Month: May 2005

  • The Calculus of Life

    Here is my little calculus of life:
    Imagine that life is a curve in space. The first derivative of this curve
    is analogous to the change in you and in your environment from one time
    in life to another. And, if you try to think of life in terms of some
    “periods”, then a “period” in life is a line segment, a part of the
    broken line discrete approximation of this “life curve”. A broken line
    is obviously piecewise continuous. If you try to label your life with
    some major
    periods, such as infancy, childhood, teenage, etc, then your
    broken line approximation will have only a few large line segments, and
    the first derivative (the change) and the second derivative (the change
    in amount of change) from one line segment (one life period) to another
    are
    likely to be large and very shockingly different, thus upsetting,
    unsettling, and depressing you.

    What happens if you think of your life in terms of shorter periods? The
    broken line approximation gains more line segments, and it appears
    smoother overall – the derivatives from one line segment to another
    become smaller and less different. The ride through life suddenly feels
    less bumpy. All of this suggests that if one looks at life in terms of
    shorter periods (years, months, weeks, days, or even seconds), then
    life may not be so shocking after all. Now, it would be perfect if one
    can look at life really as a smooth curve and not label it with
    periods; however, it is highly unlikely to happen due to our stubborn
    consciousness, which always tries to look at the clock and the calendar
    only to realize how much time has elapsed since the last time we did
    something stupid or tried to hurt ourselves. The best that one can do
    is really to choose smaller and smaller intervals, until there are almost *cough* infinitely many *cough* small periods and the
    consciousness is fooled to believe that there is no difference from one
    period to another.

    Maybe there is a hidden message behind carpe diem:

    “… Because you don’t want to think about more than one day at a time.”

    I’m not drunk, but I guess it makes no difference.

    - SwordAngel

  • Summer

    This summer, I’m staying in beautiful Montreal where there is sunshine,
    gentle breeze, and great nature, just so I can have more chance to rot
    in front of my computer at home.What a great time to stay home and hack
    on OpenGL and write
    management papers. That’s right, folks: I’m not going anywhere this
    summer.

    I was hoping for a few months of home alone adventure. Alas, mom called
    last week to tell me that she may be coming back much earlier, possibly
    by the end of May (which is really soon). BTW, it was Mother’s Day. Who
    invented Mother’s Day anyway? Does the author not know how much trouble
    it means to people who know a lot of mothers? We had to call our moms,
    our grandmas, and all our aunts. Thank God mom is away in Hong Kong
    because a quick estimation tells me that I will become quite Vogonish
    by the end of the phone calls from my cousins.

    Let’s talk about something else. Apparently Star Wars Episode III is
    coming to the theaters soon. I almost completely forgot about that. I
    can still vaguely remember some of the cheesy scenes in Episode II.
    Meh. Anyway, anybody interested in watching it together? BTW, the
    official website of Star Wars looks quite b0rk3n…

    - SwordAngel