I’m finally able to verbalize another big reason that grad school was definitely the best choice for me.  I am fascinated by the fine line between the known and the unknown.  I am extremely impressed by mathematicians that are not only aware of this line, but walk it in their careers. A major concern I’ve […]

Ew.  Blogger has me using the “new interface.”  I do not like it.  I’ve been using the old interface for YEARS now, so I’m pretty resistant to change.  Also, the new-post page that I’m typing in right now is really bare and it’s creeping me out.  My screen is a big white & light gray […]

My summer-long narcissism ended yesterday. The qualifying exam is over, so now I can let myself care about other things. It’s hard to explain the qualifying exam process to non-math-grad people, but I’ll try… It’s a pass/fail exam and you can’t advance in the program without it. Here, they offer 5 or 6 different specialty […]

Yesterday I completely finished reading and typing two years (four semesters) worth of algebra notes. (One year undergrad, one year graduate.) I’d been working on it with varying intensity and focus for about one month, so it feels really good to be done with that. (Aside: For any non-math people that may still be reading […]

So, in reading over old algebra notes, I am now thinking “This isn’t that bad. It should be easy to study for this qualifying exam.” To punish myself, I am now going to actually do some of the math (work out some of the problems, proofs, and exercises without my notes), instead of just skimming […]