Random POVs Vol2

The coffee.

The third time I read the sentence
I knew it was futile.
My eyes hurt as much as my brain.
I looked at you again.

Even against the darkness,
I noticed the slight crease of your brows
And the mirth on your lips
As you read through the lines.

You paused, looked back
And typed furiously.
I flipped the magazine in my hands.
Funny, I can’t remember what her name is
But I know she gets paid 5000 an hour.
Numbers do really amaze me more than words.

My gaze went back to you again.
The fifth in ten minutes.
I am grateful that Shang has a joke for a generator
This way I get to observe you as boldly as I can.

I saw you squint at the page.
You used to do that when you were thinking.
Now, it could be the light.
Silently, I wondered
What else changed in 5 years?

I traced the contours of your face with my eyes
My gaze lingered at your lips.
You still are beautiful.
I emptied what’s left of my cup
And hoped that that went unnoticed.

I raised my eyes again
Only to find amusement in yours.
Uh-oh, busted.

Random POVs Vol1

The wait.

The cursor stares back at me.
Sigh.
This ain’t easy for me too,
I shouted back more for me against its angry glare.
I wonder why it is so stubborn
For when you think about it
This is confusing me a lot more.

5 minutes passed
And I can’t write a single word.
Surely, I should have forgotten, right?
Wrong.
It was 5 years now
But the pain is as fresh as newly-cut wound.
Now, why is this a good idea again?
Indeed, this is confusing me a lot more.

Just 5 minutes more
And I ready myself to bolt out the door.
I wonder why I would have to brave this wait
Not when I need to be just scared shitless.
The cursor blinks back again
And I stared just as angrily.
I finished my tea
And stood.
Maybe there won’t be any words coming…

5 steps.
A “hi” then a smile.
Thank heavens, I am wrong.

Believe

I wrote this one when I was beginning to get too comfortable with teaching that I wanted to forego my graduate studies in UP. Unconsciously, I was building a comfort zone. I would justify to myself that taking a masters degree in Cebu while teaching 8 math subjects to an average of 480 students a week, is the selfless and most responsible thing to do. No matter how I justify it though, it all simplifies to one thing: I was scared shitless. I was scared of failure. I have wanted to study in UP since I was in high school and was afraid that I might realize that I was never good enough for my dreams. However, when it reached the point that I was slowly complying with the requirements of a graduate school in Cebu, alarm bells went off. And selflessness be damned. I ripped off the page where this poem was written, kept it in my pocket and decided to fly to Manila right after summer classes was over. I guess it was just appropriate that the last class I taught that summer was Mathematical Logic.

That was almost five years ago. I finished my masters degree already, passed SOA exams but can't seem to find the work I want. I am scared again; plus maybe, a little bored, depressed and hopeless. Pretty strong feelings, right? Yep, and negative and useless because when totalled, I am still jobless. I guess it's about time that I start believing again.

~0~0~

Move in tune

with the song

of the earth.

Dance with the

tulips and let

the sun admire

your grace

and the moon envy

your youth.

Believe Mae and

the wind, earth,

water and fire

will conspire with you,

with your dreams...

Of Techniques...

These three problems were presented during the Area Stage Competition of the 10th Philippine Mathematical Olympiad. On the average, each of them requires only a few minutes to solve, so if you find yourself working on one way too long, change techniques.

If 2A99561 is equal to the product when 3(523+A) is multiplied by itself, find the digit A.

The perimeter of a square inscribed in a circle is p. What is the area of the square that circumscibes the circle?

The sum of the first ten terms of an arithmetic sequence is 160. The sum of the next ten terms of the sequence is 340. What is the first term of the sequence?

Apples and Alex

OMG! When I read in yahoo news that Stephanie March will guest star in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit for six episodes, I squealed, shrieked and cussed! It's about damn time that they bring back the kick-ass Alexandra Cabot in the fold. Let's admit it, ADAs Casey Novak and Kim Greylek are not half as good as Cabot; hell, not even a quarter as good! They can and never will, fill in Cabot's shoes. Novak realized this early on and I bet Greylek will too, sooner or later. Or maybe she does already; I wouldn't know, I boycotted the show. I mean, I wasn't following every episode as religiously as I used to. I guess people will remember Novak as the ADA who replaced Alex Cabot and Greylek as the someone who replaced a replacement. What can I say? Cabot completes SVU; she sets the bar. Even the ratings are proof enough and numbers don't lie. It literally swan-dived after she was forced into Witness Protection Program. So after hearing that she will return for six episodes I am grinning rather widely it hurts! I guess saying that I am excited is honestly an understatement.

Ok, moving on. The problem below merits posting simply because we encounter it way too often. Well that, and the fact that I can't find the list of math problems I compiled a long time ago. Anyway, this problem illustrates the use of the technique known as working backwards. Read and try solving it and you will know what I mean. I can't help it, I just have to name the character, Alex.

Alex bought a bag of apples on Monday and she ate a third of them. On Tuesday, she ate half of the remaining apples. On Wednesday when she looked inside the bag, she found that she had only two apples left. How many apples did she have at the start?

Buddha in Glory

No, this is not a math problem. Yes, this is a poem and one of my favorites. Buddha in Glory is one of the greatest tribute to self-exaltation. What inspires me is the fact that the poem affirms the endless and continuous possibilities present to an enlightened man.

Buddha in Glory

by Rainer Maria Rilke

Center of all centers, core of cores,

almond self-enclosed, and growing sweet--

all this universe, to the furthest stars

all beyond them, is your flesh, your fruit.

Now you feel how nothing clings to you;

your vast shell reaches into endless space,

and there the rich, thick fluids, rise and flow.

Illuminated in your infinite peace,

a billion stars go spinning through the night,

blazing high above your head.

But in you is the presence that

will be, when all the stars are dead.

For J

The first time I read this problem it was my second-year in high school, a time when PhP20 can buy a lot and the Backstreet Boys mania thick in the air. The most recent time I encountered this problem was more than ten years hence, when I was reviewing for SOA Exam P and performing the statistical treatment for J’s thesis. In one of our discussions, J commented that it is impossible to determine whether a student who had identified the correct answer in a multiple-choice question really knew the answer and was not simply guessing. True, we can't say so with 100% certainty. But with certain assumptions, it is not completely insolvable either. The problem below illustrates this.

In answering a question to a multiple-choice test, a student either knows the answer or guesses. Let p be the probability that the student knows the answer and 1-p be the probability that the student guesses. Assume that the student who guesses the answer will be correct with probability 1/m, where m is the number of choices. What is the conditional probability that the student knew the answer to a question given that he had answered it correctly?

The answer is given by

We illustrate this with an example. Suppose you gave a multiple-choice exam with five possible choices. Student A whom you believed to have a 10% chance of knowing the correct answer for a particular question was able to identify the correct answer. The expression above tells us that the probability that Student A really knew the answer and was not simply doing "eeny, meeny, miy, moe" given that he has answered correctly is 5/14. In other words, the probability that Student A was just lucky is 9/14.