For his 30th birthday, family and friends clubbed together to get Nicholas a new piano. This went some way to counteract the existential crisis brought on by the inexorable passage of time! Laden with responsibility and the appropriate funds, Nicholas and a musical friend went on a quest to the Bath Piano Shop to make … More Music of the Knight
I have taken a brief hiatus from this blog to reconsider how I use it. I wasn’t enjoying trying to find a strict schedule: my thoughts refused to be marshalled that way, and I was left feeling uninspired. Then this particular passage came to me as a distraction: you’ll soon see why. Since then I … More A Rude Awakening
On any given night this week, you would have found me sitting at my desk long past my bedtime, fingers clicking at the mouse erratically, eyes wide and fixed on a colourless monitor full of flickering numbers. No, I haven’t been stressing over PhD work. I have been playing a truly excellent, highly addictive game … More The Paperclip Apocalypse
When I set out to write blog posts at the weekends, I had forgotten what a pre-pandemic weekend looked like. As we ease out of lockdown, it’s slowly coming back to me that weekends are busy, social affairs (even for this introvert!) – perhaps not filled with opportunities for peaceful thinking and writing. So I … More The State of AI
When I was writing essays at school and university, I always began by defining my terms. This was no great hardship – I find words and etymology terribly interesting. It also served me well. There is a reason that it is a staple of essay-writers everywhere: through definitions, key issues and points of contention come … More What (On Earth) is AI?
I don’t feel qualified to speak about anything. This is a problem in writing blog posts, in doing a degree, in having human interactions! I have no confidence in my thoughts or in my voice. I remember even at school, when the teacher asked a question, I would always wait and look around the classroom … More Putting the I in Imposter
Here is a common tale. Once upon a time, there lived a voracious little reader. Every week she and her sister would get new books out of the library. She used to read past her bedtime by the glow of the landing light – how she strained her eyes! She went through phases: an Enid … More Reviving a Bookworm
What has happened in the sixteen months between posts on this blog? Well, globally (it refuses to be ignored): a pandemic. As I write, it is exactly a year since I watched Boris Johnson’s 8 o’clock announcement of the first UK lockdown on my phone in the bath. My husband and I have been working … More Between Then and Now
I’m back! This website has been dormant for a while, but I have resurrected it with the resolve to write posts again. Why? I am going to make some commitments, based on lessons learned from previous blogging attempts: This is partially a selfish endeavour, but I hope only partially. I intend that by learning, writing … More Hello Again World
Today’s post is a little self-indulgent, because I want to tell you a brilliant story about craft, maths and genius. In 1997, a Latvian maths professor called Daina Taimina was taking part in a geometry workshop at Cornell University. A hyperbolic plane was being modelled using strips of paper delicately stuck together in a temporary, … More The Crocheting Maths Professor
Cryptic Meg 