What Stress?

Technology's impact on those who pursue art or math. Good isn’t Good Enough.

First off, I would like to preface this piece of writing with a disclaimer. The ideas drafted here are just that, drafts. They are based purely on my views of the universe without external reasearch at this time.

All of that said...

Artists and Mathematicians, treated by the traditions academic structure as opposites far to often, are drawn together by some critical similarities. This piece will focus on just one of those similarities, how mathematical and artistic pursuits have changed with modern times. 

Proficiency in a set of mathematical or artistically based skills is incredibly useful and impressive to many who do not share those skills. Being able to balance a checkbook or represent something from life that someone else can recognize are both useful skills that many envy. These basic skills however, are mere tasks, that can in today’s age be completed by a computer. Many people have adopted the use of Microsoft’s Excel for keeping track of their financial transactions and generations worth of people now communicate via pictures taken on a smart phone. 

So what then, is the purpose of studying either mathematics or art, if in our day to day lives we will use some form of computer to preform many of the tasks that were once claimed as their uses by high school teachers everywhere. Years ago my teachers had already thought of that, the justification time after time being “You need to understand what the computer is doing”. I would not argue that that is an invalid explanation, especially for those who are not particularly interested in studying the subject. The real argument for either mathematics or art is advancement. 

Awareness of Denominators

It’s been over an hour, by my approximations 2-2.5 hrs of cranking away on the last problem due tomorrow. It wasn’t that hard of a problem, and yet, little mistakes here and there cost me time. Forgotten weight of a negligible thickness post, and silly little math errors galore checked re-checked and corrected... I was close...so close, to the answer in the back of the book, but just not close enough.

Pained I searched my work and questioned my knowledge until at long last the culprit was found, a demonic little 3/5 that had become a 3/4, changing two half pages of work just enough to throw everything off.

Ladies, Gentlemen and Martian’s of all ages, Watch your demon-inators.

A Damn Good Friend

These days, life is stressful. Everyone needs a Damn Good Friend.

Weeks ago, this friend of mine brought me flowers partially pressed in a notebook. Upon receiving them they were pressed in textbooks. I turned to my textbook in search of clarity, thinking I would find myself a diagram. I found a different more beautiful kind of clarity.

To a Damn Good Friend, Thank You (:

“Life Sucks... Then You Die”

It’s been a rough couple weeks. Mum used to play this. It feels fitting tonight on Mars. 

“This is Major Tom To Ground Control...”

A cheap solution to heat problems:

A dear friend is working a factory job and has had heat stroke several times due to the recent heat wave. Said friend is in a financial position that limits options and resources. Time to put my overpriced engineering education to work. Here's what we came up with.

Resources required:

Watter bottle, preferably plastic though any will work.

Long sleeve T shirt

Implementation:

Fill watter bottle with water and place in freezer with lid removed

Roll in T-shirt

Use sleeves to tie around body like a belt/fanny pack.

Limitations: This is a minimal, temporary solution. Once the ice is melted it will no longer help.

Benefits: Acess to a freezer, a bottle, water, and a shirt is all that is required.

Stardate 73155.1

Sol15

Earth date 9/9/2019

Today I try oat milk. Discovery: oat milk tastes very little like milk and very much like sad oatmeal.

Healthy Life Choices:

My mother insists I eat more protein as my post-flu diet has been poor.

My doctor insists I increase my iron intake as my Martian diet lacks meats.

I think... I have found a solution:

The best laid plans of Martians  & “I think it’s gonna be a long long time”

I packed my bags tonight, pre-flight....

And everything went south from there, and not in the way I intended. 

After much deliberation and anticipation packed and climbed into my MAV. This was after, I should note, clearing the frozen Martian precipitation from my windshield. And yes, I know what you’re thinking ‘snow can’t fall on mars’, but due to the atmospheric regulations in this particular valley it does, and what was particularly relevant to me this afternoon was not the particulars of how this is possible but more the difficulty of clearing it from my vehicle. I did so in only the most sophisticated and intuitive manner (utalizing a baseball cap, sock and plastic butter knife when I discovered my car lacked a snow scraper). 

So at long last, I began the journey.

And then I had no breaks. I do not know what is wrong with them, and I wasn’t about to use my education in engineering to stand out in the cold and figure out how they work, or more accurately why they didn’t. I decided I was satisfied with sayin’ alive. 

So my night went south, without me actually making it any further south. Ah well “the best laid plans of mice and [martians] so often fall astray” (Burns, To A Mouse). I guess it’s gonna be “a long long time” before I get home again (Elton John, Rocket Man).