Uncooperative Crickets

We finally have two senators! This is great news, and should have been decided in January. This election/re-count has literally occurred in four different seasons. I give Senator Coleman credit - he gave a very nice concession speech.

An article that will help you understand me.

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 10:30 PM 0 comments

Okay, so after thinking and reading about it a bit, I reorganized my favorite players for the NBA draft:

1. Blake Griffin
   
2. Ricky Rubio
   
3. Stephen Curry
   
4. Jonny Flynn
   
5. James Harden
   
6. Tyreke Evans
   

Here is the order that the players were selected:

1. Blake Griffin
   
2. Hasheem Thabeet
   
3. James Harden
   
4. Tyreke Evans
   
5. Ricky Rubio
   
6. Jonny Flynn
   
7. Stephen Curry
   

Recall that the Wolves had the 5th and 6th picks. So we got my 2nd and 4th favorite players. However, notice that the 3rd best player slipped to the 7th pick. I sure wish they would have picked Curry - a Rubio/Curry backcourt would have been awesome (potentially), and Rubio would be happy about coming to Minnesota if they hadn't picked someone who plays the same position as him.

That being said, I think that Flynn has potential, so I could have been more upset.

Skye and I put a fence up around the garden this weekend. It felt like a sense of accomplishment, although I am thinking that maybe it wasn't. I think that I built something independently, but I really didn't. Other people build the chickenwire and the fence posts - Skye and I merely bound them together in a rectangle.

I would feel the same way if I built a house - I may have put it together, but I still used boards that someone else sawed, still used nails that someone else created. I think that I have a need to create something completely from scratch. That's too bad, because I don't have those skilz.

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 9:46 PM 0 comments

The Wolves now have the 5th and 6th picks in the NBA draft. I don't know exactly how I feel about the trade, but I guess it seems like it isn't horrible (I like Mike Miller, and I am glad that he isn't playing for a young team anymore).

Here are the top six picks in the draft: Griffin (obviously the first pick), Rubio, Thabeet, Harden, Curry, and Evans. I am hoping that Rubio and Curry slip to the 5th and 6th picks. And I am PRAYING that Kahn is smart enough to take those two if they fall that far. They are going to end up being the 2nd and 3rd best players in the draft.

I am hoping for two of Eric Maynor, Terrence Williams, DeJuan Blair, or Sam Young with the Wolves two late picks in the first round (especially Maynor if we don't get Rubio).

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 12:21 PM 0 comments

Juno, Maeby, Har Mar Superstar, and Steve Perry all rolled into one!

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 5:48 PM 0 comments

OMFG! President Barack Obama reads my weblog! Hi, Barry!

Skye had the idea of letting part of our lawn run wild, and I was thinking about about using part of it for bamboo. Here are a list of pros and cons for putting in bamboo:

Pros:

1. Bamboo would provide privacy from the road in the back of our house.
   
2. Bamboo grows ridiculously fast, and would be fun to watch.
   
3. I just really like bamboo.
   

Cons:

1. Not native.
   
2. Requires work to keep it from spreading (3 times per year, roughly).
   
3. Costs money.
   

Comments on what I should do are appreciated.

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 12:24 PM 2 comments

I ran four 800 meter runs yesterday without any hamstring issues. Tomorrow will be a tough day - 6 miles at race pace. I guess that I maybe shouldn't look at it this way, since I am going to have to run 26.2 miles at race pace in October.

One of the worst ideas I have heard in some time: train your husband like you would your dog. Please allow me to enumerate:

1. I resent the fact that we are being compared to animals. The implication is that husbands occupy the same place in the house as pets. I love pets, but this is not how I want to be treated.
   
2. As a Swedish friend and I were discussing, a woman training the man to do stuff might actually be bad for the woman. If the woman's goal is to get some sort of a task done, then her "training" the man or ordering him to do it relieves the man of responsibility for the task in some ways.
   
3. If you marry someone, it is naive to think that they are there to do what you want. You are really signing up to live in close proximity to another human being who has its own wants and needs. This husband is not a device to make your life easier - if you want a maid, then maybe you should get a...maid. (Note: I am not advocating that the woman does all of the housework; I am advocating treating husbands like human beings - why not engage them in discussion about division of labor?)
   
4. Skinner may be a "towering figure in psychology," but only because he is historically important. His ideas of behaviorism have fallen away in favor of constructivism. If you write a book that claims to have a psychological basis, you should at least base it on psychology that has been en vogue within the past 50 years.
   

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 5:12 PM 2 comments

I dreamed that I was playing one-on-one with Tsjaz last night. He did one of these:



He wasn't happy when I (incorrectly) compared him to Paulus in the video.

Some conservatives think that Colbert is actually conservative and only pretending to be ironic. (via Mano)

Where is Bad Z going now?

BREAKING NEWS/RUMOR: There are rumored talks between the Timberwolves and the Suns about an Amare Stoudemire for Al Jefferson and the 6th pick. I hatehatehate this. Jefferson has better stats (granted, he played for a worse team), but it seems like they are roughly on the same level, talent-wise (although Amare is definitely better...now). Jefferson is younger. Jefferson is cheaper. Amare only has one year left on his contract, so he would either bolt or require an expensive extension. Both are coming off of injuries, so that is a wash. Neither plays any defense, so that is a wash.

Basically, I would be hesitant to do Amare for Jefferson straight up (Amare is better, but Jefferson is cheaper). But it is the draft choice that really breaks the deal for me. Don't do it, David!

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 9:59 AM 2 comments

I stayed at home trying to toilet train our cat. We just progressed a bit, and we have had some problems. So far today, though, there haven't been problems.

I've had a good day of research, too. I now have a conjecture that I can prove. Here are potential problems:

1. Someone else may have done this already.
   
2. It might not be a big enough result and/or it might be a trivial corollary of a previous theorem.
   
3. I haven't proved it yet.
   

Tomorrow, I test my balky hamstring. I have been running, but slowly. Tomorrow, the plan is to run 800s. We'll see how that goes.

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 4:39 PM 0 comments

Here are two songs that I have been enjoying on The Current:

"This must be it" by Röyksopp:




"Heavy Cross" by The Gossip

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 1:58 PM 0 comments

We celebrated Skye's birthday a tad early last night with the Awesome family. We introduced the units to Japanese food, and Skye and I went to the Cold Stone Creamery afterwards. We decided to get the "Country Time Pink Lemonade" sorbet, since it was the only vegan thing on the menu. Skye asked me: "Does this taste artificial to you?"

If you think about it, this is a really befuddling question. You see, the sorbet tasted almost exactly like Country Time Pink Lemonade. So it did not taste like artificial Country Time Pink Lemonade. This is the answer if your basis for comparison is Country Time Pink Lemonade.

If your basis for comparison is "pink lemonade," then the opposite answer is true, since there's never been anything close to a lemon in it.

I submitted my paper, and I hope that it will be accepted this time. Now I can work on other things.

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 11:31 AM 0 comments

I've been having hamstring problems. I think that I can run slowly, but I can't push myself. I'll try to run 5 miles easy tomorrow. If that goes well, I'll try to do my 11 easy miles on Sunday. I don't have any speed work on my training schedule until Thursday, so I think that I might be able to heal.

I have a draft of my paper that is due on Monday done. I wouldn't be terribly embarrassed to hand it in, although I am not crazy about it. In part, this is because I am not crazy about the suggestions that the referee made (although I can see why he made them - basically, I am probably writing this paper for the wrong journal).

It will be nice to have this paper done - then I can work on a new math problem.

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 12:02 AM 0 comments

A white separatist denounced the shooting at the Holocaust Museum because "it makes [the white separatist community] look bad."

Interesting take. I would have gone with "Because it is wrong to shoot other humans" myself, but that's just me.


Here are some awesome, awesome white kids (via Mano):

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
White in America - The Children
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 10:10 AM 0 comments

Up is down! Down is up! Bill O'Reilly blatantly lies about calling the late Dr. Tiller "Dr. Killer". I would believe that it was not intentional (although, it was an easy slip for him since he used to call him "Dr. Tiller the Baby Killer," so he is still a jerk), but his false outrage over a newspaper pointing this out is unbelievable. I don't believe it. It is unable to be believed.

Also unbelievable: I cannot believe that he is claiming that newspapers are going out of business because they are too liberal. Really, Bill? This is the main problem? The rise of the internet and poor management has less to do with it than the papers being too liberal?

Here is my brilliant idea of the day, foreign relations division: President Obama should make an appearance at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. People loooooooove their soccer, and Obama acknowledging this would go a long way to getting people to like us again.

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 12:14 PM 1 comments

Since I last posted: train trip, conference, friends visiting, and our one-year anniversary.

The train trip was great. The trip to Chicago got to be just a little long, but not bad. Then I got my own bedroom on the sleeper car (it cost extra), and that was fantastic. I want to do that more often. My only complaint was that I didn't get much work done due to the fact that I really enjoyed just looking out the window.

The conference was great, and I saw some old friends. I am now inspired to do math again, but there isn't much to write.

We had a great visit with friends from Boston. They stayed for 6 days, and they never got old. I am sad that we didn't see them more often when we were living in Boston.

We had our one-year anniversary. I slept most of the day, and Skye worked.

Here is an exciting new electric car. After tax credits, it ends up costing somewhere in the $30,000s. This seems like it is getting close to being affordable.

A couple of great weblogs:

1. Mano continues to be extremely thoughtful on torture.
   
2. Tim Gowers is great read for college math instructors. He has a great post explaining what it means to be well-defined.
   

EDIT: Look down the funnel of a tornado!

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 12:09 PM 0 comments