Recent paper from Maldacena

I noticed today the latest paper from Juan Maldacena:

arxiv:0803.1467

Maybe I will take a look at it later.

Sun.maid today

Today’s message reads:

Support your local library. Take a book to lunch.

Well, I already did my part. I went to the library and got a book on NMR to read and understand what the hell is exactly going on in my last experiment of the semester. Soon…

It hit the fan

The shit hit the fan and then it sort of went away. On Tuesday I got a notice about the unavailability of teaching during the coming summer. This meant I was not going to have funding support. I felt horrible and stupid. It should have been more obvious to me, but I ignored it. Many students interested in theory were admitted last fall, and that meant most of those students needed summer support. Positions being a bit scarce, the first year students get priority. This equals some of the second year students not getting to teach.

I felt worried. It is not like I could not survive the summer, I have some savings. What made me most sad was the thought of not seeing my family during this summer. My brothers are finishing high school and starting college and I feel I should spent some time with them.

Yesterday I got an email with an offer for a teaching position. I should be more happy. Part of me is happy, the part that worries about money and stuff. But I was actually looking forward to not have any external responsibilities during the summer and just work on my own stuff. I accepted the position, but I need to wait until Monday to make it official. Alright, I am not going to be such a prick. I have master grading lab reports in less than an hour, so grading is not going to take that much time. I guess this summer classes meet like three days a week. During the rest of the time I should work on research and prepare for that oral exam.

Today’s Sun.maid message

This time the box read:

Happiness is an inside job.

I guess this means that external objects or things will not make me truly happy. It all reduces to whether I want to be happy or not.

Don’t want to do it

I really feel like not doing anything tonight. Yesterday was so productive though. I worked on the poster I have to present for graduate lab and I believe it is 99.9999% done. Today I was planning on working on my biophysics paper and then I remembered the mid-lab report due tomorrow. So I tried reading some material on my current experiment on NMR to catch up, but it is so boring!

I should do something though. I have to grade tomorrow and work on my QFT problem set that is due on Thursday. This week is going to be pretty busy: I have to teach the last lab of the spring semester and I also have to make-up some lost time at the graduate laboratory.

I have been feeling a bit worried since I realized that the TAing position I was counting on during this summer might not happened after all. Without that I do not know what funding I can count off that would allow me to work on my research and prepare for my oral exam at the end of the summer or the beginning of the fall. But worrying will not solve much. I guess I have to wait and see…

Statistical Mechanics Summer Program

Last week I registered on classes for the fall 2008 semester. Currently I am taking the string theory class, a mathematical methods class and the course on advanced statistical mechanics. Honestly, I know nothing about statistical mechanics. Last year I had a course on it, but I learned very little. It was basically lack of interest, but now I know some quantum field theory and I find “stat-mech” very attractive. And I am also looking forward to learning from professor Robert Shrock.

To catch up I plan to go through Pathria’s book during this summer. Merideth is going to tag along since she also needs to study for her quals.

When you hope for the worst and are wrong

Yesterday night I learned the grade of my second lab report. I got an A. Now, I should be happy. Well, I am. But honestly, I thought all my work was bullshit.

I emailed the professor today to make sure it was not a mistake. He said it was a good report. Oh well, I guess it is true. I was so worried! Seriously, I thought the professor was going to fail me, that he was going to think it was some sort of joke. But he thought it was good. I decided to choose this as my experiment for the poster. Speaking of which, I have been learning how to create posters with LaTex. It looks like it is not that bad, so I am going to give it a chance. Maybe later I might post the end result.

Restroom lights

Today I realized there are an awful lot of lights in the D level of the physics building here in Stony Brook. This level has many big windows, and perfect illumination (natural!) comes through them. Alas, the lights are on. This is sad, since now during the summer we get like 12 hours of daylight. What is the fuss with daylight savings anyway? In my humble opinion this lights should be killed during the day, as soon as the sun comes out.

Sadly I do not know where the switch is. And if I find the switch, you never know if they have to be on by state law or something. The one switch I know of is the one in the men’s restroom. Every single time I go to this room (about four times a day since I drink a lot of water; about a liter during lunch and dinner) I find the lights on. I gladly turn the off, only to find them on again a while later. This is so annoying. I mean, who needs so much lightning in the restroom? It is perfectly bright in there without the lights on! People still cannot see where the urinals are and piss on the floor. And people cannot see where the trash can is and they drop papers on the floor. OK, people go and read articles or newspapers while struggling to unload themselves (they are loud). Then, dear male friend, turn the lights on, do your thing and then turn them off. Have a bit of consideration for the impending energy crisis that is behind the corner. Of haven’t you noticed that oil is more expensive, (reaching “record highs”) every day that passes?

Today is Earth day, by the way.

Tips for the traveler

I have realized how good I’ve become regarding traveling between Stony Brook and New Haven. Here are some tips:

• When you arrive at Union Station to catch a train, the first thing you should do when you go through the doors is look at the big panel to check what is the track number for your train. After that you can go and get your ticket or just head to the track platform.
• I usually buy a roundtrip ticket. It allows me to skip this step in New Haven on my return to Bridgeport. Sometimes I get lucky and my ticket is not checked on my way to New Haven. Then I can use my roundtrip for an extra trip.
• Catching the train in Bridgeport (when going to New Haven) is a bit annoying. When the ferry is approaching the dock, head downstairs to stand in line to un-board the ferry. This might take some time. Walking from the ferry dock to the train station and getting a ticket might take about 5 minutes. As I walk to the train station, I usually look at the train tracks to make sure the train is not coming yet. When you get off the ferry, walk as quickly as possible.
• The train to New Haven is on the ferry side in Bridgeport! Same goes for the trains that go to Boston or Rhode Island.
• When you take the train in New Haven to Bridgeport, get on the first few cars of the train. This way you will get off right by the stairs, and this will save some time. The platform is quite long…
• If you take the Suffolk County bus to the Port Jefferson Ferry dock, wait until it passes the McDonald’s to signal the driver. There is a bus stop right across the ferry dock! Some people get off earlier and have to walk a considerable amount of distance. If you are tight on time, this is not a good idea.
• On Sundays, the Suffolk County buses do not have service. I usually walk to the train station to catch the train back to Stony Brook. Make sure that you have a ticket before boarding this train. The train crew do not check tickets most of the time, but you do not want to take the chance: on the platform the ticket is $2.50, while onboard it is about $7.00. I have been traveling most of this semester with the same ticket.
• Another annoying fact about the Suffolk County buses is that they stop running quite early, so I always try to return to Port Jefferson before 5 or 6 PM.

The total cost for the roundtrip is about $40. Traveling to New Haven is way easier than traveling to Wellesley in Massachusetts. For that the cheapest way is with the popular “Chinatown bus”. I’ve never used it, instead I used the Greyhound/Peter Pan. Just make sure you enter the coupon code for the NYC/South Station route, but sadly I forgot this code.

Google Scholar is awesome

I have just discovered the most wonderful thing: Google Scholar can be set to display a link to import the bibliographical information to BibTex. This feature can be enabled in the preferences page.

I basically wasted some time on my bibliography today, but it is alright. Good job Google!