A few weeks ago (around March 14th or so) I woke up with a sore left shoulder. Not a big deal, figured I slept on it wrong and put some Icy Hot on it and off I went. Cut forward a few days and the shoulder still hurts. No biggie, just more of a pull then I thought. Finally cut to Tuesday the 19th. Went to drop Xander off at my parents house for Spring Break and my mom gets a little worried because the pain has dropped down from my shoulder into my upper arm and elbow. She seemed to think it could be something wrong with my heart and recommended seeing my doctor. Once again I shrugged it off. Paula wanted to take me to the ER but I told her all they would do is give me some pain medication and send me to my regular doctor. Yes I am good at ignoring all the warning signs, but I was also convinced it was just a really bad muscle pull.
Anyway I made a deal with Paula that if the shoulder was not better on Wednesday evening we could go to the doc-in-the-box at the bottom of our street and let them take a look at me. For the most part they ARE my regular doctor and I would rather pay them then an ER. I woke up Wednesday and yep, still sore so told Paula we would go after work. During work more symptoms popped up - numbness in the arm, pain in the elbow and wrist - so that now I was getting a little worried. We stopped at the doc and they had this little sign "Please tell us if you are experiencing chest pains, numbness in the arm or shoulder etc..." basically if you might die let us know so we can see you first. Paula made sure we told them. They brought me back and after running a few cursory tests...they sent me to the ER.
Since I work at UAB we can go to their emergency room much cheaper than at any other hospital in the area so off we went. We skipped dinner (big mistake as you will see), neither of us was hungry because of worry. Anyway we get to UAB's ER and check in about 7. We go through all the check in procedures, and are back in an exam room about 9:30. They run a few more tests, tell me they want chest X-Rays, an EKG and an MRI before moving forward. I turned to Paula and said "we should have eaten".
X-Rays
The X-Rays were basic enough, lots of film of my chest, arm, shoulder, neck, you name it. The only downside of the X-Rays were they guaranteed we would be there until at least midnight because there was a nice sign in the exam room clearly stating if you had to have X-Rays taken there was a 2 hour process involved in reading them.
EKG
I guess my biggest surprise of the tests was the EKG. I assumed they would wire you up and leave you that way for a while to check you out over a period of time. I mean how can they figure out an irregular heart beat unless they test for a while. But no. The test lasts 10 seconds - it took longer to wire me up. The nurse came in, hooked up the 5-10 wires necessary and counted to 10 then started disconnecting everything. Strangest thing I had ever been involved with.
MRI
This is the one I had been dreading. I am not a small person and unless it was an "Open MRI" I just was not sure how I would fit in the darn thing. Well apparently they had just expanded the width of the machine to fit in us larger individuals so I made out o.k. Of course the second problem with these tests is you are not allowed to move...which means as soon as they say that you start getting itches everywhere. The MRI tended to focus on my neck more than my chest so I was at least hopeful that this meant my heart tests went O.K. but it also meant another 2 hour wait for radiology to read them.
Side Note: Yes I do intend to try and get a copy of my MRI's so I can import them into our 3-D system. I am weird that way...plus I think that will be fun.
Final Verdict
Finally after all the tests and as 3-4 AM was fast approaching the doctor came in. The problem I was having was a bulging disk between my C6 and C7 vertebra pressing on my spinal column and particularly a nerve going down my arm to my elbow and wrist. The rest of the bad news was that since I had strength loss in the hand and was having some other issues with the arm both he, and the head of the department, were recommending surgery rather than just outpatient physical therapy. When two doctors tell you that you need surgery you go ahead and do it, so they went ahead and admitted me and scheduled the surgery for Thursday afternoon. This meant no food for me until after surgery so no chance to even get a snack or some breakfast. In addition, the hospital was full so I could not even get to a real room until after surgery. So Paula and I shared a gurney in the ER until about 8 when they moved us to another area of the ER. My family arrived some time around 11 or so and about 1 they moved me up to Pre-Op to check over everything.
The Surgery
The surgery was supposed to last about 3 hours - of which an hour was supposed to be prep and cleanup. The procedure is pretty straight forward, they remove the disk that is inflamed, cleaning out all the little bits and pieces, then they add some bone (sometimes from a graft, mine was actually from a cadaver) and a plate to help fuse the two vertebra together. I would lose some movement in my neck but the pros outweighed the cons. Interesting thing is that they go through the front of your neck rather than the back to avoid infections, but this leads to other issues. Namely the esophagus and having to ..well go through your whole neck to get to the problem. Apparently my surgery took 4 hours - by this time I had lost all sense of time so you could have told me it took 24 hours and I would not have been able to contradict you. The reason for the longer than expected surgery ties back to my size. The doctor apparently came out after 3 hours to reassure the family that everything was ok and it was not being delayed because of complications. His explanation was that my neck bones were bigger than most peoples backbones so the problem was just pure surface area.
Surgery finished and I spent most of the rest of Thursday and Friday morning in pain. I could not move without hurting and I definitely could not swallow. In fact it wasn't until Saturday or Sunday that I could eat more than broth. I am sure I lost a few pounds but not a diet plan I would recommend.
Recovery
The typical recovery time for the surgery is apparently 2 weeks home in bed and then after 4 weeks you start physical therapy. I doubt I will make it all two weeks - I am going stir crazy just sitting around the house. I am not as strong as I usually am and I still have some problems - swallowing is still a bit sore and for some reason my sciatica has been acting up almost like it is mad I took care of the other end of the spinal column rather than clearing HIS issues up. Add to that the fact that I am missing class in addition to work and you can say I am a little pecking to get back to work. I will probably take Monday and Tuesday off this week to make sure everything is good to go, then start back Wednesday. It is only 3 days early from the 2 week mandate and I don't think the doctor will have TOO big of a problem with it.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Where the heck have YOU been?
Lots to talk about since my last entry.
Needless to say, once again I have fallen off the wagon as far as posting goes. I just can't seem to will myself to post on any set of schedule other than "when I feel like it". That is not the intent of this thing and does not bode well for my future. Not sure what is better - lots of little posts or a few REALLY big ones like the one this one promises to be. My guess is the former, but since we are stuck with the latter lets just move on shall we?
School
Let's see the oldest news is I dropped my first class. I was having absolutely no luck with understanding my Shape Design class and so I decided to just drop it and take it again later. I do not know if it was a problem with me, the professor, a little bit of both or what but it might as well have been taught in Russian for all I was comprehending. I should probably explain the problem I had with the class.
The first problem I had with the class was that it was basically a "theory" class. This is not usually a problem if the teacher can help you with some visualizations of what the theory is working to express. As a child, when you first study math it is basically a "theory" class, but the teachers all work very hard to show practical issues (hello word problems and Johnny having 10 apples). These issues help you visualize the theory and you can grow from there. The more...esoteric the math, the harder it is to get these practical examples..but by then you have a firmer understanding of what is being taught and the lack of an example, while missed, is not a deal breaker. In this class we hit the ground running and spent no time with the basics and even with pictures of what the curves we were building, I just could not see how we got from one to the other.
The second problems was that Dr. Johnstone assumed a basic level of competence and I was not there, so while everyone else was learning, I was scrambling to get the basics under control, and the whole thing snowballed from there. This is not an uncommon problem - it has been 20 years since I took computer courses and things have really changed a lot in that time period. Usually I can buckle down and work through it but this time I just did not sense me getting any closer to the rest of the class as far as understanding.
I probably could have stayed in the class and passed. It is not so big secret that teachers do not tend to fail graduate students. They will scale tests and work with you so that you end up with at least a C, and probably a B. But I had the conceit that I actually wanted to learn this stuff, not just get a grade saying I knew it so I thought it would be better to drop, study up and take it again the next time Dr. Johnstone offered it. Hopefully by then I can be better situated.
Future Semesters
Registration for Summer and Spring terms opens up tomorrow so I have been looking through the course offerings. I found a course in Parallel computing being offered by the CS department this summer that Corey thinks will be a very "useful" course for me to have. He also says it will probably be a heavy "theory" class and I have better be ready cause it could be ugly.
This fall my schedule is set as well. Dr. Sloan is offering a course in 3-D shapes and printing that I will be signing up for, I really like Dr. Sloan's classes - especially if we can keep them under 10 people enrolled so he is not so gruff. My other class will be an Engineering Math class being taught by Dr. Littlefield. That course is a requirement of the PhD. so I don't really have much of a choice except to sign up for it. I also know that these are only offered every other year so no dropping out of either of them if I want to get done with my coursework anytime soon.
I think I will do a separate post for work and personal things that have happened in the last couple of months. This post is already getting to be too long for a blog anyway.
Needless to say, once again I have fallen off the wagon as far as posting goes. I just can't seem to will myself to post on any set of schedule other than "when I feel like it". That is not the intent of this thing and does not bode well for my future. Not sure what is better - lots of little posts or a few REALLY big ones like the one this one promises to be. My guess is the former, but since we are stuck with the latter lets just move on shall we?
School
Let's see the oldest news is I dropped my first class. I was having absolutely no luck with understanding my Shape Design class and so I decided to just drop it and take it again later. I do not know if it was a problem with me, the professor, a little bit of both or what but it might as well have been taught in Russian for all I was comprehending. I should probably explain the problem I had with the class.
The first problem I had with the class was that it was basically a "theory" class. This is not usually a problem if the teacher can help you with some visualizations of what the theory is working to express. As a child, when you first study math it is basically a "theory" class, but the teachers all work very hard to show practical issues (hello word problems and Johnny having 10 apples). These issues help you visualize the theory and you can grow from there. The more...esoteric the math, the harder it is to get these practical examples..but by then you have a firmer understanding of what is being taught and the lack of an example, while missed, is not a deal breaker. In this class we hit the ground running and spent no time with the basics and even with pictures of what the curves we were building, I just could not see how we got from one to the other.
The second problems was that Dr. Johnstone assumed a basic level of competence and I was not there, so while everyone else was learning, I was scrambling to get the basics under control, and the whole thing snowballed from there. This is not an uncommon problem - it has been 20 years since I took computer courses and things have really changed a lot in that time period. Usually I can buckle down and work through it but this time I just did not sense me getting any closer to the rest of the class as far as understanding.
I probably could have stayed in the class and passed. It is not so big secret that teachers do not tend to fail graduate students. They will scale tests and work with you so that you end up with at least a C, and probably a B. But I had the conceit that I actually wanted to learn this stuff, not just get a grade saying I knew it so I thought it would be better to drop, study up and take it again the next time Dr. Johnstone offered it. Hopefully by then I can be better situated.
Future Semesters
Registration for Summer and Spring terms opens up tomorrow so I have been looking through the course offerings. I found a course in Parallel computing being offered by the CS department this summer that Corey thinks will be a very "useful" course for me to have. He also says it will probably be a heavy "theory" class and I have better be ready cause it could be ugly.
This fall my schedule is set as well. Dr. Sloan is offering a course in 3-D shapes and printing that I will be signing up for, I really like Dr. Sloan's classes - especially if we can keep them under 10 people enrolled so he is not so gruff. My other class will be an Engineering Math class being taught by Dr. Littlefield. That course is a requirement of the PhD. so I don't really have much of a choice except to sign up for it. I also know that these are only offered every other year so no dropping out of either of them if I want to get done with my coursework anytime soon.
I think I will do a separate post for work and personal things that have happened in the last couple of months. This post is already getting to be too long for a blog anyway.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Of Mice and Army Men
Here it is Wednesday and I am hoping it is Friday. Not the most auspicious of beginnings I know. Trying to get back to what this thing was created for - an outlet so I can vent, talk about my day, talk about my concerns or even just talk about something I have been thinking of and not get judged or drive my wife crazy having to listen to.
My entire lab (well O.K. most of my entire lab) went up to Huntsville today. Dr. Soni had arranged a tour of the offices of the Army's game design group. He had originally joked that he did not want us going because he was afraid we would all want to take jobs there and no one would be left at the E.T. Lab. I guess he decided that was not a threat because there we were, playing on the Army's toys. They have a set up that is very similar to what we were shooting for at the Lab - they are basically in a really big warehouse, lots of storage room for bigger set pieces and still plenty of room for labs, office space, and storage. They use the Unreal game engine instead of Unity but really it is not so different from what we do. Really makes you envious of a place that can afford the kind of space we just dream of.
The day wasn't all giggles though. I have a homework assignment due tomorrow afternoon for Dr. Johnstone and I have barely scratched the surface of it. He gave us copies of four really large programs written in C++ and wants us to modify them so they do a couple of extra functions. It would be so much easier if he had built up to this slowly, but instead he threw us straight to the wolves. He seems like a very intelligent guy and I like him, but sometimes I wonder about his teaching ability. He gave out a practice quiz last week - I bombed - and since the majority of the class did poorly on it, his solution was to teach something related to what we were doing, but even harder. He basically thought if we could figure out THIS, then the stuff we were doing would seem easy. I don't get it.
Anyway the only good news about the homework is that I am not the only one struggling with it. I know at least one other guy in the class has not been able to get any farther than I have so I am not alone in my misery.
My entire lab (well O.K. most of my entire lab) went up to Huntsville today. Dr. Soni had arranged a tour of the offices of the Army's game design group. He had originally joked that he did not want us going because he was afraid we would all want to take jobs there and no one would be left at the E.T. Lab. I guess he decided that was not a threat because there we were, playing on the Army's toys. They have a set up that is very similar to what we were shooting for at the Lab - they are basically in a really big warehouse, lots of storage room for bigger set pieces and still plenty of room for labs, office space, and storage. They use the Unreal game engine instead of Unity but really it is not so different from what we do. Really makes you envious of a place that can afford the kind of space we just dream of.
The day wasn't all giggles though. I have a homework assignment due tomorrow afternoon for Dr. Johnstone and I have barely scratched the surface of it. He gave us copies of four really large programs written in C++ and wants us to modify them so they do a couple of extra functions. It would be so much easier if he had built up to this slowly, but instead he threw us straight to the wolves. He seems like a very intelligent guy and I like him, but sometimes I wonder about his teaching ability. He gave out a practice quiz last week - I bombed - and since the majority of the class did poorly on it, his solution was to teach something related to what we were doing, but even harder. He basically thought if we could figure out THIS, then the stuff we were doing would seem easy. I don't get it.
Anyway the only good news about the homework is that I am not the only one struggling with it. I know at least one other guy in the class has not been able to get any farther than I have so I am not alone in my misery.
Monday, February 18, 2013
What am I doing?
No excuses for not publishing more. I can't even claim to be sick this time - I can't even claim that nothing was happening. I just haven't had the desire to post. I have been ... melonc-oly (said in my best Megamind voice) for the past couple of weeks and just can't seem to shake it. I guess more than anything this is brought on by a sense of being overwhelmed. Bouts of depression are nothing new for me, I have had them before and I am sure I will have them again...and this isn't the first time I have wondered what I was doing but still having a hard time shaking it.
I tried talking to Paula about it. For as wonderful as she is on most things, this is just one thing she doesn't get. I tell her how upset/overwhelmed/worried...hell scared I am and she acts like I just told her we needed to stop at the store on the way home from work and get more milk. I get it, she thinks I can fight through anything, mainly because I have in the past, but it is not the attitude you want to see. So hopefully writing all this out will help me.
Part of the problem is the "computer magic" and "Super PhD's" on most television shows. I am sitting here working (and struggling) to grasp basic concepts I should know, and there is somebody hacking into DoD mainframes in under 2 minutes. Yeah, I know it is fake. I know hacking is time intensive and a lot more code-y than the wonderful pictures they show on TV...but you still feel bad when everyone assumes YOU can do that because you are getting your doctorate..and the truth of the matter is you would not even know where to START.
First thing I guess is I made a mistake. There is absolutely no way I should have taken both of the Computer Science courses at the same time. Dr. Sloan is actually o.k. .. hell he is downright enjoyable this semester. I am learning a lot and getting some good stuff out of the class. Dr. Johnstone is a great guy and I seem to understand his class...as long as he is talking. As soon as we leave class it transitions into some Greek/Latin/Chinese mush that I can not make heads or tails of. Once class starts back and he goes over the homework I am like "Oh....yeah that makes perfect sense" but try do to that myself? No I don't think so.
In addition to this, work decided to switch everything over to a game engine called Unity. Great system, sorta easy to learn, very powerful...and I am already behind. We started out making a game as a lab, but I was assigned the "manager" spot on the build, so I did not actually get to do any of the coding. Then, the rest of the lab went up to Boston for a long weekend of coding at a "Game Jam". I did not go for a variety of reasons, but it just put me further behind the proverbial 8-ball.
I guess the real thing I can take away from the last couple of weeks is that apparently, somewhere, I lost my coding ability. Coding used to be simple. Coding is really just taking a complex task and breaking it down into a lot of really easy tasks, then coding those easy tasks, combining them, and voila, you have solved the hard task. My problem lately has been, I have not seen how to break up those larger problems. And even when I can figure out a couple of the smaller tasks, I can't figure out what order to do them in so I get valid results.
I want to finish this program. I have put in a lot of time, effort, blood, sweat and tears on this thing and I want to get through...but I can't help but wonder if I am smart enough to.
I tried talking to Paula about it. For as wonderful as she is on most things, this is just one thing she doesn't get. I tell her how upset/overwhelmed/worried...hell scared I am and she acts like I just told her we needed to stop at the store on the way home from work and get more milk. I get it, she thinks I can fight through anything, mainly because I have in the past, but it is not the attitude you want to see. So hopefully writing all this out will help me.
Part of the problem is the "computer magic" and "Super PhD's" on most television shows. I am sitting here working (and struggling) to grasp basic concepts I should know, and there is somebody hacking into DoD mainframes in under 2 minutes. Yeah, I know it is fake. I know hacking is time intensive and a lot more code-y than the wonderful pictures they show on TV...but you still feel bad when everyone assumes YOU can do that because you are getting your doctorate..and the truth of the matter is you would not even know where to START.
First thing I guess is I made a mistake. There is absolutely no way I should have taken both of the Computer Science courses at the same time. Dr. Sloan is actually o.k. .. hell he is downright enjoyable this semester. I am learning a lot and getting some good stuff out of the class. Dr. Johnstone is a great guy and I seem to understand his class...as long as he is talking. As soon as we leave class it transitions into some Greek/Latin/Chinese mush that I can not make heads or tails of. Once class starts back and he goes over the homework I am like "Oh....yeah that makes perfect sense" but try do to that myself? No I don't think so.
In addition to this, work decided to switch everything over to a game engine called Unity. Great system, sorta easy to learn, very powerful...and I am already behind. We started out making a game as a lab, but I was assigned the "manager" spot on the build, so I did not actually get to do any of the coding. Then, the rest of the lab went up to Boston for a long weekend of coding at a "Game Jam". I did not go for a variety of reasons, but it just put me further behind the proverbial 8-ball.
I guess the real thing I can take away from the last couple of weeks is that apparently, somewhere, I lost my coding ability. Coding used to be simple. Coding is really just taking a complex task and breaking it down into a lot of really easy tasks, then coding those easy tasks, combining them, and voila, you have solved the hard task. My problem lately has been, I have not seen how to break up those larger problems. And even when I can figure out a couple of the smaller tasks, I can't figure out what order to do them in so I get valid results.
I want to finish this program. I have put in a lot of time, effort, blood, sweat and tears on this thing and I want to get through...but I can't help but wonder if I am smart enough to.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Short weekend
Well it is almost 2 o'clock in the morning and I can not sleep. Guess I should write and see what happens.
Had an dull weekend. Believe it or not I had to go back to the doctor last week. Finally get over the cold I had and I developed an ear infection. The ear doesn't bother me too much but I have recurring tinnitus in the ear so it is annoying.
Anyway, Friday night we went out to dinner, grocery shopping and we went and bought Xander a new kick pedal for his drum set. The kick pedal is nothing more than a step with a mallet on the end and you use it for playing the bass drum in the set. For some reason the drum set that Santa had brought him included everything but a kick pedal. I thought this was weird. About the only thing I can compare it to would be buying a computer and not getting the hard drive. Sure you could USE the computer and run everything from disk like in Linux..but you can't use the computer for its intended purpose without one.
Saturday I begged off going to Xander's drum lesson down in Tuscaloosa. I love the fact that he is having so much fun with the drums but I did not see the point in Paula and I both going down for the lesson. I missed the guy so I don't know if I will miss any more. After the lesson they came back and we went over to 2nd and Charles which is a used book/movie/music store over in Hoover. They took over a rather large department store and it is by far the nicest used book store I have ever been in. In a miracle I did not see coming, I convinced Paula to get rid of some of our old DVD's. I hate to admit it but we have like 300 DVDs...and we might watch 20 of them. We loved the movies, that is why we bought the DVD..but when it comes time to put one in we always go back to the same 15-20. So, we took in a bag of DVD's to trade in and used the money to get a toy for Xander and a poster for me. Plus we have a lot of money on account there so when they do their book sales we can take advantage of them. The poster? Oh it is cool. It is a take on the British WWII propaganda poster but with a Doctor Who slant. Blue with a Dalek on top and it says "Keep Calm I'm the Doctor". I joked that Paula could get it for me and we could frame it for my graduation.
Today I do not think I left the house. It POURED all day. One of those soaking pours we seem to get here that never hit up in any other part of the country. Anyway, it rained and rained so I saw very little sense in going out into it. Instead I stayed home and watched TV. In particular I have been watching a BBC show called "Whitechapel". Like most BBC shows it was a miniseries - in this case, 2 miniseries. The first was on a copycat Jack the Ripper, the second a copycat of the Kray brothers organized crime spree. Very well written and acted. It is amazing, from what I can tell the costs of filming BBC shows is MUCH less than that of shows made here in the US but the quality of the shows writing and acting is infinitely higher.
Had an dull weekend. Believe it or not I had to go back to the doctor last week. Finally get over the cold I had and I developed an ear infection. The ear doesn't bother me too much but I have recurring tinnitus in the ear so it is annoying.
Anyway, Friday night we went out to dinner, grocery shopping and we went and bought Xander a new kick pedal for his drum set. The kick pedal is nothing more than a step with a mallet on the end and you use it for playing the bass drum in the set. For some reason the drum set that Santa had brought him included everything but a kick pedal. I thought this was weird. About the only thing I can compare it to would be buying a computer and not getting the hard drive. Sure you could USE the computer and run everything from disk like in Linux..but you can't use the computer for its intended purpose without one.
Saturday I begged off going to Xander's drum lesson down in Tuscaloosa. I love the fact that he is having so much fun with the drums but I did not see the point in Paula and I both going down for the lesson. I missed the guy so I don't know if I will miss any more. After the lesson they came back and we went over to 2nd and Charles which is a used book/movie/music store over in Hoover. They took over a rather large department store and it is by far the nicest used book store I have ever been in. In a miracle I did not see coming, I convinced Paula to get rid of some of our old DVD's. I hate to admit it but we have like 300 DVDs...and we might watch 20 of them. We loved the movies, that is why we bought the DVD..but when it comes time to put one in we always go back to the same 15-20. So, we took in a bag of DVD's to trade in and used the money to get a toy for Xander and a poster for me. Plus we have a lot of money on account there so when they do their book sales we can take advantage of them. The poster? Oh it is cool. It is a take on the British WWII propaganda poster but with a Doctor Who slant. Blue with a Dalek on top and it says "Keep Calm I'm the Doctor". I joked that Paula could get it for me and we could frame it for my graduation.
Today I do not think I left the house. It POURED all day. One of those soaking pours we seem to get here that never hit up in any other part of the country. Anyway, it rained and rained so I saw very little sense in going out into it. Instead I stayed home and watched TV. In particular I have been watching a BBC show called "Whitechapel". Like most BBC shows it was a miniseries - in this case, 2 miniseries. The first was on a copycat Jack the Ripper, the second a copycat of the Kray brothers organized crime spree. Very well written and acted. It is amazing, from what I can tell the costs of filming BBC shows is MUCH less than that of shows made here in the US but the quality of the shows writing and acting is infinitely higher.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Three Courses
Yeah, I should have posted by now. I am terrible and I know it.
School started back this past week so had my first classes of the year. I honestly think it is going to take a few more before I have any idea what I have gotten myself into. Per my usual I am taking 3 classes this term - 2 graded courses and a required 1 hour pass/fail seminar course.
The seminar course is a bit of a joke - for half the semester we sit around and professors from different programs at UAB or even from different schools come in and talk about research they are currently conducting. The second half of the semester consists of the students giving presentations into their research. I say it is a joke for two reasons - one, since everyone is always in there, we already KNOW what everyone else's research is. We know Mikey is going to talk about carbon sequestration. We know Alonzo is going to talk about 3-D training simulators. We have all been giving almost the exact same presentation since we started. The second reason I say that is because of the nature of the course itself. I understand it is designed to educate us on existing research AND to give us experience in presenting out research. But I have an MBA. I have spent the last 4 years doing half a dozen presentations a year. After a while the shock and awe of presenting goes away and it becomes...boring.
The other two classes seem more appealing, both are in the Computer Science department and both will have some benefit to both my job and my research. In the first one I am taking a class in Shape Design taught by Dr. Johnstone. The class is basically how to use math to draw smooth objects on the computer. Bezier and B-Spline curves will probably play a pretty big role in the whole thing.
The second class is a Visualization course taught by Dr. Sloan. Dr. Sloan is sort of a scary legend at UAB. I had him last semester for a Computer Graphics course and thought he was a great lecturer with some rough edges. He reminds me of Dr. Powers from my MBA days - great guy but some definite pet peeves you have to watch out for. The class is basically just a typical visualization of large datasets course. The key is to find new ways to show the data that are cool to look at AND informative. There is no point making a pretty picture from the data, if you can't tell what the data is once you have the picture. Anyway, Dr. Sloan teaches 4 graduate level courses at UAB on a revolving schedule and Dr. Soni has told me I will be taking all 4. I am also assuming this means I will be asking Dr. Sloan to sit on my doctoral committee at some point as well.
School started back this past week so had my first classes of the year. I honestly think it is going to take a few more before I have any idea what I have gotten myself into. Per my usual I am taking 3 classes this term - 2 graded courses and a required 1 hour pass/fail seminar course.
The seminar course is a bit of a joke - for half the semester we sit around and professors from different programs at UAB or even from different schools come in and talk about research they are currently conducting. The second half of the semester consists of the students giving presentations into their research. I say it is a joke for two reasons - one, since everyone is always in there, we already KNOW what everyone else's research is. We know Mikey is going to talk about carbon sequestration. We know Alonzo is going to talk about 3-D training simulators. We have all been giving almost the exact same presentation since we started. The second reason I say that is because of the nature of the course itself. I understand it is designed to educate us on existing research AND to give us experience in presenting out research. But I have an MBA. I have spent the last 4 years doing half a dozen presentations a year. After a while the shock and awe of presenting goes away and it becomes...boring.
The other two classes seem more appealing, both are in the Computer Science department and both will have some benefit to both my job and my research. In the first one I am taking a class in Shape Design taught by Dr. Johnstone. The class is basically how to use math to draw smooth objects on the computer. Bezier and B-Spline curves will probably play a pretty big role in the whole thing.
The second class is a Visualization course taught by Dr. Sloan. Dr. Sloan is sort of a scary legend at UAB. I had him last semester for a Computer Graphics course and thought he was a great lecturer with some rough edges. He reminds me of Dr. Powers from my MBA days - great guy but some definite pet peeves you have to watch out for. The class is basically just a typical visualization of large datasets course. The key is to find new ways to show the data that are cool to look at AND informative. There is no point making a pretty picture from the data, if you can't tell what the data is once you have the picture. Anyway, Dr. Sloan teaches 4 graduate level courses at UAB on a revolving schedule and Dr. Soni has told me I will be taking all 4. I am also assuming this means I will be asking Dr. Sloan to sit on my doctoral committee at some point as well.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Seven Plots
It has been said that there are only seven main plots in all of literature. In the broadest of terms I guess this is true but only if we talk in REALLY broad terms. What is more surprising (or maybe less) is that sometimes there only appears to be about four different ways to realize those plots in Science Fiction or Fantasy writing.
With the between term break from school I have been reading a little, I mean what else was I supposed to do while resting in bed. When it comes to reading I have a set list of about 20-30 books I do not mind reading over and over again. These are what I consider to be excellent exemplars of the craft. Authors I was introduced to at a young age such as Orson Scott Card, J.R.R. Tolkien, David Eddings, and Raymond Feist factor heavily in these selections. I also like to branch out and find new authors that might add some flavor to my set list, which is how Larry Niven, Patrick Rothfuss and Robert Jordan found their way onto the list as well.
The problem I face these days isn't finding a new author, it is finding a new author that does not copy from my set list.
For Christmas Paula and Xander bought me a couple of books that Xander would like to have me read him as bedtime stories. Now I have to admit that reading to Xander at night is one of the highlights of my day. I get to introduce him to great works of literature (in my opinion), and he actually enjoys it because I use "voices". I got to looking at the two books they had bought and discovered that one of them is actually book 10 of a series...oops.
I told Paula about this and she was a little upset because she had not caught that before they purchased it - we buy everything digitally no so it is not like we can return it. I told her not to worry and went ahead and bought the first book. I figure if Xander likes it, great, if not it is just one more book. The book is clearly aimed at young teenage readers and follows a young castle orphan who is passed over by all of the craft masters in the castle on his choosing day until one who is poorly thought of takes pity on him and selects him to join his guild, meanwhile his friend gets to join the knights and becomes a natural swordsman. If you know the authors I have mentioned before you might think I was talking about the Magician series of books by Feist, but you would be wrong. This is the "Rangers Apprentice" series by John Flanagan.
And that is how we get back to my original point. Two books basically taking the exact same early subject matter and following the exact same blueprint to get to the exact same point. Not exactly breaking new ground. I mean I remember thinking "Oh, this is what would have happened if Pug had been chosen by Martin...o.k.". I give Flanagan credit, the book is a very easy read, it does grab your attention and it is a good page turner...but it will not make my list of rereads.
With the between term break from school I have been reading a little, I mean what else was I supposed to do while resting in bed. When it comes to reading I have a set list of about 20-30 books I do not mind reading over and over again. These are what I consider to be excellent exemplars of the craft. Authors I was introduced to at a young age such as Orson Scott Card, J.R.R. Tolkien, David Eddings, and Raymond Feist factor heavily in these selections. I also like to branch out and find new authors that might add some flavor to my set list, which is how Larry Niven, Patrick Rothfuss and Robert Jordan found their way onto the list as well.
The problem I face these days isn't finding a new author, it is finding a new author that does not copy from my set list.
For Christmas Paula and Xander bought me a couple of books that Xander would like to have me read him as bedtime stories. Now I have to admit that reading to Xander at night is one of the highlights of my day. I get to introduce him to great works of literature (in my opinion), and he actually enjoys it because I use "voices". I got to looking at the two books they had bought and discovered that one of them is actually book 10 of a series...oops.
I told Paula about this and she was a little upset because she had not caught that before they purchased it - we buy everything digitally no so it is not like we can return it. I told her not to worry and went ahead and bought the first book. I figure if Xander likes it, great, if not it is just one more book. The book is clearly aimed at young teenage readers and follows a young castle orphan who is passed over by all of the craft masters in the castle on his choosing day until one who is poorly thought of takes pity on him and selects him to join his guild, meanwhile his friend gets to join the knights and becomes a natural swordsman. If you know the authors I have mentioned before you might think I was talking about the Magician series of books by Feist, but you would be wrong. This is the "Rangers Apprentice" series by John Flanagan.
And that is how we get back to my original point. Two books basically taking the exact same early subject matter and following the exact same blueprint to get to the exact same point. Not exactly breaking new ground. I mean I remember thinking "Oh, this is what would have happened if Pug had been chosen by Martin...o.k.". I give Flanagan credit, the book is a very easy read, it does grab your attention and it is a good page turner...but it will not make my list of rereads.
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