9.07.2011

Day 109

Today was pretty standard.  I woke up, had a bagel with peanut butter, then went off to go work.  I decided to start my office hours earlier on Wednesday so i have more time to get work to done.  Today work involved grading homework.  That took a long time.  I need to come up with a better system than grading each problem... that ended up taking way too long.  But I got it done and started planning for my lesson next week.  I think I'm just going to take the whole week and discuss "envy free division."  It's a sub-category of fair division, but not only does every person feel like (s)he has an equal share (fair division), but also each person feels that no other person has a more valuable share than him/her.  It's quite interesting.  But as a fellow GA named Harry mentioned to me, it's very difficult to test over these ideas because they involve such long and complicated procedures that neither of us felt these freshman should have to memorize.  So we'll see how this goes.


After work (and lunch) I went for a run.  Google maps said it was 2.5 miles, but it felt shorter than that.  I guess it always does feel like a shorter run when I do it outside.  To me, anyhow.  I really don't like running inside.  And I just verified the route I took.  Apparently it was only 1.8 miles, not 2.5.  Well, now I know for next time.


After my run I came home, showered, and started studying for my life contingencies quiz on Thursday.  I studied for probably an hour and a half, then went to statistics.  That was wonderful, as always.  I'm going to avoid having later afternoon classes if at all possible.  After class I took Kathryn and Dustin back to their apartments, since it's on my way home and they leave near each other.  They usually take the bus to class, but I don't mind giving them a ride back.  I like the company.


When I got back to my apartment I made dinner.  It's Wednesday so I had soup.  I had some clam chowder and I finished the rest of my crackers.  I need to get more.  But the clam chowder was really good.  A little after 7 Timbo came over to study for our quiz on Friday.  Eventually Tim and Kathryn also joined.  We did homework for a while and it was not fun at all.  Homework is dumb and I cordially invite it to die.  But we got a decent amount done, so that's good.  This weekend is going to be fun (because Kimmy is coming to visit) but also really boring (because we have a gargantuan assignment in statistics that's due on Wednesday).  So we'll see how that goes.


But for now: bed time.  Good night, all.

9.06.2011

Day 108

I always get excited when I see that new people read my blog, especially people that I would have never expected to do so.  I guess that is my introductory announcement: I like when people read this.


This morning started off well.  I got up early to study some more for my financial math quiz.  And make my lunch.  I had a lot of left over taco stuff from the party on Thursday, so I'm probably going to be having ground turkey on my salads for the next few days.  Or week.  Or until I run out of ground turkey. I guess that saves me from having to fry chicken for a while.


The math finance quiz went well.  It was significantly easier than I was imagining, so that was good.  But I'm glad that I studied as much as I did because I felt very comfortable with the material.  As it turns out, we got assigned a quiz in life contingencies today for Friday.  So... yay.


My lesson was very interesting today.  I started the chapter on Fair Division.  Fair Division is an area of math that attempts to quantify how much people like things, how those quantities compare with the value every person puts on an object, and how those things can be split so that every person feels as though their share has the same value as everyone else.  It's a very important field because it addresses ties into very practical fields (like economics).  So today I tried to explain methods for quantifying each person's individual value.  And I have no idea whether anyone understood it.  I think that the first 45 minutes went fine.  But near the end I got into something new (over which I assigned no homework because I didn't quite finish it) so I will continue from there on Thursday.  I was getting into some problems involving how to split quantities between three people when each person had different values for those quantities.  I think I was starting to lose them...


After my class I had lunch.  Then I went to go work out.  I did some bicep and tricep workouts then I ran.  I did not feel like running today... so I didn't go very far.  But I really need to start going further to prepare for the race next month.  I haven't run 5 miles in a very long time.  Bleeehhh......


I came back to my apartment after I worked out and started studying for the quiz.   So that was fun.  I started making dinner around 4:30.  I decided to have spaghetti and meatballs... and I made the meatballs all by myself!  I was so excited.  They tasted pretty good.  But I messed the spaghetti up... I just reheated stuff I'd made the other day but I think I put it in the microwave too long so it started to cook again and it got all gross. Oh well.  The meatballs were yummy!


Um.  After dinner the ice cream truck came around my apartment.  But it wasn't in the normal ice cream truck.  It was in a cargo van.  And it kinda terrified me.


I went to small group tonight.  Since it was still one of the first nights we just played games.  Well, a game.  We played cranium.  My team won, of course.  But it was a lot of fun.  And we just sat around and talked and it was a good time.  We got out later than I had imagined... but that's ok.  It was good.


Then I came back, I had some cake and ice cream, and now I'm going to bed!  Good night, friends!

9.05.2011

Day 107

Today was Labor Day for those who were unaware.  I celebrated by now working out this morning and instead having a wonderful bagel with peanut butter.  Actually... it wasn't as good as I wanted it to be.  I think I'll be those from Meijer next time.  They're both kinda bland.  Speaking of Meijer, I realized yesterday when I went shopping how clueless I am when it comes to vegetables.  I spent about 10 minutes staring at a shelf about 40 feet wide full of lettuce.  I had no clue what I was doing.  So eventually I found something that looked kind of normal.


Anyhow, that was yesterday.  Today I started out by basically being a bum and not studying for a while.  It was wonderful.  I just decided that I could put work off for a bit on Labor Day.  So that was fun.  I talked with Amber and Jessie (at different times) for a bit.  They were just taking it easy today, as everyone should.


Eventually I did get around to studying.  And it wasn't fun.  I think I'm pretty well prepared for the quiz.  It's not really worth much of our grade, but I want to have all of this down.  I have a hard time getting as motivated to study really hard for something when I don't have any sort of assessment.  One of my classes is very "just read and do the problems on your own," and I have a difficult time with that.  I do the work, but not as much as when I have some sort of assessment.  But thankfully most of my classes have very thorough lectures and I get nearly all of the necessary information out of them.


So it's finally started to sink in that I'm not going to be done with my program in 1 year.  And I've started to be ok with that.  It will give me more time to study for my exams.  If everything goes how I hope it does (which doesn't seem to be the case here, but I can hope) if I take 9 credits in the spring I can take 6 hours in each semester the following spring.  Ideally I will be taking one of the exams this December.  The timing should work out pretty well because I can take it after the final for Financial Math, which is the material covered on the exam I plan on taking.  So between that and studying on my own I think I should be pretty well prepared.  So I have a little over 3 months.  The website suggests 300 hours of studying per test.  But since part of that process will involve me being in class I need to figure out a consistent schedule for studying.  I'm thinking that 30 minutes every day and an hour on Saturday and Sunday will give me around 5 hours of studying each week.  Since this will be supplementing what I learn in class (and I can study more as I get closer), I think this will work.


After dinner I went to the study session with my group of people.  That was fine.  Dustin and I discussed a lot of the problems and I felt a lot better about it.  Most of the time I just need to verbally say things to solidify them.  I've never liked that, but it helps me more than anything else... so I do it.


When I got back I played Team Fortress with James for a bit.  My brain just needed to relax for a little bit.  And now I'm going to go to bed so I can get up early, make my lunch, and look over my notes some more before my quiz.  Woo.  Night!

Day 106

Today was a pretty good day.  I woke up way before my alarm went off, so I had some breakfast and showered.  I was still kinda tired so I just laid down in bed for a little bit.  Jessie and Richard were coming around 10:10 to pick me up for church.  So I got up and wrote out the equations I'll need for my math finance quiz on Tuesday.  Then they should up and we went to church.  I really liked it.  The pastor reminded me of Pastor Troy from New Life in Mount Vernon.  The sermon was on following the commands that Jesus gave from the book of Luke and how they aren't suggestions to make our lives better, they are things that we must do.  He spent some time talking about not being judgmental.  He made it clear that sin is sin and we don't have to like what other people are doing, but we can't make our love for other people conditional.  If we are to truly follow Jesus' example, loving our enemies is the single most important aspect of the bible for us to follow.  If you think about it, by all technicalities we would all classify as God's enemies.  Suppose you had a list of things that people should never do to or around you because that list contained every thing you found hurtful and offensive.  Then imagine that someone does all those things.  He or she would not be your friend.  In fact, that person would be your enemy.  And that is exactly what we have done to God.  So by this we should be his enemies and thus do not deserve heaven.  But because of God's love for his enemies, we can experience eternal life.  Who are we to think that we should do any less than love our enemies?  If God can forgive those of us that hurt him the most, who are we to do any less?  Who are we to think that our problems, troubles, hurts, and grudges are more important and more difficult than anything Jesus handled?


After church Jessie and Richard took me out for lunch.  We went to some pizza place.  It was really good.  When I got back I did some bank reconciliation then went grocery shopping.  I didn't need that much food but some of the other things (paper towels, toilet paper, cleaning supplies) were more expensive.  I decided to go to Meijer to get my produce today.  That turned out to be a good choice.  It was a bit more expensive but it's far better quality.  They had an entire 30 foot display/bin dedicated to different kinds of lettuce.  I was so intimidated.


When I got back I put my groceries away and started working on my lesson for the week.  It took me a bit longer than usual because I worked out all the examples I'll be doing now instead of trying to do it on the fly.  I think this will work better.  I had leftover meatloaf and potatoes for dinner.  I played a little Team Fortress over dinner then went back to lesson planning.  Then I got tired of that so I watched a movie.  And now it's bed time.  Good night!

9.04.2011

Day 105

Bleh.  This was a long day.  And I'm super tired so this will be short.


I woke up around 8 because I couldn't sleep anymore.  Got some breakfast.  Went to go work out.  I did a short run.  I need to start running because I guess I'm in a race in October?  Woo.


When I got back I showered, had lunch, then started studying math finance.  For the rest of the afternoon.  I have a quiz on Tuesday so I'm really trying to make sure I know everything.  There are so many details and I get them all mixed up.


I tried to make some sort of pasta and chicken dish from my 30 minute cook book.  But I didn't have most of the ingredients, so I improvised and used salsa.  It has lots of vegetables in it...or something.  But it turned out really well.  I liked it.


After dinner I talked with mom and dad on the phone.  They're in New York because dad's on a business trip.  Then I did some more homework.  Dustin came over around 8 to watch the football game.  I did homework for a while but eventually he convinced me that I'd done enough studying for the day.  And I really had.  Football games are long...  It was over just before midnight.


And now I'm going to bed.  I'm so tired.  Night.

9.03.2011

Day 104

Hmm.  It appears that I didn't blog last night.


Yesterday morning started well.  I mean, I guess it started like every other morning. I went to math finance... found out that we have a quiz on Tuesday.  Eww....  After class I printed off my resume and so that I could take it to the career center after life contingencies.  Then I went to the Atrium and hung out with Dustin, Erica, Tim, and Jordan until class started.


I really like that we've been starting life contingencies with "Question and Answer time with Mr. Dean."  The professor for that class is the head of the actuarial department, worked as an actuary for 20 years, and is a fellow (meaning that has past all of the actuarial exams).  He's even helped write some of the exams.  So...he knows what's going on.  We've been starting most classes asking him various questions about being an actuary and it's been really helpful.


After life contingencies I went to the career center and had someone look over my resume with me.  They were very helpful.  They didn't make too many big suggestions, just fine tuning some things.  It was really helpful.  When I left I stopped by Wal-mart to get some yeast to make pizza for dinner.  Then I got home, ate some lunch, and worked on my resume some more.  I finished that around 2:30 and made the pizza dough.  I let it proof for about... an hour and a half or so.  I thought people were going to be coming around 5 or 5:30 so I put the dough in the oven around 4:45.  Timbo showed up around then so we just sat around and talked for a while.  No one else showed up until around 6.  So the pizza didn't turn out as well as I wanted it to because it sat out for so long.   I had it sitting on the stove but left the oven on, so I think it was slowly baking from the heat released via the oven.  Oh well.  It ended up tasting ok.  Everyone said that they really liked it, so I guess that's good.  For context, I had some of my math friends over (specifically Dustin, Erica, Kathryn, and Timbo) because there was a soccer game last night.  The USA men's team was playing Costa Rica.  However, Dustin got confused on the time and thought that 8 PM pacific meant 5 PM eastern.... but it really meant 11 PM.


So after dinner we just sat around, played cards, talked, played more cards, and talked some more.  We watched tennis for a while.  Timbo invited some people he met at the grad mixer because they live in Windermere.  They were nice and I remember exactly none of their names.


The game finally started, but by that time most of us were pretty tired.  I don't like feeling tired at 10:30!  So we didn't finish the game.  I think we decided to be done around with about 20 minutes left in the game.  Then we all went to bed.  It was a fun night over all.  The end!

9.01.2011

Day 103

I really liked today.  I had a lot of fun.


This morning I had math finance as usual.  I think that Mr. Frye is starting to warm up to us.  He is a very quiet and reserved individual, but we all really like him.  He seems very nice and I think it's safe to say that we've all learned a lot from his teaching.


Today's quote of the day comes from life contingencies with Mr. Dean.  We were discussing why there is a difference between the death rates of people with insurance policies and the general public.  It mainly comes down to the fact that people with life insurance polices are part of a different socio-economic demographic than those who do not have life insurance policies, the former group being the one that lives longer. So Mr. Dean says "you know they say that money can't buy you happiness.  But it can buy you longer life!"  He said it completely seriously, which made it even funnier.  It was way funnier at the time... and writing it out I feel silly and kind of like a bad person.  So I'm going to move along now.


After life contingencies I taught my class.  It went really well today.  After I passed homework back I explained how I had graded it and everyone seemed to think it was acceptable.  I heard no complaints (and they definitely would have let me know if they didn't like something...).  After I passed that back I read them the story of the Pied Piper.  I didn't get applause, but they liked it.  I think I may start asking them how the moral I choose applies to the story.  Yeah... I think that would be a good idea.  I also think that on the test I'm going to offer bonus points relating to the stories.  But we'll see.


I went to my office afterwards and had lunch.  Did some life contingencies.  Yup, it was fun stuff.  None of my students came.  Oh well!


After that... Erica and Katheryn and I went to Wal-mart to get stuff for Jordan's semi-surprise birthday part tonight!  It was only a partial surprise because Jordan knew I was making dinner... but she didn't know that we had invited all our math-y friends.  So we got stuff to make tacos and chip dip and cake.  When we got back I started baking the cake and browning the meat while Katheryn did homework and Erica went to go do stuff with a friend.  So I made the taco meat, I baked a cake, and I made some cheese and salsa dip for the chips.  I got it finished around the time that Timbo showed up.  He offered to help, but there really wasn't much left to do.  Jacob, Dustin and Jordan came soon after.  I made everyone wear party hats.  So we had dinner and it was tasty.  Everyone told me that it was really good.  I felt like such an expert chef!


A little before 6 we all went to campus for a seminar for actuarial students on making a resume.  I learned a little bit but knew most of it already.  Afterwards we all came back to my apartment for cake!  We also spent a considerable amount of time trying to plan for our soccer party tomorrow.  All my friends seemed really amazed when I said that I was going to make pizza.  I had to explain that I did, in fact, mean that I would be making dough from scratch.  They were astounded.  Silly them.


After they left I spent a while cleaning up.  In their defense they did offer to help, but I didn't think it was necessary.  It was mainly a one person job.  So i finished cleaning up, talked with Clifton for a while, then started typing up a resume!  I have to have it submitted to some website or whatever by the weekend.  So tomorrow after class Timbo is going to come over and look over it with me.  But in the mean time.... sleep!