Armstrong Livestrong

Hope rides again! Live Strong! Live Armstrong!
I can easily slip into my golden running slippers and prance off into the sunset at the drop of a pin. The water flowing across my body in the pool reminds me of the frolic and detour I so enjoyed while in mommy’s womb. That menacing bicycle, however, that beast! It just stands there taunting me, teasing me, double-dog daring me to try, come-on just try and tame me. That wild barbarian once uttered, “I’ll show you pain, I’ll show you agony, I’ll show you defeat, come-on just get on.” Sure I was shaking, shivering and shuddering as I approached and began my ride. True to form I was rudely awakened, rather savagely beaten down by that two-wheeled Diablo. I finally settled on hiding my tormentor in the garage and secretly devising elaborate ways to dismantle and melt that monster down in some far-off prehistoric lava pit.

Until NOW! I’ve changed! I have visited Oz (Escondido) and the cowardly lion has been granted a small dose of courage. Yes, I’ve been revamped, reinvigorated, reinfiltrated, resituated, restipulated, rerigorated, remotivated, reticulated, refrigerated, and recycleminded. How Jake? How? What happened? Please tell me how this reincarnation happened. Please do tell. Okay! Okay! Calm down!

Yesterday I went to see my hero, yes; Lance Armstrong was finishing The Tour de California, an 800 mile race from Sacramento to Escondido. We got there and were immediately astonished by the magnitude of fanatics (fans) all about the coarse, riders of all walks and lives. It was inspiring at the least and heart attacking at the most. We watched those tigers race up a mountain that most mere mortals would not venture to walk. I was everready to snap a shot of my hero as the pack approached, but they race up a mountain quicker than I can ride down it, they were almost a blur. My hero was about tenth in the second pack, which was about ten minutes behind the lead pack. But not for long, they were approaching a mountain and had 5,500 feet of steep elevation to muster. I was wringing my hands with glee to be there and to personally witness Lance do what he does best – Endure More Pain Than Any Man Alive - I was certain that he would summit in the lead. My hopes were not unfounded, he caught the lead pack and at the top of the mountain he arrived in third position – Excellent! Lance Livestrong Armstrong finished sixth overall. Not bad for his first race after a 3 year siesta.

Lance and the tremendous bicycling atmosphere were extremely motivating. The newfound courage will help me battle those sinister aversions and doubts about enduring headwinds and peddling pain. Armstrong has helped me to become headstrong about getting legstrong.

Note: A good book about the overcoming of obstacles and facing fears is: It’s not about the Bike, by Lance Armstrong. I lugged my book to the race but couldn’t get to him for a signature.

Hope rides again! Live Strong! Live Armstrong!

Escondido is my Oz,
And Lance the Wizard,
Jake

NoWhere Man

Who discovered zero? If someone had come up with the concept of zero which everyone then saw as a brilliant innovation to enter mathematics from that time on, the question would have a satisfactory answer, even if we did not know which genius invented it. The historical record, however, shows quite a different path towards the concept. Zero makes shadowy appearances only to vanish again almost as if mathematicians were searching for it yet did not recognise its fundamental significance even when they saw it.

The first thing to say about zero is that there are two uses of zero which are both extremely important but are somewhat different. One use is as an empty place indicator in our place-value number system. Hence in a number like 2106 the zero is used so that the positions of the 2 and 1 are correct. Clearly 216 means something quite different. The second use of zero is as a number itself in the form we use it as 0. There are also different aspects of zero within these two uses, namely the concept, the notation, and the name (Our name "zero" derives ultimately from the Arabic sifr which also gives us the word "cipher".).

Neither of the above uses has an easily described history. It just did not happen that someone invented the ideas, and then everyone started to use them. Also it is fair to say that the number zero is far from an intuitive concept. Mathematical problems started as 'real' problems rather than abstract problems. Numbers in early historical times were thought of much more concretely than the abstract concepts which are our numbers today. There are giant mental leaps from 5 horses to 5 "things" and then to the abstract idea of "five". If ancient peoples solved a problem about how many horses a farmer needed then the problem was not going to have 0 or -23 as an answer.

Today, I awoke feeling a little Zero. Tomorrow, I'mm hoping to wake-up feeling like a strong One.

To the genious concept of nothing (both conceptually and literally),
Jake