Nice old ladies and calculator problems
So. Stuff happens.
Nice old ladies. The other Thursday when I was a-mindin' my own business as usual, and running like an idiot for the bus, the bus up and left before I got there! And I huffed and I puffed and was all outta breath 'n' stuff, and this car pulls up and this heavy-set old lady gestures for me to get in. She tells me how she saw me running and felt bad for me, and then it turns out, she's going to the very same place as I am going-to the place where they have evening courses. She makes furniture or whatever in the room next to where I play piano. She was delighted by this coincidence and offered to take me there every Thursday, which I readily agreed to - more because there was no way I could say no without being rude than because it is convenient for me, but she's nice, so it's okay. ^^
This is the second time this has happened to me; last time was an old lady too (well, I call them old, but they're probably in their fifties). It always amazes me, old lady picking up a random teenager from the street. =P Not like they can see that I'm some little girl in glasses, either (less scary-looking than, like, weird guys with piercings and wax in their hair). Oh well!
Math tests and Swedish essays. The other day-two days ago, Thursday-I had a Math E test (complex numbers) and a Swedish Essay due. I thought they were for Friday, but I realized on Wednesday they were actually for Thursday! Needless to say, I was a bit worried-I could do one or the other, but both? Needed to stay up to write the essay, but needed to sleep (and preferably look over my formulas and stuff..) for my math test. What a dilemma! I ended up napping (my escape for every time when I need to do too much for school) and then writing the essay in three hours. By no means the best essay I've written, though I've had quite some practice with it lately (freaking religion ... and biology ... and ENDLESS amounts of impromptu in-class on-test essay writing for English!), so at least I think I've gotten the hang of it. And considering that some people didn't even do more than half of it... =P I looked over my math stuff in the morning before the test however, and was all panicked for a while. I totally had not done enough problems to practice! Wahhh! However, it went surprisingly well: I could do every problem except one random VG-problem where I was supposed to do polynomial division on a third-degree equationafter first finding the one real solution ... but I didn't realize that so I guess I didn't do it. Oh well. It still annoys me, I'm dumb, and haven't figured out how I should find that real solution analytically (you could see on the graph it ought to be 3, and my teacher said "on tests, usually they'll be a small integer, so you can try a few", but neither of those ways are satisfactory. The actual polynomial division itself is a piece of cake though.
There were some nice problems on the test, too; for instance, "e^(k*pi*i) + 1 = 0", what values can k take? If it had not said values, I would have written "1", like the idiot I am, when the real answer is "1 + 2n", where n is an integer. Silly me always forgets that it's important to remember that sine and cosine are repeating functions and that I'm supposed to add 2*n*pi to all angles. Jacob, when I talked to him afterwards, had gotten the answer to be "any odd number", which is right, but he wasn't entirely sure how he got it, said it was more guesswork than anything else ... and I don't know entirely how he did that, because it was in no way evident to me until I solved it. Oh well. =P
Calculator problems. In Math Discrete, we've done, uh ... what'sitinEnglish ... set theory? which was basically learn about Venn diagrams and a bunch of weird symbols and that was it (I feel my computer keyboard to be even more inadequate than I felt before...), and relations and stuff. We've also been programming our calculators, with, uh ... varying degrees of success. Specifically for me. I was entirely confused enitially, because apparently I could not write mc, I had to write m*c, otherwise it saw mx as it's own variable, not two variables times each other. It took me a while to figure that out. T_T When I did, I successfully made a program for the quadratic formula and one for converting something in base 10 to an arbitrary other base (didn't think of a good way to make a program that would do the opposite, the algorithm we were taught for making stuff to base ten involved keeping track of a numbers position and all...). However, I then attempted to make one that would tell me all the prime numbers in a specified range ... which did not work. Why? Because I can't figure out how the bleep to input elements in lists, much less how to check if a number is divisible by anything in that list. The whole list thing works differently on the other people's calculators, and it is quite upsetting (my calculator is TI-89, theirs are all TI-82 or 84...). They just write in, like "L1" or something, and it becomes a list. If I do that-if I choose friggin' L1 from the friggin' menu of stuff-it treats it as a variable, not a list. And besides, I think I need to specify the dimensions of the list, but how the hell am I supposed to know how big a list will be? I just want to add stuff onto the end of it.
It's been quite frustrating, and it didn't get better when I found out that my 300-page calculator manual contains barely any useful information whatsoever. I guess it assumes I know how to create a freaking list. Well, I guess I DO know how to create a list -- wonderful operation called "newList()", where I specify in the brackets how many elements it will have, and sets them all to 0. Uh huh. Well, if I want to add elements to it? Grr! Crazy calculator.
University housing. Well, so first they said you'd be able to apply for housing from the 1st of February. Then they changed it to "mid-February", then to the 16th - then to the 18th, 19th and finally 20th. I guess on the 20th they finally were done with stuff. I looked at the application and I don't quite know how to fill it in ... and neither can I send it off until Brian has received an offer anyway, so I wish they'd hurry up. I already got all my remaining offers quite some time ago, along with information leaflets in the mail, but I guess the silly College of Social Sciences and Humanities receive more applications (three times as many, in fact) as the College of Science and Engineering. The School of Mathematics was super-speedy, it was like, the least applied-to school of allll. =P Poor School of Mathematics. I almost felt inclined to accept their offer just because of that- but when it comes down to it I'd rather do Mathematical Physics (School of Physics and Astronomy, single honors) than Physics and Mathematics (School of Mathematics, dual honors), so. Besides, there was no MPhys programme for the latter.
Anyway. I'll have to email someone and ask what to write on the housing application, and hope they send Brian his offer soon, and that his parents file their taxes so he can apply for loans for the stupid tuition (he'll pay as much in tuition as I'll pay for supporting the both of us...). Oh well.
1984. I have, through the years, seen 1984 referenced to in all manners of places, and I decided that now I was going to read it, too. So I made Dad buy it for me while he was in Singapore. I shall read it whenever I manage to finish reading the Free Bards by Mercedes Lackey - haven't had too much time lately for much of anything.
Bare necessities. I got a new song to learn to play the other day; we spent the first few minutes of my lesson flipping through booklets with sheet music until I came upon Bare Necessities and went like "oooh!" and that was the end of the search. =P A mí me gusta el jungelo booko! <333 Anyway, I've been practicing it, and as a result my entire family has been going around humming it -- this morning as Lina and Sara were leaving for somewhere they were enacting the entire thing, even the speaking parts about pulling in claws and eating ants and working too hard. I was amused. It IS a good song. ^^
Anime. And in other news, when I haven't been doing other things, I've been watching a lot of anime with my sisters. I finished watching InuYasha with Lina at some point: we then proceeded to watch FullMetal Alchemist, which overall had a better story and all (it didn't have the same feeling of "oh, now we're fighting the hundredth generic youkai and Naraku is still hiding somewhere"), though it was somewhat more depressing and violent. When we finished that, we started watching CardCaptor Sakura, which was a nice change as it featured less violence and more cuteness. <33 Dunno what we'll watch after we're done with Sakura though; I have Ah! My Goddess!, so I guess we'll watch that, but it's only 24 episodes or something like that, and considering the rate we've been going through them lately ... =P If anyone has a show they want to recommend and/or give me, please go ahead!
Anyway, that's quite enough ranting. I guess I don't update often enough, causing me to just rant on and on and on when I do. Oh well!
Nice old ladies. The other Thursday when I was a-mindin' my own business as usual, and running like an idiot for the bus, the bus up and left before I got there! And I huffed and I puffed and was all outta breath 'n' stuff, and this car pulls up and this heavy-set old lady gestures for me to get in. She tells me how she saw me running and felt bad for me, and then it turns out, she's going to the very same place as I am going-to the place where they have evening courses. She makes furniture or whatever in the room next to where I play piano. She was delighted by this coincidence and offered to take me there every Thursday, which I readily agreed to - more because there was no way I could say no without being rude than because it is convenient for me, but she's nice, so it's okay. ^^
This is the second time this has happened to me; last time was an old lady too (well, I call them old, but they're probably in their fifties). It always amazes me, old lady picking up a random teenager from the street. =P Not like they can see that I'm some little girl in glasses, either (less scary-looking than, like, weird guys with piercings and wax in their hair). Oh well!
Math tests and Swedish essays. The other day-two days ago, Thursday-I had a Math E test (complex numbers) and a Swedish Essay due. I thought they were for Friday, but I realized on Wednesday they were actually for Thursday! Needless to say, I was a bit worried-I could do one or the other, but both? Needed to stay up to write the essay, but needed to sleep (and preferably look over my formulas and stuff..) for my math test. What a dilemma! I ended up napping (my escape for every time when I need to do too much for school) and then writing the essay in three hours. By no means the best essay I've written, though I've had quite some practice with it lately (freaking religion ... and biology ... and ENDLESS amounts of impromptu in-class on-test essay writing for English!), so at least I think I've gotten the hang of it. And considering that some people didn't even do more than half of it... =P I looked over my math stuff in the morning before the test however, and was all panicked for a while. I totally had not done enough problems to practice! Wahhh! However, it went surprisingly well: I could do every problem except one random VG-problem where I was supposed to do polynomial division on a third-degree equationafter first finding the one real solution ... but I didn't realize that so I guess I didn't do it. Oh well. It still annoys me, I'm dumb, and haven't figured out how I should find that real solution analytically (you could see on the graph it ought to be 3, and my teacher said "on tests, usually they'll be a small integer, so you can try a few", but neither of those ways are satisfactory. The actual polynomial division itself is a piece of cake though.
There were some nice problems on the test, too; for instance, "e^(k*pi*i) + 1 = 0", what values can k take? If it had not said values, I would have written "1", like the idiot I am, when the real answer is "1 + 2n", where n is an integer. Silly me always forgets that it's important to remember that sine and cosine are repeating functions and that I'm supposed to add 2*n*pi to all angles. Jacob, when I talked to him afterwards, had gotten the answer to be "any odd number", which is right, but he wasn't entirely sure how he got it, said it was more guesswork than anything else ... and I don't know entirely how he did that, because it was in no way evident to me until I solved it. Oh well. =P
Calculator problems. In Math Discrete, we've done, uh ... what'sitinEnglish ... set theory? which was basically learn about Venn diagrams and a bunch of weird symbols and that was it (I feel my computer keyboard to be even more inadequate than I felt before...), and relations and stuff. We've also been programming our calculators, with, uh ... varying degrees of success. Specifically for me. I was entirely confused enitially, because apparently I could not write mc, I had to write m*c, otherwise it saw mx as it's own variable, not two variables times each other. It took me a while to figure that out. T_T When I did, I successfully made a program for the quadratic formula and one for converting something in base 10 to an arbitrary other base (didn't think of a good way to make a program that would do the opposite, the algorithm we were taught for making stuff to base ten involved keeping track of a numbers position and all...). However, I then attempted to make one that would tell me all the prime numbers in a specified range ... which did not work. Why? Because I can't figure out how the bleep to input elements in lists, much less how to check if a number is divisible by anything in that list. The whole list thing works differently on the other people's calculators, and it is quite upsetting (my calculator is TI-89, theirs are all TI-82 or 84...). They just write in, like "L1" or something, and it becomes a list. If I do that-if I choose friggin' L1 from the friggin' menu of stuff-it treats it as a variable, not a list. And besides, I think I need to specify the dimensions of the list, but how the hell am I supposed to know how big a list will be? I just want to add stuff onto the end of it.
It's been quite frustrating, and it didn't get better when I found out that my 300-page calculator manual contains barely any useful information whatsoever. I guess it assumes I know how to create a freaking list. Well, I guess I DO know how to create a list -- wonderful operation called "newList()", where I specify in the brackets how many elements it will have, and sets them all to 0. Uh huh. Well, if I want to add elements to it? Grr! Crazy calculator.
University housing. Well, so first they said you'd be able to apply for housing from the 1st of February. Then they changed it to "mid-February", then to the 16th - then to the 18th, 19th and finally 20th. I guess on the 20th they finally were done with stuff. I looked at the application and I don't quite know how to fill it in ... and neither can I send it off until Brian has received an offer anyway, so I wish they'd hurry up. I already got all my remaining offers quite some time ago, along with information leaflets in the mail, but I guess the silly College of Social Sciences and Humanities receive more applications (three times as many, in fact) as the College of Science and Engineering. The School of Mathematics was super-speedy, it was like, the least applied-to school of allll. =P Poor School of Mathematics. I almost felt inclined to accept their offer just because of that- but when it comes down to it I'd rather do Mathematical Physics (School of Physics and Astronomy, single honors) than Physics and Mathematics (School of Mathematics, dual honors), so. Besides, there was no MPhys programme for the latter.
Anyway. I'll have to email someone and ask what to write on the housing application, and hope they send Brian his offer soon, and that his parents file their taxes so he can apply for loans for the stupid tuition (he'll pay as much in tuition as I'll pay for supporting the both of us...). Oh well.
1984. I have, through the years, seen 1984 referenced to in all manners of places, and I decided that now I was going to read it, too. So I made Dad buy it for me while he was in Singapore. I shall read it whenever I manage to finish reading the Free Bards by Mercedes Lackey - haven't had too much time lately for much of anything.
Bare necessities. I got a new song to learn to play the other day; we spent the first few minutes of my lesson flipping through booklets with sheet music until I came upon Bare Necessities and went like "oooh!" and that was the end of the search. =P A mí me gusta el jungelo booko! <333 Anyway, I've been practicing it, and as a result my entire family has been going around humming it -- this morning as Lina and Sara were leaving for somewhere they were enacting the entire thing, even the speaking parts about pulling in claws and eating ants and working too hard. I was amused. It IS a good song. ^^
Anime. And in other news, when I haven't been doing other things, I've been watching a lot of anime with my sisters. I finished watching InuYasha with Lina at some point: we then proceeded to watch FullMetal Alchemist, which overall had a better story and all (it didn't have the same feeling of "oh, now we're fighting the hundredth generic youkai and Naraku is still hiding somewhere"), though it was somewhat more depressing and violent. When we finished that, we started watching CardCaptor Sakura, which was a nice change as it featured less violence and more cuteness. <33 Dunno what we'll watch after we're done with Sakura though; I have Ah! My Goddess!, so I guess we'll watch that, but it's only 24 episodes or something like that, and considering the rate we've been going through them lately ... =P If anyone has a show they want to recommend and/or give me, please go ahead!
Anyway, that's quite enough ranting. I guess I don't update often enough, causing me to just rant on and on and on when I do. Oh well!