Adding Apples

Woke up this morning andsaw the kids watching Saturday morning cartoons. Jack was eating cereal on a little tv table, and Lilly was upside down in the Lay-z-boy. I wiped some of the eye crust from my eyes and stumbled into the kitchen where I made some coffee, and loaded the dishwasher when I saw that Lilly's homework on the counter.

"Lilly, you were supposta do your homework yesterday!" I reminded her.

She bounced into the kitchen and said in her trademark fast speak "Ohyeah iforgottodothat." She gathered up the papers and went back to the tv room and started setting herself up.

After a few minutes she called out, "Daaaaaaad, I need your help!"

I looked over her shoulder and looked at the page of additions and subtractions she was working on. About 120 problems were lined out like an anal retentive's M&Ms on the sheet and she was right about in the middle of them. Simple problems of adding and subtracting single digit numbers.

"What's 6 take away 4?" she asked as she bounced up and down in the chair. She had written a 2 for the answer. "Is this right?"

I asked her if she was taught how to check her work by adding her answer with the bottom number to get the top number. She is more confident at adding than subtracting. "2 plus 4 is... 6!" she squealed and she waved her arms in the air. She almost stabbed me with her pencil.

"Yes," I smiled "that's how you check your work."

"Butsomeoftheseareaddingandsomearesubtractingandthey'reallmixedup,daddy"

"You know how to check your adding?" She nodded enthusiastically. "Do you need me to help you any more?" She shook here head without transisitioning and with just as much energy. "Okay, bobble-head, you're doing great!" She giggled to the pet name as I went back to the kitchen to finish the dishes.

With the coffee poured, the dishwasher on, the girls cratching her pencil on paper and cartoon voices emitting from the television, I went outside, I went outside for my morning smoke and I thought about that interaction with her. I'm no great mathematics theorist, like my brother is, but I like to play with ideas in my head. I started wondering about checking math. Isn't it interesting that the way you check Addition is the same way that you check Subtraction. Add the sum to the subtractor and you get the origin number in Subtraction. Minus the difference from the second second number to get the first number in Addition. Pretty easy stuff, really, for an adult. but the interesting part comes in when you try to do the checking with the opposite numbers. In Addition, you can sutract either either or the numbers from the sum to get the other number, but in Subtraction, this doesn't happen. This is easier to illustrate than to explain.

I'll use these simple problems: 4+5=9 and 8-6=2.

In checking addition, you can say either 9-4=5 or 9-5=4. Either way the sum is the same amount. In checking subtraction it doesn't work the same way. 2+6=8, which is correct checking, but 2+8 does not equal 8, it equals 10.

So that led me to this pondering: In Addition, does it really matter in what order the addition numbers are. 4+5=5+4=9, correct? Yes, of course it's correct. but are they the same numbers? is the 4 in the first equation the same as the 4 in the second equation? I say they are not. If you have 4 apple and your friend loans you 5 more apples, you are holding 9 apples. If you have 5 apples and your friend loans you 4 apples, you are holding 9 apples. but when it comes time to returning your apples to your friend, you have a real dilemma. do you give him 4 apples or 5 apples? Breaking it down to numbers, 4+5 does not equal 5+4, because what you start out with must be the same as you end with when checking. If you were holding 8 apples and you loaned 6 of them to your friend, you would be left hold 2 apples, and when your friend returned those to you, you would have 8 again, not 10.

Hmm. So what am I getting at? I'm not really sure. I guess what I'm saying is that by checking your addition it is important to know that the problem 4+5 is not the same as 5+4, even though the sums might both be 9, they are different 9s with different qualities. And THAT I think is what was interesting to me. That 9 does not always equal 9 fully. Each number has different qualities depending on its own unique history.

That's enough of that. Lilly came in wants a snack.

"What do you want for a snack, Lilly?"

She smiles and wiggles around "Can I have an apple, Daddy?"

"Absolutely"

"Can you cut it up?"

"ok"

She looks at me seriously. "Only cut it into six pieces this time, please, not eight like last time," is her explicit request.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I can't eat eight slices."

Post-partum

/me crashes on the couch, exhausted

Sunday was the end of the Make him Over Hunt 2, and I finished it at the eleventh hour. I had been dillying and dallying with this hunt over the past month, and in the last week, I crammed in finding as many of the symbols as I could. I turned the little eyeball off for everyone so I could streamline it as much as possible (apologies to anyone who was trying to reach me), and I ignored lucky chairs and other freebies. (well, I hit a few). I almost thought I wouldn't make it, but I did.

I have this love/hate relationship with these hunts, and I don't know why. I love the challenge and fun of finding something that has been so impishly and cleverly hidden, I love the banter on the group chat window, most of the stores are very nice, and besides, free shit! Not that I need more free stuff. My inventory has buckled and bloated over my personal limit of 2ok, like an over-yeasted bread roll and I decide to go on another treasure hunt? I must like banging my head against the wall searching through that stuff. But it's fun. The hate part I think is that it does take all my focus away from other things going on in SL, and now that I'm done, I'll have my share of post-partum set in, and I'll just wander about trying to think of how to occupy myself. Organize the treasures will of course be one thing to do, but otherwise? don't know.

I kinda miss the clubs, and I kinda miss the rpping in fantasy realms. I'll probably do that for a while. I don't see any hunts on the radar that really grab my attention, so I'll cool it with those. I still need to define myself, as to what the hell does it mean to be Leigh Eel. Leigh is an extension of my RL persona, (Real name Greg, btw, if anyone is interested) as is the case with most SLlers. Of course I missed Opacus, but I never put him off when he calls. He's the main reason for the dilly-dallying that I mentioned.

There was a party after the hunt, but it was Sunday morning, and I didn't really didn't intend to be online that morning. Was going to do a bunch of housework (God, the garage is such a pit) but my obsession overcame. What good is an obsession if it doesn't overcome? So after the hunt, I skipped the party, even though I would have liked to meet some of the guys who were also hunting, but well.. wait until MHOH3... (btw there is talks about a third one... if you are interested in getting some nice stuff, it'd be a good opportunity.)

Now, back to aimless wanderings...

Hoorayi

Whoa, when I neglect something I really neglect it. The Mums are dried up, the dog is starving and there are no more clean dishes in the cupboards. and when was the last update? Hmm.. I remember the subject was Opacus and I getting partnered, I suppose I could give a little update on that. It's pure wonderfulness. The end.
Is probably the reason I have been neglecting things, too. I haven't done too much Rpping online, and haven't been very social, either. My RL is gearing up and I am online less often than before. What has happened is I would get online and not really have anyplace to go, or to see and would spend most of my time going through inventory. Whoopie. That is sarcasm. it is the exact opposite of Whoopie!, in fact there should be a punctuation mark invented just to show how not "Whoopie!" it is, the anti-exclamation mark. Whoopiei Yayi Hurrahi
Whatever.
I've been doing treasure hunts online. Make Him Over is having a sequel, and I'm halfheartedly doing that. I don't need more clothes and skins and stuff, I just like searching, and if I don't complete it all, that's ok. One of the past treasure hunts had a party afterwards, which I didn't know about until too late. I wonder if MHOH2 will. I think I'd go to that, I'll take off my antisocial hat and practice my woot woot.
Wooti Wooti
Opacus isn't spending too much time on Avilion, either. Apparantly there was a falling out when a key player decided to retire from SL and there was some miscommunication as to who the next leader was going to be, and some unpleasant exchanges were made between the combat classes and the owner of the sim. I don't feel I have enough information to explain this in great detail, so I'll just leave it at this. Sore feelings were had.
Morty has been keeping contact with me, and a few others as well.. Lenny and Daffyd, Tiffy, Del, Gaffer and frankie, and a few others. I met a new fella named Orion (sweet guy, I think he's single. I'm not though, if I were, I surely would try a little harder to attract his attentions) I don't see Rammy and Rico nearly as often as I'd like (hint hint, Rammy, I know you're reading this) but I do know they are busy with RL.
I haven't kept up with the blogroll either, so if there's fascinating news to be had from those I normally read, sorry guys, I'll try to catch up.
Not a grand post. no lofty thoughts or anything. I just moved a ton of flagstones to re-do my sidewalk, and so all my energies have been going into my back rather than into my brain, So if you're looking for something zen-like, well, you might have to read it again and plug your own zen-desire into some wordage I may have not intented. It's cool, I don't mind. I'll blog again, I'm sure. See ya around!