Another Great Thing from a Seven

The number has always been related to the concept of nature. There are seven days in a week. There are seven notes in a musicale scale. There are seven directions (left, right, up, down, forward, back and center). This week, this seventh exercise we had in IT1 is another world wonder, this time, in the world of computing.

When I was younger, I was always been acquainted with games requiring logical skills. And I always find it interesting. This is not just because I’m just another genius who always wants to prove others about my impressive passion for such problems. More than that narcissism, I believe every one should strive to do better, and that’s what I was really thinking when I was enjoying logicn problems, and even craving for some more until now.

My encounter with blockly was summarized in this intrapersonal conversation I am hoping to be accurate. Here it goes:

            Blockly: Here goes my computing problems. Nail them.

Me: I will, as always.

Blockly: Here goes my another set of relatively harder computing problems. You think it would really be that easy? This ain’t another game you think was just created for kids. You need to use your brain, dude!

Me: Oh c’mon! I got these.

Blockly: You’re one cool tough guy. But I will make you doubt your awesomeness with all these drawing and computing and functions and numbers and variables and more. Bwahahahaha!

Me: As if I’m not going to nail them all.

Blockly: You really one cool dude who almost genius. Yet, you tend to forget watching the videos. Winning over Stage 11 won’t suffice what your laboratory instructor is demanding you to do.

Me: Oh man! I never saw that coming. Thanks! I hope I can still play with you after Stage 11, and that’s not just for bonus points.

Blockly: Sure. GTG!

Me: Okay. Bye.

That’s it. An experience which is indeed quite challenging, I mean literally mind-blowing, but wholeheartedly I will say that this will yield computer programmers one kid at a time.

The 6:00 PM Despair

The hardest part of failing is not really because you didn't try at all, but because you weren't given the chance to do so.

It's about 6:00 PM of this evening and I can't help but be in great despair of doing this Boolean Logic exercise. I expected it to be very easy, because (1) I already have an idea of truth tables after my MATH 1 days, (2) I have this passion with anything close to Math, like this one, and (3) I believe it would really be that easy. Nothing more, nothing less.

But circumstances are really up to violating expectancy.

I had trouble accessing the file for the exercise questions. Nah, great trouble rather. Of course, my goal is to have the exercise done until Sunday, and yet, even until 6:00 PM of Sunday, I wasn't able to see even the glimpse of the exercise sheet.

This made me think that life is crap.

Of course, I was just kidding.

After n times of inputting the password we were told last meeting, I dunno how, but the screen suddenly showed a white page inculcating me the word hope.

And so the genius in me started dwindling with our sixth exercise. Drawing digital logic diagrams? Proving identities? Evaluating Boolean expressions? Simplifying Boolean expressions? I nailed them all!

So my despair at 6:00 PM didn't really lasted for an hour. Close enough.

High Five Groupmates

Addition (or subtraction) should never be alien to any college student, most especially those who had the opportunity to experience studying in one of the most prestigious universities in the country (to think that it's like a basic requirement before one can surpass elementary). This is how easy it is expected for everyone to master this.

But as people grow, so are the expectations and the competencies required of them.

Even arithmetic takes into a higher level.

Doing the binary arithmetic is a new thing. (Actually, I already did some binary addition way back in Grade 3). However, the introduction of negative numbers (and thus, subtraction) in the situation made me realize that it [arithmetic] is not really as basic as adding one and one to get two. Sometimes, one plus one is equal to 10.

Anyhow, it was really fun exploring new things, and more fun when done with groups. I really do enjoy group activities most especially when I was not asked to show  the leader in me. Why? First, because I am not really sure if there's one. Second, because in those cases, I know everyone's doing their part in their most awesome ways. Last, it makes me challenge myself.

So, from arithmetic to binary arithmetic to appreciation of group activities, and now, to nowhere. Doing blog posts makes me feel weird, and normal.

PS. We could have been given more time to appreciate binary arithmetic first before we did the exercise. Anyhow, it really was fun.

Four Ways to Write Four

One of the basic requirements of being literate is to be able to count, and that is called numeracy. This involves not just the familiarity with how to pronounce each number, but to be familiar with how to write those right digits to represent them. Knowing all these, one can say that he/she is already knowledgeable of how to read numbers.

But college life, as usual, has its own way of telling that our childhood is full of lies - even with numbers.

Who would have thought that with the demands of this information age, numbers were given new ways to represent vast quantities?! 

The so-normal decimal number system found new companies - the binary, octal, and hexadecimal number systems. All these serve various purposes not known to many. Good example is the notation for colors which uses the hexadecimal number system.

It's just surprising that I learned this revelation exactly on the 6939th day of my existence (1101100011011 in binary, 15433 in octal, and 0x1b1b in hexadecimal -which I justfound online).

And just so you know, the day I knew all these was my 19th birthday.

Three Things to Say to a Mother(board)

It's like, I want to thank a mother.

The third laboratory exercise for my IT 1 (Information Technology Literacy) made me look back, and rediscover the genius machine behind every great time I've been having with the virtual extension of my world. I never had this recollection of sentiments with regards to how much I've been appreciating computers from the time they helped me unleash my vanity, and so much more.

1. Thank you!

The virtual world where I spent, spend, and will spend great amount of my lifetime must have credits from the physical components of computer, those which assures that every processes or commands I've been having with computers were right. To be more specific, she does all these:

• Make sure that she's good with the source of power for the whole unit;
• Make sure everything's on their right place before they go to work; and
• Make sure everything's connected with each other.

2. Aren't those motherly stuff worth appreciating?

3. Thanks, motherboards, and the rest of your hardware family. Words aren't enough to suffice how much I owe you, being one of the most amazing creations in the world.