The Rambling Musings of Self Aware Stardust

Shortly after I started working at PiM, an Arts High School where I now teach, there were two interactions with students that happened in the same day that got me thinking about how we treat learning disabilities.   The first was with a student in my Math Foundations course who was obviously trying and obviously frustrated. We learned to work well together but any math was tough for them. We’d often break work periods into alternating 5 minutes of working and 5 minutes drawing; they would often grasp concepts but following the thread through longer problems was an issue; they would regularly come in with multiple caffeinated drinks in the morning and explained to me that the constant influx of caffeine helped them work. In short, they hit a lot of symptoms on my ADHD radar: unable to concentrate on a subject that doesn’t interest them while being able to work on subjects that do, easily distracted, unable to break larger problems into smaller parts on own, self-medicating with a s...

Can I ask a favor? So there is some controversy in interpretation of quantum mechanics between the Copenhagen interpretation which says that the randomness is an innate part of the universe (in fact things like position and velocity don’t have a specific value until they are measured), and the Realists who say that the randomness and uncertainty are a result of our inability to measure with the needed precision. (Einstein was a realist, in fact that’s what his “God does not play dice with the Universe,” quote is referring to.) Anyway, I was wondering if you could look over this paper which claims to propose a method to demonstrate whether the Copenhagen or Realist interpretation is correct and this experiment (direct link to PDF ) which claims to have data in support of the Copenhagen interpretation. What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of the experiment? Can you think of any other avenues that should be investigated? I’ll give you a few minutes to glance through it. ...

 (Note: This is written from the point of view as being an ally to someone with autism or mental illness, because that's where my experience is. I believe that these lessons can be applied to different groups as well)      Brandon Sanderson has a lot of fans in the ASD community.   It’s not just that his books appeal to so many “autistic” qualities by creating an intricate Universe (the Cosmere) complete with consistent, well defined rules for his magic system, where multiple books/series are intertwined and “There’s always another secret,” which encourages re-reading and theorizing for fans. You see, Brandon (I know it’s generally respectful to refer to authors by their last name, but he has a warm relationship with his fans. Besides, when I asked Anne about it, she said, “Go with Brandon. He’s totally your bro; you’ve pre-ordered like 10 things of his.”) has written two excellent characters on the autism spectrum, Steris Harms and Renarin Kholin.   Both o...

 (This entry kept growing and growing so I decided to divide it into thoughts about personal experiences and then an entry on communal experiences) Since I am got the second dose of the vaccine yesterday (well, it was yesterday when I started writing this. Now it's two weeks later), I thought it would be a good time to stop, reflect, and share my thoughts on the year plus of Covid-19 as a SAHD, starting in late February of 2020 until now:   “It probably won’t be too bad…. fuck, I was wrong. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK, shit, shit, shit, Of course the numbers are low now, do you not understand exponential growth?!?! Crap, crap, crap, fuck. Hold on Isaac, I’m teaching online right now. Fuck, fuck, fuck, Wear a damn mask!  Fucking fuck damn, At least it’s warm so we can go outside, but this virus is just not going away. Shit, shit, shit ARG, I don’t know if we should do online or in-person learning for Isaac! Fuck, oh fuck, just let it go away, crap Benjamin was exposed and is now n...

           I like to consider myself a kind, patient, caring father; after all, I have won Daphne Stevens’s “Father of the Year” award three times now. However, there are times when I am exasperated and yell, times when I am uninvolved and just want to play on my phone, times when I am tired and just want to feed my kids cereal and send them to bed. Like it or not, those moments are part of my legacy with my kids, and while I have had many successes, I’ve also had failures and it is important to be honest about it. The history of our country and citizens is the same way, so when people look at the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6 th and say, “That is not who we are!” I believe they are wrong in their picture of America, at least partially.           The history of America is full of contradictions from the very beginning.   We have Puritans fleeing religious persecution and settling in Massachuset...

              I’m a numbers guy, my master’s degree is in math, and even though it didn’t specifically have a concentration in statistics, about half my courses were related to it. I also don’t enjoy flying (ok, that’s underselling it. I’m afraid of flying) so whenever I sit down in that cramped seat that has somehow gotten even smaller, I remind myself that the number of fatalities per mile driven is twice as many per mile flown.   If you look at injuries, it’s even worse for the drivers. Nevertheless, my hands are sweaty, gripping the armrest as the plane comes in for landing, something I rarely feel while driving. Why is this? It basically comes down to the fact that we (humans) suck at evaluating relative risks, figuring out if one action is riskier than another.   This has come up many times in considering vaccinations and other medical treatments and there are a number of psychological reasons this is the case. Knowing this does not al...