I was very busy this weekend working on the semi-annual site update (I am SO getting last place in the Search Engine Optimization contest) and starting on my book – Beyond SAS Basics: Tips, Statistics and a Naked Mole Rat and on TOP of all of that, I had to take the world’s most spoiled…
I’ve been reviewing a number of options for students to learn mathematics. A lot of sources kind of sucked. At best, these sites were just the same old thing, flash cards but on a computer screen, for example. There is nothing terribly wrong with that, but it is hard to imagine that they have any…
“If everyone knows a thing it’s almost for sure it aint so.” “It’s not so much the things you don’t know that hurt you as the things you know for sure that aint so.” I don’t take anyone’s word for anything. Take those quotes, for example, which I’ve both heard attributed to Mark Twain, Will…
A couple of nights ago, I had a nightmare. I dreamed that I couldn’t do math. I was having lunch with some colleagues and the bill was $24.82. Everyone handed me money and I had $25.67. I was trying to subtract the bill amount from what was in my hand and divide it by three,…
My friend, Gokor Chivichyan, a mixed martial arts instructor, once gave this questionable advice to his students, “Women usually just say they’re fat to get attention. So, me, I agree with them. If she says she’s fat, I say, yes, you fat but we like you anyway. If she’s really fat, though, you just have…
In my misspent youth, I was the first American to win the world judo championships. This came about since I had a propensity to run my mouth off, which often led to fights. Those people who said I better be able to “walk the walk if I was going to talk the talk”. Well, I…
On the front page of the Los Angeles Times today was a story about three of the middle schools in Los Angeles serving the highest proportion of students in poverty. My daughter, “The Perfect Jennifer”, did her student teaching at one of the three and teaches at a second. She said to me today, Mom,…
For the first time in two years, an application came in my email for a technical position from a person under 30 who was an American citizen. This isn’t because I don’t look for people. I have talked to lots of young people I know who are pretty good with computers and asked if they…
This is why: A. I support affirmative action B. I think some kids succeed in math and science while most don’t. For the past several days, this call has been heard in our house at least once every five minutes, “Mom! Dad! I need help!” It is science project time for the sixth grade at…
Of course I am most grateful for my family. As daughter number two, a.k. a. , “The Perfect Jennifer”, commented yesterday, “This is the only family I know where everyone in the family actually talks to one another.” It’s true we don’t have any made-for-TV movie problems. No one is in rehab, no divorces, incarcerations,…