The Pain Is Gone (but not without cost)

Posted on 19 November 2012 by RobertLovesPi

Every day for almost 25 years, my vertebrae from mid-neck to torso have been jammed together, by a fall I had at age 20. It hurt like hell, at times, or it just hurt, but it never, ever stopped completely, until all of this happened.

Eyes closed, I attacked the pain as if it were an inanimate thing, laying backward on the corner of the mattress with the one point of contact being a bit above the spot between my shoulder blades, centered horizontally West-East, while facing North. It moved to the left. I followed, pursuing it — and then we shifted to it and me stretching myself in opposite directions, then with the forces in the same direction again, then the reverse again, with this cycle repeated many times.

Pain, my enemy, then made a rapid jump to an entirely new quadrant. The focus line of movement, in reaction, shifted at my center of mass. I rotated by a right angle counter-clockwise, and was now facing West with my hands on a line South-North, lined up with my shoulders. I pointed my fingers up-down and stretched that way as well, and had therefore identified three mutually perpendicular directions, in each case coming up with some way to reverse the direction of force (having my arms both curled tightly in front of my face and beyond, in the second case, and then touching my toes and holding them for the reversal of up-down.

At that point, I stood straight up. I was shocked. I still am. This hasn’t worn off, as I write this. As long as I stand straight up — but only then — the pain is gone.

Gone. And that damned thing had me going to doctors and chiropractors for years. Gone, just like that. I had no idea this would result from my spontaneous and protracted, intense exercise session, but it did.

If I slouch in any way, though, I get immediate and intense pain, which quickly trained me to stand and sit up straight. I don’t know, yet, how or if sleep will work, and haven’t tested the perfectly horizontal. If I want anything more casual than full attention, I have to tolerate pain for as long as the deviation persists, pain with intensity proportional to the deviation.

I’ve created my own Skinner Box, although I didn’t realize that was what I was doing. I can lie in it, but I wonder if I can sleep in it?

I don’t recommend trying this yourself, unless you first consult with, and obtain the approval of, a physician. Further updates as events warrant.

“What are we ever going to use geometry for, anyway?”

Posted on 4 November 2012 by RobertLovesPi

I teach geometry, so I get asked this question a lot.

Of course, the subject has many uses, from architecture to the study of ziggurats, but I don’t like to focus on tawdry, real-world uses for it. Geometry is far too important to me for its value to be measured in terms of mere utility.

Without the octadecagon and the nonagon, and my curiosity about them, for example, I never would have come up with this pattern:

Was it useful for me to do this? Such a question would miss the point completely. It was FUN to make this, and that’s why I did it. While I worked on it, I thought about absolutely nothing that bothers me. The rest of the world vanished, leaving only a mathematical pattern, and I was completely happy.

I guess one could look at this as a “use,” but — yuck — I certainly do not want to.

Hi There. I’m RobertLovesPi.

Posted on 14 July 2012 by RobertLovesPi

RobertLovesPi is the name I use on the Internet, and I come to WordPress as a refugee from Tumblr, where I have grown tired of what I call the “reblogging-virus.” I am here to get a fresh start.

I am interested in a great many things. It would be silly for me to try to list all these topics here and now, so I won’t do that. My interests will become apparent as this blog progresses.

Regarding demographic basics, I was born in 30 B.G. (“Before Google”), but have become so accustomed to life in cyberspace that it now seems, to an almost scary degree, as if I am a native. I am 44 years old at the time of this blog’s inception, and work as a teacher of science (as well, sometimes, other subjects, varying from year to year) at a high school in Arkansas. It doesn’t take much math to figure out that this blog is starting in the year 14 A.G. (“Age of Google”) on my preferred calendar — if one knows that, unlike with the conventional calendar most Americans use, there is a Google Year Zero, also known as 1998 CE. And, yes, I invented the Google-based calendar myself. Why not?

As for my cyberspace name, it isn’t a joke. I really do love pi. Just don’t spell it with an “e,” please. If you do, that refers to someone else.

Also, my favorite number isn’t 3.14, no matter what your geometry teacher told you. And, no matter what I Kings 7:23 says, it certainly isn’t exactly 3. This can be proven with nothing more than a coffee can and some string.

Evidence is important to me, for I have been fooled before. I try my best to keep myself from being fooled again. If you want to persuade me of anything, be prepared to show me the evidence.