Some Day I Will Be Free

From early childhood I knew that I was different. I could solve puzzles and do math problems that my siblings who were five and six years older could not do. I was meant to do something amazing in this world; something that would make a difference. Yet, I was told by my mother that the only reason I had to go to college was so I could marry well. She thought it was a good reason to go to college. She was wrong; there are better reasons than that for women to get educated.

Some day I will be free of the bonds I have placed on myself due to other people's limited sight of what I could be. I will leave everyone behind so I can travel the road I was truly destined to follow, the road that people have worked so hard at preventing me from going down. I will travel it fearlessly knocking all obstacles out of the way. It is my destiny and I have known that my entire life. I did not begin doing math at the age of four for no reason, or just so I could be a housewife and mother. No! I can be more and I will be more. I will make a difference and not through my children or my husband. I will make it on my own, by myself. I will be strong. I, yes I, can make a difference.

"Advice is a Gift"

One of the things that really struck me in Randy Pausch's Last Lecture is when he says that advice is a gift; treasure it. Over the years, I have received much advice and I have been glad. It is a gift and a tremendous sign of caring by those who take the time to give it.

What is the most valuable piece of advice you have received?

Mine was probably from one of Chesterfield County's Gifted advisors. When they wanted to skip Esh over all of the high school science curriculum and directly to AP courses, I balked. The advisor suggested that Esh and I attend both an honors biology class and an AP biology class and then decide. I am SO glad that I listened and took her advice. In the honors class the class was reviewing for an exam. When I saw Esh raise his hand and answer the questions correctly, I knew that what the county wanted to do was correct.

Advice is not criticism. It does mean that no one is perfect and can not possible know everything -- that is why we are social animals. We don't need to know it all because we have others in our lives which is a good thing. Advice is a gift -- treasure it! So what is he best advice you have received?

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

I love Ferris Bueller's Day Off! What an hysterical movie. The three star rating is well deserved.

Physics major Here!!

Last Wednesday, Esh declared his primary major at UVA as Physics and now has keys to the building and the conference rooms! Whoopee!

Spring Saturday In Midlothian

or The not so little rascals
Playing Saturday Dungeons and Dragons. A common gaming and social event. Today's is from 3:00 until 10:00.

Early on in the dining room

Dinner (pizza) break. Discussions from Dungeons and Dragons to philosophy and religion, people, economics, and science. You name it. They talk about it. They are the bright and well read one's having fun.

How Fast They Grow Preamble

CHHS Academic Team captain. But remember when....

How Fast They Grow

Just the beginning.......

Already beginning to read.

Finding the perfect pumpkin.

How Fast They Grow 2

Sixth grade Halloween.










Surf camp Ocracoke.









Middle school state chess champions.








The real chess team!

How Fast They Grow 3

12 year old in AP Biology.

Vice President of Mu Alpha Theta.

Last summer at CTY Princeton.

Last Christmas on Ocracoke Island.

How DO The Shows End??

Okay, so it has now happened with Boston Legal now and CSI New York. It has happened three times to Medium, Without A Trace, and Crimainal Minds. One minute I am watching the shows and then all of a sudden the news is on. And I have no idea how any of these shows ended in the past two weeks!

The Importance of Play

On the drive today to C'ville, I began to think back to the lecture given by Randy Pausch and how he stressed the importance of play and having fun in life. Earlier in the year, Esh and I listened to Richard Feynman tapes covering various letters he had written in his life to various people. Feynman also believe that one of the most important things in life was having fun. Einstein developed the entire process of "thought experiments" from the playful side of his nature. All of these great minds worked hard but also found incredible fun in both their work and life. I think there is something very important to be learned from them. Individuals can take themselves and life in general far too seriously. Their lives include only work. Humor is never found in any of the little things of life. As Will expressed in "Good Will Hunting", they are smart and have learned a lot but they will never have an original thought.

So go out roller skating. Bask in the sunshine of today and find joy in a bird or a flower. Throw a Frisbee with your child for hours on end. Go on a roller coaster. Work on a really hard math problem and find joy in discovery. Make some jello squares and throw them at each other out in the yard. Have a squirt gun fight. Or simply read Dakota Cheyenne's blog!

Animal Talk

A friend and I were talking yesterday about the Human Ego. Our species has such a huge ego that I actually think it interferes with our species gaining knowledge about the world around us. It blinds us to things that make our species just one of the pack of creatures on this Earth. According to my friend, it has been shown that elephants have a complete language. Many of the sounds are beyond our range of hearing so all we hear are grunts, etc. But it appears that they may have a language as complete as ours. I suspect that the cats and dogs in our home also have a complete language too; and as with elephants, probably many of the sounds are beyond our narrow range of hearing.

So one question I have is: do the other animals also have dialects and accents? Do they have actually different regional forms of language?. I suspect that they do. What do you think?

Taxes Are Done

Hooray!! I finished taxes today so they will be files in time to get the tax rebate. We will use it to pay savings back for the new washer and dryer. BTW, there is now a tax deduction for the purchase of Energy Star compliant appliances so we will get that on next year's taxes!

Super Power

If you could have a super power, which one would it be? Some examples are:

- reading minds
- creating weather
- invisibility
- super strength
- controlling others minds
- super speed
- pyrokinesis
- telekinesis
- healing
- creating force fields

etc...........There is a long list! Use your imagination.

Great Last Lecture

I know this was on AOL but this video is REALLY good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo&eurl=http://news.aol.com/health/story/ar/_a/last-lecture-web-sensation-now-a-book/20080408120609990001

Time Travel

During our slider puzzle shuffle, I came across some board books that Gravity and I used to read to Esh when he was a tot. Now, as Esh is thinking and preparing to go off to college, I looked at those books and decided that it was time to do some time traveling.

I took them downstairs and sat down on the loveseat next to Esh and began to read. "I remember that book!" Then "That was one of my favorites!"

Gravity come down and joined us in the reading and then Esh began to read them out loud to us.

" A is for Aardvark...." What a wonderful way to time travel connecting past with present and then to the future when Esh will be reading these books to his children.

It's Painted!!!

The middle room upstairs is finally painted.....and the slider puzzle continues.

Copenhagen

We watched a BBC version of the play "Copenhagen" last night. It was really really good. I highly recommend it to anyone. It discusses the relationship between two of the most brilliant minds of the twentieth century, Neils Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, and Neils Bohr's wife. Truly wonderful how the playwright goes back and forth between ghosts in the current day and back to 1941 when Bohr and Heisenberg had their fateful last meeting. Heisenberg is known for his Uncertainty Principle (it is impossible to know both the location and the momentum of a particle at the same time as measuring either aspects changes the other aspect). It is also great how the author weaves Bohr's and Heisenberg's physics into their conversation. Go out and rent the film today! It is awesome.

10 Days

The distance between Midlothian and Charlottesville does not seem that huge but the climate can be quite different. This is probably because of the change in altitude. Richmond is at 166 feet above sea level but Charlottesville is 594 feet. As we drive the 75 miles, we notice the buds on the trees diminishing as we approach Charlottesville. Today, at home, I looked out at the top of one of the hickories and noticed tiny new leaves have begun to appear. As I look out the window now in Clemons, the trees still have tiny reddish buds. Many days there is a 5 to 10 degree difference in temperatures, too. Interesting. So I estimate that there is about a ten day difference in climate created by the 75 miles.

All Legs

What walks on four legs then two legs then three legs?

Riddle

What run but never walks,
Has a mouth but never talks,
Has a bed but never sleeps,
Has a head but never weeps?

Letting Go

It is difficult to let go of a child who you gave birth to, who you saw through the first discovery activities of life , who you watched make mistakes and learn, who you nurtured through the tough times and who you celebrated with during the successes. Dakota has begun to experience it with her oldest three. Now there are parts of her oldest children's lives where she is not included.

Gravity and I have an spells of three weeks for the past several years where we were not included in Esh's life. But we are just beginning to understand what will happen next year and it seems so new. Esh will live for months away from us. Beginning in the next few weeks, he will begin to determine his life's direction starting with deciding which courses to take next year -- and it we will not be up to us at all. We are no longer the experts on his life, the advisors and his heart and mind are. This is a big and important first step. If he wants our help, we will be there but it is now up to Esh. I love him and it is so wonderful to watch him mature.

Gates vs. God

What's the difference between Bill Gates and God?

God does not think he is Bill Gates.

Playing With Food

In order to slim down both the budget and our waistlines, I now have the big glass cookie jar filled with sour dough pretzel nuggets and the small matching cookie jar with animal crackers. As Esh and I were munching animal crackers yesterday, Esh told me about what the kids in middle school,used to do. They would eat off the head on one animal and then eat off the body on another kind of animal. Apparently, if you lick the two surfaces then rub and press the lone head onto the body of the other animal and then you cement them together by licking the surface where the joint is you can create rhinos with elephant heads!! In fact, Esh just created a koala headed leopard as I write! Clever boy...... How many of you look at your animal crackers while you eat?

I love the Oreo commercials! How many of you separate Oreos, lick off the frosting and them eat the cookie separately?

I even eat the bottom of a Hostess cupcake first and then the top. Or with a chocolate graham cracker eat off one corner, then dunk it in milk until the cookie inside the chocolate gets soft and then eat it. What other creative things does everyone do with their food?

Picture This

It was on our local news that a man was arrested for having sex with a picnic table.

Why Clean?

It requires about an hour and a half once a week to clean the bathrooms and kitchens in this house. That time could be spent doing such more important things. So we are going to stop all together. Why clean anyway; it just gets dirty again in no time at all! And we could use more color in the bathrooms.

Besides terrible rampages of infections go through hospitals because they try to maintain a clean environment. In one Canadian hospital there was an outbreak of Clostridium because they sterilized the environment. 1400 people got the infection and 89 died.

So rebel against the profits made by P&G and other big cleaning products company. Stop today. Don't pick up that sponge or the Windex! Improve the environment and your health. Save time and money. Stop cleaning today!! ;-)

Questions vs. Answers

Which do you think is more important, questions or answers?

Blind Faith

Is blind faith okay?

I believe in questioning everything. Question everything and if I come up with answers for only 50% that's okay. The unresolved 50% is still out there -- yet to be discovered! Exciting.

Happy Spring!!!

October's Geometry

On my math blog, I have placed a chart of symbol explanations along with a translation of a math sentence.

http://octobermath.blogspot.com/

Happy trails to you!

Sunshine

By Raul Midon
[he is a blind musician]

Sunshine, when you’re with me I can fly
Sunshine, when you’re with me I can fly

Every day I wonder why
Peace on Earth’s so hard to find
Real peace begins inside
In our hearts and in our minds
Hearts and minds begin to see
That one and all means you and me
And what we know can set us free
Rearrange reality

Reality is what we know
We can change a river‘s flow
Plant a seed, watch it grow
Build a shelter, build a home
Home is where my heart will stay
Even when I’m far away
Makes no difference what they say
As long as you will be my sunshine.

Sunshine, when you’re with me I can fly
Sunshine, when you’re with me I can fly

When I’m feeling sad and low
And I’m not sure where to go
And all the good times that I’ve known
Have gone and left me all alone
All alone I’ll never be
Long as you are here with me
You’re in everything I see
And everything I’m doing
All I do I do for you

You’re my sun, you’re my moon
Every lazy afternoon
You’re my inspiration
Inspiration lights the way
Brings a sparkle to each day
Makes the dark clouds go away
Let us let the children play

Sunshine, when you’re with me I can fly
Sunshine, when you’re with me I can fly
Music is the reason why.

Advanced Slider Puzzle

Remember the slider puzzles where you slide squares around too get a numeric or some other sequence. Well. That's what we are doing.

Move stuff in the attic to get to bookcases
Take books off the attic bookcases
Move the bookcases
Put new stuff on the attic bookcases
Then move stuff off the bookcases in the house
Then move some of the bookcases to the attic
Put attic books back on selected bookcasesin the attic
Then move other bookcases in the house and put new stuff on them
Move apartment/office stuff to the house
Arrange the furniture in the house
Done

Takes more than your thumb! But you have a more efficient attic

October's Math

I have started a new blog for theorems and defintions. Most of the posts will not have comments because there will be nothing to comment about really. And I am working on the quality of the graphics......

http://octobermath.blogspot.com/

In the spirit of codes

Try this one,

HAYOROWEU

Wisdom Times Four

Click on the special code image to get a bigger picture; then have fun solving!

Secret Message

Esh found a slip of paper on the ground at UVA that said:

"DOGHUPDQ: GLUHFWLRQV WR VHUYDQWV
gr qrw zruub lw lv wkhuh"

Secret code: what does it say?

Alone

Esh is driving alone for the first time!!! He is off to the grocery store to buy eggs, bread, and ice cream. It is quite an event but.... does anyone over the age of thirty remember their first trip?

All In Your Mind

by Raul Midon and John Fournier

Stand with me on the river bank
Where the cool wind brushes our face
You are welcome to do nothing at all
In the lonesome of this sheltered space
Through my eyes you can see the world
Well you might be surprised what you'll find
A cool wind and a warm touch
And a moment that is all in your mind

And if you find a reason to change your point of view
Might be the time and season
For doing what you've always wanted to do

Put my thoughts on a single page
But the paper didn't have any lines
For painting pictures of magic and light
And a moment that is all in your mind
Yeah, it's all in your mind
It's all in your mind
It's all in your mind

And if you find a reason
To change your point of view
Might be the time and season
For doing what you've always wanted to do
What you wanted to do

Thought to call you the other day
But I figured that you don't have the time
For painting pictures of magic and light
And a moment that is all in our minds
It's a moment that is all in your mind
And it might be that it's all in your mind.

Infinite Infinities

Infinity seems elusive. Just what size is it? There are an infinite number of numbers between zero and 1. There are also an infinite number of numbers. Is one of these sets bigger than the other?

There is an infinite number of odd numbers. There is also an infinite number of even numbers, and an infinite number of numbers divisible by five. Is the set of number divisble by five smaller than the set of odd numbers even though both are infinitely large? Is there an infinite number of infinite sets?

Licensed Driver Here

Esh passed his driver's test!!! He can now drive himself to his high school clubs and in a few weeks be able to drive himself to UVA once a week or so.

Out Of Power

Last night was one of those "camping in the home" nights. We had really high winds yesterday and most of last night; so at 4 PM yesterday, the power went. Gravity called the power company and they said it would be back at 4:30. At 4:45, Gravity called again and he was told that crews were working in the area. At 6:00 another call was placed and there was an even more nebulous message. Finally, Gravity stopped calling when the message from the powere company stted that there were numerous outages.....

Esh was with friends so he had power. Gravity and I had dinner at the apartment as it still had power. When we got back to the house, we fired up the generator so everything in the refrig. was okay. We got every lantern and flashlight we turned them out so we could walk around the house safely. It was predicted to get to a low of 28 degrees so a fire was built in the fireplace and the oil heater was brught donw from storage. We put a sweater on the dog with Lupus and headed to bed. The temperature in the middle of the night got way down in the sixties and Gravity heard the generator beginning to sputter which meant that it needed more gas, Just as he was heading out of the door to add gas, all of the lights came on!!! So cinnamon twists will be eaten yet another Sunday morning.

Mammogram

I had my annual mammogram today; squish squish. So those of you who have not had one for awhile, give yourself a present of self love and go sign up for one. Baseline memmograms are supposed to begin at 35. Digital ones are the best as they show significantly more detail.

Dakota Funny

I received the following from Dakota Cheyenne. It is hysterical!!

"Once upon a time, there were four people named Everybody, Somebody, Nobody, and Anybody. When there was an important job to be done, Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. When Nobody did it, Everybody got angry because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought that Somebody would do it, but Nobody realized that Nobody would do it. So it ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done in the first place!"

Chemistry Joke

A neutron walks into a bar and asks the bartender how much a beer is. The bartender says, "Hey, I know you. You're a neutron! Well...for you it's no charge!"

What Is Wisdom?

I think everyone tries to find wisdom in their decisions, but what is it? How does a person know when they have found it.

There is a saying that might describe it. Change the things you can change. Accept the things you can not chnage. And have the wisdom to know the difference.

As I watch my teen sometimes want it all -- absolutely everything all at once -- I realize that the gaining of wisdom is something that occurs as a person travels through life. It is soemthing to be gained through life's experiences. Getting old is a good thing after all.

Another step in life - driving

Esh is on his second day (of seven) of "behind the wheel". Basically the required driver's ed. He get's dropped off at 5:30 AM and fininshes around 7:00 AM. When done, he will take his driver's test and hopefully join the ranks of drivers in the world -- one step towards adult hood. Another step toward responsibility and independence too.

New Sink

The new sink is great! Our plumber Jake, who is very good at his job, was able to move it over too. Now there will be plenty of room for the new appliances. In the meantime, the laundry that needs to be done is being done at the apartment. So glad we have a back-up.

Work Today

So we continue with cleaning the attic today but will not do much. Most of today will be preparing for the new washer and dryer that will arrive on Wdenesday. Yeah!!!

We have to remove everything from the hallway by the laundry room. Then empty all extraneous stuff from the lanudry room. We need to finish all laundry for at least the next four days. Then we remove the washer and dryer out to the garage. Then we scrub the laundry room floor (the washer has been leaking oil -- yuk!).

Should be a fun day.

Physicist's Bumper Sticker

A red bumper sticker with white writing on it that says "If this looks blue you are going too fast."

Our Attic

GW and I agree on virtually everything. It seriously reduces the chance of disagreement but it has also led to a very full attic. We are both confirmed pack-rats!

So, today, along with Esh, we began to clean and reorganize. Why???? Because there is more stuff that needs to go up there and...lo and behold... there is no room!

It was fun to rediscover Mr. Bucket, the boxes of large legos, the box of old cookbooks, the rubber boat that hoots when you press on it, GW's old Greek dictionary, old maps (not treasure ones though...too bad), Esh's old Simba tent, and the list could go on and on. Esh's childhood is in the attic now on shelves and neatly organized for future viewers.

And there is beginning to be more room for more stuff to go up there....what will we ever to with that old futon?