Bill's Quick Links

Picture:

Snow! (no thumbnail)

New site!

This site has moved to this page on Gridley, a different server here on campus.

This Page May Move Soon!

Owing to my recent interest in PHP, this page will almost certainly be moving soon to a different server to facilitate scripting. This site itself will likely remain, though it will not be updated. If you don't understand what I just wrote, I'll summarize: in a week or two I'll be upgrading the site, so you'll want to update your bookmark for this webpage. I'll have a link to it here.

To give fair warning, I intend to track ip addresses (of computers accessing the site), and the browsers being used. I will be keeping such records solely for the purpose of statistical amusement. They aren't useful for personal identification, because they're not directly identifiable and they're too easily faked. At some point, I'll be looking into encrypting databases, so that this information could be stored in encrypted form.

I have created a GPG key for sending encrypted emails. The public key is available here, and it may be handy to right-click the link and click "Save link as" or whatever the option is. Also, I recommend learning how to use PGP and GPG for secure email.

Beady Yellow Eyes

After six weeks at home, I have returned to Carleton. After a short period of securing my computer, I connected it to the network and started searching for updates. Updating my system for the first time since leaving took about an hour or two, and downloaded 488 MB of software. Some of the software wasn't installed until break, and was from July or so, rather than November.

Last night, as the tempreature fell below 0 (or 32, if you prefer), I decided to go skiing, as I didn't have any academic commitments today. Around 11, I decided not to try going to bed and waking up to ski, and got my skis on. I skied around for a little in the arb, but the snow was on the border between slushy and icy, which didn't make for great skiing. While I was skiing, though, it seemed to be firming up. As I was heading home past the rec. center and Goodhue, I saw something about the size of my cat (with a big fuzzy tail too!) dart across the path. I switched on my headlamp, and saw a pair of beady yellow eyes. After I moved a little to get a better line of sight, I saw that it was a fox! I immediately thought I was an idiot for leaving my camera in my room (vide infra). After standing on the trail looking at it for about 15-20 minutes, mostly with the headlamp on but sometimes off to see the outline of the fox in the ambient light from the town and from Goodhue, I decided it was late and time for bed. I turned and skied away.

I left my camera in my dorm room. In an attempt to take more good pictures, I've decided to document this term with at least one picture a day. Some of them may find their way to my website, and some may not. I don't really know. Well, I'm off with my camera!

A Little Reading

As per Christmas tradition, I have spent this week reading. The two books I've been working on most have been Learning PHP 5 (O'Reilly Press), and Learning the vi Editor (also O'Reilly Press). As you might have inferred, I'm rather excited about them, and am looking forward to getting back to school where I can use what I've been learning more easily. Here at home, my computer sits without internet connection, and I use a flash drive (or write on my home computer) to keep this site updated and so on. However, there are some improvements I'd like to make (i.e. PHP) which require a web server. As I don't know how to set one up securely, I'm not going to mess with it. I'm also trying to set up a database somewhat securely, but it didn't install correctly, and I'm currently working on figuring out how to make it run securely as well.

Also, I've come up with a couple of ideas for programs to make my life easier, and if I had another two weeks of break, I would probably be able to churn one or both of them out. However, I don't have that kind of time, so neither is likely to come to fruition any time soon.

There's one thing about the website move I'm planning that I haven't worked out yet. I expect to host the pictures on my website from this current site. However, I know that I set my browser to only accept first-party images (security thing). I'm thinking that the way I'll organize it is that the thumbnails will reside locally on the new site, but will link to my picture repository here. Suggestions are welcome, as always.

Merry Christmas

Christmas this year was quite delightful, as per tradition and expectations. In the morning, I played SET with my family on my mom's side, and we all seemed to enjoy the game. After brunch with them, we headed home, then off to see my dad's family (both grandparents, all four aunts, all three uncles, and all nine cousins). The gathering was bittersweet, as it is probably the last Christmas gathering we'll have in that house, because my grandparents are seriously considering moving.

Speaking of moving, next Monday I'll be moving back to Carleton for the term (mid March), possibly the remainder of the school year (early June), and possibly the end of summer research (late August). Fortunately, I'll be doing so well equipped, with several new books (including one on PHP and one on LaTeX), an assortment of green teas, and SET. I must say that I'm very much looking forward to seeing my Carleton friends again. That said, I still don't have presents for a few of the Carls on my list, and don't have ideas for S or K (help would be great;).

This coming term, I am going to try to spruce up this webpage a little. I have an idea or two to reveal when I move in, plus one that will possibly come during the term. No guarantees on any major improvements, though, because I'm likely going to have a challenging course load and skiing on top of't. To start a change for the better, I'd recommend that people, particularly college or grad students, check out PhD Comics, a comic strip about grad school. They seem to have just wrapped up their 10 episode (or thereabouts) Christmas special, entitled "A Smithmas Carol."
Merry Christmas!

Happy (belated) Solstice

Yesterday the Northern hemisphere had the shortest daylight it will have of the year. This is not to be confused with the shortest day (23 hours) during the spring where we change our clocks. Today was the day of the Breck Nordic Alumni Sprints and Relays. Unfortunately, there were only 4 alumni in attendance, including myself and one of the coaches. However, we still had a great time skiing, because there's plenty of snow on the ground, and it was groomed nicely. Look for the same thing next year, provided that there's snow.

Recently I've been unhappy with the scope of my studies over break, so I decided to add another computer program to my list of things to learn: SQL (databases), in particular, MySQL. This project was spurred by my dad showing me how "easy" it is to create the address labels for our Christmas cards, and my finding it quite, well, ancient. It has to be done using MS DOS. Then there are some things you have to change to get the fields to show up right, then you can finally put your adresses on the labels. So I'm teaching myself MySQL, and I figure between that and learning C++ and taking another computer science course soon, I should be able to write at least myself a nice mailing list database. That said, most of the "primary" addresses are "300 North College St" etc., but I'd like to make a nice easy program for data entry and manipulation.

Buy Aluminum Stocks

It's time for the tinfoil hats and encryption schemes. A pair of major privacy issues have arisen over the past few days concerning the US government. It seems Big Brother is watching you, but nobody's overseeing Big Brother. The New York Times reported recently (free registration required) that the NSA has been, for the last 4 years or so, monitoring the phone calls and emails of American citizens, without judicial oversight (i.e. a warrant). A short while later, it turns out that a student in a university class on totalitarian governments checked out a copy of Mao's Little Red Book on inter-library loan, and a short while later the department of homeland security decided to have a chat with him. This is not how a free society operates. This is how a radical, paranoid, oppressive regime comes to power.

Yes, it would seem that the current administration believes itself to be above the moral standards they preached shortly before the election. Gone is the compassionate, freedom-loving platform that got them elected, the American people gave them, to quote Dick Cheney, "political capital", and they've been deficit spending it! This is simply wrong. The administration is doing whatever it likes, yet congress is pussy-footing around their own duty to hold these criminals accountable for their actions. The fox has been into, the hen-house, and as he's coming out, we're asking if he's eaten anything; when he says he hasn't we just let him pass. It's time for this to stop.

Here's something to think about: according to this administration, it's morally wrong for two people of the same sex to be married. We can't have that happening, it defiles us too much. However, we can torture, treat inhumanely, and degrade prisoners detainees indefinitely, without trial or charge, and American citizens may be spied upon without judicial oversight. These latter are somehow morally acceptable. What is the justification for this? Because America's the leader of the free world? Because it helps our own security? To bring religion back into the picture, what intelligent God wouldn't find this behavior utterly offensive?

No, this is entirely indefensible. As the leader of the free world, it is America's duty to show complete adherence to all due process, to act with justice even when we are angry or scared. It is the duty of the President, of the Congress, and of the Supreme Court to uphold the constitution even in the face of danger. If, as Condoleeza Rice alleges, the indication of terrorist behavior by the people on the NSA list is clear, there should be no problem getting a warrant and going about the surveillance through due process. There is no need great enough to justify taking away the rights granted to the citizens of the United States of America in the first ten amendments to the Constitution.

And Another Related Rant

President Bush is very much into "staying the course." So here's an instance where he would actually do well to follow his philosophy: years ago, some patriotic man set aside a vast land in the Alaskan wilderness to preserve for generations to come. Yet Presdent Bush wants to back down from this firm stance. If he does, the wilderness will certainly not have won. Keeping the Alaskan wilderness pristine would be a great way to show his ability to stay the course with something, and if he has to deploy troops there to defend it from the freedom-hating oil companies, that's okay. So go ahead, Mr. President, stay the course in Alaska.

Christmas Bird Count

Today my aunt Janet, Mary Savina (a Carleton geology prof.), and I embarked on the Christmas Bird Count, based in Faribault. We were surveying a section including most of the Carleton campus, including the arboretum, along with the areas east, south, and a little on the west bank of the river. Not a whole lot of surprises, though we did see a common goldeneye and three eagles. Around noon, we had lunch with some of the other groups from the area at another Carleton person's home, where we heard that one of the other groups found a shrike.

After lunch, being in Northfield and not having any plans for the afternoon, I decided to go skiing in the arb. It was a very good idea, too. Anticipating something of the sort, I had brought my boots and skis and such with me when I went to Northfield. Tracks are set in the lower arb, with a loop running from the entrance, along the river, through the woods, and along the edge of the prairie. After the first loop, I was quite warm, having dressed warmly for the morning, and having overestimated how cold it was outside. I took a second loop, which felt really good, and then headed home. The trails are in great shape, and I think I'll be heading back down sometime this week.

Skiing, Parts II and III

Skiing is amazing. There's enough snow for me to classic (which is both the better and my preferred technique). Of course, it does require more snow, more wax, and there's an art to selecting the right wax. I have lost my touch at the latter. Despite a historical trend to do fairly well at guessing the right wax, I outright missed today. However, I can blame some of it on the skis, as they flex too much because I was a bit lighter when I bought them in 8th grade. I skied around Lake of the Isles, where people had engaged in one of my huge pet peeves: walking on or otherwise obliterating the classic tracks. It didn't help that while I was skating this morning, someone else was classicing, and went right over some of my skate tracks. I had tried very hard not to obliterate the tracks, as I am very annoyed when they get obliterated, especially if I'm planning to use them later.

After skiing around the lake early this afternoon, I went home and decided to make like ski camp and eat something before going and skiing with the team. I didn't know quite what to expect from Wirth park, because sometimes they groom the trail during the day if there's lots of snow, but usually they don't. Was there going to be a classic track for me? My eventual answer was "I don't care, I like classic enough anyway, and I've already been skiing without groomed trails this afternoon." They didn't, which made me somewhat sad. They had rolled a skate path, but the falling and drifting snow had made it hard to distinguish from the surrounding snow. Overall, it was a good day of skiing. Tonight the groomers at Wirth (and elsewhere) have a great opportunity to set excellent classic tracks, as the snow is already fairly dense and quite wet. They should be able to put the tracks in while the snow is still a little wet, and it will freeze overnight and be in great shape tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning, I will likely be going to Como Park to teach my cousin Greg how to ski. In the afternoon, I think I'll have to go to Wirth and celebrate the classic tracks, and maybe teach some of the Breck kids how to classic, because the snow hasn't been good enough for classic technique really since my sophomore year (if not earlier). So that's the excitement around here. Tomorrow the good skis come out!

Skiing, Part I

Well, I've already been out skiing for 1.5-2 hours. I skied down to the lakes (I love it when I can do that), and around Lake of the Isles a couple times. During the first time around, a photographer from the Star Tribune was out taking pictures of people (me) enjoying the snow (skiing). The snow has been great, as it is nice and thick and wet. However, the going is rather slow in some places around the lake because the snow is so deep that it's hard to ski through. I think I'm done skating for the day, but there's easily enough to classic on after lunch, with more snow in the forecast. This will be the first real classic skiing I'll have done since graduating from Breck, and it was sophomore year, I think, when I last did a lot of good classic practice. For lunch, of course, will be grilled cheese sandwiches. Quite possibly some green tea, too. Then it'll be back out to kick some wax.

Over the last couple days, I haven't been doing much. I've been working on a LaTeX editor called Winefish. It's written in C++, and I've been having a good time poking through it trying to figure out what's going on. I've managed to find a few bugs, to work some out, and to add some functionality to the program. I incorporated BibTeX support (for citations and bibliographies), which was on the project TODO list. I also wrote a small command library in XML (eXtensible Markup Language) with useful commands and templates. So I've moved the project from not compiling to not running to crashing when you use the table wizard to crashing when you use the table wizard but having more features before it crashes. =D

4" and Falling

During the night, we got the first bit of snow that's expected from this storm over the week. Since last night, we picked up 4" (10 cm) of snow, and it continues to fall. This makes me rather happy, as the forecast calls for colder temperatures this weekend, rather than 60s. Throughout the snowfall, I will periodically be checking depth and such, possibly taking pictures too. I have the first picture taken, but the camera is out of batteries and needs to be charged before I can upload the picture. But for comparison, the snow is a bit deeper than a tennis ball. Anyway, I bet you can guess what I'm off to do (hint: it's outside, and doesn't involve shoveling).

Excitement Has Arrived

Tomorrow is a big day. Not only does Fiana give her senior speech at Breck--introduced by former ski team captain Drew Dormanen--but it's also the first ski race of the season for the Breck team. Drew and I, being the supportive fans (and on-break college students) that we are, we will be attending both events. Anyone foolishly thinking the race would be a mundane experience is advised to reconsider quickly, so as to avoid psychological damage from the almost unprecedented amount of support for a nordic ski event.

Today has not been without excitement, though. This morning, I went to Breck and gave some pointers to the Research class after editing a bunch of papers over the last couple days. Good luck to all of them getting the changes made and polished before the deadline of Friday. After class, I had a long discussion first with Lois Fruen, the director of the science research program, and then with her and a pair of technology coordinators discussing what chemistry drawing software the school could get so that research students didn't have to deal with that on their own. We also discussed looking into using TeX or LaTeX to write the research papers in the future, as the documents look nicer than their Word equivalents (plus they're free and open-format, either ASCII or PDF). The meeting gave me an idea for a project over break (because I need another one of them), one that I've even had before--that of converting an HTML or general text-editor into a LaTeX or TeX editor.

Having the source on hand for said Bluefish editor, I looked through it this afternoon: it's going to be quite the undertaking. Programmers are often taught to avoid spaghetti code. Unfortunately, with large, complex programs, it's hard to avoid efficiently. The good news is, the editor I want to modify has C code hilighting, so it's at least somewhat easier to read. The bad news is, just about everything I find is just a function calling something else, located I'm-not-sure-quite-where doing I'm-not-quite-sure-what-but-I-think-I-might-have-an-idea. I'm also considering taking up a slightly harder load, and trying to work off of someone else's base for the same idea--the issue being that theirs doesn't load at the moment, and I haven't seen much action toward a new release (or even a bugfix). Well, I'm off to relax with a little Crime and Punishment.

Apropos of Dry Snow

Although I am writing before going online and checking, the server migration should be complete. If the space problem that existed before the move still exists, there may be continuing issues preventing me from updating, but that should be the only barrier.

Recently the Twin Cities area got a bit of snow, to the tune of 2-4" of mostly dry fluff. I skied Thursday and Friday at Wirth Park with the Breck ski team, and there was mostly enough snow, although it was a little thin in a few places. Much of the fluff came Saturday, though, so it's hard to tell without having been there whether it helped or not. I expect the snow helps some, but as it was very dry (and it remains quite cold), it isn't likely to set up quickly. But the point is we have enough snow to ski on.

On Saturday I went to Birchbark Books to pick up my copy of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (Coulson trans.), and I have started reading it. It is indeed as good as I remember, if not better. So far I'm through the first 50 pages or so (I didn't read much yesterday), but the evening is yet young, and I will likely get farther in. In case you were wondering, the title for this post came from Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground; "Apropos of Wet Snow" is the title of the second section of the work (also a good read).

Yesterday evening I went to the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra concert, because my mother is in Detroit, so we had an extra ticket. Evidently it was Carleton night at the SPCO. During intermission, I saw Debbie, a junior who lives downstairs (then upstairs, and downstairs again)in Faculty Club. As we were heading to our seats, I saw Carmen, a senior who I had as a writing assistant last year, and who joined me and some friends for dinner or lunch at Burton once this last term. Carmen may have been sitting with other Carls, but I couldn't tell, and didn't recognize them from the distance. On my way out, I saw Andrew Young, a senior chem major also on the Nordic Ski team. The concert was pretty good too, especially the Mozart 5th violin concerto.

Edit: It was the 5th violin concerto, not the 4th.

Server Whonkiness

Well, the server has been acting up (or full) for the last few days, so I have been unable to update my webpage. A word of warning, the servers will all be down this weekend because our data center is physically moving. There's a chance it'll be back up Sunday evening or Monday, but don't count on it for a couple days. Along with that, my email will be down as well.

In other news, it's Sarah Russell's birthday today, and also the print publication date of our article! Happy Birthday Sarah!

Book Review: White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky

I apologize for this review being a little late in coming, but I've been busy studying C++ and LaTeX (computer stuff). Also, weird things may happen to the posts because I don't have my wonderful Bluefish HTML editor. That said, on to the review! Dostoevsky's short story White Nights is excellent. Our usual depressed protagonist walks around thinking to himself, and being amusing and depressing at the same time. The story takes place in Petersburg during the 19th century when "every respectable man is leaving for the country." Dostoevsky's characters are very deep and complex, as are their thoughts. As far as being tragic or comedic, White Nights tends toward the former, though the latter is certainly evident. Beyond that, it's really indescribable without doing a huge injustice to it, so I leave it at that. 'Tis good. At only 60 pages long, it's a short read too.

Back Home

I came home Monday evening, unpacked my computer, and realized I'd be heading back to Carleton Tuesday morning. I managed to forget my keyboard and mouse on the tray of my desk, and without a spare available at home, I had to get them. Luckily, I live close and I had left with time to go back and get them, and pick up the popcorn while I was at it. I lose points, though, for not bringing my bike up as long as I had a mostly-empty car.

In the afternoon, I was lucky enough to get a haircut when I had only gone to make an appointment. I really needed it after 10 weeks. After that, I went to a bookstore and ordered the Coulson translation of Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, because as far as I've seen, that's the best translation available. The evening, lacking a Wild hockey game, was consumed mostly by playing Starcraft. So addicting.

Today was not only the day before Thanksgiving, but also Grandparents' (and special friends') day at Breck. That usually translates into recent-alumni homecoming, because we're almost all home for turkey and stuffing and such, and find a little time to go see teachers and friends. As parking is a chronic problem with Grandparents' day, I figured the closest place I would likely find a parking spot was in my own driveway, so I walked the four or five miles each way. I should've broght a backpack with my nice shoes and worn running shoes there, because it's a long trek in nice (not padded much) shoes.

While I was at Breck I lobbied Mr. Moos, my AP English teacher, to have students read Dostoevsky's White Nights instead of Notes From Underground, partly because it's half the length, and partly because it's just as good and easier to follow. We also discussed what sonnets he should give his AP students for their exam, and I suggested Shakespeare. <sarcasm>Funny</sarcasm>. I found a couple of cool old books on the shelves in his room, including two by a dead German poet by the name of Johann Cristoph Friedrich von Schiller. One was in English (I forget which title), and Wilhelm Tell was in German, though it had a vocabulary list at the back, and possibly some grammar notes. Also of note were tomes of Spenser (think Faerie Queene) and Milton (Paradise Lost), which are both very good. Oh, Don Quixote was there in two volumes as well.

Also of note at Breck was the news I heard from the Research coordinator Lois Fruen, who is very excited about this year's class. Having read the current research brochure, I can see why: this is yet another year with a great group of projects. Several of them are even chemistry projects, so I will probably end up giving those people a lot of help. For reference, they should go to a library such as the U of M and take a look at ACS Publications and search for the author "Mitchell" and title "Lactide" to find a nicely-written (or co-written) article. That is available online through Carleton, for anyone who has a Carleton user account (Katie).

Tonight I did something I haven't done in a very, very long time: watched a Wild hockey game. It was really good, though the Wild didn't play a very good second period, and they ended up losing in the closing minute and a half of the third. Still, it was really exciting, and I'm glad they're on TV and that I have time to watch them and functioning cable.

To sum up, here's my recommended reading for break:

• Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment
• Dostoevsky's White Nights
• Any other Dostoevsky, really; it's all good stuff.
• Schiller's Wilhelm Tell
• Schiller. I haven't read any non-Wilhelm Tell works, but if people get into a brawl over him these many years later, it can't be that bad.
• Tolkein's Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion
• Adams' Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• De Cervantes' Don Quixote
• The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

33%

I've now finished the first 33% of my Carleton career. I finished off the last exam yesterday, and it feels really good to be done. The snow melted a couple days ago, which was depressing--just like the food has been in the dining hall the last few days. People have already started leaving campus, and later today I will be leaving myself.

PRIMAL SCREEEEEAAAAAAAMMMMMM!

I love Carleton! There's something magical about the entire campus going outside the night before exams begin and yelling as loudly as they can. It's a great stress relief too, although my finals are shaping up nicely and I don't expect too much trouble tomorrow. No late night anything for me (late night breakfast served by the administration is available in the dining hall) because I'm going to bed so I'll be ready to go for two exams tomorrow: orgo at 8:30 and music at 3:30.

For those of you off campus, here's the transcript of the Primal Scream. [Everyone on campus]: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

xsnow

For anyone running Linux, I'm reminded there is an application called xsnow which you may be interested in.

From the Carleton Nordic Ski Website:

* SNOW! *

Look What I Did This Summer

For anyone on campus (or at most major academic institutions), see what I was up to this summer. For everyone else, you'll have to wait for one of the December issues of Macromolecules to come to your "local" library.

A Few Things That Make Me Happy

I have three items of news today, all of which make me quite happy. The first is that my cousin Greg has just switched to Linux, and specifically Ubuntu. Way to go Gregl.

I thought that to help Greg along with learning Linux, I'd install Ubuntu as well, and so I am currently downloading the CD for it. This brings me to happiness number two: 1.03 MB/s download speed from UMN. Thank you very much, you wonderful fat fiber-optic cable between Carleton and UMN. The Ubuntu cd image (642 MB) downloaded in 8-10 minutes. That's really, really fast.

As for the third thing, it's supposed to snow tomorrow! Yay snow!

I Love My House

Hello 9th weekend! And quiet houses are amazing. Because I can get sleep at night. With exams starting in just under a week (8:30 Saturday morning), things have gotten rather busy around here. This weekend involves a major music paper, a bunch of orgo, and a bit of linguistics reading before studystudystudy for all three exams.

In other news, Sony has really opened a can of worms with their "Digital Rights Management" (DRM) software, which is more like "Digital Rights Removal" software. If you're running Windows, this would be a good time to look into Linux. Best of all, with Linux, you can easily run Hangman which I have created. And Michelle thinks it's very fun indeed.

I have just gone online and downloaded a copy of my recently released paper in Macromolecules. It looks nice. It is expected out in one of the December issues of the journal, and I'll order a copy of it when it comes out.

Voting

Could we please vote the Kansas Board of Education out of the gene pool! They're a threat to our intelligence operations related to the War on Ignorance. If evolution is just a theory, Intelligent Design is blind faith. I was glad to see, however, that Pennsylvania removed all 8 school board members who approved Intelligent Design.

While we're at it, here's a quote from President Bush (I found the quote on the BBC News website): "We do not torture and therefore we're working with Congress to make sure that as we go forward, we make it more possible to do our job[.]" President Bush, there are alternate ways of bringing "terrorists" to justice that do not involve torture, and those ways should also be presented to the CIA and DoD. If you're such a God-fearing person, why do you lie to your country, torture your neighbors, and covet your neighbors' oil? As the Commendatore once said to Don Giovanni, "Repent!"

Now that I have that out of my system for the next 30 minutes, I should remark that after some improvements to my dictionary script and some new material, my dictionary is now up to 3283 words, which is twice the size it was only a couple days ago; most new words are longer, too.

Now Playing

Both Mastermind and Hangman are online now. Email me for directions on how to use them.

Coming Soon

Exams are coming up soon, and to prevent people from getting overly stressed, I have made an account on my computer where games I've programmed are available. So far the list is only Hangman, but Mastermind will be added once I find it again. I have it somewhere, but not on the hard drive currently.

So, along those lines, if you have SSH and X11 (Linux, Mac, or PC with Cygwin), you can play Hangman. When Hangman is available, it will be available for SSH (no Cygwin required for PCs). If you're on campus and need SSH for your PC, you can find it here. To use this service, you'll need username and password information (and probably a quick tutorial on SSH), which you can get by emailing me.

I suppose I should write a little bit about Hangman. Hangman is my final project from CS117 last spring. It is for 1 or 2 players. In 1-player mode, the program selects a 5-or-more letter word at random from the dictionary file. This is a growing dictionary file. I have a script that takes the words I use in a variety of sources (this webpage, papers, etc.) and creates a dictionary from that. It discards anything with capitalization or attached punctuation (i.e. MPIRG and "etc.)"). I have a list of exceptions that will not be added to the dictionary even though they may be lower-case only (orgo, kinda). The dictionary currently has 1605 words (any size), but the game only uses 5-or-more letter words.

Edit

Hangman is now online and is ready for use. It even works from the Mudd computer lab.

Happy Halloween! ^o^

Happy Halloween! To anyone who made today special, yay for you! For the many people here at Carleton who didn't do anything today (i.e. dressed as "college students"), you should be ashamed. I expected more from the Carleton student body.

Kenora Forestry Plan Response

This morning I had a response from Matt Wilkie (edited for formatting purposes, phone number omitted), and I am satisfied with it. I have no further objections to the forestry plan.

In other news, I had a relatively spontaneous trip to the cities on Tuesday evening. Monday afternoon, I got an email from Gretchen, my research advisor, to our lab group asking if we were interested in going to the American Chemical Society meeting on Tuesday at St. Thomas, because the speaker was one of the people we reference in our paper. He also is at a school where my lab partners may be applying for grad school, so it would be advantageous for them to meet him. Sarah Russell and I both decided to go, even though we had a lot of work to do, this being 7th week of a 10 week term.

He was a very good speaker, and seems to be a very good chemist (or else really, really lucky). He talked about making plastics from bio-renewable feedstocks similar to the one we use, but also he incorporated carbon dioxide into the polymer. The awesomeness of the chemistry was compounded (no pun intended, but it's kinda neat) because in my organic chemistry class we had just the day before discussed very similar compounds and the chemistry that happens with them. The talk was wonderful, but I was disappointed that I only saw one now-former Hamline prof. It seems she's now teaching at Century College (somewhere in the cities).

Overall it was a great trip, and I was very glad to have gone. I came back home, went to bed, and was able to finish the entirety of my homework the next morning.

Kenora Forestry Plan

Tonight I sent my questions and editorial comments about the Kenora Forest Management Plan to the contact in Kenora. A copy of my letter is available, as is the forest management plan (note the latter is a link to the official website, not a mirror). My father pointed out something which I did not catch, but probably could have objected to: I don't remember reading anything about their planting any red or white pine to replenish the forests they "harvest." However, I've already spent as much time as I can afford at this time in the term dealing with the parts I dealt with. I have a suspicion that the public comment period ends very soon, as the 60 day period began Sept. 6. I should add (though it's probably too late) that if you're reading over either my letter or more significantly the forest management plan, please don't print it out. Save the trees.

Tomorrow you can expect some reflections on my trip up to the cities Tuesday evening, but for now, my pillow is calling.

Happy Mole Day

Happy Mole Day. Today I will be celebrating in no particular way, other than wearing a mole day button and doing two days worth of orgo homework.

I spent most of yesterday reading over the proposed Kenora Forest Management Plan for the next few years, and it was actually much better than I had been expecting. I read (skimmed) all of its 244 pages of glory. It is most certainly thorough. I came up with only a few issues with it. The first was just a unit error (i.e. annual rainfall is not 52 mm, but 52 mm per month or 637 mm per year). The main problem I had was that in Figure 49, they list the number of clearings in each size category, of 50 ha intervals up to 250+, along with how much total area those cuts will take. Strangely, several of the categories take much more area than if all the clearings were the maximum size in that category. If you would like to see a draft of the plan and have slow internet, forget it (6.5 MB). If you have good internet, go to www.kenorafmp.org to get a copy. Be warned, it's huge. I'm currently working on a draft of an email that I'm going to send to the logging company's contact person trying to clear up some of the fuzzy math. But in the mean time, happy mole day!

Survey

Recently I have been having a hard time gauging the readership of this webpage. As there are some features I intend to add for Carleton students (on-campus only, sorry), I'd like to know how much interest there is in them. So, if you're reading this and are a Carleton student send me an email telling me you read this website; if you are interested in trying out my version of Mastermind (a logic game, Mac, Linux or SSH required) that I had at the end of last year but that nobody played, please say "I'd like to play mastermind" in your email. If you're not my family and not going to Carleton, please send me an email.

Edit: If you are interested in protecting Osprey and other wildlife from clearcutting, read the Kenora Forest Management Plan and tell the lumber company to stay away from nesting osprey.

Excited State

Yes, recently I transitioned to an excited state. I found out today that I survived the linguistics midterm rather well, which is good going into another on Friday. Speaking of Friday, one of the reasons I'm excited is that I'll be going to Katie Barton's a capella concert after my poster session in the afternoon. It should be fun. I just finished editing the poster for the last time, and tomorrow morning Sarah Russell will be taking it to Printing and Mailing to be printed.

I also had a dinner discussion evolve into quite an adventure tonight. As Carl Rubiin, Michelle Deeter, and I were eating dinner with people from 2nd Watson (my adopted floor), and somehow the Queen of the Night aria came up. We all wondered how high it actually went, and because Carl is a music major and I'm in a music class, we decided to take a walk after dinner over to the music hall to check out the score. I should note at this point that Michelle is in one of the a capella groups singing on Friday. Anyway, we go to the music hall and check out all three vocal scores (piano acc.) to Magic Flute. Up to the third floor practice rooms we went, and found that Die Konigen der Nacht hits a high F several times. That's at the very edge of my violin range. So Carl started trying to learn the piano accompaniment to the interesting part, and Michelle started looking over the music too. Meanwhile, I was poking around trying to figure out how to play the left-hand part on the piano (and failing).

But we had a lot of fun going through all this, and Michelle was able to manage some of the passages really well and she has a stunningly large range (two full octaves, and evidently some above that). Oh, and another thing we found is that I can hit a low E, along with an Eb. D is wishful thinking, but close. I'm rather amused, though, that the "standard" bass range only goes down to around an A or a G. Well, I think it's time to try to quench my excited state with a blanket.

Runnin' o'th'Cows

Today was the second annual "Running of the Cows" here at Carleton, in the city of cows, colleges, and contentment. Said running consists of a 5K women's varsity cross-country race, followed by a 5K open race. The top 25 finishers in each race get a t-shirt.

I showed up behind the rec center a little early, because I know a bunch of the cross-country people and wanted to cheer them on. When I signed up, there were already 16 people registered. That number swelled to 52 by the start of the race. We had an absolutely gorgeous morning for running, with clear skies and a temperature right around 50 degrees (F). The varsity team did really well, winning the meet. Then they started the open race. At the start I had a lot of room to maneuver, because they had put a cow statue in one of the start lanes, and I started next to it. I held with a fast-breaking pack for a little while, then calmed down into my stride. I passed the first mile mark at 6:45 (rather quick).

Being familiar with the course helped me pace myself, and I ran a very lonely race from mile 1 to mile 2. There was nobody in sight in front, and I couldn't hear anyone behind (there wasn't cheering behind either). At mile 2, however, the trail emerges onto the frisbee fields again, and I saw the guy ahead of me. I passed the 2 mile mark with a time around 14:30. I was getting tired, but I could see the guy ahead of me was too. I didn't know of anything going on behind me. I had to assume somebody had me in their sights like I had this other guy in mine. He was still far off, though, and I had to hope that I would have enough energy and enough ground to be able to catch him. Around the 2.6 mile mark, the trail splits between the first loop and the finishing cutoff.

He was only about 15 yards ahead when I reached the split. I could see it was going to be close. I knew I should have walked that part of the course yesterday. I kept closing in, though. Then, as we came to one of the final hills, he broke rule 2 of running: never look back. It wasn't even "just a glance," it was a full look. I met his gaze of fear and despair with one of assertion. He knew I would catch him. I knew he wouldn't be able to hang on as I went past. It made me work that much harder. I emerged onto the Hill of Three Oaks, but couldn't bring myself to run any harder. It had been hard to catch up, and even harder to pass with assertion. As I came down the hill to the fields, I finally opened up my sprint to the finish, and came in with a time of 22:(14?). I wasn't really paying attention. I finished 13th.

So now I have a Running of the Cows t-shirt, and because I was one of the slower tall guys, I got a large shirt because I got called up first. I beat my time from last year, which is good because last year it was unbearably hot. I think I'll celebrate by going to bed early or something.

Last night, having relatively little that I wanted to do, I decided to go see Katie Barton's a capella concert. Actually, it was a concert by all the Carleton a capella groups (seven in total). First was Exit 69 (coed, pop music), followed by the Knights (all-male, pop music, celebrating 50 years since their founding), Nightshade (a new group that does acoustic a capella, including some renaissancy stuff), the Accidentals (all-women, popular music, including the wonderful Katie Barton), The Knightengales (all women, popular), the A Capelicans (a new co-ed group, with uncommon repertoire), and Intertwining Melodies (co-ed, tending toward hip-hop). Overall it was a great concert, and Katie had a wonderful debut with the 'Dentals. A few of her adoring fans even managed to track her down after she snuck out early to go home.

Poster Session

This Friday (the 21st) is the Carleton all-science and math poster session in Hulings (biology building) from 3:30-4:45 (time has changed). I invite anyone who reads this (even from Ecuador) to come, though I guess it'd be a long commute from Quito. It should be good. I spent a while this afternoon working on my poster, then had Sarah (Russell) look over the changes (her family is here for family weekend).

For those of you wondering, our server has been having issues. I currently don't have acces to webmail or my webpage (aside from accessing the file from the network drive). Sorry for the inconvenience, but it's beyond my control.

Tired

It's almost 8:30 PM, and I think I'm about to go to bed. I've only done a little work today, but I went running, and I'm quite tired. I think I haven't been getting enough sleep recently, though I've been trying. I'm just doing too much. At least the midterms are over for now.

There's a lot going on, but it tends to be in a homework-class-lab-work-eat-sleep pattern. Hopefully I can break out of it at some time. *goes away and returns again.* My window was open this afternoon, and into this evening. Apparently, the dial on my radiator is temperature-sensative, so when it gets too cold, it turns on automatically, even if the radiator is set to off. It's still quite warm in my room, but the cold air coming through would have passed right over the radiator thermostat. Whoever designed that as a "feature" probably works for Microsoft. To turn that radiator on would probably mean moving my bed elsewhere, and the room layout would be much worse (the bike would have to go home permanently). This radiator needs to stay off. I should go to bed.

First Midterms Coming Up

I had a significant amount of spare time this weekend owing to the pair of midterms I have comng up on Wednesday. Among the things I did this weekend were several walks in the arb, watching Conan the Barbarian--a bad movie that's really funny with enough sarcastic people around--and seeing my family briefly on Sunday. Oh, and I have half an apple pie, which I intend to have finished by tonight. If more free time pops up, I intend to start writing an article for the Observer or the Carletonian about why people shouldn't support MPIRG. In other news, my freezer was working last I checked (yesterday evening).

With so much going on this term--classes, PE, research, and 10 hours of work per week--I don't really have the time to keep this page up to date like I did last year. I'll try, but free time being as hard to come by as 'tis, I may want to do other things with't when I find it.