For some reason, I have become even more sensitive to hot weather than ever before. For years I noted the strong decrease in physical performance at temperatures above 75. It’s always been difficult for me to think, make decisions, and focus in temperatures above 85. This is one reason climate control is a main factor in the workplace. But, now it seems I am perfectly unable to sleep in temperatures above 85, and my mental abilities now drop severely at temperatures above 80.
It’s been noted that primates with lower core body temperatures live longer, perform better, and experience decreased neural degeneration. I wonder if the converse is also true?
One of the functions I seem to have lost during this week of extreme heat (almost every day in the 100’s and no air conditioning inside) was being able to brush or floss my teeth. Yes, I haven’t brushed my teeth in a week. Today, with outside temperatures as low as 87, I managed to brush my teeth. Whoah, baby! May I recommend that you never, ever go a week without brushing your teeth! I have never seen such bloody gums in my life…

I walk on the simmering hot streets of downtown Portland earlier today, and as I pass a open-shirted man sitting on a bench, he looks at me and yells, “Why the hell are you looking at me with such a pissed of face? Why don’t you go get a punching bag to stare at! God damn it, all the woman here are DYKES!” Whereas I am usually a little scared of the homeless folks downtown, I tend not to be afraid of the people who talk to themselves. And since I am so unaccustomed to strangers talking to me, I just assumed this man was talking to himself while looking at me. I found his whole outburst pretty laughable.
Until 6 blocks later, I the man was still following me, about 15 paces behind, yelling “lesbo”-themed obscenities at me that were so creative, it took quite a lot of thinking on my part to figure out what he was saying. The sad thing was, since I’m not a lesbian, I still didn’t realize for a while he was directing his anger at me. It wasn’t until I got to deserted street that I realized he was still focused on me! While reflection tells me I should have been scared of the guy, or at least should have been more aware of his presence, I was laughing in my head the whole time. Nonetheless, he proved harmless and he didn’t follow me past the 6 blocks. Why aren’t most other combative confrontations be this easy to handle?

Last night while cleaning out my mother’s place (part of the “revitalize her home” project that I’ve so far invested over 200 hours in and am still in the infancy stages of) I found my car tape case in the back of her closet. This was one of the things I lost from last summer that I assumed was simply still in Denver (I wonder if my missing shoes are hiding here, too?). Anyway, these are a collection of my most favorite tapes of all time. I’ve tried to digitally record these tapes so I could preserve them, but to no avail (it’s a long story). Well, I popped in one of my main-all-time favorites, Sunscreem
O3. I hadn’t heard this tape in such a long time. I bought it during the prime of my teen years, and it holds endless memories for me. And it was warped beyond playability. Damn melting tape!

Listening to one song, by the way, just doesn’t do this band justice. This recording must be listened to in it’s entirety, in it’s intended order. And it ROCKS!

I dream of having my own address and staying in a while for a couple of reasons. One of them is that I would have an opportunity to decorate. The other reason is I would have an opportunity to subscribe to magazines. A few subscriptions I would currently buy are Scientific American and/or Scientific American: Scientific American Mind, Bicycling Magazine, THE FUTURIST magazine, and maybe National Geographic Green Guide Magazine. I can’t comment on whether these are very good reasons to have a home, but I sure do what some magazines!

Lately I’ve been thinking about my favorite movies, books, songs, etc. and the common themes between them. There are some pretty strong correlations.
One strong theme is my affinity for philosophy that is described mathematically. I’ll highlight some notable examples below.
The Eye of Horus: Ancient Egyptian culture makes many cases to the importance of art, storytelling, cats, and death. Naturally I would appeal, then, to all things ancient Egypt. But nothing compares to the Beauty of the Eye of Horus. This symbol is pure poetry by it’s complexity of meaning. I love how practical use, such as measuring grain or notating the phases of the moon, is combined with physiology and psychology and myth. I searched for quite a while trying to find a web page that briefly described each area of meaning for The Eye of Horus (math, senses, psychology, myth), but was unable to find one. Instead I found many pages that described only elements of the symbol. When you delve into the symbol and how complexly it evolved over time, it is quite fascinating. It is almost as symbolically perfect as the periodic table of the elements. I am endlessly fascinated by the brilliance of this symbol and how well the math fits with all of the other meanings.

Exert from Geocities:
The EYE OF HORUS has a very specific meaning. The eye is represented as a figure with 6 parts. These 6 parts correspond to the six senses - Touch, Taste, Hearing, Thought, Sight, Smell. These are the 6 parts of the *eye*. The eye is the receptor of *input*. It has these six doors, to receive data.
The construction of the eye follows very precise laws. The senses are ordered according to their importance. And according to how much energy must be *eaten* by the *eye* for an individual to receive a particular sensation. All of the sensory data input is *food*.
In the Ancient Egyptian measurement system, the EYE OF HORUS represented a fractional quantification system to measure parts of a whole. [ Get a book on Egyptian stuff or scan the internet for Egyptian Math see for e.g. “Understanding Hieroglyphs” by H. Wilson, ISBN 0-8442-4604-2 ]
The entire eye measured 1 heqat. And each of the parts of the eye measured fractions of the heqat.
[ THE EYE OF HORUS ]
These are the parts of the EYE and their corresponding associated fraction values :-
1/64 1/32 1/16 1/8 1/4 1/2

The corresponding sense data are :-
1/64 heqat Touch 1/32 heqat Taste 1/16 heqat Hearing
1/8 heqat Thought 1/4 heqat Sight 1/2 heqat Smell
Also, in the Egyptian system there is the unit of the ro. And by definition 320 ro = 1 heqat. The symbol for the ro is the mouth, it represented one mouthful. Again associating these measures with food, or input data.
Now if we consider the ro as the smallest unit of input energy needed for the input to *register* as sense data. We note,320 = 5 x 64 and so in terms of ro we have 5 ro to register a Touch 10 ro to register a Taste 20 ro to register a Sound 40 ro to register a Thought 80 ro to register a Light 160 ro to register a Smell
To see how the drawings of the eye correspond to the various senses note:-

1. Touch 1/64 heqat or 5 ro
This part of the EYE represents planting a stick into the ground. Like planting a stalk that will take root. The Earth represents touch. Planting itself represents physical contact and touching.

2. Taste 1/32 heqat or 10 ro
This part of the EYE represents the sprouting of the wheat or grain from the planted stalk. It is the food we put into our mouth. And so represents taste. Taste is also = Touch + Shape. That is to say, the different tastes we experience come from touching different shapes. So, touch is more a fundamental sense that taste.

3. Hearing 1/16 heqat or 20 ro
This part of the EYE represents the EAR. The figure points towards the ear on the face. Also, it has the shape of a horn or musical instrument. When we Hear a sound or combination of sounds we find this to be pleasing or unplesant. The sound has a taste for us, causing a preference. Sound requires Touch + Taste and so is a combination of the lower senses.

4. Thought 1/8 heqat or 40 ro
This part of the EYE represents thought. We often use our eyebrows to express our thoughts. And this facial feature is closest to that part of the forehead we associate with thinking. We raise our eyebrows to express surprise, for example. Thought = Touch + Taste + Hearing. If you think about it. Thinking is a kind of surpressed sound. The language we think in is like the *touch* of muscle prior to giving voice. And of course, we have a *taste* for different types of thoughts.

5. Sight 1/4 heqat or 80 ro
This is the pupil of the EYE. And so no more needs to be said. It represents seeing, or the sensation of light.

6. Smell 1/2 heqat or 160 ro
This part of the EYE points to the nose. It even looks like a nose. It represents the sensation of smell.

Chaos theory: This newly developed math implies so much more than just complex mathematical formulas, in can also be used to extrapolate theories on determinism and the prevalence of free will and existentialism. I find philosophical theories pretty hard to argue when they can be mathematically represented. This, I understand, is a juvenile belief of mine, since our ability to represent anything mathematically becomes easier as modeling systems become more sophisticated. Chaos, though, also nicely brings full circle my appreciation for art. I find fractal art quite beautiful and would proudly display some of my own fractal creations in my home! I am also endless fascinated by weather and meteorology. My love of chaos, weather, and natural art feed on each other nicely. At any rate, it seems I was exposed to a lot of Chaos media during my deeply impressionable teen years, and the love stuck. If I had the brain enough to, I would love to sit and philosophize using mathematical formulas. How cool would that be?
A few movies fall into this category, namely Pi, and What the Bleep Do We Know!?(Wikipedia, by the way, fails to see the humor in comparing physics and consciousness, a subtlety that perhaps can only be understood if you are an Oregonian).

It seems to be pretty consistent that I am riding 10 and 20 mile routes at 14.5mph. That’s my fastest average yet. When will I reach my 10-year-old goal of averaging 15mph? And, can I average 14.5 on a century? I’d like to add a new goal in there, too- I want to master steep inclines and pedal at least 10mph! Currently hills are my weakest link, dropping me down to 6 or even sometimes 4mph. Apparently that is very common for us girls. But with my free intro to Cyclo-CORE Training Programs, I should be able to be a hill-climbing master in just a few weeks. I need some more consistency in my life though to follow a training program such as this. It is just too hard to follow any sort of program when you are on the move.
This week I increased weight on 4 of my arm workouts. I’m working on the “washboard abs”, too. They are more toned now than they’ve been in a while, but there are still some jigglees.