http://www.bestchess.com.au/images/products/Traditional%20Games/Chess/TeakWoodChessBoard.jpgCartesian Chess Board
Polar Chess Board
Like at any other start of a new semester, I make a resolution to work really hard at school and keep on top of every task. And like any other semester, I fail to keep it for one moment, get discouraged and from there I spiral hyperbolically into my own self. Then as the holiday approaches work intensity starts to diminish, and a good chance arrives for me to start fresh. And the process repeats itself sinusoidally.
But one thing isn't a problem, or perhaps it is so minute a problem that it IS a problem. I am definitely interested in mathematics, just maybe not so much in number theory. In my opinion, among all the other branches of mathematics, number theory is at my standard, the most useless piece of mathematics, because I can't do it, and I don't see how I can apply it to solve problems. That is why I get so depressed after participating in Mathematical Olympiads. I hope that soon I will be able to break out of this paradigm, and the only way to do it is to learn number theory.
This semester we are starting on calculus. So I finished all the notes and tutorial that the teacher had given out by the third day of lesson. Finishing notes beforehand is not much use, but I just like it. Makes me feel like I have triumphed over my notes. So now in calculus class I don't have much to do other than read my calculus textbook, or talk to other people who have defeated their notes as well. But the urge to finish doing more calculus is still there, and I believe the same thing will happen the moment the next set of notes come.
Unfortunately, this isn't really my attitude towards other subjects.
Something new we started on was Polar co-ordinates, Parametric equations and vector functions. 2 hours of lessons a week for any other subject like biology might seem to much. But for this I find it too little. And I'm glad that the teacher is going faster than other mathematics teachers I have seen.
Polar co-ordinates is something very new to many of us, and thus the shapes of the curves are not easy to visualize. Thus I feel that there is a real need to really spend some quality time thinking about how different curves are formed, in order to get used to it, rather than use the calculator to graph it and get the easy way out. We won't learn much that way.
Timetable this semester is good. Afternoon releases on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Monday, if no CCA. I thought it was wonderful, before I counted in all the extra stuff I had to do. Waiting for 3 hours on Tuesday for Aerodynamics. Going to DSO on Wednesday, and probably German on Thursday. I wanted to shift German to Monday, then I realised that there would most probably be string ensemble practice on Mondays. I would have had chem olympiad training on thursday, if not for the fact that I am going to have German, the course outline was filled with nausea-inducing topics such as physical chemistry, and some of my friends are not attending it. :(
Nevertheless, this timetable is much more relaxing.
School food finally has its last straw of disgustingness. Now that the timetable isn't so cramped, I will try to eat out on days such as Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday or I could pack my own lunches, which is surely more healthy than the crap the food stalls are serving. I now hereby boycott all the stalls except for the snacks stall, the Cafe, and the friendly looking vending machines.
String ensemble is going for SYF next year, so yesterday we had an audition. I have been practicing quite a lot, and after waiting for 2 hours++, I got auditioned. I believed I should have played pretty well, if not for the fact that I tend to tremble during solo auditions. So my legs were trembling, and it wasn't that noticeable when I played Brandenburg, but when it came to Vocalise, the trembling of my legs propogated up my body and onto the violin, making the long sustained notes tremble...That was pretty discouraging, because I played pretty badly. I just hope that I will get to play 1st violin, because 2nd violin parts are sleep-inducing.
This year, I hope that orchestra will start playing some real music. There has been gradual improvement, and I don't mind the music being simple, as long as I don't see the words oboe, flute and Stephen Bulla on the violin scores.
But one thing isn't a problem, or perhaps it is so minute a problem that it IS a problem. I am definitely interested in mathematics, just maybe not so much in number theory. In my opinion, among all the other branches of mathematics, number theory is at my standard, the most useless piece of mathematics, because I can't do it, and I don't see how I can apply it to solve problems. That is why I get so depressed after participating in Mathematical Olympiads. I hope that soon I will be able to break out of this paradigm, and the only way to do it is to learn number theory.
This semester we are starting on calculus. So I finished all the notes and tutorial that the teacher had given out by the third day of lesson. Finishing notes beforehand is not much use, but I just like it. Makes me feel like I have triumphed over my notes. So now in calculus class I don't have much to do other than read my calculus textbook, or talk to other people who have defeated their notes as well. But the urge to finish doing more calculus is still there, and I believe the same thing will happen the moment the next set of notes come.
Unfortunately, this isn't really my attitude towards other subjects.
Something new we started on was Polar co-ordinates, Parametric equations and vector functions. 2 hours of lessons a week for any other subject like biology might seem to much. But for this I find it too little. And I'm glad that the teacher is going faster than other mathematics teachers I have seen.
Polar co-ordinates is something very new to many of us, and thus the shapes of the curves are not easy to visualize. Thus I feel that there is a real need to really spend some quality time thinking about how different curves are formed, in order to get used to it, rather than use the calculator to graph it and get the easy way out. We won't learn much that way.
Timetable this semester is good. Afternoon releases on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Monday, if no CCA. I thought it was wonderful, before I counted in all the extra stuff I had to do. Waiting for 3 hours on Tuesday for Aerodynamics. Going to DSO on Wednesday, and probably German on Thursday. I wanted to shift German to Monday, then I realised that there would most probably be string ensemble practice on Mondays. I would have had chem olympiad training on thursday, if not for the fact that I am going to have German, the course outline was filled with nausea-inducing topics such as physical chemistry, and some of my friends are not attending it. :(
Nevertheless, this timetable is much more relaxing.
School food finally has its last straw of disgustingness. Now that the timetable isn't so cramped, I will try to eat out on days such as Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday or I could pack my own lunches, which is surely more healthy than the crap the food stalls are serving. I now hereby boycott all the stalls except for the snacks stall, the Cafe, and the friendly looking vending machines.
String ensemble is going for SYF next year, so yesterday we had an audition. I have been practicing quite a lot, and after waiting for 2 hours++, I got auditioned. I believed I should have played pretty well, if not for the fact that I tend to tremble during solo auditions. So my legs were trembling, and it wasn't that noticeable when I played Brandenburg, but when it came to Vocalise, the trembling of my legs propogated up my body and onto the violin, making the long sustained notes tremble...That was pretty discouraging, because I played pretty badly. I just hope that I will get to play 1st violin, because 2nd violin parts are sleep-inducing.
This year, I hope that orchestra will start playing some real music. There has been gradual improvement, and I don't mind the music being simple, as long as I don't see the words oboe, flute and Stephen Bulla on the violin scores.
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