It is an interesting question, DaveT, why math is a central part of the school curriculum the world over. Few will ever have to calculate e.g. 2/3 + 5/7, yet the long-suffering taxpayer is required to fund its teaching.

My guess is it's about logical thought.

the fall thread was just starting to get good and john went and closed it.

virtually everything in the world is a product of math in some way. if you dont understand much of math and its effects you are doomed to mediocrity. but for many that also means happiness. go figure.

My "real life" math work breaks down to this:

<$ my paycheck> - <$ stuff I buy> = <$ what's left over>

My work involves set theory and graph theory, which isn't algebra, but apparently still math.

***

This a diversion from the cartoon.

John can do no wrong. Says John.

The 80s were just getting good too, there at the last before the 90s ruined everything. That's how it goes. The Buddhists call that Anicca iirc, impermanence etc.

So, I been dipping my toes into this whole dating thing. I downloaded Bumble, which is like Tinder for people who aren't looking to hookup (I think?).

The concept is strange. If you match, the woman has to make the first "hi," and that's literally (sorry) how they all start off. Now, I get the point of this, but it's a bit backwards because women simply aren't raised to initiate conversations with men. They don't know how to do it, so you, as the guy, have to drop breadcrumbs and see if she gets the point, and more often than not, she doesn't. I could write an example, but I'm sure your imagination can create something close to reality.

I'm a guy, which means that the odds of me matching are oh... idk, 1%? My only advantage is that I look 10 years younger than my stated age, but that's offset because I'm maybe 1 pip above average-looking.

What's a guy like me to do? I say "yes" to everyone. When there is a match, I more often than not, immediately unmatch. Kind of mean, but this activity goes both ways.

Today, my match is some 43 year old from a different country. She looks great, but her profile says "wants children."

??

send her a few. thats the least you can do.

Dave,

I've tried Timber. I'm looking for women who wear flannel shirts and can wield an axe.

Seriously, I could never imagine myself on any sort of dating site.

they are crawling all over you john at work and you are scared sh**less of them.

Only the divorced and single ones, Ray.

I'm perfectly fine with the happily married ones.

At that age, the bio clock has already ran out or is about to very shortly.

Using online to meet women, other musicians, and people in general is just as hit-or-miss as it is meeting people in real life... mostly miss. Either you connect or you don't, and that's all there really is to it. It just comes down to the experience, no matter what.

I hadn't listened to George Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children in over thirty years.

It ends with this from one of Lorca's poems:

My heart of silk

is filled with lights,

with lost bells,

with lilies, and with bees,

and I will go very far,

farther than those hills,

farther than the seas,

close to the stars,

to ask Christ the Lord

to give me back my ancient soul of a child.

Wrote and said a nice eulogy for my friend at his service yesterday. His 12 year old son, 13 year old daughter, and 26 year old daughter all managed to say some beautiful words without crying. I almost managed the same. 53 is way to young.

Great party afterwards with music, speeches, remembrances, and lots of drinking.

Bill went out like a King.

He was always the one I would call when something memorable - good or bad -happened in my life. Now I don't know who to call.

John, what did I miss about your work drama?? You were replaced or something? tell me again. And sorry, that sucks.

It really doesn't suck, Dom. I'm simply going back to teaching. Of course, I take a pay cut, which does suck, but I won't be working fifty hours a week. And I have been collecting dean's pay since last April without working, using up sick and vacation time.

The only thing that sort of worries me is returning to full time teaching when I haven't taught more than one course a semester for seven years and none for the last three and a half years.

That's sad, Dom. After my friend Tim died, I decided I need to spend more time with my oldest friends. And I have as much as possible lately. It's helped.

ah....no biggie. It's like riding a bike.

I didn't do so well with that either.

A bit of abandonment and damage here on my landlocked paradise (accessible only by boat or plane) but not far from the usual.

Fare thee well, Dear Autumnal mead thread. Hello, new thread and old friends

1936

I raise. jk Chico is good. charisma for days

melody and chord progression