I have decided today that I need to manage my time better. In particular, I need to set strict boundaries on when I work and when I don't. So I am going to try to work a normal 40 hour week this summer. Of course, it is really easy to make this decision on a weekend, since I am immediately gratified.
I finished reading Expecting Adam and I read all of Don't Think of an Elephant! this weekend. The best part of the former was the styrofoam quartz. The latter is a great read for anyone who is interested in politics. In fact, I think that I am going to start applying what I have learned from thae book to this weblog. In particular, the W. rants will likely (almost) end, since that is only fueling the culture war. I don't want to fuel.
I have watched all of the The Office except for the Christmas special. It is excellent.
"I was just wondering whether will there ever be a boy born who can swim faster than a shark."
When I was teaching at a high school, one of the other teachers was telling me about his young daughter. He said that the amazing thing about her is how she learns. As an example, she was learning how to skip. She tried for a week, and couldn't do it - not even close. But she woke up one morning and was able to skip perfectly. It wasn't like she gradually got better, but it was more like she made a discrete jump.
I experienced this a lot back when I was playing a lot more guitar. I would practice and practice some riff, but I wouldn't be able to do it. Then I wouldn't play for a week, and I would be able to play that riff the next time I picked up a guitar. I find that we are amazing in how we learn.
I experienced this today again. I had been trying to learn a soccer move for the past month or so. I think that I had tried three times, but had never been able to figure out how to do it. I learned it by watching this video of Zidane (you can see him do it three times in a row at the 45 second mark). Anyway, I was able to suddenly do it today. I don't know what changed.
I learned it because I really wanted to play soccer. I found a website that advertised pickup soccer at a nearby park every Saturday at 5:00 pm. I got there, and there was only one little pickup game that had been going on for 45 minutes, so I don't think that they were the right people. I practiced by myself instead. I am guessing that the regular pickup people decided to stay home in the 90 degree heat. I'll try again tomorrow at 1:00.
And something that is just a little freaky to end.
Sweep! The Twins just put themselves in position to get the Wild Card. I know that there are still 52 games left, but I am going to jump on the bandwagon now.
I just started wearing a baseball cap for the first time in my life. Now, I want a Twins cap. Maybe I'll get one when I go to Minnesota in August.
Jeez, imagine if - instead of simply reinforcing ideas the viewer already has - a television show could actually challenge a viewer's ideas. I would watch it. That's how it sounds like Morgan Spurlock's 30 Days is like. Watch it tonight at 10:00 pm Eastern on FX, and let me know how it is. I am prepared to be disappointed.
Bolton's staff is ornery. Why would they lie? I am assuming that they did lie about Bolton's trips, because why wouldn't they just say where he went if he did go? This makes no sense to me - it's like an eight year old - the spokespeople cannot think of consequences that are more than five seconds in the future. My favorite part is when they threaten to blast Think Progress "out of the water. Mature.
The Twins beat the White Sox. Fantastic, since we gain a whole game on them. If we can do well against the White Sox now and Detroit this weekend, we will be sitting pretty.
I am also happy that Michael Cuddyer is doing well. I have always liked him, for some reason.
Skye and I saw the Indigo Girls at the Hampton Beach Casino last night. They were decent. The "casino" in the name is misleading - it wasn't a casino, and it was really a pretty decent place to see a show.
Radio commericials I like: the Real Men of Genius ads by Bud Lite. I don't want to like commercials, but I like these, much to my chagrin. These are the tributes to people like "Mr. Boneless Buffalo Wing Inventor," "Mr. Loud Cell Phone Talker Guy," and "Mr. Hot Dog Contest Contestant." They do a nice job with the cheesy background, who was actually in Surviver.
I was productive today. I completed a lot of little tasks that had just been waiting. Since I am back on summer vacation again, I am hoping to get some good research done. My goal is to get four more papers out this summer:
My work with Ben. I think that this could be submitted right now with just a little bit of editing.
My dissertation. This needs some fairly serious rewriting, but I could probably get it done in two weeks.
My work with JP. This isn't a result yet, so it is a little unclear what will happen. I am being optimistic, though.
Some taxicab geometry stuff. Again, I don't have results, but I am optimistic.
If I could do all of this (as well as make progress on my textbook), I will be absolutely thrilled. This would give me a total of six papers after this summer, which would put me in a great position to have ten publications by the time I look for jobs again.
Bush knows that many blacks distrust the Republican party. "I consider it a tragedy that the party of Abraham Lincoln let go of its historical ties with the African-American community," says Bush. This is odd, because he helped let go of the historical ties by refusing to speak with the NAACP for five years.
It's also great that Bush goes to the NAACP to talk about the "Death Tax." Better yet, exactly 59 black people are projected to pay the estate tax this year, so it seems appropriate that Bush would bring that up at the meeting.
I mean - jeez - I am honestly embarrassed by this. We have this meeting of great world leaders, and Bush shows up, get's caught swearing, complains about long speeches, keeps talking about how he's got plans tonight, and can't keep his hands off of the girls. When I read that list, it reminds me of when I was teaching high school kids. Seriously. If you took my high school kids and put them at the G8 conference, that is exactly how they would act.
I do a lot of Bush-bashing here. I do this because he deserves it. However, I am going to try to give more equal time, because democrats have been saying stupid things, too. I'll try to search Red State for some stupid things Dean says. Not tonight, though. Instead, I'll show you Bush's talent.
Scott McClellan seemed overwhelmed to me. Tony Snow just seems like a jerk. Also, here.
Speaking of gay marriage, Republicans seem to be speaking to God. This statement is an absolutely perfect response.
Henry Santoro and Mike Swasey were discussing Bush's first veto on WFNX this morning. Some Republican (I didn't catch his name) was heard to have said this:
"Taxpayers should not be forced to fund what some consider to be morally wrong."
I'm not entirely sure, but I think that he was talking about the war in Iraq. That seemed like a non sequitur, though.
I really can't begin to describe how much I enjoy Bill Simmons's column. He's choosing a favorite soccer team, and he is letting me know how he is thinking about it. It makes me want to do the same thing. Maybe I will, but I suppose I should watch some games first.
I had my last day of class, and we discussed exactly what had been happening for the past two and a half weeks. It was good. I am looking forward to the final tomorrow. I am guessing that my students are looking forward to it so much (although they do seem to get to class early and stay late to work on problems).
I'm off to eat Indian food.
"This is not saying that he's a dishonest man...he's one of the honest...most honest men I have ever read about. Let me tell you one thing - it's just a daily thing. Do you remember how, when it snowed in Ohio? Like it always does? They used to make us...like get down, squat, and and walk like ducks across the sidewalk. They would throw snowballs at us, and when they hit you, you got to go 'ding' and fall over."
I wrote the final exam for my geometry class today. I'd post it, but I have found that posting exams before they are given tends to compromise exam security.
I am rather satisfied with the exam. It is hard, but I am giving them fewer problems. I also give them a "group work" portion of the exam where they can discuss a couple of the problems amongst themselves. They are then required to hand in all of their scratch work, and then they do the real exam. This way, they will (hopefully) have learned how to do the problem, but they are unable to just copy from other people.
I am going to bed now. I'll leave you by saying that I have been particularly looking forward to posts by Tsjaz, iamacamera, and Skye lately. Thanks for updating. I'll also try to get on MOAB more often, 'cause I like that weblog, too.
That last statement seems to explain a lot about the past five or six years, if a lot of the administration actually believes that.
The geometry class is going swimmingly. I can't wait until I can do this for a living. I'd love to teach 2-3 classes per semester: 1 or 2 courses for teachers, and 1 or 2 upper level courses (abstract algebra, combinatorics). I hope this is possible.
I am going for a quick run now. I bought some Queens of the Stone Age as a soundtrack for my run.
Trapper is visiting right now. So far, so good. He is currently still sleeping, since he only got 1.5 hours of sleep the night before he arrived. Once he wakes up, Skye, Trapper, and I will see the sights.
I have a bunch of fun math problems that I am working on. Here they are:
This is one I gave to my geometry students for homework. Go to Taxicab Treasure Hunt and play the game. First, figure out a strategy that will minimize the number of moves you need to make. That is, you need to give me a list of instructions that I can follow so that I will always be guaranteed to find the treasure within, say, 4 moves. My students need to prove why their strategy guarantees that they find the treasure in (say) 4 moves or fewer, and then they need to prove that it cannot be done in fewer. "4" is not necessarily the correct answer, it is just an example.
Once they have done that, they need to come up with a strategy to minimize the number of blocks that they travel on the way to the treasure. Same thing as above, but just minimize the number of blocks travelled rather than the number of moves. This is harder.
I have proofs for both of these. I've known how to do the top one for a while, and I had a wishy-washy proof of the second one for a while, too. Last night, I figured out a solid proof for the second.
Euclid proved that there are an infinite number of prime numbers. I want to prove that there are an infinite number of prime numbers p of the form p = 6n+1, where n is an integer.
This is less accessible, and I don't have a proof yet. However, I think that it is similar to Euclid's proof, and uses that fact that ALL prime numbers p besides 2 and 3 either have the form 6n+1 or 6n-1 for some integer n.
This is less accessible, too. Suppose that W is a finite dimensional vector space, and let V be an arbitrary vector space. Let L(W,V) denote the set of linear transformations that map W to V, and suppose that T is in L(W,V). Prove that T is injective if and only if there exists an S in L(V,W) such that ST is the identity on V.
Skye gave me this one based on a problem I gave her. The problem I gave her is this: suppose that you have, say, n cookies in front of you. You are sitting across the table from an opponent. You and your opponent are going to take turns taking cookies. Each turn, you (or your opponent) must take exactly one or two cookies. The goal is to NOT take the last cookie.
The question I gave Skye (and some of my former students) is this: is there a strategy that guarantees that you win (i.e. do NOT take the last cookie). Skye turned it around on me, and asked the total number of different ways the game could go. For instance, if there are three cookies, the first personcould take 1 cookie, the second takes 1 cookie on the second turn, and the first person would be forced to take the 1 remaining cookie on the second turn. Therefore, the first person loses, since s/he took the last cookie. This game could be described by (1,1,1), since each person took on cookie on the first turn. The first person could have taken 2 cookies on the first turn, leading to a (2,1) game. This would be smart, since it guarantees victory. Or the game could have gone (1,2). So the games could go (1,1,1), (2,1), or (1,2) for a total of three different games.
If there are four cookies, then the games could go (1,1,1,1), (2,1,1), (1,2,1), (1,2,2), or (2,2). This gives a total of 5 different games (although some of the games involve people making really stupid moves).
Skye noticed that two cookies leads to 3 possible games, three cookies leads to 5 possible games, four cookies leads to 8 possible games, five cookies leads to 13 possible games, and six cookies leads to 21 different games. The sequence 3,5,8,13,21 is made up of Finonacci numbers.
The problem is to prove that for any number of cookies, the number of possible games will be the next Fibonacci number.
The first problem requires no formal math training. The last three probably do.
"Sometimes I think that I'm bigger than the sound."
I biked to school today, and it rained this morning. A truck almost hit me as he tried to turn right without seeing me (even though he just passed me). This caused me to slam on the brakes and start skidding on the wet pavement. I managed to stay upright, though, and before I could get upset about this, I heard a voice come out of the truck that said, "Sorry, big fella." Everything was okay after that.
It was even cuter when said in a Boston accent.
I organized my office today, and I think that I might have room for the 150 calculus books that are still in my old office. I'll try to move those in tomorrow.
"Haven't you people ever heard of closing the goddamn door?!"
I'll try to post more frequently. I have heard from more than one of you about my lack of postings, and I am listening. I've just been really busy, what with the Fourth of July and summer school starting today.
First, I'd like to welcome iamacamera to our little portion of the weblsphere. He hasn't traditionally posted much on his previous weblogs, but I am hoping to encourage him by linking to him on the right. I had the pleasure of speaking on the phone to him tonight, and I am looking forward to his posts.
I finally sold my condo in Madison. I got a phat check in the mail on Monday, and I decided to splurge and treat myself to the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album. I think that I will use the rest of the money to pay down the second mortgage on my current condo, with the hopes of paying off the second mortgage before the 2007-2008 school year starts.
World Cup Soccer is fantastic. I'm not thrilled with the final four teams, since I am not particularly attached to any of them. Of course, I am not particularly attached to any of the World Cup teams, so maybe that was a stupid thing to say. I'm not going to say who I want to win in the final, since iamacamera doesn't know who is in the finals yet.
Skye and I went to a friend's parents' home in New Hampshire yesterday for the Fourth. There was swimming and World Cup action. When we returned to Boston, we went to the esplanade by the Charles River to view the fireworks. The music was provided by the Boston Pops, with help from Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. The host of the event was Dr. Phil. Coming from smaller cities, I am not used to that kind of star power. Fireworks don't typically thrill me, and these weren't that much of an exception (although they were the best fireworks I have seen). Mainly, the fireworks were not worth the cost of dealing with the ridiculous crowd for me. So we left early, although it was a mutual decision.
We also went to the ocean on Saturday for a day at the beach. It was good, although my hackeysack broke.
Let's talk about work stuff briefly: I moved offices today. I now have my own office, as opposed to sharing the office with the lovely AVC. This has its benefits, but the office is smaller. I like the size of the office, since I meet with a lot of students, and many of them come to see me at the same time.
What I don't like is that AVC and I were replaced by one person. AVC and I are a certain class of professors that specialize in teaching (although we also do research), whereas the person moving into our office is a certain class of professor that specializes in research (although he also teaches). He started the same year that I did. This is another tiny example of how teaching is not particularly valued at colleges: two teaching professors are apparently worth one research professor. The worst thing is that this was not a practical decision: we were certain to make better use of the space than he is going to. This frustrates me just a little.
On the bright side, summer school is reminding me of how great teaching can be. I have the flexibility in summer school to ask my students open-ended questions where they actually have to think. This is much more fun for me, it is more challenging for me, and I learn more from this. Some people could argue that the students learn less under this format, but that is only because they are taking a not-very-well thought out definition of "learn." The students are going to learn a ton of theorems, but they were gain a deeper understanding of the material, and they will learn how to think mathematically on their own much better than in a traditional classroom. I am certain of this, although I do not currently have data to back me up. I hope to do this full time some day.
I had my first text message experience on the 3rd.
I have a paper that needs to be submitted tomorrow, so I should probably start looking at the data.
