NW Dates

Click the Link to See Cool NW Dates Through Out History.

11

I don’t know how many times in my life I have been asked to “guess a number, any number?”  You probably have been asked hundreds of times too.  Most of us have a favorite number that we will respond with 9 times out of 10.  For me that number 11.  Not only is it my favorite number, it is also our “family’s favorite number,” let me explain why. 

The house my parents first bought was on 711 Torrance Circle, after living their for a couple of years they moved into 611 West 3^rd, and for the last 17 years 1311 North Dewey has been the address I refer to as home.  Phil and Cindy Kenkel were married on August 11^th while my younger brother Tyler was born on July 11^th.  Whenever given the opportunity to choose a number for a sporting team my brother and I would both instantly choose 11, there are handfuls of jerseys in our closets marked “Kenkel 11.”  Throughout the years both Northwest and professional players who wear the number have jumped out at us as favorite players.  When I was younger I would always tell myself it wasn’t because of the number I idolized them so much but because of their pure ability to play the sport—but now I am starting to reconsider why I thought they were so great.

While there have been tons of other instances I remember my mom pointing out an 11, whether it be a hotel room number on a family vacation, a seat number on a plane ticket, how much a bill rang up to at a gas station, or a certain event on the 11^th of the month.  This number probably doesn’t pop up around my family any more than others but ever since I was young it has been fun to notice it and call it “my family’s number.”

We Are Family

I consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to grow up with such a big loving family.  I am extremely blessed enough to cherish memories of several great grandparents, who have passed in recent years.  And for most of my life I was able to brag to my friends of having not only two sets of grandparents still alive and kickin' but three!  Several of my classmates throughout the years were never even able to say they remember, let alone met their grandparents.  Family gatherings on both my mom's and dad's side were quite large.  All together I had 12 uncles, 11 aunts, and 28 first cousins!  As far as ages go I fell right in the middle on both sides, my oldest cousin is in his lower 30's and my youngest is around the age of 6.  There was also a pretty equal boy to girl ratio, so there was always someone to converse or play with.

Having a large family has taught me many things throughout my 19 years of life.  It has made me thankful to only have one sibling I have to share my parent’s attention with, but I am glad that I am able to have so many extended family members to love and be loved by.  It is neat to see how my parents interact with their siblings at this stage in their lives.  Another thing I find really neat is how much they care about each other’s kids.  Still being a kid myself it is hard to imagine my younger brother with a child but I know it will occur sooner than I think!

Gas Prices

As the prices of gas rise across the country many teen agers, college students, and adults a like are beginning to become stressed out.  Most people's idea to save money would be to not drive as much or car pool.  However the majority of drivers I know complain about the gas prices but don't do much to alter their daily forms of transportation.  I guess I my acquaintances and I are very lucky, we whine about the prices but aren't personally having to make any sacrifices.  I am still able to drive to the store or to a movie without having to think about how much gas money I am spending.
There are some simple ideas that we can follow though to make sure we are more money and environmentally friendly.

• car pool with friends, family, or co-workers
• run all your errands while you are out
• drive the speed limit
• be sure your tires are properly inflated
• don't carry extra weight around in your backseat or trunk
• use manufacture recommend oil
• have your engine checked regularly
• make sure to notice gas prices at different stations--here is a link to help you know where to fill up on cross country trips Gas Price Heat Map

Interview with a Mathematician

As I discuss in my blog I enjoy numbers, thus I selected this topic thinking it would be something fairly and interesting easy to blog about.  However when I was assigned to interview someone in the field of my topic, I became slightly stressed while my mind raced.  I tossed around possibilities of whom I could interview while still sitting in the classroom.  Visiting my high school math teachers here in town or wandering the halls of the math factuality here at Northwest were both ideas that crossed my mind but as soon as class let out though I knew whom I was going to call.

Ron Platt, my grandfather graduated with a PhD in mathematics from the University of Iowa in 1971.  Today at the age of 68 he is still extremely sharp when it comes to mental math and configuring a variety of mathematical equations with help of a calculator.  Grandpa enjoys giving all four of his grandkids educational presents; a few months ago I received a DVD, which he hoped I would use to further develop my math skills.

I began our informal interview by asking my grandfather “How do you talk to people in that field?”  He told me he did not have the best answer but he would try to give me an insight into the mathematical field.  “When collogues and I would talk to on another we would use lots of Greek symbols and arithmagrams when discussing certain processes.”  I asked him to throw out a few more terms off the top of his head that I could include in my paper.  Acute, obtuse, and right triangle, parabola, perpendicular, parallel, axis of symmetry, proofs, mean, median, mode, range, and average were just a few of the mathematical vocabulary words he was more than pleased to tell me about.

Next I asked, “Was there any lingo you guys would use that would frequently use that would not be understood by the common public?”  “Sure there were some slang terms but when we were outside the work place those words did not creep into our vocabulary very often.  Mostly when we discussed our work with each other we would make sure to explain our selves in ways that were careful, logical, and precise.  When we described and instructional process to a fellow collogue we always tried our best to make sure one step led smoothly into the next.”

“Do you talk to others not in the field differently or in other words do you dumb it down for them?” was the final question I asked my grandfather.  He answered with “Of course, that is definitely a special skill one must posses.”  Grandpa went on to make clear to me that it was sometimes complicated to explain a mathematical process to someone who is less sophisticated the field.  He always felt it was an accomplishment to take a complicated process and put it in plain words so someone in the general public would fully grasp the concept.

Unfortunately there are some assumptions that the general public make about mathematicians.  One common stereotype that is given is that all people in the math field are extremely elegant and do not know how to engage in a daily, or regular conversation.  Sometimes it can be hard to snap out of “work mode” and use vocabulary that us common folk utilize from day to day.  My grandfather assured me though that contrary to popular belief being a mathematician does not define every aspect of your social life.

Number Tricks

WHO HAS TIME TO THINK OF THESE THINGS???...Click Here to see the Tricks

Age is Just a Number

We have all heard the saying.  But do we all really believe it?  I think it depends on what you are talking about.
When talking about relationships there are a couple different ways to look at things.  A healthy 56 year old man who is married to a 44 year old women (12 years difference) doesn't seem too weird or unusual to me.  However when I think of a 31 year old women dating a 19 year old college student (still 12 years difference) I instantly furrow my eye brows in disgust.  Why is this?  Is it because the gender roles were reversed and now the older woman is chasing after the younger boy?  Or is it because the younger person in the relationship is not even of drinking age yet?
Recently I posted a Facebook status that read "life is still one party when you're still young", it's lyrics from the a song sung by Shaggy.  Within a couple of minutes of posting three adults had commented on my status.  One man, who is in his upper 50's wrote "at what age does the party stop."  This dad of one of my friends is a total kid at heart.  He water skis, snow boards, rides motorcycles, jams rock music at the high school football games, and knows how to throw back a few beers on the weekends.  When other adults commented after him saying they agreed with him it made me smile.  There are a lot of things I am not looking forward to when it comes to getting older.  But these adults definitely still know how to have a good time, which makes me hopeful.  All I need to do is remember, age is just a number after all.