How about some free music?

I was playing around on Amazon last night, and I found these free mp3 album downloads.  You can preview the tracks before deciding to download or not.  There were some other free mp3 albums that I came across which I did not download because I didn't really care for the tunes on preview.  Here's what I downloaded:



This morning I found some more recently released free mp3 albums that I have yet to download and listen to, but here they are:



Happy listening!

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A. wins 365-267

How powerful is a physics professor, anyway?

Over at Dot Physics, Rhett has been explaining the inaccurate calculation of power on a TV show that I have never heard of or had the chance to see. He posted a video of himself pulling the family minivan with the family inside. He even posted a video of his 6-year old pulling the vehicle!

I assume that in a future post, he'll be giving the right way to calculate the power, but I couldn't resist trying out video analysis in Logger Pro with his video.

I analyzed the first 3.5 seconds after the van starts to move by clicking on the same point on the van every few frames. I used the wheel base of the 2007 Mazda 5 as a guess for the scale calibration.

I was pretty surprised that on my first attempt, the position-time data had a nice parabolic shape. I could have probably spent a little more time making sure that I always clicked on the exact same spot on the van, but for quick and dirty analysis, I'm pretty happy. Logger Pro defaults to motion to the left as having negative velocity. I didn't really try to reset this, as I only care about the magnitude of the rate of velocity change (i.e. the acceleration).

The acceleration is the slope of the velocity-time graph, so let's look at that:

Okay, so Rhett either wasn't applying a constant force over the 3.5 seconds, or my measurement uncertainties are starting to show up. Either way, the average acceleration can be estimated by looking at the slope of the best fit line. Logger Pro says that the average acceleration was 0.15 m/s².

So, using Rhett's free body diagram, we can apply Newton's second law:

The friction force in this case is rolling friction, so we need a coefficient of rolling resistance. The friction force is equal to the coefficient of rolling resistance times the normal force. The normal force (on the level ground) is just the mass of the vehicle multiplied by the acceleration due to gravity.

Rearrange to solve for the applied force:


I googled around a bit and found that a typical auto on concrete has a coefficient of rolling resistance between 0.010 and 0.015, so I ballparked it at 0.012. Rhett gave the mass of the car in pounds, so I converted to kilograms.

Finally:


I didn't carry out the video analysis the whole way through the entire movie. The van moves for about 9 seconds, and I know its acceleration was not constant, since the brakes were applied at the end. However, I'm sure that our physics professor could sustain the constant 300 N applied force if he wanted to all the way through the 5 yards (strange units they use in LA; we'll call it 4.57 meters). At the constant acceleration we measured, it should take him 7.8 seconds to pull the van that far.

So the work done by our professor is equal to the force applied (300 N) multiplied by the distance through which the force acted (4.57 m). His power output during the pull is the work done divided by the time:

300 N * 4.57 m / 7.8 s = 176 W

That's a mighty bright light bulb, but it's just under twice the power radiated (on average) by a human that is just standing around doing nothing.

I know he was pulling at an angle, so his applied force is larger by the cosine of the angle, which I guesstimated to by 15 degrees, so make the applied force 310 N and the power 182 W if you want to be nitpicky about it...

Two in a series of past travel exploits.

This is another blast from our past travels that I'm posting photos now only because of the Metafilter postcard exchange.

Sometime in 2005, my good friend from grad school invited (or I otherwise wrangled an invitation from him) Renae and me to come to his family's cabin in the French Alps for New Year's Eve that year. We planned an entire Paris/London/Alps trip around his invitation.

We flew from Chicago to Paris, spent about 2 days there, then took a train to the southern French Alps. Our friend picked us up and drove us to his family's cabin up in the mountains! Our first stop was at a small hut where everyone in his family was gathered to bake bread in a wood-fired oven. It was incredible!

The New Year's Eve celebration was outstanding! There was a multi-course meal, with oysters, foie gras, and many other delicious dishes. We started eating at 8:00 pm, and didn't stop until the champagne flowed at midnight. It was so, so, so cool!!!

Everyone in the family was so incredible hospitable and kind to us. We spoke not a lick of French, and they went out of their way to make us feel welcome. It truly was the best part of the trip.

I think we were planning to leave on the 3rd, but because of the holiday and because we had not booked a return train ticket to Paris, we had to leave on the 2nd. It was our fault for not booking a ticket, but we were used to traveling in 1996 on trains where you could always ride on trains as standing-passengers. I guess times had changed. So we stayed overnight at a hotel in Grenoble, then went back to Paris to catch the Eurostar to London.

Somewhere in Paris, Renae got sick (actually, hadn't been 100% well in the Alps) and probably got a bit of food poisoning from a weird fish pizza that she ordered at a cafe. She hadn't slept the night before we were supposed to catch the first train out in the morning, so we were bracing for a crummy ride from Paris to London.

We had bought our Eurostar tickets online a few months ahead of time. When I ordered the tickets, I bought coach seats ($65 each, I think) for the return from London to Paris. But the Paris to London trip, all the coach seats were sold out. All the First Class tickets were around $500 or more, which was way more than I wanted to pay. After poking around on their website, I had found some middle class ticket that was something like "Business Economy" or something similar. From all I could tell, it was going to be a coach seat for $30 extra. Having no other options, though, we bought them.

When we finally got to the train platform and were directed to our seats, it turned out we were in First Class. In fact, the Eurostar only has First Class and coach. An in our car, there was only a family of four sharing the entire car with us. The seats were comfortable; there was a real table for us to use; and the breakfast was simple, but refreshing. We got toast with jam, which was the perfect meal for Renae's stomach.

London was great, but knowing that we'd have to cram a lot into a little bit of time, we chose to do only highlights. We spent a lot of time running around to some of the major sites. We paid for an all-city bus tour that allowed us to hop onto and off of any bus run by a popular bus tour company. We saw the Mousetrap. We shopped at Herrod's. We wandered through one of the residences of one of the Royals. We did not hang around for the changing of the guard.

After a few days in London, it was the Eurostar back to Paris. Coach was like riding in a plane on Southwest Airlines. It wasn't too cramped, but we weren't exactly comfortable. And no one brought us toast.

We had another night in Paris, then flew home.

Somewhere in this post, I should have pointed out that right about the time the plane took off from Chicago to Paris, I looked at Renae and realized that having been married for five and half years, it was the first actual vacation travel we had taken that did not involve a physics conference in any way.

One in a series of past travel exploits.

			July 15 to 19 New York City

As part of the Metafilter postcard exchange, I decided to send out a bunch of old postcards that I have collected from past travels, but never got the chance to send out.

I wanted to do something extra as a part of the exchange, so I thought I'd post some photos from my trips and include the links on the postcards.

This trip to New York City was in the Summer of 2008. This was the last year for old Yankee Stadium and for Shea Stadium. Sometime during the early Spring or late Winter of that year it was announced that Billy Joel would play a concert at Shea. The concert was billed as "The Last Play at Shea". I'm a huge Billy Joel fan, and had seen him in concert several times before 2008. But, my wife had never seen him in concert, so I asked if she wanted to go. She said she would only go if my brother would go with us. We called him and he said he was totally in. That Saturday, we called for tickets and I was able to get through before they were all sold out.

When we got to NYC we were supposed to meet my brother somewhere in midtown. It turned out that the spot we were supposed to meet at took us right to the Major League Baseball All-Star parade. The photo above is of Ryan Dempster, who was in the game that year. The All-Star game was playing that year at Yankee Stadium.

We did lots of things on that trip, including walking from Central Park to Battery Park. We took pictures of our panda in various spots, including on the Staten Island ferry and in the terminal.

One of the places we wanted to go was to a place called Peanut Butter and Co. They sell unique peanut butter, which my wife had given to me one year for our anniversary. But they also have a restaurant that you can go to and get different gourmet peanut butter sandwiches. At the restaurant, I picked up some postcards, and these are some that I am sending out to the Mefites.

(The link below the photo will take you to a small gallery of photos from this trip.)

Since my last update on the 2-for-1 project in my room I have made some more progress. I've been able to clear off the table that does not have the computer on it. It was nice to be able to do a little grading on the table. I set up my roll of butcher paper on the top of the table and have been using that to take notes on as I'm working at the table.

Here's the latest stuff to leave the room:

• A handful of tools went to the garage

• 2 collector mugs (still in their boxes) went to the basement and will probably go out of the house this summer.
  

• 2 boxes of random projects and parts went to the basement where I'm putting all my current and future projects until I have time to work on them.

• A craft kit that I haven't had a chance to try out yet went to the basement.

• 2 stacks of papers/magazines/journals were properly filed, a lot of which went out with the weekly trash.

• My shop light for that I use for photography is going to live in the garage even though all my other photography gear lives in my room.

• 3 comic books that I discovered I had duplicates of were sent to a friend.

• Another paperbackswap book (a biography of William Randolph Hearst) was mailed out a week ago.
  

Also, an update to a few of the other things that I posted about previously: my firewire adapter that I put up for sale on ebay was sold but the data cable for an old phone did not sell on craigslist. I'll try relisting it either on ebay or craigslist again and if it doesn't sell, it will go to Goodwill.

Things that have come into the room:

• Stack of Christmas presents including a farkel game, a small poster, a toy robot and a CD. These have mostly been put away.
  
• A book I bought at a used bookstore.
• A power strip
• An Ikea tin for storing little things that tend to collect on the desk in the room.

Total items out for the year:

38

Total items in for the year:

13

Apple didn't like my homage to Nate Dogg

This is a screenshot of the podcast customer review page in the iTunes Store for one of the podcasts I listen to regularly. If you go read the reviews in iTunes right now, you won't see my review. It was removed, probably by Apple, most likely because of the critical comment I made about how someone at Apple did not like my full review of the podcast that I had tried to post before the one in the screenshot was posted.

When you write a podcast review on iTunes, you are presented with five "Tips for writing a great review":

• Keep them short and to the point. Average iTunes customer reviews are about 200 words.

  Mine clocks in at 238 words. Granted, it is formatted a little differently and looks longer, but it's no significantly longer than what Apple calls average.
  

• Praise podcasts on their own terms, not at the expense of other podcasts or the audience of other podcasts or genres.

  My review is nothing but praise, and says nothing about other podcasts or audiences of other podcasts.
  

• Take the time to copy edit your work so that you avoid embarrassing typos or grammatical errors.

  Good advice. Done.
  

• Do not use profanity or overtly sexual language.

  No problem here!
  

• Do not use language that can be construed as hateful, especially in regards to lifestyle, religion, or race.

  Nothing in my review has anything to do with religion or race, so that's a non-issue. With respect to lifestyle, I suppose you could make a case about the numerous references to drunks, but if you know anything about the podcast I'm reviewing, you know that the topic of alcohol and drunks comes up frequently in the podcast itself. In fact, it is often in the titles and descriptions of the podcasts as posted to iTunes. And, my review is not "hateful" with regard to any lifestyle, so I don't really see it as going against this tip, either.
  
  At the very bottom after you write your review (not to exceed 6000 characters, mine clocks in at 1200 characters) there is one more line:
  
  

  If a review is deemed inappropriate, it will not be posted to the iTunes Store.

  
  
  I did some searching online to see if there were other people who had their reviews rejected from the iTunes Store. The only relevant information I could find came from a FAQ for Podcast Makers on Apple's site:
  
  

  Can I have a review removed?

  iTunes does not remove reviews for editorial purposes. Reviews with profanity, hate speech, explicit/pornographic content, or commentary that is completely off topic are prohibited. To request removal of a review, click on Report a Concern for that review.

  Again, if you know anything about the podcast I was reviewing, you would know that every line in my review was completely ON topic for their show.
  
  My guess is that Apple doesn't want their Customer Reviews to become like the ones you see on Amazon. (e.g. The Story about Ping, Tuscan Whole Milk) Which is a shame. Because if fans of podcasts (or any content on iTunes) can't have fun to promote their favorite artists, everyone sort of loses an opportunity to discover something new.
  
  Anyway, the full podcast review that I wanted to post is here. My apologies to Warren G and Nate Dogg...
  
  [Andy:]
  Podcasters
  we podcast any speaking of his mind
  and we download em
  But you can't be any geek off the street,
  gotta be out of your parents basement, if you know what I mean, earn your keep!
  PODCASTERRS!!! MOUNT UP!
  
  [Broham:]
  It was a clear black night, a clear white moon
  Nick D was in the seat, trying to consume
  some talk in the eve, chattin' with a drunk
  I'm rollin in my ride, beers are in the trunk
  
  [Andy:]
  Just hit the Northside on the Kennedy
  on a mission tryin' to find Mr. Nicky D.
  Got a 'dog with fries and I need to chew
  all you drunks know what's up with 312
  
  So I hooks a left on Addison and Clark
  The Cubs are out of town so I said "Let's park."
  I jumped out the ride, and started to cough
  Nick went on a rant and my pants fell off!
  
  [Nick D:]
  Since Andy's tweetin' me I'ma check my phone
  Laughin' so hard that I start to moan
  Won'tcha load up your ipod with The Nick D Show
  You can do it right now or at your leisure, bro!
  
  [Andy:]
  He's speaking
  about a previous era
  Nick fans,
  Brew and view,
  I dare ya.
  Drunks
  Are in the News
  
  [Nick D:]
  Wisconsin's where they're from and the "winner"'s gonna lose
  
  
  Movies
  Music
  We brings
  Culture
  D-Funk
  where Chicago is home
  and home is Chicago

In with the new

Now that I've started taking things out of my room, I can start bringing things into my room. One of the projects I've been working on in the garage (for way too long) was the bookshelf in the photo here. This was the first major woodworking project I finished here at our place in Montgomery. Before we left for our Christmas road trip, I had applied a coat of polyurethane and had intended to do a light sanding and apply another coat. But, the temperature in the garage has dropped enough that I don't really think I should work on finishing any more for the winter. So, I brought it inside. It should help with organizing some of the stuff that stays in the room.

I took the cash that I got for the monitor I sold and spent it on a new USB headset for making skype calls, podcasts, and videos for class. I removed a microphone I got at American Science and Surplus to the basement.

Also coming into the room are 4 books I received for Christmas. Even though I have room in my 2-for-1 ratio to bring in the books without anything else going out, I thought it would be good to try to get rid of some books. Tomorrow I am mailing out a book that was requested of me via Paperback Swap. We really like this site for getting books that we'd like to read without paying cover price. You send a book you don't want to someone who does want the book, and in exchange you get a credit that can be spent to request a book you do want to read from another member. In essence, you end up getting books you want for the cost of mailing your books (about $2.25) to other people. In addition to the book I'm sending out, I found 7 physics journals scattered around the room that are heading to the basement.

Other things removed today: a Rubbermaid tub of physics stuff that belongs in the basement, an old computer plus keyboard and KVM switch, a box of photos, some broken glass from a photo frame
empty cups that I use to keep spare change in, 2 kick-disk hovercrafts (physics demo) and my stereo unit from college. I figured since I am sort of using fuzzy accounting to count the physics journals as books, I will make up for it by counting the computer, keyboard, and switch as one thing. So in total for the year I have:

Total items out:

25

Total items in:

6

Out with the old...

I've made a bit of progress on the great 2-for-1 exchange program in my room. In the photo are some of the things that have left my room, most permanently. I'm keeping track of the stuff going out and coming in so that I can adhere to my rule. I've been getting rid of the stuff in different ways:

Put away

I decided to put my backpack that normally lives in my room in the hallway closet. The backpack only really gets used for biking, and I don't see any bike rides in the next few months.

My old laptop is essentially dead, but I need to remove the hard drive before I can get rid of it. So it is going to the basement for now.

I'm also putting away (in the basement) some boxes that have been taking up space in the room. One is empty (it had our digital photo frame in it) and the other is half-full of some of my stuff that I moved from Bloomington.

Throw away

This one sort of breaks my heart, a little. I threw away a tiny USB laptop mouse. I think R. got it for me as a gift and I really liked it. But, it eventually wore out and stopped working reliably. I kept it to try to repair it or figure out something to do with it. I wasn't able to repair it and never came up with a great idea for it. I don't like the thought of this ending up in a land fill, but I wouldn't feel right with someone else getting frustrated by it like I did.

Give away

One of the things to leave my room is a first generation DVD-recorder. It works, but it does not always read the DVDs properly when you first put one in the machine. I took it apart and put it back together hoping I had cleaned it up enough to make it work better but no go. I'm going to list this on Freecycle and hope someone can make use of it so that it doesn't end up in the trash. Otherwise, I'll have to find an electronics recycling event to take it to.

Sell away

The other three things that are leaving the room are things that I'm trying to sell. I found out that eBay has a promotion where you can list 5 things every 30 days with no insertion fee. So, I put up for auction a USB/Firewire adapter that I had tried using for a project. We ended up using a different adapter for the project, so I no longer need this one.

I listed on craigslist a monitor that I had purchased at a thrift store. I had fixed up the monitor and used it for about a year before getting my new computer last month and no longer needing the monitor. The monitor sold almost immediately after listing it.

The other item I listed on craigslist is a data cable for my old cellular phone. I used it a few times, but I have a new phone and no longer need it. It's still for sale, make me an offer! ;)

Total items out

8

Total items in

0

The disaster that is my man cave.

These out of focus photos reflect the horror that is my room. I have a plan to get the room under control. It is the 2-for-1 plan. For every one item that comes into the room as a new (or new-to-me) item, two items must be removed from the room. This plan will continue until no more items can be removed, or the room is just how I like it.

Some of the ground rules I've set for myself include:

• A box of stuff counts as a single item. I can't count all the items in the box.
  
  
• I can't count things like dishes or clothes that end up here. Those things have a place; they need to get there.
  
  
• I should try to get the things that leave the room out of the house, but if I don't want to get rid of them, they have to go in the basement or the garage.
  
  
• If something belongs in the room and I take it out, I can bring it back in without getting rid of two other things. For example, my laptop bag that I take to school everyday gets to come back into the room everyday.
  
  

I'd like to figure out a cool way to track all the stuff that is going out (and coming in) but for now, I guess I'll just list what I've done here in the blog.

R. wins 292-270

R. wins 292-270
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

At Molly's Cupcakes on a Friday afternoon. Renae had the bingo: gropers

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R. wins 301-300

R. wins 301-300
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

R. wins again. Didn't hurt that she started the game with a bingo: braised. One point at the end was the difference.

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R. wins 358-304

R. wins 358-304
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

One bingo: painter, but didn't help me in the end.

It's not Scrabble it's Scrabapple! (R. wins)

It's not Scrabble it's Scrabapple! (R. wins)
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

Scrabble Apple at Graham's 318.

Venn diagram of my day

The Girlfriends Got Dumped

Yesterday, I was syncing my ipod with freshly downloaded podcasts when I noticed that one of the WGN Kathy and Judy Show uncut podcasts was titled "The Final Kathy and Judy Show". BWAH?! K & J had been on WGN radio (AM 720) for 20 years, and both R. and I enjoyed listening to them. I never completely agreed with their opinions, and sometimes they were overly catty, but in general they were really good radio. They always had interesting discussion topics, even if sometimes the directions they took the topics were kinda loopy. You could tell that they let their show evolve naturally, never forcing anything.

I have been reading some of the blog posts and articles covering the cancellation. What was more interesting than the articles are the comments about the programming on WGN. I understand that not everyone who listens to a talk radio station will like every on-air personality on the radio station. Example: we don't go out of our way to listen to Steve Cochran. What surprised me was how vocal people can be about not liking whichever host they happen to not like.

I'm surprised at the number of comments by people who don't like John Williams. I'm surprised there aren't more comments by people disliking Steve Cochran. Can you tell which ways my opinion tends to sway? What I learned is how varied opinions can be on the various shows.

And this change to the morning line-up is just the latest in recent changes to the programming, thanks to "Pig Virus" programming director Kevin Metheny.

So, I don't want to get all mad and huffy and threaten to never listen to WGN again, but I'm seriously going to look for other radio entertainment while the Cubs are not on the radio.

A. wins 303-288

A. wins 303-288
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

No bingos tonight, but we were at new (to us) coffeeshop in Batavia.

When I actually started to write this entry, it was Sunday, but now the clock has already flipped to half past midnight, and I'm not even remotely done with anything I wanted to accomplish before finishing a write-up of today's events.

Our main activity today was a bike ride to Graham's 318 in Geneva. This place is rapidly becoming our favorite coffee shop. We rode our bikes there and back, 28.4 miles in a little over an hour and forty minutes. JB Weld, but never made it to the hardware store to get any. The adhesive worked well enough to keep the magnet on for this ride. Renae's bike computer and mine matched up until the last tenth of a mile of the ride, which was pretty impressive.

Here's a photo of the magnet, and you can get a sense of how far away the magnet was from the pickup. No wonder it never gave very accurate readings.

I found the way to the Fox River Trail that starts in Aurora and goes runs along the the river. My goal was to bike to a coffee shop where I could work on my presentation for DePaul. I found that I reached Geneva in just over an hour, and it probably would have been quicker had I been more familiar with the trail. I'm not saying that the trail is poorly marked, but there were places where I pedaled into a town and couldn't see exactly where to pick up the trail again.

The other thing I learned is that I tend to over-estimate the lengths of the trips that I am planning. I had assumed a ride to Geneva would be closer to 20 miles one way, but it was only 14 miles. Good to know; next time I can go further north and then come back to Graham 318 if I don't find a good cup of joe.

The physics of revolving doors

I think that it is not at all uncommon for a child to be utterly facinated by the wonder which is the revolving door. I remember, as a young boy, getting to go somewhere with my mom or dad or the whole family, and if the building had a revolving door I would behold that door as if it were a wonder of the modem mechanical world. I don't really know why I was so intrigued by these portals to the inside. Certainly, it was not that we were going anyplace particularly upscale or posh. In my mind, I want to believe that we were going somewhere in downtown Des Moines, like the fancy hotel or department store. Likely, we were going to the mall.

I remember the Mauker Student Union on the UNI campus had revolving doors. This was one of the most heavily trafficed buildings on campus. The doors were there to attempt to keep the energy costs associated with heating and cooling the building down. Flanking the revolving doors were standard doors for handicapped accessability. By the time I started college my mom had mostly been using a wheelchair for mobility. I remember many times passing those doors and being reminded of the trade-offs that must often be considered in pursuit of ecological design.

These days, when my commute is such that I can take the Metra between Evanston an Chicago, I will typically have to pass through two revolving doors. One door is at the entrance to the Ogilvie Transportation Center; the other is between the main hall and the platform. A line of people start going through one of these doors, will each exert a torque about the axle. Once the inertia of the initially stationary door is overcome, the rotation of the door will quickly pick up speed such that I have occaisionally seen a nervous commuter elect to skip her turn to go through the door so that the friction of the door on its bearings can slow down the door enough to safely jump in a slot without clipping ones own ankle.

I've seen purses, umbrellas, boxes and bags become temporarily caught in the door. I can't begin to count the number of people dragging their rolly-bags behind them and realizing too late that the bag is not going to make it through with them.

To be fair, most of the daily commuters are seasoned pros at navigating the spinning gauntlet of the OTC doors. It's rare that I witness a revolver incident in the morning, when the vast majority passing through are regulars. Contrast that with the afternoon ride that I share with surbanites coming to the city for dinner or Chicagoans who live close enough to a Metra station to make it a convenient mode of transportation. Last Friday I was behind 6 teens who thought it was a riot that they went through the door at the platform two-to-a-wedge. In general there is a wider range of people riding in the afternoon. In general then, there are more people riding who are unfamiliar with the general ebb and flow of the train station.

Today, I was getting off the train and was the last off the car, although I had been in the front car of the train. The platform has 2 revolving doors to choose from that exit to the main hall. One of the doors had 6-7 people queing up to pass through it. The other door had only 2 people approaching it, so I headed for that door. The person in front of me was moving slow enough that by the time I could start going through the door, I could have gone through the other door just as quickly. But, I was already committed, so I followed right behind her.

As there was now two people pushing on the door the speed of the rotation picked up, as I explained above. Normally, this is not a problem for people passing through these doors. Except, the woman in front of me was looking at her phone while the door was turning. As soon as she detrmined she was "through" the door she came to a full stop. Of course, I was still coming through the door, and the turning door clipped her heel.

This woman, about 10 years younger and 20 pounds heavier started barking at me. I made a quick determination that she had no business slowing down and stopping in front of a revolving door while people are getting off the train behind her. I had a brief notion to just acknowledge her and let her blow off some steam at me. But, even though I heard the sounds of her rebuke coming at me, I had no idea what she was saying. I was wearing my in-ear headphones which pleasantly block annoying sounds.

Typically I think of annoying sounds as the chug of the locomotive's diesel engine or the rumble of the CTA cars on the elevated tracks. Now I can add another sound of those pleasantly blocked by these headphones. :)

Test post.

This is a test of posting from my ipod.

Job search woes n+1

Today I found out that my one-year contract for teaching at the university has no chance of renewal for next year. The department had a record number of faculty on sabbatical this year, and next year no one was granted leave. I was getting to the point where I was about to ask for any update on next year, when my supervisor wandered into my advisor to deliver the news.

As much as I am disappointed to not be back next year, I am not really upset. First, I knew from the outset it would likely only be one year. Second, the department informed me of their intentions as soon as they had figured out next year's schedule. That doesn't really excuse the lateness of their decision, but they are on a quarter system, so they feel they can be slower than other places.

So, I have had 2 phone interviews this year that went nowhere. And, I have one application that I never heard back from one way or the other. So, I sent that place an email to inquire on the status of that search. Then, I sent an email to a contact I had made at a nearby university several years ago at a conference. I asked if he had any research opportunities available to apply for or knew of anyone in the area who does. Within 20 minutes, he replied asking for a resume! I'm certainly not counting any chickens on that front, but it was temporarily exciting.

Keeping my fingers crossed!

A wins 215-214-82

A wins 215-214-82
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

Scrabble with the gals who were sock knitting.

A wins 324-256

A wins 324-256
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

At Prisco's tonight...one bingo: opaques.

Link dump

I've got a bunch of links that I've been collecting in my browser that have nowhere else to go, so I'm going to plop them here. In no particular order:

• What Carriers Aren't Eager to Tell You About Texting

  This is a brilliant NY Times article that explains very clearly why text messaging in the US is completely overpriced. To me, it is no wonder that cell phone users in this country were/are slow to adopt texting at rates that far exceed any rational pricing structure. (Bonus part of this article was the explanation of control channels.)
  

• Why I drive a 13-year-old car

  Read this article, then read the second comment after the post. The comment explains why although the spirit of the article is great, the math the author uses is slightly off.
  

• The case for Candyland

  
  

• The case against Candyland

R. wins 349-329

R. wins 349-329
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

This was a back and forth game, but my one bingo was not enough to win.

Arrival times are meaningless

There's a tough lesson to be learned in commuting from a far west suburb to a north suburb. The idea that you can predict (or control!) when you'll arrive at your end point is pointless. You'll either arrive before you had hoped to get there or after you would have liked to have been there.

I've been taking the train every work day for roughly five and a half months. My daily commute presents me with essentially two options: I either take the commuter train from Aurora to Union Station, walk to the CTA station and take the Purple Line to Evanston, or I take the commuter train from Aurora to Union Station, walk to Oglivie Transportation Center and take a commuter train to Evanston. The first route takes longer on the train, but it's a shorter walk at the end. The second route is faster, and the longer walk doesn't bother me, but the trains are much less frequent and I end up more often than not taking the first route. Either way, I have to take the train from Aurora to Union Station. When I get to Union Station, I make a choice as to which way to go to get up to Evanston the soonest.

When I realize last Fall that I had two options, but that my second option was limited, I made a note of all the possible combinations of trains that would work to cut as much time off of the on-average two hour one-way trip. I realized that the best way to get on the second commuter train would be to catch the 6:47 a.m. train. In order to catch that train, I would have to leave the house at 6:27, to guarantee that I could drive to the station, park, pay for parking and walk all the way around the train in order board before the doors close at 6:47 a.m. Not being a morning person, and not having a morning class to teach last term, I often slept late and caught either a 7:07 a.m. or a 7:22 a.m. train. This term, I teach a 10:00 a.m. class every MWF, and in order to give myself an hour of buffer (in case the trains are delayed) I need to get on the 6:47 a.m. or the 7:07 a.m. train. And, if I have to get one of those trains, why not make it the early one, so I can cut the commute down as much as possible?

So, for the first eight work days of the year, I have tried to leave the house at 6:27. It's easy to time it, because the traffic reports on WGN are give "on the sevens" in the morning. More often than not, I end up leaving closer to 6:30. I know that 6:33 is the absolute latest I can leave and still have ANY hope of catching my early train.

But once I leave the house, I have little control over how quickly I get to campus. This morning, I actually left at 6:27, as the traffic was being read. (I could have left 2 minutes earlier, but I left my wallet upstairs and had to run back up to get it.) It had snowed overnight, which you might think would slow me down. True, I drive at a slower speed, and take turns more cautiously, but the streets I take are on a bus route, which is kept fairly well cleared of snow, so I'm not slowed too much by the snow.

What I couldn't anticipate this morning was that at 6:31, several garbage trucks would be turning onto the street I take make the weekly collection. I have driven on that street every Wednesday for 5 months at nearly the same time and have NEVER before seen a garbage truck making rounds. Usually, the trash is collected after I pass through. There was a car ahead of me which stopped between the garbage truck and the curb, in order to pick someone up. I'm sitting in my car, waiting for this mini traffic jam to clear, and there is nothing I can do.

The rest of the drive is uneventful, and I get to the parking lot with 5 minutes to spare. Because parking is a premium in Aurora and the waiting list for monthly parking passes is over a year long (last I knew) I park in the daily lot, which means I have to pay for parking at the machine off to the side of the lot before getting on the train. After depositing my $1.50, I start walking to the train. There is a tunnel that I walk through to go underneath the freight tracks running next to the Aurora station.

When I emerge from the end of the tunnel, the train is sitting right in front of me. It takes no more than 30 seconds at most to walk from the parking pay station to the side of the train. I could walk right up onto a brand new platform and touch the side of the train, if I chose. I could touch it, but I cannot board it. For some inexplicable reason the conductors will only open the doors on the opposite side of the train. Everyone who parks in the East lot is forced to walk around at least half of the train. Everyday, I trudge past five or six train doors that remain closed. I have yet to work up the courage to ask a conductor why they cannot open any of those doors, but I feel that day is coming.

Today, because it was so bitterly cold this morning, I decided to sort of walk/run around the train. Good thing I did, because as I went around the front car, the bell started to ding, meaning it was about to take off. I made it in ahead of three other people who were also running to make it.

I made the 6:47 train, which means I should have been getting off the train at 7:40, with enough time to get to Oglivie Transportation Center for the 7:52 train to Evanston. Except that the train did not get to Union Station until 7:51, meaning I might as well go straight to the Purple Line.

I walked down to the Quincy Station and swiped my Chicago Plus card. There were a lot of people standing in the station trying to stay warm. I took that as a good sign that there might be a Purple Line train coming soon. Ten minutes later, when I overheard someone who had been there longer than I had asking about whether the Purple Line was running at all (!) I understood that the train had been seriously delayed. It did pull in soon enough, but by the time I got to Evanston, my total train time had been going on 2 hours, 20 minutes. Certainly, I did not save any time on my commute this morning by catching the 6:47 train.

So that is the lesson that I've been slowly learning. However, none of that compares to the craziness of what I read on one of the local paper's website:Secret Service Agent caused Metra Scare

A Metra train headed to Chicago from Aurora was stopped in Lisle on Wednesday morning and everyone on board was searched by police after an armed Secret Service agent caused a scare by asking a ticket agent about security on board.

If you read the article, you'll see that not only was everyone searched, but some cars were emptied and people were forced to stand out in the cold and snow while the situation was being cleared up. The article does not say how late the train ended up being, but it was at least an hour past due when it started moving again, and was probable closer to two hours behind when it got to Union Station. Reading between the lines, it seems that this Secret Service agent, who may have never ridden the train before, was asking the at the ticket window about security procedures for the train regarding his gun. He did not identify himself as Secret Service (Why not? Is it a secret?) which was a huge mistake. The ticket agent got scared and called police, thinking that a random person had a gun on the train. I'm not going to say that the ticket agent overreacted, per se... But can you even IMAGINE what it would have been like to be on that train? And that train is an express that I rode several times last fall. It's just another example of how train riders lose most of their control over arrival time once they leave their house.

I wrote all of this after getting on the train tonight, for a train that was supposed to leave at 4:28 pm, but didn't leave until 5:20 p.m. because an Amtrak train derailed outside of Union Station and blocked all but one or two commuter tracks.

Ahhh....we're here.....

New year - new(ish) commute

Today was my first day back to campus for the new year. I got downtown and decided to take the Purple Line up to Evanston. I had about 10 minutes before I needed to be up on the platform, and since today is Monday, that means free McLatte at Mickey-D's. So I walked in and asked for the small latte, and they asked me for $2.22. To me, that seemed like a lot for a free latte. So, I said that I wanted the free latte, and I got a dirty look and a free latte.

Since that transaction took a little longer than I had hoped, I ran up the steps at Quincy and saw a sign on the lower landing saying that the Purple Line was going to be boarding on the inner loop side from now on. It was news to me that the whole time I've been riding the Purple Line it was actually NOT on its "normal" track. Apparently, the CTA construction projects forced the Purple Line to the outer loop tracks. The net effect is that I save about 10 minutes in the morning if I have to take the CTA to Evanston. If I have to take the CTA to the loop in the afternoon, however, I might consider changing to a Brown Line so that I don't have to go all the way around the loop to get off at Quincy. But, most likely this quarter I'm going to be taking Metra back in the afternoon to Oglivie.

Tonight I took a late train out of Evanston. I was surprised that the waiting room at the Davis Street station was open so that I didn't have to wait in the cold. (Another new twist to the commute!) The waiting room being open may have something to do with the coffee shop in the station actually being open in the evening. It didn't look like they were getting too much business at that time, but it did look like they had a carpenter in there who seemed to be taking measurements for making some updates to the shop.

I got a little confused at Union Station and hopped on local train to Aurora. I am about 80% sure that it was still my fastest option for getting home, but I didn't reach our garage until right before 8:00 tonight.

Now, bed!

A. wins 421-273

A. wins 421-273
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

First game of the new year! I had two bingos and R. had one.

A wins 387-243

A wins 387-243
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

First game of 2009 was with Robby Mac! We played at home. No bingos in this game.

A. wins 318-288

A. wins 318-288
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

Low scoring game today at Swim Cafe. No bingos.

R. wins 398-321

R. wins 398-321
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

R. killed me tonight, although we both had bingos: inquires and sanders.

Scrabble night in DeKalb.

Scrabble night in DeKalb.
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

No Scrabble last weekend over Thanksgiving. This was our board from a fun night in DeKalb with friends the week before that.

Day of Firsts

This is my first major post about commuting since I started working at Northwestern and taking the train for two hours each way every day. Today was a day of a lot of firsts for me. It was the first day of the month (obviously), and today was the first day of reading week at Northwestern. It was also the first day after the first major snowfall of the year. And this morning was the first time I slipped and fell on the Adams Street bridge by Union Station.

Chicago only got maybe 2 inches (if that) of snow that actually stuck to the ground; apparently no one bothered to clear the walkway on the bridge before the morning commuters tramped the snow down into a solid pack of ice. I was quick off the train this morning, and when I got out of Union Station the bridge was mostly clear of people. The snow had been packed down, but not evenly. It was a bumpy layer of compacted snow and my dress shoes were not equipped to handle the lack of friction. Have you seen a cartoon where the character's legs slip out from underneath the body? That was me on the bridge. I landed flat on my derriere. I was able to get up quickly, fortunately nothing was broken (on my body or in my bag), and nothing had fell out of my coat or bag. As I limped slowly down the street an older man with a cane gave me some friendly advice on icing down my back. I kept a straight face, even though I was not really in the mood for conversation at that point.

I got to the Quincy station and made sure the train pulling in was not a Purple Line train. I had just received my Chicago Plus transit card, but didn't know if it was active (long story for some other time, maybe) so I tried using the kiosk to check the balance of the card. The display said that I could not add money to this type of card. I took that to mean that the card was not active, so I hurriedly added $20 to my CTA transit card. It was at that point when I realized, I should have just tried my Plus card on the turnstiles. I did, and it worked. So today was the first day of my unlimited ride card (another first!), but now I have a $20 CTA card in my wallet that I don't really need.

The rest of the morning commute was relatively uneventful. The coffee at Linz and Vail tasted extra delicious after all my earlier excitement. The evening commute was also relatively boring. The packed snow-ice had been cleared off the bridge sometime during the day. The only interesting thing that happened tonight was that after I got back to Aurora and was walking from the train to the car, I saw a mouse (first rodent spotting?) in the parking lot of the transportation center. It was just hanging out in the ice and slush of the parking lot. It wasn't moving very fast, but it did move away when I tried to bend over to get a better look.

If this is what the winter commute is going to be like, I might have to look into gearing up with some crampons. Or at least some galoshes with traction.

A. wins 358-272

A. wins 358-272
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

R. had all the high point tiles and all the S tiles, but could not capitalize on them. I had one bingo: caution.

A wins 420-331

A wins 420-331
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

R. started the game strong with a bingo: ranterS. I had 2 bingo: sleeveS and sputnik.

A wins 332-257

A wins 332-257
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

This was our first timed game in a long while. No bingos.