Archive for the ‘Miscellaneous’ Category

The Blog That Wasn’t

Monday, November 16th, 2009

No new posts in some time, and for that I apologize.

I tried, but Postie doesn’t work. BS, could you check on that please?

Last weekend, by which I mean the one before the one that ended yesterday, we were both sick with a cough. Not much happened then, aside from downing nasty cough & cold medicine all weekend. A few days later we both felt better, but then this past weekend I got sick again – my throat this time. I went to see a doctor today and am now on an antibiotic due to what he suspects are the early stages of strep throat (or some other infection).

I get some sort of respiratory ailment every fall semester. I’m quite proud of how long I lasted this semester before succumbing 🙂

This past weekend we also got a great deal of Christmas shopping done. Purchases were made for virtually everyone. My suitcase will be packed this year with a wealth of things going to Australia! Should be fun…

The Strange Journey

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

Just got back from the store where we bought cough medicine to (hopefully) fix this nasty will-it-ever-go-away cough that made teaching on Wednesday actually embarrassing. I spent the day today just pottering around, then killed hours playing Demon’s Souls on PS3 this afternoon and relaxing. Good times!

Oh, and I’d buy the new Shin Megami Tensei DS game (due March) for DS even if the thing on the cover didn’t look like a new breed of cyberman 🙂

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Not much longer than 6 weeks from now I’ll be in Australia, eating cherry ripes, drinking lift and beating (?) AW and BS at MTG!

Winning The Trophy Challenge

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

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As I sit here, using my computer (image above; note tongue sticking out), I think that it is perhaps time to come clean on the trophy challenge I have secretly been undertaking.

Before I do that, I must describe the nature of the challenge…

The Playstation3 has a system of in-game achievements they call trophies. When you reach certain milestones within a game, perform a feat of exceptional skill or just do something unusual or funny you can obtain a trophy. The trophies are unique to each game, decided by the developer, and range from trivial to extremely difficult to get. Each game has a certain amount of trophies to earn, and getting them all results in earning the ultimate ‘Platinum’ trophy.

Trophies are fun. They give an incentive to go above and beyond, and to explore perhaps more of a game than one otherwise would. They are also compulsive, so I like to earn them. It peeves me a little to see the trophies I have unlocked for the games I own to be less than 100%.

You can browse the trophies I have unlocked here.

Another aspect of the trophy system is competition. It is easy not only to browse the trophies of another Playstation3 user, but to compare them to your own. I have precisely 2 people on my PS3 ‘friends list’, namely BS (my brother) and JBF (dad-in-law).

My challenge to both of these people is this: beat my trophies!

Up until now competition has been slim (to say the least). I regularly browse the trophies of my competitors, and it keeps me aware of how they are doing in their games (for instance JBF has already beaten Uncharted 2, and gotten a trophy for killing 75 people without dying. Or BS doesn’t seem to have ever beaten GTA4). But sadly I seem to be earning new ones faster than they are (granted, I probably have more games). Even so, each of them has a mighty amount of trophies they still have to earn in many games, and the potential for strong competition is there!

So get to it big brother and dad-in-law! Beat me!

I dare you 🙂

Upgrade

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

As mentioned, we bought a new car last week.

Specifically, we upgraded from a 1999 Subaru Forester to a 2010 Subaru Forester. Here are shots of the old (left) and new (right) cars:

oldcar newcar

They look similar don’t they?!

The new one is actually quite a bit larger than the old. It’s also got a slew of nifty features the old didn’t, like a gigantic openable sunroof, powered drivers seat, a jack for an iPod, four settings for seat heaters and a sensor to show when tires are too deflated! We went with the all-weather package as well, so it has windshield and rearview mirror heating and various other things that are nice to have in the snowy northeast.

We also paid cash for it. This was quite a major thing for me, since I’ve never come close to paying so much (in cash) for anything ever before :O

Even though I’ve been driving the old Forester since we got our other car (a 2002 Subaru Impreza) this new one – of course – goes to KLS, so I have inherited the Impreza. Hopefully we’ll get ten years out of that guy as well, before we have to replace it.

Time For Me To Fly?

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

The semester progresses well. I’m at least as busy as I have ever been teaching, and sometimes feel much more.

I’m teaching two classes this semester, one of which is new and one of which I have taught before. The new class is 105 – a non-calculus introductory physics course. It’s a little trickier to teach than the calculus version because – for me at least – calculus is far more intuitive than the approximates associated with not having access to such things as derivatives.

Torque for instance. It’s much easier to simply say it is a vector cross product than the product of a force and this silly invention called the ‘lever arm‘.

I have 53 students in that class, and it is my desire for them all to do well. At this point, 6 or 7 of them aren’t, and perhaps won’t since they’ve ignored my emails. There is only so much I can do for those. The others are working hard though, and making a good effort. This pleases me, more so because of the ‘average’ students working very hard than the gifted who would do well regardless of instructor (I was one of those). They clearly like me as a teacher though. One student sent me a “get well soon” email this week after I canceled classes Wednesday. Another apparently went to the physics office and requested I teach Physics 108 (next semesters the followup course) so he could have me as an instructor again!

The other course is 240, Modern Physics. This is the third time I have taught this one, and I’d say I get better every time. I know the material now like the back of my hand, and can predict what sorts of things will confuse the students. I still try to make the lectures new though, and in a sense always do since I lecture mostly from my head, only briefly perusing the notes. I have 23 students in this class, and like the ones in my other class they want me to teach 250 – next semester’s followup (a course in Waves).

Will I teach next semester? That’s the question. I’m not getting my thesis done this semester – as usual teaching is too mighty a distraction, and the thesis requires tremendous amounts of uninterrupted attention.

I am debating accepting only one class – assuming I am offered one – next semester so I can devote more time to writing. However if I do this tuition will not be reimbursed, so my pay will be trivial considering I’d have to pay my own tuition. Which makes it seem logical to teach zero classes and have even more time to work on the thesis.

But I love teaching, and besides it is great for a resume. I have students in each class begging me to teach their followup next semester, and here I want to finish my thesis and graduate so I can… do what?

At this point I really don’t know what I’m going to do.