Rushedicus Assessmenticus

What a week!

We went down to Portsmouth for a few days to make up for the fact that we didn't visit over Easter (it was right in the middle of Kim's exam period). Headed off at about seven Sunday morning, for the long, boring, not to mention expensive these days, drive. Caught up with friends for some drinks and pool, took our parents out for a joint meal for late Mother's Day / early Father's Day, even saw my brother for once, drove to Rhinefield House to try our wedding menu, and a whole lot more. I told the agencies that I was mostly unavailable, but that I'd still do my press conferences (third month now, and not the slightest bit easier!) except Wednesday and Thursday, when I had to do other stuff, including a 6000 word checking job. Not easy without a desk, pirched on the edge of the bed, using the back of an A4 pad on the duvet for the mouse. Just glad there were no internet problems to boot; I often find myself randomly disconnected by my parents' Sky router, or inexplicably unable to connect in the first place.

Oh yes, then there was M381 TMA 02 due in on the 9th. Somehow, I did manage to get it done, and posted it at about 1pm on the 8th; I hope it turned up on time. For the first time, I came this close to actually leaving a question out. All of Question 4 in fact was killing me. I bloody took an hour and a half on a two point question!? Even then I didn't think I'd got it right. There's something at least, that can be said for writing it up by hand, because I end up thinking it through almost as much second time around, and reckon I cracked that one in the end. Not the best ratio of time taken to progress made though, eh?

So, the question I almost left, well, of course I can't go into details, but it was of the form "use (a) to explain (b)". I couldn't actually see how the two were related. Not the best place to start trying to prove something from. I tried just getting down and writing in the hopes that one thing would lead to another and that up from the depths of my subconscious mind, a beautiful proof would spring. It didn't. As of about 11am on the 8th I still hadn't done it, but at least I'd written the rest up. So I said to myself I'd try for another hour, and then give up and go to the post office. Suddenly, inspiration hit. I'm not sure it's right, but it's a whole lot righter than nothing, right? Right. I felt naughty writing some of my final remarks though, as I knew that what I was saying was a bit vague and not fully justified, but I couldn't leave it that close to completion without tying it up. If I redeemed any points from that question, at least that last ditch effort would've been worth something. If I didn't, well, I won't' have lost anything. Confidence in my ability to prove things won't be affected, as it's basically zero anyway.

That said, there was a very interesting question on ISBNs. The numbers are actually based on congruence modulo 11. Who'd have thought!? So anyway, there were a couple of provey questions in that one too. And I'm fairly pleased with myself over the second one in particular. Coming up with a proof of your own, that at least appears to be right, is a great feeling. Especially when it's so rare, as it is in my case. The other week I was chuffed to bits over proving two things in M337 about Taylor Series as requested, taking a side of A4 on each, only to find that they were really five-or-so line proofs in the solutions sections. Still, I guess mine were right in their own way. It's a great feeling nevertheless. It puts me in mind of the scene in Good Will Hunting, where the teacher (Professor Lambeau?) is hitting on some girl, explaining to her how moving and beautiful a proof can be. I wonder if that has ever worked for anyone?

Oh yes, there were more URM-related questions, so I will assume the worst, and expect them to be very wrong. I think, finally, we're done with them now though. Time to celebrate, methinks.

Now, just as last time around, I'm left with a few days to finish the M337 TMA, and of course, have a job to juggle at the same time. The TMA is due on the 15th, the translation on the 16th. It's about 4800 words so I'm hoping to do 1600 a day for the next 3 days, then checking Tuesday, and rewriting into good English Wednesday. The topic sure doesn't look easy: nitrate contaminated groundwater. But at least they sent me a pretty detailed word list which will help. It's looking like I'll have a maths translation for the following week, which I'm quite looking forward to. As well, I'm eagerly anticipating being able to breathe again, with the M337 assignment out of the way. I think this one will not go well; there's just so many theorems at my disposal to potentially use, that I'm doubtful I'll get them right. Especially under the rushed conditions I've left myself, but who knows. Until I really start on it (at around seven tonight, all going to plan), I won't know.

I was worried that this will happen again next time; the TMA schedule so far has been roughly bimonthly, with the courses following one week after t'other. Well, exactly two months tomorrow I'll be getting married. I could really do without having get two TMAs out on consecutive weeks around that. Being busy will be bad enough, but then there's the lack of a desk, or any space in general, and the background noise of TV's and parents - really messes with my Zen thing, man. I didn't really even have anything to lean on this week (my poor M381 tutor has some seriously dodgy handwriting to deal with as a result).

Ultimately, I determined that I'd just take the financial hit, and cancel work for the week if there's a schedule conflict. Fortunately this is not so; both assignments are due the week before. But I'll have instead to contend with the fact that they're due in on consecutive days.

This time, I really must work through them as I study the material. I came close to doing it this time around. Sort of anyway. After about a month of the present cycle, I wrote out a schedule on my whiteboard, one question of each TMA alternating day by day, to get them all finished and written up with a few days to go before the respective deadlines. I should have known that'd be a waste of time, that I'd do it for two days, then forget about it (a glance at the whiteboard shows that I only did it for one day; there's a lonely tick next to day two's M337 question). I assume I thought, hey, I can always go back and do extra the following day right? I still kid myself that this is the right way to conduct myself, after doing it for work for almost four years. I guess I'll never learn. I do however, intend to learn to get TMAs done relatively early.

Whoa, that was a long post! Sorry about that, I got a bit carried away. Congratulations if you actually made it to the end.

Neil H