My Sanity Pill

Posted on 4 June 2023 by RobertLovesPi

This is a ball-and-stick molecular image (found on Wikipedia) of an olanzapine (Zyprexa) molecule. It’s the medication prescribed, by my psychiatrist, to treat Brief Psychotic Disorder, which I’ve had, secretly, for a long time.

When I take my meds as prescribed, I’m an atheist and a skeptic. In this state, I can easily handle many science and mathematics problems, well enough to teach at the high school level in both subject fields. If I miss a dose or two, however, one of the first set of symptoms that appears is religious beliefs, seemingly coming out of nowhere.

Later, when I’m medicated again, it becomes clear that those religious beliefs were actually delusional. I don’t think I’ve ever had a non-delusional religious thought.

I try, hard, not to miss doses.

The Latest Episode (With Bandit the Kitten and The Flaming Lips)

Posted on 9 March 2023 by RobertLovesPi

So we’re watching the latest episode of Star Trek: Picard tonight, as we do every Thursday night, when Bandit the Kitten decides to tear a gash in my leg with his incredibly sharp claws.

I waited until the show was over before pouring rubbing alcohol on it, which, of course, stung quite sharply,

In that moment of stinging, I realized that there’s a song for this occasion. It’s by The Flaming Lips.

My favorite lines in this song, “The Gash,” form a question: “Will the fight for our sanity / Be the fight of our lives?” With this kitten here in our apartment, it just might be exactly that.

These Are My People

Posted on 10 September 2022 by RobertLovesPi

For decades, I have been told that one of my great-grandmothers was half-Cherokee, making me at least 1/16th Native American. Recently, though, I sent a DNA sample to AncestryDNA, and these are the results — no Native Americans of any kind. I was also told that I have no Irish ancestors, and that’s not supported by the data, either. Here are the numbers that go with the map above.

The results do support a less precise estimate of my ethnicity: I’m an American mutt. No surprise there.

Mr. Big, the Cat, May Think He’s Going Somewhere, Because the Humans are Packing. We’re Off to Florida, But He’s Not Going.

Posted on 4 July 2022 by RobertLovesPi

I can’t tell yet if Mr. Big wants to help or hinder the process of packing, but he sure is in the middle of things. We’ll see when we finish packing, and then the sun goes down, and we head down to Mobile, Alabama (without cats), from central Arkansas. That will be a good place to crash before the second leg of the trip, to the Orlando area. We’re celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary (which was yesterday) with this trip.

Richard Feynman, On Learning New Things

Image

A DoorDash Mystery

Posted on 17 June 2022 by RobertLovesPi

“Your order was dropped off. Please refer to this photo your Dasher provided to see where it was left.”

I can’t tell if that round thing in the picture our delivery driver texted to us is the Sun, shining through clouds, or the Moon. Either way, we didn’t want our DoorDash order left there.

This Just In . . . Phidippus Audax Is Officially Earth’s Cutest Spider

Posted on 1 June 2022 by RobertLovesPi

I found this playful little guy in Hope, Arkansas, today. Spiders are my favorite animal, and jumping spiders are my favorite group of spider species . . . but phidippus audax is my favorite jumping spider! They act a lot like miniature cats, stalking and pouncing on prey. If you ever see a black and white jumping spider, look for green iridescent chelicerae. If you see this distinctive reflective, metallic green, you’ve found yourself a p. audax. Treat them well, and they’ll eat lots of insects that would otherwise cause problems for us.

This particular spider waved at me, and remained very expressive during our entire encounter. He’d study his surroundings, utterly still, until springing into action so fast that my eyes got left behind, in a cloud of confusion. Fortunately, my wife is skilled with a camera, and was able to catch this shot.

I Went and Got My DNA Examined

Posted on 31 May 2022 by RobertLovesPi

Here’s one of the things I found from my recent subscription to AncestryDNA. I’m surprised, because I was told (as a child) that I was at least 1/16th Cherokee, and had a lot of French as well. I was also told I had Scotch-Irish, but no Irish proper.

“Lots of English” is about the only thing where what I was told when young, and what the DNA says, actually match.

Two Drawings of People

Posted on 2 March 2022 by RobertLovesPi

A Woman in Profile

For three days this week and another three next week, during this round of standardized testing, my assigned task at work, for four to five hours each day, is to guard a locked door to the testing area. I’m not allowed to bring a computer, a cell phone, or even a book, so I brought a clipboard, with ample blank paper, and a handful of freshly-sharpened pencils. As a result, this mostly-mathematical blog will be detouring into drawings for a while. These were the first two.

Two Rhombic Triacontahedra, Each Decorated with Birthday Stars

Posted on 13 January 2022 by RobertLovesPi

In yesterday’s post, I unveiled my annual birthday star for my new age, 54. Today, I’m placing that 54-pointed star on each of the thirty faces of a rhombic triacontahedron. I use a program called Stella 4d (free trial available right here) to do this, and it allows images on polyhedron-faces to either be placed inside the face, or around the face. Here’s the “inside” version: