Success and Wanting

I haven't posted much lately because every time I sat down to blog I had negative topics. There have been probably 5 or 6 drafts over the past couple of months that I deleted because all I could write about were my personal failures and my desires that continue to go unfulfilled. So today I'm going to talk about my successes so far this semester.

As of this week, I have made all A's on my exams for Abstract Algebra and Real Analysis. I've increased my study time tremendously this semester and it is really paying off. To be specific, I'm on campus 6 days a week and I spend an average of 3-4 hours each one of those days studying, writing notes, and doing homework.

I've also registered for Abstract Algebra 2, Matrix Theory, and Topology for the spring semester. To prepare myself for those courses I'm going to spend most of Christmas break reading and studying, probably about 1-2 hours per day, Monday - Friday. My goal is to be about 6-8 weeks ahead by the time school begins in January so that I can focus on meeting more of the faculty and grad students, prepare my application for teaching fellowship for next fall, be involved in more campus activities, and get my tutoring business back in action.

Another big success is that I have managed my money well enough this year that I will be able to support myself over Christmas break without having to work. Yessss. This is going to give me some much needed time to work on next semester's coursework as well as beef up on some subjects that I sometimes have trouble tutoring at work. Linear Algebra, Calculus 2, and Probability/Statistics come to mind. I've also got some projects that I put on the back burner when the fall semester started up that I'd like to revisit. And maybe I can find the time to get out of Denton a few times before school starts back up in January.

Coming back around to school stuff, I've made a solid decision to change my degree plan from Math/Econ Master of Sciences to Pure Math Master of Arts. I will either take minor electives in economics/risk management or go back to my computer science background since I finally have the discipline and responsibility to do well in programming courses. I also need some foreign language credits for an MA, so I'm going to get back into French, hopefully during the summer.

The reason I've made such big changes in my degree plan is that I want to go somewhere notable to earn my PhD. I'm still a couple years away from finishing up here at UNT, but I've already started looking around at the country's top math schools. MIT and Berkley are my top two choices so far, but I haven't done enough research to finalize my choices.

In other news, Jet City Rotation is playing their first show since our last one in April at Liquid Lounge in Dallas, TX. We return to the Lounge to rock some faces off tomorrow night around 10pm, cover is going to be $8-10 and we are 99% sure that we are going to debut some new music for our fans. So if you're reading this and you're close enough to check it out, please do!

I now leave you with some music to enjoy from Devin Townsend Project's new album Addicted. Song is called The Way Home.

--DW