I Am Me

Wednesday, September 22

It's really sad when the author of my math book felt he needed to include encouraging, motivational quotes before each chapter's homework problems:

Chapter 0: "Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes." - John Dewey

Chapter 1: "If you think you can or can't, you are right." - Henry Ford

Chapter 2: "The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics." - Paul Halmos

Chapter 3: "Being a mathematician is a bit like being a manic depressive: you spend your life alternating between giddy elation and black despair." - Steven Krantz

Chapter 4: "The helmsman is recognized in the tempest; the soldier is proven in warfare." - Saint Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage

Chapter 5:
"When you feel how depressingly
slowly you climb,
it's well to remember that
Things Take Time."
-Piet Hein, "T.T.T."

Chapter 6: "No pain, no gain." - Anonymous

Chapter 7: "If but the will be firmly bent, no stuff resists the mind's intent." - Oliver St. John Gogarty

Chapter 8: "Happy is the man who can understand why things happen." - Virgil

Chapter 9: "If there's no struggle, there's no progress." - Frederick Douglass

Chapter 10: "The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surrmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation and tempests." - Epicurus

Chapter 11: "Every prospector drills many a dry hole, pulls out his rig, and moves on." - John Hess

Chapter 12: "There is no substitute for hard work."

Chapter 13: "Data! Data! Data!" he cried impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." - Sherlock Holmes

Chapter 14:
"Problems worthy of attack
prove their worth by hitting back" - Piet Hein

Chapter 15: "We can work it out." - John Lennon & Paul McCartney

Chapter 16: "If I feel unhappy, I do mathematics to become happy. If I am happy, I do mathematics to keep happy." - Paul Turan

Chapter 17: "It is a great nuisance that knowledge can only be acquired by hard work." - W. Somerset Maugham

Chapter 18: "What you have obliged to discover by yourself leaves a path in your mind which you can use again when the need arises." - G. C. Lichtenberg

Chapter 19: "The good Lord made us with 2 ends - one to sit on and one to think with. How well you succeed in life depends on which one you use." - Isaac Dworetsky

Chapter 20: "I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated." - Paul Anderson

Chapter 21: "The more we do, the more we can do." - William Hazlitt

Chapter 22: " We are an intelligent species and the use of our intelligence quite properly gives us pleasure. In this respect, the brain is like a muscle. When it is used we feel very good. Understanding is joyous." - Carl Sagan

Chapter 23: "Only prove to me that it is impossible, and I will set about it it this very evening." - spoken by a member of the audience after De Morgan gave a lecture on the impossibility of squaring the circle.

Chapter 24: "If I rest, I rust." - Martin Luther

Chapter 25: "If you don't learn from your mistakes, there's no sense making them." - Herbert Prochnow

Chapter 26: "It don't come east" - Ringo Starr

Chapter 27: "Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not." - Thomas Henrey Huxley

Chapter 28: "You can see a lot just by looking." - Yogi Berra

Chapter 29:
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all up hill,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must - but don't you quit.
Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup.
- Anonymous

Chapter 30: " A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems."

Chapter 31: "The New Testament offers the basis for modern computer coding theory, in the form of an affirmation of the binary number system. 'But let your communication be yea, yea; nay, nay: for whatsoever more than these cometh of evil.' " - Anonymous

Chapter 32: "Seeing much, suffering much, and studying much are the three pillars of learning." - Benjamin Disraeli

Chapter 33: "For example is not proof." - Jewish Proverb

"To make headway, improve your head." - B.C. Forbes.

"Think of what you're saying, you can get it wwrong and still think that it's all right." - John Lennon & Paul McCartney, "We Can Work It Out" single

"It's easy!" - John Lennon & Paul McCartney, "All You Need Is Love" single

"The brain is as strong as its weakest think." - Eleanor Doan

"There will be an answer, let it be." - John Lennon & Paul McCartney, "Let It Be" single

"I have learned throughout my life as a composer cheifly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge." - Igor Stravinsky

"You cannot have the success without the failures." - H.G. Hasler

"Think and you won't sink." - B.C. Forbes

"Failure is the path of least persistence." - Author Unknown

Fuck this shit. I hate this math book.

Kim 11:07 AM |

Monday, September 13

What Type of Villain are You?
mutedfaith.com.

Kim 10:26 AM |

Friday, September 10

Ooh, so yeah it's been a week since my last post. Hey at least it wasn't 2-3 months like before. I have decided I need to SLOW DOWN. Seriously. It's Friday of week ONE and I'm already tearing my hair out. I need a night of hanging out (and maybe some drinking) with my closest friends. I need to relax.

The good news is - the weekend is almost here! I got one more class this afternoon, then I'm home free until Monday!

If you've got any suggestions about how I could relax more (hin, hint, hint) feel free to comment below.

Kim 11:00 AM |

Friday, September 3

So, it's back to school, back to the grindstone. Ooh, YAY. I'm feeling overwhelmed, and it sucks. A preview of life this school year ( before I made some cutbacks in my life):

Classes: Abstract Algebra, Intermediate Macroeconomics, Accounting Principles I & volleyball.
Extracurriculars: International Club, Secretary of College Democrats, Treasurer of Prism, & helping charter a women's rights group.
Outside Extras: Volunteering about 10 hours/month at a domestic violence shelter
Employment: Desk assistant at a residence hall (working under one of my best friends), cafeteria worker, and hoping to find something (anything) off-campus that pays more than minimum wage.

All this, besides doing things like dealing with life after graduation, like trying to line up a job next summer, or figuring out what career I can have with a bachelor's degree in math, and in general, having free time to meditate, day dream, and not lose my mind completely.

Now, some people reading this may say that I want to quit all this . . . to daydream? The answer is NO. I do realize though that having some free time in my life is essential to me remaining sane, which is really important to me, personally. Besides, I'm only quitting some of it, not all of it.

Life after my cutbacks:
Classes (remain the same - although I was contemplating dropping econ - but I decided I could still do it, and learn something useful along the way. And it doesn't hurt that I decided to take it pass/no credit)
Extracurriculars: treasurer of Prism, being a member of this women's group (once it gets started), & possibly going out with International Club (but not attending the weekly meetings).
Outside Extras: Still keeping the volunteer position (I didn't do 2 or 3 interviews & jump through hoops for the screening process, just to drop it. Besides, for personal reasons, this is important to me.)
Employment: Just finding an off-campus job that pays more than minimum wage.

I know some people may think that I just can't hack it as a multi-tasker. Well you know what, maybe you're right. But I need to spend my life at my own pace. I'm not gonna lose my mind, just to make your life easier. Sorry buddy.

On that note, it's 11:32pm, and I gotta get up a 5am for work at the cafeteria. (I'm working there, only until I can find a job off-campus, which is why I'm glad I'm spending Labor Day shopping for a job, as opposed to anything else before class starts)

Night y'all.

Kim 11:32 PM |