Stephmo

I started this yesterday because I need to return it to the library. So Herbert’s on a temporary break.

This is a book about Reason Casino (that’s her name and she’s pointed out that it’s better than Logic Casino). She’s Australian and has been on the run with her mother for years – from their Grandmother, Esmerelda. Sarafina is now in a mental institution and Reason has found herself in the odd position of living with her Grandmother. The reason for being on the run? Because Esmerelda believes in magic. The discovery of human teeth hidden in one of her Grandmother’s hairbrushes has provided some evidence of the magic, but nothing conclusive so far…still, Reason’s plotting her escape.

Yesterday:

Reason Casino
With the Witch
In the Witch’s House
In the Witch’s Bedroom

I’m reading another book right now to get it back to the library before the weekend is up and with a lot of other things, the girl is a bit of a math savant. So she discusses Fibnaccis – numbers that are in this math sequence:

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987

If you can’t see the pattern right off, this is the formula:

x_n+1 = x_n + x_n-1

And if that doesn’t help (it didn’t help me), this is what these numbers do (other than relax the character in the book by thinking about them):

The first two numbers are 0 and 1 – you add them together and get a sum of 1. You add that second number to the sum and you will then get 2. And you continue – so the chain at first looks like this:

0 + 1 = 1
1 + 1 = 2
1 + 2 = 3
2 + 3 = 5
3 + 5 = 8
5 + 8 = 13
8 + 13 = 21
13 + 21 = 34
21 + 34 = 55
34 + 55 = 89
55 + 89 = 144

I of course think this is an entertaining parlor trick, but now I’m wondering why this list is named after a guy – well, it turns out these numbers are described as the Golden Ratio. It was also the way to solve this problem:

Beginning with a single pair of rabbits, if every month each productive pair bears a new pair, which becomes productive when they are 1 month old, how many rabbits will there be after n months?

Apparently, algebra tournaments were very popular back in Fibonacci’s day. The formula also had to take into account that new rabbits couldn’t breed for a month – so this is where his sequence came into play. And then it turns out that it applied not only to rabbits, but to all sorts of things in nature – this is the golden ratio. Petals on flowers, pine cone rows, chambers in various fruits, all sorts of things – followed this sequence.

And as numbers get really large in math, there’s this sort of desire to know which of the bigger numbers you might run across is, in fact, one of these Fibonacci Numbers.

I didn’t take a lot of math – it ended after college algebra and statistics courses – but parts of it does fascinate me. If it had all been interesting trivia where I could scratch the surface, I might have been more drawn to it. :)

Another goal involving decorating and/or construction of some sort. BUT, we’ve already bought some materials for this one and it’s getting really serious (okay, so’s the bedroom, but this room is far more public, so half finished will be far more embarrassing).

The back room right now is painted a brown color that has a hideous yellow undertone that really should have been thought through. But it has a fireplace, so it should be enjoyed more. Here are the plans thus far:

- Build two fake walls between the kitchen and the family room – one on the right to say “here’s where the kitchen ends and here’s where the family room begins” – it’ll be about 23” long and a 2×4 and a let’s say two sheets of dry wall wide. :) The other side is 25” long and the same width, but will help house a planned cabinet project in the kitchen on the opposite wall (yes, there will be a goal).

- Repaint the room. I found a color called Cafe Ole that is a brown that does not have a sickly yellow undertone. Fake walls must be constructed first so paint makes sense. Paint has been purchased. Woo!

- Built in shelves and built-up mantel around the fireplace. We found a good idea of what we want here but with a more substantial top mantel than the one he built. Our paint color on the wall is going to be darker. But we will paint it white. And move in books. Glorious books.

- New blinds for the windows. Ones that aren’t broken by the dog. You know, because I have high standards.

- New carpeting. Something that can take the traffic of the dogs coming in and out of the door, but that will go with the brown walls and white shelving. We’ve discussed a really dark brown, but we worry it might be a bit much. Then again, that sort of leaves us with beige and maybe even light green. We could always go with a runner rug around where the dogs would come in and out of the door, but you know how dogs know when they’re not supposed to be on carpet with dirty paws, right?

After that, it would leave new furniture, but that’s WAY down the list. Everything we have in there is perfectly fine. We may look into a PS3 for that room with the HDTV for a Blue Ray player – that would be our reward for getting the job done. :)