Thursday, December 09, 2004
Foil to Infinity
It's 12:31 right now. I'm tired, but I'm still awake. I have no final tomorrow, so I see no reason why I need to go to bed now. Instead, I'm writing this entry, which I'm actually in the mood to do for the first time in a while.
I have to start with yesterday: I got up at 6:30 so I could be at my music theory final by 7. Ick. I skipped breakfast because I figured I'd be done with the test early enough to still have breakfast at a reasonable hour, thus buying me an extra twenty minutes of sleep...a good exchange, I'd say. Anyway, I walked down through the morning mist to good old room 130 in the music building to take my first final of the week. It was pretty straightforward: eight measures of harmonic analysis with three to five chords per measure. It was in the same format as the worksheet he gave us that we spent the last week learning how to do. If anything, the final was actually easier. It was a good piece I had to analyze, written by Dr. Barata himself. Obviously it wasn't too complicated or anything, but I asked him to play it at one point so I could try to identify by sound a chord that didn't have three different pitches in it, and it actually was quite a beautiful piece. Sometimes I wish I had majored in music...it may not be as practical as I'd like but there are times when I have a tremendous love for music, and this was one of them. It would be really cool to get good enough at identifying chord progressions so I could listen to anything and reproduce it on piano. But getting back to the subject at hand, I'm pretty sure I nailed that harmonic analysis along with the three worded questions that came along with it. And so ended Introduction to Music Theory.
That whole process took me about 45 minutes, and since I was in the music building I could hardly resist the opportunity to practice my Christmas tunes on one of the practice room pianos, even though I was still quite tired. I'm pretty sure I had a smoothie either right before that or right after...not really important. Long story short, I was heading back to my room by 9.
I had slipped back into bed and was drifting off to sleep when Rosalie called wondering if I wanted to study calculus with her (because we're both taking the same class, albeit with different teachers). So sure, that was fine with me. We decided to study in one of the Yosemite laundry rooms so we could wash our clothes while we studied...you know, killing two birds with one stone and all that. We were down there a good two and a half hours, going over parametric and polar equations. It was interesting (the situation, not so much the math) because I can't remember ever studying with another person; it's always been a solo activity for me. But Rosalie was having some trouble in a few areas and I think I was able to clarify a few things for her, so woot for that. I had previously decided that I'm not good at explaining things to people because they'd come to me with their math questions from a lower-level calculus and I would rarely be able to help them. But Rosalie seemed genuinely thankful for the help I gave her so I must have done something right. I concluded that I can't help people in the lower-level calculus classes because they ask me about the specific hardest problem in their homework on a subject I haven't thought about for months, but I'm quite clear on concepts I've studied recently and can explain them reasonably well to others. So that made me pretty happy. Plus, now I have clean socks.
After that I don't really remember what I did, which just proves that whatever it was wasn't overly important and therefore doesn't deserve much mention here anyway. I probably had a sandwich at Sandwich Factory, practiced piano and trumpet, and took a nap. Something to that effect, anyway. I also checked my mail and received birthday cards from Lauren, Alena, and Dave, and another book sent to me by Dad: Backgammon for Serious Players, the follow-up to Backgammon for Winners. Thank you all; again, I love mail!
I had dinner with the bandos at Light House, something I've missed out on during the last ten or so days due to the increasing amount of time I'm spending with Rosalie, Heather, and Steven. It was fun, although nothing much happened that warrants discussion here. I kind of remember not being too pleased with the selection of food that night...but what else is new?
I don't remember what I was doing/finishing/beginning to do later that night when my cell phone rang again. It was Rosalie, again wondering if I wanted to study calculus, this time with another girl from her class. I said sure, because I quite honestly didn't have anything better to be doing (and the obvious fact that I enjoy Rosalie's company in any context). I met her outside of her tower and we walked down to the UU together. Four hours later, after one in the morning (hence the lack of bloggage last night), we concluded our study section and dispersed. It was a long journey through chapter 12: infinite sequences and series. I don't want to sound all high on myself, but I think I was able to help them a lot. Chapter 12 is affectionately known as the "chapter of death" by my calculus professor, and Rosalie and her friend's knowledge of the material consisted mainly of memorized formulas (formulae?). I've decided the reason why I'm good at math is because I'm not satisfied with learning something until I understand why I'm learning it. What does this formula do? Why does it act this way? What purpose does it serve? That way, it isn't just an exercise in memorization. Instead, it's logic: if I can't remember a formula it doesn't matter because I can derive it myself using my knowledge of what it's supposed to do. So, I was able to help Rosalie because I could explain to her what all the calculus does...the numbers have an actual purpose! Hooray! I felt pretty darned good because Rosalie kept saying how much I had helped. I felt good not because I had impressed her or something, but because I felt like I had done something nice for someone. And that's a good feeling.
Needless to say, I slept in as late as I could this morning. My calculus final began at 10, so I had planned to sleep in until 9:30. Unfortunately, Kevin got up at 9, and you know how when you wake up twenty minutes before your alarm is set to go off it's nearly impossible to go back to sleep because you know you're going to have to get up in twenty minutes anyway? Yeah...oh well. The calculus final went well, despite taking much longer than did the music theory final. I knew how to do about two-thirds of it immediately without a problem, and I'm pretty sure I figured out the rest without any major errors. I guess you never know, though. Regardless, I walked out of that one with a little over an hour to spare.
The rest of the day was...in a word...boring. In two words? Really boring. I have only one final left to study for (physics) and there's a limit to how much of one subject I can stand to study. All of the people I'd love to invite over for a movie or a board game or whatever are too busy taking and/or studying for finals. I've spent a ridiculous amount of time practicing piano, and I'm getting pretty tired of that. I seem to have completely lost my interest in video games, and I've watched pretty much all of my good movies. Seriously? I was so bored today. Ugh. I watched Antitrust and did the physics homework I hadn't yet done, and I still had time to spare. I dread tomorrow, where I don't even have a final to occupy my time.
I went to dinner with Steven and Rosalie (Heather had a final) at Light House after Rosalie had finished her calculus exam. I think she thought it went pretty well; there were a couple of minor things she didn't know how to do but overall it went well. So that's good. She certainly deserves a good grade...she studied enough for it. Anyway, potatoes, pork roast, and a spinach salad later, we were walking back to Yosemite. I bid the two of them goodbye, wondering what the heck I was going to do with the rest of my evening.
Kevin came back into the room from (I think) being on the phone, and he told me I looked like I needed to take a break from the physics I was studying. I responded that I had absolutely nothing other than studying physics to do. We discussed some possibilities and eventually decided that I should drive down to Borders in search of some excitement. Naturally I called Rosalie to see if she wanted to go...she did. Long story short: I bought a book of the Monday NY Times crosswords (Monday's are the easiest), Rosalie studied physics, I distracted her with questions about my crossword puzzles, we got kicked out of Borders when they closed at 10, we drove to the downtown Starbucks, I bought us gingerbread latte/caramel apple cider and a chocolate chip cookie, we got kicked out of Starbucks when they closed at 11:30, we went home.
Ah, and that's pretty much where I am now. So hooray! I think I rather like this entry...the title, by the way, is the result of multiplying an infinite series by an infinite series. You have to foil it out like you would with polynomials, except these have an infinite number of terms, hence you foil to infinity. As long as you understand why you're doing it...
Cheers,
Josh
mood: tired, bored (although less than earlier today)
music: none
location: dorm
Family Guy Quote-of-the-Day
[Peter and Brian are building a baby's cradle]
Brian: [reading directions] "Insert rod support A into slot B."
Peter: "That's what--"
Brian: "If you say 'that's what she said' one more time, I'm gonna pop you."
I have to start with yesterday: I got up at 6:30 so I could be at my music theory final by 7. Ick. I skipped breakfast because I figured I'd be done with the test early enough to still have breakfast at a reasonable hour, thus buying me an extra twenty minutes of sleep...a good exchange, I'd say. Anyway, I walked down through the morning mist to good old room 130 in the music building to take my first final of the week. It was pretty straightforward: eight measures of harmonic analysis with three to five chords per measure. It was in the same format as the worksheet he gave us that we spent the last week learning how to do. If anything, the final was actually easier. It was a good piece I had to analyze, written by Dr. Barata himself. Obviously it wasn't too complicated or anything, but I asked him to play it at one point so I could try to identify by sound a chord that didn't have three different pitches in it, and it actually was quite a beautiful piece. Sometimes I wish I had majored in music...it may not be as practical as I'd like but there are times when I have a tremendous love for music, and this was one of them. It would be really cool to get good enough at identifying chord progressions so I could listen to anything and reproduce it on piano. But getting back to the subject at hand, I'm pretty sure I nailed that harmonic analysis along with the three worded questions that came along with it. And so ended Introduction to Music Theory.
That whole process took me about 45 minutes, and since I was in the music building I could hardly resist the opportunity to practice my Christmas tunes on one of the practice room pianos, even though I was still quite tired. I'm pretty sure I had a smoothie either right before that or right after...not really important. Long story short, I was heading back to my room by 9.
I had slipped back into bed and was drifting off to sleep when Rosalie called wondering if I wanted to study calculus with her (because we're both taking the same class, albeit with different teachers). So sure, that was fine with me. We decided to study in one of the Yosemite laundry rooms so we could wash our clothes while we studied...you know, killing two birds with one stone and all that. We were down there a good two and a half hours, going over parametric and polar equations. It was interesting (the situation, not so much the math) because I can't remember ever studying with another person; it's always been a solo activity for me. But Rosalie was having some trouble in a few areas and I think I was able to clarify a few things for her, so woot for that. I had previously decided that I'm not good at explaining things to people because they'd come to me with their math questions from a lower-level calculus and I would rarely be able to help them. But Rosalie seemed genuinely thankful for the help I gave her so I must have done something right. I concluded that I can't help people in the lower-level calculus classes because they ask me about the specific hardest problem in their homework on a subject I haven't thought about for months, but I'm quite clear on concepts I've studied recently and can explain them reasonably well to others. So that made me pretty happy. Plus, now I have clean socks.
After that I don't really remember what I did, which just proves that whatever it was wasn't overly important and therefore doesn't deserve much mention here anyway. I probably had a sandwich at Sandwich Factory, practiced piano and trumpet, and took a nap. Something to that effect, anyway. I also checked my mail and received birthday cards from Lauren, Alena, and Dave, and another book sent to me by Dad: Backgammon for Serious Players, the follow-up to Backgammon for Winners. Thank you all; again, I love mail!
I had dinner with the bandos at Light House, something I've missed out on during the last ten or so days due to the increasing amount of time I'm spending with Rosalie, Heather, and Steven. It was fun, although nothing much happened that warrants discussion here. I kind of remember not being too pleased with the selection of food that night...but what else is new?
I don't remember what I was doing/finishing/beginning to do later that night when my cell phone rang again. It was Rosalie, again wondering if I wanted to study calculus, this time with another girl from her class. I said sure, because I quite honestly didn't have anything better to be doing (and the obvious fact that I enjoy Rosalie's company in any context). I met her outside of her tower and we walked down to the UU together. Four hours later, after one in the morning (hence the lack of bloggage last night), we concluded our study section and dispersed. It was a long journey through chapter 12: infinite sequences and series. I don't want to sound all high on myself, but I think I was able to help them a lot. Chapter 12 is affectionately known as the "chapter of death" by my calculus professor, and Rosalie and her friend's knowledge of the material consisted mainly of memorized formulas (formulae?). I've decided the reason why I'm good at math is because I'm not satisfied with learning something until I understand why I'm learning it. What does this formula do? Why does it act this way? What purpose does it serve? That way, it isn't just an exercise in memorization. Instead, it's logic: if I can't remember a formula it doesn't matter because I can derive it myself using my knowledge of what it's supposed to do. So, I was able to help Rosalie because I could explain to her what all the calculus does...the numbers have an actual purpose! Hooray! I felt pretty darned good because Rosalie kept saying how much I had helped. I felt good not because I had impressed her or something, but because I felt like I had done something nice for someone. And that's a good feeling.
Needless to say, I slept in as late as I could this morning. My calculus final began at 10, so I had planned to sleep in until 9:30. Unfortunately, Kevin got up at 9, and you know how when you wake up twenty minutes before your alarm is set to go off it's nearly impossible to go back to sleep because you know you're going to have to get up in twenty minutes anyway? Yeah...oh well. The calculus final went well, despite taking much longer than did the music theory final. I knew how to do about two-thirds of it immediately without a problem, and I'm pretty sure I figured out the rest without any major errors. I guess you never know, though. Regardless, I walked out of that one with a little over an hour to spare.
The rest of the day was...in a word...boring. In two words? Really boring. I have only one final left to study for (physics) and there's a limit to how much of one subject I can stand to study. All of the people I'd love to invite over for a movie or a board game or whatever are too busy taking and/or studying for finals. I've spent a ridiculous amount of time practicing piano, and I'm getting pretty tired of that. I seem to have completely lost my interest in video games, and I've watched pretty much all of my good movies. Seriously? I was so bored today. Ugh. I watched Antitrust and did the physics homework I hadn't yet done, and I still had time to spare. I dread tomorrow, where I don't even have a final to occupy my time.
I went to dinner with Steven and Rosalie (Heather had a final) at Light House after Rosalie had finished her calculus exam. I think she thought it went pretty well; there were a couple of minor things she didn't know how to do but overall it went well. So that's good. She certainly deserves a good grade...she studied enough for it. Anyway, potatoes, pork roast, and a spinach salad later, we were walking back to Yosemite. I bid the two of them goodbye, wondering what the heck I was going to do with the rest of my evening.
Kevin came back into the room from (I think) being on the phone, and he told me I looked like I needed to take a break from the physics I was studying. I responded that I had absolutely nothing other than studying physics to do. We discussed some possibilities and eventually decided that I should drive down to Borders in search of some excitement. Naturally I called Rosalie to see if she wanted to go...she did. Long story short: I bought a book of the Monday NY Times crosswords (Monday's are the easiest), Rosalie studied physics, I distracted her with questions about my crossword puzzles, we got kicked out of Borders when they closed at 10, we drove to the downtown Starbucks, I bought us gingerbread latte/caramel apple cider and a chocolate chip cookie, we got kicked out of Starbucks when they closed at 11:30, we went home.
Ah, and that's pretty much where I am now. So hooray! I think I rather like this entry...the title, by the way, is the result of multiplying an infinite series by an infinite series. You have to foil it out like you would with polynomials, except these have an infinite number of terms, hence you foil to infinity. As long as you understand why you're doing it...
Cheers,
Josh
mood: tired, bored (although less than earlier today)
music: none
location: dorm
Family Guy Quote-of-the-Day
[Peter and Brian are building a baby's cradle]
Brian: [reading directions] "Insert rod support A into slot B."
Peter: "That's what--"
Brian: "If you say 'that's what she said' one more time, I'm gonna pop you."
