So today was the Physics Society AGM (annual General Meeting). There was a free BBQ. We voted on a number of issues on the constitution. It was all fun. The nice thing about DUPS: they have a liquor license in the room. That's right, every Friday or two, the fridge is stocked and it's perfectly ok to drink in the physsoc for 2$/beer.
Around 8pm or so (the meeting started at 5pm) things started to wind down and the few of us that were left made our way to the CS building. They have some kind of lounge/bar in the basement. They have a GameCube hooked up on a projector with Smash Bros and other games. We ended up and "Joe's" or something. I can't quite remember now. Maybe it was "Tom's". It's basically a smoking bar, where you can buy tobacco and cigars. I remember having to go to the washroom and having a pretty hard time finding my way back to the table. The washroom is shared between 2 or 3 bars so I was pretty confused. Eventually I found my way back. We ended up at one of the girl's apartment downtown. Her roommate has this record spinning studio, where they spin vinyl records mix in different beats. He has a huge collection. It was pretty cool. After an hour or so we left and started making our way back uptown. I don't know Halifax all that well, but it's very strange how you can find your way home no matter how drunk you are.
The DUPS people are super nice. I had some fun discussions that usually tend to happen when a bunch of physicists get together (science, religion, sci-fi).
Anyway it's 3:45am and I made it home (bars close a lot later in NS!). Not looking forward to tomorrow's hangover.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Monday, September 11, 2006
3rd day of classes
Well it's been a week-and-a-half since I moved to Halifax. I think I'm going to like it here. It's definitely cooler than Ontario. The university is pretty neat. I still get turned around a bit on campus though. I'll have to come in early some day to figure out the shortest routes between my classes.
Today was the first day of Atmospheric Dynamics. It looks like this will mainly be a fluid dynamics course. We spent most of the class doing a review of vector calculus (div, grad, curl in several different coordinate systems) which is good because I needed that refresher.
I was going to go and buy that $185 book today, but it turns out that the Book Store didn't order enough and now it's out of stock until Sept 28th. Sound like any other university book store you know? Anyhow, the prof lent his book out to a few of us so we could copy the first few chapters. I'll probably try and get it via Chapters or Amazon or something....
It turns out that FORTRAN and Matlab are not installed on most campus computers. I talked with the Computer Help Desk and they say that I can access a FORTRAN compiler on the UNIX machine. That sounds like too much trouble to me. On top of learning FORTRAN, I would have to learn UNIX and VI commands. They said that Matlab is installed on only one lab on campus. I'll have to go check that out and try out a basic program to see how it works. Once I figure out how it does stuff like if, then, else, while, for, etc, I should be ok.
Susan sent me an email from home which means that we must have internet now! Not that it's been too boring with all the unpacking we had to do. There is still lots, but a lot of it is done. The apartment is still a mess though.
Today was the first day of Atmospheric Dynamics. It looks like this will mainly be a fluid dynamics course. We spent most of the class doing a review of vector calculus (div, grad, curl in several different coordinate systems) which is good because I needed that refresher.
I was going to go and buy that $185 book today, but it turns out that the Book Store didn't order enough and now it's out of stock until Sept 28th. Sound like any other university book store you know? Anyhow, the prof lent his book out to a few of us so we could copy the first few chapters. I'll probably try and get it via Chapters or Amazon or something....
It turns out that FORTRAN and Matlab are not installed on most campus computers. I talked with the Computer Help Desk and they say that I can access a FORTRAN compiler on the UNIX machine. That sounds like too much trouble to me. On top of learning FORTRAN, I would have to learn UNIX and VI commands. They said that Matlab is installed on only one lab on campus. I'll have to go check that out and try out a basic program to see how it works. Once I figure out how it does stuff like if, then, else, while, for, etc, I should be ok.
Susan sent me an email from home which means that we must have internet now! Not that it's been too boring with all the unpacking we had to do. There is still lots, but a lot of it is done. The apartment is still a mess though.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Oceanography
I had two oceanography classes today.
physical Oceanography seems interesting. I've never taken this material before so it should be a fun learning experience. The professor is quite something. If I had to compare him to a prof I've had before I would say he is most like Stephen Ross.
The other class is Numerical Modeling. I hated Numerical Methods at UNB. Hopefully this course will be better. I'm going to have to brush up on my programming. The prof would like us to use either C, Fortran, or Matlab. I used Matlab a bit at UNB, but not enough to remember anything. I did a course in Java, but he didn't seem to keen on us using that. I suppose I'll give Fortran a try since it seems to be the one people tend to use the most.
I ran in to Clark in my classes today. He his working on his PhD in physical Oceanography and he was in both of my classes.
physical Oceanography seems interesting. I've never taken this material before so it should be a fun learning experience. The professor is quite something. If I had to compare him to a prof I've had before I would say he is most like Stephen Ross.
The other class is Numerical Modeling. I hated Numerical Methods at UNB. Hopefully this course will be better. I'm going to have to brush up on my programming. The prof would like us to use either C, Fortran, or Matlab. I used Matlab a bit at UNB, but not enough to remember anything. I did a course in Java, but he didn't seem to keen on us using that. I suppose I'll give Fortran a try since it seems to be the one people tend to use the most.
I ran in to Clark in my classes today. He his working on his PhD in physical Oceanography and he was in both of my classes.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Synoptic Meteorology
I haven't been to all my other classes yet, but I think this will turn out to be my favorite. It's a 2.5 hour class (twice a week) which is basically talking about weather patterns and maps. The first part of the class is a lecture, the 2nd is a hands-on lab, and the third is a map discussion of today's weather and how they came up with today's forecast. The first term covers mostly observations and analysis while the second term will be on diagnosis and forecasting. The course is not taught by a Dalhousie instructor but by someone from Environment Canada.
Hello Nova Scotia!
Well I am here. The move went as well as expected with the exception of a delay with our furniture which should actually be arriving today. I am currently writing from the library on campus.
We arrived in Halifax around 10pm on Friday. Artemis was ok with the travel but Nike meowed and howled anytime she was in motion. On take-off she let out this blood curdling scream I had never heard a cat make before. I actually thought it was a small child throwing a tantrum for a second or so. Once we got to cruising altitudes she calmed down a bit.
Our apartment is nice. It's a 2 bedroom but somewhat smaller than the one we had in Guelph. The beauty of it though is the location. Our building is attached to the Quinpool Market, which has a Superstore, Shoppers Drug Mart, Canadian Tire, Wendy's, and Rogers Video among other things. We don't really even have to exit the building to get to the grocery store. Also the building is about a 10-15 minute walk from campus, and 30 minute walk from downtown.
Nathan and Rebecca came to see us on Saturday. They had some shopping to do and showed us around town. During the evening we played Settlers of Catan which is a pretty fun board game. It's strategy, but pretty easy to learn.
The rest of the week we spent time by sleeping, playing my Nintendo DS Light, and going out for walks. Downtown is pretty fun. I'll definitely have to bring my Ontario friends there if they ever visit.
Had my first class today. Atmospheric Physics I. It's actually an intro Thermodynamics course. I'm pretty happy about that. Since I've gone through 2 of these courses at UNB, it should help me ease back into Physics.
I got in the class room about 15 minutes early. I was the first one there. The next three other people to come into the class were all girls. At this point I'm wondering if I'm in the right class or not. I mean at UNB, the number of girls in an advanced Physics class averages at 1, maybe 2. It turns out that in this class about 9 or 10 are girls our of a total of 15. Crazy!
I was a bit taken aback by the price of the textbook for this class. It's $185+taxes at the campus book store. And it's only this little puny book with barely 400 pages! I'll have to see if I can find a cheaper copy online. It's "Atmospheric Thermodynamics" by Bohren and Albrecht.
Well, I should head home to have lunch and see if the movers have come yet. This afternoon I have a Synoptic Meteorology course followed by the lab.
We arrived in Halifax around 10pm on Friday. Artemis was ok with the travel but Nike meowed and howled anytime she was in motion. On take-off she let out this blood curdling scream I had never heard a cat make before. I actually thought it was a small child throwing a tantrum for a second or so. Once we got to cruising altitudes she calmed down a bit.
Our apartment is nice. It's a 2 bedroom but somewhat smaller than the one we had in Guelph. The beauty of it though is the location. Our building is attached to the Quinpool Market, which has a Superstore, Shoppers Drug Mart, Canadian Tire, Wendy's, and Rogers Video among other things. We don't really even have to exit the building to get to the grocery store. Also the building is about a 10-15 minute walk from campus, and 30 minute walk from downtown.
Nathan and Rebecca came to see us on Saturday. They had some shopping to do and showed us around town. During the evening we played Settlers of Catan which is a pretty fun board game. It's strategy, but pretty easy to learn.
The rest of the week we spent time by sleeping, playing my Nintendo DS Light, and going out for walks. Downtown is pretty fun. I'll definitely have to bring my Ontario friends there if they ever visit.
Had my first class today. Atmospheric Physics I. It's actually an intro Thermodynamics course. I'm pretty happy about that. Since I've gone through 2 of these courses at UNB, it should help me ease back into Physics.
I got in the class room about 15 minutes early. I was the first one there. The next three other people to come into the class were all girls. At this point I'm wondering if I'm in the right class or not. I mean at UNB, the number of girls in an advanced Physics class averages at 1, maybe 2. It turns out that in this class about 9 or 10 are girls our of a total of 15. Crazy!
I was a bit taken aback by the price of the textbook for this class. It's $185+taxes at the campus book store. And it's only this little puny book with barely 400 pages! I'll have to see if I can find a cheaper copy online. It's "Atmospheric Thermodynamics" by Bohren and Albrecht.
Well, I should head home to have lunch and see if the movers have come yet. This afternoon I have a Synoptic Meteorology course followed by the lab.
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