There’s something both comforting and a little embarrassing/disgusting about having a “usual” at a food or beverage place.  I don’t mean you order the same thing every time you go there, and that’s your “usual;” lots of people do that.  I mean, when you walk in, the people who work there already start making your order because they know what you’re getting without asking.  That implies a predictable ordering/eating habit AND high frequency.  Everyone likes to be recognized, and there’s a comfort in being known and understood without saying a word.  But the amount of time and money it takes to gain that recognition is sad to think about sometimes, at least for me.

I went to the Pens-Stars game in Dallas last night.  I have to say – live hockey is SUPER fun.  I was never really a hockey fan before.  I casually paid attention to what was going on, but didn’t care that much.  And I pretty much never watched a full hockey game, start to finish, before this season.  But I went to a game in Pittsburgh in December, and then to the game last night, and I’ve been watching it more and more on TV the past couple months, and I’m really enjoying it.  I’ve known for a couple years now that if I ever got drawn in, I would probably really enjoy it.  I was just waiting for the catalyst.  Well, that catalyst was seeing it live.  Now I love it.  The hockey experience in Dallas is much different than in Pittsburgh, though.  In Pittsburgh, the crowd is into the game from the first time the puck drops.  Also, I don’t recall seeing a single away-team jersey in the Pens arena (I’m sure there were some, but I don’t remember it).  Last night, the crowd felt like it was half Dallas fans, half Pittsburgh fans.  The Dallas fans were barely into the game until the third period and overtime, and even then, the Pittsburgh fans were louder and more excited.  For example, in the Pittsburgh arena in December, people were randomly cheering on individual Pens players each time they gained possession of the puck, and group cheers (“Let’s Go Pens!  Let’s Go Pens!”) broke out without provocation throughout the game.  Last night, I didn’t hear any Dallas fans cheer on their players or start any chants or anything.  Maybe it was just the section I was sitting in, but I only heard from Dallas fans on Pens power plays when the Stars cleared the puck out of their defensive zone or when they scored goals.  Every time the arena put “Let’s-Go-Stars” on the video boards to encourage the chant, the Pens fans started a “Let’s-Go-Pens” chant that completely drowned out cheering Stars fans, if there were any.

My point is, I’m proud to be a Pittsburgher.  We live with passion, for sports and for life.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.

A little anecdote – during the first intermission, a Dallas fan that was sitting a few seats away in our aisle walked past us to go up to the concourse, and loudly announced to us (all in Pens gear) “We’re going up to the club to take shots.  That’s how we do it here!  Welcome to Texas!”  I thought that was a little presumptuous considering all of the people I was with have lived in Texas for at least 20 years, and I’ve been here for almost 2 years now.  Also, every single time he and his 2 friends made us stand up to let them out of their seats, they would say “Sorry, just one more time.”  I don’t have my PhD quite yet, but I’m still pretty sure six is bigger than one.  Just say “Excuse me.”  It’s clear you’re going to keep going up and getting more booze, so don’t lie and say it’s your last one.

On a completely unrelated tangent, I’m slowly and deliberately making my way through Edward Burns’s filmography.  I’ve been meaning to do this for a while now, and I’m finally doing it.  If you don’t know who he is, he’s an actor/writer/director.  There are several popular films he’s acted in, but his good stuff comes from the independent movies that he writes, directs, and acts in.  I “accidentally” bought Purple Violets at Hollywood Video about 5 years ago.  (It was an accident because I was doing their 4-for-$20 DVD deal and only found 3 I wanted so I picked up Purple Violets on a whim.)  I LOVED that movie when I finally watched it (it sat on my shelf for a while).  Ever since then I wanted to see if he’d made other movies I would like, but I never actually got around to looking him up and acting on it.  Then a couple months ago I heard about his newest film, Newlyweds.  As I looked into this movie, I delved deeper and deeper into his story as a filmmaker – how he consciously started making super-low-budget indie films and deliberately avoided over-done Hollywood marketing and distribution, etc.  So, I watched Newlyweds (digitally, because he doesn’t do big theatrical releases) and it is amazing.  One of the best relationship-y movies I’ve seen.  And now I’m working through his older films.  It’s really a great experience to watch them almost in chronological order and see his process and insight as a filmmaker change and grow.  I’ve now seen his 4 most recent and his 4 earliest films and I’ve got 2 left in the middle.  I’ve also been reading/listening to all the interviews with him that I can find because his take on filmmaking is so interesting to me.  I enjoy hearing about the process of making the movies almost as much as I enjoy watching them and digesting his interpretations (through his films) of human nature and life and love and family and relationships (and seeing how these views adapt and change over the course of 15+ years).  I can’t wait to buy them all on DVD and listen to his commentary (I assume he records DVD commentary; if not I will be severely disappointed).  In general, I love watching movies (and good TV shows) because I get a lot out of the good ones with deep or interesting messages, and I can derive a lot of entertainment from some of the ones that are just for fun and aren’t meant to have a message.  I like thinking about movies and talking about movies and writing about movies.  Don’t worry, you’re not at risk of this becoming a movie review blog or anything.  I just wanted to let you know – if you haven’t seen an Edward Burns film, you should give him a chance.

Hmmm what else is going on?  Grad school, of course.  The same old grind.  Homework and reading and class and teaching and talks.  I don’t remember if I mentioned this, but I may be getting a pass-through master’s degree on my way to my PhD after all.  I wasn’t planning on it originally, but the reading and work I’ve been doing in representation theory this year lends itself to a master’s project without a ridiculous amount of added time and effort on top of the extra-work-for-no-credits I’ve already been doing.  So, that’s kind of exciting.  I don’t really NEED it if I finish the PhD, but it certainly can’t hurt.

I’m starting to think more and more about the next PhD qualifying exam I have to take: topology, in August.  I’m anxious to start studying because I really really want to pass on the first try.  (If I can have all of my qualifying exams out of the way before I start my third year, that would be AWESOME, and a huge relief.  And I’m halfway there since I passed Algebra last summer.)  But, I don’t really have any time to seriously start studying while the semester is going on.  My midterm in that class is next week, though, so I’m studying for that.  Once the midterm is over maybe I can start reviewing older material.  I’ve just gotta psych myself up for a lot of work in the next few months for a huge payoff in the end.  If I can go through my courses in my 3rd and 4th year without having to worry about quals at all, that will be a major advantage and make my life about as easy as it’s going to get in grad school.

I like grading in general, but grading for that math education course is still an emotionally-draining time-suck.

It’s a time-suck because I have to spend several hours every weekend (and usually Monday) grading when I could be doing my own work.  Weekends used to be the easiest time to get work done, but now I feel like the grading takes a higher priority and I’ve been having to put in more meaningful work hours during the week as a result.  (You know, for example, like right now when I’m blogging about studying topology instead of ACTUALLY studying topology.  Hehe.)

It’s emotionally draining because it’s so stressful for me to see a majority of the students making terribly basic mistakes and know that their career aspirations are high school math teacher.  (Note: This doesn’t apply to 100% of the students, and the purpose of the course is not to TEACH them this math; they’re already supposed to KNOW it inside and out.)  When science majors don’t understand basic math, I get annoyed, but I try to remind myself that their ineptitude is only hurting themselves – their own college grades and maybe their own career will suffer.  But with people who are supposed to be able to (and will be expected to) teach it to others, inability to perform basic operations/computations/thought processes makes me sad and frustrated with the state of the world.  For example, there are students who will defend that 0.67 is EXACTLY EQUAL to 0.6 (with the 6 repeating infinitely).  Sure, it is approximate, but 0.67 as an approximation of 0.6(repeating) is only accurate to… zero significant figures.  0.67 = 67/100 and 0.6(repeating) = 2/3 and 67/100 is NOT equal to 2/3.  If this is standard or common for high school math teachers in Texas or the USA at large, this is why the college freshmen that I teach do not understand basic algebra or arithmetic – because some/many of the math teachers they had in the past didn’t understand it.

As a current teacher in lower level college math, I’m trying to counteract this injustice.  As a current grader for future math educators, I’m trying to help them see (and hopefully inspire them to correct) the error of their ways.  I guess it’s not my job to get invested in their success, but as a mathematician and a citizen of the US (and of the world) I’d kind of like it if everybody (and our teachers in particular) cultivated certain skills.

With that said, I think it’s topology time.  Catch you later, Internet!