So, this is supposed to tell you about me. I'll try to add more stuff later and maybe organize things better, but in the meantime this is a decent summary of my interests. I make no apology for any triteness, since you're probably bored if you're reading this in the first place.
Science.
- Math: naturally I like math, otherwise I wouldn't have majored in it. I talk a little more about what I'm doing with math in my resume.
- Physics: Pepperdine doesn't currently have a physics major, but I took all the physics classes I could when I was a student there. It's such an interesting subject, and together with my studies in math it has changed my views on some things. I used to think that anything could be explained to laypeople: just translate from science-talk to everyday English and remove the excess complexity. But after digging into general relativity on my own, I have no idea how to begin to explain tensors (or even vector fields) to anyone without at least some background in math. My idea may still possible, but I certainly won't be the one to do it.
- Chemistry: a very generous professor is allowing me to sit in on her first-year chemistry courses, so I get to go to lecture, do homework and take the exams without having to go through the registrar's office. It's an amazing and beautiful subject, and so far it's driven home to me how much even our basic science depends on quantum theory and relativity. It's not at all true that we would still have most of our ideas of the world intact if we were to scrap modern physics.
- Biology: I used to spend a lot more time studying this, but over the past couple of months I've only kept track of the political debate over evolution in schools. My own view is that biological evolution (as biologists use the term) really isn't very credible until you spend some serious time studying geology and population genetics, at which point it's an unavoidable conclusion. In any case, I hope that biologists will be allowed to continue to decide what constitutes biology (this is the principle that holds in every other subject taught anywhere). The debate over evolution has made me very thankful that potentially controversial topics in mathematics like the Incompleteness Theorem are safely hidden behind a few years of introductory courses.
Philosophy.
This is a dangerous thing to list as an interest, since the term is used in so many different ways that it almost doesn't communicate any more. My particular slant is an interest in reading historically significant philosophers, and literature more generally. General issues like epistemology and ontology are also interesting.
Drama.
I hadn't acted since high school, but I was able to play a role in the Fall 2002 Cognitive Dissonance student theater festival. It reminded me of how much I miss the dramatic environment; there's nothing like the camaraderie between cast and crew and directors in a small production. It was such an enjoyable experience.
I also had a small speaking part in Pepperdine's Songfest 2003 with the Faculty/Staff/Alumni group. That was a lot of fun too!
I don't have immediate plans to pursue drama further, but I'm keeping my eyes open.
Writing.
I'm not a professional or even an amateur writer, but I like to dabble occasionally, beyond what I'm required to do for my research.
- Here's a copy of what I've done so far with my current research project; you'll have to rename the file extension from .txt to .tex and run it through a TeX reader, then you'll need a DVI viewer.
- This is a random essay, still somewhat in progress, on the value of video and computer games.
- Here is another essay I wrote, this one on evolution that sort of rambles into talking about bad apologetics...oh well. Maybe I'll revise it at some point.
- And this is the current draft of my 120+ page parody screenplay crossover between Fellowship of the Ring, Star Wars, Red Dwarf, and The Tenth Kingdom. It is not ever intended to be published, and yes, I know the dialogue needs tightening and the formatting needs help, but that'll have to wait until it's finished. Notice the stuff in brackets? That's what I haven't written yet!
- This is who I'm voting for in the California recall election...not really...
- This is a list of science fiction I recommend...like everything else, this is in progress too.
Enjoy, but please don't distribute these!
Japanese Manga and Anime.
Put simply, "Manga" is Japanese printed comics, and "Anime" is Japanese animation.
The Japanese have an immense comics industry, though relatively few are known in the United States. The manga (e.g. Akira, Silent Mobius) are essentially novels in graphic form, and were around in Japan way before Dark Knight Returns made graphic novels popular in the United States.
Just about everyone has heard of a couple of anime series--Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh and DragonBallZ are the most popular with kids, although most anime (like the manga) is targeted toward adults. They don't necessarily have adult content, but complex plots and themes that probably only adults will appreciate. The novelty of finding deep plots and characters in a comic book is really quite refreshing.
Languages.
I studied New Testament Greek to satisfy my foreign language requirement, and in my spare time I'm trying to pick up Arabic. It has a beautiful scripted alphabet.
Here are a few fun language links:
- Learn Elvish from Lord of the Rings. It's not widely known that Tolkien created the languages of Middle-Earth before writing the stories, so in a sense this stuff is foundational to understanding that particular universe.
- Some people are frightened to find that there is an actual Klingon language. It was designed by an actual linguist, Mark Okrand (who is also the fellow who designed the Atlantean language in Disney's Atlantis). In addition to dictionaries, there are also a few works of Shakespeare available in Klingon.
- Omniglot is an excellent resource for learning about the writing systems of most world languages.
Online Comics.
I've taken a fancy to a few comics that are published exclusively online that I read every day: Nukees, set in UC Berkeley's Nuclear Engineering department; Sinfest is an amusing work that draws on the manga drawing style; and Oh My Gods is a sometimes irreverent comic from the perspective of a group of pagans in modern society.
Keenspot is a collection of popular online comic strips, and it's a neat place to spend an hour or two on a lazy afternoon.
Video games.
I don't have much time to play these days, but I still have a modest Diablo 2 BattleNet character (Qal-Nos, a level 41 Necromancer) that I open often enough to keep alive. I also used to play SoulCalibur back when I was living with Soup and he had a Dreamcast. Go Cervantes!
My favorites, though, were the old Sierra adventure games--King's Quest, Space Quest, and Quest for Glory. This genre died for a while, although there are rumors that Sierra is making a new Space Quest, with a possible King's Quest in the works. (LSL and QFG seem to be tabled, though.)
I'm also a fan of the old text-only adventure games (Adventure, the Zork family).
Then of course there's Progress Quest, the game that plays itself. I guarantee that you'll either love it or hate it!
Miscellaneous things about me
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