To Dress A Mathematician

In all honesty, I'm not sure whether I'm going for a To Kill A Mockingbird thing there, in which case I'm implying that dressing a mathematician is a sin, or perhaps it's a Batman Begins affair, in which case one has to become a mathematician to conquer the inordinate challenge of dressing one of them.

Insanity aside, the title refers to JJ's seemingly impossible task today, as we went to Leamington on a mission to take out the renegade Lieutenant Fashion Sense, first name Lack Of. My mother will vouch that this has always been a difficult and sometimes harrowing endeavour, and she had given up on dressing me by the time I hit adult size shoes. JJ, however, did manage to find a few items that suited me, but they, amazingly, weren't trench coats or Converse. What with that and going to a club last night, I figure I may start accidentally blending into society.

Fortunately, however, I did turn down burger at the club – yep, that's how good Kasbah is, they had a barbecue type affair in the smoking area – because I'm currently vegetarian. I don't think I've mentioned that, but I am now one with that freaky tribe of people. I should probably stop offending them, but I attack maths students and mock men of my height for being short, so I wouldn't want to give the environmentally benevolent herbivores any preferential treatment.

Moreover, to counteract no longer appearing to be a science fiction character all of the time – The Doctor, Darth Vader, Captain Jack Harkness, Captain Malcolm Reynolds, Dr Emmett Brown and Batman all wear particularly long coats, or, you know, capes – I'm writing a blog post declaring my love for looking like a pillock.

The nonconformity balance is restored.

Nocturnality

It's a day before November, one day after a brilliant party – thanks Ben! – and both 11 and 12 hours after 0100. Fall has begun and GMT is back for the winter. It's had a longer holiday than teachers get, but it's back, rolling back sunset and bringing darkness to the early evening.

Speaking of which, I woke up at sunset yesterday; I fell asleep at sunrise. It is such an odd sensation, but I greatly enjoyed it. The chickens didn't enjoy being locked in their run all day though, so I'm staying at home and letting them roam free in the garden today.

Back to the party: it was fancy dress, which has never been a concept to which I've taken – especially given the usually tacky nature of the general masses' costumes. Nevertheless, I vowed to go for broke; I don't do things by halves. I've mentioned a few times this week my progress in sewing. Finally, yesterday, moments before sunrise, I finished my suit jacket, went to bed, woke at half five, put my outfit on and turned up to Ben's party as Harvey "Two-face" Dent. Hence, in fact, that post entitled Duality and the increase in Batman references. I'll have to nab a photograph of me from last night off of someone else – I couldn't be all that bothered to take one of myself.

Oh, almost forgot! It's probably been a month or so since I last mentioned that most glorious of foods, but I've eaten some both just now and also on Friday. I am, of course, referring to bacon.

So, on the subject of bacon, I'll end in the immortal words of Porky Pig: That's all folks!

Idiosyncrasy.

So, went down to the rowing club this morning: I had a few minutes on the machine, but spent most of my time there clearing up after a party that presumably took place last night. Still, it's always fun. There's much amusement in washing glasses and popping balloons.

As for the rest of the day, maintenance of my beautiful Ubuntu-running machine took centre-stage. I'm nigh on an expert in matters relating to rsync. I've tidied up all my home folders and synchronized the most important gigabyte or so over my dear memory stick Josephine, as well as written a straight forward shell script for future synchronization. I do love Linux.

I've also set the gears moving for a poker night this Friday. As practice, I just played with my little brother and marginally lost. Anyway, with the remainder of the night, I think I'll redraft my essay about how Batman has influenced me. This essay isn't even purely for fun. I'd happily write it for fun, just as I would my time-travel essay, but no, I'm writing it as part of the application process to Princeton. I hope they enjoy quirkiness.

Goodnight interpeeps! Take care...

Duality

Today may have been a good day. It rests on the decision of MIT's admissions office. I had an interview today with an MIT Alumnus as part of the admissions process. I thought it went well enough. I may not find out how well it went until next April. Currently, today is both good and bad, just as Schrödinger’s Cat is both dead and alive.

I also did a little shopping, including my latest purchase to make Strictly Come Dancing and X Factor bearable: new headphones. The old ones broke – darned things. Now, all is right with my world as I'm listening to the Batman Begins/Dark Knight soundtracks. Big love to The Caped Crusader and his associated music.

Whilst I'm reminiscing on The Dark Knight, I feel like mentioning the approaching dark nights. English is such a pretty language, especially when trying to make a link from Batman to winter.

I adore winters. I've lived through 17 of them, including that one I was born halfway through. Their perpetual ability to upset the futile masses is somewhat amusing. Here approaches the dawn of winter, the dusk of the year. I'll tail off before my melodrama cannibalizes itself in a bout of irony, and remind everyone that it's still only fall: it is not yet cold.

Goodnight.

Holy disease-and-injury-ridden day, Batman!

Yep, going for a Batman TV Series Robin-style line for the title. Robin parodies Robin: breaking news.

The rhinoviri seem to be dying off now. Go immune system! Unfortunately, a ridiculously old metal bed coupled with all of my weight resting on it in just the wrong spot later caused a deep cut in my left hand. That wasn't even the worst of my medical maladies; damned nausea woke me up at 0430 this morning 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

In case you're wondering, that was me fixing my 'r' key. I mentioned the rebuild of Ubuntu I did on here, well, turns out the hardware needs rebuilding too.

Anyway, yep, nausea, wounds, the common bloody cold, but it's all right now, baby it's all right now...

To conquer Comic Book Characters...

To begin, I thought I'd share an article about the U.S. Air Force's ridiculously cool new program: BATMAN.

Like any decent day, today started with bacon. After bacon, I had possibly the most hilarious session ever with the lads at Tynemouth Rowing Club. You had to be there.^† We're not even close to being ready for the regatta at Durham this upcoming Saturday.

So, anyway, with a hey diddle diddle, a drill and a fiddle, I've finally got my 1.2m*0.9m whiteboard on my bedroom wall! Pictures to follow? Who knows?

Enough blogging today though, I'm going for an uncharacteristic early post^‡, I'm going to watch House on the Hallmark Channel and then I'm going for my dinner.

^†Okay, you probably didn't have to be there to appreciate the hilarity, but – as with all instances of "you had to be there" – it meant "I can't be bothered to explain why it was so funny."
^‡Although, it's more of an excuse to use future tense and make another footnote than anything else.