Blogtrek

People and Mathematics

I did an interesting summary of my activities. I do them in a computer program that inputs events in a code in an ASCII document and produces a calendar showing me the activities, with each day split into Morning, Afternoon, and Evening. I was able to input the document into Access, then Excel, where I made some pie charts. They were revealing. My occupation takes much of my time, about 168 days a year. In the rest, Toastmasters and my Unitarian Universalist congregation each come next with about a month of time each. Astronomy takes only half as much, and SUUSI half of that; that is only one week out of the year. Mathematics only takes two days - a convention every half-year. I broke out my SUUSI involvement and found that, compared to non-SUUSI times, I spend much more time on nature trips, especially to water, dancing, writing and personal growth, and some music. I also spend time on mathematics and astronomy, much of it my own workshops.

The problem is that if I want to be a mathematical columnist, writing and mathematics needs to dominate my time. But devoting time to math takes it away from people, because people are not too keen on mathematics. My activities have been drawn to people; hence SUUSI, UU congregation, and Toastmasters. It seems like my biggest problem when I retire is finding things to do during that time. It will probably have something to do with mathematics, be it teaching or applying it to something. But how to prepare? In any case I may want to go out into nature, dance, and write more than I do now.