Just overheard in the Bush-Wentzel home:
"Hmm, this cup had coffee in it (sniff sniff)... Hazelnut... well, that's not too incompatible with French Vanilla tea, so it can be reused, no problem..."
The Great Clean Dishes Conservation Project Lives!!
PS Updated to add: Closer examination revealed that it was actually French Vanilla coffee, if that's comforting to any of you out there...
Saturday, May 06, 2006
4 Days Left (Hmmm, maybe I should start studying for that last final... sometime...)
Hey nebiverse fans, and welcome to "Friday" in my little alternate-time-posting-universe! I'm Neb and I'll be your host, and today we'll be interviewing myself about the exciting day I had on Friday!
Hostess Neb: So, we hear you had a REALLY exciting day on Friday, didn't you?!?
Neb: Um, yeah... I guess so...
HNEB: So, tell us about all the great and exciting things you accomplished, now that two of your finals are out of the way!
Neb: Um... I had a bagel, and some coffee... and then I spent a lot of time reading blogs...
HNEB: Yes, yes, go on!
Neb: And then... um... I can't remember.
HNEB: Let me help your memory out here a little bit: right now you are SO GRATEFUL that two classes have ended and you only have one course left, and you're SO happy that you have a full 4 days to study for the Combinatorics Final on Tuesday, right?!
Neb:
HNEB: Because, as we all know, you TOTALLY blew off about half the homework problems in the second half of the semester, right? Because you were "working on your other two classes"?
Neb:
HNEB: But now, you are SO LUCKY that you have all this wonderful, uninterrupted time to study for the final, right? What a great opportunity! You can study thoroughly and calmly, without trying to cram the night before like you usually end up doing! What a blessing!
Neb:
Hostess Neb: So, we hear you had a REALLY exciting day on Friday, didn't you?!?
Neb: Um, yeah... I guess so...
HNEB: So, tell us about all the great and exciting things you accomplished, now that two of your finals are out of the way!
Neb: Um... I had a bagel, and some coffee... and then I spent a lot of time reading blogs...
HNEB: Yes, yes, go on!
Neb: And then... um... I can't remember.
HNEB: Let me help your memory out here a little bit: right now you are SO GRATEFUL that two classes have ended and you only have one course left, and you're SO happy that you have a full 4 days to study for the Combinatorics Final on Tuesday, right?!
Neb:
HNEB: Because, as we all know, you TOTALLY blew off about half the homework problems in the second half of the semester, right? Because you were "working on your other two classes"?
Neb:
HNEB: But now, you are SO LUCKY that you have all this wonderful, uninterrupted time to study for the final, right? What a great opportunity! You can study thoroughly and calmly, without trying to cram the night before like you usually end up doing! What a blessing!
Neb:
5 Days Left (THE COMPLEX NUMBERS ARE NOT ORDERED!!!)
Two tests have been taken by me "today" (verb tenses continue to be mixed up), and moderate success has been had. Well, really, more than one mistake was made on the random processes test, and disappointment was Felt. Foreheads will be smacked by Professor RP when the grading of my exam is done and some of the mistakes that were made are seen. But all in all, worse it could have been, so trying to let go is being... tried. Um, yeah, Anyway, the Memorize Six Proofs Inbetween Exams Plan for Success was, indeed, Successful, in that proofs were comfortably recalled when the time came.
(Okay, switching tenses because I just can't keep this up anymore...)
After the Complex Analysis Final, Professor CA spoke with me out in the hallway for a moment, returning my last homework on which I had successfully solved a few problems that gave some of my classmates grief but on which I had, once again, committed the Unpardonable Sin of CA by writing z is less than a number (in this case, infinity). Perhaps the deepest truth I learned this semester is that THE COMPLEX NUMBERS ARE NOT ORDERED!!! Although, clearly, I haven't really learned it yet because I still slip up once in a while. At a few points in the semester I remember thinking, why can't our book be better organized- like, one chapter on sequences, one on series, one on integrals, etc. instead of being all swirled together- but then I discovered the
Theorem: The study of complex analysis cannot be ordered because The Complex Numbers are Not Ordered.
I also formulated the
Hypothesis: God created complex analysis on Day i.
Anyway, after pointing out my little foible, prof. Complex Analysis sat down with me on the bench outside with some paper and a pencil and just started Talking, at random, about all sorts of things... approximation theory and probability theory and Bernstein polynomials and many other Great and Mysterious Wonders, things that are far beyond me... and I have to wonder, what was the point? Did he just want someone to talk to for awhile? Did he expect that I would be interested and ask questions? Was this some kind of Meta-Test?
We do not know.
Then I eventually went home, and took Thursday night Off. I watched TV without feeling (very) guilty about it. (Texas Ranch House on PBS is an interesting but rather disastrous and ridiculous show, in case anyone is interested.)
*The End*
(Okay, switching tenses because I just can't keep this up anymore...)
After the Complex Analysis Final, Professor CA spoke with me out in the hallway for a moment, returning my last homework on which I had successfully solved a few problems that gave some of my classmates grief but on which I had, once again, committed the Unpardonable Sin of CA by writing z is less than a number (in this case, infinity). Perhaps the deepest truth I learned this semester is that THE COMPLEX NUMBERS ARE NOT ORDERED!!! Although, clearly, I haven't really learned it yet because I still slip up once in a while. At a few points in the semester I remember thinking, why can't our book be better organized- like, one chapter on sequences, one on series, one on integrals, etc. instead of being all swirled together- but then I discovered the
Theorem: The study of complex analysis cannot be ordered because The Complex Numbers are Not Ordered.
I also formulated the
Hypothesis: God created complex analysis on Day i.
Anyway, after pointing out my little foible, prof. Complex Analysis sat down with me on the bench outside with some paper and a pencil and just started Talking, at random, about all sorts of things... approximation theory and probability theory and Bernstein polynomials and many other Great and Mysterious Wonders, things that are far beyond me... and I have to wonder, what was the point? Did he just want someone to talk to for awhile? Did he expect that I would be interested and ask questions? Was this some kind of Meta-Test?
We do not know.
Then I eventually went home, and took Thursday night Off. I watched TV without feeling (very) guilty about it. (Texas Ranch House on PBS is an interesting but rather disastrous and ridiculous show, in case anyone is interested.)
*The End*
Friday, May 05, 2006
6 Days left (no more space on the hard drive!)
Hi, it's "Wednesday" today but I am not writing in my blog because today I am STUDYING. Because tomorrow is E-Day- back to back exams, 8-11 and 1-4. In the morning I type my last Combinatorics problem in Latex (that's the last problem I did, not the last one assigned- there is a big difference) to email in, and then I spend (are we in present tense...? I'm so confused by this little charade) far too long happily filling in the details of a complex analysis proof with 5 hypotheses and one conclusion that involves choosing 6 capital letters (6!!!) (Eric will know what I'm talking about here.) Things like "Choose N (in bold N*) such that k greater than or equal to N implies absolute z sub k minus l is less than epsilon over 3Q." (That's step five of this proof.) It is a proof about regular matrices- the necessary and sufficient conditions thereof (although we only proved sufficiency.) On the last day of class, Professor King's lecture was sort of a Mathematical Field Trip- he talked about summability theory and approximation theory and probability theory and Cezarro matrices and many other Wonders, things far beyond our understanding. I took notes out of habit.
Eventually I go to school with Nate, and head to the libary, the place where I do my serious studying. Problem: apparently the undergraduates actually stop drinking beer and start studying, at least a little bit, during finals week because THERE ARE NO EMPTY DESKS IN THE LIBRARY. I wander the floors, looking for a desk, noting that literally about half of the desks are not occupied by people but merely by possessions. (including a LAPTOP COMPUTER!! What kind of mindset allows someone to leave their laptop computer abandoned in a library?!?) Where is everyone? In the bathroom at the same time? Greeting their friends in other parts of the libary? FINALLY I find a desk that is unoccupied because it has no chair- I steal an unused chair from a nearby group study table, unpack, and settle in. I start going, slowly (too slowly) through the final exam study check list for Random Processes (which is a wicked cool class, by the way). Things that I learned in January have largely been forgotten. After a while I realize that my growing irritation is due to the fact that I am only a few feet from the door leading into this area of the library, which squeaks upon opening and has people going through it literally EVERY TWO SECONDS. (I suppose they are commuting between their slovenly occupied desks and... the bathroom? Visiting their friends?) Finally I can't stand it anymore and pack up to head to my office, which has more privacy and snacks in the desk drawers and a bathroom and waterfountain nearby and a phone to call Nate and tell him I can't to go dinner with him, too much to do. (Why don't I study there all the time, you ask? The chair is less comfortable, the lighting is not as good, and the school computer on my desk takes up too much space.)
Fast forward to several hours later- I leave with Nate to go to the last Ladies' Bible Study of the semester (on self-control), where there are donuts, which must serve as my makeshift dinner. (Why would you bring donuts to a Bible study on self-control? To practice...? I have no idea.) I get home around 9, put in three more hours of stuyding, and go to bed.
As I told Becky at Bible study- the problem with two exams in one day is that you have to figure out how to partition your brain into two parts, one side to hold all the content for each exam. As I studied Random Processes throughout the day, I felt like my brain was filling completely and there would be no more room to contain the proofs of twelve theorems required for the Complex Final. So in a strategic move I decided to memorize only 6 of the proofs, saving the other six to memorize in the two hour break between exams the next day. Would my strategy pay off, or be a disaster? Tune in tomorrow to the exciting conclusion of, "No More Space On The Hard Drive"!!**
*This is the Natural Numbers N, i.e., 1,2,3,4,... . I know how to do this in Latex now, but, computer illiterate as I am, I suspect that the Latex code for this type of N is not the same as the blogger code for this type of N...? (It's not just bold N, really, it should have a doubly-thick middle line... I don't know how to explain this to y'all unless you've seen it on a chalkboard...)
**This is a Cheesy Marketing Ploy to try to ensure brand loyalty on the part of my readers. (But you WILL tune in "tomorrow," won't you?)
Eventually I go to school with Nate, and head to the libary, the place where I do my serious studying. Problem: apparently the undergraduates actually stop drinking beer and start studying, at least a little bit, during finals week because THERE ARE NO EMPTY DESKS IN THE LIBRARY. I wander the floors, looking for a desk, noting that literally about half of the desks are not occupied by people but merely by possessions. (including a LAPTOP COMPUTER!! What kind of mindset allows someone to leave their laptop computer abandoned in a library?!?) Where is everyone? In the bathroom at the same time? Greeting their friends in other parts of the libary? FINALLY I find a desk that is unoccupied because it has no chair- I steal an unused chair from a nearby group study table, unpack, and settle in. I start going, slowly (too slowly) through the final exam study check list for Random Processes (which is a wicked cool class, by the way). Things that I learned in January have largely been forgotten. After a while I realize that my growing irritation is due to the fact that I am only a few feet from the door leading into this area of the library, which squeaks upon opening and has people going through it literally EVERY TWO SECONDS. (I suppose they are commuting between their slovenly occupied desks and... the bathroom? Visiting their friends?) Finally I can't stand it anymore and pack up to head to my office, which has more privacy and snacks in the desk drawers and a bathroom and waterfountain nearby and a phone to call Nate and tell him I can't to go dinner with him, too much to do. (Why don't I study there all the time, you ask? The chair is less comfortable, the lighting is not as good, and the school computer on my desk takes up too much space.)
Fast forward to several hours later- I leave with Nate to go to the last Ladies' Bible Study of the semester (on self-control), where there are donuts, which must serve as my makeshift dinner. (Why would you bring donuts to a Bible study on self-control? To practice...? I have no idea.) I get home around 9, put in three more hours of stuyding, and go to bed.
As I told Becky at Bible study- the problem with two exams in one day is that you have to figure out how to partition your brain into two parts, one side to hold all the content for each exam. As I studied Random Processes throughout the day, I felt like my brain was filling completely and there would be no more room to contain the proofs of twelve theorems required for the Complex Final. So in a strategic move I decided to memorize only 6 of the proofs, saving the other six to memorize in the two hour break between exams the next day. Would my strategy pay off, or be a disaster? Tune in tomorrow to the exciting conclusion of, "No More Space On The Hard Drive"!!**
*This is the Natural Numbers N, i.e., 1,2,3,4,... . I know how to do this in Latex now, but, computer illiterate as I am, I suspect that the Latex code for this type of N is not the same as the blogger code for this type of N...? (It's not just bold N, really, it should have a doubly-thick middle line... I don't know how to explain this to y'all unless you've seen it on a chalkboard...)
**This is a Cheesy Marketing Ploy to try to ensure brand loyalty on the part of my readers. (But you WILL tune in "tomorrow," won't you?)
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
7 days left (Just Hand Over the Chocolate, and No One Gets Hurt)*
The days are simply not passing fast enough. Also, I cannot find any chocolate in this household. Wait, I'm going to go look again... maybe, just maybe...
Ha ha! I had forgotten about the good-old standby option, chocolate chips in a bag. :-D
Well, I've turned in 4 2/3 of the ten problems in the last combinatorics homework set, which is actually a bit better than I thought I might be doing at this point. The good/bad news, however, is that Professor Cowboy is releasing solutions tomorrow, meaning (I assume) that tomorrow is the absolute deadline to turn anything in. So I'm kind of half-heartedly trying to get a couple more done tonight.
Note to the mathematical community: can you please make up your minds, once and for all, about the meanings of "monotone," "increasing," and "decreasing"? Better yet, dump these terms altogether: Strictly (or weakly) increasing (or decreasing) is unambiguous and would avoid all confusions.
Thankfully my weird dizzy spells from yesterday went away- I took a vitamin and ate an orange, which perhaps helped- so I am feeling better. Better enough to go try one last time, I suppose, to solve some Combinatorics problems.
*Winner, 2006 BlogHer Awards, "Most unoriginal and uninspiring blog post"
Ha ha! I had forgotten about the good-old standby option, chocolate chips in a bag. :-D
Well, I've turned in 4 2/3 of the ten problems in the last combinatorics homework set, which is actually a bit better than I thought I might be doing at this point. The good/bad news, however, is that Professor Cowboy is releasing solutions tomorrow, meaning (I assume) that tomorrow is the absolute deadline to turn anything in. So I'm kind of half-heartedly trying to get a couple more done tonight.
Note to the mathematical community: can you please make up your minds, once and for all, about the meanings of "monotone," "increasing," and "decreasing"? Better yet, dump these terms altogether: Strictly (or weakly) increasing (or decreasing) is unambiguous and would avoid all confusions.
Thankfully my weird dizzy spells from yesterday went away- I took a vitamin and ate an orange, which perhaps helped- so I am feeling better. Better enough to go try one last time, I suppose, to solve some Combinatorics problems.
*Winner, 2006 BlogHer Awards, "Most unoriginal and uninspiring blog post"
Monday, May 01, 2006
8 days left
Someone call Maintenance. My brain is extremely Out-of-Order today. Like, twilight zone out of order. Eating nutritious food has, so far, not been helpful. This is not a good day for this to happen, as I am tackling the last major Combinatorics problem set due tomorrow. (Out of ten problems total, I have 2/3 of one done.) I want to curl up in a small ball in the sunshine and wait for the world to stop spinning. Have you ever taken cold medicine that made you absolutely loopy? That's how I feel right now.
9 Days Left
(I'm writing this Monday but pretend like it's still Sunday, okay?)
Today we went to Adrienne's choir concert, which was highly agreeable and a great opportunity for Reflection. The choir was behind us in the balcony for a good part of the concert, so with nothing to look at I traced out the contours of the stained glass window in my mind, over and over again.
(We are sorry, due to a Technical Malfunction this otherwise promising post will have to be cut short. See "8 days left.")
Today we went to Adrienne's choir concert, which was highly agreeable and a great opportunity for Reflection. The choir was behind us in the balcony for a good part of the concert, so with nothing to look at I traced out the contours of the stained glass window in my mind, over and over again.
(We are sorry, due to a Technical Malfunction this otherwise promising post will have to be cut short. See "8 days left.")
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