Academic Bunkers Sieging

"I moved like Harlow in Monte Carlo and showed 'em what I've got."

I chose this piece of lyric to be my QQ signature, just before I "moved like Harlow in" the homework done by "Monte Carlo" method.

There is a famous idiom in the profound Chinese language, "Fuck time and time again, and love will eventually be generated". That's just what Monte Carlo did to me. When I began to learn it, I never considered it anything practical, and thought that the more determinstic methods are preferable and would converge at a far higher rate. However, after learning it for so long and doing so many problem with it, I've learned to enjoy this kind of thing.

However, the problem this time is that: the midterm and the deadline for this assignment just knock into each other, which, needless to say, means a ultimately arduous battle due to the lack of time. This turned out to be absolutely true.

There are four problems, each of which was estimated to require 5 to 6 hours on average to be completely done. Almost all I had were Tuesday and Wednesday, so I have to work 10 to 12 hours per day. It seemed to be a relatively small number, but studying problems is definitely different from lying on the lawn reading. I compare the former to an academic "Bunker Sieging".

I've seen sieging Bunkers with Hydralisks or Dragoons, and I know how bloody the scene is. However, I thought I had a few "academic Guardians and Reavers", and, above all, determination of blasting it to the ground. Hence, I had some confidence.

The full assault began at the night of Monday. Before that, I've done almost all the analytical work during the last weekend as preparation. The first two problems are essentially identical, i.e. finishing one means being able to finish the other in a matter of minutes. However, there are some subtle technical problems lying in front of me.

I've only slept for hardly 3 hours-- I stayed up until 5 a.m. and fell to the bed. However, it must be that I'm way too tired to ever sleep! I lay on the bed idly until I can no longer stand the sun out of the window, and determined to wake up and continue my work. However, I made little progress. I suddenly remembered that I told Bill I'll "kick into Chen's office and ask him about it", and I just set out.

It was not so easy to find Chen's office but I eventually made it. I told him that I've only slept for 3 hours last night but apparently he showed no sympathy so I determined to focus on the problems. He provided little help and told me that he cannot found where the problem lies until he see my code--that's the most ridiculous part--I assume that a professor should be familiar with all sorts of common mistakes students frequently make! Hence, I left his office disappointedly. Before my depart, he said, "Goodbye and have fun!", to which I reply, "Thanks if I can learn to consider it to be funny!"

I had my lunch (which is sold as "breakfast" by Mc'Donald) and returned to the dorm. After 1 or 2 hours of working, I cannot stand any longer, and fell to the bed...

When I opened my eyes again, I struggled to recall what was the last time I was conscious and tried to guess when it's most likely to be. I finally figured out it's probably early evening of Wednesday. I picked up my cellphone and was simply frighten out. 16 calls! Most of them from Haobo! Another of his SMS said that he'll have supper with a PG graduated from SYSU and asked me whether I will be there, I agreed without hesitation.

That PG turned out to be majoring in physics in SYSU (thus my direct major-mate), and he's just so kind and nice! However, I was still way too sleepy and had to leave pretty early. When I arrived at the dorm, however, I feel not a bit sleepy, and had this intense desire to finish it before dawn.

Now lemme make a brief report of my progress by then. The professor said one of my results in the third problem was wrong, but by the time I paced out of his office, I suddenly came up with the whereabout of the mistake, and fixed it immediately to reach the correct result. However, it was much, much more time consuming to run the program than to code it. I'd no mood to re-consider the first two problem, and had not begun with the fourth.

A figure of the third problem is also very hard to plot, and I didn't finish it until midnight. By that time, very surprising, Kaihan was online! I told him about my story and he was astonished, too.

Suddenly Become Cold!

After sleeping for barely 5 hours, I forced myself to wake up, grabbed the t-shirt and the pair of shorts I wore yesterday, and made myself "good to go".

If I was still more or less sleepy when I'm opening the gate, I dare say I was definitely not after it: I was suddenly surronded by the air tranfered from warm to cold overnight! In fact, I'm more shocked by the fact itself than being frozen. For the first time since I come to HK, the idea of "I'm wearing too little" came across my mind.

I ran to the McDonald's on LG5 and ordered my routine breakfast. That cup of "hot cholcolate", originally served as sleepiness-dispeller, now became a way to make myself somewhat warmer.

After CP, I bought myself a good amount of supply in the supermarket, found myself a seat by the pond at the back of UG Hall 4 (a place I've been planning to visit for a long time but never managed to), sat down and began to read about crystallography. It was, just I expected, no more than one hour before I began to feel uncomfortable: upset, sleepy and cold. I recalled my plan of "doing something meaningful during November", and told myself to keep on reading. However, these uncomfortableness just accumulated, and I gave up by leaving for lunch.

After lunch, I had a great sleep until 5 p.m. when I was awaken by this damned phone call. It's from a classmate I met in PHYS351 and it was then that I began to realized the fact that we had an appointment to review the course together this afternoon. I jumped up from the bed and met them. He find me a very nice indoor place to study. We left there at 7 p.m. When we paced out of the door, a gust of freezing wind of the evening nearly froze me into a statue. The boy wore far more clothes than I did, but he also began to shiver. He looked at me and said in an astonished tongue, "don't you feel cold? You're wearing so little!"

After dinner, I went to the library, stayed there until 11 p.m. to finish reading 3 books (!). Then I thought it was "enough for today" and returned to my room.

So, the autumn is ending and the winter is approaching...

But that's not the thing I have to worry about now-- it is the exam tomorrow.

Routine Updates Returns!

Briefly speaking, I've been indulging myself in all sorts of amusements, ad hoc PC Games, during the whole October, and was too exhausted to write anything. I feared my English level will just go down, but I found it hadn't yet, a very good news.

Now I'm more or less tired of these, and have made up my mind to spend the whole November on more meaningful things like reading. Hence, I wish I could update here in time.

There will still be 22 pieces of articles in November. As to October and September, I'll manage to write down everything worth remembering.

That's all for today.

Suddenly I Miss My Home

I've just recovered from the common cold, and am still suffering from this painful kanker on my tongue.

I've been tired of all kinds of amusement, temporarily or not, and the only thing I wanna do is to make full use of my time to do something, anything, meaningful.

I was working on my assignment of Computational Physics when I suddenly have this feeling.

It might be something that make me think of my childhood. Anyway, those memery, those golden memory of the "good old days" just come to me.

The lighthearted days. The games with my young pals. Those simple happyness and sorrow. Those cares I received from my parents and my...home.

Suddenly I, declaring that home is but a place for 3 meals and 1 bed a day, had a sudden impulse of utterly loneliness. At this instant, I suddenly felt that: wherever I go, whatever I do, however much I hate the binding from my family now and then, home is always there.

A New Record

A little before 9 a.m. last night, I was very sleepy, and, according to the principle of "maximum my comfort at every instant", I directly went to bed, without even turning off the computer (so that I can keep all the chating record on QQ during my sleep).

I had such a perfect, wonderful sleep, probably the best since I came to HKUST. When I woke up, the first instant I thought it had been dawn, but when I struggled up to read my watch, I found it's but 12:30 a.m.

After waking up and drinking some water, I decided to do some reading in bed. I read some Computational Physics, and when I can read no longer, I went to took a good bath. When I went back to my room, it has been 3 a.m.

After doing a little reading, I found I cannot resist the tempt of computer, so I played some PC game, SC followed by Mount&Blade.

When I'd had enough, I thought it was time for some more sleep. However, when I raised my head, I found it had been DAWN! The time on the computer showed that it had been 6:30 a.m.

It is then that I realized I've set up a new record: staying up until dawn!

I went to bed, and, quite surprisingly, woke up before 12:00. That's only 6 hours of sleep! Even plusing the nap, it is no more than 8 hours!

Very Uncomfortable

I was very exhausted, irritated by the god-damned homework of Computational Physics and was in a very bad mood, when I found Y's portrait on QQ became bright.

Hence we talked, she told me that she's gonna break up with her boyfriend, because she's too tired of loving someone that is too faraway from her. She said she had been very unhappy these days.

Suddenly I felt this unusual rage inside of me, I suddenly felt like slap on her face and shout at her with my top voice. I made up my mind to pick a fight. Hence I told her that I'm so fatigued and upset that I might shout, but it would not be her fault at all. Then I began to fight.

I told her directly, with burning words, that she's favored by the destiny that she can get a boyfriend with ease in high school, and that she can achieve love without any effort. I said that she just sat there, and a bunch of boys, including me, would chase her in succession, and be turned down in succession. "These facts are nice. However, not everyone is favored by destiny! There are a lot of people, like me, that are depressed because they have never felt the warmth of girls! And you are telling me you're depressed because you've been tired of having a boyfriend!"

I considered nothing about the outcome, I don't care whether she'll feel worse or not. I just wanna shout. "Last time you told me that being moved is not equivalent with love, and that one should not hook up with someone only because he or she has affected her or him. I know you made no effort to get a boyfriend, and you fall in love with each other SIMULTANEOUSLY, that's great! Congratulations! The only thing I wanna tell you is that I'm not so lucky as you! I have to deliberately chase a girl in order to win her love! And how should I chase? By doing something to move her!"

I said a lot of such words, and ended with "You think you're very unhappy, huh? In my eyes, you're too lucky to endure such an amount of luckiness! Have a look at those around you, like me, that are making great effort to chase their loved ones, and you'll surely feel happy!"

I feel far better now.

The Hall System of HKU

Last night, I was wandering in the website of answers.com, aimlessly searching for introductions to famous universities, when I came across such a paragraph from the "Criticisms" part of "University of Hong Kong" page.

Hall system

The Hall system has created controversy as some students have complained of being subject to hazing, and to harassment in their daily lives at Hall, being compelled, for example, to engage in late night meetings and other "social" activities, even though these incidents would be considered quite tame by the standards of certain other countries.

Many students also argue that the current Hall administration and admission system is unfair: each Hall is dominated by a small elected committee of students who have significant control over who is accepted to the Hall (there is an objective point system for admission, but subjective interviews also play a role in giving committee members control over acceptance). It is alleged by many former students that they lied about high-school extracurricular activities to be accepted, and upon joining the Halls must participate regularly in activities or else run the risk of being forced out of the Hall. Furthermore, newer halls such as Starr Hall, adopt (to a lesser extent) the traditional Hall customs rather than developing their own culture, such that only a narrow range of Hall culture is available for choice by prospective students. Hall-committee students have recently expressed the view, in letters to the newspapers and elsewhere, that overseas exchange students should not be domiciled in Hall, since they do not appreciate Hall culture.

A committee was set up in 2002 to examine the development of the Hall system, but it has been criticised by many students and academics as being non-transparent, and dominated by a select few students who are pro-tradition.

That said, most students who have gone through hall life have retained fond memories of it, and even consider it as being one of the most rewarding periods of their lives. Many have remarked that those sports and social activities, harsh and time-consuming they may be, have managed to foster in them a sense of esprit de corps and has also helped to enhance their strength of character, social skills and EQ, which have stood them in good stead in the years after graduation. Many friendships gained during that period also proved to be life-long.

Well, I have to say, I used to appreciate HKU, even struggled to be accepted in it. However, after reading this, I felt I was so lucky that I've failed to enter HKU!