# blueollie

## somewhat crazy this week

I am going to have to rummage through archives for things in my personal history and talk to my bank. And I can’t forget about classes and the like.

One thing that I am thinking about: consider the two point set $F = \{0, 1 \}$ and declare each individual point to be an “open set” (this is called the “discrete topology”. ) Pretty boring, huh?

Now consider $F \times F \times F..... = \Pi^{\infty}_{i=1} F_i$ in the product topology. Seriously, this topological space is anything but boring, as simple as it appears to be. The elements of it are simply sequences of 0’s ans 1’s. There is more here.

These things appear all over the place in mathematics including in chaos theory.

Now to run and lift a little bit and get busy.

But yeah, these are all pictures which depict this space in one or more of its common forms:

## Math, abs and bench presses

Workout notes Weights first, then running.
Weights: pull ups: 10-10-10-10 (rotator cuff)
Bench: 10 x 135, 1 x 190, 1 x 180, 6 x 160 (got a spotter for 190) rotator cuff.
pull ups: 10
military (barbell); 10 x 85, 10 x 80, 10 x 80
superset with pull downs: 3 sets of 7 x 160 traditional, 7 x 100 low
rows: 3 sets of 10 with 110 (different machines and grips)

Then to the treadmill: I used on treadmill to warm up 32 minutes for 3 miles
second treadmill (passed on trying a mile): I played around with hills 1 to 2 minute intervals, 0-.5-1-2-3, etc. 32 minutes for 3 more.
It was warm in Markin and I didn’t want to overexert today.

This whole workout took just under 2 hours.

My former Congressman (from 2008 to 2012, when I was in IL-18) works out a lot and now is in a heap of trouble. Aaron Schock resigned and now is being investigated by Federal Prosecutors; his case is in front of a Grand Jury. Note: it is the Republicans that went after him.

Mathematics I worked on some…and was anguished at the elementary mistakes I made. Now if you want to see some of what world class mathematicians work on, read this. This is a “Scientific American” caliber article which shows how some work in algebra and number theory relates to string theory. The article isn’t technical but gives a flavor of what is going on.

April 10, 2015

## Somewhat recovered

It was slightly slick outside and foggy so that, plus my legs brought me to workout inside.
Track (middle lane): 7:49 (3:55/3:53)
4 lap walk, 4 lap jog (1 mile)

Weights (had to change my shirt; too sweaty):
pull ups: 15-10-10-10-(5-5) changed grip on the last set. rotator cuff recoveries.
bench: 10 x 135, 1 x 180 (ok), 6 x 160 (weak)
incline: 10 x 135

Superset:
military: 2 sets of 10 x 40 standing (dumbbells, each arm)
pull downs: 2 sets of 10 x 160 (traditional)

Superset: 3 sets of 10 x 110 row, with 10 x 90 (each arm) military, 10 x 130 pull down in between.

This wasn’t my toughest workout ever, but was good enough and I got in at least a little bit of “less glacial” running.

I spent the academic morning writing about Cantor sets and spaces, under the guise of $\Pi_{i=1}^{\infty} \{0, 1 \}_i$

April 8, 2015

## Indifference…

Workout notes: weights went fine, the run was a mental struggle.

pull ups: 5 sets of 10 (ok), rotator cuff
bench: 10 x 135, 6 x 170, 5 x 170 (rotator cuff)
incline: 10 x 135
military: 3 sets of 10 x 40 dumbbell, standing.
machine stuff: 3 sets of 10 x 110 row
machine stuff: 3 sets of 10 x 130 pull down (wide grip)
machine: 10 x 90 (each arm) military

But I was surprisingly tired and thought my run would be iffy.

Still: it all went well for the first 12 of “start at 5.5, incline 0.5, up by 0.1 mph every 4 minutes” then at 49:33, I was at mile 5 and dialed it back..walked for 30-40 seconds at 5.3 and then got back up to 59:44 (mile 6) and walked .25 cool down miles.

But I was tired when I finished; was it the dinner last night?

During the day: grading marathon, and wondering about an a math problem that is bedeviling me.

Now: watching Wichita play Southern Illinois; lots of empty seats but an entertaining game.

February 18, 2015

## Me right now: Meh

I admit that the quality of writing in this blog has suffered. It is mostly workouts, the basketball team, and not much else.

I HAVE been writing challenging stuff, but mostly here.

The challenge: present the material in a way that is most useful to the students; so some of the proofs I have use have not been the most elegant ones that a mathematics professional would use. And it has been humbling; I am finding out that I don’t know the answer to some “natural” questions.

I do have some comics that I found funny:

No, I am NOT a “people person”:

And…well…if the shoe fits:

February 17, 2015

## Taking it for granted

Workout notes running: 2 mile warm up in 20:36 (treadmill)
1 mile (middle lane, as opposed to the inner lane I used last year): 7:46 (1:58/1:55/1:55/1:56)
1 mile walk (slow)

Weights: pull ups (5 sets of 10, easy?) hip hikes, Achilles, rotator cuff rests
bench press/military press super set: bench (dumbbells) 10 x 65, 8 x 70, 8 x 70, military (dumbbell) 12 x 50 seated, supported, 2 sets of 10 x 40 standing
super set rows/pull downs: 3 sets of 10 each (110 rows, 130 pull downs, wide grip, “other machines”)

Though I thought that I felt tired going in, I felt pretty good afterward.

The run: hard enough to make me cough later (for 1-2 hours after), but not hard enough to cause pain in my teeth.
I’ve coughed after really hard runs (usually 1 mile or less; sometimes after a hard 5K when it was a 20 minute effort for me) almost all of my life..it has never been serious.

Taking it for granted
One thing about teaching the basics of a subject like topology: it reminds me of how much I take for granted when I do my own research. Yeah, I’ve worked out all of the nuances, but for many of them, it was 25-30 years ago!

February 12, 2015

enjoy. :-)

January 18, 2015

## OMG, I forgot to eat…

Yes, I presume that most people have forgotten to eat a meal at one time in their life or another, but remember I used to weigh 320 pounds.

I had one to the gym to run a bit. I ran 6 miles and walked 2; the run was 5 minutes at 5.5 mph then go up .1 mph every 5 minutes; this got me to 6 miles in 59:36) then at 1 hour, I walked for 5 minutes to get to 6.38 miles, then I got on another treadmill to walk 22:50 to finish 1.62 miles to give me 8. 1:27:50 for 8 miles was the total for running and walking.

Then I thought…dang I feel a bit hungry and realize that I had eaten nothing since waking up.

My degenerating mind: I find that when I really focus on something (say, advanced math), I get very forgetful on other basic things. I suppose that I was always a bit that way, but it is getting worse.
But there is an upside: when it comes to reviewing things that were difficult for me a long time ago, they now appear to be pretty easy to understand; it makes me wonder why I ever found them difficult to begin with. I think it is because I now have more context; more professional experience. I now see the need for details and nuance.

So in that sense, my ability to think has improved.

January 16, 2015

## The value of having walking as an activity

Workout: weights plus a 4 mile walk (55:24 for 32 laps of the outer lane; 14:25 first mile)
Weights: pull ups 5 sets (painful..NOT in an injury way…just sluggish) hip hikes, Achilles
Bench: 10 x 135, 3 x 180, 8 x 160 (out of gas…swimming yesterday?) rotator cuff
military: 3 sets of 12 x 50 dumbbells (seated, supported)
pull downs/Hammer Machine rows: 3 sets of (7 x 160 traditional, 7 x 100 low), 3 sets of 10 x 200 rows.

Then came the walk. I started to jog in the treadmill and it just didn’t “feel right”, so I was about to give up and go home and then thought: “why not walk, if you can?”

So I went to the track; the first 4 laps were 7:18 and mile was 14:25…then I felt better. 13:43, 13:30, 13:45 were my other miles (slightly longer actually).

No, it wasn’t hard, and shouldn’t have been. But it was better than ZERO.

Now: I need to complete my syllabi and to do other chores.

I am teaching a class on elementary topology. I had mentioned what a challenge it will be as I can’t “remember” a time during my professional life when I didn’t know this stuff. And I haven’t taught this course before, nor have I had a conversation about these topics with anyone but an active research mathematician in well over 20 years. But like it was new to me in 1980 (when I had my first course), it is going to be new to them.

And I have an excuse to take time to relearn some of the “fun stuff” that I haven’t used in a while. It is kind of fun to easily understand stuff that used to baffle me.

Oh, I am teaching two other courses; they are elementary by comparison but they are follow on courses to previous calculus courses. These students deserve a professional effort from me, so I can’t get so excited about FINALLY getting to teach something related to (most of) my own research that I ignore these classes.

January 15, 2015

## Circular illusions and camouflaged frogs

Can you spot the frogs? Clicking the link will take you Mathew Cobb’s post at Why Evolution is True (photo by Nash Turley)

I’m sure that you can, but this photo shows what evolutionary adaptation can do.

Also, WEIT provided a link to this little gem: these “rotating dots” are, individually, moving along a straight line path. Seriously…all of them are.

I am going to try to write some equations that describe this motion.

January 6, 2015