Angela's website -- Interests
Angela Brett's
integrated circus


mathematician by myself, programmer by all accounts, physicist by sneaking into seminars, linguist by dint of cunning, writer by the lake

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Interests

I'm interested in pretty much anything which is waved in front of my face long enough, except for sport, numerology and its ilk, and national politics (global and local politics sometimes interest me, if they concern the environment.)

People are sometimes surprised because my interests seem to cluster around two areas which, at first glance, have nothing to do with each other. On one side is mathematics (in which I have a degree) computers (Macs in particular) and all other kinds of science, especially particle physics. On the other, languages, linguistics, creative writing and wordplay. They're not as far apart as they seem... one of my university lecturers once mentioned the intriguing fact that language is a semigroup. Ever since, I've wanted to find out exactly why and how, but I've had too many other interests to pursue.

Nonetheless, this combination can cause problems because it's difficult to indulge all of my interests while still focussing enough to be useful. It was also very difficult to fit linguistics courses into the same schedule as mathematics courses at university, However, what with working as a programmer at the world's largest physics lab where I'm surrounded by people who speak all kinds of languages, and living in a French-speaking region, I think I've just about figured it out.

I think my bookshelf reveals things pretty clearly. I only have one shelf of maths and science books, and two of dictionaries and language books, plus an ibukshuk. This is because the sciency side of me is pretty well satisfied at work. while the language side still needs more input.

I also love humour of all kinds. Old, new, groan-worthy, vocal, musical, textual, visual. I seek humour everywhere. This might have been caused by a chance encounter with fellow Mac user Bern Dell, who overdosed me on old British comedy radio shows. I have more than a thousand 'silly' songs and I listen to them as a matter of course, as part of my ordinary music playlist. Although I ought to have overdosed and become desensitised to it by now, instead I'm incredibly easy to amuse.

Anyway, click the links to find out more about these interests.

This page has been accessed times since 2024-04-23 13:41:35 Last updated: 2007-09-23 07:38:08
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