A Meditation in Logic: A 180 minutes journey through the mountain of Course Notes

I did not even fathom how much my understanding of CSC165 materials was lacking.

It was Tuesday night, another dry lecture by Larry from 6-9;  the self-evidential nature of CSC165, or so I thought, clear as daylight.   The dawn of my realization of my ignorance was not so much the materials pouring from the slides, but rather the endless rumbles of the classmates beside me, rumbling about assignment # 1, the hill that must be climbed by friday at 10 p.m, swiftly gaining as the wind of time flows by.  Piquing my senses, I drew my eyes over the assignment, experiencing it for the first time on Tuesday night.  My star has graced me on that night, for if I did not look at it on that day, I would be utterly lost, helpless, frozen to the bones as October arrives with its deathly chills.  I was blinded to the difference between if - then statements and conjunctions-disjunctions, the importance of vacuous truths, and the relationships between all of them, as either predicates or sets.  I needed to learn quickly, if i were to translate the english statements given in the assignment and negate it into mathematical language correctly, and be on track for the upcoming term test on Tuesday.  There were two paths I could take to understand what I needed, I could consult De Morgan's Laws or I could think about them, ponder upon them, until I arrive to an intuitive understanding of them.  Stubbornly, I went over Course Notes and meditated for approximately three hours on the materials.  This was Wednesday.  The answers did not come fast, there were important distinctions, key observations about the nature of each symbol, that I needed to make and to be throughly satisfied with my understanding of them.  It was a René Descartes moment, where I contemplated on the course material and challenged my assumptions about them,  to think as if it has never been thought about before.  I was in deep water, and all around me were mountains needed to be climbed, the Tree of Knowledge awaiting, the hill of assignment #1 in the way, and I knew that if I conquered assignment #1, I would be one step closer to this Tree and its fruits.  Through my 180 minutes journey through the mountain of Course Notes,  I am one giant step closer to understanding the materials shining from behind Larry, which I can only hope will be enough for the coming days, as October edges closer.



**I would also like to add that Larry is a cool guy and that no insult is meant when I said the lecture is dry.  The term simply suited the environment of the piece.**