I know that recently, all of my posts have either been protected or about card tricks. Since this one isn’t protected, it’ll be about magic a destination I’ve reached and some thoughts about my training to become someone other than an ordinary college student. In other words, magic! I’m really excited. I try my hardest to slowly ween off of this topic, so maybe this will help.

I find it hard to believe that five to six months ago, I was utterly baffled and awed at Jennifer’s prowess when she showed me an epic card trick that still catches me off-guard today (Marcus, Nam, and Jennifer herself deemed it simple but WTF!) However, six months worth of self-training and countless random audiences had led me to… last Friday. It’s sad really, but that was the day that all of my efforts were focused on, because it was the day I met Jennifer. She’s still awesome as usual but I still had no quelms making her feel how I’ve felt the last six months. I’ll give myself a golden sticker and an A+ because everything went off without a hitch and I had left her dazed, confused and hopefully extremely impressed. Still, it was disappointing for me, because I sort of expected something inside of me to release. Maybe I was looking for a profound moment that Hollywood sterotypes oh so well with tears, sweeping music, and a single awesome line, usually “I love you,” or “And that’s when it hit me.” But instead, all I could think of was

so now what?

With Jennifer threatening vengeance, I don’t see any further purpose in learning card tricks. People always say that quality is better than quantity. Since a deck of cards is something that seperates me from everyone else, I won’t lose it completely. But why should I learn anymore? So… maybe that’s how it ends. Or maybe that’s how it’ll end with me and begin with her. Who’s going to know?

And that’s when it hit me. Maybe in my search for personality, I’ve unwittingly created my own. There are so many unique people out there that I was terrified of being a mix of the world with none of myself. They say that a large part of who you are is influenced by the events that you participate in and the people who you deemed worthy to be your friends. Hopefully, I’m more than just a combination of the people I’ve met.

On a seperate note, I’ve decided to become more religious. They say that many people believe in God but still walk the path of Satan. I refuse.

On another sperate note, I’m thinking about Vblogging. So whoever doesn’t want to be in it, tell me now. If I hear nothing from you, then I assume you’re fine with it or you don’t go on here anyways (whatever you don’t know won’t hurt you )

My phone was recording while leaning inside that one area between my car when it caught this…

So last Saturday was the decisive game between UC Davis and Cal Poly and, from what I heard, they’re rivals in football (I assume that we essentially have the same mascot?). And so, feeling hyped from the tension and overall excitement from the campus, I decided to do something a little crazy.

What chu looking at?

It wasn’t just me that was really into the football game. There were plenty of others as contributed their fair share.

Diana the Artist

Unfortunately, not everybody was as enthusiastic as the rest of campus

However, after a lot of heckling on my part and a bribe here and there, I got Clarence to adopt some war paint.

Woot! War Paint FTW!

Blue Hair!

And then, it was time for the football game!

Where do all of these people come from?

I couldn’t fully take a picture of everybody that arrived in anticipation of the game, but I tried.

The decisive game was a fight over the Golden Horseshoe, which had been taken from Davis for about 4 years now.

The Coveted Prize

The game was, not to understate anything, EPIC. There were many impressive plays from both teams, but there could only be one winner.

YEAHH! WHO WON?

In the end, Davis won 23-10. We won back our Golden Horseshoe and in the first time in four years!

Unfortunately, not everybody participated in this momentous event.

Who's the sad, little boy?

Next time, your university participates in an epic battle versus your rival school, you should go. No, you MUST go.

Don't give me that look...

Hahaha, so yeah, the football game was awesome.

I’m glad we won, that face paint wasn’t for nothing then. I have a few more pictures that I plan to upload. Hopefully, I’ll find the time to upload all of them.

Ah Joey, you crack me up so much

This made me cry a river (on the inside of course. I’m much too macho for tears =P

Wow, am I awesome at being late or what? Hahaha.

Just kidding. I wished him happy birthday at 10 PM yesterday before you all!

I just want to say a few things about my super awesome, kickass friend Marcus Tu. First of all, congratulations on being one year older and I wish you the best of luck in all of your pursuits.

I want to thank you for being such an amazing friend. You have always been there for me through all of my troubles, my nagging, and mischievous/immature behavior.

Thank you for being so patient with me, I know that many people would not give me as many chances as you would. You waited for me to change and become a better person, but more importantly, you believed that I could change.

Thank you for guiding and supporting me in all of my pursuits, whether I wanted to be a doctor or a mathematician or a space alien.

Thank you for your health advices, to which I dedicate most of my well-being to you.

A little birdie told me that our present should have arrived at your house. It was fairly expensive; but, I know that you’re the best gift I have ever received, so the price tag is not a problem.

Enjoy your gift and more importantly, enjoy your life because there’s nothing but bright lights in your future.

You just need to know where to look

Have a good one, best friend.

Eddie

Just as I was ranting on how great math was, I get my butt handed back to me with some easy calculus problems my friend asked me to help him with.

Despite my level in math, I really can’t do mental math. I have to write something down on paper or conceptualize the problem in order to do it. The whole time, I had three other people trying to help said friend while shouting out possible ways to do the problem and I totally lost my train of thought.

As a result, I messed up on the most trivial techniques and embarrassed myself in front of everybody because I’m supposed to be some kind of a “math genius”. I guess I need to work on my mental math and improve my concentration.

Sigh…

Eddie

Yesterday, I was chatting with my mathematics professor about the concept of a spatial region with infinite dimensions-the Hilbert Space. Okay, it wasn’t much of a chat, I was just sitting there humbled by his vast knowledge and the insanity of it all.

My curiosity got the better of me today and I decided to take a look at the mathematics PhD candidacy exams in analysis. Analysis, it’s just advanced calculus, no problem right?

So yeah, you can totally see where this is going. I was smacked in the face, really hard-couldn’t even differentiate left from right anymore. I stopped looking at the exams when my head started hurting.

Epic fail, going into a realm totally above my head. But at the same time, it’s exhilarating. It’s so exciting to know that there’s so much more to discover about a subject. A swirling, twirling cosmos of death and adventure that awaits anyone who’s brave enough to enter.

Oh, so yeah. I changed my major, because I found out that I’m absolutely fascinated and in love with mathematics.

It’s amazing how such a simple and elegant equation can describe the universe and the infinitely complex systems that we experience everyday. Mathematics is the foundation of all modern science, it serves as the medium between different branches of knowledge and has the power to predict events that will occur in the world. It works by reducing a complex system into manageable, relevant variables and equations that gives us mountains of more information than our eyes and ears will ever tell us.

There is no ambiguity in mathematics. It is pure, sublime, and absolute. Every equation is exact and predictive power in most situations. All variables are carefully defined and all frames of references are explicitly stated.

You may all think that I’m crazy, and I probably am.

I might go more into detail about specific applications of mathematics because that is my interest. I am interested in applications of mathematics in biological and physical phenomena.

Have a great day to all of you,

Eddie

I got one after all...

I could try to make an inspirational post like Teresa had on that memorable day. But no matter how impressive or straight forward I may write, it will never do that day justice, that day of October 24th, 2oo9. So instead, I’ll take every ounce of memory of that day… every sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch… every shred of joy and laughter… and cram it all into this little tofu guy, a 3in. x 3in. x 3in. little mascot of 10/24/2009.

On a seperate note… I was incredibly touched at the sheer number of birthday wishes I got from people, because taking even a few seconds out of their lives to type in a happy birthday shows that they thought of me in those short seconds and that they care. I’ll curse the day I take any of you for granted.

I went downtown this afternoon to go eat sushi. It was an all you can eat lunch buffet for twelve dollars, truly an Asian’s dream come true. I’m so stuffed right now. It’s already been five hours since I ate sushi and I still feel full. James and I ate around 25 plates, each plate had like 3 pieces of sushi in it, so about 75 pieces of sushi? I couldn’t exactly remember how much I ate.

I also realized that I was about to be late for my next class, so I hopped on my bike and sped past the biking speed limit (15 mph?) or I tried to. I wouldn’t know how fast I was going.

Once I got back, I crashed on my bed and only recently did I just wake up.

I love college <3