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My Day

Dear Diary! Like in the last few days, I went to bed too late, so I did not get up at my desired time. But today I had plans. Luckily for me, my plans were only for lunch. So I got up at like 10am. Maybe a little bit later, I’m not sure yet.

What were my plans? Good question! As we know, I was a TA at my university. In the group which I helped, was a post-doc who just now leaves the team. Because of that, the whole team (and the TA’s apparently) were invited to lunch from the university (or professor – am not entirely sure). So my plans were: go and eat lunch.

The restaurant where we ate, was called Galleria Luce. It is a quite fancy¹ Italian restaurant. As a starter, I had a green salad , and for the main course a pizza Ventricina (this is basically a pizza with spicy Salami).

Food

You might see the small logo of the restaurant on the pizza. Like a small trade mark. It’s also edible. This is quite cool.

Back Home

After lunch, we said goodbye and then I went home again. At home, I was not feeling like studying, so I watched some YouTube. Once I got over it, I was started creating some flashcards for the ODE exam. Basically all the “elementary solving methods”, which I believe, is the most important part of this exam.

This took me until dinner. I really started to get into it, but yeah – dinner is also important. After dinner, I packed my things, and went to volleyball practice. Today we had to use another gym, because:
An other team had a match -> players from a different club (hockey or sth.), could take our gym, because the match would take some part of their gym time -> no more place for us…
So we had an even worse gym today… But the training was good.

If you remember, last Wednesday, two members (A the one who’s pissed, B being the problem child) had a little fight and then a therapy session with me. Today on the other hand, A told me, that it was one of B’s best trainings this whole season. So I claim, it’s because of that therapy session. I rest my case.

Once I was finally back home, I watched a little bit of YouTube, and finished my flashcards.

Getting Sick(?)

Currently, my nose is plugged. I have the strong suspicion, that I’m about to become sick. Which could not be at a worse time… But on the other hand, it was also like this, last year. So…. not good.

At the time, a lot of people are sick – probably a flue going around. My father even had pneumonia. I hope, that I don’t get this either. Because of that, I took 2 pills of vitamin C before. So, my fingers are crossed. I’ll tell you soon.

Now, that’s all for today. I’ll see you tomorrow! Bye-Bye!

1. It may not look that fancy on my pictures, but there were even chandeliers! and that means something – mhm ↩︎

My Day

Dear Diary! As I told you yesterday, I had blocked YouTube for today. This means, after I got up (with a delay – not at 9am) I immediately (+-) started to study. And I have to say, I did that really good. I Studied until about half past four, with only a few breaks.

Break 1: Lunch – understandable
Break 2: I had to cut my brothers hair again, since yesterday I apparently did a poor job haha.
Break 3: Yesterday, I told you, that my Achilles tendon is acting up. Well; today it was even worse. That meant, I couldn’t really walk. More precisely: I cant stretch my tendon, so I can walk, but only with an extended leg…
But what has that to do with my break? I initially wanted to go to the gym, but since I couldn’t walk, I didn’t go. Instead I had a small home work-out.
My mother and I did a short (about 45 min) shoulder workout together with elastic bands. I had to convince her, to participate, but after we were done, she meant, that it does feel good, working out.
So break 3 was a short home work out.

I was basically done studying for today at about 5pm. I even went over all my Algebra exercises. This is more than I had planned initially. So then, I didn’t want to start with my ODE’s. Because of that, I thought, it’s aight, if I use YouTube again. So there you have it. I did use YouTube today, but only I had a great studying session.

New Years resolution failed already?!

As you might know, one of my new years resolution was, to go to the gym at least twice a week. But, I did not do that this week. I went once on Tuesday, and had my short-ish home workout. Does that mean, I already failed my resolutions? You decide. I think, kinda yes. But my counter argument would be:
If I were sick and I wouldn’t go to the gym, this wouldn’t really constitute a fail of my resolutions. And now, since I have my Achilles-tendon injured (or at least in pain) I believe this is a good enough reason, to not go to the gym.
Even if it only counts as half a reason: I did half a work-out at home, so that’s fine either way.

With that being said: No – I don’t believe, that I failed my new year’s resolution.

Social Status Theories

As I told you on January 23, I’ve been thinking a little bit about the modeling of a social status with respect to humans and to the model presented there. I played around with that for a little bit, and I have some short results to present, and then a few more theories which I have to test.

Test 1 – Helping Others

My tests resulted with: If you only help others, but they don’t change:

1. You get a lower ranking
2. The person you help, gets a higher ranking
3. other people’s ranking can get up, or down

You can interpret yourself what that means…

Test 2 – Best Friend / Partner

If you get a “best friend” or a “partner”, and nothing else changes. (So you “help” this person more, and this person “helps” you more)

1. Both of your rankings improve
2. All the other rankings decrease

This means, a best friend, or partner helps you improve both of your rankings.

Question 1 – How to maximize overall rankings?

Assume every person has a maximal amount, with which they can help. (You may think of it as “potential” or “everybody has to sleep for some time – which is time, they don’t spend helping others”.) Now the question emerges: how should these persons help each other, so that the growth of social-status grows the fastest?

Or in a more math way: Given some potentials \(p_i\), we then have the “transformation-matrix” \(A\) with all entries \((A)_{ij}\geq0\) and the sum of column \(i\) is equal to \(p_i\). $$p_i=\sum_{j=1}^n(A)_{ji}$$

Then the question is: how to “build”/ what is the \(A\) with the greatest spectral radius.

Question 2 – Only symmetrical relations \(\rightarrow\) What changes?

Assume, if A is a friend of B, then also is B a friend of A. Does this change anything? If so, what? probably, it will improve your own ranking then, if you help others. This was seen in Test 1. But the question still remains, if this holds, if all relations are symmetrical. (Since in my “tests” they weren’t.)

And if your helping improves your ranking. What is the best way, to improve your own ranking? How can you maximize your ranking (maybe given a potential as in question 1).

Conclusion

Take all these experiments/tests with a grain of salt – or better a full spoon of salt. This all hardly means anything.

I think, I’ll do some more tests, after my exams. Until then, keep in mind, helping others has never hurt anyone. So do that! (very mathematical conclusion – mhm)

Good Bye’s

That’s all for today. I’ll see you tomorrow! Bye-Bye!

My Day

Dear Diary! Today started out, as a super unproductive day, but then I got a sudden burst of energy, and turned it all around. Let me explain:

Because I went to bed too late yesterday, I didn’t get up at 9am. Strike 1! Then, when I finally got up, I studied some flashcards for a bit, but wasn’t really motivated, so I stopped shortly after, and booted up YouTube. Strike 2! After I did this, I was caught in the void – as you are, once you open YouTube, or any another social media platform. This means, I did nothing else (except lunch) until like 3pm. Strike 3, 4, …, 13!

Then, I realized, what I’m watching; it’s just not interesting to me – or anyone else, for that matter. I just did it to pass time. Which is quite stupid. Right now especially, since time is not what I have too much of. This thought then gave me a random burst of energy. It was really fascinating. Whenever this happens, I have to (ab)use it. I quickly added YouTube to one of my blocked sites, and started studying.

Then, my studying was quite good. I went over all the AM exercises, uploaded the Algebra-exercises from my iPad to my PC, and then went over those too. This kept me busy until like 9:30pm.

I only had two quick breaks.
1. I got a phone call from my friends, with whom I went to Greek this year (for vacation). Then, after all left, only Daniel and I were left in the call. And out of no where he sent me an invite to Blobby-Volley. (This is some browser game, which is quite funny. At least we think it’s funny…) We then played for two rounds. I even won one round, which usually does not happen.
2. Then my second break was for dinner, which was immediately after the Blobby game. So in reality, I only had one break. But a not-so-short one…

Cutting hair

My brother and I cut each others hair. Today was once again one of those days we did that. It’s always funny, since we both aren’t the best barbers. But that only makes it funnier.

Today we experimented with some new hair-styles for my brother. I think, he should go with a middle parting. He wasn’t that convinced. But trust me, I’m willing to die on that hill. So we’ll see who gets the final saying. After all, I am the one, who cuts his hair.

Today it took us about 2 hours for the cutting. Which is about right. Combined with all the fun we had, it’s always worth.

After the barber quest was over, I had a weird thing with my Achilles tendon (left). For some reason it hurts, if I use it. So just before, I went to the kitchen to make me a sandwich. I have to walk there (obviously), so in order, to not hurt myself, I had to tip-toe over there. I then even had to go to the basement since we were out of Mayonnaise. z z z, always at the worst times…

So just before, I ate my sandwich, and now I’m writing (to) you. Which is basically all that happened today.

Ah! I nearly forgot. I have decided, that I want to keep YouTube in my blocked-sites. So now, that I have told you, I hope, that it helps me, to keep it that way! I’ll tell you tomorrow how it went.

So now that’s all for today. See you tomorrow! Bye-Bye!

My Day

Dear diary! Today was (one of) the first day, when I got up at 9am. It was quite funny. I woke up from my alarm, but I was still tired; obviously. (Short backstory: I was listening to the music of Moana a lot…) But then, I had a song stuck in my head, which was from Moana, which I think was funny. And then, funnily enough, it motivated me, so I got up, after like 15 min of laying in my bed. (I sadly don’t remember, what song it was… haha)

Anyway, after getting up, I had a quick breakfast, and then started my mix of studying and watching YouTube. For Lunch, I first thought, I was alone. So I waited a bit later (since I wasn’t that hungry to begin with), and when I finally got down in the kitchen, my sister told me, that mom would be home shortly. So I waited some time longer. Once she was home, we (my mom and I) ate lunch. We had some rice (which was a left-over) and she made some Chinese(?)-noodles.

Then, in the afternoon, I finished my flashcards for the AM lecture. This took about 2-3 hours. After that, I had a quick cereal, and then to my volleyball game.

Volleyball Game

Today, we played against our arch-nemesis. We hate them! (At least some of us really do haha). But why the hate? This has a simple reason. After our first match against them, we shared the locker room with them. Now, as it always happens, people talk. And we obviously talked to them. Then, one of them, asked one of us, if we don’t want to play a division lower. This is point one.

For point two: There is an unwritten rule, that men don’t spike the ball (too hard) to women. Most teams play along this rule, but these “people” don’t. So that is extra enraging.

So now, to the game. Firstly, most of us came way to late. They then had like a 10 min warmup (including pepper), before hitting lines. Then the match started like any normal match. Sadly in the first set, we had a low, so we lost that quite hard.

We changed some players in our starting-6. Then we made it interesting. In both, set 2 & 3, they were ahead to about 22-24. (So they’d need one more point to win.) In the end we could always clutch up, so we won both of them.

The fourth set was easier. In the middle of the fourth, I got kinda dizzy, so I changed with a player from the bench. We still managed to win it. And this made us quite happy. Especially, since we are last (5th) and they were/are second. It’s not every day you win these matches.

After the game, we went to MacDonald and ate some burgers. Then Daniel and I went home with the train. Unexpectedly we met another player of the main team on the train, so we sat to him. We talked a bit, but then like 10-15 minutes later we had to get off the train, and drive home alone with our bicycles.

On the way home on the bicycle, I have to drive on a dirt-road (for a short time), where there obviously aren’t any street poles. And let me tell you. The sky was stunning. The stars were shining super bright. It was really beautiful. Sadly, I can’t take any pictures of the sky, since my phone’s too bad.

Once I got home, I wasted a little time on YouTube, and now I’m writing (to) you.

Thinking about you

trying to use more pictures in my diary, since text is kinda boring

I spent a little time, thinking about you – my dear Diary. Most, about the format which I should use. One thing, that I’m not pleased with, is, that I hardly use any photos. I think, this scares a lot of people away. Probably, because I wouldn’t read it either, if there aren’t any pictures. So I’ll try to add some more pictures to my diary. But ATM it’s kinda hard, since I basically spend every day at home, and not do much. But yeah – we’ll see what the future holds!

Am I ready to get hurt again?

There is this quite famous scene in “The Office” where Michael says to the camera: “I am ready to get hurt again.”

Lately, I’ve been asking me the same thing. Now, currently I don’t have a definite solution but I’m getting closer and closer to announcing, that I’m ready to get hurt again. I would say, right now my state is “passively looking”. Whatever this may mean. Once it changes, I’ll tell you!

That’s it for today. Take care, and I’ll see you tomorrow! Bye-Bye!

My Day

Dear Diary! Today was another day (whaaa? mind blown!). I woke up, when my alarm rang, but didn’t get up, because I was too tired, so I got up at about 10:30am. For the rest of the morning, I mostly studied some flashcards from my algebra & AM sets. Then for lunch, I just had some bread. As I do most lunches.

Human ranking

In the afternoon I got back to studying the applied math. I mostly looked through the old exercises, and (tried to) remember(ed) how to solve them. One exercise got kinda stuck in my head. The exercise was about modeling a group of elephants with respect to their social-status.

1. Of course, you should really really know it, but if you know it for analysis and linear algebra, this carries out for a lot more of math… (I believe) ↩︎

My Day

Dear Diary! As announced yesterday, this morning I did go to the gym with my mom. Initially we planned to go at about 9:15am, but then I was late, and we went half an hour too late. None the less, we went there. Today was the first time in a long time, I actually did a somewhat proper warm up. This means, I went on the treadmill for about 5 minutes. At first, I had a problem with getting it working, but then it worked just fine.

Otherwise, nothing that interesting happened at the gym. They bought new machines, one of which I already used. The old low-row machine was replaced, and with the new one, it was way easier. Probably, because it’s not as junky as the old one. So, today I pulled 60kg, which was easier, than the 50kg with the old machine.

After the gym, I went home and my day went on like a usual day does. Some studying, some watching YouTube and even a short call, about my corrections from last week. I also realized, that I completely stopped watching “The Mentalist” which I believe to be a good thing.

Volleyball – Therapy Session

In the evening, I had to coach my volleyball team. Today I also played with them. Basically all drills were game-like drills. Because of that, I jumped way too often. My right knee started to hurt a little (after the training), so I wonder how it’ll feel tomorrow.

There was also another problem with my volleyball team. Two players, who used to be quite close, had beef. Sadly this was not the first time it happened. Basically, it was a problem for about the last few months. Today it was extra bad. So after the training, both of them had to stay, and we had a small therapy session. This means: They both had to (some extend) lay out their feelings, and tell each other what the problems between them are.

I thought it went quite well. Of course, now, when we first ripped the band-aid off, it probably hurt a little, but I hope, that they both think about our conversation, and then learn something of it. Right now, they both play with open hands. I hope this helps at least to some extend. I’ll keep you posted!

After this quarter hour therapy session, we headed back home. Back at home, I watched some more YouTube, and now I’m going to take a shower, and then go to sleep.

Question about diaries

Yesterday, I was on Instagram for a (not so) short time. I even saw one meme¹ about diaries. In this meme were a few examples, of diary entries. BUT all of these entries were more like a bullet point list. Which is not how I write my diary… So I asked myself: Am I writing my diary wrong?

I don’t think, I have an answer to that already, but I believe, that I will keep my diary-format like that. Maybe, once I don’t have the energy to write a full on text, I do a shorter bullet-point list. But for now, it’s better(?) if I keep it like that. But who knows what the future might hold. [ironically pondering – mega deep mhm]

1. The meme was about, how important things are for teenagers. Mainly: The example was from 9/11, where someone wrote something like
   – wore x pants and y top
   – Talked to crush in school
   – Plan flew into buildings
   or at least similar to that style. Now this meme was not really funny, but I realized, that these people use write their diary in a list-like format.
   ↩︎

See Ya

That’s it for today. I’ll see you tomorrow! Bye-Bye!

My Day

Dear Diary! Today was the first day, that I woke up at the right time. This means, I woke up at like 8:30am (before 9). To my misfortune, our house cleaner was over. This meant, that I couldn’t get up, because: if I get up, I need to use the bathroom, where she might be, but I’m kinda scared of her (in a somewhat joking way, but still). Scary stuff – I know. So then I just went back to sleep.

This means, my real day started at about 10:30 when I woke up again, and then also got up. Then, for most of the day I watched some YouTube and studied (in that order…). Otherwise nothing really important happened.

Also, I secured a “date” with my mom for tomorrow morning, where we’ll go to the gym. Because of that, I didn’t work out today.

Learning Method

Today, I was studying in the not-most-efficient way. I then started to think about studying methods, and that I wished, that I knew one. Now, my goal/requirement for “the optimal” method would be some method, that works over long time, so I get the right amount of distraction and learning, so I don’t get too bored / annoyed of studying and just don’t want to anymore.

Example: Today I was only semi interested in studying. In the morning it was still okay, I just looked at some exercises which I previously solved, tried to remember how I did it and then checked, if my solution was correct.
In the afternoon I had another problem. Mainly, I wasn’t really motivated anymore. So I made a deal with myself. Every time I started a new video on YouTube, I had to do a quick session of flashcard review. (Like 10 cards, which takes about 5-7 minutes.)

With that I could stay focused / motivated for longer. Also I realized that, once I got to know the flashcards quite good, I started to ask myself, why the theorems were true, and then I took a look at my lecture notes, and actually read the proof. With that, I also learned some more proofs, even though, currently not all are in the flashcard set. (But I need to know them for the exam – obviously)

Then in the evening, I asked my sister (which is studying psychology) if there are any such studying methods. She replied with “no”, sadly. I then proposed my idea, to which she said something along the lines of: It’s not really a smart way of learning, since like that, you overload your brain, and over-write a lot of the information with useless stuff.

This means, now I have to find a new & better way of studying. I don’t know how yet, but maybe I’ll figure something out. I’ll keep you posted!

Sad Music

Today I was listening to some music. There is this one artist called “Bunt” which makes music in a similar style as Fred Again. His latest album’s first song is called “Clouds”, and one time the lyrics go as follows:

Hey, I never meant to hurt you
I never meant to fall out of love with you
Because I truly did love you
I still do, but not in the same way

And every time I hear this, I get really sad. This is basically how my last break up happened (well the reason of why it happened). It nearly brings tears to my eyes, all tough it’s already quite some time ago, when we broke up. But it still hurts. You know…

I just wanted to say that… It’s even worse, since the song has a nice beat, but I’ve listened to the lyrics once, and now, every time I hear this song, I have to skip it, because it just makes me too sad. I just can’t listen to it anymore without getting sad.

With that being said, today ends on a kinda sad note… But yeah, happens… I’ll see you tomorrow! Bye-Bye!

My Day

Dear Diary! This morning I had a physical therapist appointment. My knees are progressing really good. She told me, that now, I can participate in volleyball trainings for about 15 minutes this week, and every consecutive week 5 minutes more (if my knees don’t get worse). With that basically my whole morning was over.

For the rest of the day, I had planned to study. That is, to start with the applied math lectures. Sadly, it did not work out, as I wanted. Why? Or rather, what did I do instead? I made the big mistake, of opening YouTube. As we might know, I am kinda addicted to YouTube. So I watched a lot of YouTube. Did I at least watch anything interesting? Yes – I do think so.

Plan for future, concerning addiction

I also thought about, what to do in the (far) future, so I don’t get distracted as easily. My idea was:

2 separate PCs, and one of those does not have any audio. With that, if I use it, I can’t really watch any YouTube or TV-shows or anything else. Listening to music can still be done with the phone, so that won’t too big of an issue. One problem that might arise, is if you have any online meetings. It’s quite hard to attend a meeting without any sound. But I’ll figure this out as well!

Evening

Anyway. Later I had dinner. My mother cooked some potatoes and (since I don’t really like raw potatoes) I made myself a potato salad. One funny thing is: my sister does not really speak English that well, but she goes to the Fiji islands to teach kindergartners some English. Because of that, we spoke English at home during dinner. Which to me was kinda funny.

After dinner I headed to volleyball training. I didn’t really know, what to do today (or rather, what the focus of the training should be) so I just asked my players. Not really unexpectedly they wanted to play a lot. So play a lot we did. Mostly just some variations of volleyball, but nothing really special.

After the training I headed home, watched YouTube again (like an idiot) and now I’m writing (to) you and then go to sleep. Just before I was brushing my teeth, and then I saw in the mirror, that my eyes are super red. That’s not too good of a sign, I believe. So time to go to bed.

That’s it for today – and since I’m quite tired, I won’t proof read. Ergo, there are probably a few mistakes, but psst we ain’t gonna tell no one.

See you tomorrow! Bye-Bye!

My Day

As I told you yesterday, I set an alarm for 9 o’clock. Today, I didn’t wake up because of the alarm (at lest I believe so). I was awake at 9:30, and then I was too tired to get up, so I just opened a window to get some fresh air, waited for a few minutes, closed it and went back to sleep. This means, my idea with the alarm to get up did not work until now. Aamazing!

Anyway. I then got up at 11:30, watched some YouTube (I think) ate dinner and hurried out of there, since I had to go to my volleyball game. Yes – on a Sunday.

Volleyball

I arrived at the gym shortly after 1pm and met a few friends. We talked for some time. Then our sports-hall was freed because, just before our game, was another. We headed down on the floor, and played some warm up games. I mostly just stood on the side, since I was “only” the coach today. Once we were nearly complete, we did some serve-receive until our opponents arrived.

Now, to set the stage correctly: Our goal is to promote to a higher division. We are in a group of 8 teams and currently we are first. Sadly, our gap is not as big as I wished it was. We are 1 point ahead of 2nd, and 2 points ahead of 3rd. Today, we play against the 3rd team. So it’s one of the two important matches left of this season.

We (obviously) know our opponent, since we played against them once already. Their strengths are their attacks, and they hardly make stupid mistakes. So our game plan is simple. Just play as we usually do, and then we win – since we are better at volleyball than them. Also, we want to have a good atmosphere, since they (probably) will make a few good points, and we don’t want to get any low hanging heads (so to speak).

The match was more or less interesting. We won the first set, with a small gap. The second and third had a similar way. In the second we were up like 24-20 and then lost, but we made a similar comeback in the third set. For the fourth set, we knew, that they would feel pressure (since we were ahead 2-1). We started strong, and then they got mental problems and started to make stupid mistakes. We won the fourth set; and with that the whole game. 3-1. Puhh – 3 more important points on the leader board.

After our game, we took a shower. Daniel and I showered some time longer than the others and listened to music. But then, in the middle of our shower session, someone came, and “stole” our music box. (after like 30 min of showering.) So we left early and yeah. We watched another match and then went to our favorite döner-place, and had a döner. I had a cheese döner, which usually feeds a little bit more. After that we went home.

Evening

Once I got home, it was really weird. I felt as if I was drunk, even though, I did not drink. I have the suspicion, that my drunk-feeling is mostly just feeling tired. I don’t know how (yet), but I plan on testing if this is actually the case.

Anyway, I got home, felt weird and initially had planned to study. But, as it is almost every time the case when I’m tired, I did not study. I spent too much time on Instagram (on my PC)… It was really funny. Man – I gotta say, they do really have their algorithm figured out. I had a good laugh for about 1.5 hours.

Then once I got over Instagram, I started to watch some YouTube videos. Like an idiot. Moving from one platform straight to the next…

Eventually I overcame this, and now I’m writing (to) you. Now that I’m finished with that, I’m going to sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow! Bye-Bye!

My Day

Dear Diary! Today was a uneventful day. At first (yesterday night) I thought I was gonna go watch some ski races with some friends. But then when my alarm rang at like 6am, I had this beer-taste in my mouth, which erased my whole motivation to go out today. Because of that, I laid in my bed, and waited for time to pass, so I could write them, that I overslept. My goal was to show, that I at first wanted to go, but then failed. I think I achieved this. So all good. mhm.

Then I went back to sleep, and slept for about three more hours. I got up at half past ten, ate breakfast, and spent some time on my PC.

My brother enrolled into the military last week, (since you are obligated to do military service where I live) and today he returned for the first time. At Lunch we talked a lot about his military time. It was really fun, since usually he’s not talkative, but today he told us a lot of things. Mostly that they have to do a lot of push-ups. And some more funny stories.

After that, nothing more interesting happened. Initially, I wanted to study today, but then I was kinda hung-over so I did not study after all. Successfully avoided – yay.

That was my day. I was kinda happy, that I did not go to watch the ski races with my friends, because I was way too tired. Even after sleeping these extra three hours, I was still tired. But I want to change my sleeping schedule, so I did not take a nap during the day. I even set an alarm for 9am for every day, since I now got kinda back with getting up and I want to keep that way.

With all that being said. See you tomorrow! Bye-Bye!