winter break (pt.1)

today was the official first day of no school;

technically, if started from about thursday afternoon for me.


much like the last couple of days,
today was another unproductively lazy day;


it's not that i have nothing better to do during this break.

on the contrary, there is a full list of things for me to study.


also, it's not that i enjoy being in denial of my responsibilities, since i'm riddled with a fair amount of guilt in acting like a teenager while grown ups in the real world are working hard earning their keep.


hence to fight/break this unproductivity streak, this blog entry;

honestly, the plan tomorrow is to start being productive,
which reminds me i have to do laundry...

(maybe i'll get some studying in as well, by God's grace...)


--

winter break (pt. 2) what do i have to show?

although i maybe above average in doing math,
the rubik's cube has always baffled me.


when i owned one back in grade school, i could "solve it" by dismantling the puzzle, and assembling the cube according to the color patterns.

the best i could do without cheating was get one side solved, which was next to nothing; i just didn't care for it.


so did i somehow become smarter all of a sudden?

the obvious answer is no.


this time, i cheated in a different way, via using the class notes of a professor that taught a course on the cube.


for those of you that are interested, the useful part of the link is the pdf file called "newcube", starting at chapter 4, page 19; it would be good to also read chapter 2.

enjoy.


--

some kinda crazy juice...

on fridays, the math department provides free refreshments; usually, they have guava juice and what not, but today, the pictured item caught my fancy.

"my juice" with the tag line, "living healthy"

apple orange juice with tomato.


the apple and the orange sounds normal, but adding the tomato ingredient completely changes its normalcy. (although it's totally blurred) at the top of the can, it boasts, made in hawaii; the company is itoen, which is well known in japan for making green tea.


so how is it, you might ask?

i would say you're not missing out on much. i'm glad i'm living healthy, but at the price of drinking apple orange juice with tomato, i'm feeling there's a better alternative at doing such.


--

yay, i passed the exam

(to my surprise)
the professor told me that i did better in the second exam than i did on the first:

(for those of you interested in details...)
they wrote up the comments on my first exam:

the required number of problems were 4 problems, and i attempted 5; the scores they gave me on the problems were 8/10, 9/10, 8/10, 3/10, and 3/10.

all in all, my performance was beyond borderline, and i don't have to do any re-writing of the problems; yay.


for all of you who threw up prayers on my behalf, thanks so much.
yay God.


--

the big exam was the 21st...

i totally forgot to say anything here on the blog,
but the exam happened about 10 days ago.


i still don't know the results, but for those of you
that might not know how (i feel) i did:

the first part of the exam went ok;
the second part of the exam was more difficult.


the other students mentioned that the borderline cases of pass/fail gets to re-write the entire exam, and they are given several days to do it to obtain passing status.

from how i feel i did on the exam, i imagine i should be at least in the borderline case, and thus everything should be fine.


when i find out more, i will make sure to post.


--

wearing jeans...

yesterday was the first time i put on a pair of pants in hawaii; it wasn't even that cold, except that it does get quite cold on the bus.


the reason i haven't worn pants all this time in the bus is that i didn't bring any from california. however, my friends in california recently sent me a care package that included among other things, pants.


from my observations, many natives (or using the colloquial language, locals) wear pants, even during the middle of summer; this, i don't quite understand, except if they don't want to show their legs out in the public.

a very similar phenomenon occurs also in japan, especially in the main island, where the humidity level is a factor or two higher than hawaii. the reasoning for wearing pants in the sweltering heat is that it is quite unacceptable for old adults (whatever that means) to wear shorts out in public; it is just shameful!

anyways, as you could tell from what i've been saying, i have no shame wearing shorts in hawaii, especially if the weather is saying,
"hey! it's hot enough for shorts!"


--

feeling better...

from early this morning... yay.

it's veterans day, which is a holiday for the university.

there's 10 days left until the exam, and i'm trying to get all my ducks lined up in a row... there's a lot of information to sort through, as well as learning new tricks, even at this late in the stage.

again, if you're so inclined, throw up a prayer or two for me to focus on studing.
thanks.


--

and the only cure is...

...no, not really more cowbells...

so this past friday, i was feeling a bit under the weather, and so i grab something nutritious on the way home from school. that was good.

as soon as i finished eating, i broke out into this massive fever.
that was not good.

the battle with the fever went all through the night, which was not fun.

the fever broke towards the morning, and the massive headaches began. that was all of saturday.

with the help of medication, the headaches were down to a minimum, except the side effect of the medication is sweating profusely.
this was sunday.

late in the evening sunday, the nasal congestion began.

so today, i'm at school trying to get by with the minimal amount of damage.


pray for me, if you're so inclined.
thanks.


--

buses in hawaii...

as i imagine like the other cities, they are numbered. (see top right)

as i imagine unlike the other cities, their license plates say exactly what they are (see lower left)











a close up of the plate:




i thought that was amusing...


--

wanna be startin' somethin'

for those of you that are biblically oriented,
i'm looking to start another blog on the first five books.


http://torahmeditations.blogspot.com/


--

columbus day...(got your violins out?)

just a tidbit on this "holiday" i heard from a local...

a couple of years ago, hawaii was choosing between columbus day vs. martin luther king day to make a state holiday. as it turns out, they went with mlk day; as a result, today was just another regular school day for everyone here at the university.

the gripe about today not being an official holiday is that october is the only month out of the entire hawaiian year to have absolutely no holidays. the students have to work without any extended weekends throughout the entire month...

alright, you can put your violins away now...


--

just took a midterm...

this was for the course with the undergrad students taught by the prof with the french accent.

it's one of those classes that i really don't need to do well, and there really is no pressure in performing well in the class.

anyways, the midterm wasn't that bad... the reason i'm prompted to write immediately afterwards is that there was this one problem that i was not able to do, which is giving a relatively easy counter-example; it was in the book, and it was my lack of curiosity in knowing the subject well;

it's not easy to describe my current feeling,
except in japanese, we have this word:
くやしい (ku ya shi i)
it's a mix of regret and defeat

it's not an overwhelming amount of it, it's just a little bit, that is,
ちょっと くやしい (chotto kuyashii)

because there is no need to do well, it would be
どうでもいいけど、ちょっと くやしい (dohdemoiikedo, chotto kuyashii)
meaning, it doesn't matter, but chotto kuyashii.

a small defeat that i'll dust off from my feet and move on to better things like lunch.


--

oh snap! the last 10 days went quick...

the neighbor that needs help with math swung over by our place once in the last 10 days; she is making a little bit more of an effort; i believe she may pass with a "d," which is being optimistic.
she made some hippie style cup cake that had dried cranberries as a token of gratitude; they were tasty.


my friends from irvine are very active in using facebook (for those of you that don't know about facebook it is an online community with your profile and whatnot), i decided to sign up so that i could keep in touch which is good; i tend to spend more time on it than i intend each time, which is not so good...


the date for the math exam i've mentioned has been narrowed down to either november 20th or 21st; i would appreciate your prayers for the preparation if you're so inclined...-thanks.


--

these days...

nothing new or different is going on;

school days seem to pass by really quickly,
and i really need to redeem the time.

the important exam is in november,
and now that september is up and swinging,
i can sense the pressure slowly but surely building up each day...

i'm even crossing off each of the days in my calendar which gives me an added sense of urgency, and physically feeling in my hand the day that can never be gained back...

ok, ok, perhaps i'm being overly dramatic;
i should talk about fluffy rabbits and rainbows...


oh!
there is this neighbor that has a rabbit;
she's taking the second course in calculus, and she needs help badly;

now, i'm all about helping people in need, so in trying to be a good neighbor, i offer my assistance in mathematics;


this is what i found out the first time i go and help:

she missed class for the first week and a half attending this event called "burning man."

for those of you guys that are neither a hippie nor a computer nerd, this is an event where a bunch of the described types go to a desert (somewhere in the sierra nevada region) and they run around in the sun while being intoxicated in various forms of debauchery; the culmination of the event "climaxes" in burning a doll; many of them find the experience "awesome."

now don't get me wrong, some of my best friends are hippies and computer nerds, however, none of them (from which i know) has ever attended 'burning man' and if i were to find out they have... i'm digressing.

as you might have sensed, i feel no inspiration from such an event, nor from the people that attend such an event.

anyways, she's behind about 3 sections, but since she knows she needs to make up some lost ground, i figured i have a motivated student, which is always a great type of student to tutor. (honestly, me and my optimism...)

that was the first session.


so i go over a couple of days later, and she has done nothing; she's basically waiting to be spoon fed the information; in fact, when i tried to guide her in solving the problems, she wasn't even feigning effort; it was like pulling teeth.

(completely flabbergasted about the lack of motivation on her part)

i basically gave her the same speech i gave to the junior high kids that were like 13 years old; i told her she should probably drop the class, because i've seen people that know more fail calculus courses; she says she can't drop the course because she is on some kind of loan that hinges on her taking a certain number of courses;

i didn't know what to say; i just told her the next possible time i could help, and left; that possible time frame i had free was yesterday; however, i needed more time away from dealing with that kind of irresponsible junior high mentality;

i figured if she needed help, she knows where i live...

what do you think?
am i heartless for not wanting to babysit a junior high student whose age can be rounded off to 30 years old?



-heartless in hawaii


--

now that i've been schooling for over a week...

i can tell you how things are going at school...
the two classes that i am enrolled in are:

1.partial differential equations (pde)
2.number theory reading course


pde is an area of mathematics i have never touched, even as an undergraduate; the reason i've avoided it is that it's basically applied math...

i have nothing against applied math now, but put me back in the days when i was full of that youthful (immature, in my case) energy, i simply dismissed it as a bastardized version of mathematics; it was disgusting to my palate, even without tasting it...

not that i've grown all that much, but i believe it is important to broaden my horizons, even if it's within the area of mathematics;

the professor for the pde course is this tiny little lady that speaks english with the thickest french accent; the class is boring so far, but the accent helps me engage with the class, making me curious to see from the board what she is actually saying, like "derivatives."


the number theory class is reading a ton of research papers; this is probably the hardest part as a graduate student in math; the professor speaks english with the thickest russian accent; he's totally a nice guy; the topic is completely engaging, and 90% of the time, the material goes way over my head...


i am auditing a course in analytic function theory; the professor speaks english with a very mild german accent; compared to the others, he sounds like a native speaker; he is an older gent, but he is a total charmer (in a classy way); i would say when he was younger, he was probably beating back the ladies with a stick... play on, player.


--

brutal violence against Christians in india

details in one of my favorite blogs

pray for them if you're so inclined.


--

first day of instruction...

and so it starts...

university of hawaii, as well as other colleges on the semester system around the area started their first day of instruction.

all my classes are on tue, wed, and thu, so i didn't go to class;

however, i did attend the lecture of the pre-calculus class of the professor i will be assisting, and in addition, i conducted one of my two sections of the follow up lectures;

usually, there are about 20 students in a section, but
this class was oddly few in numbers, namely, 8 students.

the class was completely manageable, and i believe it went pretty well;
praise/thank God with me, if you're so inclined.



--

trip to north shore

this is another one of those series of pics that i have had lacking motivation to sort and post.

as the title indicates, this is the trip to north shore:

the first leg of the trip there was to the kualoa regional park:


the road on the way reminded me of the roads in hokkaido japan with the green mountains and hills...










the kualoa regional park has one feature, which is the mokolii island,
also known as the china man's hat:






the next leg of the trip is to the crouching lion inn:



there is a shape of a crouching lion in the rock formation;
can you see it?
if not, see the next picture for the answer...




answer:




note immaculate upkeep of the sign...




here is a different angle of the thing.






next destination was laie point,
mainly known for the small islet kukuihoolua:




below is a picture of the kukuihoolua islet:




a close up, at the sacrifice of resolution...




details, if you're interested...





here is a picture of the waimea bay, taken about here
the north shore surf contests are held in the winter when the waves get huge





we had burgers at kua aina




the fame of its location was apparent
by the number of tourists taking photos of the place (including myself)





we had dessert at matsumoto shaved ice,
another tourist attraction:




i ordered the flavor called "matsumoto's" (with ice cream on bottom)
featured on the lower left on the menu
(lemon, pineapple, coconut)




you wait here...




it looks like this:




the ice cream on the bottom is totally the way to go;
highly recommended, if you ever get shaved ice.

however, according to my tour guide,
there are better shaved ice in the honolulu area with softer ice.
if/when i go, i'll try to post about it.




--

snorkling...

we went in the water around here

this happened a couple of weeks ago,
but my motivation was lacking...

the pictures were taken by travis
(roommate keanu's best friend from the md)


the quality is not so good, but you can get an idea of what's going on

here we go:


tropical yellow and black fish




fish that's camouflaged...




patterned fish




big coral with sunlight




grey fish with florescent orange tail




grey fish with blue and purple trimmings




black fish with orange and white




me with snorkle on
(the color is off because it's in "water mode" whatever that is...)




spikey sea creatures and tiny little striped fish





it was good times.
--

my office at the university

after getting my tb clearance, i got my office keys at the department.

let me give you a tour...


this is the entrance.


you can see the computer and the phone that comes standard with every room. (they use linux in their computers- for those of you that are computer challenged, it's neither a pc, nor a mac)

the painted solid brick wall and the high windows really gives it that county facilities feel that makes you long for home...the chalk board adds that extra touch of torture, if you hated being a student.

you can see my little high-powered fan on the floor,
which is always turned on.




turning to the right from the entrance:



the mini-fridge belonged to peter (cf.prev. entry),
who moved back to illinois.

the buzz lightyear figure on the bookshelf is supposedly an article of legacy that's been passed down, so it's just chilling there...



for the sake of completion, if you were to further turn right twice,
you would see something like the following:








it's pretty plain now, but with all my books,
it's sure to have that reeeeally, really, super-duper ultra smart guy feel
that'll have all the party girls doing a double take, rushing up in this place to chillax... that will be sahweeeeet!


--

pictures of the beeea(*)ch!

a couple of people wanted to see the beach...

ask an ye shall receive...







these were taken at the ala moana beach.



next to it is ala wai boat harbor, where you can park your boat, if you're into that sort of thing...



the thing i found interesting is that there isn't any salty sea water smell around the beach and around the harbor... i guess it's a good thing...


--

along beretania street...

in order to get all signed up at school, they required a tuberculosis testing. since i didn't have my records handy, the test required me to get an x-ray.

the x-ray facilities isn't located on campus, and it required me to take the bus there.

a couple of days later, i needed to go back to the facility to pick up the documents. since the bus ride took forever, i decided to ride my bike there.


it was my longest bike ride thus far in hawaii. (9+ miles round trip)

along the way was the state captital building
(yes, it could have been taken better...)




a close up of the entrance...




there's an eternal fire type of thing across the street from the building...



the inscription below:





there was a japanese bakery where i got breakfast:



i got a curry donut, corn and bacon roll, and melon pan:



it was ok, but not spectacular; i prolly won't make any effort in going back...


--

something hawaii-ish

just in case you might be thinking,
"is he really in hawaii?"

afterall, i could be making all this up, and i could be hiding out in
new jersey, or even a place like gehenna...
(two places i have no interest in going)

so this is a snapshot of the diamondhead place i see on the way to church.

(if you have not seen diamondhead, it's the thing that seems like a mountain range in the picture. it is actually more like a range of walls; and do you see the middle left side of the picture where it sticks out a little? the size of it is a lot more impressive in person...)

...i realize the above picture is not at all a proof that i'm in hawaii...
(i'll try to come up with something more convincing soon...)


--

it's a regular garage band up in this hizzaous!!!

keanu's little sister in maryland sent him
a care package in liu of the above posted picture.


the guy that's playing the drumset is travis (not real name); travis is keanu's best friend from the md since like junior high.

he doesn't like live at our place, but he's like a 4th room mate.
he's a good guy... when keanu was cleaning the apt, travis cleaned the bathroom. it's totally spic and span now.

...but he's episcopalian, so he's not that great... :)


--

ah, internet at home...

we had no internet at home for over a week,
due to some missed payments;

it was not the fault of max nor zeke;
the name on the internet bill is/was
under the person before those two.

the slack has been taken away somewhat,
and we have internet, which is sahweeeeeeet!

--

baah-icycle, baah-icycle...

recommended by zeke,
i went to the nearest walmart to get a bike.

zeke tells me there's a significant chance of it getting stolen,
so i got the cheapest thing with gears on it.

also recommended by zeke:
i got a hefty cable and the kyrptonite u-lock,
so whoever that might steal it will have to work for it.


i'm been riding this bike for about a week,
and i can tell i'm getting in a better shape for it.

as i've mentioned before, i really wanted a moped;
but if i did get one,
i'm pretty sure i would have just gotten fat and out of shape.

attribute it to providence that i didn't get what i wanted;
praise God.


--

moving in

i checked out of the hotel on tuesday,
and moved into the new place.

the apartment is on the 3rd floor,
and it's not exactly anything to write or boast,
but i'm quite thankful to God for His provision.

i have two roommates, max and keanu (not their actual names).


max works; he's a pretty big guy with a blonde mullet.

he is totally into playing the old-school roll-the-dice role-playing games; he and his fiance met at the university role playing game club; his fiance is going to teach in asahikawa, which is in hokkaido, japan for the jet program starting in the fall.

he was totally psyched when he found out i was born in hokkaido, fairly close to the area where his fiance is going in a couple of months. he is planning to move to japan in about 8 months.


keanu is a student at uh, and his major is mechanical engineering.

keanu is currently visiting his parents in the east coast, so it's just max, and the guy from oregon, zeke (not real name), who is staying at the apt until he flies back to oregon in a couple of days.


(description of zeke)
zeke totally looks like a typical surfer dude with his scruffy blonde hair; he's been the most helpful in settling into the area; totally a cool guy.

it was pretty funny when he busted out his japanese, "abunai!," which means, "watch out," and "chotto matte," which means "wait a sec," which he uses commonly at his work, that rents out surf boards to japanese tourists.


--

first sunday: let's go thank God...

the place of worship i was recommended to attend was Kapahulu Bible Church, located here.

the senior pastor was on break for that day,
and the assistant pastor spoke on James.
he incorporated singing songs during his sermon;
his expression of worship in song was more animated than any i have seen in some time... i imagine king david worshipping with as much animation.


it turns out that around the corner from the church,
there is a jehovah's witness congregation.

i'm pretty positive the people i know from the jehovah's witness congregation in california are throwing up prayers for my well being; hence i took the opportunity to thank Jehovah God, and throw up prayers in their direction as well.

it's quite curious how Jehovah God (or Yahweh) works amongst our midst.

as the old hymnal goes,
"stayed up on Jehovah, hearts are fully blest,
finding as He promised, perfect peace and rest."


--

saturday: finding a place...

since i was turned down by peter's place,
i needed to act further in finding a place to live.

i sent an email friday night for a place that's kind of far from campus,
and stands above some steep hills.

(what i was thinking...)
walking around and taking a bus in hawaii is completely inefficient.
if i could get a moped for about $500, that would solve all my problems.

the guy called me saturday morning about the place.
i told him i was looking to get a moped,
and that i will go see the place sometime in the afternoon.

the search in buying a moped goes completely awry; the day was hot and humid,
and nothing was going as it should, kind of like jonah, on his way to tarshish...
by then, i was pretty sure the place on the hill was not where i was to live.



i had a phone number for another listing that was located a lot closer to school;
if i were to live at that location, i would only need a bike.

the only hang up that i had about this particular listing was that the listed phone number had the area code of "541." i had no idea nor any interest at the time where "541" was.

throwing up a prayer, i called the number.
long story short, i end up at that location; praise God.
(it turns out, "541" is in the portland area)


--

the last part of friday (3 of 3)

peter likes to talk math, i also enjoy talking math,
so talking math we did.

we got in the coffee shop about 6-ish,
and we settled on finishing for the day past 9pm.

our conversation hubbed out from math
to topics in philosophy and spirituality,
as well as to art, dealing with patterns,
and what not.

it was a pretty interesting conversation;
peter seemed enthused about the civil conversation considering the spectrum of ideas that were discussed.

i was thankful for the opportunity God granted me in being able to share what i can.
(if you feel so inclined, please throw up a prayer for peter along with me, thanks.)

btw, veronica decided to have the guy that arrived after me to be the occupant of the room. (i'm sure it's for the best... Rom.8:28)


--

the second part (of 3) of friday

after seeing the campus and meeting some people from the department,
i was supposed to meet up with this vanessa person about renting a room.

she tells me to call her from the burger king by beretania and king street.


i was hungry, so i decided to go there early and eat dinner there.

while eating and working on a math problem,
peter from the math department shows up with his roommate matt.
(a coincidence like this is very rare from my experience)

while having a nice conversation,
matt asks why i was at the burger king.

i told him i was looking to rent a room,
and this was the place where i was to meet up the person to see the place.
(specifically, i left out gender references)

then matt asks, if the person's name was vanessa;
(i couldn't understand how he would guess the person was female,
even more, the same name of the person i was to see.
if you could see me, you might have been able to see the question marks floating around my head...)

i say yes, and ask how he would know.

peter tells me the place i was to see was their old apartment.
(i would say this was a coincidence on top of coincidence)

so the 3 of us go to the apartment to meet up with vanessa.
while we were talking, brian, peter and matt's other roommate shows up.

brian is a rocker type with all kinds of piercings;
he notices my squaresoft messenger bag, and asks where i got it.
i told him i used to work for them before they became square-enix;
i tell him my name is on the credits on the games like final fantasy 8 and 9;
he asks about vagrant story; i say yes.

brian reaches for the top of the tv to grab final fantasy 8 and vagrant story;
i flip through the manuals to show them my name in print on both of the games.
he was impressed; as a default, he wanted me as the roommate;
however, brian lived in another place with no need for another roommate.

the roommate interview with vanessa went ok;
she was to see another candidate, and she would decide after that.


peter wanted to talk some math over some coffee,
so we headed over to the coffee shop nearby.

some people from the math department

the next day, i went to the UH campus.
i met some grad students:
john, james, and peter (the names have been changed)


john is working with the same professor with whom i plan to study.
my impression of john:
pretty quiet, above average smarts, and (probably) diligent



james is planning to take the same qualifier exam i plan to take this november.
my impression of james:
relatively well adjusted and (good) normal for a math guy;
i'm glad to connect with someone that's studying for the analysis qualifier
(praise God)



peter has passed his exams, he's technically ready to start his thesis.
however, similar to my situation a few years back in ucla,
he's taking some time off, and planning to finish his doctorate in the midwest,
where he is from originally.

my impression of peter:
he was ranting something about the qualifier exam, and for the fact that i was planning to rock the exam in november, he was saying that i was his hero for such a mind frame; i'm alright with that...

there's more to this day,
but that would be a lot more writing than i intend for the time being...


--

the trip

due to some mechanical problems with the plane,
the flight from lax was delayed in a big way;

it was supposed to depart at 10:30am,
instead we took off at 6:15pm.


during the hours of waiting,
the airline gave food vouchers;
i got some nachos at the cantina, along with some beer.

the arrival time was about 9pm local time;
from there, "the bus" line #19 took me from the airport to the hotel

i was tired, so i went to sleep immediately...