The Whirlwind Continues

I just gave a 15 minute presentation in my GR class. It went fine even though I was stressing over it as I always stress about public speaking events.

That leaves 3 projects left before finals. On May 3rd I have to turn in my final homework assignment for ISM (which could take quite awhile) as well as a 10-15 page paper based on the presentation I just gave today. Then the next day I have to turn in the final homework assignment for GR. Word on the street is that this homework is looking pretty tough.

And, tonight I'm driving to Phoenix to fly to Oakland to ride with Tiffany to San Francisco, where I will spend the majority of the weekend. It will be really nice to be back with Tiff and in the bay area as well. Unfortunately, I'm probably going to have to spend a few hours working on the ISM homework and the paper for GR.

The end of the semester is a very difficult time.

Moustache Update

Here it is: pictures of my awesome moustache!

So I'm watching 24, and maybe it's just me, but it's really starting to get silly. Maybe it's always been silly, I dunno. How many times does Jack Bauer have to be right before people follow his lead unquestioningly?

Last night I came in 3rd place out of 15 or so people in a poker tournament with some friends. I was playing really well for most of the night and then made a semi-bluff at the wrong time and lost almost all of my chips. Still, it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed myself (plus I took home a tidy $11 profit).

It's Downright Cold Today

Anything below 70 degrees in the desert towards the end of April has to be described by terms like frosty and frigid. Well, firefox tells me it's 68 degrees outside today in Tucson. That's a bit of a shocker. Not only that, but it's cloudy outside and threatening to rain. A nice change of pace for me, but a major irritation for my roommate, who's going to the MMT to observe (clouds, evidently) tonight.

Cultured

Last night (Friday night, that is) I went to see Saint Matthew's Passion at the U of A performance center. I went mostly because a few of my friends were singing in the choir, but I also figured it is good if I do some kind of "culture" thing every now and then. I was excited to be there at the beginning. You know, doing the whole cultural thing. And in fact, I made it through the whole first act without getting bored or restless at all. But then at about the two hour mark I hit a wall. I started getting fidgety and really wanting to do something more active. I remembered why it is that I don't go to these cultural things all that often. It ended up going for three hours, so that last hour was pretty tough.

One thing that helped me stay focused was watching for good 'bible words' that don't ordinarily appear in conversations. Stuff like bewail.

So Much To Post, So Little Time

To celebrate the longest period of inactivity on my weblog since I started it, I figured I would make a post.

Anyway, what do I have for you... First off, it is my pleasure to present All You Ever Wanted To Know About Jackson Hays in addition to All You Ever Wanted To Know About Bess Jankowski! Yes, that's right, a two for one! And AE's will soon be in the email system, once I get my act together.

Next, here's more pictures of my facial hair (can't call it a beard with any kind of straight face). Moustache day is tomorrow! I'm going to bring my camera to work so I can take pictures of my friends at Steward who are also growing moustaches.

The past week has been spent almost entirely on schoolwork. I gave a 12 minute presentation in my Interstellar Medium (ISM) class on Tuesday, then spent the next two days desperately trying to finish two problem sets for the same class due on Thursday. I managed to get it done, but not without the cost of missing frisbee, which really sucked. Being couped up in the office Wednesday night when I could have been playing ultimate really really sucked.

I did get a chance on Tuesday evening to play softball though. Our team lost it's third straight game, so we're 0-3 now. I'm not going to take the blame for this one though, since we gave up nine runs in the first inning and never were really in it; they just hit the ball well.

On Wednesday, my fantasy basketball team wrapped up the championship. This was remarkable since it was my first fantasy championship in any of the sports. I led by a wide margin most of the season, but my lead shrank down to two points in the last week. I was worried, but my team managed to hold it together just enough.

The pressure from school isn't about to let up either, with a big presentation in GR lurking a week from today. After that I go to the bay area for a weekend. When I return I'll have three homework sets due on May 3rd as well as a 10 page paper on the same topic as my GR presentation. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to survive.

Me and My Moustache

Here you go: http://gallery.bigwhoop.org/bussmann%24050413

Oh yeah, I also finally uploaded a bunch of other galleries.

Bedtime!

At 4am, it's finally time to go home. On the bright side, we have all seven pixels in Desertstar in operational condition (at least at room temperature, anyway). Crazy shit tends to happen when they get cooled down to 4K, so who knows. But we accomplished a lot tonight, so it was worth it.

Softball Wrap-Up

I'm sitting here in the lab while others are doing work to give you an all-exclusive report on the softball game I played in tonight with my team, the Ultraviolet Catastrophe. It turns out our team lost the game, unfortunately. However, we were hanging in there through four innings with a two run lead. Then, in the 5th inning (I think it was the 5th), everything fell apart. With one out and a runner on first, I fielded a ball to my right cleanly. With plenty of time to throw the runner out, I made a horrible through that rolled into right field. Sadly, this allowed the baserunner to score and the hitter to get to third base. The following player proceeded to hit a homerun, and we never recovered.

Yeah, I made some good throws on relays and some other good defensive plays (including a double play on a ground ball hit up the middle), but if I make that play in the 5th inning, the whole game could have changed. Oh well. Our team is 0-2 now, despite being in it for both games. Maybe things will get better next week.

Wild Man

I think the lesson we can all learn from my last post is that if you ask a vague, unclear question, you'll get a bunch of random answers.

In other news, I and some friends of mine have decided to grow moustaches over the course of the next two weeks. Since I know nothing about maintaining facial hair, my strategy will be the "Wild Man: No razor needed" approach. I figure it shouldn't be too hard to turn a beard into a moustache. No matter what happens, it should be exciting [and ugly].

In Hopes of Learning About You

Here is a simple thought experiment, designed primarily to gauge your demeanor and approach to arguments (and anything else you choose to divulge).

Someone walks up to you and says 'Three plus three is four.' What is your response?
a) I disagree. I believe that three plus three is six.
b) No, you're wrong. Three plus three is six.

Here is another simple little thought experiment.

Someone walks up to you and says 'We should allow people to carry automatic rifles and such in bars, so that if we meet people we don't like we will be able to show them who is boss.' What is your response?
a) I disagree. It seems to me that alcohol and guns should not mix.
b) No, that is a disastrous idea. Alcohol and guns do not mix.

And one final thought experiment.

Someone walks up to you and says 'God does not exist.' Your response?
a) I disagree. I believe that God does exist.
b) No, you're wrong. God does exist.

And, for the athiests out there....

Someone walks up to you and says 'God exists.' Your response?
a) I disagree. I believe that God does not exist.
b) No, you're wrong. God does not exist.

Productive Sunday Morning

I went through all (well almost all) my finances this morning. Exciting stuff eh?? As a treat to you, my loyal reader, I will provide the following graphic showing various data on the gas mileage of my car, the 2004 Ford Focus LX. The average gas mileage of 29 with a 1-sigma uncertainty of 3 is right about where you'd expect, given the manufacturer's specs (26 mpg / 35 mpg for city/highway) and the fact that I do most of my driving around the city. I've driven a total of about 6000 miles on the car after 8 months. About 2700 of that was driving San Jose - Tucson - San Jose - Tucson.

Jeffra Bussmann, The Card Shark

I played poker with friends of mine from LPL tonight. The twist was that my sister is here in town visiting me, so she came along too. This was her first time ever playing poker, so I was just hoping she'd have a good time. Little did I know that she herself would deal me the crippling blow that effectively knocked me out of the tournament!!

There were 10 players still in the game. Jeffra was in the big blind and I was on the button. I raised with AK to double the big blind. The small blind folded and I expected my sister to do the same. But she called. The flop came AA2 and Jeffra checked. I figured, 'ok, I've got her beat, so I'll bet her all-in so she won't have to even think about calling'. And then she called (whoops)! She turned over A10 and I felt an odd sensation of being happy that I was in good position but sad about potentially knocking her out of the tournament. But that feeling didn't last long, as a 10 came on the turn, giving her a full house! The last card was a blank and she took home the pot. I was left with only a tiny amount of chips left. Incidentally, on the very next hand I went all-in with AJ. Again, I was initially happy because the guy who called me had A10. But what do you know, a 10 comes on the flop and I'm done.

I didn't mind it though. Getting a bad beat like that doesn't bother me because I know I played it as well as I could. And I was happy that my sister did pretty well. She ended up finishing sixth out of 12 people, which isn't too bad for a rookie!