Transition From Pencils To Pens
transition from pencils to pens
^ my physics notes
This semester, I switched from pencils to pens. I have been using pencils for the past two semesters. At that time, I could never understand people (fellow classmates) who use pens. You can’t erase with pens – it’s like using a bad old typewriter, if you make a mistake it stays forever.
However, now I understand the profoundness of using a pen!. Pens are almost frictionless. They glide effortlessly over the pages like a zero-volume mass sliding down a frictionless decline. Using a pen feels like you’re saving nano-joules of energy due to fewer friction. The experience of using a pen is unparalleled to that provided by any pencil I’ve ever used. Pencils are TI-10s. Pens are TI-89s. So, wonder why I stopped using pens two semesters ago?
A little history, I sometimes try to be perfectionist. I always try to perfect my MATLAB codes; it gives a pleasure while I attempt to make it concise as possible. However, over the course of my education, I’ve gotten a lot better of turning off my perfectionist tendencies — like when the professor alters the notes after I copy it down. Before, I would have erased it — with the eraser-end of my pencil, of course. Now, I don’t have to. I feel like it’s less efficient; it takes around 5 seconds to erase few words, while it only takes a second to draw a line across the same few words. So what if I wrote “Kircoff’s rule” instead of “Kirchhoff’s rule”? Well, when I go back to my notes, I would still understand it, and if I don’t know to how to spell it, Google’s “Did you mean….” will save me.
Just the other day, I submitted my Physics (Electricity and Magnetism) problem set. I had few scratchings across some calculations, but I became more conscience later on. You might wonder this would have created a bad impression. Guess what happened after I got it back? Absolutely nothing. I’m pretty sure my professor didn’t care at all and has completely forgotten it, unless he reads this post.
This shows that I’m really putting my education to great efficiency and doing some Calculus constraining (and also some probability). After putting time fixing my slight errors, I’ve already reached the point of diminishing returns. The slightly decreased probability of something going wrong just isn’t worth the additional time I’d spend to attain it.
I am not on a discriminative drive towards perfectionism (although it wasted too much time), but I think perfectionism shouldn’t be applied to less important things. I think pencils are great (wait, don’t think I’m contradicting) but only for sketching! Pencils, used wrongly, will more likely to obfuscate people than enlighten them. Finally, to me it is a rapture to be a pen person now.
More Posts from Svishnuu and Others
Launch day! Watch Samantha, Terry and Anton leave Earth for ISS today.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/iss_ustream.html#.VHHLpWpMXbM
Sound I like (also known as music)
Before you start to read this post, listen to this music as you read through.
My taste in music is “eclectic”*. I like all of the music I listen to, so obviously I have really good taste in music.
There is nothing quite so magical or moving as an powerful orchestral piece played by a full symphony orchestra. I have nothing against poppy music, nor do I have anything against wild bashing and screaming music (except that I mostly hate it), but if I were stuck in Antarctic for the rest of my life, I would die quickly of Hypothermia listen to epic soundtracks like:
“Imagine the Fire”, Hans Zimmer, The Dark Knight Rises
“The Promise”, Michael Nyman
“Extraction Point” , Hans Zimmer, Modern Warfare 2 (a video game with epic score?)
“Escape”, Craig Armstrong
London Philharmonic’s finest.
Or simply instrumental.
If you’re still listening to the music, I hope so, right? Imagine you’re sitting in that room, as a group of 50 people playing a song – using violins, bass drums, cellos, and a touch of piano – it precisely melds together into a beautiful, powerful, multifaceted sound… and it’s just magical as the conductor keeps the whole thing together..
As you might have seen in movies (like Harry Potter), a wand is portrayed as an instrument for magical occurrence. If you realize, a conductor’s baton (wand) also produces magical waves. I mean, with the flick of a wrist, a conductor can shape music like a painter with his paint brush. He can create striking thunders from the bass drums to the electrifying sharp pitch of the violins.
*I really do have a weird (wide spectrum) taste in music.
By the time I finished writing this, I realized that music is an expression, as it can only be played or heard (its really hard to ‘talk’ about music).
rand()
"The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds." Kennedy
‘As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.’ Einstein
it’s strange what desire will make foolish people do
Want to 'understand' or 'enjoy' music?
Day 1
Love number 1 It’s supreme love Tell me you love me I want a day number 2 A hotel suite, deadly extra I watched you all the night Dancing on my soul is no longer permitted 9 days Life is velvet and eternity, an obligation Day 10 Change of pleasure What would you do? A boat trip? Every day Addiction to love, dance steps around
It’s day 1, the one we remember The one which fades when you replace me, when you keep me, The one which returns It’s day 1, the one we remember The one which fades when you replace me, when you keep me, The one which returns
—–
It’s currently 3:34:42 AM here, and I’m writing a report on unsteady velocity measurements in jet using a laser velocimeter (don’t be conpuzzled, its not that bad). Though it seems like everything imaginable is due this week. Anyways, lately (what time is it..) I’ve been slowly getting back into French music, and this song is just soothing - it almost brings sort of a melancholy mood, in a good way of course!
Excuse me. Gonna get back to writing that lab report on laser velocimeter. (3:37:18 AM)
SpaceX's Grasshopper Rocket
SpaceX's Grasshopper Rocket beautifully perfectly Hovers!
In this recent test, the Grasshopper vertically took-off, ascended to about 12 stories, hovered for few seconds and then deliberately landed back down.
And of course, it's indeed meant to go much, much higher (to space) but progress is progress.
"Exploring the unknown requires tolerating uncertainty." • Brian Greene | #opportunityrover #marsrover #jpl #nasa (at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
In a nutshell or two: I love aerospace. I'm an engineer, writer, a photographer, and a reader. And, of course, a blogger. I spent my high school years in New York City, managing to defy every urban bum new yorker stereotype (except for the "bum" part). My school life basically revolved around Aviation and Science Bowl. If you continue to read this, I can assure you three (3) things: (1) impeccable grammar (yea, ok) and spelling (thanks to auto spell check), (2) a total lack of entertainment (literally, everyone’s view of entertainment is different), (3) an alliteration of photos, and (4) so many listings. (and of course parentheses)
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