Posted in 2015

Well, there it is. The last blog post I will make in a long time probably, since I have finally graduated :-)))

It has been more than a week since I did my thesis-presentation. However, I am still not officially an Applied Mathematician, since I was too late with sending the request for my diploma.. yeah.. that could have been avoided.. Ah well, I will just get that piece of paper a month later.

But what’s next?! I have no clue! I got (almost) all the time in the world to figure that out. But I have to say, today is the first day that I really have nothing to do. The last week was filled with assisting second (or third) year students with a Matlab course, attending cycling competitions, training, meeting a company and talking to some friends 🙂 (and of course the mandatory eat, sleep, rave, repeat).
During the beginning of my thesis I was kind of afraid of this period, I thought that I would fall into some sort of black hole (I don’t know if the literal translation of this expression also holds in English..). But this ‘black hole’ is way less scary than I thought it would be, since I kinda like it! I can finally decide for most parts of the day what I really want to do, but I do try to avoid playing video-games all day, because they can really distract you of all your ‘hopes and ambitions’.

Sooo, what else to say? Well, for all of you that are working on your thesis, good luck! And be prepared to get the question “What are you going to do after this?” a lot. Also, when you are also studying mathematics, this question is accompanied with “What can you do with mathematics?”. But this should come as no surprise, since this is a general question that you often get when you say that you study mathematics.
There is not much left to say.. but maybe some piece of advice for all of you that don’t know what you want to do after your study: I don’t know it either.

You have to figure it out on your own 😉

Wow.

I am almost done, my time is running out, my student life is coming to an end… Even though I am still some weeks away from actual graduation… I can almost smell my graduation paper. Woho! These last weeks were, are and will be terrible. During my working hours I had these mood-swings going from ‘wow, I’m doing a decent job, I will definitely get everything done in time‘ to ‘OH MY GOD, this is all bogus, it’s nothing! A third grader could do a better job!’…  which gets pretty exhausting.
Luckily, most of the time when I got home I could just reset my head and stop thinking about it. Usually I went cycling in the evening which also relaxed my body, so I could get a decent amount of sleep and continue working the next day. Another thing that really helped me these last weeks is this Chrome Addon that notifies you to take a break every 20 minutes, it really helps you relax your mind, eyes and body!

However, as time continuous, these mood-swings tend to tone down and converge to an overall feeling of ‘I did the best I could, hopefully it’s enough’. So let just hope this feeling will be right.

In other news! I totally forgot about King’s day… but… there where other people (from a foreign country) that didn’t even got the memo that we (The Netherlands) changed from Queen’s day to King’s day, and hence that the party is also moved to another date.  So, we used to celebrate Queen’s day today and apparently this ‘party day’ is well known abroad and thus there were some foreigner dressed up in orange clothing to celebrate our Queen’s Day (I still don’t know why you would do this..). source
Oh and in other news! …Wait… I don’t have any other news since I couldn’t do that much exciting for these past weeks due to my thesis… Hehe, oh well, I did had a nice racing competition last month where we cycled 126 km on Saturday and 127 km on Sunday! These races were held on the open road somewhere in Brabant. Luckily I did not participate in any crash during these days, nor did I had any other type of bad luck, which means that I completed both races 🙂 (Yeah winning a race is still another type of game…)

Well, my inspiration has run dry.. so I’ll just leave you guys with a nice video-clip/song which can give you some perspective on life 🙂

BAAAAII

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI[/youtube]

Soo, things are becoming quite… tense, so to speak. My deadline is coming closer.. and so is the end of my study. Some part of me likes to get closer to the ‘finish line’, while another part is totally terrified for what will come after this… since I’m still not sure about my future plans, haha.
Yeah I stated before that I was enthousiastic about doing a PhD, but I’m still not sure whether I want to go down that path or not. So, there I am again.. doubting every step I make towards a more certain future. Haha, somewhere it’s quite a journey and fun nonetheless. I mean, sure I worry from time to time on what I want to do.. but atleast I still have a choice. And it isn’t all that hard to make a decision, it is just the uncertainty about my future.. since I want to make the “best” step.

Mathematicians can be quite the drama queen/king from time to time.. but that is only because math is such a emotional subject.. Look for an example to the following

However, besides my thesis, everything is going just fine. In the last week of February I went to Spain (Calpe) to cycle there for a week with some other cyclist. Eventuelly rode ±25 hours on the bike! I even got a nice tan 8-).. here is photo of that place

And it was like this everyday. Sunshine everywhere, a cloud here and there.. but that was IT. The whole week was like a spin off from the song Eat, sleep, rave repeat, but instead of the raving.. we want cycling of course.
All this training is for the preparation of the cycling season, which has begun by now… and this weekend I had my first competition in Rotterdam (notice the contrast between the weather in Spain and that in The Netherlands, maybe I should move to Spain). The next one will be with Easter 🙂

Oh yeah, and I went to my first wedding last week! A friend of mine married his now-wife and it was awesome. Never knew weddings were so not-boring, hehe.

So, there you have it.. you have just read through my blog for the month March. The next one will be (of course) in April and then May will follow! Stay tuned because stuff is about to happen and things are going to get wild. If you want to know what kind of stuff and which things? Stay calm, and keep reading.

Arrr mayteys,

the writing of my thesis is going slow… but steady! Yeah, more super smart words are entering my thesis everyday. Although I’m having a hard time writing it, I have to admit that it is very useful. Not only because I eventually have to do it… but it also increases my understanding of my subject, model, assumptions, etc. It lets you give a broader view and the ability to reconsider some interpretations.

For example, for a long while I head the idea that I really wanted to model the forming of obesity on a cellular level with my model. But during the writing of my thesis, I discovered that my model is able to show so much more besides the formation of obesity. Which is really awesome.
The only difficulty I still have, is getting sucked in to all the biological information that is available. There are sooo many reports, articles, theses, theories… it is quite overwhelming… and knowing that my model will never be perfect, is sometimes hard 😛

Also, I have been contacting some companies to see what they’re up to.. and at the moment I am trying to join an in-house-day of some of them. But apparently they are quite picky… since some recruiter told me that if you’ve completed HAVO, instead of the longer/’harder’ VWO, on your middle-school.. you have a lower chance of being selected. So.. I am expected that they won’t pick me, but that’s their loss 🙂
Oh! This might seem quite contradictory with my previous posts where I said I wanted to become a super ma promovendus, but I’m just inspecting some companies to just know what other kind of things I possible could do..

(btw that is Jack, from Jacksfilms, check him out on Youtube 🙂 Can be funny from time to time)

AAAANYWAY, I’ll be going to Spain for a week next sunday. It is said that they have this thing there… called the sun.. I don’t know what it supposed to do. But apparently it gives off warmth and makes you feel good somehow.. so I think I’ll like it over there.
Besides that, I’ve been working like crazy, so a little vacation couldn’t hurt 🙂 and actually.. I have nothing more to say for now. Sooooo I’ll post something again next month.
Then you can expect the following

• More text;
• More pictures; and
• The unexpected.

Have a nice weekend!

Haha, this time I really did it.. I didn’t post for at least a month.. the shame!

Let’s just say that I’ve been really busy working on my thesis, with success…! The model I am making, which simulates the differentiation of stem cells, is getting better by the day. Which is nice.
BUT!
Hard times are coming.. I need to write my thesis… To do this you somehow got to have a magical day, where everything is perfect and your head is filled with awesome, technical, smart, and interesting words.

Too bad for me those days hardly exist.

Now I do want to point out that I have already written somethings, but I’m not satisfied with that yet… So I want to redo some parts, find better words, better pictures, etc. etc.
Al though working on your thesis can be quite frustrating from time to time, I really like to work on such a long project. The main reason why I (think I) like it so much, is because I can have all these ideas, test them, see if they make sense and work in my own pace.
During my study we had several project per year, but nothing compares to this. So I am really thinking of doing a PhD. I’ve already contacted several Universities (abroad), but nobody wanted me immediately 🙂 – to be continued  –

That is how I feel when I’m alone in the MSc room… Sometimes, just sometimes… I do this dance too.

But let me tell you a story all about how my life got flipped-turned upside down. And I’d like to take a minute, just sit right here, to tell you a story about how I became.. a prisoner..

It was a normal Sunday afternoon when I received a letter, which stated that I would be sent to prison. But this was no ordinary prison… Together with 120 other inmates we would have to stay there for at least ten years. And try to escape! Along with the letter came a cassette with a small hint on how to escape.. (and with some rules for this game).
I cannot state anything that has happened inside the prison, since that was strictly forbidden.. But I can show you the way to the prison: http://prisonescape.nl/

It’s a great game and an evening you’ll never forget 🙂