Junior year in college, part of the reason my grades finally went up was that I
was taking both Linear Algebra (a math course) and Finite Element Analysis (an
engineering course). It turns out that all of the latter uses techniques of the
former. I could see how the math applied to real life problems, and so I
understood it better. Similarly, I did better with computer programs when I was
modeling a real world issue than when I was just writing something meant to teach
a new programming technique.
I was taught history as a series of
unrelated events, so it was very exciting when I first saw the connection between
the Federalist Papers, written just post-Revolution, and their direct consequence
in the Civil War (states' rights issues). I love when topics heterodyne like that;
I feel I have a deeper understanding.
Right now I'm reading Patience and Fortitude, by Nicholas Basbanes, which
is subtitled, "A Roving Chronicle of Book People, Book Places, and Book Culture".
Immediately before this, I had gotten a short way into Jacques Barzun's From
Dawn to Decadence, which is subtitled, "500 years of Western Cultural Life".
I'm still in the first 100 years of that, but it is epiphanic (is that an
adjective? If not, I've just invented it.) to see the same people and movements
Barzun details popping up in their relation to books and libraries -- the
humanists of the 15th century, Erasmus as an author, the effects of the closing of
the monasteries by newly Protestant governments in England and Europe, and so on.
Sometimes books, like classes, are best understood when harnessed in tandem, and
this seems to be one of those times.
I also ought to mention, for fellow Sayers fans, that Barzun discusses Sayers in
all three of her incarnations: detective writer, theologist and theorist on the
nature of creation, and translator of Dante.
There is only one problem with this: I really ought to drop both books and go read
up on software quality processes so that I don't sound like 6 months unemployment
have turned my brain to mush, at my interview this afternoon. And a shower would
be good too. And I still need to write more about the Korea trip here.
On that last topic, I've uploaded my digital photos to albums on
both Yahoo and Ofoto -- I wanted to try both services. They turn out each to have
different strengths -- Yahoo makes it easier to upload and manipulate images,
while Ofoto has a sharing mechanism I prefer. Anyway, the images are copyright and
I don't want to share them with the entire world, but if you have a particular
interest in Korea or our trip, email me and I can send you a link to one of the
albums.