I woke up this morning with the best Idea I’ve had in a long time. In the a physics course I took last semseter, we learned the laws of electrodynamics, which describe electric and magnetic fields. Here they are:
My dream had something to do with me and some other physics majors wearing big hats to some ballet performance. I don’t remember whose ballet performance it was supposed to be but I’m pretty sure it’s connected to one of two girls I know who are or were involved with ballet. In any case, when I woke up I had the best idea – we should get some physics majors to go to a baseball game with maxwell’s laws (they call them Maxwell’s laws even though all he did was fix the last one… lucky bastard…) painted on their chests. At some time, perhaps maybe two innings in, we’d all take off our shirts and start cheering like crazy. The cameras would look at us and everyone would be like ‘what the heck do those guys have on their chests?’ I thought maybe we’d get on sports center or something. The people I shared this idea with seemed to like it. Maybe we’ll have to settle for a xavier basketball game instead of a red’s game, but still I think that’d be really cool. I want to be ?.
We have an ‘easter break’ for a couple of days, and I organized a group of physics/math/cs students to go on a short hiking trip to Caesar’s Creek park. It should be a fun time. I like organizing little groups like that. It’s fun to plan an activity and watch it come together, and then afterwards you have the satisfaction of knowing that you’ve accomplished something that made serveral people happy.
I’ve been doing more of this Abstract Algebra on my own, and I really love it. Right now I’m in the process of working out a proof of LaGrange’s theorem. The cool thing about working out the proofs on your own (the concept was thought up, in much more detail, by this guy named R. L. Moore) is that in the process of trying to figure out how to prove this thing that you’re given, you discover all kinds of other things along the way. I understand what these “group” things are on a level much deeper than I would if I had just copied the proof out of the book and read it untill I understood it. In working on this latest proof I went and looked over a previous theorem that I thought might give me a little insight. I learned this theorem before I started using the “Moore Method” on Anneliese’s advice, and when trying to go over it, I realized that I didn’t understand it nearly as well as I thought I had. I realize now that when you learn things, you can “know” an idea and be able to recite it, without understanding it at all. Unfortunately, our education system seems to prize knowledge much more than understanding.
I’ve known for a while I was going to lose my job. The IT department at AtriCure, a company with 200 employees, consists of one guy working full time, and me, a college student who can put in maybe 16-20 hours a week. They have needed to hire more people for about 8 months now, and back in March the higher-ups finally realized that was the case and decided that they’d fire me, the co-op, and hire someone full time. I was told that when this new guy started, I’d train him and then be out of a job. This was back at the end of februrary; I figured I’d have a job untill mid March or so. I found out yesterday that the new guy starts on Monday, which leads me to believe I will probably be here untill May 1st or so; I lost my job right when school gets out. Maybe I’ll go work at P.F. Changs for a week or so to try and make some cash? The crummy thing about all of this is that the new guy is going to be the Director of IT. This means that Adam, my boss, a guy who’s been with the company for most of its entire existence and works way too much, is now going to be reporting to a ‘new guy’ who he’s going to have to train. Imagine training your own boss. He’s not too happy about it. According to my mom, the same thing has happened to my dad numerous times – they hire some new guy with a buisness degree who doesn’t know crap and put him in charge of someone with technical knowledge but not the buisness savvy / people skills needed to get ahead in the damn buisness world. I’m lucky in that I’m a technically oriented person who also happens to be outgoing and extroverted. Unfortunately, most analytically inclined individuals are introverted and don’t get a lot of recognition. This revelvation of the way things are in the buisness world makes me more inclined to want to be a College Professor.
As much as I had to admit it, this series of events more clearly illustrates to me why so many intellectuals become socialists.
I’ll end on a happy note, though – because I feel great! Pretty much every day since I broke up with Megan, I have a sort of ‘realization’ that it really is over. It’s done. She’s not coming back. I won’t have to be in that situation again. I am free! The thing that I have wanted for so long, the thing I tried to convince myself not to want and tried to tell myself wasn’t really for me is finally mine and it’s much better than I had ever imagined. I am in such a different place than I was a mere 3 months ago, it’s not even funny. I am happy. I smile now.
Oh, and fill out this personality thing on me, please! I want to know what you bastards think of me.
