indescribable
i bet you thought i’d quit this blogging. well you may still be right. i have some things to say though.
i finished my senior thesis.
i’m really happy with it. you can find it here. it’s a mathematical analysis of voting power and fairness in the Electoral College, as well as voting systems in general. it’s pretty readable; if you don’t like math just skip the proofs (really just read the end of chapter 3 for all the conclusions/discussion). it probably is the best thing i’ve ever produced.
i have some plans:
start learning Arabic this summer. this will hopefully be at UW Madison or Beloit, which both have intensive programs. i also applied to american universities in Cairo and Beirut, but Beirut is looking very iffy and I got wait-listed at Cairo (but they’re reusing my app for the next fall).
this August I’ll be at Pomona helping again with Orientation Adventure, and leading a freshman trip, probably Canoeing on the Colorado River, which’ll kick lots of ass. I’ll also get paid to scout that out this spring, though that will make my last month here busier cuz it’s a really complicated trip (hence the pay, i suppose).
finish school:
all i have left is 1 easy distribution class, but i’ve only done 7 semesters and i feel entitled to another. there’s a bunch of classes i wanna take. unfortunately, only 2 of them are offered next fall, they’re at the same time, and one of them has a visiting prof who may suck (our prof is doing a sabbatical). those are Environmental Geo and Statistics. another class I really want to take, and may well be important to my career/future (if i do grad school, it’ll be in this subject), is only being offered in the spring. that’s Operations Research (it’ll be linear programming and an intro to game theory, and the prof is really good).
so i’m thinking of taking fall off and finishing in the spring. i’ll probly continue arabic in the fall, but the location for that is anyone’s guess (Cairo would be sweet, but i may try to stay in socal and do some kind of math or job work at the same time). my advisor’s interested in working more on my thesis with me and trying to publish a paper based on it, which is multo bene if you wanna be a mathematician or just be badass in general. man, not being in college is gonna open up a lot of time/possibilities.
in other good news, the product my brother’s been working on was featured on CSI (that show on CBS) and they gave a shout-out to his company (3rdTech) in it. check out his blog for the excitement.
also, my sister-in-law (fresh out of pharm school this spring) got a job in Corvalis. so there’s another excuse for me to do mountain biking this summer/fall and visit northwestern folks if I get a chance. (if I have time between Arabic in Wisconsin and being back in SoCal for OA I’ll definitely drive through.)
And, finally, my mom’s in San Diego for a conference this weekend so hopefully I’ll go visit her Sunday.
todo (in order of importance):
- sleep
- see my friends
- process otl finances
- otl hiring for next year
- otl photo contest?
- catch up in classes (midterm due Mon)
- in May: drink every day, starting with senior week; do lots of mountain biking; maybe do that canoe trip; re-visit the Channel Islands (spring break kayaking there was awesome); learn to dirt-bike; help prep for OA; and generally do everything that’s fun and nothing not fun.
peace