Eureka!

After a morning of troubleshooting and frustration, my co-author and I stumbled across the \mfpicnumber{} command. Using this we managed to fix our problem with the subfolders and graphics! It was a good discussion, and we both learned a heck of a lot about how mfpic and metapost work with pdflatex. After brainstorming many solutions, we happened upon an elegant one: include \mfpicnumber{1} at the beginning of each section. That way, we can modify one section without having to metapost all the others! The current incarnation of the book can be foundhere.

Free and worth every penny...

Taylor and I were able to take advantage to the balmy 30 degree weather last week and got outside a couple days for some fun snow play. I had forgotten how exhausting snow play can be, but was glad to get out with Taylor for some fresh air.

My earlier boast of mastering subdirectories in LaTeX was shattered tonight as I tried to incorporate mfpic graphics from two different folders... it didn’t go well! At least I now understand the problem - and the only fix I have is to work out of one directory for the whole book. This sounds unmanageable, but I think it will work. The most current incarnation of the book is here. Ultimately, the Distance Section will be in Chapter 1, along with the Cartesian Plane, Relations, and Introduction to Functions sections. The Conics will probably be shifted towards the end of the book, but as it is probably the worst chapter to typeset owing to all the different fiddly bits in their graphs (vertices, foci, etc.) I am glad to have it reasonably under control!

Return to Kent...

Monday I returned to Kent where I spent an entire day with my co-author on the book. We both learned new things (like how to get \axislabels to work mostly in the manner we’d like) and made some good progress tightening up some spacing issues with the book. The Distance and Circle sections have been through their first edit, and he is working on editing the rest. I am very happy to say that the hours I spent on the “LORAN” type example which concludes the hyperbola section were well spent as I truly believe I have produced something readable and enjoyable. The most recent incarnation of the book can be found here. I plan to spend the rest of the week writing sections on the Cartesian plane, relations, and an introduction to functions. As with anything, I need a break from the Conics before I start working on the exercises in earnest.

Well, today marks the beginning of a new era in Washington - let’s hope and pray our newly elected leaders are up to the challenge! I watched the inaugural ceremonies while working out today and I liked President Obama’s speech. His main asset, I believe, is the ability to inspire - and we could all use some inspiration now and then.

In other news, for good or ill, I am now on Facebook. It seems like a great way to make social connections and waste copious amounts of time - in other words, a great hobby. I think I’ll stick to Lord of the Rings Online, however, as my main way to unwind on-line. Nothin’s more relaxin’ then getting your butt served to you by a Wight Master.

Closing in on one chapter...

I’m happy to report that I finished a section on Ellipses and have made substantial progress on the Hyperbola section. The most recent incarnation of the book can be found here. I have come to the realization that I could easily spend all semester working on this one chapter alone, but that I need to subdue some of my more perfectionistic tendencies and move forward. After all, the book is meant to be open source, so people (including me!) will have the opportunity to contribute and modify the text as they see fit. The exercise sets for the sections have yet to be written (or even designed!), but I am meeting with my co-author Monday, so I hope we can coordinate our efforts on that front. If we could get this entire chapter wrapped up by Wednesday, I’ll be happy.

It Begins! (Officially...)

It has been a busy week! I gave two presentation on Screencasting last Thursday at Lakeland’s Technology Expo. It’s how I make my math movies, like the ones you can see here. The interested reader can download my presentation (complete with hyperlinks!) here, or better yet, watch a screencast of the presentation here.

I ventured to Kent on Friday morning to meet with my co-author, Jeff. It was a very fun and productive meeting. The latest incarnation of the book can be found here. We capped it off with a visit to the Franklin Square Deli - my new favorite sandwich shop! I gather the owner’s name is Carl, and, yes, I tried to use this to get a discount, but, no, I didn’t get one.

Friday afternoon, I returned to Lakeland for the STEM Workshops - sessions with area High School students which are funded by House Bill 119. The sessions went very well! The interested reader can download my Energy Presentation here (with accompanying worksheet here) and my Maximum Power presentation here (its accompanying worksheet is here.) They both hit on a wide variety of mathematics applied to energy, and have been pretty successful, in my opinion.

Saturday brought 8 inches of sn*w, but it also heralded my first adventure in Middle Earth playing alongside my good buddy Kai in Lord of the Rings Online. I play a Dwarf Guardian and Kai plays a Dwarf Minstrel. We’re quite a pair! 3 hours and several dead goblins later, we called it quits... for now!

In other news, I am happy to report I have faithfully kept to my exercise and diet regiment and have lost nearly 10 pounds over the last three weeks! I’m hoping to start 2010 at 200 lbs. - which, by all indications, seems a realistic goal.

Well, Sabbatical “officially” begins on the morrow... I’m hoping to get a section on ellipses written by Wednesday... we shall see!

New Year's Surprise!

Here’s hoping everyone’s 2009 is off to a great start! I had a wonderful end to 2008 when my students threw me a surprise “Thank You” party after our seminar Wednesday evening! It was simply one of the nicest things anyone’s ever done for me!

As far as the book is concerned, I’ve learned about the \multicols environment and the boxedminipage environment. The former is invaluable in writing exercise sets (to save space, you can have multiple columns of problems instead of just one) and the latter is a neat way to set off important information (like definitions and theorems) in the text. You can see the book in progress here. (Please note that the exercise section isn’t complete yet!)

In other news, if I had the time and talent, I’d love to make an infomercial parody about Voltron’s Blazing Sword: “It can slice through a Doomship and a Robeast and it can still slice a tomato!”