Wednesday, December 15, 2010

calc final is today....

Behind Dorm Doors at Midnight

Third floor, third door on the left
two girls studying, flipping through textbooks at their desks

First floor, fourth door on the right
no one's there, in the room that smells like candles

Basement, last door on the right,
a girl's brushing her teeth in the laundry room

Fourth floor, second door on the left,
there are posters stacked on the desk, as a boy and girl hang them up down the hall

Basement, second door on the left,
six or seven people drinking, going up and down the hall

Second floor, last door on the right,
one girl sleeping, the other bed empty

Third floor, first door on the right,
a girl's memorizing formulas

Any floor, any room, any building,
everything's the same.

Monday, December 6, 2010

So this studying thing... it sucks.

I can't decide whether "amortize," as in "amortizing loans," comes from "amore," or "mort." It's a very strange blend of the two words, at least.

I hate when mathematical theories are named after people- seriously, who cares who came up with it? Saying, "oh, use so-and-so's formula" doesn't give me even the slightest clue as to what to actually DO. Saying "use logarithmic differentiation" makes perfect sense. Saying "use Taylor's Theorum" does not.

And by the way, that Taylor guy had way too much time on his hands. Polynomials AND the error theorum? I wish he had gotten a life after the polynomials. My final would be that much easier.

Here's what I studied over the past few days:
1. Newton-Raphson's Method
2. Taylor's Polynomials
3. Linear approximation
4. Taylor's theorum, calculating error
5. Classical Conditioning
6. Operant conditioning
7. Biological rhythms
8. Grammar (that one was for fun. It was a grammar critique blog. Only a true writing geek would find it hilarious).
9. game theory
10. other microeconomics stuff
11. amortizing loans

Very productive, as you'll note. If you look carefully, you can tell that it shifts subjects. However, it's thanks to morons like Taylor that you can't say for sure even what subject "Taylor's Theorum" applies to. It's his egocentricity that we have to thank for all this confusion.

Ironically, as much as I despise the idea that a theorum named after a person is impossible to decipher if you don't know what it is, Taylor's polynomials/theorum are two topics I know fairly well. It's freakishly weird when I, of all people, start to like calculus. This phenomenon is better known as the coming of the apocalypse.

Additionally, here's a list of things I want to do over winter break!

1. not be in freezing cold weather
2. have my favourite foods, much of which people at the caf couldn't even pronounce, let alone make
3. get tan. I was tan in August. I was lightish tan in September. Now I am vampire pale. It's sad.
4. learn to play "River Flows In You," composed by Yiruma. No, you're not mistaken in thinking that I have no musical knowledge whatsoever. It's my belief that I don't need it. Determination conquers all.
5. sleep!
6. Be in my room without random strangers walking in
7. Not having to chain Alex to my bed (Alex is my laptop, FYI)
8. be able to print whatever I want, whenever I want, regardless of the weather
9. use a kitchen sink that's not full of dirty dishes and the occasional broken shot glass
10. CHRISTMAS!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Post-Facto Realizations

I saw a group of high school students touring UBC yesterday and it's crazy to think that, a year ago, I was considering coming here, and had no actual grasp on what moving to Canada really means.

Today, I understood an entire worksheet of Calculus homework, (Newton's Formula, loan amortizing, Taylor's polynomials)- I understood that. A few weeks ago, I couldn't do any of the math workshop problems. Crazy.

I talked to a guy at Sportchek, about how I have a 6:30AM league for hockey and he said he respects that, and- I've woken up at 5:30 in the morning?!

Interesting stuff.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

More snowwww

There was lots more snow today! It's SO AWESOME!





















Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Snow play!

Spent the afternoon playing in the snow with my friend Jan-Lin :D we took the bus to Allison Rd, which is by the village, and then walked to this corner that had snow on it! We made a fort and a little snowman named Melvin.