the P.Pole

My exams for the coming weeks:

1. Statistics 230 – Probability (December 9)
2. Math 237 – Honours Calculus III, Multivariate Calculus (December 10)
3. Actuarial Science 231 – Interest Theory (December 14)
4. Business 227 – Intro to Financial Accounting (December 14)
5. Math 235 – Honours Linear Algebra II (December 15)
6. Business 288 – Organizational Behaviour (December 19)

If I am reading this correctly, I have three exams within the span of two days. This is going to be strange. Also, freaking OB is going to keep me here until the 19th, returning home on the 20th.

In other news, I got my fountain pens (thanks be to Natalie who brought them in from Toronto, as she went back home this past weekend). I’ve been doing some writing with them and they are indeed a pleasure to write with. So smooth and comfortable! Now, I am waiting for my dad to pick up a pair of converters for me this week—then I’ll be able to use my own inks! Hurrah!

Today, I wrote a test for Organizational Behaviour at Laurier. It went well. I went on to prove two theorems from Linear Algebra during my Accounting lecture (no wonder I have no idea what’s going on in that class).

Here’s an awesome song from Rock Band 2, Kansas’ “Carry On Wayward Son”. Do make sure to check the lyrics after the jump.

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My mom has gone to Hong Kong. I am currently at home, in Toronto.

• just finished watching the Vera-Couture fight on Spike, horribly disappointed in the match judging once again
• went to wings tonight with family and friend(s) at All Stars, and God of Thunder was Deity of Death
• grabbing season five of The Office (US) while at home, abusing the nids here
• feeling happy about finding a second of Amy’s secret present yesterday, so that now we each have one to enjoy/pair up with
• going to bed now, after a tiring day of breakfast with dad, hair cut, dental appointment, 30+ levels of Hell’s Gate in Tactics Ogre, and NO STUDYING FOR ANY OF MY TWO TESTS (Organizational Behaviour, and Financial Accounting) AND ONE MIDTERM (Linear Algebra) THIS WEEK, MLIA

Okay so long story short, today I came home from the Actuarial Science test and reviewed a little bit for my Algebra midterm. From past experience, Math midterms have been around 7 pm at night, and I assumed the same.

I started playing some Left 4 Dead and about half an hour into it, I suddenly got compelled (I am convinced it was divine intervention!) to check my time and room for the exam. To my horror, I found that my midterm started at 4:20 pm. For some reason (probably out of panic), when I looked at my clock, it read 5:50 pm, so I thought to myself “Oh shit. I’ve got like 40 minutes to write a 2 hour exam.” So, like a bat out of linear Hell, I tore out of my house, making a mad dash for the Math building where my midterm was hosted. Continue reading

5 things that have got to happen this week:

• I’m going to be ordering a pair of Revoltech action figures from eBay (don’t worry, you’ll hear about it when I get them)
• an Accounting quiz (done, as of writing of this post)
• an Actuarial Science test (tomorrow afternoon, lock up your daughters)
• an Algebra midterm (tomorrow night, tell your friends)
• I need to submit my proof of continuing enrollment to the NSLSC so they don’t start charging me interest/forcing me to repay some loans I took out for school

This is going to be a busy week. I can only take refuge in the fact that I feel rather prepared for my two remaining evaluations (I am pretty sure I messed up Accounting for lack of concern), and that I will be able to relax a little after tomorrow night. I am thinking, on the order of “stay home, play some cards, do some review, and then bed”.

Not a bad week, at all really. If anyone’s wondering, I am pretty much all better from my flu, sparing only a few mild coughing fits (less and less frequent now) and some random sneezing (probably not even due to illness). I am feeling better and better and the days are sunny. We can now all get back to our lives. Huzzah!

I eat them for breakfast.

Basically, I’m stuck at home (Toronto) this weekend due to what’s probably the H1N1 flu. Yep, I’m probably gonna be stuck half-crippled for awhile longer (before I either die from drowning in mucus or I get better somehow).

In my down and out state, so far the only thing to really bring some joy and colour back into my days has been working through taking second and third partial and full derivatives of abstract 4+ variable function compositions. I know, what the fuck is that anyway?

I don’t know if it’s the flu or the cabin fever talking, but I am actually enjoying this sort of stuff. Math really is the coolest thing ever for me. I am spending weekend at home creating and working through ridiculous math problems just because the professor said +80% of the class usually completely fail at this type of manipulation/derivation. This means I’ll need the extra practice to keep up.

The fact that I seem to be able to do this better now that I’m sick over healthy suggests that there’s probably a hidden gene somewhere in my DNA, giving me super mathematical insight when aching and coughing profusely. Like Batman, probably.

I’ve never seen anything nearly as complicated as some of these derivatives (single-variable Calculus compared with multi-variable Calculus is like putting on your pants one leg at a time compared with putting them on both legs at once, while playing tetris underwater during a cage match with a fire-breathing monitor lizard). And for someone who at one point failed every single quiz, test, and assignment in high school Calculus, I think I’m doing extra-fantastic. These are the wages of hard work and the reapings of sowings of the excellent Math professors at Waterloo, I believe. It’s cool, because I actually understand what the professor is talking about now, which helps in doing the actual compositions/operations/whatever so much more un-impossible.

Aside: You know what I still find ridiculous though? Teaching us the formal definition of a limit (which defines the derivative) after more than halfway through a term in which we have already been taking derivatives of entire sets of families of functions.

I am glad I chose Math at Waterloo. Business at WLU, on the other hand, well that’s a topic for a different kind of post.

This is more for my recollection than anything, but:

6 courses I’m taking this term:

• Linear Algebra 2 (extension of L. Algebra 1) – Math 235
• (Multi-variable) Calculus 3 (extension of Calculus 1 and 2) – Math 237
• Statistics (Probability) – Stat 230
• Actuarial Science (Interest Theory) – Act. Sci. 231
• Organizational Behaviour 1 – Business 288
• Introduction to Financial Accounting – Business 227

So far, this week has been pretty easy-going for me. I have been busy getting stuff going and finding my rhythm again, but it has not really been stressful in any way. But maybe I should get on reading some of the material for my Business courses… Erm… yeah.

I am thinking this term is going to be quite enjoyable, so long as no unforeseen projects or whatnot come up. Let’s hope so!