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.


--