one iteration

At the gate. A gate contains within itself possibility. It both blocks and allows. Our lives are gated. Computers are gated. They are everywhere, these artificial gates. Animals do not wait.

Sometimes I like to sharpen my mind a little (only just) with a math article or two, to see how little I remember calculus from high school and college.

Namely, articles like this one.  It covers the search for a proof to the Riemann zeta function; which would, according to the author:

Almost a century later, the Riemann hypothesis is still unsolved. Its glamour is unequalled because it holds the key to the primes, those mysterious numbers that underpin so much of math-ematics. And now whoever cracks it will find not only glory in posterity, but a tidy reward in this life: a $1 million prize announced this April by the Clay Mathematics Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Also, the zeta function has had its time in the popular fiction spotlight as well, appearing in Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon and Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day.  How much do you remember from high school or college math?!

My mom at home just got two kittens! They are so adorable. Here’s a pic with my brother holding them!

Lots of mac pros for me.

Snack time!, originally uploaded by one iteration.

There’s something therapeutic in cleaning an extremely jumbled and messy storage room.  Ahh.  Organization.  Bins.  Sorting.  Throwing out.

Sigh. Me and one of my friends whom I talk about real estate with knew this was coming, which is why we avoided buying property a few years ago (notwithstanding buying and flipping in a short time). A quote from Countrywide Financial’s recent conference call:

“Company is seeing home price depreciation at levels not seen since the Great Depression”

From The Big Picture (read for much more)

I just hope that all of my homeowning friends weather the alleged upcoming softening/crash of the housing market okay. No ARMs, you hear? No ARMs!

One of the burdens of being a Deaf Person is that interminable trip to the Audiologist.  It usually goes something like this:

1. Head to the Audiologist’s office.
2. Enter and talk to the secretary that knows no sign, and fall back on the Writing of the Paper
3. Have a seat and wait for the Audiologist
4. Audiologist comes out and greets you with a smile.  Half of the time, also with sign language.  The other half not, but in an unafraid and understanding voice communication.  Fall back on the Writing of the Paper.
5. Feel the heavenly squish of the earmold silicone as it squooshes in your ear.
6. Discuss the latest advances in hearing aid technology, with an emphasis on super power hearing aids.   Nevermind; I wish.
7. Wait for 5 minutes until the silicone becomes hard.
8. Receive cleaned hearing aids back with admonition to be careful with them.  Optional:  Request that hearing aids be fixed, if needed.
9. Haltingly stop-go-start discuss payment/insurance with both the Audiologist and the Secretary.
10. Walk out with an extra spring in your step for having taken care of your Deaf Duty.

In two weeks (why does it take two weeks) I will have new ear molds!  Yay!  And at that time, I will Discuss with the Audiologist about getting my hearing aids fixed, because they are acting all Intermittent and Wonky.