I’ve wanted to watch “Kubo” for a few weeks now, but with the recent gif popping up… it just makes it so much cooler. How many people in the world have the technically and modelling know-how to do this… it’s mind blowing.
Bernstein Polynomials
This post won’t have too much math, but mainly musings.
After a four month hiatus from research, it seems my dive back into the world of unknown math is being squandered by my ineptitude. My documentation of the progress made, and the comments in my code seems to be greatly lacking. I’ve spent a good chunk of time trying to recall progress.
I think one of the cooler things Bernstein polynomials can prove is that polynomials are dense (uniformly too IRCC) in continuous functions on a bounded domain. Durrett has a proof in his book using a probabilistic view, which seems much cleaner than an algebraic/analysis proof such as here.
Gentleman in Moscow
No, this post isn’t going to be mainly about Trump. I must say it is ironic that the title of the book I chose contains the capital of that mysterious country (and somewhat premeditated). The politics of the situation honestly scares me a little, with massaged information (to put it lightly) being tossed around.
But the book was a delight. The disappearance and death of a few characters really dampened my mood (but what does one expect of a story set in Soviet Russia?), with N’s being the most tragic. Even the ending is bittersweet with a certain tree promising to meet wisdom, with an uncertain outcome as the novel came to a close.
One shouldn’t dwell on the sorrows of life though; at least that’s what Rostov would’ve done, and boy was he a wise man.
Flying
I was riding the Silver line bus on the way back to Providence today. Something must have went awry with two passengers. The first thing I heard was “I’m going to punch you in your ****ing face.” Turns out an inconsiderate women bumped into an unforgiving man and ruined the mood of ten other passengers.
On an unrelated note, I’ve been going through “A Gentleman in Moscow.”
Kingfountain Series
I guess I finished the trilogy starting with the Queen’s Poisoner in less than a week. As for today, I’m still suffering a bit of “post book depression” and I couldn’t sleep much last night. Investing that much time into a fleshed out story with great characters does that to a bored person, but I don’t regret it.
(Semi-spoilers ahead, but it’s pretty obvious IMO).
I really did enjoy the story. The series got better as the books went on as Owen and the other characters developed into adults with distinct, personifiable traits. Wheeler did a good job in giving the major characters their own tone, and actions (though the supporting characters lack the same treatment such as the captains).
I think by far my favorite characters were the tragic lives of the poisoners: Ankarette Tryneowy and Etayne. Somehow the deaths of the advisor and friend of Owen hit me pretty hard. They both were selfless with little indication that they tried to pursue their own agendas, with one dying with unrequited love on her mind. I might start reading the prequel later this semester to keep my mind sane.
As for the actual plot, it’s solid overall. I’m still a bit confused as to the role of the mythical set used in the last book, and it’s actual powers. The supernatural in this series lacked in explicit boundaries of the power, and often there were magical ex machina moments. Still, this was historical-based and it did show a little with some GoT-esque politics (though nothing as deep or gruesome) rather than a pure good vs bad.
It’s too bad the language was a bit at a lower-level, though it is expected as it’s a young adult novel. I’m tempted to buy the 4,5,6 books coming up just to see what happened to the kingdom. One aspect I really digged was the time skips. It was well-paced and actually done in a fashion such that the plot never slowed down.
Whelp, time to find another book.
Harder Every Decade
There’s a problem I solved awhile back which I was quite proud of:
Determine, with proof, the largest number that is the product of positive integers whose sum is 1976. (IMO 1976)
Note that this was at a high school olympiad level. Two days ago, my little brother brought me a state Mathcounts preparation packet. One of the problems was
Write 33 as the sum of two or more distinct prime numbers so that the product of these prime numbers is largest. What is the largest possible product?
While a proof is not needed, the move from an high school international level to a middle school state level in 40 years is pretty is pretty impressive.
Amid the Shadows
It seems anytime I’m changing time zones, the second night will always be a restless one. It was true during Japan and Europe. It held true when I came back from Seattle.
During that restless night I managed to read a whole book “Amid the Shadows” by Grumley. I really wish I could take that time back and invest my time into a different novel. It really did a good job of reeling me in: there was interesting plot points starting on page one, but then it just crescendoed and never stopped. For such a long build up of intricate plot points, the release of tension was woefully inadequate.
To spoil the book a bit, it turns out God has been sending being down to guide humans. One came during WWII to prevent Hitler from getting the A-bomb for example. Apparently, one of these beings got pissed at God for not giving it a soul (because it failed its task) and hence intended to kill everyone by plunging the world into atomic warfare.
I don’t understand why he was afraid of Sarah. There’s no reason to spend that much time going after her, nor was it worth it. I don’t understand how he got banished (sent back?) at the end. I don’t understand how the Israeli guy is suppose to do. There’s too many… bad points in this book.
Gretchen recommended me the Queen’s Poisoner as some quick read… and so on it.
A Toy Truck
Some idiot posted on Craigslist with a wrong number. Now I’m getting texts with people thinking I’m selling a truck. I’m not.
First sign:
Could you take $900.00?
What does that even mean? I replied “wrong number.” It became more clear with the second text:
Still have the truck? What’s your bottom dollar and is there any issuesCan you send some more pics
Oh. Apparently people think I’m selling a vehicle… Third guy is a bit persistent:
Is the toy still 4 sale. How many miles on engine and what kind of tires. Thx
Did u sell the toyota.
Im working but can call u on break.
Later, he even sent me a voicemail. Finally, I found out the culprit when someone used an app to text me directly from CList.
Are you interested in trading for a jet ski
Finally, I get a better offer:
I’ll trade you a AR 15 for your Toyota truck.
Vacation
I spent a week with my nuclear family around NW United States and SW Canada starting on the 23rd. We first started in Seattle, where we spent the first day going to MoPOP and Chihuly museum. Both were excellent, and actually really fun. There were a demonstration at the glass museum where two artisans produced a simple bowl, but it was incredibly hard to make. For Christmas, Brighten and I went skiing at a mountain nearby.
Afterwards, we drove to Harrison, CN and the hot springs in it. This marks the 4th hot spring which I have been to in the 4th unique country (Costa Rica, Japan, Hungary, Canada). Ironically, I have yet to have been one in the United States.
It snowed the day before we arrived, so there were snow everywhere. The juxtapositioning of snow and 90F water was quite surreal. There were a group of kids who were playing in the snow in their swimwear, then jumping into the pool to warm up. As fun as that looks, I highly doubt I like mixing hot and cold.
Then we went to Vancouver. The weather here was awful. It rained the whole time there, even while doing the outdoor tours. I did introduce my parents to escape rooms, which was quite interesting. The silver lining was that we ate at an all-you-can-eat sushi buffet.
Finally, we flew out of Seattle after dropping by the Science Museum there. Turns out it was for quite small children, but there were several things that were pretty cool (IMAX, laser show). Mom actually flew to China to take care of her parents, while the rest of us flew to FL.
December
It’s a day into December, and the parka has still yet to make an appearance this year. Contradictory to the optimistic “warm” weather, a year spent relatively isolated seems to be taking a toll on my well-being. I’m far less rosy than I was last year, though one would expect taking less classes would help.
The smaller things are sticking to my mind more. Little quirks in behavior in other people are bothering me more, and I feel like I’ve been more self-centered recently. Even some distasteful comments by players on Overwatch have stuck a bit, not typical of me “y u heff to be mad” mindset.
It may be the lack of sleep, or it may just be I need to find my center again. Yoga this morning really helped a lot.