#please don’t ask me for linear algebra help though I was just trying to be silly

[jaevy]

Normalize this, normalize that, why don’t you calm the fuck down about normalizing shit and start normalizing this vector. Your linear algebra homework is due tonight and you haven’t even started it.

Ok so let’s say we have vector a. First let’s see if it’s a unit vector, which has a magnitude of 1. If it’s a unit vector, there’s no need to normalize; it’s already normalized.

In order to calculate vector a’s magnitude you need to square root the dot product of vector a with itself. This means you would need to sum up the square of each entry (i.e. 3^2 + 1^2 + 2^2 + (sqrt2)^2), then find the square root of that summation. It’s kind of like the pythagorean theorem but with more than just an a^2 and a b^2

So like yeah you just kinda add up all that stuff but from there you should get the square root of 16 (4), which is not equal to 1. Therefore vector a is NOT a unit vector and you need to normalize it.

To normalize vector a, you just divide each of its entries by the magnitude of vector a. So instead of a 3, it should be 0.75, and instead of a 1, it should be 0.25. That way, when you calculate the magnitude of that new vector, its magnitude should be equal to 1.

[passingdaysthings]

03.5.2023 - Oh boy, peace?

Today is Sunday 

It seems like I really like writing on Sundays, and as usual, I read my last post before writing this one. Taylor and I slightly discussed why I deleted the pictures and videos, and I told him, it was just awkward for me when he would flirt with Victoria. This was something he decided to address only after drinking quite a bit. It seems like he didn’t think it was hardcore flirting, but I said I thought it was and it make me feel awkward. The man literally said he wanted to buy her flowers for Valentines, and he asked her to be his Valentines. Tbh, I didn’t think much of the Valentines thing, and it was more of the flowers thing. He wanted to send flowers to her even though that is not something he would do for anyone. I also told him it was just weird for me because she is my best friend, and she knows about our “friendship”. I guess it’s not weird to him because he probably thinks she doesn’t know anything about our “friendship”. I wonder if he will start acting weird or changing how he acts since I voiced my opinion about it. I really wish our friendship could go back to the regular friendship that it use to be. None of the sexual talk, no sleeping together talk, and just completely delete those 2 months of very relationship type stuff. I may have deleted the picture I sent, but then we just sent new ones. Life would be so much more peaceful if I could just stop this, but I just can’t help it. Why am I like this? I’ve never been like this before, and to be honest, Taylor could go date someone else, and I wouldn’t have much thought about it. I think I need to stop trying to understand Taylor too because that is not going to happen since he never speaks his mind. I need to get over it. I must really be bored or something to let these things continue bothering me enough to write about it.  

Onto other things, I am really annoyed with how my school teaches class because I feel like I am just getting the definition of things and no example. It’s like they expect to know how to work a problem based purely on knowing the definition of something. Like sir? Can I get an example or something related? I just don’t understand why school is taught so different from how things would be taught in real life. I am 100% that I will have to go through training at my future job regardless of what I learned in school. No way I am gonna start a new job, and they just throw me into the deep end without training. That’s how school is currently so it makes no sense to me. Thank you for the example, now would you please work on a problem similar to the one on homework. That would be useful. Also, I hate that homework is graded for correctness rather than completion. My problem with that is homework is used for us to practice what we learned in class, and mistakes are gonna be made because it is our first time learning or doing a problem like that. I don’t understand why it’s graded for correctness like an exam or test. I think that homework should be done, graded based on completion, and then feedback should be given so that our mistakes are something we can use to study for the then graded exam. That just makes way more sense to me. I think I am doing fine though, but it’s annoying how hard I have to work. I would have to say that I am pretty proud of myself for how well I am doing for someone who hasn’t done Calc 1 since high school, and has never taken calc 2, calc 3, dicrete math, and linear algebra untli now. From what I know, most of the people in my program already have a background in this, and I am really part of the minority that hasn’t done any of this before. I am iffy with my python skills though because I googled a lot of that stuff. I have learned that coding is a very interesting thing that no one seems to really know how to do, and everyone resorts to asking others on the internet about it. I am also pretty sure that I signed myself up for a hard time next quarter because I am taking 2 classes which consist of Prob and Stats for Data Science and Python Software Dev. 

Reasons for incoming poor mental health: 

1. I am pretty harsh on myself so I get pretty upset when I don’t understand things right away. Prob and Stats was a class I struggled in during undergrad and Python is very new to me. Failure is happening. 

2. I have been getting distracted pretty easily, but I think that I have just thought of a solution. I am going to use Tracy’s room as my work room. 

3. I definitely won’t have time to play video games so I think the lack of friendship will take it’s toll. Ofc, I will still have my volleyball friends so it won’t be too bad. 

4. I get annoyed when things are taught the way they are currently being taught. I hope that it gets better. I don’t think it was that bad the first quarter. 

I think that is enough for this post because I need to get back to watching Khan academy videos since the async lectures from class are useless. 

-P

[themetaphorgirl]

Okay idea: everyone is super stressed out, probably school related (idk how american school works but when I was at school everyone got stressed during exam season) and Spencer keeps info dumping on everyone as a way to not feel as stressed out but it’s having the opposite effect on everyone else and they get super snappy and telling him to go away or to be quiet and he ends up just going super quiet for the rest of the day/ study session. Aaron twigs onto what happened so when he’s putting Spencer to bed that night he asks him about his facts and he thrives telling them until he falls asleep mid-fact!!

Idk this has been on my brain all day lol 💙

Okay so this took a tiny bit of a turn but it made me laugh soooo…I hope you like it!

—————

The library was eerily quiet. Spencer fidgeted as he flipped through his history textbook. He wasn’t exactly sure how to study like everyone else- no one had every taught him how to study, so he just kept reading and tucking things away in the back of his memory.

The door slammed and he sat up a little too fast, smacking the back of his head against the wall. “Ow,” he whispered to himself, trying to not disturb the other students cramming frantically for exams. He pushed himself up and tugged down the hem of his half-tucked uniform shirt. Everyone seemed to want to study on their own, but his quiet corner in the middle of the 900s was just way too quiet.

He tiptoed down the aisles in search of someone familiar. Penelope was sitting on the floor surrounded by stacks of color coded index cards, frowning at them in confusion as she absentmindedly tapped her fluffy-topped pen against her cheek. “Hi, Pen,” he said. “Are you still studying?”

“Mm-hm,” she said without looking up.

He shifted his weight. “I like your index cards,” he offered. “Did you know they use color coding in food safety to prevent cross contamination?” He pointed to a neon green stack. “Green means processed meat. And blue means-“

“Precious, I know you really want to share things with me, but I have a lot of information to weed through,” she said. “Could you please go share your wealth of knowledge with somebody else?”

He hesitated. “Okay,” he said.

She went back to her index cards immediately. He wandered away, looking for someone else familiar. He found Derek sitting on a windowseat and JJ lying on the floor next to him, their review packets in wild disarray and the contents of their backpacks strewn around them. “What are you guys studying?” Spencer asked.

“Math,” JJ said glumly. “And Derek is making his study card for English.”

Derek held it up. “We’re allowed a three by five index card,” he said. “Think I can write smaller?”

Spencer brightened. “I can’t help with the writing, but I can help with math!” he said. “What is it? Algebra? Calculus?”

“It’s all the dumb y=mx+b stuff,” JJ said.

Spencer sat down beside her. “I can help!” he said. “I like linear equations. They’re so easy once you know what you’re looking at. So the y-intercept is-“

“I think I can figure it out,” JJ said. “Thanks, though.”

“You’re sure?” Spencer said. “Derek, do you-“

“Dammit,” Derek said, distracted as the lead of his pencil snapped. “Ugh, I’m running out of lead.”

Spencer stood up carefully. “Okay, well…I’ll help if you need me,” he offered.

He stood there for a moment, waiting to see if they were going to change their minds, but they both went back to their work. Reluctantly he bit back a sigh and kept walking.

He could hear Emily and Aaron arguing before he got to them. “You realize that these are the grades that prospective colleges are going to look at for admission, right?” he was saying.

“Cs get degrees, Hotchner. I don’t really care.”

The two of them sat opposite each other at a long table; Aaron’s work was stacked in neat piles while Emily’s books formed a tower topped by a damp cup of mostly melted iced coffee. Aaron dragged his hand through his dark hair in bewildered frustration, leaving it tousled and sticking up. “You could pull your grade up to at least a B if you just tried,” he said. “I’m trying to help you.”

Emily tossed a handful of skittles in her mouth. “Relax, Hotchner, I’ll be fine,” she said.

Spencer cleared his throat. “Actually-“

Emily jumped, spilling skittles across the table. “Jesus Christ, gremlin, when did you get here?” she said.

He rolled his eyes. “Actually, it’s been proven that standardized testing like the SAT and the ACT are more important for college admission than grades,” he said.

Emily smirked. “Aha, see? I told you,” she said, tossing a skittle at Aaron’s face. It bounced off his forehead and onto his open physics textbook as he glared at her in annoyance.

“Although a study of fifty-five thousand students did show that GPA scores are five times more reliable for predicting graduation rates than the ACT, so you might be more likely to get accepted to a college than graduate on time,” he continued. “And a student with a high GPA but a low test score can-“

“Spencer,” Aaron interrupted. “Do you need something?”

He hesitated. “I’m hungry?” he said meekly.

Emily held up the skittles. “Want these?” she offered. He shook his head. “Suit yourself.”

“We already had dinner, Bug,” Aaron said. “If you’re really that hungry I have some snacks in my room later.”

“Could we go get coffee?” he asked.

“It’s almost nine, that’s way too late,” Aaron said. “Go study, Spencer. We’ll head back in like half an hour.”

He rocked up on his toes. “Can I stay with you guys?” he asked.

“Only if you can be quiet,” Aaron said.

Spencer slunk away and trooped over to the circulation desk. “Alex, can I have a snack?” he asked plaintively.

“Wait, there’s snacks in here?“

Spencer balked. “Where’s Alex?”

Instead of Alex, Anderson was sitting behind the desk with his iPad in one hand and an Italian dictionary in the other. “She asked me to take her shift tonight,” he said. “Rewind, munchkin, were you saying your sister keeps snacks in the library? Where? I’m starving.”

Spencer ran back towards Aaron and Emily, nearly tripping over his untied shoelaces. “I thought Alex was coming with us,” he said.

“Nah, she and Blake wanted some alone time so they could-“

Aaron threw a wadded up piece of paper at Emily’s face. “They’re studying,” he said quickly. “By themselves. Alone. We’re not going to bother them. And Emily and I are studying. You should go see if JJ or Penelope need help.”

“They don’t,” Spencer said glumly.

“Derek?”

“He’s busy too.”

“Dave?”

Emily shook her head. “He left for home after dinner,” she said.

“Are James and Alex coming back?” Spencer asked.

“Not any time soon,” Emily smirked. “They’re busy.”

“Doing what?” Spencer pressed.

Aaron groaned, dragging his hand over his face. “Just go study quietly by yourself, okay?” he said. “We’ll leave the library soon, just…please stop asking questions.”

Spencer’s shoulders drooped. “Okay,” he said in a small voice.

He wandered back to the 900s and sat down by himself. Studying seemed boring and pointless, but he really wasn’t in the mood to read anything either.

—————

Aaron bit back a yawn. They’d meant to leave the library some time after nine, but it was well past ten already. He shouldered his backpack as they made the walk across campus. JJ and Penelope were quizzing each other on vocabulary words and Derek was playing on his phone but Spencer trailed behind him, unusually quiet.

“Kid, you doing okay?” he asked. “Need me to carry you?”

“I’m fine,” Spencer said in a small voice.

He could tell something was wrong with Spencer, but it didn’t click until they were almost up to the seventh floor. Of course Spencer was sad and grumpy- everyone had been telling him to go away and stay quiet and stop bothering them, of course he would be upset.

“Bug, are you still hungry?” Aaron asked as they climbed the last flight of stairs. “I’ve got some snacks in my room if you want them. Get your pajamas on and come over if you want them.”

Spencer didn’t answer and he half expected him to not show up, but after about ten minutes he heard a small knock at his door.

“Hi,” Spencer said in a small voice.

Aaron ushered him inside. “Hey, kiddo,” he said. “I still have some of those frosted animal cookies if you want them.” Spencer nodded. “Go get comfy then. Just don’t get crumbs in my bed.”

Spencer climbed up on his bed, his favorite blanket trailing around him, and accepted the bag Aaron handed him. “So do you feel ready for your exams?” Aaron asked.

“I think so,” Spencer said as he nibbled on a cookie.

Aaron cleared his throat. “So is it true that testing scores can be more important than a GPA?” he said. “Can you explain that for me?”

He let Spencer explain, quiet and a little terse at first, but as he warmed up he started to talk faster, words spilling out as he jumped from one topic to the next. Aaron let him talk, smiling and nodding and adding what he could when he paused to take a breath. He seemed happier, more animated and less reluctant to talk.

Eventually Spencer’s words began to slow as his eyes started to close. Aaron watched him carefully as he started to get sleepy, catching the bag of cookies before it could spill the contents.

Spencer yawned heavily and didn’t put up a fight as Aaron drew the covers back. “-and then they found out that…that baboons and mandrills aren’t actually that alike…they’re in a different genus,” he said sleepily. He laid down on Aaron’s bed and allowed himself to be tucked in. “That was in…in 1989, I think.”

“Wow, that’s interesting,” Aaron said, keeping his voice low. He tucked Spencer in securely and draped his blanket over him. “You want rain sounds or waves?”

“Both, please,” Spencer mumbled, cuddling under the covers as Aaron turned on the white noise app on his phone. “Bubba?”

“Yes?”

“Where’s Birdy?”

Aaron hesitated. “She and James are…uh…”

Luckily Spencer yawned hard and closed his eyes, cuddling into the pillow before he could say anything. Aaron waited until he was asleep enough to let out a tiny baby snore.

“Oh thank god, I don’t want to answer that,” Aaron mumbled. He bent to kiss Spencer’s forehead. “Get some sleep, bug.”

[sevenfactorial]

Info about applying to PhD programs in pure math

This is... basically what it sounds like. I’m sure a lot of this is applicable to other PhD applications but I’m only very familiar with pure math. This is aimed at current seniors about to apply, but there is a section about prepping for applications in advance.

The highlights:

Recommendation letters are the most important thing. Most schools ask for 3ish. Try to get people who know you well, not just a student in the class. Someone you've conducted research with and one from a different institution are ideal if possible

Ask for rec letters at least a month before the due date is a good rule of thumb.

Research experience is probably the second most important.

Get the opinion of multiple professors who know you in order to build a list of potential schools. Then widdle it down to your will-actually-apply list (probably 8-14 ish). 

My opinion but please apply to at least 3-4 safety/match schools. Even when you're fully qualified, acceptance rates are simply low enough that a bit of bad luck means getting rejected or waitlisted from a few of them.

Most pure math due dates are in early-mid Dec but a few schools are in Nov and some are as late as mid-Jan. 

Schools will generally have their own graduate application portals. Some are better organized than others. Some require you to submit all your material before you can send a request for submitting rec letters so plan accordingly.

Acceptance letters will very slowly start going out in mid-Feb but the vast majority of programs won't send out anything until like, March and not be done until later than that. Accordingly, wait until at least mid-March to begin freaking out if you haven't been accepted anywhere.

You should 100% be expecting a tuition waiver and stipend from a program if you're applying for a PhD.

The rest of the posts is.... ridiculously long so I’m putting it under a cut. I mention things to do in advance to help you decide if grad school is right for you and things that make your application look good, give a full time line of the process, a list of things applications commonly ask for, and some miscellaneous notes. (The points above are repeated in more detail).

In addition, some links to other resources math students may appreciate:

an old post of mine about grad school apps (overlaps a lot and features some ranting from during the application process)

about REUs including my addition specifically about math ones

summer programs for undergrads that aren’t REUs by @counter-example and @jungleuniversity

Tips for prospective grad student visits 

Also about prospective grad student visits by @thisurlhasbeenleftasanexercise

Also for context, I went to a large state school in the US for undergrad. I started as a CS major and added on math as a secondary major after my first year and dropped CS during third year. I’m primarily interested in discrete and algebra, though I have a significant topology background from undergrad too. I got most of my advice from people around the department, as I became pretty involved during my third year. Now, I’m a first year grad student at another large state school in the US, generally considered pretty decent though not a “top math program” at all. Not that much else has happened so far.

Things in advance (aka things to help you decide if grad school is for you and things that look good on an application)

Take the standard classes. For pure math, this is at least one semester of linear alg, abstract alg, and analysis each. Linear and analysis are also good for applied math but I'm not sure what else if anything is considered standard.

Take some grad classes if you have the option. Most people are not ready for this until senior year, but some do manage as juniors. Talk to people who know you well and the prof teaching the class before you do this though.

Try to get involved with research whether this is through independent studies at your home institution, REUs, internships, or other stuff.

Be involved in your department. This helps with getting you more personalized advice for applying.

The rough suggested timeline (assuming junior yr is your second to last year and senior is your last of undergrad)

Junior April: Take the math subject GRE so you can take it again in Sep or Oct if desired (perhaps not applicable atm). The general can be taken kinda whenever; I suggest fall of senior year.

Junior April/May: Start talking to professors/post docs/mentors/etc. about programs you may be interested in. Write/type it down. Don't worry if it gets long, you will shorten again later.

Summer: Do some research if possible; an REU or research at your institution (if an REU, also get your mentor's opinion on potential schools towards the end as well)

Senior Sep: Start whittling down your list. 8-14 seems to be the "normal" range of schools to apply to but some people panic and do more. Remember that asking for waivers is completely acceptable but applying is still just generally expensive (I spent around $800 for 10 schools)

Senior Sep: Apply for the NSF GRFP. You can apply as an undergrad senior and once during your first or second year of grad school if you didn't already get it. The due date is in mid-late OC but ideally you'll have a draft of your essays and ask for rec letters by the end of Sep, if not earlier.

Senior early Nov: Ask for rec letters if you haven't already. The rule of thumb is a month before the due date. Provide them a list of schools you want to apply to including due date and where/how to submit as soon as possible (as well as anything else they request of course; many ask for a resume and a draft of your personal statement).

Senior Dec-Jan: Submit stuff! Pure math programs typically have deadlines in Dec or early Jan. I think the big days are Dec 10th, Dec 15th, and Jan 15th but some are earlier or later. (applied math masters tend to be earlier I think; in Nov). I suggest putting them all into a list or calendar. In addition, some schools won't let letter writers submit until all of your stuff is submitted so start applications early, even if you don't finish them immediately.

Senior Feb: Programs will slowly start sending out offers in early Feb and pick up in mid Feb, but don't fret until AT LEAST the beginning of March! Grad programs are just way too slow at getting out offers for it to be worth worrying until then (and even then, it's definitely not time to panic but mathematicians are frequently anxious people so I get it). Waitlists are slower to come out; usually starting in early March. Also note, there are many programs that don't actually send out replies to everyone unfortunately.

Senior late Feb-early April: prospective student days! They might be online in 2021 unfortunately but try to attend whatever form they're in if you can (only one of my visits during spring 2020 was online since the others happen to be very early and safely beat covid in the US). Be warned, it's very possible to get offers of admissions and to visit very last minute. I do not have advice for how to make that less stressful.

Senior April 15th: Common reply deadline. If you got your offer in the first round or two, this is probably your deadline to accept. In addition, this means more offers will likely come out shortly after once more people have declined. 

Senior summer: graduate. Send a completed, official transcript to your new institution. Check your new email account for stuff you're suppose to do. Some programs have some sort of program during the summer for in-coming students. Most places have graduate student training of some sort for a week or two before semester starts. 

Some common things to be asked for in applications

Not actually a thing asked for but many graduate schools have their own portal for which you will have to make an account to submit an application. A few use a common system that kinda sort shares a database of accounts? Some are fine and some massively suck.

Personal Statement/Statement of Purpose: Occasionally called something else and once in a while actually separate things; will usually have a prompt of wildly differing specificity. Sometimes, the prompts come from the department itself and sometimes from the university's graduate school. I suggest having one or two "base" essays then tweaking them for each school. Sometimes a word/page limit is specified but if it's not, around 2 pages/1000 words is pretty reasonable.

Transcript. Some accept unofficial but some require official but generally not an unsealed one. I ordered myself one official transcript and sent it to multiple schools instead of paying for them to be sent to each school during the application process.

Resume or CV: Most ask for either a CV or is fine with either, in which case I give them my CV. I sent more or less the same one everywhere.

Some other notes

Yes, ask for application waivers. Just be polite about it.

Your goals for your essays are primarily to show that you're interested in math and math research and are capable of like…. writing things that make sense

Do not start out an essay with either "I loved math since I was little" or "I actually didn't like math when I was young" or any variations of those. (I had one essay that started with a mildly humourous anecdote from undergrad combinatorics and another that talked about how my undergrad department has greatly affected me).

You should 100% expect to get a tuition waiver and living stipend as part of a TA fellowship (or more rarely, an research fellowship) as part of your offer of acceptance for a math PhD program (pure or applied). Health insurance is also frequently part of the package. This is not true of masters programs unfortunately.

How schools do waitlists depend wildly though most don't have super long ones like prestigious undergrads do. If you're still interested in a place you're waitlisted at, follow their instructions to confirm your placement on the waitlist then wait until April before following up again, expressing your continued interest and asking for an update. You might even want to wait until around the common deadline, April 15th. The number of people who declined before April is just really really low so nothing really happens until then.

[justheretobreakthings]

Keith’s Scaly Secret

Written for @gentronlegendaryfriendships

Day Two: Wings AU | Adopting a Pet Together

Word Count: 2,933 Characters: Keith & Shiro Read on AO3 My house, my rules, my ko-fi

Story Summary:

Due to an upcoming dorm inspection at the Galaxy Garrison, Shiro learns that Keith has been hiding some unexpected contraband.

There was a lot about his time as a young cadet at the Galaxy Garrison that Shiro often found himself nostalgic for, but dorm life wasn’t one of them. There were times nowadays when he spent the afternoon studying with Keith and the library was too crowded, so it was usually easier to just hang out in his dorm than go all the way to Shiro’s apartment, but those times were also good reminders of Shiro’s distaste for the academy’s dorms. They were dim and cramped, the mattress on the bed was thin and the desk chairs were stiff and had terrible back support. And, although of course Shiro would never mention it out loud to him, over the last few weeks Keith’s dorm had started to take on a faint smell that Shiro couldn’t quite identify, but that didn’t seem to be from dirty laundry or old food the way most other smelly dorms were.

All in all, not Shiro’s preferred place to spend a Saturday afternoon, but with the amount of stress that upcoming linear algebra test was giving Keith, it was something he was more than willing to endure for the sake of helping his protégé get some studying done. It still was a bit of a relief, though, when they finally finished covering all the practice problems they could get and deemed the study session complete, and Keith announced that he was ready for dinner.

“Sounds good to me,” Shiro said, moving to stand from where he had been seated cross-legged on Keith’s bed and then stretching out his back. “You wanna go to the cafeteria, or would you be up for going out to eat tonight?”

“Either,” Keith said with a shrug. He shook out his hand, no doubt cramped from all the writing he’d been doing in the past couple of hours, and stood too as he closed his books. “I could go out.”

“Great,” Shiro said. He glanced at his watch before continuing, “We should probably be heading out soon anyway. Less awkward to not be in the dorm when they do the inspection, so it's definitely a good night to go out to eat. You know what, I’ve been craving onion rings, wanna go to that place across from - ” He paused as he noticed that Keith had frozen in place, eyes going wide. “Keith? What’s up?”

“What - what do you mean, the inspection?” Keith stammered.

Shiro frowned, taking a moment to realize what he meant, then he sucked in a breath through his teeth and stopped just short of slapping himself in the forehead. “Crap. Forgot we’re not supposed to say anything to you ahead of time. It’s nothing to worry about, they just go through and check each dorm to make sure there’s nothing dangerous, no contraband, and nothing’s been broken. They’re not going to get onto little things like laundry or bed not being made, so you’ll be fine.”

Keith, however, did not look reassured. “They can’t do that! That’s an invasion of privacy! It’s - they can’t - why didn’t they warn us?!”

Shiro’s frown deepened. “They said in the registration paperwork that living in the academy includes dorm checks. And it’s in the student handbook.”

Keith bit at his lip, eyes darting around the room as he crossed his arms over his chest. “I, um, I don’t - I don’t think I can go out to eat tonight.”

“Keith…” Shiro said slowly. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.”

At the best of times, Keith was an awful liar, and this time his ‘nothing’ answer was even less believable than usual. Immediately Shiro’s thoughts started casting about, trying to take a guess as to what Keith could possibly be hiding. He had that knife of his, but he’d entrusted Shiro to keep it in his apartment for him. Had he stolen it back? It wasn’t as if Keith hadn’t stolen before. After all, the very day they had met…

Shiro quickly shook that thought out of his head. Keith had grown a lot in the time Shiro had known him, he hadn’t lashed out that way in ages, and it wasn’t fair for Shiro to assume Keith had reverted to old habits like that. Still, he needed an answer. “Keith,” he said, trying his best to make his voice stern without sounding angry or threatening. “I’m not going to judge you for whatever you’ve got here. I promise. But you have to abide by the academy rules while you’re here the Garrison, and the staff is going to enforce those rules. I can’t do anything about that, but I can help you with whatever you need right now. Okay? So what’s going on, Keith?”

For several seconds more Keith chewed silently at his lip. Then, after a deep breath, he walked to his bed and lifted up the blanket that hung over the side of the mattress and down to the floor.

Shiro’s eyes widened.

The area under the bed was hollow, meant for students to use as storage space. Most cadets would fill the space with folded stacks of clothes, crates of books, extra bedding, and the like. When Shiro had helped Keith move into his dorm, he’d had very few personal possessions to speak of. Shiro was pretty sure that space beneath the bed had been left empty.

It wasn’t empty anymore.

Instead, a large, clear, rectangular tank stood below the bed, a little landscape inside, dirt and rocks and shrubs and water. A lamp, currently turned off, stood aimed into the tank past the chickenwire mesh that covered the top, its cord plugged into the outlet in the wall near the pillow.

And dozing on a rock in the middle of the tank... was a lizard. No more than half a foot long, speckled with scales in shades of brown up to the tail, where the brown stopped and turned to black and white stripes. The lizard turned to face Shiro when the blanket was lifted, fixing him with tiny beady eyes and darting out its tongue.

It took Shiro a while to find his voice. “Keith,” he finally said. “Why do you have a lizard?”

“I’m sorry!” Keith cried, and when Shiro looked back up at him, he was surprised to see the agitation on his face, and the tremor in his hands as he wrung them together. “I found her in the student garage and I took her outside and set her loose but then when I went back there again later she was back and I didn’t want to just leave her there because she might have gotten run over or one of the other students might have found her and hurt her so I took her back to my dorm and she seemed to like it here so - ”

“Hey, hey,” Shiro said, lifting his hands and making a calming gesture toward Keith. “You need to breathe, okay? I’m not mad at you, I’m not. I just - I’m - I’m a little shocked. I didn’t expect that.”

“Please don’t turn me in,” Keith said. He moved his hands to start wringing them in the fabric of his shirt. “I was just trying to help her, I wasn’t doing anything bad, I swear.”

“Her?” Shiro repeated.

Keith nodded. “Um, the, uh - for zebra-tailed lizards, the males have these black markings on the side and blue ones on their stomach. The females don’t.”

“Ah,” Shiro said. “You really did your homework for this thing, didn’t you?”

Keith nodded again, and Shiro got down on his knees to get a closer look at the tank. The lizard stuck her tongue out at him again as his face neared her, and she darted off the rock to hide among some grass instead. “Where did you get all this?”

“Just brought the dirt and plants and stuff in from outside. And I’ve been catching bugs for food.”

“What about the tank and the lamp?”

Keith didn’t answer, and Shiro squinted closely at the lamp. “Hang on, are these from the student bio lab?”

“They weren’t using them!” Keith snapped. “The tank was empty when I found it and the lamp wasn’t even working right, I had to fix it myself! It’s not like anyone even noticed the stuff was gone!”

“Did you get permission to take the tank and the lamp, Keith?”

“I - ” He hesitated, and Shiro turned back toward him to see his arms crossed again, eyes fixed firmly on the floor. “If I’d asked someone, they would have said no.”

“Well…” Shiro sighed. “Well, yeah, they definitely would have. You know you’re not allowed to keep a pet in your dorm.”

“But I - ” Keith’s chin trembled. “I was doing good, I swear. I did all the research and I’ve been feeding her well and - and I wasn’t gonna do anything to her. I wasn’t gonna hurt her or use her for a prank or anything, I swear. I promise, I was being good. I was being responsible. I promise. I just - I just wanted to help her.”

Shiro frowned as he straightened up, putting a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “Keith? Hey, look at me.” It took a moment, but Keith complied, turning dewy eyes up toward Shiro. “This has nothing to do with that. Okay? I don’t think that you were going to hurt her, and I’m sure you’re a very responsible pet owner. I know you meant well, Keith, I know you did. But there are other reasons it’s not allowed. The lizard could escape the tank and get lost in the Garrison, or make a mess. Or that lamp could have overheated when you had it on and burned your bed. And you’re supposed to be focusing on your classes and your flying, not on taking care of an animal. There’s also the small matter of you taking things out of the lab without permission…”

Keith chewed at his lip silently for a long moment before he spoke. “Am I gonna get kicked out?” he asked, voice cracking on the words.

Shiro shushed him lightly, squeezing his shoulder. “Don’t worry about that. Tell you what, I can get this taken care of, okay? We can save going out to eat for tomorrow, and tonight I’ll sort out the whole, uh, lizard situation. It’s gonna be fine. But we have to get the lizard out of your dorm, and we have to get the tank and the lamp back to the lab where it belongs. You understand that, right?”

“Yeah,” Keith said quietly. “I guess.”

“Okay.” He gave Keith’s shoulder one more pat before moving to slide the tank out from under the bed. He unplugged the lamp and laid it on top, then hauled the tank into his arms and got to his feet with a grunt. “You got any extra blanket or anything in here? Something we can cover this up with?”

Keith went to his closet, pulled out an oversized towel, and helped drape it over the tank, blocking its contents from view. “Thanks,” Keith said. “I’m, um - I’m sorry. About all of this.”

“I know, it’s okay,” Shiro said, giving him a soft smile. “I’m not mad, Keith. You’re not in trouble. But no more stealing from the labs, okay? And no more secret pets. Can you promise me that?”

“Yeah,” Keith mumbled. “Promise.”

“Good. Take it easy, Keith. I’ll see you tomorrow for that dinner, okay?”

Keith nodded, and Shiro gave him one last smile before opening the door and stepping into the hall and out of sight.

True to his word, Shiro was right on time the following day to pick Keith up for their promised meal. Keith was quiet as he climbed into the passenger seat of Shiro’s car, forlorn as he stared out the window at the buildings they passed.

“Everything go okay for you last night?” Shiro asked after a few minutes of silence.

“Mm-hm,” Keith said.

“You pass your dorm inspection?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s good. You know, I still need to give that towel of yours back to you, don’t I?” Keith replied with a non-committal grunt. “Tell you what, we can swing by my apartment before we eat and I can grab it for you.”

Keith raised a brow at him. “Or you could wait until next time you’re at the dorms.”

“Eh, I’d rather do it now. Don’t want to risk forgetting it. It’s fine, it’s on the way, it’ll only take a couple of minutes.”

“... Okay,” Keith said. He frowned at Shiro for a moment longer, but when Shiro didn’t say anything else or take his eyes off the road, he slowly turned back to gazing out the window.

A few minutes later they were parked in the lot outside of Shiro’s building, and Shiro turned the car off, unbuckled, and stepped out. He didn’t close the door behind him, though, and instead peeked back into the car. “You coming?” he asked.

“You’re just getting the towel, right?” said Keith. “Why do I need to come up?”

“Well, don’t want you overheating in the car. Come on. For my peace of mind.”

Keith sighed, but he unbuckled and climbed out of the car too with no further argument, and Shiro smiled as he led them up the stairs to the apartment he and Adam shared. He unlocked the door and pulled it open, stepping in first and then standing aside so Keith could see. Halfway past the threshold, Keith froze.

“Shiro?” he said. “Is that…?”

“Yep,” Shiro said, his grin broadening as Keith stepped slowly into the apartment. The faded loveseat that used to be up against the far wall had been moved further out into the den, and in its place stood a solid black table topped by a glass terrarium, fifty gallons at least if not bigger. It had the works: a substrate heater along the bottom frame, UVB lamp at the top, ventilated windows, a full biome inside bursting with cacti and succulents and various colors of dirt and rock surrounding a crystal-clear oasis in the center.

And resting atop a decorative cow skull, poking her head up from between the fronds of a ponytail palm that was giving her shade, was a very familiar zebra-tailed lizard.

“How did you - why did you - ?” Keith stammered.

“Well, see, Adam and I have been thinking about getting a pet for a while,” Shiro said, strolling toward the terrarium as Keith trailed behind in awe. “Initially, I actually had wanted to adopt a cat, but Adam’s allergic. And he grew up with mynah birds so we thought maybe we could get one of those, but it turns out this building doesn’t allow birds since they tend to cause noise problems. A lizard, though - they don’t make any noise, they don’t have any fur to set off allergies. It just made sense.”

“When did you get all this stuff?”

“Bought it last night, finished setting it all up this morning. Then I moved the lizard into the new tank, cleaned out the one you’d been using, and dropped that off back at the bio lab before I picked you up. She likes it, I think. She seemed to be really getting into exploring.”

Keith peered down into the terrarium with wide eyes. “So - so she’s officially yours now? Yours and Adam’s?”

“And yours,” Shiro said. When Keith turned curious eyes on him, he shrugged. “Well, you were the one who started taking care of her first, right? So I’m definitely going to need your help with her, especially when I’m not around. Besides, I think she missed you.”

“Can I?” Keith asked, gesturing to the latch on the screen top.

“Go ahead,” Shiro said.

Keith opened up the latch and set his hand down into the dirt next to the cow skull decoration. The lizard took a moment to gaze at it before scampering onto his palm, and Keith grinned as he pulled his arm out and she began skittering along his arm.

“By the way,” Shiro added as he watched, “Now that we’re official pet owners, you should really come up with a name for her. Got any suggestions?”

“Lizard,” Keith answered without hesitation.

“Are… are you sure?”

“Yeah.” Keith looked away from the lizard long enough to give Shiro an exasperated glance, as if this was something obvious that Shiro had no business being confused by. “Because she’s a lizard.”

“I, uh, I guess I can’t argue with that. Okay, Lizard it is.”

For a few moments more he contented himself simply watching as Keith let Lizard clamber around him, crawling up and down his arm and at one point slipping into his shirt collar and then reemerging in the cuff of his sleeve. Finally, though, his stomach gave a little rumble of impatience, and Shiro tapped Keith’s shoulder for his attention. “We’ve still got that dinner ahead of us,” he said. “You cool with taking a break for now, coming back later?”

“All right,” Keith said. He guided Lizard back into his hand and placed her back in the terrarium, letting his hand hover inside the tank for a few seconds as though reluctant to part with her before latching it shut again and turning around.

Shiro grinned and thumped him on the back. “No worries, kiddo. She’ll be right here waiting for us when we get back.”

“I know,” Keith said with a nod. He paused a moment, then with a hastily muttered, “Thanks,” he gave Shiro a quick one-armed hug before darting out to lead the way back down to the car. Shiro followed him with a smile.

[howtosurviveaphysicsdegree]

Best ways to study physics, maths and STEM

Before I start, let me just clarify one thing, having an aesthetically pleasing set of notes doesn’t mean your life is under control and you’re a perfect student. Except when I want to make a pretty post, most of my notes are absolute crap, with notes squeezed into margins, arrows rearranging things I wrote in the wrong order. Because whilst your profs and lecturers might say “make sure you have clear working”, heck unless I’m writing assignments, the notes I learn best from are the ones with tonnes of info crammed into it. So, to the actual advice...

1) Do lots of practice questions - A lot of the time you might think you understand a topic, but then do an exam question and be like “huh, wtf is going on here?!”. Do the practice questions, but do the whole question unaided BEFORE you even open the worked solution document (if there is one). It can be SO tempting to just look through the worked solutions and be like “yea, I think I’d understand and be able to do that” when actually, without the solutions you probably wouldn’t have been able to do it.

2) Ask for help - particularly with maths and physics, if you just have textbook answers or online answers, if you’re just given a plain old answer but that doesn’t match your answer, it can be completely bewildering, if you just don’t know how to get to that answer. Put it away, try it again from scratch tomorrow, and if you still can’t do it, it’s time to pool in other people’s knowledge. If you have a friend on your course, you could ask them if they’ve already done that one. Two heads are better than one! Sometimes just discussing how you’d go about doing it is enough to give you a new idea. If they can’t do it, it’s time to pool in some more senior help. See if there’s a peer mentoring scheme at your institution, if not, drop your lecturer an email and if it’s a simple enough question, they might be able to answer it by email, if you’ve got a few questions you need answering, or you’re really baffled by the underlying concepts, ask to come an see them, either in an office hour if they have one, or if not, most of the time staff will be more than happy to arrange time for you to come see them. You may feel like you’re wasting their time or intruding, but remember, this is their job. You shouldn’t feel bad for asking someone for help when teaching students is literally part of their job. I’m known for being the most high maintenance student to all my lecturers. I probably email them once a week. They all know who I am even though they teach >700 students. But when you show that you’re actually interested in their subject and you have enthusiasm, and make sure you thank them for their help, they’re often more than happy to help because people asking interesting questions that make them think about how they do things and teach and ways to approach problems, they appreciate it! Note this is just generally, occasionally you may come across a reluctant lecturer or one who only teaches because it’s part of their contract and they have to, in which case, find someone else to ask!

3) Find more resources - don’t understand the way the textbook / lecturer explains a topic? Find another one, go to google, look at Yahoo answers even! One good reliable source of stuff is Khan academy videos - I found them invaluable for my Linear Algebra course last semester, bloody lifesaver. If you’ve got mates at other unis doing similar courses, see if they’ve done that topic and have lecture notes on them, see if that helps!

Hope these help, comment any tips I’ve missed or drop me a message and I can add them!

[i-am-not-anon]

Under the eye of an institution

Part 10 (we have come a long way..)

Summary: Logan and Patton (both 16), as older students, are expected to look after two groups of freshmen in Watersouth boarding school for boys. Both of them despise the tradition of bullying that is subjected to the newcomers by older students in their school. The two respectively get a student in their groups who is a little different from the ordinary crowd: Roman and Virgil (both 15).

Author’s note: Hey, I’m back! Special thanks for those who pre-read this chapter and commented on it, you really helped me finish this chapter! There’s going to be some new conflict between our students, but don’t stress about it... or should you?

Triggers: General bullying, abuse and violence, violent punishments, panic attacks, self-deprecation, name-calling, i n s t i t u t i o n 

Other parts here

...

“So, what did Simons exactly do to you?” Logan questioned, shifting his legs as he stood before the two younger boys. His emotions rarely affected his body language, but now he kept pacing around and fixing his glasses, which already were perfectly standing on the bridge of his nose. And he wasn’t the only one, whose nervousness was noticeable. 

“Don’t ask me, sir,” Roman squeaked, taking a step back that he was almost hiding behind Daniel. “I wasn’t telling you anything. He was,” Roman pointed at his friend.

Daniel sighed. “He’s afraid because Simons made him swear he won’t tell this to you, sir.”

Logan nodded. “I see. So I have to pose as if I never heard any of this? Makes things more complicated to a degree, but I’m sure I can handle it. Roman, I assure you no soul excluding the three of us will find out if you disclose that information to me.”

Roman let out a breath. “Um, he told me how much he hates me and how disgusting I am, then took a grip of my hair and flipped me around in the air.” The poor boy lifted his hand to his curls, gently brushing them to not hurt his sore scalp. 

“I see.” Logan frowned, trying to remain calm. “And what for did he punish you like that?”

“For, because I was the goalie and I missed so many times and then we lost, and he was in my team,” Roman rambled, looking at the ground.

“What kind of atrocity!” Logan was shocked. “That has nothing to do with the school rules whatsoever!” The older student straightened his collar in a frustrated movement. “Did any other person in the losing team receive similar treatment?”

“No, sir,” Daniel answered, being the one who had been able to observe the situation better. “After being done with Roman, Mr. Simons walked back to the field and seemed to have no intentions to punish anyone else.” 

Logan leaned his hand on his desk, trying to regain control over his feelings. Why was he suddenly so taken aback by a punishment fairly common in this terrible school? Well, at least common for the tutors that were the most violent. He sat back on his seat, where he had been interrupted from doing his homework a few moments ago. “Please, take a seat both of you, I need a moment to contemplate this,” the older student advised, gesturing the boys towards his neatly made bed.

Daniel and Roman sat down, the former still protectively holding the latter. Roman didn't mind that, leaning his head on Daniel's shoulder while waiting for Logan to figure something out. It was nice to have one good friend, at least. They had known each other for barely two weeks but it felt like a much longer time. 

….

Virgil sat in the second most comfortable sofa of the library, reading a collection of short novels while listening to a relaxing playlist. He had finished his homework already, and tried to focus on the story instead of the welling homesickness inside him. Oh, how he missed his brother. Why did he have to be exactly three years older than Virgil, so that he just had finished this school when Virgil came in? Emile was in university now, studying his beloved psychology. He had been the one to support Virgil when he had felt his worst, and helped him to get the therapist he had urgently needed.

The young boy sighed, putting his book away. Emile was the person he loved most in this whole world. He also was the only person excluding his parents who he was comfortable getting a hug from. Virgil felt the tears coming, but there was nobody watching so he let them fall. 

Because there definitely were people who cared for him and who he deeply loved, but why did they have to be so far away?

…

Logan almost felt steam coming out of his ears as he wrote notes about which teacher would be the most likely to actually take action in making sure only the respective tutors took care of their students. That was part of the school rules, but in reality nobody really made sure it was practiced accordingly. Once again, the teachers didn’t really care as long as it caused no interruption to their classes. 

List of teachers 

Mr. Brass- would only encourage more punishments

Mr. Wilson- would scold the culprit for a minute, but not make big enough deal about it

Mr. Houston- is always too tired to care

Mr. Higgins- has little authority

Mr. Atkinson- very lawful, might actually be irritated about Simons not following the rule

The list went on, but no better choice was presented than Mr. Atkinson. Logan sighed quietly, remembering Roman and Daniel were still sitting on his bed, chatting quietly to each other. 

“Boys, you can go continue your afternoon. It will take me a moment to figure this problem out in its entirety, and in the meanwhile I would instruct you to stay away from Simons.” Logan scratched the back of his neck. “I know it’s not solving anything, just a temporary solution until we get him actually responsible of his actions. I hope you a relaxing rest of the day.”

Daniel and Roman glanced at each other, then getting up and walking to the door. “Thanks, Mr. Andrews,” Daniel nodded his head as they got out of the room. 

“You’re welcome, boys.”

...

The next morning began with chemistry classes for both Roman and Virgil. The latter waited further away in the hall until the others had entered the class. That way, he hoped, Roman would not see him and therefore forget to insult him. He still had to think which would be more effective way to get past it when leaving, though; leaving earliest or latest. He could think about it during the class. 

“Alright, boys,” Mr. Houston called their attention. “I’m giving you a group project that will be presented next week-” He shot a frustrated glance at Roman, who had cheered in a hushed voice, “and I’m assigning the groups.” Mr. Houston payed no attention to Roman’s groan, but became naming the boys who had been paired together. 

“George and Matts, Isaac and Daniel, Roman and Virgil...” 

Virgil crushed the piece of paper he had been holding in his hand. This was so unfair. And Mr. Houston wouldn’t bat an ear to any compliments about the pairings because “You have to learn to work with all kinds of people for your future” He ignored Roman, who moved his desk next to his and greeted excitedly. 

What an idiot.

Roman kept trying to get Virgil’s attention, talking to him or sometimes poking his side. At first he tried to be nice and work with the quiet boy, but as his partner kept turning his back on him and not answering on how they should start the work, Roman began annoying him more and more. 

“I thought you stuttered, and wasn’t mute, stupid,” 

poke to the side

Roman whispered to Virgil’s ear, leaning way closer than Virgil preferred. “Or did you go deaf, too? We gotta do this project!”

Virgil moved slightly further away, continuing to look at the textbook page but not being able to concentrate. He hated Roman So. Much.

Roman stretched over to smear the face Virgil was looking at on the book with his pen. He grinned victoriously, as Virgil finally turned to look at him. 

“L-l-l-eave m-me al-a-al-alone!”

Roman tilted his head, still grinning maliciously. “O-o-oh? S-s-so no-no-now you can s-sp-s-s-pe-spe-speak?”

Virgil striked Roman on his face, and Roman’s chair crashed loudly on the floor as he fell down more out of surprise than the power of the punch. “Ow!!” In a second, he lunged on Virgil, who had stood up and almost managed to dodge the other boy, sending them both tumbling on the floor, where they continued fighting. Mr. Houston shouted at them, and when it didn’t seem to cause any kind of reaction, he had to separate them by force and held them up by their collars. 

“WHAT was that?”

The teacher shouted in such a volume, that Virgil held his ears. Mr. Houston began dragging the boys to the door, handling them roughly. He muttered something along the lines of “Hasn’t happened in three years” And quickly instructed the rest of the class to continue working and better behave while he was gone.

…

Mr. Wilson, having been teaching the older group Linear Algebra, opened the classroom door after hearing the angry knocks. He looked confused for a second, finding his workmate holding two yonger students apart by their collars, but stepped to the side to let him look inside. Teacher Higgins stepped one foot in the class, looking around with annoyance, as if he had been the one getting in trouble. 

“Logan Andrews, Patton Sawyer! Your students started a fight in my class and interrupted it greatly. I reckon you two do something about this, I need to get back to my work.”

Logan and Patton glanced at each other, and quickly collected their things to get outside. Mr. Wilson gave them the rest of the exercises to complete later, and now they were faced with two pouting students in the hall. 

“Virgil?” 

Patton looked so betrayed, that Virgil finally felt the guilt stinging in his chest. But it didn’t stop him from glaring at Roman with all the hate he could possibly gather.

Logan frowned at the two. “Roman, why did you hit Virgil?”

“Oh!!!???? I hit the poor Virgil?? He started it!” Roman screamed, pointing at the boy. There was about 3 feet between them, and Virgil didn’t bother to look up.

“Did you, Virgil?” Patton stepped closer, but Virgil stayed silent. He wouldn’t say a word when the Idiot was present, because he refused to be mocked again. 

Patton sighed, taking a step back. “Alright, boys. I think we need to find a place to sit down and talk this through. I don’t want anybody getting in any more trouble, and it’s not cool to hate others for long.”

“I agree,” Logan nodded, and they began walking to get downstairs.

“It’S nOT cOoL To HatE OtHeRs” Virgil mimicked to himself behind the tutor’s backs. He didn’t remember a time when he had been this angry towards everybody around him, but in all honesty, it made him feel powerful in a situation where in reality he had little to no control.

Roman sticked his tongue out at Virgil as they walked behind their tutors, and Virgil tried to slap him but the boy dodged it, so Virgil kicked him, to which Roman cried out loudly. That guy is way too good in making all of this look like my fault, the boy thought to himself, as Patton turned to scold his student. He really had to do the rest of this carefully and not fall in Roman’s traps like he just had. 

There’s only one thing good about all of this, Virgil thought. It all goes just like my worst, anxiety-filled thoughts had assumed, so I feel like I’ve at least seen this coming.

[x0401x]

Mekakucity Talkers: Chapter 32

A dispute outburst happens in the chatroom! The ones who are fighting, unexpectedly... are Shintarou and Ayano!? Ene, who rushed in, suggested that they resolved it with a fair and square face-off, however...!? 

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Mekakushi-dan Chatroom

Ayano: So, it seems this movie is fun.

Shintarou: Oh.

Ayano: Hum, and also, it looks like the tickets for it are cheap if you buy them online.

Shintarou: This kind of thing is common lately.

Ayano: Yup, hum, if you’d like, erm, is it okay if I ask you to buy tickets for two...?

Shintarou: Yeah, it’s fine.

Ayano: R-R-R-REALLY!? Is it really all right!?

Shintarou: What’s that? You’re so exaggerated. Not even I would act like just making an online purchase is a hassle.

Ayano: Yup, yup...! Thank you...! Hum, then, one of the tickets is for me, and about the other ticket... hum, Shintarou, could you pay for it?

Shintarou: Eh? You, does that mean...

Ayano: Sorry for being abrupt, but I wanted to go together no matter what...

Shintarou: Ayano, you...

Ayano: Yep...

Shintarou: You’ll be going with Momo?

Ayano: Eh?

Shintarou: What, so this means I gotta pay for her ticket in her stead, right? I don’t particularly mind it. So you and Momo were interested in these love story movies? And stuff of the sort. That “couples make long lines everyday!” is becoming a topic in the internet too. Well, it seems you’re going to have fun with my little sister, so it’s something to be grateful for.

Ayano: SHINTAROU, YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING!!!!!!!

Shintarou: Hoan? What’s that out of the blue!?

Ayano: You don’t understand anything about how girls feel!!!

Shintarou: What’s with you so suddenly? I said I’ll reserve the tickets and buy Momo’s fare for her!

Ayano: Sure, but that’s not it!!!!!

Shintarou: Hah? What’s this out of nowhere? Why’re you angry?

Ayano: I’m not!

Shintarou: You are.

Ayano: I’m telling you that I’m not!

Shintarou: No, like I said...

Ene: Oyaoyaoya~? Things appear stormy for some reason. You two should be fair and square.

Ayano: Ah, Takane-san.

Ene: HEY!??!? COULD YOU NOT CALL ME BY THAT NAME!?!??

Ayano: Eh, ah, I’m sorry! Ene-san, what’s the matter?

Shintarou: What’ve you come here to do?

Ene: Eh~, ahem! I thought that the chatroom was noisy, and when I tried taking a peek, I found the two of you having a rare fight!

Shintarou: We’re not fighting. Ayano is acting on her own accord.

Ayano: I wonder about the person saying that. Being unilateral isn’t a good thing, is it?

Ene: There, there, there. By the looks of it, you have opinions that neither would yield. If you’ll go as far as continuing with this unproductive argument, how about you try to settle it with a competition?

Shintarou: “Competition”, you say?

Ayano: Tell us the details.

Ene: Eeh, eeh, that’s fine! I will explain! The “competition” would be... simply put, a quiz showdown!

Shintarou: “Quiz”?

Ene: The rules are simple! I’ll come up with questions and give points to whoever can answer the quickest! The winner will be the one who manages to give most right answers!

Shintarou: Doesn’t it seem interesting? All right. I’ll do it.

Ayano: I also can only put on airs of being calm and composed for now, so I won’t hold back!

Ene: Fuhfuhfu~, both seem to be more than willing! Well, then, let’s get to it! First question~! Di-Ding! What is the name of the inequality applied to variance and covariance in inequalities that evaluate the possible inner product between two vectors in the energy of the inner product space by the norm of each vector, various inner products for vectors of finite and infinite dimensions in linear algebra, function analysis and probability theory?

Shintarou: Cauchy-Schwarz Inequality.

Ene: CORRECT!!!!

Shintarou: All right.

Ayano: Hey~~~, that’s difficult~~~. There’s no chance for me to win~~~.

Ene: Myy~, being able to give an instant answer this fast... As expected of Master~.

Shintarou: That’s ‘cause typing takes time. I worry only about not falling behind.

Ayano: Actually, Ene-san! Isn’t this a quiz!? That a math problem, wasn’t it?! Let’s leave out this kind of thing! ‘Kay?

Shintarou: There’s no guarantee that quizes will always be riddles. To be precise, it’s about “asking something”. In other words, it’s “asking questions about trivia”.

Ayano: We don’t need this now! I’m talking to Takane-san!

Shintarou: Hieh...

Ene: H-Hum~, I’d like you not to call me “Takane-san”~.

Ayano: Enough already! Please on with the next question!

Ene: Y-Ye~s. E~rm, then, let’s get it together and move on to the next question! Di-Ding! In the sword battle anime that was a hit in the year 1980, “Fighting Swordsman! Shout, Genjuurou”, what were the last words said to the protagonist Genjuurou by his life-long rival Izaemon?

Ayano: “My friend, let us meet again.”

Ene: Corre~ct!

Ayano: Yay~!

Shintarou: Kuh, so that field is your specialty...?

Ayano: Huhu~n. Just being good at studying won’t cut it!

Ene: You’ve also given an instant answer, as expected~. This series is quite old, but you knew it very well, huh?

Ayano: This anime is really interesting! The scenes where he fights to protect the heroine are cool! Wouldn’t Shintarou understand a little of how girls feel if he watched it?

Shintarou: Gngh...

Ene: Oyaoyaoya~! The fight has gotten exciting, huuh?! Then, let’s continue with the third question! The next will also be a question from an anime series!

Shintarou: What!?

Ayano: Yay!

Ene: No complaining at the proposed questions~. Well, on to the problem! Di-Ding! What’s the item that the protagonist of the the super popular anime “Mahou Shoujo ☆ Sister Angel”, Ichigo-chan, uses when transforming?

Shintarou: Pretty ☆ Angelic Rod!!! I got this!!! It’s correct, isn’t it?!!!

Ene: Uuwah... it is, but... this is a late-night anime in which only pretty little girls show up, y’know...?

Ayano: Huun. Even though you normally say that you don’t watch anime, Shintarou, you watch this genre. Heeh~.

Shintarou: iaier—No, I just knew—I just knew it by coincidence! It coincidentally came in the question!

Ayano: Hu~n.

Ene: Myy, as expected of Master~! You’ve gained one point, but it seems you’ve lost something important in exchange, huh~?

Shintarou: What!? “Something important”!? What did I end up losing!?

Ene: Yes, yes, there are sacrifices even in quizzes. Because this is a battle!

Ayano: That’s right, Shintarou. Even if you grin like a madman while watching animes where lots of cute girls appear, Shintarou, if you’re okay with that, then isn’t it fine?

Shintarou: What’s up with that specific way of speaking...?

Ayano: Nothing.

Ene: Now, with Master at a one-point lead, we head to the fourth question! The fastest person will be the one to answer this question~. Please focus! Di-Ding! 5783903 : 469745 = ?

Ayano: 12

Ene: By casting away the decimal points... Huh, eeh!? Correct!

Shintarou: Ayano!? That’s not a matter of input speed... It’s almost like you’ve known the answer since earlier!

Ayano: Huh? I pressed the numbers by mistake, though...

Shintarou: A typo?!!!

Ene: No, no, a win is still a win! This is part of the so-called power of luck~!

Ayano: Is that okay!? Thank you very much! With this, the points are even, right?!  

Shintarou: No helping it...

Ene: Both haven’t yielded a single step in this incandescent battle!! Next is the last question~!!

Shintarou: Oh, come at any moment!

Ayano: Let’s do this!

Ene: Then, this one will be impartial, from an information about the latest movie! Last question! Di-Ding! What was the release date of the big-hit romance movie that is currently screening “My and Her Bright Red Eyes”?

Shintarou: Ah? Ain’t this the movie that I got asked for tickets?

Ayano: “Release date”? What day was it again...?

Shintarou: I saw it in the site earlier... If I’m certain... Right! It’s October 20th!

Ene: Pinpon, pinpo~n! Completely correct!

Ayano: Aah... I see... Last Saturday...

Shintarou: This date sort of stayed in my memory.

Ene: It seems this movie has been recording an exceptionally huge hit a week after its release, y’know? It seems it’s not just a romance movie, but also has a mystery and battle aspects. It’s super fun, they say!

Shintarou: Heeh, is it that good a movie...?

Ene: How about you see it in the big screen of a cinema for a change~?

Shintarou: Hn, aah, that’s right. I’ve become used to going outside lately too... Ayano.

Ayano: Hea—Y-Yes!

Shintarou: About the movie that was just mentioned, can I go too?

Ayano: Huwah. SSSSSURE!!! OOOOOOF COURSE!!!!

Shintarou: Why are you getting so high-tension...?

Ene: Oops~! Isn’t it already thi~s late~?! Shall I excuse myself here~? Now you two young ones take it easy...! O~hohoho!

Shintarou: Haah? What’s gotten into her?

Ayano: W-W-What happened, huh~? She was acting weird, wasn’t she~? Ehehe.

Shintarou: You too, what’s been with you since earlier? Actually, about the quiz showdown of a while ago, you took me for a splendid ride, but I ended up winning. Are you not angry anymore?

Ayano: I was never angry~. Ehehehehe. More importantly, I’m looking forward to the movie!

Shintarou: Oh? Oh... I really don’t get very well how girls feel after all...

[briggswatch]

1. Good luck with linear algebra! 2., for the character ask, Alphonse?

thanks! it wasn’t too bad, happy to be done though. my brain is a little fried so sorry for the lazy writing

 favorite thingabout them: oh boy, this is bad I’ve been trying to find a word to pinpoint this characteristic and I can’t so I hope this makes sense. He’s just so good, and he’s such atough kid. I don’t know I guess it’s just, he’s been through a lot and he seesall this bad stuff happening and I don’t know when I was fourteen and bad stuffhappened I just wanted to curl up into a ball so the fact that he instead decided ‘no,this isn’t how it has to be, I’m not just going to let this happen, I’m goingto do everything I can to make this world better’ was awesome?  

least favoritething about them: The armor is very frustrating to draw. Which isn’treally his fault, but it’s the only negative thing I could think of. (It makesme so sad, I’m determined to get it right though, I’m just going to keepdrawing bad armor until eventually it becomes good armor lol)

favorite line:   “I’m sick of watching people die and I can’t just sit back and take it anymore. I won’t let anyone else get killed, not when I can protect them.” for reasons stated above. and “i decided not to go with strangers” because i thought that was the funniest thing the first time i watched it

brOTP: does the Resemboolbrot3 count?

OTP Al and Mei!They’re so cute.

nOTP: …is shippinghim with Ed even a thing? please no (okay so apparently it is a thing and I’mnot happy about it)

randomheadcanon: I’ll give a few of these because he’s cool

in his years of not sleepinghe probably got bored and just decided to knit a sweater or learn how to juggleor read about sharks and all these other random things because he was bored. so he has all of these obscure facts and hidden skills and he’s notsure how his knowledge of the anteater will help get their bodies back but if they somehow end up in that situation, he’s ready.

After he got his body back he hada lot of adjusting to do. He can’t make faces at people anymorebecause now people can see his face and that’s a bit of a problem. The first time it rained, he cried a lot. He’ll get a paper cut or a stuffynose or something mundane like that and thinks ‘oh my god I’m going to die’ 

Also ‘Hey honey! Good morning,how did you sleep? I adopted 32 cats and dogs, do you want pancakes?’ totallyhappened

unpopular opinion: none I guess?

song iassociate with them: okay so i can’t remember the name of this song but it starts off all soft and happy and thenyou get to the chorus and it’s just screaming and it’s weird but that’s kind ofhow I feel about al because he’s the sweetest kid but he can also kicksome ass, yeah?

favoritepicture of them: i have more on my phone (which is dead) but for now have a happy alphonse

[rowanswritin]

PLS HELP! Feelings of Incompetence :/

Over Thanksgiving break I made study plans in preparation for finals, but, now, on the second day, I’m already behind. Yesterday was all okay but today I was feeling super depressed and useless and everything too way too much effort and I got nothing done.

TBH I feel like such a failure. I did literally nothing today. Only 2 hours of notes in the morning when I didn’t feel as shitty. But I have so much more left unfinished ahhhh. I went to class today and was either completely distracted or couldn’t focus. I took no notes in lecture even though I know that this last section that we are on is the part that I understand the least.

I don’t understand why I can’t do the stuff I need to get done.

Now becase of my day of inproductivity, tomorrow I have to: -Review 6 lectures of Oceans & Work on the provided Study Guide -Study an entire chapter of Multivariable Calculus (On Dot Products, Cross Products, Planes, Lines, 3D Surfaces) and do selected homework problems at the end of each section to practice -Study 2 Chapters of Linear Algebra (Matrix Algebra & Vector Spaces) and do 4 worksheets to aid in review and go over the related quizzes (that I failed … FML) -Finish reviewing past quizzes for CS 61A and then review and understand the questions from the midterms for this semester

I’m really worried I won’t have time to finish all of this.

By my estimate, this should take: Oceans - 3 to 4 hours Multivar Calc - 6 to 8 hours Linear Alg - 4 to 5 hours CS - 1 to 3 hours

That’s a max of 20 hours and a min of 14 hours. AND I have classes tomorrow. I have maybe at most 11 hours to study and 13 if I stay up till 2AM. (I’m trying to take care of myself better so the latest I’m going to bed these two weeks is 2AM.)

UGHHH I’m so stressed and dead.

If you read all the way down here, thank you for hearing my thoughts. I appreciate it.

If you have any tips for surviving stress and finals week, please please please let me know in some way or form. Maybe messaging me or sending an ask or reblogging or commenting on this post. IDK I just need lots of help at this point. :/ Thank you so much!

[presumenothing]

past time

aka I have too many AUs, and also the Kaito & Shiho tag now has one (1) work on AO3 now, yay

People never think to look up, do they? (Or: two conversations, years apart.)

(AO3) (FFN)

.

The rustle of leaves catches Shiho by surprise.

That in itself is unusual - she’s always alert to her surroundings, and perhaps it might’ve been excessive for anyone else, but in her case it really isn’t.

So when an unfamiliar figure swings up onto the tree branch opposite to the one she’s sitting on, it takes her a moment to register that he’d said something. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t know there was someone up here, I’ll just – ”

The boy (a year younger than her, probably Japanese descent, Shiho estimates automatically, trying to calm her racing heartbeat) is about to jump back off the branch before she speaks, startling both of them. “No, it’s fine, you can stay.”

“Really?” He gives her a blinding grin when she nods, and settles in - with enviable ease, Shiho can’t help but think. The trees lining the grounds have made a passable sanctuary for her thus far (people never think to look up, not even in a school ostensibly for gifted children), but even then she’s always wary of falling.

She almost regrets the decision not half a minute later, though, when he speaks again. “Enjoying the afternoon sun?"

“Not particularly,” Shiho answers anyway, leaning against the tree trunk. “You?”

“Nah, I’m definitely a night person. Just needed some fresh air after all those classes, you know?” He tugs at the collar of the school uniform with a faint grimace.

Shiho doesn’t, actually – her schedule is far from the usual even here, most of it taken up by research and graduate lessons with the professors.

“Right, I forgot to introduce myself! I’m Kuroba K – sorry, Kaito Kuroba, I should say?” he continues with a sheepish grin, apparently unoffended by her silence. “Still getting used to that, my name sounds really weird in that order.”

“It’s an adjustment period,” she says noncommittally, because - well, it’s not as if she has much experience in the matter. Codenames don’t exactly differ across the world, after all. “I’m Shiho Miyano.”

“I know,” comes Kuroba’s answer, and that’s unexpected. “We’re in the same class for organic chemistry, right?”

Shiho pages through her memories quickly - she isn’t taking the class herself, of course, only helping her supervisor with it as part of her PhD qualifications. “You transferred in recently?”

“Yeah, a month ago. My mum wanted me to come to the States with her, and this school was recommended by a good friend of hers.” He pauses briefly. “Also, I’m quite sure my old school was just about ready to kick me out after I blew up the chemistry lab twice.”

Shiho does look up at that one. “Twice,” she repeats, half in disbelief – she remembers seeing Kuroba’s work in class now, and it had consistently been above average if one ignored the haphazard doodling in the margins and occasional creative answers. Certainly well above catastrophic-lab-incident standards, if she were to judge.

“On purpose,” he clarifies unhelpfully, a glint of mischief clear in his eyes. “Well, mostly on purpose. I was bored, and it wasn’t anything permanent at any rate... well, except for the glitter. I’m not sure Komoe-sensei ever completely got that out of her hair.”

Glitter? she thinks, but silently this time, because she’s not quite sure she wants to know the story behind that particular statement. “Well, I don’t think boredom will be an issue for you here, given the flexibility of the curriculum.”

The sudden excited grin on Kuroba’s face suggests that he does, in fact, agree. “Yeah, I definitely haven’t been bored so far - I mean, some of the teachers are boring, but I guess that’s the same everywhere. Though I could use some help with linear algebra, if you’re taking that class?”

“No, I’m biochem,” Shiho answers shortly – she knows the subject well enough, of course, but the last thing she needs is someone poking around in curiosity. “You’re engineering, I assume?”

Fortunately, he takes the hint to change the topic. “No, I want to be a magician! I’m working on a card gun for design class now, actually, although the mechanism keeps refusing to work out right.”

“Card gun?” she asks, interested despite herself.

“Yeah, you’re supposed to be able to shoot cards with it, but – ” there’s a crinkle of paper as he takes a sheaf of paper from a book she could’ve sworn he hadn’t been holding earlier, “ – here, I have the drafts if you want to take a look?”

“I wouldn’t be much help with that, I’m afraid,” she says before he can hand over the blueprints, and nods at the book instead. “What’re you reading?”

He holds out the book to her, and it takes her several seconds to make the mental switch to Japanese. “Lupin versus Holmes?” she reads from the cover, raising an eyebrow.

“Arsène Lupin versus Herlock Sholmes, actually, but Holmes is overrated anyway,” he quips with a grin. “Do you want to borrow my copy? It’s worth the read, I promise.”

Shiho hesitates – it’d be good practice for her Japanese, which she’s rarely had the chance to use for the past few years since coming here, but on the other hand –

Three things happen almost simultaneously in the next moment: the bell rings, Kuroba visibly startles, and the book reappears on her lap with a puff of smoke.

“Right, that’s my cue,” he says with a glance at his watch, while she’s still mute with surprise. “The professor’s gonna kill me if I’m late for physics again, I think.”

He’s already jumped down from the branch in one nimble movement that would’ve easily sprained Shiho’s ankle (or worse) before she finally manages to respond. “Wait, your book – ”

“Don’t worry about it, you can return it next time we meet! I’ve practically memorised it by this point anyway.” He waves at her with a cheeky grin. “See you around, Miyano!”

Kuroba dashes off around the corner of a building before she can figure out a reply, but - well, Shiho has never been one to say no to a good book, much as she hasn’t made time to read for longer than she can care to remember.

Then again, she’s free for the next two hours while the maintenance crew deals with the spill in an adjacent lab that’d sent her out here in the first place, so she opens the book and begins to read.

On the eighth day of last December, Mon. Gerbois, professor of mathematics at the College of Versailles, while rummaging in an old curiosity-shop, unearthed a small mahogany writing-desk which pleased him very much on account of the multiplicity of its drawers…

. 

(He’d been overly optimistic, of course - she finishes the book quickly enough, but doesn’t get the chance to return it when she’s called back to Japan that very weekend.)

–––

Two muted voices echo faintly as Ai heads down the corridor, snatches of conversation from beyond the slightly ajar doors of the Kudo library.

“ – already told you to be careful – ”

“ – like to see you try piloting a hang glider in this weather, tantei-kun – ”

Both fall suddenly silent when she pushes the door open. (Honestly. She’d already deduced what was going on several heists ago, did they need to look so surprised?)

She walks in anyway, shaking her head with a sigh. “Here, I brought some extra medical supplies for – ”

Ai’s thoughts are abruptly derailed as she gets a proper look at the third person in the room, and the name slips out without her realising it. “Kuroba?”

And the Kaitou Kid, face unobscured by the shadow of a hat brim for once, blinks. “…Miyano?”

(…so, okay, Ai had known that Edogawa was helping Kid, but she clearly hadn’t figured out the whole truth. Though, judging from the look of shock mirrored on the thief’s face, she hadn’t been the only one.)

Edogawa freezes mid-movement, and Ai has the rare privilege of witnessing his complete, utter confusion. “You two… know each other?”

“I thought you looked familiar, but I figured that it must’ve been some weird coincidence. I mean, what were the chances?” Kuroba - who happens to be the Kaitou Kid, apparently, she cannot even believe her life right now - gives her the same blinding grin she remembers from a lifetime ago. “Guess I should’ve known better, huh?”

“Well, I wouldn’t have taken kindly to you asking, at any rate.” Ai takes a page from his book, and doesn’t bother answering Edogawa either - the detective can afford to stew for a while longer. “Still a Lupin fan, I see?”

The familiar top hat appears in Kuroba’s hand in a small puff of smoke, and he tips it at her theatrically, still with that look of amusement on his face. “I always wondered how that book ended up back in my room afterwards.”

“There was a reason I was sent to that school specifically.” Ai shrugs as she strides forward, placing the box she’d been carrying on the table between the pair. “I returned to the labs nearby several times, it was more a matter of finding an opportunity to slip away. Though I suppose I owe you one for taking that long to return it.”

Kuroba appears to think over that for a moment, before glancing to where his sleeve has been cut neatly away to reveal a gash across his upper arm. “Patch me up, and we call it even?”

Ai considers the wound - bullet graze, relatively large caliber, probably matched the deleted reports of snipers that she’d helped to track down previously - before nodding. “Get me a basin of warm water, would you, Edogawa-kun?” she asks, finally glancing over to where the detective is still opening and closing his mouth like a fish.

(Unbeknownst to her, a certain magician thief shudders for reasons he is not completely sure of.)

“Don’t worry, tantei-kun, the answer probably isn’t half as sinister as what you’re probably imagining,” Kuroba adds airily, just as Edogawa looks like he’s about to protest. “Though I’ll leave it up to the ojou-san here to decide whether to tell you.”

Edogawa gives them both a vaguely disgruntled look as he leaves, and Ai gets to work, picking up the tweezers she’d brought over.

“So I take it that you - ” Kuroba hisses sharply as she removes a piece of debris lodged in the wound, “ - are the scientist that tantei-kun mentions every now and then?”

“I would assume so, yes,” Ai quips dryly. “Better than ‘great white flying target’, if you ask me.”

“Hey, I volunteered for this job before I even met tantei-kun,” Kid objects, sounding mildly offended.

“Which is a testament to your soundness of mind, I’m sure,” Ai mutters under her breath.

Kuroba has the temerity to chuckle at that. “Seriously, I even told you about the card gun, I can’t believe it took you this long to put the pieces together. Though I got carried away with the customisations and ended up submitting my modified smoke bombs for class in the end.”

“Even if I’d realised the connection, I would’ve just assumed that both you and Kid had taken inspiration from a common source.” Ai reaches over to tilt the table lamp so she can see better. “And you’re certainly one to talk, given that you already know who Edogawa-kun is.”

“True,” Kuroba says with a wince - whatever painkillers he’d taken earlier were probably wearing off, Ai thinks.

They both fall into silence after that, until Ai straightens, satisfied that she’d removed all the debris. “Besides, if you’d actually gotten as far as showing me the prints, I’d probably have told you to patent the design, and then where would Kaitou Kid be?”

Kuroba is still laughing at that when Edogawa returns with the basin of water and two clean towels, a confused expression on his face.

.

(“I was lying, you know,” Kuroba tells her as his gaze flicks over the wall of screens in the surveillance van, showing various exits of the hideout they’re planning to raid. “Before.”

“Oh, for…” Shiho shakes her head as she checks the barrel of the Glock that Agent Jodie had lent her. “Do we really have to discuss this now, Kid?”

They all use the moniker when he helps on these missions, but it’s very much Kuroba that grins back up at her - there’s a distinct difference. “I’ve never had problems with linear algebra, although I don’t like it much.”

“So what, you were planning to play dumb if I’d agreed to help you?” A glance at Kuroba’s expression confirms her hypothesis - or possibly that he just hadn’t thought that far. “And you already knew I was up that tree, I assume.”

“Guilty as charged,” he answers in a singsong tone, card gun appearing in one hand with a quick movement. “Shall we go, then?”

“Thought you’d never ask,” Shiho says, deadpan, as she ducks out of the van’s door ahead of him. “And I wasn’t actually taking that org chem class, if you must know.”

She hears him pause briefly at that one, and there’s a note of realisation in his voice when he replies. “Don’t tell me you were the one who deducted five marks for handwriting on my assignments?”

“No, that was one of the other grad students.” Shiho heads over to where Kudo is talking to several FBI agents, though she does wait for Kuroba to catch up before continuing. “I would’ve deducted ten, at least.”

Beside her, Kuroba splutters in indignation.)

.

.

as far as I can tell, the Japanese translation does actually have the title as ルパン対ホームズ, literally “Lupin vs Holmes”, unlike both English and the original French.

not terribly alternate as far as AUs go, though I leave the details up to your imagination – Mystery Train goes somewhat differently in this universe, of course, but otherwise the DC timeline thus far remains mostly similar. on the MK side of things, Kaito presumably returned to Japan for high school when he learned about Toichi being Kid, and while he did keep in contact with Aoko while overseas, their relationship would likely (and unfortunately) not be as close as in canon, leaving him freer to act as Kid. (if it wasn't obvious, the school was recommended by Vermouth – ostensibly to keep Chikage and Kaito safe from Snake and co., but who knows when it comes to her, honestly...)

and allow me to yet again link two stunning pieces of relevant art from aoi/aonosubete, because this artist owns my soul by this point, seriously

[realtalk-princeton]

Does being a physics major require talent? Not just in graduating from the major but say doing well (eg... graduating with honors)? Is physics really that hard to do well in? I mean, didn't Jeff Bezos drop it because it was too hard?

Response from Marty:

That is a very hard and interesting question. If you were to ask me this in person, I’m sure I would give you a forty minute lecture that does not at all answer your question, but I’ll try to be a little more helpful for the sake of this blog’s credibility. I suppose the first thing to say is that talent is kind of an ambiguous term. We can philosophize all day about how much of our ability in various things is based on genetics/environment and how much can be attributed to things we control. Of course, you are (presumably) an individual who’s almost 20 years old, so it wouldn’t do us much good to figure out what you could’ve done at age 10 to be better at physics, but instead let’s just think about the ability you have now. The point I’m trying to make is that, indeed, how one might do as a physics major definitely depends on who they are going into it. For example, if we were to drop a ten year old kid in PHY 105 and tell him to figure it out, it would be a hilarious tragedy that I would 100% watch in the format of a tv show. 

That’s all obvious, but I just want to make sure we agree that there is definitely going to be a cutoff in terms of who can conceivably do well in physics. Where exactly is that cutoff? Great question. This is obviously really hard, but I’ll try to break it down a little bit. I think there are a few basic attributes that will predict how well you can do at physics. Ability in math, intuition for physical concepts, work ethic, and passion. The first of these is obvious. Physics departs from what you can picture and describe with words basically right away. When that happens, it becomes necessary to translate everything into math and to operate in that language instead. As long as you are comfortable with BC calc coming into college and 203/204 go fine for you, you should have a good enough sense for math to make it work. However, it’s important to make sure you avoid memorizing things but rather focus on understanding them at a deeper level. For example, linear algebra can easily be memorized but a lot of stuff in physics will make more sense if you have some picture in your mind of what’s going on there and you can easily rederive things when necessary. The intuition for physics isn’t something you’ll have identified yet. I think this is probably what you meant when you said talent. I still see it as a pretty amorphous skill at this point in my education, but there’s definitely a sense that the professors have some strong understanding of what’s going on and what should be happening whenever you talk to them. Tbh this is definitely something you need if you want to stay in the field past undergrad, but you can do well in these four years just understanding the math well enough and remembering how various problems are done. Assuming you meet some pretty minimal requirements when it comes to your abilities, the most important predictor is probably work ethic. If you sit for four hours every weekday plus ten on weekends and work on physics, I’m fairly confident you’re getting an A in that class. If not, you’re either wasting a lot of that time or you are missing some necessary background. The last thing you might need is some sort of passion for the field. Honestly, the only reason you need this is to motivate all the time you need to put in. It’s certainly nice to spend your time watching youtube videos about various things that spark your curiosity, but that is a pretty different field than what real physics is going to end up being. I certainly encourage that, but I think that is almost independent of how well you’ll do in the field.

To summarize that paragraph, I really think all you need is to put in the time, and you’ll do fine in the end. You may not end up being great at physics, but I think you’ll get good grades and have a solid understanding of what you learned. To use an analogy, doing well in undergrad physics is like getting good at super smash bros. Some people are especially bad at the coordination it takes, some people just don’t care, but if you’re willing to sit and play for an unreasonable amount of time, you’re almost certain to get pretty good. I know a number of physics majors, and although many of them strike me as really impressive and innately talented, a lot of them seem totally normal and make me think that almost anyone is capable of doing this. To put it another way, the amount of talent you need for a physics major is probably somewhere between the amount you need for COS and the amount you need for math, in my opinion. 

Is it hard to do well in? I want to say no because there exists a finite amount of time that you need to put in which will almost guarantee success. I consider that to be a very reasonable thing to be asked to do, so I can’t say it’s necessarily hard. A lot of people really dislike this attitude, but I’ll let you decide for yourself what you want to do. What might be more accurate is that it’s not worth the time. There’s really no point in wasting all that time unless you have some unreasonable desire to do so. It’s hard work and it’s not like there’s some reward for that aside from your own satisfaction. 

If I can answer a question that you didn’t ask, though; there’s no point thinking about it. Take the physics classes these first two years and just do your best. It’s not such a huge commitment and it’s worth learning this stuff just for your own growth as a person. At that point, honestly assess yourself. Physics is definitely not the type of thing you should force yourself to do. If you feel strongly about it, I 1000% encourage you to pursue it. However, by the end of sophomore year, I think you’ll have a pretty good sense of whether or not this is for you. I recommend spending some time talking to Giombi or Pufu and try to get an honest answer out of them. I’m sure they’ll have some really good insights into how you fit into this field after you spend a semester with them. It’s easy to get offended when someone tells you that you’re bad, and maybe they’re wrong, but a lot of professors know what they’re talking about, so take it under advisement and maybe switch to ORFE so you can make eight times the money. 

I feel like I’ve just barely touched on several points here but I hope this has given you some information. I would love to tell you more, so please ask anything else you think of. Best of luck, my friend.

[ultralifehackerguru-blog]

New Post has been published on http://www.lifehacker.guru/tough-love-forgetting-names-finding-friends-and-falling-in-love/

Tough Love: Forgetting Names, Finding Friends, and Falling in Love

You’ve got problems, I’ve got advice. This advice isn’t sugar-coated—in fact, it’s sugar-free, and may even be a little bitter. Welcome to Tough Love.

This week we have a forgetful politician, someone in search of friends, and an older man who’s unsure about his new relationship.

Keep in mind, I’m not a therapist or any other kind of professional—just a guy who’s willing to tell it like it is. I simply want to give you the tools you need to enrich your damn lives. If for whatever reason you don’t like my advice, feel free to file a formal complaint here. Now then, let’s get on with it.

So, This Person Can’t Remember Anyone’s Name

Dear Patrick,

I simply cannot remember people’s names for the first, like, eight times that I meet them. I know that I should take a moment, repeat their name, and try to think of something about them that stands out so that I make that neural connection, but when I’m in social situations like that, my adrenaline spikes and I don’t even hear the name!

It’s driving me crazy and I’m starting to get more involved in local politics, so this is actually causing major problems. My strategy now is to follow-up by finding that person on Facebook and adding them to my network so that I see their name more often but this seems goofy. What should I do?

Sincerely,

Forgetful Francine

Hey… you:

The reason people forget names is complicated. The names you hear when you’re meeting someone goes right into your brain’s short-term memory, but it needs to move into long-term memory for you to recall it later on. If you don’t make a concerted effort to move it from short-term to long-term quickly, you’re screwed.

You’re on the right track repeating their name, making visual connections, and doing the creepy Facebook thing, but if that’s not enough, it could be a much bigger issue. Either it’s social pressure getting to you as you suggest, or, more likely, you don’t hear the names because you’re not actively listening for them. When you meet someone, you subconsciously make the interaction more about you than about them. It could be because you’re nervous and too worried about how people will perceive you, or it could be that you’re too caught up in your own routine of how you introduce yourself, or it could be because you don’t think meeting that person will matter in the long run. After all, we meet tons of people in our life that we never meet again, right? But you’ve met some of these people EIGHT TIMES…

So, it’s not really about what tricks will work for you at this point—those are just triage—it’s about rethinking the way you meet people. It’s not a memory game where the goal is to match the names with the faces. These are real people, with real life experiences and stories to tell. Find a way to be more interested in everybody you meet. Only then, Francine (see, don’t you feel more connected to me when I remember your name?), will you be able to make those connections and get those names moved from short-term to long-term storage. You probably don’t know these people’s names because you don’t make an effort to know them.

This Loner Is Tired of Hanging Out With Just Their Dog

Dear Patrick,

I had a cancer scare a while back and it made me realize that I don’t have friends. Like, people who would drive me to chemo, or help me plan my own funeral and promise me to look after my dog if I die and shit. I’m in my mid-30s, I freelance from home, I’m a loner and I like dogs. How do I friend?

Sincerely,

Lonely Lassie

Hey Lonely Lassie:

I’ve never understood why people ask this question as if there are official methods for acquiring friends—like they just haven’t been given the secret details. There’s not a friend store, and there are no step-by-step instructions. Think back to when you were a kid. School and whatnot made things a little easier, right? But what would always lead to friendships? LIKING THE SAME STUFF.

Yes, real friendship should go deeper than that, but in the beginning, friendship is almost exclusively about having similar interests and points of view. So, you need to go find people that meet those very basic requirements. Now I know, I know, you want me to tell you WHERE you’re supposed to go. Fine. I’ll break this down for you, Lassie.

You like dogs. That’s perfect! Take your dogs somewhere. Lots of other people like dogs too. Hit up dog parks, hang around pet stores, take your dogs walking in places where other people walk their dogs. When I take my girlfriend’s dog out walking I can’t get other dog walkers to leave me the hell alone. But here’s the kicker! You have to make the first move. You WILL NOT meet people just going about your business, hoping someone sees you the one time your out of the house each week, thinking “Gee whiz, they seem interesting! Hi!” Talk to people, make an effort. Those weird hairy toddlers everyone’s pulling around are barking, pooping ice breakers.

You want friends? Try to make some. The operative word here is MAKE, Lassie. As in takes time and effort. People are always afraid to put themselves out there because they’re afraid they’ll look like a loser for not having any friends, but that doesn’t make any sense! Trying to meet people doesn’t make you a loser. Not trying and complaining about it does.

This Widower Isn’t Sure How to Approach His New Relationship

Dear Patrick,

I am 74. My wife passed away last May. We had been married almost 50 years. Recently, I met a very nice lady and we have been seeing each other regularly for some months. It is pretty intense.

At my age, does it make any sense to even think about another long term relationship? If so, does it make more sense to marry, or just be together?

Sincerely,

Sweatin’ It to the Oldies

Hey Sweatin’:

You met a nice lady. Great! You’re seeing each other regularly. Excellent! And it’s intense. Fantastic! Sounds like you have a good thing going there. I don’t know you very well, Sweatin’, but life is short and you’re running out of time. Why should you spend one minute of it being unhappy? If this woman makes you happy, and you want to keep it going, then I don’t see what should stop you. You’re older, fine, but that doesn’t mean you should hold back how you feel. If that means jumping into a long term relationship, then go for it man.

Does marriage make sense for you guys? I don’t know, does marriage really make sense to begin with? Again, Sweatin’, just do what feels right. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. There’s no actual rule that says you have to be married to love each other and be together. It’s very common these days for couples to be together and devoted without being married. Then again, marriage does give you an excuse to go on an awesome honeymoon vacation…

Quickies

Because I just don’t have the time or patience for all of you…

JohnW asks:

Should I get an electric mower to replace my gas powered one? If so which do you recommend?

Well John, unless you get one that’s cordless—which is more expensive—it will be kind of like vacuuming your yard. Lame. And how are you supposed to wake the whole neighborhood up on Saturday morning with a far-quieter electric engine? That said, electric mowers are much better now than when they were introduced. If your gas powered one is getting old and you can find a good deal, go for it. It’s good for the planet or penguins or one of those things I think. Go cordless, though! People seem to like the Greenworks models.

Junker23 asks:

I need to find somewhere new to live and work. Aside from teaching 6 months in Thailand last year, I’ve been in Boston for forever.

There are too many places; decide for me, please?

Scottsdale, Arizona. So hot right now.

Snorp asks:

Should I buy a hot tub? I want to be hot and submerged in water every day but I don’t fit in my bathtub.

Hot tubs are awesome. All of my instincts are telling me to say “Yes, spend the money you fool, you could die at any second.” But! I have a few questions for you… First, do you have anyone in your life you can use it with? If not, get a bigger tub instead. Roman-style. Second, do you have a place to put it? Hot tubs are quite large. I know this because I’ve sat in over three of them. Third, are you willing to take care of it? They actually require a lot of upkeep, which is actually really annoying and so not relaxing. And lastly, do you live near me so I can also use your hot tub whenever I please? If not, probably not worth it, you know?

Dividing by Zero says:

I’m currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering but can’t bring myself to study much/care about it. Math is the main problem.

You don’t like math, huh? If you’re just getting started with your degree, you have several years of math to look forward to, including linear algebra, physics, differential equations, multiple levels of calculus, and vector calculus. So, what’s the real issue? Do you just not like math? Or are you merely struggling with it?

If you just don’t like math but you’re capable of doing it, you can suck it up and power through. In the end, you won’t be doing a ton of complicated equations at work anyway. If you’re just struggling with the coursework, find a tutor. Maybe you’ll care about math a bit more when you understand it. If it’s both, you should probably rethink your major. Math is essential to engineering. You need to know it. And to know it, you kind of need to care about it.

That’s it for this week, but I still have plenty of blunt, honest advice bottled up inside. Tell me, what’s troubling you? Is work getting you down? Are you having problems with a friend or a coworker? Is your love life going through a rough patch? Do you just feel lost in life, like you have no direction? Tell me, and maybe I can help. I probably won’t make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but sometimes what you need is some tough love. Ask away in the comments below, or email me at the address you see at the bottom of the page (please include “ADVICE” in the subject line). ‘Til next time, figure things out for yourself.

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