Here’s my latest addiction. It’s a game called Planarity. Rearrange the blue vertices so that none of the edges overlap.

So far, I’ve made it to the 16th level with a score of 6611. Take a screenshot of your best score and post it in the comments.

I thought this was pretty funny. So did my students.

Here is an excerpt from an Associated Press report that was published in my local newspaper this past Sunday (17 Sept. 2006). Some of the information presented in it raises some questions in my mind. I’ve outlined the key statistics in red.

So from the article here’s a summary of the statistics:

In 2004, the percentage of certain borrowers that “paid a higher-than-typical interest rate on their home mortgages” are:

• 32.4% for blacks
• 20.3% for Hispanics
• 8.7% for whites
• 11.5% (all borrowers)

I’m wondering how such a small percentage of all classes are paying “higher-than-typical” rates. Doesn’t logic tell us that exactly 50% of all borrowers will pay a higher-than-typical rate and the other 50% will pay a lower-than-typical rate? Certainly this would be true if the definition of “typical” in this case was “average” or “mean.” So perhaps, “typical” indicates a range of interest rates. Then, the 11.5% indicates the percentage of all borrowers that had interest rates above that range. But if that is the case, it would be very helpful to know the size of that range. Any thoughts?

On August 24, I posted an entry about a conversation with Andrew Jones.  That interview is now available to listen to or download at the Nick and Josh Podcast page.

Today I discovered and downloaded a new program, Google SketchUp. This program is free and is for drawing all sorts of 3-dimensional figures. The tools are very intuitive and the whole program is easy to use. You can save your work in a 3D file to come back to later, or you can export to a 2D image file (.jpg, .png, .gif, etc.). I wish I had this when I was teaching geometry a few years ago. My handouts and tests would have looked so much better!

Here are a few drawings that I made using SketchUp. All of these were made today, the first day I ever used this program. [Click on each thumbnail for a full-size image.]

Conic section - parabola.

Conic Section - bottom view.

Golden spiral.

Golden spiral in three dimensions.

Home sweet home. Yes, I do have stairs on the front of my house. They just were too tedious to draw.

If you’re one of my regular readers (assuming I have any), you might have noticed a couple changes to the site. First, the title has changed from Naught Much to Naught Much.com. That’s right, you can now access this site through its very own domain at www.naughtmuch.com.

Second, there are two new pages: About and Contact. You can find these links at the top navigation bar. In the About page, you’ll find links to some places that describe me.

[off-topic post] Last night, my friend Mike and I had the opportunity to have dinner with Andrew Jones of Tall Skinny Kiwi, one of the foremost “leaders” in the emerging church movement. We had some good barbeque (as you can see) and then headed down the street to a bar where a couple of guys, Josh and Nick, interviewed Andrew for their podcast. Also there for the interview was Olgavaro Bastos of Tribal Generation. It was so inspiring and challenging to see how God is working to bring change to the church all over the world.

I just found out that our school is going to be featured in a Newsweek article focusing on Paideia (py-dee-a) schools. I’m excited about the opportunity to showcase our school’s unique philosophy on education and the successes it has brought.

Below, I have outlined the three columns of instruction that are emphasized in a Paideia classroom. Additionally, there are fourteen essential elements that distinguish a Paideia school.

Signs that school is back in full swing:

1. I’ve lost my voice before the end of 2nd period.
2. IEP M-team meetings are already scheduled into December.
3. I’m more tired than I was during my summer construction job.
4. I’ve made 3 phone calls in two days to parents about issues with their children.
5. My daily intake of Tylenol has increased from zero to four.
6. I don’t have any more time to just relax.
7. My email inbox fills up every hour with announcements, student information, new things to add to my calendar, and useless information.

As a way of introduction, this blog will focus mainly on the portion of my life that is dedicated to teaching mathematics to high school students. I’ll show you the inspiring, the saddening, and the boring. Please feel free to comment. I hope you enjoy it.

[All names and places have been changed to protect the innocent, and the guilty for that matter.]