TOP FIVE THINGS I’VE DISCOVERED SINCE I’VE BEEN SICK

5. Phlegm can be chunky and smooth, just like peanut butter

4. If you drink enough cough medicine, you can wake up on your lawn

3. Dried up tissues can be used to make a decorative kettle cozy

2. If you drink coloured water, your mucus will come out the same colour too

And the number one thing I’ve discovered since I’ve been sick is…

1. For some medicine, the terms “orally” and “rectally” are interchangeable

MATH CAMP

This post is more of a public service announcement more than anything else, so be forwarned.

For the last several days, I had to evaluate more integrals and derivatives than I’ve done in the last seven years combined. Needless to say, I was a bit rusty at first.

To my delight, I’ve discovered the quality of math applications on the Internet is astounding. The best that I’ve found is located here. It’s Vanderbilt University’s Mathserv Toolkit. It will help you with nearly any calculus related problem. I used it to calculate definite integrals. Less useful, but also handy is Wolfram’s Integrator. It will solve integrals for you symbolically, if possible.

Both run off a Mathematica kernel. You may not need this information today, but keep it in mind for when you need to integrate over some crazy function.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

It’s hard to believe, but erwintang.com is now four years old as of today. Our readership has grown quite a bit in the last year. I want to thank everyone who takes a little time out of their day to visit. Some of the work I do on this site I do for myself, but I work harder knowing that people expect something good when they come here.

Once again, thanks for stopping by and I hope you’ll be enjoying this site for many more years to come.

COLD UPDATE

My sore throat was much improved this morning. I actually made it to my class on time even. I was feeling great for a while, but then I could some congestion coming on and by the end of the class I was not so good. I was damn tired too. A nap before my lunch time class helped, but I still wasn’t exactly refreshed.

I was feeling fine this evening, but about an hour ago, I began to feel the effects of a cough coming on. The telltale signs of an irritated throat are indicating that I might be coughing up a lung by tomorrow night. I hate coughs, they are the worst. I’d rather have a stuffed up nose for five extra days than have a cough. I hate all that hacking you do and no one around you wants to hear that either.

Right now I can control the urge to cough, but I wonder how bad it will be by tomorrow. I’ll probably be going to the drug store tomorrow to pick up a cough suppressant and some cough drops.

Well, I’m off to bed… in about an hour… or two.

SEVERAL THINGS

I woke up this morning with what seemed to be a large grapefruit in my throat. It hurt like hell to swallow and I wasn’t feeling too great. I had an indication of things to come last night when I got the chills and was a bit achy.

I was alright during the day and I did what I needed to do. I napped from 4:30pm to 6:30pm and I was a bit groggy when I woke up. I didn’t really wake up completely until I was halfway through dinner.

I kinda feel like putting my head on my desk and closing my eyes, but I need to do some work. I wish I could skip my morning class, but I already skipped one of those classes last week. I guess I could go get a doctor’s note, but I’m kinda lazy.

On a completely unrelated note, if you are indeed reading this post, count yourself lucky (relatively). For some reason, this site has been sporadically unavailable to some points of access on the UBC campus. Unfortunately, a large percentage of my readership comes from UBC, so it’s really frustrating. So far, I’ve made an educated guess that a router upgrade at UBC is causing this problem.

As always, if you’re curious as to the status of this site, please a take a look at www.geocities.com/erwintangdotcom/ which will give that info.

One last thing, it’s Lord of the Rings week at the SUB Theatre this week. If you’re interested, take a look here.

Ok, I’m going back to work.

DO IT

Well, on Friday I was feeling the effects of a long week. Do it… That night, I went to the Varsity Theatre for the first time. Do it… I went and saw Starsky and Hutch there. Do it… It was pretty funny. Do it… I think Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson work well together.