Since everyone seems to enjoy John's sense of humor, I thought you might appreciate this text message that he sent me this weekend:
" I've been sick for tow weeks, drinking loads of coffee, and all I do is study hour after hour. I think this must be what it feels like to be you."
I am not sure how I feel about that characterization.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Spring Break Update
Hi Mom and Lee
Hope all is well in Michigan! It is my spring break, but sadly this post is still being done from my office. Last Thursday-Saturday Jeremy and I went to the FIRST competition with the high school robotics team that we volunteer for. It was great! It was also very very hard work. All schools get exactly 6 weeks to build their robots then they have to ship them to the competition site. On Thursday at 8am we could unbox our robot and do final testing/building/programming - until 8pm when the pits close (they call the work area the pit like in NASCAR, only nerdier). Our robot still had a lot of last minute work that needed to be done, so we were working pretty much the whole day. We were only scheduled for 5 or 6 practice slots on the official field, so we didn't get all of the kinks worked out before the competition started. The competition is on Friday and Saturday. Both days the pits open at 8 and the competition starts around 9:30. Pretty much you work on the robot all of the time when it isn't competing to fix things that didn't work/broke/never worked. It was pretty intense. When I get the pictures off the camera I will post a few.
The way the competition works, the students compete in alliances with two other robots and then everybody gets ranked at the end of pool play at lunch on Saturday. After that the top eight teams become the team captains for the playoff teams. They each draft two other teams to be in their alliance for the playoffs. Our kids finished ranked 18th or so (out of over 50 teams) but ended up not getting drafted for the playoffs. The teams that do really well early on start scouting other teams on Friday and since our robot didn't start doing really well until Saturday, we think that we got passed over by most of the scouting teams. The kids were disappointed, but still had a great time overall. I think it helped that our very last round of pool play was almost perfect. There is another competition in two weeks, that Jeremy will be going to (I have class so I'll have to stay home) so hopefully our team will do even better at that one.
We've been volunteering a lot with the robot team (all day on Saturdays and all afternoon/evening on Fridays) so now that the competition season is almost over, we'll have to find some other way to spend all of our time :) I may actually have to do some of my grading!
In April I am going to Las Vegas! Of course, I am going to attend a workshop on accreditation for computer science programs, so that is a little less exciting than what most people go to Vegas for.
Other than that, no real news from California. Happy Spring!
Hope all is well in Michigan! It is my spring break, but sadly this post is still being done from my office. Last Thursday-Saturday Jeremy and I went to the FIRST competition with the high school robotics team that we volunteer for. It was great! It was also very very hard work. All schools get exactly 6 weeks to build their robots then they have to ship them to the competition site. On Thursday at 8am we could unbox our robot and do final testing/building/programming - until 8pm when the pits close (they call the work area the pit like in NASCAR, only nerdier). Our robot still had a lot of last minute work that needed to be done, so we were working pretty much the whole day. We were only scheduled for 5 or 6 practice slots on the official field, so we didn't get all of the kinks worked out before the competition started. The competition is on Friday and Saturday. Both days the pits open at 8 and the competition starts around 9:30. Pretty much you work on the robot all of the time when it isn't competing to fix things that didn't work/broke/never worked. It was pretty intense. When I get the pictures off the camera I will post a few.
The way the competition works, the students compete in alliances with two other robots and then everybody gets ranked at the end of pool play at lunch on Saturday. After that the top eight teams become the team captains for the playoff teams. They each draft two other teams to be in their alliance for the playoffs. Our kids finished ranked 18th or so (out of over 50 teams) but ended up not getting drafted for the playoffs. The teams that do really well early on start scouting other teams on Friday and since our robot didn't start doing really well until Saturday, we think that we got passed over by most of the scouting teams. The kids were disappointed, but still had a great time overall. I think it helped that our very last round of pool play was almost perfect. There is another competition in two weeks, that Jeremy will be going to (I have class so I'll have to stay home) so hopefully our team will do even better at that one.
We've been volunteering a lot with the robot team (all day on Saturdays and all afternoon/evening on Fridays) so now that the competition season is almost over, we'll have to find some other way to spend all of our time :) I may actually have to do some of my grading!
In April I am going to Las Vegas! Of course, I am going to attend a workshop on accreditation for computer science programs, so that is a little less exciting than what most people go to Vegas for.
Other than that, no real news from California. Happy Spring!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Reminded me of Dad
I saw this article in my RSS Reader this morning, and it reminded me of Dad:
NYTimes: How Much Soap To Use
It turns out that using too much dishsoap and/or laundry soap is actually bad and gets things LESS clean. Poor Dad!
NYTimes: How Much Soap To Use
It turns out that using too much dishsoap and/or laundry soap is actually bad and gets things LESS clean. Poor Dad!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Maybe falling off a bike is getting harder
We're experiencing Michigan's teasing of us with some nice days scattered about March while we know it's not yet safe to declare winter over. But last weekend was really nice here and I got out for my first bicycle ride of the year. I got in 17 miles and all of it was in the upright position. Things are looking good. This week we have 50's and 60's with some rain forecast, but the long range forecast looks pretty good. I'm looking forward to this season's bike tours and am making plans on which ones to attend. May, August, September, and October are pretty firm, so I need to look at June and July for something interesting. I'm also looking forward to getting my first 100 miler in. 70 miles is my best so far. I am also looking forward to getting the kayak in the water and doing some camping. With any luck, I may be able to combine all three of these activities. This should help relieve some of that stress, providing I'm not picking asphalt out of my knees and elbows.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Spring Break
Spring break takes on a whole new meaning when you aren't on the student side of it! This is spring break week at MSU and it's so nice and quiet. We always have a chuckle over students inquiring what plans we have for the break. I guess they think the campus shuts down in their absence.
Cranky huh? Well, although much of it can be attributed to your students it is also the Grandpa Pruyn coming out in you. Looks like I am the only one in the family who escaped that trait................
Do you have big plans to celebrate Jeremy's 35th birthday? Hope is he grateful that he married someone so much younger who will be able to take care of him at his advanced age. This is the year for significant birthdays, Gram will be 85 in April and I will observe the big Six O this year and my little brother will observe 55 in May.
Not much new in E.L. The snow is melting. We acquired another motorcycle this past weekend. We continue to be out smarted by the basement mice. They manage to eat all the peanut butter bait without setting off the traps!
March Update
Still not too much to report here. We're super busy at work because in addition to all the usual stuff, this is recruiting season. Saturday I had to go to Sacramento for a recruiting event, and this weekend we have another event on campus.
I think that teaching is making me old. Lately I've had to give my students lectures on coming to class on time and how it is inappropriate to make cell phone calls from class. I actually threatened to give one of my classes a quiz on how to tell time since I figured that was the only reason so many of them would be chronically late. Oh well, I guess we all get old and cranky eventually, I think it must be genetic :) Of course, I will never be as old as Jeremy who turns 35 in a couple of weeks. Yikes!
My spring break is coming up in a couple of weeks and I think that I am way more excited for spring break as a faculty member than I ever was as a student. My exciting plans involve sleeping and getting caught up on my grading. I'm also trying to get an appointment to go to the dentist for the first time in a few years, so that may end up being exciting, but probably not in a good way.
I think that teaching is making me old. Lately I've had to give my students lectures on coming to class on time and how it is inappropriate to make cell phone calls from class. I actually threatened to give one of my classes a quiz on how to tell time since I figured that was the only reason so many of them would be chronically late. Oh well, I guess we all get old and cranky eventually, I think it must be genetic :) Of course, I will never be as old as Jeremy who turns 35 in a couple of weeks. Yikes!
My spring break is coming up in a couple of weeks and I think that I am way more excited for spring break as a faculty member than I ever was as a student. My exciting plans involve sleeping and getting caught up on my grading. I'm also trying to get an appointment to go to the dentist for the first time in a few years, so that may end up being exciting, but probably not in a good way.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Good for another 10,000 miles
Woo hoo! Passed my stress test and all the other ones. The doc says I'm good for another year! Now, about that other kind of stress! LOL Medication maybe?
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