Blog

  • My Day

    Today was another day, on which not a lot has happened. I did basically the same as yesterday. Study and watch YouTube.

    Yesterday, I told you, that I would not open YouTube until I did all the things on this list. And now, it’s judgement day. I did not exactly do, what I told, I’d do… BUT I did most things (missed 4/10). And over the whole day, I did even more (missed only 1/10). I even read some more ODE lectures, so now I only have to do one more lecture, and then I’m done. How exciting!

    In the evening, my brother came back from the army, and he told us some funny stories about this week. He also showed me a kind of bondage, you use, when you lose a lot of blood. (For example after losing a leg.) And by “showing me”, I mean, he put it on me. And I gotta say, it’s not really comfortable (WHAAAA?!).

    Otherwise, not a lot happened today.

    1 Monthary

    Today, is the last of January, which means, that now, I’ve written my diary for a whole month. So it’s a little reflection time:

    How do I feel about it?

    I pretty much like it. Through this daily “what happened today” moment in the evening, I realized, that I do more than I expected. Obviously, this week, was not so much the case, since I pretty much only studied but the other weeks were not really like that.

    I feel like, this also motivates me a little, to do more things, which also cannot be too bad.

    I also think a lot, that after this year, I’m gonna get it printed. So I’d have a print version of my diary, which would be kinda nice.

    Also, I’m often surprised about how much I can write. Nearly everyday I think: “Do I even have things to say about today?”, but then, I can write so much. (Which makes sense in a way, since I also talk quite a lot haha) But yeah, I like it!

    What’s the worst part about it?

    It takes more time than I expected. Usually it takes 30-45 minutes to write one entry. Usually, I proof-read it, so this then takes some time. But lately, I’ve been doing this less. The reason for that being, that I feel like my texts have gotten better -> less proof-reading needed, and sometimes I also am just lazy.

    A second point is also, I don’t particularly like the design of the blog. But I’ve told you already about that. I think, I’ll change it (or at least some part), once I’m done with my exams.

    And a third but last thing is: I don’t think, it’s very interesting to read. As well, it’s not really that easy to approach, especially nowadays since there aren’t as much pictures, AND more importantly, it’s just a lot of text. Who reads this nowadays?
    I don’t know exactly how I can “fix” this, or even, if it can be “fixed”… But we’ll see. I’ve recently installed the site-kit by Google, which tracks the traffic of the webpage. I wonder already, if any, or how much traffic I get.

    Bed

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

  • My Day

    Dear Diary! Today was no special day either. I spent too much time on YouTube, and some time studying. I also had the realization, that the easier I find my math thingies, the less pressure I feel to actually study.

    Upsides: I study when I feel some pressure, or am not that confident.
    Downside: I don’t study as much as I should.

    My problem is, I don’t really know how to change this right now. Writing that, I have an idea. Tomorrow, before I “can” open YouTube (or any such site) I must do the following things:
    – go over all AM exercises
    – go over all Algebra exercises
    – solve at least one ODE of each category:
    – separation of variable,
    – y’=f(ax+by+c), y’=f(y/x),
    – exact ODE,
    – Bernoulli ODE,
    – in-homogeneous first order,
    – in-homogeneous n-th order
    – study ODE definitions for at least 30 min

    I think this should be enough. I’ll tell you tomorrow, how it went.

    Talking about Religion with Mom and Sister

    This evening, after dinner, my mom, sister and I had an interesting talk about religion. As mentioned before, my mom is pretty religious, but my sister and I aren’t as much.

    I don’t remember how it started, but the main points were:
    1. My sister and I, didn’t really like it, when we were forced to go to church when we were little (children -> ~15 years old). One of the reason being, we had “children church” and there we had to state, where we’ve seen/ felt God this week. But the problem being, my sister and I didn’t really focus on that, so we didn’t feel any. BUT we still had to tell a story, where we had had an interaction with God.
    2. It was always a little weird, and we felt kinda out of place…
    3. (This was practically only for my sister) She doesn’t like it, when you put your boundaries on her. But she’s OK with setting her own. So in church, when people tell her, that God is the truth, she really gets annoyed.
    4. My sister and I, think the way our parents practice religion, is basically the best way. Because they really accept it, if you don’t want to be invested, and also, the second, and more important thing: They’re doing things out of good heart and happen to be Christians, instead of doing things, because they’re Christians. Like for example, foster children.

    and so on.

    While talking about it, (or later thinking about it) I realized about myself, that I dislike, if it gets heated. Which I thought was strange, since for a long time, I did exactly that. Always have unnecessary debates, and really enjoy, if the other person or both get worked up.

    Another thing was: The talking was mostly between my sister and mom, and I listened, so I played their lawyer. (For both sides.) And my sister told me, that I make good analogies and that I was a good lawyer.

    Gym

    Some time later, I got back to studying, and then I went to the gym. For the first time this week. I wasn’t really motivated, but still went. And in the end – wouldn’t you know it – once I was back home, I felt better. WHAAA??

    In the gym, I had a relaxed session. Also, I tried warmup sets for the first time. I don’t really know, how it works yet, but I think it’s kinda effective. Probably because you have more reps like that. (Bro-science alert!) Who knows… I’ll tell you tomorrow, if anything feels especially different.

    back home again, I had my second dinner (curry rice) then studied a little, watched a little more YouTube, took a shower and now I’m writing (to) you. Way too late in the night. It’s already 3:30am and it really annoys me, that I can’t get my sleeping-schedule under control, but what can you do…

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

  • My Day

    Dear Diary! Today was not that eventful either. Over the whole day, I spent most of my time studying or watching YouTube. It was kind of weird. Technically, I did not spend that much time studying, but I feel like, I learned a lot today. I was revisiting my ODE’s lectures, and thought about them for some time. And I gotta say, it all makes sense.

    Talking way too much about Math

    My first big realization was: I asked myself, how I would plan such a script, and then I compared it, to how the professor did it. And it pretty much overlaps. Look: First you get “elementary methods to solve ODE’s” in order to get a feeling for ODE’s. Then we proved, that they exist, they are unique (under certain conditions) and that the solution depends continuously. That means, if for example, your measurement is a little off, your solution is also only a little off.

    Then, once that is done, we go from 1 dimension to multiple. Which also makes sense. Most of the theorems in the 1 dimensional section, are quite similar to the n-dimensional section. Then we look at how to solve these n-dimensional ODE’s.

    And for the last section, we look at ODE’s with weird conditions. That would be, “boundary problems”. The difference here is, that in a usual ODE, you have a initial value for each derivative, but for the boundary problems, you have multiple for the same derivative. For example:
    – Normal problem: y is the function of your place, then y’ is your speed, y” your acceleration. And then you are given: “You start at 10, move with 5 speed, and accelerate with +2 speed per time”. This is uniquely solvable (for your position i.e. y).
    – boundary value problem: same function as above, but “you start with a speed of 2, and after 10 seconds you have a speed of 2.” This is not (necessarily) uniquely solvable.

    Back to my Day

    Anyway. Most of the afternoon, I studied, solved some exercises, or watched some YouTube. Then, after dinner, I had to go coach my volleyball team. Today was not the best training.

    This was kinda understandable, since (1) our next match, is against a really weak opponent, (2) we were only like 8 players and (3) I had a special training, with my middles, and the others had to look for themself.

    After the practice, I got home at about 12pm, watched some YouTube, and now I’m writing you. Otherwise, nothing important happened.

    Since it’s already way too late, I head to bed now. See you tomorrow and good night! Bye-Bye!

  • My Day

    Dear Diary! Today, hardly anything happened. I basically spent all my time either studying (that is solving ODE’s) or watching YouTube. I realized, what my “working-pattern” is. Since, once I am on YouTube it’s hard to stop. And it’s exactly the same with studying. Once I started solving some ODE’s, I usually solve for about 2 hours, before realizing, that I could take a break.

    It’s just like with the first law of Newton:

    An object at rest remains at rest, or if in motion, remains in motion at a constant velocity unless acted on by a net external force.

    which, if you think about it, makes sense.

    On a separate unrelated note: Yesterday, I predicted, that I’m getting sick. And today, in the morning, it was better. Over time, it was always with ups and downs. But for now, only my nose is plugged. So that’s not too bad (yet).

    Otherwise, nothing more happened today…

    What does it feel like, to be over someone?

    There is this one scene from the office where Ryan talks to Pam and says this:

    I don’t want to be with her but I can’t bear the thought of her being with anyone else. What should I do?

    Ryan Howard

    As weird as it may sound, sometimes, I do feel like that. It’s really strange. I don’t really know why it is… It just feels weird. I wonder, if (or when) that feeling is vanishing. And, if it’s gone, does this then mean, that I’m over that person?

    I believe so. But on the contrary: Does this mean, that right now I’m not really over her? I can’t really say…

    Also, this sometimes makes me think, that I should not have broken up with her? Depending on how bad (depressed) I feel, the question ranges from somewhat yes (quite sad) to no (not really sad – happy).

    But if I feel, like I shouldn’t have broken up with her, I then think back, and then I can say, that it was (definitely) the right decision.

    Just for the protocol: today, I feel, as if I made the mostly right choice.

    Being nice(?)

    If you remember, on January 24, I wrote “take care”, when saying goodbye. Another strange thing is: Every day since then, I think about it. Or rather if I should write it today as well. This is a thing that puzzles me, because, most of the time, it does not feel right to write that.

    I think, this is concerning to some extend. Cuz, why is that? Like – hello?? Shouldn’t it feel right, to just do it? I even wrote it once more, but then I deleted it, because it just didn’t feel right… I don’t know. I don’t even know why this is. But yeah. It is that way. Make of this, whatever you may want.

    Maybe, I had a good day then, or so? I don’t know??

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

  • 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.

    Graph showing the connections between 4 elephants

    (Me sneaking math into my diary – so I quickly explain this exercise.) The goal was to find the “ranking” of every elephant. A biologist recorded which elephant has a social-connection to which other elephant. To measure how strong the connection from elephant A to B is, you measure, how much effort elephant A spends for elephant B. Then you can plot this in a graph like this one on the right. Given such a graph, you can then calculate the score of each elephant (here I’m obviously simplifying a bit).

    Then for the second part of this exercise, we had another model. The difference being: Assume, there was another elephant, with whom every other elephant shares a social-connection. This “other elephant” is the group. And for the strength of the connection to the “group”-elephant, you just measure how much effort an elephant gives for the group. Which I think is quite an interesting approach of modeling a society (or societal structure).

    Now another important thing to mention, is that with changing the strength of any bond, all ranks of all elephants are being affected. For example, if elephant 2 suddenly gets a stronger connection to elephant one, this will have an impact on the social-rank of elephant 4. Even though elephant 2 and 4 are not (directly) connected.

    So this all got me thinking. How would I model this for humans? Mainly: What is the point of a husband / wife; or best friend given such a model? Now, I haven’t done the math to back this up, (or the social experiment to check if such a model would even hold for humans) but I’m quite sure, if you have a wife/husband/best friend, to whom you have a strong connection, it strengthens your social-status. And I think this is quite interesting to think about.

    If you take it one step further: In the elephant example, we had an individual which represented the group, and I think you can even have such “group-elephants” with humans. These would be for example friend groups. Or on a larger scale: cities, countries and basically every social group which you can imagine (as long, as you do something for the group, and get something in return).

    To sum this up: I believe, it’s quite interesting to think about this. Especially, that if you get a closer connection with anyone, it basically changes the social status of everyone in the whole group.
    (Now, I think this is something you also might refer to as the “butterfly effect” but I still have to do the math, to “measure” how strong this effect really is.)

    Enough of elephants – Studying Battle Plan

    In the evening I did not really do anything interesting. Some more studying and watching YouTube. But I did have a thought pop up in my head about studying. As you may know, I’m currently studying for some math exams.

    A lot of people, who do not study math that often, think, to learn math, you need to know the theory behind it. In some sense that is true. But only if you really really need to understand it1. A lot of people don’t really know this, but you don’t really need to know, why it works. In the exam you (usually) get asked to use it. So this means, you get an exercise, and then you need to solve it. For that, you don’t actually need to know all the specifics, of why you are allowed to do it, the way you do. But more importantly is, that you can use it.

    So I somewhat shifted my focus now. During the semester we had to solve a lot of exercises. (This means like 3-4 exercises a week – which take about 8-10 hours.) Now, in these exercises, you get to (have to) use what they told us in the lecture. That means, if you can solve every exercise, you basically know most of the lectures. Because of that, I’m trying to memorize each and every exercise of the semester – and of course how to solve it.

    I wonder how this will turn out. Ah – and speaking of “how this will turn out”. A few days ago, I got my economics exam back. I failed. It was close, but an F none the less. So, I guess I’m not shifting to studying economics… Which is anyway better, since I like what I’m doing now.

    That’s all I have to say for today. I’ll see you tomorrow! Until then – Bye-Bye!

    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!