Dr. Soni had his final gathering at his house a couple of Sundays ago so Paula and I had to stop working around the house to attend. Don't get me wrong - parties at Dr. Soni's are a good time. He has lots of beverages, good food and it is nice to see everyone away from work.
The party started about 4 and until 6 it is small talk and finger foods....if you can call grilled shrimp skewers and tandoori drumsticks finger food. Dr. Roy made the drumsticks and while not as messy as they usually were (he baked them so not as wet) they were still delicious. I think I had 4. At 6 Dr. Soni's wife breaks out dinner. Now despite the fact that the finger foods were meat, dinner was vegetarian. Not exactly my tastes, but I had some Nan and rice..and another chicken leg.
By all accounts the night was a "success". Everyone had a good time and while apparently there was some tension early on about Dr. Soni's leaving, it was long forgotten by the time the food started leaving the kitchen.
If the evening had ended on that note I would have been happy. A night out, even at the "bosses house" is a rare thing. But the night was even a little more special because I came one step closer to finishing off my committee. I approached Lee Moradi (Dr. Lee) about being on my committee and he said he would be happy to be on it. Lee is the Director of Engineering Research here at UAB so he adds a little weight to the committee, plus he is another Engineering professor so it helps balance out Dr. Kerby being primarily a medical doctor.
In addition, I finally heard back from Dr. Snyder. Dr. Snyder works closely with Dr. Kerby and had been recommended to me by both Dr. Kerby and Dr. Soni so I had approached him about meeting to discuss the final 'UAB faculty' seat on my committee. Dr. Snyder agreed to meet AND I found out Dr. Kerby sent him a letter strongly advising him to accept the position on my committee.
Means one more spot to fill and I will be done with that side of things.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Missing in Action
OK. You don't have to say it. I know I have been missing in action for a while..but what is a month and a half between friends. I'll tell you what, to make it up to you I will post 3-4 posts today and tomorrow..just depends on if you count this one :)
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Great News
The expected move to Tennessee has had a consequence I expected, but wanted to avoid. Namely I would have to get my doctoral oversight committee in place before the move and it would have to be staffed with professors other than Dr. Soni. Now this is not normally a big thing, but for the past 2-3 years Dr. Soni has been telling me not to worry about it and that he would have people in mind who would be able to fill out the committee and it should not be a big issue in any case.
Fast forward to today and I am trying to fill the positions and not pick too many professors who will just give me a hard time. Well today (last night really) I got the best news so far - my first choice for the chair of the committee (Dr. Jeff Kerby) told me he would be proud to fill the role. He doesn't really know what his job is any more than I do but I think Kim and the rest of the office staff downstairs will help with that.
Well 2 spots filled, 2-3 more to go.
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Tennessee Trip - Day 2
So when we last left our intrepid travelers they were pulling into Nashville around 6:00 Saturday night. Well not exactly Nashville - our hotel was in Mt. Juliet which is about 20 miles east of town.
Since we got in at a decent hour we went ahead and checked into the hotel before dinner. Turns out Mt. Juliet is a rapidly growing area around Nashville and as such there was a ton of stuff right near our hotel room. We wanted to find someplace "unique", but Xander really wanted pizza. The only pizza joint we could really find was a New York style pizza place and Paula and I both dislike New York style so that was out. In the end we ended up going to a blah chain restaurant with o.k. food. Not exactly a meal to remember but there it is. Looking for a place to eat exposed us to a lot of what to expect in Mt. Juliet, and we went ahead and picked up a Apartment Guide to see if any might be open Sunday we could investigate.
After breakfast we got a "semi" early start to the day, we had a lot to do and still wanted to get to Decatur for dinner. We wanted to see how Nashville worked and explore Murfreesboro, Hermitage, Gallatin, Lebanon and Mt. Juliet.
Since we got in at a decent hour we went ahead and checked into the hotel before dinner. Turns out Mt. Juliet is a rapidly growing area around Nashville and as such there was a ton of stuff right near our hotel room. We wanted to find someplace "unique", but Xander really wanted pizza. The only pizza joint we could really find was a New York style pizza place and Paula and I both dislike New York style so that was out. In the end we ended up going to a blah chain restaurant with o.k. food. Not exactly a meal to remember but there it is. Looking for a place to eat exposed us to a lot of what to expect in Mt. Juliet, and we went ahead and picked up a Apartment Guide to see if any might be open Sunday we could investigate.
After breakfast we got a "semi" early start to the day, we had a lot to do and still wanted to get to Decatur for dinner. We wanted to see how Nashville worked and explore Murfreesboro, Hermitage, Gallatin, Lebanon and Mt. Juliet.
- Murfreesboro was o.k. The town looked like he had most of what we would want and they were some nice apartments as well. The problem with the town was location. Most of the areas we were looking at were east of Nashville, while Murfreesboro is more southern. Means my drive in would be 1:20, Paula's would be about 35 minutes. By far the longest drive times for both of us.
- Hermitage was o.k. as well. It is the closest city to Nashville that we looked at, but it is ... old. Most of the apartments were built in the 70's or 80's and so had some issues.
- Gallatin was a definite no. Hard to get to, city looked run down, just over all a bad feeling.
- Lebanon was o.k. depending on where you were looking. Apparently it is a big enough city that 3 different exits off of I-40 lead to the town and one of the exits had a nice looking development.
- Mt. Juliet was the clear winner with everyone. They had a really cool park that Xander loved, good shopping, great school districts and hopefully some apartments coming available.
After checking out the apartments (and a few housing developments) we went to downtown Nashville and got a quick feel for that. Xander was impressed by the football stadium and I liked the size of the town (though the streets did seem to remind me of north Atlanta).
So who wins? Nashville, Mt. Juliet and hopefully us.
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Tennessee Trip - Day 1
Had some bumps along the way but we finally made it up for the first of our days in Tennessee.
Original plan was to get into Knoxville around 6 or 7 last night and get a good look around town before heading to the hotel. That would allow us to spend tomorrow morning investigating areas that looked promising and enjoy ourselves before getting a start over to Nashville around 2-3 this afternoon. Remember what they say about the "best laid plans"? Well yeah I remember it now.
For starters Xander had a eye checkup yesterday at 1. I had made the appointment well before we planned the trip and did not want to cancel it but really, how long can an eye checkup take? Four hours later I had my answer. Seems that UAB Eye Care does a REALLY thorough checkup. Good news is Xander's eyes are just about perfect - slight astigmatism but nothing really bad - bad news is I was planning to be almost to Knoxville by now. We started on our way and had a really pleasant drive until the second hiccup happened. Seems that unknown to me Knoxville is in the Eastern Time Zone..so there goes another hour. Anyway, we stopped north of Chattanooga and had dinner and made it in to Knoxville around 10. So no late afternoon cruise, no early investigation.
When we went to check out this morning I asked the desk clerk what a good way to spend a Saturday morning in Knoxville doing was. Surprisingly she mentioned nothing about Knoxville, instead sending us off to Pigeon Forge. Seems kind of strange that a bigger city has nothing to call its own, and this place is beginning to remind me of Huntsville. However, we drove out to Pigeon Forge and enjoyed our time. Xander got some shopping done, we played some Putt Putt and had a pleasant day only marred by Paula's sun burn.
On the way out of town we dropped through Farragut. Not like most of the nicer areas I am used to seeing this was much more spread out..but you could almost smell the money. Seemed like a nice place but not sure we would enjoy Knoxville enough to make it work.
On the drive out to Nashville we stopped by Cookeville to see the campus for Tennessee Tech. Even though the town looked a little sketchy, the campus was surprisingly nice. Traditional looking campus buildings and lots of trees etc made me feel a lot more happy about my prospects there.
Even with the stop over in Cookeville we made it into Nashville around 6. But more about that on the next post.
Original plan was to get into Knoxville around 6 or 7 last night and get a good look around town before heading to the hotel. That would allow us to spend tomorrow morning investigating areas that looked promising and enjoy ourselves before getting a start over to Nashville around 2-3 this afternoon. Remember what they say about the "best laid plans"? Well yeah I remember it now.
For starters Xander had a eye checkup yesterday at 1. I had made the appointment well before we planned the trip and did not want to cancel it but really, how long can an eye checkup take? Four hours later I had my answer. Seems that UAB Eye Care does a REALLY thorough checkup. Good news is Xander's eyes are just about perfect - slight astigmatism but nothing really bad - bad news is I was planning to be almost to Knoxville by now. We started on our way and had a really pleasant drive until the second hiccup happened. Seems that unknown to me Knoxville is in the Eastern Time Zone..so there goes another hour. Anyway, we stopped north of Chattanooga and had dinner and made it in to Knoxville around 10. So no late afternoon cruise, no early investigation.
When we went to check out this morning I asked the desk clerk what a good way to spend a Saturday morning in Knoxville doing was. Surprisingly she mentioned nothing about Knoxville, instead sending us off to Pigeon Forge. Seems kind of strange that a bigger city has nothing to call its own, and this place is beginning to remind me of Huntsville. However, we drove out to Pigeon Forge and enjoyed our time. Xander got some shopping done, we played some Putt Putt and had a pleasant day only marred by Paula's sun burn.
On the way out of town we dropped through Farragut. Not like most of the nicer areas I am used to seeing this was much more spread out..but you could almost smell the money. Seemed like a nice place but not sure we would enjoy Knoxville enough to make it work.
On the drive out to Nashville we stopped by Cookeville to see the campus for Tennessee Tech. Even though the town looked a little sketchy, the campus was surprisingly nice. Traditional looking campus buildings and lots of trees etc made me feel a lot more happy about my prospects there.
Even with the stop over in Cookeville we made it into Nashville around 6. But more about that on the next post.
Monday, May 20, 2013
I was always more into Star Wars...
OK, had to steal the title from John McClane.
Paula and I went to see Star Trek: Into Darkness over the weekend. We really needed a break after the events of the weekend so a movie seemed like a good idea. How was it? It was probably the best movie I have seen this year. Granted with this years movies, that might be damning with faint praise but it was a good movie. Were there problems with the movie? Sure. What movie doesn't have some problems? But for the most part it kept Paula and I engrossed for two and a half hours at a time we really needed to be distracted.
I meant this post to mainly be about the movie but I think I need to explain why we needed a break. It all began Saturday morning. About a year ago our hot water heater exploded causing about $30k in damages. We started noticing some similar "warning signs" last week and had the installers come out. They said the problem was with a hose that was blocking some piping, they had moved the hose and thought everything would be o.k. Well it turns out that hose was to our water softener and when it recycled water, all the pumped water caused a flood and ruined most of the ceilings in the bathroom and downstairs bedroom. This time we were lucky enough to be home so we could save the bedding, the floors and everything else, but the drywall is gone. We ended up paying a plumber to come out Saturday evening and just totally disconnect the water softener.
Sunday was difficult for different reasons. We ended up putting Buckeye to sleep Sunday afternoon. He had been a shell of his former self for the last few years and we decided to not drag it out longer than necessary. It was a very hard decision and Paula and I were both in tears, but we both felt it was the best option for him.
Anyway, after leaving the vets we decided we needed a distraction and the new Star Trek movie seemed the perfect solution.
The Good:
The cast was perfect lead by Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy, and don't get me started on Benedict Cumberbatch. I have been a fan of his since I first saw the BBC version of Sherlock on Masterpiece Mystery, and he was great as the bad guy in this movie
The effects were also top notch, but did not overpower the story of the movie
The Bad:
Some people (not me) are complaining about the casting of Khan. They felt it should have gone to an Indian actor. I can see their point, but I think in a part where the dialogue and intonation are so vital, you want someone with perfect English in the role...and unfortunately I can not think of an Indian actor that could pull it off.
Plot hole. OK holes. The biggest for me was the demotion/promotion of Captain Kirk. He is punished in the beginning of the movie for violating the Prime Directive and "loses" the Enterprise. He goes to a bar and is informed there that he is actually just busted down to being the Executive Officer(XO) of the Enterprise. While at the bar he is called to Star Fleet HQ and after an attack there that kills the new captain is immediately made Captain of the Enterprise again and able to pull Spock back in as his XO. What kind of punishment was THAT?
Paula and I went to see Star Trek: Into Darkness over the weekend. We really needed a break after the events of the weekend so a movie seemed like a good idea. How was it? It was probably the best movie I have seen this year. Granted with this years movies, that might be damning with faint praise but it was a good movie. Were there problems with the movie? Sure. What movie doesn't have some problems? But for the most part it kept Paula and I engrossed for two and a half hours at a time we really needed to be distracted.
I meant this post to mainly be about the movie but I think I need to explain why we needed a break. It all began Saturday morning. About a year ago our hot water heater exploded causing about $30k in damages. We started noticing some similar "warning signs" last week and had the installers come out. They said the problem was with a hose that was blocking some piping, they had moved the hose and thought everything would be o.k. Well it turns out that hose was to our water softener and when it recycled water, all the pumped water caused a flood and ruined most of the ceilings in the bathroom and downstairs bedroom. This time we were lucky enough to be home so we could save the bedding, the floors and everything else, but the drywall is gone. We ended up paying a plumber to come out Saturday evening and just totally disconnect the water softener.
Sunday was difficult for different reasons. We ended up putting Buckeye to sleep Sunday afternoon. He had been a shell of his former self for the last few years and we decided to not drag it out longer than necessary. It was a very hard decision and Paula and I were both in tears, but we both felt it was the best option for him.
Anyway, after leaving the vets we decided we needed a distraction and the new Star Trek movie seemed the perfect solution.
The Good:
The cast was perfect lead by Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy, and don't get me started on Benedict Cumberbatch. I have been a fan of his since I first saw the BBC version of Sherlock on Masterpiece Mystery, and he was great as the bad guy in this movie
The effects were also top notch, but did not overpower the story of the movie
The Bad:
Some people (not me) are complaining about the casting of Khan. They felt it should have gone to an Indian actor. I can see their point, but I think in a part where the dialogue and intonation are so vital, you want someone with perfect English in the role...and unfortunately I can not think of an Indian actor that could pull it off.
Plot hole. OK holes. The biggest for me was the demotion/promotion of Captain Kirk. He is punished in the beginning of the movie for violating the Prime Directive and "loses" the Enterprise. He goes to a bar and is informed there that he is actually just busted down to being the Executive Officer(XO) of the Enterprise. While at the bar he is called to Star Fleet HQ and after an attack there that kills the new captain is immediately made Captain of the Enterprise again and able to pull Spock back in as his XO. What kind of punishment was THAT?
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Am I Doing the RIGHT Thing
Once again I can't sleep and so I sit here writing into a blog that no one but me will ever read. Talk about depressing. As I look back on the last couple of weeks the common theme that keeps coming up is simple - am I doing the right thing?
My life has had its share of disappointments and stress, but things could have been a lot worse. Paula and Xander are always there to pick me up and I am not living in a car or something. So all told I have had a successful life. But through it all I really haven't had time to plan for anything or had the time to stress over details.
As a kid I was a Navy brat. We lived up and down the East Coast, but honestly it never really impacted me. Mom and Dad would come in, say we are moving to XYZ, I would pack and that would be it. Easy peasy. When I graduated college I moved to Houston, but again that was done over the course of about 2 weeks and so everything was rushed. When I moved back to Ohio, same thing. Moving to Alabama? Hired on October 4th, living here before Halloween.
That all leads us to now. I am moving my family to a city I haven't even picked out yet. On top of that I am rushed because we have to sell the house, but at the same time it is the longest period of time I have had to contemplate a move since I went away to college. What does that mean? It means all the little concerns I experience have all the time in the world to percolate into full blown fears. Are we making the right choice? Should we just stay here? Will the house sell? How will we live if it doesn't? Will I be able to get into classes easily at the new school? Will Paula be able to get a job? Will Xander like his new school? Will he make friends?
Don't get me wrong. I am excited about the opportunity that has presented itself. I hope I am up to the task - I think Corey will make sure I am before the end of the summer - but until I start there is just no way of knowing. I think someone with my temperament - a self proclaimed "jack of all trades" will be just what the lab needs to get started. But I wonder about that too. And I wonder about my coding skills, my abilities and my general lack of self confidence.
So what is the answer? I do not know. I think I am making the best decision for the long term. Is it the "safe" option? Probably not. There weren't really any safe options presented, all of them had a risk. Staying at UAB might have been the safe option, if I was sure they would continue to fund my position after Dr. Soni left. Would joining Corey have been the safe option? Maybe. I firmly believe in what he is looking to accomplish and I think they can do it, but that does not mean they will and I could not afford to work the hours required for the salary he was willing to pay. And so that leaves the option I took...open ended employment, lots of chances to do things right...all for the cost of moving from our home of the last ten years, pulling my wife from her job and my son from his friends.
So did I choose right?
My life has had its share of disappointments and stress, but things could have been a lot worse. Paula and Xander are always there to pick me up and I am not living in a car or something. So all told I have had a successful life. But through it all I really haven't had time to plan for anything or had the time to stress over details.
As a kid I was a Navy brat. We lived up and down the East Coast, but honestly it never really impacted me. Mom and Dad would come in, say we are moving to XYZ, I would pack and that would be it. Easy peasy. When I graduated college I moved to Houston, but again that was done over the course of about 2 weeks and so everything was rushed. When I moved back to Ohio, same thing. Moving to Alabama? Hired on October 4th, living here before Halloween.
That all leads us to now. I am moving my family to a city I haven't even picked out yet. On top of that I am rushed because we have to sell the house, but at the same time it is the longest period of time I have had to contemplate a move since I went away to college. What does that mean? It means all the little concerns I experience have all the time in the world to percolate into full blown fears. Are we making the right choice? Should we just stay here? Will the house sell? How will we live if it doesn't? Will I be able to get into classes easily at the new school? Will Paula be able to get a job? Will Xander like his new school? Will he make friends?
Don't get me wrong. I am excited about the opportunity that has presented itself. I hope I am up to the task - I think Corey will make sure I am before the end of the summer - but until I start there is just no way of knowing. I think someone with my temperament - a self proclaimed "jack of all trades" will be just what the lab needs to get started. But I wonder about that too. And I wonder about my coding skills, my abilities and my general lack of self confidence.
So what is the answer? I do not know. I think I am making the best decision for the long term. Is it the "safe" option? Probably not. There weren't really any safe options presented, all of them had a risk. Staying at UAB might have been the safe option, if I was sure they would continue to fund my position after Dr. Soni left. Would joining Corey have been the safe option? Maybe. I firmly believe in what he is looking to accomplish and I think they can do it, but that does not mean they will and I could not afford to work the hours required for the salary he was willing to pay. And so that leaves the option I took...open ended employment, lots of chances to do things right...all for the cost of moving from our home of the last ten years, pulling my wife from her job and my son from his friends.
So did I choose right?
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Iron Man 3
School is out for me, just waiting on grades and so my weekends, apart from housework are pretty open. I better enjoy it because summer school starts in about 3 weeks. Don't get me wrong - there is a lot of housework to get done. Especially with the move coming up.
Anyway, today, Paula, Xander and I took a break from housework to go see Iron Man 3 at the local theater. We went with one of Xander's friends, Dylan, and his dad to a early afternoon showing in 3-D. Xander really prefers to see movies in 3-D. If they are done well (which more are) 3-D adds to the enjoyment of the movie. Done poorly and it adds to the annoyance. This one was well done and I tended to enjoy the movie.
Iron Man 3 is a typical Marvel movie. It picks up at some point shortly after the events in the Avengers. Tony Stark is suffering from PTSD after the events of that movie and is afraid to sleep. During his downtime he has built a small army of Iron Man outfits. While this is going on a terrorist known only as 'The Mandarin' has emerged threatening the safety of the United States. Meanwhile, a woman (and honestly a man) from Tony's previous life as a booze hound has reentered his life. If you did not think all of those items were related, well you just having been paying attention. That is about all the plot I am going to go into but I will go into a couple of the problems I had with the movie. Both happen in the last quarter of the movie after Tony has uncovered all the myriad plots going on.
The first is the neutering of 'the Mandarin'. In the comics, Mandarin is one of Iron Man's chief villains. He was rated as the 81st best villain of all time, regardless of comic. In this movie he is a fraud. An actor hired to play a part and that just seems shortsighted. Here was a chance to give Tony a 'reuseable' villain in the same vein as Loki for Thor or Red Skull for Captain America (oh and raise your hand if you think we have seen the last of him). Instead the makers of this movie decide to make him a pawn of the real villains.
The second is the ending itself. Tony destroys all the suits, has the bomb shrapnel removed from his heart, and chucks the miniature arc reactor into the ocean. I know RDJ's contract is up after this movie, but did that mean they had to write themselves out of business. I mean I am sure Iron Man will show up in Avengers 2 but the way they ended this movie makes me wonder if there will ever be an Iron Man 4 - or if he will show up in Av3.
Anyway, today, Paula, Xander and I took a break from housework to go see Iron Man 3 at the local theater. We went with one of Xander's friends, Dylan, and his dad to a early afternoon showing in 3-D. Xander really prefers to see movies in 3-D. If they are done well (which more are) 3-D adds to the enjoyment of the movie. Done poorly and it adds to the annoyance. This one was well done and I tended to enjoy the movie.
Iron Man 3 is a typical Marvel movie. It picks up at some point shortly after the events in the Avengers. Tony Stark is suffering from PTSD after the events of that movie and is afraid to sleep. During his downtime he has built a small army of Iron Man outfits. While this is going on a terrorist known only as 'The Mandarin' has emerged threatening the safety of the United States. Meanwhile, a woman (and honestly a man) from Tony's previous life as a booze hound has reentered his life. If you did not think all of those items were related, well you just having been paying attention. That is about all the plot I am going to go into but I will go into a couple of the problems I had with the movie. Both happen in the last quarter of the movie after Tony has uncovered all the myriad plots going on.
The first is the neutering of 'the Mandarin'. In the comics, Mandarin is one of Iron Man's chief villains. He was rated as the 81st best villain of all time, regardless of comic. In this movie he is a fraud. An actor hired to play a part and that just seems shortsighted. Here was a chance to give Tony a 'reuseable' villain in the same vein as Loki for Thor or Red Skull for Captain America (oh and raise your hand if you think we have seen the last of him). Instead the makers of this movie decide to make him a pawn of the real villains.
The second is the ending itself. Tony destroys all the suits, has the bomb shrapnel removed from his heart, and chucks the miniature arc reactor into the ocean. I know RDJ's contract is up after this movie, but did that mean they had to write themselves out of business. I mean I am sure Iron Man will show up in Avengers 2 but the way they ended this movie makes me wonder if there will ever be an Iron Man 4 - or if he will show up in Av3.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Is It Even Relevant?
Can't sleep so I thought I would write. Looking over my Facebook feed my "Right Wing" friends are all making comments about a quote attributed to the President. Apparently he made the comment that he wasn't the same young Muslim Socialist he used to be. The left is basically saying "He was joking..Duh". The right for some reason seems to think that "no..he has finally admitted it and we were right all this time". My thought is - is it even relevant?
Let's take it one assertion at a time - Obama is Muslim. He said he isn't, no "records" show he is but the right believes it. But so what! One of the founding rights of the United States is Freedom of Religion. I am not a scholar on this particular topic but I do not remember reading anything that said you could not be a Muslim and the President. And hey, I get it - 12 years ago Muslim terrorists attacked the United States. But I think the key word in that statement isn't Muslim...it's terrorists! To lump all of the billions of Muslims into one group because of the actions of a minority would be the same as saying all Catholics are child molesters and all Christians are the same as the wackos from that church in Kansas that stage protests at the funerals of soldiers. One group inside your religion should not define your religion.
Second assertion, Obama is a Socialist. Once again, there is no proof to this except that the right continues to harp on it. And again I say, so what. I would argue that most Democrats believe at least a little bit in the tenets of Socialism. Obama seems to get the claim applied mostly, as far as I can tell, because of his health care initiative. Similar systems are in place around the world, and yet none of those governments are called Socialist. In fact, the most "Socialist" thing I have seen in the past 10 years was the government subsidies and bailout of the banking and auto industry that was started under Bush. That had all the earmarks of "state controlled business".
Let's take it one assertion at a time - Obama is Muslim. He said he isn't, no "records" show he is but the right believes it. But so what! One of the founding rights of the United States is Freedom of Religion. I am not a scholar on this particular topic but I do not remember reading anything that said you could not be a Muslim and the President. And hey, I get it - 12 years ago Muslim terrorists attacked the United States. But I think the key word in that statement isn't Muslim...it's terrorists! To lump all of the billions of Muslims into one group because of the actions of a minority would be the same as saying all Catholics are child molesters and all Christians are the same as the wackos from that church in Kansas that stage protests at the funerals of soldiers. One group inside your religion should not define your religion.
Second assertion, Obama is a Socialist. Once again, there is no proof to this except that the right continues to harp on it. And again I say, so what. I would argue that most Democrats believe at least a little bit in the tenets of Socialism. Obama seems to get the claim applied mostly, as far as I can tell, because of his health care initiative. Similar systems are in place around the world, and yet none of those governments are called Socialist. In fact, the most "Socialist" thing I have seen in the past 10 years was the government subsidies and bailout of the banking and auto industry that was started under Bush. That had all the earmarks of "state controlled business".
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Volunteering for Tennessee
So my lab and I had a meeting to discuss future plans a while back. Some will be staying at UAB for a while, some will be spinning off their own company, I was stuck. The lab as we currently know it is changing in the fall, but I am still a year away from my PhD. That severely limits my mobility and while I would love to stick with UAB through the end of my degree, it was beginning to look like that would not be an option. Our lab is fully funded through the end of September, but after that, no one is quite sure what will happen, but it does not look promising.
At the meeting a lifeline was offered to any who wanted it, and to everyone's surprise, I was the only one that bit. I volunteered to move to Tennessee. Seems we are starting a new lab at Tennessee Tech and while my role is not spelled out, I will pretty much be the head honcho there. It is really a great opportunity and we always knew we would probably be moving after my graduation anyway so this just moves it up a couple of years. I will be able to continue taking classes at Tennessee Tech, transfer the credit down to UAB and then finish up my dissertation research remotely and finish off the PhD.
The family will move up with me, though we are not sure if we want to live in Nashville or Knoxville. We have scheduled a weekend getaway to both cities to see which one we like more. Early money is on Nashville but that could change depending on how we like both cities.
At the meeting a lifeline was offered to any who wanted it, and to everyone's surprise, I was the only one that bit. I volunteered to move to Tennessee. Seems we are starting a new lab at Tennessee Tech and while my role is not spelled out, I will pretty much be the head honcho there. It is really a great opportunity and we always knew we would probably be moving after my graduation anyway so this just moves it up a couple of years. I will be able to continue taking classes at Tennessee Tech, transfer the credit down to UAB and then finish up my dissertation research remotely and finish off the PhD.
The family will move up with me, though we are not sure if we want to live in Nashville or Knoxville. We have scheduled a weekend getaway to both cities to see which one we like more. Early money is on Nashville but that could change depending on how we like both cities.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Up From the Ashes..
We are working on a military training project at work dealing with the training of Army Combat Medics. It is really interesting stuff, and more importantly for me, it was beginning to appear that this could actually be my research project for my PhD. Corey had even started to push me more into the administrative role in the project...things like pushing IRB approval through, monitoring the test results, that sort of thing.
The more I started looking into the project however, the more I began to realize it was not the best option. First, there is not a "control" group for the research, so we can not prove our training was particularly effective. Second, we have no way of communicating with the medics after they leave the lab to see if the training was helpful in any way. And finally, we had planned for 100 participants, and will end up with only 15-18, so we will not have any way of producing statistically relevant output. That means the wonderful papers we were supposed to write are instead going to be glorified white papers. So we will be able to explain what we did, and what we saw, but not enough to get me a PhD.
Anyway I discussed all of this with Corey this morning and over the course of the morning and afternoon we settled on a plan of action. Originally we were going to do a rather simple research project showing the effectiveness of Mixed Reality training simulations. Take 200-300 people, break them into a control group and a "Augmented training" group. The augmented group would have access to a VR training simulator that also stressed the participant. The goal of the experiment would be to have them come in a few days after training and seeing how they did and proving the Augmented training works.
I had a problem with this scenario though. Our main thrust of the research was that the stressors help improve learning aptitude and that would be lost in the VR training discussion. So, after trading ideas we changed our plan. We really have no doubt that training with VR improves your ability to learn. We are all about immersive training so we better feel that way. So in our newly revised plan, group A will get a "Field of Daises" VR simulation, group B will get a "total chaos" VR simulation. After a few days, we will test and see if our thought is correct - does learning under outside stress improve your ability to learn.
Should provide me with plenty of research material, it is meaningful for what we are doing, and actually is "doable". So here we go - Up From the Ashes, .Grow the Roses of Success
The more I started looking into the project however, the more I began to realize it was not the best option. First, there is not a "control" group for the research, so we can not prove our training was particularly effective. Second, we have no way of communicating with the medics after they leave the lab to see if the training was helpful in any way. And finally, we had planned for 100 participants, and will end up with only 15-18, so we will not have any way of producing statistically relevant output. That means the wonderful papers we were supposed to write are instead going to be glorified white papers. So we will be able to explain what we did, and what we saw, but not enough to get me a PhD.
Anyway I discussed all of this with Corey this morning and over the course of the morning and afternoon we settled on a plan of action. Originally we were going to do a rather simple research project showing the effectiveness of Mixed Reality training simulations. Take 200-300 people, break them into a control group and a "Augmented training" group. The augmented group would have access to a VR training simulator that also stressed the participant. The goal of the experiment would be to have them come in a few days after training and seeing how they did and proving the Augmented training works.
I had a problem with this scenario though. Our main thrust of the research was that the stressors help improve learning aptitude and that would be lost in the VR training discussion. So, after trading ideas we changed our plan. We really have no doubt that training with VR improves your ability to learn. We are all about immersive training so we better feel that way. So in our newly revised plan, group A will get a "Field of Daises" VR simulation, group B will get a "total chaos" VR simulation. After a few days, we will test and see if our thought is correct - does learning under outside stress improve your ability to learn.
Should provide me with plenty of research material, it is meaningful for what we are doing, and actually is "doable". So here we go - Up From the Ashes, .Grow the Roses of Success
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
That is just crazy talk
I really enjoy the show 'Castle'. I have always enjoyed Nathan Fillion as an actor dating back to his run as Caleb on 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'. That show deserves its own post but that will have to come later. For now we are talking about Castle.
The premise of Castle is pretty far fetched but it is lighthearted and a good diversion on a Monday night so it is tolerated. For those of you who do not watch the show Rick Castle (Fillion) is a mystery writer who, in the pilot, is suspected of murder because the crimes are very similar to his books. He helps the lead detective (Kate Beckett) solve the crime and then, in a twist everyone saw coming, strikes a deal with his buddy the mayor to get unlimited "ride along" privileges with the detectives. By applying his own logic to the crimes he is able to go from civilian nuisance to valued team member - all by solving the crimes the way he would write them given a chance.
So, I am up tonight watching a repeat of Castle when a conversation I had with Paula comes to mind. She seemed to think that I should write a book. I had a 10-15 laugh about that one. Lets be honest, any book I write would be a jumbled mess of nonsense. I have a head for trivia, and I am working on my degree..but that still has never stopped my brain from being a confused mess of random ideas.
But like every insidious idea that has ever been planted in my skull, this one, shuttled off to one side, has found some ground and threatens to grow into a crazy tree. I guess this means in addition to all of the other fun things I plan on doing with my time, I need to start figuring out what kind of book I want to write and mapping that out. While I trust my ability to write and I have a decent imagination, I would be lying if I said the thought of trying to write something did not scare me.
Here are the possible genres and my initial thoughts
Mystery
Pro: Lots of true crime to use as inspiration, make a good repeat character and you can do a series
Con: Have to come up with something no one has seen before or else you are derivative
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Pro: My personal favorite, I work in an area that could easily be considered Sci-Fi already
Con: Most fantasy is extremely derivative, have to come up with new Science AND a compelling story
Horror
Pro: Another favorite of mine
Con: I just don't think in the macabre mindset. Horror has really moved to the gory for gory sake in the last 10 years
Non-Fiction
Pro: Plenty of true life to talk about, both now and in history
Con: Lots of research and for most things all you can hope for is a rehash of someone elses story
The premise of Castle is pretty far fetched but it is lighthearted and a good diversion on a Monday night so it is tolerated. For those of you who do not watch the show Rick Castle (Fillion) is a mystery writer who, in the pilot, is suspected of murder because the crimes are very similar to his books. He helps the lead detective (Kate Beckett) solve the crime and then, in a twist everyone saw coming, strikes a deal with his buddy the mayor to get unlimited "ride along" privileges with the detectives. By applying his own logic to the crimes he is able to go from civilian nuisance to valued team member - all by solving the crimes the way he would write them given a chance.
So, I am up tonight watching a repeat of Castle when a conversation I had with Paula comes to mind. She seemed to think that I should write a book. I had a 10-15 laugh about that one. Lets be honest, any book I write would be a jumbled mess of nonsense. I have a head for trivia, and I am working on my degree..but that still has never stopped my brain from being a confused mess of random ideas.
But like every insidious idea that has ever been planted in my skull, this one, shuttled off to one side, has found some ground and threatens to grow into a crazy tree. I guess this means in addition to all of the other fun things I plan on doing with my time, I need to start figuring out what kind of book I want to write and mapping that out. While I trust my ability to write and I have a decent imagination, I would be lying if I said the thought of trying to write something did not scare me.
Here are the possible genres and my initial thoughts
Mystery
Pro: Lots of true crime to use as inspiration, make a good repeat character and you can do a series
Con: Have to come up with something no one has seen before or else you are derivative
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Pro: My personal favorite, I work in an area that could easily be considered Sci-Fi already
Con: Most fantasy is extremely derivative, have to come up with new Science AND a compelling story
Horror
Pro: Another favorite of mine
Con: I just don't think in the macabre mindset. Horror has really moved to the gory for gory sake in the last 10 years
Non-Fiction
Pro: Plenty of true life to talk about, both now and in history
Con: Lots of research and for most things all you can hope for is a rehash of someone elses story
Monday, April 1, 2013
Under the Knife
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.
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.
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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