Snack time!
Pineapple chili dog at the Dole plantation.
November 30, 2006
November 28, 2006
November 27, 2006
November 26, 2006
November 14, 2006
Another Tuesday blows by, and it seems like I barely had time to breathe. All three classes met today and I wasn't really prepared for the lab this morning. I arrived on campus 10 minutes before lab was supposed to begin, so I parked over by the observatory so I could let the students in while I ran over to the science building to make copies of the morning's labs.
After lab, I was working on MP and was able to knock that out before lunch. At the lunch table we talked about some surveys that students conduct on campus. 'Twas a lively conversation! I ran back to the science building in the rain and nearly forget to copy the labs for the afternoon section!
MP and FA went relatively smoothly. After my office hour (no one stopped in, surprise, surprise...) I went home for an hour, kicked back and had a bite to eat. I changed clothes and hopped into the car ready to head to the gym when I remembered the internship fair that I wanted to check out. I dropped by that and was able to meet representatives from Senator Durbin and Senator Obama's offices. They seemed interested in the possibility of the Senator attending a HFH event next term!
After lab, I was working on MP and was able to knock that out before lunch. At the lunch table we talked about some surveys that students conduct on campus. 'Twas a lively conversation! I ran back to the science building in the rain and nearly forget to copy the labs for the afternoon section!
MP and FA went relatively smoothly. After my office hour (no one stopped in, surprise, surprise...) I went home for an hour, kicked back and had a bite to eat. I changed clothes and hopped into the car ready to head to the gym when I remembered the internship fair that I wanted to check out. I dropped by that and was able to meet representatives from Senator Durbin and Senator Obama's offices. They seemed interested in the possibility of the Senator attending a HFH event next term!
November 07, 2006
I voted in Bloomington for the first time since moving in '05. I had to google the location of the polling place. Bloomington handles its elections seperate from the rest of McClean county, so I had to find the Board of Election Commissioners page first. Then, I searched by my address and found the polling station. It was on the way home from school, so that was convenient, although the parking lot closest to the entrance was rather small. But, there was a free space and the voting was quick. Maybe it's not surprising that there were a lot of local seats uncontested by Democrats in this area.
One of the Cubs blogs that I read, and often disagree with, had a list of great ideas for election reform: an election holiday, 24 hour voting, open polling, electronic check-in, and paper ballots. Definitely worth a read. Any candidate that would support this would have my vote.
One of the Cubs blogs that I read, and often disagree with, had a list of great ideas for election reform: an election holiday, 24 hour voting, open polling, electronic check-in, and paper ballots. Definitely worth a read. Any candidate that would support this would have my vote.
November 01, 2006
The physics club has been talking about having a movie night soon. I mentioned this to one of my colleagues and he suggested that they show a physics-appropriate movie. In the past, the students have just picked a random DVD off of a shelf. But, if they show something that in someway relates to physics, perhaps they could get some of the first-year students to come and be engaged with the physics club.
So, I went to Google to find movies that related to physics or science. I found a few pages of reviews of movies with bad physics in them (see the popular Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics page), but few pages reviewing good physics movies.
There were a few good articles that I found which listed movies where physics (and science, in general) were well represented in films. A list of 10 good sci-fi movies from Guardian Unlimited and and article titled "Hollywood physics" were the two of the best compilations I could find. So, I'm going to try to compile my own list of good physics movies.
So, I went to Google to find movies that related to physics or science. I found a few pages of reviews of movies with bad physics in them (see the popular Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics page), but few pages reviewing good physics movies.
There were a few good articles that I found which listed movies where physics (and science, in general) were well represented in films. A list of 10 good sci-fi movies from Guardian Unlimited and and article titled "Hollywood physics" were the two of the best compilations I could find. So, I'm going to try to compile my own list of good physics movies.
October 20, 2006
October 13, 2006
October 07, 2006
September 12, 2006
Tuesday and Thursdays are my busy days this term. Lab in the morning for 2 hours, then an hour and a half before lunch. Lunch for 45 minutes or so, then two classes in the afternoon with a half hour break in between each of them. Tiring. Yesterday, I was able to blow through the modern physics class and cover a lot of material. Today, it seemed like I was going at a good clip, but didn't quite get as much covered as I thought I would. Astronomy was a lot of talking so I could get through enough material to make up some ground.
Yesterday was the first all-faculty meeting of the year. Last year, I only went to one such meeting; and the one I attended was in the Spring. (Last Fall I taught right up to the time of the meetings, and often had students after class.) I find it interesting that the others in this department do not walk over to the meeting together. Not that it's a big deal...I mean, we're all adults that can get to meetings on our own, right? It's just telling of the general atmosphere.
While the meeting was getting started, I had a chance to fill in my calendar. I'm almost up to November with my weekly schedule. Surely by then I'll have it memorized. The interesting parts of the meeting were hearing the president and provost. I suppose part of their job description is to paint rosy pictures for the faculty. It never hurts to hear it, though.
After the meeting, I needed to clear my head. I ran for 20 minutes on the treadmill. Same deal today: 20 minutes on the treadmill. Yesterday, it cleared my head. Today, I felt less energetic after the run. I may need to start going earlier, before I am hungry for supper.
Tomorrow is a good day to get some research done.
Yesterday was the first all-faculty meeting of the year. Last year, I only went to one such meeting; and the one I attended was in the Spring. (Last Fall I taught right up to the time of the meetings, and often had students after class.) I find it interesting that the others in this department do not walk over to the meeting together. Not that it's a big deal...I mean, we're all adults that can get to meetings on our own, right? It's just telling of the general atmosphere.
While the meeting was getting started, I had a chance to fill in my calendar. I'm almost up to November with my weekly schedule. Surely by then I'll have it memorized. The interesting parts of the meeting were hearing the president and provost. I suppose part of their job description is to paint rosy pictures for the faculty. It never hurts to hear it, though.
After the meeting, I needed to clear my head. I ran for 20 minutes on the treadmill. Same deal today: 20 minutes on the treadmill. Yesterday, it cleared my head. Today, I felt less energetic after the run. I may need to start going earlier, before I am hungry for supper.
Tomorrow is a good day to get some research done.
September 10, 2006
Friday I invited CC down to give a talk/demo session for the division's weekly colloquium. It went off perfectly! The lecture hall was packed and everyone had a great time! C brought more than 20 demos, half of which he put out in the atrium. It took about 3 hours to set things up, but it was totally worth it. The best demos were the "magic wand", the optical illusions regarding the shadows, and all the persistance of vision demos. He only had enough time at the end to do a couple color mixing demos, but it was still really cool.
Afterwards, we (R, C and I) all went to the Central Station Cafe in downtown Bloomington. I had the special, which was the beef tenderloin. YUM!! So good. The service was great, too.
I had NO doubt that C would give a great talk. I'm just really glad that the students showed up. I knew they would enjoy it. I'm definitely glad everything worked out in the end.
Afterwards, we (R, C and I) all went to the Central Station Cafe in downtown Bloomington. I had the special, which was the beef tenderloin. YUM!! So good. The service was great, too.
I had NO doubt that C would give a great talk. I'm just really glad that the students showed up. I knew they would enjoy it. I'm definitely glad everything worked out in the end.
September 01, 2006
August 31, 2006
Today I started trying something new. To a few select emails, I replied by top-posting. Top posting goes against every instinct in my fingers when I go to type the message. I don't get the arguments in support of top posting, either. The only argument that seems to be out there is "this is common practice in the business world." I don't get it. I'll keep trying, though.
We're almost through the first week of class now. I'm not as far ahead as I wanted to be, but I'm not as far behind as I feared I'd be.
Last week (before classes began) was interesting to compare to last year. Last year, the week before school started I buried myself in my office and hardly came out during the day. This year, I was still really busy last week, but I got out and walked around campus during the daylight more. I totally missed the first-year students (and their parents!) that arrive on campus 3-4 days before the rest of the students! I must have given directions to a building almost every day last week. I slept through the faculty/staff breakfast, which bummed me out, but I did make it to the faculty conference on Friday.
Today, I was again nearly killed by the treadmill at Shirk. It powered off five minutes into my run and the belt just froze. I told the person running the desk and happened to run into the Wellness director and also told her. Funny how something like that can zap my desire to work out.
We're almost through the first week of class now. I'm not as far ahead as I wanted to be, but I'm not as far behind as I feared I'd be.
Last week (before classes began) was interesting to compare to last year. Last year, the week before school started I buried myself in my office and hardly came out during the day. This year, I was still really busy last week, but I got out and walked around campus during the daylight more. I totally missed the first-year students (and their parents!) that arrive on campus 3-4 days before the rest of the students! I must have given directions to a building almost every day last week. I slept through the faculty/staff breakfast, which bummed me out, but I did make it to the faculty conference on Friday.
Today, I was again nearly killed by the treadmill at Shirk. It powered off five minutes into my run and the belt just froze. I told the person running the desk and happened to run into the Wellness director and also told her. Funny how something like that can zap my desire to work out.
August 22, 2006
August 08, 2006
I worked from home today, and after a frustrating morning on travelocity, I actually acomplished a lot of work.
First, the good news: I've been making steady progress working on the Modern Physics course I'll be teaching in the Fall. Steady, but still slow. I've been hacking away at relativity for what seems like an eternity now. But, the end of that fight is coming; I can feel it.
What held me up this morning was trying to book the flight and hotel for the conference that I'm attending the week after Thanksgiving.This morning I checked my email and saw that there were airfare specials from Bloomington that I could use for the trip. I went to travelocity (travesty) and found that they had a promo for $150 off the package if you book for 5 nights. No problem. I find the flights we want and the hotel R. picked and even chose the seats for this flight. When I went to confirm the reservation, I was greeted with a message that said I had to use a different credit card than the one I was using. I checked the promo page and NO WHERE did it say anything about using a specific card. However, the page linking to the promo codes had a Mastercard logo on it, but also didn't specify that Mastercard had to be used. I called customer service to ask about the promo, and the guy who answered the phone had no idea what I was talking about. Huh. Funny, as it pops up on the homepage about every fourth time it loads! By this time, my session had expired and I had to start over.
When I redid the exact same search, I found that flights from Bloomington were suddenly about $300/person more expensive. So, I quickly abandoned that idea. I searched on orbitz, southwest airlines, delta and united before giving up for the morning. Everything was coming up about $300-600 more expensive than it had on the first search of the morning and every search I had done in the last 3 weeks.
I have my suspicions that the more times you search on travelocity, the higher the average price gets until you are scared enough to pay an elevated price.
The pricing of airfare and vacation packages in general is rediculous much in the same way our cable company's pricing scheme is out to screw the customer (i.e. me).
I cannot call the cable company any more, because my phone number is tied to my account and they will look up my account whenever I call to see what deals are available. Over the weekend R. saw that Our cable bill had jumped by 50% to $120. Instead of calling them on Monday, I walked into their office with my bill in my pocket. When I asked how much digital cable and broadband internet costs per month I was told "it depends. Are you already a subscriber?" WHAT??? How hard is the question, "How much does your service cost?" I grudgingly admitted I was a subscriber and the agent immediately wanted to look up my account! Cripes! I know how much I'm getting charged. I want to know what everyone else is getting charged! Why is this so hard??
When we signed up for cable, about a year ago, I was told that I could get digital cable and broadband internet for $70/month and they had a special promo going on where you would get 9 Showtime channels for free. The $70/month was $5 off the regular price, I was told. Sweet!! Sign me up! Three months ago, our bill went up by $15, and I called to ask why that was and was told that the free Showtime package had expired. Oh, okay. I explained that no one had bothered to mention there was a limitted time on that deal, but no biggie I thought. It was canceled and we were happy. This time, when I went in I was told that our free "premium broadband" trial had expired and the "promo basic cable rate" had expired. Huh?? This was news to me. I never knew that I had "premium broadband" whatever that was. And I was told that our digital cable box rental was a special promo rate that was set to expire "any month now". WHAT THE HECK?!? Why was I not told that all this stuff was only good for a year? Why they can get away with bait and switch tactics by not letting new subscribers know the full extent of the promotion details is beyond me. Surely they were not losing money on me when my bill was "only" $80.
So. Frustrating.
First, the good news: I've been making steady progress working on the Modern Physics course I'll be teaching in the Fall. Steady, but still slow. I've been hacking away at relativity for what seems like an eternity now. But, the end of that fight is coming; I can feel it.
What held me up this morning was trying to book the flight and hotel for the conference that I'm attending the week after Thanksgiving.This morning I checked my email and saw that there were airfare specials from Bloomington that I could use for the trip. I went to travelocity (travesty) and found that they had a promo for $150 off the package if you book for 5 nights. No problem. I find the flights we want and the hotel R. picked and even chose the seats for this flight. When I went to confirm the reservation, I was greeted with a message that said I had to use a different credit card than the one I was using. I checked the promo page and NO WHERE did it say anything about using a specific card. However, the page linking to the promo codes had a Mastercard logo on it, but also didn't specify that Mastercard had to be used. I called customer service to ask about the promo, and the guy who answered the phone had no idea what I was talking about. Huh. Funny, as it pops up on the homepage about every fourth time it loads! By this time, my session had expired and I had to start over.
When I redid the exact same search, I found that flights from Bloomington were suddenly about $300/person more expensive. So, I quickly abandoned that idea. I searched on orbitz, southwest airlines, delta and united before giving up for the morning. Everything was coming up about $300-600 more expensive than it had on the first search of the morning and every search I had done in the last 3 weeks.
I have my suspicions that the more times you search on travelocity, the higher the average price gets until you are scared enough to pay an elevated price.
The pricing of airfare and vacation packages in general is rediculous much in the same way our cable company's pricing scheme is out to screw the customer (i.e. me).
I cannot call the cable company any more, because my phone number is tied to my account and they will look up my account whenever I call to see what deals are available. Over the weekend R. saw that Our cable bill had jumped by 50% to $120. Instead of calling them on Monday, I walked into their office with my bill in my pocket. When I asked how much digital cable and broadband internet costs per month I was told "it depends. Are you already a subscriber?" WHAT??? How hard is the question, "How much does your service cost?" I grudgingly admitted I was a subscriber and the agent immediately wanted to look up my account! Cripes! I know how much I'm getting charged. I want to know what everyone else is getting charged! Why is this so hard??
When we signed up for cable, about a year ago, I was told that I could get digital cable and broadband internet for $70/month and they had a special promo going on where you would get 9 Showtime channels for free. The $70/month was $5 off the regular price, I was told. Sweet!! Sign me up! Three months ago, our bill went up by $15, and I called to ask why that was and was told that the free Showtime package had expired. Oh, okay. I explained that no one had bothered to mention there was a limitted time on that deal, but no biggie I thought. It was canceled and we were happy. This time, when I went in I was told that our free "premium broadband" trial had expired and the "promo basic cable rate" had expired. Huh?? This was news to me. I never knew that I had "premium broadband" whatever that was. And I was told that our digital cable box rental was a special promo rate that was set to expire "any month now". WHAT THE HECK?!? Why was I not told that all this stuff was only good for a year? Why they can get away with bait and switch tactics by not letting new subscribers know the full extent of the promotion details is beyond me. Surely they were not losing money on me when my bill was "only" $80.
So. Frustrating.
July 13, 2006
I went to the gym tonight to get back on the horse that threw me two days ago. Tuesday, I was running on my favorite treadmill, and the belt slipped about 3 minutes into the run. No big deal, because I felt like my leg had come down weird anyway. I thought nothing of it and continued my run. A few minutes later, I was cruising along and thinking how great the run was going when....WHAM! The treadmill....stopped. The belt did not slow. It stopped. I stopped.
Thankfully, I stopped.
Try running at full tilt and then stop on a dime. I did it on the treadmill and did not hurt myself. So I finished the run on the other treadmill, which was the machine I used tonight.
After walking back to my office to gather some stuff, I walked home. My route takes me right by (or through) Franklin Park, where a band was starting to play. Earlier this summer (while I was still driving) I had passed by the park while a band was getting ready to play, but as I did not see any signs for it, I had no idea what was going on. Turns out, the city sponsors a concert in Franklin Park every Thursday in June and July. I don't know where this is advertised, since they only leave the signs up during the concert. Seems like a more effective advertising strategy would be to leave signs up before the concert. But now I know. (And knowing is ____ ___ ______.)
Other news...the lone triops (triop?) died this morning. Will hatch more soon!
Thankfully, I stopped.
Try running at full tilt and then stop on a dime. I did it on the treadmill and did not hurt myself. So I finished the run on the other treadmill, which was the machine I used tonight.
After walking back to my office to gather some stuff, I walked home. My route takes me right by (or through) Franklin Park, where a band was starting to play. Earlier this summer (while I was still driving) I had passed by the park while a band was getting ready to play, but as I did not see any signs for it, I had no idea what was going on. Turns out, the city sponsors a concert in Franklin Park every Thursday in June and July. I don't know where this is advertised, since they only leave the signs up during the concert. Seems like a more effective advertising strategy would be to leave signs up before the concert. But now I know. (And knowing is ____ ___ ______.)
Other news...the lone triops (triop?) died this morning. Will hatch more soon!
July 06, 2006
July 01, 2006
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