Nature by Numbers

My Senior year in High School I wanted an easy load so I took 4 Math classes, 2 Music classes, and the 1 (required) English class. Amoung those classes was a different sort of Math class which was generically named 'Discrete Math'. In it we learned about all sorts of math that is not covered in the regular math curriculum, things like mapping theory, chaos and fractals, and the golden ratio. It was in this class I found my love of the number Phi, commonly referred to as the Golden Ratio.

I know the people who read my blog are mostly friends who do not share my love of mathematics, so to you I say don't worry, I'll keep this very non-technical.

The Fibonacci Sequence is generated by adding the 2 previous terms together. So if we start with 0 and then 1, the next term is found by adding 0 + 1 = 1. Then do it again, 1 + 1 = 2, and so on. The sequence is then

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, ...

Why is this important? If you divide any of these numbers by it's previous term it approximates the Golden Ratio. The higher the numbers in this sequence then the more accurate the ratio will be.

Here is the best part, at least for me it is, this number is very special as it appears all throughout nature. Today I stumbled across a video very well done that demonstrates this in a beautiful way. Please enjoy it and let me know what you think.

Nature by Numbers from Cristóbal Vila on Vimeo.

Math was not invented to torture high school students as so many of my own students believe. Instead it is a discovery of one of the most beautiful creations of God.

Granite State of Mind

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook and it made me laugh. Here's to all my New Hampshire friends. I still think of NH as home.

Of Rules and Obedience

“Can’t she see what’s going to happen?” Calvin asked.

“Oh, not in this kind of thing.” Mrs. Whatsit sounded surprised at his question. “If we knew ahead of time what was going to happen we’d be—we’d be like the people on Camazotz, with no lives of our own, with everything all planned and done for us. How can I explain it to you? Oh, I know. In your language you have a form of poetry called a sonnet.”

“Yes, yes,” Calvin said impatiently. “What’s that got to do with the Happy Medium?”

“Kindly pay me the courtesy of listening to me.” Mrs. Watsit’s voice was stern, and for a moment Calvin stopped pawing the ground like a nervous colt. “It is a very strict form of poetry, is it not?”

“Yes.”

“There are fourteen lines, I believe, all in iambic pentameter. That’s a very strict rhythm or meter, yes?”

“Yes.” Calvin nodded.

“And each line has to end with a rigid rhyme pattern. And if the poet does not do it exactly this way, it is not a sonnet, is it?”

“No.”

“But within this strict form the poet has complete freedom to say whatever he wants, doesn’t he?”

“Yes.” Calvin nodded again.

“So,” Mrs. Whatsit said.

“So what?”

“Oh do not be stupid, boy!” Mrs. Whatsit scolded. “You know perfectly well what I am driving at!”

“You mean you’re comparing our lives to a sonnet? A strict form, but freedom within it?”

“Yes.” Mrs. Watsit said. “You’re given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself.” What you say is completely up to you.”


Excerpt from A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Girl Power

Top: Jennifer, Windy, Emily, Genni
Bottom: Miranda, Sophie, Ranie

I stumbled across some old pictures tonight, they are from my freshman year at Ricks College. I lived with some of the craziest girls I've ever met. Each of them was a blast. However they were definitely not the typical lot of girls I would normally hang out with. They were girly girls. Those 4 months were a lot of fun, and an eye opener to a lot of new things for me.

I look at this picture and can hardly believe that is me!

Rainy Day Music

There's a local Seattle artist I've been a fan of for a couple of years who has the perfect music to listen to on a soft rainy afternoon. Like this afternoon is. Perhaps you can enjoy a little of it with me.

Murphy’s Law or Count Your Many Blessings

Murphy’s Law has been officially dubbed “Windy’s Law”. It all started two weeks ago when everything was going right. Then

• I woke up with a cough that later turned into Bronchitis and has lasted 2+ weeks
• I took the worst midterm of my life
• I canceled 3 fun events I’d been looking forward to for weeks due to being sick
• My neck pain from the car accident (3 years ago) has returned since I’ve spent an extra amount of time in bed being sick
• While driving my car it began to do a crazy lurching motion in second gear
• I got my grade back on my midterm, lowest math grade of my life
• After spending months inquiring about a large event I’m finally given my list of responsibilities with 2 weeks to prepare
• The hard drive on my computer completely fried, it’s gone for good
• I fell far behind in school because I had no computer for several days
• Then to top things off a lamp in my bedroom that was connected to the ceiling spontaneously snapped and came crashing down

For your own safety I recommend avoiding any near proximity to me. I fully expect my blackberry to explode in the next couple of days. Consider yourself warned.

I don’t mean to complain. Really it’s all laughable at this point. When I stop to think about all of it I realize how blessed I actually am. No really, I mean it.

• It was a bad midterm grade, but I actually passed and I received above the class average (which failed)
• I took my car to the shop to find out the problem was very inexpensive to fix
• Also if I’d waited another week to take my car in it would have been extremely expensive to fix, I caught the problem just in time
• My Chiropractor could tell I was having more pain than usual and got me in for an extra visit this week and I’m doing much better now
• All my data on the hard drive turned out to be recoverable (for a small fee)
• My dad knows computers well enough to get mine back up and running rather quickly considering what happened
• When the lamp came crashing down it only bumped into my guitar and no damage was done, although it scared the heebeegeebee’s out of me
• I did my taxes and will be receiving a nice chunk of my money back to pay for my expensive bad luck

I guess life has a way of evening itself out. Although I’m fresh out of extra tax returns to pay for a new phone (do you hear me blackberry? no exploding!).

How has your week been? It must have been better than the Last Guy.

Someone's been watching too much of the Olympics

Weasel sent the following in an email to me today:

I had a dream you joined the USA Women’s Hockey team. Someone stole your Silver Medal, so you got your boyfriend that you met at the games (who also happened to be Jackie Chan) to beat the crap out of one of the Canadian Men’s figure skaters, and he gave you his medal. Jackie Chan then stuffed the body in a bobsled and sent it down the hill where it crashed.

Canada declared war against the USA and China when they found out who did it.

A knight in shining armour

on his noble steed.

Vegetarians

"The cucumber and tomato are both fruit. The avocado is a nut. To assist with the dietary requirements of vegetarians on the first Tuesday of the month a chicken is officially a vegetable."

I don't read Jasper Fforde books for his great stories, although he does have those. I read him for the fabulous and somewhat random comments he makes inside the stories.

I don't drink.

This weekend I was invited by a friend of mine to see the Presidents at the Showbox in Seattle. I’d seen them before and knew it would be a great show. It was.


This was a 21 and up show, which means I don’t have to trip over any little kids, but it also means the majority of the people there are drunk. About 15 minutes before PUSA took the stage a tall blonde lady who had been standing next to me looked at me, looked at my empty hands, and then back at me with a quizzical look on her face.

“You’re not drinking,” she stated the obvious.

“No. I’m not,” I replied.

“But why aren’t you drinking?” She seemed so confused she didn’t know what to do with herself.

“I don’t drink.”

“Drinking’s fun, you should try it.”

She then proceeded to start announcing to everyone around her that I did not drink. I smiled at each of them in turn as they looked at me. None of them seemed to care; I found this rather amusing. She left to get herself another drink.

Two songs into the Presidents set another blonde girl, this one had made a spectacle of herself a few times already and had obviously had too much to drink, went down. It’s a scary thing to see someone drop to the ground in a mosh pit. People have died this way. Her boyfriend and one other guy nearby managed to help her up again but she was out. Completely out. They had to drag her limp body out of the crowd.

And that’s why I don’t drink.

The rest of the show was great. PUSA played all of my favorite songs and knew exactly what to do to get the crowd going. I managed to have myself a blast. And I did it while remaining sober.