Another Interview Meme

[omorka]

A) First, recommend to me: 1. a movie: 2. a book: 3. a musical artist, song, or album:
(B) Ask me three questions, no more, no less. Ask me anything you want.
(C) Then I want you to go to your journal, copy and paste this post allowing your friends to ask you anything.

Comments

[kansas-dave.livejournal.com]

A1) The Big Lebowski.

A2) Stranger Things Happen, by Kelly Link. This is a collection of wonderful, weird, modern fairy tales. The trade paperback also has beautiful cover art.

A3) A Boy and his Frog, by Tom Smith. (tearjerker filk)
http://www.tomsmithonline.com/lyrics/boyfrog.htm

B1) What branches of math did you enjoy the most, and do you still study them?

B2-3) I'm going to post these questions as a reply to your 10/12 post.

[omorka.livejournal.com]

Seen Big Lebowski, hated it. Have had Tom Smith recommended to me before; I'll have to check him out.


B1) I've really enjoyed non-Euclidean and other "weird" geometry, number theory, topology, and fractal geometry. Unfortunately, I haven't kept up with any of them to the degree I'd like; in fact, one of my motives for going back to school is to take some more "serious" math courses - and re-stock my library, since I lost all my math textbooks in the apartment fire. I do still play with various fractals on a regular basis, but not the point of doing anything serious with them.

[princejvstin.livejournal.com]

a1: eXistenZ

a2: The Fireborn Players Handbook (Fantasy Flight Games)

a3: Sultans of Swing, the Best of Dire Straits

b1: What did you learn from your students this year?

b2: What one thing do you think you taught your students this year most successfully?

b3: What is your favorite pedagogical tool?

[omorka.livejournal.com]

I have A3, or at least I used to - I don't see it on the shelf right now, though . . .

B1) That the fact that someone is acting really stupid doesn't necessarily mean that they mean you any disrespect. That showing someone that you really care about them may be the best thing that has happened to them all week, and they'll remember it for a long time. And that truly intelligent people can figure out what you're hiding if they really work at it.

B2) That some adults really do want you to learn something, not just regurgitate what they put on the overhead projector.

B3) Oooh, tough one. My favorite one is the practical data project - have the students actually gather data on something, then determine a function to fit it or a model to emulate it. Unfortunately, I don't get to do that very often, because it takes a lot of time. The one I like a lot that I probably use the most is "Work and Say Something," where the students work a problem individually and then have to say something true about the problem to their neighbor. At worst, they tell each other what they got for answers and can thus check with each other; at best, this gets them actually discussing mathematics - "I used the distance formula to solve this." "Okay, I treated it as a vector and found the magnitude. Did we get the same answer?" "We should; remember, magnitude comes from the distance formula, and that's derived from the Pythagorean theorem, right?" "Okay, so, like, we really just did the same thing, then."

[adpaz.livejournal.com]

A) 1) The Red Violin
2) The Windrose Chronicles by Barbara Hambly (The Silent Tower, The Silicon Mage and Dog Wizard)
3) Heather Dale, particularly her Arthurian Legend based

B) 1) What is the most difficult decision you've ever had to make?
2) What one thing do you think has had the most impact on your life?
3) What's your idea of a kick-back, relaxing evening?

C) Coming soon. :)

[omorka.livejournal.com]

Hmm . . . I'm not familiar with any of the recommendations, but I'll look into them.

B) 1) Probably the most difficult decision I've ever had to make is the decision whether or not to stay in my various closets with my family. However, it appears to be being slowly taken away from me, bit by bit - I know my sister knows that this is my LJ, and while she can't read the friends-only stuff, my profile is pretty up=front about at least my being bi, poly, and Pagan. And Brother #1 knows that I'm not Christian, and probably at least suspects that I'm bi. (I think Dad thinks I've converted to Reform Judaism!)

2) That's difficult. There are probably two things that have had the most impact on who I currently am that happened more or less simultaneously in college - the catastrophic end of my abusive relationship with the Jerk, and my discovering the Pagan community here in H-town. And they're so mashed together in both temporal overlap and in emotional effect I'm not sure I can claim them as separate events as far as their affect on me goes.

Having said that, it could be argued that the thing which has actually had the largest long-term affect on my entire life, not just my post-college life, was my father introducing me to science fiction and wargames as an elementary-school child, as I was fen and gamer long before I was Pagan and survivor.

3) Having time to cook a serious meal, ideally with a dessert put in to bake or freeze after dinner. A few hours in front of the computer, or curled up with a book. Some "sit time" with the Spouse. And another hour or two to knit or crochet on one of my many (too many) ongoing projects, with a cup of tea or hot cocoa at my elbow.