Nicholas Ruedig

SD FLight

2011-07-21T16:30:00.000-07:00

Balboa Park

2011-07-20T13:33:00.000-07:00

Multnomah Falls

2011-07-20T10:09:00.000-07:00

Tall Ship Windy

2011-05-10T08:28:00.000-07:00

Blog Reboot coming soon, complete with many pictures. in the meantime, Enjoy this fieldtrip Slideshow, which will be edited to a shorter version later.

Return to Chicago, then Arkansas and Kansas City

2009-03-25T08:04:00.001-07:00

[If you haven't been here for awhile, be sure to read the "Formation..." post underneath this first]

After we finished our first two retreat in Dearborne, we returned to Chicago and gave three retreats at Greg's home parish, Sts. Peter and Paul in Naperville.

[Note: though slideshow view is enabled for photographs, I strongly encourage you t view them in Picasa web albums, which is available by double clicking on the slideshow, where they are available in much higher image quality, and you can peruse them at your leisure.]

After those, we had a couple days to spend with our families before we took a long road trip down to Arkansas, where we spent several days in retreat, as the group needed some time to understand itself, and also we reflected over the Holy Father's newly released Letter to the Youth for this year.

Unfortunately, the pictures from Arkansas are on my craptop, so they are unaccessible at the moment.
However, Kansas City was very exciting, since I got a shiny new camera!

The Canon Rebel XSi Digital SLR, complete with 18-55mm Image Stabilization Lens, and 55-250mm Image Stabilization Lens, and even a 50mm f/1.8 Prime lens for fast low light indoor shooting.
If you don't know what that means its ok, it just makes photography geeks like me quite happy. I've been taking pictures since I was 7 years old, and have always found photography fascinating, and over the years have gradually stepped up in cameras. I still remember the first one my dad had, in 1995, I think. It was like a large black box, and took pictures at about 320x240 resolution. After that Came one with a fliptop, and then an Afga for a birthday present, which I think was a whopping 1.3 megapixels.
After that I started buying my own cameras. First there were several Sonys, because at the time I thought the cybershot pocketsize was incredible, and I got one of those with 3x optical zoom and 3 megapixels, both of which I thought were incredibly important at the time. Later I upgraded to the 5 megapixel version, but it was still rety much the same camera. All those were good for snapshots, but they all operated pretty much on full automatic modes, so while I learned about composition and getting good lighting, I was still clueless about many of the finer aspects of photography.
It was during the winter of my second year at Thomas Aquinas that I bought my beloved Konica Minolta Z5. My previous Camera, the Sony Cybershot, had had an unfortuante incident with rain. I spent several month researching cameras, and selleted on a compact superzoom, the Z5. Its about as nice a camera as you could get at the time without climbing into the professional range, which I was unable t afford, being a poor college student. However, it served me well for 3 years, and I took thousands of photographs with it.
After having experienced some of DSLRs a few of my friends were sporting towards the end of college though, I realized some of the weaknesses of that camera, the lag of the shutter, the weak flash and batteries, and the lack of the finer controls of a dslrs, ad the small image sensor. This winter, I finally took the plunge and spent the money to get a low end professional level camera (which costs much less than it used to, thankfully the prices on SLRs have been dropping for the past 7 years) and after a month of using it I can say it has bee well worth the investment.
Now it's much easier to control the aperture, shutter speed, ISO, focus, zoom, and literally play with the light more before it reaches the sensor, so I've been having alot of fun.
So perhaps you'll see a slight increase in image quality from here on. Hopefully.

[the following are three entries from our team blog, where I do the photos, captions, and rough writing, which is then edited by Matthew]

After our time in Kansas City, we went up to a Benedictine Abbey in Conception, Missouri. The Abbey itself was gorgeous, set in the middle of nowhere on a barren plain with windmills turning slowly in the background. And we also had the pleasure of meeting Novice Adam Burkhart, the son of our host family in Kansas City, who has been studying to enter the Benedictine Order for two years at the Abbey. While we were at the abbey, we helped out with a retreat for the local MI Village, and performed a Lenten drama and reflection.

On our way through Ohio toward New York, we found a cute old vintage store on the side of the highway, and stopped there for some fun.

We were only in Pittsburgh for a day, but after the Little Sisters found out what line of work we are in, we wound up putting on a short day for all the residents there. During the day, we talked to an elderly woman who was born in Japan, and she had been converted to Catholicism in her youth after reading early issues of St. Max's Japanese magazine. As well as some of the lay and married elderly we met there, we also had the pleasure of making friends with several priests: Father Kim Schrek, a newly ordained priest who had with him barbed wire from Auschwitz and a relic of St. Max, and also Monsignor Leo, who was in residence with the Little Sisters of the Poor. He spent a lot of time with us, told us his story, and was a beautiful witness of God's work through the elderly. As we left he gave us one of his world-famous Long Blessings, which he made sure to cover all the bases and wrap us firmly in grace.

Our travels so far:

View Larger Map

Formation and the first two retreats in Dearborne

2009-03-12T19:18:00.000-07:00

[insert boilerplate apology for lack of updates here]

Ok, now that that's over with, I finished the solar panel job, and returned to Chicago in late December. After spending Christmas with my family, I went to a young adults retreat at Marytown, a friary (that means there's franciscan friars who live there, like the monks in habits you see in medieval movies) and church about 3 miles from my house. It's also the center for the Militia Immaculata (that's Latin for "Army of Mary" a Catholic movement founded by St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Hero of Auschwitz) and the National Shrine of St Maximilian Kolbe, the Franciscan priest who spread the message of total consecration to Mary who leads us to Jesus, and who gave his life for another prisoner in a concentration camp in WWII.
Anthough it's just a local church for me, it's a worldwide movement, and most of the young adults there were from much farther away, some from Washington state, California, New York, Arkansas, Texas, and even Canada. We had a great 6 days there, with about 80 people learning about their faith and on fire with love for God, and finished with a big New Year's party and High Mass at Midnight, where Father Steve took the Holy Eucharist in the monstrance, and went out into the snow and blessed the entire world.

After that, 8 of us young adults (ranging in age from 18 to 26) climbed in a van and drove to another Franciscan Friary in Detroit Michigan. We spent four weeks there in formation, receiving intensive education about our faith from the friars and priests who live there, as well as some professors and nuns who visited us as well. The Friary there was in the middle of a cemetery, through which some of us went on walks at night, and provided a very peaceful atmosphere.

After those four weeks of peace though, it was time for the rubber to hit the road.
Our team is the Max 2009 Evangelization Team. We're a bunch of young adults who just want to spread devotion to Jesus through Mary, so we travel around the country in a couple vehicles, staying with families and religious communities we know, and giving retreats, talks, and days of reflection to a bunch of different groups, from confirmation classes and high schoolers, to adults and the elderly in nursing homes.
We have no formal training other than a month of formation, we're not in a religious community, all we have is youthful enthusiasm, and 200 years of tradition to draw upon.
As I mentioned before, we are all members of and met through the Militia Immaculata, a lay organization founded in 1917 by St Maximilian Kolbe in Rome to defend the Church and to spread personal consecration to Jesus through Mary. So we give presentations on the sacraments of the Catholic Church, especially Reconciliation and the Eucharist, and Confirmation or the Anointing of the Sick to appropriate age groups. We also give presentations on Our Lady, Mary, the Mother of God, and how she leads us closer to her son; on our founder, St Maximilian Kolbe; and on how our lives have been affected by joining the MI (Militia Immaculata)

We gave two retreats in Dearborne, Michigan, at the school where Father Edmund (one of the Franciscan priests we stayed with, who has a wonderfully wry sense of humor) teaches. Here are two slideshows of pictures from them, complete with captions:

In there photos you can see some of the things we typically do on day long retreats with junior high kids, including:
-Faith based action songs as icebreakers (or possibly just ways to humiliate ourselves)
-Going over an examination of conscience, which they nail to the cross after the sacrament of Confession, representing that Jesus has taken their sins upon Himself, and they no longer have to be burdened with them
-Small groups to facilitate discussion, which also think up names for themselves and draw very colorful banners related to the theme Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has proclaimed for youth this year, "We cast our hope in the living God" (1 Timothy 4:10)
-The chocolate milk talk, using the analogy of chocolate milk to show how God puts grace in our soul through the sacrament of Baptism, but the sacrament of Confirmation adds more and stirs up this grace in us, as seen in the Acts of the Apostles
-The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, where we participate in the Last Supper and the Sacrifice of the Cross

Of course, this is hardly everything we do, but it's a beginning. Talks aren't overly photogenic, and we also try to keep those to only 10-15 minutes, because, while important, the younglings have a limited attention span.

Then we sadly bade farewell the the friary, which had been our home for a month, and set out on the road, not t stop at any place for more than a week for a long time.

Solar Summer

2008-08-23T17:15:00.000-07:00

Solar Flight

2008-08-09T17:46:00.000-07:00

July 25 (again from a letter to family)

2008-07-27T13:11:00.001-07:00

So, today actually began really nicely, when in the beautifully cool early morning fog while riding to work, I saw 6 hot air balloons floating over Santa Paula. I was going to race them to my work, as some of them were going at a fairly nice clip, but then to wind stopped, so it didn't seem very fair to them. Poor balloons.

And this morning turned out to be a very aircraft-filled morning, as we saw two F/A-18s flying in formation around the valley for a bit, and later heard something that sounded like military aircraft using large loud afterburners, which we think were probably the same planes.

Today we spent almost all of the day straightening panels, which is not a very fun job, because it involves coordinating 8-14 peoples moving large aluminum structures, trying to line them up to within and 1/8 of in inch tolerance, which is not easy when they weigh close to half a ton each. However, after lunch we did have the enjoyment of finally looking out upon our great sea of solar panels, 3/4 finished, all in nearly perfect lines.

Since that was pretty much the end of our work for the week, we spent the rest of the afternoon leisurely panelizing, just me and Max and Bridget on my team, since McGarry has flown off to a wedding for the weekend. We ended up having several long lengthy discussions, since we didn't have to focus as much on cranking out the panels as fast as we could. After Max and I discussed corporate ethics for awhile, about how companies should treat and pay their workers, and how they would be responsible for some basic compensations and minimum standard of working, but might not have to do more than that unless they could convince their competitors to join them, since the rewards would be diminished unless they all pitch in together, the real topic of the afternoon emerged as we began discussing movies.
It was a long developed discussion, mainly revolving around Max's belief that movies should be a very rare activity, and from his argument supporting that, a debate over whether they were a social activity, and if so of what type and so on.
And the even longer discussion took place once we discussed whether or not they were art, and whether that art could be compared to the acting of plays, or paintings and music and such. We debated on the meaning of art, and whether there was a bond between the artist and the audience, and whether the use of technology such as a camera made it less on an art, since art is an imitation of nature, but a camera makes an image, not an imitation.

July 18th (again excerpt from a letter)

2008-07-27T13:09:00.000-07:00

So today wasn't quite as interesting a day as yesterday, but it *was* a Friday, which is a good thing in and of itself. Got up for work in time, the bikeride was much nicer then yesterday, being early in the morning again. Saw Max on the way to work, didn't beat him today (he's figured out a faster route using the highway...cheater...but made decent time anyways. We had a great team panelizing in the morning, and had gotten 10 panels done before our first break (which is very good time) when Brett decided we had to align all the panel already in place, so we spent the rest of the day with Elijah and Max shouting command at the other 12 of us, as we attempted to move segments of 10 panels bolted together into a structure about 40 feet wide, 50 feet long, adn weighing close to a ton. Oh, and it's about a foot and a half off the ground, so lifting it is incredibly good for our backs, and very easy. Needless to say about the seven hundred and 83rd time Elijah called out "You moved it too far, nudge it a quarter inch back south!" tempers were slightly frayed, which was not aided by the arrival of the pizza car half an hour late (we always get pizza on fridays). It was rather strange to observe people though, especailly how easily their attitudes and reactions changed. One minute, McGarry was cursing the "stupid pizza driver, his only job is to get us our pizza here at 11:45, in his air-conditioned car *grumblegrumblegrumble*" and five minutes later was shouting, "Hey! He even honked so we knew we could come in from the field! The Pizza Guy is awesome!"
Fortuantely, it never got too bad, even after lifting and shoving for 6 hours, because it was a friday, which makes everyone happier.
And I got my paycheck from last week, and paid the next two months rent, which made me happy.

Oh, and when I got back to the Ferriers, I made a much better smoothie than yesterday, almost a slushie. Instead of the amazing conglomeration of ingredients from yesterday, I stayed a bit simpler, and put in a grapefruit, a peach, a few slices of watermelon, and lots of ice. This tasted a bit sour because of the grapefruit, which I've decided is better eaten on it's own, but a touch of cane sugar (couldn't find any honey or molasses) remedied that, and it was very watery and refreshing. :)

July 17th (excerpt from a letter to a friend)

2008-07-27T13:07:00.000-07:00

So, today didn't begin all that well; I got up at nine, rather late for getting to work, but I called McGarry and he said it was fine to come in late, so I threw on some clothes and jumped on my bike. It was wonderful to be biking again, I missed it, even though it had just been a week. However, it was by no means the most wonderful ride ever, usually I started 3 hours earlier, when it's the moist cool early windless dawn, but by 0930 it was starting to get warm, the sun had burned away the cool protective mist, and the wind was rushing in from the ocean up the valley, purposefully to make my life hard. And my nose was clogged, so I couldn't breathe through it, and my mouth was dry, but none of that mattered, because I was back on my bike, a very happy place to be. :) I arrived at work just as they were finishing their morning break, so I hadn't missed much, but the instant I got there my technical expertise was pushed into action. I fixed one of my boss's (Brett) laptop's last week, with the whole virus thing, but now the other boss (Bill, the non-engineer one...who spent alot of time int he 70s and hasn't left it far behind) managed to jam a DVD into the drive on his laptop and get it stuck, and now the computer tried to recognize the drive when it booted up, but couldn't, so it wouldn't boot up either. Fun fun. I thought it would actually be a hard problem to solve, and was all ready to unscew it, take the drive out, mess with the bios settings, and stuff. However, it turned out all I needed was a paperclip to trip the manual release catch and pop the drive out. Yay for easy fixes! However, when Bill asked what was wrong (very happy to have it working again, since he just bought it last month) and I explained it to him, he said "that's all?", my IT training came in handy and I swiftly placated his almost injured ego by spouting some jargon about bios ram drivers and stuff i had to configure to fix it. He was much happier when he couldn't understand what had been wrong.

Then I ran into Brett, who asked how Alaska was, and when I mentioned the lack of a normal day/night cycle he told me about his friend in Hammerfest who watches to sun go around and around for a motnh without setting at all. He asked me in the course of conversation if I knew where Hammerfest was. Of course I did, it's at the northernmost tip of Norway. What I didn't mention is that I knew this from many hours spent play Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun, where GDI had a huge base in Hammerfest and one of the hardest NOD missions in the game was to infiltrate it from 3 hovertanks and 1 subterranean APC full on engineers. And this stupid stupid Firestorm defense wall they had was such a pain, and you had to sneak around the back of the base, and trigger avalanches to create ramps for the hovertanks, and watch out for the ice, because it might cave in if you were on it too long and all the engineers would drown...but I digress. Very fond memories of Tiberian Sun though. :)

Anyways, after that I went out into the field to rejoin my wonderful crew, with max Becher, Elijah White, Nathaniel McGarry, and Ulysses the Mexican. They actually hadn't gotten all that much done while I was gone, but it looks like we might still finish on time. Our morning discussion was incredibly TACish, Nels had quibbled with Elijah and McGarry about what equivocation was, starting from the premise the an alien from Mexico and an alien from Star Wars was an equovocation, while McGarry presisted that it wasn't. Although Nels left for the other panelizing table, this swiftly divirged into an indepth discussion of Aristotle's categories, supplemented by remarks from Elijah and Max about this differences between Aristotle equivocation, univocation, and denomination, as compared to St. Thomas' definition of equivocation, and naming things analogously.

So after that came lunch, and I just couldn't sleep, so I was kindof walking back and forth in the warehouse, trying not to look too dead, when Elijah came up to me and said, "Here, you need this," and handed me a mdeium sized peach. He told me it came from the Woods peach tree (he's housesitting for them while they're gone), and to someone who hadn't eaten anything but toast in the past 4 days, it was the most delicious thing ever. I've had good peaches, but I'm not sure if I've ever had any that were so perfect. One bite into it, and the skin just peeled off, and it seemed like it was bursting with juice and flavor and goodness, and just...oh my gosh it was the best thing I've tasted in a long long time. mmmmmmmmmmm
So incredibly good. Just...the inside wasn't mushy, not hard but just tender enough to melt in your mouth, and the falvor was perfect, full and delcious, but not overpowering or too sweet...and even the fuzy skin was good, not very fuzzy, and just soft and...I can't even describe how wonderfully delectable it was.
So in the afternoon, it was rather quiet, as we were pretty industrious. Elijah got stolen from another table, and they got more people, so there were three tables. But at the end of the day our one table had done 23 panels, whereas the other two combined had only gotten through 16. Pathetic lazy bums. We were quite pleased with ourselves.
The ride home was much nicer, since I had the wind at my back, and I raced Max Becher in his car about 3/4ths of the way home, before the hill to to the Ferriers killed my lead, and he zoomed off in his silly gaspowered contraption. Sadface. But I was on my precious bike again. Happyface! But then I noticed, someone had SAWN OFF THE TOP OF THE HANDLEBAR AXEL!!!! ANGRYFACE! >:-(
Well, it works fine for now, but I guess I'll have to find some palce to keep my bike inside, since locking it up obviously isn't enough, and maybe Mr Tolberg will be able to find me a part to cover it. He's probably even got something to weld it on.
I hope.

Then I got home and made...a rather interesting concoction, somewhat resembling a smoothie. I had a hard time coming up with what i wanted in this house, I couldn't find much fruit, or yogurt, or molasses, or cabbage (suggested by Elijah, I think it would actually work better than the Romaine lettuce, which wasn't bad), so I combined a couple oranges, a couple lemons, a dash of cream, a spoonful of ice cream, some leaves of romaine lettuce, half a sprite, half a container of concentrated orange juice, and lots of ice cubes, and some water, and the result actually tastes pretty good. it's a bit on the sour side, but I don't like smoothies to sweet anyways, I could do with a bit more wateriness, and a bit more fruit flavor, I would skip the cream and ice cream, and add some plums and grapefruit and just...more fruit.

After thatI started writing this, and about halfway through volunteered to drive to the store with George to pick up some stuff for the homemade pizza they're making tonight (Mr. and Mrs. Ferrier are gone on a fishing/camping trip). And while I was there I picked up more peaches and grapefruit and watermelon. Happyface. <3 watermelon.

Obamessiah

2008-07-26T10:16:00.001-07:00

More Than a Father

2008-04-15T12:23:00.000-07:00

A Video made by some friends last year for a dance, about our resident Jesuit.

More Than a Father
Uploaded by sirnicholai

Surprise

2008-01-21T06:40:00.000-08:00

What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Roman Catholic

You are Roman Catholic. Church tradition and ecclesial authority are hugely important, and the most important part of worship for you is mass. As the Mother of God, Mary is important in your theology, and as the communion of saints includes the living and the dead, you can also ask the saints to intercede for you.

Roman Catholic

100%

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan

93%

Fundamentalist

54%

Neo orthodox

50%

Reformed Evangelical

43%

Classical Liberal

25%

Modern Liberal

21%

Emergent/Postmodern

14%

Charismatic/Pentecostal

11%

Does it hurt?

2007-11-14T18:59:00.000-08:00

Every time.

Halloween 2007

I went as Wolverine to the Halloween dance, and met up with a few other marvel heroes there, including Gambit, Iron Man, Captain America, and Magneto

Geeking out

2007-07-17T13:44:00.000-07:00

There's something very very exciting about unpacking 1.5 TB of HDDs and 4 GB of RAM.

If you didn't understand that last sentence, don't worry, it's not contagious.

Rhinelander

2007-07-11T12:44:00.000-07:00

Going on vacation in the Northwoods is fun, because you get exciting local news like this:
Double Drive-by Shooting! ...of two cows.

Weekly Police Blotter: 4 deer hit, 1 bear.

Deer Hunt within City Limits Approved
"As well as thinning the herd within the city limits, twenty deer from the 2006 hunt went to the food pantry. Over 1,170 pounds of venison was distributed to the hungry."

I love my family

2007-06-30T22:20:00.000-07:00

Because they do things like this.
I'm chatting with my sister from my basement, and she send me this: "Immured in her ivory-ivy turret, the maiden used her wondrous powerful silver box to send secret messages to her brother in the dungeon below..."

Pomegranate Folly

2007-06-26T20:30:00.000-07:00

So, I finished a fairly long day of work, with lots of cable-running, wire pulling, drilling through 2x4s, chiseling through concrete blocks, driving in an unair-conditioned car, and I finish up in Wilmette. So I'm thinking about the long drive home, on the tollway, in rush hour traffic, when I see a Starbucks.

Salvation!

So I go inside, thinking of the rich, lush flavor of Pomegranate iced and mixed into cold refreshing goodness...and they don't carry Pomegranate Frappuchinos anymore.

Drat.

However, they do still have tangerine, which is a good substitute. So I make my purchase, carry it to my car, and am in the middle of calling a friend to tell her about my good fortune in finding such relief, when I pull out of the parking lot, and time slows down as momentum inexorably pulls the top heavy cup over, out of the tiny cup holder, and as it tumbles through the air the contents spill out slowly, the cold ice crystals spraying delicately onto the floor.

Dangation.

So, as I drove home through the rush hour bumper-to-bumper traffic, in my nonair-conditioned van, I got to savor the sweet tangerine smell which reminded me of the cleaning I'd have to do when I got home. Mmmmm.

Newton: Pride cometh before a fall

2007-06-25T09:38:00.000-07:00

I found a draft of this while looking through my old posts, and realized I had written it four months ago and forgotten to post it.
Here you go:

Yesterday was a triumphant day in lab class.
One of my classmates, who has a reputation for thinking that he knows better than the authors we read what they ought to write, and is fond of attempting to correct the argument of Aquinas, was doing a prop in lab. We've gotten used to his overbearing manner, but this time it was insufferable. It might have been that he was showing off to his little brother, who was sitting in on the class, but his attitude was driving the rest of us into the wall, by constantly using such phrases as, "this is so obvious I don't even know why he bothers to say it," "It is manifest that," and "It's the most obvious thing possible." Our tutor, Dr. Decaen, at one point asked him about the third line from the bottom. The student answered a question about the fourth line from the bottom, whereupon Dr. Decaen pointed out that he had asked about the third line, although the student was right, and the actual question had to do with the fourth line. Whereupon our villain responded, "Well, I thought you couldn't be asking about the line, because only an idiot would question that." At this point, the entire class was just shocked at his pompous, arrogant manner, too stunned to reply.
Next, he mentioned that, "while Newton's way of proving this works, I've devised a better and simpler way of doing it. Here, I'll show you." And he proceeded on his merry way to destruction.
Unfortunately for him, his proof involved claiming that the areas of triangles are in the same ratios of their height. Each one of us learned freshman year that they are in the duplicate ratio of their height. However, most of the class wasn't even playing attention by this point, so we didn't notice, but something about the way he said, "You'll grant me that..." bothered me, and I stared at the line for a bit. He was proceeding to the next line when I stopped him by pointing to his line about the direct proportion and stated, "That's wrong."

It felt like there was a collective gasp from the class, followed by surreptitious high-fives and grins.

"Triangles are in a duplicate ratio to their heights," I continued.
He fell deeper into the hole he dug.
"No they're not, they're in duplicate ratio to their sides, and as I wrote, in direct ratio to their heights."
"But in a right triangle.." I postulated... He cut me off, hastening his demise.
"Just look at this triangle," he said, drawing exactly the right triangle I wanted on the board for me. "here's the first triangle, and I'll draw the second on top, with double the side. See? The area is in the ratio of the height."
I leaned from my seat, sketched two lines across his drawing, and quipped, "No. Four times the size, duplicate ratio. It's the most obvious thing possible."
As his face fell, I heard Dr. Decaen muttering causticly to himself behind me, "No, actually it's Ex Aequali that's the most obvious thing possible, as Mr. B said earlier, because even I don't understand it, and I've got a Phd."

"Well, then, I'm not sure what's wrong," wondered the student, "It has to be in a direct ratio, otherwise my proof wouldn't work, and it proved the same thing as Newton's."
"Actually," Mr. Decaen observed, "If you took that up it would prove the opposite of Newton's, violating the law of non-contradiction." (which is a sacred truth at our school, because if you question that...well, you've got some things to work out, shall we say)
"However," I continued, "If you use a duplicate ratio there, that mode of proof would work perfectly, in fact agreeing with Newton completely."

We spent a few minutes discussing how it would work, and which points of the proofs were shown off by the different methods, but it seemed like the wind had left Mr. B's sails, and his brother left the room shortly after. I had actually not known his brother was there, I just knew a visitor had walked in, but didn't know who.

After class, several of my classmates congratulated me, and told me that this was the one day everyone in my section loved me. Except for Mr. B, of course.

Latin Jokes FTW!

2007-06-25T07:30:00.000-07:00

I actually think the guy he's interviewing has a good point, except I disagree about Halliburton being the "barbarians at the gates." They don't seem to be doing anything except spending large amount of government money, as opposed to the terrorists, who attempt to blow us up and change our culture, or the illegal immigrants, who seems most like the Goths and Visigoths, because they move in and take advantage of some corrupt parts of our society.

Women, Know Your Place!

2007-06-20T15:39:00.000-07:00

Notus Bene
Main Entry: sat·ire
Pronunciation: 'sa-"tI(-&)r
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French or Latin; Middle French, from Latin satura, satira, perhaps from (lanx) satura dish of mixed ingredients, from feminine of satur well-fed; akin to Latin satis enough -- more at SAD
1 : a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn
2 : trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly

Links Wednesday June 20

2007-06-20T15:16:00.000-07:00

Catholicism, Science, Religion, Newton, and Colbert!

"Particles of bodies are attracted in proportion to their mass."
Ah, memories of Junior Lab. :D

Fallen Angel - Pilot Protects Downed Helicopter

Linked from BlackFive

Democrats attempt to end Secret Ballots
I really don't see what kindof argument can be made for this, other than "it helps the unions coerce people to join." Secret ballots have been recognized for quite some time as the best way to honesty get people's opinion, and the standard of democracy is lowered when they are not used, because people are more easily pressured to vote or sign one way or another. So why do the unions have trouble with people actually voting for what they think should be done? Because they wouldn't be able to force more people to pay their union dues to support political candidates?

I've Got a Crush on Fred Thompson's Politics

Dig the politics. The music...not so much.
Hat tip to The Jawa Report

A Wonderful and Generous Idea

Link, Tuesday, June 19th

2007-06-19T13:33:00.000-07:00

Because I know I haven't been posting at all, and because summer hasn't been that interesting, I think I might start having posts consisting mainly of links to news and other things online I find interesting, perhaps with commentary.

Tesla Roadster
Picture Gallery
As compared to most of the other hybrid cars, which, as Scott Adams has pointed out, look like they're screaming out, "I'm a pathetic environmentalist nerd!", this car actually looks really cool. And 0 to 60 in four seconds is nothing to sniff at, nor is the equivalent of 135 mpg. The only downside seems to be the sticker shock that might be caused by the $92,000 price tag. But it still looks really cool.

Harry Reid: "The Surge has failed!"
Guys from the Surge: "But...we haven't started yet..."

Jimmy Carter on why we should've recognized Hamas
Remind me what the difference is between recognizing Hamas (a democratically elected terrorist group, that's remarkably well organized and efficient...at killing people), and recognizing the Nazi government in Germany (a democratically elected terrorist group, that was remarkably well organized and efficient...at killing people).
Normally Nazi analogies seem hyperbolic, but in this case, it seems to fit rather well. They both even have stated goals to kill Jews (although currently the Palestinians seem too busy killing each other)
"But they organized the attack so well! They showed superior skills and discipline in murdering civilians and engaging in terrorism! Jimmy Carter must have been so proud ..." - Captains Quarters

Fred Thompson #1 in most recent national poll
"The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson earning support from 28% of Likely Republican Primary Voters. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani attracts support from 27%. While Thompson’s one-point edge is statistically insignificant, it is the first time all year that anybody but Giuliani has been on top in Rasmussen Reports polling. A week ago, Thompson and Giuliani were tied at 24%."
Surprise! Give the Republicans the option of electing a real conservative candidate, and they'll vote for him! Who'd a thunk it?

Second Semester Photos!

2007-05-06T15:57:00.000-07:00

Here are some albums of photos I've taken this semester.
Prayers during this finals week would be appreciated.
-Nick

2007-04-13, Reagan Presidential Library

2007-03-21, Pilot Dixon

Second Semester Junior Year: Wii, DotA, and SupCom

2007-03-03, Sushi!

2007-02-19, Party at Joe's

Random Stuff from Second Semester

Junior year

2007-04-30T10:22:00.000-07:00

So, Junior year, especially second semester, has lived up to it's reputation as being the hardest of our four years at TAC. And we're all praying the seniors aren't lying to us when they claim that senior year is alot easier. Anyways, I hope to resume normal posting in another 2 weeks, after finals, but for now I'm going to post part of a letter I wrote my grandparents, and hope they don't mind, since it's a decent summary of what I've been doing this semester.

"This semester has been pretty crazy. It's the hardest semester we have here (or so the seniors tell us, because they say that senior year is a lot easier). We've been studying the invention of algebra and calculus by Descartes and Newton in Math class, and the discovery of gravity in Newton's Principia in Lab class.

Math class with Mr. Ferrier, a tutor who is a good friend of mine, is wonderful, and even though it's a late afternoon class, hardly anyone ever misses, because even the non-math oriented people have fun in his class, especially with some of the funny things he says, either intentionally or accidentally, like the time he said, "The problem is getting to first base. But if Mr. Ruedig can't do it, I'm guessing there are a lot more people in the dugout having trouble too." He was describing the approach to a math problem, but about half the class realized it could be taken another way, and tried to stifle our laughter.

Lab class on the other hand, is early in the morning, and generally my section, far from the friendly math atmosphere, is at each other's throats over the interpretation of Newton, and when it gets really messy we drag out the original Latin text and start arguing from that. However, the hardest part about that class is the propositions which we have to be ready to demonstrate at the board two or three times a week. We had to do propositions in math class every day for freshman and sophomore year, but the ones we're doing now make those look like a piece of cake. At least Euclid and Apollonius gave us most of the steps of the argument, but Newton will give us a line, and say it can be proven, and we'll have to spend hours figuring out how he proved it, because we know if we get called to the board there are certain overly conscientious people in our class who will be sure to ask how he did that step. Fortunately, my friend Mary Rose and I found that we study well together, and if one of us can't come up with the argument the other generally can, so we generally spend a couple hours a night studying Newton.

Theology class is another fun class, where Mr. O'Reilly makes learning St. Thomas arguments in the summa quite entertaining. One of the interesting things in that he calls on people to present the objection to St. Thomas' argument at the beginning of class, so we have to try our best to convince the rest of our section that St. Thomas is wrong. Occasionally we'll have some success, but St. Thomas so far has usually managed to destroy all our specious arguments in the main body of his article, or if not that then in the responses to the objections.

Philosophy class this semester has been really fascinating, since we've been examining Aristotle's study of human virtue in the ethics, and how he thinks man possess or lack virtue, what the definitions of virtue and justice are. Now we're moving into his Politics, were he takes his definitions of virtue and justice, and his ideas about how they can best be achieved in a state or city, where people tend towards corruption, by comparing different historical examples of government.

Seminar has been the hardest class this semester, since we've started reading modern philosophers, many of whom have really crazy or strange ideas about how the human mind works in obtaining information. The readings have been really long, and densely packed with obscure information, so generally it takes at least four hours or preparation for each of the two seminars we have per week, and sometimes as many as than ten hours if it's an especially hard reading. We're currently working out way through Kant, the German Philosopher, who is one of the hardest authors we read in the program. Even at a selective school like this, a fair amount of the people never really come to understand what he's saying, because he's an absolute genius, but his ideas are so complicated and abstract that it's hard for them to be expressed in ordinary language, so he invents his own wide-ranging system of definitions, and if you don't understand what they mean, his writings are completely indecipherable. But one nice thing is that since the readings are so long, if makes it worthwhile to go on a hike up to the Painter's shack, where Mary Rose and I have been studying him. It's about a two-mile hike up into the mountains to the promontory on the side of one of the larger hills around campus, and there's a small one room shack that a painter who used to own the land had built, with one side just a bank of plate windows overlooking a beautiful view of the Santa Paula valley. On a clear day it's possible to see more than 15miles, all the way to the ocean. It's a wonderful place to study too, since it's so peaceful, with only the sound of the wind and passing birds to disturb the silence.

Oh, and also the rare airplane, since there's a small airfield in Santa Paula. Which I actually got to use a couple weeks ago, since one of my friends, Tom Dickson, who graduated from TAC about 5 years ago, recently obtained his private pilot's licence, and took me and some of my friends up in a little four-seater Cessna. It was really cool flying in a small plane again, I think the last time I did so was with Uncle Bradley when I was about 12. We flew around over the college, took some pictures of the campus and the chapel construction, and cruised up and down the valleys around Santa Paula for a bit.

Last week the campus actors put on their production of Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew," which was really well done, and had the audience rolling in the aisles at some points of the play. Kate (as played by a girl named….Kate) was really a devil of a woman, yet couldn't stand up to the brutal arrogant onslaught of Petruchio, who finally tamed her in the end. But one of the funnier twists they did on Shakespeare was that Kate's father, a venerable old Italian don, was played as a knock-off of "The Godfather", complete with accent, impersonations, and everything.

Other than classes and those extra-curricular activities, I've been maganing to keep myself busy in other ways too. A couple weekends a month I work off-campus doing landscaping for a retired couple, who live in a beautiful little house on a cliff overlooking Santa Paula (from the other side of the valley as the Painter's shack). I've also been continuing to do generally swing dancing every Wednesday night, and started teaching smaller classes on Thursday nights too, while learning tango and the Lindy Hop on the weekends from "Dancer Dan." At the beginning of the semester I did a lot of fencing too, learning how to kill people with the foil and sabre. I haven't done much recently, because I've had to study math over lunch, which is generally when bouts take place, but I've gotten together with a few of my friends and we're going to start piercing each other at night.

The t-shirt business is going well, we've been printing t-shirts for the school maintenance department, and once we're finished with that run we're going to start printing and sending home shirts for Platinum and Divine Word.

I've started thinking about graduate school, and I'll be studying for and taking the LSAT this summer, the test to get into law school, which I've been thinking seriously of since the beginning of this semester. The other thing I was interested in besides law is a small elite school in Washington D.C. called the Institute of World Politics. Their website is www.iwp.edu and they're a small university with masters degrees in Statecraft, World Politics, National Security Affairs, and Intelligence."

So hopefully I'll survive finals week with my sanity in tact, and be back in Chicago before too long.
-Nick

Tragedy from Afar

2007-01-29T12:12:00.000-08:00

The wife and mother-in-law mentioned in the article are the mother and grandmother of two students and a graduate from TAC, and prayers for them would be appreciated as they fly back to Kenya for the funeral.
[click on title for link]

Working at the Wintz's

2007-01-29T11:22:00.000-08:00

Since Dominic was sick this weekend, I organized a crew of 5 guys to go to work at Mr. Wintz's property this weekend. The "Geek Squad" included Jack Potts, Scherbert, Me, Matt Nolan, and the odd one out, who doesn't spend his time gaming the in the lounge, but who does have a useful thing called an "automobile," Scott Martin.
It was raining, but was light enough for us still to work, and so we cleared all the grass out of an area surrounded by 6 foot berms. Mr. Wintz's wife, who is a landscape designer, told us about her plans to plant a moonlight garden there, full of flowers with pale nighttime blossoms.
During lunch and after work we hung out on their patio by the fire, from which we could see through the large windows in their house over the entire Santa Paula valley. Even though it was a drizzly cloudy day, it's still one of the most beautiful places I could imagine working at. I'll try to get better pictures of the view next time, weather permitting.
(these photos take with my 1.3 mp cell phone camera on my new KRZR, which is turning out to be quite nice and extremely useful)

Working at the Wintz's

Seminar at Sunset

2007-01-29T10:35:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday Mary Rose, Mary, Sara, and I took some wine, cheese, and books up to the painters shack, and spent a fun relaxing afternoon up there.
Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.
(btw, Mary and Mary Rose put henna in their hair last week, which is the reason for the reddish hue)

Hike to Painter's Shack

Pics from the Walk for Life West Coast

2007-01-23T11:49:00.000-08:00

The Gaming Lounge in Use

2007-01-23T11:45:00.000-08:00

Nintendo Wii!

Alden playing Rayman's Raving Rabids on the Wii, with Duffy, Six, Aaron Lee, et al watching and coaching. And Duffy eating Pringles with a fork.

Dancing; with beauties and blades

2007-01-20T05:48:00.000-08:00

In the past week I've been able to take up again two of my favorite extra-curricular activities at TAC, ballroom dancing, and fencing.
We've had two dance classes with Dan (our resident dance instructor), and although the class composition has changed a bit, with some people dropping out from last semester, and some people from his Sunday class joining us, it's still been
Last week we spent the entire class learning a rather intricate waltz move, four measures long, in which the guy swirls and swoops across a large part of the dance floor with the girl. We all laughed at each other's first attempts, but by the end we were doing much better, and one might even say some of us looked graceful and elegant while dancing it.
This week we spent the class reviewing the Rumba, one of a few dances that Dan is trying to get more of here at TAC dances, because he likes more variety than just swing and the occasional waltz. We reviewed everything from last semester, learned how we could incorporate the cool new waltz move from the previous week into Rumba, and got tips and pointers on how to improve our form, since Dan cares much more about rhythm and form that performing a multitude of fancy moves.
The Wednesday night dances have also been going well, and I think moving them from outside of St. Augustine's to inside of St. Pat's was a good idea. For one thing, it's been unseasonably cold (for California), and people don't like dancing outside, because while it gets into the 60s or 70s during the day, it drops into the 40s at night. Also, in St. Pat's the have 5 very nice sofas where people can sit when they're not dancing. While this is nice for the girls, it's also had the effect of causing some of the guys to just laze around, which is a problem since there are generally only three or four of them for ten or so girls. If they're foolish enough, as they once were, to all sit on one sofa, I can enlist the aid of a few willing girls and tip it over, which was quite fun, but otherwise the only thing I can really do it play good music, so I've been trying to learn which songs the freshmen like best (since they're generally the only ones who show up anymore, and they like different songs than my class and the sophomores).

In a different type of dancing, the fencing club that I've been trying to start for awhile has really been taking off, with the leadership and support of Mr. Appleby. Sometime last semester he convinced the school that enough people were interested that they should purchase a couple helmets, blades, and gloves, and some people who previously did fencing brought their equipment back after Christmas, so that now we can have quite a few matches going on at once. We've also been having regular meetings at noon on Wednesday, with more people coming every week. Last week we had at least a dozen people there, and three or four fights going on at once. Most of the people are beginners, although there are people like Scofield and Yano who have fenced before, and Duffy and I who have been practicing since last year. Mr. Appleby himself goes fairly frequently to a local fencing club where he practices sabre, and he said if theres enough continued interest, he might be able to get his instructor to come up here to give real lessons.
I've learned about the foil from Yano for awhile, but it's only in the past few weeks that I've begun to learn the sabre from Mr. Appleby. The styles of fighting, though both fencing, are vastly different. To start with, in foil, to score a hit, you need to press the tip of your blade against the torso (not including arms or head) of your opponent with at least one pound of pressure (enough to break human skin). However, since the sabre is not only a thrusting but a slashing weapon as well, all that is needed for a hit is for the blade to touch your opponent anywhere above the waist, and now the arms and head are valid targets as well. Since you can both thrust and slash, and your target area is larger, sabre is a much faster sport. In fact, in order to slow it down they don't allow crossing your feet over. In foil or epee, when attacking you can actually run at your opponent, but now in sabre you must only advance by the short steps your can make without your back foot coming to the fore.
Even though it's more difficult at first though, I think it's more enjoyable than the foil, because there' an eve wider variety of attack, feints and parries, and it's especially fun for me, since me favorite moves are usually feints, while while those are quite possible with foil, it's even more fun in sabre to feint a slash from one direction, and then whip your blade around and smack them from the other side while their parry whistles ineffectively through the air in the other direction. The problem is that it leaves you rather open to attack, or even to their malparry hitting you, but since sabre, like foil, has a right-of-way rule, as long as it's one continuous attack, their lack of an effective parry will mean that they had no right to touch you, and if your attack is successful you will be awarded the point.
Once problem though, is that since sabre moves much faster, Duffy and I have a much harder time judging ourselves, and find it very helpful to have a third party to examine who had right of way or whose blade touched first.
So now I've talked to Mr. Appleby about having the school buy some sabres, since currently they only have foils, and we borrow Mr. Appleby's sabres to fight. Then maybe we'll being to schedule duels over classroom disagreements for the lunch entertainment of all. ;)
I look forward to stabbing Mr. Bolin with a finite blade. :P

Because this semester's classes have been mostly about infinity, about which Bolinides of Santa Paulus has some strange opinions. More on that later though.

Back at school

2007-01-09T15:43:00.000-08:00

Well, it's good to be back at school, and I've been fairly busy already.
I worked out a new plan with the guys I had been sharing a wing with last semester, so that Now instead of rooming with David Six, we both have singles, which has been the defacto situation for the past couple months, but will now be formalized so that phone calls will go to the right rooms, and Yano won't have to worry about getting in trouble for people being too loud in the lounge while video gaming.
So, because of that, I moved a bunk bed into the lounge, not to sleep on (that's what the sofas are for, and they're much more comfy) but to serve as the base for my computer desk, and to store things on top of. The new arrangement is quite nice, and provides an added element of privacy. I'll try to take pictures and post them soon.
Classes have been going ok so far. Lab has been very interesting, we're still talking about the first few pages of Newton's Mechanics. I volunteered for a prop the first day back, and did it pretty well I think. Unfortunately, no one was able to say anything about the next paragraph, so there were several minutes of silence after I sat down.
We had our first music class of the day today, which was...well, it was about par for music class. I had forgotten to bring my copy of the Mozart sonata we're studying, as had the people next to me, so we missed a fair amount of what was going on, but it was filled with the usual jumping from topic to topic, forgetting of people's names. Except that was worse than usual, because our music teacher tried to call role, and it turned out that she had forgotten all but one person's name. This was rather depressing, as it made me think even more that I didn't deserve the C I got in music, also as every other subject I got A's and B's, and several people in my class come to me when they need help with music, and generally people think I know it pretty well. *shrugs* well, I still have to decide whether or not I'll talk to the dean about petitioning the grade.
Also the Wii has been a smash hit with everyone who's tried it out here, and we're trying to get Jack Pots to have his flat-screen TV shipped out here so we don't have to go over to classroom 201 every time we want to play.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!

2007-01-02T12:33:00.000-08:00

I GOTS ME ONE!

Videos and pictures of mine will be coming soon.
Thanks Pop and Annagram and Little Gram!

TAC Films

2007-01-01T15:33:00.000-08:00

This fall we had a film festival at TAC, and I was in charge of showing the movies made by other people. So since I ended up with copies of them, I uploaded them to YouTube, and thought people might be interested in watching.

The Shoes; a Tale of Youthful Romance and Perseverance

Bad Stuff. Don't let it happen to you!

The Bookstore; kudos to Monty Python

Elmo vs. Aristotle; Sesame Street on Philosophy

The Sequel; a video full of random weirdness

The Pig; an Epic, in two parts
aka, A Film Chronicling the Adventures of the Two Most Virile Hunters Who Ever Stalked the Face of the Earth

Marytown Chapel Ceiling Collapse

2006-12-25T23:05:00.000-08:00

This is the local Franciscan Friary where we go to Mass.
Their chapel roof collapsed a few months ago, and they don't think it will be useable until summer.

Strange happening

2006-12-22T13:35:00.000-08:00

Today I saw a man in a suit driving a forklift in the rain.

That is all.

Again?

2006-12-20T11:08:00.000-08:00

There must be something about me that makes people think I'm very good at watching paint dry.
Because 2000 miles away, half-way across the country, here I am again, watching white paint dry.

At least this time I have a computer to do research on, so I'm doing *something* useful.

Board Room Classes (no, not "bored classes")

2006-11-19T20:10:00.000-08:00

A few days ago when a structural engineer was on campus, he found a crack in one of the beams in the commons chapel, so for the past few days it's been closed, and probably will be for a few more weeks until they fix it.
Since they had to have Mass somewhere, they had it in room106 for the first day, so Mr. Shield's class moved from there to room 317, where my section has Theology with Mr. O'Rielly. Since he was using that room, we got to have class in the Board of Governor's council room in the library. That's the room ehind the railing above hte entrance in this picture, and the room that opens onto the balcony in this picture.
It was pretty cool having a class there, since the atmosphere is more refined and elegant thatn the usual classrooms, since the wall are lined with large bookcases of gold-gilded tomes, with nice statues, and the view, instead of some grass, looks out over all of campus and the mountains surrounding.

Anyways, the temprary chapel has been moved to the library, and Masses are now held in the main part thereof, so it looks like we won't be having class there anymore, but it was quite enjoyable the two times we were able too. (waving to people from the balcony before class was fun too :D )

The Property of Fixxedness

2006-11-15T11:27:00.000-08:00

Yay!
I finally fixed Chris Bissek's laptop after two weeks of working on it on and off. His windows installation was thoroughly corrupted and required reinstallation, but his CD-rom drive was broken, and connecting an external drive to his USB ports didn't work, and even performing a hard drive transplant to a donor laptop didn't solve the problem. Finally, I was able to open up his CD-ROM drive, fiddle with the cables and servos a bit, and coax it to work long enough for me to install windows.
It made him quite happy to have his soul back, as it had been lost due to his lack of music from his computer.

I also just heard from Josh Kens that Father Michael said Josh could quote him on the fact that "Going to TAC and loving it is a sign of predestination."

W007.

More fun with work study

2006-11-13T14:45:00.000-08:00

So after having me make a list, "The Funky Boss" aka Steve, has told me that if I keep finiding things to add to it that I can just do stuff off that list for the rest of the semester, and possibly the year. So I pretty much get to make up my own jobs each day, which makes my job even better.
I do admit I have a tendency to choose either the fun or the extremely satisfying ones, like hosing down the ceilings (fun) or cleaning 5 years of dirt off of a fireplace (extremely satisfying).

Still have to paint that strip of wax down at the hacienda though, which will definitely involve watching more paint dry...

'Tis wondrous strange...

2006-11-07T15:37:00.000-08:00

In philosophy this year, we've started out by studying the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle. It's one of my favorite classes so far, and we've had many intense debates and discussions about virtue, it's meaning and form, how it is found and define, and particular virtues like courage, high-mindedness, temperance, and the like. Currently we've moved on to the fifth book, which mainly deals with justice. We examined the nature of justice, and different types of justice, such as distributive and reciprocal justice, for different things like transactions and interactions between mne, and finally we had reached to point where we were examining the difference between natural justice and political (or legal) justice. It occurred to me during our class that at most colleges in America, one would not only not be able to easily take up that abortion goes against the natural law unchangeably, but also that it was strange that we used that example since it was the easiest for us to agree on, since theft and murder are more easily equivocated or superceded by other natural laws.

Fun when wet

2006-11-06T14:30:00.000-08:00

Today I decided my workstudy job was to wash the ceiling in front of St. Augustine's, and blast all the cobwebs off with a pressure-nozzle hose, since Steve left me a note saying I should do something from the list I made myself. Just another reason being on "random maintainence" is totally awesome. Besides tyhe fact that Chris Bisseks and I spent 3 hours last weekend on the clock sitting in a swing watching paint dry. Seriously, we had to make sure it was the right color (none of the buckets turned out to have the right color), and Steve told us we did an excellent job.

Anyways, washings ceilings was quite enjoyable, because I got to make it pour water from the ceilings, and since I had my iPod with me, I was singing and dancing in it when Sasha came along and asked me if I was "Singing in the rain." She was quite amused, and even joined in by skipping for a bit.

I love my new job. :D

Photos Updated

2006-09-20T15:43:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I posted a bunch of new pictures a few days ago and forgot to tell people here that I had done so.

http://picasaweb.google.com/nruedig

Have Pity on the Pathetic

2006-09-17T17:27:00.000-07:00

To anyone who knows him, go comment on Piro's blog to snap him out of his little self-pity party. (Piro aka David Six)

Really...

2006-09-15T16:46:00.000-07:00

I'm not dead, just very busy with Junior year. I'll try to find some time this weekend to post pictures and updates about the first month of college.

Site of Goodness

2006-08-22T10:38:00.000-07:00

I hereby declare Farecast to be a site of goodness, because it added Chicago and LAX to it's list of city it issues airplane ticket price predictions for. W007.

[Update about college and classes coming later, but suffice it to say my section and tutors are awesome so far. Especially "Mad Molly" Gustin, my music tutor. :D ]

Update of coolness!

2006-08-10T11:08:00.000-07:00

Looky on that side over there.

<<<<

Many links of coolness and humor and interest and stuff.
I read lots of blog feeds on Google Reader, and now I've set it up so when I find something cool about a post and I put a nice little shiny star next to it, it pops up here on my blog. That way even when I don't update, like I haven't all summer (I should be getting better come school), you can still get new stuff and see what I find interesting in the world today, whether it be in politics, religion, gaming, technology, humor, or whatever.
Not that most people would care, but you're here reading this, so I thought you might, and I think it's very cool in a geeky sort of way.

Anyways, it's there, and it makes me happy.

TAC labeled on Wikimapia by me

2006-08-08T16:34:00.000-07:00

The Tartan Wave: A History Of Scottish Surfing

2006-07-09T22:08:00.000-07:00

Just a cool article, with such interesting facts like the one that the Princess Victoria Ka'iulani Cleghorn was half-Scottish, as well as being the niece of Princess Lili'uokalani, and a talented surfer.

And I guess I could count myself as a Scottish surfer too, because I do have some Scottish blood (MacQueen clan), and I have been surfing. :D

Hmm, I actually just googled "MacQueen" to get a link to use, but I'm learning some rather interesting things.
"The McQueens probably originate from Vikings who settled on Skye in Scotland."
Vikings are cool, as is the island we named our puppy after. So is the clan motto, "Constant and faithful," and the clan badge, with a wolf rampant holding an arrow.
Also described elsewhere as "A wolf rampant ermine holding a pheon gules paint downward argent."
Judge for yourself.

I like it.

Or there's this version.

I think the first one looks nicer, but maybe that's just because it's cleaner. Perhaps I'll use a vector program to reproduce it so I can blow up the image.

Pictures from Rhinelander!

2006-07-09T21:03:00.000-07:00

Taken by my mom.

All downloadable from Picasa Web Albums.

The De-Deification of America

2006-07-07T22:42:00.000-07:00

Hat Tip to The Happy Catholic

More Picasa Web Albums!

2006-07-05T17:34:00.000-07:00

Pictures taken in 2000

Pictures from the U.S. Space and Rocket Center
(we went on the Space Shot and G-force rides)

Comments here and on the web albums are welcome, and if anyone needs an invitiation to a Gmail account feel free to email me and I'll be happy to send one.

N. Korea Launches Attack Against Sea of Japan

2006-07-05T17:32:00.000-07:00

From ScrappleFace

by Scott Ott

(2006-07-05) — North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il today acknowledged that he had ordered yesterday’s missile strikes against the Sea of Japan in response to what he called “threatening and provocative movements” that the body of water had made against his nation’s coastline.

U.S. sources said that as many seven missiles, including one long-range, short-flight Taepodong 2, penetrated the surface of the sea in a terrifying display of North Korean ballistic technology prowess.

“This clearly demonstrates our status as a global superpower,” said Mr. Kim, “The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea is quite capable of raining fire from the sky upon any body of water that approaches our shores, or even thinks about it.”

The North Korean leader said the attack should “put other seas on notice that our precision-guided munitions can strike you at any time.”

Meanwhile, China made a “goodwill gesture” aimed at gaining Mr. Kim’s trust and ending the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula by offering to provide replacements for the expended missiles.

“The people of North Korea can barely eat,” said an unnamed China spokesman, “So where would they get the money to buy new missiles? We consider this a humanitarian offer.”

This was the funniest take on the missle launch I've seen yet.

Escher's Kind of Town

2006-07-03T19:47:00.000-07:00

I always thought Chicago was a cool city, but I didn't know parts were designed by M. C. Escher

Thank you!

2006-06-22T14:52:00.000-07:00

I spent yesterday installing anti-virus and anti-spyware programs on Yorktown Mall's computer, and cleaning off all the tracking cookies and other malware they had. Fortunately, my Aunt pixie works there, and gave me a ticket to a free meal of teriyaki beef and shrimp on rice with green tea to drink at the Japanese restaurant in the food court (and it looked like the best place there), so I was able to have a nice lunch at my own little table next to a huge bank of windows looking at peaceful clouds floating across the sky, rather than the parking lot underneath.

Thank you Aunt Pixie!

NB: Those same innocent-looking clouds turned out to be very deceitful and wicked, because they later turned into rainclouds which made the traffic going home horrible.

See? This is what my Liberal Arts TAC Education is good for.

2006-06-21T23:12:00.000-07:00

Antigone Quiz
"You answered 9 items out of 10 correctly.
Your score is 90%. Excellent job!"
I forgot that it was Tiresias, not Haemon, who made Creon see that he was wrong.

Jane Austen Quiz

"You answered 13 items out of 26 correctly.
Your score is 50%. You may want to practice more."
Not so hot. I've only read two of her books so far though.

Pride and Prejudice Quiz
"You answered 9 items out of 12 correctly.
Your score is 75%. Good job!"
Not bad. Didn't know the year it was published, the first 4 words of the book, or who paid ickham to marry Lydia.

Well, they were fun to take. More can be found here.

Really Cool Guardian Angel Prayer

2006-06-19T15:23:00.000-07:00

O Holy Angel, attendant of my wretched soul and of mine afflicted life, forsake me not, a sinner, neither depart from me for mine inconstancy. Give no place to the evil demon to subdue me with the oppression of this mortal body; but take me by my wretched and outstretched hand, and lead me in the way of salvation.
Yea, O holy Angel of God, the guardian and protector of my hapless soul and body, forgive me all things whatsoever wherewith I have troubled thee, all the days of my life, and if I have sinned in anything this day.

Shelter me in this present night, and keep me from every affront of the enemy, lest I anger God by any sin; and intercede with the Lord in my behalf, that He might strengthen me in the fear of Him, and make me a worthy servant of His goodness. Amen.

Found in the comments on a Catholic blog.
Also, in an interesting twist, when I googled a phrase from it, the top hit was a Society of the Divine Word site, and I just delivered a computer to their International Headquarters in Techny, IL last week.

Pictures of My Frivolous Youth

2006-06-17T01:11:00.000-07:00

Why do I love Logitech?

2006-06-17T00:54:00.000-07:00

Because not only do they make awesome mice, like my MX1000,

but when it breaks, I call them, go through various test procedures for 10 minutes, and then they're like, "oh well, I guess it's broken. Here, how about we send you a brand-spanking new one? It comes complete with shiny box...

And don't worry about having to return the old one, we don't want it anyways."

That is why I love Logitech.

More Picasa Web Albums

2006-06-15T22:19:00.000-07:00

Operation Bunny Rescue, which happened recently. (perhaps I can get Allison to type up a description of the events, as I missed to most exciting parts)

And The Battle of Belleau Wood, a diorama of a WWI battle I made for an eighth grade history project.

If you have GMail, feel free to log in and leave comments on the photos, or if not, just comment here, because I'm told that the little comments link right down there \/ is feeling lonely and depressed.

Pope + iPod = Rocking B16

2006-06-15T00:48:00.000-07:00

Father David Vogel's Ordination

2006-06-14T17:34:00.000-07:00

This is my first picture post using Google's Picasa Web Album's, and I highly reccomend the Picasa photo orgnatization software, along with the web album uploading, to anyone who wants an easy experience in organizing and posting their photos online.

Castles for sale!

2006-06-14T09:29:00.000-07:00

It would be pretty awesome to live in a castle, but I think they're a bit out of my price range.

In the meantime...

2006-06-14T08:40:00.000-07:00

Some cool and cute pictures of the Pope I've found.

"Pope Benedict doing his Goldfinger Oddjob imitation flicks off
his steel Zucchetto at a dissenting theologian heckling him."

"...did someone say, perogies?"

"[In a trip plagued with constant drenching rain...] A rainbow is seen in the sky as the Pope Benedict XVI pays his respect to the victims of the former Birkenau Nazi death camp in Oswiecim, southern Poland May 28, 2006."

Thanks to The Curt Jester and The American Papist

Much joy and happiness

2006-06-14T07:48:00.000-07:00

Google just came out with Picasa Web Albums, which looks like it will make uploading pictures to this blog in a nice format much easier for me (because I'm picky about the format, each photo post has generally taken me a few hours instead of the few minutes it should take.

There are only two catches, 1, it's still in test, so I'm awaiting my invitation, but as soon as I get it I'll try it out; and 2, you'll have to click a link I post here to an album I create there, but it has a very nice, clean, smooth, and fast interface, (see here for a demo album of cute puppy pictures) so I hope you, my loyal readers, won't mind.

And I do have 3 batches of photos to post, so expect updates soon (provided my request for an invitation goes through, which it should)

May 31 Link Collection

2006-05-31T22:09:00.000-07:00

(if anyone can think of a better description let me know)

It's so simple, why didn't we think of it before?

Those Iranian Satirists can be funny...although probably not as much as the original letter from their president.

It's got everything ... including the kitchen sink, the fridge, the dishwasher, the shelves, the microwave, etc.

And saving the best for last...

A very cute, humourous post by a homeschooling mom
Possibly because I like kissing, but who doesn't? (besides young kids :P )

My favorite quotes from the above,

"On one such recent occasion she ran screaming from the room with her fingers in her ears shouting, "Oh, Gross! I can still hear it! How can they stand it?! "She just doesn't know yet that the quiet ones are actually better," the Headmaster leaned over and whispered to me."

and

"And you see, now I have not only successfully embarrassed the youngest two children, I have completely grossed out and embarrassed the older Progeny who have read this blog entry and cannot believe that I am telling the entire internet world that their parents still kiss."

2006-05-31T11:00:00.000-07:00

So Dark the Con of Mac

For all you members of "Apple Dei" out there.

Da Vinci Code boosts Opus Dei numbers

On a smiliar subject, God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform.
via The American Papist

The Wanderer

Methinks this is one of Pete's better poems... at least, I like it.

"Don't tell me you take the Bible *literally*?"

How to respond to this oft-heard question, according to Mark Shea
via The Happy Catholic

Fire-breathing Lego Snowman

2006-05-24T07:12:00.000-07:00

Maybe it's just me, but I think this is pretty cool.

Legoland champ triumphs in trial by fire - and ice

Visit to the Milwaukee Public Museum

2006-05-23T23:16:00.000-07:00

Last week my family and I drove up to Milwaukee to visit the exhibit St Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes.

Unfortunately, no photography was allowed inside that exhibit, so I have to rely on images culled from google.
However, the exhbit itself was amazing, and traced the architecture, art, religion, and politics of the Vatican and popes through the ages in a very informative respectful manner.

The sheer amount of articles in the exhibit was amazing, and I'll just list a few of the things that especially struck me.

For one thing, I didn't know we worshippped agiant pineapple.
No, just kidding,that was suposedly the sarcophagus of St. Peter in the Basilia of St. Peter built on the Vatican by the Emperor Constantine.

What I actually found really neat was the original stone carvings they had taken from the first basilica of St. Peter.

They also had a neat recreation of what it would have been like for Michaelangelo to work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Another exhibit had a letter written from Pope Pius IX to the Christians in China. It was written on red silk, which normally was accorded only to the Emperor, to show the pope's authority. I like it when the Catholic Church uses local symbols like that to signify things, kindof like Our Lady of Gaudalupe.

At the very end of the exhibit, there was a bronze cast of the hand of Pope John Paul II (put there at his own request), which seemed a very fitting note to end on.

I was able to take photographs in other parts of the museum though.

The Biggest Fabre Project Ever!

Must've been a freshman for a long time to collect all those.

Roll Out the Barrels

Part of the Nunnemacher Arms Collection at the Milwaukee Public Museum.

Pretty

This one's for Will.

Crashing at the Beach after Finals

2006-05-20T04:49:00.000-07:00

Group of Dead Sophomores

Will, Michelle, JB, Mary Steichen, and I drove to the beach after our philosophy final on Friday, and set the afternoon hanging out, sleeping, reading, and resting, before going to In 'n Out for dinner.

*squint* ... *grunt* ... "just lemme read."

We TACers are so pathetic, we go to the beach after finals week, and every one of us brings a book and reads it.

JB Dozing

Movie + Finals = Crazy Tired

Stones Set in Sand

Gull Guardian

Starfish hiding under a rock

Hello Mr. Crab

Gull Soaring over the saltwater

Ocean Spray

Will chowing down on a 4x4

The Finals Zone

2006-05-17T15:29:00.004-07:00

Fog and mist

Freshman Studying at 3 AM

Globes in the distance

A light in the distance...

The crazed student studying by lamplight outside

Light and shadow

Eerie Luminescence

Finals week

2006-05-11T10:33:00.000-07:00

As he walks out of the coffee shop, the murmur of studious voices dies behind him, replaced by a ghastly silence. The moon shines brightly through the thick haze that hangs over campus, lending an appropriate surreal atmosphere to the tranquil night.
The pathways, usually traversed frequently at all times of day, lie empty, betraying the anxiety and stress of examinations that causes their abandonement.
Is it just coincidence that we read Dante this semester, and still have the quote "Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here" lingering in the recesses of our minds?

He continues his walk across campus, thoughts flickering through his head, when he realizes the mist is so thick he can't see any of the buildings, even though he stands in the middle of campus, under the solitary lamppost, the flourescent light illuminating the fog almost as brightly as the moon, and the jasmine bush overwhelming his sense of smell. He tries not to think about the relation of sense to potential and agent intellect as expounded upon by Aristotle in De Anima.

Suddenly, out of the fog, three freshman come skipping down from St. Bernard's, singing lustily, their crazed demeanor evident from their gait.

It is not surprising, dementia is one of the most common symptoms of finals week.
They pass by him, back into the haze whence they came.

As he continues his walk in the swirling mists, a theme starts in his head.

Finals week truly turns TAC into "The Twilight Zone."

Apology

2006-05-09T14:08:00.000-07:00

The past month has been very rigorous scholastically, and there have been many others events, leaving me little time for blogging. Life in general has been pretty rough this semester, so accept my apologies for the lack of consistent posting.
However, finals are going well so far, and I'm half-way done.
Over the summer I'll be trying to post more than once a week, so watch this space when I get home next week.
God Bless,
~Nick

My Birthday!

2006-04-13T16:17:00.000-07:00

I had a pretty good birthday today, it was just an ordinary day until after classes. Happily I managed to dodge the obligatory "Happy Birthday" song by everyone in the commons at lunch by eating it in the coffee shop, and then for dinner, Will, Mary Rose, David Six, Tommy Duffy, and I went out for Sushi.
We went to a really good place called "Sumo Sushi" in Ventura, where the main attraction to college students is that if you eat there instead of getting take-out, all the sushi is half price. We ordered a very wide selection, with stuff like crab, California, Philadelphia, salmon, and tuna rolls, and then eel, octopus, crab, and other assorted sushi (not rolls).
We also ordered an quail egg shooter, but when it came, it was somewhat different from what Duffy, Mose and I (who thought we had seen it before) had expected.
Instead of being sushi or a roll, it was a small glass filed with some sort of liquid, with a bit of soy sauce and smelt eggs on the bottom, and a quail egg floating in it. It actually looked very pretty, the yellow of the quail egg nicely complimenting the blue tint of the glass, and mingling with the orange of the smelt eggs at the bottom.
So, though we had anticipated it to be a dish that could be shared, seeing as it wasn't, and it was my birthday, I shot it, and it actually tasted very good (yes, I was somewhat surprised at that).
Shortly after the rolls began to arrive, and after that the sushi, and we feasted on delicious raw and cooked fish, and the discussion was noticeably slowed for quite some time as everyone appreciated the fine cooking. David Six, who hadn't ever had sushi before, was somewhat hesitant at first, but soon was savoring the delicacies along with the rest of us. He was again a bit nervous when the second course, with the octopus (1st picture below, right side), smelt eggs (same picture, left side), and eel (3rd picture), arrived, but after trying the eels (which was perfectly, absolutely, heavenly stuff) he decided that contrary to his opinion after the 1st course ("It's good, but I wouldn't want to eat it forever"), that it definitely would be possible to live on sushi alone.

After we had finished all of the sushi (which actually took awhile, because unlike pizza, sushi is something to be enjoyed, not devoured), Will and I decided to fully enjoy the wasabi (the green stuff on our chopsticks in the bottom picture, btw, chopsticks are very fun to eat with, and I ought to get a pair), a very spicy hot paste used for seasoning the sushi (typically you stir a small amount of wasabi into the soy sauce into which you dip the sushi, because the wasabi is very potent.
So we each took a large hunk and ate it, letting it sit in our mouths for several seconds, spreading the flavor (it's actually a very unique, but good flavor, in spite of the intensity), and then breathing slowly and deeply, letting it clear out our sinuses. The sensation of slight burning in our nostrils actually felt pretty good, and I did it again with David afterwards. Our eyes smarted and watered a bit, but the taste lasted longer than the burning, and was definitely worth it. Mary Rose thought we were pretty crazy, but she already knew that.

Note: Upon reading the wikipedia articale, I came across these quotes, which make sense: "Wasabi (Japanese: 山葵) is a member of the cabbage family. Known as Japanese horseradish, its root is used as a spice and has an extremely strong flavor. Its hotness is more akin to that of a hot mustard than a chile pepper, producing vapors that burn the sinus cavity rather than the tongue."
"Fortunately for those who either through malice or unfamiliarity [or craziness] come into contact with too much of this condiment, the burning sensations it can induce are short-lived compared to the effects of chile peppers."

We then went to a local boba tea shop to get tea, except for the unfortunate fact that they were out of boba , so we had to settle for tea with jelly in it, which was still very good, although not as good as tea with boba in it.
Random bit of trivia from wikipedia: "In September 2004, while defending a US$18 billion weapon purchase plan, the ROC Ministry of National Defense used bubble tea as an example of the overall cost of the proposed purchase. The Ministry stated that the total cost of the weapons systems would be equivalent to the money saved if all Taiwanese drank one fewer pearl milk tea per week for a period of twenty years."
(!? Is that supposed to be alot or a little?)

We got back to campus at about 8, and Mary Rose, David, Tommy and I went up to the Owl to watch "Howl's Moving Castle" (Will had other obligations, such as watching a movie with Michelle). It was a really good, fun anime movie, although Mary Rose was traumatized at parts, since she had read the book, and apparently the movie didn't always hold true to the original idea or story line. We all enjoyed it though.

After that Duffy went down to campus to sleep, and David wandered off to sleep on another side of the watertower while Mary Rose and I watched the first two episodes of Fruits Basket, and cute little Japanese anime, involving a little girl who goes to lives with people who are really zodiac signs who turn into animals when hugged. (don't ask why, my only response will be "it's Japanese")

Finally I went to bed, very content and happy, with good friends, food, and movies.

The Battle (or lack thereof) of Cuteness (or lack thereof)

2006-04-10T10:38:00.000-07:00

We had a big long prop today, from Apollonius Conics, Book II, Prop 20. When we have one that's big and long, most people either don't study it much at all, because they don't get hard props and probably won't be called, or study it a ton, because they get hard props and will be called. And since they've studied it alot and know how to do it well it's nice to be called so that their hard work is worth something.

So Fiona and Will were arguing over the prop, because they both wanted it, when Bridget said, "I heard he took volunteers in the morning section."

Will shouted, "Good!"

And then Fiona said in her inimitable quiet fiesty cute Fiona-voice,
"Don't you dare!
...I'm cuter than you!"

Will shrugged and looked mildly flustered, everyone else laughed, and Fiona blushed.

The general concensus was that she was the winner hands-down.

I leave it to your judgement.

Fiona, looking cute as usual.

Will, tossing around a hunk of pie dough for some reason, which gives him great joy.

Btw, Fiona got the prop, because when Mr. Clark said, "I'll take a volunteer, while Will half-heartedlyraised his hand, Fiona said (and Fiona speaking is a rarity in class) cheerfully, "I'll do it!"

Seminar Quotes over the past couple months

2006-04-06T17:14:00.000-07:00

During Dante:

"You have to start with the big sins first, you have to say "I need to stop murdering people"" - James Berquist in Seminar

“It seems to present the idea that Evil if fun, Good is boring.” – Maria Cross

During The Fairie Queen:

“He’s a wimp! He doesn’t seem to be able to do anything on his own, he only survives because he falls against a tree, and then down a well, and then he almost accidentally cuts off the dragon’s head!” – Angela Nicolini

“It seems like he’s a wimp who can’t do it himself.” – Angela Nicolini
“So if I told you to do a hard job, and told you that everyone who had tried to do it before you had DIED, would you be a wimp for doing it and needing a little bit of help?” – Maria Cross

“So maybe it’s supposed to be a comedy” – Mr. Collins
“But it’s not funny” – James Berquist
“The Way Miss Nicolini described it it’s funny.” Mr. Collins

“She doesn’t do anything though, she just sits there and watches” - Angela
(very sweetly) “Maybe she’s praying for him.” - Michelle

I find this very very frightening.

2006-04-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

But not all that surprising.
It's basically the plot of Tom Clancy's "Rainbow Six" where nutso evrionmental scientists decide to kill off 90% of humanity using ebola to "save the planet" Actually, methinks Tom Clancy ought to sue this guy for copyright violation. Anyways, the scary part is that he's able to speak like this at major universities and garner standing ovations from the impressionable young students there.
How wonderful. *rolls eyes*
(In case you're wondering, since I haven't used this feature before, just click on the title to go to the link)

Civilization!

2006-03-20T15:17:00.000-08:00

Here are some picture I took during the big civilization game we had on campus. I lasted about 2 months, and we played usually 1-2 times a week for about 4 hours. The List of PLayers is as follows (and if someone could give me the final points total that would be cool)

1st - David Six - Babylon
2nd (by 2 points) - Joe Ferrier - Assyria

Nick Ruedig - ASIA
David Ferrier - Carthage
David Yanoshick - Egypt
Tommy Duffy - Rome
Ben Coughlin - Illyria
Pete Six - Iberia

It was a really awesome game, and fun for all (I think) even those who didn't win.
It kinda stuck that I got pwned by a Civil War on the next to last turn though, but I maintained a nice board position throughout most of the game,however, I think it was at the expense of my technology.
David Six suffered some minor calamities at the beginning, but he quickly recovered and maintained an awesome board position, because his closest neighbor was Joe, who was constantly being hit by David Ferrier and Yano, and too busy surviving to hurt David, until David had built up a huge defensive boarder. Egypt was to David's south, butt he vast expanse of desert served as a natural boundary, so David pretty much just sat there happy with his nine cities every turn.
Yano as Egypt started off the game well, but I'm not sure if he was aggressive enough, because Egypt doesn't need to be aggressive to survive, but they do to excel. He also kept rubbin up against David and Joe Ferrier, so by the end of the game he wasn't a top contender.

Just doing my own little part...

2006-03-20T14:58:00.000-08:00

In an attempt to better the world in some small way, I've gone on all five computers in the computer lab and changed the Internet Explorer Icon on the desktop and on the start menu to point to firefox.exe. :D

Sean, the Irish Penguin

2006-03-17T14:13:00.000-08:00

Look!

It's an Irish Penguin!

(don't ask me how that makes sense)

Yes, I'm bored.

And it's kindof like the green milk we had this morning.

Crazy times in Funkytown (Santa Paula)

2006-03-15T11:11:00.000-08:00

Last saturday I had alot of fun. Dinner wasn't that great, so Will, Michelle, Clay, Tom, and I went out to Carl Jr.'s for dinner at about 10, and had a fun time, having crazy discussions, watching funny videos on my iPod, eating excellent juicy burgers, and singing and dancing to Numa Numa at full blast (Will was dancing too, which was kinda interesting, since he was driving, but Michelle wasn't dancing or singing, she was just kinda...looking either scared or amused by the rest of us crazy people).
It was very fun.

P.S. Will and I have a tradition of playing "Funkytown" from Shrek when we drive through Santa Paula, hence the post title. But we didn't play it this time in respect to Michelle's sensibilities and dislike of the song.

Happy Pi Day!

2006-03-14T01:59:00.000-08:00

The day of

Here's a really cool equation I found last week the integreates the concepts of Pi, e, i, 1, and 0.

"Euler's identity is remarkable for its mathematical beauty. Three basic arithmetic functions are present exactly once: addition, multiplication, and exponentiation. As well, the identity links five fundamental mathematical constants:

* The number 0, the additive identity.
* The number 1, the multiplicative identity.
* The number π, the circular constant, which is ubiquitous in trigonometry, Euclidean geometry, and mathematical analysis.
* The number e, the base of natural logarithms, which occurs widely in mathematical analysis.
* The number i, the square root of -1, and the basis for the complex numbers, which contain the roots of all nonconstant polynomials and leads to deeper insights into many operators, such as integration."

Euler's Identity

I like this t-shirt:

Just in case you're wondering what it is exactly, here are the first ten thousand digits:

3.
1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038196 4428810975 6659334461 2847564823 3786783165 2712019091 4564856692 3460348610 4543266482 1339360726 0249141273 7245870066 0631558817 4881520920 9628292540 9171536436 7892590360 0113305305 4882046652 1384146951 9415116094 3305727036 5759591953 0921861173 8193261179 3105118548 0744623799 6274956735 1885752724 8912279381 8301194912 9833673362 4406566430 8602139494 6395224737 1907021798 6094370277 0539217176 2931767523 8467481846 7669405132 0005681271 4526356082 7785771342 7577896091 7363717872 1468440901 2249534301 4654958537 1050792279 6892589235 4201995611 2129021960 8640344181 5981362977 4771309960 5187072113 4999999837 2978049951 0597317328 1609631859 5024459455 3469083026 4252230825 3344685035 2619311881 7101000313 7838752886 5875332083 8142061717 7669147303 5982534904 2875546873 1159562863 8823537875 9375195778 1857780532 1712268066 1300192787 6611195909 2164201989 3809525720 1065485863 2788659361 5338182796 8230301952 0353018529 6899577362 2599413891 2497217752 8347913151 5574857242 4541506959 5082953311 6861727855 8890750983 8175463746 4939319255 0604009277 0167113900 9848824012 8583616035 6370766010 4710181942 9555961989 4676783744 9448255379 7747268471 0404753464 6208046684 2590694912 9331367702 8989152104 7521620569 6602405803 8150193511 2533824300 3558764024 7496473263 9141992726 0426992279 6782354781 6360093417 2164121992 4586315030 2861829745 5570674983 8505494588 5869269956 9092721079 7509302955 3211653449 8720275596 0236480665 4991198818 3479775356 6369807426 5425278625 5181841757 4672890977 7727938000 8164706001 6145249192 1732172147 7235014144 1973568548 1613611573 5255213347 5741849468 4385233239 0739414333 4547762416 8625189835 6948556209 9219222184 2725502542 5688767179 0494601653 4668049886 2723279178 6085784383 8279679766 8145410095 3883786360 9506800642 2512520511 7392984896 0841284886 2694560424 1965285022 2106611863 0674427862 2039194945 0471237137 8696095636 4371917287 4677646575 7396241389 0865832645 9958133904 7802759009 9465764078 9512694683 9835259570 9825822620 5224894077 2671947826 8482601476 9909026401 3639443745 5305068203 4962524517 4939965143 1429809190 6592509372 2169646151 5709858387 4105978859 5977297549 8930161753 9284681382 6868386894 2774155991 8559252459 5395943104 9972524680 8459872736 4469584865 3836736222 6260991246 0805124388 4390451244 1365497627 8079771569 1435997700 1296160894 4169486855 5848406353 4220722258 2848864815 8456028506 0168427394 5226746767 8895252138 5225499546 6672782398 6456596116 3548862305 7745649803 5593634568 1743241125 1507606947 9451096596 0940252288 7971089314 5669136867 2287489405 6010150330 8617928680 9208747609 1782493858 9009714909 6759852613 6554978189 3129784821 6829989487 2265880485 7564014270 4775551323 7964145152 3746234364 5428584447 9526586782 1051141354 7357395231 1342716610 2135969536 2314429524 8493718711 0145765403 5902799344 0374200731 0578539062 1983874478 0847848968 3321445713 8687519435 0643021845 3191048481 0053706146 8067491927 8191197939 9520614196 6342875444 0643745123 7181921799 9839101591 9561814675 1426912397 4894090718 6494231961
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9588970695 3653494060 3402166544 3755890045 6328822505 4525564056 4482465151 8754711962 1844396582 5337543885 6909411303 1509526179 3780029741 2076651479 3942590298 9695946995 5657612186 5619673378 6236256125 2163208628 6922210327 4889218654 3648022967 8070576561 5144632046 9279068212 0738837781 4233562823 6089632080 6822246801 2248261177 1858963814 0918390367 3672220888 3215137556 0037279839 4004152970 0287830766 7094447456 0134556417 2543709069 7939612257 1429894671 5435784687 8861444581 2314593571 9849225284 7160504922 1242470141 2147805734 5510500801 9086996033 0276347870 8108175450 1193071412 2339086639 3833952942 5786905076 4310063835 1983438934 1596131854 3475464955 6978103829 3097164651 4384070070 7360411237 3599843452 2516105070 2705623526 6012764848 3084076118 3013052793 2054274628 6540360367 4532865105 7065874882 2569815793 6789766974 2205750596 8344086973 5020141020 6723585020 0724522563 2651341055 9240190274 2162484391 4035998953 5394590944 0704691209 1409387001 2645600162 3742880210 9276457931 0657922955 2498872758 4610126483 6999892256 9596881592 0560010165 5256375678

Thought you might want to know.

Skiing

2006-03-08T08:35:00.000-08:00

Techiness

2006-03-08T08:10:00.000-08:00

Joe: Y'know the only thing I don't like about Gmail archiving? You just CAN'T do it from the front page! See, look, it's not in the little menu thing at all, no "archive"!
Nick: *wanders over* *laughs* *points to bold "Archive" Button about 2 inches from the menu*
Joe: SHUT UP!

Funny happening in the Computer lab

2006-03-02T21:43:00.000-08:00

So I'm here, converting videos to run on my iPod while studying Aristotle, when I hear a plea from the other side of the room, "Does anyone know about computers?"
I walked over there, but John Boyer had beaten me to it, and was helping some junior girl print something out, because the text kept cutting off at the bottom of the page.
Girl: See, I select it, and print it, and I don't know what the problem is, why it won't print right...
John: Well, the first problem is you're using Internet Explorer.
Girl: That's a problem?
John: A big one.

Sorry, only my geek friends will get this.
*shrugs*

Don Rags

2006-02-28T12:02:00.000-08:00

Mr. Decaen said I was doing very well in lab, and clearly preparing for the classes well and thinking about the readings, but that even though some people in the class needed to be told they were wrong, I might be able to do it more charitably. His closing words included, "Mr. Ruedig has a sharp mind, and also a sharp manner."

Mr. Collins said I was doing well in seminar, and also was paying more attention to the text and asking deeper questions, and had improved since last semester, when I was already doing well. He also said I had a very good oral final, better than he expected, in fact.

Miss Zedlick said she was dissapointed after hearing all the praise from the previous two tutors with my performance in Latin, because I was doing average work, not really better or worse than last semester. It doesn't seem that studying makes that much of a difference then, because I've been working really hard on Latin lately, and still getting the same grades. Bleah.

Mr. Clark said I was doing very well in math, and clearly had a mind suited for it and a solid foundation in mathematical concepts and thinking. He did say that he caught me unaware with one prop last semester, but it hasn't happened again, and that I should keep up with my preparations for class and not slack off.

Mr. Wodzinski didn't have the nicest things to say though. He knew I was bright enough, and he didn't think it was a matter of not preparing enough, but that I appeared apathetic in philosophy, like I didn't care enough to pay attention or talk. I admit this is actually kindof true, because we had a few really bad classes, and it's been hard for Will and I to care about much since, because a few members of our class make it very difficult to speak in this class particularly, since they dominate the conversation, and are extremely stubborn and obfuscate excessively. But I'll be trying harder there definitely.

Dr. McArthur said that I had been making some good points in Theology, and when I spoke, I was very clear and had good logical thoughts that showed I was investigating the text. He said he liked it so much that he thought I should talk more, and be more of a leader of the conversation.

So I got stellar rags from Mr. Decaen and Mr. Collins, fairly good ones from Mr. Clark and Dr. McArthur, but not so great from Ms. Zedlick and Mr. Wodzinski.

Ninja Dancer

2006-02-26T22:32:00.000-08:00

Or, as Duffy referred to him, "The Super Secret NINJ4 Dancer of Doom."

Ninja come to "Asian Mardi Gras" Dance not unprepared.

Ninja must have fan club.

Ninja also must dance with pretty girl to show off her pretty dress.

Ninja blend into background in order to better show off pretty girl.

We have the Weirdest Couples on this Campus...

2006-02-24T10:12:00.000-08:00

More Rugby!

2006-02-22T18:41:00.000-08:00

Well, we had an awesome turnout of 6 people at rugby practice today.
Just enough for a short 3-on-3 game., which was ridicuulously fun. It just consisted of run, tackle, rut for the ball, run, tackle again, grab ball, run, be tackled, run, tackle, run, tackle, without any break except for scores, which were every 5 minutes or so.
We ran some drills for 45 minutes after that, running plays, tackling eachother, and other such fun.

Teh Uber-Geeky Box of D00m

2006-02-20T21:13:00.000-08:00

Last night I was fed up with having to deal with all the cables for my computer, plugging them in every time I moved from my room to the computer lab, etc. SoI took some supplies up to David Six's room, where he had that staple of geeky projects....
(heavenly chorus please)

DUCT TAPE

...along with some helpful advice.
I took a small box, about 6x8x10 inches, and put my 250GB External HD in there, along with its power and data cords. I then put in my laptop's power cord, and my wireless mouse dock, along with its data cable and charger. Then I put in the charger for my iPod, and cut out a long square on the top of the box, and duct-taped a power strip upside down on top of it, and plugged the 4 power cords in from the bottom. Then I cut a small rectangle out of the bottom of one side of the box, and pulled the data cables and power cord for my laptop and iPod out of it, after taping them inside to the box, so they wouldn't come out to far. Then I covered the box with duct tape (for that uber-cool geeky look), and fashioned a handle out of a few peices of cardboard (for support in the middle) and more duct tape (which truely does have 1001 uses). Then I made it tso that the top of the box can be secured with a couple flaps of duct tape, and then created a pocket on the side for my iPod, with a slit in the bottom so that it can charge while resting there. I then made another small flap of tape on the side to hold my earbuds nicely when they're not being used, so they don't tangle. I was also able to fit a mini USB light and my iPod data cable inside, and poked a small hole in one side so that my HD's blue LED shines out.

And so it was done.
I'm quite happy with it so far, it saves alot of time and hassle, and was quite fun to make.
And it gets some interesting comments too.

Rugby!

2006-02-15T18:03:00.000-08:00

I just got back from Rugby practice, and I must say, it's one of the funnest games I've ever played. (And yes, I do know that you can't find "funnest" in the dictionary, but I think it sounds better than "most fun" so shush.) It's like the lines of football with the speed and soccer, and no rules!
Ok, so it has rules, but none on tackling people, holding them, throwing them, and in general beating other guys up. But because there aren't any pads, we learned how to tackle properly, without hurting ourselves on the other guy (well, not hurting him much). We didn't exactly have enough people to play a real game, but we had a lot of fun doing tackling drills and running passing plays.
The tackling drill was a version of "Smear the Queer", where one guy tried to break through a "d-line" of players spread across the field, and whoever tackled him then tried to get through going the other way, requiring the d-line to reform very quickly, which is a necessary skill for a Rugby team since there aren't any breaks between plays like football.
Then, for the passing plays, we line up on the field diagonally, because in Rugby, you can't pass the ball forward, you can just lateral it behind you. SO the point of the passing plays is to run up the field bouncing the ball back and forth in order to confuse the defenders. So the guy at the top of the diagonal throws to the next guys, and so on down theline, while we're running up the field. Of course, there are variations to confuse the defenders, like passing back, or looping around. It was funny to hear Hank Zepeda was shouting the names of the plays across campus, because two were named for tutors (Nieto and Letteny), and the third in honor of a student who was killed in an accident shortly after graduating the year before last (Jean Frances). After sprinting back and forth across the field for 45 minutes, we were all pretty exhausted, so we ended with a bit of passing drill. Practicing rugby passing is kindof strange, just underhanding the ball to one another, and tricker that it first looks, but it's fairly easy to catch on. At least when you're standing still. While running at full speed, keeping an eye on the defenders, and twisting to see the guy behind you, it's a bit more difficult.

Hopefully though, we'll get enough guys to dedicate their time so that we can form a team to join a local league, which would be really fun.

And beating other guys up for awhile can be very therapuetic.

St. Valentine's Day

2006-02-14T18:45:00.000-08:00

Today to classes, then after classes I went out with Mose, and Will ( my roommate) and his gf Michelle, since he really wanted to take her out, but didn't feel comfortable going alone, and three other couples backed out, and I'm good friends with Mose. We went to a really nice Chinese Restaurant, with very decent prices, and a cool fountain in the middle. The four of us had a great time, and even met a graduate of TAC who was working at the restaurant.

After we got back I had a seminar on Dante's Purgatorio, and we ended up talking alot about love, and true love, and selfless love. We focused on a quote where Dante first meets Beatrice, his first love, whom he betrayed in a manner of speaking, and we discussed his love for her, and how it was imperfect, and whether or not human love could be perfect. This also tied into happiness, because she rebuked him for approching the mountain, "because you know here men are happy." Some people thought that seeking happiness was wrong for him, because he had rejected her, and his religion, but I was more fo the mind that he was rebuked because he had not approched this happiness in the proper way. It seemed disordered, in a way, that he who would come to heaven should pass through Hell, the place without any hope of heaven.
However, even we had to cut the discussion off, we were told we would get to discuss some of the same things next night.

Finally, after seminar there was a fun dance in the Coffee shop till curfew.

Sick

2006-02-01T18:01:00.000-08:00

That's mainly been the story of me for the past few weeks. I've tried to miss as few classes as possible, which means that some that I've gone to I've been completely dead, and not really gotten anything.
However, we are learning that the planets do indeed go around the sun.
Because of magnetism.
Betcha didn't know that.

No more equants....until tomorrow

2006-01-19T16:52:00.000-08:00

Today in Math, after certain people kept talking about equants in Copernicus, when there were no equants, the noramlly very calm Mr. Clark, exasperated, finally said, "No one's talking about an equant. The equant has been shot... shot and killed."

No one mentioned the equant for the rest of class.
(well until I did at the very end, but that was because I was coming to more fully realize Copernicus' hypocrisy, and Mr. Clark told me to stop thinking ahead, and wait till tomorrow.)

Lab is fun!

2006-01-17T16:22:00.000-08:00

Doing flame tests on different chemicals can be quite fun.
Especially solutions with copper in them. Those are a very preeeety green.
And potash has a nice pinky/purple color.

INSANITAS!!!

2005-12-24T15:12:00.000-08:00

Today was completely insane in the deli, I couldn't put stuff out fast enough, becausepeople were emptying the shelves faster than I could fill them.
In addition, because everyone was at work, and the counter was full and people were rushing around bumping into eachother, tempers were on edge, so it wasn't the funnest day of the year. And it still pays the same as every other day.
Oh well.

Busy-ness!

2005-12-23T15:09:00.000-08:00

Today the deli was even busier than the past few days...probably the 4th busiest day of the year, after Christmass Eve, the 4th of July, and New Year's Eve.

Chatterbox

2005-12-22T15:07:00.000-08:00

Have you ever worked with someone who talks all day long? It can eventually get fairly annoying. Today I listened to one of my co-workers pratle on all day, and I even heard her tell the same story, using almost the exact same words and phrases to 7 different people.
Argh.

Day off.

2005-12-21T15:06:00.000-08:00

Today I had most of the day off, so spent it in the basement building computer for my dad, and testing them and talking to friends.