Htam::Diary

This Tuesday, I did work in the morning, as usual.  Then I went to school, had lunch, and talked to Stedman about his work.  Then I did some more work on my own, followed by some tutoring.  After I was done, I was super hungry like last week as well.  I went to prayer meeting and ate delicious cooking there (yay Tammy is back).

[Non Sequitur: 5000 books pour out of a building]

This Monday, I did a lot of work in the morning, as usual.  I've been working on my paper, which has four proofs.  I had finished the first one before to temporary satisfaction.  Another proof was technically right, but I completely rewrote it today to make it a lot easier to read.  I had also started with the third proof and it has more or less the basic structure.  I continued filling out the details today.  In the afternoon, I went to check out KREC, home of the Graduate Student Community Center, and worked out for a bit.  I plan to go back more in the future, of course.  In the evening, I went to the math department to do a bit of work, stopped by the career center which had a special event about math careers (it was very boring and uninformative, as expected), and came home.  Hopefully I will sleep early again.

[Non Sequitur: Blah blah blah book]

This Sunday, I picked up Hannah, Alex, and Anne for church.  Chris and Lydia were in town visiting, and I asked him to play guitar for the high school and middle school groups.  He asked me to join him so I sang with them.  Then I did some stuff for the HSG, since we are starting a new series using Spiritual Exercise.  By the time I was done, it was a bit too late to join the main meeting.  So I figured I would listen to the message later.  I did some reading from the aforementioned book.  After lunch, we had a bit of singing time with Lydia.  Then I did some tasks, and locked up the church building as usual.  In the afternoon, I went to Caltech to meet up with Mason Porter, who was a postdoc at Tech when I was there.  We played a lot of table tennis together, so when he was coming to visit, we got in contact and set up a time to play some table tennis during the Caltech table tennis club.  After we were done, I tried to go join the Chius, but I was too late.  So I came home instead and ate some simple dinner and am now going to sleep early.

[Non Sequitur: New Toshiba supermarket scanner does away with need for bar codes]

This Saturday, I woke up again before my (late) alarm—though it might be the last since I need to move my alarm up for tomorrow.  I had breakfast at Whole Foods and then went to Bible study.  As usual, the Bible study was really enjoyable.  Today Cindy Lin was visiting from Oregon.  Afterwards, people went for dim sum—I decided to sit this one out since I didn't really have appetite to justify spending more than, say, six dollars, on a meal (and I am guessing it would be more than ten).  In any case, I bought the train lunch box and came back to eat at the church building while watching more streaming of NCTTA nationals.  Then I came home and continued watching it, while editing paper for astro.  We are co-authoring his paper together.  I say his paper, since it is really his.  I am helping proofreading since he is giving me authorship, which he did because I helped with some math earlier.  He told me my contribution, albeit small in my eyes, is actually huge for them.  Moreover, because his department only care about first-authorship (which he retains) for credit, adding me in the list of authors does not hurt him at all.  Therefore I agreed and have been editing the paper that he wrote throughout the last week.  He is submitting tomorrow, so I spent most of my free time today working on it.  He just sent me the final draft as I am typing this.

[Non Sequitur: Prosthetics breakthrough might fuse nerves with fake limbs]

This Friday, I woke up at around 6 after about 5 hours of sleep.  I toyed with the idea of getting up, but I decided against it.  I slept until 7 and got up, again before my alarm, yay!  I went to school for lunch, did some work while watching streaming video of the NCTTA national collegiate table tennis championship.  Then I talked to Stedman about math for a couple of hours.  I was really hungry when we got done.  I came home and had leftovers for dinner, and then relaxed.

I saw the entire Women's Doubles Final, where 2 seed Vivien Zhou and Pei Pei Zheng from Toronto beat 1 seed Karin Fukushima (2-time defending champion?) and Leine Agata from Lindenwood. Toronto was down two games 9-11 3-11, and everyone thought it was over. They came back 11-9 12-10, and was down 8-10 in the last game, eventually winning 15-13. Amazing match.

Men's Doubles Final followed a similar trend, where 1 seed Yahao Zhang (single seed 3) and Jose Barbosa (4) of Texas Wesleyan beat 3 seed Andreas Ball (1) and Razvan Cretu (9) of the same school. Zhang and Barbosa were losing 4-11 6-11, again everyone thought it was over as well. They came back 11-9 11-8, and then leading nicely and winning the fifth game 11-6. Honestly though, not as amazing as the girls' match.

They use the same jokes year after year.  Before the men's final match, the announcer said: "One thing is for sure, Texas Wesleyan is going to win the final. [Under the breath] But Texas Wesleyan is also going to lose. Ladies and gentlemen, turn your attention to the China vs China final."

[Non Sequitur: Law school sued by student for letting her enroll]

This Thursday, I finally woke up naturally before the alarm (though I did move the alarm back a little).  I did some errands and then went to school for lunch and some tutoring.  Then I went to the first combinatorics seminar this quarter featuring Igor.  He talked about his favourite conjectures, the room was completely packed, and many of the students (myself included!) were taking notes.  Afterwards, I talked to some peers about some math problems, then went to the GSO-SIAM joint seminar.  It was horrible.  Oh well.  Afterwards I went to the gym and played table tennis for 2.5 hours.  I did not lose any match, so I continued playing the whole time.  This is so much fun, I don't know why I stopped playing.

[Non Sequitur: This parrot really loves chocholate]

This Wednesday, I got up a bit late, but I worked a lot in the morning, as usual.  After having lunch and working some more, I went to school for reading group (Jie presented—it was quite good) followed by meeting with Igor.  I have certainly been working quite hard writing my paper—but since I haven't done new research, there was not much to talk about.  As such, I went in with a few specific questions as to how to write certain things, and after that I turned the discussion to postdocs and the application process.

In the evening, I went to see The Pacifica Quartet perform at Royce Hall as part of UCLA Live.  They played Beethoven's Quartet in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4, followed by Shostakovich's Quartet No. 9, Op. 117.  After intermission, they performed Beethoven's Quartet in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2.  I enjoyed the Beethoven pieces more.  I realized I've played the second movement (Scherzo: Andante scherzoso quasi allegretto) in chamber music about 9 years ago.  Good memories.  I went with my officemate, and we saw Professor Balmer there.

[Non Sequitur: Villages inflate plastic bags with natural gas to carry home]

This Tuesday, I worked a lot in the morning, as usual.  I cooked lunch (delicious!) and then continued working.  In the afternoon, I went to school and did some work and waited to tutor at 4.  But I got the time wrong and it was actually 5.  After I finished tutoring at 7, I was super hungry.  So I decided to go straight to prayer meeting.  Steph says Tammy will feed me.  But of course, she is still in the Bay area, so we had pizza tonight.  After prayer meeting, since I've been sleeping later, I stayed behind a little to chat.  I think I should start shifting my schedule earlier after tomorrow night's concert.

[Non Sequitur: Rising table]

This Monday, I woke up to my alarm clock due to sleeping rather late last night after the party at Beryl's house.  I did a lot of work in the morning, went out for a jog, had lunch, and worked some more in the afternoon.  Then I called Caleb to catch up and also discuss some logistical matters.

[Non Sequitur: Love hotels and unicode]

This Sunday, I picked Hannah up again after a few-week hiatus.  Today I taught Galatians 6 and wrapped up the entire epistle with the high school group.  Then I talked to them about what we're doing starting next week (namely, studying the book Spiritual Exercise by Watchman Nee).  Then after a longer-than normal session on the offering, I finally got a chance to eat some lunch.  Weirdly, I did not feel that hungry at 1 PM, even though I did not eat my usual snack since I was busy teaching.  Anyway, I forced myself to eat lunch since I knew I should.  Then we spent some time singing some hymns—it's nice to get back to that.  In the afternoon, we went to play volleyball after a long hiatus.  At first I was with Annie and Priscilla, against Eddie, Anne, Mari, and Caleb C.  After playing two games, we switched teams.  I was with Anne and Caleb, against Eddie, Priscilla, and Mari.  We played another two games.  Then most of us we went to Josh and Beryl's house for dinner.  It was incredibly nice of them to open up their home like this.  In the evening, I saw Hannah sitting alone, I figured she might want to leave.  I sat down next to her and she indeed asked if we could leave.  I went around saying goodbye to everyone, but then it seems everyone followed our lead, and we all got up to leave.  It was nice chatting with her on the drive back.

[Non Sequitur: 10 incredibly nice robbers]

This Saturday, I got up and spent some time reading the Bible, then I went to Bible study.  I really enjoyed the Bible study today (just like last week).  Afterwards, we went to Yazmin for lunch.  Then I went and bought some groceries at 99 Ranch Market.  On the way back, Steph called me but reception was bad for some reason.  So I called her back once I got home—we talked for a while while (haha) I put my groceries in the fridge.  Then I had a quick dinner and went to school.  After getting a (free) ticket for the volleyball game against BYU, I talked to Caleb to figure some things out while waiting for the game to start (they start handing out tickets an hour in advance, and I didn't want to run the risk of them running out).  Apparently there was a protest again for last night's game.  Now they needed to replay the fifth set at 16-16.  BYU quickly won 18-16.  Then the actual game for tonight begins.  UCLA won easily 25-17, 25-19, 25-17.  It was quite enjoyable to watch.  I mostly paid attention to the positions and formation of the UCLA players, leaning where to go to and what to do—this should help me with learning how to play the game besides the physical techniques that I need to learn.

[Non Sequitur: MIT students fight nerdy reputations with Charm School]

This Friday, I did some work in the morning and then went to meet with Igor.  We had a good time catching up... just kidding.  I mean, we talked about what we've been doing academically.  Then we made plans for what to do from now.  Then I stayed at school, did some work, talked to my officemate (haven't seen her since a few weeks ago), and had dinner.  The reason for staying late at school was I wanted to go watch the UCLA Men's Volleyball game against BYU.  It was very exciting—UCLA won 29-27 after giving BYU three set points, won the second 25-16 by a big margin, lost the third narrowly at 22-25, and lost in a big way at 18-25 for the fourth.  We basically saw all four possibilities of big and small wins by each team.  Then for the fifth, BYU won, but by protest, replayed some points, leading to a UCLA victory.  They will play again tomorrow, and I plan to watch as well.

[Non Sequitur: Upset men and the happy women who love them]

This Thursday, I took care of a lot of errands today.  Indeed, one of the biggest one was that I went and renewed my lease for my apartment.  I shopped around a bit and all the other places have become quite expensive.  So I decided to suck it up and renew here despite rent also going up by quite a bit.  I'm going to treat it as "I got a great discount last year, and now I am back to a normal price range."  I cooked lunch for myself but only ate a little bit.  I need to find something new that I would like to eat lots of—or maybe this new eating little thing would work fine—though somehow I feel this is not a good long-term solution.  In the evening, I went to school for an organisational meeting for our graduate student seminar series.  The meeting went quite long, since we addressed many issues, including some other GSO items unrelated to the seminar.  Then I grabbed some dinner in Ackerman and came home.

[Non Sequitur: Five leadership lessons from James T Kirk]

This Wednesday, I did more work in the morning, as usual, and then went to school for lunch.  I ran into Steve on campus, so we walked around a bit and talked.  Then I ate and went to combinatorics reading group on the regularity lemma.  Afterwards, I came home, rested a bit, and then went to tutor.  I stopped by Mitsuwa for dinner before going, as usual, and got a mini bowl (that's totally enough food already).  This is my life now: work, eat, school, tutoring?  Oh wait, I should watch some TV to relax!

[Non Sequitur: Methamphetamine money used for comic books]

This Tuesday, I did work in the morning as usual.  I forgot to defrost breakfast last night, so I went to Whole Foods to do some groceries shopping and also get breakfast.  As usual, I jogged there and then walked back.  Then I continued to do work, and then ate lunch, did more work, and went to the gym to run some more.  I've been running daily now, and I've slowly pushed up the amount I ran.  10 minutes, 13, 15, 20, 25.  Hopefully tomorrow I can run 30.  Well unlikely, since I will be busy tomorrow—but we'll see.  Then I bought some salad for dinner at school.  In the evening, I started looking into re-balancing my portfolio by investigating some bond funds.  Then I went to prayer meeting, and stayed and chat for a while.

[Non Sequitur: A record player that plays pieces of wood, not vinyl]

This Monday, I woke up really late (still before 8 AM) because I disabled my alarm in the middle of the night.  Wherefore, you might ask?  Well, I was woken up at 3 AM by a fire alarm.  Fortunately, there was no fire.  I toyed with the idea of simply getting up, but I was too tired.  If it had been 4 AM I might have done it.  In any case, I did more work in the morning, as usual.  I finished the proof that I promised to finish today, and started writing another proof.  Then I went to Mitsuwa for lunch, followed by tutoring in that area.  On the way back I stopped by Bed Bath and Beyond (haven't been there in such a loooong time) to check out some bed sheets and bath towels.  In the end, I decided against purchasing things that I don't absolutely need, and simply want.  Then I went to the gym to run, for the third day in a row now.  Today I felt pretty good in terms of cardio, and was able to push and run more, despite the fact that my muscles were tensing up a bit, probably from volleyball yesterday.  Afterwards, I went to the department and did some work, got dinner, and came home.  All in all, a pretty good day.  This is a good start of the last quarter of hopefully my penultimate year in grad school.

[Non Sequitur: Incompetent people too ignorant to know it]

This Sunday, I went to fellowship as usual (wow, I haven't used this phrase since two Fridays ago).  Today I helped play guitar for the high school and middle school groups.  Afterwards, I talked to Bob for quite a long time.  I figured this is important, so I continued listening to him talk about various things.  Today we had a high school group planning meeting, which started late since it took me longer to open offering box than I expected.  So we ran quite long into the service meeting, which I stayed for while taking care of other things a bit away from them, only listening in and jumping in at a few key places (regarding keys, haha).  On my drive home, I called Caleb back (since I missed his call earlier) and talked the whole way.  I decided to go to the gym to jog again.  After jogging, I went to the volleyball court to cool down before coming home, but I got sucked into playing again.  So I ended up being out until 6 PM, which was great exercise anyway.

[Non Sequitur: Leap year dad and son to turn 11 together at joint party]

This Saturday, I woke up a bit later and then got ready for Bible study.  I got there very early and did some reading before anyone had arrived.  Since Steven couldn't make it, I played guitar with Josh.  Obviously I was no good, but that's probably unimportant.  Afterwards, I didn't feel like eating, so I bought some groceries, came home, and then went to the gym.  After the gym, I went and got some Jamba Juice on a gift card (since I was fairly hungry by then), and stopped by the department to print something out.  The printer was jammed, so I decided to fix it.  The more it wouldn't work and I spent more time on it, the more it became a matter of pride that I wouldn't give up or be defeated.  Eventually I figured it out, and now I feel a lot more confident in fixing it in the future now, even if there might be other people around on a weekday.  Then I came home, ate a bit of food, did some work, and then went to a dinner with Michael Busch, Rachel Reddick, Karthik Sarma, and Casey Jao.  It was supposed to be a dinner for people from Avery House, hence I got invited.  I felt bad declining, so I went.  After the initial awkwardness of having small talk on personal stuff, we moved on to more interesting topics such as science and, gasp sci-fi.  The sci-fi discussions were very fun, and it felt like the old days again at Caltech nerding out.

[Non Sequitur: Paradise parking]

This Friday, I no longer have WilsonFest to attend.  I woke up at 5 AM and started working.  I did so much work before 8 that I would feel fine even if I did not do more work for the rest of the day.  But of course I kept working.  Today I pushed out half of the proof of the second theorem on the new paper.  I've done the construction (which is the hard half) and now all I need to do is check that the construction works (it should be fairly easy to finish that on Monday).  So by late afternoon, I decided to take the rest of the day off.  I talked to Caleb, my dad, and watched some videos and relaxed.

[Non Sequitur: Inappropriate homework questions]

This Thursday, I woke up fairly early and went to Caltech for the last day of WilsonFest.  Po-Shen's talk was very enjoyable, and it was good to listen to talks by Wilson's current students Tony and Padraic, both of whom I've known for a while now.  I met up with Beryl for lunch at Daphne's and talked, both about high school group matters and other things.  It was good to get a chance to share and fellowship with her—we used to talk much more, but recently we have both been fairly busy and haven't gotten to talk much.  Then I went back and stayed until the conclusion of all the talks.  Professor Wilson came over and shook hands with me to thank me for coming, saying it is always very good to see me.  Then I went and had dinner with Jennifer at Banh Mi Che Cali.  It was good to catch up a little bit, but our conversation mostly stayed on our New York trip and Steph's wedding.  Afterwards I came home, which was late enough to not hit any traffic, yay!  I did a bit of work and then went to sleep.

[Non Sequitur: Coffee stain portrait]