Mind Probe

The AGEHR Area I Festival/Conference 2005 was a big success. My wife was the chair of the Festival as well as the chair of Area I. We went up a day early to setup along with a handful of other people. One young man along with several of the teens from our church were a big help in setting up and taking down. They moved a lot of tables and a lot of handbells. I am not sure which is heavier, the tables or the cases of handbells. Either way, the team did a great job.

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I have been slowly reading the book The Road to Reality by Roger Penrose. I am only about 10% of the way through the book, about to start chapter 7 on Complex-number calculus. This is a layman’s book about physics that includes the math!

In the first six chapter, Penrose has been presenting mathematical concepts starting with counting numbers, integers, real numbers and irrational numbers, moving through basic geometry, complex numbers and calculus. He has a neat way of presenting this material that makes it exciting and an adventure. You will still need a traditional math text book if you want to learn the math. Roger Penrose presents the beauty of the mathematics, the mystery and the fun. Reading these chapters has brought back a lot of math memory of stuff that I have learned back in my school days and I love the spin that he puts on it. It makes me wonder what type of math teacher he would be if he taught high school math.

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Let’s kick of the Handbell Category.

I belong to two handbell groups; Sounds of the Spirit, a tin level choir, and The Quarter Notes, a quartet. My wife directs most of the handbell choirs at our church with the Sounds of the Spirit being one of the exceptions. Our Assistant Handbell Director directs the choir that I am in. Her husband used to play in our most advanced choir, the United Ringers, which made the arrangement ideal; neither of them had the direct their husbands

About half of the Sounds of the Spirits, combined with our teen handbell choir, UpTempo, will be attending the AGEHR Area I Festival/Conference next week. My quartet will also be attending and taking one of the class tracks on quartet performance. The United Ringers will be going as a bronze choir. Our two children handbell choirs, Next Generation Ringers I and Next Generation Ringers II will not be going to the festival this year.