The Logs of Darth Phoenix

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:54:06 GMT

I've finished applications to grad schools! Which is good, seeing as the first deadline is tomorrow (or rather, today, but anyway). To be fair, it was just recommendations I was waiting on for the ones whose deadlines are the 15th. But it's all done, all my applications are submitted, all the references are submitted, all that needs doing is waiting.

I finished Buffy and caught up on the Season 8 comics... whoa. Love it! And I've watched the first few episodes of Angel... heh well not quite Buffy, but it's good, and it seems to be getting better. Whedon shows seem to need a little while to find their own way, so we'll see. I believe! In book news, I've started Unseen Academicals. :) In other news, I went to London two weekends ago and saw Speaking in Tongues with John Simm. It was a rather depressing play with a plot revolving around people cheating on each other. And I met John Simm (however briefly, but he did sign my programme!)! :) And I saw Wallace and Gromit for the first time, and watched Muppet Treasure Island (not for the first time). All in all, an exciting weekend (OK so the spending time with people who've graduated and hence haven't spent time with for a while may have had something to do with it).

Anyway, I'm back in Vancouver, as of last Monday. I've been doing... well, not much. Some dinners with people, Chanukah stuff, and that's about it. Soon I will have to get down to business and rehearse the Rite of Spring for graduate orchestra (wow is it fun sight-reading that) and do the reading for my Part III Essay, which is (probably) going to be about Heegaard Floer homology and knot Floer homology. I'm rather excited about that, to be honest, but it's the break, and sleeping sounds fun too. Once I start, though, I'll enjoy it. There may have also been my birthday last Tuesday, which was fun. There were a few grandparents here visiting, and there may have been a Thai restaurant dinner involved, and it just might have been yummy. Or om nom nom, as they say in Kentish Town.

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:41:40 GMT

Tomorrow (today? it's after midnight) is the Orchestra on the Hill concert. All zero of you who are in Cambridge, UK please come watch! Vltava sounds lovely, and I'm really excited. My mom will be here as well, which is also very exciting!

I finished The Ghost King by R.A. Salvatore. I'm unsure whether he'll write another in this series, and I'm almost tempted to say he shouldn't, but I know I'd want to read it if he did. Last night I started The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke, expounding on her novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

Yesterday (two days ago?) I solved the Square-1. I can't really do parity, but it only is a problem half of the time, so given enough attempts, I can solve it.

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:10:48 GMT

It's been a while since an update. Things have been pretty hectic in a not-so-hectic way. Tomorrow evening is the first rehearsal of Vltava, so I'm looking forward to that (with a bit of trepidation, but not too much).

I've done some applications! I have successfully applied (minus a few references being sent in) to Princeton and Columbia, and will also apply to: Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, Cornell, UMichigan, UTexas-Austin, Georgia Tech, UC Santa Barbara, and possibly UIUC. And possibly Cambridge, but the chances of me wanting to stay here for another three years are slim to none. I'd miss Orchestra on the Hill if I left, but... yeah.

It turns out that it's very expensive to apply to grad schools in the States: application fee ($70 - $90) and ETS fee ($20) amounts to many moneys spent. On the other hand, I'm not sure why no-one had told me this before, but apparently the schools who accept you pay you to come visit them! Airfare, accommodation, and everything! This is very exciting. :)

I met Jackie Lang at a formal two weeks ago, who knows Hannah Alpert, Daniel Studenmund, Ezra Winston, and of Max Engelstein. Crazy small world we live in, eh?

On Saturday evening I played in an unfortunately cut-down version of The Fairy Queen (although it still lasted decently long). It was my first opera that I've played in, and it was really fun (except for having seven sopranos blasting in your ears when you're really accompanying the tenors). The Saturday before that was the Orchestra on the Hill concert at Fitzwilliam, which went exceptionally well! I'm looking forward to hearing the recording (especially of the Schubert, which sounded very good [at least from where I was sitting]).

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:29:09 GMT

I'm sick. :( It means I can't go to orchestra this evening, and more importantly, I can't go to the dinner! :(

The GRE on Saturday went very well (except for some probability questions, and one question on arclength which I messed up), and now I can start settling in for the long haul application process.

First orchestra rehearsal was on Sunday, and it was very exciting! I forgot how many people turn up to the first rehearsal... we had eight flutes, eight oboes, although not very many strings. It should be good, though. We're playing Grieg's Piano Concerto, Rossini's William Tell Overture, and Copland's Billy the Kid.

Last night I worked on a Category Theory question for almost three hours, and only when I was lying in bed did I realise that I had actually solved the question a little over an hour earlier, but didn't realise! Those are good/bad moments, in that it's a relief to have solved it, but bad to have solved it in bed, whereupon I wake up and all the thoughts that I'd not been thinking in order to work on the question come flooding in to distract me; it's not conducive to sleeping.

There's a talk on PhD applications being given right now by the maths department... I can't go, but Ed is there and will inform me of anything useful they say.

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:22:23 GMT

First day of lectures today! First off is Category Theory (to which I was convinced to go, although I'm uncertain I want to do it for exam), and I really enjoyed it. Prof Johnstone is clear and writes well, contrary to what I'd heard from the year below who had him for Numbers & Sets. Then I had a break for an hour, where I registered with the library so I have 24 hour access and studied for the GRE. Then I had Algebraic Topology with Prof Rasmussen which was review of old material, but it moved at a great pace, so I'm good with that.

I leave tomorrow for Canterbury for the GRE on Saturday morning.

I got Dr Tristram (my Director of Studies for my first two years) and Dr Russell (my DoS for my third year) to agree to write reference letters for me, so that's a load off my mind. The meeting with Prof Rasmussen on Monday went well, and I'll be meeting him every few weeks with some work from his class and after he gets to know me mathematically, he'll hopefully be able to write me a reference letter.

We just got news that our venue for the Orchestra on the Hill concert is unavailable, but we should have another auditorium, as long as it's available. The society fair was great, and we have a wonderful number of brass and percussion, as long as they all show up. As usual, we have a crazy number of clarinets/flutes/oboes, but hopefully that will sort itself out (and I leave it to the wind manager to arrange them if it doesn't fix itself). The Churchill society fair was also fun! We had balloons, and we also decided to leave a sheet on the table inviting people to try to draw a treble clef... it was very popular.

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:55:47 GMT

I watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog this morning... genius! You can find it on YouTube.

So I'm back in Cambridge! My room is unpacked and all, except that I have a tiny little bookshelf, and require a much bigger one. Maintenance should arrive any day now with my larger bookshelf, which means I can move my piles of books and stuff off my desk. Luckily, I have two desks (odd, eh?), so I have designated one a work desk and one a computer desk. Luckily, work hasn't started, so I can leave my books/DVDs/etc. on there for now.

Today I am meeting my new Director of Studies, Prof James Norris, who taught Probability and Measure last year. I'm not sure what the meeting is about, presumably inquiring what we're taking and for which courses supervisions need be arranged. On a more useful note, I am meeting Prof Jacob Rasmussen this afternoon to get advice about grad schools and also hopefully get to know him in order to get a reference. He taught my Algebraic Topology class last year, and is teaching it this year as well.

My maths GRE is this coming Saturday in Canterbury! Which is a bit scary. But I am going through and learning as much calculus/dynamics as I can, since that's my weakest point. I also have to remember to count properly. You know, not put three when I actually counted four.

But this week will be rather busy, as Tuesday and Wednesday is the fresher's fair, where I have to staff the Orchestra on the Hill stall. And lectures begin on Thursday. And after I return from Canterbury, Sunday afternoon holds the first Orchestra on the Hill rehearsal!

So this is a busy week. After this week, things should hopefully calm down a bit.

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:05:23 GMT

Shana tova v'shabbat shalom!

We went to Kollel today; Ruth was hoping that she would enjoy it more than she expected to enjoy Chabad (which is where I had intended to go), and it turns out that it's also Chabad, except in an under-construction building. So. Oops. I had no problem, although Ruth and Ed decided to leave and Ruth went to a Renewal synagogue (not entirely sure what Renewal is) and had a wonderful time, so I think she'll be going back there. I'm probably going to the nearby Chabad tomorrow. So, there were three Cohanim and not a single Levite. Although, there was a Levi to do the second aliyah (I'm pretty sure... otherwise I would've done both the first and second aliyot), but I guess he had left by the time it came to duchan. So we washed our own hands, which was weird, but I'm not sure what the requirement is regarding this, and we were left to our own devices. The Chabad machzor has no commentary, so we just did our best.

Friday morning I opened my computer after it had been sleeping and the screen wouldn't turn on. It's dead, the screen is... not even a ghost image to be seen. So, since Ed has acquired a new computer from his lab here, he's going to facilitate a cheap buy of his KULeuven laptop from KUL and then take my old computer once it gets fixed, so I've got his old laptop, which is the same as my previous one but a year newer. So all in all, a pretty sweet deal.

Friday morning I had a conducting lesson, focusing on Vltava. I love it :)! It's so much fun, and John van Deursen is a good teacher. Then in the afternoon, I went for a golf lesson with Ruth, where we practised our short game. We'll go to a Pitch & Putt two more times before I leave, and then to a golf lesson on Thursday.

I watched the new Fringe this afternoon: crazy! -- I can't wait for the rest of this season. I finished Paul of Dune two days ago, and am going to start The Angel's Game when Ruth finds it.

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:03:46 GMT

I had the general GRE this afternoon, and it was a blast. As it was computer-based, I got my scores for the maths and verbal sections already: 800 and 630 respectively. So I'm relatively happy (there were numerous words in the verbal that I had never even seen before, and couldn't make out roots that I recognised). I guess I get my analytic writing results back in a month or so. The issue question was OK, although I think I wrote much and said little, as I'm wont to do; hopefully I got enough content in there for a decent mark. The argument question was amusing, and I had plenty to say on it, but it's hard to tell the quality or if I missed some obvious things.

So all in all, I'm happy with my performance, and now I'm just exhausted.

On another note, the actual process of taking the test was ridiculous. First of all, I don't see why we can't have water (this is an ETS restriction, I believe, not a testing centre one), except that maybe some people have spilled it on the computers. I couldn't take my Kleenexes in because they were "paper material", but I Could take in my ID (my passport) which has plenty of blank pages I could've used in which to write things. I couldn't take my own pens in, and had to use the pencils they gave me, and because they shone in the overhead light, I had to continually shade the writing with my other hand in order to read what I'd written. The testing centre people were crazy as well: the two people at the front were flippant and unhelpful, and what's more, they were arguing with each other (an employee and her boss) right in the front, and not arguing respectfully. It was a tiny place, and one person taking the test had brought a medium sized bag which didn't fit in the lockers, and she asked where she could put it, and they said just put it on the floor, and she asked if it will be there when she gets out, and they said maybe. Seriously!? Also, there was often no-one at the front desk, which is also where the monitors are which survey the testing room. After I came back from my 10 minute break in the middle of the test, I didn't realise (ie. the test didn't tell me and the testing centre didn't tell me) that someone had to start the test again (even though there was a timer on the screen and it had gone to zero), and so I was sitting there for a while, confused, thinking my computer had crashed and wondering if I would lose all my analytical writing work, and when I went out to talk to someone, there was no-one there. I waited at my desk until I saw someone at the front desk and went to talk to him. Anyone else taking the GRE (or anything), please avoid the Prometric Testing Center located at the Cambridge College of Technology in Metrotown in Burnaby in Vancouver in British Columbia in Canada (in case anyone tries searching for it on Google, they will find my page). Apparently Prometric Testing Center is a chain, and I can't comment on any but the one I went to.

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:28:18 GMT

So I thought I'd return to the land of LiveJournal (as a poster... as a commenter, I've been sporadically active, and I never stopped reading).

I thought: now is a perfect time, ... a new year, Part III Maths, applying to PhD, ... lots of exciting things which make for wonderful blogging. Neh?

Anyhoo, I'm taking the General GRE on Wednesday (computer-based, in case anyone is wondering). I'm not particularly stressed (or particularly involved in heavy studying), but I have been doing a few practice exams, and they bore me. Oh well. E-mails from a number of schools tell me they don't care too much about this GRE as long as I pass. Well, not in so many words, but I believe that this is the gist. The real studying comes after, for the maths GRE on October 10.

I'm spending some time with Vltava right now, and it's really exciting! I'm looking forward to: a) my next conducting lesson, and b) conducting Vltava in the OotH Michaelmas Concert! Hooray! :) I'm also going through a Best Mahler That You Never Heard, which is someone's suggestion of an interesting/excellent non-standard recording of each Mahler symphony. Good so far!

I'm really looking forward to the coming year at Cambridge! My classes sound like excellent fun. :D The list so far (things are droppable depending on teacher/quality/etc.) consists of:

Michaelmas:
-----
Commutative Algebra (Wadsley) MWF10
Differential Geometry (Ross) MWF11
Lie Groups, Lie Algebras and their Representations (Totaro) THS10
Algebraic Topology (Rasmussen) THS11

Lent:
-----
Complex Manifolds (Wilson) MWF9
Spectral Geometry (Barden) MWF11
Set Theory and Logic (Forster) THS9
Probabilistic Combinatorics (Bollobás) TH10

The format is: "Lecture Course Title (Lecturer) DatesTime". For those not in the know, Michaelmas and Lent are the name of the October-December and January-March terms at Cambridge (and Easter Term is the final term, which includes exams). Also, as I've had several (at least one that I can remember) complaints about it, I might as well explain here: the letter "H" stands for "Thursday". Because of the "h", you see. And because "T" was taken. I would've loved to do Algebraic Geometry, but teacher concerns have put me off. And I wanted to do Algebraic Number Theory, but the course didn't sound as exciting as last year's Part III course was, so I think I'll give it a miss.

So that's it. I'm going to bed to read (heh the phrasing reminds me of how is babby formed) my book, which happens to be Paul of Dune currently. It's slow going... I seem to have trouble reading fast with all Dune books (even Frank Herbert's well-written ones, so it's not a comment on the writing of Brian and Kevin). I have Death Star, Shadowdale, The Edge of the World, For Whom The Bell Tolls, and Shogun sitting waiting for me, along with the The Angel's Game somewhere downstairs. I also have to pick up books 2, 3, and 5 of the Cleric Quintet (I've had 4 for the longest time, ... I picked it up used somewhere); I just read the Canticle and it was brilliant (I love the Cadderly and Danica interaction, ... better than Drizzt and Cattie-brie in the early years, but I dunno... I've spent so long with the Drow that it's hard to compare), and I can't wait until The Ghost King in a month! Oooh and Imperial Commando: 501st in a month as well!

So yes, going to bed.