http://Larissa.tigblog.org/ What's on the minds of young leaders from around the globe? en-us http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/16837
>^.^<

So I found out what's not working with my teaching (well, one of the things) - I'm not respecting my student's pace. At all. A friend of mine watched one of my classes and that was his diagnosis... Well, at least now I know what needs to be changed... I'm preparing most of my classes, especially for my 7th grade classes, as I remembered taking them (ah - I had the perfect teacher)... Now my mind has been playing tricks on me, and I'm working at a pace much faster then the one I learned, not giving enough time for my students to practice they're recently learned ideas and techniques...

Understanding, at least for me, has meant to slowly grasp concepts, slowly making sense out of them, making abstract ideas seem concrete... And training, learning examples and patterns is so important to gain feeling...

I've never given proper credit to my third grade teacher. I had just arrived from four years in the US, only knew how to read and write in english (hehe escrevia "caho" ao invés de "carro") and she never rushed or pressured me. She simply had faith that I'd learn on my own... (haha, a part of my still thinks she must have been insane) and, well, I did...

>^.^<

Querida Professorinha Arlete, espero saber ser professora como você... Tudo em você não podia ser mais natural - e você não imagina como isso me traz dúvidas...
]]> Tue, 25 May 2004 05:55:00 EDT http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/16837 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/16689
The two college math courses I’m taking take up a considerable part of my time, and it’s all good, but… well, I can’t argument that it’s bad for me, no knowledge and information is useless, and I’ve been needing to study more math, last year I slacked too much. But I should be studying the things in math that I actually like and has more sense – graphs and probability… But now, every time I start studying that I feel guilty because I have a thousand analysis problems to do… :~/ Well, I can’t quit now, but I’ll be studying on my own next semester…

At the end of last year, everything fit, all was focused and there were so many plans for this year. But I haven’t been able to do almost any of those things I planned… But I guess it’s not a good idea to set as goal things you can’t really control…

My major problem now is money – I wanted to teach less classes, but I can’t afford that, especially if I want to be taking more courses – I wanted to study art, but I guess for the time being I can do that on my own… I want to recapture the things that I loved doing and haven’t had the time for the past years, especially sketching and sculpting…

Bah, I’m just rambling… I’m going to reorganize my time now, see if this time it works… haha, I've had so much self-proclaimed 'd-days' (days where it all changes) that I don't even believe myself. I guess I need to learn to have patience and take things slowly...
]]> Wed, 19 May 2004 11:11:00 EDT http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/16689 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/16142
It's hard to change. Argh, not as harder as expressing myself in words though ;P so I'll just leave it at that...

>^.^<

well, I chose red. In the end, people spoke, but I just went with my gut feeling and hope I didn't do too wrong...

>^.^<

hm... for days now I've been telling myself I need to update more, talk about how things are with Raízes, the crazy ideas for its website, this wierd but good week, but unstead, I write this pointless update cause I'm in a wierd mood...

>^.^<

esse é o nosso mundo...

as pessoas simplesmente me surpreendem, nessa semana, em vários sentidos...]]> Sun, 02 May 2004 01:16:00 EDT http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/16142 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/16077
red or blue?]]> Thu, 29 Apr 2004 10:52:00 EDT http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/16077 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/15497
http://joi.ito.com/archives/2003/03/10/an_email_from_dee_hock_about_the_emergent_democracy_paper.html

For a bit more on what Dee Hock has in mind:

http://www.chaordic.org/commons/CC-Over.pdf]]> Wed, 07 Apr 2004 20:49:00 EDT http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/15497 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/14696
The raining season normally starts late March. This year, a cold swift of air brought the season early and it has been raining hear since late January. This should have been a good thing, it has been raining all over the state, known for it's dry weather and has already gone years without raining.

But when it's raining in small towns during one night more then it rains during a year, things become hectic. Small towns just don't have the structure to handle so much rain, become flooded, or worse, buildings and bridges colapse. The state government is estimating a cost of R$ 250 million to recover from the damages caused by the rain.

In Fortaleza, whenever it rains, the city becomes caos. The city's draining system is defective. The mayor's attempt to revert the situation came to late, he only started taking action late last year (oh, yeah, he only started so late because this year is election year for mayors). People are loosing their homes, streets are flooded...

>^.^<

And on that Sunday afternoon, five boys got their caiaque and played, crossing the flooded street. A truck passed by, and they told the driver: "Sure! You can pass! =D That way, we'll have waves!"]]> Mon, 08 Mar 2004 10:32:00 EST http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/14696 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/14494
você pode conferir em: http://www.fiveminutestomidnight.org/brasil/issue1.html

Para descobrir como ajudar, confira: http://fivemins.tripod.com/brasil/get_involved.shtml

>^.^<

At last, the very first edition of Five Minutes to Midnight in portuguese is out! :)

check out the english version at: http://www.fiveminutestomidnight.org]]> Thu, 26 Feb 2004 10:13:00 EST http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/14494 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/14433
Who else is going? How are you planning on fundraising?]]> Tue, 24 Feb 2004 04:18:00 EST http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/14433 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/14251
>^.^<

O livro "Planolândia--um romance de muitas dimensões" é muito legal (não tive que comprar, minha mãe me deu de presente :-D) é divertido de ler e explica bem como funciona a vida em duas dimensões.

>^.^<

esse update é completamente inutil, é que fazia tempo que não escrevia nada e estou só passando o tempo enquanto meu irmão não vai me deixar em casa... ]]> Tue, 17 Feb 2004 20:56:00 EST http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/14251 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/14026
>^.^<

New year: up till now I was still in "vacation mode" now the year, and all that comes with it is finally starting. It feels wierd having finished school, and oficially being able to do all that I want... It's all good, I have this semester all to myself, but it's strange not knowing what I'll be doing the second semester, not having any college stuff planned. This past week, most vestibular (brazilian college entrance exams) results came out, so I've been watching my friends plan out the next years of their lives. I have to wait in suspense until March/ April--when the schools I applied to tell me yay or nay...

But, oh well, there's a lot of cool stuff to keep me occupied and free from going crazy such as:

>^.^<

New job! I'll be teaching olympiad math to 7th graders. :-D It's my first job ever, it's so great to be receiving money for something I would gladly do for free! :-D]]> Sun, 08 Feb 2004 09:29:00 EST http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/14026 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/13861
>^.^<

Belo Horizonte was lot's of fun... :) I spent a day in Ouro Preto and visited the house I used to live in when I was a baby--I didn't remember anything besides the floor... :-/ The taxi I took there had just the craziest driver: He had lived in the city for over 15 years, but didn't know the name of the streets, when he talked to my neighboor for directions, the point of reference that made him find my house was: "it's close to Neide's" :P

He also told us about his last car being set on fire. Why? Because people were jealous of him having a taxi... ]]> Fri, 30 Jan 2004 05:57:00 EST http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/13861 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/13538
On the 11th I was wondering how I was going to manage spending the week in BH with no access to computers. Now, well, that just doesn't seem to be enough :P ]]> Fri, 16 Jan 2004 06:01:00 EST http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/13538 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/13265
How to make one:

Cut a strip of paper, rectangular shaped with one side much, much longer than the other. Pretend it's a rectangle of vertices ABCD; consider sides AB and CD the longer ones.
A _____________________ B
.|_____________________|
D......................................C

Glue AD and BC together, making vertice A touch C, and D touch B.

Then: Tah-dah!! Your very own Moebius Strip!

Ths first time I played with one was about three years ago. A friend of mine said that if I cut it in half (marking a line "parallel" to the sides) I would get *one* *closed* strip. I didn't believe hime until I cut one myself.
._______________________________
|_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _|..<-- cut there
|_______________________________|


Now, if you were impressed with that, try cutting your new closed strip the same way...

>^.^<

After having fun playing with your Moebius Strip, try answering this (bad, baaad) joke:

Why did the chicken cross the Moebius Strip?

:D]]> Fri, 02 Jan 2004 22:01:00 EST http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/13265 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/13263
Fomos ultrapassados por duas motos e um carro cheio de velhinhos...

Teve uma hora que estávamos subindo uma colina, atrás de um caminhão que ela não quis ultrapassar antes, a 20 KM/H!!! Teríamos subido mais rápido se tivéssemos correndo a pé!

Mas ela foi perdendo o medo aos poucos, e no final da viagem já estávamos com uma velocidade média de 80 km/h ;^P

>^.^<

Meu reveillon foi bem legal. Participei de uma festa *exclusivíssima* (só tinha minha avó, meu vô, minha mãe e eu ;^P) e assistimos de uma posição bem legal os fogos de artifício (a casa da minha vó é bem perto do local ondem os soltam). Parecia que iam cair na gente...

Quixadá está muito chique: durou 12 minutos!! só três a menos do que São Paulo. Rio, se prepare: próximo ano a concorrência com Quixadá será forte!!

(na verdade isso tudo foi porque o prefeito--que não faz muita coisa a não ser construir rampas inutilizáveis em um dos hospitais e passar o carnaval da praça pública para o balneário para ele ganhar com a entrada do povo--queria agradar a todos...)]]> Fri, 02 Jan 2004 20:35:00 EST http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/13263 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/13156
Soon, I have to add an update about my incredible adventures with my x-games family.


>^.^<

Por enquanto, fica a intraduzível conversa que minha mãe teve de manhã ao telefone com a padaria:

minha mãe: bom dia! eu gostaria de pedir um pão de cachorro-quente.

carinha da padaria: hã? o qué isso? é o pão bola?

minha mãe: não, é aquele compridinho...

carinha da padaria: aaaah... é o pão de hot-dog!

minha mãe: ¬¬]]> Mon, 29 Dec 2003 19:35:00 EST http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/13156 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/12995
>^.^<

My New Dream Project

I can’t really explain it very well; I’m not sure how it would work exactly. The idea is similar to another update I have made, but it relates to organizations. With the myriad of organizations and initiatives out there it’s hard to keep track of what’s connected, how and if they work together and keep a holistic view of what’s happening and the smaller implications. Visuals can be very helpful, so I was thinking, why not represent the network of organizations graphically? And use the graph-like figure somehow to calculate impact and resources used? My summer project is to see how this could happen… Have organizations linked by goals.

One of the reasons some youth don’t feel motivated to work with social action is because they feel there’s to many problems to make a difference, bettering the world is impossible, etc. But what if they could visualize the impact of their and other's actions? And see that they’re not at all alone? All the actions come together to fulfill certain goals. And they can help out with what they are most interested in.

The same structure showing the connection between organizations could be used by each person to link they’re own activities and/or ideas.

Whatever activity one does simply for the pleasure of it could be linked to an initiative that uses such activity. The initiative could be to simply bring people together. That could create empathy and be the spring to a new action. ]]> Sun, 21 Dec 2003 10:09:00 EST http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/12995 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/12953
>^.^<

Life as sparkles.

Like it isn't absurd enough for things to exist, we perceive them in colors...

>^.^<

I have in my mind everything I want to write on my college applications, everything set to describe the world I'm immersed in right now, but I can't put it down on paper... Whenever I start, words escape. Deadlines are approaching fast... I think I'm waiting for something. A new piece of informetion, some new link...

Or maybe just for my cold to pass :~/]]> Fri, 19 Dec 2003 09:27:00 EST http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/12953 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/12897
It all started with Erdos and Renyi, who analyzed random networks: given the nodes, they would associate links at random, each two nodes havin equal probability of being linked. They discovered that only one link per node was enough to make the graph connected (or at least make the probability of this very high)

But then studies indicated a cluster effect in many networks; for example: a person's friends were more likely to know each other than two random people. So the random-cluster model was proposed. This made the world "small" in a sense that going through relatively few links, you could get from one link to another. (six degrees of seperation: assumption that people are separated by only 6 acquaintences) This distribution of links among nodes follows a bell curve: most nodes have the same amount of links.

But research with the Internet (where links between webpages were traced) showed the existence of hubs: nodes with an extremely large number of nodes, such a large number that the probability of it happening in a bell-curve distribution was practically impossible. And there where actually many hubs--about 20 percent of the nodes were responsible for about 80 percent of all links (the 20/80 is a parallel with economy, the actual percentages may vary, but the idea is kept) So they found out that the distribution followed a Power Law. This also proved itself true for other Complex Networks--starting the scale-free model, ruled by a power law.

Another problem with the old models was that they are static: the number of nodes remains constant, obviously not true for the Internet and Social Networks, where new nodes and links are added everyday. So a new question arrised: how do new nodes link themselves?

If they are to link at random, old nodes have an obvious advantage. This would explain the existance of hubs, but doesn't explain how new nodes can become hubs (for example: Google's popularity over Altavista)... So they came up with a new variable for the nodes: fitness--the ability of the node to attract other nodes.

The Robustness of a Network is it's ability to not break into disconnected parts when links are removed. The scale-model, due to the hubs, is more robust than the Random model, which breaks down past a critical point. However, it's also more vulnerable to attacks: if a significant amount of hubs go down (their links, removed) so does the Network.

Well, that's basically it so far. For the moment, I'm mostly thinking about what happens when links are added ;)
]]> Mon, 15 Dec 2003 19:26:00 EST http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/12897 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/12609
>^.^<

Two of the books are bought are especially good: Linked, by Albeert-László Barabási and Emergence (The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software) by Steven Johnson. I've barely read them, but the topics are so interesting I feel comfortable in suggesting them :-) They talk about the science of Networks (Linked) and the self-organization of some (Emergence)

Fascinating :-)]]> Sat, 06 Dec 2003 09:13:00 EST http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/12609 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/12480
The book had a remarkable influence on this friend (or at least gave him a new link to justify how he thought) as he links every event to whatever goal he has for the moment, justifying each event, good or bad, canalizing all energy. This attitude has proven itself very constructive…

Up until last year, things seemed to link themselves naturally for me, but this year that changed dramatically. All of the sudden, I was facing things that I felt didn’t have any clear explanation or justification… But the truth is, this year my plans for life changed dramatically as well, and for a good part this year I didn’t know what I wanted, so I think it’s hard to link the elements when there’s no greater goal acting as force that brings them together…

“When you want something, the whole universe conspires for you to achieve it” Paulo Coelho (people can say a lot about his style and his attitude, and have that haughty attitude and say his books are mainstream, but the books I’ve read by him had each an interesting element…)

I really like this phrase… But I don’t think it’s the universe that conspires, it’s that one should take the energy of whatever happens and canalize it to what he/she wants…

So one of the things on my mind lately has been decide what I want (well, I know I’m going to change my mind a million times, but I have to have a starting point)… something that connects math, IT, cognitive science and that helps others… My primary idea: use neural networks to connect organizations and to connect each person’s ideas. This may or may not make sense, since I’m not sure exactly how neural networks work, but the idea is to connect organizations more graphically and heuristically in a way that information can be extracted from the distribution, and I’m not sure if graphs are enough (or at least the graphs I know… :~/)]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2003 08:38:00 EST http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/12480 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/12420
I was trying to write about it, about the children that are involved, but I don't think anything I write will be enough... They are simply amazing...








for more pics, check this out:
http://www.changemakers.net/studio/99february/andrade/index.html]]> Fri, 28 Nov 2003 06:33:00 EST http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/12420 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/12024














anyone interested in wasting the time, you can go to the following link: http://www.cudojudas.com/v3/southpark/
click on the southpark characters at the end of the page and have fun. To save the image, press "printscreen" and paste in any program you wish to (paint, photoshop, etc)]]> Wed, 12 Nov 2003 20:35:00 EST http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/12024 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/12004
>^.^<

It's amazing how some people seem to embody certain virtues. Sweetness is by far my favorite one... Monday I ran into a friend I hadn't talk to for a long time; he's all about the sweetness--always so respectful, caring and concerned about being just. It was so nice to hear him talk (even if it did involve him not liking my college essay ;^P)

Simplicity added to sweetness has caused me a great fascination (and I'll confess: a bit of a crush) for Aliosha Karamazov, Kenshin Himura (an anime character) and this guy from my math e-group. ]]> Wed, 12 Nov 2003 10:18:00 EST http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/12004 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/11864
>^_^<

The new book of my desire (passed quickly through a bookstore yesterday and found out it existed) is: "Planeland" (Planolândia) It's about poligonal figures (that, gasp!, resemble humans) inhabiting the land that gives the book its title. Triangles are the working men, quadrilaterals and pentagons are the burguoise, hexagons and other poligons are the aristocracy and circles are sacerdotes and other religious figures. The story's about a triangle (or rectangle, I can't remember...) and its reaction when a circle talks about the *other dimension*. It all seems very cute (honest! I read the first page...)

>^_^<

I love hanging around bookstores, especially Papelivros when I'm in São Paulo. Most books are really cheap and have such interesting titles, such as: "How to Become Taller" and "Raising Children, for Dummies". I once bought: "The Magical Powers of the Mind". I'd be a big fan of those books, but they actually take themselves seriously and have that *behold! the truth!* attitude to them... I ended up exchanging the Mind book for a cinnamon scented red pen.

]]> Wed, 05 Nov 2003 18:44:00 EST http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/11864 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667 http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/11589
>^_^<

quando meu irmão disse que só eram 13 capítulos, achei estranho, mas assisti todos os capítulos assim mesmo. HA! não chegou nem perto de acabar! Hades nem apareceu! bom, de acordo com certas fontes, isso não é bem verdade ;)]]> Tue, 21 Oct 2003 14:12:00 EDT http://Larissa.tigblog.org/post/11589 -3.3166667 -41.4166667-3.3166667-41.4166667