This blog is for more informal writing which I don’t intend to revise or edit. It’s just day-to-day stuff, quick updates, or ephemenal writing. For more formal writing, see the notes.
Late last year, I had to the idea that my new year’s intention would be around “reading, writing, moving, and playing”. I kept to it for about a week and then the new semester hit and blew up my ability to do anything. After some reflection, I realized that I needed some mechanism to keep me focussing on these intentions. So, here’s a little bit of a post about my week as viewed through the lense of that intention.
A translation of a string figure from Juegos y Lenguajes de Hilo en El Gran Chaco
A photo of a small pink african violet.
An image of a circular braid.
I’m participating a Pedagogy Group organized by the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Reading and writing are the first technologies of any technological society. They are the base and foundation on which everything else is built. Compare the ~300,000 years of human history before the invention of writing with the more recent ~6000 years of documented history. Culture has evolved considerably since the invention of writing. We ask our students to write so that they can come to wield the most powerful meta-tool humanity has ever created.
Some loose thoughts about people, labels, and approximation.
A photo of the math department with the sun rising.
A rant about why old Esperanto literature is neat.
This morning I started drafting an article about heart groups. This got me looking at all my cardfile notes about the heart group, and collecting up various “resources” for the paper.
Do people maintain plant diaries?
Reflections on a weekend with Messy Church and Meeting.
A photo of a recently bloomed african violet.
A picture of the books on my book shelf.
A photo of a recently bloomed african violet.
A picture of an elegant string figure position from Nauru.
A link dump of cool things I read about exercise.
Thinking about your own past as a student/learner, what was one assignment/assessment that really stood out to you? Why was it so memorable? What made it really effective in helping you in the learning process (or really ineffective in the learning process).
A picture of some three loop braids on a pin board.
A photo of Highland Creek
A physical puzzle related to braiding.
Notes from MathEd Forum: Lauren DeDieu (Margaret Sinclair Award)
A photo of the african violets I got at the Fall Sale
Testing out my new photo upload script.
Some strawberry trailers re-potted in yoghurt containers.
A picture of the relation between twists and passes in $LB_n$.
A bunch of braid diagrams.
A physical example of the complicated braid relation.
We saw a deer on the ride in to work.
Surprising candour and playfulness from Artin in an Annals paper.
While writing a piece about mathematical braiding, I try actual braiding.
A poem by Nanao Sakaki about the distance that one could walk in a lifetime of walking.
A poem about the cost of mortality.
Thoughts on taking a four year old to a memorial Meeting.
After a long trip, take a couple days of rest.
After print-and-playing a game, I discovered a couple accidental games.
Creating a repertoire of mathematical experiences for sharing with others.
Gratitude, exercise, and meditation as a means of overcoming the grumps and improving well-being.
The doctor said to exercise and then my basement flooded. I exercised anyway.
On returning a stack of unread library books.
Thoughts about why it is so easy to overthing blogging.
Nature produces a surprising quantity of food.
Shanxi Province, sandstone, 11-13th century, Song dynasty.
A sunflower that Mira grew from seed.
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