Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

It's only 6:45 PM here, but I'm about at the end of my homework-doing rope. I got the abstract algebra homework finished this morning with relative ease, and I have finished two out of six homework problems for advanced calculus, and made a good start on a third, but I can't seem to continue further. Apparently there are limits to my ability to work on math. Who knew?

In other news, I got 5 loads of laundry done this weekend as well, which is pretty good.

Bah.

My Day

I've been sick most of this week, and have fallen grievously (by my standards) behind in my courses. So I am counting on this weekend as a big catch-up time.

I got up at 8:30, unusual in and of itself. I went to bed at 10:30 last night promising myself a good 12-14 hours of sleep (I needed it), but I seemed ready to get up at 8:30, so I did.

With breaks for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I spent nearly all day at my desk doing math. I have to admit that the math was interspersed with web-surfing, which is a very bad habit of mine that is hard to break. Nevertheless, I was at my desk from about 9:30 AM until about 10:30 PM with only a couple of hours of breaks, which means I got a lot done even though I didn't work consistently all day (and the ratio of surfing to work increased as the day wore on).

Here is what I did:

• Reviewed about five sections of my old calculus textbook to learn/remember what there is to know about power series, Taylor polynomials, and Taylor series, on that level.
• Completed the homework due last Wednesday in Advanced Calc II.
• Wrote my academic-oriented resume (or slightly CV-like document).
  

That doesn't sound like much, but it actually was. The homework was long and involved some concepts I felt shaky on, so I had to do a lot of exploratory work to really get it. I think it is a good homework.

Oh, and about the CV/resume. I was asked to send one to the graduate director of one of the programs I've applied to because they want to submit me for a university-wide fellowship that they think I have a good shot at. So that is very exciting! The professor told me that the resume (he did not call it a CV) did not need to be anything "fancy" so I just buckled down and did it without trying to make it ultra-perfect. There is not that much to say, really. I basically took my regular resume, put academic things on top of the work things, and very concisely summarized the work things so they wouldn't be bored out of their minds by lists of industry-specific software packages I know, etc.

Here is what I hope to do tomorrow:

• Finish the abstract algebra homework that is due Tuesday.
• Go over the material I missed in seminar Friday, and start on that homework. (It is due Friday, but I need to start early to give myself a good chance to think about the hard parts between now and then.)
• Get a good start on the advanced calculus homework due Wednesday.

Between now and tomorrow morning, I have one very important task:

• Get a good night's sleep.

So I will go do that now. Best wishes to you for a productive (or relaxing, as you choose) weekend!

Google Buzz

Google Buzz (the new Facebooky-thing you may have seen it show up in your Gmail account) is causing a lot of stir around privacy concerns. I've turned mine off for now (it's a link at the bottom of the Gmail screen).

It's not that I'm that careful about privacy things in general. I don't care much that my grocery store card is tied to my real name so anyone might find out how often I buy razor blades or what flavors of ice cream I prefer. But the thing about these various offerings from Google (including the thing where someone can follow you on Google Reader) is that I can never figure out exactly what information is and isn't being shared.

You see, I have various email correspondents. Very few are private, but those few do exist. And I subscribe to a variety of RSS feeds in Google Reader, and I most definitely do not want them shared with everyone I email from my Gmail account (e.g., my coworkers, directors of graduate studies for the schools I've applied to, ...). I can't tell if Buzz does that or not.

What I like about Facebook is that it's a self-contained universe. Don't want something about yourself on Facebook? Just don't do that thing on Facebook. If you're secretly obsessed with manga, you don't have to share that with your Uncle Herbert or your best friend from 5th grade as long as you don't join some kind of manga-lovers group. You can craft your (more or less public) image however you choose. Since nothing manga-related is in any part of your profile, you don't have to know too much about the various privacy setting options in order to keep clear of it.

The various things I do with Gmail and Google Reader, on the other hand, are closer to my real interests, and thus I would rather not share them willy-nilly in a way I don't completely understand. In short, there is something to be said for not integrating services.

Survey Says...

Today, at my school's request, I took the National Survey of Student Engagement. A screenshot of one of the last pages of the survey:

I am old.

Hipster Puppies

Via Andrew Sullivan, Hipster Puppies, which attains a certain kind of bloggy perfection.

Another Grad School Admission

Today, I was notified of my admission to the highest-ranked (according to the decade-old NRC rankings) program on my list, the University of Florida. Funding notifications will begin in a few weeks.

So far, I am two for three with my admissions. There is hope I could still be admitted at the school that rejected me (they said so), but I'm not holding my breath. I don't have any funding offers as of yet (both schools will make those decisions in a few weeks), so we'll see, but I'm feeling moderately optimistic.

Update: I got a letter in the mail from the school that rejected me (Tennessee) and they have indeed now admitted me. The letter was from the graduate school and not the math department, and said nothing about funding at all, but presumably I would hear about that at a later date if they want to offer me any.

My Favorite Super Bowl Ad

Far and away, it was this one for the Kia Sorento. I especially like the ending.

Settling In

The first couple of weeks of my semester were a little nerve-wracking, but I seem to be settling in nicely now. I've turned in some homeworks, gotten good grades, mastered some material that originally frightened me, and my easy class is finally getting to some good stuff too. (It is still a little frustrating to sit in a room with students who are vocal about their difficulty in understanding the Euclidean algorithm despite being shown several examples, but I try to remind myself of all the times I am clueless and confused about things that will seem basic later on.)

I am a bit astonished by my progress as a math student over the past few years. It's not so much that I've learned a lot of math as that I've picked up a lot of skills I never had before. I now know how to read a math textbook (i.e., with pencil and paper, writing things down). I approach homework quite differently. I study. I am much better at tackling problems I'm not sure I can do than I was in the past. I am better at writing proofs. I know more Greek letters than ever before. And so on.

Life is good, I tell ya.

My Not-Very-Informative Review of Avatar

Saturday afternoon, I finally dragged Ed with me to see Avatar. I knew the plot wasn't supposed to be that great, but it was supposed to be really pretty. It was indeed quite pretty and the plot was more offensive than I'd imagined, but not as bad otherwise.

We saw it in 3D. It is, as others have mentioned, not very flashy 3D - arrows don't come whizzing out at your head or anything like that. But it was nice to see the depth, and little details, like the 3D displays on people's computer screens in the movie, excited me from time to time. The 3D made my eyes feel slightly tired by the end, and gave Ed a bad headache.

The movie is definitely racially offensive in a wide variety of ways, but I found it easy to overlook while actually watching it. The action was enjoyable despite my not being a fan of action movies. And I really did enjoy the alien world and the aliens themselves. The aliens are more attractive when they move than they look in regular pictures.

I did have trouble identifying with the main character, who is a hero man in the stupid/impulsive/brave/doesn't-take-directions mold. Given that I'm smart, extremely chicken, and a careful listener, I often don't sympathize with the choices made by such men. But then, that's why they don't send me to Pandora to be eaten by the first clawy thing that comes along.

One detail that doesn't come up as often as you'd expect is that the aliens are humanoid but about twice as tall as humans. I was surprisingly moved and excited by a scene in which the main human is tenderly picked up by his alien girlfriend. I'd love to be twice as tall as Ed (you know, assuming this didn't cause a lot of other problems).

As an experience, the movie was worth seeing. I would even see it again pretty happily if I knew anyone who wanted to go.

Two Mathy Conversations

These were both fun. The first one was between me and Ed, after advanced calculus one night. We had discussed in class the fact that infinite sums are neither commutative nor associative, e.g., if you start with

1 - 1 + 1 - 1 + 1 - 1 + ....

then

(1-1) + (1-1) + (1-1) + ... = 0

but

1 - (1-1) - (1-1) - (1-1) + ... = 1

even though those are the same terms just grouped differently. Spooky! So here was the conversation.

Ed: The stuff about series was cool.
Me: They're not associative or commutative. It's awful.
Ed: It was neat.
Me: It's wrong.
Ed: It's cool.
Me: It's an abomination.
Ed: I liked it.
Me: It's a sign from God that we aren't meant to do infinite sums.
Ed: It's a sign from God that we shouldn't confuse infinite sums with addition.

The second conversation was last night right after class, between me, another student I'm friends with (Jason), and (at the end) our professor.

Jason: I'm tired of real analysis. I want to do fake analysis.
Me: You could try rational analysis.
Jason: I want to do irrational analysis!
Me: If you're going to do irrationals, you might as well do reals.
Jason: But I'm more the irrational type.
Me: But at least the rationals are a field.
Jason: Then can I do complex analysis?
Me: That's a real course, you know. You can take that.
Jason: It is?
Me: Yeah. They have it here.
Professor: Complex analysis, it turns out, is like Disney World, in that, everything you ever dreamed might be true, turns out to be true.

A Math Class of the Second Kind

My third math class this semester is "Senior Mathematics Seminar," which is a 1-hour class that meets once a week and could be about anything. Our particular class is about wavelets, which are like functions with finite absolute area. (In other words, the area under the curve, whether above or below the x-axis, is finite over the reals.) That's my understanding so far, at least.

I realized after the first day of this class that I've experienced two types of math classes, and this is the rarer second type. Of course, this categorization is as suspect as all such attempts, but bear with me, if you please.

I used to think of math courses as going in a line, roughly from arithmetic up through algebra and then calculus. But that's really as far as that particular line seems to go. Beyond that, the field spreads out and you have classes like probability & statistics, linear algebra, etc., that do not go in a specific order. Of course, those classes then spawn their own chains.

But these days a different classification makes more sense to me. Now I see most classes as sort of "tool" classes, where you learn a lot of tools that are broadly applicable (like calculus, linear algebra, set theory, etc.). And then the other classes are more "application" classes (whether they are applied or theoretical) in which you use various kinds of tools to understand some new area. My second geometry course was one of these application-type classes, using a lot of linear and abstract algebra (and a touch of geometry, though not much), and this wavelets course is the same way (so far mainly with respect to calculus and analysis).

At any rate, the class has been all right so far. Our professor has roughly the style and personality of a very toned-down Steve Martin - like maybe Steve Martin playing a math professor in a serious movie. I was confused a lot this past week, and left class feeling like I'd been crying, though of course I did not actually cry, and I've realized that I really need to read the book before class rather than only looking at it afterwards (which is kind of obvious, but not my usual M.O. for math). It looks like we'll only have graded assignments and possibly some kind of small projects later on; there's been no talk of exams. So it should be all right, though it's hard for me to see how I have time for two classes (this one and Advanced Calc II) that require serious thought.

Weight Watchers Ice Cream Sandwiches

Lately I have enjoyed many ice cream sandwiches. It started when I picked up a package of Blue Bunny ones with peppermint ice cream - yum! I find it easy to eat just one (vs. having just one serving of ice cream) and they satisfy the craving for something sweet.

Anyway, yesterday at Walmart I picked up some of the Weight Watchers ones. They have ~ 30 less calories than most regular ice cream sandwiches, and I thought it would be nice to give them a try. I've never had a bad ice cream sandwich, so I was sure they would be fine.

But, god, do they ever suck. They're not artificially sweetened or anything, but there is something dramatically wrong with the flavor profile, at least as far as I'm concerned. Once you get past the nice cold sweetness of the initial bite, there is just nothing there to enjoy at all, and they have a "wrong" taste I can't identify - something like the aftertaste of an artificial sweetener, but in a different area of the flavor. Like maybe secretly the wafer part is made of seaweed.

Anyway, I definitely cannot recommend these. Ordinary generic-brand ice cream sandwiches are almost the same calories, much cheaper, and far more delicious. I doubt I will eat the remainder of the box of WW ones.

Contempt

My abstract algebra class has a clump of students in it who were also in my linear algebra class, and I've noticed that the dislike I felt towards them in linear algebra has carried right over to the new class. I think I actually hold them in contempt, which is definitely uncharitable of me. But I've been thinking about why this is.

I initially thought it was because I view them as stupid. Viewing people as stupid because they are confused in a class, and then finding them contemptible for it, is definitely not an attractive trait. But I don't think it's actually that, because I certainly don't always dislike (much less feel contempt for) other students who seem to have trouble with the material. A lot of people in my advanced calculus class struggle, some noticeably more than I do, and I respect them.

I think there are two things these algebra kids do that I dislike. First of all, they talk to each other helplessly about their difficulties. In advanced calc, the conversations go something like

A: Man, this series stuff is hard.
B: I know, dude. Did you do the homework?
A: Some of it. Did you get #3?
B: Yeah. I talked to Dr. X about it and he said to use [xyz].
A: Oh, duh. That makes sense. I was totally stuck on that.

By contrast, these algebra kids have conversations more like

A: This class is impossible.
B: I know, right!
A: That homework didn't make any sense at all.
B: Totally. There was nothing like that in the notes.
A: I just don't get this kind of stuff.

The other thing they do that bugs me, and this was greatly on display in our last class together, is blame the professor when they are confused. This was the group of people who always got angry after the exams because they didn't feel like they were adequately warned of what kinds of questions would appear (despite our receiving several practice exams that were similar to the real one each time). They seem to view any expectations they can't meet as unfair and wrong.

Most of the time, it doesn't occur to me to blame a professor when I'm confused. I guess I could, if the material were completely out of line with reasonable expectations (like that one stats class Sally took years ago), but generally, I assume it's my own problem to solve. Since these students don't ever seem to mention anything they've tried (like studying, or working extra problems on their own), one gets the sense that they want absolutely everything spoon-fed to them.

I remember once in linear algebra, one of them asked our prof for a recommendation of some sample problems to try at home. She pointed out the relevant section of the textbook, but that wasn't enough - they really wanted to be told specific problems from the section that they should do. I don't really get that.

It's not that I'm such an awesome student, always studying and doing everything that I should in order to understand the material. I'm decent now, but I have really sucked in the past. But I've always known that my sucking was about me, and not about the unfairness of the universe.

I'm starting to feel that in general, the question, "What have you tried?" (or, to yourself, "What could I try?") should be asked more often. I definitely find it a helpful one when I start to feel helpless.

First Grad School Application Result

Today, I got an email from the Graduate Advisor of one of the math departments I applied to. He has emailed me before to say that my application was complete. Today he emailed me to say that he is requesting my unconditional admittance to the PhD program. He also said that the first round of teaching fellowship offers will go out in early March, and he's not sure how many positions they will have.

Needless to say, I was excited to get the email, which came earlier than I had anticipated anything. Afterwards, I went to the website where I can look at such things, and sure enough, my application status had changed from "Complete" to "Admitted." So I guess it's official that I'm in.

This isn't one of my more highly-rated schools - it's near the bottom of my list in terms of rankings. It is, however, one of the schools I have in common with Ed (assuming he hasn't changed his mind), and it's in a place I wouldn't mind living. So we'll see.

Class Report: Advanced Calc II

I wasn't going to blog about this class, but I actually had a reader request, if you can believe that.

At any rate, we are in a new classroom this semester, but otherwise the course is much the same as Advanced Calc I - same professor, a subset of the students from last semester, and a very similar syllabus. There are two new students, including Ed.

The one thing the prof changed on the syllabus is how he handles late work. Last semester he gave a 5% bonus to homework turned in on time, and hypothetically took 5% off for every day it was late (so you'd get full credit for turning it in one day late). But I don't think he ever actually gave a penalty, and he would accept things up to a week or two late, which resulted, naturally, in some people getting pretty far behind on homework. This semester the on-time bonus is only 2%, and he will not take homework more than 2 days late except by prior arrangement. In practice, I suspect this means he'll take late work anyway (which he seems to suspect as well). I only turned in one assignment late last semester (and it was only one day late, I think), so I don't think this policy change will affect me.

I enjoy the style of this class a lot. It's a straight-up lecture that is very well organized, and the professor has excellent handwriting and a great presentation style. Partly because this course is taken mainly by math majors who are not secondary math ed folks, it seems to be a sharper crowd than I've seen in some of my other courses.

We get weekly homework that consists of six problems to turn in and several more problems that we don't turn in. I did the "several more problems" on the first couple of homeworks last semester, and then stopped doing them. I typically find it hard enough to finish the six mandatory problems every week; the other time I put into the class is more profitably spent reviewing definitions and proofs.

So that's Advanced Calc II.

New Comments Moderation

I'm tired of seeing spam comments here, so there is now moderation. Comment as usual, please, and I'll be happy to release you from the queue :-)

Class Report: Abstract Algebra

Tonight was the first meeting of my abstract algebra class. So far, I have very good feelings about the class. Some good things:

1. The professor is very charming. (It may seem trivial but I really do appreciate this.)
2. She is going to give a quiz every Thursday that is all definitions. I think it's really smart to emphasize definitions in a class like this. If you don't know the real math definition of something you can't do proofs, etc., with it.
3. Expectations seem high so far. For instance, the material I was afraid would be reviewed in this class (some basic definitions I've had in a lot of math classes) is stuff we are to review on our own and be prepared to take a quiz on on Thursday.
   

She had us get into teams (not "groups" because that is an abstract algebra term) for about the second half of class and work on a set of exercises she gave us. That felt a little bit awkward for me because I had already seen (in two different past courses) the material in the first half of the exercise. Fortunately, the person in our team who volunteered to write up the answers was also the person with the most trouble, which meant that we took enough time for her to understand what we were doing. (I would rather write up the group answers myself so I can control their quality, but if the person having the most difficulty writes them up, the others are compelled to make sure that person understands the material at least well enough to write correct answers.)

The classroom for this class is sort of awful - comparatively long front-to-back and cramped side-to-side, with those desks I hate. It's also excessively warm and airless. But that's me being finicky about spaces.

Wii Fit Plus

Since Ed and I have a Wii, I finally went ahead and ordered Wii Fit Plus, which is a video game for the Wii that incorporates the use of a balance board (similar to a shallow step you'd use in a step class, except heavier and with electronics inside to report your actions to the game) and is intended as something like a personal trainer. I thought this would be something fun to do at home for fitness. When school is in session I really never make it to the gym at all, and then between semesters it's hard to bother starting.

The game (with balance board) is $99.

When you first register your character, using your little animated Wii representation (called a Mii), it weighs you and tests your balance. (If you're like me, after it weighs you and shows your BMI, a childlike voice says, "That's obese!" Thanks, Wii Fit. I had no idea.)

(This reminds me, actually. Someone was complaining online about the Wii Fit's use of BMI, given its limitations. They specifically mentioned that someone like a trim NFL player could be called obese despite actually just being very muscly. I couldn't help but think this common argument was really silly here - as though professional athletes are really a target audience for the Wii Fit. Hint to athletes: if you are training with the Fit, it's probably time to start asking yourself whether you're really into this whole sports career thing anymore.)

Anyway, once the Fit has finished insulting (or perhaps praising) you for your BMI, it has a variety of training exercises to choose from - perhaps about 100 in all. These fall into four categories: yoga, strength training, balance or rhythm games, and aerobic exercises. Each exercise uses some combination of the balance board and the two remotes that a Wii comes with. For example, the jog uses only the main Wii remote, which you put in your pocket to act as a kind of pedometer while you jog in place on the floor. (You're not supposed to jump on the board, and that probably includes jogging, since you raise both feet at the same time for that.)

I haven't gotten into a lot of the yoga poses, but they seem decent. The strength training exercises cover a nice range of difficulty, from very easy things like a tricep extension holding the remote, to things I can't do like pushups and side planks. So far I love some of the leg exercises (very hard, especially the balance aspect) and the plank (extremely difficult and I shake like crazy, which the onscreen trainer often comments on).

The aerobic/rhythm games are so far some of my favorite. I like the basic and advanced step classes, and I adore the rhythm kung-fu. I went on a jog tonight where I actually jogged in place for far longer than I would have thought possible. Every game or activity gives you a score at the end (which, for the strength and yoga ones, is generally based on your balance and steadiness), and there is a high score list for each one. As you get better at things, more levels are unlocked - for instance, my 30-second plank was steady enough tonight that I unlocked the 60-second version.

Overall, I find it fun and very motivational. A lot of people have complained that you have to keep selecting a new activity a lot (though you can set up a full routine of strength and yoga things to do all at once, or have the game do it for you if you tell it the time you want to spend), but I like that aspect - the fact that I get to continually choose what to do stops me from getting bored or feeling trapped doing something horrible forever.

I've done this for four days in a row now, and every day I am sore in all kinds of places both expected (thighs, shoulders) and not (hips, lower abdomen). I am winded and sweaty a lot as well. So it is fun and a good workout. I can't say for sure that it won't become the video game equivalent of a treadmill used as a clothing rack, but so far, it's working for me.

The Grad School Application Process

Am I an idiot, and/or going to be shot if I admit that I have, overall, found the process of applying to grad schools to be, well, fun?

I'll admit, the beginning was pretty bad. I had to figure out all of the schools to apply to (easier for me than for some since my interests are not narrow and well-defined and I was not aiming for the tippy-top schools), try to get a handle on their requirements, and write the dreaded Statements of Purpose. There was a lot of anxiety and uncertainty around that aspect of it. And then I had to recruit recommenders and get them the information about where to write to and all of that, and fret over whether they would come through. More stress.

But there have been a lot of fun aspects as well. I've applied to eight schools; that is eight new cities to think about living in, eight campuses, eight fantasy school situations. Thinking about being in graduate school is neat.

I did not (successfully) contact any faculty before applying anywhere, but for two of my schools, I've had several interactions with the directors of graduate studies, and their emails have been very individualized and friendly. For some reason, that's been very enjoyable.

I don't know if I'll get in anywhere. Sometimes I think my obvious flakiness (I have a lot of dropped classes on my transcripts, even in recent years, and I'm 35 and just now graduating from college) will make me a non-starter. Other times I think my intelligence, gender, and ability to speak English will at least get me a spot somewhere as cheap TA labor. But I feel an overall warm glow thinking about this whole process and the various small pleasures it has afforded me.

The Two Acceptable Approaches

At work, I have noticed two approaches that people use when being shown how to do something new:

1. They write it down, sometimes in great detail, so that they can refer to their notes in the future, or
2. They do not write it down, and later they use a combination of memory, trying things, struggling, etc., to perform the action.

Now, either of these approaches is just fine. I tend to use Method 2 unless I'm doing something so complicated that I know I won't remember it, but I know people who almost always use Method 1, and it's a good plan.

What is not acceptable is doing neither. Specifically, it is not OK to ask me to show you how to do the same things over and over again, ten or more times each over a period of several months, while you

• don't take notes
• don't remember anything
• are unwilling to struggle to figure something out on your own
• refuse to consult outside reference materials, and
• act helpless

That will really just piss me off, which I will then struggle (and probably fail) to hide in my tone of voice when you call me for the umpteenth time. And if you make more money and have a fancier title than I do while doing (or failing to do, as the case may be) the same kind of work, that goes double.