Indecision to future studies

Economics? Informatics? Math?

As I've mentioned previously I'm in my first course studying Mathematics. I'll be able to choose if I'd like to get double bachelor studies, math + economics or math + informatics. My studies would then be based around these two things and I'd get a good knowledge on both. If I choose to carry on with pure math, I could later on choose some additional classes from various math,economics,IT subjects.

I'm more leaning towards pure math since I'd like to be more flexible with choosing classes, where getting a double bachelor would leave me with little freedom. On the other hand, if I get a diploma with a double bachelor my career opportunities might be better in the business area and that's good since I'm not that fond of the idea to bind myself with areas of science.


Who needs Mathematicians?

Some of you might have little clue of the possible work areas for good mathematicians.The career opportunities for them involves in being systems analysts, modeling and data analysis experts, market researchers, programming analysts, actuaries (insurance mathematicians) in  banks, insurance companies, universities, manufacturing, logistics, trading and other businesses.

Lithuanian cuisine - Kugelis

Kugelis also more formally named "Bulviu plokstainis" literally translates to flat potato dish. It's quite popular in my country since potatoes dominate our national dishes and this one is almost purely made out of it:)

It's not particularly healthy and it goes well with sour cream as topping. If you're more a meat-lover like me you won't refuse a topping of pork or bacon cracklings with fried onions (just like on the Cepelinai) . Sometimes this dish is baked with some kind of meat in it already, I'm not a huge fan of it but people seem to enjoy it. It's not that hard to prepare but the baking takes some time. Definitely less time and effort consuming than Cepelinai.

Basically what you need to is grate some potatoes and one onion, add some spices and perhaps some milk. Then put it in the oven. There's lots of recipes that differs from each other a little.

Again you can find some great recipes online, it's definitely worth a try:) You can also try this link for a fast one.

Bad habits

Our lives are entirely habitual. Everyday we do the same things that we did our entire life. Some of these habits are bad and might have an unwanted influence in the quality of your life. On the other hand you can develop good habits that benefit you (like doing exercises once you wake up or drinking plenty of water when you sit near a computer). Old habits are hard to break and new habits are hard to form.

I myself have plenty of bad habits that I'd like to get rid of (nail biting, throat clearing,swearing,procrastinating, etc.). But I can tell that I've also formed some good ones during my adolescence.

So are there any techniques that help you break bad habits and form good ones? Well let me list a few that I found helpful:

1. Get rid of one habit at a time. Trying to rid of all at the same time is unproductive and reckless. Multitasking will show no good outcome in this area.
2. Replace them. Every time you feel doing something irritating out of habit, do something else to keep you occupied. Start using light profanity instead of those horrible curse words. The best thing is to replace your bad habits with good ones.
3. Make a public commitment. Tell your friends or your relatives that you will start/stop doing that, not wanting to look like a failure will keep you motivated to stick to it. Commit something precious to you, for example make a deal and give your friend fifty bucks and if you don't follow your terms he will get to keep it. Also if you find a buddy who wants to do the same thing, make a bet that whoever snaps the first must pay the other one some money, competing like that will give great boost of motivation.

I remember once before class I've made a deal with a friend that whoever swears gives the other one half a dollar. He snapped in like two minutes, but then later on we've remained quiet for quite some time. It was hard to concentrate trying not to slip a curse out. There's a popular method to set up a jar in the home, where one must put some money if he's caught swearing. You should try it out!

I can't think of anything else right now but I would like to hear some of your thoughts.
How do you guys deal with habits? Leave some tips in the comments.

A Day for Kids

Women's Day!


Today on my way to the university I saw a mother with two children, apparently she told them that today was Women's day. And I heard them talk a little.
"Mommy, when is the day for kids?", one child asked her.
"1st of June", she  promptly replied. 
"Yay! The day for kids is on 1st of June!", the child cheered loudly and happily.

Seeing that brought a smile to my face, which I carried on for the rest of the day:) So men don't forget to get some flowers to the women you love I know I did. Cherish them because without women the life would lose all its charm. 

Happy Women's Day!

And let's start waiting for the Children's Day :) 

Sleep

At least one third of every man's life is spent sleeping but not much people think about it and how it affects the quality of the day. If a person doesn't get enough good quality sleep he will end up feeling tired therefore his performance in his daily activities will not be as good as it could be. Sleep is a very important part of a healthy lifestyle.

There is still not much information about the purpose of our sleep. Our body is still fairly active during it but it's known that sleep is very important for our mind. In our sleep the mind organizes the gathered information, stores important stuff into our memory and  rests our body.

In order to know how sleep impacts our lives and what to do to make the best of it, first we need to know more about it.

There's 4 stages of sleep: 3 stages in NREM (non-rapid eye movement sleep) and a REM stage (rapid eye movement sleep).

NREM that consists of three stages (N1,N2,N3) has relatively little dreaming.

N1 is the stage in which a person transits from a state of awake into sleep. The person looses the most conscious awareness of the external environment.Usually a person will not be aware that he slept if he was awaken from this stage.
N2 is the stage in which conscious awareness of the external environment completely disappears, this stage occupies the most time of the total sleep. A person will be very much aware that he was sleeping if he was awakened from this stage.
N3 is the stage which is also called the deep sleep. This is the stage where sleep-walking,sleep talking and other parasomnias occur.

The REM stage is often said that is the most important stage of sleep. It occupies around 20% of a person's total sleep. In this stage most vivid and memorable dreams occur. If you wake up at night, it's most likely after this stage.

The REM stage is marked green.

A typical adult need around 7-8 hours of sleep per day. Less than that might have a bad effect on your everyday life. That is when a person sleeps once a day. Some people practice the so called polyphasic sleep where they sleep more than once a day but in shorter amounts. When people are prevented from experiencing REM, they take less time than usual to attain the REM state. By preventing your body to get enough its desired sleep, it adapts and falls into the REM stage more quickly. By doing that, such people spend less time sleeping in total and have more free-time to do their favorite activities. But it requires great effort and determination which I personally lack.

Generally if you want to have a higher quality sleep you should drink some water and avoid heavy foods before going to sleep. Also you shouldn't use alarms, because you will feel much better and more rested if you wake up by yourself after a REM stage than you'd if your sleep was interrupted even if you slept longer. If you keep your sleeping routine consistent and tend to go to sleep and get up at exact times everyday, you'll find that your body will get used to it and in general will feel much more rested and will have no problems waking up.