The Brood

My mother came out to visit us over Memorial weekend, and took a lot of pictures. Here’s the whole flock of Beitian progeny in one picture (while waiting for a train to go downtown):

what a handsome bunch of hoodlums.

Politics, ugh….

With the up and coming (perhaps over) debates (I pay no attention to these matters) I am reminded of why I hate American politics. You see, I am a special interest group. Unfortunately, my special interest group consists of (as my count goes so far) only one. My candidate (for any office) would be Catholic, [...]

Ascension Thursday

Yesterday I went to mass for Ascension Thursday. Of course, it was an evening mass, since I work; it was at seven p.m. I didn’t expect there to be a lot of people there, but I was a little surprised to count (OCD) less that fifty adults. I understand some people probably went to mass [...]

Problems and Perspective

Interestingly, linear equations with either real or imaginary parts can be perfectly mapped into matrices. Sometimes this makes the equations easier to solve, or to show that there is no solution. In fact, with the form of the matrix being determined, and with the basic elementary transformations of matrices, whether or not there is an [...]

More fun with the Natives

Lately, I have been trying to find new and different ways to irritate my co-workers. Since the computers where I work run on windows, and the control panels are not password protected or anything, one could, if one were so inclined, change the screen savers. Yesterday, before I left, I changed it to the “marquee” [...]

Disturbing the Natives

I noticed today at work that if you apply a multiplier to a common unit of measurement (if your multiplier is sufficiently obscure) then you can confuse the hell out of them. For example, today I used the phrase “giga-ounce”. Any computer nerd, or anyone with any mathematical sense, knows that a giga- refers to [...]

New Post Category!

I added a new category to my posting, because I have been so frustrated at work lately.
It all started when I decided to start working to pay my bills. I know, stupid me. But having kids and such like makes income a little more important than other things, like personal fulfillment. So I work a [...]

5-5-7

I really like cinco de Mayo. It is the one day a year I remind myself why I only drink tequila one day a year.

Determinism in the Clockwork Universe

In classical (Newtonian) physics, the underlying philosophical assumption is that with the initial state given (positions, motions and masses) all future events would be entirely determined. We could also follow that logic in reverse to see all past events as well. Classically speaking, this would pose a difficult situation for ‘free will’. It almost reminds [...]

Happy Feast Day

Happy feast day, Saint Athinasius. We really appreciate you saving Christendom from the Aryan heresy.
[at least until Calvin and the Unitarians]