Inspiration

Texas!!!

Well, I wondered how I could possibly show off my new nephew to all of my friends (seeing as Mom always has the prints of our photos) when I realized that I hadn't posted on here in nearly a year! Wow. Not wanting to miss the opportunity to benefit both me and all of you, I figured I'd finally endow you with an entry (two figs for the price of one! Speaking of which, I found FRESH FIGS at the grocery store today!!! Seeing as they weren't plucked straight off the branch of an historic Williamsburg tree, I didn't quite get the satisfaction out of them that I'd hoped, but I did turn a four-year-old on to one of the weirdest fruits a four-year-old could possibly get excited about--Christian actually loved them...strange child). Anyway, here's my latest photo journal for your viewing pleasure.

For starters, at the beginning of our trip, Benedict did a lot of this...

...during the day, of course. I had the pleasure of bouncing him during the late night cry-just-for-the-fun-of-it shift. On Friday, I actually told Shayne and Lindsey they could wake me up if they needed help in the night. I didn't think they'd take me seriously.

They did.

Honestly, the 4:30 shift should be doled out to the Gramps who get up that early anyway just to work out! Alas, Benedict's Pepe was a cop-out come the wee hours, conveniently reposing in a nearby hotel, or, even more cozily, at the distant home of friends. So, we felt none too guilty about handing the babe over for the lazy afternoons when Pep was around.

I don't think Pop minded, and Benedict seemed to nestle right in, the little stinker.

After my late-night nap (typically from 8-9am), I had the happy indulgence of bonding with the neph. We read French (which he quite relished--he did), sang songs, contemplated the absurdity of proboscises while staring at some odd shapes in the mirror, and smirked at the bliss of balmy air and brilliant blue skies while others were dying slow deaths by frostbite back east (oh, don't get all high-strung about it; I reaped the cruel reward for my gloating as soon as I stepped off the plane in Washington! And yes, 'twas literally as I stepped off the plane, for we rode regional jets and got to climb directly aboard!!! Pop and I had a blast in the little things.)

Anyway, here's the progression of Benedict's experience getting used to his Taunte:

New face...what's she gonna do to me...

I think she wants me to laugh or something, but it just doesn't tickle.

She's weird...

...now that makes me laugh!

Nice, she plays with me...

...think I kinda like her.

Maybe more than just a little.

Okay, he was probably staring at his Meme there, but I can fantasize, can't I?

The young duffer looked mighty cute in the hat I knit for him--I was so glad it was cold enough for him to wear it while I was there!

Since Benedict looked so fine in his Sunday best, we thought we'd get a family shot. Besides, at two months old, a guy can forget that the Yankee relatives really do love him--he needed evidence......and unfortunately, that evidence is just for Benedict right now. Sorry, my PC's too slow to upload that photo at the moment, so y'all will have to wait till another day.

In the meantime, here's evidence that we gave him more than one reminder of his northern roots.

Don't you just love the contrast? Lindsey felted those boots for him. Here's another nifty pair--you can call 'em his dancin' duds.

So, now y'all know what my nephew looks like and I've satisfied you with an entry--and probably not the last of the year.

For those of you who like close-ups, I'll leave off with these two of my favorites:

Until next time...so long and keep your stick on the ice!

Definitions

Slug: n. Small slimy animal like a snail without a shell.

Sweet: n. Small shaped piece of sweet substance.

Artwork: n. Sweet Slug.

Meet Marcel

First two definitions taken from the Oxford Minireference Dictionary & Thesaurus; Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1997

INDIA

My sister, Allis, is back in India, teaching a hundred or so adorable children how to speak English. Before she left, she showed me and some of her friends how to eat Indian food properly. It was quite the experience:

I think Sarah liked eating with her hands.

Leeann did too. Here is a nice picture of her with Ally.

Allis also showed me how to make Indian food. My very own rendition of dahl and curry. 

It really is good.

But pictures of Americans eating like Indians are not quite the same as pictures of the Indians themselves. Check out Allis's blog at http://www.alliswebb.blogspot.com. See how God is blessing the children with spiritual food as well.

Tribute

To writers it's a dialogue.

("'E ate 'is grits for breakfast an' washed 'em down with a glass o' milk.")

To players it's a move.

("E8, hit and SUNK!")

But to mathematicians it's a marvel.

("'This is exciting,' said Peter Sarnak, Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University.")

After four years of tedious effort, 18 mathematicians have decoded E8, a mathematical calculation so complicated it's remained unsolved since 1887, when it was discovered by 19th-century mathematician Sophus Lie [pronounced Lee], and so enormous its solution--written out on paper--would cover the area of Manhattan. The result of the calculation--an essential factor in the endeavor to "capture the essence of symmetry"--consists of 248 dimensions, is 60 gigabytes in size, and contains the amount of space necessary "to store 45 days of continuous music in MP3 format." If that's not enough to wow you, check out this map of the structure created for our visual comprehension:

I say, that's Spyrograph at its finest!

If I haven't lost you yet, no, I can't really understand what this is either, but I know it's BIG and hugely significant.

This is history, folks.

What will come of it? Who knows? But Jeffrey Adams, leader of a very important project connected with this calculation (I'd expound, but I know it's too much information to bore you all with) and mathematics professor at the University of Maryland, explains:

"E₈ was discovered over a century ago, in 1887, and until now, no one thought the structure could ever be understood....This groundbreaking achievement is significant both as an advance in basic knowledge, as well as a major advance in the use of large-scale computing to solve complicated mathematical problems."

In other words, mathematicians' jobs have just been made a whole lot easier, but they still have a lot of work to do, and we--the unsuspecting public--shall benefit greatly from their accomplishments in ways of which we are and shall be totally oblivious.

I'm excited and must hand it to these geniuses!

This is a major deal that we all should be celebrating!

Hence, I've penned the following poem.

In Honor of the Genuises

Who Solved the Grand E8

’e ate a gene of genius and discovered in its sphere

an astounding work of symmetry inciting awe and fear.

When he showed it to his colleagues all grew giddy with the glee

that overtook their boggled brains on its discovery.

Too grand it was for words, too immense to keep inside

so they spread it round Manhattan, 2-4-8 dimensions wide.

Poets wrote about the news, musicians sang its praise,

artists splashed its spider web in greens and reds and greys.

But the eighteen folk who freed it contained more jubilee

when they finally decoded the E8 of Mr. Lie.

Here's to the team who solved the unsolvable!

Cheers!

Quotations courtesy of http://aimath.org/E8/ and http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/e8.html. Visit these sites for more information about E8 and its recent decoding.