Many things going on...

- 3 minutes read - 506 words

I’ve not been writing a lot of late owing to having gotten over that bitch of an infection. I’m still a little bit cough-y but, not as bad as I was.

Trigon-ometry

Last weekend I was studying for a Trigonometry exam. Who knew you could uncover so many interesting things about the universe just by extrapolating relationships from right-triangles. I would really like to find some information about the history of the trigonometric identities. That is, who invented the tangent relationship? Who was it that said, hm, there’s something interesting going on between the side opposite θ and the side adjacent θ? Who gave it a name, who realized this relationship needed to be identified, who realized that this relationship had special descriptive power?

I’m similarly baffled as to how π came to be. Who was sitting there and what was the problem ( probably something about plowing, or using belt-wheels as labor saving devices ) that made someone think, hm, what’s the relationship between diameter and perimeter? And then to go the next step: “Is this the same on all circles?”.

I’ve enjoyed Trigonometry. I’ve not enjoyed the 11-week class format. It’s hard to accommodate with work as well, there’s just not any lull in which to catch up.

And a Wizard

While I was studying for that I also picked up Harry Potter 7 last Saturday evening and spent Sunday reading it. What can I say, JK Rowling did us all proud. There was no treacle, the answers were given, the characters moved and grew, Harry stopped being lucky and started to be smart and powerful - it was a real joy. I’m sad it’s over but I’m so glad it was done so well.

And, what’s more, is I think that it brilliantly captured the post-college graduate experience (although perhaps unintentionally). You leave this special boarding school and you go out into a world that’s unfamiliar and unpredictable. You live cheaply, wondering sometimes how you’ll get by, you share a funny-smelling place with roommates who may or may not be into each other. You have a yelling match over the dishes or whose-bright-idea-it-was-to-do-X-in-the-first-place.

I’d like to write more about it, but I may have to re-read the text to expand those ideas.

Zelda: Twilight Princess

I’m closing in on the Final-Final evil bad dude. I’d like to get finished – but I can only think that this Earth was truly blessed when Miyamoto-san’s recollections of running about the forests of Japan led him to imagine an adventure game in a beautiful, expansive world like Hyrule. The Zelda games are huge to me, coming out right as I entered my 10th year on this big blue orb of ours. I love the whole Twilight Realm / Light realm dichotomy, the Man / Beast dichotomy, etc. It’s all the great mystical and heroic stuff that Zelda fans are addicted to, and I’m no different.

I must give much thanks to my wonderful girlfriend who tolerated me playing for 5 hours straight yesterday. Keeper, ’nuff said.