Personal Blogs

Seven hours of maths, not bad really, I couldn't have done that a couple of years ago. Maths has changed me, even if it turns out that I suck at it.

First off, an apology from my last, rather strange, post. I must have been thinking about something to make it raw HTML, some subtle point must have been in my mind, or I was just plain pissed and posted it in the wrong place?

Towards the end of my revision-session I went off at a wee tangent—I suddenly got interested in what a basis for vector space meant. I had a feeling that I should know, something about linear independence, there's a minimal one isn't there?, there are orthogonal ones, an orthonormal one…so I got out some of my old M208 books. How the hell did I struggle with that? I thought.

I suppose that this is just the way of things—you struggle to grokk something at first-sight, after a while it seems reasonable, simple and obvious.

Just when I think that I can't go on with maths, that I don't want to go on, that maths must leave my life, something turns up that says: you want to understand me to me.

This next week will be hard, will probably decide the class of my degree and is not a week that I'm looking forward to. But some past-me put the now-me in this position, and he was right to do so. Every day I walk amongst the damaged who stopped making the lives of their future-selves difficult.

Next year I do my two third-level computing courses [to be decided upon: Artificial Intelligence and Software Development are the current favourites].

I have many advantages when it comes to the computer courses: a four month run-up, I find computer stuff easy and I get to submit online so I can never again have a TMA lost by the post office again. I should be fine, there's a part of me who thinks that this is too easy.

When I've finished my degree I've promised myself a present, and that present is doing a single level three maths module.

I'll never be a mathematician, but I do love maths. More than I did when I started down this path of mine.

Can that be a bad outcome?