granny of the electonic age

i was so very surprised to receive an email from my grand-mother, the mother of my mother. again, let me mention that this is an email from my granny, a woman who has never before used a computer, a women who watched movies at a place called the 'bioscope' and had to watch tv in black and white. shes 70 something years old and i think that it's amazing that she's getting with the times.

76% Nerd

I took a test that I stumbled upon and it confirms that I'm a partial nerd. You can take the test yourself at www.nerdtests.com. My results were as follows:

Overall, you scored as follows:

23% scored higher (more nerdy),
1% scored the same, and
76% scored lower (less nerdy).

What does this mean? Your nerdiness is:

Mid-Level Nerd. Wow, it takes a lot of hard nerdy practice to reach this level.

Retraction - Save The Ozone - Eat A Cow

Due to an anonymous comment posted in response to 'Save The Ozone - Eat a Cow' I formally retract that post. Vegetarians, Vegans, Hindus and Buddhists are upset and I would like to stabilise the balance that once was.

cool sneaks

How cool are these sneakers? I wouldn't really mind the Goofey (non pun intended) ones.

Black Pants Phenomenon

Are black pants like magnets that attract every little piece of white lint, fluff and dust in the universe? More specifically, is this a characteristic only of my black pants? In a shop, black pants never seem to have lint, fluff or dust stuck to them. So, is it only in my wardrobe that dust exists? How do I reverse the polarity of my pants to make them repel dust?

Save the Ozone - Eat a Cow

Fact, cows fart methane. Fact, methane is a contributor to global warming. My solution, eat more cows. If we had the vegetarians, vegans, Buddhists and Hindus of the world on our side, we would be able to reduce lethal methane emissions.

Converging Products

Fridges that have a TV in their doors have been around for some time now. It's really weird that manufactures have integrated these two things. Ideas like these, I believe were conceived by Dilbert and his fellow engineers. I have been thinking, trying to see what other completely useless ideas I could come up with for manufactures to develop.

Computers with a built in braai (I love to surf the internet while braai-ing)
Shoes with a built in polisher and shiner
A bicycle with a water cooler
A toilet with a submerged LCD screen

About Me

I love life. I enjoy the outdoors, the feeling of being free, the smell of the grass after it's just been cut. I love waking up to fresh brewed coffee, the sound of birds as they fight for food. I like the sound of rain as it falls during a thunder storm. I like to look out the window and breathe mist and draw little shapes on it. I don't really like to sing in the shower, I like to hum and whistle though. I like to dip peanut butter and jam sandwiches into my coffee. I like hot chocolate on cold days, warm socks and blankets while watching movies with no story line. I wake up to the sounds of 5fm every morning and fall asleep when my eyes can't stay open any longer. I don't like the busy, morning, Johannesburg traffic, so I listen to music to soothe me. I like to wear sneakers on weekends, shorts and sweaters. I like my hair short, but I used to have an afro. I laugh and smile and cry sometimes. I like to write my own random musings sometimes and read those of others often.

Fever Blisters

In three weeks, I woke up with my fourth fever blister...

Funny Pepsi Ad

Perfectly Proportioned Donut Hole - A reply

I sent an email off to a Statistics lecturer. He was helpful in letting me know that I was completely off track...


Original Letter:

Hi Lecturer

I wonder if you could point me in the right direction please...

I've been trying to find some information relating to donuts on the internet and particularly the mathworld.wolfram.com website. My question is this, "Is there a perfect proportion between inner and outer donut circumferences?" I found information regarding the torus at http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Torus.html but nothing on in relating to what I search for... I think.

I know that this is a geometry type question, but I hope that you can help in some small way.


Reply:

I’m not aware of any ideas of “perfection” relating to tori. There has been a lot of work (both mathematical, psychological and artistic) on the aesthetic preference for geometric figures divided according to the “golden ratio”. I’m not sure if this ratio has any influence in respect to tori. Certainly there are aspects of topology that distinguish different tori according to the difference in proportion of the circumferences that you mention but that isn’t my area at all! I wonder what a doughnut with a golden ratio of the outer to inner circumefrence would look like? My feeling is that it would probably be quite fat. Not sure. Maybe read up on the golden ratio (or Google both) and see what you find!

Lecturer

Hectic Social Life

Already a new month, already almost halfway through the year. Oh boy, time flies...

Of late, I've found my social life steadily increasing. It's been great going out, staying out late and sometimes, even on work nights. Cocktails, shooters and wine, toasts, celebrations! Things are not as hectic as they were during the time that I was 18 or and at tech, but way better than a few months ago. Even though winter is looming, we still find time and opportunity to go out and have us a good time...