I already miss baseball so freaking much
YAY, Freddie Freeman won the NL MVP award. Super well-deserved. Freeman is definitely in my top five favorite players.
Here’s a video compliation of him being awesome.
Daybirth
It’s Nate’s birthday!
Happy birthday, Nate!
Apart from it being his birthday, today absolutely sucked for me, so I don’t have much more to say.
Sorry.
HAPPY LEIBNIZ DAY 2020, FOOLS!
So 2020 might suck in general, but July 1, 2020 does not suck.
Why?
Because it is the birthday of our savior Gottfried Leibniz, that’s why.
ALSO, today is the official start of my tenure-track position, so that’s coolio. Now I need to not screw up for the next three to four years and get some of that sweet, sweet tenure nectar.
So it’s a good day amidst all the madness I guess.
Edit: Oh my god, this remix.
Have I mentioned lately that I love Gottfried Leibniz?
I love Gottfried Leibniz.
I freaking love Max Scherzer
That is all.
Leibniz Day 2019
It’s that time of the year again: LEIBNIZ DAY!
My favorite day of the year, not going to lie.
I never get to read anymore ‘cause I’m either walking or working, so I didn’t the chance to re-read Antognazza’s beautiful biography of him this year.
But I think about him constantly, so I guess that counts for something?
(Haha, I’m obsessive, I know).
Edit: MIKA IS BACK, YO
This is my song download for the day, because what better day is there to download a hot, sexy summer jam than Leibniz Day?
More Leibniz Thoughts (Sorry Not Sorry)
So once again I’ve been thinking about Leibniz.
I never stop thinking about Leibniz, really, but sometimes I blog about it.
Anyway, I wonder what Leibniz’ thoughts would be on the internet. I suspect he would absolutely love the idea of it—free exchange of ideas, thoughts, opinions, and knowledge—but I wonder if he’d find it a distraction to our ability to create and come up with new ideas/knowledge or if he’d see it as something that fosters creativity and the cultivation of knowledge.
I think it goes both ways, but I do think that overall, the internet leads people to waste more time. I know that’s certainly the case for me and for a lot of other people I talk to, and I suspect that it’s worse for people who have had the internet (as we know it today—fast, huge, and accessible almost anywhere) around for their whole lives.
I just wonder how he would see it.
I also wonder if he would get super into things like Reddit or memes or YouTube. Maybe he’d end up getting a bit addicted to the internet like everyone else, haha.
Anyway.
WAIT WAT
So here’s something that just surprised the hell out of me. You know Sunshine, that movie I never shut up about?
Chris Evans was in it. “Captain America” Chris Evans.
He was “Mace.”
And I had no idea it was him.
What is this universe.
Well that was one of the quickest purchases I’ve ever made
Hi there.
So there’s this website called Amorphia Apparel which carries a bunch of t-shirt designs by Jeremy Kalgreen. I dig his style and have this shirt because I think it’s badass.
Anyway, one series of designs he does is called “Monsters of Grok” which is where he takes a band’s logo design and uses it for a name of some influential thinker from history. See David Hume (Daft Punk), Descartes (Deadmau5), and Quine (Queen) as examples.
I have been waiting forever for him to do one for Leibniz. I even got on the mailing list to be notified if/when such a design was produced.
And lo! In my inbox this morning? “Your Amorphia Apparel request is fulfilled.”
Bought it. Eagerly awaiting it. Excited.
Edit: Calgary, why does your one and only Fed-Ex place have to be on the freaking moon?
Edit 2: IT’S EVEN BETTER IN PERSON OMFG
Grocery Stores and Leibniz
So every time I’m in a grocery store, I think a lot about Leibniz.
“But Claudia,” you say, “you think a lot about Leibniz wherever you are.”
True.
True.
But grocery stores, man. These things did not exist back in his time. I always wonder what his reaction would be when stepping into one for the first time. I’m sure shock would be one of his more prominent emotions.
But what else?
Would he be curious as to how we have been able to amass such a large quantity of food in one building? Where did it all come from and how did it all get here? Do all of these things grow in this area? Why are there so many foods in boxes and packages?
Would he be excited? There’s so much variety! What the hell is a papaya? What the hell is M&Ms? Refrigeration??
Would he be in awe? How much food is in this building?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE ARE FORTY MORE OF THESE TYPES OF STORES IN THE CITY?!!?
Would he be concerned? Do you ever worry about running out of food? Are there enough resources to continue to produce at this level? How much waste do grocery stores produce?
Leibniz is the type of guy, in my opinion, who would have all of these thoughts and would try to find answers as he happily ran around the store, opening packages he wasn’t supposed to open, eating random vegetables and snacks and whatnot, and going into places he wasn’t supposed to go, like the deli or the bakery.
I just…I think about Leibniz a lot.
Especially in grocery stores.
YO YO YO POOP PATROL
Interested in finding a new cool YouTuber to watch? Try Emilia Fart. Her videos kept popping up in my “recommended” list and I was hesitant, ‘cause it looked like another “ZOMG I’M QWERKY” kind of thing, but then I watched a few of her videos and she seems really cool and genuine and weird and someone I’d really enjoy meeting.
She’s in Canada, but on the eastern side, unfortunately.
IT’S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR
Callooh callay, it’s Leibniz Day!
I will never stop loving this man. I will never stop complaining about how unknown he is. His genius is underappreciated and that is upsetting to me.
So today, celebrate him! I know I will.
Unpopular (?) Opinion:
Not a big Elon Musk fan.
I didn’t really know too much about him for the longest time, but commended is space exploration work and whatnot. But then I read a quote from him that was very anti-pedestrian safety (and pro-self-driving car, of course) and that just really put me off pretty much everything he’s done since.
Also, I think the self-driving car is ridiculously unnecessary. Drivers get away with “not needing to think” on their commutes while putting other commuters (pedestrians, cyclists, and even other drivers) at risk? No thanks. Driving is already dangerous enough.
*heavy breathing*
How is it that I just now found this video??? ? ? ? ?
For those of you who don’t have time to watch it, it’s a dude gushing about Leibniz for SIXTY FIVE MINUTES.
I don’t know how YouTube hasn’t taken this down yet. I mean, it is porn, after all.
Edit: OH FUCK
IT’S
A
S E R I E S
ALL DAY I DREAM ABOUT LEIBNIZ
Truth.
Especially when I walk. I think about Leibniz a lot while I’m walking.
And especially on days like this—the 301st anniversary of his death. The world lost an incredible human being that day.
What I wouldn’t give to meet him, you know? To just see him, even. Just be in the same time and place together. Maybe as he’s tinkering with his stepped reckoner. Or working out the beginnings of his calculus. Or just sitting and thinking.
I’ve mentioned this before on this blog and I know it sounds creepy/crazy/WTF-ish, but I just feel like I have a connection with him somehow. I’m not saying I’m anywhere near him when it comes to his genius/innovativeness/amazingness or anything like that. I just feel…connected. Somehow.
I dunno. Maybe I have more than my fair share of Leibniz atoms in me, who knows.
Anyway.
LEIBNIZ DAY 2017
IT’S LEIBNIZ DAY!!
YAY!!
It’s also Canada’s 150th birthday, but Leibniz day takes precedence for me. The guy invented calculus, yo. Would Canada even exist without calculus?
I GUESS WE’LL NEVER KNOW, WILL WE
(Sorry, I’m hyper.)
I also did a 30-mile walk this afternoon/evening. It took me 6 hours and 18 minutes, but I kept a pace of 4.77 MPH despite it being obscenely hot and then obscenely thunderstormy. My feet/legs didn’t feel any worse than they do after a typical 15-mile walk, so hey, that’s cool. I’mma try it again on Monday.
(I spent most of my walk thinking about Leibniz, not gonna lie.)
Busking!
Wow, hey, so the other day (Saturday?) when Nate and I were out walking, we stopped to sit on a bench down in Eau Claire to chill out for a few minutes, and there was this guy across from us busking. The song he was singing was super catchy, but I didn’t get the chance to look up the lyrics until this evening.
I was thinking it was a Jimmy Buffett song or something (it had that style), but it’s actually a song he wrote himself! And when I found the song and Googled his name (Perry Wilson), I found this video about him:
How cool is that?
Here’s a good recording of the song that you can buy for $1 if you like it.
Edit: man, all the songs on that album are good. Just buy the album.
RIP Bill Paxton
So I’d thought the only movie I’d seen Bill Paxton in was Apollo 13, but apparently I just really suck at recognizing Bill Paxton.
But anyway, since Apollo 13 is was the best movie Bill Paxton was in (it was, fight me), in honor of his passing, here’s the best song from that movie. And probably one of the greatest pieces of music in the history of movies, in my opinion.
Chills, man. RIP, Mr. Paxton.
ZOMG BRRRRR!
So today I did a dumb and took a 15-mile walk in -11℉ weather. And how does my amazing husband reward such ridiculous behavior? He cranks the heat up in the condo and warms up my towel in the dryer while I shower.
I don’t deserve this man.
In other more depressing news, Dr. Hans Rosling died today. A Swedish statistician and educator, he pushed for truth in statistics, data visualization and accessibility, and was big on understanding global development. One of my favorite videos of his is one I showed on the first day of each of my STAT 251 classes back at UI (and to my students last semester, too):
RIP, Dr. Rosling.
LEIBNIZ DAY 2016
IT’S LEIBNIZ DAY, MOTHERFUCKERS!
Love, love, love.
It’s too bad I feel like an absolute worthless bag of trash today. Leibniz day is a day to be happy.
BOOSH boosh BOOSH boosh BOOSH I’m gonna go cry for a little while.
Eigenblogger 