Week 6 intensity, fun math puzzles, and music shows November 4, 2009
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It’s Week 6 at Evergreen, and that means intense workloads for all. I think we’re all making the best of it– the music and theater around here hasn’t been slowing down a bit and people’s spirits seem high. A couple days ago a few biology students decided to celebrate by decorating a huge grassy hill in the center of campus with giant DNA strands created by bunching together fall leaves.
Tomorrow is my big exam in real analysis, the portion of the program Mathematical Systems that I’m taking. So far, the class has gone over the concept of a point, a point set, something that is linearly ordered, a union, an intersection, a function, domain/range, convergence, right-most/left-most points, and finite/infinite– from this and a few basic axioms, we’re well on our way to proving theorems in calculus. The exam will simply be made up of five theorems that we have to prove– I’m interested to see what they are.
In lieu of this test and the usual Week 6 intensity, I headed over to Sizizis last night to get some much needed studying done. I could see from over a block away that the place was packed– people were lining up outside to get in. I squeezed my way in and saw a musician sitting in the corner of the coffee shop strumming away at his electric guitar. I managed to snag a great seat (for once!) and got to be sung to as I crafted proofs.
To end this week’s post I think I’ll share a puzzle from yesterday’s class that I absolutely love.
Of two unknown integers between 2 and 99 (2 and 99 included) a person P is told the product and a person S is told the sum. When asked whether they know the two numbers, the following dialogue takes place:
P: “I don’t know them.”
S: “I knew that already.”
P: “Then I know now the two numbers.”
S: “Then I now know them too.”
With the above data determine the two numbers and establish that your solution is unique.
Planning for winter quarter– possibly a contract October 27, 2009
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I just got back from a meeting with a professor to try to put together a data analysis contract. In case you aren’t too familiar with contracts, a contract is basically a way to create your own class or do your own advanced research, working one-on-one with a faculty member or in a small group with a faculty member. A lot of upper-level students love contracts because they give you the freedom to study what you want at the level you wish to study it at.
This contract will be a data analysis contract– we’ll be taking sets of data and analyzing them, essentially. My current contract sponsor (professor) specializes in analyzing data for economics, but we’re thinking of bringing in guest lecturers and working with lots of different faculty if I can get together a diverse enough group. Because it’s just analyzing data, I can bring together a group of students who are interested in everything from environmental studies to clinical psychology. I know I want to do economics.
We talked for about forty-five minutes in his office and discussed the many statistics possibilities out there. I liked that he was really looking forward to bringing in new ideas and learning things from students, and he seemed to enjoy all sorts of subjects. I am to gather a group together and go from there. I’m pretty excited.
Today we came at a crossroads in Mathematical Systems– we had to choose what we wanted to study for winter quarter because our professor needed to start ordering textbooks soon. I personally wanted to stop real analysis and study probability, but the class had its vote and real analysis won by a landslide. So that’s what I’ll be studying in the winter– real analysis (the study of the real number line) and combinatorics.
This is what tends to happen mid-quarter– planning for the next. I’ll keep you posted.
Fall weather, cooking, and digital classrooms October 20, 2009
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It’s starting to really feel like fall. The weather has started to cool down a bit in Olympia– the leaves are turning beautiful shades of red and orange, the coffee shops are open later, the pitter-patter of rain is coming back. Both of my programs– Technical Writing in the 21st Century and Mathematical Systems– are also in full swing.
Our professor in Technical Writing, as I’ve said, is experimenting with the concept of a digital classroom. For the next few weeks, every communication and assignment we do will be posted online, and next week we’re having our mid-quarter evaluation via Skype. It works well for him because he gets to go down to South America to continue his research, and it works well for me because I have a lot more freedom to choose how I want to spend my time and what I want to work on. Instead of spending 10 hours a day in a classroom or on the commute, I can now spend my time researching my topic and submitting things to our website. It’s working very well so far.
It also means I have some time to work on the newspaper. Our website, having launched only fairly recently, is still in its beginning stages, but feel free to check it out at http://www.cooperpointjournal.com. So far, my favorite part about its content is the comics that get submitted.
Fall weather is also a time, in my opinion, for getting together with friends and cooking. I got myself a membership (finally!) to the absolutely amazing Olympia Co-op, and now can get organic and local produce whenever I’d like. Yesterday I had a cooking potluck with some friends– we stayed up a bit too late cooking, but we made the best apple pie.
Arts Walk and First Week Classes October 5, 2009
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I needed to buy groceries last Friday, so I wandered out of my apartment with my roommate. Cars filled the sidewalks. I heard noise everywhere. When I wandered down Franklin Street a little farther, I realized… I had totally forgotten about Fall Arts Walk!
Fall Arts Walk is a crazy, crazy time for Olympia. It feels like the whole city has come downtown, every restaurant is nearly bursting with diners (and Downtown Olympia has A LOT of restaurants), the streets are blocked off, there’s music everywhere and everything that isn’t a restaurant is turned into an art gallery. I stopped by a guitar store, listened to some very attitude-filled jazz music, ate out at a local Thai restaurant, perused the many, many art galleries. There was an artist who had filled giant colorful canvasses with broken mirrors shaped into dancing people, a photographer who had set up a glowing slideshow projected onto a dark blank wall, there were giant animal heads poking out of my local coffee shop– the whole thing was amazing.
Last week was also the first week of classes. Math Systems is going very, very interestingly… We are given a few axioms and definitions at a time, and asked to prove what seem like basic facts. We’ll continue to work our way up into discovering new definitions, and at the end of the second quarter, we will essentially prove calculus. There is very little lecturing, absolutely no answers given, and a whole lot of creativity is allowed. It’s a place in mathematics I haven’t been to yet– people are not constantly telling me, “But this isn’t what the textbook says,” and I get to truly explore.
The city’s quieted down. I no longer have to throw myself against hordes of people to move forward, the buses can arrive at downtown on time, the music is retreating back into the occasional street performer and restaurant tune– but it’s nice to know that in this city and my college, people see the value in creativity.
Fall Quarter Classes September 25, 2009
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I am currently sitting on the roof of Sizizis, a local 24-hour coffee shop. The roof is filled with dirt and randomly placed plants and rickety chairs and tables, and I’m looking out at the deep yellow light of the sunset hitting all of Olympia. I am also here to decide my research topic.
By 9 AM on Monday, I’ve got to come up with a topic to research for Fall Quarter for my program Technical Writing in the 21st Century. These will be the courses I’m taking this quarter:
Mathematical Systems (at least 4 credits): For Math Systems, I’ll be studying real analysis– the study of the real number line, and apparently the field with which one can prove most theorems in calculus. Our professor is approaching this in an interesting way– we are to “create the subject” for ourselves, inventing real analysis, generating original ideas instead of memorizing countless proofs. For an extra credit, I can take a mathematical workshop once a week to explore some interesting problems in groups.
Technical Writing in the 21st Century (12 credits): Technical Writing seems to be quite the interesting class. We’re only meeting a few times in the quarter (in comparison to other classes I’ve taken), and much of our work will be through the video chat, uploading documents to a site or the internet, and things like this. Because it’s Technical Writing, we’re going to need something scientific in nature to write about– we’ll be doing research both in groups and as individuals.
I’ve been thinking of working with Ramanujan and Hardy’s proof of partitions for a long time. It’s a really cool puzzle that anyone can understand: you are given positive numbers and addition. How many ways can you make the number 4? You can make it five ways: 1+1+1+1, 1+1+2, 1+3, 2+2, 4. What about the number 5? It’d be seven ways: 1+1+1+1+1, 1+1+1+2, 1+1+3, 1+4, 2+3, 2+2+1, 5. The number 2: just two ways– 1+1, 2. What about fifty? What about 200? Is there a pattern?
Indian Classical Music September 21, 2009
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A new school year is about to start– it’s Orientation week, and the incoming freshman who just arrived this weekend are abuzz doing the many, many activities available throughout the week before classes start.
On Saturday, a few friends and I decided to catch some Indian music in the evening. We met up on campus, watched people move in and wandered around, and then headed downtown to Traditions to watch an Indian duo play.
Traditions, as I mentioned here before, is a social justice-oriented cafe in Olympia that does pretty much everything– food, events, music, a clothing store, a mini-library. We entered through their clothing store a little after 8 o’clock and were greeted by the owner, a very friendly elderly gentlemen who showed us where to get tickets and led us into the room. To my surprise, the place was jam-packed– every table was taken, and most of the floor space was covered except for a few pillows in the front of the room. The place was dimly lit, and as we snuck over to the front row, all we could see was the lit-up stage, lots of faces, and the beautiful multi-colored rugs Traditions always has on its walls.
The pair of musicians were a father and son who were apparently some of the best musicians in all of India– the father played the sarod, the son played the tabla drums in accompaniment. The father started off playing slowly, the sweet tang of his stringed instrument was so beautiful. And then the son began– I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone play the drums so fast. They continued well into the night, slowing down or breaking every now and then to explain the meaning of the songs or give people a chance to stretch, and it was a very moving experience. My favorite was a song about the world’s water problem.
We walked past the capitol building to get home, and it was simply a great night.
A little bit about Olympia September 5, 2009
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I was going to wait till tomorrow to write, to tell you how cool Seattle is I’ll be leaving for the city tomorrow morning– but after today, I decided I needed to write a blog about Olympia.
Today I wandered around Olympia and truly got to know this city. I felt like it was long overdue: I’ve lived here for two years now, and what do I have to show for it? I had to do networking anyway, so with this as the excuse, I got to meet a lot of business owners. Here’s a list of my all-time favorite Olympia businesses, inspired by this walk around town.
Olympia Coffee Roasting Company: The coffee is amazing, and the baristas make AMAZING espresso. There are no words to describe it. Everyone here loves it. The coffee shop itself is small and cozy, with windows that let you look onto their actual roasting facility. Occasionally a latte art throwdown will happen, or you’ll learn the results from the latest coffee competition. The best part? All of their coffees are organic and fair trade.
Bread Peddler: Olympia is a town that seems to have a bakery around every corner, but this is my all time favorite. It is a locally owned French bakery– they serve salads, lunch things, breakfast– but their pastries will make you fall in love. They are worth every penny; the last pastry I had from their was a rhubarb brown butter tart. A thin flaky crust held together a fluffy cake-like buttery sugary filling, little pink flecks of rhubarb sunk into the cake and made it have just the right amount of edge. You’ve got to stop by.
Traditions: Traditions is a place in Olympia that truly cares about supporting causes for social justice, and they carry this out in events, clothing, artwork, speakers, and their restaurant. You can eat an organic salad or read a book from their social justice library– during Valentine’s Day I remember them selling fair trade flowers to give to your valentine. And I love the fact that their view is the capitol building. I’m glad we have Traditions in Olympia.
New Moon Cafe: Everyone has their own favorite breakfast spot– this is mine. It’s not too big, though it chooses to have giant round Chinese lanterns hanging off the ceiling. I really like their choice of artwork to display– last time I went, it was art made with technological equipment the artist had seen thrown out on the streets and paint. I really like the owner, they provide free blackberry syrup, and their veggie benedict is wonderful.
Of course, their are a million places around. If you’re looking for a blog that does a good job of keeping track of Olympia, I recommend http://www.EverydayOlympia.com, and you can always leave a comment and ask me for more recommendations. Have a good Labor Day weekend! 
Changes & welcoming in September August 31, 2009
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This is officially the end of topology! I’ve been working extremely hard the past week crafting my final proof– and this weekend crafting my portfolio– and I am both saddened that I can’t continue the class and excited for the next month.
The next month will be filled with work for the Cooper Point Journal, our student newspaper. As Associate Business Manager, I’ll be in training for the whole month. Today we worked hard on building our website: we’ve been working with our computer expert in the office to create what is now the rough shell of what is sure to be a wonderful and beautiful website.
We are also working on team-building, something I am very excited about that starts tomorrow. We are going to be taking personality tests and how-do-you-learn-best tests and it seems like I’ll get the chance to really learn how I work. We’ll be examining the office dynamic and studying how we see our leadership skills as opposed to how others see our leadership skills. We’ll be looking into how to resolve conflict when it happens and how we react to conflict. I’ve spent the past hour or so writing up a time management worksheet that does not ask me to make a schedule– it asks me to really look at what is important to me, what I want to do, and what I assume I have to do, and I have to make the decision of what needs to be in my life with this information (so far).
It’s the start of a new era! Or perhaps, just a new month. But either way, my prior life of doing proofs is going to morph into intense work at the newspaper and some free time. I have rediscovered the piano rooms up in the Communications building, rediscovered the art of a good fictional book, and a peaceful atmosphere of cool weather and calm days has overtaken the hot, hot heat. I’m looking forward to the month ahead.
Spices August 22, 2009
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My family drove up from California to see me this week, and I’ve been spending a lot of time with them. My mother, being a very proud Macedonian woman, was very shocked to see that the spices I had were limited to salt, pepper, cinnamon, and some saffron, so she whisked me up to join her in a search for the best spices in Olympia.
There are a bunch of really tiny spice shops around Olympia, but we hit gold with an Indian store in Lacey, a nearby town. Shelves and shelves were stocked full of every spice we could imagine, and they were all so cheap! We got cardamom, spicy red pepper, mustard seeds, cinnamon sticks, cumin, coriander! I am a happy woman.
We drove up to Seattle on the weekend and walked through the shiny streets of Bellevue, a city that’s filled with skyscraper apartment complexes, Microsoft everywhere, and lots of fashion-forward people. We visited one of my mother’s new friends, a man who owns an Arabic store in the area, and he showed us around his store while talking about preserving tradition and the right ways to cook basmati rice. We saw a movie about cooking and I got to spend a lot of quality time with my family.
I was back to school once the weekend was over– I start my official work for the CPJ this week, so we’ve been working hard this past week to prepare. I also worked hard on topology– I spent probably a total of 12-18 hours working on trying to figure out and reconstruct just one proof. It’s been quite a work-filled week.
I also have been playing with a problem– what is the shortest distance between two randomly placed points if the path has to touch a line below them before it hits the second point?
It’s been a good week. My mother, dad, and two brothers are back with my cat in California, and I’m here eating the glorious spices that are left from their trip. Following is a fabulous recipe I created, inspired by “Spicy Chickpeas with Ginger” from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.
My Version of Spicy Chickpeas
a pinch of crushed mustard seeds
1 tsp crushed cardamom
1 large onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1.5 cups chickpea water or regular water
3 cups cooked chickpeas
2 tbs ground coriander
2 tbs ground cumin
2 tbs ground red pepper
3 tbs olive oil
0.5 tsp each salt and pepper
Cook the dried chickpeas for at least an hour, until they are soft (You’ll need to soak them overnight if they’re old, so better safe than sorry. Beware). Crush cardamom and mustard seeds while you’re waiting until they make a relatively fine powder. Save some chickpea water in a separate bowl, and put the chickpeas in another large bowl. Return to the now-empty pot, add olive oil and onions. Stir the onion very frequently for 12-15 minutes, or until browned and soft. Lower heat and add salt, pepper, cumin, coriander, red pepper, garlic, and the cardamom and mustard seed powder. Cook for a good 5 minutes and then add the chickpeas and chickpea water. The liquid will look like it will never reduce, but just put the pot on simmer and wait. Come back when the liquid has reduced to a saucelike consistency, and taste for spices! Never hesitate to add more spice. Serve with rice or couscous and fresh tomatoes/greens (I served mine with salted cooked kale).
Evergreen’s forest August 14, 2009
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In celebration (and exasperation) of my harddrive’s desire not to work anymore, as well as a huge desire to get away from the hustle and bustle of daily life, I decided to spend most of these past few days in the Evergreen forest. I would go to classes and meetings and work, and come away from all this, textbooks and novels in hand, to go and explore the woods at the end of each day.
I’ve been realizing that doing casual reading, especially in the midst of such a casual and beautiful environment, actually helps me do better in school. I’ve scoffed through two fun, lively novels this week.
The forest is one of my favorite places at Evergreen. When I first came here, I’d spend hours and hours just walking there, iPod in tow. It helped me think. There are layers– a beautiful white-barked section where trees rise up to the sky but never overwhelm you, heavy forested areas that stretch through valleys and hills for what seems like forever, areas where you are simply walking through the grasp of thick protective ferns, and of course, the glowing view of the water that awaits at the end of the trails. The beach is not a normal, sandy beach– it’s a Washingtonian Puget Sound beach, filled with smooth pebbles and pretty clam shells, only stretching a few yards before it meets the cool, calm waters.
I didn’t come here for the nature– I’ve always considered myself more of a city person. But there’s something about leaving class every day and escaping within this otherworld with just a book or a pen and paper, something about it that keeps me a little more tied to the ground and a little less stressed about the little things in life. I thought I’d share the forest with you for this reason.
I’ll post pictures once my harddrive’s up and running again.