Music to Grade by

After dinner, conversation and play with extended family tonight it was hard to come home and get into grading. I've been using YouTube as my "playlist" tonight - just searching as I went for what seemed would make me feel happy and take my mind off of work. Music to grade by:

Beethoven's 7th Symphony

Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata

Bach's Toccata and Fugue in d minor

Bach's Now Thank We All Our God

B. Marcello's Psalm 19

Lemmens' Fanfare and Toccata

And (thanks to Caleb) The Theme from Super Smash Bro's Luigi's Mansion (below). Does anybody know if this is based on a piece of classical/baroque music? It sure sounds like it (especially right around 0:40).

Exploring

I love this woodcut - can't find a title or artist name, though - anybody know?

Today I tried to post more pictures to my last post, but I find my summer draws me to ponder and explore. Books I'm exploring right now are:

Is God a Mathematician? by Mario Livio
The Math Book by Clifford Pickover
The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
The Myst Reader by Rand Miller
That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis

Rootless Words List

We speak of people as "ruthless," but we don't speak of them as "ruthful" or as having "ruth." (Well, no one I know does this other than my brother Tony!) We also call people "inept," but do we call anyone "ept?"

It seems root words like "ruth" and "ept" must have been around first and that then suffixes and prefixes were attached, and we've kept the lengthened words but not the original roots.

Maybe I'm wrong. Feel free to correct me if I am, but if you can't or until someone does, will you help us add to our of "rootless words" by leaving others you know of in the comments section. (David gets credit for this idea.)

1) RUTHless
2) inEPT

We would have included "unwieldy" but looked it up and "wieldy" is a word. I guess it's just not used as much as the other. Perhaps "wieldy" is on its way to being a lost root.

25 Things

Earlier today I was "tagged" in facebook to create a list of 25 random things about myself. I love lists! So I'm putting it here too! I'd love to hear random things about you too, so feel free to write them in the comments section.

1. I am trying to make a full deck of "found" playing cards (have 21 so far).

2. I do not eat vegetables (I'm 43 and still alive, so let's stop lying to kids!)

3. I am the oldest grandchild on BOTH sides of my family.

4. I am a sucker for anything related to Princess Diana.

5. The one place in the world I would most like to visit (that I have not yet visited) is Angkor Wat.

6. It is a pet peeve of mine when people don't use turn signals. UGH!!

7. My two favorites among my many names are "Mom" and my husband's nickname for me which is very sweet and will remain private :-)

8. My favorite scent is wet cement after rain.

9. I dream of going back to England someday (my profile photo was taken in London).

10. The first record album I bought was John Denver's Greatest Hits.

11. When I was in high school my favorite singer was Pat Benatar (a long way from John Denver!).

12. I decided to read Wuthering Heights because of a Pat Benatar song (wouldn't allow myself to listen to side 2 of "Hit me with Your Best Shot" until I read it); the novel remains my favorite book even though I don't listen to Pat Benatar anymore.

13.Wilma Rudolph has always been my hero.

14.I have been a contestant on Jeopardy!

15. I DO regret having stopped taking piano lessons as a child - just like all the adults told me I would.

16. We have an antenna - no cable - no dish.

17. I love being a total geek - a woman mathematician who is also a gamer and can quote from Monty Python's "Quest for the Holy Grail."

18. I am a cat person not a dog person, but I don't own a cat.

19. I think math is poetry, and I love poetry!

20. I would love to have a finite Erdos number someday, but I don't think it's going to happen, so I'll just have to be happy with an infinite Erdos number.

21. I am raising my sons to be geeks.

22. I find it very calming to watch water flow down a river.

23. If there is a spider or insect in my house, I catch it and release it outside.

24. I make exceptions for mosquitos and black widow spiders; those I kill.

25. I wish I could write a list like this that would make people laugh as hard as others have made me laugh; I got one earlier today that used the phrases "butt puckering suspense" and "puntable," and I am STILL laughing!

Favorite Organ Pieces (Top 3)

1) Fanfare (Allegro non troppo) in D major
by J.N. Lemmens (1823-1881)

2) Nun danket alle Gott (Now Thank We All Our God)
by J.S. Bach (1685-1750)

3) Toccata and Fugue in D minor
by J.S. Bach (1685-1750)

RUNNERS UP:

Sinfonia Cantata 29
by J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
Salmo XVIII (I've always heard this called Psalm 19)
by Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739)

Bedside Books

Here is a list of some of the books by the side of my bed - within easy reach in case I get time to read! - and the reason each book is there.

Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged is ON TOP of the stack. Although I don't have time right now to read this 1168-page tome, I must have it at my bedside right now to at least dip into. It is a voice of clarity and reason amid the economic craziness in the US and now the world. If I could make one book mandatory reading for every politician and everyone involved in finance, this would be it. Had they all read it, we would not be in the mess we are in right now!!

I always have a book about math or a mathematician nearby- because like Pascal I find math clears my mind and heals me with its purity and logic. This one I am currently reading because it is light and fun and because I am giving a conference talk at the end of the month on making math fun for elementary students, and this book contains material that will tie into my talk really well.

The Shack too I have already read, but it, like Atlas Shrugged, is one I need to go back to and will go back to over and over again. I know there is a big hoopla over this book right now - pro and con. I'm thankful I read it the first time before hearing any of that. I don't use the phrase "life changing" lightly, but I put this book in that category for myself.

The reading for my next Inklings Book Club meeting is in here: Leaf by Niggle - a shorter work by Tolkien than the familiar Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy. Tolkien is ALWAYS good.

I have this one by the side of my bed because a good friend is a fan of John Piper and recommended this book to me. I haven't made much progress, but it remains by the side of my bed.

I chose to post this today because I LOVE books AND because in my first post I wrote that my blog would probably consist of lots of lists (I like lists), but it turns out it hasn't, so there you have it - a list!

Wild and Crazy Life!

Girolamo Cardano (1501-1576) was quite someone who lived quite a life! Here are a few tidbits from his biography: He was the result of an abortion attempt that failed. He is one of the greatest doctors who ever lived, often mentioned with Galen and Hippocrates, but he was not allowed to teach medicine in the university because his birth was illigetimate. His father was a mathematically gifted lawyer who advised Leonardo Da Vinci. Girolamo was also extremely gifted mathematically and wrote Ars Magna (The Great Art), one of the first important works on algebra. A situation related to that publication caused him to be involved in the most famous mathematical feud in history (with Tartaglia). He was an accomplished chess play and gambler (which he was forced into to remain sovlent). He is credited with having invented the combination lock and the gimbal (a device of 3 concentric rings that allow a gyroscope to rotate freely). He accomplished all this and more although he suffered from health problems all his life due to his mother having tried to abort him. He was also severely abused as a child and did not get along well with others later in life. He is credited with first having suggest a sort of touch reading for the blind and symbols for the deaf. Leibniz said of him, "Cardano was a great man with all his faults; without them, he would have been incomparable." That is high praise, coming from an arrogant polymath who was one of the inventors of the calculus!

I have become so intrigued by this man that I have just purchased his autobiography. I haven't really begun reading it yet, but I've scanned it, and it scans a bit like a blog. Here is a section I particularly like and which seems like a blog post I would write. In fact, I think I will post something similar:

THOSE THINGS IN WHICH I TAKE PLEASURE

Among the things which please me greatly are stili for writing . . . . Besides these, I take great pleasure in gems, in metal bowls, in vessels of copper or silver, in painted glass globes and in rare books.

I enjoy swimming a little and fishing very much . . .

In the Italian poets, Petrarch and Luigi Pulci, I find great delight.

I prefer solitude to companions, since there are so few men who are trustworthy, and almost none who are truly learned. I do not say this because I demand scholarship in all men -- although the sum total of men's learning is small enough; but I question whether we should allow anyone to waste our time. The wasting of time is an abomination.

Quirky Goals

In the spirit of my last post, I thought I'd list some of my more unique life goals.

1) Attain a finite Erdös number
2) Prove Goldbach
3) Build a full 52 card poker deck of "found cards"

(I'd also really like to author a book that is published by a major publishing company, but I think that's less quirky and more common.)

Personal List (שבת של׀ם)

This is a list of verses that are particularly meaningful to me right now.

It is for FREEDOM that Christ has set us FREE. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

. . . be transformed by the renewing of your mind . . . Romans 12:2

. . . we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. Why, we felt that we had received the sentence of death but that was to make us RELY not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead; He delivered us from so deadly a peril, and he will deliver us; on him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. II Corinthians 8b-10

See, I am doing a NEW thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:18-19

But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh my LORD, I am not eloquent, either heretofore or since thou hast spoken to thy servant; but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him dumb, or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” Exodus 4:10-12

You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine; and he who is troubling you will bear his judgment . . . Galatians 5: 7&10

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17

So there remains a SABBATH REST for the people of God; for whoever enters God’s REST also ceases from his labors as God did from his. Hebrews 4:9

He brought me out into a broad and spacious place; He delivered me because He delighted in me. Psalm 18:19

And the Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s hand shortened? NOW you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.” Numbers 11:23

Out of my distress I called on the LORD; the LORD answered me and set me FREE. Psalm 118:5

It is for FREEDOM that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

Categorical Favorites (Part One)

As Oscar Hammerstein wrote:

“When the dog bites, when the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad,
I simply remember my favorite things,
And then I don't feel so bad”

Here, by category, are some things that make me smile:

• Animated character: Edna from The Incredibles (Of course, “Dahling!” Who did you think?)

• Animals: Ring-tailed Lemurs

• Smell: The scent of spaghetti cooking at a nearby campsite in a grove of redwood trees (Runner up: Sidewalk after rain)

• Foreign Film: Amelie

• Place I’ve Been: Westminster Abbey

• Place I’d Like to Visit: Angkor Wat

• Childhood Memory: Riding in a jet boat so fast that my eyes watered and tears flew horizontally back past my temples

• Mathematician: Paul Erdös

• Painting: La flèche de Zénon by René Magritte

• Object I’ve Seen: The Rosetta Stone

• Mathematical Idea: Infinities come in different sizes.

• Scientific Idea: Time Travel

• Part of Nature: Water flowing in a river

• Statement by My Youngest Child (7): “Mom, it’s really hard to think about when God started.”

• Math Joke: “There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don’t.”

• Way to Spend Time: Engaging in a great conversation

What makes YOU smile?

Good Advice

Why is it that I often resent or disbelieve advice - thinking my own experience is unique - and then have to relearn hard lessons others have already learned and tried to spare me?

1) Kids grow up faster than you think! Enjoy every minute.

2) Don't quit piano lessons; when you're an adult you'll regret quitting.

3) Don't be reckless with other people's hearts, and don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

4) Never buy an RV on e-bay!

Reflections on this advice:

#1: How could a new parent possibly believe this advice when they are getting up every 2 hours all night, spending all their money on formula and diapers, getting spit up on, toting a diaper bag and tons of baby equipment everywhere, potty training, wrestling kids in and out of carseats, dealing with temper tantrums, going to the doctor's office every other week for vaccinations or ear infections, finding a babysitter every time they want to do something, etc.? The advice is so true, though, and oh how I wish I could go back! I'm glad I still have time to enjoy the rest of the minutes with my quickly growing children.

#2: Now I'm the adult sharing that same advice, and I know there is no eighth-grader on the planet who will believe me, just as I didn't believe the adults in my life at that age. I deeply regret quitting piano lessons, but I hope to begin taking them again as an adult. Now I LOVE to play and wish I could play well.

#3: The best advice - period.

#4: Uh . . . let's not even go there.