I just now realized that I evidently didn’t write a post yesterday. These two days since I got back have been ridiculously lazy and I need to fix that and soon. . . way too much to do to be lazy. Yesterday I slept until 4 PM and then did essentially nothing except work a bit on the Bach assignment for next week. Today I woke up at 2 PM, was planning to grocery shopping (but didn’t), took a shower, and then headed off to a 5 1/2 dinner party (which was quite lovely, involved me coming home with several expensive cheeses, and allowed me to meet the children of one of the piano professors here), from which I just arrived home about an hour forty-five ago, and I’ve been lazing around ever since. I really do need to try and go to bed now, though, because I’m planning on getting up at 10 AM so that I can get my groceries and then practice. . . I am still quite worried about the John Williams concerto ready and how I have only until Thursday to fully prepare it. . . I think that why I’ve been avoiding practice – fear usually has that effect on me. As for NCAA, my bracket started out 6-0, but then when progressively downhill from there. Facebook has allowed three brackets per person this year, and so one of my other brackets is actually doing better now than my favorite one, and so my currently score on that bracket is 25 (out of 32) and total possible score of 173 out of 192 (based on how my first round incorrect picks effect future rounds). I’ve also been playing the CBSSports.com Round by Round challege, so we’ll see if I can do well at all at that. My mother keeps telling me that she’s heard that the chances of winning the bracket challenge (i.e., getting everything correct) are equal to the odds of winning the lottery two days in a row. While I disagree with this (because it is not completely random, but does involve at least SOME amount of knowledge and basic reasoning [though it is to be argued that one can do just as well picking blind. . . not sure about this or not]), I do find it amazing how quickly everyone’s brackets can go down in flames. For example, there is not a single person entered on Facebook that still as a perfect bracket. In fact, that title was taken away last night, even before the 16 or so games that happened today! It’s really quite mind blowing! We’re only 32 games in and yet NO ONE in that decently giant (certainly over 300,000 people) bracket pool is still without error. Wow. It makes me think of the story/fable of the man who asked(was it an emperor that he asked?) for doubling amounts of rice for 30 days. . . you know, the one who asked for one grain of rice on the first day, two on the second, four on the third, and so on. The one who he asked of course agreed because it appeared that he would not have to give up much rice, and yet the amount increases ridiculously quickly. By the time we get to the 30th day, the grains of rice come to 536,870,912 (just on that day alone). I feel that this is much like the way the bracket mentally works – it’s suprisingly difficult to realize how difficult and complex it is! Here’s a synopsis of the story of which I was thinking. Don’t know why it popped into my head, by the way, but it’s interesting what the brain associates as belonging together (though I do believe that I actually was thinking about this story a few weeks or months ago for whatever reason). The book synopsis is from Barnes and Noble and it’s for a book called One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale (by Demi) and is definitely the particular story of which I was thinking. Until tomorrow. . . 
A traditional tale of India, as well as miniatures produced in that country in the 16th and 17th centuries, inspired this visually striking book. Set off by simple red and gold frames, Demi’s (Buddha; Buddha Stories, see p. 108) atmospheric, authentic-looking illustrations-some featuring shiny gold backdrops-dominate these graceful pages. Figures sometimes dart beyond the frames, too, adding a Western mobility and quickening the visual appeal. Revolving around a raja who hoards his people’s supply of rice during a famine, the tale teaches a lesson about selfishness as well as a basic multiplication theorem. When Rani returns some grains of rice that spilled from one of the raja’s baskets, the ruler gives the girl the reward she requests: one grain of rice on that day, and for 29 subsequent days, double the amount of rice as the day before. Underscoring just how astute the child’s negotiation is, Demi includes a double-page foldout depicting the take on the 30th day: 256 elephants carry 536,870,912 grains of rice, bringing Rani’s total yield to more than one billion grains-enough to feed the entire kingdom. Unfortunately, readers follow a rather monotonous path to reach this effective conclusion, as the author recites a litany of how many bags and how many grains of rice are delivered on various-though thankfully not all-days in the time period. In the end, it isn’t the plot that impresses, but rather the elegance and serenity of the accomplished art.
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