17. The Adventures of Husbandman

Tomorrow, Husbandman journeys to Nantes, in the country of France.

I learned this morning that Nantes has been labeled a Gamma World City.

What's a Gamma World City, I asked myself, and maybe you also are haunted by this question, as you read this blog entry.

Don't worry, I've looked into it for all of us.

Come to find out, cities are ranked by economic factors. Being a Gamma World City isn't all that great.  The Gammas are way behind the Alphas and the Betas.  Case in point:  Kansas City is also a Gamma World City.

I'm sure Nantes has some great things going for it, but in terms of economics, it's not in the same ballpark as London or New York or Shanghai.  Not even close.

16. Emily St. John Mandel

I finished The Lola Quartet this week.  It's by Emily St. John Mandel.  I learned that St. John is the author's middle name, so if you're shelving her books, they should go under M if you use an alphabetical system for shelving. Lola Quartet was the third Mandel book I've read.  I began with the masterpiece, Station Eleven, then spent time with her first novel, Last Night in Montreal, and then I read Lola Quartet.  It's fun to acquire a new fave author.  I'm looking forward to her new book, Glass Hotel. Mandel writes characters that get themselves into some tricky situations.  She's good at quietly building up suspense.  She lives in the United States now, but she was born in Canada.  She went to school to be a dancer.

15. Elliptic Regularity Theory

Elliptic Regularity Theory, (ERT) is all about the smoothness of solutions to elliptic partial differential equations.  Turns out when you solve an elliptic PDE in a region where you've specified the values on the boundary, the solution is really smooth inside the region even if the values on the boundary aren't that nice.

This probably seems super basic to all of you, but it took me awhile to get the hang of ERT. I spent most of the afternoon reading the seminal work on the topic by Gilbarg and Trudinger.  Elliptic PDE are ubiquitous so the regularity of their solutions is really important. Put the time in and learn more about ERT.  The sky's the limit, when your heart is in it.

14. The Baldi

A trio of Thirdlanders stood with me at recess today, teaching me about Baldi's Basics.  The way they talked about the animated teacher, Baldi, who comes at a kid with his ruler when he answers math questions incorrectly cracked me up.  When they left for the day, I watched a Baldi's Basics video and quite enjoyed it.

Have you learned about Baldi's Basics?  If not, get up to speed by watching this 2 minute video.

This crew of Thirdlanders has taught me a lot about Marshmello as well.  Marshmello has some great songs and we listen to his music during our clean up time.  Sometimes I let them watch his videos too, if I'm in a decent mood. The video for FLY shows Marshmello flying through the skies. During FLY, some Thirdlander always patiently explains to me, "This is animated.  He can't really fly."

13. The Pockets With Poems in Them

Photo Credit:  Nancer

Poem In Your Pocket Day started back in 2002 in the hustle bustle of New York City.  

The country copycatted NYC in 2008, hopscotching into  Poem in your Pocket Day from sea to shining sea.

Canada crashed the party with northern neighbor poem popping in 2016.

Fast forward to 2019.  Tax Day.  I've yet to find my poem.

This week, I'm green with envy.  I keep watching the poem project video peeps feeling their favorite poems and reciting them with straight up verve.  

Why don't I have one favorite poem that lifts me up and away?

My poem's out there somewhere.

12. The Bridge

Photo by Nancer

As you all know, we're learning how to play bridge.

Bridge is extremely hard to learn, but it's going to be worth it.  One author calls the game of bridge a "life long friend."

Last night, one or two bridge rules started to make sense to me.  I was a little embarrassed because these were basic rules that have been explained to me 50,000 times over the last few months and that are written down on a piece of paper I keep in front of me at all times throughout the game.

"Why is it taking me so long to learn this game?" I wondered aloud.  I noticed the others nodding solemnly and making quick eye contact among themselves, with raised eyebrows, as if they too were pondering this same question, and simultaneously feeling concern about my progress right along with me.

One web site says it could take me 3 to 6 years to learn how to play bridge. In short, hold the horses, my friends.  We're in for the long haul.

I suggest everyone start learning bridge.  I like to think about all of us in our 80s and 90s playing bridge with our bridge club. We'll eat snacks, drink wine, do our best, forget the rest. I can take photos and collect bridge blog stories.  A ride service can take us home or we can all spend the night and Husbandman can make breakfast in the morning. Let's not worry about details.  We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

11. The Paparazzi

There are all these damned paparazzi out in the yard today. A 2 day gap in the 30 day blogging challenge has caused quite a stir on social media:  Is she sick?  Is she giving up?  Did her husband leave her? Will she fail at a challenge yet again?

People, just calm down.  I'm fine.  I had a dinner date on Thursday and then a field trip on Friday. The 30 Day Blogging Challenge is still happening.  Chillax and get off my freaking lawn.

10. The Bees In Your Eyes

Imagine four sweat bees inside your eye, feasting on your sweat.    Sure, your eyes are stinging and swollen, but don't get all keyed up.  Just go to the doctor and have them pull the bees out.

9. The Georgians

Lotus Blossoms came to our school today, with a group called Adilei.  They're from Georgia and they sing crazy harmonies with a bit of yodeling thrown in.  The group invited people to come to the front to dance to their music and I was sorely tempted to jump up and throw down. I resisted the urge and restricted myself to some fast-moving foot tapping and hearty head bobbing.

I'm now an Adilei groupie, so I'm planning a trip to Georgia sometime soon. Besides Adilei, Georgia has four UNESCO world heritage sites, including the Gelati Monastery.

8. The Museum

If you feel like seeing a movie called Museo, you should go ahead and see it.  Husbandman and I saw it last night.

La película (the film) is loosely based on the true story of a major theft of el museo (the museum) of anthropology in Mexico Ciudad (city) in 1985.

Super good movie.  I don't usually like heist movies por que (because) no me gusta (I don't like) watching movies about pathetic losers, but this one was quite bueno (good).

Two dropouts from veterinary escuela (school) planned the heist on Feliz Navidad (Christmas Eve).  The guards were not vigilant and some report they may have been borrachos (drunk).  The thieves pilfered some great archaeological tesoros (treasures).

I wonder if the thieves are still in jail.  I was unable to track down this (informacion) information.

7. The Tiny Houses

Peter Menzel is an amazing photographer.  His collection called Material World fascinates me.   

We looked at, and mapped, Menzel's photos, and then we read about wants and needs, stuffocation and carbon footprints.  We also read about people who want to live with less stuff and people who live in tiny houses.

Using cereal boxes, we created tiny houses.  In the spirit of Material World, we also displayed some wants and needs, using play dough, outside of our houses.

We ended with some writing, reflecting on the impact of buying stuff and on whether or not we'd like to live in a tiny house. Most Thirdlanders are ready to move into a tiny house tomorrow, but a few prefer more space.  "I just love my big house," wrote a cheerful Thirdlander.  I myself am looking into buying a tiny house for my elder years.  I'll probably keep it in the backyard because Husbandman does not want to live in a tiny house.  Best of both worlds.