Nationaal Monument Kamp Vught, 2012

by illogical42 on May 23rd, 2012

May 4th is Memorial Day, a day of remembrance for those who died in a war.  It is also the time that I like to teach my kids the value of our current life.

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Mandelbrot

by illogical42 on October 16th, 2010

It’s not every day that a new field of mathematics arises, but fractals was something completely new. I remember seeing those beautiful images made from simple math formulas as a kid and trying recreate them on my first computer with VGA colors. I can recall I used FractInt for that.

I was surprised to see FractInt still existed, but the cause was a little less pleasant: today Benoit Mandelbrot died, age 85. Follow the links to TED to see some video material where he talks about his work.

Here’s to you, Benoit, and may you gain more insights in the next realm.

Creativity games

by illogical42 on August 28th, 2010

Today I took a trip down memory lane during a walk with my daughters. After the rain stopped and the sun came back again, we went for a walk. During the walk we played games like “I spy with my little eye” and other guessing games.

Then I remembered a game I used to play with my parents a lot when I was my kids’ age: watching the clouds and imagining which shapes they had. I had continued to play that game during my adolescence when I practiced my cartoon drawing skills by drawing the shapes I saw.

Suffice to say, we had a great time. We saw a wide range of shapes and explained what we saw to each other. We saw things like bunnies, a bed with a heart-shaped pillow, waving hands, fire-breathing dragons, fairy castle towers (I told you they are girls) and much, much more.

We’ve had the best time feeding on each others’ imagination, and I am glad to see my kids are not holding back on their creativity.  I am itching to go for another walk again. I’m pretty sure my parents want to join us too