first day of school

hey all -- it was my first day of school. i TA-ed for the first time this morning, and it went really well. i had a lot of fun, and i'm hoping i can be a useful TA. i had one TA session of my own, complex analysis, which was good, and then our real analysis professor gave us a lecture. he seems very knowledgeable, gives good lectures, and is funny. so all is well! except i may be getting sick, but i took a great nap and drank a lot of orange juice. what else is new... i've been working on analysis homework, going for runs, and playing guitar... it's strange; the groceries i bought 2 weeks ago feel like they're never going to run out. i mean, i'm sure they will, but man they have lasted a long time! thanks for reading!

santa barbara

Santa Barbara

boot camp day 19 (last day!)

last day of boot camp! went to the grocery store. treated myself to some vanilla ice cream. it's pretty much the first sweet thing i've had in my apartment since i moved in, and boy is it good. anyway, i am still up to my ears in old basic exams so i won't write much. in fact, i may not post for the next few days, because i've basically run out of interesting things to say, unless you want to hear about essentially non-interesting fundamental subjects of mathematics. in that case, let me know! at this point i could go on for hours... anyway, thanks for reading and i'll see you in a few days!

boot camp day 18

my new favorite things: the inverted fountain, and my daily lunch-time espresso (see below). also, pujols. thanks for reading!

boot camp day 17

counting down the days til the test... studying... typing up notes... working problems... eating potatoes... watching cardinals games... playing guitar. i think everyone gets the idea! thanks for reading!

labor day

today i have just been typing up notes, working on problems, re-reading old notes etc. i try periodically to get out of the apartment, so i went for a walk, and later i was outside playing guitar. there were a bunch of law students bbq-ing and a guy came over and told me i ought to join and play my guitar over there and have a beer, so i did join and have a beer and talk to a few people and play my guitar a little bit. there are lots of law students--there are 320 in an incoming class. the guy who invited me over actually worked for cbs entertainment tonight and was the boyfriend of a law student there, and his brother was also there; his brother worked for some animation studio. actual LA people! eventually i just felt like i was standing around without much to say so i came back to my apartment and i am back to work... but it was nice to branch out, even if it was just a baby step... anyway, carpenter pitched a complete game one-hitter, which was fun to watch. i guess tomorrow it's back to boot camp. the test is in 9 days or so... i'm ready to get it over with! thanks for reading!

sunday 4

nice day of guitar playing and math studying. i made a big batch of spaghetti with onions, spinach and tomato sauce. tonight i think kevin o will head over here and we will eat some ice cream sandwiches. no class tomorrow, which is nice! anyway, thanks for reading!

saturday 4

those damn ants made their way into my raisin bran that i just bought yesterday! that made me super pissed off this morning; i went to trader joe's and bought some orange-oil based air freshener thing to help combat but ants, but apparently the ants are just a problem i am going to have to get used to, is the impression i get as i talk to people. anyway, i just watched the cardinals game (they won by another hero home run courtesy of pujols) with another guy in the program and talked about some of the math problems etc. i don't know what i will do tonight; probably i should do math since i haven't done that much for the last couple of days. anyway, for now i am hungry so i will go think of something to eat. i may try to think of something to do music-wise tonight, too. anyway, a simple night in is the plan. at some point i need to call up the st. louis boys who currently reside in LA... but it's a long weekend, so i've got time . . . anyway, thanks for reading!

friday 4

i really love potatoes these days. 50 cents for a meal, basically! anyway... so last night i did end up hanging out; for a while i was not feeling it; i was very tired and people were drinking and therefore talking extremely loudly. but then i settled in a bit, had a beer myself, and eventually went over to siddharth's place to hear him play his incredibly cool instrument which is called a veena, also spelled vina. he's been playing old-timey music on it, which sounds extremely joyful and awesome. i then got my guitar and we played for a bit, which was a lot of fun. i have tentative plans for tonight to play music with him and another guy in the program named lee, who plays guitar/bass/keyboards. currently, i am waiting for my potato to finish cooking, watching the cardinals game, and getting ready to type up some math notes. today i went to the TA session, which was good, and then went to the music library and ralph's. ralph's was good, but i rode my bike and so had to balance groceries on the handlebars as i rode home, which was difficult and annoying. luckily i didn't break the eggs! anyway, time to get to work! thanks for reading.

boot camp day 16

hello hello -- today was a pretty good day but i am exhausted by now. classes are fine; in analysis he is just covering leftover material, and in algebra he is covering who knows what so i just work on problems during class. actually, today there was a cardinals game and it was the free game of the day so i could watch it on video; there were two instances where pujols had a chance to be a hero, so i watched those at-bats. he didn't hit either time, but that's all right. after classes i went to the TA session and it was extremely helpful; we covered a few topics that are decently important but which i really didn't understand. i think i really understand the implicit function theorem now. it's hard because there is one thing that is really not quite intuitive, but makes sense if you force your brain to think about the right things. i came home and ate, and feel like taking a nap, but there is a group of people hanging out in an apartment and i think i will stop by and see what's up there before giving up and falling asleep. anyway, thanks for reading!

boot camp day 15

i wonder if one of the queen ants of weyburn died, or something; i haven't found any ants in my kitchen for the last couple of days. no complaints here! another piece of good news, i received my espresso maker in the mail today (with the glass carafe broken but oh well, that's an easy workaround). things have been pretty good -- i've been going to bed early and waking up early and being fairly productive; in algebra he's no longer even working from the syllabus so i just work on old problems, which is a better way to spend 2 hours anyway, i think. anyway, i just ate a can of black beans with cheese and tomato and onions and that was pretty good and hearty; i'm sure i will be eating that again within the week. i am about to start a load of laundry, then it's cardinals game and math for the rest of the evening. it's a little bit difficult to remember what day it is. also, i wake up in the middle of the night thinking about math problems. i'll be glad when this test is over. anyway, thanks for reading!

here's a superb picture courtesy of my mom:

boot camp day 14

another day at boot camp and i am tired! watching the cardinals game and trying to hold off on a nap so i can go to bed early. classes were good today; in linear algebra the professor thought he had covered all the material so he was covering analysis stuff, but then i reminded him that he actually had not done traces at all, so he did that. analysis was fine; we worked a bunch of exercises. the professor for that class also has pretty much finished all the material, but i am going to search through the syllabus and old exams and try to find things that he has not covered. after classes i went to the TA's office and worked on a couple of problems for a while, which was good. for now i'm going to sit back and drink some tea and watch the game and try to unwind a bit before doing some work and going to bed early. it's nice to be busy. thanks for reading!