Sunshine Blog Award

Two weeks ago I was nominated for a Sunshine Blog Award by a great teacher and user of technology, Kyle Pearce, over at the Tap Into Teen Minds blog. The requirements of this nomination are as follows:

• acknowledging the nominating blogger(s)
• share 11 random facts about yourself
• answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you
• list 11 bloggers you believe deserve some recognition and a little “link-juice,” and
• post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer and notify them.

Now although I do appreciate the idea of this nomination, I do feel that I cannot proceed without talking a bit about the mathematical implications of it. That is, its basically a base 11 pyramid scheme. To give you a sense of that, I traced back to see how far I could see where this came from. I got as far as the beginning of September before I got bored and here is the lineage

Kyle Pearce, Cathy Yenca, Drew Frank, Seth Berg, Ben Gilpin, Brenda Giourmetakis, Lisa Friedman, Zachary Fenell, Emily Ladau, Missy Homemaker, Jodi (enjoying Life), Zan (Flourishing at Home), Mari Corona, Yaumara (Our Brown Eyed Girl),

So if you just consider since September that makes me the 15th level of this pyramid and if everyone previously did a blog post then that would be 11¹⁵ = 4,177,248,169,415,651 blog posts and even if only two people created a post at each level then that would be 2¹⁵ = 32,768 blog posts. Either way the power of exponentials takes hold. Ah well, on to my task.

11 Random facts (in no particular order):

1. I have a mathematical tattoo
2. I have written for several math textbooks
3. The fastest I have driven a car is 245 km/h
4. I have a master's degree in Experimental Atomic & Molecular Physics
5. My wife and I have been together for 28 years 
6. It takes me (or more specifically, my son) over 3 hours to cut our lawn
7. There are currently over 10 Christmas trees in my house
8. As a child and with my own children I have driven from coast to coast in Canada and the US.
9. I only get one haircut a year
10. I own a Theremin
11. I am the primary course designer for the Heart Breaker Challenge

Though Kyle didn't post specific questions for me I will just answer the questions that he did.

1. What is your favorite movie of all time? Contact & Moneyball
2. If you could have attended any concert anytime in history, what would it have been? The Clash in London (1980ish) 
3. What do you do for fun? Hobby? Compete in Ironman Triathlons 
4. What two guests would make the best comedic pair as co-hosts for the Oscars? Seth Rogan & Seth MacFarland 
5. Cat, Dog or Goldfish? Neither
6. How do you caffeinate? Too much Coke 
7. Favorite twitter chat? #mathchat 
8. Best place you ever vacationed? Lake Placid, NY 
9. Best book you’ve read in 2013? The Signal and the Noise - Nate Silver
10. Favorite television shows? Walking Dead, Big Bang Theory
11. What is one thing you never/rarely share that you are exceptionally proud of? That I have davidpetro@hotmail.com as an email address (IE no numbers added to my name, I was the first David Petro to get a hotmail address)

Here are my Nominees for the Sunshine Blog Award (in no particular order). I realize that some of them don't really need any recognition from me (IE they are already popular) but I feel they are worth mentioning.

1. @Joe_Sisco - Don't Fight the Tech, Use the Right Tech
2. @MaryBourassa - Making Math Meaningful
3. @jreulbach - I Speak Math
4. @samjshah - Continuous Everywhere but Differentiable Nowhere
5. @k8nowak - Function of Time
6. @fawnpnguyen - Finding Ways to Nguyen Students Over
7. @rogonic - Learn and Teach Statistics & Operation Research
8. @mikeandallie - Mike's Math Page
9. @edudemic - Edudemic
10. @rmbyrne - Free Technology For Teachers
11. @mathletepearce - Tap Into Teen Minds (I realize he nominated me but it's a great blog)

My questions for my nominees :

1. How long have you been on Twitter?
2. How many email addresses do you actively use?
3. What's the name of the street you lived on when you were born?
4. Coke or Pepsi?
5. When did you first get an email address?
6. First concert you went to?
7. Mac or PC?
8. Favourite Olympic Sport?
9. Favourite Online News Portal?
10. Name of a teacher who inspired you?
11. Favourite Holiday Movie?