Nontrivial Exercises

Losing My Muse, And Finding It

I haven’t written to my blog in a few months now. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to, or haven’t thought about it. I have. I simply became overwhelmed with the rest of life and didn’t make the effort to try to keep up this vital outlet for me.

I lost my muse.

I’ve come to understand that part of my mental holdups are due to the complexity that I tend to create around myself. The design of this blog had become too complex, with too many little hacks and workarounds that required fiddling and updating. I didn’t start because I knew I couldn’t finish in a timely manner.

Well, I’ve decided to simplify the design. Here’s the new design, now bereft of many of the visual distractions I had before.

I want to write, not fiddle with my blog design.

I will add more stuff - just a little bit more - and tweak a few things here and there, but this is it for now. I’m going to focus on what I really want to be doing, which is writing and taking pictures.

Thanks for reading.

Technorati Tags:
writing, blog

New Feeds for This Blog, and Eliminating Chicklet Overload

Since moving this blog my very own domain – http://nontrivialexercises.com/ – I have also set-up a new feed. While I’m still using Typepad to host my blog, I want to customize my feed and platform-proof it, so that if I change blogging platforms the feed can remain.

So, the new feed is below – please update accordingly:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/nontrivialexercises

Also, you may have noticed this little orange icon in websites or blogs recently. It is a new standard icon to represent syndicated content / feeds on a site. The idea is that we can agree on one look and feel for a feed icon, and eliminate all the various chicklets and associated “chicklet overload” for different feed readers. For example, here are some of the chicklets that I could show to subscribe to this blog:

Overload. You really don’t need them anyway, as they all grab the same feed and just stuff it into the appropriate feed reader / aggregator.

Feedburner makes it easy to use the standard feed icon – they have a pre-created button you can use. You may have noticed that I have put the new feed icon in my Subscribe section on the right column a couple of weeks ago, but I have kept some of the other chicklets. Well, I’m taking them off today and just keeping the standard icon. I encourage you to do the same and help eliminate chicklet overload!

Technorati Tags: rss, icons, feed, design, blog

Updated URL for this Blog

I’ve created my own domain now for this blog, and have updated the URL.

I’m now at: http://www.nontrivialexercises.com/ and my email is now updated to matt [a t] nontrivialexercises.com

Note that the current URL, http://matthew.blogs.com/nontrivialexercises still works. Feeds are also the same, though I am setting up new feeds with FeedBurner, and will note when these are available.

Technorati Profile

A New Year, A New Look for the Blog

After getting started in blogging in 2005 and creating two blogs - this one and my other blog about swimming (Beneath the Surface) I have decided it is time to re-design the blog pages. The design I had created for both of these blogs was my foray into designing any type of web content. I think it was a good effort, but it is definitely time for an update.

So, I have created what I think is a much cleaner, crisper and straightforward look for my blogs. Here’s a screenshot of the way it used to be if you want to compare my fledgling design abilities as they develop:

In addition to redesigning the blog page, I also want to write more this year. I truly love writing and want to do it more, but have struggled to make the time to write here the way I would like to. I am going to give it a higher priority this year and will fill up the blog with more content.

Thanks for reading, and I welcome your feedback!

Holding On…

I haven’t posted anything to this blog in about 6 weeks – not because I haven’t thought of things to write, but because I’ve had so many other things going on. Just like Michael Hyatt recently wrote, sometimes life hits you with many things at one time and you just need to hold on and do the best you can.

In the past 6 weeks, my grandfather passed away and I attended his funeral in Nebraska; I prepared to go to a national swim meet in Florida only to cancel my trip the night before I was to leave when my wife had to go to the Emergency Room (she’s fine now); I interviewed for a new job, got the job, and started the job (at the same company); I coached my son’s t-ball team, hosted a end-of-season t-ball party and held my son’s fourth birthday party at our house.

Most of these events are simply things that arise in the normal course of being a parent and being alive. However, when the occur so close together, it takes up any margin in your life for some of the extra things, like writing in my blog.

I’m able to get back to posting now, and I have several things to write about. Thanks to anyone who is still checking this blog

Introduction

Here I begin a new blog - actually my first blog - which I have named Nontrivial Exercises. Why this name?

I love math. I had the chance to study calculus in high school and enjoyed both the practical application to many complex problems and the satisfaction of the thorough and logical thought process that calculus afforded. I eventually chose to study math in college and earned a Bachelor of Science.

Many times in various collegiate math courses, we would engage ourselves in the oft-feared activities of proving theories, assertions, solutions. Proofs are, of course, one of the central concepts of higher math and are really nothing more than a logical sequence of assertions that you make with proper supporting evidence. Some proofs can become quite complex and tiring. Many require several sub-proofs of assertions made within the main proof.

At many junctures during these especially long and burdensome exercises, the professor, during his or her discourse on the proof at hand, would come to one of the sub-points within the larger proof that required more evidence. He or she would start down the list of evidence and points supporting the specific sub-point of the proof, and would come to a particular item that was patently obvious to someone with a PhD. in mathematics (it’s always "mathematics" if you have anything more than a Bachelor’s degree, never "math"). In an effort to complete the lecture in the allotted class time, the professor would judiciously decide that a particular obvious point required no further explanation in the class lecture and would declare that "it is a trivial exercise to prove that …". Sometimes we students would agree with this statement, many times we would not. Often it was a personal challenge for the eager among us to try to work it out on our own. I personally enjoyed this and at least attempted to figure out the problem on my own in most cases - with the exception being Abstract Algebra. Nevertheless, the true exposition of the "trivial exercise" could be had for the asking from the professor during office hours.

What these professors described as trivial, was to many of us actually quite significant. Further reflection and examination of the problem and eventual explanation led to our enhanced understanding of the specific issue and of the larger problem. Understanding and learning led to satisfaction and confidence.

I want this blog to be about examining the sometimes "trivial exercises" I have about me and working to think through them, interpret them, enjoy them, apply any new understanding to my life. This is not only or ever about the seemingly deep issues of life (life, death, taxes, good haircuts). It’s really about not glossing over or passing over experiences and things I learn and enjoy, but to really enjoy them, to really think about them, and to write about them here.

I would be honored for anyone to read along and add to the discussion.