What I do

My day began with an early-morning HARBOR meeting and I did stuff for HARBOR for about 2 hours. Then I did an hour of stuff for Science in the Parks. Then I did work for the planetarium for a few hours. Then 2.5 more hours for SitP. A little bit more HARBOR before I went home. In the evening among other things I practiced the piano for a bit (we had it tuned yesterday!). Why do I do all these things, you ask? Well, I am a piano major so I better practice that; SitP is paying a good chunk of my tuition so I can finish up my last year of study, and it's pretty fun too; the planetarium is pretty much the most awesome job ever; and HARBOR, well, honestly I'm not totally sure why I do HARBOR. It's cool, and super fun, and I get awesome bragging rights, but I don't know why I do it. Mostly I'm going this weekend so I can get a new space-pin since my other one went AWOL, but come August if a certain something comes up I'm definitely ditching the balloon bonanza. It's fun, but why go? I really don't know the answer to that one. But, I do still love my physics department! And my piano department!

XKCD wins again

I don't know why I titled this post that way... But I looked at the new XKCD comic for today (http://xkcd.com/903/) and the pop-up text was clearly a challenge:

Wikipedia trivia: If you take any article,click on the first link in the article text not in parentheses or italics, and then repeat, you will eventually end up at "Philosophy".

So I tried it for a while. Other than a few scares where I thought I was caught in a loop, an article almost didn't have any links not in parentheses, and a scary deviation to the Wiktionary, I always ended up going to Philosophy. My list included:
rover
clef
Belgium
pink
Christmas
Crayola
puto
Forbidden City
Toy Story
cabinet
timbales
philosophy
daylight saving time
cat
Stephen Hawking
Google
kiss
Danse Macabre
denim
tithing
tithe
Moody's
Roald Dahl
wikipedia
rondo
Jack Sparrow
Weather
Wait, wait, wait, I found one that doesn't work: Amusement park. I got stuck in a very short loop. Ironically, at the top of this article is a warning box that says "This article has multiple issues." LOL. Try it if you want, see if you can stump Wikipedia!

Why is it that...

...every time I actually make a schedule for myself to use time wisely, I get sick or something the first day and it throws everything off?! Grrrrrrrrr!

My Math Life

In 3rd grade I was accepted into the Spectrum program, which advanced me one year ahead of the normal track for math. We even did a little trigonometry in 6th grade. In Jr High, I was then able to take Algebra 1 as a 7th grader, and Geometry as an 8th grader. At that time in DCSD that was acceptable; there were lots of 7th graders in Algebra and lots of 8th graders in Geometry. In 9th grade, I lived in a different state, and was in the High School as a freshman. I was then the ONLY 9th grader in Algebra 2. Proved a little awkward whenever someone in my class would realize this, lol. We were administered a state math exam at some point, for 10th graders, but I had to take it because I was in the Algebra 2 class, thought to be only full of 10th graders, and proceeded to place 2nd in the state on said exam. I'm pretty sure it was in the state, not the school, but maybe it was the school. In class I remember I did fail one project on optimization and had to do another one but I did very well on everything else.

Back to Utah for high school 10th grade, I registered for Pre-Calculus without any problem. I aced the pre-test except I missed 2 points when I decided that -1=1 on 2 separate problems. Oops :-). In 11th grade I then took Calculus and aced the AP test with a 5. After Calculus, the only math class left is Statistics. I couldn't fit it into my schedule so I talked to the teacher and did it independent study on his prep hour because I couldn't bear to not have a math class. Also aced the AP test with a 5. In 12th grade I did Academic Olympiad, and I tied for 3rd place on the math section but lost whatever tie breaker they looked at. I was the only one from my school to be that close to winning something in any category at Academic Olympiad. When I applied for Sterling Scholar, I entered for Music and Math and got second place on both. There was actually a glorious half hour where the 1st place in math conceded it to me, but then he took it back. D'oh. Second place winners in Sterling Scholar don't get anything. I recently dug up some stuff that says I participated in the state math competition for 2 years, and yes I vaguely remember it now. I had to look up what I got, they only placed you against others in the same grade, so in 10th grade I was tied in 13th place, and in 12th grade I tied for 23rd place.

In college, I then did not have to take any math classes . . . so I made up for it by being a math tutor. I did it for 2 years, 2005-2007. It was nice to share my skills. I know I could have been a math teacher, people often say that I should, but I don't think I could handle all the crap from kids who don't want to try. I do enjoy sharing things that make me happy--when others appreciate it. I did actually end up taking Calculus 2 in the 2nd half of my second year, and my teacher tried super hard to get me to be a math major of some kind because he was so impressed. I aced a lot of tests in that class.

After that I haven't done any formal math stuff. I was able to help one or two people with some algebra on my mission 2008-2010 (try it in a foreign language!) and I have recently helped some people with matrices and stuff. On one of these occasions I got out my old notes from HS but it was mostly so I could get some decent problems to solve instead of making up my own (that doesn't usually turn out well). If I already had problems to look at, I know I would have been able to do them without looking anything up. Now, that is algebra. If it's calculus, I do well with some reminders of certain formulas, but I don't often get asked for help on that. I have been asked for help on those kind of things, and I have in fact been able to help the people get the answer somehow.

I like math. I'm good at it. I ROCK at it. I don't understand how other people can hate it so much. I don't understand how a standardized test in HIGH SCHOOL can have three questions asking "which of the following fractions are equal to 1." I learned that in FIFTH GRADE which means most students learn it in SIXTH GRADE. I don't understand why DCSD is finding it necessary to require 4 years of math from everyone when some students are taking Calculus in 11th grade, or why they are considering limiting the number of AP classes a student can take--hello, it's possible to excel in different subjects at the same time! I don't understand how so many college freshman need remedial math, or can't pass college algebra when they've already seen most of it in their k-12 years. I also don't understand why now it is strange for a 7th grader to take Algebra, and my brother was not going to be allowed to take it when he got to 7th grade, nor that he was nearly denied to be allowed to take Geometry as an 8th grader after successfully completing Algebra. What a world. Sorry that turned into a rant, but math is POSSIBLE to do and no one should be telling anyone that it's not.

Wednesday

Got up at 6:30.
Went to a symposium for the Rocky Mountain Space Grant consortium.
Learned about awesome research projects going on at other universities.
One research project involved lots of awesome origami.
I looked closely at one of the origami figures.
I spent the car ride back trying to replicate the cool origami.
Shortly after getting back I succeeded in my replication.
Then I replicated it again for good measure.
Presented in the planetarium for boy scouts.
Saw Saturn and the moon in telescopes.
Was rewarded with ice cream by my boss for a good show.
Visited with a friend.
Watched a Batman movie with Adam West---awesome!
Got home at 1.
:-)

Holy Crap.

I have some serious writer's block. This hasn't happened since 8th grade. I can write stuff, but I don't like to. For this particular project I just can't do it. I can not bring myself to write what I am supposed to. Every time I sit down to try, my mind freaks out. I don't know why this happens but it's annoying. In 8th grade, I had to write a paper about a certain place in my town. I did all the research and had pictures and I knew everything, I may have even had an interview, but I just couldn't write the paper. I never did write it. We were supposed to post our papers on a website. I wrote up something for the website but it wasn't a formal research paper. Never mind that every single other writing project that I did do in that Honors English class was great, they wouldn't let me into Honors English again for 9th grade. In other classes at other times in the near and distant past, sometimes I freaked out about certain papers as well, but I got them done. Some were late, some were all-nighters before the deadline, but I got high marks on every one, despite the stress and trauma. Why do I hate doing something I am good at? I'll edit papers, I'll transcribe, I'll record, I'll read, I'll cut and paste, I'll even criticize, but make me write one and it could get dangerous. Doesn't make sense. If I ever get this written and come out alive, DON'T EVER LET ME ASSIGN MYSELF TO WRITE A SCRIPT AGAIN! And be warned lest you ever try to assign me to write one. It'll cost you a lot of chocolate and wasted time. I'm probably not done venting about this. The deadline was Dec. 31 and I'm not getting out of this one. Does anyone know how to hypnotize me into doing it? That might work...