Strangers online give me fodder for writing

Happy 2009 to Everyone!!!

I have recently had the pleasure of taking several days off from work. I did not go anywhere. No family came to visit. But I got to spend hours and hours on my computer ... one of my favorite things to do! I read and I blogged and I message-boarded and I Facebooked and I IM'ed to my heart's content. I love the Internet.

I first got the Internet in my home in 1997. And one of the tools I have had on every computer I have owned since then is Yahoo Messenger. I honestly rarely use it lately, but I always have it up and running. On Wednesday, New Year's Eve 2008, I spent almost the entire day chatting back and forth on Yahoo Messenger with a young lady from near El Paso, TX. I have never met this person, but she contacted me wanting advice on passing the Exit Level TAKS Math test. I offered her my advice and tried to sell her my product. She did not buy my product, but she did take my advice and she is now set to graduate in June 2009. Yet now it seems that whenever she has a question about Math, or about life in general, she will pop on messenger and chat with me. She is a nice girl. But she is NOT good at Math. She keeps trying and trying and trying and has for years, but she just doesn't get it. She is, however, gifted in Languages and wants to major in French and Spanish in College and become a translator. She is also curious about Japanese and Portuguese. But she is very worried about Math keeping her from her dreams.

To be honest ... so am I.

I also was contacted on Yahoo Messenger by a stranger. He wanted me to add him as a friend. Eleven years of experience on Yahoo Messenger has taught me not to add people who contact me out of the blue ... for lots of reasons. I denied him, but asked if I knew him. He tried again. I said "No" again. He tried again! He finally told me he wanted to talk Mathematics. Hmmmm .... intriguing .... I convinced him to just IM me and chat with me for awhile. Turns out he is a college student majoring in Math and he has been reading my articles and he wanted to share an article with me. We chatted for awhile and I did end up adding him as a friend.

This young man also mentioned that if he had gone to high school in Texas, he probably would not have graduated. Took him 2 tries to pass Algebra II as it was! And now he is a Math major in college? I asked him what changed and he tried to explain. He said he finally got to see the beauty of Mathematics in college. He plans to go for his Master's .... then a PhD ... and be a college professor.

He sent me the link to the article he wanted me to read. We continued to chat as I glanced at it .... 25 pages long! Yikes!! But I saved it. After we finished chatting, I read the first page and immediately knew why he thought I would be interested in the article.

I spent this afternoon working my way through the article and I have decided to do a series of my own articles based on this article. It is fascinating! I agree with parts of it and disagree with other parts ... makes good fodder for writing!

I'll start the articles this weekend. But if you would like to read the 25 page article first, here is the link .... http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas .... or Hanukkah ... or Winter Solstice Celebration .... and I wish everyone a very happy 2009!