Just a quick note to let everyone know that next week I'll be going to England for work! It's mostly just hanging out in someone else's building and working on software, but the travel is nice, and we usually hang out in pubs afterwards and drink really good british beer.
I may be incommunicado for the most part, but I'll try to post something from a foreign country. With the power of the internet! I've been over there for work before, but this time we'll be staying in a different place, closer to the main city, so we can walk around and see more stuff besides cute little lambs, who had just been born and were wandering around the green fields when we were there last time.
Jess has Ratchet and Clank to keep her company while I am away, which is her favorite game series in the world. I've been watching her play some, and not only does it look like a lot of fun, the graphics are *gorgeous*, both technically and from an art direction perspective.
Also, as first-time homeowners in a neighborhood with kids, we get to officially hand out Halloween candy for the first time ever this weekend. We plan to hang out in the front and hand out candy and maybe meet some neighbors. I'll let you know how it goes, but I'm traveling on Sunday morning and I don't land until Monday, so it may be a bit before I'm fit to communicate with other humans.
Loves!
-N
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Take THAT, week!
I've either become jaded or really good at what I do here. This week has been busy, and stressful, but not the epic endurance test that any single one of these factors caused me in my first and second year here. The run down-
Monday and Tuesday, clear schedule to work on Midterm that turned out to be really hard. Minimal guilt associated with not doing experiments, this class doesn't take up much time otherwise.
Wednesday, present 1 hour-long lab meeting for Dr. Rockstar's lab. The process of getting ready to talk for an hour about the things I need help with is never fun, but didn't require multiple practice runs or anything like this has in the past. In fact, I was reading a paper for my midterm until I went to set up the projector. Dr. Boss thinks I am meeting expectations. Submit midterm ~7pm.
Thursday- go to class, what, there were TWO papers to read? Skimmed these during lab meeting and was still the most 'participatory' student. Check!
Friday, last push! I am leading the HHMI students in a discussion of Reserch Integrity. I am relying on the fact that the case study was really cool to give me some time to think about how to assess students in discussion. We have TWO hours, people! I didn't even decide what I was going to wear the night before (although jeans and a hoodie wouldn't have taken long to arrive at), I would have thought I'd be more nervous. I am a little worried about letting down the faculty who provided me these students, but I don't know what other kind of prep to do in the mean time.
Just a few more hours until this week is conquered!
Monday and Tuesday, clear schedule to work on Midterm that turned out to be really hard. Minimal guilt associated with not doing experiments, this class doesn't take up much time otherwise.
Wednesday, present 1 hour-long lab meeting for Dr. Rockstar's lab. The process of getting ready to talk for an hour about the things I need help with is never fun, but didn't require multiple practice runs or anything like this has in the past. In fact, I was reading a paper for my midterm until I went to set up the projector. Dr. Boss thinks I am meeting expectations. Submit midterm ~7pm.
Thursday- go to class, what, there were TWO papers to read? Skimmed these during lab meeting and was still the most 'participatory' student. Check!
Friday, last push! I am leading the HHMI students in a discussion of Reserch Integrity. I am relying on the fact that the case study was really cool to give me some time to think about how to assess students in discussion. We have TWO hours, people! I didn't even decide what I was going to wear the night before (although jeans and a hoodie wouldn't have taken long to arrive at), I would have thought I'd be more nervous. I am a little worried about letting down the faculty who provided me these students, but I don't know what other kind of prep to do in the mean time.
Just a few more hours until this week is conquered!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
VIDEO GAMES!
Tis the season! The dam has broken! All the holiday-time titles are all hitting the market within the next few months! What a great time to be a nerd. :)
Here are some of my favorites:
Brutal Legend: Weird game. Sort of a mashup between an action game and a strategy game, all set in the strange, beautiful ancient land where Heavy Metal rules the day and guitar solos can literally melt faces. Great writing courtesy of industry legend Tim Shafer, but the game is only 'ok'. I liked it, though.
Ratchet and Clank: Another in the series comes out next week, and Jess is VERY EXCITED about this one. This is her favorite game series, and is made by her favorite developer, Insomniac Games. They've made a LOT of really great ones over the years.
Borderlands: Another hybrid, this time of a First Person Shooter and an online Role-playing game, where you can find new equipment (guns, sheilds, etc) and play with friends. I'm interested mostly because it's coming out this week for PC, and I'll need something to play while Jess takes over the TV for Ratchet and Clank.
Dragon Age: A PC Role-playing game from industry giant Bioware. They've got a long history of great PC RPGs, and this looks to be shaping up like all the rest.
Facebook Civilization: This actually just got announced, but I thought my Facebook-enabled family might be interested. They're going to be making a civilization game for Facebook. Civ is actually one of the longest running strategy game series, and is well regarded for deep and involving gameplay. I've been considering starting playing some facebook games because 1) they're free and 2) I can play them upstairs on my laptop while Jess reads.
Micro News! I'm going to England in two weeks! The date has been set, the tickets have been purchased, and the beer is on tap. I leave Nov 1 and I get back Nov 8, so if anyone has anything extra-British they need, let me know.
I've finished the tutorial books I got for Cubase and Reason, and so I can start getting down to the thrilling job of writing music! I'm planning a two-pronged approach. The method I learned in my Music Theory classes actually involves starting with a poem (lyrics) writing a melody, and then assigning chords that fit. The other approach is just to play around with my synthesizers and see what comes out.
It's been raining here, and I planted a whole bunch of wildflower seeds around our flowerbeds and around the new tree in the backyard. They've already started to sprout! We'll have to see what comes up. I'll post pictures.
Peace, love, unity and respect!
-N
Here are some of my favorites:
Brutal Legend: Weird game. Sort of a mashup between an action game and a strategy game, all set in the strange, beautiful ancient land where Heavy Metal rules the day and guitar solos can literally melt faces. Great writing courtesy of industry legend Tim Shafer, but the game is only 'ok'. I liked it, though.
Ratchet and Clank: Another in the series comes out next week, and Jess is VERY EXCITED about this one. This is her favorite game series, and is made by her favorite developer, Insomniac Games. They've made a LOT of really great ones over the years.
Borderlands: Another hybrid, this time of a First Person Shooter and an online Role-playing game, where you can find new equipment (guns, sheilds, etc) and play with friends. I'm interested mostly because it's coming out this week for PC, and I'll need something to play while Jess takes over the TV for Ratchet and Clank.
Dragon Age: A PC Role-playing game from industry giant Bioware. They've got a long history of great PC RPGs, and this looks to be shaping up like all the rest.
Facebook Civilization: This actually just got announced, but I thought my Facebook-enabled family might be interested. They're going to be making a civilization game for Facebook. Civ is actually one of the longest running strategy game series, and is well regarded for deep and involving gameplay. I've been considering starting playing some facebook games because 1) they're free and 2) I can play them upstairs on my laptop while Jess reads.
Micro News! I'm going to England in two weeks! The date has been set, the tickets have been purchased, and the beer is on tap. I leave Nov 1 and I get back Nov 8, so if anyone has anything extra-British they need, let me know.
I've finished the tutorial books I got for Cubase and Reason, and so I can start getting down to the thrilling job of writing music! I'm planning a two-pronged approach. The method I learned in my Music Theory classes actually involves starting with a poem (lyrics) writing a melody, and then assigning chords that fit. The other approach is just to play around with my synthesizers and see what comes out.
It's been raining here, and I planted a whole bunch of wildflower seeds around our flowerbeds and around the new tree in the backyard. They've already started to sprout! We'll have to see what comes up. I'll post pictures.
Peace, love, unity and respect!
-N
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Taking this show on the road
I write about work here a lot. Probably more than I should, but my professional development gets a lot more play then the rest of my life at this stage anyway. I actively try to come up with post-worthy topics that aren't work whenever possible, but there is so much to consider with my work!
Last week, at the annual Science meeting, I happened to stop by one of the vendors because I dyslexically read their slogan as "Getting the Public Interested in Science" and I thought- that's what I want to do. Actually, the slogan for Fund Science is to the get the public invested in science, but I was still glad I stopped by anyway. Fund Science is trying to develop a socially networked, crowd-sourced buzz-wordy forum to fund early career researchers (ie, me in 10 years, not now). Part of the whole mechanism is to make this a site that normal people are interested in going to, and the public face of this is meant to be a blogosphere about science topics. Anybody can join, and they are actively trying to recruit more bloggers. Since at the career session in the morning someone put the idea of giving your interests documentation by taking classes, or going to meetings or volunteering, I was uniquely primed to hear this as a personal invitation.
And I've still been thinking about it, quite a bit in fact. Would I really want to be professionally linked to a blog? What would the blog be about? What might I write about that anyone would read? Am I that good a writer anyway? Do I need to ask my boss about this? I've got a co-worker spurring me on as well, but I am curious what my semi-regular readers think about the possibility of me starting a 'serious blog.' Professional suicide? Game changing? Only after I take an intro writing class? Maybe if I get a good topic?
Last week, at the annual Science meeting, I happened to stop by one of the vendors because I dyslexically read their slogan as "Getting the Public Interested in Science" and I thought- that's what I want to do. Actually, the slogan for Fund Science is to the get the public invested in science, but I was still glad I stopped by anyway. Fund Science is trying to develop a socially networked, crowd-sourced buzz-wordy forum to fund early career researchers (ie, me in 10 years, not now). Part of the whole mechanism is to make this a site that normal people are interested in going to, and the public face of this is meant to be a blogosphere about science topics. Anybody can join, and they are actively trying to recruit more bloggers. Since at the career session in the morning someone put the idea of giving your interests documentation by taking classes, or going to meetings or volunteering, I was uniquely primed to hear this as a personal invitation.
And I've still been thinking about it, quite a bit in fact. Would I really want to be professionally linked to a blog? What would the blog be about? What might I write about that anyone would read? Am I that good a writer anyway? Do I need to ask my boss about this? I've got a co-worker spurring me on as well, but I am curious what my semi-regular readers think about the possibility of me starting a 'serious blog.' Professional suicide? Game changing? Only after I take an intro writing class? Maybe if I get a good topic?
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Visting my Host-sister, An!
Can you believe it has been 6 years since An left Juneau? Well, in the intervening years, she got a degree in business, a Master's in finance, did 6 mo in France and Peru for academic exchange and landed a job an an auditor at a large international chocolate and bakery supply firm. Although she has only been doing the job a couple months, she has already spent almost half of that away, she spent two weeks in Toronto last month, and is in Philadelphia for two weeks. Which is in Pennsylvania, which is where Matt and I are. So of COURSE we drove out to see her.
Matt and I arrived fairly late on Friday night, so we met An at her hotel in the morning. She is just as energetic as ever! After breakfast over wifi, we formulated a plan to take the train from New Jersey (where our hotels were) into the city, catch some patriotic sights, visit some local joints and see what there was to see. The train dropped us just blocks from the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. We also found Ben Franklin's grave, and the US Mint. We probably managed to trample another half dozen historically important sites, but because Matt and I never had proper US history, most of this was lost on us.
All the tramping made us hungry, so we headed down to see the indoor market. Mom, I am pretty sure that this is where we went for the ISEF events, except that now it was full or people and food from all over the place. An saw her first Amish people and to remember why American cookies are so delicious. I saw a chocolatier pouring a chocolate mold, which gave An a chance to tell me about the 'Chocolate school' she had to attend for her job. Essential training for an auditor. Matt just went ballistic for all the different kinds of food- he loves the mixing of people and smells and tastes at these markets. There were fresh meat and fish stands, several greengrocers, bakeries (oh! the bakeries) and all kinds of places serving up foods for lunch. Imagine the spread. while eating an Indian samosa, Matt pressed An into trying the BBQ place Oprah said has the best Mac'n'cheese in the whole world, along with her first BBQ ribs. I went in for Peking Duck and a duck roll (crispy, but it melts in your mouth!) with a homemade Pakistani pomegranate Lassi to drink. Matt picked up a falafel and fresh squeezed juice, and we enjoyed the whole bonanza in front of the guy playing ragtime piano. The weather was alternately blowing fiercely and raining, so we spent most of the afternoon holed up at a Starbucks just catching up, until we felt motivated enough to make the hike south for cheesesteaks.
A note on cheesesteaks- although the Philly cheesesteak is ubiquitous around the city, there are two places in town that claim to be the best, and locals line up every night to support their favorite. This is a classic Betty or Veronica choice, made all the more difficult because the two places, Geno's and Pat's are across the street from each other. We decided on Geno's because we thought we'd like a cheesesteak with provolone better than 'Whiz. We are pretty sure Geno's is the place Palin tried for her first cheesesteak, based on the pro-America, pro-military conservative paraphernalia. Although I don't normally eat beef, we went in for "3 provolone- with" onions, of course and some cheesefries, since none of us could bring ourselves to order the freedom fries. High quality beef, with fried onions on a big fluffy hoagie with the cheese melting right in- I don't think this should be a habit.
After a long day of trekking the city in the elements, we decided to catch the train back to NJ, get some drinks and cozy up in front of our fireplace. An (and us too, if we're being honest) were impressed by the enormity of the Wegman's we stopped in at. We picked up some junk food and oggled the Halloween candy- An says Halloween is starting to come to Belgium, but has not yet reached the height of tacky that is available in NJ. Once we were carefully settled with the cozy fire and a hard cider, we even got to call Mom and Dat to share our adventures.
This morning we got up for a hearty Bob Evans Breakfast before heading down to a big mall for some window shopping. Matt wanted to be sure she got to experience these essential American experiences since she had this second chance to see the states. She said she was glad to have someone to hang out with instead being cooped up at the hotel all weekend. We took off in the early afternoon to drive home. It's about a 5 hour drive, easy thing for the chance to see An again!
Matt and I arrived fairly late on Friday night, so we met An at her hotel in the morning. She is just as energetic as ever! After breakfast over wifi, we formulated a plan to take the train from New Jersey (where our hotels were) into the city, catch some patriotic sights, visit some local joints and see what there was to see. The train dropped us just blocks from the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. We also found Ben Franklin's grave, and the US Mint. We probably managed to trample another half dozen historically important sites, but because Matt and I never had proper US history, most of this was lost on us.
All the tramping made us hungry, so we headed down to see the indoor market. Mom, I am pretty sure that this is where we went for the ISEF events, except that now it was full or people and food from all over the place. An saw her first Amish people and to remember why American cookies are so delicious. I saw a chocolatier pouring a chocolate mold, which gave An a chance to tell me about the 'Chocolate school' she had to attend for her job. Essential training for an auditor. Matt just went ballistic for all the different kinds of food- he loves the mixing of people and smells and tastes at these markets. There were fresh meat and fish stands, several greengrocers, bakeries (oh! the bakeries) and all kinds of places serving up foods for lunch. Imagine the spread. while eating an Indian samosa, Matt pressed An into trying the BBQ place Oprah said has the best Mac'n'cheese in the whole world, along with her first BBQ ribs. I went in for Peking Duck and a duck roll (crispy, but it melts in your mouth!) with a homemade Pakistani pomegranate Lassi to drink. Matt picked up a falafel and fresh squeezed juice, and we enjoyed the whole bonanza in front of the guy playing ragtime piano. The weather was alternately blowing fiercely and raining, so we spent most of the afternoon holed up at a Starbucks just catching up, until we felt motivated enough to make the hike south for cheesesteaks.
A note on cheesesteaks- although the Philly cheesesteak is ubiquitous around the city, there are two places in town that claim to be the best, and locals line up every night to support their favorite. This is a classic Betty or Veronica choice, made all the more difficult because the two places, Geno's and Pat's are across the street from each other. We decided on Geno's because we thought we'd like a cheesesteak with provolone better than 'Whiz. We are pretty sure Geno's is the place Palin tried for her first cheesesteak, based on the pro-America, pro-military conservative paraphernalia. Although I don't normally eat beef, we went in for "3 provolone- with" onions, of course and some cheesefries, since none of us could bring ourselves to order the freedom fries. High quality beef, with fried onions on a big fluffy hoagie with the cheese melting right in- I don't think this should be a habit.
After a long day of trekking the city in the elements, we decided to catch the train back to NJ, get some drinks and cozy up in front of our fireplace. An (and us too, if we're being honest) were impressed by the enormity of the Wegman's we stopped in at. We picked up some junk food and oggled the Halloween candy- An says Halloween is starting to come to Belgium, but has not yet reached the height of tacky that is available in NJ. Once we were carefully settled with the cozy fire and a hard cider, we even got to call Mom and Dat to share our adventures.
This morning we got up for a hearty Bob Evans Breakfast before heading down to a big mall for some window shopping. Matt wanted to be sure she got to experience these essential American experiences since she had this second chance to see the states. She said she was glad to have someone to hang out with instead being cooped up at the hotel all weekend. We took off in the early afternoon to drive home. It's about a 5 hour drive, easy thing for the chance to see An again!
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Relaxing, mostly.
The parents finished off their little visit with us earlier this week. We saw some of the neat shops on South Congress, which I believe pretty much all of my family has seen at this point, and then on a couple of days when Jess and I had to work, we gave the Parents a car and a GPS and told them to have a blast. Evidently they did, checking out the LBJ museum, Neiman Marcus (I think) and a few other stops before punching the 'take me home' button and coming back for DELICIOUS NOEL PIZZA. If this sounds familiar to anyone, it's because we pretty much do the same thing every time someone comes to visit. We're still checking out the city for ourselves. The Capitol building was definitely worth checking out, though. Old and beautiful.
Yesterday I went to a local Independent Game Developer meetup at a bar downtown. Jess wasn't feeling well, so I just went on my own. It was pretty nice. I recognized only some of the developers, and I wasn't interested in too many of the games, but it was still nice to see some local gaming companies come together. Plus it was free, and they had a guy doing a performance of some chiptunes (music made on old nintendo audio chips) music on stage. It always gets me right in the nostalga center of my brain.
Also playing some video games for relaxing, and getting ready to go to England. They've had us buy the tickets: Nov 1 - 8. I'll have to remember to buy a power converter this time.
-N
Yesterday I went to a local Independent Game Developer meetup at a bar downtown. Jess wasn't feeling well, so I just went on my own. It was pretty nice. I recognized only some of the developers, and I wasn't interested in too many of the games, but it was still nice to see some local gaming companies come together. Plus it was free, and they had a guy doing a performance of some chiptunes (music made on old nintendo audio chips) music on stage. It always gets me right in the nostalga center of my brain.
Also playing some video games for relaxing, and getting ready to go to England. They've had us buy the tickets: Nov 1 - 8. I'll have to remember to buy a power converter this time.
-N
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
My brain hurts....
I am in the midst of midterms, and am getting ready for bed, but I thought I would blog so that I could at least pretend to be one of the good kids.
Today I had a paper due (a response to the movie "Munich") and had to give a speech in my War and Peace lecture series. I talked about how I think music can be used as a tool to help evoke peace, and used my Japan story as an example. I got a really great response to it, because people approached me after class to say how much they enjoyed it.
I have another paper due, and two more tests, one of which is in my music class and will ultimately kill me I think. There is a section will I will have to be able to listen to a song and know the title, composer, date, genre and, if it's part of a mass or opera, the section...and there's a lot of songs. BUT the Marriage of Figaro is one of them, and it's pretty easy to tell that one, 'cause he just says his name a bunch of times.
Tomorrow my writing class is meeting at a restaurant and we're going to eat so we can do a restaurant review (p.s., being a communications major can be really awesome sometimes).
I'm also working on a fundraiser for Newman Center that will be happening the first weekend in November. I'm supposed to be working with some of the churches to get them to let us sell tickets to our dinner event, but for some reason the are not cooperating. It's getting a little frustrating. So if anybody would like to head out to California that weekend, I think I will also be having a concert on the 9th. So you can have Vietnamese food one night, and then enjoy my concert another night. Awesome.
The rainy season has begun with a bang. It was POURING rain today (even by Juneau standards). At one point I saw ducks sitting in a massive puddle in one of the parking lots and they were actually diving for food. They even had to put sandbags by one of the building's stairs so that it wouldn't flood the basement. Good thing I have a rain coat.
That's all the news I have so for now. Love you all!
Today I had a paper due (a response to the movie "Munich") and had to give a speech in my War and Peace lecture series. I talked about how I think music can be used as a tool to help evoke peace, and used my Japan story as an example. I got a really great response to it, because people approached me after class to say how much they enjoyed it.
I have another paper due, and two more tests, one of which is in my music class and will ultimately kill me I think. There is a section will I will have to be able to listen to a song and know the title, composer, date, genre and, if it's part of a mass or opera, the section...and there's a lot of songs. BUT the Marriage of Figaro is one of them, and it's pretty easy to tell that one, 'cause he just says his name a bunch of times.
Tomorrow my writing class is meeting at a restaurant and we're going to eat so we can do a restaurant review (p.s., being a communications major can be really awesome sometimes).
I'm also working on a fundraiser for Newman Center that will be happening the first weekend in November. I'm supposed to be working with some of the churches to get them to let us sell tickets to our dinner event, but for some reason the are not cooperating. It's getting a little frustrating. So if anybody would like to head out to California that weekend, I think I will also be having a concert on the 9th. So you can have Vietnamese food one night, and then enjoy my concert another night. Awesome.
The rainy season has begun with a bang. It was POURING rain today (even by Juneau standards). At one point I saw ducks sitting in a massive puddle in one of the parking lots and they were actually diving for food. They even had to put sandbags by one of the building's stairs so that it wouldn't flood the basement. Good thing I have a rain coat.
That's all the news I have so for now. Love you all!
Monday, October 12, 2009
Worm Bin
Early one weekend morning before Matt was up, I got inspired to start a worm bin. It's like a compost pile, but more urban- ie, it's inside. Everything I read about itdescribed the process as "easier than taking out the garbage," "no smell," and "too easy for instructions." So I found an arbitrarily sized plastic bin, ordered some red worms online and started saving scraps from the kitchen. Unfortunately- the scraps got ahead of the worms, which is probably not an ideal way to get the bin started. Because, without worms, a worm bin definitely smells. So the worms arrived, and had a lot of catching up to do. This probably set a bad precedent. Matt asked me if I think of the worms as pets, I suppose because I worry about them a bit. I don't think of them as pets, more like a slightly malfunctioning appliance.
You see, being an organic appliance without instructions, there seems to be quite a lot of tinkering to deal with. First to get the wetness right, otherwise the worms try to crawl out. And if the worms aren't doing all the eating, fruit flies start breeding. And if there is too much wet, and not enough air, all the old food creates an array of horrific smells. Currently, I've drilled some holes in the lid to circulate air, added extra cardboard to moderate the moisture and set a fruit fly trap in the basement. It's still a work in progress, but I hope someday we'll have the hang of composting our own food scraps on site.
You see, being an organic appliance without instructions, there seems to be quite a lot of tinkering to deal with. First to get the wetness right, otherwise the worms try to crawl out. And if the worms aren't doing all the eating, fruit flies start breeding. And if there is too much wet, and not enough air, all the old food creates an array of horrific smells. Currently, I've drilled some holes in the lid to circulate air, added extra cardboard to moderate the moisture and set a fruit fly trap in the basement. It's still a work in progress, but I hope someday we'll have the hang of composting our own food scraps on site.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Visiting Parents
We picked up the Parents yesterday and have been hammering them with Austin Ever since. We went to a championship Roller Derby game where Jess was doing stats. Dad described it as a 'once in a lifetime event'. We went to dinner late after that, then came home and slept.
Today we checked out the capital building, which is really pretty and very historical, and even got a tour around our house and senate, which is out of session at the moment. Then we got some delicious mexican food at Chuy's and wandered around the massive Whole Foods building downtown. Now we're hanging out and resting. Jess and mom are on nap duty, dad is relaxing with his newspaper and the tv.
-N
Today we checked out the capital building, which is really pretty and very historical, and even got a tour around our house and senate, which is out of session at the moment. Then we got some delicious mexican food at Chuy's and wandered around the massive Whole Foods building downtown. Now we're hanging out and resting. Jess and mom are on nap duty, dad is relaxing with his newspaper and the tv.
-N
Much to celebrate
Matt and I had pondered going camping this weekend, but ultimately decided to delay the plan, in part because we didn't know where we might go, and in part because there was so much else to opt into this weekend. Our good friend W had the committee meeting to set his defense date (this is a HUGE deal), one of my coworkers gave a talk at a local meeting which required him to overcome crippling stage fright, and best of all- our soldier friend is home for two weeks of R&R. All of these are of course party-able occasions, so Friday night we went out with the coworkers for pizza and beer, then picked up W to see Zombieland (funny and gross). Saturday, we went to celebrate Oktoberfest- under the guise of R&R, which was a good chance to catch up and see everyone looking happy and healthy.
It is probably for the best that we spend a weekend at home. I've got big plans in the otherwise neglected kitchen- we had pancakes for breakfast, I am roasting squashes for some soups and there are apples just begging to be sauced. Matt is watching the game, and we might even be able to tame the mess that is infringing on the living room. How domestic of us.
It is probably for the best that we spend a weekend at home. I've got big plans in the otherwise neglected kitchen- we had pancakes for breakfast, I am roasting squashes for some soups and there are apples just begging to be sauced. Matt is watching the game, and we might even be able to tame the mess that is infringing on the living room. How domestic of us.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Best Case vs Fears and Anxieties
The 'modern' thinking in course design is to think backwards- how do you get students to become inspired innovators for the 21st century? Or more likely, what do do students need to know before they can be expected to adequately describe the foodchain? As a student, I didn't realize that all classes weren't designed this way, but in retrospect, it does explain a lot of things.
Currently, I am reflecting on what I want my outcomes to be. In my dreamland, I inspire a generation of scientifically trained silver tongued mediators who descend on humanity to clarify the confusion surrounding modern bioethical debates. I am recruited to be a White House adviser, helping politicians understand science before they pass policy. More realistic though- especially for this first pass-, my pilot class is meeting from 3-5 on Friday afternoons. Ideally, they'll talk about it after we wrap up. Maybe some of them will sign up to take the real course. I won't have to do most of the talking (aha! I need more questions to ask, less 'things to tell them'). While my murky idea of success is marinating, I tried contrasting that to my worst case. No one does the reading. Not a soul talks, I say things that are embarrassingly wrong to fill the silence, debate gets too heated, students spend all weekend talking about the meltdown that resulted in f-bombs, tears or other unsuitable classroom material.
What I want is to filet the material, leave it out for the students to examine as raw as they can. At some point I am going to be asked to 'assess' this (what, give grades? Ack!), which means I do need to clarify what we are ALL getting out of the experience. There is a personal aspect to ethics, and bioethics is murky only in that it mixes the black and white of science with the personal and political. Not that it is too complex for undergrads to understand. I hope.
My first 'pilot' is set to be Oct 22. !! We are going to talk about Research Integrity- easily the MOST boring subject to tackle. This is the basic stuff of 'don't lie about your results' something that is not too distant from the 'don't cheat on your exams' stuff students get anyway, but something that is rarely explicitly stated in research. So, it must be done. I am going to take Noel's approach- try to help them understand that the public will believe them, as scientists, and that this gives them an onus to be responsible with the public trust. At the moment, what I mostly do is day dream and blog about it, but I like to imagine this is an essential component of the creative process.
Currently, I am reflecting on what I want my outcomes to be. In my dreamland, I inspire a generation of scientifically trained silver tongued mediators who descend on humanity to clarify the confusion surrounding modern bioethical debates. I am recruited to be a White House adviser, helping politicians understand science before they pass policy. More realistic though- especially for this first pass-, my pilot class is meeting from 3-5 on Friday afternoons. Ideally, they'll talk about it after we wrap up. Maybe some of them will sign up to take the real course. I won't have to do most of the talking (aha! I need more questions to ask, less 'things to tell them'). While my murky idea of success is marinating, I tried contrasting that to my worst case. No one does the reading. Not a soul talks, I say things that are embarrassingly wrong to fill the silence, debate gets too heated, students spend all weekend talking about the meltdown that resulted in f-bombs, tears or other unsuitable classroom material.
What I want is to filet the material, leave it out for the students to examine as raw as they can. At some point I am going to be asked to 'assess' this (what, give grades? Ack!), which means I do need to clarify what we are ALL getting out of the experience. There is a personal aspect to ethics, and bioethics is murky only in that it mixes the black and white of science with the personal and political. Not that it is too complex for undergrads to understand. I hope.
My first 'pilot' is set to be Oct 22. !! We are going to talk about Research Integrity- easily the MOST boring subject to tackle. This is the basic stuff of 'don't lie about your results' something that is not too distant from the 'don't cheat on your exams' stuff students get anyway, but something that is rarely explicitly stated in research. So, it must be done. I am going to take Noel's approach- try to help them understand that the public will believe them, as scientists, and that this gives them an onus to be responsible with the public trust. At the moment, what I mostly do is day dream and blog about it, but I like to imagine this is an essential component of the creative process.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
I'm still feeling too full!
Matt and I got to have a great weekend too. On Friday, our upstairs neighbor hosted a neighborhood and friends Pizza tasting party we called the G6, to figure out who had the best tasting pizza in Squirrel Hill. We got pizzas from the 6 pizzerias in Sq Hill and sampled from all of them while watching the first hockey game of the new season. Great fun!
Saturday I turned into a vegetable, a nice change of pace from the fast-paced month of September, and what promises to be another fun busy month.
Sunday we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving. All the joys of American Thanksgiving, but it arrives in October. How could we say no? J hosted, we've been eating turkey everyday since- hot dang! Life is good!
Other news, Matt finally ordered his new Netbook- the toy he has been considering for weeks now. My worm bin is still a work in progress, especially as the weather fluctuates in heat and humidity. I am excited to start piloting some modules at the end of this month- or early next- with the HHMI fellows in responsible conduct of research and bioethics. Still a lot up in the air yet, but it is coming up quite quick! Much like my pending trip to Toronto for the Canadian Science Policy Conference.
Saturday I turned into a vegetable, a nice change of pace from the fast-paced month of September, and what promises to be another fun busy month.
Sunday we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving. All the joys of American Thanksgiving, but it arrives in October. How could we say no? J hosted, we've been eating turkey everyday since- hot dang! Life is good!
Other news, Matt finally ordered his new Netbook- the toy he has been considering for weeks now. My worm bin is still a work in progress, especially as the weather fluctuates in heat and humidity. I am excited to start piloting some modules at the end of this month- or early next- with the HHMI fellows in responsible conduct of research and bioethics. Still a lot up in the air yet, but it is coming up quite quick! Much like my pending trip to Toronto for the Canadian Science Policy Conference.
Preecscast #1
Hey, look what I did! I made a podcast with me and Jess! I hope you all enjoy it.
Preecscast #1
Frequently Asked Questions:
1) Wow?
A: Yeah, wow.
2) It's not working!
A: That's not a question.
3) It's not working?
A: Yeah, I'm using a free hosting place and it looks like the server gets busy, if you get a message that the 'server connection was reset' just try connecting again. It should click in after a few tries.
4) How do I play this?
A: Once it connects, you can either download it to your computer and then double click (the file type is very common, you computer certainly knows how to play it) or just click the 'play' button and it will bring up a little audio player in a new window.
5) What music is that at the beginning?
A: Something I made in reason in about 10 minutes just to put at the beginning.
Let me know if you have any other frequently asked questions!
-N
Preecscast #1
Frequently Asked Questions:
1) Wow?
A: Yeah, wow.
2) It's not working!
A: That's not a question.
3) It's not working?
A: Yeah, I'm using a free hosting place and it looks like the server gets busy, if you get a message that the 'server connection was reset' just try connecting again. It should click in after a few tries.
4) How do I play this?
A: Once it connects, you can either download it to your computer and then double click (the file type is very common, you computer certainly knows how to play it) or just click the 'play' button and it will bring up a little audio player in a new window.
5) What music is that at the beginning?
A: Something I made in reason in about 10 minutes just to put at the beginning.
Let me know if you have any other frequently asked questions!
-N
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Matt got a promotion!
In sticking with the theme of my great week, Matt took me out to dinner on Thursday to tell me that he got a promotion! He is now a Senior Drafter- which requires no extra work or responsibility from the work he already does above and beyond his position, but does look better on the resume. I've mentioned before, they seem to really like that Matt can be very independent, he is a quick learner and he likes to problem solve. As much has he ponders a career shift while we are here in Pittsburgh, his boss would obviously make a case to keep him around as long as possible. Hooray for the new Senior Drafter!
Fallingwater Or Frank's almost falling down house..
So yes, indeed, the Parents were in Pittsburgh and enjoyed the sophisticated dining of a cosmopolitan urban center with their Favorite grad student and her sweetie. I actually got a little tolerant acceptance from Raoul but not lap sitting or co-mingled napping, so I'm still jonesing for a kitty fix in Texas next week.
We did go to Fallingwater, the legendary Frank Lloyd Wright house on the waterfall in rural Pennsylvania that turned the thinking of architects forever away from stodgy traditions of design previous to that time. I embarrassed my family by asking Too Many Questions and truly enjoyed the exploration of a truly iconic structure, not unlike the Great Wall and Stonehenge. I am a little annoyed that this building gets such a breathless reverence from the architectural fraternity when, in truth it was fundamentally unsound. Wright broke new ground with the nature of his design, cantilevered, organic, original, open, and inspired. He just didn't do it very well. Early on in the project the owner experienced some concern about the soundness of the stunning cantilevered decks that mark this design and with the complicity of one of Wright's on-site interns had engineers evaluate and sneak in a bit of structural steel to stabilize the breathless expanses of seemingly floating decks that is the hallmark of the design. Wright was famously outraged at the interference and essentially walked off the project. Years later it became obvious that the structure was in peril of collapse in spite of the extra steel and heroic work was done to brace and tighted the structure to present soundness with high tension cable installed to close expanding cracks. I would think the first mark of good design is whether it will stand up for more than a few decades. Oh well, stodgy me....
We had a most fabulous Indian Dinner with the assembled friends and classmates from Pitt and about who then allowed this photo. We specifically saved Mexican and BBQ for Texas next week. We did embarrass ourselves trying to keep up with Rock Band and got nowhere following the bouncing ball, even if we did prsume to "know the words". Not our best skill set. Really a nice week.
Friday, October 2, 2009
I'm having a good week
And I haven't even blogged about it! Mom and Dad came to visit, and we did a million fun things- shopping at Ikea, eating Ethiopian, Indian, Italian, Mediterranean, looking for bathroom lights for the parents house, not going to work, visiting Fallngwater- what a hoot! As a result, I have a new light in my living room and a fridge full of doggie bags. Hooray! I also got to show off my new wood-fired ceramics, which mostly turned out really cool. I'll work on getting some pictures of this up, they have a very organic look which is different from what I've done in the past.
I didn't get pictures from Fallingwater, hopefully Mom and Dad will post some.
Everything is fine now, but a consequence of cleaning up and looking at all these new ceramics, I managed to chip a piece of glass into my eye on Saturday, a few hours before Dad got to town. It wasn't very painful, but it never did feel right until we went to the Optometrist on Wednesday and Dad held my hand (and head) while the doc used his deadly sharp tweezers to yank the glass shard off the front of my eye. And yes, I could see that. Thank god Dad was there, or I much more likely would have had a long procedure to remove the tweezers from my face. Eyeball is fine now- but don't forget to wear safety goggles!
It is also really nice to have the folks around for normal things like sharing meals and hanging out, makes me excited about going home for Christmas!
I didn't get pictures from Fallingwater, hopefully Mom and Dad will post some.
Everything is fine now, but a consequence of cleaning up and looking at all these new ceramics, I managed to chip a piece of glass into my eye on Saturday, a few hours before Dad got to town. It wasn't very painful, but it never did feel right until we went to the Optometrist on Wednesday and Dad held my hand (and head) while the doc used his deadly sharp tweezers to yank the glass shard off the front of my eye. And yes, I could see that. Thank god Dad was there, or I much more likely would have had a long procedure to remove the tweezers from my face. Eyeball is fine now- but don't forget to wear safety goggles!
It is also really nice to have the folks around for normal things like sharing meals and hanging out, makes me excited about going home for Christmas!
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