Cats and Dogs

I realize that a post about rain is redundant at this point, but there is something fascinating about unusual weather here in Southern California that I find impossible to ignore.

Monday morning I woke up and it was raining, which is decidedly the best way to wake up. Recently I was reminded of the phrase "raining cats and dogs", which I never quite understood - but I do know that it can accurately describe Monday morning, with a little augmentation. So I will say this: it was raining jaguars and rabid coyotes. Or so it seemed to someone who has been living in Southern California for the entirety of his life.

Naturally I was in a good mood, and naturally the 3rd Law of Everything had to shatter that. I went on MyUCLA to check grades, which I have a propensity to do the week following finals. I clicked on Math 61 and saw a big, hairy C-, the alluring symmetry of the 3rd letter of the alphabet a stark foil to my inadequacy. Hmm, I didn't think I did that poorly on the final. Then I realized I had no grade listed for the final exam, and calculated my grade with a 0 on the final: sure enough, a C-. Emailing the professor confirmed the error; he informed me that I should have received an A- and that he had already requested that the grade be changed. What a guy.

I had a whole bunch of Butlerisms which I would share with you, more for my sake than for yours, because I think he is hilarious. Unfortunately I wrote them down in my notebook, which I left at UCLA, so here are a few I can recall from memory:

• After making an error on the chalkboard: "Luckily we have such modern technology here." He erases it with his hands: "Touch screen!"
• Discussing the chromatic number of a graph, the amount of colors required to color each vertex such that no two adjacent vertices have the same color: "This is denoted by the greek letter χ [chi, pronounced as the first part in the word kite]. If you ever forget what letter we use, just remember, chi, as in chi-loring!
• While writing a set X and its subset x on the board: "That's the disadvantage of using X to denote sets - the uppercase and lowercase look the same!" Someone suggests using a curly x to make the lowercase more obvious. "Well, you're assuming I know cursive!"