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Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
MAT111N
MAT111N has been one of those repeating frustrations. I have registered for it three times already in the past; and never... never... never managed to get the first assignment in. And then realising that as the work piled up, and other, "more important" courses took priority I would not be able to cope with it - I have had to repeatedly deregister for it...
Well.... "NO MORE!" I cried. And I closed my eyes, and then opened them again so I could see, and grabbed my latex2e manual and registered for it again. I do not even need it to complete my degree; but I could not bear the idea of MAT111N sniggering at me as I lay beatan and broken on the ground.
And with eyes blurred with synthetic divisions and Upper Bound theorems and radians and polynomials and DeMoivre and a load of spinning mathetmatic symbols I completed the 17 page assignment in beautiful clear readable fonts and submitted it 5 minutes ago.
I now sit here... proud and defiant with my head held high and MAT111N cowering before my Latex2e Manual.
later...
Well.... "NO MORE!" I cried. And I closed my eyes, and then opened them again so I could see, and grabbed my latex2e manual and registered for it again. I do not even need it to complete my degree; but I could not bear the idea of MAT111N sniggering at me as I lay beatan and broken on the ground.
And with eyes blurred with synthetic divisions and Upper Bound theorems and radians and polynomials and DeMoivre and a load of spinning mathetmatic symbols I completed the 17 page assignment in beautiful clear readable fonts and submitted it 5 minutes ago.
I now sit here... proud and defiant with my head held high and MAT111N cowering before my Latex2e Manual.
later...
Monday, April 23, 2007
All fluey, poor little me...
On Friday I started feeling twinges of not so niceness; and decided to take it easy and not to go to shul. On Shabbat I did not move out of bed, hardly at all... On Sunday I spent most of the day in bed hoping that I would be cured the next morning. I did spend 2 hours each night working on my assignment though; but I could not manage more without feeling dizzy. The stuffiness of the study did not help. Sandra meanwhile has a test tomorrow morning and her anxiety is growing.
This morning I woke up to a headache, glassy eyes, and a horrible cough. So I made an appointment with the doctor and crossed my fingers that my platelet count is not dropping and hospital only a few hours away. As this is what happened the last time I caught the flu.
Sandra meanwhile drove for the first time to the Technikon by herself today. This is a watershed moment; as it means dealing with real traffic in the area. She successfully got herself to lectures and back again.
I went to the doctor and took a platelet count, and thank heaven, the count was approximately 270. Which is wonderful. She has prescribed me antibiotics - specifically Augmentin - and has told me to spend today and tomorrow taking it easy; and only to return to work on Wednesday. I am not allowed to take generics as apparently the binding agent in the generics may have bad effect on me!
Today is Yom HaAtzmaut. Which means I can shave as I consider it to be the dawning of our redemption. This belief has been approved by the chief rabbinate and its only Haredim and Chassidim that do not follow it. Jews who don't believe it is the dawning of our redemption need to wait until Sunday the 6th May before shaving. I, and others like me who believe that this day is the dawning of our redemption, can not shave again from tomorrow until Lag Ba'omer (6th May) as once again we are mourning for the hate in the world between man and man.
later...
This morning I woke up to a headache, glassy eyes, and a horrible cough. So I made an appointment with the doctor and crossed my fingers that my platelet count is not dropping and hospital only a few hours away. As this is what happened the last time I caught the flu.
Sandra meanwhile drove for the first time to the Technikon by herself today. This is a watershed moment; as it means dealing with real traffic in the area. She successfully got herself to lectures and back again.
I went to the doctor and took a platelet count, and thank heaven, the count was approximately 270. Which is wonderful. She has prescribed me antibiotics - specifically Augmentin - and has told me to spend today and tomorrow taking it easy; and only to return to work on Wednesday. I am not allowed to take generics as apparently the binding agent in the generics may have bad effect on me!
Today is Yom HaAtzmaut. Which means I can shave as I consider it to be the dawning of our redemption. This belief has been approved by the chief rabbinate and its only Haredim and Chassidim that do not follow it. Jews who don't believe it is the dawning of our redemption need to wait until Sunday the 6th May before shaving. I, and others like me who believe that this day is the dawning of our redemption, can not shave again from tomorrow until Lag Ba'omer (6th May) as once again we are mourning for the hate in the world between man and man.
later...
Sunday, April 22, 2007
its hot in here with the door closed...
Sandra and I have been studying all evening in the study. Its hot in here without air-conditioning and the door closed. Under normal circumstances the door into a stuffy study would be open. But in the middle of the night Sandra woke up and could not fall asleep. She had read somewhere that the smell of lavendar can help one relax and fall asleep.
In fact Wikpedia says:-
... well in the middle of the night I woke up to a pungent smell and a distressed wife. Well, we had to change all the sheets and linen and swap the mattress and turn on the air-conditioning full blast in an attempt to make the air in the bedroom breathable. The lavendar rich mattress is now in the corridor directly outside the door to the study. In order to be able to breathe whilst studying the door had to be left closed despite the humid stuffy heat of a sultry durban night.
later...
In fact Wikpedia says:-
It was used in hospitals during WWI to disinfect floors, walls and other surfaces. Lavender is soporific, and added to bath water or sprinkled on pillows aids relaxation and sleep.And she had some lavendar oil - so she decided to put a little oil in her pillow...
... well in the middle of the night I woke up to a pungent smell and a distressed wife. Well, we had to change all the sheets and linen and swap the mattress and turn on the air-conditioning full blast in an attempt to make the air in the bedroom breathable. The lavendar rich mattress is now in the corridor directly outside the door to the study. In order to be able to breathe whilst studying the door had to be left closed despite the humid stuffy heat of a sultry durban night.
later...
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Oooooooooops....
I was playing around pressing buttons in blogger and accidently deleted my template... I have been rushing around trying to make my blog semi-presentable again..
Geez...
Well I have to stop now.. at least the panic has subsided a little bit as I managed to retrieve the essentials from Google's cache. And Sandra is threatening to get cross if I don't shut down soon. Well - I suppose this will motivate me to spend some time on the template which has not been changed for a few years - until now.. Grrr... lots of work to do still....
later...
Geez...
Well I have to stop now.. at least the panic has subsided a little bit as I managed to retrieve the essentials from Google's cache. And Sandra is threatening to get cross if I don't shut down soon. Well - I suppose this will motivate me to spend some time on the template which has not been changed for a few years - until now.. Grrr... lots of work to do still....
later...
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
sierpinski blur
I have written a little program that creates this blurry sierpinski gasket.
I have written it in C.
So if you are interested in that sort of thing here is a link to the code.
I have written it in C.
So if you are interested in that sort of thing here is a link to the code.
Meira joins the fray...
Meira is now blogging too. Since she is about to leave for Italy in less than two weeks time for a 3 month holiday - there should be some interesting travel writing from her. I am sure that it will be well worth reading.
Here is the link; I am also adding it to my blogroll down down the left side of my blog.
She is using wordpress which in retrospect is the blogging technology I should have used. Maybe one day I will change but not this year.
Oh... and Sandra has been driving the car to the supermarket and to the fruit and vegetable market by herself. But she has still not crossed Berea road whilst driving by herself.
hmm. and when looking at her blog I discovered that Eric Edelstein is also blogging. Its worth going to just for a look at his funny picture. Here is a link.
Oh... and here is a link to Simone's blog.
Here is the link; I am also adding it to my blogroll down down the left side of my blog.
She is using wordpress which in retrospect is the blogging technology I should have used. Maybe one day I will change but not this year.
Oh... and Sandra has been driving the car to the supermarket and to the fruit and vegetable market by herself. But she has still not crossed Berea road whilst driving by herself.
hmm. and when looking at her blog I discovered that Eric Edelstein is also blogging. Its worth going to just for a look at his funny picture. Here is a link.
Oh... and here is a link to Simone's blog.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
& 5,6,7,8!
Last week Sandra and I went to see the premier of Steven Pillemer's and Terri Pillemer/Davidhoff's play "& 5,6,7,8!". Its "their" play because they wrote the script after being commissioned by the Catalina theatre.
The play is rivetting and holds the attention from the first moment until the final bow. It uses the high-stress high-pressure environment of backstage interactions to set the stage, as it were, for exploding the very human psyches of the the protagonists. Through excellent performances from the actors working with a script that was clearly carefully crafted, the audience is allowed to share in tragedies whose banality only deepens the sadness of their trials.
The main character, Frankie, we see struggling to hold himself together as all the bad decisions, betrayals and bad turns in his life all come to stake their claims on his life. It however, is difficult to feel too much sympathy for his travails as they are clearly deserved. But it is the intensity of his anger and his frustration that provide an excellent foil for the sufferings of the other protagonists. Each one of these characters in some way, through Frankie's downward spiral, have their pain exposed to the audience.
The script is well written, the direction is well-paced, the casting is perfect and the performances startling.
Well worth seeing. There is still a week left of performances. So book your ticket now.
later...
The play is rivetting and holds the attention from the first moment until the final bow. It uses the high-stress high-pressure environment of backstage interactions to set the stage, as it were, for exploding the very human psyches of the the protagonists. Through excellent performances from the actors working with a script that was clearly carefully crafted, the audience is allowed to share in tragedies whose banality only deepens the sadness of their trials.
The main character, Frankie, we see struggling to hold himself together as all the bad decisions, betrayals and bad turns in his life all come to stake their claims on his life. It however, is difficult to feel too much sympathy for his travails as they are clearly deserved. But it is the intensity of his anger and his frustration that provide an excellent foil for the sufferings of the other protagonists. Each one of these characters in some way, through Frankie's downward spiral, have their pain exposed to the audience.
The script is well written, the direction is well-paced, the casting is perfect and the performances startling.
Well worth seeing. There is still a week left of performances. So book your ticket now.
later...
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