All oriented

The last of the orientations is done... alot of the review sessions weren't all that helpful. Perhaps in future years they can do an elementary review week one for folks entering the department without a Math/Stat degree, and then put the more advanced material in week 2.

Classes start Monday and I think I'm as ready as I'm going to get. I've got my books, reloaded the school supplies, etc.

I'm still not quite able to ride all the way to campus. The ride that seems pretty flat until the last bit in a car turns out to be a very gradual uphill the entire way. After a couple of miles uphill, even on a gradual grade, my thighs feel like they're going to burn completely off. I've reached a compromise... taking my bike to campus on the bus, then riding home. *Downhill* all the way, now that's an easy ride. The route I take is about 3.5 miles and it usually takes me a little over 20 minutes, including time spent waiting at stoplights and such.

I finally hauled my lazy rear end down to the DMV today. They don't seem to want to accept my married name without a marriage license, even though I've explained to them that in Pennsylvania it's entirely legal to get married without a piece of paper. I'll have to go back in with all the myriad records (Penn. DMV, Social Security, Student Loans, etc.) all of whom accepted my married name. The CA DMV was even perfectly willing to put my married name on the vehicle registration, but not on the driver's license. Ugh.

For once, one of those annoying flyers left on our door was actually useful... it seems California has a low-cost insurance program for low income people. We qualify, since we're below 250% of the poverty level. I'm going to a meeting on Sunday to find out how to sign up... if all goes well it will cut our insurance bill by more than 50%.

Weather is still absolutely gorgeous... the mornings are getting a little foggier and the evenings are a little cooler.

Big news in the math world in the last week as the Fields Medals were announced. There are medals awarded in 4 mathematicalstatistical categories every 4 years. It's often comapared to the Nobel Prize in terms of prestige, though the Fields has 2 significant differences from the Nobels... the aforementioned 4 years between awards, and that the medals are awarded for outstanding work done before the age of 40. No "lifetime achievement" type awards here.... The *really* big news on the Fields Medals this year is that, for the first time ever, someone declined one. Grigori Perelman of Russia, who is believed to have proved the Poincare Conjecture, claimed that he feels distanced from the mathematical community and has no desire to be its figurehead. He's a loner... if he was trying to avoid reknown and publicity, he got far more notice by declining than he ever would have by accepting. The Poincare Conjecture was one of the "great unsolveds" of the math world... statements that a widely believed to be true, and haven't been shown as false, but that remained without formal proof. Some time ago the Clay Mathematics Institute put bounties on the proofs of these "great unknowns". Perelman's proof of Poincare has been reviewed and seems to be correct, and now there's a 2-year clock ticking; if no one finds a flaw in the proof in that time, then he'll be eligible for a one million dollar bounty. Yep, one MILLION dollars for proving a mathematical (topological, actually) theorem. However, he's also said that he wants to part of that. Wow.

Hitting the office jackpot

We got assigned our offices yesterday morning. The grad student offices are 3-person affairs, and I share mine with a fourth-year PhD student and a post-Doc. The post-Doc will be leaving in a month, so I guess it'll be two of us in there.

Evans Hall is approximately square... The north, south, and east sides all sport lovely views of the buildings adjacent. The west side, however, looks out across campus, then the Bay, with San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge off in the distance. It's pretty easy to guess which side of the building is considered prime office territory. My digs? West side all the way. =) Obviously not everyone can have an office on that side, but I somehow got lucky.

The A's game was fun, although I left after the 7th inning. I was seated next to two fellows who had just arrived from India the day before. I spent most of the game explaining what was going on. :p I think I did okay, although I had some trouble explaining a balk and why Oakland scored a run even though the ball wasn't in play. (Pitcher balked, runner who happened to be on 3rd got a free base...)

I'm feeling very low on sleep and am looking forward to the weekend when I can sleep in a bit. :)

Orientation: Day 1 of 8

Today was my first day actually inside the Statistics Department, as we started 8 days of orientations today. Today wasn't terribly exciting... a couple of review sessions on stuff we learned as undergrads. Most of the orientation days will be more of the same, with occasional talks by faculty describing their current research, etc.

We're going as a group to the A's game tomorrow night. It'll make for a seriously long day, but should be fun. I haven't been to a baseball game in several years.... I think the last time I went to a game was during the inaugural season of PNC Park back in da 'burgh.

Mike now has health insurance (yay!) at a much lower rate than we were paying in Pittsburgh (double yay!). He's still locating good primary care doctors and specialists and such, but it's a relief to have coverage on him again. My insurance through school kicked in today as well, so that's a happy thing to. We don't have to pay anything for that coverage (triple yay!)

I'm not entirely sure yet how many 1st year PhD students there are. There were about a dozen people in orientation this morning, but that included some master's students and some Biostat folks as well. I'm guessing 7-8 of the folks there are Stats PhDs... there may be some more folks joining us later as they arrive in the Bay Area. Some of the university owned housing doesn't open until later this week, so some students haven't come yet. Others are here and staying in hotels or on other people's couches until their housing becomes available.

Beyond the Bay...

Yesterday Mike and I went on a bit of an adventure. Mike has a friend who lives in Petaluma, CA, a mere 37.4 miles from our humble abode. He was free yesterday afternoon, so we piled into the car for the short-ish drive up there. Petaluma sits in a valley, and was thus a good 15 degrees warmer than Albany. We had a good time, but couldn't go out much 'cos it was too too hot.

I got registered for classes yesterday morning before our adventure. I have to take 3 classes, while most of my fellow first years only have to take 2. This is the tradeoff for me not having to take on teaching or research responsibilities for the first two years. This term's fun-filled schedule includes Probability Theory, Statistical Methods: Theory and Application, and Statistical Computing.

If 3 "real" classes seems to much of a load, I have the option of taking "seminar" as a class instead. There are several different weekly seminars hosted by the department, and if I agree to attend a certain number, then I get course credits. However, that seemed to me like a serious cop-out. I've been given a pretty sweet fellowship, and I may as well take advantage of the opportunity to get in some extra coursework. If I play my cards right, I could have the classroom portion of my studies done during the first two years, and then need only worry about research and dissertation after that.

Orientation starts on Tuesday, so I think the next day or two will involve the last of the running around I need to do before I get bogged down in coursework: changing my driver's license and the car's registration, reloading the school supplies, etc. Mainly drudgery, but necessary drudgery.

Oh, exciting note: My former local group, Western Pennsylvania Mensa, was just selected to host the 2009 Annual Gathering, which is Mensa's national convention. Contract negotiations are underway with the William Penn Hotel downtown to be the main site. I'll likely help out in some capacity, though the organizers of AG09 want to get AG06 (currently underway in Orlando) in the books and then start making committee assignments.

Statistics on CNN.com!

Whee, mean vs. median are discussed today on CNN.com. Yes, those good old measures of central tendency that you learn in the first week or two of introductory statistics. They don't discuss the third major measure of central tendency, the mode, but that's okay.

Shake, rattle and roll

Well, mostly a little bit of shake, not so much in the rattle and roll department. A couple of nights ago we had a 4.something quake here in the Bay Area. It hit around 8:08 pm, right as Mike and I were camped on the couch watching the Daily Show. I noticed it, Mike didn't. 4. is relative small, it feels kind of like when a big truck rumbles past a small house... a bit of vibration, that's about it. I don't think any major damage occurred anywhere.

We now have pretty much all of our stuff. The car arrived this morning, yay! I made a run to Target to get bookshelves and a step ladder, the lack of which had been preventing us from fully unpacking. I've just finished construction on some elCheapo bookshelves and once I catch my breath I'll start unloading books.

So far, much to my amazement, absolutely nothing is broken from the move. All the dishes and glassware made it through okay. I haven't cracked open all of the boxes yet, but the ones still sealed are largely books, board games, and other tough-to-break items.

Mike's dad was in town on business and was able to have dinner with us on Tuesday. We went to Venus which is rapidly becoming Mike and I's favorite restaurant in the area. The use local organic/sustainable foods and prepare them extremely well. This was our first dinner there and we weren't disappointed. We've been there before for breakfast... french toast made with challah bread is YUMMY.

Mike is off at Radio Shack getting some speaker wire and maybe another surge suppressor. The TV/Stereo/all computers used to be in the same room, now they're spread across 3 different areas, so although we have many power strips and such, it just wasn't quite enough.

The Statistics department is taking us on a field trip to an A's game in a few weeks. They're picking up the tickets for the students, and we were given the opportunity to buy extra tickets for spouses/guests. I'm going, largely to socialize with some of the folks I'll be spending the next 4-5 years with. Mike has told me many tales of going to Pirates games with his grandfather... the crowd would start the chant of "Let's Go Bucs!" and Mike would chime in with "Let's Go Home!". Needless to say, I decided to save us the $10 and not buy him a ticket. :p

We're having a bit better luck on the social front. I ran into Irma, a second year PhD stat student whom I met when visiting in March. She and her husband live in the same complex, 2 blocks away or so. Also, the empty apartment next to us got filled up a few days ago. There's a very nice lady named Karla and a precocious toddler named Owen. Karla's husband is also there, although I don't know his name yet.

All is generally well, the weather is still gorgeous and we're glad to have both our stuff and our car.

Stuff, glorious stuff!

Well, after 19 days, oodles of phone calls, one Sunday sitting around waiting for a truck that never came... we have our stuff! 4 men and a truck arrived yesterday morning and offloaded all of our belongings. Our living room is now a cardboard jungle.

I did a fair bit of unpacking yesterday and will hit it hard again today.

Mike's dad is in town on business, and we may be able to have dinner with him tonight, depending on how today's business goes.

Sorry that there's not much else to report, but I've got places to go and boxes to unload. Whee!!!