Armageddon Loss... don't let it mess everything up.

There's no way it'll happen, but I'll be a lot happier if Boise State plays for the national title than a lot of other teams.

Michigan lost to tOSU on Saturday. It was a pretty harsh loss. Michigan fans everywhere can't believe how some plays were chosen. Michael Hart is on our team---there's no reason to be punting on 4th and 1 when the game is so close on the line. We are supposed to have the best run defense in the country, but for some reason we couldn't stop Pittman from trotting through our line with the ball.

We contained Troy Smith pretty well, and forced tOSU to use their run offense a lot more than they probably wanted, but we still couldn't pull it off.

I'm angry at some plays. Everyone else at the bar was angry at those same play calls. The strange thing, though, was that the game didn't look like anything I was ready for. Where was Manningham's last-second reception in the endzone? Where were the drives that consisted solely of Hart running the ball on every down? Why did we consistently try to pass on first down... time and time again?

Mostly, however, I'm worried about the aftermath. This is college football. This is a sport played over an entire semester, with a bit of breathing room for finals. Anyone else remember what finals are like? For me they were pretty much torture. I didn't play a sport; I had no other responsibilities. I could focus solely on studying and completing those ginormous exams and projects. Still, they pretty much wrecked me, body and soul. My first year, I was so defeated by spring finals that I came down with a terrible fever an hour after finishing my last exam. My girlfriend had to drive me home because I was so ill. Turns out I was having an episode of strep. Although I fought that attack off, I had three subsequent bouts of strep afterwards, the last one assaulting me in the following fall semester. I couldn't seem to shake it out of my system.

If Michigan plays (tOSU again) for the national title, the BCS system is in Jeopardy. People seem to think that although the other teams in college football appear to suck this year (yes, USC, Florida, ND... I'm looking at you) it would be a disaster to pit the two best teams against each other, only because they happened to play their last game of the season against each other. Solution? Add playoffs to the menu.

Shut up. Playoffs are the worst plan ever. Michigan may end it's season in mid november, but plenty of teams wade deep into december (notice they're located in the south). That doesn't leave any time for playoffs while classes are in session. Where will we schedule these so-called playoffs?

January's a horrible idea. Half of the schools are still on break, while others are already in session. School's harsh, football fans. A lot of football players may be majoring in General Studies, but there are a solid number of science and humanities majors. Don't punish them for playing a sport; keep their season limited to one whole semester, please. Already the title game, on January 8th, encroaches on the spring semester (or winter trimester or whatever). I'm not a fan of this newest change. January fourth is already late enough!

The only option left is to have the students play during their finals. That's idiocracy.

Please do not compare this sport to basketball. Basketball finals are played in the middle of the spring term. This may conflict with midterms, but those are both more flexible and easier than finals. Not to mention, these finals are made possible by the ability for human beings to play multiple games in a week. Football playoffs with 8 teams would be decided over 3 weekends, not in a week.

If the BCS really is in jeopardy (and if you read any of these sports opinion sites, it apparently is) then let's do something right now to save it. I'd rather skip the title game and hand tOSU the championship title right now than force the students to prepare for an academically devastating playoffs series every year.

Aside from that, I think everyone should be ready for the event that Michigan and tOSU play again. The way we should really look at this is the following: we have two teams that have risen well above the rest of the field. They played once, and it was close. If it turns out that the other teams are not up to the challenge (Florida and USC will have to win out and win out big to disprove this) then by all means pit the top two against each other, even if it means again. This year does not show flaws in the system, it's just an exceptional year for two well-prepared teams.

This sport is not professional football. Only one team (Boise State does not count... unless they somehow decide to start playing against real teams) has not lost during the regular season---of which the whole thing is the playoffs for this game. Every other team has lost. One of these lost big (ND). One lost a game big teams should not be allowed to (USC). One lost to the only undefeated team. If we've gotta have a title game, put that last team in.

More later, likely... I gotta run to class.

Second sleepless night

Hello monkeys!

I'm on my second sleepless night this week. I'm still pretty psyched about my project, but I need a few minute break, so I'm blogging like an idiotmonkey.

I might actually have had something to say, but all I can say is that Blogger annoys me. I thought I had this all figured out, but I apparently don't. Why does it take so dang long for the login screen to show changes when I'm logging in? Why does it force me to click on that little thing before I can sign in? It's completely in opposition with all the other nice Google stuff that throw my focus right in the text box I clearly want to use. Of course, it also means I have trouble logging on with my sidekick. Ugh.

I thought I had published my post from a few weeks ago, but it turns out it hadn't been actually posted, just drafted. I thought I would notice that, but apparently not. So... it's up there now. Up and sexy.

I had a lot of people ask me today when I would next be free on a weekend. Unfortunately, the answer for everyone of them was: "I don't know, but not until after the first weekend in December." Yeah. It sucks. Grrr.

So, why the first weekend in December? Well, that's when I submit this result. And between now and then I have an extra hojillion things to get done.

One of those things is the sister-side to my PSPACE-complete proof, which I must now get back to! Ciao, monkeys!:-P

-Kyle

Um... Halloween and awesome luck

The last few weeks have been a blur. I returned from my trip to Michigan, and continued to play with my latest research problem: Games on the Sperner Triangle. I realized that the game I had been looking at seemed easy, so I tweaked the rules and within a few days I was closing in on a proof of PSPACE-completeness for the strategies!

In the meantime, Halloween was closing in fast, but I had run into a road block for putting together my costume: where was I going to find bright yellow pants... that fit me??? The plan was to go as the man in the yellow hat, and yellow pants were a requirement! I had located a yellow shirt at the Garment district, and a tie at A.J. Wright's, but still no pants.

Well, luck would be with me for halloween. On the saturday beforehand, I went to the bar to watch michigan play northwestern and I happened to win one of the raffle prizes! The prize: XL size Maize pants with "MICHIGAN" printed down the side. I couldn't believe I had randomly gotten pants that both fit me and, by turning them inside out, would suffice perfectly for my costume! (God does exist, you fooligan!)

On Monday night, I went to class and couldn't concentrate (despite the fact that it was the last class prior to the midterm). Instead I pulled out my notebook and continued working through widgets for my PSPACE reduction. I started putting them together, and quickly got lost in the puzzle. Just as class ended, I got the logic in my last widget to work, although it was a bit inelegant. Still, I had finished the reduction! I had my very own result!!!

Unfortunately, I was missing a halloween monkey. I thought that Lzl might pull through with a Curious George costume, but the warm arms of chemistry kept her busy night and day in the lab. I would be missing half of the two part costume for trick or treating.

Luck struck again, however, and a small beanbag george was delivered to me on Monday the 30th just before I put the hat together. Kate sent me a curious george stuffed toy, which fit perfectly in my Garment District Shirt Pocket. BeaUTiful! And with perfect timing! I put together a huge hat (pictures will be available at a later date) out of yellow poster board as a shell around my white top hat. Costume completed! Gabriel took a bunch of fancy photos before I crashed for the night.

Halloween was gorgeous. I got to school in my costume (aside from the hat---I know, I know, but it was too big to take to school!) and showed officemates some of the widgets for my reduction. Ben followed most of my descriptions and quickly realized that I'd completed the whole thing. I saw the problems with my one piece, and resolved to fix it soon, though it wasn't necessary for the overall proof. I played people in my department for pieces of candy (I had bought 8 bags at this point... this was clearly too much, so I started getting rid of it early:-P) and finally suffered my first two losses in the Sperner Game. Still, the game was solid.

I had my result, and I already had a date to present: Friday. As soon as Halloween was over, I'd need to put together my presentation. I was lucky to get the presentation spot, as Steve had just asked me the previous Friday, then almost immediately afterwards, the reduction had fallen together!

I left school early to prepare for the trick-or-treaters. I got home and was ready and waiting around 4:45. (Last year I had been late getting out for the kiddies---that would not happen this year!) I brought a chair outside and sat down with my candy bowl and my flashy hat.

The kids started coming at 6. And I mean, right at 6. Suddenly there were spasms of big gangs. The flocks of kids began to mill around, but I feared they wouldn't all see me, so I descended the stairs and sat down on the sidewalk. Now people at multiple intersections could see me and see that I had candy to give out.

Gabriel came to my aid, helping entertain both me and the candy-grubbing guests. By the time 6:45 came around, we had counted nearly 25 trick-or-treaters. I was exstatic! Last year I had had less than 7; a grave disappointment.

Then, at 7pm, throngs of kids started arriving again! I served candy to Queen Elizabeths and Scream murderers and gangsters and vikings and Grace Ross... and even the occasional uncostumed student. Little kids dressed as cows and parents in pirate costumes! I continued to keep track, continually excited that we were getting a great turn out this year. I didn't count people not in costume, but I did count adults who had put lots of effort into their own get-ups. When 7:50 came around, I was out of candy and I had served 52 trick-or-treaters. At that point, lzl was out holding vigil with me, and we retreated inside, as our supply had dwindled to one KitKat. Apparently 8 bags was not enough!

I had hoped to pay a visit to Hoolia and Steffi at 8, so I scooted over to their new place. Steffi was absent, but Hoolia entertained me before her bedthyme. On the way home I got "awesome hat" comments from everyone I passed; pedestrians and motorists alike. I was on a high the size of a flock of crazy monkeys, feeding on bonus bird parts. I kept singing "52 Kids! 52 Kids!" (to the tune of "Winnie the Pooh! Winnie the Pooh!") to myself. I got home and needed to calm myself down, so... I fixed the problematic construction in my reduction. The proof was now both complete AND extrasexy.

I got to work on my presentation the next day, electing to use transparencies. I (almost) broke the printer, but Scott and Deb jumped on the chance to fix some hardware and saved my buttox. I printed some sexy transparencies, cut them up, and had an awesome talk ready by the time Friday came around.

Although the talk wasn't organized perfectly, and I had some issues with the transparencies, I think it was pretty effective. Certainly people who were intrigued by the game remained very focused and asked spectacular questions. We taped the talk... hopefully I'll have access to that someday:-P

With the talk wrapped up, I had the Sabbath to rest before getting back into gear on Sunday: studying for my neural modelling midterm. 10 hours on Sunday, and 5 hours yesterday (I almost said today; I haven't slept yet...) led to a pretty strong understanding of the material. I cruised through most of the exam, although there were a few places that I didn't quite have down. Hopefully it was thoroughly rocked. The housing of this exam was required... by me... for acceptable gradeage.

Since finishing that exam at around 6:30pm last night, I've been working on writing up my Sperner Game result. ... and writing this. The paper's coming along great, but the STOC and CCC deadlines are almost on top of me. I have no idea how to best get myself moving, so I just started writing and making figures. I've got a meeting this morning with Shanghua; hopefully a lot of this can be figured out then.

As soon as that's done with, I'm off to vote and get to my allergy shots before I crash in my happy bed:-P

Peace Out, Brothas!
-Kyle