The Return of the Tag

     Well, I thought this tag was done, but apparently it's not; I have been tagged by Hyper.  Oh, well.  (It's the same one as before.)

1.  I have eleven decks of playing cards.  My favourites are the vintage Hershey's Syrup ones, and the ones shaped like cassette tapes. :)

2.  I always double-knot my shoe laces.

3.  I recently got a new chin rest for my violin, the reason being that my old one broke. :(  But I love the new one! :)

4.  I have a Star Wars origami book.

5.  I really like the Eiffel Tower.  On my desk, I have two models and an eraser with a picture of it.

6.  My alarm clock is ticking.  It's pretty loud (for a little alarm clock).

7.  I think that raw fish is delicious.  On sushi, that is . . . mmmmm. :)

8.  I love thunderstorms. :D

9.  I think I'd like to learn Welsh.

10.  I'd also love to learn Quenya or Sindarin! :D

Done!  Now, who to tag? . . .  Okay, I tag whoever reads this and wants to do the tag!  

Guess the Function!

     I've been learning all about functions in math (they're really awesome!).  In my math book, Life of Fred (by Stanley F. Schmidt, Ph.D.), which is a wonderful and wacky math curriculum, the game "Guess the Function" frequently appears in the functions chapter.  I've decided to start doing "Guess the Function" on this blog.  I'm not sure how often I'll be able to do it, but I'll at least try to keep it up.

     Here's how it works:  I give examples of a function.  You then try to come up with a rule that fits all of the examples.  It doesn't actually have to be the one that I was thinking of, as long as it fits all the given examples.  If you come up with a function that works with the examples, you win!  All winners will be given imaginary laurel wreaths.
     Note:  If you actually do figure out the function I was thinking of, then you get an imaginary trophy. O.o

And for those of you who don't know what a function is:

     Here's the definition given by my math book:  A function is a rule which assigns to each element of the first set exactly one element of the second set.  (By the way, the first set is called the domain and the second set is called the codomain.)  Let me give an example:  Okay, so the first set (the domain) is the 13 dwarves in The Hobbit.  The second set (the codomain) is the alphabet.  If I assigned all dwarves whose names contained less than five letters to D and all the other dwarves (the ones whose names contained five or more letters) to L, that would be a function.  So according to this function, Kili would be assigned to D and Bombur would be assigned to L.  Does that make sense?  (I hope it does; if not, please tell me in a comment and I'll do my best to explain it better.)  Okay, here we go!

The domain is the set of all men who signed the United States Declaration of Independence.  The codomain is the colours in a Crayola 8-pack set of crayons.

Robert Treat Paine  ----------------------------->  Red
John Penn  ---------------------------------------->  Green
Thomas Jefferson  ------------------------------->  Green
William Hooper  --------------------------------->  Orange
George Wythe  ----------------------------------->  Red
Josiah Bartlett  ------------------------------------>  Green
George Walton  ---------------------------------->  Orange
Button Gwinnett  -------------------------------->  Green

Please leave a comment with your function for this example!

Christ is Risen!

     On Orthodox Easter, or Pascha, as we call it, it is traditional to greet one another with the joyful greeting: "Christ is Risen!"  The reply is: "Truly He is risen!"  We tend to say this in many languages.  With a little help from Google Translate, I've put together the following list of the Paschal greeting and its reply in several different languages.

Greek:  Christos Anesti!  Alithos Anesti!

Arabic:  Almasi Qam!  Hakkan Qam!

Latin:  Chritus Resurrexit!  Vere resurrexit!

Russian:  Khristos Voskrese!  Voistinu Voskrese!

French:  Le Christ est ressuscité!  En vérité, il est ressuscité!

Spanish:  ¡Cristo ha resucitado!  En verdad ha resucitado!

Norwegian:  Kristus er oppstanden!  Sannelig Han er oppstanden!

Romanian:  Hristos a înviat!  Adevărat a înviat!

Italian:  Cristo è risorto!  Veramente è risorto!

Welsh:  Crist Atgyfodedig!  Yn wir Atgyfododd yn!

Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!  Christ is risen! 

Aaaand Another Tag

     I have been tagged once again, by HyperLinkzer.  The reason I didn't do it sooner is that, as I've mentioned before, I'm Greek Orthodox, and our Easter (which is the greatest holiday of the whole year for us) fell on May 5 this year.  That meant that last week was Holy Week, which in turn meant that I was extremely busy (we have 10 church services in one week).  Add that to the schoolwork that I had to do the first half of the week, and I hope you'll understand why it's taken me so long to do this tag.

1.  I love reading bits of The Lord of the Rings while simultaneously listening to the track from the film score that corresponds to the part in the book I am reading.  (Wow, that sounded a lot less complicated in my head. . . .)  I think my favourite is reading the chapter "The Field of Cormallen" while listening to the track "The Return of the King". :)

2.  Pretty much the only way I like coffee is with lots of milk and sugar.  Lattes are good, too, though.

3.  I like to cook and bake.

4.  I got to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on the day it came out. :D

5.  I will be seeing Iron Man 3 soon. :)

6.  I just got new headphones.  They're awesome!

7.  I love asparagus.  And eggplant.  And onions.  And broccoli.  And . . . actually, I love pretty much any vegetable besides okra, raw green bell peppers, and sometimes kale.

8.  I went on a four-mile walk with my family this morning.  We saw a baby squirrel. :)

9.  I'm listening to the 2cellos cover of Viva La Vida right now.

10.  I like doing calligraphy.

Well, it seems I am done.  I shall not be tagging anyone.

Giraffe Video

This is a hilarious video!  I think these giraffes should definitely be in the next Olympics, don't you? ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=uFxnBrO9n7o&sns=em