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.