Sorry I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks. I've been pretty busy with finals which were a huge pain in the ass. I finished yesterday and it was such a relief. Semester ended up alright, I'll ship a 3.5 or a 3.75 so we'll see how that turns out. No idea how I pulled off an A in that math class but w/e, I'll take it.
Onto more interesting things: Poker's gonna start heating up for a few reasons: I ordered my desktop a week or so ago and it should be there when I get home today, I ordered my 30" monitor today, and I have a ton more free time now that summer's officially started for me. I also want to grind pretty hard for the next couple of weeks to see if I can make enough bank to go to Vegas. I have around 2k of my own money but I don't want to totally busto myself to go. I should be able to get in 1k games and hopefully ship 2k+. We'll see how it goes.
I played a lot last night. Started around 8:45 and went until 4:45. Played the mini-Ftops event and sucked out AQ>AK for 10bb's but then lost KK
I'm looking forward to grinding this summer and making some bank. Reasons has set the bar kinda high by putting a ton of work into his game and grinding hard so I've got to follow suit. I'm hoping Vegas works out because it'd be a ton of fun to go out at night, play live MTT's or cash games during the day, and meet Vers, Draqq, etc IRL. We'll have to see how I run over the next 1,000 games though.
I'm starting to like philosophy a bit more. Here's an interesting problem we came across in class:
Two men, A and B, want to kill someone. Each points his gun at a man, thinks his gun is loaded, and pulls the trigger. It turns out, only Man A's gun is loaded and Man B's gun is not. While A is a murderer and B is not, it seems that they are equally guilty because they intended to do the same thing, held the same belief (that their gun was loaded), and took whatever action necessary to do so (pulling the trigger). That there were different outcomes seems moot. Of course, it's far from moot in a court of law, but it seems weird to penalize one man without penalizing the other. Thoughts?
I'm also starting to realize that there is a lot more depth to most subjects than I had previously thought. Math is just one example but it goes way beyond what I thought "math" typically covered. The majority of people probably think of math as numbers and solving equations, but even something like multivariable calc. isn't concerned with that so much as really developing an understanding and intuition for what's going on. I'll definitely check out a few courses in the fall to see if any courses pique my interest. Here's a problem from abstract algebra, a course I might take in the fall:
Anytime you multiply 9 by an integer, you get a product. The sum of this product's integers is always a multiple of nine. EX: 9 * 3 = 27 and 2+ 7 = 9 = 9 * 1. Prove that this holds for all integers.
Pretty dope problem and, without such a course, I would really have no idea how to approach this problem.
I'm also starting to realize that there's a huge difference in innate ability for math. I went to the Math Resource Center and was getting help from a freshman from Bulgaria. I made some joke about how she was probably on the national math team there.
Tutor: No, I didn't do stuff like that.
Me: Eh, I don't buy it.
Tutor: *mumbles* alternate...
She was a fucking alternate for the Bulgarian International Math Olympiad team. For those who don't know, each country administers tests to figure out who their best young mathematicians are. So each year, all across the US, honors math kids participate in these contests. So in a public school you have to be in an AP math class and in a private school you have to be in the honors track to take it. So I took it and did well enough to get into the next round (the AIME contest). Now, only 5% of kids qualify for the AIME so it was pretty cool. That was, until I took a 3 hour, 15 question test and got 1 problem right. After this exam, they take the best kids (top 100 or so) and give them another, longer, harder contest and from this group, the top 10 are chosen for the team. 9 and 10 are the alternates. This girl was a Bulgarian alternate. Jesus.
Here's probably my favorite story, though:
Paul Erdos, a mathematician, sat down with some other math guys for dinner. They were all specialists in a field Paul knew nothing about. They were discussing a famous unsolved problem, one that had eluded experts for ages. Paul began asking questions about definitions so he could understand the problem. Ten minutes later, he had the solution. Right then, right there. Unfuckingreal.
I'll update again soon,
Yodaddy
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