A little bit of exploring on the intartubes brought me into the wonderful world of fractals, which holds so much more than merely the popular Mandelbrot set. Looking through the websites I encountered, I felt a little bit of the excitement that theoretical mathematicians must get from Figuring Stuff Out - until, of course, that point (which occurs in any summary of mathematical phenomena) when the ratio of intelligible to unintelligible symbols in a given sentence reaches a tipping point and I might as well me reading Hungarian. Anyway, there are some beautiful images in this field; do your own search for some of the names in the title.
Besides the normal blah-blah-blah of teaching and whatnot, the "highlight" of yesterday was supposed to my attending a signing event at Zanadu comics. Comics guru Scott McCloud is on a 50-state tour to promote his new book, Making Comics. I went down, and the scene was what you would expect, I guess: Scott at a table and a line of people stretching through the store, each person in turn stepping up, presenting a book to be autographed, and exchanging a few minutes of conversation with the author.
I hung around for a bit, but really couldn't get into the process. I hadn't brought anything to have signed, but that was because I just don't get the whole autograph business anyway. I would like to have had a few minutes with Scott, to talk about using comics in the classroom, but standing at a table with twenty people lined up behind me didn't seem to be the way I wanted to do it, and besides, I try to avoid standing in lines for anything if I can help it. In the end, I just hung around a bit and eavesdropped on some of the conversations before packing it in. I'll try to find a more suitable venue - such as a seminar of a presentation - in which to interact with the sensei.
The part of yesterday's plan that did not go awry was the having-a-great-dinner part. Otis and I met Dingo, and eventually Johnbai and O, at Piecora's. The food was great but the company was even better, and reminded me of the value of wide-ranging, intelligent conversation with interested and interesting people. Sweet.
Just cuz I dig hardhat deep-sea divers, here's the Jumble I did the other day. (For all you Bogglists (Bogglers? Bogglados? Bogglistas?) out there, this took about 45 seconds to complete.)
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