Eisenmann means iron man. The lyrics are about metallic things.
Saturday, September 6, 2025
Friday, September 5, 2025
unconventional westerns
One of my favorite quotes is from this movie:
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I've been shot five times, knifed twice, bit on the ass by a pig, stomped on by a horse and sat on by a mule and once, in the winter of '91, a grizzly chewed off my big toe. And I've survived two avalanches, three blizzards, five Indian uprisings and seven Presidential elections, but I've never been owned by no woman nor dog...and I've come too far down the road to let it happen to me now.
***
It's the story of a man left for dead in a desert who makes a small fortune with the help of a philandering preacher. They both enjoy the good life for a while.
Wednesday, September 3, 2025
Tuesday, September 2, 2025
on being an overachiever
I thought I was hot stuff until I read about this guy:
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Jonathan Yong "Jonny" Kim (born 5 February 1984) is an American NASA astronaut, physician, U.S. Navy officer, dual designated naval aviator and flight surgeon, and former Navy SEAL.
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Well, he's got me beat by a country mile. Judge for yourself, here's my scoreboard:
gist: Eagle Scout, BS in chemical engineering on full scholarship, Swahili from Peace Corps, Arabic from Army and NSA, perfect ASVAB score
I never believed in a traditional afterlife, and so I thought I could achieve symbolic immortality through achievement. That's a common mistaken belief. The world is full of people trying to be the best in this or that. I like the parable from a story called Hope for Flowers. It shows how foolish the rat race is:
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Hope for the Flowers is an allegorical novel by Trina Paulus. It was first published in 1972 and reflects the idealism of the counterculture of the period. Often categorized as a children's novel, it is a fable "partly about life, partly about revolution and lots about hope – for adults and others including caterpillars who can read". The two focal characters are caterpillars named Yellow and Stripe. They begin their search for meaning by attempting to climb to the top of a caterpillar pillar only to discover another destiny.[1]
...
He focuses, adapts, and drives to reach the top, and eventually he succeeds at being on the top of the caterpillar pillar. This results in disillusionment, as he takes in a vast vista of other caterpillar pillars. Is this all there is at the top? He has not really gotten into the sky. He just has a view of other caterpillars struggling to reach the top of their respective caterpillar pillars.
***
It takes wisdom to realize that at the end of the game, the king and the pawn go back in the same box, and that sometimes the juice isn't worth the squeeze.
In the good book, it says:
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I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
***
It's good to work and study hard when you're young and have the time and energy for it. It often pays off later and gives some pride in the meantime. In the end, life should be enjoyed, not endured. We're human beings, not human doings.
Charles Schulz, creator of affable loser Charlie Brown, said that most people can't name any of the recent champions of this or that. Applause fades. But you remember the people who helped or hurt you.
A famous Christian preacher had a goal of becoming a school's tennis champion. He succeeded, and was proud to see his trophy in the school's display case for all to see. Many years later, he came back to visit the school and was somewhat shocked to see his trophy in a garbage can. His conclusion was given enough time, all your trophies will be trashed by somebody else.
There's a poem that sums up these ideas well:
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On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness
by Arthur Guiterman (1871-1943)
The tusks that clashed in mighty brawls
Of mastodons, are billiard balls.
The sword of Charlemagne the Just
Is ferric oxide, known as rust.
The grizzly bear whose potent hug
Was feared by all, is now a rug.
Great Caesar’s bust is on my shelf,
And I don’t feel so well myself.
***
It's interesting that the most influential belief system was founded by a man who died young, had no children, and was executed like a common criminal after an eventful life by historical standards. Or at least the story of that has cast a long shadow.
Work hard, do your best, have fun, enjoy your triumphs. But remember you must die. Memento mori, as the ancient Romans said. No one really owns anything, especially life. We just get to borrow it for a while.
Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow(?) we die. Tomorrow, this retired overachiever will swim, eat, good food, relax, and be thankful for his good fortune.
a math trick from Po-Shen Loh
Say we have:
x + y = 6
x*y = 12
It's easy to solve for one variable, substitute into the other equation, and use the quadratic formula. In this case, we get a negative radical and two complex numbers as solutions.
We could also graph and see that the line y = 6 - x does not intersect the hyperbola y = 12/x. That only tells us there is no real solution. It does show us that in such a system, if the sum of two numbers is less than their product, the numbers must be complex.
Loh's method says we should assume the solution is centered around the sum.
So x = 3 + d and y = 3 - d.
When we substitute into the other equation, we get a simpler quadratic, 9 - d^2 = 12, which simplifies to
d = +/- sqrt(-3) = +/- i*sqrt(3)
So are answers are x = 3 +/- i*sqrt(3) and y = 3 -/+ i*sqrt(3)
Yes, it is possible to have a reverse plus/minus sign. Here it shows how the answers properly pair.
It's good to get the right answer and better to get it quickly. See Karatsuba's multiplication algorithm for a more complex example.
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