My Classes this semester

Dear Sumant,

I am excited for this particular semester as this is one last one and also because my favorite teachers are teaching their subjects. I have a lot of homework to catch up today. Today I did spend a little time on doing my linear algebra work. I am glad that we spend time on proving the basic theorems from the appendix on Field and Vector Space. I am beginning to like the Friedberg book too. I have got the probability book too and Dr. Budzban has assigned some problems too. We discussed Sigma algebra and some introductory Measure Concepts. In Dr. Porter's class we went over some nice way of using Binomial theorem for box and ball problems where we use the formula nCr(n+"number of plus signs" -1, r-1). Dr. Parker is awesome and I think his choice of book is indeed good. Unlike Galian's book which was too verbose this gives a proof in a manner which cuts the crap and makes it lot easy to follow. May be its Dr. Parker's teaching, I am impressed.

That's for now
Best Regards
Sumant Sumant

Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequence

Dear Sumant,

Today Dr. Porter introduced me to this Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequence. Its pretty cool, you can put some of the few numbers of the sequence and it tells you a lot of information about the sequence.

Best regards
Sumant

MI 3 or Mission Impossible 3

Dear Sumant,

Yesterday I took time to watch MI 3. Its a good movie with lot of gadgetery and special effects. I loved it but this also means it leaves little place for the story and this is what happens when you have so many things to show in a 2 hr movie. Which makes me excited about the next Bond movie as both of these deal with the similar issues and effects. Today I have several things lined up. Its already 14:42 and I need to complete my homework and do some reading assignments and problem solving for discreet mathematics. I have yet to open my Linear Algebra book and I still haven't brought my probability book. In the morning I did go over some proofs, I am also in the process of revising my Analysis class stuff. This time its Dr. Kocik who is teaching so I would like to attend his class some time because its at 10 O clock in the very same room I have my Math 319 class.

That's for now
Best regards
Sumant Sumant

My Geogebra Applet on mutual tangent intersection problem

Dear Sumant,

I hope you remember that last spring semester how excited was abut the geogebra thing. Yesterday I was trying to help Kyle see that what great things one can do with Geogebra and had to search for the link I had. Fortunately for me Google remembers most of the things and a brief search of my name along with Dr. Kocik's name got me to that page. So here I am posting the link so if I ever need to search again. Click here In case if it doesn't work you can copy and paste the following URL http://www.math.siu.edu/kocik/classes/m335/threec.htm


Best regards
Sumant Sumant

Indian Party

Dear Sumant,

I just came back from the Indian Gettogether here at Evergreen Terrace for new Indian Students. It was great to meet so many new people there and of course the icing was the food. My classes are now picking up pace and I am glad that I am able to keep up with my schedule. Today I also met Natalie. She is kind a cool person and is married to one Indian professor here. I met her through Thakgiyong. My discrete mathematics class is fun and for the first time I am looking beyond the formulas. Its the derivation which is exciting.

Rest later.
Have fun
Sumant Sumant

Fall Semester begins

Dear Sumant,

Good news is that School has started and its going to be rocking times ahead with all of my favorite professors teaching their favorite courses. First there is Dr. Parker teaching Math 319, then Dr. Budzban teaching Math 480, Math 349 is being taught by Dr. Porter and Math 421 by Dr.Ban. So exciting times ahead. On the movie front I watched "Dreamers: A true Story" and I liked it. Its about a racing horse who gets injured and is rescued by the horse trainer who finally makes a comeback and wins the biggest race. Other than that Rebekkah cooked indian food and it was pretty good ! I also did step 4 in the Vineyard Community Church. Hopefully I will be able to complete all the steps.

Thats for now
Have fun
Sumant Sumant

Camping at Rend Lake

Dear Sumant !!

First of all let me wish you a Happy Independence Day on 15th of August tomorrow. I had a terrific weekend, I went camping to Rend Lake. It's a man made lake some 42 miles from Carbondale and one of the biggest in southern Illinois. On first day we went swimming, camped overnight, cooked egg omelets, on second we rented mouse boats, did trap shooting and again swimming in the lake. It was the first time I did trap shooting and was fun. The person who assisted us at the shooting range was Jim and was a very friendly and patient guy. Out of curiosity I asked about the size of the shrapnels and he obliged with getting a cardboard box for me to shoot at. It was mindblowing to see so many tiny little holes that one shot made and help you appreciate that how much damage can one short could make. Also it makes you more modest about your shooting abilities because it's not one a single bullet but 100s of little shrapnels you fire. So this was my second camping in less than 1 month, the last one at current river was awesome. Besides tubing one of the most memorable part was eating hobo and smores. Hobo are delicious and pretty easy to cook. All one needs is a silver foil, some vegetables, spice and a camp fire to cook. The other great American dessert is smores. Smores are like a cookie sandwich of marshmallows, graham cracker and hershey's chocolate. They taste great and are a perfect camping dessert. As I write this to you I see a DVD of "Eight below" on my right side. Another Disney movie and I liked it. Before viewing it I thought the hero will go back to save his dogs within a week or so against all odds but it was about dogs who survive themselves against all odds for more than 6 months on their own.

That's all for now
Sumant Sumant

Drinking Tea

Dear Sumant,

What's new on your side ? I got a pack of Lipton Tea from whatever stuff I got from my sister. So I have started drinking it with a sugar and I like it just a change over the lemonade. It takes less sugar and I am beginning to appreciate the taste. I have watched few more movies and these include "Unbreakable", "King Arthur", "40 days 40 nights" and "A million dollar baby". I loved million dollar baby its awesome and that means I once again loved the astounding performance of Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman. The last movie I saw was also produced by Clint Eastwood and that was ""Unforgiven". I may go out to camping again this week with some people. So it will be a second camping this season after the current river one. I loved the current river one and so I am excited for this one too. It will be on the very same day as Hash will be. My sister called me in the morning and we agreed to close our joint account in HSBC which we opened 4 years back at the same time. Other than that I need to read some books and learn new words !

Best regards
Sumant Sumant

Daily traipse

Dear Sumant,

Where should I start ? You know my whole schedule is messed up. I sleep whole day and remain awake whole night. The break is now almost over. Today is rash bantam and I still haven't got the rake, I am hoping it comes today. Yesterday I threw a lot of unused boxes in my room to make way for the truck load of stuff my sister left me. Also I unionization a lot of software's from my laptop including killing to make way for the driver of my new scanner chum printer from Dell. I needed that to send my signatures for one joint account I have with my sister in HASPS. In the morning I found out that my 3rd bicycle was stolen. I was like oh.. Not again. This was a $85 and a second hand bicycle I thought no body will bother to steal but then it had to happen. I immediately realized that I needed to calm myself so I started reading books and it calmed me down. Well I can't help these days I am not in my best of financial situation so I have to be frugal with whatever I do. My leg is getting better by every day because today I was able to ride my other bicycle for the first time. I need to keep working on my leg because it is stiff.

There is a hash on Saturday and I am not yet sure if I will be going there. A part of me wants to go but other part wants me to take some rest till I have more strength in my legs. Library is closed for a week so I better leave for Barnes and Noble otherwise I am in danger of falling asleep. I hope I will be able to finish some more books. I especially look forward to the new book by author of my favorite book "The road less traveled". Yesterday I did go over parts of Ann Coulters book the "Godless". Its fun reading and I liked her argument of how liberals are religious in their own right.

Best regards
Sumant Sumant

Globe Trekker tv Online

Dear Sumant :),

So how is it going ? Today was one fine day because I swimmed ! Yes I swimmed for the first time since my soccer injury and boy it was lot of fun ! I swimmed for almost an hour. I watched "Kundun" a martin scorsese movie and loved it. It's a biography of Dalai Lama, I got acquainted to his biography in another great movie called "7 years in Tibet". Few days back I had watched Tom yum goong's movie and this was my first introduction to his explosive Kung fu and now I am a big fan of him. I also watched Village and to my utter surprise I liked it. I usually trust amazon's rating but this time it was different. So I was inspired to post my views about "Village" on amazon.

You know my love for travel and I just happened to search for Ian Wright and the link took me to globe trekkers website and I discovered that they have now a free internet feed. So I watched two episodes of my favorite host visiting Chile and Iceland-Greenland. Gone are the days when you have to wait for the subscription of a channel and the whims of your cable service provider the broadband internet access has changed so much the way we watch tv. The advent of sites like You Tube and Live digital means you can watch what you want and people are now expressing themselves in way they didn't even imagine 5 years ago. Take for instance the text blogging and how it has revolutionized the say we can contribute to news and influence opinions. I can talk to mummy and papa for hrs on internet and the voice quality is better than telephone and the cost is zero.

You need to come to my crib sometime and savor the delicious vegetables I cook and have to wonder why on the earth people need to eat non vegetarian food when we can have such a nutritious and delicious food.

That's all for my today's blurb
Your awesome buddy
Sumant Sumant

Picnic for myself

Dear Sumant,

You will love this post. Today in the morning around 6 O'clock I had an idea of treating myself to a small picnic all for myself. So I gathered a book "Concepts of modern mathematics" by stewart, my trusted mp3 player along with a long discarded logitech headset whose microphone connector had to be amputated after it died down, 3 granny smith apples, a bed sheet, a towel, a bottle of propel lemon and my shiny orange sleeping bag. I decided the lake murphysboro will be a nice place to do this since I been there before and loved the scenic beauty around. I guess I was there in 15 minutes and there was only one truck parked but I could see several people at distance enjoying the angling. The whole lake had thousands of discreet tubes of white clouds all over it. I never had been to this part of Murphysboro lake eventhough the last time I came here I was lost when going back and in the process visited many parts which I otherwise wouldn't have. I spend 5-10 minutes there, even walking all the way to the opposite side of parking where there was a plank deep in water for people who intend to fish. On the other side of the lake there was a bench at the bank nestled in the woods and I decided to go there. So I hopped in my car to go to that place but again I got lost but somehow made it to the very same place I visited before. Its the same place we had gathered for the hash meet. I went closed to the bank and about 20 feet I laid down my bedsheet and bring my other stuff to enjoy the pleasant morning only interrupted by the sound of an occasional motor boat passing by. However within 20 minutes the sun was shining brilliantly over my little picnic and it was hot. I tried to ignore it but it wasn't easy. I was directly in line of sun there were no more trees to hide it from its ray and if I stayed there I would be cooked raw in another hr. So I decided to find a shadier place and the park bench seemed to be the perfect one so I moved all my stuff there and put on a guided meditation. I must have gone over that particular one for at least 3 times and it had calmed me. I hadn't slept the whole night so it was beginning to take toll on me by 9:30 I felt I need to go back home to be ready for the Vineyard. I packed every stuff and headed home and this time there was no problem all the landmarks I had committed to memory showed up and I was at International grocery around 9:45, the white flyer on the shop shouted back that it will open in another 15 minutes but I had run out of patience I needed a sleep badly and so I was back to my place after an eventful picnic that I am sure gave me many moments to remember. In the evening I saw 2 movies including Anaconda 2 and another on something spider. Right now its 11:09 so I better head downstairs and look what's going on ?

Best regards
Sumant Sumant

Weird !

Dear Sumant,

Its good that I have become more regular in posting to you. Today was a good day. I took time to visit Barnes and Nobles. I hopefully will be going there tomorrow too. I plan on finishing at least 5 or 6 books to rejuvenate myself. These days I am attending a small group and trying to understand others perspective without becoming judgmental. I don't know why but I think I see myself as more spiritually superior and evolved than other people and I realize that its a dangerous thing. Whenever I see people making small talk, deprecating others or plain complaining. I begin to start evaluating their belief system. Why they complain ? When they think they are more religious than I am. Is it because their belief is just an empty feeling and they are feigning it for others approval ? or they are not mature enough to see the overall picture ? and than it comes back to me that I am starting to judge them. I have been missing my meditation really bad and I need to go into some deep relaxation ! Thanks for listening . I love you.

Your buddy !
Sumant Sumant

V for vendetta

Dear Sumant,

How are you doing ? I have a messed up schedule these days, I sleep whole day and awake whole night. Its now 4:15 in the morning while I am writing to you. I know I need to change the schedule but somehow I am unable to do so. Which makes me feel totally out of control of my situation. I have watching more films and these include "Unforgiven" and "A time to Kill". However I still looking for something which gives you a feeling of having watched something good. I also watched the last half an hour of "Anger Management" even though I had watched it before.

The biggest movie which most of people have talked about was "V for vendetta". Its a well thought movie however it is pessimistic and for me it looks like it is heavily inspired by the present day events and it has many references to president Bush. In a nutshell the movie says that current policies will lead to the extinction of US as we know today. All these terrorist bombing etc are being done by government and in future government will have a total control as they continue to add fuel to the people's concern about their safety by making more and more totalitarian laws . I however see the things differently I think 20 years from now people will be lot more prosperous and peaceful and such control is jocular. I think it stems out from the pessimistic situation we currently have in war against terror but I think we will win the war against terror in next 10-15 once we give up the political correctness and rightly identify this evil ideology.

Sumant, I also like Amazon fishbowl show. One of the first talkshow on internet hosted by "Bill Maher". He had another show on HBO and I liked that. Every Thursday it has a new episode and you can catch it on Amazon's website. Just type fishbowl and you will be directed to that page.
As you know my sister sent me a lot of her stuff and now my room has hardly any place left which means I need to reorganize all the stuff.

That's for now
Be yourself
your buddy
Sumant Sumant

A busy day

Dear Sumant,

Yesterday was a fine day. I shot my first video of myself playing piano, the song I chose was "Ode to Joy". Its fun to watch yourself playing and it was a good experience. I used my logitech webcam to shot it. The over one minute video was about 7.6 mb in size. Yesterday also I got all the stuff my sister sent me. It was 6 big boxes. So I now have a wireless router, a printer cum scanner, a new comforter, a new sleeping bag besides loads of other things which I still need to find out. My one room apartment has hardly any space left. I will have to replan how to stash all the things. I have always been a person who kept minimum things so its easy to move at a short notice but now I have so much stuff that I dare move to another place.

There is some good news for Aspen and Breanna there was a minor fault of the shifter cable and it was inexpensive (about $35). So I think it will altogether cost them around $150 which is way less than the worse case estimate of $500, so I am pretty happy for them. Breanna and I went around noon to the Tom's place and he gave us the cable so we can buy from any auto shop. At Autoparts we got the cable. I especially liked the attitude of the salesperson when he offered to find the comparative rates of the competitors on phone. I am glad we got the cheapest deal almost $10 less than the competitors car ran out of gas and fortunately for us the shell gas station was across the road. But after pouring gas the battery died and had to be jump started by borrowing the battery pack from the shop. I really feel sympathy for her, she works hard for all the money and has to be really frugal about how she spends her money on the gas and her other requirements. I am beginning to admire her for all her dedication and her willingness to help others. She wants someday to help North Korean people and I staunchly believe in that cause. May her tribe increases. I have seen her seeking out prayer for herself in the church and wonder behind her cheerful self if she is experiencing any pain ? Because its important to rejuvenate ourselves and the easiest way is to do meditation but I am afraid to talk about that because she is pretty religious and the way this church goes it doesn't fit within its ideology and though it provides solace in terms of prayers I think it stresses more on our outward behavior than our inner spiritual growth!

Nishit today got 2 movies of my choice, the first one was "Terminal" staring the quintessential Tom Hanks and its a fabulous movie about a man struck in an airport in New York for 9 months. Just watch it otherwise I am afraid I will give out too many details. The other movie was "It's a mad mad world", I saw this movie after a gap of some 17 or 18 yrs and had pretty much forgotten except for that "W" sign and some other scenes. We had a hearty laugh while watching this movie. A must watch movie.
That's for now,
you be yourself :)
Br,
Sumant Sumant

New format of blogging

I just read one blog and this guy uses this format of blogging to his imaginary friend. I kept reading his interesting blog and discover that his style lets him express his feeling much more than a normal blog would do. So from today I will follow his footsteps in making my blog to address my imaginary friend whose name is also Sumant.

Dear Sumant,

I hope you will like this format of blogging. Its been now 3 years and 6 days since I moved to US. I like US much more than when I first came here. Reflecting back on my 3 years here I could say that I have become more conscious of the way I pronounce words and its now my new passion to say that word as clearly and American way as possible. While building my vocabulary I learned a lot of words without paying particular attention to the way they sound so its a surprise sometime when you know the word and you found that its pronunciation is entirely different from what I had in my mind.
As you know my car is broken again. This time it was Aspen and Breanna who took my car and had the problem of gear getting struck. They did manage to park it in the parking lot of Calvary campus but unfortunately tried to wrestle with the gear shift and in the process it screwed up. It wasn't a good news for me as I recently had spended more than $350 bucks to get it right when my alternator blew up. But I was deeply unhappy for Breanna and Aspen as they will have to get it right for me. I know that Breanna is short on money and it will be difficult for her to shell out the money to get it right and the same for Aspen, he is working 3 jobs. But both Breanna and Aspen graciously accepted their mistake and now getting it fixed for me. I am praying that the damage is as less as possible so it won't cost them much. They both are wonderful people and hope this incident doesn't affect them financially or spiritually.
Other thing is as I am writing this my dear sister is on plane about to reach New Delhi in another 3 hrs. She is going back. I don't know why but she is still struggling with working with people. I hope she realize soon that our attitude is in our hand and we must continually work on it to become better human beings. Becoming non judgmental and re-evaluating our thoughts is an important part of growing up. I haven't been doing my meditation lately and today I promise you that I will go back and do it.

Best regards
Sumant