A little math puzzle

From A Tangled Tale by Lewis Carroll:

Two travellers left their hotel at 3:00 pm.  On level ground, they traveled at a speed of 4 mi/hr.  Going up a mountain, they traveled at a speed of 3 mi/hr.  Going down the mountain, they traveled at a speed of 6 mi/hr.  They expect to arrive back at their hotel by 9:00 pm.  Determine:

a)  At what time did they reach the top of the mountain?

b)  How many miles will they have traveled in all?

* * *

I stayed up until about 2:00 am last night trying to solve this puzzle.  And the harder I tried, the more impossible it seemed.  By the time I looked up the answer, I was too tired to understand it, except that it was vastly simpler than my "longer, more scenic route."  Classic.

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Books, movies, and other highlights of 2011

Note:  I take no credit for this idea.  So many other bloggers are doing this right now, so I just thought I'd join in.  :)

January

Saw BBC's Sherlock and added Cumberbatch to my list of definitive Sherlock Holmes's.

March

Read Eugene Onegin, which became my favorite romantic classic and the #1 read of the year.

Saw Jane Eyre, an excellent adaptation.

April

Watched TV clips of the Royal Wedding.  Well, who didn't?  :)

May

Began the first draft of my quasi-steampunk novel.

June

Completed Calculus II and Spanish III and got my wisdom teeth removed.  Fun stuff.

Discovered Debussy.

Finished the 200-line poem I began writing in November 2010.

July

Discovered Alkan and rediscovered Ludovico Einaudi.

Read Under Western Eyes, an amazing, heartbreaking book.

Finished The Marble Faun, my not-so-light summer read.

August

Saw the Canadian Rockies for the first time.  <3

Discovered Star Trek TOS.  Fascinating.

Changed my major to computer science.

October

Discovered Yiruma.

December

Completed English 101.  And that after writing a (Star Trek-inspired) argumentative essay on the threat of androids and robots. *grins*

Finished The Idiot, my second Russian lit read.

* * *

Altogether, I wish I had read more books (these aren't all the books I read, but they're the ones that really stood out).  However, nearly all of the books I read this year I loved, so that's cool.  I also wrote a lot of poetry, so that was at least one (unexpected) accomplishment.  As far as movies go, I would probably say that Sherlock and Star Trek were my favorites.  :) 

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Christmas & today & Tumblr woes

It seemed to happen so fast this year!  Last week, I actually sent out cards...a big accomplishment, for me.  Then Saturday evening was Lessons & Carols candlelight service at our church.  I sang so much I almost lost my voice.  :)  My sister and I also played some carols on violin & cello.  And yesterday we went to my uncle & aunt's house for dinner, which was fantastic as always.

My family (sorry, Santa) got me some lovely gifts, too: Jackie Evancho Heavenly Christmas CD, Three Tenors Christmas CD, Starbucks, iTunes, Sailing Ships calendar, pajamas, piano sheet music...  I've been having a blast with the sheet music--The Best of Ludovico Einaudi, 120+ pages of elegant, Einaudi epicness.  And though it stays true to the originals, it's the perfect combination of easy & challenging for me.  I played through all of "Password" this morning and had a thoroughly good time.  :)

Today I also got a Tumblr account, but I'm probably going to delete it.  I liked it at first--the layout & formatting is very nice.  But the more I use it, the less I like it.  Blogger is much more intuitive and less fast-paced.  Case in point:  I posted a picture about an hour ago, and within that time, it's received 2 likes and 3 reblogs.  And those numbers keep going up as I'm typing this post, literally.  And I only signed up this afternoon.  O_o

I find the reblog system irksome.  As far as I know, it cannot be turned off (let me know if I'm wrong!), and there isn't any filter for content or even similar interests.  So if somebody reblogs your post, your post automatically links to their blog.  This presents a problem for me, because I always try to avoid linking to any sites with offensive language, content, etc.  Tumblr makes that virtually impossible, unless I were to spend all day weeding through the reblogs.  Obviously, in "the real world," people use offensive language all the time.  But when I come home and log into my blog, I like to escape from the negative vibes (and keep my blog family-friendly).

Anyway, I think the reblog feature is cool--a great way to share artwork and pictures--but I don't like the way it works.  Ideally, it would be like YouTube where it says "3 likes" and leave it at that.  If it ever becomes customizable like that, I may start blogging at Tumblr again.  For now, though, I still have my "Tumblr-esque" blog: chaconne.

Update:  Certain Tumblr themes allow you to hide the notes/likes.  That helps, kind of.

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'What's December without Christmas Eve?'

Madonna and Child
 Merry Christmas!

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Quick & easy Christmas cards

{Re-posted from my old (extinct) Christmas blog.} 

This is a quick and very simple tutorial for making homemade Christmas cards.  My mom and I came up with this idea a few years ago, and it's a great opportunity to "upcycle" used or leftover wrapping paper!

Supplies:

- Sheet of cardstock, whatever color you want the inside & back of the card to be.
- Christmas wrapping paper
- Glue stick
- Ruler
- X-Acto knife or a reasonably sharp pocket knife
- Scissors or a paper-cutter
- Piece of ribbon about 30-36 inches long, a color that matches your wrapping paper.

1. Fold the sheet of cardstock in half, after trimming it down to the right size (if necessary).

2. From the wrapping paper, cut out a piece that is the same size as the front of the card.


3. Glue this piece to the front of the card.


4. Open out the card and lay it down flat with the inside facing down. Using the ruler, mark the center, right on the fold (or close to it).



Then, with your handy pocket knife, make a cut (on the mark) that is a little longer than the width of the ribbon.


5. Lay the ribbon on the card, lengthwise.


Flip the card over, and even out the ribbon so that both ends are about the same length. Be sure that the ribbon is lying flat on the other side.


6. Twist the ribbon ends once, to the right, then lay them flat.  Insert the right end through the cut that you made in step 4.


7. Turn the card over and tie a bow with the ribbon.






Tutorial and images copyright © Marian.

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Exercises

Given: 
f '' (x) = Tree decorated 

Find f (x).

      
       It is intuitively obvious that f (x) = (Christmas break)!

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MONDAY.

Yes, I am excited about Monday.  It's the beginning of the end of fall quarter.  To the best of my knowledge, all my finals are on Wednesday, and it's actually been a good quarter. The first autumn in about four years that I haven't felt weighed down with homework, and I'm 100% grateful for that.

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