Beethoven Sonata #1 is essentially complete -- still a couple of rough patches in the 4th movement, and I'm not convinced my prestissimo is prestissimo enough...

Just started working on two Brahms Intermezzi (Opus 118 #1, #2) and a Schubert Impromptu (Opus 90 #4).  The last is fun to play, though it still sounds terrible.

If you get a chance, I was wondering if you'd take a look at the following essay (extracted from a larger document) and see how much sense you can make of it.  I am especially interested in how much sense this makes to a non-mathematician.

http://www.math.ohiou.edu/~eisworth/research/what%20I%20do.pdf

Thanks!

When the alarm clock woke me this morning, I was in the midst of a dream wherein I had been trying to explain Christian mysticism (from Pseudo-Dionysius to "The Cloud of Unknowing") to Mike Tyson.

Does this mean I've taught one too many freshmen calculus courses?

Is this a comment on set theory (Tyson did seem to get replaced by one of my grad ( Read more... )

One of the added "benefits" of having a pregnant wife who can't stand to go into the kitchen because of food smells is that I have been having to learn to cook a bit better.

In the last three days, I have managed Shepherd's Pie, Green Bean Casserole, Turnip Greens, and Broccoli Quiche.  It's a bit disconcerting -- when it comes time to think of ( Read more... )

It's been awhile since I've updated. Nothing much has been happening since I returned from Germany --- just the usual things associated with being a professor. I'm having trouble getting into the novel I'm reading ("The Death of the Heart" by Elizabeth Bowen). It reminds me a bit of Jane Austen, except set in the early 20th Century, i.e., probably ( Read more... )

Well, it was a brutal day of travel (got up at 6:30 AM Frankfurt time, arrived Athens Ohio at 3:30 AM Frankfurt time) but at least you don't miss a night's sleep when traveling east to west.

It was a wonderful conference. I got a chance to play piano in the "music night" (the institute has a top notch music room complete with Steinway grand). I ( Read more... )

Still in Germany -- I come back to the States on Sunday. I finally saw up close some things that looked definitively "German" (well, aside from the spaetzl served at lunch --- this is the German conception of pasta). I did a short hike today with some colleagues; we went over the ridge and down into the little village sitting below the institute ( Read more... )

Greetings from Germany. I'm at some little town down near the Swiss border -- Oberwolfach (which is, surprise, by Wolfach) -- living in what looks like a 1970s hotel room with weird lighting.

More later...jetlagged...must sleep  *snore*

 I found this an interesting read.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/85991

Well, I've been on Facebook now for a few weeks, and I'm still getting used to it.  When I first started using Livejournal, I used to hit the "random entry" button (not sure if it's still there) and just read what random people had put on the net --- it was almost "poetic", like a modern version of T.S.Eliot's "Wasteland ( Read more... )