I had asked our TA a question on Calc, and he gave me an explanation, but he wasn't really sure what the answer was. (It was something about when Green's Theorem works and when it doesn't, and what it has to do with holes in the region.) So I went to talk to our math professor about it. She gave the exact opposite answer of the TA, but it wasn't her field either, so I asked if she could refer me to a book or area of study. She didn't get back to me until today after class. She said she looked it up, and it has to do with algebraic topology. She asked if I was going to be a math major. I said. . . uhhhh I like math, and I can understand it and do problems and stuff, but coming up with new theorems is really a different thing. She said this was actually a recent topic of research, this was a very good question, and that asking this kind of question is the thing that leads to new theorems, and that she thinks I should really consider being a math major. What's more, she thinks I should be a topologist. Hehehe, how funny!! It's such a hard, hard branch of math. But really, I was surprised, and I guess happily so, because apparently she thinks I would have some promise as a math major. Hmmmmmmmm. . . . So. . . . what DO I want to be????????

Updates today: see the pretty picture? During my "study break" I drew some pictures that I'm finally happy with. ^_^. Final this week. And yet another class. Will Amy survive? Oh, I got into Harmony and Counterpoint. So it looks like Amy will be song-writing next term. yay!

Superbowl today. Random amusing moments. Oh well. More studying to do.

I watched the rest of Lain today. It was soooooo bizarre. She isn't human, she isn't divine. She just sits and watches the world. But the movie itself was so dreamlike. It was like poetry, trying to recapture what happened by revealing glimpses, scattered bits and pieces. I'm not even sure I know what happened, much less what it meant.

The weekend passed by quickly, as usual. I had the terrible midterm on Friday (which I shall get back tomorrow >_<), and on Friday, I got to see Gokudo-kun, which was a cute, cute anime. Saturday, I spent the morning learning to make crêpes, and then eating them (they were really good!!), and then going with David to exchange his cell-phone. Sunday, I tried to study, and read manga too, and today, I studied.

Gosh, I think I'm going to drop out and go to art school. No, that would be hard too, because it's so hard to make yourself noticed in the art world; good artists can't really get by, you have to be phenomenal. . . Oh crumbs, why do I have to be mediocre in everything? Oh well, enough of my venting. . .

This made my day! I went to the food trucks with David, and his chopsticks came with the chopstick poem:

Two little sticks
They're made out of wood
And they help you
to pick up your lunch,
your lunch.
And if you practice,
then you'll get good
And you'll find you can pick up
a bunch to munch.

Eat noodles with chopsticks
Eat duplings with chopsticks
Eat sushi with chopsticks
That's fish!

Don't eat soup with your chopsticks
That's no good with chopsticks
And jello with (sic) slide off
Your dish.

I eat with chopsticks.
Can you eat with chopsticks?
Doctor told us
Be intell eat by using chopsticks
Lots of people use chopsticks
So try eat your chopsticks (sic)
RIght now

(I put the 'sics' there; my grammar's bad but not that bad ~_^)

Since I'm in a poetic mood, I'll stick the poem from the sterling engine competition here:

One class to fuel them all;
One class to mind them.
One class to bring them all,
And with the spin-off, bind them...

Come one, come all to the
2.670 Stirling Engine Competition!
(http://web.mit.edu/2.670/www/)

Friday, January 17th
3:30 pm
Papalardo Laboratory
(Basement of the Infinite, next to CopyTech)

160 Stirling Engines.
Three tables.
One fire extinguisher.
You can't miss this.

Clementine oranges are the perfect study food for the following reasons:
1. I never get enough vegetables/fruits in my meals
2. don't have to wash them
3. no seeds
4. not too large, not too small
5. really, really sweet and juicy!!!

I realize why I like math so much more than any other science. It's so easy in physics, to handwave, for example, for someone to explain something you don't understand by saying "It's due to this other xxxx force (which you have never heard of) that you need to account for." or just as easily, "In this case, the xxxx force is negligeable enough to not be accounted for." In math, there is no such handwaving: what is there is there, and it all makes perfect sense. Or some sense. Or at least more sense than everything else I'm doing.

Went to the mall today. The Border's there has a really good manga section *sighs dreamily*. I found the Sailor Moon manga I've been searching for for a while, and then a Star Wars manga ^_^. I've spent enough money for the next few months, I suppose. Manga's expensive, you know.

First week of IAP over! We already have a midterm next week. So scary >_<. Yesterday, Crysela cooked for us: enchiladas and tortillas, all from scratch, and all very good. Cynthia made an e-mail list for our Friday cooking groups, so we're 'cooking@mit.edu'. Doesn't it sound so official? ^_^. Today, I went to watch an anime with Lindy and David. Lain. It was really interesting, and strange, and dreamy, and i want to watch some more.

Gosh, i feel so retarded in my preUROP. I know nothing at all.

It was my first day of class. Oh, I miss Mattuck so badly!! His colored chalk, neat writing, perfect circles. . . his ants which walk across fields of varying temperature. . . My preUROP didn't go so well either. Our mentor tried to teach us some physics as background for the research. I was so lost-- like a firstgrader in a Calculus class. MIT is very good at that, you know. ^_~ Oh well, off to bed. I'm trying to see if I can manage 8 hours of sleep per night. Will I be able to handle it?

Back at MIT for IAP! I walked in the door, and this feeling rushed on me, the same feeling I got when I entered the door in August. Not that that feeling really stood out for its grandness or oddness, what was interesting was the identicalness of the feelings both times.

So now my room is all decorated and pretty, with an LOTR poster, and a Hello Kitty Calender, but my wall no longer matches. . . such is the risk that one takes with hanging up stuff on the wall. White walls match with everything.