Fitness and Midterms

Hey guys,
Now that my season's over, I've been trying to stay in shape by running with my roommate 3x/week. We started off on a program that had us alternating jogging 10mins and walking 5mins. It seems kind of lame at first because people see you walking and are like umm...cool...But we've been increasing our mileage and did 4miles in 36:00 (9mins/mile), so that's a reasonable pace and distance. Wednesday we'll do 3 miles and Friday we'll go back to 4 miles. Then we'll do 4, 5, 4, then 5, 5, 5. I haven't ever really focused on getting in really fit so it'll be nice to do so for once. I'm not sure when we'll stop adding miles (10 miles seems insane to me at the moment, but I'm sure if we just keep adding steadily it'll be fine by the time we get there).

On a different note, the second round of midterms are hitting me over the course of the next week and it's gonna be brutal. Math pset due yesterday, math midterm on thurs, phil paper due next tuesday, applied math midterm and pset due on the following wednesday (a week from tmrw). What kind of professor has a midterm on the same day a problem set is due. For those who don't think this is a huge deal, this class takes up about 70% of my hw time and an average problem set takes up like 15 hours. Oh, did I mention this is the non-honors version of the class? That's right.

I found a cool major called mathematical econ. It's basically a few classes short of a math major and a few classes short of an econ major and generally pretty badass. Unfortunately, my school doesn't do grade with + or - so it's just A/B/C/No Credit. I have an A- in both of my math classes at the moment which is good but sort of stress-inducing because it's so easy to drop to a B+ which actually = B. Basically if I get 90 or above, I'll get points added to my grade (cuz I'm not getting 95+) and if I get 89 or below I'm getting points taken away (cuz I'm not gonna get 85 or lower). This wouldn't really matter if I weren't considering grad school (econ) or an honors thesis (need a 3.5 for that). As of now, I have A, A, A-, B+, A (some classes from previous school) for the relevant classes so I should have the necessary gpa for the honors thesis when this time of year comes around next year. We'll see though.

Here's a little taste of some of the math we're doing for the midterm this Thurs:

Find the maximum value of the function f(x,y,z) = x + 2y +3z on the curve of intersection of the plane x - y + z = 1 and the cylinder x^2 + y^2 = 1.

Right...

Haven't played cards cuz I'm at school but I can't wait to grind this summer. So much more fun than stressing over school.

Holler,
Yodaddy

On Privilege

I was pissed off the other day at professors who assign a ton of work over break but that got me thinking about just how lucky I am. In two years, I'll graduate from one of the best colleges in the country, in one of the most privileged (if not the most) countries in the world. Despite the United States' wealth relative to the rest of the world, only 25% of adults hold a college degree. This percentage is surely lower in almost any other country. On top of the educational advantage I've luckboxed my way into, I have a great family, parents who genuinely care about me and brothers I enjoy being around. How many people can honestly say that?

Think of all those news stories you've heard about abusive parents, about kids who don't receive enough attention in foster care, about kids whose parents aren't directly abusive but are simply apathetic. These stories don't make headlines but they negatively impact their offspring in a seriously detrimental way.

Furthermore, I've won the genetic lottery: I'm smart, capable, and (moderately) motivated. I'm almost certain to find a job that pays well and that I really enjoy. Again, how many people can say this about themselves? While I'm not overly focused on the financial aspects of my future employment, I'll likely end up making 100k+ and be able to provide a comfortable lifestyle for my future wife and kids. Very, very, very few people know in advance that they'll have such a degree of financial security.

Poker is icing on the cake. Who knows what will happen with online poker in the future, but assuming games don't die out and no new legislation is passed, I'll be able to make 80+/hr (hopefully 100-120/hr). I'll have disposable income that most people simply don't have access to and this only adds to my sense of financial security.

So when I'm worrying about getting a B in differential equations or whether a philosophy degree won't look as rigorous as a math one to prospective employers, I like to take a step back and look a the big picture. These little things that I stress and obsess over simply don't matter in the long-run. When compared to others on an international scale, I must be in the top .000001% in terms of educational opportunities, financial well-being, and family life. In short, I'm pretty damn lucky and should really begin to appreciate it.

Thanks for reading,
Yodaddy

First Post

Hey guys,
A lot of the guys I talk poker with have blogs (Reasons, Amerzel, etc) so I'm jumping on the bandwagon. A little bit about me:

I'm a sophomore in college debating between studying math, philosophy, or both. I'm working with some guys on sngmentors and plan on focusing on 180 man sng's. I play varsity squash at my college (top 15 in the country) and devote a lot of time to that during the schoolyear.

Onto the more interesting things:

I've been trying to decide between math and phil for a while now. I only need 5 more classes for phil but they're ones that I'm not super excited about (think ancient phil, early modern phil, logic, and two others). I'd rather take some higher level/more interesting phil courses. For instance, one of the foremost experts in the world on philosophy of mind teaches at my school and I'd love to take his class on it. I know some of you may be thinking "Just major in phil, ldo" but it's not that simple. I have to consider my future prospects as well and it's way easier to go from a reasonable phil background to grad school in philosophy than it is for someone who hasn't majored in math to go to grad school in math.

On the other hand, I only need six more classes for math but they're gonna be hard. Really hard. I have to take the 2nd hardest undergrad math class as one of the requirements for the degree along with 5 other electives (and these won't be a walk in the park either). But I like math, I'm reasonably good at it, and a math degree would be a really valuable asset down the line. I don't mean just for graduate school but for anything employment-related. It'd be tough to get into a banking/consulting/optimization job with a phil degree.

I'm sure I'll figure it out soon (I have to declare within the week) so we'll see.

I'm on spring break atm so I'm hanging out in FL. It hasn't been a great break though because I have a ton of work looming over me. Something like two math psets, two math midterms, and a phil paper coming up in the two weeks after I get back to school.

I'm sure you guys aren't reading to hear about school-related stuff, so here's some poker stuff:

I've been playing the 2/180s and 7/180s lately because long term I'll have the highest $/game in 180s ($12s+). Variance is pretty gross but over the last 200 games, I'm up 300 which isn't great but I've been playing mainly 2/180s (they load much faster) although I'm sure I've been running under expectation. I'd expect to be at around 150% roi long term at the 2/180s.

I haven't had much time to play on break and I don't play at school because work rapes me so I'm really looking forward to the summer. When I get back to school (in about five days), I'll only have 3 weeks of class left, then 11 days of reading period, then exams. Summer's just around the corner.

I also recently cashed out 2k for a new desktop pc and a 30" monitor. Can't wait.

Thanks for reading,
Yodaddy