Sunday, March 6, 2016

Former lives and former jobs: 3 things you may not know about me, but tell you a lot about who I am

I don't know why I was thinking about this today. I have met so many new people in my life that only know the person I am today and not much about who I am.  So here is my list - Enjoy!


3 things you may not know about me, but tell you a lot about who I am


1) I once tried to get my hair to go fire engine red by bleaching it, then dyeing it red. It turned out orange. I looked like Ronald McDonald. Not the look I was going for. Then I grew it out, cut it and had flaming tips. Everyone wanted to know how to get that hairstyle. 

2) I worked all sorts of camp counselor jobs. I used to do volunteer overnight shifts at the Boston Children's Museum for things like girl scout nights. I was a volunteer zoo camp assistant counselor for the Roger Williams Park Zoo one summer. I was even a counselor at YMCA camp outside Boston and even informally was promoted to arts and crafts director. At the Children's Museum, I learned Arnold Schwarzenegger was not that tall, I was on TV once for the RWPZ holding a gecko, and at the end of the YMCA stint, a camper accidentally got tempura paint on my eye and the incident left me covered in hives for a week, just before starting college.

3) I often worked multiple jobs at a time. During the YMCA summer, I was also hired to work nights and weekends at Marshall's in the accessories dept, where I could live out my dream to organize all the messy jewelry kiosks all day long. Working the register was also a highlight. But perhaps my favorite summer job was working at MIT. It was back when other people did your photocopying for you, and you could rent out time on an iMac for $10/hr. I think photocopying books of Putnam exams made me want even more to show that I could make it in the math world. But I loved it the most because I felt like it was family. I still think about them all the time.

smile emoticon My happy random thought for the day.

Do you have a short story that tells people about you? Feel free to share it in the comments.
This post was first published under another blog of mine, "the adventures of pi girl."

Friday, March 4, 2016

A subset of my life

To the blogger realms.

I am a mathematician.
I am a wife.
I am a mother.
I am a teacher.
I am a biologist. Please note, dry lab only.
I am a enthusiast of life.

I succeed and I fail, but I do.  Because as a wise puppet once said, "Do or do not, there is no try."

I walk gently, I stomp, I try to do a little part of making the world a happier place. A little epsilon on the tale of a big sequence.

I believe in community, and the power of community.

Pi Day

Our school is having a pi day parody karaoke contest.  My entry is shared below.  Enjoy, laugh, sing!

Tune - If you could only see
By Tonic


If you could only know pi
By Dr. DE


If you could only know no end to my pi,
then maybe you would understand
why I feel this way about our pi
and what it can do.
If you divide circumference by diameter, it would be
3.14159...

Well you got your logic,
and you got your lines
and you got your manipulations.
Don't cut it down to size.
Pi’s irrational won't stop,
Transcendental that's wha-at.
If you could only know no end to pi,
then maybe you would understand,
why I feel this way about our pi,
and what it can do.
If you could divide circumference by diameter, it would be
3.14159...

Math’s the road less traveled,
show's mysteries unraveled,
and you got to take a little dirt
to do what you love.
That's what you gotta do


Pi’s irrational won't stop,
transcendental that's what.
You're stretching out your mind to something that's infinite.


Singin’ e to pi i’s negative one,
you gotta work but you won't.


If you could only see no end to pi,
then maybe you would understand
why I feel this way about our pi,
and what it can do
If you could divide circumference by diameter, it would be
3.14159...

Singin’ e to pi i’s negative one,
you gotta work but you won't.
Sayin' you love what you do,
get your As where you can


If you could only know no end to pi,
then maybe you would understand,
why I feel this way about our pi,
and what it can do.
If you could divide circumference by diameter, it would be
3.14159...