My view from the Math Dept.

Just thought I'd share the view outside my office in downtown Brooklyn. It's a very wet, giant-clump-snowy kind of day. Sounds like a great day for math!

Flower on Display

For Valentine's Day, Alicia and I bought some flowers for the apartment (I bought them for her technically, but she was there helping). The idea was that I wouldn't put all the flowers in a vase. So here's the flower that made its way to my desk area.

The vase I'm using here is actually a glass liquor bottle I bought in Italy. It held lemonchello, a lemon based liquor. I made the mistake of hoarding the liquor (because it was special to me... I did buy it in Italy) instead of enjoying it. Of course, it went bad about a year ago. I would have thought alcohol would hold up for awhile (to be fair, it did stay good for approximately 3 years), but it just stopped tasting like anything worth keeping.

So, just last week, I finally got the courage to empty it down the drain and use the bottle. I think it looks great. Thoughts?

As a side note, splitting up a bouquet of flowers around the apartment is a great idea. Just use some spare drinking glasses. Here's some pictures of the flowers we arranged:

Our Apartment Technology: Television

Over the past few years, Alicia and I have slowly worked up our television system. We've moved through many different solutions, and we are still evolving our system. What we're most proud of is putting computer capabilities onto the computer. Our new flat screen television had this:

That VGA is the input to connect a computer (it's essentially the same thing a computer monitor has). Most laptops come with this:

It's a spot to connect a monitor cable. This is so that you can hook up your computer to a projector when giving presentations. All that was left to fit the pieces together was the cable. Here it is:

The cable is the same on both ends, and it's pretty common (it's just a monitor cable)! Now we can treat the tv as a monitor. What does this mean? Well, first off, we can just sit on the chair and cruise the internet, or do anything you'd do at a regular computer. But we've got a whole lot more.

• We can watch internet television. Hulu.com, Netflix, Youtube... any video that plays on the internet, we can watch on our TV. This is the primary reason we've managed to avoid paying for cable.
• We can use it as a stereo system. We purchased these speakers with wedding money:

The speakers are on either side of the tv

The bass of the system

They are cheap as far as surround system speakers go, but they are high end for computer speakers. As a result, we've got great sound intended only to come out of computers... but it's coming out of our television. Using the laptop, we have access to our entire music catalogue.

• We use our system to watch movies. Occasionally, there's a movie that comes with a digital copy. We download it, put it on the laptop, and we can watch it at a moments notice. Theoretically, we could load all of our DVDs onto the computer and treat our movies like our music. We'd only have to open a file to start any movie in our catalogue. Now, this is technically pirating, since making a copy of a DVD is an unauthorized reproduction. But we wouldn't do this, of course.

What's great is that Alicia's laptop was going unused ever since we built the new computer last year. So we're both happy to be taking advantage of all our technology. If you've got a television with the above port and a spare computer, I can't recommend doing this enough. If you like it, you could get rid of cable and save hundreds of dollars a year!

Two side notes: First, you couldn't see the laptop in the above picture of the speakers. Her laptop is behind the television. Here's the side view:

What's awesome about this is that whatever is currently showing on the television will also be showing on the laptop screen. So when standing in the kitchen, you can still watch whatever's on.

Second, Alicia has since cleaned up this system. She moved the television back, cleaning up the cables and making it look great. But you'll have to come visit us to see it!

Goth Stan on Display

This here's the character Stan from the television show South Park. This guy's actually a bizarre figurine, since it only refers to one specific episode.

In that episode, his girlfriend Wendy breaks up with him. Heart broken, he decides to hang with the goth kids. "In order to hang with us, the non-conformists," they tell him, "you have to dress exactly like us and listen to the same music." So this vinyl figure is Stan dressed up as a "goth." He usually meets the other goth kids at Denny's at midnight and drinks coffee while writing poetry.

I got Goth STan approximately four years ago. My parents bought me a winter hat with The Legend of Zelda's crest on the front. At the time, I didn't really wear anything with stuff on it, so I exchanged the hat for Goth Stan. And here he is! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Brooklyn Streets

You may have read about the screen Alicia and I found out on the streets a few weeks back. Well, that was a rare gem. It's not all great stuff. Here's a different kind of free bonus you can find on the sidewalks of Brooklyn:

Snow day in Brooklyn

We were spared snow over the weekend, but it's coming down hard today. Protip: use flash to really show the snow in your pictures (thanks, Alicia!).

I woke up this morning with classes being canceled at all New York City public schools, but Citytech classes still being held. Their website even had a mean message, "Public Transportation is still running, we suggest you use it, but leave time for delays." Not having class today, I was lazy and went back to bed.

I was woken up at 10:30 by a call from one of the full time faculty at City tech (it's part of the notification program the math department set up). Classes starting or ending after 12pm would be canceled.

So it's a full snow day here in New York City. I'm sitting next to the window right now staring at very heavy snowfall. Unfortunately, it won't stick around: tomorrow we've got forcasted temperatures in the high 30's. So I'll sit here sipping coffee and enjoy it while it lasts.

Tostadas

Over the weekend, I attempted tostadas. Above is the result. Let me just say, I haven't been this proud of an improvised meal in months. This followed no recipe, but was just assembled from memory and taste.

The big new addition to my cooking repertoire is the corn tortilla. Honestly, I hadn't noticed that they were sold uncooked at the grocery store. They were next to the flour tortillas... really, I thought they were all flour tortillas. So I grabbed them and fried them in vegetable oil. They are like chips you get fresh from a restaurant. I've even been frying up some to munch on here and there.

On top of the fresh fried corn tortilla we've got refried beans; chicken that was chopped, cooked, and combined with taco seasoning; lettuce; sour cream; tomatoes; and queso fresco, which is a Mexican cheese we've often seen at restaurants. I fit four of these bad boys in my stomach.

My recommendation is be sure you include the lettuce, sour cream, and a light cheese. The fried corn tortilla, beans and chicken are very heavy. What makes this a great dish is the fresh light ingredients on top. The tomatoes really didn't add anything and I'd skip them next time.

Give it a shot.

Some good advice.

Came across a page on Reddit with a lot of "Pro Tips." Thought I'd pass along some of my favorites.

Technology Tips

F6 highlights your address bar.

Ctrl +Backspace deletes the entire word.

In Super Mario Brothers, the clouds and the bushes are the same:

If you must use PowerPoint, for god's sake, save as, or just rename, your presentation as a PPS file. Then you can open it straight into the player.

Have separate email account for registration on websites.
F2 renames files.

Life Advice

When you're giving a presentation, bring a bottle of water up to the podium. If you find yourself in a spot where you blank, taking a drink will allow you to gather your thoughts. Nobody will be the wiser.

Save 50 bucks from each pay check.

Your local library is probably the most valuable source of knowledge in existence. Visit your local library often.

If your about to puke in a toilet, flush as you feel it coming up. No puke water splashing back in your face. No puke smell. No puke to look at as you continue. Granted you have to be coherent to pull this off.

Keep two wallets: one to leave at home with the bulk of your bills and one to carry with you. Keep only a limited amount of money in your carry-wallet. This should reduce trips to ATMs and stop you from spending more than you normally would.

Salt your food to the point just before you can percieve saltiness.

Never drink or cook with the water from your water heater: water heaters don't get hot enough to sterilize the water. It's basically bacteria incubator and a great way to catch Legionnaire's Disease. Not to mention all the sediment build up at the bottom. Also, that wire mesh filter on your kitchen faucet? You're not cleaning it enough.

Drink a coffee right before taking a nap. The caffeine takes ~35 minutes or so to have an effect, which is as long as you should be napping for anyway. Waking up refreshed and with a caffeine boost is a great feeling.

If you leave it until the last minute, then it only takes a minute.

Update

The Bad News: No job yet. I've sent resumes out in big spurts, but nothing comes back. The worst cases are when I get fraud job offers: they'll want me to shop for them. I'd receive a check, use the money to purchase goods, then send it to them. Eventually, the check would bounce and I would be out any money I spent. It's honestly slowed me down a bit, since I don't send out my resume to every single job anymore. Oh well. I'll keep at it.

The Good News: I've got a backup plan incase the job search stalls. I'm going to try fixing computers. I'm hoping to charge $30 an hour. I've got my stuff together and I've even made a website: www.interrobangbrooklyn.com. The only step left is to put out flyers and hope people contact me.

Why name it interrobang? I think it's a cool - if not rarely used - punctuation mark. I'm hoping the hipsters of my neighborhood will grin and remember me the next time their computer crashes.

I'm sure you'll hear more about Interrobang as business (hopefully) blooms.

The Great News: I'm teaching again. It feels great to be working! What's really great is that I've already been paid. Our first payday for the semester was day one. So before I lifted a finger, I got my check deposited in the bank. Let me just say, it's awesome being paid for doing no work (technically it's future work, but don't be a buzz kill!).

What I'm thinking about: Technology, mostly. Building my website forced me to relearn css (an internet thing) and other web design tricks. Most jobs want programming experience, so I'm trying to find an open source software project to help with. I've also been teaching Alicia to program, and that's proceeding steadily. But mostly, I've been preoccupied with reading about computer repair so that I'm ready to fix any problem a potential customer could have.

What I've enjoyed: Quesadillas. All you do is heat a frying pan, warm the tortilla until it starts to inflate, put cheese on half, fold it in half, then back on the frying pan for another 30 seconds per side. Wow! Easy, delicious, full of possibilities. Wednesday night, I choped onions, garlic, combined them with frozen corn and black beans. This was layered with cheese on the tortillas. The result was a full blown meal. Yummy!