Thoughts and Interesting Stories---Jeff Clark

I haven't driven many cars in my time. I tend to keep a car until it stops moving under its own power. Since my last car was totaled in an accident I did need to get a new car, or at least one that was new to me. I commute an hour each way by car to work and since I'm hoping not to retire for a little while good mileage was important;  I definitely wanted a smaller car. I also prefer smaller if only because where I live and where I work are university towns with parking spaces the width of a cracker. I do value a car that is very responsive to the road. I'm not that articulate about this but most folk seem to have a sense of it.  Since my kids are grown the need for a gargantuan trunk isn't as pressing, just something to handle my commute and some road trips without three passengers in the car. I was very fortunate this time around. I had enjoyed driving my previous car for a decade and felt that I had been served well by the dealership so I went back to the same dealer...

I was in a car accident a few days ago. There was a stopped car in the interstate and I didn't see it in advance; the car in front of me swerved into another lane and then there it was in front of me. I also swerved but damaged my commuter car, which is old and had many miles on it. The insurance company declared it a total loss.  The damage was where I scraped along the passenger side of my car (and the driver side of the stopped car). I had no deployment of airbags and no damage from my seat belt; no glass on either car broke, so it was a glancing blow if that makes sense. The front passenger wheel was damaged and I could not drive the car very far.  I pulled over to the shoulder and dialed 911. A state trooper made sure I was alright and proceeded to take care of the situation. I was moving slowly, aware that I had had a shock to my system and trying not to do anything to worsen the situation (stepping into traffic when I exited my vehicle, etc.) The trooper took my informa...

I attended MathFest in Indianapolis last week; the day after I flew back I left with my wife and son to drive to Pennsylvania, and we drove to Long Island yesterday. Our current plan is to drive back on Friday but our daughter who hadn't planned to accompany us is recovering from COVID and we may head back early if she needs assistance. I am a creature of structure, with set routines that not only make it easier for others to rely upon me but also, as I grow older and my memory dulls, make it easier to trust in myself and not have to constantly check if I've done what I intended to. My checklists, written and unwritten, give me a good deal of self-confidence. (Whether or not that is earned is a subject for another day.) When by myself at the conference I instituted little routines in my hotel room to allow me to relax and not have to constantly be creative. I have traveled to conferences for decades so these kinds of routines are second-nature to me by now. Traveling with my wi...

I'm at a point in my career where I assign percentiles to the talks I give. I've given enough of them by now (at least two a year for over thirty years) to make that useful. I like to think that I've improved with age and that the percentiles are higher now because of that but I may be getting softer as a grader. It's subjective. I gave a talk this morning that felt good giving and seemed to be well-received. It felt good giving because it was about an aspect of my teaching that I've been using for a long time and am fairly confident in discussing and answering questions about. It was well-received because I'm an energetic speaker when I'm confident (it's a mask I put on) and because the talk was highly visual, which makes the audience more engaged and more likely to respond to its quality. I've given shakier talks (and in recent years) because of my lack of confidence in the material but I do try to follow some basic rules about presentations. It he...