But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?
A friend of mine (forgot who) suggested we do this way way back and I've been wanting to do it ever since. I finally mustered enough courage(?) to actually do it (I was actually pressured by my friend... hehe)
Unfortunately the barista didn't shout it out loud. Maybe next time I'll stay as far away from the bar as possible or I won't get the drink until he/she mentions my "name."
If you didn't get it, I told the barista at the counter that my name was "free." The ideal outcome would have been the barista shouting:
One Strawberries & Crème Frappuccino for FREEBut what he said was:
One Strawberries & Crème Frappuccino for... (and looked around)
From now on I'll be sleeping here. Wohooo!
On a sad note, my Tuesday class was moved to Mondays and Tuesdays and I was given another class on Wednesday and Friday afternoons. Now I have to hold classes four times a week instead of just once.
My new schedule:
Mondays: 5:30-7:30 PM (ECE12)
Tuesdays: 5:30-8:00 PM (ECE12)
Wednesdays: 5:00-7:30 PM (MSE/ECE161)
Fridays: 5:00-7:30 PM (MSE/ECE161)
My mother was actually wishing for a church wedding for their 25th anniversary. Unfortunately, due to budget constraints, they had to settle for photos at the altar and the area near the church. I was a bit shy shooting their photo. hahaha.
Here's a photo of my two sisters with tita Nadz in the center:
Photo of me:
1. Renew ECE license
2. Get ERDT landbank card
3. Have laptop checked
4. Visit ultraphoto
5. Registration of corporation
6. Get a driver's license (kahit wala pa i-dridrive)
I promised in a previous post that the next post will be on reinforcement learning. Unfortunately, due to lack of time (wasn't able to study that topic well enough for our CS284 (Machine Learning) final exam), I wasn't able to make a note on the topic. I made up for it by using it as the title of this post though it has nothing to do with what I am about to write.
Anyway, I just want to share:
1. I got a 2.75 in CS284 despite two exams with scores less than 50%. The projects probably made up for the pathetic failures in the exams.
2. It's almost 4 days since I went to vacation and I miss school already.
3. First day of class in UP is on Tuesday and I still haven't enlisted nor talked with my adviser (whose identity is still unclear, haven't finalized with any of them yet)
4. I'll be teaching CAD this summer Tuesdays 1300-1730. I hope I have cooperative students.
5. I am looking forward to this Tuesday(April 14). ;))
PCA is a statistical tool that provides a means of identifying patterns in data by highlighting its similarities and differences. It can also be used for lossy compression by reducing the dimensionality of the data.
How is it performed:
1. Get the mean of the data in each dimension and subtract it from each data point. This will produce a data set with zero mean.
2. Calculate the covariance matrix
3. Calculate the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the covariance matrix
4. Choose the number of eigenvalues/eigenvectors to consider (largest is the most significant component of the data, so larger values should be considered first)
5. Derive the new data set using the eigenvalue-eigenvector pair selected:
a. take the transpose of the unit eigenvector
b. multiply it on the left of the transpose of the original data set
Pre-requisites:
- computing the covariance
OK- calculating eigenvalues and eigenvectors
OK- computing the transpose of a matrix
next topic: Reinforcement Learning
Now that things are ALMOST done for the semester and I've been suffering from the side effects of procrastinating these past few weeks (and because some students are reading this blog), I'm going to write down my strategy for beating procrastination in the coming years:
1. Keep in mind that things can't be done in one sitting (well most of them). Personally, this mindset is probably the most probable reason why I procrastinate. Why? When I have something to do, I say to myself: "I can do this in X hours straight". Unfortunately, while doing, several problems arise like the programming environment is not working, the memory requirement is insufficient, how do you adjust the maximum memory allocation, it's too difficult to debug the code, and so on... The point is, we encounter problems we haven't encountered before. And sometimes, when I am already able to solve the problem, I have this feeling of accomplishment already that I justify taking a nap or delaying doing the other parts of the thing to do again. Aside from possible unexpected problems, there are certain tasks that we are not very happy doing. So we always easily get distracted by Facebook or other stuff we like doing more. What happens is the X hours becomes X*M hours. Almost always, X is always underestimated so if you don't have much free time, other tasks get bumped later into the schedule.
2. Remove the Ah-I-have-plenty-of-time-to-do-it-later thinking. When you can do it now, try to... Other things will most likely come up in the future. This is the easiest thing to consider yet the most common cause of delay.
3. It doesn't have to be perfect (right away). This will only make you feel that the task is difficult. And when we do so, we always find stuff that are easier to do.
4. Don't do the easy things first. It'll give you a sense of accomplishment.
So that's my initial list. I have plenty of time to write it later or do it in one sitting but I'll post it now and add more items if possible. (Di ko na masingit ang 3 and 4 sa final remarks). Basta heto na yun. Less facebook pwede rin siguro isama sa list na to...
I'm writing this post to procrastinate, yet again. It's my favorite word these past few days... And the favorite thing to do too.
Well anyway, I just want to make a note of things in store for me before the real summer break starts.
1. Data Mining Paper and Results (due tomorrow)
2. ML paper (due Tuesday)
3. 2nd long exam for ML (Tuesday)
Thank god I have really industrious group mates in CS292. Otherwise, the final documentation and eArchive would still be on this list. I've already started with both papers but I guess I'll be doing the cheesy parts come crunch time (i.e. night before the deadline)
... If there was an "ugly" part, there should also be a "pretty(?)" part on this post.
Things to do during the break:
1. Reformat my computer.
2. Go to Puerto Galera or some other beach.
3. Finally install gLite (hey, this is still work!)
Unluckily, I still have to go to school during the summer because I have a 2 unit teaching load (contrary to what I expected and was hoping for of having none). But it's just on Tuesdays, 12-4:30 PM. I'll have plenty of time to work on things I should be working on. (I wonder what they are... haha)
Some things in mind are:
1. Streamline JRM processes
2. Document grid computing stuff
3. Write content for grid computing website
4. Napsate registration
5. Create course binders for subjects I will teach for the first sem
(shit, dami nito... no wonder I don't get things done. tsk tsk.)
Must do: choose and finalize a thesis topic!
Leakage daw sa March 1009 ECE Board exam... Sa mga nag-review sa Excel, may leakage ba talaga?
Pinost ko to kasi naalala ko lang si Hermo. haha. Funny guy.
This morning, we went to ABS-CBN for a live interview on the morning show Mornings @ ANC. I wasn't supposed to come because I thought they didn't need me there. I wasn't their mentor in the first place. I was positive about the TV appearance but I was feeling shy coz I wasn't part of the team.
