A geek's rite of passage + Day 11: A photo of you taken recently

Does Sherlock cosplay count?


And my sister Emiko has a Watson "jumper".  WE MUST COLLABORATE.

Also, today I opened up a savings account all by my lonesome.  I feel so grown-up now.  XD

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You know you've been reading too much when...

--the book comes alive!  So I had looked through South With Endurance (an amazing book) and last night I dreamed I was in Antarctica.  Here's some alternate history for you:  It was approximately the right era (maybe more Edwardian than WWI), but Antarctica had undergone some "civilization"; at least, there was a hotel/garage of sorts with people in it.  The best thing was that I could SEE the ship anchored at the dock!  It was incredible.  I've dreamed about tall ships before, but I think this was the first time I was really "there."

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3.14: Happy π (Pi) day!

Acknowledging Pi Day is a new tradition on all that is gold.  Though admittedly, when somebody asked me during an exam today what day it was, I couldn't remember if it was the 14th or 15th (the Ides of March). I had been sure it was Pi Day, but characteristically, I was not sure the moment somebody suggested a shadow of doubt.  Flashes of photographic memory told me March 11 was printed on the church bulletin, so I decided (correctly) it really must be the 14th.

I don't know how normal people celebrate Pi Day, but a glance at the unit circle (oh, bane of Precalculus students!) seems appropriate.

credit: Gustavb

Student's Application of the Unit Circle:

1. Attempts to learn the reasoning behind the madness. 
2. Is 80% successful with the help of a patient teacher/tutor/parent/superhero.
3. Memorizes Unit Circle, after much Trial and Error.
4. Attempts to remember the reasoning.  Unsuccessful.
5. Headdesk.
6. Forgets everything on the Unit Circle.
7. Learns s/he can do pretty well if s/he only memorizes Quadrant I. 
8. Goes back to using addition and subtraction to find other angle measures...in much secrecy and shame.

In retrospect, methinks the best thing you can do is simply memorize the Unit Circle and don't bother to remember the "why's", or else you'll start thinking of the Unit Circle as an actual graph of a function with a triangle spinning around and around inside of it with tangent and sine and cosine playing hopscotch in your head.  Just focus on memorization, keep things nice and simple.  (Note: this is unofficial advice).

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Fascinating.

By Bill Ebbesen (Transferred from en.wikipedia) [CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
After losing a week of school, my classes and instructors are back on track, and at full steam.  My first tech writing project is due this week.  My history tests are within the upcoming weeks; between now and then, however, there is a lot of stuff I'd better get memorized.  I don't mind, though, because I love my history classes.

The first one is part of the U.S. history sequence, focused on the Civil War and Manifest Destiny.  It should be interesting.  Student participation in this class is largely dominated by two guys who happen to be political polar opposites.  One guy carries a soap box to class and climbs up on it at every opportunity.  The other guy monitors the soap box on a radar, scanning it for potentially offensive opinions and ready to 'correct' them at any moment.  We haven't even reached the very controversial topics yet.

My second history class is Latin American history.  It's mostly been geography and population facts so far, but Professor C. seems to enjoy this class more than the others.  He got to talking about Brazilian cowboys and sang part of a classic song about them.  It was awesome.

The last history class I have is about modern conflicts.  So far, we've been going over ideologies, which is very interesting.  On the internet and elsewhere, names of ideologies tend to be used interchangeably and pretty loosely, but the subtle differences between them are carefully defined in this class.

Then there's tech writing.  Today was our second group presentation; I talked for half of it.  It went well, even considering I hadn't practiced or rewritten my notes.  

And it may (ought to) be the first and only time, but I'm glad I didn't study for this presentation.  I completely forgot about it and spent most of my 1-hour break watching opera on YouTube.  I walked into classes feeling totally confident and positive.  I practically cheered for the green lights 90% of the way home.  I even finished 2/3 of my tech writing project, right after getting home (this was an extraordinary day). 

Now I'll try to finish the other 1/3 this evening.  ;)

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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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I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical

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SHERLOCK 2...Hounds of the Baskerville!

First Footage from Sherlock Season 2

"Oh, they're probably paw prints.  Could be anything there, or nothing."  <3

I have a feeling I'll be re-watching this a billion times.  Until the next trailer...  

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Hello again!

I've been dreadfully un-blogger-y this month, with my last *real* post being on August 7th!  It doesn't feel so long ago.  But I suppose that's what happens when the pages of your life start turning faster.

The week of the 14th involved not one, but two summery picnics.  And the weather here was sunny for both.  The church picnic was lovely as always, and our family picnic was fun.  We visited with relatives we hadn't seen in months, and I met relatives I didn't know I had.  :)  And of course, there was KFC and the most fantabulous salads & deserts. 

Then the next week, we went on a driving trip to the Canadian Rockies, and just got home yesterday.  It was a great vacation, with dry, sunny weather all week long!  I'll be blogging about it soon, so stay tuned for more pics...

In other news, we are getting four new chickens from my aunt--we're actually going over to pick them up today.  I'm not really an animal person, but it is exciting.  :)  We have three hens already, but they're six years old and approaching retirement.  I just hope the hens aren't mean to the newbies...they're going to be separate at first, but eventually they'll have to learn to get along in the same living space.  Two of the hens are pretty mild-mannered; but the third one has no manners whatever.  In fact, I'm a bit scared of her.  :P

Her name happens to be 'Daisy'.  Ironic, I say.

School starts about three weeks from now.  I always study like crazy; but this year, I'm also quite resolved on Order and Method [to quote a certain detective].  Neatness, methodical study, and more confidence.  And, in order to further this goal, I have a list of things to-do in the meantime:

• Clean my desk.  Once I do that, I'll actually have space in my room for writing; and I mean to work on my stories every day, if time permits.


• Clean out & organise my files and folders, on my laptop.  


• Sort through my shoes, and hem coat sleeves.  I love having a variety of jackets (more than shoes or tops), and my mom found several amazing ones for me this summer!  Two of them do need a little hemming, but it's no big deal.


• Lastly, do some pencil sketches, while I still have free time...

We'll see how this whole 'order and method' thing works out, in the light of a ton of homework.  *sigh* 

Oh, another thing I did was solve a math puzzle correctly!  The puzzle is called "Petty Cash", and it's from a book of such puzzles called A Tangled Tale, by Lewis Carroll.  You can read "Petty Cash" here.  I have a whole new respect for Carroll.  The book is much more about logic than math--the math, in fact, is the easy part.  The logic is incredibly complex.  "Petty Cash" is, to me, the easiest of them all, since it involves minimal use of logic.  Altogether, the fact that I figured it out is more due to my reviewing Algebra rules/techniques, than any real talent of my own.  :P  Additionally (no pun intended), I found the answer a bit differently than Carroll, but I think the procedure is similar and equally valid.  If more convoluted...

I love the ending quote:

   “You can do Arithmetic, I trust?” her aunt said, a little anxiously, as Clara turned from one tablet to another, vainly trying to collect her thoughts. Her mind was a blank, and all human expression was rapidly fading out of her face.
   A gloomy silence ensued.

I can relate.

Speaking of Carroll, I'm reading Sylvie and Bruno.  It's part fairytale, part nonsense-fantasy, and part romance.  I really like it so far.  It gives you a better perspective of the author than the Alice books do.  I think that, rather than writing pure nonsense, Carroll simply used nonsense and fantasy as another way to illustrate [or study] logic and the real world.  I do think artists with highly analytical minds will often bury their ideas behind fantasy or vague prose, because,

1. Fantasy is an effective, flexible outlet for expressing complex ideas; and 


2. Analytical people themselves are so used to "hunting for hidden truths", that it seems natural to them to write enigmatically. 

But I digress, dreadfully.  I have a sewing project to post about as well, but I'll save that for another day.  ;)

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the

" thē before a vowel; thə before a consonant "

I can live happily ever after now, in thə knowledge of thə correct pronunciation of the.  

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