CowPi Journal

Welcome to CowPi. This is my mess on the field known as the internet.

I live in a semi-rural area near Oklahoma City with a great view for sunsets. As Hoyt Axton once said in an old Pizza Hut commercial, “Oklahoma is the cultural center of the universe.” I like to add, “Just like the eye of a hurricane, nothing is going on here.” To be honest, Oklahoma is a pretty nice place to live. The people are generally wholesome and honest, although sometimes they act like the missed belt loop of the Bible belt. The cost of living is relatively cheap here compared to nearly everywhere else in the United States. The summers are hot, the winters are usually mild, the wind almost always blows, and the sun shines over 300 days a year!

I am married and have four wonderful children. My wife is my rock. At times, I find myself numbering our children based on birth order like in the old Charlie Chan movies. Every now and then I tease them about being accidents. But in reality, it was all in God’s plan. My family has enriched my life beyond measure.

My choice of career is teaching high school mathematics. When I tell someone that I am a math teacher, I brace myself for one of two polar-opposite responses. Either people hate math, or they love it. There never seems to be anything in the middle. Unfortunately, when I question the people who hate math, it always boils down to a bad experience with some teacher (usually somewhere between 5th and 8th grade). If I could give one piece of advice to parents, make sure your kids know and memorize the multiplication facts. This one thing is a major factor in determining success or failure in the first year of algebra.

I started this journal or weblog to record some of my thoughts about faith and about my journey through life. To quote Henri Nouwen from Reaching Out,

I wanted to write this [journal] because it is my growing conviction that my life belongs to others as much as it belongs to myself and that what is experienced as most unique often proves to be most solidly embedded in the common condition of being human.

Life, we’re in it together. So let’s help each other as much as possible along the journey.

(The picture of me in the rear view mirror was inspired by The Mirror Project.)

 

Why the name CowPi?

As a math teacher, I love the play on words.

In 1997, I worked as a coach/teacher for a two-week summer math academy with 7th, 8th, and 9th graders. In order to build team unity, the first thing we had to do was to develop a team name and symbol for our name tags. The students were stumped. So, in a rare moment of inspired personal creativity, I suggested “CowPi” with the black and white cow pattern inside the Greek letter pi. The guys in the team laughed. The girls politely turned up their noses. Then one of the students suggested “Atomic Pi” with orbiting electrons around a pi symbol. Everyone liked that idea and we went with it.

When I was looking for a unique domain name for a web site, CowPi seemed perfect, and available. Unfortunately, CowPi has little to do with what I have been writing the most about in my journal. Oh well.

 

Here are some other cow pie’s: