Getting Crafty with a Mirror

I'm not typically a crafty person. This is primarily due to my lack of time for such endeavors and not a lack of interest. However I am currently on break from both work and school for the Holidays and find myself with extra time and feeling a bit stir crazy. So I’ve kept myself busy with a few projects. Here is the first I did this week. It was my good friend Dr. Erin’s birthday earlier this month. She also is in the process of buying a new home so I thought I’d make her something to put in her new home. Here is what I came up with.


Taking a picture of a mirror is tricky business and these were the two pictures that turned out the best. It began as a regular square mirror. I then designed the border around the edge and etched it into the mirror.


The symbol you see at the top is a Bowl of Hygieia which is often used to represent pharmacy (as Dr. Erin is a doctor of pharmacy). I enjoyed reading up on the pharmacy symbol, Hygieia was the Greek goddess of health, daughter of Asclepius, the god of medicine and healing.

Anticipating a phone call

There are lots of things to look forward to on Christmas Day. Family, presents, food, presents, friends, presents, and even giving some presents.

This year what I'm looking forward to the most is a phone call from my li'l brudder who is serving a mission for our Church in Argentina. I hear from him on a weekly basis via email, but this is one of the few days I actually get to talk to him on the phone.

Here is why I miss Tommy so much:



We wreak a little havoc where ever we go.

What are you looking forward to this Christmas Day? I hope it's full of family, friends, and Christ. Merry Christmas!

Red Red Wine

The new flavor of the month is Red.

An Early Christmas Present

Christmas is around the corner.

Sometimes I need to state the obvious to remind myself of the fact. Every year I tell myself I will plan early to get ready for Christmas. Every year I fail. You see, every year Christmas continues to happen at the same time: right after I have a slew of birthdays right in a row I must take care of (3 family members and 2 good friends) and right after final exams. What’s a girl to do?


My older and wiser sister Merry (Dragon Tamer and Mother Extraordinaire) has her life a little more put together than I do. I received my Christmas present from her almost 2 weeks ago. Yes, she is amazing. Not only is Merry amazing, but what she did is also so incredible I must share it with all of you. Merry made each member of my family an advent calendar to count down the days until Christmas. This is not just any advent calendar, no! It’s a personalized one that has every member of my family dressed up and posed as a member of the nativity scene. It works out quite nicely as there are (currently) 22 members of the family. Merry also included 1 manger and 1 star to total the 24 days prior to Christmas.



I’m an angel. A barefooted angel. To make things even better, in each little pocket is also a Dove chocolate.

Cool? So cool.

People are a Problem

The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.

To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.

D. Adams

I love ThinkGeek

If You're Wondering If I Want You To

There is something about Rivers Cuomo. I've had a crush on that man for 15 years.

That aside, I love the style of the new video. The classic 1950's feel, the barbershop quartet, the cars, population: Weezer, I love it all.

It's Only Natural

You might have noticed by now that I enjoy changing the color of my hair often. It helps that my sister chose the fabulous profession of being a cosmetologist.

Have you ever seen my natural color hair? Those who have will have known me for at least a decade, give or take a year. It’s drab. It’s so drab it doesn’t even have a name for it. It’s that color between dark blonde and light brown that doesn’t have a proper name and is sometimes referred to as “dirty” blonde or “dishwater” blonde. Eww. Why in the world would anyone want the words dirty or dishwater used to describe their hair?? So I add a little color in my life.

I’ve often wondered what Heavenly Father was thinking when he gave me this hair color. I mean, it’s most certainly NOT me, yet He should know me better than anyone as he is my creator. I finally found my answer.

After dyeing my hair a new color I am often asked, “How do you always manage to pull it off?” By that they mean how do I manage to have so many different colors look good on me? The answer is my skin tones are set to match my natural hair color. I have a very bland coloring of skin that matches my drab hair color. What does this mean? My coloring is bland enough it’s one of those colors that goes with just about everything.

Do you see the connection now? My Father in Heaven does know me. He knew that I would need the bold colors of life and that I would not settle for just one fabulous color. And so He did what any loving Father would do: he gave me the proper coloring to allow me to play with my hair color and be as outrageous or calm as I may choose to be. And for that I am thankful.

Windy with Sister and President Kempton (my first day in the mission)
This is the most recent picture I own with my Natural hair color.

Percy Jackson

My blogging time seems to have decreased exponentially as my job and school work load have increased linearly. In other words: I've been busy. My time has been well spent, I got an A on that midterm!

Between my busy moments I've had time to start a new series called Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan. Book number one is The Lightning Thief, you might have heard of it as the film adaptation will be out in February.

It's become my new addiction. I finished book one and returned it to the library this week. Now I find myself impatiently waiting for book two to come in, I am currently number 16 on the hold list.

Ugh. Only 16!?

At least the number is decreasing, I was 18 yesterday. Yes, I've begun to check daily for my hold status. I should probably just buy the books.

I never much enjoyed English classes in High School, it was not my thing. However I did enjoy the section where we studied Greek Mythology. For some reason this caught my attention. For this same reason I've found these books interesting. The Greek gods are immortal so they must still be around today. They often were caught seducing a human or two and producing a demigod child who becomes a hero. So naturally a few of these half-gods are around today as well.

It only makes sense.

Maleficent, the Mistress of All Evil

Halloween was one long day for me. I still managed to play dress up as one of my all time favorite 'bad-guys' on my way to the YSA Halloween Dance one last time.

On sleepless roads the sleepless go

Sighing I shut the lid to my laptop. Done, I say to myself. That last homework assignment only took me 12 hours to complete. It wasn’t hard exactly, just long.

Who am I fooling, it was hard.

‘The first part of your midterm will be posted online tomorrow, there will be both a written part and a project requiring the use of MATLAB,’ Dr. Adams foreboding voice rings through my mind with a hint of dread. I slip my contacts out and feel the instant relief.

I’m sure I could have written better code for that last problem, I think. A for loop maybe? I’m sure I did it the hard way. Maybe I should redo—stop! I shake my head slightly in an attempt to clear it. It’s done. The matrix images turned out correctly. It’ll be ok.

The soft hum of the electric toothbrush is soothing while it massages my gums. I will need to be familiar with all 3 ways to project a vector onto the range of A. The SVD is easy enough, QR factorization, and then, uh, does that other one have a name? Of course all of that depends on the matrix having full rank.

Back in my bedroom I slip on my favorite chemise, the white one with blue flowers printed on it. Then there was that one homework problem on the eigenvalue decomposition of a matrix, why didn’t we cover that in class? It sure helped knowing U and V are unitary. “Ugh,” I hiss under my breath as I sit on the edge of my bed. I’ll never get to sleep like this, I need an ‘off’ switch.

Glancing down I see the one thing that will save me. I slide off my bed and onto the floor grabbing my electric guitar conveniently sitting on its stand just feet away. The smooth white surface is familiar to my fingers; a small grin appears on my face. Playing a handful of chords I test the sound before jumping into my most recent song project. A very simple song but the beat just makes it fun to play.

All thoughts of math and homework are quickly slipping away. I wonder to myself, where is my music for that Jimmy Eat World song I love so much? Switching to the acoustic guitar and grabbing my capo I play through the chords, my smile increasing as I go. I can almost hear his voice singing,

May angels lead you in.
Hear you me my friends.
On sleepless roads the sleepless go.
May angels lead you in.

Before long I gently place my guitar back on its stand where she waits to save my sanity another day.

A Small Chance to Serve

Many women have fabulous talents they use to serve others. Some cook, some make quilts, some make little intricate cards to send to others. Me? I do math. I’ve often wondered how my talents in math can help someone else. I mean, other than what I already do as a math tutor.

Friday I had the chance to volunteer as a math scribe for the University of Washington. One of the students in an upper level math class has a disability which does not allow him to write. Math is full all sorts of odd symbols to make it difficult for anyone to do this job. That’s me and my talents came in quite handy. It was a fun to be able to help him out.

I walked away from this experience with two things on my mind. Number One: I am selfishly ungrateful for my own body. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking about what is wrong with my body when I should be thinking about everything that is right. Number Two: I am highly impressed with this guy for his ambitions and for doing everything he has accomplished. It was a reminder to me that my life is exactly what I choose to make of it.

I needed a change.

Some have called it the color of fall. Some ask if it's for Halloween. However most say it looks like the color of fire.

And I convinced Carly to go Red at the same time :)

Holly

For lunch today I met up with Holly who is fabulously interesting and fun. We were roommates for 3 months in an apartment in Seattle just before I left on my mission. We shared a large bedroom where we stayed up late talking, laughing, burping the alphabet, and having all sorts of riotous fun. Plus making our 3rd roommate insanely jealous that she did not share a room with us as well. That was 9 years ago.

Today Holly lives far away on the other side of the state. She has a degree in Anthropology which means she is basically Indiana Jones.

While rooming together I had a pile of 'Just Do The Math' window stickers and I hung one of them in our window by my bed. When moving out I left it so Holly would always remember me. Turns out she took that sticker and put it in the window of her car. So. Cool.

Third Times the Charm

Note: The events of this blog post took place one week, three hours, ten minutes and thirty-four seconds ago.

One of the most amazing experiences of my life happened at 13,000 feet as I stepped out of a plane into the open air.

The first time I experienced this was for my 29th birthday. I did a tandem dive with a few friends.

The second time was exactly 1 week later when Jason and I returned for the day-long class and jumped out on our own. Yes. I had my own parachute, pulled my own rip chord and did everything just right... up until I came in for my landing and, well, it was slightly ungraceful. I ended up with a minor tear in my MCL and on crutches. No fear, this did not stop my desire to go again.

The third time was just last weekend with a few new friends, 2 of them celebrating birthdays of their own. I must say it was even better this time! I went tandem again, to be on the safe side, and because this allowed me to go with my friends as well. This time I knew what to expect, I knew how everything worked, I didn't have to worry about my own landing. All I did was sit back and enjoy the ride.

The most thrilling part is the moment I left the safety of the plane and began to free fall. I cannot describe this, you must experience it for yourself. 13,000 feet is above the clouds, it's amazing to be there, in the sky, above a cloud. However we did not remain above the clouds for long. We quickly approached a small cloud and then went right through it. I've touched a cloud! It feels just like air, only slightly thicker air, if that makes sense. Breaking through suddenly we saw the beauty of the Northwest all around. Mountains, lakes, trees, airplane hangar. My friend Keri described this as "God's view" of the Earth.

Free fall lasts about 50 to 60 seconds before they pull the chute. Dennis, my tandem instructor, gave me a little tap on the shoulders to let me know just before he pulled the rip chord. Whoosh! We slow down and my legs come flying down back under me again. Once flying under canopy we are going slow enough to talk and Dennis points out some of the surrounding areas before handing me the toggles and letting me steer for a little bit. One hard pull to the left and we go swirling to the left--another sensation you'll just have to experience! After a couple minutes floating through the air we slide in for a smooth landing on the grass. (One day I'll figure out how to do that on my own).

Wow. Wow! Seriously, wow! What a rush!

I'd do it again any time the funds are available! Anyone else wanna come next time!?

I didn't get the pictures this time around, but here are a couple from Melissa's batch.

Melissa ~ Carly ~ Windy ~ Christie ~ Brenda
Here we are just before leaving the hangar, we're dressed up in our finest and ready to rock!

Dennis and myself walking out to the plane. This picture makes me laugh.

And here we are just moments after landing. Notice the smiles on our faces!!

This wouldn't be a complete blog post without at least one actual sky shot of me skydiving. I have a few older pictures from my first dive for your viewing pleasure. But remember, these are just about a year old now.

Classic. I love the look on my face.

I'm free!!! Free fallin'!!

And safely back on the ground.

A note on Dennis who you see in several of the pictures: I adore this man. I hardly know him at all, yet I just adore him. Dennis has been there for all 3 of my dives, my tandem instructor for the first and third, but he was also one of the instructors who jumped with me to make sure things went ok on my own. On that dive I noticed my altimeter was broken while flying up for the jump. I pointed this out to Dennis and he immediately, without hesitation, gave me his altimeter off his own wrist and jumped without one. What a guy. How could I not just adore a guy who has, quite literally, saved my life three times.

For another fabulous post and even more incredible pictures check out Brenda's blog.

____________________

"Once you have flown, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward; for there you have been, there you long to return."
-Leonardo da Vinci-

Oneirology

Did you know Oneirology is the scientific study of dreams? This is a topic that has always interested me. I even own a dream dictionary or two.

I have been blessed with extremely vivid dreams. I used to think everyone had these until I started describing the detail to friends who would always be shocked. Typically I enjoy my dreams as I find them immensely entertaining. Although last nights dream was not entertaining all. It's now 15 hours later and I still can't shake the images.

So to take my mind off things I spent some time looking up songs that talk about dreams. Here are a few of my favorites, in no particular order.

Dream On by Areosmith

All I Have To Do Is Dream by The Everly Brothers

A Bad Dream by Keane

Dreamin' by Weezer

A Kiss To Build A Dream On by Louis Armstrong

Daydream by Lovin' Spoonful

I Have A Dream by ABBA (Mamma Mia Soundtrack)

Book Review: The Well of Lost Plots

The Well of Lost Plots
A Thursday Next Novel
by Jasper Fforde
Rating: 5 starts out of 5
"it was amazing"

It is true: Fforde gets better and better with each book! This is number 3 in the Thursday Next Series and I enjoyed it the most (so far).

There is so much detail I hardly know where to begin. Our last book left us off with Thursday pregnant and her husband eradicated. She decided to take a vacation and go somewhere safe to have this baby, where the Goliath Corporation cannot touch her. Only there is no place in her world they cannot touch... so she must leave her world and enter the Book World. Thursday decides to particpate it the Character Exchange program and resides in a book that is still being written in The Well of Lost Plots. She is also apprenticed to Mrs. Havisham, of Great Expectations, at Jurisfiction (the book world policing agency).

As usual where Thursday goes trouble will find her. This time a new and improved Operating System for the book world is about to be unleashed. It's perfect. It will be the ultimate reading experience! Except the Jurisfiction agents assigned to test out the new system are dying in what appears to be normal everyday accidents. At the same time Thursday is fighting off Aornis Hades who is out for revenge for her brother's death. Aornis is a mnemonomorph capable of altering anothers memories, slowly she is removing all memories of Thursdays husband. Thursday finds herself fighting the BookWorld enemies by day and Aornis by night.

There are 2 things I love about this book. First the attention to detail Fforde uses. There were so many little seemingly insignificant things that all managed to come into play at some point in the book. Clever. Brilliant.

Secondly is the style of writing. There's only one way to know what I am talking about, and that is with a sample that had me laughing and confused and rereading a number of times. This will be taken out of context, but all you need to know is Jurisfiction is meeting to discuss the proper use of certain terms in books. These things need policing, or they could get out of hand...

'Good. Item seven. The had had and that that problem. Lady Cavendish, weren't you working on this?'

Lady Cavendish stood up and gathered her thoughts. 'Indeed. The use of had had and that that has to be strictly controlled; they can interrupt the ImaginoTransference quite dramatically, causing readers to go back over the sentence in confusion, something we try to avoid.'

'Go on.'

'It's mostly an unlicensed usage problem. At the last count David Copperfield alone had had had had sixty-three times, all but ten unapproved. Pilgrim's Progress may also be a problem owing to its had had / that that ratio.'

'So what's the problem in Progress?'

'That that had that that ten times but had had had had only thrice. Increased had had usage had had to be overlooked but not if the number exceeds that that that usage.'

'Hmm,' said the Bellman. 'I thought had had had had TGC's approval for use in Dickens? What's the problem?'

'Take the first had had and that that in the book by way of example,' explained Lady Cavendish. 'You would have thought that that first had had had had good occasion to be seen as had, had you not? Had had had approval but had had had not; equally it is true to say that that that that had had approval but that that other that that had not.'

'So the problem with that other that that was that—?'

'That that other-other that that had had approval.'

'Okay,' said the Bellman, whose head was in danger of falling apart like a chocolate orange, 'let me get this straight: David Copperfield, unlike Pilgrim’s Progress, which had had had, had had had had. Had had had had TGC's approval?'

There was a very long pause.

'Right,' said the Bellman with a sigh. 'That's it for the moment.'

Dang it Carly, I'm a Mathematician, not a Writer!

{said in a Dr. McCoy voice}

I don't recall how it came up, but after mentioning the fact that I have no talent for writing Carly exclaimed, "Yes you do, I know you do, I've read your blog!"

Flattering as this may be, every English professor I've had appears to disagree with you. Perhaps that had to do with the fact I was being forced to write about topics I could care less about. Here I can write what I want. Although I'll stick to being a Mathematician as it's what I do best.

On the subject of my writing I recently stumbled upon my essay for my application to grad school. I think it's funny and I enjoyed writing it. This is for you Carly, and anyone else out there interested in sampling my writing.

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

Master Math Geeks

Throughout my undergraduate studies I would look at my geeky mathematics professors and secretly swear to myself that I would never end up like them.

“Does he realize his shirt is only half way tucked in?”

“I didn’t know glasses still came that thick.”

“Bet she hasn’t bought new clothes since 1985!”

Ouch. That was a little too harsh. A few years have gone by and now I look back at those professors with a feeling of hypocrisy as this is everything that I aspire to be. Not a geek exactly, although that title officially came after receiving my bachelor’s degree in mathematics, but a brilliant math professor who inspires students to learn more about such a pure subject.

Mathematics has inspired me to learn and to teach for years already. The other day my mother reminded me that when I was just 8 or 9 years old I would drag my younger siblings into our play room, sit them down in front of the chalk board, and proceed to teach them how to add. I considered this our play time, but looking back, I’m not sure my siblings enjoyed it as much as I did. Now years have passed and I find I am still doing the same thing. After graduating in 2005, I started my own business doing private instruction for mathematics. I primarily work with high school students and a handful of college students as well. I still consider this my “play time” and I enjoy what I do immensely.

Although I enjoy teaching, my real passion lies with math, specifically, applied mathematics. I discovered the subtle differences in these two departments as an undergrad. I found my applied math classes more invigorating. They involved sitting in the computer lab watching models of math problems come to life verses sitting at home working through a proof I was pretty sure someone else had already proved. More than once I found myself saying, “If I were to ever come back for a Masters Degree, it would be in applied mathematics.” I should probably watch what I say, as that will likely prove to be an expensive statement. Nevertheless, the time has come. I am ready to push myself a little more.

I am excited and look forward to the opportunities and flexibility an online degree can offer as I continue with my current career. Even more than this I look forward to one day teaching math at a higher level institution. There I will be able to use the skills I will be acquiring from a Masters Degree in applied mathematics every day. I will secretly enjoy my students chuckling to themselves about how much of a geek their math professor is. Even though I have learned to tuck in my shirt, and instead of thick glasses wear contacts, everyone who knows me will know that I am a math geek—and proud of it!

This one's for you Josh

Happy Birthday Josh!

Today is the birthday of my long time friend Josh. We met over a MxPx t-shirt he was wearing. I commented on it as I liked the band and mentioned I'd seen them live... Josh was amazed I knew who they were. We became instant music friends.

Before long we were going to every concert we could. Here we are in the pit just before we saw AAR in 2006.

And here is a picture I took of Josh before our Green Day show. I think it's easily said we've seen well over 100 bands together, wouldn't ya say Josh?


Josh has a love of sports as well. He always has season tickets to all Seattle sports. Here we are at a Mariners Game earlier this year. "Hey! At least we still have the Sonics!!"

Ken Griffey Jr hit the 5000th home run that night!

Josh has introduced me to a lot of firsts, he took me to my first professional soccer game (Go Sounders!!) and my first professional football game too. Here we are in our Seahawks attire at the game. (Thanks again for letting me borrow your sweatshirt!)


We've seen musicals together, midnight showings, and had countless 2am Denny's/Sheri's runs after the shows. Thanks for all the fun times Josh. You've been a great friend. I hope you have an awesome birthday this year.

Josh, this song is dedicated to you.

In which Windy gets crafty

Sometimes I crochet. I used to do this all the time and now miss having the time for it. I've made most of my scarves and hats for winter, and I have a couple full size afghans around, lots of baby blankets and even some doilies too. But yesterday I decided to try something completely new: a little teddy bear. It's was given away this morning as the bearer of a gift card for a baby shower present. I think it turned out rather cute. The bear sits about 4.5 inches tall and even has a cute little tail in the back.

Book Review: Cybele's Secret

Cybele's Secret
by Juliet Marillier
rating: 5 starts out of 5
"it was amazing"

You may recall a book review from last May called Wildwood Dancing, Cybele's Secret is the companion novel to Wildwood. This book picks up the story of Jena's younger sister, Paula the scholar, who is on a trip to Istanbul with her father to help him in his Merchant duties. However this trip is a special trip where her father has a particular religious artifact in mind. This is a treasure that must be handled carefully and with secrecy as the city officials do not like the idea of pagan religions or their religious artifacts anywhere nearby.

Istanbul is not the safest place, upon their arrival they receive news their contact had been murdered. They must tread carefully, and get a strong body guard as well. Enter: Stoyan. Stoyan is tall and muscular with a menacing appearance and fighting skills unmatched by all, not to mention young and single and deliciously handsome if a little uneducated about reading and writing -- nothing a scholarly girl would (initially) find interesting. But Stoyan can't be the only love interest around or the book wouldn't be so good. Enter: Duarte de Acosta Aguiar. A tall and handsome pirate captain who catches the eye of every woman he passes. He is a scholar as well with a somewhat bad-boy reputation that always gets what he wants. He is in Istanbul for the same artifact, Cybele's Gift. (I fall for Duarte every time I read this book.)

And it wouldn't be a Wildwood book without a few visits from the Other Kingdom where fairies place tests for human folk to learn from in order to pass.

I liked this book even better than Wildwood Dancing. The story is captivating, feeding my imagination and making me dream.

Smith's Luau

Following our visit to Fern Grotto we went next door for our Luau. I mean, you can't go to Hawaii without attending a Luau. Smith's is voted the best on the island, and it was a lot of fun.

Upon entering there was a brief ride around the beautiful garden. We had some time to kill while everyone arrived so we enjoyed walking around the garden and seeing some beautiful sights. We also had the chance to feed the peacocks that were wondering around.

The Luau officially began with the Imu Ceremony.

Here they pulled our dinner, Kalua Pig, out of the ground, or Imu oven.

At the feast we ate tons of delicious food and made friends with the nice couple sitting across from us. We had live Hawaiian music played and even a little Hula training for the kids to participate in.

During dinner, and unbeknownst to me, the man sitting not far away from me tried to hit on me a number of times. Apparently he would look at me and say really loudly, "gosh it was humid today" to try and start a conversation. But I honestly never once heard him. His mother was sitting next to him and would then mutter to him, "say it louder!" so he would, and I continued to miss it the whole time. I didn't find out about this until Andrea and Erica informed me afterward. I thought it was strange how every time I looked in his direction he was staring at me, but he never once said a word when I was looking toward him. I just politely smiled at him and looked away. Go figure, the one guy in all of Hawaii that hits on me turns out to be old and creepy and I don't even catch on until it's all over.

As dinner wound down we headed to the theater for our evening show. Here we saw all the traditional Hawaii dances as well as all related Polynesian dances. This place reminded me a lot of the PCC on Oahu, but smaller. The PCC is definitely cooler, but we still had a lot of fun at this Luau.

Fern Grotto

I really am almost done with my Hawaii vacation posts. It's been fun (for me) to document my vacation and have the chance to look back and write about what we did. I don't keep a journal so this will have to suffice.

While on Kauai we did a couple formal tours owned by the same family, The Smiths. We started with a bout tour to Fern Grotto, which is a type of cave that is covered in ferns and very cool to see. Unfortunately there was a hurricane a few years back that destroyed a lot of the surroundings. It's still cool to see, but not quite what it used to be.

After arriving we all lined up to get on the boat.

The boat took us down the Wailua River.

The ride took us only about 15 minutes to get there. We saw lots of cool sights while our captain gave us more information about the area. We even had a live band that played Hawaii music for us on the boat.

Once there we followed a short path that lead us to the Grotto itself.

While there the band played the traditional Hawaiian Wedding song for us as this is the location of numerous weddings.