Making a change

Define a pattern of thoughts and activities as a distribution of these entities across a generic interval, say I, of time. Let S be a pattern of thoughts and activities that a generic person, H, performs during her life. Define S(H, I) as the statement "Person H performs pattern of thoughts and activities S during the interval of time I". Define vital energy as the immaterial force created by directed efforts from any person H towards any goal. Define En(H, G, I) as the amount of vital energy that person H directs towards a given goal G during the given interval of time I.

Then,

• Conjecture 1: A person's environment naturally produces friction against any expression of vital energy, proportional to the amount of the vital energy expressed. Call this amount of friction F(c*En), where c is a constant such that 0<c<1.

• Conjecture 2: If a person H performs S, a recurring pattern of thoughts and activities during the interval of time I inside an approximately stable living environment, then the pattern of thoughts and activities which person H will perform after I, call it S', will equal

S' = S + (1-c)*(Sum of En(H, G, I) over all goals G of person H during interval I).

Note: This last sum will also be denoted by SumEn(H, I)

• Conjecture 3: It is an extension of the common concept of inertia that any person H who performs a pattern S will naturally tend to continue performing this pattern S, unless disturbed by forces, either internal or external to the person.

• Conjecture 4: Given any person H who performs a pattern of thoughts and activities S during any given interval I of time of length T, and any given target pattern of thoughts and activities S*, there exists a finite sequence of patterns Si , i=1, ..., n, where Sn = S*, which person H can adopt during subsequent, consecutive time intervals Ii of length T by directing vital energy into a sequence of directed goals Gi.

Or something like that.

I like Pittsburgh!!

Very much. :D :D :D

Why I Write

I write because I want to. I write because I like it. I write because I sometimes feel the need to express myself in any random manner that I fancy. I write because oral communication, though rich and expressive, works through a very limited and demanding channel. When a conversation takes place, the channel being used, the air between the participants, is most naturally half duplex. People's voices occupy a wide spectral range of frequencies, and much interference would be sure to occur if the channel were attempted as full duplex. Besides, the attention of both the emitter and the receiver must be mostly dedicated to the task of oral communication while it is taking place. Both language speaking and understanding are complicated tasks, and each side must perform language processing and the required heavy reasoning to produce the ideas to be communicated at a fast pace in a real-time scenario.

I consider writing to be a far more relaxed task in comparison. The task of writing is emulated in an environment with much softer time constraints than the ones of oral conversation, and ideas can be allowed to flow at their own pace, each word chosen carefully and precisely, subtly emphasizing exact meanings, smoothly shaping each sentence and paragraph, sculpting the message that feels best at that moment - be it firm and polite, whimsical and silly, drenched in nostalgia, melancholic, deeply reflecting, or beautifully profound. Language becomes clay, molded through the writer's ideas into the message to convey. He paints the sentences with his emotions, his paragraphs wrapped with the mood, and finally polishes it up with a quick self-review.

So that's why I write. I enjoy it very much. Not that anyone asked, but yeah.

Memorable Quotes

"Alias is a show about a spy!"

"Yo dog! Yo' shizzle is a shit! Let's hook up man!", directed to a potential advisor.

"Those guys look like they're going to a club, and they're coming out of loading dock #4"

"Leeejos pues!!! Si estas mas cerca que el visitor's parking!!!"

"The one with Google, Andrew Moore? Yes, we have to go that one because it's on burgundy", and the guy knew nothing about the colors on our schedule.

"Attention, a fire alarm has been activated in the building. Evacuate to the first floor. Do not use the elevators...", "Attention, that was a false alarm, it is safe to remain in the building"... "Attention, a fire alarm has been activated in the building. Evac...", "Attention everyone, that was also a false alarm, it is safe to remain in the building".

"Valu Time!"

"That's statistically true, but it's crazy"

10-705 Intermediate Statistics

I've had Machine Learning and Computer Science departmental talks during the morning, and I am now in Newell-Simon Hall 1305, at my first course lecture EVER on CMU!!!!! :D :D :D I'm so excited! The tedious paperwork and logistics from the past two weeks had obscured the AWESOME projects that are being done here... this is great!! I just came from a quick lunch with Dept. Head Tom Mitchell, and it was great!! He talked about some key features of his fMRI project, in which he is trying to figure out how does the brain work. Niiiiice!

And now, I'm looking at how Prof. Larry Wasserman explains the concepts of "basic" statistics to a whole class of about 40.

*INTERRUPTION*

And now, about 2 hours later, I say this: "I AM SCARED". MAN, I should know a lot more about statistics than I currently do. :S..... He explained the concepts so fast, he assumed "yeah, you should know Chapters 1-4", and I could barely keep up with what he was writing on his TWO rolling whiteboards (they roll up and down)! "I'm assuming, of course, that you're familiar with the usual distributions - uniform, binomial, the multinomial, Poisson, the normal, although I'm not sure why the textbook doesn't include the multivariate normal, that is weird. Anyway, be sure to know the spherical normal, that is going to be very useful...", and I was like WHAT???? I need some serious quick reading and studying, preferably among other people, to catch up with what's going on.

Now I'm skipping a Prog. Languages conference so that I can start up on my reading and to set up my online PNC bank account. I also have to read that paper so I can be ready for my appointment on Thursday... the year's starting with lots of stuff to do!

Back to Academia!!

Today starts CMU Machine Learning Department's Immigration Course!!!! (Schedule here: http://www.ml.cmu.edu/ml_ic/ml_ic09.html). 0:42 hours left until the first activities begin!

The last two weeks were buzzing with activities. Between coming to Pittsburgh, comparing apartments, deciding on a place of residence, filling out many different forms, opening a bank account, and figuring out the layout of the Campus buildings (which I could describe as maze-like), I found little time to even worry about the academic stuff. Just yesterday I discovered that I already had the textbook required for the class today (10-705 Intermediate Statistics)!! :D, so I began reading a few chapters and the class syllabus to find out what it was all going to be about.

So I should almost get going now. Only 24 minutes until it starts, I still have to pack up my (shiny new white MacBook Pro!!!!!!!! :D D :D :D) laptop so I can google any doubts that come to mind while the lectures are being given.

Pittsburgh 101

Pittsburgh baby!

Many people would probably lower and shake their heads in a manner of both pity and disapproval, but I like it here.

LOTS of things have happened since my last entry. August came, I flew back from Guatemala to Austin, my dad and Pedro visited Marcos and me in Austin from Chicago, we had a great week going to the Austin touristy places, during which I got to see two of which I had never seen before (The Oasis restaurant & the bat colony commute at dusk) (http://picasaweb.google.com/antoniojl/4JuarezInAustin), I aligned my car tires, then Marcos left for Guatemala, then I dropped my dad and Pedro off at the Amtrak station, they went back to Chicago, and then I drove north to pick up Pedro at his apartment in Waco, TX, where we drove off further north all the way to Pittsburgh, PA.

We stopped at several points along the way. We stopped driving the first day in Wichita, KS, where we stayed at an expensive Super 8 motel ($65 or so), watched Gran Torino on my laptop computer and ate popcorn in the room. The second day we arrived at Kansas City, MO (note: not in Kansas), where Google Maps directed us to my cousin Javier and her wife Nichole's house in a nice residential neighborhood, where we stayed to chat, meet their little daughter Eliel, and to eat the lunch that Nichole had very kindly made for us. We missed Javier because he was working at that time, but we talked to him on the phone and apologized for not having made it on time the previous night (I had told him we would arrive the previous night). After saying goodbye to them, we drove off again, further north, until reaching Des Moines, Iowa, where our route turned us towards the east and we drove all the way to Chicago, IL, where we parked near my parents' house and stayed the night.

The next morning I decided to take Pedro to a little tourist walk around downtown Chicago. We left at about 10AM, walked around Grant Park and Milennium Park (http://picasaweb.google.com/antoniojl/AUSPITRoadtrip#5372110905024913698), saw the Buckingham Fountain (http://picasaweb.google.com/antoniojl/AUSPITRoadtrip#5372110986383107986), met up with Isabel (who was at the time, I think, stapling papers at her office downtown) at a coffee shop called Descartes, talked a bit (http://picasaweb.google.com/antoniojl/AUSPITRoadtrip#5372111016973662754), said goodbye, went back to the house, picked up our stuff, said goodbye again, and drove off again, this time encountering a little traffic in the downtown area. We headed east through Indiana and Ohio, and when we reached Pennsylvania, it was only a little after 2300 hours. We arrived at Pittsburgh proper after midnight, and Leila was very nice to wait for us awake at her place until almost 0100 hours (we got lost in downtown). We met her at a street intersection just to say hi and then she went back to her apartment, so then we headed to the CMU campus, where I was hoping to find an empty office to get some shuteye for the rest of the night.

We were surprised to find the GHC building unlocked. I remembered from a certain email that my office was #8015, so after failing to turn on the elevator, we walked up the stairs to the 8th floor and found my office. It was also, very luckily, unlocked, so we went in, found a comfy chair, and spent the rest of the night in Dreamland (http://picasaweb.google.com/antoniojl/Pittsburgh101#5372116244246937602).

The next few days were slightly hectic. I had no apartment, no truly comfy and proper place to lay down and sleep, so I had to find one quickly. I could not get one the very first day though, but we were lucky and Filipe very kind, and he let us stay at his apartment the next night.

It was only the next day, however, that I finally procured an apartment that both Pedro and I agreed upon was a good deal (he made most of the appreciating): the basement of a nice house in a quiet, residential area. Designed for 1 person, fully furnished, $750 a month, 4 blocks away from campus, I believe it was a fair deal (http://picasaweb.google.com/antoniojl/Pittsburgh101#5372116338593833234). It became a sweet deal, however, when a potential roommate I had contacted through email confirmed his participation on occupying the apartment, and my monthly fees were reduced by 50%. And I thought "yay!".

So things have been going well. Lots of things have happened, I've been to lots of places, filled out a lot of paperwork, and now I stand as follows: I am officially the tenant of my fully-furnished basement apartment in Ellsworth Terrace, I officially have a roommate, we've signed the lease, I have an office in the Gates-Hillman Complex, I have a CMU ID, my car insurance policy was successfully transferred to Pennsylvania, I'm awaiting the delivery of an AT&T data-only plan SIM card which I plan to use with my blackberry 8800 along with SkypeIn and Skype subscriptions to get a VoIP yearly voice plan, I'm awaiting the delivery of a Verizon DSL installation kit at the apartment, I have not yet paid the $968 due for my student health insurance, I have not gotten any textbooks yet, I already emailed one professor to make an appointment with him, there are no Bank of America (the bank I have my accounts in) branches or ATMs in Pittsburgh so I plan to open a new PNC bank account here in Pittsburgh sometime tomorrow, and I plan to obtain a special Giant Eagle (the local grocery store chain here in Pittsburgh) discount card so that my future grocery purchases may be cheaper than they are for non-discounted customers.

Hmmm... That's about it. Terse and uncaring language, I know, but it's just way too much if I wrote it aaaaaaall. But bottom line, I'm almost settled in Pittsburgh now. I'm happy, I'm excited, and I'm anxiously awaiting next week's Immigration Course.

Rolling

Keep rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling...