HousBlog

Blogs are silly

2011-02-13T19:19:00.000-08:00

Awhile back, I told all of my friends that blogs are silly. They are, but they are also nice to have at times. I can't stand when people start a blog thinking they are going to have a huge following or change the world with their views. It is fine to have those goals, but for the most part your views are not interesting to most people and you aren't the special snow flake you think you are.

That being said, there is one nice thing about blogs. Staying in touch with friends and what is going on in their live as well as their interests. I know everyone uses Facebook to keep up, but we all have to compress our ideas to little 4 line snippets. There is no substance, everyone tries to be witty, interesting, or just tells mundane details of life in a quick little blurb. Blogs on the other hand can be used to rant for awhile and allow your friends to see what is on your mind. I miss my friends blogs and wish they would get back into it. I miss jumping on the internet and checking the blogs of my friends Keith, Shaun, and Dan. Dan never really update his much, but he is not in the best situation to write about many things except when he is on vacation. Keith's blog was always a fun mix of politics and rants about events that happened recently. It was especially fun during election season. Shaun doesn't have as much of a focus in his blogs. He would write about what is going on in life, rant about things that bother him or he found amusing, and showcase some of his writing for everyone to see. Nowadays, their blogs have fallen into disrepair as they sit stagnant. I wish they would begin writing, so we could share our ideas even while we are all far apart.

Back to the blog again...

2011-02-07T21:59:00.000-08:00

Again, I am back to this blog. I try to get into it, but quickly lose interest. Will this time be any different? Who can say? I am taking a class in my final semester for a speaking intensive requirement called Visual Rhetoric. It has turned out to be quite interesting and is all about how visuals are used to tell a story, convince people of things, create emotions, etc... It is a very interactive class that mostly consists of conversation. During the last class, we had a guest speaker instead of our normal discussion. This speaker is in charge of technology for liberal arts majors. The speech was geared mostly towards liberal arts majors, but the two or three non-liberal arts majors (including me) seemed pretty interest as well. He began the speech talking about how we should control our net image, rather than just let it be or hide from it. He focused on how to start a webserver, get a hostname, game Google and all sorts of other fun things. He went on about getting information out there, even if it isn't necessarily good. There was advice on some new and upcoming web tools to utilize in order to do whatever one desires.
At some point, he made an interesting point. Google is for all intents and purpose, an advertising company. We allow Google to control our content on the web. So that means we are letting an advertising company control our image on the web and how that can be a semi scary thought. After this, one of the students brought up the typical doom and gloom about how we let companies control everything and no one stands up to them, blah, blah, blah... At that point, I brought up the open source movement. So many people are clueless that there are many people are making strides to create something free and open. To make things even better, I was the only person that noticed a few of the things the speaker showed us were licensed under the GNU GPL. I felt a great sense of satisfaction crushing his whiny arguments. While I enjoy the class and the discussions, it tends to be a bit whiny and left wing for my taste. I have a tendency of being the voice from the other side and not just being like all of the other liberal arts majors.
That all being said, it did kind of inspire me. While my web image is a little less important to me than it may be to someone who wants to show off their writing or art work, it seems like something I should put a little time into. I am horrible at keeping up with folks on Facebook, I don't twitter, and I don't normally keep up with folks like I know I should.

So just a quick update:

1) Still working on the Final Fantasy games marathon. I pushed it off because of school, so the new goal is New Year’s 2011. I know the goal is still a bit crazy, but I should have a good bit of time this summer while I wait to begin graduate school.
2) I have been working out lately and I feel great. I have been supplementing my food intake with whey protein shakes and power bars to attempt to increase my caloric intake.
3) I did all of my graduate school applications over winter break, so now I am just waiting on responses. I applied to 11, so hopefully one accepts me. As they come in, I imagine I will update it here...and on Facebook. It could be fun having to make a choice at some point and seeing what people think.
4) As I begin grad school (if I get accepted to at least 1), I will probably put a good bit of this blog to surviving graduate school as a physics student.
5) Last thing, I began learning LaTeX last week and it is really interesting. For those who don't know, LaTeX is a typesetting program that can produce professional grade publications (way better than Word). It is the end all be all of Math and Physics publications. I have another course in it this Wednesday and one more the week after.
6) I lied, one more thing. I have been doing two independent studies in mathematics and I learned something really interesting in one of them last week. In my independent study on stochastic processes, I finally learned about Monte Carlo Simulations. Basically, you take the probability distributions of a function (coin flipping, black jack, etc...), then you run a simulation with random distributions, and it runs the simulation over a million times. This should account for any possible outcomes and any outliers and over a large number of trials, it should converge on the most likely outcome. Take craps for instance. In one game, someone may roll winning hands constantly, but over the long run, the house will win as the wins and loses converge on the most likely outcome. Interesting stuff.
Until later. Cheers!

Update

2010-07-29T15:54:00.000-07:00

Things are going pretty well in my quest to beat the Final Fantasies. I began by focusing on the games I had beaten before because I figured I could beat them faster. I have beaten some of these games more times than I can remember. I got Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy IV for the Nintendo DS and it is a whole new experience. The games were remade with better graphics, so I can relive the experience and it is still fresh and new. I am one of the many fanboys who would replay Final Fantasy VII in a heartbeat if they remade it. Anyway, my progress.

In Final Fantasy IV, I am to the point where I opened the whole to the underworld(as in dwarves, not Hades) and I just need to drop the ship down there. I would say it is roughly halfway through the game, maybe a smidge less. In Final Fantasy III, I have gotten the first crystal and am just about the get the second crystal. I would progress faster, but when you get the crystals new jobs open up. I changed my warrior to a knight, taking his class level from really high back to 1. I sucks and I had to relevel his job, but it will be worth it in the long run. Sadly, it really slows you down because your character goes from amazing badass to complete loser instantly. In Final Fantasy VI, I am just about at the end. I have done everything except finish on the magimaster in the fanatics tower. I have Mog's moogle charm, so that will be a breeze getting to him, so I really just have to knock it out. I have played FF6 more than any other game ever made, so I know all of its ins and outs. I went to the coliseum and got 8 exp. eggs to make levelling super fast. To do this, I had to kill a super hard badguy who used amazingly strong cold spells. Of course, with Mog wearing his snow muffler(best armor only he can wear), he was impervious to regular attacks and then a fire shield to heal from the spells, he was invincible. The next fight was a dinosaur and I set Gogo up to only have the command of fight(he is the mimic guy) and gave him a genji glove(hold two weapons) and the offering(4 attacks), giving him a total of 8 attacks per round. The last fight was a magic badguy that tries to kill you with level 5 doom, but Gogo was 41, so it was a waste of time. So 8 experience eggs are in my possession now. That is two experience eggs per person. For those that don't know and can't guess by the name, the experience egg doubles experience. So with 2 you go up really fast. I am not sure if it quadruples, doubles and doubles again, or some other calculation, but it does work. In Final Fantasy tactics, I have unlocked every class and pretty much made my part badass. I have two of the crystals and am getting into the part where people start turning into demons to fight me. I just started Final Fantasy 9 again, so I am barely in. I made it out of Alexandria, through the dark forrest, through the ice caves to escape the mist valley and arrived at a town. The last game I have put any time into is Final Fantasy X. I am pretty far through it. I made it through the calm lands, fought the blue people and just have to cross one more area before I get to Zanarkand.

I think that pretty much sums up my progress. I did get a bit sidetracked by Star Craft 2 coming out. I played it for like 12 hours straight yesterday.

Chrono Trigger

2010-07-27T16:39:00.000-07:00

In my quest to beat a bunch of old-school games that mostly have the title Final Fantasy in them, I beat my first one. I beat Chrono Trigger today. I know it isn't a Final Fantasy game, but it was on my list anyway. I beat the game and did every side quest, therefore getting the "best" ending. There are like 12, so at some point I will go and unlock the rest also. For now I think it is time to focus on the other games on my list. I had beaten Chrono Trigger a bunch back on the SNES, but I had forgotten how crazy the game could be. Many of the boss battles rely on very specific strategies and what to attack, with what attacks, etc... I had also forgotten that the final boss is actually like 12 fights, but I knocked it out.

Final Fantasy

2010-07-22T11:23:00.000-07:00

I have made a decision to finish or replay every Final Fantasy game by the end of the year. This may seem like a lofty goal for someone who has a gazillion things to do, but I think I can manage. I have already begun to replay Final Fantasy 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 13 recently in my spare time. You might ask, "Why do this?" Because I already am playing a bunch of them and I can. While playing the list of FF games I listed above, I thought about the ones I could never get myself to commit to beating due to lack of interest. For example, FF12 bored me to tears so I never got more than a few hours into it. With my FF challenge, I also intend to revisit of a few golden oldies. Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, Grandia, etc...
So the list goes:
Final Fantasy 1
Final Fantasy 2
Final Fantasy 3
Final Fantasy 4
Final Fantasy 5
Final Fantasy 6
Final Fantasy 7
Final Fantasy 8
Final Fantasy 9
Final Fantasy 10
Final Fantasy 12
Final Fantasy 13
Final Fantasy X-2(yes, it counts)
Final Fantasy Tactics
Xenogears
Chrono Trigger

Realistically, this is just an excuse to finish up some games I love while I have a bit of time before grad school. I imagine one that starts, I will be super busy.

New years

2009-01-11T23:53:00.001-08:00

It just occurred to me that I should write up a little New years post. It is widely believe most people don't follow through with their resolutions, so I am going to write mine out here. This should act as a constant reminder of my plans and writing things down seems to help a lot of people.

1) I am going to finish in the money in a poker tournament, raking in at least $5,000. This will be my first step toward one of my life goals, to win a World Series of Poker main event. At the moment, this is harder to pursue than it may sound. I have a solid background in mathematics and probability, and pretty good track record and always trying to better optimize my play, BUT gambling is illegal in VA. Lame, right? But that is neither here nor there, I am going to win anyway.

2) Be published in a physics research journal. This is a step toward another of my life goals to win a Nobel Prize. I am doing an independent study this year, so this may come to fruition.

3) Become more proficient in Italian. A bit ambiguous, I know. I am not sure how to really quantify this though.

4) Gain 15 pounds of muscle mass. haha, good luck!

5) Bring my grade point average up. Straight A's will do the trick.

There were a few more, but I can't recall them at the moment. This seems like a good start though. So what are your resolutions this year and will you be able to keep them? Good luck to all who try!

~Houston

Christmas Break and Korean Food

2009-01-11T23:29:00.001-08:00

I am sad to say this, but Christmas break is over. I start classes tomorrow and have to begin being studious. I am excited about some of my classes such as Investment Analysis and Quantum Mechanics. Others, not so much. I got to see my family and we had a blast. It was the last time I would see my father before he departed to Iraq, so it was important that we all got together. It was amazingly fun. My dad and I taught my sister's boyfriend about cigars, we played poker, gave each other computer games to play, baked ungodly amounts of cookies, and played Rockband like there is no tomorrow. Our band Muppetbuttz was touring Europe last I saw. Thank goodness they had Desiree on bass and me on guitar to keep the band afloat. As always, my parents found all of the cool food places to go in their area. They live in the middle of nowhere, yet they found an awesome Korean resturaunt and asian market. I got to eat things like tak-galbi, bibim-bop, and bulgogi. They even brought out little bowls of various things like they do in Korea.

This is my enjoying some bulgogi. It is the closest thing I have found to the real deal since I have come back to the U.S.

Here is a closeup of the bulgogi in all of it's yummyness(I know this isn't a real word). I do miss asia sometimes, especially the food. I know this may seem kind of unorganized, but being that I am cramming an entire month into about one paragraph, I think we'll be ok. It is also partially me testing posting pictures from my new camera Desiree got me for Christmas.

~Houston

I suppose I should start again

2009-01-11T23:15:00.000-08:00

Well I have decided to start again and begin writing in this blog again. Last time it was short lived, but I figure why not? I know only three or four people have read my blog, so I don't have many people to take into consideration when I choose to write something. So from here on out, I may use this to chronicle my time in college, research, life, or whatever else floats my boat. Also, I plan to post pictures this time. Good times....

~Houston

Monty Hall Problem

2008-04-28T15:26:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone. Today I want to talk about the Monty Hall Problem based on the game show Let's Make a Deal. To some this seems like common sense, but others find it a bit hard to follow at first glance. It begins like this, you are shown three curtains and you get to choose one. Behind one is a brand new sports car, and behind the other two are goats(yes goats). After you make your decision, you are shown one of the curtains containing a goat and you get to choose whether to keep your curtain or change to the one left. To clarify for the curious, yes you got to keep the goat if you chose but most took the cash value. So given this choice what should you do? Most people think that once a curtain is open, you have a 50/50 chance of getting it correct. That isn't so, because the events are not independent. According to probability, you should always change your curtain. Why you ask? Because on your first guess, you had a 33.3% chance of guessing correctly or .333. That means that there is a 66.6% chance you guessed incorrectly or .666. Now a curtain is opened showing a goat. That begs the question, are you anymore likely to have guessed better now? No, there will always be a goat curtain they can open, and you still only had a 33% chance of guessing correctly. So if you change curtains, you will now have a higher probability that you are right. To prove this I am going to.....well prove it.
First we have to set up the problem, you chose curtain 1(this can be changed for any other curtain) and we'll write "P1:S2" to stand for the prize being behind curtain 1 and the host shows you curtain 2. So the probability of each occurrence is,
P(P1:S2)=1/6, P(P1:S3)=1/6, P(P2:S3)=1/3, P(P3:S2)=1/3. You may wonder why door one having the price gets 2 opens that are different. Recall we chose curtain one, so if it has the car they can open either other curtain, whereas if we chose curtain 1 and it is behind curtain 2, they have to open curtain 3.
Now take these events:
A: the prize is behind door 1; i.e. A={P1:S2, P1:S3}
B: the prize is behind door 3; i.e. B={P3:S2}
C: the host reveals curtain 2; i.e. C={P1:S2, P3:S2}
Now of course, since P(A) = P(B) = 1/3 if no curtains were revealed then there would be no reason to change. But if you calculate P(AC) and P(BC) we get
P(A^C) = P{P1:S2}) = 1/6
P(C) = P({P1:S2, P3:S2}) = 1/6 + 1/3 = 1/2
and so P(AC) = P(A^C)/P(C) = (1/6)/(1/2) = 1/3
We also have
P(B^C) = P({P3:S2}) = 1/3
P(C) = P({P1:S2, P3:S2}) = 1/6 + 1/3 = 1/2
and so P(BC) = P(B^C)/P(C) = (1/3)/(1/2) = 2/3
Therefore is it twice as likely that the contestant will win the big prize if he or she switches their curtain rather than staying with their original choice. Now as you can see, this proof only shows one decision, but you can change it and it fits them all. So now should you ever be playing a Let's Make a Deal type game, you know what to do.

Prove it

2008-04-27T13:48:00.001-07:00

Being a math major, I see math everyday. The one thing that has given me the most difficulty is the proof. In math, nothing is ever taken as completely true unless it can be proved. The main ways to prove something are the direct proof, proof by contradiction, proof by induction, proof by contraposition, and proof by strong induction. There are other ways, but these seem to be the focus of what I have seen to date.
The direct proof is pretty straight forward, you prove "if A then B".
1) Assume A
2)Work to prove B is true.
Easy right? Take for example the statement if you add two odd numbers they will always be an even number. Seems kind of like a no duh statement. Prove it. I asked a friend to do this and he wasn't sure how. I then I asked him what it meant to be even, he said not odd. Odd? Not even. He walked himself in a circle and still no definition. This is why proofs are a pain, simple things you know have to be described. Well to be even m=2k(a number is 2 times a number is even because 2 times any whole number is even). So naturally an odd number is n=2l + 1, I will let you figure that out. Now to clarify, these letters are just something I picked. All that matters is 2 times something is even, add a one to an even number and it is odd. This always applies when using whole numbers. So lets do the proof.
1)Assume you have added two numbers that are odd together
Let m=2l + 1(odd number)
Let n=2k+1(odd number)
so m+n= (2l+1)+(2k+1)= 2l + 2k + 2 = 2(l+k+1), and as we know, 2 times any number is even.
Since 2(l+k+1) is the same as 2(anything), therefore 2 odd numbers added will always be even. I added a little more description for those not mathematically inclined. Now this was a simple direct proof and the only real thing to trip people up is the definition of odd and even.
Proof by contraposition is the same idea, except you take "If A then B" and change it to "If not B then not A" You assume not B, and prove not A.
But by contradiction you prove "If A then B" by assuming A and not B. You then work to get a contradiction like 1=2 which shows that if A and not B don't work, then it must be A and B.
I am not going to go into induction at the moment because it is a bit more complicated to explain and I am sure everyone is already bored to tears and had their attention stolen by something shiny. This may be useless to most people it daily life, but at least you can have a slight grasp on how mathematicians choose why some things are true and others are theories.

~Houston

Fusion Energy

2008-04-27T13:14:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was sitting in physics class learning about quantum mechanics and my professor went on a tangent about fusion energy. Up to this point I had only really heard of the mythical cold fusion that was all a hoax or unrepeatable experiments. I think this left a lot of people with a bad taste in their mouth at the term of fusion when associated with energy. Anytime I bring it up, people roll their eyes or say they read something about it but it was all false. In the class the professor talked about how it could hold the key to nearly limitless energy using deuterium, which is a naturally occurring isotope of hydrogen. Just from the seas, we could have enough material to create power for billions of years(so practically limitless). This prompted me to do a bit more research. Now the biggest obstacle to getting two atoms to combine(fusion) and the excess energy that is radiated is what is used. The sun does this, but we need a high amount of energy and pressure to recreate it using plasma. They have been experimenting with it at the JET laboratory for awhile now, but it is not big enough to create more power than it uses. That is why it is taking so long to get a working model for fusion energy, you can use little models. You need a full scale plant because it becomes more efficient the more it produces. As we speak, ground is being broken for the largest fusion plant in the world in France called the ITER. More information can be found at http://www.iter.org/ . My research in this is still in the infant stages and will probably post a little more about it at a later date. I just wanted to put some general info out there to perhaps open a few eyes to what we could have if we can just fund the research. This months Cosmos Magazine has a lot of really good info about it if anyone is interested in learning a little bit more.

~Houston

Hello World

2008-04-27T13:04:00.001-07:00

As with every programming class any human ever takes, it all begins with hello world. I suppose introductions are in order. My name is Houston and I am a math/physics major and I figure only people that know me will read this, so no more detail is really necessary. I have always hated blogs, that said bear with me. I see the value of blogs, but I think too many people fill the net with boring stories about their life, their thoughts(as I am doing atm), and useless information. That said, on the flip side of things they are a great way to discuss things with friends and colleagues, useful content, and even some interesting stories from those that live less that normal lives. I just sometimes feel that too many people feel they are special and blogs just add to that. "If everyone is special, then no one is." As said in The Incredibles. I would just like to finish by saying that I am doing this after a friend insisted I should so he has one more useless site to look at instead of doing something productive. Why not right? I can be speical too! Hopefully I can fill this little corner of the net with something interesting.

~Houston