Learning some new things

Well last night I began studying mathmatics again, in an attempt to do for myself what the school system never was able to do. I discovered a bit over a year ago that while I can't remember exactly how to figure the circumferance of a circle after nearly a year of traditional geometry class, I can pick up the basic idea of fourth dimensional Geometry in about an hour of self study.

So with this new idea of studying to learn, and to know, I am trying to learn math from the start. I've a few books and resources to help me out and I will say I made some rather good breakthroughs last night in understanding. But lest you misunderstand me, it was because I was so annoyed by the methods used by the education material I had come by.

If this is how they teach math these days, it's no wonder so many people resort to calculators and such. The book takes the approach of rarely if ever using actual numbers. Everything is done in actual counted squares. Admittedly it helps visualise some processes like exponents but seriously. Most of the time it just made it harder to understand. The Text is meant to be for 4th to 8th graders, but it's either best suited for dyslexics or illiterates. But By reading this and struggling to get what on earth this looney woman was trying to convey I can come to a point where I can say, jeez that would have been so much easier to understand if she had just done it this way. And you know what, my alternatives to the method that is so wrong for me is working so much better for me right now. I do hope that this silly block system will have some value in the geometry area.

Once I'm done with this collosal book I'll use another couple I have to help me flesh out my understanding all the way through trig.

But that is not all that I'm studying this month, this is also the month I'm going to be working on learning a computer language (HTML, Basic or both), which I have yet to start with, and Sumerian cuniform.

I'm actually kind of antsy to get to the cuniform. I've got a sumerian lexicon and 109 of the most common cuniform symbols and their phonetic values printed and ready to help me out.

This promises to be a bit of fun. I'm also doing some reading of other sorts (Cyclops by Euripedies, treasure island RLStevenson, and Redwall) for research purposes, and a few works for just plain fun. But admittedly the research is fun too. I'm such a nerd.

Over the next few days I hope to get some good news of one type or another, and as soon as I do, I'll post on it. Expect to hear back from me for sure on Monday night.

Until then take care of yourselves,
Roving Jack