating to realize that there are millions of books written in completely different alphabets and characters. The point is, there is so much interesting reading material in just that basement to keep a person from being bored for years and years.

After our adventure, we headed to Kerckhoff, the biology lab. Chris showed me some interesting observations he'd made about the building and its surroundings. Above one of the side entrances to Kerckhoff there is a black stone crab about 4 feet in diameter on the wall. If that doesn't tickle your curiosity then what about this:

 This sculpted slab is hidden in a small walkway behind Kerckhoff. I don't really know why the architects placed that there, but according to Chris it represents the cycle of life, and I think he makes a good point. Let's apply the usual art history analysis: if we start at the inferior right we see some grapes -- fruits represent fertility so this symbolizes birth. Moving clockwise we stop at the bottom left, where a piece is broken. If you look carefully though, you can see that there used to be a hand holding a bowl. This bowl would probably accumulate water, and water is a symbol for life, so this represents our prime years. At the top left we see a rocky texture that looks like a cliff, this may symbolize the hardships that we eventually confront when growing up. Then there's that skull in the middle which represents death, and finally the wings which represent a heaven or afterlife. In the middle there seems to be the shape of a face. If you touch it, you can feel two concavities where the eyes should go. Because it's blank, we think it means that you're supposed to picture yourself (as if it were some sort of mirror) and realize that we all go through this cycle, without exclusion. What stands out to me the most is the skull, it's somewhat scary don't you think? I bet it's the first thing that caught your attention. Because of its appearance and position, I think the intention is to reflect man's fear of death, which has been a central concern since our existence.

Anyways, that was a great excursion we made. I plan to explore campus extensively over the next few weeks and I'll continue sharing with you guys -- but I'll leave some good stuff out for you to find out on your own.

Last night I stayed in to get a head start on my sets for next week. I finished my math set due Tuesday and got a great satisfaction out of it. But then I had the urge to go out. So guess what? I reserved the next available Zipcar, which was from 11pm to 1am, and got my roomate to come for the ride. We ended up going to Beverly Hills and driving around the area -- let me tell you, it was poppin'! Finally we ended up at Canter's Deli, a 24-hour restaurant famous for its hot corned beef. The setup was so awesome. The best way I can describe it is to tell you to picture yourself in the Pulp Fiction. Yeah, great stuff, I know. We got back to tech at 1 and I played some pool before going to bed. This morning Dev woke me up because he had made Indian food for breakfast. A couple of us went to the kitchen to feast on his developing culinary skills.

Well, now I have to go do laundry. But before I go I want to leave you guys with a fun question that out math TA gave us at the beginning of recitation this past Thursday. Here it goes.

Let M be an m x n matrix and I its identity matrix.

If M⁴ + 3M³ - M - 2I = 0, is M invertible?