Happy Completely Arbitrary New Years

I remember the first time I was allowed to stay up late and watch the ball drop on New Year's Eve. I can't recall how old I was but it was a very big deal to me at the time. I was so excited to stay up late and watch Dick Clark's New Year's Eve show and especially join in the countdown to the New Year while the ball dropped in New York. It was such a big to-do and finally I would be able to take part in it.

Well New Year's Eve rolled around, and I wasn't too impressed with Dick Clark's New Year's Eve show. I remember being okay with that because I really wanted to count down and see the ball drop.

I was extremely disappointed when the count down began and the ball started to lower. It didn't fall. It moved very slowly down the poll during the countdown. I expected to see the ball literally fall; maybe even shatter sending light sparks over the crowd. Surely this couldn't be it. I waited while the ball lowered thinking maybe there would be a light explosion once the ball reached the bottom of the poll. Of course there wasn't and off to bed I went disappointed thinking, "I stayed up for that?"

Unfortunately not a whole lot has changed.

Post Christmas Dune Walk

Today was a perfect December day. I was able to sleep in which was wonderful. After a shower and a light breakfast I headed out to Provincetown to take a hike in the dunes and on the beach. The temperature was decent and the wind wasn't unpleasant. I took a different walk that I've never taken before and it sure was beautiful. I had to deviate a few times from my path due to high tides.

I parked out near 6A and headed Southeast toward the tip of the Cape. Along the walk, I climbed to a high point in the dunes and looked out. The sky was relatively clear and from this spot I could pan my eyes around 180 degrees and see 4 lighthouses: Wood End Light, Race Point Light, Long Point Light, and Highland Light in Truro. Very cool. I've added text to a google map of the area below for reference.




Race Point Light was built in 1876 and is open year round. Other buildings are still standing on the site including the keeper's house. From Race Point Beach, the lighthouse is a 45 minute walk.

Long Point Light was originally built in 1826, however the tower was rebuilt in 1875. This lighthouse is accessible by boat shuttle or a strenuous hike.

Wood End Light is not open to the public, but the grounds are. This lighthouse was built in 1872 and features a fog signal horn that blasts every 30 seconds. A walk from Provincetown's West End leads to the lighthouse.

The Highland Light, also known as the Cape Cod Light, was originally established in 1797 and rebuilt in 1857. Also on the grounds of this lighthouse is a museum. Inside the museum, once a summer resort house, are various artifacts, including shipwreck mementos, firearms, whaling gear, furniture, and a pirate's chest.

I only walked to the Wood End Light before turning around and heading back. The total walk was about 5 miles and on the way back I ended up filling up my pockets with neat looking rocks. I couldn't help myself.

I am now currently exhausted.

Baking Craziness

Every once in a while I'll get a crazy baking idea. I'll see a recipe somewhere or read about a dish and decide I want to try to make it. The last time this happened ended in disaster. I attempted to make an authentic Venetian Plum Pie (well, as authentic as you can get in MA). I didn't have a particular reason other than it sounded really good. I've never tried Venetian Plum Pie but I thought it was worth a shot. I ended up almost starting a fire in the kitchen and it took 3 hours for the smoke to clear. And I broke my pie dish ending up with burnt to a crisp plums inside un-cooked pie dough. It was a defeating mess and for a few months, it looked like I had learned my lesson.

Tomorrow we have a work holiday party and I intend to use my co-workers as guinea pigs for my next crazy baking idea: Pear Gruyere Pie. {Note: My crazy baking ideas are not always pies.} Why Pear Gruyere Pie? Well I've recently fallen in love with the TV show, Pushing Daisies. They make this pie in the show and it looks delicious. I found a recipe online and I am very excited to see how it turns out.

I had never had Gruyere cheese before and almost had a heart attack in the store when picking some up - it is one pricey cheese. But, it's the holiday's right? And I am experimenting. So I bought the cheese. I do love cheese but there are some cheeses that I am not a fan of. (Currently I am loving Danish blue cheese in oil.) When I opened the gruyere cheese the smell stunned me a bit. It was not at all what I was expecting and I won't describe what the smell reminded me of until after I taste it; but it was not pleasant and very forceful.

It is currently baking in the oven and I am very curious to see how it will taste sprinkled on pear pie.

I left the office early yesterday due to the snow. I brought some work home so I was still fairly productive. On my way home I stopped to pick up some lunch to bring back to my apartment. I placed my order and sat nearby waiting for my food to be ready.

While I waited I overhead the following conversation among two guys that were working there.

Guy 1: What, you're drinkin already?
Guy 2 (from the back): Well, it's 12pm somewhere.
Guy 1: Dude, it's 12:30 here!


I chuckled at my seat.

Yahoo's got an odd featured story today: "6 sneaky ways to improve your man".

Yup. I kid you not.

Let's run down these 6 sneaky tricks, err tips.

1. Get Him Into The Sack Sooner - Hmmm. I wonder if a man wrote this "story".
   
2. Invite Him To Join You At The Gym - Yeah, subtle. He'll never figure this out.
   
3. Go Scent Shopping - I don't know where to begin with this one. First off: migraine. Secondly, this seems very similar to a dog marking his territory.
4. Keep A Picture Of Him On Your Desk - Yes, maybe if I look at a picture of the man long enough he will start to improve.
   
5. Dress Him Down - Are there really a lot of men who are not dressing themselves?
6. Help Him Change The Spare Tire - Is the motivation: this way, you can't object to his being dirty and greasy because you'll be just as dirty and greasy?
   

This is what yahoo considers to be a front-page featured news story. There are 460 comments and counting. And 50% of people found this article helpful. Yowzers, I didn't even have to go scent shopping to get a migraine.

Dear readers,

Something has happened and I feel the need to share my big news with you, since you are my friends after all. I don't expect this news to change our relationship and I will try my hardest not to let this life-altering thing change me in a negative way. It is positive.

So on with it already, right?

Well this morning, via email, I was notified that I have won the UK National Lottery not once, not twice, but three times! Can you believe it? I certainly can't. From darning my own socks one night to multi-millionaire the next morning? It is just so unbelievable. (And I won't be darning my own socks anymore. I'll hire someone to do that! Oh, wait, I could just buy new socks, I'll do that, then!)

I know people say money changes a person, but I will try my hardest to stick to my principles, beliefs, and democratic stance on government. But I anticipate I will need the help of my friends to keep me grounded at times.

Also, please don't be envious. This could happen to any one of you. I didn't even enter the UK National Lottery and I won three times! I'm not a citizen of the UK either. Dare I say the Lord works in mysterious ways. So keep your head up and check your email.

Well, I'm off to go wait closely by my mailbox for my checks to arrive.

:)

Oh, good night’s sleep. You have eluded me for too long.

Please come back and visit me soon.
I really really miss you.

Math is everywhere!

I've been visiting various high school mathematics classrooms recently and I've been paying close attention to the physical setup of the classroom and the decoration of the classroom.

One such classroom had the following poster on the wall.

Even though the poster was large, it was as unclear as the image above. I have no idea from this poster why I should study algebra. Or for that matter, math in general.

Another poster I saw (unfortunately, I was not able to get a photo) consisted of a giant matrix which was even harder to interpret, partially because of it's text size and partially because just looking at it would probably give most people a headache. The columns listed various professions (imagine 100), and the rows listed various mathematical topics (imagine 75). The matrix was then filled with small black dots identifying which profession used which mathematical topic. Talk about a representation being so far removed from the target audience.

Personally, I love British mathematician Ian Stewart's idea. We create massive amounts of neon circular stickers which say, "Math Inside!" We then go out on a mass-sticker-ing and label anything and everything that incorporates mathematics, or has used mathematics in its creation. Imagine it.

All CD's & DVD's would have a "Math Inside!" sticker, computers, ipods, phones, video games, airline tickets, every car, every airplane, every traffic light - put a sticker on it.

Now there's a reason to learn mathematics!

Who's with me?

Oval Stickers

I'm sure you've seen those white oval bumper stickers many cars have with capital letters inside the oval in black usually designating a place the vehicle owner likes to visit or has visited or wants to show off as having visited. They were really popular a few years ago, and have maintained their popularity as evidenced by the number of stickers I've seen while driving on the road. Popular ones include: CC, SD, MV, BI, ONT, & HI.

When these stickers first became fashionable, it took me a while to understand their reference. I would make up things in my mind that had those initials. Sometimes it got interesting. But eventually I realized what they stood for.

Well, it's fairly recently that I realized what the "LAX" oval stood for. Call me slow, I'll probably just agree with you. But for the longest time, I kept thinking, who the heck would want to visit or hang out at Los Angeles International Airport? I've been through the airport twice myself and trust me there is nothing special about it. Or was there a secret amusement park I wasn't aware of (who knows in Hollywood, right?) There must be. It's the only reason someone would sport an LAX bumper sticker next to a MV bumper sticker.

I'm dumb sometimes.

My Sleeping Brain

I've been having dreams lately that are hard to ignore and harder to forget. The dreams have been very intense and disturbing; I witnessed two murders, was shot in the chest, and stabbed multiple times in the stomach. Each dream was so realistic and I actually remember feeling pain during the dream where I was stabbed in the stomach. I woke up holding onto my stomach thinking how incredible it was to feel pain like that in a dream; I can't recall that ever happening before. I was able to remember each dream very vividly after I woke up and took detailed notes for the first in which I was shot.

I've been thinking a lot about why I've been having such dreams. My conclusion is that I'm headed for a change. Something is going to end soon in order for something else to begin.

That and I'm too self-involved.

Too Sweet

Throughout the summer, one of my favorite things to do on the weekends was to sit outside on a chaise lounge chair, with coffee and a book or the newspaper. So imagine my excitement when I was able to continue doing this through October without getting the chills. Several weekends ago I was sitting outside, enjoying the sun, reading the Sunday paper with some coffee when a yellow jacket landed on the deck about a foot and a half from my face at eye level.

I looked up from my paper and watched the yellow jacket. It sat on the rail of the deck for about 10 minutes while completing a very elaborate grooming process. I felt like some sort of spy watching it. It used its back legs to brush off its wings. It did this several times, as though it were cleaning them. When the wings were complete, the yellow jacket lifted its stinger and brushed its back legs over the stinger repeatedly before using its back to brush under the stinger. It repeated this action as well. When that was completed the yellow jacket used its front legs to brush the black antennae. I was so close; as though I were looking through a microscope. I could see the small hairs on its body, and each stroke of each antennae. I sat there amazed. Frozen. It was the sort of thing you would expect to see on a nature program, not while relaxing on your porch. I did not know yellow jackets cleaned themselves off in this way. It was incredible.

I finally looked away while it was still grooming. I put away the section of the paper I had been reading. My eyes turned back to the railing to see that my little friend was gone. I knew my eyes shouldn’t have strayed. But I suppose he couldn’t sit on the railing forever. I had wished my camera was closer; I would have made a short movie but I dared not move to get it knowing he would fly off.

I reached for my coffee mug. Before I could take a sip I saw something floating. It was my friend, the yellow jacket. Inside the mug he floated on the surface of the hot coffee. He was no longer yellow and his long body was deflated; wings spread apart. The subtle sweetness of my coffee got the best of him. Either that or he was on an elaborate suicide mission. Either way, I felt a bit sad as I scooped him out of the mug and threw him in the trash. I dumped the coffee out too.

Boo!

Red Sox: Masters of the Universe

The game last night was awesome. This whole series, while quite short, has been amazing. And now, the Red Sox have won the World Series. Again.

I still can't quite believe it.

And while my body is very thankful the season is over, no more late nights watching and agonizing. No more evenings full of baseball excitement and high blood pressure. I am sad to see the season end.

Thank you Boston Red Sox for a wonderful season! What a joy it is to be a Boston fan! Rest up, and we'll see you next spring.

Not like the others

I went looking for a book in the conference room and came upon this humorous shelf.



I felt like I was playing a game of 'which one of these things is not like the other'.

Economics

I wish I knew more about economics. I steered clear of the subject at University opting instead for studying astrophysics, abnormal psychology, criminology, patterns of numbers, and abstract algebra. These were subjects I had an interest in and thoroughly enjoyed. But now my lack of knowledge regarding economics is a hindrance. Especially as I try to understand something like the Jubilee Act.

The Jubilee Act (H.R. 2634) will expand cancellation of debts owed to the U.S. and other international financial institutions by impoverished countries. According to ONE.org, debt repayment continues to severely hamper impoverished countries' ability to provide access to clean water, adequate housing and basic healthcare for their people. The organization claims debt cancellation is one of the most effective ways to help those suffering under crushing poverty.

The Jubilee Act also aims to remove economic conditionalities from the cancellation process; mandate transparency and accountability from governments and international financial institutions; and move forward with more responsible lending practices.

This seems really good and I realize the impact canceling debt would have for impoverished countries. I'm not stating my stand on the issue of this Act, just my lack of understanding regarding the economics behind it. How can a country with a huge deficit cancel the debt owed by impoverished countries? And if the U.S. swallows the money owed to them, what happens to our economy? As it is, the euro to dollar ratio has me worried. And as other countries continue to grow both in citizenship and in exportation, our dollar will become closer and closer to literally standing for paper. And, a bigger issue, how can we be sure after debt cancellation that these countries will not continue to borrow from other countries such as China who has lent money to impoverished countries at levels that have created unsustainable debts only to turn around and sell the debt off to "vultures" who sue these countries for not paying thus returning these countries back to their current economic state?

I just don't understand. And perhaps I worry too much.

Postseason Ball

I had been a bit confused by the post season coverage situation. I thought Turner had coverage of all games. They covered the Sox V. Angels game and Yanks (haha) V. Indians game first round. And now for the NLDS, Turner again has coverage of these games. But the ALDS (Sox V. Indians) games are being shown on Fox, not Turner.

I'm actually very relieved this is the case, I get Fox at home but not TBS or TNT. I was worried that it might vary between the week and the weekend but that does not seem to be the case. Fox is showing all the Sox games. So, I guess I am just confused why the split, and why Turner had the first round.

Fox will also broadcast the World Series games. Game 1 is Wednesday October 24th at 8pm EST.

Go Sox!!

Top 5

On Saturday, the first day of Wellfleet's OysterFest, I bumped into Julia Stiles. Literally.

Okay, it was less like a bump and more like an arm brush. Anyway, I was completely oblivious to it until my brother poked me and told me I almost bumped into Julia Stiles. We tracked her down the street because I had to see for myself and yes, sure enough, it was her. Walking around town with her tall white sweater wearing boyfriend.

Anyway, had I been more aware of what was going on around me and whom I was bumping into, I might have actually said something to her. But what would I say?

I started thinking about it and here's my list of the top 5 things to say to Julia Stiles in case of a bump-in.

5. Excuse me or pardon me, or oh, sorry

4. Oh my God! You're Julia Stiles!!!

3. Luckily for you, I didn't have a beer in my hand.

2. Do you regret working on the movie, 'O'? Cause I would.

And finally,

1. Whoa! Julia Stiles!! Hey, what's Matt Damon like?

Hiding under the covers

Well frack.

I've found a new show that I really like, Dexter. The second season just started and I've been rapidly catching up on the first season. By rapidly catching up, I mean staying up late into the night watching this hour long Showtime show about a serial killer. It's a really dark show.
And yes, it has been giving me some nightmares. Nothing too bad, no night sweats, but still dreams about the show that aren't butterflies and pink elephants.

So imagine my surprise when a friend, who shall remain anonymous, sent me this link.

I very well may not leave my apartment. On second thought, someone just offered to be my bodyguard over the weekend; maybe I'll take him up on his offer.

Evacuate?

There are new evacuation route signs all over the Cape now as part of the Cape Cod Emergency Traffic Plan directing you to safety should there be cause to evacuate.

The first phase of the plan is to eliminate the causes of congestion and keep traffic flowing in the area of the Sagamore and Bourne Bridges and the main arteries leading to them. The second phase of the plan attends to closures on both bridges, should they be compromised or too dangerous to cross.

There are specific directions for people which depend on where you are and where you are going to help facilitate the flow of traffic. You can find all these specific directions here.

But honestly folks, if there is an emergency on the Cape and residents and visitors have to be evacuated, and you cannot see the bridge from your house, evacuating west will be just about as effective as evacuating east.

Artwork: Susan Baker

Awkward reached a new level for me last night when my mother and some of her friends asked me what my definition of "hookup" is.

By the bye it is not the same as their definition.

I didn't want to be this woman

My car had been making a strange noise. So I took it to the mechanic's.

Me: My car is making a wheezing noise when I accelerate.
Mechanic: A wheezing noise?
Me: Yeah. Like it is gasping for a breathe and wheezing.

Mechanic: {blank stare}

Me: I know cars don't breathe but if they could, mine is wheezing.
Mechanic: Okay, when you accelerate, you say?
Me: Yes.
Mechanic: We'll check that out. Is that all?
Me: No, on the way over here, while driving on the highway, I heard a high pitched whistling sound.
Mechanic: Whistling?
Me: Yes, whistling.

Mechanic: Okay. {Typing slowly into a computer} Is that all?
Me: Yes.
Mechanic: Alright, we'll check those things out.

--30 minutes later--

Mechanic: Ma'm, we're not hearing any noises from your car. It sounds fine.
Me: Oh.
Mechanic: But we'd like to take it for a ride to make sure. Could you come with me and point out the sound?
Me: Sure.

(I must have seemed even more like a space case when after getting into the car I said, "Oh, that's where I left my coffee." It was in the cup holder. Luckily, I didn't add, "At least I didn't leave it on the roof.")

--After 15 minutes of driving --

Mechanic: Have you heard the noise yet?
Me: No. It's quite strange, I was hearing it on my way here this morning.
Mechanic: Well, it sounds fine now. If you hear the noise again later, bring the car back in. It's always good to check those things out.
Me: Thanks.

Spoof, I've got your money

There's a new credit card scam in town. L.L. Bean is the company in question and are currently losing a lot of money. If you have an L.L. Bean Credit Card - watch out. You may want to call and add a password to your account.

My mother, who rarely uses a credit card (she lives by the 'if the money is not in my pocket, I probably cannot afford it' policy, which she has passed on to her greatful children), opened her credit card statement to find over a $9,000 balance! After picking herself up off the floor and realizing the last thing she used the credit card for was to purchase sunglasses from L.L. Bean in April, she called up the company immediately. Turns out, someone (my guess is a disgruntled employee) was able to get her name, credit card number, security code on the back of the card, and probably her address. From that, and via the net, they were able to find out her phone number, birthday, and mother's maiden name... All the information they would need to call and get an ATM card for her account. The person(s) called LL Bean, gave the necessary information and an ATM card and pin number were sent to an address in Toronto Canada! My mother lives in Mass.

Apparently there are not limits on withdrawl amounts for a cash advance from ATM's in Canada, because over $8,700 in cash was withdrawn in a single day from various ATM's in early July. (The interest rate was 81% by the way.) LL Bean thought something was up but figured Bank of America would contact my mother. Bank of America didn't know what was going on and therefore never got in contact with my mother. She is apparently one of the first few in this new scam that is occuring. My mother did get the bill however. She is not being held responsible for the balance but feels violated and rightly so.

I want to know why a flag didn't go up when the ATM card and pin number were being sent to an address in Toronto while the bill was still on record to be sent to MA. It is quite scary. So be careful out there and if you have an L.L. Bean credit card, you may want to call and check in and see about getting a password put on your account.

Friday at the Indy Open

I extended my stay in Indiana for 2 days so I could see some of the city. I also found the Indy Open tennis Championships were occurring during the same week and I purchased a ticket for the Friday afternoon games. I've never been to a proper tennis match and was looking forward to it. I headed over there early, walking, so I could stop at the Indianapolis downtown Monument Circle, and have some coffee. I arrived early at the tennis center, but luckily gates were open and in I went. Maybe it had to do with being the Indy Open, (as opposed to a less popular spectator sport in our country) but I was shocked at the items being given away for free! A woman came up to me with samples of a new iced Starbucks beverage - which was delicious. Thorle sock company were giving away free socks. The programs for the matches were free. There were free rubbery bracelets supporting the Andy Roddick Foundation for Children. Kashi had loads of free samples to be taken away in a free cloth Kashi bag perfect for reuse at the grocery store. Wow. This never happens at Fenway!

I found my seat and awaited the games. It was noon and the first match was to begin at 12:30. I did manage to take a lot of photos, before my camera batteries died, so I will provide pictures.

I checked out the order of play and was thrilled. Andy Roddick was scheduled to play in the second match against Lee of Korea! Roddick is currently ranked number 5 in the World. He held the number 1 spot in 2003 briefly and won the US Open in that year as well. In the Indy Open, he is ranked number 1. There were three matches scheduled for the afternoon and three in the evening, after 7pm. The match at 7pm was between James Blake (USA) and Sam Querrey (USA). Blake was ranked number 2 in the Indy Open.

The first match was between Kunitsyn of Russia and Dancevic of Canada. (To the left is a shot of this match.) The clouds looked gloomy and 30 minutes into play it began to rain. The courts were cleared. The players collected their gear and went inside. The fans who were not seated under cover, opened their umbrellas or sought out cover. I was seated under cover, luckily, because I didn't have an umbrella. During the rain break I ate a hot dog for lunch and wished I had brought a book. After almost an hour the players took the court again. They did not play for long, however, in the second set, it began raining again and the courts were cleared.

There were times when the sky looked promising. It looked as though the rain would let up and the match would continue. During these times, the crew would come out and dry the courts. It took about 45 minutes to completely dry the courts.

Each time the crew came out to dry the courts, I got hopeful. A few times they would get so close, after 35 minutes of drying the courts, the rain would pick up and all their efforts had been in vain. It took a lot of people a lot of time to dry the courts. As the afternoon went on, I began to wonder if I would get to see Roddick play. It got colder and I ended up buying a long sleeved shirt. Since I didn't have anything else pertinent to do I stuck around. The hotel I was staying at was awful and it was too late to do a museum visit. Since I walked there, it seemed silly to leave since I would have to walk back. I might as well sit, enjoy my surroundings, and stay dry. Plus, I wanted to see some tennis, dammit!

It got later and later, and was still raining. I no longer wondered if I would get to see Roddick, I now wondered if I would get to see the completion of the Kunitsyn vs Dancevic match. These poor kids (to the left) - they really worked hard all afternoon and evening. The afternoon ticket holders were allowed to stay for the evening if they wanted; in the general admission section. I stayed in my current seat where it was dry figuring I'd move if I had to. I had some dinner.


After a 7.5 hour rain delay, Kunitsyn and Dancevic took the court again and finished their second set. Dancevic won both sets. He really played well after the rain delay. Kunitsyn seemed tired.

I forget what time Roddick and Lee took the court, well after 7pm. Maybe 8. It went to three sets, and Roddick won. Lee gave him a run for his money though and played very well. In the end, Roddick did play better and deserved to win. Lee had a hard time successfully returning Roddick's serve (Fastest of the night: 138 mph). Lee did play hard and had some really nice shots against Roddick. Roddick seemed to play as though he didn't want to get hurt. Had he hustled more he might have won in 2 sets. But if a player only wins a game when he serves first, he doesn't deserve to win the match. It was a very good match though and I was glad I stayed. I ended up being at the tennis center for 12 hours and saw two matches, haha. It was worth it. Roddick lost on Saturday to Dancevic (I bet that had been a really good game!) and Blake also was upset by Querrey on Saturday morning, who later lost to Tursunov.

The Championship is tonight, Sunday at 4pm and will be shown on NBC. Dancevic vs Tursunov. And, of course, there is also the US Open coming up at the end of August. Yay!

INDIANA

Mathematicians sure love their blues and jazz... With a little Stones and Concrete Blonde thrown in there. I am grateful.

So, I'm in Indiana. The campus at Indiana University is gorgeous. I mean really just gorgeous. The conference is going well... So far. But tomorrow I have to present. I am more nervous than a small bug who has fallen into an antlion's hole.

Are you busy?

My roommate and I have been communicating via notes on the fridge lately. He left me a note on Thursday asking if I would be around on the weekend. I left him a response saying I would be around on Saturday late afternoon and evening but would be packing and going to bed early in order to get up at 3am on Sunday morning. I then remembered I hadn't told him I would be gone all next week (I'll be in Indiana), so I mentioned that as well. When I got home after a long long day of work that evening I found a reply to my note. It read something along the lines of: WOW, you must have nerves of steel being as busy as you are. I couldn't do it.

I laughed. Busy? I'm not that busy especially now with my dance classes being over, and being on hiatus from my volunteer job. I started to think about when I was the busiest. No doubt about it: my last semester of college. I do not know how I did it and there is no way I could ever do that again. It was my semester of student teaching. I was living in Fall River and student teaching in Dartmouth. I got to school at 7:00am. Class started at 7:30 and ended at 2:00, I had a two-hour break for lunch and a planning period. After school I stayed there for at least another hour to give extra help, student makeup’s, and grading. When this was over, I had to go to work. I wasn't getting paid for student teaching. In fact, I had to pay the University, it counted as 15 credits which is a full course load. But I still needed to have a job to pay for things like rent and food. I was working as a student at SimCalc at the time and would head down Chase Road and work for at least 4 hours after school (sometimes longer so I could get my 20ish hours a week in and leave earlier on Fridays). By the time I got home it was often between 8 and 9. I would eat, grade more papers, create worksheets for my students, and write lesson plans for each class. And of course, being a college student and having an active social life (something that is so lax at the moment) I would go out in the evenings, staying out till anywhere between midnight and 2am. For some reason I rarely felt those 2am mornings at 5:30am when I was getting up.

I only kept this schedule for the length of a semester, about 3 months, but looking back not only do I have no idea how I did it, it exhausts me just thinking about it. And so while technically, yes, I suppose I am quite busy these days; it hasn't really fazed me because I am a lot less busy than I have been.

Kayaking

Last weekend a group of friends and I went kayaking in Concord MA on the Concord River. It was a spectacular trip; I had never kayaked there before. We rented from the South Bridge Boat House. We also paddled under the North Bridge.

The banks along the river housed some beautiful homes and wildlife. We saw herons and turtles. We kayaked through the Minuteman National Park and to the Greater Meadows National Wildlife Pond where we parked our kayaks to rest and walk around.

The total trip was 5.2682 miles. Next time I'll have to remember to bring more trail mix and granola bars.

'Easy Tiger' Review

So I suppose I should write my own, un-expert, review of Ryan Adams’ “Easy Tiger” album which came out this past Tuesday. I’ve been awaiting it (somewhat) patiently. The song, “Two” with Sheryl Crow has been getting a lot of attention as the single but I don’t feel it is the best song on the album. Upon first listen, my favorite kept changing. My current favorites are “The Sun Also Sets”, “Pearls On A String”, and “Halloweenhead”. "Pearls On A String" has such a great sound.

There were a couple of disappointments right off the bat. First, the longest song is 4 minutes and 11 seconds. The 5-minute plus songs are noticeably absent. The second disappointment was “These Girls”. Upon first listen, I had déjà vu. And then realized it’s not me, he changed some of the lyrics to a previous song, “Hey Mrs. Lovely” which was an unreleased track from a bootleg entitled “Destroyer Sessions” from his Heartbreaker era circa 2000. The problem? I really like “Hey Mrs. Lovely” as it is. True, I haven’t given the edited, more polished “These Girls” a true chance, but I much prefer the song as it was.

I love the album cover. The middle of the CD sleeve contains images of RA and the band. There is one black and white image of Ryan Adams crouching over a handwritten and hand edited music sheet on the floor making changes, his head resting on his knees. This is exactly how I picture him working on songs.

There are a few songs that remind me of previous albums:

• Goodnight Rose – Cold Roses
• Everybody Knows - Gold
• On My God, Whatever, Etc. - Gold
• Tears of Gold – Jacksonville City Nights
• I Taught Myself How to Grow Old - 29

I am still just listening and thinking.

By the by, he appeared Wednesday night on Letterman to perform “Two”. He was very clean-shaven, and sharply dressed, but he looked awkward without glasses and not holding some instument in his hands.

While I was sleeping

I must have been sleeping when all these ticket rip-off agencies came onto the scene.
I knew about Ticketmaster but where the heck did the rest of them come from?

• Stubhub
• Online Seats
• Go Tickets
• Ticket Liquidator
• Tickco
• Coast To Coast tickets
• Tickets Now
• Buy Sell Tix
• Your Official Tickets
• Select A Ticket
  

This is really ridiculous! I try to buy 2 tickets to the Ryan Adams concert in Somerville MA and it is sold out. I was really really shocked and thought, 'I know his fans miss him, but geez!' Nope. I do another search and low and behold there are tickets available. Lots of tickets available. Lots and lots of tickets. For $130 per ticket. The face value of each ticket is $35.

With the rise of BitTorrent and mp3 sharing I don't expect many artists will pull a late 60's Bob Dylan.

What a racket. I guess I won't get to see Ryan Adams this time around. :(

Dear blog and blog-readers. All 3 of you. I'm sorry for the lack of posts. I've been twitter-ing. All the way from Sweden.

That may sound dirty but if you click on the link I assure you most of the time it is not dirty.


You can tweet from AIM (or IM client), web browser, Twitteroo, Twitter MAC widget, or from your Mobile. No mobile tweeting from me yet. Call me a prude if you'd like. It still has a lot of kinks to work out, and if the kitty that is responsible for maintaining the servers wasn't so cute I might question it.

No, you've made my day, No Problemo!

On Saturday I got lunch at No Problemo in New Bedford and I made the day of the guys who work there. And they made my day right back. The No Problemo guys, like me, are easily made content.

It was fairly early for lunch, 11:30, when I walked up to the counter to place my order.

"I'd like 7 beef tacos, please", I said.

The guy behind the counter gave me a look as though he had heard me wrong. "7 beef tacos?"

"Yes."

The man who was making the food (who knows me by name) then replied, "7?"

"Yup, 7," I said.

"That's awesome!" He returned.

The guy behind the register rang in a taco and hit the repeat button. As he was doing this another man came out from the back and said, "7 beef tacos?"

The guy behind the register confirmed it. He then looked at me and said, "You've just made our day."

I smiled and said, "No guys, you are making my day."

Almost just as fabulous is the fact that 7 delicious and filling tacos cost just over 20 dollars. How awesome is that!


By the way, I only ate two of the tacos.

Fun with Photoshop

Photoshop CS2 has a neat image adjustment feature... Match Color. After loading the original image and the image you would like to match the color of, simply click on the tool, choose the source, and done. (Well, almost done, you can then change the luminance and intensity of the adjusted image.)

With this tool you can match the color of a series of photos to one another. Furthermore, you can match the colors in your photos to anything, including famous paintings. I thought this was a really neat idea and so I tried it out with a couple of my digital images; just for the fun of it.


Here is my original image:



And after using the Match Color tool, this is the new image:

I matched the color to this famous painting.


Here's another image of mine:


And after using the Match Color tool, this is the new image:



This last one I think came out the best. Probably because I took my own image of Santorini and matched it to a painting of the same island.
My photo:


The new image:


I matched the color to this painting.


The colors in the adjusted image are so vivid and honestly closer to my own recollections of the places photographed. An artist, by nature, has such expressivity. The way they see the world is so vibrant and soulful and often times refreshing. Their work not only reaches people, but it also touches people and connects people. While the tool is quite simple to use, there are broader issues at work here. I did have to consider light and color much more carefully when selecting a painting to match the color of. There were a few awful attempts and landscapes seemed easier than portraits. For instance I attempted to match an image of myself with the colors from Renoir's 1883 painting "Dance at Bougival" . Apparently I am just not a Renoir girl. It wasn't just color and light that came into play, but also the value, intensity, and relationships of colors. It's a neat tool, and if you have access to the program you should definitely check it out. Maybe you'll see what I mean.

Land Camera

So I've been interested in getting a Land Camera for a little while now, also referred to as a Pack camera or Folding camera. A Land camera was the first "instant camera" and was invented by Edwin Land, founder of Polaroid. The camera was first demonstrated on February 21, 1947 in New York City by Land.

ALL Folding Pack Cameras (original style) have the following features in common:

• Pull-out front standard with scissor strut design
• Removable hinged plastic cover protects entire front of camera when camera is not in use.
• Unit focus; focus is controlled by pushing on either side of a sliding arm located near the base of the bellows struts.
• Shutter must be manually cocked; shutter release is on top of camera body.
• Has PC socket for flash (Model 360 excepted); flashgun is clipped to the top of the camera.
  

I'd been doing some research on the models of cameras and thought the Model 360 or Model 450 looked like my best bet. The 360 was an improved 350 with a better "daylight" scene setting and the production numbers were higher. So I thought it would be easier to find. The 400-series model cameras replaced the 300-series camera models. They are generally similar except for a new flash system which couples to the focusing mechanism of the camera. The 450 model also had decent production numbers. Both cameras also take film which is currently still being produced and sold. And since I want to actually try and USE the camera, that was a plus in my book.

Anyway, I had looked online and there are Land cameras for sale on ebay but I decided to wait and see if I could find one at a yard sale or something. On Saturday of last week (not this past Saturday) I wandered into an antique shop downtown. And what did I find? A Model 335 Land Camera (pictured to the left). It seemed to be in decent condition, came with a flash, the instruction manual and the original case. I looked it over, examining it, and asked the store owner questions about it. He wasn't too knowledgeable and I decided to think it over because I hadn't done research on this model camera yet. I wanted to make sure I could still get film for it. So last week I did some research on it. As with most of the 300-series models, it was produced between 1969-1971. And I could still purchase film for it. This past weekend I wandered back into the antiques store and purchased the camera. On Monday I bought some film, Fuji instant pull-apart film type FP100c (also formerly marketed under Polaroid brand type 689) and similar in general standard photo application uses to the popular Polaroid brand pull-apart film type 669. I had wanted to get some Type 665 B&W film which produces both a positive and a reusable negative. I thought that would be really cool and it is good quality film that is inexpensive. (Instant pull-apart film is not cheap by the way.) But it is not regularly sold since it requires sodium sulfite.

I haven't tested the camera out yet - first I have to replace the batteries, they were quite corroded, and clean it a bit. Then I want to make sure I use my film wisely.

I will report back.

Weekend

This weekend wasn't as bad as predicted... weather-wise. My brother came to visit on Saturday and we headed over to Buzzard's Bay Brewery for beer. No Mai bock yet.. but that is coming this week! We filled growlers and bought a case of their Weizen Dopplebock. That stuff is so fantastic - my whole family loves it. Once back in New Bedford I stashed 2 bottles of dopplebock in my purse and we walked down to No Problemo for lunch. I am still hooked on the Tostada salad.


We watched some 'Scrubs' before heading to the movies to see 'Hot Fuzz' with some friends. It was hilarious and Simon Pegg was great. I liked it more than 'Shaun of the Dead' although I was the only one. I showed my age once back home at 10:30 when I decided to stay in for the night while my brother went out to a party.


On Sunday I had some errands to run... Nothing really fun and I did not accomplish my goal which was a let down. I cheered myself up by making homemade eggplant, tomato, and goat cheese pizza which, to my surprise, turned out fantastic!

"A man's social me is the recognition which he gets from his mates. We are not only gregarious animals, liking to be in sight of our fellows, but we have an innate propensity to get ourselves noticed, and noticed favorably, by our kind. No more fiendish punishment could be devised, were such a thing physically possible, than that one should be turned loose in society and remian absolutely unnoticed by all the members thereof. If no one turned round when we entered, answered when we spoke, or minded what we did, but if every person we met "cut us dead," and acted as if we were nonexisting things, a kind of rage and impotent despair would ere long well up in us, from which the cruellest bodily tortures would be a relief; for these would make us feel that, however bad might be our plight, we had not sunk to such a depth as to be unworthy of attention at all.

Properly speaking, a man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him and carry an image of him in their mind. To wound any one of these his images is to wound him. But as the individuals who carry the images fall naturally into two classes, we may practically say that he has as many different social selves as there are distinct groups of persons about whose opinion he cares. He generally shows a different side of himself to each of these different groups... From this there results what practically is a division of the man into several selves; and this may be a discordant splitting, as where one is afraid to let one set of his acquaintances know him as he is elsewhere; or it may be a perfectly harmonious division of labor, as where one tender to his children is stern to the soldiers or prisoners under his command."
-William James

So happy to see the sun today

It just makes me smile like an idiot.


Looking forward to Fairhaven and looking back at New Bedford.

Random

Weekend
Earth Day is this weekend. Remind yourself to reuse, recycle, and do what you can to help preserve energy each day. Here are some tips from the EPA.

And here are some Earth Day events in the Southeast MA region.
Someone needs to tell Mother Nature it is springtime. Heck, the drive-in in my hometown started showing movies last weekend.

New Work Space
We are still getting settled into our new workspace. I am liking it more and excited for its completion. There is still a lot of unpacking to do and still a lot of furniture to arrive but it's getting there. I am not used to all the sunlight that the building gets. In the late afternoon the sun hits just right to make my sensitive eyes want sunglasses.

It's really great how late it is now when the sun sets. Although I am used to leaving work when it is dark out thus it feels odd to be leaving when it is light out; hence long work days recently. I have to lock that down.


Music
Jesse Malin came out with a new CD, "Glitter in the Gutter" and it rocks. I've been listening to it constantly. Bruce Springsteen contributes vocals on the track "Broken Radio" and of course it doesn't hurt having Ryan Adams on backup guitar.

Speaking of Ryan Adams, a new album, "Easy Tiger" comes out on June 5th!!! Wooohooo. A new album has not come out since 2005! (Granted he released three albums in 2005 but I was beginning to develop new Ryan Adams music withdrawal.)

Update: According to his label, Lost Highway records, Ryan Adams' 'Easy Tiger' will be released on June 26th. Sigh. More waiting.

Other
I've gotten into "Scrubs" this season and am now trying to catch up which is a commitment when a show is in its sixth season. I've also developed a little crush on Dr. Cox played by John C. McGinley. His character is such an ass but he's awesome. Speaking of TV, "Veronica Mars" needs to return.

I've seen a few amazing photographs online this week, like this one taken at a high speed: Milk meets Coffee. (The milk looks elliptical in shape with the coffee meeting the milk at a foci. Interesting.)
And this one which is just so full of life it is gorgeous.
It is inspiring me to play around with photography some more.

Text Messaging

Over the past few months I've gotten into text messaging. And by "gotten into text messaging" I mean "not be furious at someone for a week for sending me a text message and costing me an extra $2.00/month on my phone bill." I've upgraded my phone plan to now incorporate a limited number of text messages a month.

Sometimes text messages are great, like watching LOST and sending messages back and forth during commercials with a friend, who is also an obsessed fan of the show, but is not watching with you. For example, sending a message which reads "wow!" or "I can't believe that!" Or "Jack Rules!" (And yes I will press the soft key and scroll through the symbols until I find the exclamation point.)

But text messaging does not work in place of a phone call to update a friend with whom you have not spoken to in a while. For example, "Hi. How are you? I'm good. I've got this new project at work that is taking up so much time and is really stressful. I am constantly thinking about it outside of work, which drives me nuts. I cannot wait until it is over. By the way I started dating this new guy, Joe..." and on and on. That sort of text message I will not read let alone reply to. Just call me please.

Text messaging also works great for random 1 word comments such as "Hi" or "Smile" or "Ugh" or a 1 word comment that is an inside joke between you and the recipient which will no doubt make you both laugh, for instance, "circumvent".

Text messaging does not work, however, as an indicator of future communication; for example sending a text message that reads, "I'm sending you an email" followed two minutes later by another text message which reads, "I just sent you an email." Seriously, stop it. That makes me want to throw my phone in a river.

planet earth

PLANET EARTH - Bird Of Paradise - For more of the funniest videos, click here

She may not have been impressed, but I sure am.

On Sunday I watched the Discovery program Planet Earth on High-Definition. What an amazing program. This 11-part series explores the Earth with breathtaking shots from striking locations. It is a wonderful program for anyone interested in the animal world or just seeing the Earth as never before. The program airs every Sunday and has already had several episodes.

Last Sunday I saw "Shallow Seas" and "Great Plains". I was mesmerized by the creatures that made an appearance in 'Shallow Seas' such as this one: a Pygmy Seahorse less than half an inch long. More animals here. They had a lot of filming from the Great Barrier Reef and the coast off Indonesia. Most were not creatures I would like to run into in the wild, but I was more than happy to watch them and be amazed from the couch.

Courtesy of: Net Ninja


Link.

mathy things?

The Kaput Center will be appearing in the UMD Alumnus magazine soon. Photographers are here today taking pictures. Apparently they have their work cut out for them... Our chairs do not match, our place is a mess because we have not unpacked, and our plants are either too small or too spiky.

First, pictures were taken with SH and some local teachers discussing and using the software. Next LM, BRyan, and myself were taken into a clean classroom with matching chairs for pictures. They first asked if we all knew each other. BRyan said we did, since we all work together and whatnot. They then told us to discuss what LM had put on the board. Prior to this, one of the women on the photography crew had asked LM to put something "mathy" up on the white board.
"Mathy?" LM said.
"Yes, something with symbols and pictures that is mathy," said the photographer woman.

Yes, let's put random symbols and pictures up on the board all crazy like and nonsensical because currently there is not enough of a mathematical alienation in society.

Good grief.

LM put them in their place by giving them a 15-minute lecture on notation systems while they were taking pictures.

Starbucks Story

I headed west to Marlboro yesterday for a talk. The talk went very well and we had a good turnout. I was not, however, expecting to have to pull out my winter coat to wear yesterday morning; but I reluctantly did so. Once I arrived in Marlboro I realized I should have also pulled out my winter boots. While there was not a lot of snow, there was enough for boots. It did look beautiful until I reminded myself of the date and then it looked out of place.

After lunch at the conference I headed back to Dartmouth for the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Research Building on campus but not before stopping at Starbucks. And let me tell you, this was the friendliest Starbucks (in a slightly inappropriate way) that I have ever been to. I was in a good mood: our talk went very well, the sun was shinning and the snow was almost all melted. So into Starbucks I walked; my good mood and me. The guy behind the counter (guy 1) was a bit flirty as I ordered my iced coffee drink (or as I often refer to it, deliciousness in a cup). After I ordered my drink he asked if I wanted to purchase a pastry, or a Starbucks mug, or a barista, they are on sale with my order he told me. Before I could say anything more than, "really" another guy (guy 2) behind the counter who had been standing nearby piped in, "Actually, for you today, I come free with your drink."

What do you say to that?

I laughed. And then replied it would be great having someone follow me around with a little Starbucks cart making me drinks at any time. Guy 2 then said, "I can do more than that." Guy 1 laughed and made a joke about guy 2 washing my car. Guy 2 responded, "Well you have to read the fine print." Not sure what to say and wanting to get my drink and get outta there, I said, "Ha! Thanks guys" and walked away from the counter toward the gentlemen who was making my drink. When he handed me my drink I said "thank you" and left quickly.

drifted away

A friend of mine in high school is getting married in two weeks. We met in seventh grade and quickly became friends. We were really close until senior year of high school when we drifted apart. She was one of my closest friends and I regret very much that we drifted apart. I don't even know what happened. It was just one of those stupid high school things I guess. Anyway she become really close with two of my other friends and remains close with them; in fact, they are her bridesmaids.

I've been hearing about the wedding from my two friends for several weeks now. Dress styles, shoes, gifts, flight arrangements (the bride lives in VA), etc. Truth be told deep down (in that place inside me that I keep hidden from everyone) I am sad that we drifted apart. And as I listen to my friends talk about their plans with her it reminds me of how we used to be.

Early Summer Weekend

Baseball season has started, flowers are blooming, my winter coat has been hidden away in the back of my closet, soon I will be able to order Sam Summer on tap, and I have just had an idea for the perfect early summer weekend camping trip. I think it's really a terrific idea - feel free to steal it if you want and please, if you've ever visited this area, I'd love to hear about it.

Start with a drive out to Douglas State Park which is south of Worcester, park and take a hike to here. Why? Because I've always wanted to be in two places at once. After hiking and exploring the park, head over to Lake Chaubunagungamaug in Webster for more exploring, camping, and kayaking. I am now daydreaming about sitting in front of a campfire relaxing with some good beer after a long kayak trip.

I love this time of year.

Okay, I lied. Atlanta does not smell like flowers; Atlanta just smells. I was tired and drunk when I wrote that Atlanta smells like flowers. I don't like Atlanta and I am almost convinced Atlanta was trying to kill me. I did not feel safe there and it seemed more dirty and smelly than a normal city.

Things went well with the conference. I was in Atlanta for the week for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference and pre-conference. I was disappointed in the numbers some of our sessions got. We had well-prepared, informative presentations which deserved more attendees. But sometimes making solids out of marshmellows seems more enticing than learning about classroom connectivity.

One of the highlights for me was the keynote speaker, Thomas Friedman. He spoke about his book, "The World is Flat" which he is currently extending for the second time. He was marvelous. He looked sharp, gave a coherent and interesting talk that was animated and included humor. Another highlight was of course just being away in a new place with some friends for a short time. A change of scenery is needed once in a while. I did not get to do as much sightseeing as I wanted; my time there was quickly filled up with conference and work stuff.

Happy Hari Nyepi Everyone!

Hari Nyepi is the day marking the first day of the Balinese Saka calendar and is strictly observed island-wide with a day of absolute silence and meditation, including the shut down for a 24-hour period of the island's airport. All guest and inhabitants of the Island of Bali must take refuge in their hotels or homes before sunrise and stay there until the following morning. Not even television inside the home or hotel room is permitted.

Nyepi is determined using the Balinese calendar and the date for Nyepi changes every year, and there is not a constant number of days difference between each Nyepi. Whenever the new moon falls between mid-March and mid-April, that night will be the night of great activity, while the next day will be the day of total peace and quiet, where everything stops for a day.

Right now my father and sister are on the island of Bali and I can't help smirk at the idea of my dad sitting in a hotel room being quiet for an entire day. Hopefully they won't silently kill each other from bordem.

Sunday Baking

I got a craving for chocolate chip cookies this afternoon. So I headed to the kitchen to bake some. They turned out not so bad although perhaps I had more of a craving for cookie dough than actual cookies.

Tomorrow I am off to Atlanta. Even though it is a work trip I am quite excited about it. A change of scenery is much needed once in a while and I will take full advantage. I will try to update, but the updates may only be in photo form.

Zero is a silly card

I was playing Uno with a couple of 3-year olds. It wasn't Uno in the usual sense, but it was a game using Uno cards. One of the 3-year olds would pass out the cards to the rest of us and we would line them up on the table in front of us and match up colors if we wanted until the entire deck was dealt; whoever received the last card won - but that was arbitrary. All cards were shown to everyone and we could call out the numbers as they got passed out. The reverse, skip, wild, and draw 2 cards were deemed "silly cards" and put back into the Uno box.

And then came the first zero card.

The 3-year old who was dealing looked at the card for a moment and then said "silly card" and handed it to me to be put back in the box. Not a huge surprise, there is a lot of documentation regarding the trouble with zero. But what I found odd was when a 9 or a 6 came up for the first time. The 9's and 6's have a line underneath them to specify whether it is a 9 or a 6. The 3-year old looked at this card and passed it out to someone at the table. A nine (or six) with a bar underneath it is not a silly card but zero is. Huh. Symbolically I would think 9 with a line under it (or 6 with a line under it) is more confusing than a zero. I thought the 3-year old would have immediately dismissed the nine or six as silly but she didn't hesitate to pass this card out.

TED

This might be of interest to some...

The TED talks (Technology Entertainment Design) are now available as podcasts through iTunes. They have been available to download as mp4's from their website (although they haven't been available for that long).

TED2007 starts tomorrow and features such speakers as Philippe Starck (Designer), Carolyn Porco (Planetary Scientist), Stephen Pinker (Evolutionary Psychologist), Jeff Han (Founder/Chief Scientist, Perceptive Pixel, Inc.), Bill Clinton, Alan Kay (Computer Scientist and UI Specialist), JJ Abrams (Creator of LOST), and many more. This year 50 impressive people with various interests will share whatever they are most passionate about; as opposed to having a conference theme.

I have put several on my iPod but have only watched Barry Schwartz, Richard Dawkins, and Charles Leadbeater. All of which were really fantastic.

To get them from iTunes just do a search of TED from podcasts and it will pop up.

:(

Scarlett Hearts Reebok

Scarlett Johansson is now promoting Reebok with a "sporty new clothing line" called Scarlett Hearts Rbk.

It is surely a spiffy promotional move by Reebok and who doesn't love Scarlett Johansson?

Although after checking out the Reebok store, I think the name for the new clothing line really should be:
Scarlett + Reebok = $80 sweatpants

Mental Models Part 2

The title of the previous post really does not relate with the post itself. It pertains to this post but I split them up due to laziness and time. {I've been too lazy lately, I need to stop that.}

Anyway. Part II.
Dr. Mazur discussed the importance of mental models. He makes the claim that mental models override our visual memory and affect what we see. He had a nice example. Imagine a balanced scale with a weight in the middle. The weight is then moved to one end of the scale but the scale does not move, it remains parallel with the table it sits on, instead a dial on each end of the scale changes to reflect the weight shift of the object. Viewers who watch might perceive the lack of change in balance of the scale to mean the object is weightless when in fact the object has a weight, it is just reflected in a different manner (And in fact some of Dr. Mazur's students said that since moving the object to one end of the scale did not make the scale move downward but rather it remained balanced meant the object has no weight, or the scale is broken.) In this situation the observation reinforces the misconception.

We have to somehow provide opportunities to revise our mental models. This is especially true for young students going through school. If a misconception is already established as a mental model for a student it is harder than just trying to teach the student something new. You have to first break down that mental model and restructure it with a correct mental model. And if their misconception is a common misconception, it may continue to be reinforced and thus strengthened. We have to somehow provide opportunities to revise our mental models.

Mazur gave three points on how to revise our mental models.
-Predict outcome before observation
-Record observation
-Reconcile prediction with observation

Mazur also had a couple nice movies which demonstrated how we can be distracted by what see. In one such movie, six people had two basketballs. Three people were in white shirts and three people were in black shirts. Mazur told us to watch this 60 second long video and count how many times a person in a white shirt passed the basketball to another person in a white shirt. {While this was going on, the people were moving around, throwing the ball to one another or bouncing the ball to one another. And keep in mind there were two balls being passed back and forth.}

When we finished watching the movie clip he asked us to raise our hands if we saw the gorilla. About half the audience raised their hands and the other half looked completely puzzled. Mazur asked how many did not see the gorilla and the other half of the audience raised their hands. The movie clip was then played again. Sure enough about 20 seconds into the clip a person in a gorilla suit walked out and stood in the middle of the six people throwing the basektballs to each other. The gorilla even waved at the camera and did a little dance. He then exited the opposite side after being visible for about 25 seconds. A man in a gorilla suit waving at the camera is surely a hard thing to miss and yet half of the people in the audience missed it! They were focused on counting.

The other movie you can check out here. If you want to watch it, first stare at the green dot in the center before reading on and make a note of what you see.

Half the audience was asked to stare at the green dot in the center (I was in this group) while the other half of the audence could look around where ever they wanted. Mazur asked my group what we noticed when the movie was finished. We said the green dot was blinking and the yellow dots would also disappear. Mazur asked the other half if the yellow dots disappeared; they said no. We watched the movie again switching roles and sure enough the yellow dots did not disappear even though my eyes saw them disappear. It's funny sometimes how the mind works. Mazur has other presentations and publications on his website for those who are interested. He also talked about color and luminance with respect to visual pathways and studies he has done involving focus of attention which was also very interesting. I really really enjoyed his presentation.

He concluded with the following three points to ponder:
1. My reality is not your reality
2. What you see depends on what you believe
3. We store models, not facts

Mental Models Part 1

Last Friday, I attended a talk given by Dr. Eric Mazur, a professor in the physics department at Harvard University. The title was "How the mind tricks us: visualizations and visual illusions".

Abstract: Neurobiology and cognitive psychology have made great progress in understanding how the mind processes information – in particular visual information. The knowledge we can gain from these fields has important implications for the presentation of visual information and student learning.

It was a marvelous presentation and I enjoyed it very much. At the beginning of the talk the audience received a gadget (to borrow) and at various times during the talk we were asked to vote. I.e. on a scale of 1 to 5, rate your agreement on the following statement: "Information can be transferred more quickly and more effectively visually than verbally." 5 being agree and 1 being disagree. And while the gadget took in all the information from the audience quickly and created a nice visual bar graph of our responses, I can't help but wonder if all the effort of handing out the gadgets to each audience member, getting the gadgets on and setup for this specific talk (three or four button pushes), and showing us how to enter in responses was worth it in the end. (Nevermind the people that came in late and distracted their neighbors from the talk trying to get their gadget to the correct state.) Couldn't we have raised our hands and the same goal would have been accomplished? What exactly did we gain by using the gadget? We could have raised our hands and given responses that way. People have been voting that way for years.

The truth is raising your hand or pressing a button on this gadget accomplished the same goal. The data from the gadget was simply used as a counter, x number of people voted 5 and y number of people voted 2. And yet I felt as though I had some responsibility during the talk. I had this gadget. I had to follow directions and press keys to get to a particular point and even before we turned the thing on, I knew somehow I would be contributing something to the discussion. But even if Dr. Mazur had asked the question to the audience and we had raised our hands, I would still be contributing something. But, would I recognize it in the same way as I had when given the gadget? I don't believe so. Why did the novelty of having this gadget prevail over its purpose?

Free Stuff!

Who doesn't love free stuff? Certainly not this chica. Today when Sharon came into work she handed me a plastic bag and said, "Here's some free stuff from Health Services."

"What? That's awesome!" I exclaim.

I opened my bag of goodies to find: green apple flavored gum, some feminine supplies, and a sample of shower moisturizer and lotion.

Audacity

Audacity is a neat little free audio program. I first started using it to try to analyze student verbal responses via intonation and tone in a mathematics classroom. (It ended up not working out so well.) I later learned I could also use it to take mp3's and make ring tones. I had some fun with that. I pulled it up again today once I learned I could choose a sound file in my email client to alert me to new messages. How fun! I now hear a brief audio clip of "Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues" by The Beatles whenever I get a new message.

Let's see how long until I get sick of this.

My personal guess: 3 days.

ICTCM Conference

I suppose I should post about the conference.
Thursday night I headed up to Boston for the 19th annual International Conference on Technology in Collegiate Mathematics (ICTCM).

SH and I were supposed to led a workshop with the SimCalc software on Friday but SH ended up having a prior commitment and so James and I led the workshop instead. For my first session as a lead and first time speaking with James, I think it went fairly well. It could have, of course, been better. There was not a large turnout and I was disappointed about that but considering it was a 5-6:45pm workshop on the first day of the conference when the keynote speaker spoke at 8:30am, it was surely a long day for people.

I need to be more animated and personable with the audience. I was semi-nervous, and SH is so animated and colorful when giving presentations. Perhaps I just need more practice. Or perhaps I need to develop a character I can transition into when giving presentations, like an actor would. Luckily there were no people I knew at our session. (Possibly because I convinced the few people I knew at the conference to not attend or possibly because they were not interested.)

We spent too much time talking about the software. It is hard to develop that balance between talking about the software and throwing participants into the software. The small group definitely came more alive when we started going through the activities and discussing the work as a teacher in a class would.

We survived our session and I was then able to (semi) relax with some food, wine, and friends. It was not a late night, and after grabbing dinner and a drink I headed to bed; I was assisting with another session at 8am in the morning. That session went really well despite my non-enthusiasm for the software used in the presentation. I was able to check out some other sessions and the exhibit hall before becoming exhausted and deciding to head home. It still baffles me how tired I can get from nervousness.

Commercial leading to a tangent of thought

Have you seen this commercial?




I think it is more clever than any of the Superbowl commercials this year; all of which were really a let down. This divide and chose method is a wonderful idea for a parent. I will have to remember this in case I ever have children. And once again, it all goes back to mathematics.

"The problem can be extended to three or more people, but the method for finding an optimum solution becomes complicated. One method continues the division to successively smaller "equal" portions. The first person divides the resource into what they believe are equal halves. The second then chooses a half, leaving the remainder for the first person. Each of these two people then divide their respective portions into thirds. The third person picks two of the resulting portions: one from the first person and one from the second person. If there are four people, each of the first three people divides their portions into fourths, and the process continues."

Cutting something, like a piece of cake, in roughly equal pieces is easy enough but cutting something into thirds is more difficult. I, for one, do not have a good eye for this at all. I think I have a fairly good sense of numbers, but cutting something into thirds is tricky. For instance it is common to divide a letter into thirds to put into an envelope. I am terrible at this. If I am lucky my letter will fit into the envelope but usually I have to make a second attempt. (Although in today's world who writes letters anymore?) Perhaps those people that are quite good at this have had lots of practice and can "eyeball" it better than I.

Professional photographers, for instance, generally must have a good eye for breaking things up into thirds if they follow the rule of thirds which suggests it is more aesthetically pleasing to break a photograph into nine equal parts and aligning a picture with the intersection points of the vertical and horizontal lines formed by making the nine equal pieces. For example the horizon would line up with the lower third of the picture and the focus would not be centered, but in either the left third of the picture or the right third. I believe artists use this idea for portraits. I remember my grandmother trying to teach me about facial proportions when drawing. She always told me to draw eyes about two-third's above the chin. I always stuck them clear blue on the forehead and too close together.

Ever shoot some paper or trash into the wastebasket from a distance? Of course you have. Ever made the shot and said, "she (he) shoots, she (he) scores!” Ever missed the shot and said, "she (he) shoots, she (he) misses!”

Well if you have ever said, "she (he) shoots, she (he) misses" you can follow up that sentence with the following, "maybe I should play for the Celtics." It wouldn't hurt the team. It might even help and after 9 straight losses the Celts need some help. You may not, however, want to be associated with the Celtics and after last nights loss to the Hawks I cannot blame you.

I was at the disastrous game and watched the Celtics get handed their own asses on a platter. Luckily I scored free tickets or I would have been mad that I had to pay.

The Hawks missed their first eight shots and started the game 1-for-17 from the floor as they trailed 28-10 at the end of the first. (At this rate they were on pace to score a total of 40 points for the whole game! 40 points! The lowest one-team total since the invention of the 24-second shot clock in 1954 was the Bulls (sans Jordan) who scored a total of 49 points against the Heat in April of 1999.)


At the halftime break the Celts led 44-29. (It was at this point that I got myself excited thinking I was actually going to see the Celtics win a game!) The Hawks started to cut down the lead in the third and went on a 10-0 run and took a 66-62 lead at the start of the fourth quarter. The final score: 82-76 Atlanta.

It's that season again...

That's right, tax season.

And despite the crazy man in NH who has barricaded himself in his house and refuses to pay over $100,000 in back taxes to the Federal government, you do still have to pay taxes. For all his followers, check Amendment XVI of the Constitution of the United States of America.


I was able to catch a glimpse at a tax return from 1938 this weekend. (Yeah, that's gonna be some penalty.) You may be familiar with the individual income tax return of today with multiple pages, having to attach various schedules, and forms, ect.

The individual income tax return of 1938 was so simple. It was all on one page, income, deductions, and computation of tax. There were roughly 15 lines. H&R Block would have had no business.

Also, interestingly enough, there was an earned income tax credit in 1938, which today reduces (or eliminates) the taxes that low-income working people pay. Back in 1938 the earned income tax credit was viewed variously as a pro-work alternative to welfare and as an offset to the Social Security payroll tax.

Also in 1938, the federal minimum wage was enacted but was not indexed for inflation and thus declined in real value until Congress increased it.

"Gin a body meet a body..." What?

This week has been slightly weird for me.

On Tuesday I kept having a feeling of deja vu: before I left my house, in my car, at work, and when I got back home. It was very peculiar. And the familiar feeling was not about anything big; just a bunch of little stuff.


Now this morning I find myself waking up quoting, (err maybe it qualifies as chanting?) the last two stanzas of Robert Burns' poem "Coming Through the Rye". What?

I don't know what I was dreaming about - but I guess something literary. The last time I read that poem was in high school. I wish I could remember what I was dreaming about because I sure am interested.

Things that help me through the work day...

I've been very lax about posting - I know. And now all I've got is a cheat post. If it helps any, it is my favorite kind, a list. Things that help me through the work day.

We've all got 'em, we all need 'em. Here is a short list of mine.
-all you crazy cats chatting it up on AIM
-www.drmomentum.com/aces
-random web surfing
-www.pamie.com
-www.lifeintheoffice.com - essential for fans of The Office
-WBGO - Awesome New Jersey Jazz station
-www.lifehacker.com - good ideas, pointers, tips, apps, and general geeky stuff that I love
-iTunes
-trips to the water fountain
-wikipedia.org
-capecodonline.com - way to keep up with what goes on at home


wait - how do I manage to get any work done?

Plans for the New Year

I welcome in 2007 but at the same time am sad to see 2006 go. 2006 was very good to me.

2006 was filled with travel, adventure, fun and laughter. I can only hope for more in the future.
In terms of resolutions I list the following:

1. Keep smiling
2. Go ice skating outdoors
3. Put my feet in some body of water that I never have before
4. Go on a trip
5. Hike more
6. Bike more
7. Kayak more
   

And to get 2007 off to a good start, I will be spending the first weekend of the New Year enjoying 2 of my favorite things: Mathematics and Music.