I have been fairly busy the past month. Planning "Introduction to informatics", working on practice materials for "Programming 1", doing science on the side.
Finally started practicing with the band - and had a few jam sessions with other friends as well. Since we have been practicing a few punk songs, I have started learning to play with the plectrum - not too hard but not as easy as I first hoped either.
Yesterday I had a seminar talk about the machine learning book alluded to in the aforementioned post. About half a third of the staff of the statistics faculty came to see the talk - which was somewhat surprising for me. They seemed to understand what I was talking about pretty well, though. Not sure whether the normal students did though... but Im hoping for the best.
Been together with L. for nearly two months now. We have had our problems but at the moment, things seem to be heading in a good direction. I miss her when she is away, which sadly happens for 2-3 days each week. Thankfully, I have plenty of work to distract me from that feeling :)
Friday, September 24, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Mathematics as a language
I have been reading a Machine Learning textbook for the past 3 days. It uses a lot of probability theory, something I know the basics of (up to Probability theory II course). I managed to get the gist of what the book was trying to say, but am still somewhat struggling to understand how the proof of the main theorem works and what its implications are.
At some point, my roommate (who is a psychology major and very fond of languages as well) asked me to show her the proof I was reading.. and then instantly turned away when she saw the formulae. So I tried to explain to her what my problem was, in terms she could understand. And then I stumbled upon a pretty interesting and deep analogy:
Mathematics is just a set of symbols used to very precisely say things that would take a lot of plaintext to explain without the special notation. Just a means of precisely expressing yourself. Like the alphabet. However, each branch of mathematics has its own key concepts and terminology (the words) as well as diffent proof techniques (syntax). Different branches of mathematics can, in this sense, be likened to different languages. And different languages can be either very close to eachother (Statistics and Machine learning seem quite like Estonian and Finnish, for instance - they have quite a lot of common ground both in terms of key concepts and proof methods, but they are nevertheless quite distinct, with quite a few things having nearly opposite meaning)
My mother tongue in mathematics is Cryptology, with a slight accent from complexity theory. Reading a Machine Learning textbook for me is akin to reading something in a language I have studied a little (a few years, maybe) but which I am not comfortable in yet - I can make out the meaning of most that is said, but I do not grasp the nuances of the more complex words (ideas) and sometimes get their meaning completely wrong (which happens if you are forced to deduce their meaning just from the context). However, this is a pretty good way of learning the new language, as it forces you into a very deep mode of processing - you have to build up the abstract "big picture" as fast as possible and constantly try to deduce the missing details back from it. Hard, but quite enjoyable, as it makes me feel I am actually learning and very rapidly.
For those who find mathematics courses hard, this analogy might help understand what is going on: you are usually expected to learn the rudiments of a new language, often up to the point where you need to be able to not only understand it but actually "speak" it to a degree by the end. It is not harder than learning normal languages, and as with normal languages, the more different languages you learn, the easier it becomes to acquire a new one.
At some point, my roommate (who is a psychology major and very fond of languages as well) asked me to show her the proof I was reading.. and then instantly turned away when she saw the formulae. So I tried to explain to her what my problem was, in terms she could understand. And then I stumbled upon a pretty interesting and deep analogy:
Mathematics is just a set of symbols used to very precisely say things that would take a lot of plaintext to explain without the special notation. Just a means of precisely expressing yourself. Like the alphabet. However, each branch of mathematics has its own key concepts and terminology (the words) as well as diffent proof techniques (syntax). Different branches of mathematics can, in this sense, be likened to different languages. And different languages can be either very close to eachother (Statistics and Machine learning seem quite like Estonian and Finnish, for instance - they have quite a lot of common ground both in terms of key concepts and proof methods, but they are nevertheless quite distinct, with quite a few things having nearly opposite meaning)
My mother tongue in mathematics is Cryptology, with a slight accent from complexity theory. Reading a Machine Learning textbook for me is akin to reading something in a language I have studied a little (a few years, maybe) but which I am not comfortable in yet - I can make out the meaning of most that is said, but I do not grasp the nuances of the more complex words (ideas) and sometimes get their meaning completely wrong (which happens if you are forced to deduce their meaning just from the context). However, this is a pretty good way of learning the new language, as it forces you into a very deep mode of processing - you have to build up the abstract "big picture" as fast as possible and constantly try to deduce the missing details back from it. Hard, but quite enjoyable, as it makes me feel I am actually learning and very rapidly.
For those who find mathematics courses hard, this analogy might help understand what is going on: you are usually expected to learn the rudiments of a new language, often up to the point where you need to be able to not only understand it but actually "speak" it to a degree by the end. It is not harder than learning normal languages, and as with normal languages, the more different languages you learn, the easier it becomes to acquire a new one.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Don't try this at home
Me and Riinu went to the countryside yesterday to visit her grandparents. Mostly a fun and relaxing trip.
When we got off the train at Valga, we got picked up by her grandfather. Riinu asked if he would drive us to go fetch a bike lock she had left somewhere about 15 km away around a post, when she had left in a hurry a few weeks back. I bet her (a beer) that it would not be there, since she had left it unlocked. However, when we got there, it had been moved a bit but was still there - so I got her a beer at the nearest gas station.
When we got to her grandparents house, we were greeted by their overly friendly dog Sammy. We had sandwiches for breakfast and then watched a few episodes from some TV shows from the laptop before heading out for mushrooms.
I had not went gathering mushrooms for over 10 years. It showed - she returned with her pail nearly full, while mine had maybe only a third of it filled. The forests were really full of shrooms though. Problem was, quite a few of them had worms inside already. Nevertheless, it was quite fun.
We then proceeded to the kitchen to prepare dinner. Mushrooms with garlic, onion and sour cream. Delicious. I did most of the cooking. Me, Riinu and her grandma talked about cooking for nearly 2 hours.
There was also a 5-year old girl there whom I had a brief discussion with. She was very intelligent for her age - could add and subtract up to 10, could read pretty well and was already learning to write with handwriting letters - all that two years before going to the first grade. She was also pretty social and could keep up a fairly interesting conversation :=)
We then went to the other building and watched one more episode of "The Outer Limits" before heading to sauna. They have a very good one - which due to a lot of moisture is already quite strong at 65-70 C. Also, they had a nice pond nearby with cool water.
After a few rounds in the sauna, we decided to call it a day and she filled three pails with water - one cool, one warm and one near-boiling. Problem was, I did not know which one was which.. so I stuffed my hands into the one with near-boiling water. Not fun.
I quickly ran to the pond and held my hands in the cool water for a few minutes. I then returned to the sauna - only to discover that even the front room temperature (35 C maybe) was unbearable to my hands (so I had to water them down every now and then). This was just the beginning, however, as pretty soon all I could do was hold my hands in cool water. After about an hour, I finally decided to call Ma., who is a 5. year medical student. She said I should seek immediate medical help... so we woke up the grandfather and he drove us to the emergency room in valga where they tied my hands up. In the car, I held my hands out of the window most of the time for the pain to be bearable, but that was not an option while waiting in the emergency room, where even the room temperature felt like holding my hands inside a flame. And then they tied my arms up in fairly thick bandages that formed mits - so it got even warmer and even harder to bear. They told me that it was too early to tell how bad the damage was but that I should check back the next day.
We got back and then watched yet another episode of outer limits - on a bed in an unheated room with the door open with me holding my hands straight up above my head (to decrease circulation of warm blood there). Paracetamol was not helping much and it was still highly uncomfortable. I could not imagine how I could get to sleep.
Nevertheless, it turned out to be somewhat easier than first feared. Initially, it was just very cold - as I had to keep my arms out of the sleeping bag and I was essentially sleeping just next to the open door. At some point, however, pain started receeding and I could pull my arms inside the bag and close the door. Next thing I remember is waking up.
Morning went pretty slowly. I woke up Riinu, we had coffee and then just lounged around for a while. Then she made lunch after which we got dropped back to Valga for me to catch a train and for her to do some shopping.
In the emergency room in Tartu, they retied the bandages and told me to go see my family doctor on Wednesday. Since she is still in Tallinn, however, I plan to make due with Ma. and her friend S. who had plans to visit me on Tuesday evening anyway.
All in all - I am very grateful to have as good friends as I have. Riinu helped me out with quite a few things without even asking and Ma. was also very happy to come and retie my bandages Tuesday.
When we got off the train at Valga, we got picked up by her grandfather. Riinu asked if he would drive us to go fetch a bike lock she had left somewhere about 15 km away around a post, when she had left in a hurry a few weeks back. I bet her (a beer) that it would not be there, since she had left it unlocked. However, when we got there, it had been moved a bit but was still there - so I got her a beer at the nearest gas station.
When we got to her grandparents house, we were greeted by their overly friendly dog Sammy. We had sandwiches for breakfast and then watched a few episodes from some TV shows from the laptop before heading out for mushrooms.
I had not went gathering mushrooms for over 10 years. It showed - she returned with her pail nearly full, while mine had maybe only a third of it filled. The forests were really full of shrooms though. Problem was, quite a few of them had worms inside already. Nevertheless, it was quite fun.
We then proceeded to the kitchen to prepare dinner. Mushrooms with garlic, onion and sour cream. Delicious. I did most of the cooking. Me, Riinu and her grandma talked about cooking for nearly 2 hours.
There was also a 5-year old girl there whom I had a brief discussion with. She was very intelligent for her age - could add and subtract up to 10, could read pretty well and was already learning to write with handwriting letters - all that two years before going to the first grade. She was also pretty social and could keep up a fairly interesting conversation :=)
We then went to the other building and watched one more episode of "The Outer Limits" before heading to sauna. They have a very good one - which due to a lot of moisture is already quite strong at 65-70 C. Also, they had a nice pond nearby with cool water.
After a few rounds in the sauna, we decided to call it a day and she filled three pails with water - one cool, one warm and one near-boiling. Problem was, I did not know which one was which.. so I stuffed my hands into the one with near-boiling water. Not fun.
I quickly ran to the pond and held my hands in the cool water for a few minutes. I then returned to the sauna - only to discover that even the front room temperature (35 C maybe) was unbearable to my hands (so I had to water them down every now and then). This was just the beginning, however, as pretty soon all I could do was hold my hands in cool water. After about an hour, I finally decided to call Ma., who is a 5. year medical student. She said I should seek immediate medical help... so we woke up the grandfather and he drove us to the emergency room in valga where they tied my hands up. In the car, I held my hands out of the window most of the time for the pain to be bearable, but that was not an option while waiting in the emergency room, where even the room temperature felt like holding my hands inside a flame. And then they tied my arms up in fairly thick bandages that formed mits - so it got even warmer and even harder to bear. They told me that it was too early to tell how bad the damage was but that I should check back the next day.
We got back and then watched yet another episode of outer limits - on a bed in an unheated room with the door open with me holding my hands straight up above my head (to decrease circulation of warm blood there). Paracetamol was not helping much and it was still highly uncomfortable. I could not imagine how I could get to sleep.
Nevertheless, it turned out to be somewhat easier than first feared. Initially, it was just very cold - as I had to keep my arms out of the sleeping bag and I was essentially sleeping just next to the open door. At some point, however, pain started receeding and I could pull my arms inside the bag and close the door. Next thing I remember is waking up.
Morning went pretty slowly. I woke up Riinu, we had coffee and then just lounged around for a while. Then she made lunch after which we got dropped back to Valga for me to catch a train and for her to do some shopping.
In the emergency room in Tartu, they retied the bandages and told me to go see my family doctor on Wednesday. Since she is still in Tallinn, however, I plan to make due with Ma. and her friend S. who had plans to visit me on Tuesday evening anyway.
All in all - I am very grateful to have as good friends as I have. Riinu helped me out with quite a few things without even asking and Ma. was also very happy to come and retie my bandages Tuesday.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Reporting Bias
Yesterday started off when I woke up at 8.30, after about 5.5 h sleep. This was to get to the first practice session of this semester - first for both me and my students.
As I was teaching first years, I started off with a 20 min lecture about how university is different from high school and what to expect when studying in our faculty. We then started the practice session itself. Since it was the first practice session, nearly everything that could go wrong did - the programming environment was set up a bit wrong and so a quarter of the work plan had to be discarded...
Nevertheless, it was fun. It is good to know that I still enjoy teaching, at least to a degree. It already felt good the day before, when preparing the slides, but actually supervising the session only confirmed it. Also, it seems that my teaching skills have improved markedly - again something that is good to know.
I then spent about 4 hours putting together the course plan for "Introduction to Informatics". Also had lunch with my co-workers from Cybernetica. By the end, I had the lecture plan more or less figured out.
Also, it turns out they are about to terminate my previous work contract with the University and I will be without official status for a few days before they get my new contract filed - which means no access to the teaching side of ÕIS. Should be fun.
One of the project managers in the faculty also contacted me and asked whether I wanted to get famous - turns out the media department is gathering some advertising material about all faculties and when she was contacted about it, she immediately thought of me. That was nice of her:)
At about 4, I went to see "The last airbender" with L. First full-length 3D movie I saw - and I was not too impressed. The 3d effects were quite minimal - only felt them in a few scenes. Also, the movie itself was average at best, although my opinion may be biased because I have seen the cartoon too. What I liked about the latter was that it was hilariously funny. The movie, on the contrary, was very serious and dark - guess thats what you get when you let M. Night Shaymalan direct the movie. Also, I did not like the casting - especially concerning the waterbender girl. And the martial arts scenes with element bending seemed too artificial - a feeling that I did not get from the cartoons.
Also, me and L. sat right next to my neighbor and his three kids. What were the chances of that?
After the movie, I had to get right back to the faculty to appear in the tutorial session for first year IT and CS students to tell them about "Introduction to informatics". When I got there, I realized one of the tutors had actually attended the class before.. but when I got down to actually talk, I was not too sure I had recognized the face correctly.. which led me to say something along the lines "It's a fun course but.... it seems there is no-one here who took it last year to confirm that".
And then it turned out not just one but two of the 4 tutors had actually been there. Which was kind of embarassing. I blame being tired - two consecutive days of less than 6 hrs of sleep.
I did not have much to say so got out of there before 7. Went home, cooked and ate dinner and then went to bed at around 9. Got maybe 1 hr of sleep before a friend of mine called. I have been wanting to meet up with her for nearly a week now (as she has something important going on in her life and could definitely use the support) - so we did. We finished talking at around 1.
And I got up at 6.30 - third night with less than 6 hrs. And I have a full 8 hr schoolday today - thankfully, as a student, not as a lecturer.
As I was teaching first years, I started off with a 20 min lecture about how university is different from high school and what to expect when studying in our faculty. We then started the practice session itself. Since it was the first practice session, nearly everything that could go wrong did - the programming environment was set up a bit wrong and so a quarter of the work plan had to be discarded...
Nevertheless, it was fun. It is good to know that I still enjoy teaching, at least to a degree. It already felt good the day before, when preparing the slides, but actually supervising the session only confirmed it. Also, it seems that my teaching skills have improved markedly - again something that is good to know.
I then spent about 4 hours putting together the course plan for "Introduction to Informatics". Also had lunch with my co-workers from Cybernetica. By the end, I had the lecture plan more or less figured out.
Also, it turns out they are about to terminate my previous work contract with the University and I will be without official status for a few days before they get my new contract filed - which means no access to the teaching side of ÕIS. Should be fun.
One of the project managers in the faculty also contacted me and asked whether I wanted to get famous - turns out the media department is gathering some advertising material about all faculties and when she was contacted about it, she immediately thought of me. That was nice of her:)
At about 4, I went to see "The last airbender" with L. First full-length 3D movie I saw - and I was not too impressed. The 3d effects were quite minimal - only felt them in a few scenes. Also, the movie itself was average at best, although my opinion may be biased because I have seen the cartoon too. What I liked about the latter was that it was hilariously funny. The movie, on the contrary, was very serious and dark - guess thats what you get when you let M. Night Shaymalan direct the movie. Also, I did not like the casting - especially concerning the waterbender girl. And the martial arts scenes with element bending seemed too artificial - a feeling that I did not get from the cartoons.
Also, me and L. sat right next to my neighbor and his three kids. What were the chances of that?
After the movie, I had to get right back to the faculty to appear in the tutorial session for first year IT and CS students to tell them about "Introduction to informatics". When I got there, I realized one of the tutors had actually attended the class before.. but when I got down to actually talk, I was not too sure I had recognized the face correctly.. which led me to say something along the lines "It's a fun course but.... it seems there is no-one here who took it last year to confirm that".
And then it turned out not just one but two of the 4 tutors had actually been there. Which was kind of embarassing. I blame being tired - two consecutive days of less than 6 hrs of sleep.
I did not have much to say so got out of there before 7. Went home, cooked and ate dinner and then went to bed at around 9. Got maybe 1 hr of sleep before a friend of mine called. I have been wanting to meet up with her for nearly a week now (as she has something important going on in her life and could definitely use the support) - so we did. We finished talking at around 1.
And I got up at 6.30 - third night with less than 6 hrs. And I have a full 8 hr schoolday today - thankfully, as a student, not as a lecturer.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
A Battle with Pride and Ego
A battle with pride and ego,
A journey that started long ago.
- Hammerfall
Those who do not yet know. I am 23 and have been writing my PhD thesis for most of this summer. In the past week, I have been finalizing the last paper to go into it - which I do not technically even need as I have 4 publications without it already. In any case, the thesis is practically done. And by done I mean that I could hand it in on Monday, if I wanted to. And I pretty much planned to, because I wanted to defend the thesis before 07.01.2011 - that is, before turning 24 - which would have made me the youngest person to get a PhD in Tartu for at least 20, more probably 50 years.
And then...
I decided to postpone the defence of my PhD thesis to May next year. The thought came to me clear as day on thursday evening, when walking home.
Reasons for postponing:
The pragmatical:
My supervisor has some ideas that would tie up some of the major loose ends currently left in the thesis - adding a lot to the quality of the thesis.
When applying for a postdoc position, it is important to have a good thesis and at least one really good paper on your CV. The last paper is pretty good, but it would be good to have it published too in order to confirm it's quality.
EuroCrypt 2011, one of the three biggest conferences in my field, is held in Tallinn. It is much easier to get a good opponent if I am to defend right before or right after the conference.
Postdoc positions usually start from autumn semesters so there would be no real benefit from graduating sooner. There is a new professor coming to Tartu and I would like to see what direction things take with him here and make my choices accordingly. This means I will want to stay in Tartu for the spring semester.
I get the support funding for doctorial studies for one additional semester (although, my superiors have promised me to match that with a pay increase once I graduate).
I can still take university courses for both spring and autumn semesters.
The emotional:
I do not think I am ready to say my goodbyes with being a student yet. A lot has happened over the past two years. I am not the person I was back then. Quite far from it. Maybe a bit too far, as I have lost my sense of identity. I do not feel I am a student, or a scientist, or a lecturer.. or anything, at this point. I enjoy all three roles but all of them in a different way -- they complement eachother and as such I am reluctant to give up any of them. I would also like a period of more stability to figure things out for myself. And by stability I mean avoid drastic changes, as these usually take a lot of resource to cope with.
Related to the preceding thought - I would like to concentrate on the social aspects of life over the professional ones. I would like to form closer and more authentic relationships with people, emphasizing quality over quantity. That is again something that is hard to do when you have to deal with changes in your professional life.
Also - I feel a bit more secure now about myself and who I am.. and do not really need the ego boost that making some national headlines would bring. Media attention is not always a good thing, anyways...
Still, it was not an easy decision. Not by a long shot. At this point, the thesis really is ready to present, and somehow, the thought that I will not do it still bothers me.
A journey that started long ago.
- Hammerfall
Those who do not yet know. I am 23 and have been writing my PhD thesis for most of this summer. In the past week, I have been finalizing the last paper to go into it - which I do not technically even need as I have 4 publications without it already. In any case, the thesis is practically done. And by done I mean that I could hand it in on Monday, if I wanted to. And I pretty much planned to, because I wanted to defend the thesis before 07.01.2011 - that is, before turning 24 - which would have made me the youngest person to get a PhD in Tartu for at least 20, more probably 50 years.
And then...
I decided to postpone the defence of my PhD thesis to May next year. The thought came to me clear as day on thursday evening, when walking home.
Reasons for postponing:
The pragmatical:
My supervisor has some ideas that would tie up some of the major loose ends currently left in the thesis - adding a lot to the quality of the thesis.
When applying for a postdoc position, it is important to have a good thesis and at least one really good paper on your CV. The last paper is pretty good, but it would be good to have it published too in order to confirm it's quality.
EuroCrypt 2011, one of the three biggest conferences in my field, is held in Tallinn. It is much easier to get a good opponent if I am to defend right before or right after the conference.
Postdoc positions usually start from autumn semesters so there would be no real benefit from graduating sooner. There is a new professor coming to Tartu and I would like to see what direction things take with him here and make my choices accordingly. This means I will want to stay in Tartu for the spring semester.
I get the support funding for doctorial studies for one additional semester (although, my superiors have promised me to match that with a pay increase once I graduate).
I can still take university courses for both spring and autumn semesters.
The emotional:
I do not think I am ready to say my goodbyes with being a student yet. A lot has happened over the past two years. I am not the person I was back then. Quite far from it. Maybe a bit too far, as I have lost my sense of identity. I do not feel I am a student, or a scientist, or a lecturer.. or anything, at this point. I enjoy all three roles but all of them in a different way -- they complement eachother and as such I am reluctant to give up any of them. I would also like a period of more stability to figure things out for myself. And by stability I mean avoid drastic changes, as these usually take a lot of resource to cope with.
Related to the preceding thought - I would like to concentrate on the social aspects of life over the professional ones. I would like to form closer and more authentic relationships with people, emphasizing quality over quantity. That is again something that is hard to do when you have to deal with changes in your professional life.
Also - I feel a bit more secure now about myself and who I am.. and do not really need the ego boost that making some national headlines would bring. Media attention is not always a good thing, anyways...
Still, it was not an easy decision. Not by a long shot. At this point, the thesis really is ready to present, and somehow, the thought that I will not do it still bothers me.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Not a dull moment
I spent most of yesterday reading a book. Have not done that in a while and it was actually quite nice - to just lie in the sun on the lawn and read "French ja Koulu Tarbatus" (which is a good self-parody of Estonians, but also mocks national stereotypes and, of course, semioticists)
At about 4 pm L. called and said she was in town.. til about 6... and she had some stuff to do before meeting me. Still, it was a nice hour and a half.. and I like her more and more with each time we meet :)
When I had sent her to the bus, I called another friend of mine from Taiji class. We practiced a bit and then had a long conversation about priorities and philosophy... that lasted til about 9 a clock.
Walking home, I realized I still had too much of the hot chili left over from the day before.. so I called T. and asked if she wanted to come and help me with it. She was a bit ill and had just started preparing dinner herself, so was not to keen on joining me. So I called another friend - R. - who, as it turned out, was just about to start his birthday celebrations.
Needless to say, I volounteered to bring the food:P
So I went home, packed up my board games, grabbed a pack of rice and some cumin seeds as well as the chili and then was ready to go..
Before I got out of the room, however, my phone rang again and R. called to say there was a change of venue because he had misplaced his keys and could not get into his apartment... happens, I suppose.
The party itelf was pretty small - just a gathering of a few people. I cooked the rice and heated up the chili, then we ate and played a round of Risk.. and then two rounds of Fluxx. The second round just kept on going though, so we just had to cut it short after having cycled the pack twice.
We got to cycle back through pouring rain. Thankfully, the place was pretty close. I got home a bit after 3 and went straight to sleep.
Today - well I spent 2 hours at a doctors waiting room (I did not have a formal appointment, he just said over the phone he would try to squeeze me in somewhere). Mostly spent reading. Got back to the office, called my supervisor - who confirmed that the strange proof seems ok, although some things need to be clarified...
And now I am off again to my other office to see if I have left one very important book there, since my supervisor does not seem to have it.
At about 4 pm L. called and said she was in town.. til about 6... and she had some stuff to do before meeting me. Still, it was a nice hour and a half.. and I like her more and more with each time we meet :)
When I had sent her to the bus, I called another friend of mine from Taiji class. We practiced a bit and then had a long conversation about priorities and philosophy... that lasted til about 9 a clock.
Walking home, I realized I still had too much of the hot chili left over from the day before.. so I called T. and asked if she wanted to come and help me with it. She was a bit ill and had just started preparing dinner herself, so was not to keen on joining me. So I called another friend - R. - who, as it turned out, was just about to start his birthday celebrations.
Needless to say, I volounteered to bring the food:P
So I went home, packed up my board games, grabbed a pack of rice and some cumin seeds as well as the chili and then was ready to go..
Before I got out of the room, however, my phone rang again and R. called to say there was a change of venue because he had misplaced his keys and could not get into his apartment... happens, I suppose.
The party itelf was pretty small - just a gathering of a few people. I cooked the rice and heated up the chili, then we ate and played a round of Risk.. and then two rounds of Fluxx. The second round just kept on going though, so we just had to cut it short after having cycled the pack twice.
We got to cycle back through pouring rain. Thankfully, the place was pretty close. I got home a bit after 3 and went straight to sleep.
Today - well I spent 2 hours at a doctors waiting room (I did not have a formal appointment, he just said over the phone he would try to squeeze me in somewhere). Mostly spent reading. Got back to the office, called my supervisor - who confirmed that the strange proof seems ok, although some things need to be clarified...
And now I am off again to my other office to see if I have left one very important book there, since my supervisor does not seem to have it.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Just another day
National holiday here in Estonia today. Despite that, I went to work in the morning.. only to realize that besides clarifying the proof I had come up with yesterday, there was really nothing to do for me.
The proof, by the way, is for a VERY improbable result - so it is probably wrong. It is short, elegant and I cannot find the mistake, but it is probably there somewhere.
If it is not, I have a pretty good paper, though :) Anyways, Im hoping that either Swen or my supervisor Ahto is willing to check it and either help me find the flaw, or confirm that it seems sound. However, everything else I write into the article kind of depends on which one happens, so I really didn't have anything else to do at work today.
So I went home, went to the store, hung the clothes out to dry.. and then lay on the back porch and read a book for 2 hours.
In the evening, we had a meeting with our Taiji group. Lasted for 3 hours.. and involved a lecture on esoteric stuff like chi circulation. I am somewhat sceptical about that stuff. Not completely though - there is definitely something to meditation, in terms of both immediate and long term health benefits. How much of it can be explained by just paying more attention to what goes on inside the body, however, I do not know. Some stuff seems pretty far fetched.. not all of it though..
I got back at around 9.30.. and then spent 2.5 h preparing dinner. Another indian dish. Pretty good. One word of advice to everyone though - when the recipe sais "2 tablespoons of chili powder" do yourself a favor and put just one. I checked two recipes, both claiming 2 was the right number.. so I went for it. And - god damn. Otherwise, the thing I made was pretty good, though. Just has this very sharp aftertaste. Seriously - god damn.
L. has been out of town for a week. She told me to work while I was away.. and I have. Most of the things that needed doing have been finished. Miss her. She'll be back on Sunday, though, which is quite soon, thankfully.
The proof, by the way, is for a VERY improbable result - so it is probably wrong. It is short, elegant and I cannot find the mistake, but it is probably there somewhere.
If it is not, I have a pretty good paper, though :) Anyways, Im hoping that either Swen or my supervisor Ahto is willing to check it and either help me find the flaw, or confirm that it seems sound. However, everything else I write into the article kind of depends on which one happens, so I really didn't have anything else to do at work today.
So I went home, went to the store, hung the clothes out to dry.. and then lay on the back porch and read a book for 2 hours.
In the evening, we had a meeting with our Taiji group. Lasted for 3 hours.. and involved a lecture on esoteric stuff like chi circulation. I am somewhat sceptical about that stuff. Not completely though - there is definitely something to meditation, in terms of both immediate and long term health benefits. How much of it can be explained by just paying more attention to what goes on inside the body, however, I do not know. Some stuff seems pretty far fetched.. not all of it though..
I got back at around 9.30.. and then spent 2.5 h preparing dinner. Another indian dish. Pretty good. One word of advice to everyone though - when the recipe sais "2 tablespoons of chili powder" do yourself a favor and put just one. I checked two recipes, both claiming 2 was the right number.. so I went for it. And - god damn. Otherwise, the thing I made was pretty good, though. Just has this very sharp aftertaste. Seriously - god damn.
L. has been out of town for a week. She told me to work while I was away.. and I have. Most of the things that needed doing have been finished. Miss her. She'll be back on Sunday, though, which is quite soon, thankfully.
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