Struggling Against the Sandman

I'm in front of the computer at the department, plunking away, while trying to last on four hours' worth of sleep with bowtie pasta in italian meat sauce and peach c2. I have yet to finish a report, and look at some problems, and continue trying to complete the solution to last week's shocker problem.

There has got to be a way for me to properly schedule my sleep cycle...

"C Sucks"

Well, I did say that, but that's with regard to strings and string manipulation, because in C strings are arrays and arrays are pointers, and, well, "pointers suck".

I'm a BASIC brat myself, so I often myself longing for the inefficient but utterly simplistic string handling functions like LEFT$, RIGHT$, MID$, INSTR, STR$ and their ilk. Often, I'd like to be able to create functions with like functionality in C, but, well, the code gets in the way. At least strings are objects in C++ and Java, so + works like it should.

Anyways, have to remember to do some accounting later...

Urgh

I really am having trouble doing the solution to last week's dicitonary problem. I am starting to collect animosity towards pointers. Spent nearly 6 hours on it, and almost no progress. Urgh.

Loop Invariant... Whoops!

Nevermind not being able to sleep well or waking up badly. Goofing up while going through the steps of a proof is not one of the things a math teacher relishes. Students pick up a lot in terms of technique from their instructors, and I for one, notice that this is one area where being... uniquely tooled can make so much of a difference. Luckily, what I feel I excel in is purely computational, although I do have to think back and try to ficure out the telltale signs, and the appropriate logic that is applied when navigating the logical maze of a rigorous proof.

Thankfully, I'm still not bullheaded enough to (a) not admit that I am a little lost in the procedure or (b) inexperienced with the method. However, I should correct these mistakes early and often.

"Sa mata ng bata..."

3 Day Itch

It seems that the later half of the week always seems soaked in activity, but maybe just because of the preparation details that are being worked out. Checked the final exam form the CP1 Lecture session, taught a bit of bridge, got my Ateneo ID with a particularly fugly picture I'd never be showing if I had a chance, bought Mr Punch and a spindle of blue Sony CDs, had Mitch confirm that, yes, it was her phone line barring her from connecting to the Internets.

Riza and I still have to find some problems for tomorrow's CS 175 session. Maybe we'll have time to make test data - maybe not. Sounds like today will be fairly exciting.

Oh, and the Finals Game 7 is going on. Nevermind

Sitting In on a Full Plate

When once my plate seemed empty, now it is full. After talking with David about starting with several programming projects, one of which to help me algorithmically deploy bridge strategy for tutorial purposes, I am asked by one of my classmates to help with a paper, filling my urges to program for maybe half a year, if not a full year. Luckily, my focus on the paper I'm filling out to be my thesis will only be concerned with correctness proofs, for the moment.

My shoulders and pecs hurt a bit from yesterday's gym session. Maybe hyperextended? Too bad that Detroit did not pull out in OT in Game 5. Better for Tim Duncan - he wouldn't be too haunted by the free throws and putback he missed. Then again, I may just be suffering Robert Horry's pain. In his case, a sixth championship ring will help ease the aching.

Oops. This isn't a basketball blog.

Synchronicity I

Ah, not having all your classes of the same course on the same day always leads to some juggling. Today's class is bleary-eyed from the instant Problem Set, as well as suddenly thrust into the world of me not quite remembering where I had left off. Hopefully, second half of the week will be all seatworks, and I won't have to worry to much on whether or not they are ahead or not.

Sigh. Then again, it used to be worse when the schedules weren't as clear cut as MTh and TF. Coordinating a MWF, a MTF and a TWF class was also mind-consuming.

Let's just hope nothing suffers, shall we? Also, Riza and I talked about when we'll update the CS 175 for problems (Friday after gym) and what day the five-hour Mock Competitions will be (Wednesday, so we'll have to coordinate with Sir Pros with regard to his thesis students using the lab on Wednesday).

Busy, busy, busy. Let's see how my MS Math class for the sem will begin later today.

Story's End

As today's lecture ends, I am anxious to know of my short-time student's performance on the final examination that Becca and I made, I too am anxious as to the evaluation that I will receive. Did I help or hinder? That is the new question each self-styled instructor must put to him- or herself in this age of information. Everything is available online to a person who has the knowhow and the tenacity for searching - why spend money to sit in with people and listen to this appointed expert?

Then again, there's always the people you sit in with...

Laptops, Wi-Fi Projectors and Hoping for the Best

Greetings from the Network Security Laboratory in the Computational Science Research Center, under the aegis of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, and the University of the Philippines Information Technology Training Center, on the start of the third day of the Computer Programming 1 short course that I am handling (class 2). I'm on the laptop which was provided for the instructor to sit in front of while projecting the course slide show (provided by yours truly's cameo for the work done by Florence and Riza) through the LCD projector on through Wi-Fi. Here's hoping that my students, taking an examination on the topics of the first two days' worth of lessons, are doing well. They'll have an early lunch, and then they will have more lessons.

Think of CS11 in four days; ten days, including the workshop for the next week plus next next Monday. Sorry, Lyn! Have to meet Ma'am Banjo sometime so that she knows I'm actually taking her class. Also have to get momentum going for the CS135 classes, since Riza can ably nudge the CS175 class for the week. I have to remember to prepare the problems for Saturday, after creating the final exam for the lecture series we're conducting.

Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!

PS: I got my University ID quickly yesterday morning (no more haggling with college security) and I secured my enrollment at Ateneo this morning, before picking up some Sprite Ice (now with mint?) and some menthol candy to combat throat fatigue. If I can work out my semestral schedule and prepare for next week;s lectures, I'm all set.

Edit: I mistook the Network System Lab for a Security lab. A thousand pardons.

Mid-week Madness

Apparently, I do have a propensity of picking up a sore throat. Anyways, the second day of my CSRC exile is today. I have to remember to make replacement exercises for the workshop portion of the Computer Programming I short course Becca and I are teaching (at 1000 pesos/day/student tuition!), because I made a boo-boo in distributing the student manual, as well as an examination to give at the end of the week. Will they make it? Find out!

Alongside this, I need to time getting the temporary ID from the college to give my application for a university ID from the registrar, and then I need to enlist my only MS class, under Ma'am Banjo. Hopefully she wouldn't be too annoyed that I am not going to attend this week's classes.

Then, now that the UP-ITTC workload is clear, I can begin fleshing out my schedule for the classes I'm conducting this week. I hope I start getting used to waking up at 6:30 in the morning EVERY SINGLE DAY, including Sunday, when I just turn back in.

Asymptotic Notation

Welcome to Computer Science... Mathematics. Focussing on what really counts when counting, and that's the rate of growth. In fact, functions with the same rates of growth form their own little families or orders of growth.

This lets you think about complexity in enough approximate terms that would heighten the concept of efficiency, outside technological improvements.

Sore Throat II

Hmmm... I have coughed out a chunk of this irritation, but there still seems to be a mucus build up. Ugh.

Anyway, today marks what could be some free time, the first in three days. I have met all my classes once, and will be ready tomorrow for the second meeting of two of the CS 135 classes. I will have to check on the ID today, and hopefully it will be done with no additional hassle.

Ugh. The modem at home has not been able to connect yet, and I'm hoping nothing semi-permanent has happened to my broadband. I do so miss home-browsing.

Sore Throat

After a completely busy day yesterday, today's business got interupted by fate. The gym run that was to come before the weekly sojourn to down south was stopped by traffic on both sides of Tandang Sora. Oh well, that means tomorrow is a normal workout day after my only class (and maybe I'll be going to Ateneo soon after) and then a light session on Friday.

Everything seems to be going well. Too bad it'll get messed up next week.

Rainy Days and Mondays

Much as I rarely appreciate the rainy season, it's doubly irritating to have it suddenly spring fangs and claws, attacking from the sky and the ground. Filipinos always seem to lack foresight when it comes to the rainy season and proper drainage management.

The Filipino race is not dumb - indeed, we seem hellbent on proving this assertion wrong time after time. We are, however, shortsighted and opportunistic, a combination that leads to corruption, poorly enforced traffic laws, lack of discipline and a sincere pride in all the wrong things. We know the government is crooked, and in my opinion a three-ring circus, and our only way to retailiate is to cheat the law whenever and wherever we can. Of course, there are laws that really do seem to do nothing but create red tape (customs laws involving educational and entertainment imports come to mind after some mind-sifting) and allow for more hands to open up for monetary lubrication. However, some laws, like traffic laws, and simple littering laws are in place in the eyes of cause and effect. If they aren't followed, we have what we have now - traffic jams and flooding.

Gunning Around

Finally, my first day of actually trying to be productive at the dep. Make that half-day, since I left Becca to advise since I left to go to the gym. Accomplishments for the day: making sure that CS 175 does not get dissolved, partly by Fate lending a hand to show one student that she should really join the class; cute-girl sandwich.

Riza showed me this link to a book that our group of program-competition enthusiasts was looking for for years now. Got to get Becca to bring home a copy. Actually, maybe I should get my mom to bring home a copy from Canada.

Gearing Up

Actually, not quite yet. I'm not too sure that I'm fully prepped for the coming semester, so I'll be brushing up on what I need to know. Also, my own enrollment is still a question mark. For those not me, and not in the know, I will try to enlist for the next 20% of the coursework I need for a Master's Degree in Mathematics from Ateneo de Manila University, going up to 60% of that.

To answer the question of why math, well, I'm a math major. I can't really call myself a programmer, so I defer Computer Science studies to those who practice. (Why I'm teaching it is coming full circle in CS 175.) To answer the question of why there, I usually say to expand my circle of professional contacts, which I increasingly believe is important for academicians. AdMU, I had believed for a while, had a more robust BS Math curriculum (which I doubt in sincerity), and believed until recently that it was more inclined to the algebras than to analysis, the latter of which I thought UP had been more heavily leaning into, until last year, when one of my instructors had apparently squared solidly into cryptography.

I wonder, when (and not if, I am hoping) I get my MS, will I be taking a PhD in La Salle?