My experiment was at least a partial success for a timeframe of one day. I managed to master Gaussian Elimination and got a basic idea of linear equation systems, without the aid of a teacher, and a lot faster than I would otherwise.
I didn't really make progress in my calculus, but attending school today showed me I didn't really miss anything at all; I followed what was happening.
Conclusion: A valid, speedy tactic, but not one to be used for extended periods of time. Perhaps I shall try how well it works for two days, some other time.
tisdag 7 oktober 2008
måndag 6 oktober 2008
Lectures Are Not For Me
Today I am conducting an experiment.
Will I learn more if I stay home and study, than if I go to school and listen to the lecturers? I'm starting to doubt the proficiency of especially one lecturer; many classes feel like a waste of time, problem being I can't skip only those lectures since they're in between other, useful lectures.
So I figures, what if I do as much work as possible at home today? Maybe that'll teach me more. It requires more discipline, of course, but it also saves me prodigious amounts of time since I don't have to walk to and from school, nor do I have to listen through a lecturer's fascination for certain small, irrelevant phenomena. It's not that I mind the trivia, of course not - but with the high pace of education here, I have a feeling I can't afford a lecturer who wastes my time. I'd rather spend my free time drawing than listening to a guy going on and on about miniscule mathemathical trivia, actually.
So, everyone cross your fingers that I won't be consumed by sloth while I conduct this 'speriment. Thanks.
Will I learn more if I stay home and study, than if I go to school and listen to the lecturers? I'm starting to doubt the proficiency of especially one lecturer; many classes feel like a waste of time, problem being I can't skip only those lectures since they're in between other, useful lectures.
So I figures, what if I do as much work as possible at home today? Maybe that'll teach me more. It requires more discipline, of course, but it also saves me prodigious amounts of time since I don't have to walk to and from school, nor do I have to listen through a lecturer's fascination for certain small, irrelevant phenomena. It's not that I mind the trivia, of course not - but with the high pace of education here, I have a feeling I can't afford a lecturer who wastes my time. I'd rather spend my free time drawing than listening to a guy going on and on about miniscule mathemathical trivia, actually.
So, everyone cross your fingers that I won't be consumed by sloth while I conduct this 'speriment. Thanks.
tisdag 30 september 2008
A Quote and a Dream
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
-Albert Einstein
I think I have a serious imagination addiction. Cause, you know, now when I'm in the maths program, just when I'm seriously beginning to study something I have a passion for, logic suddenly seems too small. It's like maths is all about restraining your thoughts, channeling them in a certain way - for greater power but less flexibility.
Somehow I feel I gain greater knowledge from dreams than from maths.
A few nights back, I dreamt that myself, River Tam, Bruce Willis and a voodoo god whom I suspect was Papa Legba, were to storm a hi-tech bar located in a swamp, ruled over by a cyborg sort of guy. Trick, the black vampire from Buffy, worked for him in the gym, except it was just the actor of Trick, not actually a vampire.
I was supposed to plant a computer spike to get the others in, but something went wrong and Bruce Willis never showed up, meaning I was without a good gunman when the fighting broke out. I had to flee into the cyborg man's office, and then escape through a hatch down into the gym, where I fast-talked my way out of Trick's way and got into their security center and laboratory. Just when everything looked like we were screwed, Papa Legba rose an army of zombies and marched them on the gym, allowing me time to escape alongside River.
I had stolen a few important things from their lab, so the assault wasn't a complete failure, but I knew we hadn't quite won yet because we didn't manage to destroy their computer central. Unfortunately, fleeing from the place, we were chased by some black dogs, only saved by a white tree from which I broke a branch and used as a magical staff to sling white light at the dogs, killing them.
Now I wonder; where did Bruce Willis go?
Also - the real question, the key question - did this dream give me more knowledge than my waking studies did?
I do not know.
-Albert Einstein
I think I have a serious imagination addiction. Cause, you know, now when I'm in the maths program, just when I'm seriously beginning to study something I have a passion for, logic suddenly seems too small. It's like maths is all about restraining your thoughts, channeling them in a certain way - for greater power but less flexibility.
Somehow I feel I gain greater knowledge from dreams than from maths.
A few nights back, I dreamt that myself, River Tam, Bruce Willis and a voodoo god whom I suspect was Papa Legba, were to storm a hi-tech bar located in a swamp, ruled over by a cyborg sort of guy. Trick, the black vampire from Buffy, worked for him in the gym, except it was just the actor of Trick, not actually a vampire.
I was supposed to plant a computer spike to get the others in, but something went wrong and Bruce Willis never showed up, meaning I was without a good gunman when the fighting broke out. I had to flee into the cyborg man's office, and then escape through a hatch down into the gym, where I fast-talked my way out of Trick's way and got into their security center and laboratory. Just when everything looked like we were screwed, Papa Legba rose an army of zombies and marched them on the gym, allowing me time to escape alongside River.
I had stolen a few important things from their lab, so the assault wasn't a complete failure, but I knew we hadn't quite won yet because we didn't manage to destroy their computer central. Unfortunately, fleeing from the place, we were chased by some black dogs, only saved by a white tree from which I broke a branch and used as a magical staff to sling white light at the dogs, killing them.
Now I wonder; where did Bruce Willis go?
Also - the real question, the key question - did this dream give me more knowledge than my waking studies did?
I do not know.
måndag 29 september 2008
Finns
Morgonen faller
som stenbumlingar på en trottoar
jordbävning
säkert
och jag sa ju,
att jag alltid skulle finnas här,
nog finns jag alltid.
Men när allting blir så här tungt
är det lätt att glömma bort
vad som finns och
vad som inte gör det
till exempel häxor
finns väl egentligen inte
jag finns iallafall,
nog finns jag alltid.
Du vet,
jag glömmer inte bort dig
ens när du inte är här
för trots allt
även när du inte syns,
nog finns du alltid.
Du vet,
även när vi inte vet att vi gråter
för varandra
för att vi inte pratar
för att vi inte skrattar heller
för att vi inte syns
och inte ser varandra
nog finns vi alltid.
För det gör vi ju.
som stenbumlingar på en trottoar
jordbävning
säkert
och jag sa ju,
att jag alltid skulle finnas här,
nog finns jag alltid.
Men när allting blir så här tungt
är det lätt att glömma bort
vad som finns och
vad som inte gör det
till exempel häxor
finns väl egentligen inte
jag finns iallafall,
nog finns jag alltid.
Du vet,
jag glömmer inte bort dig
ens när du inte är här
för trots allt
även när du inte syns,
nog finns du alltid.
Du vet,
även när vi inte vet att vi gråter
för varandra
för att vi inte pratar
för att vi inte skrattar heller
för att vi inte syns
och inte ser varandra
nog finns vi alltid.
För det gör vi ju.
söndag 21 september 2008
Hay guyse!
You know what I just realised? We're all gonna live for at least another year, with pretty high likelihood.
Imagine all the cool shit you can do in a year!
Imagine all the cool shit you can do in a year!
torsdag 11 september 2008
Sloth, Irresponsibility, and Kidnapped Princesses
So, I took today off. In retrospect that might not have been the cleverest move I have ever made, seeing as the first test of the course is tomorrow, but aside from induction and combinatorics everything has been horrendously bland repetition, so I'm hoping I'm not missing anything particularily important. I don't think I am, given that they were going to talk about basic trigonometry today and that only for two hours.
So, instead of trigonometry, here comes a blog post. My schooldays have been horribly taxing, but I've finally caught up with the material so that I'm no longer lagging behind. Both Chinese and maths are sort of in a good equilibrium now - I'm a little bit ahead in both subjects, only a tiny advantage that I'll probably lose in taking this day off, but losing an advantage doesn't mean gaining a disadvantage. Tomorrow's the first test, which I passed last year without any problem at all, so I'm pretty calm.
So what have I been doing with my time lately? I've been writing a story about three brothers, I've been playing Knights of the Old Republic, and I've been writing a few pages of random junk. And then, there's schoolwork and roleplaying games, which I'd say have been taking most of my time. I have lots to write about both, but I think maths would bore you more, so I'll fill you in on the roleplaying games instead; Anton and Madde make for an interesting two-man party. I always rather liked storytelling pairs of players, as there's room to give NPCs a bit of extra space that way, but Anton and Madde's styles of play can be difficult to intertwine sometimes. Happily, I'd say that this is running along smoothly. Madde plays Kalyna, a 16-year old adopted girl, raised in a family of petty dukes, and Anton plays Taran the Dynastic Dragon-Blood "Noble-who-gets-cities-as-a-birthday-present" who reveals to her that she's the will-be Empress of the World.
Last session was an interesting, and hitherto rarely seen phenomenon - it ended with Kalyna (Maddes' character) being kidnapped by an old daimyô at whose palace they had been staying as guests. He had complained that his wives all bore weak, mortal children, and when Kalyna arrived he wanted her to bear him "strong sons". Taran, obviously, was outraged at his heresy towards the future Empress, and tried to fight him - and failed. Despite me being a general sadist when it comes to my antagonists, it feels like the heroes rather rarely fail in defeating them: This time, however, it happened royally, which leaves the story in an interesting situation. Taran is knocked out cold and nearly dying somewhere in a ditch, and meanwhile the young Imperial Princess is imprisoned by a lecherous old man who's desperate to see his lineage continue. Neither of them are dead, both are just in very, very uncomfortable situations - it'll certainly be interesting to see how they manage.
Oh, and on a completely different note, I finished reading Anansi Boys. Excellent, excellent novel. I liked its pace, which seemed very fast but, when you go back to think about the novel, was actually probably pretty slow. It impresses me when an author can tell a story in nearly 500 pages without boring you at any point in the reading - that's rare, with my screwdriver-sized attention span.
I suppose that's a bit of my status report for now. I might also throw in a few fun facts, such as how interesting it is to study Chinese, how nervous and uncomfortable I get when I skip school even if I know it's stuff I don't need to attend, like today, and how I walk around telling myself "Dude, it's sin o/h, cos a/h, tan o/a. You know this stuff. Relax, mate". I wish I could portion out my diligence in reasonably sized chunks, rather than working tirelessly for 16 hours, sleeping like the dead, and spend the following day barely attending school and being nervous about it. Another fun fact is I've been visiting Anton's friends, who had a water-pipe standing around in their kitchen. And I've been doing a lot of walking. Seriously a lot of walking. My legs are like, bodybuilder legs or something. Except, you know, for walking.
So, until next time: Don't let the kazoos bite ya!
So, instead of trigonometry, here comes a blog post. My schooldays have been horribly taxing, but I've finally caught up with the material so that I'm no longer lagging behind. Both Chinese and maths are sort of in a good equilibrium now - I'm a little bit ahead in both subjects, only a tiny advantage that I'll probably lose in taking this day off, but losing an advantage doesn't mean gaining a disadvantage. Tomorrow's the first test, which I passed last year without any problem at all, so I'm pretty calm.
So what have I been doing with my time lately? I've been writing a story about three brothers, I've been playing Knights of the Old Republic, and I've been writing a few pages of random junk. And then, there's schoolwork and roleplaying games, which I'd say have been taking most of my time. I have lots to write about both, but I think maths would bore you more, so I'll fill you in on the roleplaying games instead; Anton and Madde make for an interesting two-man party. I always rather liked storytelling pairs of players, as there's room to give NPCs a bit of extra space that way, but Anton and Madde's styles of play can be difficult to intertwine sometimes. Happily, I'd say that this is running along smoothly. Madde plays Kalyna, a 16-year old adopted girl, raised in a family of petty dukes, and Anton plays Taran the Dynastic Dragon-Blood "Noble-who-gets-cities-as-a-birthday-present" who reveals to her that she's the will-be Empress of the World.
Last session was an interesting, and hitherto rarely seen phenomenon - it ended with Kalyna (Maddes' character) being kidnapped by an old daimyô at whose palace they had been staying as guests. He had complained that his wives all bore weak, mortal children, and when Kalyna arrived he wanted her to bear him "strong sons". Taran, obviously, was outraged at his heresy towards the future Empress, and tried to fight him - and failed. Despite me being a general sadist when it comes to my antagonists, it feels like the heroes rather rarely fail in defeating them: This time, however, it happened royally, which leaves the story in an interesting situation. Taran is knocked out cold and nearly dying somewhere in a ditch, and meanwhile the young Imperial Princess is imprisoned by a lecherous old man who's desperate to see his lineage continue. Neither of them are dead, both are just in very, very uncomfortable situations - it'll certainly be interesting to see how they manage.
Oh, and on a completely different note, I finished reading Anansi Boys. Excellent, excellent novel. I liked its pace, which seemed very fast but, when you go back to think about the novel, was actually probably pretty slow. It impresses me when an author can tell a story in nearly 500 pages without boring you at any point in the reading - that's rare, with my screwdriver-sized attention span.
I suppose that's a bit of my status report for now. I might also throw in a few fun facts, such as how interesting it is to study Chinese, how nervous and uncomfortable I get when I skip school even if I know it's stuff I don't need to attend, like today, and how I walk around telling myself "Dude, it's sin o/h, cos a/h, tan o/a. You know this stuff. Relax, mate". I wish I could portion out my diligence in reasonably sized chunks, rather than working tirelessly for 16 hours, sleeping like the dead, and spend the following day barely attending school and being nervous about it. Another fun fact is I've been visiting Anton's friends, who had a water-pipe standing around in their kitchen. And I've been doing a lot of walking. Seriously a lot of walking. My legs are like, bodybuilder legs or something. Except, you know, for walking.
So, until next time: Don't let the kazoos bite ya!
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