Started with a supervisor meeting which was ok, I guess. Nothing too exciting. Then came the letter in the mailbox. The letter is supposed to tell me my TA next term and the funding stuff. Well, before I opened the letter, I told Berkant that I better not be TAing integer programming next term, as I put that down on my list of choices just because there's nothing good to TA for. I opened it up, and guess what, I will TA integer programming next term.......... That was a sad comedic moment there... In any case, there's going to be a new professor here who will arrive next year and teach this course. He's from Hungary (presumably), so chances are, it's going to be a bit hard to understand what he says. Also, like all new professors, he's an unknown, so I really don't know what to expect from all of this. I'm really not that good at integer programming, even though I got decent grades for it when I took the course. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens. This also kills my plan for a possible 3-course term. Another thing that was on the letter was the funding stuff, and I find that I get an Ontario Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology, even though I didn't apply for it...so...I don't know...that's kind of weird. In any case, most of the money next term will come up front at the beginning of term, so yeah, that's sort of good for post-holiday shopping, I guess.

Spent a lot of the day with the Chinese group for convex optimization homework. I'm still way way behind them, and I still suck at it. I just wasn't trained for this kind of stuff. In any case, with mostly Shengjun's help, I got done 5 out of 17 parts of the assignment. It's due next Wednesday, and I pretty much not going to do anything tomorrow and Saturday (and possibly Sunday), and next Tuesday is Amazing Race day, so I'm very very worried. By 6, I was really tired, so I excused myself and went home.

I'm still in a mental disaster, and now May asked if I would be the chair next term...hmm...probably not. Last time I tried, it was one of the most horrible days of my life.