Art and Stuff

I realized, the other day, that I'm not making as much art as I would like. And since Autumn passed me by uncaptured (by camera and canvass), I decided the next piece I do will be "epic" and about Autumn! Here's a "sketch" I've made of it in Flash MX.

(I still can't believe Adobe bought Flash... The version I use still says "Macromedia Flash MX" on it.)


New Loading Screen on Intro to Epsilons and Deltas

Also shown here.

Epsilons and Deltas is a little animation that I've been working on for about a year. It's a short story about Math and Love. Awwww. It also features two girls, a strip from xkcd, and La Campanella by Franz Liszt.

The old loading screen didn't have red-bowtie-girl running along the loading bar; she just stationary-ran beside the percent-loaded display, and it looked a little tacky. This one has a nicer "floaty" and "Ooh, numbers!" feel to it, which I don't mind at all! But, we'll see if I can even still improve it...


Other Stuff

My eldest brother went back to school in January, and has asked me to help him out with derivatives! I think I'll do another of those Flash tutorials like in the previous post.

He's also sending over a box of goodies from Germany! There'll be Lebkuchen, my favourite kind, with the candied orange peel inside and wafer on the bottom and either dusted lightly with powdered sugar or coated in chocolate! Mmmm! Also, a digital camera and computer gear!


Events

Nov 01

I'm Employee of the Month! Hoorays, I guess!

Nov 05 (today!)

Grocery shopping. Hells yeah.

Work at the Reserves tonight. Hells yeah...

Should call the bakery to pre-order special bagels.

Should drop by the library to return Dragons in the Water by Madeline l'Engle; and take out another Origami book and Math book.

Nov 06

Meet up with the teacher to lend him the entire S4 Pre-Calculus curriculum... I'm wary of lending that to anyone, and of all people, him...

Should swing by the bakery for more bagels... Mmm, pumpernickel bagels...

Also hoping to spend some good time with my best friend Eric!

Should also swing by the Rainbow Pride group at the university. I haven't been there in ages--mostly because I'm trying to avoid someone.

Nov 09

Kevin's birthday party, at last!

Nov 10

Homo Hop, a queer-oriented social. I'm not sure if I'll go... We'll see.

That's all for now. I should get some work done today.
--Charissa

018: Exponentiate!

Woo! Just a quick update to post this tutorial (Flash) on exponents/radicals. Check it out here, too!

Woots. Off to work now.
--Charissa

Issues

As much as I want to keep this from being angsty and personal, I sort-of want to write about my state-of-mind.

I've been so apologetic ever since getting the survey job; I haven't spoken fluently and with conviction, it seems, for ages. My sentences are full of "maybe"s and "I think"s and "I believe"; and "it might be"s; and more "like"s than ever before.

I wonder if it's mostly a self-confidence issue, or if it's something else?

I also wonder if doing more proofs will be helpful in gaining more self-confidence. Probably will!


Week so far:

Oct 29

I'm now 19. Hoorays, I guess. For my birthday, I paid $200 in Utilities.

Oct 30

Learned how to properly wear my Army uniform! Woo-hoo!

Had my first "class" in the Army (Dress and Deportment; and Rank Structure).

Oct 31

Started playing Brood War again. Sigh. What a wonderful way to waste time.

Received e-mail from the teacher, who said I should go over the Quiz in class with the students--WHICH IS OMG HOORAYS!!

O, Time...
--Charissa

Webcomics and Teaching

Webcomics

So, I read Irregular Webcomic!, a webcomic run by DMM, pretty regularly. And often, there are totally geeky annotations, including (to point out only a few)...

here, where the joke involves vector calculus;

here, talking about the impossibility of StarWars using Thermodynamics;

here, explaining three Laws of Thermodynamics;

here, explaining how awesome Maxwell's equations are;

here, using the Shroedinger's Cat idea;

here, making Quantum Mechanics jokes;

here, making Fourier Transform jokes;

and now, here, using History and Math!

I hearts this comic so much!

Also awesome in the Math department is xkcd, by Randall Munroe! I've even used this comic in an animation I'm working on.



Teaching

So, being Saturday again, I went to the Maths school to TA; and, again, it aggravated me. But we had a meeting today, and our principal mentioned some of the duties of the Teacher and TA, which I was wanting to beat my teacher over the head about.

Some things mentioned...

Our school's philosophy/signature: Since we have such a high student-to-teacher-or-TA ratio, we have a "human element"; there is more human interaction: student-teacher/TA and student-student.

Roles of the Teacher and Techniques:

• don't lecture
  
  the kids are 13 and younger, they can't handle lecture-style yet!
  

  create lesson plan
  

  have authority
  

  avoid dead silence; talk! Fill the silence with teachery sounds!
  

  don't talk into the board
  

  do not read lesson plan
  

  don't work out of a textbook
  

  never lose face
  

  never let the student "win"
  

  lose once, lose all

Roles of the TA and Techniques:

• don't supersede the teacher
  
  if the teacher's wrong, don't point it out, no matter how frustrating
  

  make sure the students pay attention
  

  encourage participation
  

  supplement the teacher
  

  interact with the students; learn their names

Tips for Creating Lessons:

• don't copy down examples or problems
  
• not just formulas
  
• walk the students through it all

My birthday party

My birthday parties have been nick-named "Awkwardfest", but this year was pretty okay. In fact, we had a focus on awkwardness, and I even donned my "Awkward Fairy" costume (it's skimpy black spandex with a hole shows off what would be cleavage on a more endowed woman, and a black tie worn over the hole). Awkward! Especially when one of the guests flips the tie up!

But it was good. Kevin and Mark came.


Other Stuff

There's a guy at work who makes tobacco smell handsome. Or, maybe, just the way it smells on him is handsome. I don't know.


--Charisa