Back At School

It’s good to be back at school. I missed most of last week because I was teaching 30 hours. I didn’t miss much³, but I felt terrible. In the future, I won’t want to miss any school at all. My classmates were actually worried about me, which was kind of nice.

I ran some errands.

Germs & Sheaves

Hyperbolic triangle, via Wikipedia

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I spent most of the day reading up on differentiable manifolds, Riemann surfaces, germs, and sheaves. Some of the concepts are extremely interesting since they tie into category theory. This led me to differential geometry. I supposed that differential geometry had more to do with Euclidean geometry, an undergrad class that I didn’t enjoy all that much³, but it’s got a lot more to do with the geometry and structure of differentiable manifolds, which interest me¹.

Since the late nineteenth century, differential geometry has grown into a field concerned more generally with geometric structures on differentiable manifolds.

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The study of calculus on differentiable manifolds is known as differential geometry.

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Parachute Kids

Parachute kids are Asian-born international students who have come to the United States to study unaccompanied by their parents. Usually, they will stay with a family member, like an aunt or grandparent. But sometimes, the parents hire someone to act as their guardian.

Children of rich Asian families sent to live in U.S. suburbs known for good schools and safe streets. Typically, mothers try to split their time between their husbands in Asia and their children in America, often leaving housekeepers in their stead. Parents may feel guilty about spending too little time with their kids and shower them with money and gifts, says May To, executive director of the Asian Youth Center, which has dealt with parachute kids.

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This is quite common in Taiwan. I’ve known quite a few parachute kids that were getting some intensive ESL tutoring in order to be able to speak well in the US or Canada. Typically, a lot of Taiwanese pursue graduate degrees in the US as well, after completing their undergraduate degree in Taiwan. Parents will save for years to make this possible.

While this can be seen as a great opportunity, it can also be trouble for the children that won’t be supervised as assiduously as by their own parents. In some cases, the kids will live alone in apartments paid for by their parents without any supervision. It can also leave them vulnerable to kidnapping, much more than if they were living with their parents.

Measure Theory and Disposable Teachers

Wheeden and Zygmund's book

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I’ve been working hard this week at learning more about measure theory. It’s a really interesting research subject and there are quite a few things that I didn’t know about it. In class, we are currently seeing the Lebesgue measure and topics. I’ve read up on the Borel, Haar, Radon, and Daniell measures.

I’ve got quite a few books in this area, including Paul Halmos’ Measure Theory¹ that I got for $6. The Measure and Integral² book that is used in my real analysis class is finally available. I have it photocopied, but I’d rather buy it. It’s a bit more expensive, but not that much. It’s $46. Einstein has it for $69.

The real analysis professor spends 3hrs a week copying that book onto the blackboard. It’s really strange. He doesn’t give any further examples and quite a few of my classmates abandoned the class after the first week.

As I mentioned before, the classes are what you make of them. At my level, having a great professor doesn’t really matter, unless he’s my thesis adviser. I’m actually lucky that 2 out of my 3 profs are good. Since I am going to specialize in analysis, probably abstract analysis and topology, the real analysis class is fundamental to my mathematical development, as it introduces all sorts of concepts that were probably not seen at an undergraduate level. We’ve started the Lebesgue integral and I hadn’t seen it before.

Pre-Typhoon Training Days

Riana Van Niekerk by Allievn

I woke up pretty late today. It was late enough for my wife to get up, have breakfast, and come back to bed. I needed the sleep. With my freelance blogging, I rarely go to bed before 3AM. I know it’s unhealthy and I need to change this, but I haven’t managed to do so. I managed to get about 9 hours of sleep.

Anyway, I didn’t go for a long run, just a very short one with Spike to the park and back, twice today. I felt like taking it easy the whole day. This week, I’ve run about 13.5 km. That’s not a lot, but part of me remembers that I usually start training too aggressively and wind up with injuries a few months later. I just remembered. My week stops tomorrow, so I can get some more mileage in.

There is an earthquake right now while I am typing this. It’s 1:37 AM.

Second Week of School

This is a non-commutative ring

It’s the second week of school and my classmates have become quite curious about me⁵. I usually hang out with Mary and John. John showed me the two science bookstores near Taida⁴. He’s also an older student, though he lives in LongTan, Taoyuan, and commutes everyday by bus.

The kids in my Modern Algebra class wanted to know if I needed the book. I informed them that I had already ordered a copy and that there were quite a few softcover Algebra [Hungerford, Springer-Verlag] available at the Newton book store. Naturally, they already knew this.

One classmate copied all of his PDF math books onto the shared computer. That’s going to be really fun, because he also has the solutions of the exercises in Measure and Integral. The Complex Variables [Berenstein & Gay, Springer Verlag]¹ and Measure books will be copied this week. I’ll copy the PDF books tomorrow³.

4 Days in North Korea

Sarah Wang spent four days in North Korea. No internet, no phones, no TV. When Wang drew a picture of a banana, a North Korean waitress didn’t know what it was. She knew of apples, but had never eaten one. Sounds bleak.

(via coudal)

The Longest Way

This is Christoph Rehage’s journey across China. He shaved his head on the start of it and let it grow during his 4,646 km walk across China. Initially, he wanted to walk all the way back to Germany. This is what you get from stitching the photos and videos together. His blog, The Longest Way, is currently down.

Typhoon Weather

Well, it’s finally here. It hasn’t stopped raining since yesterday, meaning that I haven’t been able to train either.

If you’ve never experienced a wet season before, it’s kind of hard to explain. I tend to like the rain, but it’s terrible to get around in. Scooters and bikes are really almost inoperable in this weather. This doesn’t stop anyone from doing so, but it is really bad. Our bedroom AC is no longer working, this means that I’m acting a bit nutty. I’ve had trouble sleeping the last two nights. It’s not anyone’s fault, but when I get bothered during a night’s sleep, it really messes me up.

This coupled with some jetlag from earlier in the week hasn’t helped my general disposition. As soon as the rain abates, people throw themselves outside. This makes supermarkets clogged. I waited 30 minutes in line to pay for some groceries today.

Tomorrow is a Typhoon Day, kind of like a snowstorm day back home. This means no classes. Apparently everyone is heading south for the 3-day weekend. We’re not. I think I’ll go out on a bike ride tomorrow. I can’t stand not going anymore and I’m getting really fidgety and annoyed.

Captured Journalists Freed From North Korea Thanks To President Clinton

In an almost Jack Bauer-like 20-hour negotiation effort with the North Koreans, President Bill Clinton managed to get the two American journalists, who were sentenced to 12 years in a hard labor camp in June, freed. Ok, maybe he isn’t Jack Bauer since he didn’t kill anyone, but President Clinton sure has got the ultimate ninja-diplomatic negotiation skills. I couldn’t see former President Bush do anything like that!