Mathematical Haikus for Kiasus

Some 17 odd hours ago, I posted "Mathematical Haikus for Goondus* and Suakus" on Facebook. I hypothesized that composing or formulating these 17-syllabled verses may help one to balance the left mathematical part with the often-atrophied right part of the brain. Here's another lot of these 5-7-5-like crude non-seasonal poems.


Make Every Nanosecond Count

Three scores and ten

Roughly a billion heartbeats

Use your time wisely

How Many Misteaks Are There?

On the train platform

Train arriving in ''one mins''

That's non-SI time!

Issued by Japan in 1984 

Rightly Theirs

That kids can recall

Pythagorean Theorem

That proves their "math rights"

The Craze Is Back

http://www.rubiks.com

Dare to sign up for

Rubik's Cube Competition?

That's raw math talent! 

A Modern-day Rubik Cube

Sudoku, again?

Think of something more worthy

To tickle your brain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteen_puzzle

Sam Loyd’s Alleged Invention

The 15-Puzzle

That cheap toy of yesteryear

Order it on eBay

A Math Competition for All

AMC* is best

The most popular contest

In the world today

*Australian Mathematics Competition

Where Cool Math Things Happen

MAA is cool!

The association to be

For math geeks and nerds

The World's Most Disliked Subject

Why you dislike math?

MATH is a four-letter word

A turn-off for kids

A Key to Unlocking the Universe’s Secrets

Math is a language

With notations and notions

To model the world

Some Like It With an “S”

Is it MATH or MATHS?

It all depends where you live!

Your location counts.

The Most Quoted Verse

What's John 3:16?

God's numerical message

Of His Love for you

NUMBERS 1:1-36:13 

The Book of Numbers
Is not really a math book
But God's Almanac! 

Social Media MATH

To blog or to tweet?

It's hard to make up my mind

I choose to do both

TWITTER Math

Micromath 4 U

In 140 words

To share your sweet tweets

FACEBOOK Math

Five-minute math posts

On pop culture and gossip

For friends, fiends, and foes

The Chewing Gum Land

A math sanctuary

The ''fine city'' Singapore

Offers jail and cane

Triple Firsts in TIMSS

SINgapore’s success?

A haven of ''cheat/cheap'' books

© Yan Kow Cheong, 2011

To meet kiasus’ needs

Superstitiously Yours 

Friday the 13th 

An urban myth to promote 

Irrational fear

Apocalypse now

Faith in the Mayas

Dec 21, 2012

Where will you be then?

Singapore’s Papyrus

The model method

A mere fad or a cool tool?

To soothe the mind's eye

Faith or Fear in 1’s and 2’s

The Y2K scare

Next it's 12/21/12

Marketing faux fear?

© 2012 Yan Kow Cheong

Another Creative Math Title

Cre8tively yours

Who Took My Calculator?

Coming your way soon!

It's time to compose a few mathematical haikus to tickle the right part of your grey matter. And remember to share them with the rest of the mathematical brethren.

A 17-letter 

m-a-t-h-e-m-a-t-i-c-a-l H-A-I-K-U

Longs to be composed

* Suakus and Goondus are the Asian equivalents of Dummies, Idiots, Blockheads, and Morons.

# Kiasus are those who are afraid to lose out, displaying signs of self-centeredness and selfishness.

© Yan Kow Cheong, July 10, 2011

SUDOKU for Goondus and Suakus

The Sudoku fever has subsided significantly from the time one could witness dozens of teenagers and working adults (and even some seniors) on morning and evening trains and buses, frantically trying to fill in the empty squares from sudoku puzzles published in newspapers or paperbacks – it looks more like some self-imposed or self-inflicted deadlines to complete the puzzle before they reached their destinations.

However, the cult of diehard sudoku addicts has kept the world’s number-one logic puzzle alive, with publishers never failing to inundate an already-saturated market. Recently, I visited Borders, Kinokuniya, and some local bookstores to have an idea of the number of sudoku titles each one carries. Not surprisingly, the Japanese bookshop has an entire shelf dedicated solely to sudoku titles.

A common sight at these locations is the number of recreational math and science titles being outnumbered by sudoku titles under the Puzzles/Games section. In terms of shelf space, only feng shui, numerology, and other New Age titles (subtly promoting pseudoscience, innumeracy, and fear) seem to be able to compete with sudoku titles (indirectly marketing logic, numeracy, and sanity) these days.

Let’s look at some of these creatively christened titles sold in Singapore bookshops:

Killer Sudoku

Mastering Sudoku

Absolute Sudoku

The Original Sudoku

Extreme Su Doku

Hard-As-Nails Sudoku

Expert Sudoku

Mammoth Book of Sudoku

The Big Book of Sudoku

The Little Book of Advanced Sudoku

Sudoku Genius

Stylish Sudoku

Chic Sudoku

FEROCIOUSLY FUN Sudoku

Super-Smart Sudoku

Su Doku Gold/Silver/Platinum

White/Brown/Green/Black Belt Sudoku

Third-Degree White/Brown/Black/Green Belt Sudoku

Su Doku For Dummies*

Sudoku for Dummies

Extreme Sudoku for Dummies

Kids’ Sudoku for Dummies

Sudoku Jokes (Easy/Difficult)

Tough SUDOKU

Sudoku GRAND MASTERS

Sun, Sea AND Sudoku

Sudoku Shite

Like timesharing sales personnel, writers and publishers of Sudoku titles are never short of creative titles to keep the craze alive. Like the 15-Puzzle and the Rubik cube, Sudoku may be just a fad for some, but one thing we can learn from the rich list of sudoku titles is that there is more than one creative way to market the same old content to tens of thousands of lovers of logic puzzles. Probably, creative publishers and writers could substitute ‘sudoku’ by ‘math’ in the above list to capture a bigger market for their future math titles.

While some of us are waiting or hoping for some non-vanity publishers to approach us to write or co-write some Sudoku titles for some Asian young (and senior) audiences, in particular the X and Y generations, let me leave you with a list of titles, which may be worth publishing.

I doku, therefore I am

Sudoku for Seniors

SUDOKU for Priests, Pastors & Pro...

Sudoku à la Singapour

The Asian Sudoku Calendar

Kung-fu Sudoku

A Model Approach to Mastering Sudoku

Sudoku-Lite

Why Sudoku May Be Bad for You!

Why Men Doku and Women Don’t Q

Doku your baby–Be the next Euler!

Lucifer sUdOkU

Sudoku 4 Lovers–Play in Pairs!

The Hype about Sudoku

The Lighter Side of Sudoku

Sudoku for Kiasus⁺

Sudoku for Dementia-Prone Citizens

Sudoku-fully yours

Suakus and Goondus are the Asian equivalents of Dummies, Idiots, and Morons.

* I only have a vague idea how Su Doku for Dummies differs from Sudoku for Dummies.

⁺ Kiasus are those who are afraid to lose out in life.

© Yan Kow Cheong, April 28, 2010