Mundane NY updates

First off, massive props go out to Dimitri, Ann, and Dr. Carr for their soon to be published paper in Phys. Rev. Letters. (http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0609119) Awesome work guys! :D

Now, as promised, mundane NY updates!

k. This last week has been hella busy. It was the last week before the physics I test (that I have to proctor), so I had tons of students in my office seeking help. I think I helped them ok....

The test is on Tuesday, after which we have to grade them. XD

Most of my classes have been going well. The homework so far hasn't been that difficult, but there is one thing I want to mention. There is a DRASTIC difference in the mood between undergrad and grad school. In undergrad, we had things piling up on us over and over and over and we were constantly doing things and pushing them off the desk to get to the next task. Grad school (so far) isn't like that. Its very studious. You get a problem, and you go look up what people have to say about it. If you don't find anything, you continue searching. Teachers encourage this, they give you paper references and book page numbers and tell you to go look it up.

Now, I've been a professional student for a long time, but this is awesome. The main reason I like this is they FINALLY say to go look at what others have done. You don't have to reinvent the wheel every time you do a problem. You can see how others have done it. BUT, this takes alot more patience, and you have to UNDERSTAND and work through what others have done. But it finally is allowing me to branch out and look at previous work. I've been to the library 6 times so far this week looking up papers. That is probably more times than I was ever at the Mines library.

The Folsom Library at RPI is astonishingly good. When you walk into the first floor its empty, with lots of comfy chairs and blue lights, Its really cool, but you say "where are the books?" The 1st, 3rd, and 4th floors hold the book stacks, and they are HUGE. I was able to find almost everything I was looking for in the library. In addition, they have alot of electronic resources. About half of their collection is electronic.

Over the next week I need to develop my plan of study, which means meeting with my advisor and talking about classes and research. I plan to use this as an opportunity to discover specifics about their research interests.

So throughout the week of helping students and searching the library, I didn't have any time to drink beer. :( But alas, yesterday I picked up some of this:


It was pretty good, kind of high on the alcohol (7%) for me, but I gave it a 3.8 on BA.

A week ago I also tried this, a Euro Pale Lager. 3.45 on BA.


Yesterday morning, the plan was for Amanda, Yuxin, Jiuru, Sam, and Me to go apple picking at an orchard in Altamont (about 45 minutes away). As it turns out, Yuxin, Jiuru, and Sam didn't want to go because it was damp from the rain we had gotten on Friday night :/ So, Amanda and I went, and it was AWESOME. I may have picked apples from an orchard in my life before, but I've never done it in NY in September in the fog and drizzling rain. It was really fun. And as you can see, I'm an awesome apple picker:



After that we went to the Altamont farmers market, which was kickass. I got most of the produce I was planning to buy at Hannaford for about $18 which is dirt cheap. $1 for a dozen organic, farm fresh eggs! SWEET Plus we got half gallong jugs of apple cider and fresh churned butter. It was alot of fun, and I'll actually have food to eat this week. :D

Yesterday evening I broke out the keg and brewed my first batch of beer here, my "Grad School Stout." Its an oatmeal stout with the following recipe:

1.2 lbs Hopped Dark Malt Extract
1.2 lbs Unhopped Brown Malt Extract
1/2 oz Northern Brewer hop pellets
2 cups Oats
3 gallons water


I've concluded that I need a very substantial and heavy beer to get me through the cold New England winters here. I think this stuff will do the trick. I'll let it ferment for 2 weeks (twice as long as normal), and then let it carbonate and condition for 3 weeks, and by that time it'll be freaking COLD here, so it should be nice.

Today I've done nothing. That'll probably change. I want to make my acorn squash bread today, and I have to do some grading.

Next week, something special will be announced. Stay tuned! PEace oUt foos!