I tried to write a letter to my 3 year old cousin yesterday. It's really hard writing to a three year old. The only three-year-olds I know are my ex-students who are Chinese and called things like Flatulence. Or Chicken Wing.
When Chicken Wing goes through puberty, is she going to change her name to Chicken Breast?
I went to the flower shop and bought some sunflowers. I'm looking at them now, and I wonder if Monet was alive today, would he like to paint them?
Working in a flower shop is cool, except for, have you ever had flowers for so long that they seem to die and collapse, and then they smell like rotting plant? Do you think flower shops smell like that all the time?
Currently I am obsessing about the following things:
- Why does Eva Longoria look so good in photos, but so, SO BAD in real life?
- When you press "random play" on your iPod, do you think the songs are really played randomly, or does the MP3 player have a secret order to play them in, like skipping every 6 songs?
- Is it wrong that I'm addicted to "Hope and Faith"?
- What exactly IS computability theory?
- Where can I find more songs by Texas?
- Am I asking too many questions?
- When I see people walking back from the supermarket carrying toilet paper, I snigger and imagine to myself that they have diarrhoea. But today Somerfield was having a special-12 toilet rolls for the price of 9! (And quilted, too!) Do you think the people who saw me walking home think that I have diarrhoea? Maybe they think I live in a house with lots of other people. Maybe they think I have a big family, and I can only afford to buy toilet paper when it's on special. Do you think I should chase down all the people in their cars and explain to them the real reason for my excess of toilet paper?
- All primary school corridors smell like wilted lettuce sandwiches.
- Jobs. And lack of jobs.
- Did I mention jobs?
- The fact that I promised the MATH that I would go for a run each day while he's at a conference. But it's raining right now, so I can't go for a run. Do you think that eating chocolate is an appropriate action given the circumstances?
- The fact that my mum is going to read this, and then send me an email highlighting all of my spelling/grammar mistakes.
- You know sometimes you write something funny, and then laugh at how funny you are?
- I have never laughed out loud at anything I've written.
- Professah Vanessah and I once wrote a romance novel. It was brilliant. How about we hit the publicity trail next week with it?
- I have three friends who I had Pizza and Wine with. (let me clarify, I do have more than three friends in the world.) They are Portia-our future lawyer, who will not sleep in Hessian Sacks because it's insulting to people who actually do have to sleep in Hessian Sacks; Miss Frizzle, who sleeps with a copy of the 'Middlemarch' video under her pillow, and Professah Vanessah who had the nicest flat out of all of us.
- Does anybody know anything about Prague?
I am obsessing about the above things.
On a slightly less obsessive note, I am on my own for the next 3 days, so I have decided to clean our flat. I haven't actually done it, but I've decided to do it.
AND, I was OUTRAGED when I went to the library today, and they told me that you have to pay 2 quid per DVD if you want to take them out. I thought the point of a library is that they are free. What next, a pay-per-word charge??
I have almost learnt the lyrics of Billy Joel's "We didn't start the fire" off by heart.
Writing random thoughts is alot more fun then I thought it was.
Sadly, I did not manage to complete the Guardian Crossword today. I shall prevail, I tell you, I SHALL PREVAIL!!
2 comments:
Sup! I would just like to say that reading your blog is WAY more interesting than doing my reading (which today happens to be Kant grrr). It is also more interesting than reading 'Farrago' AND the random North Melbourne newsletter that comes every now and then combined. So there you go. It's morning here and I overslept. Time for toast, mmm. Have you ever worked in a flower shop? I sleep with the BOOK of 'Middlemarch', get it right, not the horrible spawn of satan film version (if you can even call it a film). What? I have to sign up to leave this comment? Grrrrrrrrr. Oh no. I'm Other. Phew.
Regarding question #2, the iPod uses a pseudo-random number generator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudo-random_number_generator) to select the next song to play. A pseudo-random number generator is, basically, an equation that produces a very long list of numbers which no-one except perhaps a clever and hard-working mathematician could find a pattern in. This is not truly random, as would be the decay of a radioactive atom for example, but is complicated enough for you or I to never notice the difference. After several billion numbers, you'd find the list started to repeat itself. So, if you had a big enough playlist, you'd eventually start hearing the same songs in the same order. So, I think the answer to your question in the sense that you intended it is 'No, they're not random, and there is a pattern in there somewhere, though it's quite a bit more complicated than simply skipping 6 songs each time.'
Regarding question 4, Computability Theory is the branch of mathematics that studies the capabilities and limitations of algorithms, 'mechanical' processes, in mathematics. It can be thought of as studying the limitations of purely mechanical reasoning, as could be done by a trained monkey, and the necessity and role of creativity in mathematics. It sits at the fuzzy edge of mathematics, philosophy and computer science, enriching and being enriched by all. In its more philosophical guises, it is the study of the capabilities of the human mind and the universe to comprehend and reason about mathematics and the world. I'm afraid time constraints prevent me elaborating further, and I must suffice with a pointer to fine books such as 'Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid' by Douglas Hofstater or 'Shadows of the Mind' by Roger Penrose for enjoyable philosophical discussions, and 'Computability Theory' by S.B. Cooper for a technical reference.
-- your friendly neighbourhood logician
Post a Comment