Take 4 at a stable blog
My general rants and speeches
Coming back from Europe, I accidentally left my battery pack in a Heathrow airport hotel. In order to get it back, I would have to pay for the shipping cost in British pounds.
It is estimated that it’ll be 20 pounds.
At the time I lost the pack, GBP’s exchange rate is at a cool 1.55 USD.
Now it is 1.52 USD, saving me a grand total of $0.60
I think that’s a good word to describe how I feel right about now.
Yesterday, I received an email from the University of Washington. It said that I was accepted into the masters instead of the Ph.D program. That put me in a rather poor mood, for UW was considered a “safety” school.
Today Brown University told me I was accepted into their program. The gush of relief was reminiscent of romance. Maybe it’s true that I’m dating math.
“Thank God I’m untouched” – Tsar Alexander II in response to a bomb blowing up near his carriage.
“It is too soon to thank God” – Hryniewiecki who threw another bomb at the Tsar, killing him.
American gerrymandering is a famous problem in politics and geography. Even mathematicians threw their hats into the race to develop a nice solution to the problem. It turns out that historically speaking, citizen representation in the House is relatively unbiased currently.
Dunwich is a village which was a regional power during the Middle Ages in England. Unfortunately, the North Seas seems to have a vendetta against this little parish and battered it to the point where only 200 inhabitants lived in the village in the 19th century. Of those 200, only some 30 can vote.
It somehow still had 2 representatives in the House before redistricting occurred in 1832.
NPR had a great interview with Wes Moore a few weeks ago on his new book. There was an especially poignant idea in the interview though: that expectations are what bounds us.
Do you think we’re products of our environment?
No, we’re products of our expectation.
I’m personally guilty of having expectation-ism, constantly deeming people not useful because they won’t be going very far in some fashion. A math person asking me about something he or she should know? I’ll answer the question, but in my mind I have already lowered my expectations of that person.
“Oh, (s)he’ll never be working for a company or in a position to help me advance my career too much.”
“Oh, (s)he’s really struggling. Might drop out of the major soon.”
These are thoughts that I shouldn’t have. Expectations of someone will change my behavior towards that person, which can create a positive feedback loop. I should be more encouraging in these cases, and remember what great people I had in my life which always expected more of me.
Never lower expectations for anyone, especially oneself.
Instead of using the Pomodoro method, I’ve been relying increasingly on my Clash of Clan method while working. Every 20 minute or so, I would check my phone in order to attack as my troops have been replenished.
Today marks the last first day of my undergraduate career, assuming nothing messes up. It was also a productive day, with me unpacking after arriving in Ithaca last night, and finally applied for a CS minor. With this newfound busyness, my mind can’t really stray to be too nostalgic.
When I arrived in my room last night, a wave of nostalgia swept over me. The want for the status quo is quite strong; change seems to be bad now. The best way I can explain it is in terms of mathematics:
For the past 22 years, fortune has smiled upon me. Time after time, the dice has favored my family’s endeavors and health. I fear that the math dictates that tragedy will strike soon with the new dice roll. It seems that my grandma’s health has already started to decline. I was too young to comprehend the death of my dad’s mother, but being 22 means I will understand now.
Am I scared of this? Oh definitely. Is this fear irrational? I think so.
No, not the jeans.
I did a round of Power 90, not P90X, yesterday evening. And goodness was it tough. This is what I get for not working out for a whole semester.
Same thing is happening for my clarinet skills too. It’s just so rusty.
It’s too bad I can’t do the stuff I used to be able to do in high school right now. 🙁