Math Rocks!

I’m psyched that the second Math Alliance sponsored Origami Night is happening this Wednesday. Last time I learned how to make a stellated icosahedron. Over the holidays I made the following projects. Thanks for taking the pictures, Jenny!

The are made with a technique called “modular origami”, but there will be the more traditional kind of origami also.

If you want to come, it will be at 6 p.m. on the SUNY Potsdam campus in Kellas Hall, room 105. See you there!

You know all those spam emails that clutter up your inbox or junk email folder?  The ones you just throw away as soon as you see them, sometimes even BEFORE you see them, when the subject is a dead giveaway?  And even when the subject is NOT a dead giveaway, usually the english is so horrible that it’s laughable.  I assume it’s foreigners and not junior high students who are writing these and that’s why their english is so bad.

When so many people delete them so routinely, it makes you think why they do it.  It must be economical, otherwise they wouldn’t do it.  It is very cheap, but it must make a bit of money for the companies that have spammers advertise for them.  One out of a thousand, one out of 10,000 … some non-trivial proportion of the population must be responding to these emails.

Well, spammers themselves are trying to tap that market, the one in a zillion people who respond to these “ads.”  They’re trying to make their emails not so horrible sounding, with decent english, with the hope that even more people will read them, and they’re getting that one is a gazillion people to help them do it.  It’s smart, actually.  Some spammer was thinking to themselves, “My english not good.  How to make my texts as an english speaking person?   Who not smart but english speaking fix my words to be hearing normal language?”  This is my proposition, and it is based on the following piece of spam that I just received.

—–

Hello,

We are offering a part time job based on computer.

Job Description:

We will provide you with the texts for our employees with the important information and you will need to revise and correct the texts as an english speaking person and send them back to us.

Salary:

We don’t have a fixed salary for this vacancy. We will pay you $7.00 for every 1Kb of the text which you revise .  You will get paid at the END of each working month. So, your salary will depend on your activity.

Example: If you correct about 5Kb of texts per day you will get over $1000.00 at the end of the month.

Requirements:

-Location: USA
-Age: 20+
-Home computer, e-mail address and Microsoft Word
-Responsibility

To apply for the position, please, provide us with the following information to our e-mail: dating.hrjob@gmail.com

__________
FULL NAME:
HOME ADDRESS:
CITY, STATE, ZIP CODE:
Phone number (home or cell, but SHOULD BE available any day time):
E-MAIL:
AGE:
OCCUPATION:
EDUCATION:
AVAILABLE HOURS TO DEVOTE TO WORK:
———-

As soon as we receive your aplication we will contact you within 24 hours.

If you have any additional questions, feel free to ask.

Awaiting for your application.

Sincerely,
Dating Group Team
dating.hrjob@gmail.com

Last weekend, Jenny & I took a ride on our bikes to Clayton to meet up with a few members of the local chapter of the Virago Owners Club.  We didn’t end up meeting them, but we did meet some friends who live there.  What a GORGEOUS ride!  To find the ride, tell google maps to give you directions from Potsdam, NY to Clayton, NY.  It’s about 75 miles each wayl.  The 10 mile stretches on county route 25 and county route 3 are just wonderful.  Not full-on “twisties,” but what I’d call gentle twisties.  A great introduction to the awesome feeling of motorcycling on back country roads.  We can’t wait to make another trip when the leaves start changing.

Yesterday, we rode with the Star Riding and Touring Club, chapter 289. They called the ride their Three Falls Ride & Hike. Actually it was mostly ride, not too much hike. We rode to three local waterfalls that had a parking area reasonably close by. (Less than a 15 minute walk.) Pretty cool.

I like this group. They’re friendly and easygoing. Not at all concerned with maintaining the cool and tough biker image. It’s true, they mostly wear denim and leather, but they also smile easily. And they don’t drink while they ride, which is a big plus. We disagree on helmets it seems. One of them has a “Helmet Laws Suck” patch on his vest, and some of them wear half-helmets while Jenny & I swear by full-face. I’m a bit conflicted about helmet laws myself, but if I had to choose I’d go for helmet laws. (I realize that might have something to do with the fact that a full face helmet saved my life once.) But I’m fine with agreeing to disagree on that. I’m not sure if we have anything in common with these folks, actually … aside from our love of riding and generally friendly dispositions, that is. So who knows if we’re actually going to join this chapter. At the very least, they’re fun to ride with occasionally. Time will tell.

Jenny’s rides on the weekends are getting longer and longer. The last two weekends had us on the bikes about 4 hours each. At this rate, she’ll be ready for Americade (one of the largest bike rallies in the country) next year!

I’ve been having some issues with Gramps, my 1981 Yamaha Virago 750. The bracket that holds the right rear blinker to the frame (it’s called a “flasher stay”) had bent a few months ago when the bike kissed the pavement. Don’t worry, it was only in a parking lot, no one was hurt. It was still operational, so I rode it while trying to figure out, in my spare time, how to get a replacement part. Finally, it snapped off, and the blinker was hanging by the wires. Ok, gotta do something about it now!

Jenny called our new favorite shop, John Harvey’s Gasoline Alley in Malone, NY. They’re a Yamaha dealer, and they’ve impressed us on more than one occasion, from their customer service to their attentiveness and care with the bikes. She described in perfect detail over the phone the part I needed. A week later, it came in, but it was the wrong part. They admitted it was a miscommunication on their end, and they were willing to re-order it and pay to mail it to us so we wouldn’t have to drive the 50 minutes to Malone to make aNOTHer trip out. It turns out I got it on ebay (and thus had it sent directly to me) instead. No hard feelings, though. Those guys take care of us, and everyone makes mistakes.

So I went outside on Saturday, the first day of a long Labor day weekend, surrounded myself with my tools, and set to work on the freshly washed Gramps. (Thanks, Jenny!) It was a little challenging for me since I’m not the most experienced with matters mechanical. Also, sometime after the old flasher stay broke the blinker had stopped working, so I was pretty worried I’d have to take it to John Harvey’s on a trailer since I’m not much for electrical work.

I got lucky. The wire insulation had worn away in a relatively accessible place, so I was able to fix it myself. I went slowly and methodically, and hit a few snags along the way, but two or three hours later Gramps has all his parts in working order. And I did it all by myself! Ok, it wasn’t REAL engine work, but it was the first time in a long time it was just me, a busted bike, and some tools in the driveway. I felt quite satisfied with myself.

So today, on this beautiful second day of a long Labor day weekend, Jenny and I took a nice half-day ride, her on her 2000 Suzuki GZ250, and me on Gramps. It was just an awesome ride. We took 11B to Malone, and took 11 back. Route 11B is just a great road to ride. Between Potsdam and Malone it has no stoplights, it never goes below 40mph through the 5 or 6 towns it cuts through, it’s fairly lightly traveled, the pastoral scenery is beautiful, and it has about a dozen or more roadside farmer stands.

On the way back on 11 we stopped for a late breakfast at Scotty’s diner. They had an interesting idea, a BLT with egg! An egg and bacon sandwich is common enough, but a BLT with egg? Could be brilliant. If they didn’t put mayonnaise on it! (*blech!*) Ok, mayo on a BLT, that’s fine. But mayo on the same sandwich with a hot fried egg? No way! They fixed it, and it was actually good, but it you ever order such a thing, take my advice and HOLD THE MAYO!

It’s about the size of a ST:TNG comm badge, and it’s in the same position on my left chest. I can scarcely believe I’m such a geek!

It was done my Don Morley at In The Skin Tattoos in Ogdensburg, NY, about a 45 minute drive from us. Don was great. He was friendly and accommodating. And he’s good at what he does. In the rear of his shop, out of view of the front counter, are over a dozen trophies he earned over the past 10 or so years.

Jenny went first, and then me. It only took less than an hour each; they aren’t very big, after all. Of course it hurt, but after the endorphins kicked in about five minutes after he started, it wasn’t so bad.

Not much else to say. I’m positively giddy! How am I supposed to work today?

The semester is over, and a nice big deep breath is called for.  I have just a couple of things to wrap up this week, and then I clean up my office, resume writing my paper, and preparing for the summer REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates).  Today is spent cleaning house and doing a project or two that have been sitting too long.

Wow, that was brief.  Not much else to say, though.  I’ll write more about the REU later.

One more week until the end of the semester. Lots to do today to get ready for the last week. Preparing lectures, worksheets, and practice finals, oh my!

Last night was a friend’s 40th b-day at Maxfields. Good times. Jenny & I talked at length with a prof who specializes in the intersection between folklore and history. He teaches a course on Witchcraft and Magic in Antiquity, or thereabouts. Very interesting, since I really only have a contemporary knowledge of the subject. He has had a Wiccan friend of mine be a guest speaker, and he invited us to do the same. I think we’re more interested in taking the class, actually. He may offer it in the spring.

Lots of parties, get togethers, award ceremonies, and the like. I can’t keep track of them all. Luckily, I have iCal.

Because it’s fun!

Overheard recently:

Person: “I think that, if a couple never fights at all, something is missing from the relationship.”

Their partner: “Yeah, the fighting!”

Roberta tagged me.

1. Grab the nearest book (that is at least 123 pages long).
2. Open to p. 123.
3. Go down to the 5th sentence.
4. Type in the following 3 sentences.
5. Tag five people.

From What the Best College Teachers Do by Ken Bain: “Conversational tones, good intentions, and warm language are all important elements of the craft of good talking, but something else distinjuishes the most effective communicators. The best teachers simply know how to make good explanations. It goes without saying that they are clear and thorough and stimulate learning, but how do they achieve those results?”

I tag Jenny, David, Murph, Shannon, and Sacha.