Sitting here in the Math Lab, Room 6431 of the South Hall, my eyes wandering over the outdated MAC display and upwards those lovely formulas scrawled in chalk on the blackboard, I find it's so hard to focus on SAS stuff for the coming exam. Instead, I struggle to put my thoughts into some words, some words at least with measure of ease, humor or grace, by pounding a rather awkward keyboard, no chinese, dammit. Or, just allow me to pick up some nonsense words here, to fill this blank page and this empty room.

Friday afternoon, especially before a long weekend, no one would like to work on math, unless they're totally insane. Today is the last day I'm working here, also the last day as a member of the Math Dept. I turn over the huge SIGN-IN pad idly, taking in the sign-in records, most of them signed by the prior math grad students whose names I never heard at all. Date, Name, Time in and Time out, the earliest record was dated in 1996, the year when I was still in the elementary school. And, for the past month, those records belong to me, shown up in quite beautiful handwritting, if not the best. It's an odd idea to think that that's all I'll be to this math dept - some signatures on a huge pad- providing the pad won't find itself in a trash can, recycle can, sure.

I sincerely consider it a honor to have majored in math for 5 years, and my time as a math graduate student at UCSB this past year has made me realize just how lucky I've been here, much more than the amazing weather, and the unbelievable sea and mountain view. I've met nice people and dealt with the multitude of students, every so often, some smart and smug guys without any basic sense in math. I have to admit that, "Dude, makes sense?" becomes my personal favor. I also experienced things that I never dreamed before, like the tea hour and free cookies everyday, hah, not to mention that I locked myself in the cubicle alone at midnight. I enjoyed all lectures in math, especially those I swear I would never understand, and then just happily think that ladies in math are the most awesome women out of the world. However, it seems I never really appreciated how much time and effort goes into math, i mean, the real math research, as few people do. I cannot tell how many times I complained to people that I'm sick about Real Analysis. The feeling is so intense that I'm always dreaming of escaping to any department other than math. Pstat, I finally get there, simply by taking 18 steps downstairs from the 6th floor of South Hall, where the math dept is located. I counted it when I moved my stuff to the new cubicle on the 5th floor. The distance between those two departments can be totally ignored, but I spent one year to cover it, seriously.

OMG, the most awesome and cute guy is coming. Say hello to me, finds himself a comfortable seat in the corner of the room, and gently takes out a calculus book... I'd rather he go surfing or prepare for club and party tonight, so I can type more meaningless words and finish it smoothly. Meanwhile, I'm quite glad he shows up, on the last day I'm working here......

Alrite, after helping this gentleman figure out some problem, what I need to do now is to fill out the Time Out blank, sign my name, lock the door, and return the key, the last thing I owe to the math dept. I cannot help thinking of sometime I'll donate them a latest MAC desktop with a really fancy keyboard plus a brand new notebook for Sign-In if people still know how to use pen by then.

So this is it, farewell, Math department, and farewell, this August.

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最近一个月在Math Lab打工,天天给一拨小P孩当做题机器,不怕丢人,大学里拎不清的一类二类曲面积分,现在终于懂了

放心,这里我要说的做题不是做微积分,是心理测试,一直很少做这类东西,最近碰到的几个还挺有趣,下面是我的一些结果:

 

中文版政治指南针 ( http://blog.farmostwood.net/politics )

政治立场坐标（左翼<->右翼）-0.2，经济立场坐标（左翼<->右翼）0.35，文化立场坐标（保守<->自由）0.4

 

Personal DNA ( http://www.personaldna.com/ )

这套题不错,不少类比反义词,因为题目比较多,有耐心做完结果准确率还是高的,比如测出个Genuine leader.

BUT......我做题的初衷只在于得到那张DNA的图,题目做到一半,想通了,干脆就用Facebook里现成的Graffiti给自己画一个好了, Personal...

嗯, 再给自己加个头衔------Artistic Director. 哈!

 

到这里,明眼人应该很清楚我为何在这兜圈子了...呵呵...睡觉睡觉,明天接着做题.

 

Echoing: 你喔---苏打绿 同名专辑 (喜欢里面简单的鼓点,不必计较主唱的性别,我也是听惯了才接受滴)

试听: http://www.pindie.com/rm/sdl_you.rm                

很久不听周杰伦,直到昨天在LA K歌时看到这个MV......

Wildfire Grows In Santa Barbara County--------KNBC-TV  8/4

The Zaca Fire continued to rage out of control Saturday, mushrooming to 53,500 acres and prompting Santa Barbara County officials to warn rural residents north of Santa Barbara to prepare for the worst.

"Residents of these areas should consider what they need to take and be prepared to leave upon notice of the Sheriff's Department, as they may NOT be able to come back to retrieve personal items due to the rapidly changing fire conditions," a statement said. People in the area for recreation were urged to leave immediately.~~~~

http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_details_info?incident_id=190

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 Earthquake 

Earthquakes in the Greater Los Angeles area on Thursday, Aug 9, 2007 at 12:58:49 AM. Magnitude: 4.6

 

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Maps/special/California_Nevada.php

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