Biggest Home Extreme Loser Makeover

I just got off the phone with a good friend of mine and he made a very interesting point regarding the similarities and differences between two reality TV shows: Biggest Loser and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.  Both shows are aimed at helping people who are in a situation that is difficult/not healthy.  The course of action each show takes, though, is fundamentally different.  

Extreme Makeover is all about the "wow" factor.  The show tries to find a down-on-their-luck family who has a problem that can be fixed by extreme home improvement.  Well, maybe not all of their problems but at least some of their problems.  And actually, the show likes to focus on the big changes their making (to their home) and all the good it will do them.  It often seems the families in need are doing things like running a shelter for blind, paraplegic dogs or a foster home for run-away Chinese orphans, etc.  The point is, based on a handful of viewings, often a new living situation will go a long way towards helping the family.  The crew shows up, sends the family on a vacation, changes everything, and brings them back for a heart-pounding reveal. Very dramatic, makes for good TV, fits well in a one hour time slot.

This mode of assistance is very different than Biggest Loser.  Biggest Loser is all about long-term changes.  The obese individuals shows up and sign themselves into the ranch for as long as they can stay, possibly as long as three months or so.  They are on-board all day, all night, week after week.  Every day they are making choices about what they eat, how hard they work out, what they are going to do to try to lose the most weight and continue to stay in the competition.  The only way they get on the show is by having developed a fitness pattern that is horribly bankrupt and by coming to a realization that they need to change something soon and change it in a drastic way.

One of these shows is focussed on a change in circumstances, the other on a change in process or, because these are people after all, character.  Extreme Makeover does a one-week blitzkrieg on your life, Biggest Loser is in for the long haul, hoping to make you a fundamentally different (and better) person. 

Extreme Makeover isn't a bad show, doesn't have evil motivations, and is not despicable.  The kind of aid they provide can be very effective helpful.  There are families out there that have one significant problem in their lives that a new house could go a long ways to fixing. Sometimes money is the only barrier.  Sometimes.

There are some down-sides, though, to building them a new house.  Invariably, the house is bigger than before which almost guarantees larger utility bills going forward.  (Granted, they do try to use energy efficient techniques/appliances but no amount of efficiency will change the fact that there is twice as much square footage to heat/cool.)  Sure the kids get totally decked-out rooms with INCREDIBLE interior design but, especially for younger children, their interests will change in time.  When the love of airplanes wanes, what do you do with the 747 cockpit that has been built into your room?

What Extreme Makeover does is very generous and I truly hope that every family that is helped has thrived since receiving their new home.  I doubt this is the situation, though.  It may be like winning the lottery; after the emotional thrill wears off, the blessing may end up being more of a curse.  Once the crew drives away and leaves you with your new house, its all up to you.  Any problems you had before that the new house doesn't fix are still going to be with you.  You're not a new person, just the same old person in a new house.  Maybe with higher heating bills, to boot.

Biggest Loser has a much less ambitious goals in some ways; they just want to help you learn to eat right and take care of your body. Sure, the winner at the end of the show gets some money but its not even enough to make you independently wealthy for life.  Maybe just enough to pay off the mortgage and/or buy a new car but that's it.  The real prize is the change in who you are. Your attitude towards food is new. You see the value in exercise.  You've learned to accept the pain of working out or denying yourself ice cream.  You've put in a lot of hours in the gym.  Every pound lost has been the difference between calories in at the dinner table and calories out on the treadmill.  There's no way around it and they have spent as long as three months living with that reality in their face.

And there aren't any excuses, either.  There is no 2 lb. handicap because you grew up on Twinkies and never stopped eating them.  No week off because your parents just divorced and you have been over-eating to avoid the emotional pain.  The cause of the problem is irrelevant. If you want to stay on the show, you're going to have to work at it, just like everybody else.  No excuses, just work.

I don't I know if either show does any long-term follow-up (I'm guessing not simply because it may not make good TV), but I bet the Biggest Loser people have a much better chance of experiencing lasting change. In a non-trivial and mundane way, they've been transformed.

Generalizing this to society as a whole, I think most of our problems need change that is more like The Biggest Loser than like Extreme Makeover.  Most people's problems can't be solved by throwing money at the problem, even if they think it can.  The big, difficult problems in our world require change in people at a fundamental level and it is VERY difficult, if not impossible, for that to happen in any other way than long-term personal commitment on the part of both those giving and those receiving help.  Everybody has to work at it and there are no excuses; if you want change, if you want to be transformed, you've got to put in the hard time.

I hope that whatever the future brings, that we as a society can learn to not accept quick fixes and instead be willing to commit to long-term, hard work to fix our problems.   We need to be willing to roll up our sleeves and make an effort in each other's lives, doing our best to help others and stick with it over the long-haul.  Real change is hard work and we need to have the patience and strength to not give up.  Transformation is hard-fought but long-lasting.

Snow and Driving

Speaking of snow, on the way home this afternoon, driving slowly and carefully on the highway, I saw a bright red car off in the ditch at the right-hand side.  At first I thought it was a fancy sports car and was chuckling to myself at the misery of the hot-rod driver who clearly thought the laws of physics didn't apply to him, even when it snowed.  (Turns out it was a Dodge Stratus and I revised my evil laugh to more sympathetic thoughts.  Only good, honest, non-rich people own a Dodge Stratus.  Clearly.)

Then an idea occurred to me.  What if the highway patrol intentionally placed a few bright colored cars in the ditches as snows begin to fall to remind other drivers of the danger?  A cautionary tale with a sad ending on display for all drivers to see.  All we'd need would be a few brightly colored cars at strategic points to do the trick.  Of course, usually weather like this produces its own non-contrived roadway mishaps and they don't seem to care all drivers straight.  

Maybe its because the cars aren't red.  That must be it.

First Snow in Wichita

Well, at least the first snow that has accumulated.  (We were gone over Thanksgiving and we heard it snowed then.)

Basil and Anise are having a lot of fun with the snow, the first time they have experienced it.  Both seem to enjoy eating and frolicking in it.  Here's the proof:

Man Purse

After months of constantly mis-placing my wallet, keys, phone, and work ID, I've finally purchased a bag to keep track of everything.  The straw that broke the camels back was when I couldn't find my wallet for about 24 hours and decided that as soon as I found it, I would get a bag.  Thankfully, I did find it (I was afraid that it might have been stolen/left in public) and a bit of web-shopping found a bag for me.  I've had the bag a few days now and love it.  I can put everything I need in it and when I walk out the door and I can have confidence that I have everything.

Politics, Journalists and Nerds

Recently, (OK, a few weeks ago), the NY Times published a little opinion piece showing how the stock market has faired under Republican vs Democratic Presidents.  Their conclusion was that the market does better under Democrats.

Enough buzz was generated around the "internets" (my wife hates it when I say that) that pundits on both sides of the aisle started attacking and defending the conclusions.  Some of these statements seems legitimate, some seem fallacious, but it seemed hard to pin down any sort of definitive answer.  Party loyalty seemed a bigger factor in these discussions than any attempt to find out the truth of the matter.

Enter the nerds.

Theodore Gray, the co-founder of Wolfram Research and professional math/computer nerd, grabbed a pile of data and started to analyze it.  Not any sissy journalist kind of analyzing in an Excel spreadsheet.  No, he went gang-busters and started to try to account for things like inflation, lag between a president taking office and when his policies were implemented and companies paying dividends.  The results showed that the choice of assumptions regarding these factors he included dramatically influence the results.   Change the lag between inauguration and impact on the market and the best party overall could change.

The most interesting result, though, was what stock returns looked like spanning both Democratic and Republican presidents.  In other words, choosing to invest in the markets regardless of the party of the sitting president.  (Which, to the best of my knowledge, is what most people do anyway.  I'll let you know if I here of anybody pulling money out of the market based on the result of this up-coming election.  Don't hold your breath.)  Check out the article to see the results.

The article demonstrates an opinion I've held for a long time: life would be better if we had more nerds.

Wall•E

Katie and I saw Wall•E this past weekend and we both loved it.  (We almost always see our movies at the cheap theater, thus the five month wait from its release date.)  The film is unique is so many regards but probably the most striking is the fact that very little dialog takes place the entire film.  Some reviews of the movie said this would make it less accessible to children, ostensibly the target audience.  Another blogger pointed out that the Road-Runner cartoons are 100% dialog-free yet seem very effective in entertaining the little-ones.  I concur.

From a photography nerd stand-point, the film also has a unique new visual style thanks to the use of a new virtual camera used when rendering the film.  This new camera brings a very strong traditional film-look to the film with things like zooms and shallow depth of focus strongly displayed through-out the film.  (I've got to get going to work or I'd write more, maybe in some other post).  

All told, a great film, undoubtedly the most worthwhile movie I've seen in past few weeks.  It is films like these that show just how mediocre most movies are today and how wonderful, enjoyable, and effective a well-executed story can be. 

Go see it for yourself.

Without two dogs, you can't have pictures like this:

Our new floor...

... is done.  Almost done.  Lots of details that threaten to take weeks to get around to doing (like putting moulding back in and cleaning the last bit of mortar off the wall) but done enough that we've moved all the furniture and appliances back in.  With that, I present this visual history.

First up, the "before" shots.  These were taken when we purchased the house (a little over a year ago).  A lot has changed in the house since then but do your best to focus on the floors.  The kitchen had very old and short carpeting while and the dining room was a lighter and fluffier.  The entryway (not pictured) had a marble-ish tile of sorts.

Underneath the kitchen and dining room was a fantastic stone-patterned brown/green linoleum straight from the 50's.  We didn't even wait to take it out.  As we began to pull the linoleum we came across our first home-improvement hitch: the subfloor in these two rooms was particle board.  After some reading it became obvious that if we wanted a stable floor to lay tile on we had to pull it out as well and replace it with something more rigid.  So we did.

(For those of you interested in the engineering side of laying tile, all the trouble with tile come from one simple fact: it doesn't bend, it just breaks.  If the subfloor isn't stiff enough, the floor will bend when people walk on it but the tile won't.  Once enough force is put on the tile, it will simply crack.  This has a big impact on how you build the structure of the house.  The joist of the floor have to be close enough together to support the weight of the tile.  If the subfloor is the wrong material or isn't thick enough it will bow between supports or deform as it absorbs and releases moisture in the air (the latter is the problem with particle board). The tile above it can't deform and instead cracks.  The strength of tile, its hardness, is also its greatest weakness; it doesn't really bend even when you wish it would.)

The entryway was an entirely different surprise.  Back when this house was built in the late 50's, laying tile was done differently. Rather than doing something like we did, a thick (~2 inch) bed a mortar was poured and the tiles were set directly in it.  I discovered this when I started trying to chisel the tiles out.  I was very dismayed at first but found that the job of tearing out that much mortar is not as hard as it may seem.  The big saving grace is that mortar is not near as hard as concrete and it tends to break apart in chunks.  In the pictures below you can see a metal mesh that was embedded in the mortar, kind of like poor-man's rebar.

Here's what the old subfloor looked like after we had torn everything out and cleaned up.

The next step was to lay down new plywood to replace the particle board we had torn out.  The extra thickness gave us more rigidity for the tile so as to prevent cracking and breaking.  When adding another layer like this, the only really important "secret" is to not align seams on one layer with seams on the next.  This helps make the subfloor more rigid.  In our case, our second layer was half-inch plywood, and lots of it.

We found out the entryway was uneven and so after filling in most of the 2 inch gap with plywood where the mortar previously was, I had to pour some self-leveling concrete to level it out.  Pretty neat stuff, actually and it worked rather well.  The first two pictures were taken just after I poured it (you can see reflections in the pool) and the last is after it had dried.

With the plywood in, we next install what is called an "underlayment" for the tile.  Most people today use a cement board of some kind, the popular brands being Hardibacker or Durock.  The biggest problems with these boards is that they can be hard to cut and attach to the subfloor and they are relatively thick (at least 0.25").  Our biggest concern with a think underlayment was our under-counter dishwasher.  Our friends found out the hard way that by adding height to the floor, it is very possible to "tile-in" your dishwasher.  They actually had to disassemble the dishwasher in-place under the counter to get it out when it came time to replace it.

So, to save height and time, we used a relatively new underlayment by Schluter Systems called Ditra.  The material is basically a plastic waffle-like grid with a cotton backer.  The plastic grid acts as a moisture barrier as well as a "decoupling membrane".  The decoupling part is important because it allows our house to move (slightly) without forcing the tile to as well.  If there was no decoupling, then the flexing of the house could crack and chip tiles as they were pushed against each other and the walls of the house.

(Historical note: centuries ago this was accomplished by laying a bed of sand between two beds of mortar.  The sand was "strong" enough to support the weight of the tile but any lateral movement resulted in one mortar bed sliding past another.  This isn't done much any more as the height of the two beds and the sand (not to mention weight) make it tough to work into modern buildings.) 

Ditra is significantly thinner than cement board and rolls out like a thin carpet.  Rather than nailing or screwing it to the sub-floor, you simply use a very thin layer of mortar and press it in.  The material can be cut with a utility knife and installs very quickly.  The only downside: it is a bit more expensive than cement board.  I'm glad we used it, though, if for no other reason than the day-or-two times savings.

Now for the tile.   The tile we had chosen was meant to resemble a wood plank and was rectangular in shape rather than square. No special instructions needed here.  Slop on the mortar, spread it around, comb it with a trowel, and press in the tile.  We decided to do a parque-ish pattern in the dining room (suggested by my father) and a linear pattern in the kitchen and entryway.  Many days of mixing mortar, cutting and placing tiles, and generally making a mess.  (The last picture shows where the parque patterns meets the linear one.)

The last big step was grouting.  The color we choose was supposed to be right around the color of the tile but,  for reasons I don't understand, it turned out much redder.  Not the end of the world but a bit disappointing.  We're looking into staining it a darker color but I'm guessing that won't happen for quite a while.  Word to the wise: grout is cheap; test it in a small area before you commit to a color.

So that's that.  We like the floor and are glad its done.  The whole project took about 6 weeks or so; we obviously weren't working on it the whole time but on many days it was our life.  My wife is glad to have all her kitchen appliances back (there are only so many meals you can cook on an electric skillet) and we're both glad that the house is finally back in order.  

Our big thanks to our friend Michael for his guidance, expertise and assistance and also to Desha's parent's for loaning us a tile saw.  

Number Two

We've been looking for a sibling for Basil for several months now and today we found her.  She's an English Springer Spaniel (just like Basil) and is about three months old.  She is very much a puppy; high energy and very cute.  We don't have a name yet but if you have any suggestions let me know.  We are leaning towards a spice name but are open to other ideas. 

WSU Chemistry Building

I was telling a friend of mine who teaches chemistry at WSU about my experience with the intimidating hazard diamond this past Sunday and he got a big smile on his face and asked, "Did you see the blast wall?"

Blast wall?  

From what Kevin says, they keep all the really dangerous stuff in a separate closet on the exterior of the building.  They've built the outside wall so that it is structurally weaker than the others and then, about a foot or so away from that wall, poured a huge concrete wall.  The thinking is that if something goes wrong and those chemicals explode, the weak wall will blow out and direct all the force into the concrete blast wall.

I have a class in the chemistry building so on my way there I snapped this picture:

Right next to the white rain gutter you can see the "crumple zone" as it were for the building.  

So I'm a bit worried....

... I haven't seen any signs for the incumbent (the USA) running for Kansas.  Come to think of it, I think this might be an uncontested race.  I REALLY hope that changes before Nov. because I think it will be a big pain to have to get a Kenyan passport while still living in Wichita.

Olympic Sponsorships

Why is McDonalds an Olympic sponsor?  I mean, I know the pragmatic such a relationship exists: McDonalds has a lot of money that every national Olympic team could use and I'm sure the company enjoys all the prime advertising they get in exchange.  For all I know, there aren't very many other corporations that are willing to donate at that level.

But seriously, McDonalds?  McDonalds is the symbol of cheap, non-nutritious food to me (thanks to the film Supersize Me) and it seems highly incongruous to have the best athletes in the world using their achievements to sell products that would have a detrimental effect on their performance.  Athletes selling for Nike, Addidas, Spaulding, Speedo, all of these make sense to me.  Athletes selling deep-fried, high-calorie food?  

What's REALLY funny is that McDonalds has been a major Olympic sponsor for years and just now I'm catching on to this oxymoronical fact.

Back at School

This past Thursday was my first day in class for my Master's degree.  I am now officially a graduate student at the famed Wichita State University.  I'm taking three courses this semester: Linear Systems, Control Systems Concepts, and Power Systems Analysis.  One of them is kind of a review course to get me back into the swing of things.  I've attended two of these classes so far and right now I am feeling a bit overwhelmed.  It has been seven years since I did any of the math and engineering that is being expected of me now and I'm feeling it. The first homework set I got had three problems on it and though I've worked through some of it, I don't feel confident in any of the answers.

Put simply, I think this first semester of grad school is going to be rough.  I'm working half-time right now but fear that I may have underestimated my ability to get back into academic rhythm.  It doesn't help that I will be attending weddings nearly every weekend in semester leaving less time for studying.  Like I said, right now I feel a bit overwhelmed.

On a lighter note, I spend part of Thursday wandering around campus and discovered a few things.

• Most of the buildings are clearly marked ON ONE SIDE.  Why?  I spent a lot of time walking around buildings trying to determine if this was the one I needed to be in.
• Of the ~ 100 students in my Linear Systems class the ethnic breakdown is:
  

Central Asian (Indian, Nepali, etc): 90

East Asian (Chinese, Japanese, etc): 7

White (for lack of a better term): 3

This is the first time in my life I've been that much of a minority

• As I was trying to find my second class of the day I stumbled across a building with a particularly aggressive hazard diamond on it.  All three hazard types were at their maximum level (4) and the special instruction in the white section indicated to not use water to put out any fire. After thinking about it for a few minutes I decided that this must be the chemistry building.  I was right.

Dreamlifter

On my way home from work today I saw this landing at one of Wichita's airports:

This is the airplane the flies the fuselage of the 787 Dreamliner from where it is assembled here in Wichita to the Seattle area where the aircraft goes through final assembly.  There are some perks to living in the air capital of the world.

Barak Obama

I don't follow politics super-closely.  This is probably going to be one of the few politically-oriented posts I do.

I heard an interview with somebody on the political career of Barak Obama and, above all else, the timeline of this career caught my attention.  You can double-check my information in many places including the Wikipedia article on the man.

After doing several noteworthy things including being the editor of the Harvard Law Review, Barak Obama ran for office.  And then he kept running for office.  Check out this out:

1996:  Elected to the Illinois State Senate

1998: Re-elected to the Illinois State Senate

2000: Lost Democratic primary for US House of Representatives

2002: Re-elected to Illinois State Senate

2004: Elected to US Senate

2007: Running for President of the United States

I don't know whether this is good or bad but if Barak Obama wins the election for President, he will have held three distinct political offices in ten years (and he tried to hold a fourth).  He has the most experience as a state senator (8 years, assuming he held office through his primary loss in 2000) and just two years as a US Senator.  I'm hardly one to speak as I've only held a single job for a little over 3 years but his rise through the political ranks seems relatively fast.  

I want to like Barak Obama.  I have done far too little research to have an informed opinion about his political views but he seems something like my generations JFK.  He seems to be capturing the imaginations of many people.  

As one political commentator pointed out, though, a political campaign is designed to try to overcome weaknesses in a given candidate.  How do you overcome the weakness of inexperience?  Put differently, even if his views strongly align with mine (which I'm sure they don't), do I believe that he will be able to effectively execute those ideas given his quick ascent through political offices?

As a point of contrast, John McCain has been a senator for Arizona for the last twenty years.  

I'll let you decide whether experience is an asset or a liability in this case.  In the very least, it is easier to follow the track record of the candidate who has been around a while. 

Basil

Basil woke up on Monday morning with the sniffles.  I don't know why it didn't occur to me that dogs can catch something like a cold but the truth of the matter is obvious.  In honor of his first illness, here are a few pictures to remind us all of the good old days.

One of his first days at home, laying claim to his spot on the couch.

First bath, back when he was much smaller.  Today, he can rest his chin on the edge of the tub rather than having to stand on his hind legs to see over it.

The blue tongue was a good indication that Basil was into something he shouldn't have been. It ended up being blue tissue paper.

According to our instructor, that certificate of completion was the first she had ever given to a spaniel of any type on his/her first attempt at basic obedience. Trust me, we earned it.

Hero For The Day: My Wife

This Monday, for the first time, Katie rode her bicycle to work with me.  We had done a practice ride a few Saturdays ago and "it wasn't too bad" so she decided to give it a shot on an actual work day. She probably isn't going to try to ride every work day year round (like I try to do) but is considering riding two or three days a week.  The motivations are the standard reasons for bicycle commuting: saving money on gas and getting good exercise.  In fact, the last one probably pushed her over the line.  When I rode in last Monday I told her I had burned 1000 Calories that day on the bicycle, she responded "If I ride my bicycle to work, I can eat almost anything without gaining weight."

Yes, yes you can.

The return of tortillas!

This news is a few months old but the local chain grocery store started to produce tortillas in-house again!  This particular store has has four different owners over the past handful of years, some choosing to use the existing in-house tortillas machine, some not.  For those of you keeping score at home, here's the history:

Albertson's 

The only evidence that the store was an Albertson's was the trademark blue font found on many signs and grocery carts throughout the store.  Ownership of this store took place before my time here in Wichita.

Tortilla status: Unknown

Food 4 Less

This chain is not related to the warehouse-style grocery store bearing the same name.  When I moved to Wichita in 2005, they were the owners of the store and though it was out of the way, I I often shopped there just for the tortillas.

Tortilla status: Plain, jalepeno cheese, roma tomato

Homeland

While out of town visiting family over Christmas break in 2006 Food 4 Less sold out to an in-town competitor: Homeland.  There was no improvement in any aspect of the store and in some areas, quality degraded.  It didn't take long before the tortillaria in the store was closed, seemingly for  good.

Tortilla status: moth-balled

Dillon's

Less than a year after Homeland bought our Food 4 Less, Dillon's bought out Homeland.  In both of these cases, it was not just our store that was affected; all of Wichita lost both of these chains in just a short time. (For those of you REALLY keeping score at home, you will have realized that Wichita has two major grocer's: Dillon's and Wal-Mart.  There are a few other smaller players such as Target and Aldi but I'm going to guess that 70% of Wichita primarily buys their food from one of the former.)  It took a few months but Dillon's management saw the wisdom of the tortillaria and brought it back.  I stumbled across this the same day I took my GRE; it was a very happy day.

Tortilla status: Plain, whole wheat, cinnamon and sugar, salsa

My sister, the swimsuit model

Sorry Sister, but we stumbled across this photo in Land's End and have to blow the whistle on your modeling gig.  I'm sure it was good while it lasted but modeling won't pay the bills and you know that.  We put you through college for something and its time to go out there and put that Interdisciplinary Social Sciences degree to work.  

Instead of your beautiful smile and curly hair.

Three Simple Mistakes I've Made Recently

1. Using half the amount of water when making my first batch of root beer.  (The results were not good.)
2. Using twice the amount of sugar in the latest batch of ice cream I made. (Raspberry, and it tastes fine, just, you know, a little sweet.)
3. Leaving the vacuum in "hose mode" such that the vacuum wasn't sucking dirt from the carpet but dust from the air.

Giant Pool of Money

This American Life, still one of my favorite radio programs/podcasts, created an excellent story on the sub-prime meltdown/credit-crunch.  I highly recommend you take a listen, even if you don't think you're interested in all the financial mess right now.  It is at least entertaining and highly informative.

The Crow Flies at Midnight

A co-worker of mine sent out an email yesterday saying that she had free tickets to a concert here in town for the first four who were interested.  There was a catch though; "In exchange for the free tickets you will need to stick around after the concert and help load boxes of liquor onto a cart and take them to a room somewhere in the Coliseum."

??

That was all the information in the email but I imagined it continuing in several different ways:

• "After delivering the liquor to the appropriate room you will be required to drink half a case and then walk across the room without falling down."
• "Clues will be provided to locate the room.  The last person to deliver the liquor to the correct room will be kicked off the island/eliminated from the race."
• "While delivering the liquor a man will approach you and ask the time.  You will respond that you don't have a watch.  He will ask you to follow him to another room where you will meet with your handler who will provide the rest of the details for the mission.  Good luck."

Another of my co-workers responded with his own email:

"Will the cart in question have any identifying marks?  Will there be a map in the cart providing directions to the certain undisclosed room?  Once in the room will an "asset" be present to provide further instructions?  Should these four people you are looking for have any previous experience with the Mafia?"

For a stressful day at work, this email provided the comic relief we sorely needed.

More Flickr Action

Since its spring and we don't have many flowers blooming yet, I decided to do my part by posting a few of the flower pictures I've taken for Katie on Flickr.  I've also added a new channel that is just for the pictures I've taken in the past that I'm just getting around to putting on Flickr now.  the theory is that I'll be posting my favorite pictures as I take them and when there's a lull in that activity, I'll fill it with "golden oldies".  So far, this theory hasn't worked out very well as life tends to keep me from being able to do what I want.

Basil and Flickr

Check out Flickr for the latest pictures of Basil, our puppy.  These were all taken in the past few weeks and are therefore are somewhat recent.  My goal is to actually use Flickr in this way but so far haven't made it happen.  Hopefully this is a start.

GRE

I meant to write about this earlier but as soon as I was done, I wanted to purge the event from my mind.  Last Friday I took the GRE and, before I start whining, want to state that I did just fine.  My verbal scores were lower than I expected but my math was great.  This is not how I felt when I was taking the test, though.

The GRE is administered on computers and it is an adaptive test.  Based on the accuracy of your previous answers, the computer tries to give you a question that it thinks is the most difficult question you can answer.  Over a series of thirty or so questions, it narrows in on the test-takers skill level for that section of the test.  The theory sounds great and I'm sure the ETS people (the private company that creates the GRE) have done studies to show that a normal paper-based version and the computer-based version correlate well.  There were a few difficulties that I encountered when taking my test, though.

For starters, though the theory may be sound, the psychological effect on the test-taker is painful.  I spent the vast majority of the math test feeling I was failing the test.  The questions were obtuse, hard for me to reason through well, and plain old difficult for me to answer with confidence.  After seeing my score, I think the computer very quickly narrowed in on my math ability and continued to present me question after question that was just beyond the reach of what I was able to do.  It left me feeling stupid and discouraged even though I was doing great.

Secondly, because the computer needs a previous answer to figure out what question to ask next, you can't skip any questions.  Each section has a fixed number of questions to answer and even though questions may be getting harder and harder, a question left un-answered is wrong.  All of this makes pacing yourself through the test fairly difficult.  How do you decide when to take an educated guess and how do you decide to keep working on the question?  This is particularly relevant in the verbal section where a passage-based question may show up near the end of the test.  If you have five questions and five minutes left, you better help that the last question isn't based on a passage that will take two minutes to read before you can answer the question.  I finished one of my verbal sections eight minutes early (somewhere between 1/4th and 1/5th early) because I didn't know if I would have enough time for a verbal question at the end.  The inability to skip questions and come back to the hard ones is frustrating.

If, for some reason, I do have to take retake the test, I plan on trying to be more strategic about my use of time.  This is a different type of test all-together.

Best Anniversary Gift

Home Improvement and Temperment

A good friend of mine was recently replacing the tiles in this kitchen floor and made an interesting observation about the psychology of home improvement.  He noticed that he saw three distinct responses to the various challenges the project produced.

There was his wife, the optimist.  She looked at the project and it seemed fairly straight-forward: tear out the old times, put in the new ones; this should be easy.  She had never done anything like this before but the instructions in the tiling book looked made it look easy. She figured that they could get the tiling project done ahead of the five days they planned on.  When the glue for the tiles didn't hold and one whole day of labor had to be redone, she got somewhat frustrated and discouraged by the whole process.  At that point, she was not excited about having new tiles in kitchen and probably wished they hadn't started the project.  Emotionally, she was not expecting the project to ever get done.

Then there was my friend, the pessimist (at least when it comes to home improvement).  He is not the handy-man type, had also not done anything like this before and assumed that the project would be a minor form of hell.   Nothing would work right, it was unrealistic to try to get it done in one week (but they didn't really have any choice in the matter), and the whole experience would be painful.  When things didn't go well (like the glue not holding on the tiles) he was fully prepared to be discouraged and frustrated.  When things were going well like cutting tiles and placing them on the floor, he knew the positive feelings were an illusion and that trouble was just around the corner.  He was just waiting for things to fall apart.

The last character in this story is a friend of theirs who was able to help for several days; his name is Josh.  Josh does not conform the the stereotype of college art major he is; he is QUITE the handy-man.  Josh helped build his own house, is very knowledgeable about all things home improvement and also can fix your car if you want.  Josh is exactly the kind of guy you want helping you out when you want to retile your kitchen.  Josh is also a realist.  He expects that there are going to be things that go wrong and his response is to fix them and move on.  When the glue didn't hold Josh was thoroughly committed to pulling up every tile that wasn't firmly attached even if it meant having to re-glue every single one.  Better to put in the time now and get things right rather than have to replace them once the grout was in place.   He didn't get discouraged by the problems (there are always going to be problems) and responded with an attitude determined to fix those problems.  The project will get done, it may just take a little longer than expected.  Don't give up or get discouraged, and don't emotionally go looking for trouble; do the job, fix the mistakes.

I think this attitude of realism is the classical American "can-do" spirit.  In this regard, I think I need to be more American when we re-start our home improvement project here in the next few weeks.

Two Weeks of Basil

A  few reflections on being a new dog owner:

• I'm guessing, and have had it confirmed by people who would know, that getting a new puppy is like being a new parent in many ways just less so.  Less responsibility, less expense, less emotion, less excitement, etc.  Though we haven't been waken up at night by Basil, we have had to re-organize our schedules a bit (mornings in particular) and when planning our days, we have to think about more than ourselves.  Granted, if we want to go out, we don't have to hire a sitter; we just put Basil in his kennel. Our lives, though, have had to change in a multitude of small ways to accommodate him and I expect our first child will have a similar impact, just more so.
• Basil definitely prefers Katie.  Basil definitely is more obedient towards me.  Good cop, bad cop.
• I find myself wishing that there was something I could do so that Basil liked me more.  I want him to be excited when I get home and snuggle up with me on the couch and rest his droopy chin and ears on my lap when he's tired.  Right now, I get overflow from his loving of Katie and I guess that will have to do.  I can't make Basil love me (in the small way is able to) and that's the way it is.  Again, this seems highly analogous to having children and only time will tell how our relationship will end up.
• Basil can get very bad gas.  We're going to try changing his food to see if that will help.
• Basil always smells like a dog and unless we do something aggressive, our house probably will too.  Hopefully once he's older we'll be able to leave him outside more and that will help.
• Basil is a social dog and despite his puppy tendencies, will still snuggle up with you to watch a movie.  He has his spot on the couch and he enjoys being there.  That cushion is his happy place and if he's scared or needs reassurance, he parks there.  He also tends to be lazy enough that he won't always fully jump up on his own (even though he is perfectly capable of doing so) or even just lay on the floor instead.

We have been blessed with a wonderful dog.  More pictures to come.

Flickr Action

I'm finally getting my act together and put a large number of photos onto my Flickr page last night.  They are unorganized and don't have any meta-data but they are up.  I plan on updating the page throughout the month, hopefully in a more consistent manner. Ideally, I'll be on top of life enough to start updating it as I shoot, quasi-real-time.  Cross your fingers

Meet Basil

Our dog-hunt has ended and we are now the proud owners of a five month old English Springer Spaniel we've named Basil C Terwilliger ("Basil" or "Mr. T" for short). I've posted a few pictures to the old, rusting Flickr stream (link on your right, my left) and that's all I've got time to say.

We'll almost.  

Basil is pretty laid back, quiet, and easy to get along with.  We got him from a family where the dad was looking for a driving buddy.  Basil wasn't it, apparently, so we were able to adopt him.  He's been a joy to have all of six hours and we're looking for many more.  Katie is going to be training him and we've got a stack of treats that I expect we're going to work through pretty quick.

Time to first indoor accident as measured from when he entered the house: less than two minutes.  

Puppy Love

Its hard to explain but the pebble that started the avalanche that is buying a house was a desire to have a dog.  Or, more specifically, Katie's desire for a cute puppy.  (I'm not anti-dog at all Katie just loves 'em more).   A few months later we are finally embarking (ha, pun!) on that adventure. We've been spending time reading up on breeds, trying to find one that will fit our lifestyle right now.  Our two top choices are a King Charles Cavalier Spaniel and a Brittany Spaniel. We've been watching Petfinder.com, watching the Kansas Humane Society website and working through organizations that rescue specific breeds.

Today, for example, we are being visited/inspected by a representative for the American Brittany Rescue.  Both Katie and I are a little nervous; we don't know what it would mean if they found us unworthy to own one of their abandoned dogs.  I guess we'll just have to get a dog elsewhere; thankfully there will be many options in a few months as spring rolls around.  We just need to be patient and wait for the dog that is right for us.

Clocks

For those of you who know me pretty well the following will not surprise you: I have been very annoyed by the fact that all of the clocks in our house showed separate times.  This past week, I took it upon myself to synchronize all of them so I don't experience "Star Trek"-like rifts in the space-time continuum when moving from room to room.

It took me about fifteen minutes and the precision of the time-setting varied from clock to clock. Some don't display seconds. Some don't allow the second hand to be set.  Some are very difficult to adjust with any certainty. 

I also discovered odd clustering of time pieces.  The kitchen has four: one on the microwave, one on the oven, one on the wall and one outdoor temperature display.  My bed stand has three: one is the emergency weather radio, one is the alarm clock, and one is an outdoor temperature display.

So how many clocks in our house?  If you ignore the time on the two computers which is set over the internet, then we have eleven.  

What about you?  How many clocks in your house?

This makes me want to quit my job and become a full-time nerd

I stumbled across some video demonstrations yesterday that, as they say, captured my imagination.  The videos show some high-level nerdery using the Wiimote to control a non-Wii computer interface.  If you have a moment and a high-speed connection, click on over to see what I'm talking about.  The video at the bottom is by far the most impressive to my eyes.

All of this stuff is possible because the Wiimote has some serious hardware inside.  First off, the connection to the Wii proper is done through a Bluetooth connection, which makes eavesdropping in on the messages being sent back and forth much easier.  For those of you who don't know, Bluetooth is a wireless communication standard that is most commonly seen in the cell phone market.  If you've seen people walking around wearing just a headset talking on their phones, you've seen Bluetooth in action.  The user's phone is squirreled away in a backpack, pocket, or briefcase, and the headset is connected to it, acting as a remote microphone and speaker.  The Wii uses the same techonology but instead of sending a phone conversation between a headset and a cell phone, it is used to send information between the Wiimote and the Wii.

The information that it is sending is where the real magic is, though.  There are two things the Wii system uses to keep track of where the Wiimote is and how it is moving.  The first is an integrated three-dimensional accelerometer.  This is a little chip that can measure how much acceleration the Wiimote is experiencing in all three dimensions (up/down, left/right, away/toward the TV screen). Using a bit of math, it is theoretically possible to know exactly where the Wiimote is in space at any time and how it is moving.

It appears, though, that some kind of practical limitation kept this sensing from being precise enough in the real world and so a second system was put in place: the IR camera.  In the very front of the Wiimote is a fairly high-resolution IR camera that watches the position of two IR LED lights tucked away in the sensor bar you place on your TV. By watching the size, position, and orientation of theses lights,  a second independent method of 3-D location is made possible. If the lights are bigger, the Wiimote is closer to the TV.  If the lights are in the upper-left of the screen and tilted, then the Wiimote is in the lower-left of the screen and also tilted.

All of this (and more) has been packed into one remote-control sized device that is actually affordable to normal people (that is, people not doing research in academia).  In my mind, this is probably the most incredible part of the whole system.  Because of this integration, the Wii is the most accessible, most-popular video game platform today.

What these videos show, though, is how much more potential there is.  Adventure-some hackers have taken the time to largely decode and understand the information being sent between the Wiimote and the Wii.  Using this information, software hase been written that allows a Bluetooth-equipped computer to connect to the Wiimote and use this information for other purposes.  This device-level software (called a "driver") is then used by other programmers who build on it and create more general software like what is demonstrated in the videos.

The incredible potential of this system truly captures my imagination.  The opportunities to do new things in new ways seems wide open right now and it makes me want to quit my job and explore these opportunities.  If I was more of a computer nerd, I might just do something like that under the guise of a graduate program.  For now, though, I'm going to sit back and continue to be amazed at how these "toys" are going to be put to use.

Back in the USA

Well, we're back home and in full swing to try to get our lives in order.  The flights home were on time and uneventful except for one item: we flew first class from Beijing to Chicago.  Providentially, we were upgraded from coach due to overbooking in that class.  I have flown first-class once before for a business trip but this experience was far beyond that.  The first and most significant aspect: each seat is effectively a recliner.  I took a six-hour nap in a near horizontal position and didn't have to worry about the people behind me or next to me having to wake me up so they could get by to use the restroom.  The amount of space given each seat is absolutely enormous; it is an embarrassment of room compared to our flight over.  There were other luxuries like a personal TV with multiple channels, an actual menu with choices for each multi-course meal and almost real pillows and blankets but I would forsake all of those just for the reclining seat.All good things must come to an end and our flight from Chicago to Wichita was back in economy (though the flight was on-time).

Customs in Chicago was a bit weird.  After officially entering the country we waited a good forty minutes to pick-up our luggage.  We then hauled it no more than a few hundred feet to customs agent who, after looking over our paperwork, let us pass without incident, and then dropped it off at another luggage check point.  I assume that if the customs agent didn't like our paperwork they wanted the ability to search our luggage but for virtually everybody entering the port, this seems nothing more than jumping through hoops.  Such is life.

We got back home to find a pile of mail, some bread and milk from friends who were watching the house (very, very kind of them) and an inability to get to sleep quickly.  By 2am we had both nodded off and slept in until around 10am.  I was able to stay up the whole next day but Katie wasn't feeling well and slept through a good portion of the day.  Not surprisingly, she wasn't quite ready for bed when I was and we had another not quite as late night.  Today is looking better and we're both hoping a normal bedtime will work for us tonight.

We unpacked a bit yesterday and found out, much to our surprise, that all our fragile goods survived the flight unharmed.  We had worked pretty hard in Beijing to package them securely and our efforts were rewarded.  The rest of unpacking is moving along just fine with most of the laundry almost done.

There was one unfortunate half-surprise when we got home.  I preparation for our trip I had turned off the water to the washing machine.  The valve was damaged, though, and it took a about half an hour to find the magic position where the valve was closed and didn't leak.  When I got home and turned the water back on I quickly remembered that it was broken as I couldn't find a non-leaking open position.  I spent an hour or so driving around trying to find a replacement valve.  No luck.

At the final hardware store I visited I realized with a washer or gasket I could position the valve in the full-open position and prevent it from leaking.  I got the o-rings I needed, took everything home and reassembled the valve to find my idea worked.  No leaking and we could use the washing machine.  The big catch is that turning the valve off will mostly stop the water flow but not completely; the valve is still broken and needs replacement.  

Maybe I work on that next weekend.

Even More Pictures

I've posted another batch of pictures to Flickr, the set that will go up "from the field." We fly back in about six hours (our Thursday afternoon) and, barring any flight difficulties, get into Wichita Thursday evening.

I plan on posting more commentary and pictures once back in the States; we'll see how that goes.

Until later....