red delicious apples are the worst

I don't know who named red delicious apples, but they are a liar. Those are the worst apples I can think of. How did red delicious become the iconic apple? Need a picture of an apple? Here's a red delicious. We had plenty to take pictures of because no one wants to eat any of them. Even among the red apples, red delicious is the worst one. They're soft and pulpy and their flavor is just plain and boring.

We should start a coalition to abolish the production and sale of red delicious apples. I dream of a future where we'll just eat galas, or fujis, or pink ladies when we want red apples. I dream of a world where red delicious is no longer in lists of the 15, or 10, or (gasp) 3 most common or popular apples. What in the world? Stop it, they're no good! Together we can make the world a better place. No more red delicious!

not even once

but even if not

"If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and He will deliver us from Your Majesty's hand. But even if He does not..."

I have always liked the story of the three fellows and the fiery furnace. Perhaps it is because of watching VeggieTales' Rack, Shack, and Benny oh so many times [the Bunny Song is powerfully catchy, you know]. Or maybe it is the natural appeal of Men Thrown in Fire and Survive Without a Single Burn [you just cannot top that epic-ness (though I suppose "Eaten and Subsequently Spit Up by Huge Fish" or "Spend a Night in Lion's Den with Undomesticated Feline" or "Dead for Three Days and Live Again" are pretty ridiculous feats as well)].

But I think what makes Daniel 3 really stick with me is the response given to the king when he gives them the ultimatum of bowing down to him or being thrown to a fiery death. They confidently acknowledge the power and unquestionable ability of the God they serve to deliver them from their current situation [despite the king's insistence otherwise]. They seem to have not a doubt in their minds that their God can deliver them. And that in itself is a good reminder to take away from this story. No matter the circumstances or overwhelming odds or seemingly inevitable bad ending, God is able to deliver us from it. Period. To believe otherwise is to completely disregard a huge part of His character, a huge part of who He is in our lives. He is our Deliverer [read a few psalms if you want a refresher].

But even that aside, what sticks out to me personally is what they continue on to say. "But even if He does not..." But even if He does not. Even if He does not keep the bad from happening, prevent the sickness from killing, deliver me from my enemies... Even if He does not, it doesn't make Him any less God. It doesn't make Him any less good. It doesn't make Him any less present. Those men, no doubt, were hoping God would deliver them from being thrown into the fire. They knew He was able to do so. But at the same time, they knew it did not really matter. If He did not deliver them, they were not going to change their beliefs or actions. Their trust and faith would not be shaken. Even if God did not deliver them, they knew He would still be with them. Even to death.

I like this. It's a good reminder. Even if the bad happens, even if pain comes, even if death is imminent, my God is the all-powerful Deliverer. He is able to deliver me no matter how gloomy the outlook. But even if He does not... I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He will stand with me through it all. And really, that's all I really need.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?”

They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.”

“Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”

On an entirely different note, last night was the first night in well over a week that I was able to sleep through the night. Not once did I wake up. I didn't have to miserably sit in the dark trying to stop coughing long enough to fall back asleep. No feelings of someone punching me in the stomach every time I coughed. It was lovely. 

I don't think I've been this sick in a long, long time. I really can't even remember the last time I felt so awful. The days of fever and aches were absolutely miserable. I have never had aches so bad that it actually hurt to have someone touch me. It was so weird. Generally, my coughing phase is always the worst and longest part of my being sick. I think it's always been that way. But this time, I actually coughed so hard and so often that my sternum actually felt bruised and was super painful every time I coughed. Unpleasant. 

Ah, health. Thank you, God. Taking a breath never felt so good.

Slightly related note:  I must cut my hair. It is entirely too long and annoyed me to pieces while I was sick. I think another self-hacking is in order. Oh the excitement! Snip snip snippety snip! Now where can one find a whetstone...

This is what I feel like.

The Far Oasis

Sharayah and I have both been sick for several days - me since last Monday, and Sharayah since Friday or Saturday. Pretty miserable sometimes, but we're toughing it out together. Today Sharayah asked me to tell her a story to help her feel better. She asked for a story about a camel and a porcupine who become friends. Well. This was the best I could do. It's obviously just silliness, but it was well received. When I was done, we drew pictures to illustrate the story, so I've included those here.

Warning: if you are not a 5-year-old little girl, or in the state of one, this story may not be for you.

Now, on to the story.

The Far Oasis.

Once upon a time, Camel was going on one of his long walks in the big desert.

Camel loved going on these long walks, but there was a great peril to the desert. You see, Camel never paid attention to where he was walking and, as you know, deserts are full of cacti. Camel was always getting cactus pricklies stuck in his legs where he would bump into them. Camels are not very good with opposable digits, so Camel usually left the spikes where they were.

This day would be different.

Camel was walking through the desert as we mentioned before. He already had 2 spikes in one leg and 3 spikes in another because the clouds were very pretty today and he kept looking up. It was while he was looking up when he suddenly stumbled upon a strange little creature. It was like a cactus because it was covered in spikes, but it wasn't green and it had feet and eyes. Well, it had a whole face. If this strange creature hadn't seen Camel coming, he might have been kersplatted, and Camel would have had a very sore foot. As it happened, Steve the Porcupine saw that big foot coming and let out a yelp.

When camel looked down and saw the strange creature, he said, "Oh hello there, little brown cactus. Sorry I almost stepped on you." Steve said, "I'm not a cactus. I'm a porcupine."

Camel and Steve talked for a while and found out that unlike most porcupines, but much like our friend Camel, Steve liked to go for walks in the desert. However, he couldn't go far because he wasn't  good at finding water and he was scared he would get lost. However, he was good at getting spikes out of camels, which he did while they chatted.

He was so good at it that Camel barely noticed. It didn't hurt a bit. Camel told Steve that he could come along on his walk and he would be sure they would find plenty of water and not get lost.

Thus began the greatest companionship between camel and porcupine that ever would be.

Steve began to join Camel on his daily walks. They both had plenty of water and no one had spikes stuck in them for very long, unless you count the spikes that were a part of Steve. On one of these walks, they decided to go all the way to the Far Oasis. This was a very long journey, and even Camel had never gone so far, though he had heard it was a wonderful oasis. Camel assured Steve that all would be well because he knew of a good route that should have enough stops for water. They set off immediately.

When they were about half way, they encountered a strange thing. A big lone bird was circling in the sky. He swooped lower and lower as they walked. As they approached their third pit stop of the day, the bird landed on a small tree by the water.

The bird's name was Phil, and he was a vulture. We can't say why, but he didn't want them to get all across the desert. He wanted them to get stuck in the middle. Phil pretended to be polite. "Hello there, old chaps. You wouldn't be headed toward the Far Oasis, would you? I was just there this morning. They have bad weather. You don't want to go there. Plus, there was a giant cactus patch halfway in the way. You'll get covered in spikes. You should head down to the Dark Valley. From what I hear, there's a big family reunion of camels and porcupines in the Dark Valley, and it starts tonight."

Well, when Phil first began his speech. Steve and Camel were skeptical. To start with, Camel was usually good at sensing weather and, furthermore, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. However, Camel and Steve had often longed to find a herd of camels and porcupine to call their own. "Say, Camel," said Steve, "maybe this strange bird is right. Let's go to the Dark Valley instead."

They set off at once. At first, everything seemed fine. The farther they got from their original path, the more they were unsure. Camel couldn't find an oasis where he thought one should be. The clouds started showing up and looming over them. Sometimes they thought they spotted that old vulture circling above. What finally tipped the scales was when they found the cactus pit. Far and wide, cacti as far as the eye could see.

They were sure this wasn't right. Camel did not want to go through such a big cactus pit, even with Steve there to help remove the spikes. Regretfully, they had to turn back. They were very sad they would not find that herd of camels and porcupines, but by now they were not sure it ever existed.

Slowly and wearily, they made their way back to the oasis where they had first met Phil. It was a long walk and they were very thirsty. Camel was doing pretty good, but little Steve couldn't store nearly as much as water and he was beat. They walked and walked, the hot sun beating down, and just when Steve thought he couldn't go anymore, Camel found the oasis. After they refreshed themselves, they had a hard decision. Should they go on to the Far Oasis or should they head back home? They decided to press on to the Far Oasis. It turned out it was smooth sailing. The weather was crisp and cool, and there was an extra oasis along the way. There were barely any cacti, and Steve only had to remove 2 spikes from Camel the rest of the trip. Finally, they reached the Far Oasis.

They could not believe their eyes. Not only was there a great oasis with sparkling streams of water and tall, cool trees, there was a strange herd on the other side. They could swear they saw some camels. Not only that, they were quite sure there were porcupines.

Why had that grumpy old Phil sent them the wrong way? They just couldn't figure it out, but they decided it didn't matter. They ran as fast as they could to join their new friends. Of course, Steve and Camel were always the best of friends, but they enjoyed having a whole new group to be a part of.

Sometimes on a very clear day, they thought they might see old Phil circling in the distance. No one knew for sure why he had been so mean. Maybe he was just lonely and jealous. Sometimes Camel and Steve went for walks in the desert, but Phil never talked to them again. They always enjoyed their walks together, but instead of going home alone, they came each day to Far Oasis to join their very own herd. They lived happily ever after.

the Mundane Facts

Mundane Fact #1:  Flamingos and Owls are not compatible.

I must have slept like a flamingo last night as I have not been able to turn my head to the right without feeling an odd tugging sensation by my shoulder. It is just unpleasant enough that I won't mind when it sorts itself out, but it is also not so unpleasant as to keep me from repeatedly trying to turn my head to the right and pretending I'm an old arthritic owl who can no longer enjoy 270° head rotation.

Mundane Fact #2:  An air popper is as acceptable as a hairdryer.

In order to best prepare for movie nights on a semi-vacation, popcorn, seasonings, and [of course] a popcorn popper [which, in my fingers' current state (typing with the dexterity of squashed penguin sausages), I just typed as a "popcorn pooper" (which almost {not really} still makes sense)] were hauled cross-country amidst the rest of our not-entirely-necessary belongings. Happily, we have made good use of it all and have enjoyed a couple relaxing movie nights eating tastily seasoned popcorn. What we did not think of prior, however, was whether a popcorn popper [dangit, I just typed... Well. You know.] would be too noisy for a hotel room late at night. What with the whirring and blooshing and popping and, of course, the squeaks and squeals coming from me every time an unpopped kernel ricocheted out of the bowl, it is a decently noisy event. We decided to risk it, and lo and behold, we received zero angry phone calls. Whew. The conclusion that we came to was that, realistically, the popper was really only as noisy as the hotel-supplied hairdryer. And who can complain about drying hairs? So... Success!

Mundane Fact #3:  Home is where the heart and laptop/internet are.

Working from home has its perks, prime among them being the ability to work from home [it makes sense]. Working from home also has its slight drawbacks:  Work can go wherever there's an internet connection. During our 2 weeks of Wyoming math conferencing, pretending to be vacationing, and ice-cream-ing it up, I have had to work normal old work hours, get this, as if I were at home. It is nearly criminal, I tell you. I really cannot complain, though. The advantages far outweigh the hours of work. I had an immensely fun 26-hour car ride filled with so many different stories and sights [and we get to do it again in a couple of days!]. I had an absolutely terrific [and utterly exhausting] day of exploration at Laramie's Turtle Rock. And, most importantly, Jason and I get to continue our 1,873 day streak of never, ever having to be apart. I know it may be silly, but this is a big deal. I have such a good life. Anyway, so I have been working away while Jason has been mathing, and because Jesus loves me [or due to the change in time zone (Mountain Time isn't a real time zone) and, thus, the change in what hours I'm working] I have had pretty easy-going work weeks while here. Productivity for the win.

Home away from home.

Mundane Fact #4:  Life in a snow globe is incredibly humbling.

Wyoming isn't terribly flat as one might suppose. But at the same time, it has a really neat feeling of openness that often gives you a feeling of flat lands. You can see mountain ranges all across the horizon, the sun sets in [I'm fairly certain] all directions, and [at least in Laramie] the cities are all short enough to keep up the feeling of open lands everywhere you look. I find it a gorgeous change of scenery for 2 weeks. When I go outside and look around, I like to imagine I am a tiny little Korean in the middle of a gigantic and insanely detailed snow globe. You can see exactly where the sky meets the land no matter what direction you look. When you look up, you know you can see the arching glass of the globe way, way, way above you [the Maker of the snow globe tries to distract you from seeing it by putting perpetually changing clouds (tiny penguin! horse head! t-rex making a bed!) all around, and it works swimmingly, I tell you]. I am always waiting to feel someone shaking my little snow globe of a world. I just want to frolic in the snow! But sigh, it is now officially summer, so I suppose that is not realistic. That aside, however, I have found the environment of this part of the country exhilarating. Its snow-globe-ish feel is refreshing. I find myself constantly in awe of the most ordinary things. This trip has been a lovely reminder of the ridiculous amounts of beauty and awesome that we live in. [Just so your senses don't get overwhelmed by it all, Wyoming kindly puts in over-filled trailer parks to keep your feet grounded in reality.] I love snow globe life.

Waiting for the snow.

In a couple of days, we will start our trip back to Delaware. While we have gone through the Books We Read Aloud a bit faster than I thought, I think we'll have just enough to get us the 26 hours home, plus the Books We Listen To have plenty of hours left. And for the sleepy times, I don't think we'll ever run out of the Music We Play Really Loud since we literally brought along our 200 Perfectly Alphabetized CD collection. We are such good travelers. :)

Until next time!

This is what it feels/looks like being Asian in Wyoming.

the equality state

Well, we made it to Wyoming. It was quite a long drive, but it was actually pretty enjoyable. We seem to be pretty good roadtrippers. We listened to a lot of book on tape (only 1 book, but a lot of hours in it), Sharayah read a few books out loud (including Hank the Cowdog! Sharayah's Drover voice is great, though he seems sadder than I remember), and we rocked out to good music whenever we felt sleepy. Our little room has a nice view that gets a beautiful sunset each night, and we get breakfast in bed each morning (although I have to go get it from the lobby and bring it back, it's still very nice).

I was surprised to find out that the elevation of Laramie is over 7000 feet. By the way, if you find yourself in such a city, be careful when you open liquids that were originally closed in Delaware (average elevation 60 ft). Even at the local Walmart, everything that's sealed is puffy. You can tell none of it came from here. We got some hand sanitizer and somehow forgot what happens, and... well, my car is very sanitary now.

I was also surprised to learn that Wyoming is The Equality State. They named it a long time ago. As a certain little Korean noted, "I don't think 0.8% is equality." Apparently only 0.8% of the population is Asian here. This state is over 90% white. Maybe that's what they meant by equality? I still think it's silly that they even track such things, but it's a little funny.

The conference has been pretty interesting so far. It's a little tiring sitting and listening and trying to learn new things for so many hours a day (I was about to ask how we used to do it in high school, but then I remembered that you don't learn anything in high school...), but the talks have been good so far. It's a little funny putting 60 or 70 math people in a room and watching them interact. I can make fun of us because I am one of us. Most of us just aren't experts at being social, but then we all have a similar interest so we all try to talk to each other about it. Actually there are enough people who are good enough at it to carry the conversations and avoid awkwardness, but if we weeded out those 10%, man. That would be something.

Perhaps I will give more updates as it goes.

life in review

In lieu of actually writing anything of worth since my brain is feeling a rare sense of abnormally normal [read: boring] thoughts, here is a list of blog topics that I meant to touch on [or may touch on in the future] at some point but that I may just end up forgetting the context for since I find it's more entertaining to jot down a couple words as a reminder instead of elaborating in a more informative sentence. Following? Good. Let's bullet-point it!

• Potatoes. [There's a keeper, eh?]
• Fiery furnace. [Biblical reference maybe?]
• Heaven. [For a topic as potentially expansive as "heaven," I did not help myself out much here.]
• You make that choice. [Ooh, this one sounds interesting. However, all that is coming to mind is a picture of Uncle Sam when I read this possible blogging topic... or maybe Smokey Bear? Sigh.]
• Good-looking actors. [Perhaps this was in reference to Jason's infamous, "Well, <name of some other actor> is no Brad Pitt" declaration?]
• Love doesn't always feel like "happiness." [Boom.]
• P as in Peter. [I know this definitely did not have anything to do with Peter Pan or Peter Rabbit... but otherwise, I've got nothing. Ishk.]
• Am I pretty? A study. [...]

I really wish my brain would print out an invoice of Today's Thoughts. It would entertain me and be oh so helpful.

Another cop-out device for blogging is just posting pictures of things instead of writing about them [unless it is a picture blog, in which case I guess writing instead of posting pictures would be the easy way out?]. So, I will now cover all of our current going-ons with a picture from anything that I consider note-worthy. Follow along, please.

Firstly, progress report on Mario and Luigi. [Yes, yes, this is most definitely note-worthy! We live simple lives with simple joys.] This is their growth through the Month of May. Luigi has sprouted upward at an incredible rate whilst Mario continues his fated horizontal journey. They're fulfilling their destinies!

June trees make May trees look pathetic and sad.

Ever want to see an upside-down Jason in a water droplet? The moment is now.

A little visitor: Mr. Fluffy Pants

On a related note, we are also attempting to make a pepper plant from pepper seeds. As we are not gardeners by any stretch of the imagination, our fingers are crossed. Frustratingly, however, some random cat has decided to make our planters his litter box. I am pretty sure he is a buddy of Panther's who has been roped into making our lives even more cat-poop-filled; a very devious conspiracy created in the deep bowels [pun?] of Panther's vengeful soul. Waking up to cat grossness inside and outside of our home is getting old fast. Though we cannot easily fix Panther's problems, we have managed to maybe cat-proof our outdoor plants with the addition of river rocks [for our trees] and plastic bags [for our sprouting pepper seedlings (until we can river rock them to safety)].

We finally got around to sorting and alphabetizing our CD collection. Despite the sadness brought on by Jason's copy of a CD outing my copy when we had doubles [I love you, Jason], it was a project that brought much satisfaction. Also, fun fact:  Splitting the alphabet in half, our musics amazingly divided in half as well, with a margin of maybe +/- 5 albums. Weird, right?

As Jason wrote about in our last post, we celebrated our 5 year anniversary last month. Five years is a long time, which is pretty cool. I was transported to Lancaster, PA, where we did all sorts of lazy exploring. Jason ate a Whoopie Pie. We admired long johns hanging on clotheslines. Jason ate some Shoo Fly Pie. We pointed out each horse and buggy as if it was the first horse and buggy we had ever seen. Jason ate 4 different kinds of pretzels. We contemplated becoming Amish and participating in Sunday volleyball tournaments. Jason ate chickens and fries and ice cream and 2 pieces of popcorn. It was a good trip. I found it oddly pleasing that my desire to live an Amish-like life wasn't just a childhood whim but something that still held quite an appeal to me even now at the ripe old age of 27*.

And then of course, there was the California Hitching. Flights were flown, bridges were seen, clothes were worn, and food was consumed. In the end, there was [poof!] another Vermette.

There was him. There was her.

There were also these guys.

Marriage x2!

Lastly, I suppose I should re-mention the fact that we are tripping to Wyoming. Lots of driving. New sights. Some math conferencing. We need to start making a packing list or our trip will just be one big, "How in the world did we forget to bring that on a 2-week long semi-vacation in the middle of nowhere?!" However, since this is an event that has not yet occurred, I do not have any accompanying picture. This breaks the pattern of this entire post. This is unacceptable. Nearly illogical. So here is a picture from the past that has nothing to do with Wyoming but has everything to do with life. And such.

Jason doesn't let me play with candles anymore. I feel a little conned now that I think about it.

And that is it for now. I actually did some writing and not just picturing, lo and behold. Success. Anyway, it is relieving indeed to finally have everything caught up to the present. Life may now go back to its regularly scheduled programming. We will continue to DVR it for your viewing pleasure.

You know you enjoy it.

*I am old now. With my birthday month upon me [yes, Jason gets to celebrate the birth of me all month long], I am pretty sure I can feel my bones creaking. It is sobering.

secret anniversary trip

Before we begin, I should clarify. The title is perhaps unclear, but it is the trip which is secret, not the anniversary.

So, it's a secret trip for our anniversary. Yesterday was our 5th wedding anniversary. To celebrate, I've been planning a secret trip for this weekend. Technically, Sharayah knows there is a trip, she just doesn't know where we're going or anything we'll be doing when we get there. I have her word that she won't read this blog until we get back, so I can give a rough outline of the plans.

We're going up to the Lancaster, PA area. The main reason to go there was that Sharayah mentioned some time ago that there is some kind of pretzel factory there that she wanted to visit with me. We'll be heading there first and hopefully getting to do a tour and make our own pretzel. Then we'll be headed to the hotel to drop stuff off and check in. After that we'll be going to eat at a local pizza place I picked out (Sharayah had a rare craving for pizza yesterday, and I do not waste such opportunities). Finally, we're going to a double-header baseball game between the Lancaster Barnstormers and the York Revolution. No, it's not minor league baseball. It's a completely separate professional baseball league which I didn't know about until a few days ago. I got us front row seats at 3rd base (easier to do in this league than in the real pros, I imagine).

Tomorrow, we'll be visiting various amish or just farm-type places and exploring the Lancaster area until it's time to come home.

It should be a good time. Don't spoil the surprise.

tasty non-disaster

Prepare to be blown away. Not only am I going to blight our blog with this mind-boggling "recipe," but you get to experience it through both bullet-pointed and boringly-numbered lists! Blogging at its finest.

Ingredients*

• Flour - 2 cups, 3 handfuls, and the remnants collected from the 12 sq. inches of lightly powdered counter space. 
• Baking powder - Somewhere between 1 and 2 teaspoons.
• Salt - 1.5 turns of the salt grinder
• Honey - 3 knives worth, maybe 2 if your knife is extra long or your honey isn't crystallized. 
• Eggs - 2.
• Butter - Whatever glop of butter you have left over from a stick of butter
• Bananas - A bunch [meaning "a bunching" of bananas and not necessarily "a lot" of bananas, as a small bunch of 3 would probably work just as well as a large bunch of 10].
• Walnuts - More than 3 handfuls but less than 7.
• Potato - 3 chunks that were left on the cutting board from other meal preparations and mixed in with the mushing of the bananas.
• Paprika - However much you dump in while you're under the impression that it is cinnamon.
• Cinnamon - 1 pinch, 2 pinch... oh, just use it all.

Instructions

1. Sploosh all the dry stuff together.
1. You may need to account for vigorous splooshing [that's where the powder goes all "ploosh!"] with another handful or so of flour or more counter scraping/scrounging. 
2. Too much baking powder can be disastrous to the taste buds. Hence, to get the right amount, hold a teaspoon over your bowl of dry ingredients and attempt to pour/shake the baking powder into the tiny teaspoon. Baking powder will land directly in the bowl and in the spoon. Do not fear! Just pour/shake until you fill the teaspoon and dump confidently! The baking powder in the spoon will perfectly join with the baking powder in the bowl for  the ideal amount of baking powder overall.
2. Gloop all the wet stuff together.
1. A little eggshell never hurt anyone, right?
2. If your glop of butter is more than 0.5 sticks, don't use it all. 
3. Two-handed banana mushing gives soo much more satisfaction than one-handed banana mushing or, hamster forbid, potato-masher banana mushing.
3. Make everything go together in one big happy bowl. 
1. For  less clean-up, dump the dry stuff into the wet stuff.
2. For more clean-up, dump the wet stuff into the dry stuff.
3. If you just really get a hankering for clean-up, dump the wet stuff and the dry stuff into an entirely new bowl. 
4. Mix until the dry stuff has lost its identity as dry stuff and successfully turns into wet stuff.
5. Pour into some kind of baking container and bake away!
1. Temperature.
1. For a temperature knob, turn it as far clockwise as your wrist comfortably goes.
2. For a temperature button, hold down the up arrow for 3 seconds.
2. Time.
1. Once you start smelling tasty smells, wait 15 minutes.
2. Check for burning.
3. Maybe poke it with a fork?
6. Eat.

There you have it. A recipe for a potentially tasty non-disaster. If all recipes were written in my noggin's style of loopy ambiguity, I believe meal preparation would be much more exciting.

Revolutionizing the culinary world one nearly charred meal at a time.

I cannot be held responsible for the results of this "recipe."

*If/when bad things happen in your kitchen because of the super [non]specific proportions of ingredients, my apologies. But really, you'll have no one to blame but your own hands and their obvious difference in size in comparison to mine.

math and road trips

This summer I'm going to Wyoming for two weeks. There's a math conference at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. I had never heard of such a place (Laramie, not Wyoming), but I thought maybe it would be a nice place since Wyoming has all those national parks and such. It turns out, though, that Laramie is in the middle of nowhere. Now, I know what you're thinking. Wyoming is already in the middle of nowhere. But Laramie is in the middle of nowhere in the middle of nowhere (the latter middle of nowhere being Wyoming). This should not be confused with the middle of the middle of nowhere, since it's actually in the southeast corner of Wyoming. Luckily, Sharayah will be joining me (for the trip, not the conference). We will try to entertain ourselves while I'm not busy math-ing.

We'll be road-tripping it to get there, which should be some mixture of fun and wow-this-is-really-far-what-were-we-thinking. We've actually driven together almost as far a couple times before (just to practice [that was a joke {if you have to say it was a joke, was it still a joke?}]). We'll pass the time by reading to each other or listening to audio books (so if you know any good ones, feel free to suggest them).

We actually could have stayed in the dorms, which would have been a little funny. Sort of like going back to college, except I never had any girls in my room when I was in college. But we weren't too excited about co-ed bathrooms (or the rest of the dorm experience, really), so we managed to find a deal on priceline to stay at a Fairfield for barely more than the dorms.

I asked Sharayah what other details of the trip I should include, and she came over, hi-jacked my keyboard, and added this bit:

Another rather important detail is that since it's going to be such a long time away in the middle of summer (the prime tree growing part of the year), we're going to be bringing Mario and Luigi along with us in the back [on the top?] of the car [for sunlighting and photosynthesizing and such]. I don't really think it's a good idea, but Sharayah is the wisest of them all and she thinks it's a Go. So. To Wyoming they go!

Well, as fun as that would be (and I do regret that we'll miss two weeks of prime summer tree-growth), I wouldn't count on it. As funny as it would be to bring our pet trees on a road trip, I'm not sure they would get enough (any) sunlight in a hotel room for 2 weeks. A missed tree is better than a sad, sunless tree.

Speaking of maths, it's turned out to be quite difficult to prove Brouwer's conjecture on the Laplacian eigenvalues of graphs for k = 3 (that is, that the sum of the largest 3 eigenvalues of the Laplacian matrix of any graph is at most the number of edges of the graph plus 6). I've been proving it for case after case of graphs for weeks, but it seems like it's never-ending. There doesn't seem to be a nice proof that covers many cases at the same time, so I have to keep breaking it down into more and more sub-cases until it can finally be done. That's no problem except the more you break it down, the more cases you have to take care of and the longer it takes. Still, with only two exceptions, I haven't come up to a case for which I couldn't prove the conjecture eventually. For the record, the problem cases are when you take a subgraph of the complete bipartite graph with 3 vertices in one partition and the rest of the vertices in the other, then add either 1 or 2 edges among the vertices in the partition of 3 (if you add no edges or all 3 edges, I can prove it). So, if you could solve that for me, that'd be great. Other than those 2, I've proved it for any graphs with matching numbers 1, 2, or 3, and many of the cases with matching number 4. I only have to consider graphs with matching number at most 5, since a graph with containing 6 independent edges has a subgraph (namely, those 6 edges) whose largest 3 eigenvalues sum to 6, which is the number of edges in that subgraph, and we can show that if a counterexample to Brouwer's conjecture exists, then one exists such that that doesn't happen for any of its subgraphs.
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Ok, sorry, had to get that out of my system. I think that's enough for now.

be my escape

spring tidings

It's so easy to miss the little things in life. The moments. The whispers. The unfurlings.

The small things are important.

I find that some of the most smiling-inspiring moments come when I just... stop. Stop hurrying. Stop worrying. Stop drifting.

Did you know you can smell rain? You can. It is a delicious smell. It's both calming and unbelievably exciting. And when the rain comes, don't run inside. Dance. Twirl. Hands outstretched, face upturned. Peace.

Did you know tiny little Asian girls can't help but sing whimsically nonsensical songs to themselves? They cannot help it*. The songs need not be intelligible, witty, coherent, or in tune. Oblivious-to-the-world wiggling/dancing is likely to be going on simultaneously. Joy.

Did you know that in the span of 4 days, this transformation takes place?

I had no idea. New life takes my breath away. Truly the most awe-inspiring things in life are God-made. Fascination.

It's a shame to let life get cluttered by stress, frustrations, or fears. There is so much goodness to drink in and enjoy. Whenever I let a case of the stomach jumblies [yes, that is a word] start to jumbly up the rest of me, I try to think of the small things. Those things that bring peace, joy, and just utter fascination. Focus on the goodness in the small things and He who is forever good will take care of the big stuff.

With all that said, it's SPRING. Thus, our quarterly blog renovation! Like? Did you have any idea that all those little things in the center of this kind of flower [vague terminology because I sadly have zero knowledge about flower anatomy] had such a distinct pentagon shape?! That little discovery thrilled me for a full 5 minutes. I'm telling you, the little things seriously make my day.

Jason and I have been trying to go to Longwood Gardens each weekend so we can see the transformation of all the buddings into flowerlings [like the one on our background right now!]. So far, I haven't tired of visiting because it really feels like a new place each time we go. They have benches everywhere, so you can even just bring some books and read in super peaceful surroundings. One thing that I really like is that there isn't really a big bunching of benches in one area. Each bench is nicely separated from other benches so you're never sitting there awkwardly avoiding glances with other bench-sitters. Many of the benches are set off in semi-secluded places that allow for more nature immersion and less people annoyance. Ideal.

Spring is here. Smile.

And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good!

*Based on my study of at least 3 random Asian girls under the age of 4.

This pretty much sums up "little things" and "spring." You're welcome.