Can You Stop The Rain?

Rain! We're having scattered showers and storms today! In the middle of August! Guess that's how we get the soft green woods and the CapuletMontagueUniversity student body.

The rain's keeping me indoors, or at least near the car. This rental Chevy Cobalt has helped me understand why GM is in the mess it's in. With 8,000 miles driven, the car sounds like some one's raising a hog under the dashboard. I just hope the hog behaves until I return it on Tomorrow. I am writing this in a coffee shop (part of the illustrious Metcalf's Sentry). If you are reading this, it means the wireless-inter-extension-tube actually works. Thanks again to Mom for laying this "netbook" on me. It looks like a Fischer Price Toy, but it works for real!

Taking advantage of the rain and quiet, I've dragged myself through another section of Herstein's renowned and time-tested "Abstract Algebra". I never dared take that class in college, figuring I'd likely fail. Given how long it takes me to figure these things out, I probably made a good decision back then. I can now say I understand a little about Normal Subgroups and Homomorphisms and halfway grok the principles behind public/private key encryption. Factor groups are next. Please don't ask me to define any of these things, we'll both end up dizzy. BTW, modern encryption is not very similar to the ENIGMA code.

Tonight we take the parents for a late anniversary dinner at a posh restaurant by the lake. I'll have Walleye Pike, since we never see it in California, and it's IMHO the tastiest freshwater fish.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.