Things have been looking good. I’ve been going to physical therapy for my hamstring and I can already fell the improvements. It will be some time before I get the go ahead to put my running shoes back on, so in the meantime, I’ve beefed up my weight training and added yoga to my regiment. Yeah, yoga. Let’s talk about yoga for a minute. If you asked a year ago if I would ever consider trying yoga, I would have said “no way”. Here I am one year later all twisted up like a pretzel. And I’ll tell you another thing, I really like it. I honestly can say I feel incredible after a yoga session. Not only that, this particular routine I’m doing focuses heavily on meditation. Multiple positive anyone? Then again, all yoga may focus heavily on meditation for all I know.
My Russian has been improving steadily too. Not only have I been doing my lessons on a regular basis, but I’ve been finding ways to incorporate the language throughout my day. For example, I often answer my co-workers questions in Russian. It only pisses them off a little. I also only count in Russian. I’ll do this a lot when I’m working out, counting reps or tracking time. It’s a great way to keep my mind thinking Russian.
I may be getting a new Camera too. My 10D has had quite a bit of dust on the mirror for the last year and every attempt I’ve made to remedy this problem has failed. This includes spending $75 to send it to Canon directly. Well, I’ve decided to cut my losses and buy the new Rebel XSi (12.2mp) when it comes out in April. It’s about time I upgraded anyways. I’ll keep you posted, but hopefully I’ll start taking significantly more photos after I make the plunge.
I’ve been doing a lot of writing too. Actually, I never really stopped. I write in my journal at least once a week, but more often several times a week. These entries can range anywhere from day to day activities, thoughts and ideas, character development, random lists, just about anything that pops into my mind. It’s oddly liberating to get all your ideas out of you head and into written form. I highly recommend it.
Python and music are next on my list. I plan to do some coding tomorrow morning when I get up. In all fairness, a lot of my time has been spent reading lately. Currently I’m in the middle of two great books; The Victorian Internet and Ben Franklin: An American Life. Both are really fascinating.
I’ve also been watching some of the open courses Yale is offering. Specifically, Professor Kagan’s Philosophy course on death. This is what makes the Internet great, free knowledge. I’m not watching online courses made specifically for the net, but an actual Yale course, taught at Yale, by an actual Yale professor, in front of a real Yale class. Life is good. I even have homework. I have to read Plato’s Phaedo before the next class.
Coincidentally enough, that link to Plato’s Phaedo takes you to M.I.T.’s site, another incredible organization that promotes free knowledge for everyone.
But now I’m just rambling, and I’m hungry, so it’s time to wrap this up.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:19 am
one more quick thing. I seem to have no problem inserting working ‘code’ tags into my comments (except that the system formats my comments using ‘p’ tags and such, messing with my own code tags).
I have not tried any other tags, but I hope you have taken some measures and have filtered at least a subset of the tags out. I dare not, for example, insert a ‘/body’ or ‘/html’ tag for fear of ruining the page, but just for argument’s sake, I wonder what would happen. I’m sincerely hoping it’s nothing, but I decided to warn you anyway.
Sorry for not introducing yet, my name (alias) is Yoshi. My personal goals are to become an expert python programmer (well on the in my own humble opinion), and learn playing the harmonica, juggling, and speaking Japanese. I’m always eager to help out those new to python programming. Nice to meet you
February 2nd, 2008 at 10:26 am
Hi Yoshi. Thanks a lot for the advice, both regarding Python and the website — I really appreciate it. I’m going to have to look into the html tag issue you brought up about the comment system, that could mess things up pretty quickly.
I plan on rewriting all the my original functions with your suggestions so I can better wrap my head around it. Did you teach yourself Python? How did you start and do you have any advice for people just starting out? I’ve read “How to Think Like a Computer Scientist” and I am currently reading O’Reilly’s “Learning Python”.
By the way, Japanese would be the next language I taught myself. It’s such a great language.
Thanks again for all the advice Yoshi. Nice meeting you too.
February 2nd, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Well, before learning python I already had some experience with C++, so it wasn’t my first programming language. That really helps a lot. Still, python is quite different from anything else out there.
I learned most of my python from the tutorial at http://www.python.org/doc/, but it seems like it’s focused on people with previous programming experience. Otherwise, O’Reilly’s Learning python seems like a solid choice to, well, learn python.
Other than that, the best advice I can give you is probably: start coding. Simple as that, the more code you read/write, the better you get. If you’re looking for ways to get some practice in, the Euler project might be a good way. It offers a series of mathematical puzzles that are meant to be solved by writing a program (the first puzzle, for example, is “find the sum of all numbers below 1000 that are multiples of 3 or 5″). Puzzles might require some research on the math, but I find it an excellent way to practice python skills.
If you’re interested, check out
http://projecteuler.net/index.php?section=about
One more quick note. If you solve a puzzle on the euler project, don’t post your solution here. That’s bad etiquette. They have their own forums for it, which is only accessible to those who also solved the problem.
February 3rd, 2008 at 10:53 am
Thanks Yoshi, that website looks great. It’s perfect too, because I am by no means a math wiz, but have always wanted to improve myself in that particular subject.