My monthly newsletter focuses on delivering my message via blogs from my website, for the most part. Blogs are great for exposing and interrogating deeper connections among ideas. I needed a way to tell my
story in smaller bite-sized nuggets. So this is my attempt; a weekly bucket of nuggets.
My Early Experiences with University Level Math and How I “Failed”
Most of you are familiar with my affinity for mathematics. My path on that journey wasn’t what I would have expected however. I bit off more than I could chew coming out of high school.
I was accepted into the Sophomore Honors math program at the University of Dayton as a freshman! As a freshman, I scored higher than any other student at UD who took the then “1st Actuarial Exam) again as a freshman. Short story is that I never really was challenged up till then; you know, when something is right on the edge of our reach. We know how to work but it takes a skill to know when we need help.
I needed that help. I didn’t ask and I failed and left school, for the time being. I got an undergrad degree a few years later in computer science at Cleveland State. However I learned my lesson over time; enough to then have earned my master’s degree from USC in what was a very challenging technical field and program in electrical engineering and now tutoring in a diverse mix of those engineering, mathematics and physical sciences
programs.
What is Next in Life?
I have learned this past week, that all the planning in the world amounts to nothing if we don’t stop (mentally and otherwise) to see what is around us and what is calling to us.
Do you ever consider, in retrospect those times when you are most happy? For me, it is not when webbed, intricate plans come to fruition for me. Most often, something unexpected “speaks” to my soul; something familiar; nothing forced.
I am beginning to learn to pay attention to such things. I am always considering what is next, while at the same time “letting” opportunities shine on my consciousness.
Again, this is something that has taken more and more attention from me recently.
New “Learnings”
Later in life, I have learned to ice skate, taught myself parts of organic chemistry, endlessly revisited my Russian language studies. I get bored easily!
This week I learned how to navigate around iMovie in order to record and edit screen based educational videos. That side of tech learning will never end.
Tech that I Learned and Read This Week
I read an article on submarine communication and built-in security based on quantum theory and how submarines could do this. (I love Professor Simon!) Here is the video.
To get a better understanding as to what this is all about, here is an introductory video on quantum “strangeness” based on a seminal experiment that exposed the concept of “quantum entanglement”.
I Am Amazed
This week scientists were able to detect the explosion of a star as it went “nova”. Since the star is/was 100 million light years away, well it didn’t just happen. There are no images released yet, but see the attached link for images of the aftermath of a similar star explosion that happened right in our neighborhood. It was a star that was 11,000 light years away. It is believed to have been first detected in the late 1700’s.
Benedict Cumberbatch (Need I say more) Doing a Reading for
“Letters Live” Titled “Do”
If you know anything of Benedict Cumberbatch he may well be one of the
most gifted talents of our time. Here is a video of him doing a reading as
only he can for “Letters Live.” Here he reads (and “reads” does no justice
whatsoever to this) a letter from Sol LeWitt to Eva Hesse.
Things and People That Make Me Wonder
I dream of being in a “Dark Sky” area of the country, open up the aperture
and “grab it all” even if it is remotely like this. #shareitwithsomeone.
My idea of a great date (and the kind of people that I am naturally drawn to)
is, again, being out in the Dark Sky of Montana, Utah, Idaho, South Dakota
(you get the picture). Get the blankets and telescope and just … “wonder”.
(Photo courtesy of NASA)
