I continue to be distracted by a number of things. These are: exploring new graphics software (Jasc Paint Shop Pro), work at my day job updating hundreds of decorative, hand-calligraphed Trader Joe's price tags in the most current formulation (size is about 5 inches long by 2 height), new paintings still in the planning stage, and a small convention with an art show display that was conveniently located only two miles from my home. Surprisingly, I made some money at that art show despite the fact that the convention had less than a hundred people. It was designed to be a pleasant little get-together for socializing, not a high-powered business-type convention. But many of my "collectors" were there, and they bought some of my work, so I am very pleased at how it came out.

I am also distracted by the mind-twisting, crazy-making, apocalyptic American League Championship Series between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. The Red Sox were behind three games to none in the series and have, unbelievably, battled back to win the last three games so that the whole thing will be decided today, October 20, in a last, cataclysmic, seventh game. Seven games, seven angels, it's kind of like the Book of Revelation. Being a Red Sox fan is a form of insanity. Don't worry, fellow Red Sox fans, we can still lose before the world comes to an end.

But I am a trooper and I am still doing math. I am reviewing arithmetic progressions and their sums. The last time I did this, back in 2002, it was new material to me, confusing and scary. Now I am more comfortable with it, even the Big Sigma summation notation. As long as I keep in mind the underlying original, inescapable progression of integers, I am fine. The last time I did progressions, it was from the 1958 book and each element of the progression had its own letter. That way I could make up mnemonics from each combination of letters. But the White Book I am now using just uses subscripts, for instance a₁ for first term of a progression, and a_n for any other term. Subscripts are cool and look "professional" when I write them, but they are not as easy to make mnemonics out of.

I also had a moment of recognition when I realized that the "common difference" in an arithmetic progression is the slope of a linear equation. This may sound simple, but I didn't realize it until I saw the graphs in the textbook. The swooping curves of geometric sequences will be the next term in my own progression.

Posted at 2:17 am | link