Category: Feelings

  • 3Blue1Brown – Linear Algebra videos

    Right out the gate, I want to express my gratitude for the 3Blue1Brown YouTube channel for publishing a wonderful video series titled Essentials of Linear Algebra. After watching, and rewatching, the first four beautifully animated videos, I can say that I’ve developed a much better understanding, much more intuitive, of what I’m been learning in my linear algebra course.

    Before watching the videos, I’ve been reading the first few sections from the assigned textbook (and PDF lectures supplied by the instructor), which covers adding and subtracting and multiplying matrices as well as finding the inverses of matrices. Now, for these topics, I’ve been presented with sample exercises and, for the most part, been solving them with little to no questions.  However, I had no idea why I was doing what I was doing — I was simply going through the mechanics of solving problems.  For instance, multiplying matrices: what does that actually do? To elaborate, what’s the purpose of multiplying two matrices together, let alone adding them.  I had shared this frustration with my uncle, a physicists and who works at Boeing, and he recommended that I check out 3Blue1Brown YouTube videos.  So I did.

    And the videos, which are crisp and concise and aesthetically beautiful, cleared up much of my confusion around the concepts. And sure, the videos don’t jump into example exercises but that’s not the point of the videos. Instead, I think the expectation of the viewer is to go and practice problems on their own, and then supplement those exercises by watching the videos. At least that’s how I’m leveraging these videos.

  • A short thank you letter to my body

    I’ve been very sick this past week … coughing phelgm, swallowing pain, and battling headaches. Two nights in a row, an uncontrollable cough prevented me from sleeping.

    This morning, however, I awoke without a sore throat. It goes to show you how much I take you for granted when I’m healthy.

    My elation at regaining my health won’t be short lived. This I promise you.

    Ongoing health problems

    Despite converting to a plant based diet in 2014, we’re struggling with intermittent stomach pains. Sometimes, the excruciating pain paralyzes me into the fetal position for more than two hours. It’s the same sensation that sent us to the emergency room in 2005.

    Doctors can’t isolate the problem. Nutritionists suggest conflicting diets. It’s up to you and I to experiment and create a sustainable diet. I’ll continue to jot down foods that cause problems:
    • hummus (gas)
    • cold drinks (bladder incontinence)
    • honey / maple syrup (bladder incontinence)
    • raw lettuce (severe stomach pain)

    I’m fixing more than our diet. I reintroduced mindful eating. This means deliberately counting 60 chews before swallowing. This should help with digestion.

    All of this is going to take time. So thank you for being patient. Thank you for keeping me going. Thank you body.

  • Belgium terrorist attack and the media

    Belgian was this morning. I send my thoughts and prayers to those in Belgium, but I’m worried about the media’s knee jerk accusations of Muslim terrorists. At the moment, there’s no concrete evidence. But why is the live feed incessantly hinting at ISIS and Muslims?

    I can’t stay updated without feeling the media is inculcating anti muslim propagnda.

    I question the media’s “experts”. The media ensures that expert testimtony aligns with its agenda. Sky News interviewedAnne Speckhard and she immediately concluded that the incident must be related to Salah Abdelslam. I’m not suggesting that it isn’t, but its too quick to point the finger without facts.

    “It’s probably the group that Salah Abdelslam is part of …. so I think they just accelerated their plans … so they wouldn’t get rounded up”, said Anne Speckhard.

    “So you think this is related to the arrest of Salah Abdelslam on Friday and that perhaps that the planned attacks have been brought forward as a result of that?”

    “Absolutely.”

    “One gunshot afterwards and there was one man speaking Arabic afterwords. And then I heard a boom, an enormous explosion”

    I’m disappointed.