all kinds of stuff

greetings blog fans

here's the update in lara land

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math: i thought dr. z. would be disappointed that i didn't actually prove what i meant to this week... instead he was impressed with all the literature i did find on some things we talked about last week and gave me a new direction to go in. in fact, there are only two papers we're aware of on the new topic (strongly related to my old one)... one of the two papers isn't published yet, and he's supposed to referee it, but he decided i should referee it instead so i can put "have been a referee for a major journal" on my c.v. i was amused.

dr. z. makes me feel happy about math and happy to be here... very unlike combinatorics. i wrote up 2.5 answers perfectly, 1.5 more somewhat iffy, and the rest of this week's assignment i've basically given up on. i'm not proud of the way i do my homework for that class anymore. i read the problems until i understand them, and if they look doable, i try for a bit until i get really frustrated and then see what i can find online or see what help i can get from the guys in the class. seriously though, i feel like i'm soooooo much less skilled at solving the problems we're asked in there, i feel incompetant. and i've felt that way with this professor's homework for 3 straight semesters now. this isn't to say that i don't recognize he's brilliantly smart and has proved some amazing things. this isn't to say i don't appreciate that he gives amazingly well organized and motivated lectures. it is to say that my intelligence is dwarfed by his class and i will rejoice greatly when i turn in my last homework for him and never plan to take a course form him again.

dr. z.'s been asking me frequently in detail about how my homework is going for that class lately... it makes me suspect he and my combo prof have talked about me a time or two lately, and while dr. z. appears to love my work, i doubt my combo prof has anything good to say about me. it makes me wonder what gets said about me that i don't hear. i can't imagine that it's overly flattering... oh well, dr.z. still seems to like me, and that's what counts.

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apprentice: i can't believe angie got fired. while chris is improving personal aspects, loosing the money and being MIA for most of the task is moderately ridiculous. from what the viewers saw, angie was given 90% of the responsibility, and had her work complicated by chris's being gone 2/3 of the task and alex's not keeping a good schedule. sure the presentation sucked, but what was she supposed to be doing instead? it's not like she was just sitting around. she admitted she didn't excel, but i don't see how anybody could with the responsibilities that skewed. i was disappointed in chris for losing the money and then disappearing for a large chunk of their time and then pawning off blame on the person who did all the work. i was saw that trump just said "admit you choked" and when she said "fine" he fired her immediately. if she had disagreed he would have fired her for being a smart alleck. whatever. angie was quality, i had hoped to see her last farther. i'm really pulling for tana, followed by kendra, followed by bren. we'll see if it works out to my satisfaction or not.... anyhow, farewell angie, sad to see her go.

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grandma: this morning it appeared that all was well. with medication g-ma's vomitting had stopped and she was sleeping peacefully, they hoped to send her back to her nursing home this afternoon.

2pm: grandma's vomitting resumed and they had no idea why, she didn't seem to be responding to medication either.

8pm: they decided to replace her feeding tube even though this one wasn't that old, they're hoping that by putting a whole new one that will help ease whatever is agitating her so much. they had to suction her mouth at least 4 times today from the recurrent vomitting. blood returned, but they determined it was from her esophogas, and was old blood (not current bleeding)... basically something's going on in the stomach/intestines that isn't happy and since her esophogas isn't really used anymore, the vomitting was screwing something up on the way up. (i.e. the bleeding isn't something to worry about, and isn't current). g-ma's also diabetic (the ultimate cause of all of her medical problems), and my aunt noted from her file by her bed that her blood sugar was up around 326 today (it was 256 yesterday... for someone who hasn't eaten in a bit it should be below 100) -- that's really not good. anyhow, the doctor in charge is pretty conservative, so even after they stabilize everything he'll want to keep her in the hospital for several more days rather than sending her immediately back. meanwhile, aunt pris continues to update me so i can update mom.

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the lara update: i'm tired, and grumpy about math at present. i want to go to sleep, but need to wait for another hour until mom's out of meetings at the conference she's at so i can tell her the 8pm update.... tomorrow? turn in crappy homework, listen to an 80 minute lecture on van der waerden numbers (we've actually just started a lecture topic i understand and enjoy in that class, i hope it lasts several lectures before we get into probability measures and stuff i don't get at all again...), putz around for an hour, pizza seminar, then come home and be lazy :-P. i'm hoping to re-read hitchiker's guide to the galaxy before the movie comes out in 3 weeks... i plan to start cracking tomorrow afternoon and just read until i crash -- it'll be FANTASTIC.

and that's a wrap.

night y'all