Her younger brother, on the other hand, was much more available...
... and so we got to spend some time with him, particularly out in the front yard where there were readily available ladybugs to be fascinated with.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Birthday in Enid
My niece had a birthday party in Enid a few weeks ago that my wife and I attended. Due to the large number of guests, and the crowding around for pictures: this is the only decent photo of her I got:
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Male College Degree Holders
An article in Washington Monthly (summarizing a Lumina Foundation report) confirms a suspicion that I've had for a while; of those aged 25-29, 47% of women hold a degree compared to 37% of men. I ask this in all honesty since I have not applied for undergraduate scholarships for some years: are there scholarships that target men? When I was seeking to fund my education there seemed to be plenty scholarships that I couldn't apply for because I was not a woman. I never saw any that were just open to men.
I regularly see reports and articles discussing the efforts to get more women into the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields where they are not as well represented. I don't see similar reports of efforts to get men into fields where they are equally not well represented such as (and I'm completely guessing here) elementary education and nursing.
College funding is a politically complicated issue and I wish that it were not so. I haven't done a lot of research but it appears that, with regard to gender, the recent political efforts to restructure accessibility to higher education have been very successful. Though it is not politically correct, the data seem to support the fact that our efforts have produced results that pass gender equality and are now significantly favoring women. I'm assuming that this was not the intended outcome and that with the victory of getting more women through college, we should rethink our choices.
Maybe the time has come to focus on getting men through college.
I regularly see reports and articles discussing the efforts to get more women into the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields where they are not as well represented. I don't see similar reports of efforts to get men into fields where they are equally not well represented such as (and I'm completely guessing here) elementary education and nursing.
College funding is a politically complicated issue and I wish that it were not so. I haven't done a lot of research but it appears that, with regard to gender, the recent political efforts to restructure accessibility to higher education have been very successful. Though it is not politically correct, the data seem to support the fact that our efforts have produced results that pass gender equality and are now significantly favoring women. I'm assuming that this was not the intended outcome and that with the victory of getting more women through college, we should rethink our choices.
Maybe the time has come to focus on getting men through college.
Thursday, June 06, 2013
One of these things is not like the others...
Taken in the power research lab I work in at Wichita State:
Even with my poor quality cell phone camera the baby blanket on the floor beneath the solar cells seems out of place.
Tuesday, June 04, 2013
Board Game Storage: Dominion - New Case
I know I said I wasn't going to move my Dominion set into a larger box until I needed the room but, well, it just kind of happened.
I made plans to go to Hobby Lobby to pick up a shadow box for another project and printed out the 40%-off coupon they almost always have on their website. When I got to the store, they were having a sale on picture frames and shadow boxes (another common occurrence) which nullified my coupon. I was in the store, coupon in hand, and even though I didn't have immediate need of it, it seemed even more foolish to not purchase the larger box. I didn't want to have to make another trip at some later date, right? And I had the coupon, just begging to be used.
The next day, I was at the hardware store for an entirely different home maintenance project when I stumbled across some 4" x 2' x 1/4" maple slats that would work great for the dividers in the new box. And they were being clearanced-out for $1 each. With maybe a little bit less internal conflict over how small pebbles were beginning to turn into avalanches and slippery slopes were being danced upon, I bought five.
In just two days, purely by happenstance, I had purchased all the pieces I needed for upgrading my Dominion box. These pieces were sitting in my house, un-touched and still wrapped, not causing anybody any harm. And I was doing OK with this; I had a lot on my plate with upcoming trips and trying to get some school work done. I was actually feeling pretty good with just letting them sit there for a while.
A few days later I had got some time to kill while Katie was making dinner so I go out to the garage and cut the dividers from the maple slats I purchased. A day later I find myself sanding the dividers and the box in preparation for staining, another day I end up beveling one corner of the dividers so that the lid will close once they are installed. And so it goes: a little gluing here, a little staining there...
... and suddenly I'm putting felt into the bottom of the case....
... and transferring the game into the new box.
Its nice to see it with plenty of room for the other expansions and I'm happy with the final results. Incidentally, the staining was done primarily because my Catan set is housed in the exact same box and I wanted an easy way to tell them apart. The felt was recommended to help keep the cards from sliding around. And they look nice, too.
Craftsmanship on this was probably a solid "B" and I am perfectly OK with this. The stain pooled some in the corners, there is glue acting as a significant structural members to keep the dividers in place and the felt was not cut very precisely. These imperfections were completely acceptable to me; I have taken the policy that the first time I build something it is effectively a prototype. Get it done and learn from the process rather than making sure the end result is flawless.
But seriously, this was all a conspiracy of coincidence. The box practically assembled itself. Its not my fault.
So when do I get Prosperity, anyway?
I made plans to go to Hobby Lobby to pick up a shadow box for another project and printed out the 40%-off coupon they almost always have on their website. When I got to the store, they were having a sale on picture frames and shadow boxes (another common occurrence) which nullified my coupon. I was in the store, coupon in hand, and even though I didn't have immediate need of it, it seemed even more foolish to not purchase the larger box. I didn't want to have to make another trip at some later date, right? And I had the coupon, just begging to be used.
The next day, I was at the hardware store for an entirely different home maintenance project when I stumbled across some 4" x 2' x 1/4" maple slats that would work great for the dividers in the new box. And they were being clearanced-out for $1 each. With maybe a little bit less internal conflict over how small pebbles were beginning to turn into avalanches and slippery slopes were being danced upon, I bought five.
In just two days, purely by happenstance, I had purchased all the pieces I needed for upgrading my Dominion box. These pieces were sitting in my house, un-touched and still wrapped, not causing anybody any harm. And I was doing OK with this; I had a lot on my plate with upcoming trips and trying to get some school work done. I was actually feeling pretty good with just letting them sit there for a while.
A few days later I had got some time to kill while Katie was making dinner so I go out to the garage and cut the dividers from the maple slats I purchased. A day later I find myself sanding the dividers and the box in preparation for staining, another day I end up beveling one corner of the dividers so that the lid will close once they are installed. And so it goes: a little gluing here, a little staining there...
... and suddenly I'm putting felt into the bottom of the case....
... and transferring the game into the new box.
Its nice to see it with plenty of room for the other expansions and I'm happy with the final results. Incidentally, the staining was done primarily because my Catan set is housed in the exact same box and I wanted an easy way to tell them apart. The felt was recommended to help keep the cards from sliding around. And they look nice, too.
Craftsmanship on this was probably a solid "B" and I am perfectly OK with this. The stain pooled some in the corners, there is glue acting as a significant structural members to keep the dividers in place and the felt was not cut very precisely. These imperfections were completely acceptable to me; I have taken the policy that the first time I build something it is effectively a prototype. Get it done and learn from the process rather than making sure the end result is flawless.
But seriously, this was all a conspiracy of coincidence. The box practically assembled itself. Its not my fault.
So when do I get Prosperity, anyway?
Saturday, June 01, 2013
Conference in Madison
PSERC had there spring meeting this year at University of Wisconsin-Madison and I just got back from my trip up there. I'll spare you all the technical details of the conference and instead talk about the general aspects of my time in Madison.
First of all, the campus. This is a very large campus that is thoroughly integrated into the city.
(All photos you'll be seeing today were taken with my poor quality cell-phone camera. No justification is provided for such a choice on my part.)
All the buildings you see in this picture are a part of the university. Almost all of the buildings I saw on campus were at least five stories tall. I was told the campus had 40,000 students and it stretched literally for miles. Despite Madison being a relatively small city, walking through campus felt just like walking through downtown in a many times its size. You might guess that parking was not easily found and you would be right. This is true not only for cars but also for scooters (called "mopeds") and bicycles.
After riding my bicycle as my primary form of transportation for a better part of a decade, I have to say that Madison fully understands and enables bicycle commuting. Autos, bicycles, and pedestrians; these three all move at distinctly different speeds and to facilite each, they each need their own lanes. Seeing these three lanes makes me want to move there.
There's always the weather, though. Humidity was high (> 90%) so even at 75'F I was sweating. I don't think it would be any more bearable than Wichita's summers even if the highs are ten or fifteen degrees cooler. Winters I would expect to be much colder and snowier than anything I've ever experienced; maybe I don't actually want to live there.
Anyway, back to the campus. At a big school there is a lot of money very modest percentages of the university budget can produce very impressive results. We got to tour the newest building on campus and it is was nicer and more impressive than the building where I have my office at Wichita State, also the newest on its campus.
Five or six stories, glass and metal, very fancy looking labs with many millions of dollars of equipment. It is hard not to feel inferior when surrounded by such impressive equipment. The advantages of doing research at such a large and well-funded school were clear and made me jealous; I've always had a problem with gadget envy. It is in times like these that it is good to remind myself that I'm actually very happy with the education and research opportunities I have been granted, both undergrad and graduate. Expensive toys are nice and they enable some incredible work but there is a lot that can be learned and studies with much more modest means. I am thankful for the opportunities I've been given.
Lastly, a bit of a rant on the controls in my shower at the hotel.
Two levers one controls the amount of water and the other controls the temperature. The large one rotates about 540 degrees (1.5 revolutions), the other, smaller lever only 45 degrees. To turn the shower on you must rotate the larger one until water begins to flow. To adjust temperature you then turn the smaller one appropriately. No wait, that's completely wrong. To adjust the temperature, you continue to turn the larger handle an arbitrary amount in an arbitrary direction.
After using this fixture for three days I had memorized where the handle should go; the location never made any sense. And the smaller handle? It did adjust the amount of water AFTER you had turned on the water with the larger handle. This is the worst design I have every personally encountered. (If design decisions like this equally ruffle your feathers, do I have the book for you: The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman. Amazing, fantastic book.)
First of all, the campus. This is a very large campus that is thoroughly integrated into the city.
(All photos you'll be seeing today were taken with my poor quality cell-phone camera. No justification is provided for such a choice on my part.)
All the buildings you see in this picture are a part of the university. Almost all of the buildings I saw on campus were at least five stories tall. I was told the campus had 40,000 students and it stretched literally for miles. Despite Madison being a relatively small city, walking through campus felt just like walking through downtown in a many times its size. You might guess that parking was not easily found and you would be right. This is true not only for cars but also for scooters (called "mopeds") and bicycles.
Many buildings had the moped lots and all had many bike racks. Madison took bicycles very seriously. Bike lanes everywhere (some with curbs in the middle of the street physically separating them from auto traffic), demarcation between bicycle and pedestrian lanes on paths, and automated bicycle rental racks strewn throughout campus.
There's always the weather, though. Humidity was high (> 90%) so even at 75'F I was sweating. I don't think it would be any more bearable than Wichita's summers even if the highs are ten or fifteen degrees cooler. Winters I would expect to be much colder and snowier than anything I've ever experienced; maybe I don't actually want to live there.
Anyway, back to the campus. At a big school there is a lot of money very modest percentages of the university budget can produce very impressive results. We got to tour the newest building on campus and it is was nicer and more impressive than the building where I have my office at Wichita State, also the newest on its campus.
Five or six stories, glass and metal, very fancy looking labs with many millions of dollars of equipment. It is hard not to feel inferior when surrounded by such impressive equipment. The advantages of doing research at such a large and well-funded school were clear and made me jealous; I've always had a problem with gadget envy. It is in times like these that it is good to remind myself that I'm actually very happy with the education and research opportunities I have been granted, both undergrad and graduate. Expensive toys are nice and they enable some incredible work but there is a lot that can be learned and studies with much more modest means. I am thankful for the opportunities I've been given.
Lastly, a bit of a rant on the controls in my shower at the hotel.
After using this fixture for three days I had memorized where the handle should go; the location never made any sense. And the smaller handle? It did adjust the amount of water AFTER you had turned on the water with the larger handle. This is the worst design I have every personally encountered. (If design decisions like this equally ruffle your feathers, do I have the book for you: The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman. Amazing, fantastic book.)
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