I’ve been busy lately writing the solutions manual for a high-school mathematics textbook. This is the second chapter in a row that I’ve done involving sinusoidal functions. Some of the topics include exploring periodic motion, periodic behavior, investigating the sine function, comparing sinusoidal functions, transformations of the sine function, and more transformations of the sine function. I have nothing against the sine function (it’s a very nice function), but I’ll be happy when I’m finally able to put it behind me for a little while and start a new topic.

Tags: Math, Mathematics

Today, during my run with the Premier Sports Marathoner in Training (MIT) group, I was talking with a very nice lady from South Africa (who is also part of the group) about how I used to teach English in Japan. I mentioned that I used to teach English at a kindergarten, and how my students (aged three to five) were supposed to learn English as a second language, and yet, they could barely speak Japanese. It all seems so funny now. Also, I mentioned how my kindergarten students are now high-school students—in fact, the five-year-olds would just be graduating from high school this year. It’s amazing how fast time passes. To me, they’ll always be three-, four-, and five-year-olds.

Tags: marathon, marathons, running

I was busy this weekend writing the solutions manual for a high-school mathematics textbook, so I didn’t make it down to Festival Latino like I had hoped. However, next weekend is Comfest, which I definitely won’t miss. I think Comfest is the best summer festival in Columbus, with the Jazz & Rib Fest coming in second. Starting in July, there’s also a series of Sunday jazz concerts at Goodale Park (which is where Comfest is held). I’d like to get down to at least a few of those concerts as well. Not only does Goodale Park host Comfest and the Sunday jazz concerts, but it is also right near the end of the Columbus Marathon course. It’s a good park.

Tags: Math, Mathematics, Festival Latino, Comfest, Jazz & Rib Fest. Goodale Park

Over the weekend I went to a couple outdoor events. On Saturday I dropped by the Columbus Arts Festival and not only checked out the art, but also listened to some live music performances. And then on Sunday, I went to a concert sponsored by the Dublin Arts Council. I found it interesting that many of the performers I saw over the weekend mentioned their MySpace pages. MySpace has never really interested me that much—I guess it’s a generational gap. This blog is enough for me.

Speaking of this blog, tomorrow will be the one-year anniversary of my starting it. I didn’t really know what to expect when I started it, but I’ve found that it’s provided me with some motivation, especially in my marathon training. More than once, I’ve found myself thinking, “I can’t stop now—it wouldn’t look good in my blog.”

Tags: Columbus Arts Festival, Dublin Arts Council

I’m now working on writing the solutions manual for a high-school mathematics textbook. The chapter I’m working on is Sinusoidal Functions. Writing the solutions manual involves more than just finding the answers—I also have to document the steps required to solve the problems. I still prefer actually writing the problems, but this is the work that is available right now, so I’m glad to have it.

Also, every week participants in the Premier Sport Marathoner in Training (MIT) group get an e-mail from the coaches. Usually, I just skim over them, but this week something caught my attention. One of the coaches talked about how the point of running a marathon isn’t really the marathon itself, but the process of training for it. He ended with this quote from Henry David Thoreau, which I really liked: “Some men will spend their whole lives fishing before understanding that it's not really the fish they are after.”

Tags: Math, Mathematics, marathon, marathons, running

Our Saturday-morning workouts with the Premier Sports Marathoner in Training (MIT) group switched to 7 AM this week to beat the heat (before today they were at 8 AM). That means that I had to set my alarm for 5:30 AM this morning. I’m always tempted to just stay in bed, but in the end, I always get up and go run, and I’m always glad that I did. We had good reason to beat the heat this morning—it was seventy degrees Fahrenheit when we started, and it’s supposed to reach the upper eighties today. That might sound pretty hot, but on the radio on my drive over to the place where we have our workouts, I heard the announcer say that it was supposed to reach the upper nineties. Luckily, it looks like she was mistaken.

Tags: marathon, marathons, running