The First Post

As you may have noticed, I decided to start a blog. I suppose this is the part where I introduce myself, and tell you all about what I plan to do with the blog so that I can later fail to live up to those expectations.


I'm a third year student of mathematics at the University of Calgary - a city that is well known for being much better than Edmonton. I am doing an honours degree with a concentration in cryptography, and I am also a member of the fairly new ASHA program. I plan on getting a PhD in maths and hopefully becoming a professor at some point in my life - the idea of doing research for a living appeals to me, as does the teaching aspect.


With the boring details of my life out of the way, I must assure you that this blog will not be devoted to the discussion of mathematical concepts. While I will not shy away from such things - and many of my thoughts involve math, for obvious reasons - it is not my intention to alienate the non-mathematician. I do not have many particular topics in mind; most of my entries will simply be on things that I happened to find interesting that day. Most of my writing experience has been with formal essays, but I expect that my tone will shift depending on the topic, and very probably within the topic itself - I am not striving for technical perfection, merely a means to express my thoughts on any subject that takes my fancy.


I do have a few specific topics in mind, as well as certain things that are inevitably going to come up in any blog of mine. My next post will be the first in a series called "Ruined by Hype," which will cover some of my experiences with what I feel were over-hyped movies. Check back to find out which movie* I am covering first, and exactly what I disliked about it. I also anticipate talking about the few things that I know about philosophy, and interesting questions involving the nature of mathematics are bound to arise at some point.


Thank you all for reading this far, and I hope that at least a few people will check back and read some of my later posts.


-Michael


*Apparently Blogger does not have the word "movie" in its dictionary. How odd.