Happy SUM Day!

It all adds up today. Whether you write the date the American way (mm/dd/yy) 08/03/11 or the European way (dd/mm/yy) 03/08/11, today is one of those very special days that I like to call a SUM day!

Can you see why?

Well, first you need to know what a sum is. According to MathIsFun.Com a sum is

"The result of adding two or more numbers.

Example: 9 is the sum of 2, 4 and 3, because 2 + 4 + 3 = 9."

I agree with this definition 100%! In fact, I couldn't think of putting it any other way. That website even has a picture with some other fancy vocabulary that makes it even clearer (and unbelievably appropriate for this blog post)

So, according to this picture, when you add 8 and 3, the answer (or sum) you get is 11.

Any guesses why I am wishing you a happy SUM today?

Today, as I write the date (8/3/11), is a sum day because it all adds up to me! 

The month + day = year (in two digit form)!

Oh! I can hear you now!! "Nicole!" you say, "That's not fair! What about all of the Europeans? They write their date differently! Why is your SUM day only an American holiday? I thought Mathematics was universal!"

I understand your dismay. I, too, would be upset if I thought that there was some sort of maths celebration that I was excluded from. However, calm your fears my global guests - mathematics is universal and can be celebrated by our entire global community today!

Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I introduce you to: The Commutative Property (or Law) of Addition!

According to this law, swapping the numbers you add will not change their sum. The MathIsFun.Com website has another cool picture that might help you see that this is true, but, trust me, it is all of the time (it's a pretty amazing law!).

 Can you see what this means for us???

It's a happy SUM day for everyone!

I am so excited about this. These types of things don't happen every day, so we have to take note when they do and we have to celebrate.

How Do We Celebrate SUM DAYS? 

If you don't know where to begin, here are some ideas:

• Find the math in your day. So many people go through their days, their LIVES, trying to avoid mathematics, not even realizing what a beautiful part of their day it actually is. Look for the beautiful mathematics that surrounds you today, and rather than dread any bit of the unknown... wonder at it!
• Have a get-together! A sum day marks a day where numbers are coming together to make larger amounts, so why not get together with other people and see what kind of greatness you can come up with.
• Play games that require sums! Can't think of any, how about: Scrabble, Dominoes, Monopoly, Boggle, or any game or sport where you have to keep score!
• Learn how to really use your calculator. Today's the day, if you bought yourself one of those super-fancy scientific or graphic calculators and you haven't even opened it up! Take her for a whirl, even if it is just to add a lot, no calculator likes to be neglected.
• Read a great math book with your family! For picture books you can try Math Curse, Sir Cumference: And the First Round Table (A Math Adventure), or The Grapes Of Math. For a chapter book, I highly recommend The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure 

Alrighty! You are all set for your day of celebration and mathiness. I am so happy I had the opportunity to share this with you! Now, keep in mind, if you already had plans today because you simply were unaware of the type of day today was going to be, don't fret! There are more sum days to come! That is part of what makes them so exciting, so just plan ahead for next time!

When will the next SUM DAY be here?

Did you miss your birthday being a SUM DAY? 

Do you think you will get a chance to celebrate a birthday SUM DAY (I can't evn imagine the über celebration required for such a day!)?

Do you have any other suggestions for SUM DAY celebrations?

Are you a fan of Celebrations of all sorts? If so, check out the Celebrate With Us Link-Up over on the Laugh With Us Blog!

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

The following post is taken directly from one of my hand-printed Reader's Journal. I will be sharing these reflections each week on the Rivera Runs Through It blog. The date at the end of each post is the date of the original writing, which is typically the date I completed the book. The reflections are short, but represent my initial reactions to a book, a brief summary of the book or the questions it raised for me at the time. I hope you enjoy this segment in my blog and feel free to comment on what you read here.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

I bought this book merely because I was amused by the title, I thought, "Is this guy serious?!" It ends up that, for the most part, he is not. It seems that Mr. Eggers has that same kind of sarcastic sense of humor that I tend to have in my most hyper of moods. This was the first memoir I have read, and unless anyone writes in this same style, probably the last.

Dated: 06/01

Special note: I have read other memoirs after this book and enjoyed them!
 Are you a fan of memoirs? 
What is your favorite memoir?

What if there's NOTHING?

This post is written as part of the What IF? Project hosted right here on the Rivera Runs Through It Blog. Each week a new "What if?" question is presented, and, if we so choose, we respond to the query. Below, you shall find my response to the first "What if?" question proposed. (If you have a What IF? question you would like to submit as a possible future prompt, please do so in the Rivera Runs Through It Community What If discussion.)

What if there's nothing?

Imagine...

As I wrote in the prompt for this "What if?" I have heard John Lennon's "Imagine" song an innumerable amount of times. I have sung along, I have indeed imagined that there was no heaven, no hell and that people were living for today. I understood the premise behind the song (and still do), and can validate the argument put forth within it. Our world needs to come together for the here and the now while we share this space. It is a message to us all, not necessarily, something for my solitary consideration.

A New Perspective...

It follows, then, that it is not the nature of the idea of nothing after death that was new to me when I saw that episode of Torchwood that triggered all of this, it was, instead, my perception of the idea.When presented with a resurrected dead man saying that there's "nothing" after death  in the midst of a sci-fi television show, my mind went in a completely different direction than it had once gone with John Lennon's melody. This had nothing to do with war, or peace, or hunger or greed - this was a single human being expressing his fear that what he saw when he died was nothing, just darkness. It was a personal, not global, realization and I think that made all of the difference to me. While John Lennon asked the masses to ponder the idea of nothing after death, this television show presented it to me, alone, not to save the world, but instead to think about.

The Question Haunts...

I didn't say anything. I didn't act on it. I didn't even write about it. The word "nothing" just swirled in my head. I figured I was merely obsessing over the long-term storyline of the Torchwood series.

Until two days later.

We were off to Manhattan to take my mother-in-law for some medical tests. I agreed to go with my husband because he would otherwise be waiting alone for three or more hours. As we were in the car my friend texted me . She had an extra (free) ticket to see that night's show of Book of Mormon, would I like to go? It was about 10 or 11am, the show wasn't until that night. The answer should be so simple, I was headed into NYC, anyway, right?

Wrong.

I have two chronic diseases that can't handle long days of "outside" food and city walking. At 34 I have taken on the persona of a timid 82 year old that must think thoroughly of the mundane challenges each activity lays out before me - will there be bathrooms (anyone else out there with Crohn's disease?), what will I be able to eat (thank you gluten and dairy allergies), and what the heck am I going to do if my Intracranial Hypertension acts up (blinding headaches, vision problems, dizziness and light-headedness). So, in all honesty, there is has been an easy answer for me, for fear of being hospitalized on someone else's watch; it's a very unfortunate, "No thank you."

However, before I could even read the text aloud to my husband, I almost got knocked over by ONE THOUGHT: "Nicole, what if there's nothing?" I don't know who said it, because it didn't even sound like my internal voice, but it changed everything. My internal response, "Then this is it. Then now is what matters." I then read the text to my husband and followed it up with, "It would be ridiculous to say 'No', wouldn't it?" I think he was overjoyed and almost crashed the car that I presented it in such a way!

Needless to say, I went (would I be writing about it if I had not?). I survived. It was awesome. I then continued to do things I normally wouldn't for about three more days. It was all perfect and then I completely crashed, got sick, and needed a couple of days to recover, but - guess what? - that usually happens when I am playing it safe and staying home anyway! Thinking about the possiblity of nothing later, helped me make something of now.

So... what if there really is nothing??

Finally, My Answer to the What IF?

To be honest, if there is nothing, it will break my heart more than death itself. I've got a lot of people (and pets) I've been planning to see. Plus, God and I have an appointment (He is well aware and has penciled me in somewhere in His eternal calendar...) He and I are going to talk - the topic: Why?

Beyond the heart-breaking actuality of nothingness, the possibility of it has reawakened a piece of me that diagnoses, hospitalizations, surgeries and life-altering choices based on medical abilities and inabilities had tucked away into the dark recesses of my soul. I am realistic about what I can and can not do, but I can't forget that living is on my "can do" list! And that is super-duper important just in case there's nothing after this whole game ends!

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."

~John Wooden

 

Only thing left to do now is finally make my bucket list (since I have no excuse not to anymore)!

What if #1

This post is an invitation to you to think about the word in the middle of life: IF (L-IF-E). Each week the Rivera Runs Through It blog will present a different "What If...?" question for you to explore. Some will be serious, some will be silly, some might be political, religious or historical.

You can either write a response of your own, or just tune in to see what everyone else has to say about it. At the bottom of this post will be a place for you to link up your own post about the question, so feel free to share. If you have arrived at this post and the inlinkz tool is closed, or you don't have a blog, then please leave your response (or link) in the comment section below using DISQUS.

***If you have a What IF? question you would like to submit as a possible future prompt, please do so in the Rivera Runs Through It Community What If discussion.***

Happy pondering to everyone...

What IF #1:

What if there's NOTHING?

I have been having a bit of a British invasion over here in my house and, as part of it, have been watching the entire series of the sci-fi series, Torchwood on Netflix (originally on BBC America and its newest season is on Starz). This "What if" question was inspired by this show. Starting in episode one there was this thing called a resurrection glove that could bring the dead back to life for a couple of minutes to help the crew find out the details of their deaths. However, given the chance, I guess the question couldn't be resisted, and one character asked the victim what death was like. The answer: there's nothing, just darkness, nothing.

I felt like I was punched in the gut while escaping into my happy little fictional land. As the show has continued (I think we are in season two now), this theme has continued. I have a feeling it is leading to some sort of alien explanation, but in the meantime, it got me thinking... What IF there's nothing?

Perhaps you've already pondered this before, but having lost my first parent when I was only 12 years old, and being raised a Roman Catholic, I simply have never entertained this option. I have pondered the ambiguity of my faith; the essence of faith relying on no proof of the things I believe, but I can't say I ever remember a time of thinking nothing.

So this is an intellectual exercise for me. Can I wrap my head around it? How would I live my life differently? 

This is a pretty intense What if question to begin with, but it was the out-of-left-field appearance of this pondering that truly inspired the entire What if project. I feel I would not be true to myself nor the nature of this entire project IF I did not start with a biggie. 

If you need some inspiration, just Imagine...

Imagine there's no heaven

It's easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today...

~John Lennon 

I can't count how many times I sang along to this song and never realized that John Lennon was challenging me then to imagine there's nothing. So join me in sharing with the world our answers to the first "What if" question: What if there's nothing?

My Magical Monday

I feel tingly all over. It makes sense, too. I am magical after all. I was just told so by the Magical Quill!

After pumping myself full of caffeine (I did this with the help of Mocha Almond Fudge Ice Cream before dinner and some dark chocolate squares about an hour ago... that would be 4am!) I waited patiently by my computer through a lightning and thunder storm, the calm after, and as the sun rose behind me. I kept myself occupied with blog reading and then, ultimately, chatting it up with Pottermore tweeps from all over the US, Britain, France, Brazil, Australia and even the Philippines. Then, as one twitter friend asked me what the time was in New York, USA, I noticed it was exactly 5am.

One thing I didn't let pass all night (starting at 12am London time) was refreshing the Pottermore page on the hour. *POW!* There it was the second Magical Quill clue:

I called frantically for my husband, so he could call my friend to wake her and tell her (this was at her request!) while I tried to read, absorb and think about the clue. 

*DISASTER* My brain was absolute mush! I feared this. I started multiplying everything by 42. When I was one number off, I had made it into a foreign site! This was no good. Suddenly answers were everywhere - being texted to me, on my twitter feed, I was so grateful! I was a complete mess!!

Once I had typed in the appropriate web address for the English version of the Chamber of Secrets, and, in turn, the English version of the Pottermore site, I was taken to something that looked like an advertisement for Deathly Hallows Part 2:

Due to my fried brain, I once again had difficulty knowing what to do next. I probed at the menu when my husband and I almost both knocked the monitor off the desk by pointing out the QUILL on the page (do you see it there? It kind of STANDS OUT!).

Then, rather than try to pry the quill out the screen with our bare hands, I decided to actually click it:

Then, the journey could begin...

The five questions asked were:

• Birth date
• Where you live?
• Name and e-mail address (if a minor, then I believe it is name of parent and parent's e-mail)
• Password
• Which Harry potter books you've read and which Harry Potter movies you've seen

It is after these questions were answered, when I completed this "journey,' that something, well, magical happened:

I am in the book! I am "magical." There's no denying it! The Magical Quill says so!

However, the fun wasn't over yet. I needed a magical name. There were choices given:

I really was thinking only about the first two (although "StarCloak" is pretty cool, too), but the pumpkin and the tree won me over. My parents always used to call me "Pumpkin" and I love trees (I should probably write a post about that sometime soon), so...

The e-mail did not come right away. No big deal. One of the benefits of being a Day 2 person is that you witness all of the freak outs of Day 1 and learn that there is nothing really to freak out about. However, by the time I started writing this post, my e-mail had arrived!

There was a link at the bottom that had to be clicked within 48 hours (I think I did it within 48 seconds!) in order to register, otherwise it was all for nothing. I clicked it and found out

I am "one of the lucky ones."

Yay! Joy and splendor!! I am in the Pottermore BETA group! Sometime before October 2011 I will receive an e-mail with my formal invitation to begin my journey through Pottermore and, what I'm looking forward to most, be sorted into a Hogwarts House!

I guess I'll just have to keep checking my e-mail, keeping an eye out for my owl! 

A Huge Thank You To:

•  My fellow #pottermore tweeps that kept me company on twitter. Especially those that worked toward us getting #pottermoreWORLD to trend while we learned about each other!
• My husband and friend, Cristyn, who both were calming influences on my obviously sleep-deprived brain.
• To all the Rivera Runs Through It readers and FaceBook fans that crossed their fingers that I would only be a muggle until Monday.

and, of course

• Ms. Rowling and her crew that came together to make such an exciting, global and happy experience for all of the fans of a very special book series!