the 13th letter redeems his sanity

[the 13th letter]

In which M, a.k.a. the 13th letter, puts the disappointments of the predecing challenge #3 (the “pastâ€) behind himself and strives to re-reach the state of sanity he experienced during the better days of challenges #1 and #2 (the “golden daysâ€).

Specifically, while the past went markedly different than the golden days, there is one striking difference between them: I actually had a semblance of a timetable. I was a student during the golden days, and just before the past, I transitioned to unemployed, obliterating whatever shards of a timetable I had left. And now, without any structure or rhythm to my days, every task turns into a "eh, maybe I'll do it now… or later… or tomorrow". We both know this doesn't truly work, like, ever.

So, for this mini-challenge,

I vow to adhere to a timetable, and through this timetable I hope to regain my rhythm, and through this rhythm I hope to regain my sanity.

Specifically, here are the cornerstones of my timetable:

1. Go to bed by 12am (midnight). I regularly stay awake beyond that, mostly for frivolous reasons.
   
2. Be ready for the day by 11am. "Being ready" means showered, shaved, dressed and fed. And though I'm actually setting an alarm for 9am, I expect it to take a while for me to get used to not oversleeping anymore. I will award myself 1 point per full hour before 11am that I am ready.
   
3. Stick to whatever tasks from “the past†I plan to do today. I'm continuing the work, though at a lower frequency.
   

And here are the rewards:

1. If I successfully stick to my timetable for all 13 days (Dec 24th through Jan 5th), I shall mark my challenge #3 as successful.
   
2. If I additionally collect 13 points from being ready early, then I'll treat myself, somehow. I haven't decided yet on what.
   

Well then, now that everything's settled, there's only one thing left to do: Let's get dangerous!

[AshPS]

Whooooo Hooooo and sounds like a plan!! :triumphant:

 

Sub'd of course!

[the 13th letter]

Day 1 (Tuesday, 2013-12-24) (partial)

This is the 13th letter, reporting in for the first half of the day. Follow-up report for the rest of the day will follow later today, when “the rest of the day†has progressed far enough.

Cornerstones of Success

1. Go to bed by 12am (midnight): YES. I had to cut my workout short to still make the time. But I did it anyway.
   
2. Be ready for the day by 11am: mostly. I overslept two alarm clocks and left the house for martial arts class at 10am… without breakfast. Still, as far as I'm concerned, that's still a YES.
   
3. Stick to whatever tasks from “the past†I plan to do today: too early to tell. Today's list of tasks contains finishing up that missing half of yesterday's workout, and thoroughly cleaning up my pigsty room, in anticipation of visitors in the next few days. I actually set an appointment in my pseudo-calendar replacement^[1] for this cleaning-up job. Not kidding. We'll see if it helps.
   

Tally of Points

1. Stuck to my timetable: too early to tell. +0 points. (Total: 0 points)
   
2. Was ready early: YES, by 1 hour. +1 point. (Total: 1 point)
   

---

¹This is a glorified name for a certain loose pile of index cards on my desk.

[AshPS]

so far & for what is yet to come!

[the 13th letter]

Day 1 (Tuesday, 2013-12-24) (rest)

This is the 13th letter, reporting in for the second half of the day.

Cornerstones of Success

1. …
   
2. …
   
3. Stick to whatever tasks from “the past†I plan to do today: YES. I successfully cleaned up my pigsty room, and I finished the second half of yesterday's strength training session.
   

Specifically (see legend):

• Level 4 flat frog (leg) raises: 21/17/17 (+3/+3/+2, intermediate+) (last session: 4 days ago)
  Ow. My. Abdomen.
  Also, it turns out that this exercise is absolutely not fun when wearing jeans and leg-raise'ing on a hard, flat surface. Stupid belt hoop.
  
• Level 3 angled bridges: 15/15/NA (+4/+2/NA, intermediate) (last session: 5 days ago)
  Though I reached intermediate standard this time, I didn't try another set (in preparation for progression standard) because I didn't know I had hit intermediate standard until I checked.
  

Tally of Points

1. Stuck to my timetable: YES. +1 point. (Total: 1 point)
   
2. Was ready early: already reported. (Total: 1 point)
   

Day 2 (Wednesday, 2013-12-25) (partial)

And that's as far as he goes…

Although the day isn't nearly done, I've already messed up by quite a bit: last night, being Christmas Eve and all, turned out to be quite late. It was literally 11.45pm before I got down to the second half of the strength training session. And after that I sat down to type out most of this post; this is how I catalog my progress, after all. But to write this post properly, I had to compare it with my previous session's performance… at which point I came face-to-face with the fact that hadn't written my summaries of days 41–43 in challenge #3.

Suddenly I'm in the midst of typing daily summaries for four days instead of one strength training session. This took some time… so it was 1.30am when I was done.

And of course, because I slept late, I overslept this morning. No real chance of being ready by 11am here either.

So yeah, there it goes, my hope of passing challenge #3. It was nice while it lasted. But as I've said before: “there ain't no second chance for a second chance.â€

Now, technically, this means that this whole mini-challenge is moot, 'cause the rewards just went up in flames. But, to quote Solidus Snake: “

†Sans that whole get-shot-down-by-a-fighter-jet-missile thing.

Cornerstones of Success

1. Go to bed at 12am (midnight): NO. Bleh.
   
2. Be ready for the day by 11am: NO. Chain failure. Bleh.
   
3. Stick to whatever tasks from “the past†I plan to do today: too early to tell.
   

Tally of Points

1. Stuck to my timetable: NO. +0 points. (Total: 1 point)
   
2. Was ready early: NO. +0 points. (Total: 1 point)
   

[the 13th letter]

Day 2 (Wednesday, 2013-12-25) (rest)

And the rest of the day was quite slow, too. Not a terrible surprise for the second day of a three-day public holiday, but still… not really an enviable situation. Even if the family is together and spending time doing… the same as usual… each on their own… hm…^[1]

Anyway, it's time for me to continue writing my application for Zurich.^[2] As of now, I'm stuck on the cover letter, because… I really don't like writing cover letters. Or advertising or sales of any kind for that matter. But, importantly, I know that this attitude is ultimately going to backfire—not at least because the deadline is coming up pretty soon. So I'm taking Kishi's Sith-knowledge to heart: a successful person succeeds by doing the things that the unsuccessful people are reluctant to do.^[3] Reluctant things such as selling oneself through a cover letter. And as far as actually writing that letter is concerned, I'm going to further take Scott Young's advice on hard projects: “Difficulty should be intrinsic … [it] should be in the constraints. Once the constraints are established, you should try to make accomplishing [the project] as easy as possible.â€

So yeah. That's my workload for tomorrow. That, and a “Convict Conditioning†strength training session.

Cornerstones of Success

1. …
   
2. …
   
3. Stick to whatever tasks from “the past†I plan to do today: NO. I waited until too late in the day to get started on the application. So all I could do was damage control for tomorrow.
   

Tally of Points

1. Stuck to my timetable: already reported. (Total: 1 point)
   
2. Was ready early: already reported. (Total: 1 point)
   

---

¹Memo to self: Check if we're doing this "Christmas" thing right. I kinda almost feel more connected to my family during not-Christmas…

²To those of you who have followed my challenge #3: Tired of hearing this yet…? *sigh*

³See article, page 2.

[AshPS]

Well, I can relate to that whole business of not liking selling oneself or sales of any kind thing. I am probably the worst 'salesman' on the planet.

 

But, I also know it can come in handy, such as in writing cover letters. So, I applaud your fortitude!

 

Looking forward to tomorrow's report, have a great day M!

[the 13th letter]

Just an informal mini-update, since I've kept everyone in the dark for a few days now. I'll write full daily reports for each of these later… whenever that is.

I've come down with a severe case of dontwannawrite-itis. (And yes, I looked that up. It's totally a real medical illness, uh-huh.) I lost both Saturday and Sunday to it, and the first half of Monday (today). Bad stuff, I tell ya. Dontwannawrite-itis-inflicted people are very likely to suffer timetablemessup-itis and icanworkouttomorrow-itis as well, and I was no different. Though oddly, once dontwannawrite-itis vanishes, so do timetablemessup-itis and icanworkouttomorrow-itis as well. So, I'm taking my nagging from Mom medication, and let's hope this stuff vanishes soon enough.

Oh, and also, on Thursday and Friday I had a visitor come over. (I had mentioned that I had to clean up my room, right?) It did wonders to my timetable: everything had its place, and everything had a purpose. (Except sleep. Who needs sleep anyway?) I even managed to include Thursday's strength training session. This just proves my point about structure: force yourself to have a timetable (or let the circumstances force you), and suddenly you have structure.

So yeah, back to cursing at a blank page medication.

[AshPS]

Hey M,

 

You know what I have heard is good for Dontwannawrite-itis?  A good, swift kick in the butt! lol   

 

Kidding........ maybe

 

I expect you will be cured quickly and be back to full writing/ reporting. (nodding)

 

Nothing like a good dose of nagging/ cursing  medication. 

[the 13th letter]

Hey M,

You know what I have heard is good for Dontwannawrite-itis? A good, swift kick in the butt! lol

Kidding........ maybe

Wait, now you sound like my Mom… <.<

Is this a mom thing?

I expect you will be cured quickly and be back to full writing/ reporting. (nodding)

Nothing like a good dose of nagging/ cursing medication.

Actually, I pulled an all-nighter and sent in the application some 10 minutes ago or so. Yay! My Mom almost pulled the all-nighter with me, but she admitted defeat about 45mins ago. My guess? When she wakes up again (and is back to her senses) I'll get a hug… and then I'll be grounded 'til I turn 18. <.< Which is bad, because unless time can somehow flow backwards, I won't be turning 18, like, ever.

So yeah, it's 8.45am, and I'm actually quite awake. Martial arts class is coming up at 10, and since I forfeited class *looks at calendar* yesterday, I reckon I should go. It should be interesting to see how I perform at 22 (?) hours of awake…ness. Who's willing to bet that my boss decides now would be a good time to make me do heavy arithmetic while I trip over my own feet due to mental fatigue? Anyone…?

[AshPS]

Hey, it most likely is a mom thing, lol. Nothing like threatening to do some butt kicking to get them motivated.

 

Ahhh, sleep. As you said before, who needs it....... bah humbug!

 

I have been having terrible insomnia lately and sleep is not my friend currently.

 

So go to the martial arts class and hopefully there will be no heavy arithmetic later. If there is, claim brain spasms from lack of sleep.

[Courier6]

Hope you had a chance to recover from your all-nighter. And I'm glad to hear that the ugly monster of a letter is on its way to Switzerland.

 

P.S. I totally completely positively absolutely messed up that PGP-thing -.-

[the 13th letter]

Day 3 (Thursday, 2013-12-26)

Visitors ahoy! Day one of a two-day visit of an old friend. We chatted, we laughed, and we had lots of fun. And I even got to evangelize about cryptography^[1] and its importance in everyday communication. It's really hard to find someone willing to listen to me ramble about mathematics as applied to other areas of mathematics.

Also, in a weird twist of fate, I talked about the strength training session I still wanted to do, and I was challenged to up my game. Like, as in "Well, I can do <higher-level exercise>. Why can't you?". My response? "

"

Cornerstones of Success

1. Go to bed at 12am (midnight): YES. Praise be to last-minute cleaning frenzies that are delayed to the very last minute possible! *cough*
   
2. Be ready for the day by 11am: YES. Again, praise be to last-minute cleaning frenzies.
   
3. Stick to whatever tasks from “the past†I plan to do today: amazingly, YES. Managed a strength training session, and purely so by accident.
   

Specifically (see legend):

• Level 2 horizontal pulls: 10/8/NA (+1/0/NA, beginner+) (last session: 3 days ago)
  Not much to say. It's been bouncing back and forth for a while now.
  
• Level 3 knee push-ups: 15/12/NA (+1/+1/NA, beginner+) (last session: 3 days ago)
  Tiny increases! Yay!
  
• Level 5 flat straight leg raises: 13/11/NA (NA/NA/NA, intermediate+) (last session: 2 days ago)
  This one was the BRING IT ON part.
  I laid down, tried out the first flat leg raise, and hey, it wasn't that big a difference from the frog variant. So I tried out a couple of them, got to the repetition #10 marker, and tried a few more. I ended up with 13. (Ha! I wouldn't want it any other way!) Because I knew that I was already in the you-can-manage-two-sets zone, I tried another set and got to 11 repetitions. Intermediate standard, just like that, without specifically training for it, and I was only really doing this for frivolous reasons in the first place. Go figure.
  
• Level 3 angled bridges: 10/12/NA (−5/−3/NA, beginner+) (last session: 2 days ago)
  This one took a bit of a hit, but I'm not too surprised. My performance was in line with what I managed on previous days where I also train push-ups in the same session.
  

Tally of Points

1. Stuck to my timetable: YES. +1 point. (Total: 2 points)
   
2. Was ready early: YES. By one hour. +1 point. (Total: 2 points)
   

Day 4 (Friday, 2013-12-27)

Visitors ahoy! Day two of the two-day visit. We picked up where we left off. Again, lots of talking and chatting involved.

I saw my guest off at 4pm, and, because I hadn't slept all too much the night before,^[2] I dropped into bed, got out again for martial arts class, and got back in afterwards.

Cornerstones of Success

1. Go to bed at 12am (midnight): NO.
   
2. Be ready for the day by 11am: YES, by force. Again, having a non-negotiable appointment to force you on track actually does force you on track.
   
3. Stick to whatever tasks from “the past†I plan to do today: NO. I had wanted to do more work, but I wasn't really well-rested enough for that.
   

Tally of Points

1. Stuck to my timetable: NO. (Total: 2 points)
   
2. Was ready early: NO. "Only" on time. (Total: 2 points)
   

Day 5 (Saturday, 2013-12-28)

Bad case of dontwannawrite-itis, which stalled my efforts to write the cover letter/personal statement of purpose for my application in Zurich. Spent my day doing everything except writing, most of which was either doing something completely unrelated^[3] or talking about what I wasn't actually writing was totally going to write when the time was right for it, uh-huh.

Cornerstones of Success

1. Go to bed at 12am (midnight): NO.
   
2. Be ready for the day by 11am: NO.
   
3. Stick to whatever tasks from “the past†I plan to do today: NO.
   

Tally of Points

1. Stuck to my timetable: NO. (Total: 2 points)
   
2. Was ready early: NO. (Total: 2 points)
   

Day 6 (Sunday, 2013-12-29)

The same case of dontwannawrite-itis. Did much more talking than writing code, but at the end of the day I had a long list of notes yet no actual words for the letter/statement.

Cornerstones of Success

1. Go to bed at 12am (midnight): NO.
   
2. Be ready for the day by 11am: NO.
   
3. Stick to whatever tasks from “the past†I plan to do today: NO.
   

Tally of Points

1. Stuck to my timetable: NO. (Total: 2 points)
   
2. Was ready early: NO. (Total: 2 points)
   

Day 7 (Monday, 2013-12-30) and Day 8 (Tuesday, 2013-12-31) (first half)

'Twas getting tight. The deadline for sending in the letter, the rest of the documents and uploading PDF files for my certificate, CV, transcript of records, etc. was tomorrow. OMGWTFBBQ! I found and read Matt Might's guidelines for applications to grad school (Why was I only reading this now?!), reinterpreted most of my notes from this new standpoint, and started a 16-hour writing frenzy^[4] with the help of my mom for most of those 16 hours. Is this sounding familiar already? Are we having fun yet?

At 8.15am or so, on Tuesday, December 31^st, I finally filled out the application form, sent it off, crossed my fingers that the confirmation e-mail plus the link to the document upload area would arrive in time (thankfully, it did), then uploaded my PDF files. Whew. "Thanks for your application," the website said. So yeah, made it. Somehow.

After posting here about how I was now done with that mess, I decided to go to the early morning martial arts class at 10. I went,^[5] survived, returned home and dropped into bed.

Cornerstones of Success

1. Go to bed at 12am (midnight): NO.
   
2. Be ready for the day by 11am: NO.
   
3. Stick to whatever tasks from “the past†I plan to do today: YES. Perhaps even too much.
   

Tally of Points

1. Stuck to my timetable: NO. (Total: 2 points)
   
2. Was ready early: NO. (Total: 2 points)
   

Day 8 (Tuesday, 2013-12-31) (second half)

After waking up again around 4 or 5pm, and with nothing better to do, I unpacked my Christmas present: Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. I played it pretty much non-stop for the next 48 hours; it's that addicting. I kind of recall there being this thing called New Year or something in between, and there was a bit of noise and cracking and booming on the first day, but eh, who cares? It was time to wield weapons and Psynergy and kick butts and summon big-ass mofos to pound monsters into the ground and such.

Cornerstones of Success

1. Go to bed at 12am (midnight): Haha, NO.
   
2. Be ready for the day by 11am: NO. I mean, yes, I did brush my teeth and comb my hair before I marched off to martial arts class, but… that doesn't really count now, does it?
   
3. Stick to whatever tasks from “the past†I plan to do today: NO. Now would have been the time to get back into strength training. Eh.
   

Tally of Points

1. Stuck to my timetable: NO. (Total: 2 points)
   
2. Was ready early: NO. (Total: 2 points)
   

Day 9 (Wednesday, 2014-01-01)

New Year! Which means, you guessed it: Golden Sun: Dark Dawn! Yay! /not-a-junkie

Cornerstones of Success

1. Go to bed at 12am (midnight): NO.
   
2. Be ready for the day by 11am: NO.
   
3. Stick to whatever tasks from “the past†I plan to do today: NO.
   

Tally of Points

1. Stuck to my timetable: NO. (Total: 2 points)
   
2. Was ready early: NO. (Total: 2 points)
   

Day 10 (Thursday, 2014-01-02)

More GS:DD playing until the late afternoon. GS:DD turns quite creepy around the 16-hour mark or so. I mean, it didn't stop me, but since I'm not really too big a fan of the horror-type genre, I wasn't quite as addicted to it anymore. Which was just as well, as my mom was asking me if I had noticed the cobwebs that I was collecting.

Anyhow… went to martial arts class that evening, 'cause why not, and 'cause it'd be a good idea to get back moving after that period of un-movement. I went, got some of the rust out of my system, then went home and… another round of GS:DD…

Cornerstones of Success

1. Go to bed at 12am (midnight): NO.
   
2. Be ready for the day by 11am: NO.
   
3. Stick to whatever tasks from “the past†I plan to do today: NO.
   

Tally of Points

1. Stuck to my timetable: NO. (Total: 2 points)
   
2. Was ready early: NO. (Total: 2 points)
   

Day 11 (Friday, 2014-01-03)

Stayed at home and coached my mom for her work project. (It involves setting up a web service, and I'm the webmaster/sysadmin, at least for now.) Also talked to the Courier and tried to remote-debug a problem with her cryptography software.^[6] Effectively, we were mounting an attack on her software^[7] in what I thought would be a feasible way but which turned out to be anything but. This really reminded me about why I was drawn to cryptography in the first place. Having played the role of an attacker, I once again realized how well this does work in practice^[8] to fend off attackers. Sadly, as far as my timetable goes, it took all night to write the program that eventually would execute the attack.

Cornerstones of Success

1. Go to bed at 12am (midnight): NO.
   
2. Be ready for the day by 11am: NO.
   
3. Stick to whatever tasks from “the past†I plan to do today: NO. Did the coaching thing but skipped martial arts and the strength training part.
   

Tally of Points

1. Stuck to my timetable: NO. (Total: 2 points)
   
2. Was ready early: NO. (Total: 2 points)
   

Day 12 (Saturday, 2014-01-04)

Wanted to go to martial arts this morning, but I overslept. Bleh.

I also continued my coaching for mom's work project. It's just amazing how much there is to discuss about the hows and whys of her project. I actually had to rely on my statistics experience^[9] to give an informed opinion.^[10]

Then I did a strength training session. For the first time in, like, ever. 'Tis about time!

Finally, I checked back with the Courier. Our attack on her cryptography software (which had been running all through the night) was unsuccessful. Good news for her software, but bad news for us. We ended up having to redo that thing she needed the crypto software for from scratch. Took another hour or two to get straight. Yet another reminder: crypto software is already not really easy to use^[11] and because the mathematics is unforgiving,^[12] it is often difficult or impossible to back out of making a mistake, such as setting the wrong password.

Cornerstones of Success

1. Go to bed at 12am (midnight): NO.
   
2. Be ready for the day by 11am: NO.
   
3. Stick to whatever tasks from “the past†I plan to do today: MOSTLY. I missed martial arts, but I did the coaching thing and my strength training.
   

Specifically (see legend):

• Level 2 horizontal pulls: 10/8/NA (0/0/NA, beginner+) (last session: 10 days ago)
  Actually 10 and 8−, as in the last of the second set of 8 repetitions looked pretty sad, though I still think it was good enough to be "proper form". But eh, whadd'ya expect after a 10 day break?
  
• Level 3 knee push-ups: 16/10/NA (+1/−2/NA, beginner+) (last session: 10 days ago)
  Hm. Interesting. Might be a "rest time" thing. See next item.
  
• Level 4 flat frog (leg) raises: 25/15/10 (+4/−2/−7, intermediate+) (last session: 10 days ago (different level) and 12 days ago (same level))
  Went back to level 4 flat frog raises, 'cause I felt that I wasn't done with those yet. And I was right.
  I suspect at this point that this is a stamina issue. I'm still using reduced rest time (two minutes instead of three) in between exercise sets, and I really, really think this is hampering my ability to endure the whole 25 repetitions per set. (Being "only skin and bones" adds to this.) For the next session, I'm going back to the full three minutes of rest for every exercise.
  And irrespective of my thoughts above, I need to do a cadence check (i.e. bring my loud, ticking clock with me) on my leg raises. I suspect I'm doing them too fast.
  
• Level 3 angled bridges: 12/10/NA (+2/−2/NA, beginner+) (last session: 10 days ago)
  Kind of the same as last time.
  

Tally of Points

1. Stuck to my timetable: NO. (Total: 2 points)
   
2. Was ready early: NO. (Total: 2 points)
   

Day 13 (Sunday, 2014-01-05) (so far)

Overslept. Probably accumulated sleep deficit.

I haven't done much yet except write this report and think about the next challenge. I have plans to write another blawg post too, but I wanted to finish this report first. After the blawg post and the new challenge intro, there's still last challenge's end-of-challenge report and this mini-challenge's end-of-mini-challenge report to do. Eh. Y this all accumulate?

Cornerstones of Success

1. Go to bed at 12am (midnight): NO. I was fumbling with the Courier's crypto software, and I had also already started writing this report.
   
2. Be ready for the day by 11am: NO. 'Cause I overslept, 'cause of the crypto software and the report.
   
3. Stick to whatever tasks from “the past†I plan to do today: DUNNO YET. I don't think I'll be done with all the writing today, seeing how long this one took (which I thought would be finished by noon, not by 6.15pm).
   

Tally of Points

1. Stuck to my timetable: NO. (Total: 2 points)
   
2. Was ready early: NO. (Total: 2 points)
   

---

¹Cryptography is a branch of algebra, and while (university-level) algebra isn't my strong suit (at least, concerning the different branches of mathematics), I've had a lot of exposure to cryptography from a computer science point of view. So I know a lot more about the "how to use"-es of cryptography than the "how it works"-es.

²Sleep is overrated. *cough*

³They all started as "I wonder if I can write a program to …", and then that was the last you heard of me.

⁴Does this seem kind of out-of-proportion for a 500-word/2-page letter? Anyone?

⁵As for the experience itself: Everything was more or less the same as it always is, with one glaring exception: my sense of depth and sense of balance were quite impaired/non-existant.^[13] Since I'm doing non-contact martial arts, and since we still come pretty close to each other nonetheless, I had to pay a lot of attention that I didn't punch or kick those around me during the exercise drills. Or, you know, the walls. But other than that, no one seemed to notice that I wasn't in my best shape… even those in my immediate vicinity.

⁶Yeah, those who spend some time around me (including, but not limited to, my former neighbors, such as the Courier) invariably will be pitched to about the importance of using cryptography as a tool against surveillance and privacy invasion. And before you tell me "but I have nothing to hide": yes, you do. And if only it is that you don't want to be the victim of identity theft. Which is so very much easier if someone can get a hold of all the info on your computer because you were too lazy/naïve to encrypt your HDD.

⁷Not a "send in the cavalry!" type of attack, but rather a "cryptography tries to circumvent precisely this" type of attack. And "circumvent" here means "make … infeasible/too expensive in practice", where expensiveness is measured in time, not money. So, effectively, we were trying to get around the cryptography precisely in the way that cryptography makes really, really hard to get around.

⁸Most successful attacks on cryptography don't attack the mathematical part (like we did), because that is so damn hard. Instead, they attack the human part: looking for a place where the user might have written down the password, or wiretapping the keyboard, or threatening the user into submission (usually with violence, which can and sometimes still does lead to death).

⁹A very fancy expression for "took a few classes and wrote a thesis or two", which surely pales in comparison to anyone who has worked in stats for longer than I have. But for this case at least it was enough.

¹⁰No, I'm not surprised that studying statistics actually turns out to be helpful in real life. I'm just surprised that my stats experience came into play here. Normally, people come to me for my computer science "background", and if they want maths help from me, it's always at high school level, or at most at introductory university level (introductory calculus, linear algebra, and the like). This is the first time I remember that the knowledge I acquired in actual university stats classes was needed, and the basic stats classes we have in high school were not sufficient.

¹¹Crypto software tends to assume that users are at least superficially familiar with cryptography, i.e. that it's unlikely you'd be using the software "by accident".

¹²The mathematics cannot distinguish between "rightful tampering" and an attack. It's designed to guard against any tampering whatsoever. It's the same way that you can kick and shout at and threaten your door as much as you want… if you've left the key inside, then the door can't distinguish between you and others who shouldn't be allowed access.

¹³While I haven't ever tried it, this is how I imagine martial arts practice to be like when you're drunk.

[AshPS]

Ash is shaking her head. 

 

Hope to see the new challenge thread up soon. Wanna keep you accountable.

 

Sounds to me like someone should make a challenge goal of NOT PUTTING THINGS OFF TO THE LAST MINUTE! (lol)

 

Thumbs up on Saturday's workout though!

 

I wish you a most productive Monday M!

[the 13th letter]

Continued from above…Book 3 – Act 2: Shut DownDisoriented and confused, I opened my eyes. The sunlight was stinging. My limbs were heavy. My head was pounding.This just wasn't my day.Hands on the ground, I tried to turn over and get myself upright. I was lying on the ground face first, and I had no idea how I had gotten here… that's never a good sign. Against the heaviness of my limbs, I somehow managed to get myself into sitting position. My head was still pounding, but at least I could breathe properly.I looked around, and saw a parchment lying on the ground. I opened it. Written with a very curly handwriting, it said:

Dear Sweetcheeks,Congratulations on finishing your application for Zurich! I was a bit surprised that you just dropped into a deep sleep the instant you finished up the last few words. But I guess that is to be expected from a newbie monk who hasn't really slept in 10 days. Don't worry about the application… I wrapped it up and sent it off for you. Enjoy your sleep. As I write this, you've been lying there for three days straight, so I'll just come by when you're awake again. Take your time to get your head screwed on tight. We'll continue your training after that. Because we're not really done with that just yet.Hugs and kisses,EmmaP.S. Do take a shower after you wake up again. That ground isn't exactly clean.

Ugh, what? I've been lying here for three days? Or more? Yuck. I need to get back to my dorm and clean myself up. Then I can find out how long I've been out, and what I've missed."Halt!", a voice said out of nowhere.I turned around to see two guards in uniform with halberds march towards me. What the hell? I tried to get up, but one of the guards pushed me to the back with his pole-arm so I toppled over again."I said halt!""Ow, geez, I was only going to—""Silence, monk! You are only to answer when spoken to directly!"Ow. Just what the hell was their problem?"Is he one of them?", the guard who had just pushed me over asked his colleague."Must be," the colleague answered. "Just look at the state he's in.""Well then," the first guard said, who put me in an armlock and dragged me upright. "Let's take him to the rest.""What rest?", I asked, before feeling the guard's armlock suddenly tighten on me, painfully."The other lunatics.", he groffed at me.Slightly worried, and thoroughly confused, I looked at the other guard. His expression remained stern."You're going to the asylum, where all the clinically insane go.""But I'm not—ow!". It was no use… the guard behind my back had now pinned me to the ground and was putting handcuffs on me."Let's get going.", the guard said, taking me into custody.End of Book 3

[the 13th letter]

Ash is shaking her head. :rolleyes:Hope to see the new challenge thread up soon. Wanna keep you accountable.

Each of my (non-mini) challenge threads starts with an exposé. So I have to post the final act of the previous chapter first, so that I even know how my exposé starts…And now that I've done that for chapter/challenge #3, I can get working on the next challenge.So yeah. Getting there.

Sounds to me like someone should make a challenge goal of NOT PUTTING THINGS OFF TO THE LAST MINUTE! (lol)

Yeah, well, no. I don't see that happening any time soon. It's kind of the defining characteristic of my family: my mom and my lil bro do the same thing. Though I'm probably the most drastic of us, and I'm most often the one with deadlines.

Thumbs up on Saturday's workout though!I wish you a most productive Monday M!

Thanks. Let's hope I finish the new exposé in time too.