Push it to the limit! (the limit!)

Specifically, MATLAB. I was able to get it to segmentation fault. That's right -- hella expensive technical computing program, relied upon every day by thousands, if not millions, of engineers and scientist, every day. I managed to break it with the train wreck that is my senior project. Whoo!

So anyway. Super busy (and therefore, looking for excuses to procrastinate (ie blag). I've got the term project report (~150 pgs including appendices) due Monday, a (short) paper due this Friday, assorted usual problem sets, and a term paper due a couple of weeks Monday. Throw in a 'surprise' quantum midterm, as well as a photonics midterm, and you have all the right ingredients for a mad dash to the finish line this term.

One more year...then I can start it all over again. I enjoy this in a rather macabre sort of way.

Obligatory update etc.

Another month, another update, apparently. So a couple of posts back I had this huge list of stuff that I had to do and such. Almost all of it is done now...I think out of all of them I just have my massive project report to complete. After that and one more midterm, smooth sailing for the finals.

About time, too. This term has been so ridiculously busy...I am definitely looking forward to the summer, where I may be busy, but at least it will be the kind of busy where the demands on my time are not competing with each other...

Anyway, onto some pictures -- these are from the recent residence musical production that I directed the pit band for.

Here's us at the final rehearsal before opening night in the Telus theatre. The band had a total of 10 players -- a relatively large pit band by rez standards. We had a very short turnaround time on getting things ready (the cast had ~3 months to practice their singing and dancing, we had ~3 weeks to learn all the music and accompany them). All the musicians were good though, so we managed to pull it off and sound half-decent.

Night of one of the shows -- here is half of my wind section in the dressing room!

All in all, even with some really sketchy parts in the music, it turned out okay. I'm sure it's responsible for more than a couple of grey hairs on my head, too...but if you asked me if I'd do it again, the answer would almost certainly be "Yes!". Am I crazy? Yea, probably.

The jazz band is sounding great this year too. In fact I managed to get my hands on one of our recordings from early in the year, and put an mp3 up on some web space. Check us out here! Playing with this band has been great this year. Hopefully I'll be able to come back next year...I should probably do some practicing and take some lessons this summer.

EDIT 2 April: Thanks be to Shannon for the pictures posted here!

Quasi-travel-blog-post!

So, thought that this blog was done being a travelogue? WRONG! The following is somewhat long and somewhat less touristy, but it's a brief and heavily abridged chronicle of my recent adventure to Switzerland to attend the optETH Winter School. Lots of physics...but despite (or because?) of that, lots of fun!

We flew to Zurich with SAS -- it was something on the order of $400 or $500 cheaper...however, it necessitated a transfer through its hub in Copenhagen. Normally it isn't a problem, but just our luck -- on our way there, a freak storm hits the airport, and forces the cancellation of none other but our flight to Zurich! Stranded in a foreign country, not speaking the language, not knowing what to do next -- kind of reminded me of arriving in Frankfurt for the first time last summer...luckily, the weather cleared up enough to take a later flight in, so no biggie.

Our hotel was situated in a suburb some 20 minutes away from Zurich proper, called Winterthur. It's a pretty nice little town, got the usual small-town European feel. Felt somewhat jaded as we walked past several-centuries old churches and shrugging, "Ehh, been there done that."

Not too much time to relax, though! In addition to a packed schedule, we brought a few reams of homework to do while we were there. This is me sniffing my laptop, after Shannon remarked that it "smelled like burning". She was right.

This is the building where most of the activities (ie lectures, etc.) took place -- note the mostly metallic and concrete construction, dreary weather, and location on top of a hill. One delegate remarked, "It kinda feels like SFU." It really does. (It turns out that the small-world phenomenon is out in full-force for this conference -- this guy is from Victoria, graduated from Eng Phys at SFU, and works with a group at Stanford that worked closely with my previous group in Wuerzburg. It's really weird when the 'introductions' go like "So you're Matt? Stephan says hi."

The Hoenggerberg campus of ETH Zurich is pretty cool though, despite being depressingly similar to SFU. Here's a scale model of the campus...notice how clean and spiffy it is! I would bet money that if we put something like that up on campus here, it would be plastered with graffiti and bills after a week.

Ahh, coffee time. So very vital for those of us who were jetlagged and sleep-deprived. Of course, it's historically been the lifeblood of physics and mathematics -- hence a coffee break after every lecture!

We got to visit some labs too. Check out this optics table! I think it defines the term "density"...it is actually really cool work that this group does. Ask me if interested!

More coffee...I had been pretty good about not consuming ridiculous amounts of caffeine so far in the term. Then this trip hit. I'm hooked again now. ...it's probably not healthy.

After four days of lectures, we were pretty much burned out on physics (those of us who were undergrads, that is). So we skipped the last lab tour, and played foosball instead. I actually know (kind of) how to play now!

Here's a pic of (most) of the North Americans (we're only missing Dave). Four of us from Fizz, and Gopal is from Caltech. (Sybil has her eyes closed in literally every picture that anyone took of her. Weird...)

Saw this on campus, thought it was pretty funny. How does one even go about 'pimping' a 'studylife'???