here in Hawaii has been a lot cooler, and for the last couple of days, there has been a lot of trade winds coming through the area, which has been nice.
On Thursday, I actually wore my hooded sweatshirt to school, although by the time I arrived on campus it was warm enough for me to not wear it.
--
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Sweet new toy...
My phone broke today, and I bought the iPhone as a replacement.
In fact, I'm writing this entry from my phone; hence the proper capitalization of the sentences, and the short entry.
--
In fact, I'm writing this entry from my phone; hence the proper capitalization of the sentences, and the short entry.
--
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
the (slightly) changing weather...
while the rest of the country has entered well into autumn, honolulu had its first "cool" day of the season.
the temperature was in the high 70's (mid 20 degrees C), so it wasn't cold, but I can sense the chill in the air with the shirt I was wearing.
it's probably not completely inappropriate to break out the sweat shirt, but it's not at that point yet for most of the population...
--
the temperature was in the high 70's (mid 20 degrees C), so it wasn't cold, but I can sense the chill in the air with the shirt I was wearing.
it's probably not completely inappropriate to break out the sweat shirt, but it's not at that point yet for most of the population...
--
Monday, November 2, 2009
throwing out the needle...
For the last 61 days, I have been completely addicted to this game called Mafia Wars on the Facebook.
If you are among the millions of people on the face of the English speaking part of the earth, you already have a mild idea of what I'm talking about (in fact, you don't even need to speak English, as Facebook is available in many languages including "pirate" English, -aye matey, arrr...)
But for some reason, if you have no idea what I'm talking about (like my dad in Japan that reads this blog who probably has no idea what I'm talking about), it is basically a game where you earn experience points, mildly similar to the RPG games like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.
What makes it slightly more interesting about the game compared to the RPG games is that you can interact with other players and play cooperatively.
You may be wondering, "why was I so consumed?"
Part of the reason is that I just don't like to lose; so when I started playing the game, the top 10 of the friends that have been playing for months were at levels over 100.
After about a week, my character was moving relatively quickly through the levels, and within three weeks, my character's level was at over 100, which was mildly satisfactory, but still short of making the top 10 list.
My aspiration was not being #1 on my own list, but to overtake the friend that introduced me to the game.
I made the top 10 list in my small group of friends in about a month, but I was at least 40 levels away from the friend that introduced me to the game.
As you may have guessed already, today was the day that I finally overtook my friend in the rankings, at level 239. Now, I can put the game to rest, and focus on important things, such as this blog (haha).
(...on a side note...)
Although my regular character had not achieved the number 1 spot on my list, I actually have another account that was geared to level up quickly, and that character took less than 30 days to get to level 560, which is sitting currently at the number 1 spot on my top 10 list.
Ok, enough recreation (including this blog),
I'm going to get back to serious business...
--
If you are among the millions of people on the face of the English speaking part of the earth, you already have a mild idea of what I'm talking about (in fact, you don't even need to speak English, as Facebook is available in many languages including "pirate" English, -aye matey, arrr...)
But for some reason, if you have no idea what I'm talking about (like my dad in Japan that reads this blog who probably has no idea what I'm talking about), it is basically a game where you earn experience points, mildly similar to the RPG games like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.
What makes it slightly more interesting about the game compared to the RPG games is that you can interact with other players and play cooperatively.
You may be wondering, "why was I so consumed?"
Part of the reason is that I just don't like to lose; so when I started playing the game, the top 10 of the friends that have been playing for months were at levels over 100.
After about a week, my character was moving relatively quickly through the levels, and within three weeks, my character's level was at over 100, which was mildly satisfactory, but still short of making the top 10 list.
My aspiration was not being #1 on my own list, but to overtake the friend that introduced me to the game.
I made the top 10 list in my small group of friends in about a month, but I was at least 40 levels away from the friend that introduced me to the game.
As you may have guessed already, today was the day that I finally overtook my friend in the rankings, at level 239. Now, I can put the game to rest, and focus on important things, such as this blog (haha).
(...on a side note...)
Although my regular character had not achieved the number 1 spot on my list, I actually have another account that was geared to level up quickly, and that character took less than 30 days to get to level 560, which is sitting currently at the number 1 spot on my top 10 list.
Ok, enough recreation (including this blog),
I'm going to get back to serious business...
--
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
first week of school...
-
so the first week of school has gone by, and now i have a better idea of how this semester may go.
i'm taking three classes:
one with the classy (hungarian) professor i mentioned last year, who will probably be my advisor for the phd thesis. the course is a seminar/reading course, which means we'll be reading a lot of research papers.
another is operator theory, and surprisingly enough, the professor is a white guy who teaches the course completely in american english, so it has been a "normal" class thus far.
the last of the three courses is the greek class i mentioned that i wanted to take last semester. the class is pretty easy, as the aim of the course is reading comprehension, but completely unconcerned about forming sentences of our own (which is what i want anyways).
the next entry will talk about what i teach this semester (God willing)...
--
so the first week of school has gone by, and now i have a better idea of how this semester may go.
i'm taking three classes:
one with the classy (hungarian) professor i mentioned last year, who will probably be my advisor for the phd thesis. the course is a seminar/reading course, which means we'll be reading a lot of research papers.
another is operator theory, and surprisingly enough, the professor is a white guy who teaches the course completely in american english, so it has been a "normal" class thus far.
the last of the three courses is the greek class i mentioned that i wanted to take last semester. the class is pretty easy, as the aim of the course is reading comprehension, but completely unconcerned about forming sentences of our own (which is what i want anyways).
the next entry will talk about what i teach this semester (God willing)...
--
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
the results of the course...
-
After all is said and done, here are the results of how the students did in the course:
6 students got A's.
5 students got B's.
4 students got C's.
5 students got D's.
4 students got F's.
A pretty evenly spread grade distribution.
The grading of the final exam was excruciating; the total possible points were 140, but the highest score was 126; as a result, I made the exam to be out of 120.
This enabled some of the border line students to attain a D, which yielded the above grade results.
All in all, it was a good experience, but I'm definitely not planning to teach again the next summer, as I covet my time more than the pay given.
--
After all is said and done, here are the results of how the students did in the course:
6 students got A's.
5 students got B's.
4 students got C's.
5 students got D's.
4 students got F's.
A pretty evenly spread grade distribution.
The grading of the final exam was excruciating; the total possible points were 140, but the highest score was 126; as a result, I made the exam to be out of 120.
This enabled some of the border line students to attain a D, which yielded the above grade results.
All in all, it was a good experience, but I'm definitely not planning to teach again the next summer, as I covet my time more than the pay given.
--
Thursday, August 13, 2009
exam 4 results...
-
so after the punches were pulled,
here are the results:
4 students got scores in the 90's.
4 students got scores in the 80's.
5 students got scores in the 70's.
6 students got scores in the 60's.
4 students got scores in the 50's.
Finally, a bell curve like result, although it is slightly shifted down.
Monday was the last day that covered new material, and the last two days as well as today has been review.
The final exam is tomorrow; hopefully, the process of grading and giving out grades will not be too painful.
We'll see how it goes...
--
so after the punches were pulled,
here are the results:
4 students got scores in the 90's.
4 students got scores in the 80's.
5 students got scores in the 70's.
6 students got scores in the 60's.
4 students got scores in the 50's.
Finally, a bell curve like result, although it is slightly shifted down.
Monday was the last day that covered new material, and the last two days as well as today has been review.
The final exam is tomorrow; hopefully, the process of grading and giving out grades will not be too painful.
We'll see how it goes...
--
Thursday, August 6, 2009
pulling the punches...
-
currently i'm grading exam4, and it's so bad that i'm retracting my draconian grading methodology of giving severely limited partial credit; now, i'm grading the exam like i'm santa claus...
...put a red fuzzy cap on me, and call me saint someone...
i'll post the stats later...
-
currently i'm grading exam4, and it's so bad that i'm retracting my draconian grading methodology of giving severely limited partial credit; now, i'm grading the exam like i'm santa claus...
...put a red fuzzy cap on me, and call me saint someone...
i'll post the stats later...
-
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
the result of exam 3...
-
in my excitement of internet at home, the results of exam 3 that everyone has been anticipating has been delayed...
so the stats:
4 students got scores in the 90's.
4 students got scores in the 80's.
3 students got scores in the 70's.
3 students got scores in the 60's.
2 students got scores in the 50's
8 students got scores lower than the 50's.
There is a mild tapering of the scores from top down, but as the reader can easily see, it is definitely bottom heavy, as 10 students failed the exam.
Since the drop date, one student dropped the class, and the others decided to stay; there seems to be a renewed diligence by the failing students, but I'm not sure how much influence this extra burst of effort will affect their outcome of their grades.
I'll be administering the 4th exam tomorrow; my hope and prayer is that everyone, including the failing students, will attain scores in the 60's and above. Perhaps I'm being too optimistic...
...we'll see how it goes...
-
in my excitement of internet at home, the results of exam 3 that everyone has been anticipating has been delayed...
so the stats:
4 students got scores in the 90's.
4 students got scores in the 80's.
3 students got scores in the 70's.
3 students got scores in the 60's.
2 students got scores in the 50's
8 students got scores lower than the 50's.
There is a mild tapering of the scores from top down, but as the reader can easily see, it is definitely bottom heavy, as 10 students failed the exam.
Since the drop date, one student dropped the class, and the others decided to stay; there seems to be a renewed diligence by the failing students, but I'm not sure how much influence this extra burst of effort will affect their outcome of their grades.
I'll be administering the 4th exam tomorrow; my hope and prayer is that everyone, including the failing students, will attain scores in the 60's and above. Perhaps I'm being too optimistic...
...we'll see how it goes...
-
Friday, July 31, 2009
yay, internet at home!!!
-
there was an unpublished entry sitting in among the other entries called
"still no internet at home"
which was started on 7/25/09.
it only had like two lines, and in it, i started talking about all the other the luxuries we have in addition to the convenience of having internet at home.
having internet at home is definitely a luxury, and yet it's so easy to feel entitled.
i'm definitely grateful for the ability to connect to the world from the comfort of my home and to reach out to others in turn.
i just wanted to crank out an entry so that the days don't pass me by.
-
there was an unpublished entry sitting in among the other entries called
"still no internet at home"
which was started on 7/25/09.
it only had like two lines, and in it, i started talking about all the other the luxuries we have in addition to the convenience of having internet at home.
having internet at home is definitely a luxury, and yet it's so easy to feel entitled.
i'm definitely grateful for the ability to connect to the world from the comfort of my home and to reach out to others in turn.
i just wanted to crank out an entry so that the days don't pass me by.
-
Thursday, July 23, 2009
the second exam...
-
so i administered the second exam to the students.
my intention was to make it a little more lengthy, and more challenging.
some students still managed to be done within 40 minutes; which is fine, i suppose...
at first, i graded the exam with absolutely no partial credit, that is, if any part of a solution is a little off, it was marked entirely wrong.
with this draconian methodology, the result of the exam was the following:
3 students got scores in the 100's.
6 students got scores in the 90's.
3 students got scores in the 80's.
3 students got scores in the 70's.
3 students got scores in the 60's.
6 students got scores in the 50's and less.
which to me, seemed not at all that bad.
...then, i felt a tinge of guilt, and since i've been granted mercy by God, i figured i should also grant these students mercy; so i gave +2 points for each problem that i gave no credit.
the results were the following:
5 students got scores in the 100's.
6 students got scores in the 90's.
4 students got scores in the 80's.
4 students got scores in the 70's.
0 students got scores in the 60's.
5 students got scores in the 50's and less.
the additional points definitely made the scores top heavy once again...
i reminded the students (mostly directed at the 5 students) the last day to drop the class without penalty with July 29th.
it would be ideal if 4 of the 5 students that are failing would drop, but i have a feeling the ego and the pride in some of these students will dictate that they would rather fail the class than taking no penalty... it's quite unfortunate, but i suppose if they must learn their lessons this way, so be it.
we'll see how it goes...
so i administered the second exam to the students.
my intention was to make it a little more lengthy, and more challenging.
some students still managed to be done within 40 minutes; which is fine, i suppose...
at first, i graded the exam with absolutely no partial credit, that is, if any part of a solution is a little off, it was marked entirely wrong.
with this draconian methodology, the result of the exam was the following:
3 students got scores in the 100's.
6 students got scores in the 90's.
3 students got scores in the 80's.
3 students got scores in the 70's.
3 students got scores in the 60's.
6 students got scores in the 50's and less.
which to me, seemed not at all that bad.
...then, i felt a tinge of guilt, and since i've been granted mercy by God, i figured i should also grant these students mercy; so i gave +2 points for each problem that i gave no credit.
the results were the following:
5 students got scores in the 100's.
6 students got scores in the 90's.
4 students got scores in the 80's.
4 students got scores in the 70's.
0 students got scores in the 60's.
5 students got scores in the 50's and less.
the additional points definitely made the scores top heavy once again...
i reminded the students (mostly directed at the 5 students) the last day to drop the class without penalty with July 29th.
it would be ideal if 4 of the 5 students that are failing would drop, but i have a feeling the ego and the pride in some of these students will dictate that they would rather fail the class than taking no penalty... it's quite unfortunate, but i suppose if they must learn their lessons this way, so be it.
we'll see how it goes...
Saturday, July 18, 2009
on a more personal note...
-
i recently moved from my old place that i mentioned last year to a new place without any roommates!!!
the place is not exactly spacious, but i have the place to myself without any distractions, which is great.
it's a lot closer to the beach, but definitely further away from school.
since there are no more exams hanging over my head, there isn't a great need for me to be so close to campus.
at the same time, i wanted to take advantage of the awesome hawaiian climate and its environment, and be walking distance to the beach.
there are many plans i have brewing in my head, all of which have absolutely nothing to do with mathematics...
at the same time, all of which are perfectly legal and relatively wholesome...
we'll see how it goes.
--
i recently moved from my old place that i mentioned last year to a new place without any roommates!!!
the place is not exactly spacious, but i have the place to myself without any distractions, which is great.
it's a lot closer to the beach, but definitely further away from school.
since there are no more exams hanging over my head, there isn't a great need for me to be so close to campus.
at the same time, i wanted to take advantage of the awesome hawaiian climate and its environment, and be walking distance to the beach.
there are many plans i have brewing in my head, all of which have absolutely nothing to do with mathematics...
at the same time, all of which are perfectly legal and relatively wholesome...
we'll see how it goes.
--
the result of the exam i gave...
-
i was extra nice about the exam, and i even gave them an easy bonus question worth 10 points...
so the result of the students were the following:
10 students got scores in the 100's.
6 students got scores in the 90's.
2 students got scores in the 80's.
1 student got a score in the 70's.
4 students got scores in the 60's.
3 students got scores in the 50's and less.
so most of the students get what's going on, and there's really only about 3 slackers that really don't care about what's going on in class; i'm praying they will drop the class by the drop date, which is July 29th; most likely, only 1 will drop, and the remaining 2 slackers will squeeze out a "D" in the class.
we'll see how it goes...
--
i was extra nice about the exam, and i even gave them an easy bonus question worth 10 points...
so the result of the students were the following:
10 students got scores in the 100's.
6 students got scores in the 90's.
2 students got scores in the 80's.
1 student got a score in the 70's.
4 students got scores in the 60's.
3 students got scores in the 50's and less.
so most of the students get what's going on, and there's really only about 3 slackers that really don't care about what's going on in class; i'm praying they will drop the class by the drop date, which is July 29th; most likely, only 1 will drop, and the remaining 2 slackers will squeeze out a "D" in the class.
we'll see how it goes...
--
Monday, July 13, 2009
see??? more frequent!
-
so it's been a week since my teaching began.
tomorrow, the students are scheduled to have an exam.
initially, i was planning on giving a short quiz, which would last about 25 minutes, then i would be able to present new material for the remaining time of the class (one entire class time is 75 min).
then i realized a short quiz in my mind may be a full length exam for the students...
i don't really enjoy the idea of losing an entire day for an exam, but this is probably best for the students.
...even tempering my ambitions further, today was devoted to reviewing all the material from last week; i keep telling myself... this is probably best for the students...
we'll see how it goes tomorrow...
--
so it's been a week since my teaching began.
tomorrow, the students are scheduled to have an exam.
initially, i was planning on giving a short quiz, which would last about 25 minutes, then i would be able to present new material for the remaining time of the class (one entire class time is 75 min).
then i realized a short quiz in my mind may be a full length exam for the students...
i don't really enjoy the idea of losing an entire day for an exam, but this is probably best for the students.
...even tempering my ambitions further, today was devoted to reviewing all the material from last week; i keep telling myself... this is probably best for the students...
we'll see how it goes tomorrow...
--
Monday, July 6, 2009
more frequent updates!!!
-
By now, I can't imagine the readership of this site is too great, but for those few and faithful, I have resolved to put life back into things around here...
...so what have I been doing???
since May, I have been on summer break...
I was in California visiting friends and family for about 3 weeks; while in Cali, I pretty much ate all the food that I missed in the last year that I was away in Hawaii; that was goooood...
In June, I attended this math conference where everything they talked about pretty much went right over my head... it further confirmed the area of focus that I would study for my research (definitely nothing related to the conference...)
Today was my first day of teaching summer school. This class is what they call a "terminal math course" which means we do nothing technical like calculus, but the content is still supposed to stimulate the non-science majors to think mathematically... We'll see how it goes...
--
By now, I can't imagine the readership of this site is too great, but for those few and faithful, I have resolved to put life back into things around here...
...so what have I been doing???
since May, I have been on summer break...
I was in California visiting friends and family for about 3 weeks; while in Cali, I pretty much ate all the food that I missed in the last year that I was away in Hawaii; that was goooood...
In June, I attended this math conference where everything they talked about pretty much went right over my head... it further confirmed the area of focus that I would study for my research (definitely nothing related to the conference...)
Today was my first day of teaching summer school. This class is what they call a "terminal math course" which means we do nothing technical like calculus, but the content is still supposed to stimulate the non-science majors to think mathematically... We'll see how it goes...
--
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
exam results...
--
i think it took another several days or so to get the "result" back;
i found out by a used manila envelope in my mail box that had a note
saying i have to rewrite 6 problems, due on april 27th.
i turned in the problems on the due date,
and got an "official" pass (verbally) a couple of days ago; yay!
thank/praise God with me,
as i take another step in this adventure we call life... yay!
--
i think it took another several days or so to get the "result" back;
i found out by a used manila envelope in my mail box that had a note
saying i have to rewrite 6 problems, due on april 27th.
i turned in the problems on the due date,
and got an "official" pass (verbally) a couple of days ago; yay!
thank/praise God with me,
as i take another step in this adventure we call life... yay!
--
the word of the day...
--
i get a daily word of the day each mailed to me each day,
and today's word was: quaff
i was thinking,
"it can't be st.patty's, because that was just a bit ago."
then it hit me
"...ah, cinco de mayo..."
since we don't have a vibrant mexican/hispanic culture here on
the island, the "holiday" completely snuck up on me...
not that i have any plans on quaffing today;
it's just a tidbit i found interesting about
the differences in culture between states, is all...
--
i get a daily word of the day each mailed to me each day,
and today's word was: quaff
i was thinking,
"it can't be st.patty's, because that was just a bit ago."
then it hit me
"...ah, cinco de mayo..."
since we don't have a vibrant mexican/hispanic culture here on
the island, the "holiday" completely snuck up on me...
not that i have any plans on quaffing today;
it's just a tidbit i found interesting about
the differences in culture between states, is all...
--
Friday, April 10, 2009
2 month of complete neglect...
-
what exactly have i been doing in the last 2 months???
i've been studying for another comprehensive exam that took place last friday.
not to give myself excuses, but i had 5 full months to prepare for the previous exam, but this time around, i had a little over 3.
although i am more comfortable with the subject matter for this recent exam, i did wish that i had another week to prepare for the exam.
you might ask,
how do i feel about my performance on the exam?
i feel that the morning portion of the exam went pretty well, but the afternoon portion was a little more difficult.
this is pretty much the same feeling i had back in november about my performance with the previous exam, and it turned out that i actually did better on the afternoon portion compared to the morning...
it took about 2 weeks for the results in november, so i'll put another post in the near future about the results probably in a couple of days...
what exactly have i been doing in the last 2 months???
i've been studying for another comprehensive exam that took place last friday.
not to give myself excuses, but i had 5 full months to prepare for the previous exam, but this time around, i had a little over 3.
although i am more comfortable with the subject matter for this recent exam, i did wish that i had another week to prepare for the exam.
you might ask,
how do i feel about my performance on the exam?
i feel that the morning portion of the exam went pretty well, but the afternoon portion was a little more difficult.
this is pretty much the same feeling i had back in november about my performance with the previous exam, and it turned out that i actually did better on the afternoon portion compared to the morning...
it took about 2 weeks for the results in november, so i'll put another post in the near future about the results probably in a couple of days...
Monday, February 16, 2009
GARrrrrrr??? what's that?
the status update on my friend's facebook said something like,
"...is still wondering why he agreed to be up this early for the GAR..."
at the beginning of the day, I simply did not care what GAR was.
Then i took a nice nap on this lazy President's Day holiday, and started thinking...
GAR... i bet it's got something to do with today's holiday...
...i'm sure it's an acronym.
i bet it's a hawaiian native thing...
...then bam!
i figured it out.
it's the "Great Aloha Run."
...i'm starting to feel hawaiian...
"...is still wondering why he agreed to be up this early for the GAR..."
at the beginning of the day, I simply did not care what GAR was.
Then i took a nice nap on this lazy President's Day holiday, and started thinking...
GAR... i bet it's got something to do with today's holiday...
...i'm sure it's an acronym.
i bet it's a hawaiian native thing...
...then bam!
i figured it out.
it's the "Great Aloha Run."
...i'm starting to feel hawaiian...
Monday, February 2, 2009
i guess it was a long time ago...
-
this morning, a fellow grad student was running off some copies at the mailroom.
he's a little older than the other young grads, so he gets a lot of the older references in american culture.
so, while walking by, i said, "makin' copies!" in reference to the SNL skit with Rob Schneider.
he didn't get it; so i explained the skit to him.
i googled about the skit; some guy/gal considers it as one of the "classic" SNL skits, along with 'buh-bye' done by David Spade; which was also funny...
--
this morning, a fellow grad student was running off some copies at the mailroom.
he's a little older than the other young grads, so he gets a lot of the older references in american culture.
so, while walking by, i said, "makin' copies!" in reference to the SNL skit with Rob Schneider.
he didn't get it; so i explained the skit to him.
i googled about the skit; some guy/gal considers it as one of the "classic" SNL skits, along with 'buh-bye' done by David Spade; which was also funny...
--
Friday, January 16, 2009
sweet, sweet, 4 day weekend.
i imagine a good majority of the american people have a 3 day weekend coming up...
here in hawaii, there was this crazy forecast that went out yesterday regarding today's weather of strong winds of upto 60mph (for those of you in metric system, about 100kmh).
as a result, all the schools here in hawaii was canceled for friday, yay.
as it turns out, the forecast was a bit off, i wake up this morning to a beautiful sunny day with a very gentle zephyr with a few clouds in the sky.
yay 4 day weekend.
here in hawaii, there was this crazy forecast that went out yesterday regarding today's weather of strong winds of upto 60mph (for those of you in metric system, about 100kmh).
as a result, all the schools here in hawaii was canceled for friday, yay.
as it turns out, the forecast was a bit off, i wake up this morning to a beautiful sunny day with a very gentle zephyr with a few clouds in the sky.
yay 4 day weekend.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
happy new year...
the new semester began this monday;
i'm taking the continuation of the classes, so things are pretty much the same as the last semester...
some differences:
the professor with the french accent (who turns out to be swiss) is on a sabbatical, and she was replaced by the analytic function theory professor with the mild german accent. (which turns out to be actually hungarian)
i'm not able to audit his analytic function theory class because i have teaching duties at that time.
i was planning to take a greek class, but it turns out that it is the second semester course, so i'll probably wait until the fall...
--
i'm taking the continuation of the classes, so things are pretty much the same as the last semester...
some differences:
the professor with the french accent (who turns out to be swiss) is on a sabbatical, and she was replaced by the analytic function theory professor with the mild german accent. (which turns out to be actually hungarian)
i'm not able to audit his analytic function theory class because i have teaching duties at that time.
i was planning to take a greek class, but it turns out that it is the second semester course, so i'll probably wait until the fall...
--
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