25th Anniversary - Part 1 - COBA, Mayan Adventure

David and I celebrated our 25th anniversary by taking a trip to the Mayan Riviera in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. We stayed at Gran Bahia Principal in Akumal, a wonderful all-inclusive resort, and we took side-trips to a couple of sites of Mayan ruins. This post is of our side-trip to Coba.

It was a VERY humid day, as were many of our days there, which added an extra dimension to the hiking and climbing!

We decided to be "Dutch" (which we are) and walk the 4km round trip to the big pyramid, Nohoch Mul, before climbing it. Given the humidity and the strenuousness of the climb I wish we'd been a little more willing to spend and had gotten one of these limousines, but, ah well . . .

Getting ready to ascend the 42m (138ft) pyramid . . .

Looking down from where I'm seated near the top - at times the climb seemed almost vertical.

Looking out over the jungle canopy

Can you see the other ruins rising above the jungle canopy? Can you see the tiny people at the bottom?

This climb was really something, and especially the way back down! The steps are uneven, which doesn't help!

Here are some other sites at Coba. We had to rush pretty fast since our tour also included an "adventure" at a Mayan village some distance from here. I hope to look up more information on Coba and learn about these sites after the fact!

The three pictures below are of the ball-court (actually there were two ball courts at this site). The second two pictures are behind the ball court. I just love how the tree is taking over with its roots.

We rappelled into a cenote. I was actually a little scared but was too hot and tired after the hike through the jungle and the climb up Nohoch Mul to protest or feel too much fear, and the water below did sound very inviting. Below we have one last kiss before entering the darkness. In the third picture below you can see people at the bottom on tubes in the water.

Zip-lining was tons of fun, and across the second course (bottom two pictures) we were actually above crocodile "infested" waters :-)

Preview

We just got home from 10 days in Akumal, Mexico - the "Mayan Riviera" - to celebrate our 25th anniversary. I hope to post more pictures in days to come once I'm settled back in again. The trip was AMAZING!

Current Events #2

Today was our TWENTY FIFTH wedding anniversary!

We started our celebrating with dinner at Olive Garden with our boys. More celebrating to come - more pictures then :-)

God has certainly blessed us with our 3 AMAZING boys!

The white flowers are to me from David, and the colorful ones are to us from his family. Though perhaps not romantic per se, it was really special to us to have our boys come to our anniversary dinner with us. We're on the verge of empty-nesting and loving every moment we can get with them!

Current Events #1

I have always loved the organ, and it finally occurred to me that I could take lessons, so I am! I was a little nervous about it at first because I was a very reluctant piano student as a child - didn't want to practice - used all kinds of shortcuts like having my teacher play the piece for me and then not counting but just matching the notes to what I knew it was supposed to sound like and so on. In other words, I didn't give myself a very good foundation for music in my younger years. And my last piano lesson was in 1979.

It's been a humbling experience to engage in lessons again, but it's also been amazing in so many ways. I think I'm learning a bit about what my students go through as they learn math - especially in the basic skills classes I teach at the college level. Music, like math, is a language you have to be able to read and also something you have to be able to perform and not just "know." There's also some amount of "test anxiety" involved. I can play a piece just fine, but then when my teacher asks me to play it for him, it's like my fingers all turn into thumbs, and I can't see the notes, and I fumble around and make mistakes!

My work keeps me very busy, but I do have time during the summer to take on a new venture, and that's a privilege. I've been practicing anywhere from an hour to two and a half hours a day, and just today - about 4 weeks into this venture - I've been starting to feel some mastery of the little things I've been working on so far. I also feel like my brain is being rewired as I try to read notes on different staffs that are both the same clef but playing them on different manuals (keyboards), sometimes with my left hand above my right - also playing the left hand and the pedals (both bass) really stretches my brain! I'm thinking this may be a good "Alzheimer's Prevention Program!"

No Longer, Nor Yet

Brother, that breathe the August air

Ten thousand years from now,

And smell --- if still your orchards bear

Tart apples on the bough ---

The early windfall under the tree,

And see the red fruit shine,

I cannot think your thoughts will be

Much different from mine.

Should at that moment the full moon

Step forth upon the hill,

And memories hard to bear at noon,

By moonlight harder still,

Form in the shadows of the trees, ---

Things that you could not spare

And live, or so you thought, yet these

All gone, and you still there,

A man no longer what he was,

Nor yet the thing he'd planned,

The chilly apple from the grass

Warmed by your living hand ---

I think you will have need of tears;

I think they will not flow;

Suppposing in ten thousand years

Men ache, as they do now.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Early Euphoria

"Stimulated by parents who loved poetry and were determined to impart it to their children, I have been trying to write it since 1903, when I was about five; but I produced little that I now think worth keeping until about the age of thirty. I wish I could have retained more of the glory of this long immaturity. It produced artless art, but it was a wonderful mode of life. The sophistication of age makes a poor exchange for the early euphoria."

Ruth Pitter

Mostly Math?

Well, after starting out as a truly "mostly poetry" blog, this has become more and more a mostly math blog, but to me math and poetry are the same thing, so I guess it works (for me anyway!). The following was shared with me by one of my liberal arts mathematics students tonight. It involves music and lyrics created around the Fibonacci Sequence as well as pictures from the Hubble. Pretty cool!

2012

MAPS Presentation

Well, in my very few posts over the last couple of months I've more than once mentioned my upcoming talk. It took place last night, and my hubby took some pictures, so I'm going to use those to report in on how it went.

The marquee

Modesto Area Partners in Science graciously treats its speakers to a dinner prior to the talk. It was so awesome to be supported by my colleagues and friends!! Dinner was yummy, and the fellowship took the edge off my nervousness :-)

Where else to begin the journey into playful mathematics but Konigsberg?

What good audience participation!

Here's how to make a trefoil knot!


Sadly, this will probably be the only time I'll be on-stage "with" renouned physicist, mathematician and philosopher Sir Roger Penrose!!

You just can't miss when using images by the amazing M. C. Escher!

And you can't miss with animations by the amazing Wes Page!

To quote Galileo: "Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe." He sure has whispered the secret of maximizing volume and minimizing surface area to bees (and soap bubbles and earth's crust and . . .)!

My goal was to get across to that math can be playful - and, more importantly, that play is not merely frivolous - that is has intrinsic value and also has value in that it can result in powerful applications.

I think I got the first message across very strongly, but I had some technical glitches with the computer and with the sound system that threw me off a bit, so I'm not sure the second message came through as well. It's an important one, though, and, as I've been researching this talk I've come across it in a wide variety of places. I'll end this post with a Q&A in an article I found in Discover Magazine (September 2009) in which Sir Roger Penrose (whose father was also a mathematician and scientist) was being interviewed:

Q: How did your father influence your thinking?

A: The important thing about my father was that there wasn’t any boundary between his work and what he did for fun. That rubbed off on me. He would make puzzles and toys for his children and grandchildren . . .

Infinite Possibility

Well, my posting lately has been something of the inverse of Zeno's Paradox. That's partly because preparing for my talk tomorrow (Friday) night seems to be taking infinite time! I hope that the results end up being worthy of the effort! Below are pictures of some of the preparation that went into the 250 packets I put together for it. Another post with another flyer can be found here. If you're in the area and want to hear fun stuff about math, come on along!


Can you spot the Girl Scout "Thin Mints" that helped me keep up my energy as I packed packets? :-)

Spot of Beauty

Life has been so crazy busy - hardly have time to post anymore - but this beautiful butterfly showed up on our fence today and reminded me of the beauty that is all around me!

Turn an Envious Look

Fish in the unruffled lakes
Their swarming colours wear,
Swans in the winter air
A white perfection have,
And the great lion walks
Through his innocent grove;
Lion, fish and swan
Act, and are gone
Upon Time's toppling wave.

We, till shadowed days are done,
We must weep and sing
Duty's conscious wrong,
The Devil in the clock,
The goodness carefully worn
For atonement or for luck;
We must lose our loves,
On each beast and bird that moves
Turn an envious look.

Sighs for folly done and said
Twist our narrow days,
But I must bless, I must praise
That you, my swan, who have
All gifts that to the swan
Impulsive Nature gave,
The majesty and pride,
Last night should add
Your voluntary love.

W. H. Auden 1936

On the Reading of Poetry

Those who read poetry to improve their minds will never improve their minds by reading poetry. For the true enjoyments must be spontaneous and compulsive and look to no remoter end. The Muses will submit to no marriage of convenience. The desirable habit of mind, if it is to come at all, must come as a by-product, unsought.

C. S. Lewis

Me and My Valentine

Camellia

I don't pay tons of attention to what's in my garden, but a friend was enjoying the camellia in the backyard. It was here when we moved in, so I can take no credit, but now they're catching my eye too, so I thought I'd share them.

Startled and Excited

I walked out of my office and into the hallway yesterday and was startled by an image on the bulletin board that caught my attention. It took a moment to register that I was looking at a picture of myself! Yeah, I knew I was giving the talk; I just didn't know posters were ready or up yet, and there I was - staring myself in the face! So I was startled, but I'm excited about the talk - always fun to show people some cool mathematics! For a description of the talk see what I've written below the poster image.



"Young children know the truth. They know that numbers and shapes are fun. They play counting-out games like "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,"and they put numerical values to the letters of their names to play at predicting their futures. They doodle with geometric shapes, and they challenge each other to see who can name the biggest number. But that enjoyment of math fades for most people and is often replaced by boredom or even fear. In this talk we will explore together the playful side of mathematics through tracings, tilings and tangles. But be careful! This is more serious than you might think! It is often curiosity and play that give rise to powerful real-world applications."

African Fractals on TED

to be sung by Niels Bohr

Threes
by John Atherton
(to be sung by Niels Bohr)

Update

Wow - can't believe I hadn't posted anything this year!

I have some great poems to put up, but I'm a bit hesitant because my hubby gets a little disconcerted when I post dark poetry.

Ah well . . .

Anthony has been back at college in Michigan for a week and a half for winter term. The rest of us have just finished up the first week of our new semester. I'm pleased to report I had what was probably the best first week of a semester ever! It's busy and overwhelming, of course, as beginnings of semesters always are, but all of my classes seem to have fun personalities, and that is the big thing! That makes all the difference.

I can't believe this is Jacob's last semester of high school - last semester here under our roof. I don't know what Caleb is going to do with just Mom and Dad to hang out with!

Let's see - other random stuff - David did his annual polar bear jump into the swimming pool on January 1, silly guy! - a couple of my colleagues came over yesterday and taught us a new board game, fun stuff! - I'm (re)reading That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis, hoping to finish before book club Thursday! - we get tomorrow off in observance of Martin Luther King Junior's birthday, yea! - along with teaching and heading up the tutoring center I'm spending a lot of time meticulously planning a talk I'll be giving in March - also, I've decided there's no point in putting off the items on my bucket list, so I've signed up to take organ lessons beginning in May. I'm pretty excited about that!

I'm also going to try to post here more often again, but it might be dark poetry! :-)

Prayer

Another year is dawning, dear Father, let it be
In working or in waiting, another year with Thee.
Another year of progress, another year of praise,
Another year of proving Thy presence all the days.

... Another year of mercies, of faithfulness and grace,
Another year of gladness in the shining of Thy face;
Another year of leaning upon Thy loving breast;
Another year of trusting, of quiet, happy rest.

Another year of service, of witness for Thy love,
Another year of training for holier work above.
Another year is dawning, dear Father, let it be
On earth, or else in Heaven, another year for Thee.

Christmas Eve Family Pics

Real Analysis for Music Majors

Well, I guess this is becoming "Mostly Math" instead of "Mostly Poetry." Of course, I think they're the same thing, so . . . . and right now I think this version of "poetry" is better as my husband was getting a little tired of and concerned about the series of dark poems I was putting up a while ago.

This post is actually in honor of Anthony who gets to take his Real Analysis final Thursday after taking his philosophy final later today. This video was recently created by the student of a friend of mine. My only question is how wealthy he must be to jump into a swimming pool with his Real Analysis book. Those things are EXPENSIVE!

Click here to see video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSBquYIXHns

GOOD LUCK ON YOUR FINALS ANTHONY!
AND JACOB! (who has calculus tomorrow - I mean later today!)
AND CALEB!

A Physicist Does Math

Just for fun:

Escher

I'll be giving a talk this spring titled "Infinite Possibility: The Importance of Mathematical Play." One of my three topics will be M. C. Escher's work with tessellations. I was sharing about this with a friend today and was surprised to learn that Escher is not universally known. His work has been a part of my life so long I thought everyone was familiar with it, so I decided to post a few of my favorites of his work - each having some mathematical aspect to it.

11

Caleb let me borrow his digital watch so I wouldn't miss the moment :-)

Floods Have Slit the Hills

The Brain, within its Groove
Runs evenly-and true-
But let a Splinter swerve-
'Twere easier for You-

To put a Current back-
When Floods have slit the Hills-
And scooped a Turnpike for Themselves-
And trodden out the Mills-

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

UH-HUH!