7x7 Award

Olivia knows what you are thinking. Olivia? Received a math award?

You see, she graduated at age eleven from UC Berkeley with a degree in quantum physics. While there, she received the Nobel Prize for solving a perplexing question that has plagued mathematicians for centuries:

What is seven times seven?

UC Berkeley being, of course, the name of her kitchen table, and mathematicians referring to fellow elementary students.*

But she did solve a problem yesterday (note: this post was written several weeks ago) that her mother could not.** The radio person asked, What is five to the zeroth power?

Contrary to popular belief, it is not zero, but one. Because 5^4 is 625, and 5^3 is 125 (which is 625/5), and 5^2 is 25 (which is 125/5), and 5^1 is 5 (which is 25/5)--and so 5^0 is 5/5, which is 1. Isn't she smarticle?***

You have just witnessed a mathematical ramble--one that does not lament the methods used to teach math--one that was... almost... fun to write--and Olivia is now very concerned for her health.

But all that was not the point of this post.

Olivia means to thank Aloha for nominating her for the 7x7 Blog Award.

She hadn't heard of it until until Aloha tagged her, but it appears that one is to address seven things about one's blog, and then nominate seven other bloggers to award. The seven things to be addressed are as follows:

1. Most Beautiful Post: It is hard to answer this without feeling haughty... The most beautiful post that Olivia has written may be The Breath of Fall, but that's not saying a whole lot since she hasn't written many posts like that. The most beautifully written, if she includes all posts, as well as probably the most visually appealing, is the last From the Word post, pairing roughly the first half of Isaiah 40 with images she took in the Blue Ridge in North Carolina (plus an amaryllis, which was in her house) (that's the flower, for the botanically challenged).

2. Most Popular Post: Immanuel. If you want to increase your pageviews, post famous biblical paintings. That post is by far the most popular, and she gets traffic from Google image searches like "mother mary" or "the annunciation" from all over the world, and sometimes in other languages, which confuses her, because she's never written Mother Mary in any of the Eastern European languages.

3. Most Controversial Post: Well, non-Christians would disagree with something in nearly all her posts, but her single most controversial post might be The Woes of Mathematics (ironic that she links to this after touting her mathematical knowledge above?). A number might disagree with her views on education. She hasn't written many posts on education or on deeper subjects, though. If she gets to those, she would have a good deal of controversial posts.

4. Most Helpful Post: NaPiWriMo, because the event marks the turning point in many an aspiring novelist's career. ... No, she really doesn't have any helpful posts.

5. Most Surprisingly Successful Post: Besides the aforementioned Immanuel, which garnered 819 pageviews while the next most popular has 70, the most surprising would have to be Day 3: A Favorite Book. Again, the traffic sources to that page are from Google Images--this time for such keywords as "stack of books" or "hoarder house". Should she be concerned that her blog appeared in a search for hoarder house?

6. Most Underrated Post: While she can't complain about the pageviews for The Wonderful World of Amoebae (it was the third most popular last month, and sixth all time), she's amazed it hasn't received more comments oohing and ahing over the adorable little amoebae!****

7. And finally, Most Pride-Worthy Post: Really? Is Olivia supposed to be proud of this anthology of delirius insomnia-induced drabble? There are a few, however, that don't make her want to take this blog out and shoot it after posting. Writing in third person especially amuses her (she rewrote this post from first person to third person, in fact), and some of the posts that don't shame her terribly are The Post of Shame (...should she be concerned that this does not shame her?) and Olivia Goes to the Doctor, both epic tales chronicling the adventures of Olivia. (By the way, the wound inflicted by the malevolent Empty Box still lingers.)

And now it is time for Olivia to nominate seven lucky bloggers! She will try to pick bloggers who have not, to her knowledge, already been nominated for this award.

And I'm switching to first person, because it feels weird nominating in the third person.

Abby at a girl with wings. She's articulate and writes about a number of relevant topics in a humorous yet thought-provoking style. It's one of my favorite blogs to follow.

Olga at You Are My Hope. She's an awesome person who lives in an awesome state, and I just want her to know that I do read her blog (although I'm behind in all my blog-reading), but meany Blogger eats my comments.

Birdi at chirpings of a bluebird. She's funny and positive, even when life throws bad things her way, and quite possibly one of the nicest bloggers I follow. Her influence can be seen in my blog... like the third person writing... and tweaking (*coughcheatingcough*) the last award I received... And it's fun reading about life in New Zealand. Homeschoolers are pretty much the same everywhere!

Kayla at Dancing Flames. Another writing, reading, horse-loving, Christian homeschooler! Unfortunately she began her blog as I fell behind in my blog-reading, but I look forward to catching up on hers.

Skyeler at A Maiden's Notes. We're so similar sometimes I wonder if we're related. Her blog, for all it's reallycoolness, doesn't receive enough attention. (Not that I've given it any of late.) This ought to change!

Bubbles at Tsepic Tales. Because he's a cool person and he needs to post more!

ZNZ at jotting down notes. I don't think I've ever read her blog without laughing. She cleverly writes about the woes of writing and raptures of reading, as well as other cool stuff like cuttlefish and Galileo, and with deeply stirring artwork, too. ;)


The Nobel-winning answer, by the way, was luck sevenfold.



*She was, unfortunately, legally constrained to fifth grade at the age of eleven, because of the silly notion that those born in the last several weeks of the year are to be placed in the same grade as those born the following year. But luckily in homeschool, grade is irrelevant.
**After all, Poor is the student who does not surpass his master.
***Of course, she did not discover this reasoning on her own.
****She jests. Mostly. But who doesn't love unicellular organisms whose method of locomotion involves pseudopods?

Oh, yeah, and one more thing.

Remember that NaNoWriMo thing?

I won.

YAY!!

Fine print: For those of you who don't know what NaNo is, winning just means you achieved the goal of 50,000 words in 30 days (or 60 hours in 30 days for me, 'cause I'm rebellious). There are thousands and thousands of winners. So I'm not special or anything. ;)

The Birthday Boy!

A year old already, can you believe it?

Happy birthday, Christian!

I Have Sat Here For Several Minutes Pondering Titles. So Here's One.

A. My. It's Friday and I haven't posted since Tuesday, when I left you with promises of many posts to come?

But knowing me, that's really not surprising.

B. Blogger. Is. Driving. Me. Insane. I try to respond to your comments, and it eats me! So. This is what I tried to write in response to the comments on my last post.

Mercy--It's a masterpiece! That's what!
Specifically, a scrap of fabric folded in half and sewn in straight lines over and over and over.
Thomas--Thing. Only thing.
What is it called, anyway? I guess I'd know if I actually looked at the thing.
There I go again. Thing. Thing, thing, thing, thing.

Of course, I couldn't leave you wondering what I'd say in response, because everything I write is so profound.

Like thing. Bask in awe of the poeticness.

C. I had a lovely afternoon admiring the underbelly of a tree. I picnicked in the woods in my backyard and did a bit of schoolwork. (The many wonderful things about homeschooling!)  Littlest Horsie nibbled on my blanket. Squirrels chattered at me. Fire ants found their way up my pants.

From the outside, luckily.

D. The first time I wrote this paragraph, I made such a horrible error I fear I shall never forgive myself. I don't trust myself grammatically to go on at this hour. But it's Friday, and I have a duty to provide geekiness to my readers... although most won't see it earlier than Saturday.

E. I'm stalling.

F. The longer I keep you waiting, the more time I have to find something for Geeky Friday. 'Cause I forgot to plan ahead this week.

G. Why is it that I forget the many other things I have to do when I am idle, and suddenly they come back to me when I'm in the middle of something?

H. When I pause, I have to sing through the alphabet again to remember what letter comes next.

I. I've always found it amusing that the alphabet spells "Hi!".

J. Perhaps I should actually go look for something to post now.

K. Aha!

L. Khan Academy is awesome.

M. I could easily spend all day watching his videos.

N. In fact, I might spend the rest of the night doing that.

O. It's Friday night, after all.

P. The night of nerdiness.

Q. Now I feel obligated to finished the alphabet, even though I really have nothing left to say.

R. Waking to Bach is a lovely thing. I've set my alarm to play his organ music at seven-thirty each morning. (I'd set it earlier if I managed to get to bed at a human hour.) If ever you need a boost in the mornings, I prescribe Bach. 

S. I have no idea what movie my father is watching right now, but it looks... really rather horrible.

T. I'm rather tired tonight, so it will be amusing tomorrow to see what typos I didn't catch before posting.

Translation: Please don't burn me at the stake if you find an error, because I'll do it myself.

U. It's a strange letter.

V. I need to read. Eh. You know something's wrong when I'm not looking forward to reading.

W. This information is all quite useless and nothing you were really interested in knowing, save for K.

X. Xylophones.

Y. Yaks.

Z. Zebras!

Next time won't you sing with me?

Geeky Friday: Wear Your Geekiness on Your Sleeves

The other night, good bloggist that I am and always thinking ahead (*coughnotcoughthiswasaveryrareoccurrencecoughcough*), I asked my mother for ideas to post on Friday. While searching for "geeky site" or something of that nature, she came across thinkgeek.com, and looked at the apparel. While a number of the jokes were lost on me (mostly the sci-fi and tech references, for those are not my geek niche), the rest... the rest! They were so geeky! I was so giddy reading them!

These are some of the best.

This shirt is rather nerdy.

But not as nerdy as this one.

I breathe geek.

Just add photons.

No, I did not just fall. I was obeying the law.

Now these are some metal groups I can enjoy.

I find this amusing, even though the very odor of bacon makes me quite nauseated.

This, my friends, is a caffeine molecule.

This is so not tr

I feel like such a geek for getting this.

This... is very true.

But don't stop there! How about an anatomically correct heart?

P.S. This post was posted on the very first minute of autumn.

P.P.S. Blogger is driving me batty.

Three Things

'Cause such posts are easy to write when I'm tired or short of time (or lazy).

Thing I: It is rather unlikely I will have a chance to post again this week. I totally meant to schedule posts ahead of time... but I forgot. Bad Olivia.

Thing I I/II: (How do you do fractions in Roman numerals?) This means there will not be a Geeky Friday post this week. Instead, I encourage to do something nerdy on Friday (or any day) and, if you wish, report back here with what you did.

Thing II:  My sweet great-grandmother (who is, I think, almost ninety-six) recalled that I've been doing a deal of research on the First World War due to a novel in progress I'm working on set during that time. When I saw her at Easter she gave to me a postcard from her uncle (my great-great-great uncle, if my brain reasons properly at this hour) dated 1919. This week I got in the mail two photographs she copied of that same uncle. The first was taken when he enlisted; the second, after he was discharged. The change in him is remarkable. And saddening.

Thing III: Jesus is awesome. Just sayin'.

Pretty Colors! Pretty Music!

Yesterday I pondered what piece I might post for this week's Musical Monday, and suddenly it occurred to me, "I have not posted a Chopin ever in the history of Musical Monday! How shameful! What a disgrace! I must amend this!"

This revelation was quite shocking, given my fondness of Chopin's music. So, I am amending this.

A YouTube search for "chopin" wielded this video.

I thought that was kind of cool.

A Prompt for Your Next Sci-Fi Novel

Why is it that each Friday I am too tired to write a coherent post?

Basically, what I want to say is--
a) there is a planet made of diamond;
b) there is a PLANET made of DIAMOND;
c) said planet is 4,000 light years away;
d) it has slighly more mass than Jupiter but is twenty times as dense;
e) it orbits a pulsar star that is 12.4 miles in diameter;
f) if we lived on this planet, we would be very old. Its year is two hours and ten minutes long.
--just in a really brilliant, profound way. But oh well. You may read more about the diamond planet if you wish.

It's like something out of a sci-fi, isn't it? People trying to get to a diamond planet and mine it or something?

It's amazing all the gems stowed away in the universe.

A Great, Terrible Tragedy

"Oh no!" you say. "Olivia missed Musical Monday! Something must be terribly wrong! Was she kidnapped and held hostage? Did her house burn down? Did she contract the reallyscarysoundingosis?"

No, my dear readers. I am afraid a calamity far greater befell me last night. The most tragic, most dreaded scenario of all did I face:

I was internetless.

GASP!

Okay, so maybe I'm being just a tiny bit dramatic. Just a tiny bit. Yesterday morning, I read a book, so I did not post in the morning. In the afternoon was my piano lesson, and then we went and got me some new glasses (squee! I can see again! Well, not quite yet--they won't be ready for seven to ten days) and some groceries ('cause, you know, I guess eating is kind of important. Who'd have guessed?).

In fact, I did not even open my laptop until 6:03 yesterday evening.

I told my mother, "It is 6:03 and I have not been on the computer today. Are you proud of me, or concerned?"
"I'm concerned," she said.
And she went and got my computer.

But at 6:03, I was wiped out from the activities of the day (piano lessons are tiring!! And add Walmart on top of that... phew...), and I could not breathe very well (my respiratory system goes on strike sometimes), and I could not think of a unique-ish video to post (because I've done a lot of piano lately, and I wanted something orchestral, or at least different). (Are you tired of the parentheses yet?)

So I surfed the web for a little while (*coughafewhourscoughcough*) until I was recovered. And then I had a late-night date with Bach. I was playing one of his Inventions on my digital piano/full-length keyboard thing, setting it to all sorts of instruments (including the ancient percussion instrument, Rain, and the wind instrument, Wind, and other such things). Bach sounds lovely on everything from trumpets to mandolins to castanets! The only things that, erm, don't sound so good are evil laughter and clapping.

By then, it was ten-thirty, and then I remembered the horses still hadn't gotten their dinner. I went and did that. When I came in, I finished the last few voices on my piano/keyboard thing, and then logged onto Blogger.

And then... my internet died.

This happens all the time (several times a day, at least!), and is not-too-difficultly fixed by resetting the modem and unplugging the router. However, it was late, and the modem and router are in the bedroom in which my father was asleep. So I just went to bed.

Now that you have read the explanation of yesterday's events which turned out much longer than anticipated, here is this week's (slightly belated) installment.

This is the first movement (at least, I'm fairly certain it would still be considered a movement... but my limited classical knowledge fails in the subject of... konzertstücks... so maybe it's not a movement?) of Schumann's Konzertstück for Four Horns and Orchestra. I got to see this piece performed live by the symphony orchestra a while ago. Much fun!

Appraised Historical Recordings

I'm out of title creativity today. Now, onto your regularly scheduled post.

Do you know what day it is?

It is the day you have eagerly anticipated all week,

the day you set your alarm for four AM but rose at three-thirty

because you were too excited to sleep and leapt out of bed and
quickly turned on your computer and went to Blogger and then went skulking
back to bed because the post you were waiting for was not yet in existence.

You mean you didn't actually do that?

Oh.

Well, anyway, it's

Musical Monday!

The day on which I give you...

...

....

.....

THIS!

(I haven't actually picked out a video for this week yet. I'll go do that.)

Ahem.

The day on which I give you

THIS!

It's Grieg. Playing Grieg. It was recorded in 1903, apparently.

But wait! There's more!

It's scratchy. It's raspy. But it's Brahms, in 1889. Isn't that just cool?

And because I'm in a random mood, a few bullet points for you.

• Last night I dreamed my aunt got a pet iguana, and it was forty-two years old. She wanted to get a photographer out, because it had some kind of medical condition and had really weird eyes.
• I had the first piano lesson of the new school year today.
• After my piano lesson, we got McDonald's and ate it in the car in the parking lot. Suddenly, water droplets appeared all over the windshield. This was very confusing, because it was bright and sunny out, and blue sky was directly overhead, and surely it couldn't be raining. Then my mother pointed out it came from sprinklers.
• After McDonald's, we went to Target. I got a book. They only had the mass market paperback edition, which I've considered getting before, but I'd decided to hold out and get a trade paperback copy. I don't like mass market, because they're hard to hold and have cheap ink that makes me itchy. But today I ended up getting the mass market one anyway. I liked the cover. There's a horse. (Actually, the trade paperback might have exactly the same cover. I've never actually checked. Oh well. Now I have it.)
• It's after nine o'clock and I haven't eaten dinner yet. Do you suppose I should?
• Actually, I think I will, because then I can eat dessert. My mother unwittingly participated in the Zucchini Revolution yesterday by baking chocolate chip zucchini cake. It's yummilicious!
• Actually, I just got my mother's permission to eat chocolate chip zucchini cake for dinner! I'm eating it with a spoon, because the forks are all dirty.
• As I was writing this, I felt something crawling on my neck. It was a tiny jumping spider. Crawling on my neck. How rude.
• People I actually know in real life* may end up seeing this blog.** That is a slightly terrifying prospect. Maybe I should actually try to write my posts intelligently...
• It has taken approximately ten hours to write this post.

*I know! I was surprised I had one too.

**Well, my parents have seen it too, but they already know I'm a cow admirer and zucchini revolutionist.

The Wonderful World of Amoebae

I have a slight fascination with the amoeba.

This fascination, in fact, borders excessive fondness.

I may be the only person in the world who thinks amoebae are cute. Pretty, even.


Don't you just want to huggle it?

What's not to like about a unicellular organism that comfortingly wraps its arms around its prey as it is engulfed and torn apart by enzymes?

"There, there. This won't hurt a bit."

So infatuated am I with amoebae, I wrote a poem dedicated to them.  I'm also collaborating with a friend on a musical starring an amoeba. It's sure to be a Broadway hit.
 

Isn't it pretty? It's like a blob filled with... blobs.

I want a pet amoeba, but instead I have to make due with their cousin, Entamoeba gingivalis. Meet George and Ginger.

They live in my mouth.

But back to the amoeba.

Another part of the reason I like them is that they serve as nice excuses. When my Os come out not quite round, I just say, "Oh, that is a drawing of an amoeba. It's just a coincidence that it's followed by the last five letters of my name." And then I'm only five sixths embarrassed by the awfulness of my penmanship. 

Drawing amoebae gives insecure artists confidence in their ability.

Don't you want an amoeba too?

Credits and stuff: photo one  and three source, photo two source, photo four and five source, image six source.

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor

I could watch that thing all day.

National Cow Week 2011

That's right. May 15-21 is National Cow Week, people!

Just what is National Cow Week, you ask? Inspired by the comments here, it's a week dedicated to sharing stories about our lowing bovine friends.


And guess what? We need your cow story! Whether it be a story about cows being somewhere they shouldn't, cows doing something unnatural, someone being scared of cows, we want it! If your story is even remotely related to cows (including the stuffed or Chick-fil-A kind) we want you to share it.

"But Olivia," you say, "I have no cow story! I've thought and thought and thought, and I can't think of anything that's ever happened to me that's at all related to cows! What can I do to help the cow cause?"

Ask around! Your grandmother, neighbor, or dentist might have a tale to share. Still nothing? Make it up!

"But... why?" you ask. "This is really weird." Well, okay, it sort of is weird, but hey! What's wrong with that? "But," you counter, "this is just so pointless." It is not pointless! There's meaning... somehow! I mean, they're cows! They're so cute! Look at that nose:

Don't you just want to smother that big wet slimy nose with kisses? Don't deny it. You know you want to.

Anyway. Back on topic. If you don't have a blog, that's okay! Tell everyone--friends, family, coworkers, your violin teacher, dishwasher repairman, random people walking down the street--about National Cow Week. Hopefully, this will be the first annual National Cow Week.

We'd love it if you'd email me at ponytales910 [at] ymail [dot] com or Mercy at mercy_vaughn [at] yahoo [dot] com to tell you're participating and let us know about anyone else you held at Super Soaker point convinced to join in the fun.

Readers Around the World

As you can see, I am an adept cartographer. And I kind of
forgot what the rest of the world looks like...

According to my Stats tab, today readers from the US, Canada, India, Malaysia, Australia, and Slovenia have viewed this blog; this week I've had readers from the UK, the Netherlands, Greece, Egypt, and New Zealand; this month I've had readers from Haiti and South Africa, and in the past I've also had readers from the Ukraine.

It was sort of shocking that people from so many places had entered this compilation of nonsensical rambles!

If you're one of my international readers, I'd love it if you could drop a comment! If you're from the US, I'd like your comments anyways. =P