Classes finished up this week. There is always a strange feeling to end the semester. I usually feel a bit at a loss for what to do with myself. The twelve week story comes to an end, and I’m left wondering: “What next?”
Our younger daughter, Mabel, has developed the ability to lie for fun. On the ride to daycare a few days ago, she asked: “Where is my daycare blankie?” A quick moment of panic ensued; did we leave it at home? The daycare doesn’t like it when we leave the blankie behind. No, certainly, in the middle of the week, it had to be at daycare already. Mabel responded: “Just kidding!”
Crouch, David, and Ward, Colin. The Allotment: Its Landscape and Culture. United Kingdom, Five Leaves, 1997.
I stumbled on to Colin Ward via Oatmeal’s wonderful anarchist blog post The Seed Beneath The Snow. Turns out, Colin Ward is pretty great. The book on allotments1 is pretty heavy on British history but it is none the less eye opening to read about the cultural history of allotments. The history of self-provisioning food in the 20th century is fascinating. Other thought provoking things: urban versus rural and leisure as commodity.
For my research project course, MAT D93, we submitted our second short paper. The exact topic is still top secret but I hope to be able to share some nice graphics soon, once we hear back from the journal.
Crouch, David, and Ward, Colin. The Allotment: Its Landscape and Culture. United Kingdom, Five Leaves, 1997.
Last week was the last week of teaching. In MAT B42, we proved the fundamental theorem of exterior calculus. In MAT A02, we had our overflow overflow presentations for the Math Festival. I have a bunch of ideas about how the semester went but I’ll need to write those up as semester notes.
I got back to sewing and finally sewed a project that’s been on my mind for ages. The situation is this: I have an old Esperanto book whose binding is just disintegrating. After asking a couple professional book binders if they could put a new cover and spine on, I decided that it would be simplest just to sew my own cloth cover. And then I sat on that idea for years.
Once I finally sat down to do it, the whole project took about two hours from start to finish because I did all the sewing by hand. If I had a sewing machine, it would have been a ten minute project.
It was novel for me to follow a craft tutorial at my desktop. I’m sure lots of people have their computers setup for just this purpose. There must be whole internet subcultures for “work bench computers” or “kitchen counter computers.”
Recently2, I’ve been starting a lot of blog posts and notes with “Recently” and a link to the relevant week note. For an example, see this note: The Pigeonhole Principle and The Dimension Bound Theorem.
I like this design pattern. It anchors what I’m saying in some kind of temporal context. I am glad that the week notes are here to provide that sort of backdrop. Writing in a temporal void doesn’t come naturally to me.
I’ve just started to visit our plot in the UTSC Community Garden. I’ve learn that is a twenty minute walk from home and the office.
Published: Apr 10, 2026 @ 19:00.
Last Modified: Apr 2, 2026 @ 22:21.
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