Bullet Points

My last few days have been quite hectic. Instead of writing one huge entry, I will bullet it.

-Friday night - Did math homework
-Saturday morning - Did math (practically finished)
-Saturday night - Poker (H.O.R.S.E) did decent
-Sunday morning - Wrecked car (glad I had math done) Not physically injured
-Sunday night - good food, good pool, good company
-Monday morning - did NOT want to drive.. took a half day
-Monday night - Math class (decided not to do physic labs, not thinking clearly)
-Tuesday morning - Could not multi-task at work
-Tuesday evening - Went to visit UMSL physics dept. Mom's (loaner) car died
Got a jump
-Tuesday later evening - physics class.. didn't want to go, but it turned out well
Got a Jump
-Wednesday morning - car wouldn't start called Bob
-Wednesday morning - Bob came to jump/take car, leave truck.. car started
-Wednesday day - didn't enjoy work, but later it got better
-Wednesday night is tonight.
Friday is Halloween!

One thing though. I have been going on more intuition lately (The last few months). I don't know why I did my math Friday night, usually I do my physics first. I didn't plan on Sunday being so eventful. I allowed myself to be comfortable with my friends later that day, even though I was kind of... well, a little off.
My phone was almost dead (battery) Tuesday. I turned it off just in case I needed it for an emergency. Mom's car died and I needed it.


Small decisions I have made have not turned out badly. Are my intuitions on? I hope so. (There is the exception of the mistake I made which caused me to turn my car around 180 and up 90 into a ditch). It was an accident though. (I will presumably write more about that at a later time)

It is scary to make decisions on intuition rather than logic.

School Was Good This Week

So, I have been going through this agonizing decision again between math and physics. The only conclusion I can make is to do both. That may not be the correct conclusion, but if one falls out. I have the other.

I had a great week in school (Even though I had to miss physics Tuesday). Math got cool. We looked again at the Taylor series and complex numbers a little. I get very excited when I get to learn about complex numbers because I am so curious and can't let myself go learn that while in the middle of a semester.

Physics was equally cool. One question I did ask in class was, "When do we get to learn that?" The answer was, if you are a physics major either mechanics or relativity (there were two subjects) and if you are not a physics major, you probably wont. It was about how F=ma breaks down at different velocities, and relative velocity when the inertial frame of reference is in the same frame as the observation. (Something like that)

I wrote on my pad of paper I carry around to not forget ideas.. while in class. I ended up asking Bob anyway rather than looking it up. "How can we observe the acceleration of the universe if we are IN the universe?" The answer was, we measure the velocities of other objects and we are the inertial frame of reference, but we cannot measure the acceleration of the universe.

I had a great lunch today with a math guy from work and his OA. Raj... He got his Ph D from Princeton in Math. He used to teach at WU and Rolla... What did he teach you ask? Complex math... He told me about some ideas his 'adviser' (Genius btw who had his Ph D at 19) taught him. It was great. I had a great time. He told me about some proofs... One was something about a line stretching from negative infinity to positive infinity, and that line being a circle, we would see it as a line. A circle with a point missing is a line. A sphere with a point missing is a plane. If my memory is poor I may be mis-understanding, both what happened at lunch and what happened in class. Pat said she had no idea what we were talking about most of the time, except for my interest in fractals.

My mind gets opened up to physics, and math just keeps getting more interesting. Fortunately for a physics degree there are still some math classes left.

When I finally get around to learning the stuff I am curious about, I wonder if I will come back and read this, only to find out that what I thought I remembered from class and lunch was just slightly skewed.

THANK YOU BOB COLLINS!

Well, I'm glad he got me thinking about it again. I woke up this morning, not wanting to go to this pesky job thing which I have to do in order to pay for life. I decided to take the physics classes for the minor first (when I start at UMSL). If I can't succeed at physics (or change my mind yet again), I can always switch back to math and minor in physics. I figure, why not do what has been keeping me tossing and turning for months? I love the math. I like physics so far, but am just scratching the surface. I think I should probably scratch a little deeper into the physics surface since it keeps me up nights. Maybe I would just do both if it weren't so time consuming. There is this thought in my head though... I don't see many people my age going back to school for these subjects, and very few people in general go for astronomy. The only way to guarantee that I will never be able to do this is to not even try. Physics is much scarier than math, but I don't want to guarantee failure by never trying.

October Weekend of FUN

Well, I spent basically all day Saturday on physics and all day Sunday on math. I thought I wasn't going to do my math, but it ate at me. How could I possibly have thought I wouldn't at least attempt my math? I should know myself better than that by now.. Anyway, I didn't finish my math, but I did finish the physics homework. I will have time Tuesday (physics test day) to study, but after about 6 hours of it my brain shuts down. I am afraid of over-studying, but I still don't have the time down to a reasonable time to finish a Bob test. I (amazingly enough) feel more ready for the physics than the math, but I need to put more energy into physics to improve my grade (and learn it). Again, for math I just have to hope that the work I have done is enough to get me through. Sure, I will do more work to get the first order methods down, but those population problems are a real bitch.

I tried to get a study group together Saturday, that didn't work. I did get a guy's number from class. We talked Sunday to compare answers and techniques. That was good, at least I found someone to work with. "Smart Girl" Molly had to go out of town this weekend.

Overall I had a good weekend, I was focused and got some things done.

The leaves are falling, I am not excited about cleaning up after those trees.