2011-11-08

was just working on my comp sci homework and thought i'd take a blogging break when i saw "turing" (as in turing machine) underlined in red in word (word thinks i will start capitalizing proper nouns again if it nags me enough) and it reminded me of when i was typing something on my mom's old compaq computer in the kitchen and i was worried that the red squiggly underlining would show up when i printed whatever it was.  luckily whichever of my parents who was around at the time assured me that when you print your document the red and green underlining does not print (bahahah wouldn't that be silly if it did?).  i was skeptical though and did feel assured until i saw it printed and there were no red underlines.

just today after my run at 6:30 (but before breakfast at ovt, just to be clear... and while we're here in between the parentheses i might also mention that we did our mussle rock run down to the beach--about 12k) arthur and i were talking about memories.  today's run was the second run that i mapped using the gps on my phone (using map my run's iphone app), except i started the mapping a few minutes into the run and ended it a little after so that it mapped most of my walk to breakfast.  i said that when i was 80 or whatever years old i'd look back at the map of the run i did today and be sad that i couldn't remember it, or why it started by the economics building and ended at a soccer field instead of our normal meeting place.  if you don't remember it, it's like it didn't even happen, as arthur said, and we may as well have slept in today.  except if the memory is in a run i hope the evidence remains in the health of your body.  anyway, we also agree that what's worse than when you can't remember anything at all is when you can only kind of remember something, because then you know that you don't know.  since i've blogged it, i won't need to worry about forgetting today.

last weekend i released a big upgrade to my dad's company website.  fun stuff.  nobody will really notice except my dad will find a few new things here and there, but the way it works on the inside is like way revamped and stuff.  i was awake until 4 that day, but it's okay because i woke up at 11 and if you wake up at 11 then you should go to bed at 11+16=27 and 27-24=3 so 3, which means i only stayed up an hour late.   i try to stay awake for 16 hours a day because if i go to bed earlier i can't sleep, and if i go to bed later then the next day will be a sad one because i always try to wake up by 6.  however the last few weeks have been sketchy as i've gotten sick twice recently, but don't worry because i pile on the sleep and recover quickly.

did i tell you?!  ok, so for revelle college, you have to learn another language.  if english isn't your native language then you test out with your native language.  other people take language classes.  but i'm going to learn esperanto!  it's a constructed language that is designed to be culturally neutral and easy to learn.  if everyone that was taking classes in spanish, italian, german, japaneze or whatever decided to learn esperanto instead, and if people in other countries learned esperanto instead of english, then we could get the whole world to know one language that everyone could speak!  why can't we have this? because people are stubborn and assume that no one else will go along with it. but don't worry, i'm not going to be one of those people and maybe if enough people like me (people who realize that someone has to be the first of their friends to do something before everyone can do it, people who don't mindlessly follow their parents and friends but decide for themselves how it should be and do it that way) learn esperanto then maybe we can get something started in this side of the u.s.  (we have a couple million in europe already.)  so they don't have esperanto classes here; but if on my own i become proficient in esperanto, there are esperanto-speaking faculty at ucsd who are qualified to give me a proficiency exam to meet my college language requirement.  it's going to be great guys...stay tuned, or join me and create a lernu.net account!

20110502

on the 4th week i ended up dropping math 20d because it was not required for my major.  i'm done with math!  i enrolled in econ 2.   i went to this class once and was bored.  the only time i went after that was for the first midterm, which i got a b+ on.  i've been really busy with computer science, hum and physics, so i might withdraw from econ if i'm not able to study for the second midterm on the weekend before.
today i learned that my application to transfer into warren college was declined.  i am stuck in revelle for now, but i think i can apply again later.

a facebook poll shows that out of 36 revellians, just 3 feel like they belong in revelle college.  25 thought that revelle was the right choice when they applied, but now realize they've made a mistake.  5 people were placed into revelle because the other colleges were full.  3 people ranked their preferences for the colleges randomly on their application. 1 person thought the name "revelle" sounded cool.  clearly it's not a very popular college.

i got my dvorak keyboard stickers.  they're on my keyboard but i'm not using them too much yet since i'm so busy.

ran 20 miles yesterday.  wasn't really "easy". got my face and neck burned.  had 2 breakfast burritos and 2 glasses of gatorade at the ovt cafeteria.

the computer science projects are really time consuming.  it's tedious sometimes but it's also good practice.

i am ages behind on the reading in humanities.  i just can't get myself to read the bible.  i did read the first 4 books (out of 6) of the aeneid and the first 3 books of confessions, and have to read up to 8 or something by tomorrow (not going to happen with my essay due on thursday).

physics is cool.  i just study on thursdays and take the quizzes on fridays.  i can't keep up with the lectures so i just don't go to them and read the book instead.

i feel like i've been getting my protein despite my vegetarian habits.  i have 4 egg-bun-on-the-go's on average every morning, then sometimes skip lunch since lunch at plaza sucks (except today it didn't because they had falafel pita sandwiches).  if i must have lunch i might get a salad, and i often get cereal since i don't have cereal for breakfast.  for the last few mondays and wednesdays i've been eating delicious indian food at price center.  i drink a big bottle of chocolate milk almost every day too.  then i take robust costco vitamins and pills for iron.

been waking up at 6 every day this week except this morning i woke up at 8 because i went to bed at 2 last night, which was because i took a nap that day after the 20 mile run which was because i was kind of tired which was because i ran 20 miles.  i feel like i've been productive the last few weeks but somehow i'm just never caught up.  it's kind of stressful, but you just have to live in the now and worry about one thing at a time.

don't be a fat american!

summary: people should break their current habits and use the metric system, 24-hour time, only lowercase letters and the dvorak simplified keyboard layout.
-----

first i will explain my use of the term "fat american".  skip this paragraph if i've not insulted you.  i do not intend to insult fat people.  being fat doesn't make you a bad person.  if eating makes you happy, and if the purpose of life is being happy, then you're fulfilling the purpose of life by being fat.  i have plenty more to say for and against being fat but it's a little off topic for this note.  anyway, by the word "fat" i mean "lazy".  using these two words synonymously is not okay, just like it's not okay to use "gay" and "stupid" synonymously.  but i did it anyway, and i apologize.

here are some things that people in general (but particularly americans) need to break the habit of using:

american [measurement] system 
everyone knows that the metric system is superior.  learn your weight in kilograms, your height in meters, and the mileage your car gets in kilometers per liter.  then when someone asks you for any of this information and you give it in different units than they expect, you can make them feel stupid for using fat american units and not getting with the times.  always speak in metric units!

like the metric system on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Metric-system/54404422195


am/pm (12 hour time)
have you ever asked yourself why we have am and pm?  there are 24 hours in a day.  how will you identify them? here's an idea: number them 1 to 24.  oh wait -- better idea: name the first one 12am, the next few 1am to 11am, the 13th one 12pm, and the rest 1pm to 11pm.  okay even better idea: we'll have 1-6am, 1-6bm, 1-6cm and 1-6dm so it's always clear which quarter of the day it is.  so anyway, why did they split it up into am and pm? answer: because it was inconvenient to fit 24 hours on a mechanical clock.  12 hour time was also more convenient for sundials.  these days we use digital clocks, so the original purpose of using 12 hour time is obsolete.  the only thing it does for us now is make us set our alarms incorrectly so they wake us up 12 hours late -- either you forgot to set am/pm for the clock's alarm time or you set it incorrectly for the clock's current time.  it also makes adding and subtracting times more difficult.  so please, use 24-hour time!  never buy a clock that doesn't have a 24-hour time option.  change your clocks, computers and phones to display times in 24-hour format.  think in terms of 24-hour time.  when people ask for the time, tell them the 24-hour time.

like military time or 24-hour time on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/24-hour-time/111452262206734


capital letters
have you ever asked yourself why there are two versions of each letter?  say it was up to you to design an alphabet for your kingdom.  you choose to have 30 symbols so that there aren't too many to memorize and so the words are not too long.  great!  then someone says, "hey dude, you should create a different version of every letter for use certain types of words and occasions!".  you then slap him upside the head for his dumb idea - the idea that we all live by.
why are there two versions for each letter?  there weren't always.  it started out in all caps.  but capitals are hard to write.  people started finding shortcuts to writing the letters, and these shorthand ways became known as the lowercase letters.  lowercase letters exist because they're easier to write!  it would've been great if we started out with the lowercase letters because nobody would've taken the effort to create uppercase letters.  now we have 2 of each letter, which makes things unnecessarily complicated.  it makes english more difficult to learn, it means people have to waste time hitting the shift key every time they start a sentence, etc.

"but capitals make it easy to find the beginning of the sentence."
look for periods instead.  use two spaces after periods.  the extra space and the period will make it clear that you started a new sentence.  if necessary, write the first letter bigger, but still lower case.

"but capital letters distinguish proper nouns from regular nouns."
it's clear from context whether you're talking about a generic god or the christian god, or whether you're using "mom" as a name or talking about your maternal parent.  if context isn't good enough, use quotes or italics.

"but how do you indicate yelling? how do you emphasize something?"
use an exclamation point or two.  usually yelling is unnecessary and shows immaturity, anyway.  for emphasis, underline or use boldface.

"if i don't use capital letters, people will think i'm stupid!"
make sure you use punctuation properly and strictly adhere to all other grammar rules.  things like run-on sentences, confusing "you're" with "your", extraneous commas and spelling errors are some things that really make people look stupid.  if you do everything else right then it'll be clear that your nonuse of capital letters is intentional.

please, write everything in lowercase whenever you can!  it's okay to make an exception if you're applying for a job, but intentionally capitalizing letters when messaging your friends is nothing but a cocky way to show off how educated you think you are.  disable auto-capitalization on your phone and word processor.

like "not using uppercase letters" on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/not-using-capital-letters/132367043444834


qwerty keyboard
believe it or not, the qwerty keyboard was designed to make typing difficult!  typewriters jammed if you typed too fast on them, so they arranged the keys so that you were forced to type slowly.  come the personal computer, only qwerty keyboards sold because people were already used to this layout.  the dvorak keyboard layout was designed to make typing easy and fast, and it prevents typing-related injuries.  learn to type on a dvorak keyboard!

change the settings on your operating system to use the dvorak layout:
windows: http://www.microsoft.com/enable/training/windowsxp/keyboardlayout.aspx
mac: http://www.chimoosoft.com/articles/dvorak.php

buy stickers to transform your existing qwerty keyboard into a dvorak keyboard, or a dvorak keyboard cover for macs:
http://www.amazon.com/s?url=Daps&field-keywords=dvorak+simplified+keyboard+stickers

like the dvorak keyboard on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dvorak-Keyboard/112627248756266



the old way is so much easier, and it's what everybody else uses!  the new way is too complicated!
for anyone who is learning to tell time, work with units in science or type on a keyboard for the first time, the formats i've proposed are easier to learn and/or superior.  the only reason these things are difficult for you to use is because you're used to your own backward ways. converting will be a challenge, and in the long run it may not be worth it for you.  you will face opposition from your peers and particularly from those in older generations.  but we do need to change our ways eventually, and the sooner we do it the better.  this will not necessarily make our own lives easier, but it will simplify the lives of future generations.  each generation we wait is another generation of people who will have to put up with americans' backward ways.  now, just because everyone else does it the wrong way is no excuse.  if everyone says "but no one else is using ___" then no one will switch and nothing will happen.  have some sense of efficacy!  if everyone says "nobody else is doing it but i'll go ahead and do it anyway because i know it's right," -- or even if just a few determined people say it -- then it'll really make a difference.  the demand for dvorak keyboards will make them available on the market, making it easier for people to buy.  then qwerty users will get laughed at, and eventually computers will come dvorak keyboards and force users to learn the new format.  the first few people will be hard to convince, but don't be lazy and just do it because you know it's right!!!

20110329 spring 2011

math 20d - calculus
professor's voice is boring.  he is a sad large character with flat hair and limited energy.  he jumped right in to teaching, which is a plus.  he wants to teach you, so if you humor him and sit in front and feel bad for him and try to learn, it'll be okay.  i think if you tune out the tone of his voice, then you'll find the math interesting.

physics 2b - electricity and magnetism
this old guy is stern, alert and tough.  an 85% is an a+, a 70% is an a-.  a 35% is a c-.  every friday we'll have a quiz.  the friday quizzes are worth 60% of our grade.  the final is worth 40% of our grade.  homework is assigned but not graded.  this guy is serious about learning.  sadly we didn't learn anything on the first day of class.

cse 30 - systems engineering
i have a feeling that rick ord is everything people say he is.  he's well known for being the best computer science teacher.  i'm really looking forward to everything i'll learn in this class.  ord is alert, friendly and encouraging.  he's probably in his 50s, but he has the charisma (is this an appropriate use of that term?) of a 25 year old.  he kind of reminds me of mr. hepinger who taught me physics in 11th grade.

humanities 2
people said this old guy was boring. well let me tell you what i thought when i first saw him.  he is a formidable figure of the perfect eight. he's tall and he has the biggest and brightest blue eyes that sparkled like the ice you get out of a vending machine - the kind with no bubbles.  he wore the smile of a well-bred and educated american leader.  he spoke with promising enthusiasm.  i felt like he could read my mind when he looked at me in the eyes.  his bright eyes were wide open.  he didn't blink once.  he leaned forward and looked over his entire audience with his beautiful smile.  then with great enthusiasm and force, he told a simple fact.  he spoke his sentences one at a time with a grand pause between each one to let you really think about what he just said.  so he spoke, but his face lied that what he was saying was fascinating.  for a few minutes his trick worked.  but then i tried listening to what he said and i don't even remember what it was.  it's like trying to remember what happened when you were counting to 10 while a nurse put you out for surgery.  chodorow put me to sleep so fast.

the things he talked about...

"...but if it's a personal issue, you can email me.  usually i'll respond in a couple of hours.  if you email me at 2 in the morning, then i'll be asleep, so i won't email you back until i wake up.  i don't wake up too early.  but that doesn't mean i stay up late either.  it's a function of age.  sometimes i won't respond in a couple of days because i go on vacations and i don't always bring my computer with me..."

dude - who wants to know all of this?  maybe 4% of the class will end up emailing you at one point or another so just move on to the good stuff.  okay, anyway...

the lecture today was garbage.  it was just a super shallow history of rome and europe from like 100-300.
i don't think the other lectures will be quite this bad.

he says he doesn't use powerpoints because he's not good at them.  structure just isn't his thing.  what he can do is put up a map and point to it occasionally.

i had professor edwards last quarter.  i was upset about little things.  he talked too fast, and his powerpoints were just skeletons of what he said.  but now that listened to someone else, i can see that professor edwards was actually pretty good, and i wouldn't be surprised if he was one of the best.  edwards talked with such elegance and coherence.  if you didn't like what he was talking about, you could just listen to the beauty of how he said it.  he talked quickly, but he kept your mind working so you couldn't get bored.  he gave few-sentence summaries after every major section and at the end of the day. to top it off he threw in a couple good jokes.  chodorow makes me miss edwards so much.

--
i met identical twin alex varnau yesterday.  in steven buell's suite there is another steven, so they call one steven_0 and the other steven_1.  i stole their idea and made myself alex_0 and him alex_1.  so we're both computer science majors in revelle.  he is the i.t. guy for ucsd housing and dining.  we're both vegetarians (though for different reasons), and we both run.  he has glasses like me, though he can survive most of the time without actually wearing them.

i will see connor pozdolski on wednesday night.  he is an electrical engineer from warren.  i met him once already.  he has a passion for and is skilled in robotics.

these guys is koo kids.

2011-03-07

On Friday and Saturday I played Minecraft.  Officer Matthew Huber introduced me to this game.  People fall off their chairs when I tell them that I played it, since I am never seen playing video games.  I can't wait to play again after I finish my essay due on Wednesday!

I calculated that if I get a 50% (F) on the final, and get another C+ on this essay, then I will pass Humanities with a D!  The keyword is pass. A 50% on the final sounds doable.  I will be grateful if I pass.

Went for a 13 mile run this Sunday.  (My ankle held up just fine.  Life isn't so bad when your ankles cooperate with you.)  We did run pretty slowly, perhaps 10 minute pace.  I planned the run, but we had to make some modifications as we went along.  Unfortunately, when you use Google Maps to plot a run, you cannot see fences with NO TRESPASSING signs since the view is from straight above, so we had to run around this one plot of land I wanted to run through.  It is also difficult to see from a satellite view that running through a certain plot of land involves jumping off modest cliffs.  So we improvised a little and made our way back.  Officer Huber takes pleasure in picking on me and the team likes to play along, so I definitely got hounded for the flaws in my run.

I discovered a very filling type of cereal in Plaza tonight.  It's this oat cereal with raisins.  It probably has 3 times the amount of filling-ness as fruit loops, which means I now have 3 times less eating to do.  It's a delicious cereal too.  I've been eating cereal every night, since there is never anything to eat at Plaza for dinner, and in the morning they always have pretty good breakfast foods besides cereal.  Gotta get my calcium one way or another.

So I should be keeping in touch with my parents and grandparents who want to talk to me but I am on a roll with getting work done and I can't stop.  And when I have a few free hours, they would best be spent going for an extra run or playing Minecraft.  I'll talk to them if they play Minecraft with me.

2011-02-25

I've once again hurt my ankle.  Again it is mostly my Achilles tendon that hurts.  Yesterday I went to Strides, and we had a fast group so we decided to go on a longer run.  Our run was almost all sidewalk, which was painful for my shins, one of which I just noticed that morning was hurting for the first time in years.  We were on this long stretch of freeway and I was falling behind because I wanted to take it easy on my shins.  Then when we finally got to this part of the road where there was grass I sprinted across it to catch up while I could without hurting my shins.  I did look where I was stepping and the ground looked very smooth, but I stepped in a well-hidden pothole and jammed up my ankle again.  I hopped and and stopped, and then everyone stopped and let me wait a minute before I tried running again.  I was able to walk without much pain, so I told them to tell me how to get back because I didn't want them to have to wait.  I feel like I'm writing in my dream blog again... this is not a dream and does not need to be told in this much detail now does it.  "They all stopped and turned, and I saw their concerned faces staring at me.  Feeling bad...."  Whatever.  So they got me to a bus stop and I took a bus back.  It might not have been such a big deal if my ankle wasn't still recovering from last time.  It hurts in the exact same place.  I should be able to run again in under a week, I hope.  It better, at least, because I'm training for a marathon.

I rock at Physics and Math.  2nd midterm: 27 out of 30 for Math.  It was a rather difficult final.  Everyone was whining about it.  In Physics I got the grade that only 4 out of 225 students got.  The average grade for this test was an F, a 48%.


I haven't been to physics or math for quite a while now.

I have a computer science midterm coming up.  I want to do well on it, but it's not an easy thing to do well on.  This weekend I'll be catching up on humanities reading and studying for the comp sci final.

2011-02-08

First and foremostly of importance, the matter of the discussion to which your attention will be brought is as follows here:  I will be running a marathon race on the fifth day of the sixth month (aka June) of the year of 2011.  I'll be training with friends whose names, when listed alphabetically by order of last name, appear as they do in this list: Officer Matthew Huber (the coercer of our participation in this event), Zack Lee, Jessie Rosas, Arthur Vigil.  The distance of this marathon race is one marathon, or 42 kilometers.  (With your obsolete system of fatty American measurement you may recognize these units with more familiarity: 26 miles.) The name of the race is "Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Marathon".  The uniform resource locator of this event's official webpage, which can be used to locate the page and download it onto your computer screen, is this: http://san-diego.competitor.com/.

Every Sunday until June 5th we'll do our long run for the week, and each Sunday we'll run about a mile more. Since we have about 17 weeks left to train and our long runs now are about 8 miles, we are right on schedule.

Starting yesterday, I've been hosting runs at 6:30 in the morning.  It's the only time that everyone can go, and also I think waking up at 6 every day will help me get on a consistent sleeping schedule again.  However, few are willing to attend.  Today and yesterday, two people besides me came.  Hey, if I can get two people to wake up at 6 I think that's pretty good.

Putting aside what's important, we are left with midterms.  Physics: A+.  Math: A+.  Computer Science: B. (The problem with 5 question tests is if you miss one -- and missing one in this class is easy, even if you know your stuff -- then you have a not-A.)

I'm also proud to announce that I earned a 'D' grade on my first graded essay in humanities.  I think it was graded a bit harshly, but I understand what could've been better.  Now don't you run off telling your mother that I am not trying hard enough in that class.  You listen here.  My entire life has been consumed with humanities of late.  Around here, I'm known as the one who is "always studying," and is "still reading."  I discovered that if I read in the library, people don't get on my case quite as much.  However, when my suite is the most practical place to read, I wear this hat that a made.  It says clearly "Hat of Silence" along the front.  When I wear it, people do not talk to me as often since they know I won't acknowledge them.  This keeps my train of thought from disappearing completely.

Once when I was reading I decided to measure my reading speed.  I was in a library, where distractions were negligible.  I was slightly tired, but who isn't slightly tired when they're reading history?  Performance tests were taken over the course of two 18-page books of the Odyssey.  The results were as follows: I read 12 pages an hour (5 minutes per page) for both chapters.  Also for both chapters, I lost concentration about once per page - 18 times for the first chapter, 19 times for the second.  (Every time I caught myself thinking about something unrelated to the epic and not reading, I made a tally in my notebook, where I take notes on what I read.)  I know from reading in the past that when I read something I can focus on, I usually read 20 pages an hour, which is 3 minutes a page.

20110126

Last Tuesday I sprained my ankle when I stepped off a curb one step earlier than I intended to.  Didn't hurt bad so I finished crossing the street and then slowed down.  I thought I was being overly cautious but I know now from previous injuries that there is no such thing as being overly cautious if you think you just injured yourself.  So I ran slowly for the rest of the loop we were doing and waited at the end for the other runners to catch up.  We took a short break during which my ankle could cool down.  Then when everyone left as a group I walked, since it hurt a little more.  But after walking a rather short while I decided that I was limping too much so I took a shuttle back.  When I got off the shuttle I found myself hopping back to my building.  The next morning I almost didn't go to class since I surely broke something and there was just no way I could walk that far.  But it was humanities, and well, what would Grandpa think if I ditched humanities just because my ankle was in severe pain and about to fall off?  Couldn't make an appointment at student health services between then and the next hour when class started, so I used my brain and realized that biking probably wouldn't be so bad.  So I hobbled down the stairs and in a miraculous hop of the foot landed on my bike with my injured ankle in the air, and I peddled to class in the 1st gear on both sides.  Got some blood flowing to site of injury and took some notes.  Don't worry though.  I just looked like an exaggerating fool begging for sympathy (which I got too much of, especially from them flirtatious ladies) but by Friday things were much better.

Last Friday we moved in to the newly renovated fleets.  Now I'm in Challenger instead of Meteor.  We got our keys earlier but the official move date was Friday at 15:00.  That was the exact time of my first midterm, which was for linear algebra (which I will be sad if I didn't ace).  I started moving an hour after everyone.  Man did my throat feel not okay and I had a headache too.  I was sick from Friday through Monday, and got ever so little done over the weekend.  Had a hard time appreciating the new place when I was sick but it's pretty cool now.  There are also a lot of uncool things too though.

No mirrors in our cabinets.
One less mirror in the bathroom.
Toilets flush so loudly I have to cover my ears every time.
Ethernet ports and power outlets in the most awkward places.  Need extension cords and long cables.
Light takes a while to turn on.  Built in to the side of the wall instead of the ceiling.
Locks on the doors automatically unlock themselves every time you open the door, so every time you leave you have to lock the door again.  We used to keep our doors locked all the time and just leave them open instead of unlocking them.

Larger common area with large window and couches.
Half a flight less stairs to walk up.
Plaza Cafe is now several feet closer; eating takes less time.
Each toilet is in its own room instead of there just being stalls.  This is good and bad...no small talk or sword fights.
Suite door actually closes by itself.
Many improvements in appearance.  Don't feel like listing them all.
The furniture in my room is now arranged in such a way that it is easier for me to concentrate.  Ask for details.  Why you have to ask for details:  let's just say that this.  Let all of the people in the world be represented by the set{p1, p2, p3, ..., pn}.  The people in the set {p1, p2, p3, ..., p4344028227, p4344028229, ..., pn} are the only ones who don't have a problem with me mentioning them in their blog.  As you can see, the size of the set of people who I can mention in my blog is one less than the size of the set of all people.

Anyway, after moving I wanted so badly to sleep.  So that's what I did.  That whole weekend I just slept and ate.  I at least finished some Physics homework so I'd have time to write an essay due on Wednesday.

Boy did this essay make a fuss about me writing it.  That's mostly what I did on Monday and Tuesday.  Let's not think about that right now.

...fast forward over Monday and Tuesday...but Tuesday didn't actually end until 05:00 on Wednesday (but it's okay because I had a 4 hour nap, which you know by reading my dream blog.)

Turned in my essay today.  It was a page and a half short of 4 pages, but that's because I can say things that other people can say in half the words, so I still expect a decent grade (and by decent I mean good) on it.  Man... that essay was annoying. Oh, but it's not over.  I am now 3 assignments behind in my Humanities reading, so I have 4 reading assignments to read by Friday.  Like that's going to happen.  Moving and getting sick didn't do the best things for me.

Ran for the first time yesterday.  It kind of felt like the whole team slowed down for me, since I of course ran really slowly in fear of my ankle deciding to undo all its healing, and their kindness made me feel all warm inside for a moment and a half.

You know you can save a lot of time by not going to class.  Haven't been to Physics in a couple weeks.  Haven't been to a single discussion for Physics either, and I've regretted all the times I went to the discussion in computer science.  I left that one 20 minutes in to it today.  For Math they do this dirty trick where the homework is due in discussion, so I go and then I may as well stay but staying is only sometimes useful.

I have math homework due tomorrow, so I'll do that tonight.  On Friday I'll have one simple goal which is to finish my physics homework so that it cannot distract me in the future.  And then on Saturday morning I'll start a massive campaign where every minute of every day I'll be reading that book.  The book whose name will not be mentioned here.  The campaign will end on Sunday night.  On Monday I'll study for my physics and computer science midterms that are both on Wednesday.   That reminds me, I should probably go to Physics on Monday since I don't know where the class is and I want to know what's up.  They changed classrooms a while ago.  On Tuesday I'll do the HUM reading for Wednesday, and then I'll be on this normal-like schedule and times will be good like they were in the beginning, before Eve ate the damn fruit.

20110118

I've survived two weeks of a full schedule!  Good job, me.  Some people are taking 5 classes now, and they deserve to be punished with lots of work, but don't worry because that's what's happening to them.  I still feel like it's happening to me too, though.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays I set aside almost the whole day to read for humanities since I only have one or two classes on those days.  It's strange how fast a day goes by.  Usually I wake up at 8:40 for my classes on Tu and Th and take a nap after class and breakfast, then go to Strides and eat again, so I don't start working until about 20:00.  Then there are all kinds of distractions that serve the purpose of making reading slow and difficult, so I get to bed around 1 or 2 (thus the need for naps every day).  Despite how lazy my days sound I've actually been working really hard on time management (which is why I haven't posted in a while).  I save loads of time by eating by myself or with whoever happens to be at the cafeteria at the time.  I've found that studying with friends can be both good and bad.  Sometimes they keep the pressure on to keep reading, and other times they are just a distraction.  I think the biggest thing I still need to do is get back on a regular sleeping schedule.

My math textbook never arrived so I've been borrowing peoples' book.  I emailed Amazon and looks like USPS lost my package so I will be refunded and will re-order with overnight shipping for only $4 with Amazon Prime, which is free for people with a .edu email address.  Math has luckily been pretty easy so far and I've been able to get away with doing all the homework on the day before it's due no problem.  My first math midterm is this Friday so I'm excited to get my book tomorrow.

My CS class is pretty fun.  We're learning how to count!  How many ways can you put 10 distinct jellybeans into 3 cups?  What if the jellybeans are not distinct?  I correctly solved the first extra credit question which was "What is the probability of a random 8-digit number containing 3 or more of the same digit?"  I solved the question in two ways: one with a program that calculated it by counting every number between 00000000 and 99999999 that had 3 of the same digit, and the other using counting techniques learned in class.  The question is simple, but the answer is difficult to calculate!  Oh, turns out Professor Ron Graham is actually kind of famous and really good at discrete math.  He has a fan page! http://math.ucsd.edu/~fan/ron/

Physics is such a snooze!  The first two weeks have been an entire waste, being nothing but review from high school physics.  I leave class early about half the time.

Humanities.  I'm waiting for the book that will open my eyes.  The book that I don't want to set down because the words inside interest me.  The book that I will read and not regret reading.  Turns out this book isn't the bible.  I've confirmed that it is in fact a collection of fairy tales.

Today during my run I stepped too far past the edge of the curb and now my Achilles tendon hurts.  I've had pain in this tendon enough times now that I knew better than to run through it, so I took the shuttle back from where I was.  I suppose I'll be hobbling up and down the stairs for a few days, but I'll have more time to read if I can't run.  I don't know how quickly it'll heal but I can't run tomorrow anyway since I have class.

2011 Winter Quarter day 1

Back to school early on Sunday so I could go to the bookstore before the crowds and get the used books before they sold out.  I have this stack of 10 books on my desk.  "Ohhhhh cool, 10...yeah I've heard that number before.  I'm comfortable when people use small, every-day numbers like 10, that's a nice even number."  Well maybe 10 is a nice number for you but that's not taking into consideration the pages in each of these books.  Each book has a good number of pages, typically more than 10.  To the reader of the books (me, for our slower audience), 10 is a death sentence.

One of them is a math book, which was $180.  If I can wait until Thursday for my book, I can return it and have an amazon book shipped to me by then for $110.  That's $70 IN THE POCKET.  (Would've been $80 if I thought of this earlier.)  I returned my $80 Physics textbook today and bought the $25 e-book, which we pretty much have to buy anyway because it comes with the online homework program.  $80 IN THE POCKET.   Silly UCSD bookstore thinks it can defy the law of supply and demand.

So I saw Zach and Vince and Jordan and Greg and Zack and Andrei and it's cool to be with them again.

Humanities:  This (50 year old?) Greek fan dude is teaching it.  We spent a whole hour listening to him talk about the course and learned nothing.  I wasted my paying-attention energy on nothing.

Physics: 50 or 60 year old awesome white-haired crazy scientist man with a Polish accent whose parents come from Poland but who was born in Mexico.  We at least talked about things that made us think at the end, and he was entertaining to listen to.  Imma like Physics.

BEGIN MONDAY:

Math: dude in his 20's.  This guy is alert and quick and so far is my favorite.  We dove right into the material (at a slowish pace but that's okay.)

Computer Science (CSE 21):  Respectable man named Graham who moves like a snail but you can tell he has wits.  Today was mostly review from CSE 20.  He's cool.  If we find a typo in his textbook we get a dollar.  All his texts are online for free.  I was nervous while I watched him set up for 5 minutes and saw how slow he moved but I think it'll be alright.  I can't say too much this early on but he doesn't have the energy and alertness that Daniele Micciancio did.  I miss that guy.

So the HUM teacher loses. He's a historian though, so what was I supposed to expect?  Historians have to be old or else they wouldn't know anything.  If they had energy for thinking while reading rather than just reading, they would do math.  But instead they just study stories and myths because that's all they can handle. And Grandpa, don't even think about saying that this criticism is short-sighted.  It makes perfect sense.

Didn't run with Strides today because of computer science.  Mondays, Wednesdays and Sundays are no-run days from now on.

I have homework.  Not for CS yet, but for Math and Physics my first assignment is waiting for me.  HUM homework is due on Wednesday: chapters 1 to 27 of Genesis.  I have 2 nights for 27 chapters. And I also have this 14 page "outline of the bible's historical books to the time of nehemiah" (for background knowledge) packet I have to read by Wednesday too.

I have to die--i mean read--now.  Bye.