One Week of Lectures

Lectures started exactly one week ago, and one week on, I've clearly taken the plunge.

We were welcomed to the course by Little o, Big O of Differential Eqations,
Then Mobius Transformations of Complex Numbers, Algebra and Geometry.
Today it was Kronecker Delta, Permutation Symbol and Einstein Summation

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, lemme share a secret with you... I have not much clue myself either.

Ah, had my first supervision yesterday. Went ok, though for some reason, when I would have lots of questions and ideas to discuss with my teachers in the past, now I seem to be behaving like a passive learner, having no opinion, and simply taking everything the teacher is saying. Hence I feel that I haven't really benefited as much from this first supervision than I anticipated before I came. I hope this changes, and I hope I start to exert my own opinion and process whatever I'm being taught.

Did learn a bit during the supervision, but compared with what I still don't quite understand, coupled with the fact that I haven't been able to reproduce the answers I saw in the supervision on my own after, I feel that it's quite insuffcient.

A few more frequently used vocab from the lectures:

cor·ol·lar·y (kôr'ə-lĕr'ē, kŏr'-)
n., pl. -ies.

1. A proposition that follows with little or no proof required from one already proven.
2. A deduction or an inference.
3. A natural consequence or effect; a result.

adj.

Consequent; resultant.

ad·den·dum (ə-dĕn'dəm)
n., pl. -da (-də).

Something added or to be added, especially a supplement to a book.

[Latin, neuter gerundive of addere, to add. See add.]

So much for lectures. I'll now relate the happenings of the past two days, beginning Tuesday.

Tuesday 111005
Met up with Ja after lectures, introduced to another Mathmo, Shagnick, Ja's collegemate. Followed them back to Fitz. Got Subway along the way, Ja had 2 for the price of 1 coupon, sandwich worked out to £1.40. Shagnick had amusing discussion over lunch about the ethics of interfereing with nature with a medic who just came out of a human disection class. Swanning him, Calling him heartless every now and then. Just the kind of conversation I anticpated to have frequently before coming here. Still over lunch, met very coincidentally a guy I met over MSN, Sun TianJiao. He was sitting just beside us at the table. It still feels very amazing. He was sitting with FinnishGuy from The Student Room. Proceeded out of the buttery, i.e. the hall where fitz people eat, and settled for a session of staircase discussion outside another medic's room. Where Shagnick continued to swan the other medics.Acquianted with "infomation theory" and the notion that "I am the only conciousness in this entire universe". Went to the CMS to study with Ja, got some work done. Proceeded back to hand in work at Peterhouse. Returned to College, had dinner. Deliberated attending Focus at StAG. Decided to go eventually. Studied Luke over dinner. More food. Had small group discussion, like cell. Think I'll frequent this group. Returned to college.

Wednessday
Went to buy foolscape paper at Sainsbury after lecture. Costed £0.99 for 200 sheets. Bumped into Hongking outside Sains. Invited me visit him in the afternoon. Went back to college for lunch and prepared for supervision. Also intended to attend an astronomy lecture at Robinson in the evening, needed to settle dinner, and supervision happens to straddle dinner timings. Solution: Dinner @ Hong King's! On the way from Peterhouse to Robinson, and microwave included. Brought my frozen microwave chicken stew to supervision, went to hong king's after, had dinner, and proceeded to Astronomy talk after, dragging Hong King with me. Astronomy lecture on the Cassini-Huygen's Probe. Got boring in the middle where the lecturer went on and on about the data. But interesting lecture nonetheless, now I have a better picture of what it's like to be working in a space program.Hong King met many ex-RJ people at the lecture, including Sun TianJiao, who turned out to be Hong King's classmate! Walked back to Hughes Hall with another collegemate present. And there was this weird old man present at the lecture who mumbled to us while we were walking back. The old man reminds me of Homer Simpson's father. Old, bearded, holding a cane.

Going to Sidney Sussex later for tea, courtesy of some Commonwealth Society... Wonder if it has anything to do with the Commonwealth Trust fund.

Argh, I need to spend more time doing my Example Sheets and going through my notes!