Holiday cheer

Happy Christmas!

We got a couple of inches of snow for Christmas which made for a beautiful sight and hazardous driving. Our new two-wheel drive Volvo XC90 with California style highway tires has not fared well on the icy hills of F-town. With all of the Christmas festivities, I have gained some additional weight to lose during the new year. My new goal is to lose 30 pounds. My thought is that if I gain a couple over the break, those will come off faster than the others and I will have a good start at the 30 pounds.

At present I am serving as hall monitor so the children won't prematurely see the tree and presents. I hope that all of my dedicated blog followers have a great time opening presents and visiting with family. Don't forget that it you overeat during the season, it will actually help you meet your new years weight loss goals.

Happy holidays!

Cheese is life

I love cheese. I value the texture, flavor, and nuance of each cheese and its history. (I have often wondered why cheese was not in the cultural heritage of the pre-Columbian Americas, the lowlands of Asia, and Africa.) Each cheese gives clues to the the culture of it's unique region or process.
What does it say about Americans that the cheese named for us is highly processed, sometimes made with oil instead of milk, artificially colored, and individually wrapped?

What's in a lifetime warranty?

I seriously thought about buying a Jeep when I found that they had a lifetime powertrain warranty. One has to ask to which life does it apply... yours, or the company's?

Dilemma

While I disagree with the current government's significant intervention into the market, it provides some of us with unbelievable opportunities. I continue to believe that banks should have been forced to fail, and that American car companies need to go into bankruptcy in order to become profitable. Even a day or two ago, you might have heard me complain about how most Americans were unfairly bearing the burden of corporate mishaps. I have come to believe that corporations and financially responsible citizens (with a good credit score and some savings) are both benefiting from the government's actions. Take interest rates for example. If I decided to (and could) refinance today, my monthly mortgage payment would be reduced by $300. If I refinanced and changed from a 30 year to a 15 year mortgage, it would only cost me $75 more per month. That is $75 more per month to pay off my house in 15 years! Even then, my mortgage would be less than rent on a comparable house in the area.

Unfortunately, most people won't be able to take advantage of the opportunities. Many people will lose their jobs during this economic cycle, and even more will be pushed to or beyond their financial limits. People with average (and worse) credit scores and those who are living paycheck to paycheck are the ones who will be most disadvantaged.

Here is the dilemma. While I disagree with these actions, I can significantly benefit from them financially. The moralist in me wants to reject these opportunities but the rationalist sees all of the benefits and possibilities. Can someone live a congruent life while disagreeing with these government actions and taking advantage of the opportunities while others can't?

Blepharospasm

For the last two weeks I have had an eye twitch. More precisely, it is a lower-eyelid muscle spasm. Luckily for me, it has a name and reasonable remedy. Blepharospasms are most frequently attributed to stress and a lack of sleep, both of which I hope to correct over the next two weeks.

I have had wickedness thrust upon me.

I forgot the best part about the last month... Wicked. My mother watched the kids while R and I spent the better part of an afternoon and evening out on the town, in Hollywood. We ate at a shabu shabu restaurant (my fingers are still tired) and went to see Wicked. I have a greater appreciation of storymakers who can see stories within stories and multiple perspectives when none appear to exist.

In response to the question posed by the musical: "Are people born wicked, or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?" I have had this wickedness thrust upon me.

Post Script - The cast was amazing. When Eden Espinosa and Megan Hilty sang together, their voices sounded as one.

Post Post Script - At one point in the production, Fiyero slipped and nearly fell into the orchestra pit, letting slip an expletive. The audience erupted in laughter and cheers which sent the cast into disaster management mode. Both Glinda and Elphaba worked hard to contain their laughter, but eventually succombed, and recovered within thirty seconds via Elphaba's (as Snagglepuss would say... ) exit, stage left.

What happens in the middle

It has been a long time since I last posted. I apologize. With the launch of my facebook campaign for President and other miscellaneous items, I have had little time to submit material to the blogosphere. So one must wonder, what happens inbetween posts?

In the last month, I cooked the thanksgiving meal for nine people, finished all of the preparations for the semester, stained, finished, and installed a new front door, replaced our sliding glass rear door with a winged french door, trimmed-out both doors, wrote two final exams, graded 90 papers, went to Disneyland, remodeled my kitchen, planted the major plants of our front yard, harvested some carrots, played co-host to my mother's visit, played Dad quite a bit, and tried to conduct class as if everything were normal. It seems like there was more, but I can't remember that far back.

Obviously the most prominent was the kitchen, of which I am most impressed. We bought cabinets and appliances on Wednesday and Thursday and started the demolition on Friday night around 6pm. My good friend did a couple hours of demo work and left around 8:30pm. I worked until around 3:30am, then showered and went to sleep. I was up around 7am to help with the kids, back to work at 8am, out the door to take advantage of the free bulk disposal service provided by the city. I made two trips in a borrowed truck. I finished installing the cabinets and counter tops with the help of the same good friend. We finished around 6pm so the we could eat some dinner. I was back to finish the plumbing around 8:30pm. Around 9:45pm I realized that I didn't have all of the necessary pieces, and all of the stores were closed. I tried to finish what I could. (It turns out later that I did have the right pieces to finish the kitchen drain.) I don't shop on Sunday, so the kitchen had to wait until Monday after work. On my way home from work, I bought all of the necessary pieces and had everything except the range hooked up by 9pm. I called a friend to help with the gas line and it was all completed by 5pm on Tuesday. Had I had some guts and an all night hardware store, I think that I could have had it all done by Saturday night. I only really got frustrated with the lack of pieces, a small leak that promptly went away, and the incompatibility of our old gas line with new hookups. After retelling the story, I never want to do that again. Alas, knowing me, I probably will.

Yesterday we received a box from Justin's Nut Butter. While the company may be favoring a highly pragmatic description of their products and services, I can't get over the sophomoric references that are requisite to be made. Having said that, I think I need to stop.

SNL skit

I love it when politicians come out of their shell and act like real people, you know, down to earth. This video needs a SNL makeover to be perfect, but it a great first draft. I love it when she acknowledges that "even this may invite criticism" at 2:29. And of course this is the land of opportunity (at 2:51), for everyone except that turkey.

Standing up for standing up

Mitt Romney's op-ed in the NY Times today was a refreshing take on yet another bailout. Given that Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows for businesses to shed unprofitable contracts, reorganize, and take a moment to think about who is leading their companies, why couldn't we stall a banking bailout bill? I mean it's not like Congress and the companies have done a bad job with the $350bn that we appropriated. Now where did they put it...? Oh yeah, Paulson has refused to tell Congress exactly where it has all gone. That after urging Congress into a very quick authorization of a plan to buy troubled assets from banks and then reversing his position on its viability. Now the bureaucracy has $350bn available to buy stocks in financial companies that couldn't keep themselves afloat. Now that is one sweet deal for someone. Too bad it isn't the general public.

Rumor Control / Confirmation of Your Worst Fear

I have decided after a few long weeks of deliberation, introspection, analysis, and stumping that I am going to run for president of the United States of America in 2012.

I have prepared a list of reasons why I should be our next commander in chief. They are...

1) I will be 35 years old in time for the election, making me eligible.
2) In a democracy, everyone should have a chance at making a difference, so I want mine. If I am bad, you can vote me out.
3) I have a giant brain that is in need of a new problem to solve, no seriously.
4) I am willing to bring in the most knowledgeable and experienced of my friends to help me run this great country (not unlike all other former presidents).
5) I am willing to campaign for the next 3.9 years so that you don't miss election commercials. You can expect some good ones!
6) I promise to provide laughter and hilarity throughout the campaign and my term in office. If not from me, it will come from Saturday Night Live.
7) I have a lot in common with other former presidents.
7a) Like Kennedy and Obama, I have little executive experience
7b) Like Wilson, I am a Professor of Political Science. (Wilson was one of the founders of Public Administration as a discipline.)
7c) Like John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Van Buren, Garfield, and Eisenhower, I am a forehead exhibitionist. Isn't it time for another bald president?
8) I am able to work with all parties, social groups, and economic levels in moving forward. Just check out my campaign pictures!








































I want you to help me! You can join the Facebook group "Tucker for President 2012" and support my cause. I don't want your money, just your enthusiasm.

Whirlwind

With all of the grading, painting, and election work, it has been along time since I posted. I have a major announcement coming in the next few days that I thought I would have ready by last Wednesday. Expect something good in the next few days/hours.

Until then, some updates...

I found out that I burn approximately 1200 calories each day from my 20 mile bike commute. Unfortunately, I have chosen to replace each of those calories on a unit for unit basis with saturated fat, dextrose, or high fructose corn syrup*. If I could ever overcome these three addictions, I might return to my pre-marriage weight of 168.

Between grading and preparing for classes, I repainted the house. We chose a color combination that simply didn't suit the house or our style. It looked as if it belonged on any beach in Latin America or the Mediterranean. Instead of repainting the entire house, I repainted the trim. This means that I have painted every wall and ceiling inside and outside of the house except for both bathrooms and the kitchen. Those are scheduled to be remodeled within the coming year, so I'll be painting them then.

Replacement windows are scheduled to be delivered on Tuesday. Guess who will be installing them.

My garden has been a success on many accounts. We have tomatoes, basil, rosemary, a couple of cucumbers, a zucchini, and the start of peas. Wednesday I harvested all of my radishes and planted parilla leaves, spinach, and swiss chard.

And last of all, I made good on a promise I made to R. when we bought the house; we bought a Volvo. I seriously hope that she forgets about the promise that I made about getting a dog.


* I saw an advertisement for corn syrup the other day. They made the point that the caloric value was equivalent to both honey and beet sugar. How far have we come to have ads for ingredients?

Exams

I gave all of my classes exams in the past two weeks. It has been a good process for me to evaluate the students and my expectations. For one class, my expectations are running high, and for the other, either my expectations are low or the students are exceptional. Because my data points are two, I have too few degrees of freedom to make any good decisions.

I hate subjective measures of anything. To me, subjective means do whatever you want. Being overly analytical, I want to ensure that my grading is consistent across all papers and classes. All teachers are subject to grading fatigue and either score higher as they start or finish grading. Some people know which they do and can compensate, I don't and can't.

Thus I find myself trying to decide whether I should shuffle the papers before I grade them. The papers at the top of the pile were turned in last during the testing period. These papers come from students who took longer, but does that mean that they perform worse than those who finished earlier? If I shuffle the papers, I really don't lose anything beyond intermixing of the two classes that took the test. If I don't shuffle the papers, I may combine the grading fatigue effect with the potential self selection problem of later papers being of worse quality.

I had never thought of this before.

The Potpie Bandit

Since I arrived at CSUF, there have been thefts of various office items on our floor. Initially, it was change or knickknacks. Then, it was a piece of a tripod used to create archive photos of documents that went missing (worthless without the tripod, but expensive to replace). Finally, a very vocal professor realized that he had been robbed of his potpies. Evidently, the bandit had been munching on the potpies while canvassing the floor for items of value in the offices. Thus, the thief was given the name The Potpie Bandit.

Today, I got hit. I was here until around 10pm and back at 6:30 am. In that time, there are very few people who could have entered my office and pilfered my possessions. I believe that I have had a few (of my hundred or so) books taken. I can't tell which ones are gone, but there are spaces on the shelf where there weren't before. I am certain that they will find new homes via eBay.

More importantly, I lost about 10 Kudos bars. They were my precious breakfast and afternoon treats. Evidently the potpie bandit likes both sugary and savory snacks. Either that, or the economic downturn IS really affecting everyone.

Obvious (cont.)

I went to the Dean's office today to pick up a reimbursement check. While there I had a chat with one of the administrative assistants. I asked her about the budget cuts and told her about the Great Depression conversation with the colleague. She ensured me that my job was safe and the first people to go would be the lecturers. That puts me more towards the middle of the pack in case they decide to fire anyone. Maybe I bought those water barrels in haste.

Who 'we' are

I grew up in the early 90's and inherited the 'Gen-X" label. I found this clip on a friend's blog and thought it deserved an acknowledgment here. I have never found a satisfactory description of the general sense of who the X-ers are until now. Maybe it is because we do not see us as a 'we,' nor do we promote ourselves like the generations before and after us. We're just doing our own thing, making the world a better place.

Obvious

Everyone who has been awake during the last week knows that we have a congressional bailout plan in progress. If you are readings this, you know how I feel about it.

I was talking with a colleague about the status of the economy the other day. He was rather worried about slipping into a depression. I asked him what the unemployment rate was during the great depression (estimated to be around 25%). I told him that if our situation exactly mimicked the great depression, and we followed the basic rule of probability, he would have a 75% chance of not being unemployed.

The real problem is that people have become acclimated to spending more than they make. Even if these people retain their jobs and have a decrease in pay, at the very least they risk a significant shock in their home life. All of those consumer goods (e.g. $1000 fishing rods, guns, boats, and 4-wheelers) that they bought as an investment (read: excuse to live outside of their means) are now devaluing proportionately to the ability of others to purchase them. So unfortunately, their consumerism simply cannot help them lift themselves out of this misery.

In my effort to ready myself for the very unlikely event that I am significantly impacted by the economy*, I bought four 55 gallon water barrels yesterday. At least I will have something to drink until this resolves itself. Maybe I should buy a couple cases of Tang.


*footnote: Although I work at a union school and I have a signed two year agreement with an implicit agreement that I will work for 6 years toward tenure, I am one of about 85 new hires this year. Intuitively this means I am more likely to get axed than all but 84 members of the faculty (AND there are over 4000 faculty members here).

The elite Senate

I have never liked the Senate. The underlying principle behind the Senate is to establish a body of representatives who were less likely to be swayed by the whirlwind of fleeting public concerns from the ignorant masses. Thus, they get to serve 6 year terms and only 1/3 are up for election at a time.

In this case, I feel like the role of the Senate has been switched with that of the public. Apparently it was the public who wanted to ride out the storm a little longer before making a compulsive decision, and the Senate who was ignorant.

As promised, I encourage all voters to not re-elect any of the Senate yea voters, including and specifically, our two current Senators from the State of California, Senator Boxer and Senator Feinstein. I plan on reiterating this message in class during each election period until they are ousted from office. I also committed to do everything within my power to dissuade everyone that I met from supporting them, so consider this the first of many jabs. This makes me mad enough that I am even considering a run for office.

Hurray and congrats to the nay voters, may you be blessed with overwhelming success in your political careers.

My faith has been healed, kind of

I did something this week that I haven't done in a very long time. I wrote my senators and representative. Generally, I don't think that they care about me, in fact I know that they don't care about me. Nevertheless, I got mad enough at the bailout that I wrote them all e-mails. In fact I wrote Senator Feinstein twice about it. I promised to work hard against their political futures if they did not vote against the bill. They must have listened. Yeah right.

"Bush and a host of leading congressional figures had implored the lawmakers to pass the legislation despite howls of protest from their constituents back home. " This must have been a nail-biter... [the thoughts of some fictitious representative] "Do I trust the President who has lied to us at least a number of times about crises, or do I listen to the voters who elected me...?" I would have reported on the vote of my representative if the Clerk of the House website hadn't just crashed.

Congrats to the House for not supporting the bailout plan!! If I voted, I would keep voting for you.

Most geeky version ever

I love stats. I also love the song 'Baby got Back'.
What could make life better than combining them?

Only real geeks get how funny this is.

Bailout part 2

Excuse me for being cynical, but don't the capital gains tax reductions expire this year? Could it be that immediate action is required on a bailout plan so that stock prices will rise for a sufficiently long enough period so that wise investors can get their money out with some gains. Wells Fargo and Bank of America shares were through the roof on Friday when the doom and gloom in the rest of the market was apparent. By Monday morning's the announcement of a potential bailout plan, they had lost almost $5 per share because there was no reason for investors to make the move to a more solvent and steady bank. Now the market is mostly waiting for news. A bailout would be good for almost every stock except the responsible ones.

$700 Billion

Would someone please tell me why I should support the bailout of the banking industry. Although my marginal contribution would be relatively small (~$2000, assuming 350 million people in the USA and $700 billion in bailouts), I feel very put out by this. My heart-felt belief is that government should only exert its influence over issues of market failure. In this case, the market is not failing, it is correcting itself. It will be painful because businesses will fail. So what! Businesses fail, even big ones. This is exacerbated when they pursue strategies that are high risk, with high profit potentials. They give dividends to their shareholders in the best of times and are now asking the taxpayer to shoulder the burden of their poor decisions. Get real!

The prominent argument is that the taxpayer will pay for this either way. One one hand, these failures will slow the economy and thus hurt employment, capital investment, and the flow of money in the economy. On the other hand, the taxpayer can keep the economy going (the speed of recovery is still indeterminate given the bailout) by digging into government resources, their taxes and programs, and bailing out companies with problems. The assumption is that keeping these companies around will benefit the public broadly.

Maybe I don't worry so much about a complete economic stall because my position is least likely to be impacted (a tenure-track job at a union dominated school) and I have never really endured one.

I have a few alternate economic bailout plans...
1) we give each individual in the USA the $2000 dollars that we would have given to the banks in the bailout plan. They will most certainly reinject it into the economy at a blazing pace.
2) we use the $700 billion dollars to forgive all student loan debt. Thus we free up interest payments from the debtors to banks that they will use to stimulate the economy.
3) we take the $700 billion dollars and pay off a portion of the national debt. Then we take the money that we would have spent on that interest and create temporary government jobs like the CCC of the New Deal.
I am sure that there are better ideas out there...

I have one overwhelming question that lingers. Why, when corporations need $700 billion, the government has it, but when we need better schools, roads, or welfare programs it doesn't?

update:
According to this article in the NYTimes, it really isn't $700 billion lost. The government would buy the bad assets and then sell them for a loss. In real terms Johnny Slick who sold their house in 2004 got $435k, it is now worth $190k because of market deflation and foreclosure, the government buys it for the $435k that the bank paid, the government sells it for $190k. Who wins in this deal? Johnny Slick, the bank, and the purchaser of the house at $190k (also a person with good credit). Who loses? the taxpayers. They just paid Johnny Slick all of his profit and the bank $145k (albeit that gross cost to the taxpayer is only Johnny Slicks profit because the bank gets paid $0 when it should have lost $145k).

Tomorrow today

I am going to drive home right now (12:43am). I will wake up in 4 hours and be back at 6:30am. I spent the majority of my day doing housework with my family, I left for work around 4pm, taught a class, and worked on prepping classes until this very moment. Although my on campus time is 7.5 hours, with the commute, I have around 9hrs dedicated to my job today. I am not complaining in the slightest - who wouldn't love this job? - I am just saying that the flexible schedule of a professor sometimes creates a bit of schedule yoga.
Tonight, one of my students told me that her sons wants to be a philosophy professor so that he can read books all day long, teach on occasion, and spend the majority of his life on the beach or surfing. Yeah, me too.

Too close to them

In an effort to invigorate my students, I have started to inject pop culture into my lectures. It started with a Jonathan Coulton song about an I.T. guy's day at work (warning... one G.D. in the lyrics). Honestly, it was a funny way of demonstrating the principal-agent problem of information asymmetry with little oversight ability in organizations. Now, after a few more, I have found that I really dig it. Tonight while prepping a lecture on the normal distribution, I wanted to demonstrate how an 'A' grade would be special (a.k.a. low probability event) if grades were distributed normally. On the slide, I wrote "[devilish laugh]" as a segway to the next slide. All of a sudden, I am searching Youtube to find the pop reference.

A Spontaneous Saturday

What are you to do when you don't have any plans but tons of responsibilities on a nice Saturday in southern California? Write lectures like you need to do? Clean the house? No. Buy annual Disneyland passes and go play? Of course!

We decided at around 10 am that it would be a good treat to have annual passes so that R and the fam could just go in for a couple of hours when they didn't know what to do. By 10:30 we had packed up and were on our way for a couple of hours at the happiest place on earth. By 3:30 we were in full 'Disneyland mode' and decided to continue on to California Adventure. We had never been before, but because it was included in the pass, why not check it out? It was much more enjoyable than any of us imagined. We stumbled on the nightly parade, and E.'s face was priceless. R. Indicated that that was worth the prive of the annual prices. I disagree. I think that visiting Disneyland more than 6 times (the zero marginal cost visit) is worth having the pass. Around 7pm, almost 4 hours past our anticipated return time, we drove to In-n-Out burger to finish our unplanned California adventure. It was 8:45 before we got home. Both R and I have a few things that need done, like prepping classes. Should I have done that? Yes. Was it more fun to just be a Californian today? Of course.

Office update

Last week I received the last of my new office equipment. Now I have a ginormous 'L' shaped desk, two bookshelves, a legal-type filing cabinet, a new desk chair, and two visitor chairs. On my desk I have my iMac, an iBook, a laser printer, the telephone, a few books, writing assignments, my COG (thanks Josh), and a beautiful picture of R. taken from out of the car window. My sparse office is now full to the brim. This is BEFORE I bring in my commuter bike (which broke a spoke today). I loved the zen of an empty office, but it was completely impractical, like most model homes.

History reguritated

I believe in forgiveness. I can even state unequivocally that I have forgiven ***** ******** [name omitted out of courtesy], but I don't believe he is yet ready for any sort of correspondence indicating such.

There is a guiding principle that is best expressed in a Blues Traveler song... "they say the past is behind us, it would be real confusing if not." I also believe that, although we may leave our intense emotion in the past, we must retain the lesson learned for use in guiding our lives through the future. Two of the more powerful messages left to us from one of my favorite books, is to retain a record of the past and to remember what happened. These become powerful forces in our life for our good. Thus when history repeats itself, we can be prepared.

Catching up

I took E. to work Friday on the train. He did exceptionally well at school. We left the house at 7am and stayed in full college mode until around 6pm when R & R came to join us for a campus party. I tried to work, but to be honest, I wasn't in the productivity mode. So tonight I am paying for it. I have two lectures to prepare for Monday, a little grading to do, and a talk to prepare for and give tomorrow. Given that I reserve Sundays for everything except work, this makes for a long night tonight.
This type of catching up is certainly not uncommon for a first year prof, but I normally front load my life. That is to say, I seclude myself and get everything done within the first 10 percent of the time period. Then, I can relax and enjoy the experience. Tonight I get to live the life of a crammer.

Backwards schedule

Today is Thursday but it feels like Friday. Tuesdays feel like odd Saturdays, and Wednesdays feel like Mondays. Sunday feels like Sunday should, but Saturdays, for some reason, don't. Moving from a regular shift job to being a full-time tenure track prof is more confusing than I ever imagined.

Voting part 2 (aka the longest post ever)

Most people believe that voting is the mechanism through which the will of the people is expressed by the choice of a representative government. Many people have determined to become more informed about the candidates in this election because they think that everyone else will as well. So if we have an informed electorate, the will of the people will be expressed through our choice of candidate that will best represent the people. If this were true, life would be blissful. It isn't.

Arrow showed that voting can't represent the preferences of the population without violating some of the basic rules of fairness that we hold dear in a democracy.
McKelvey showed that there is no stable outcome even when we know everyone's true preferences, thus whoever sets the order of voting picks the winner of the vote. A funny extension of this finding was done by Levine and Plott when they used this concept to manipulate the outcome of voting (using the same preferences of the voters) in a variety of circumstances.
And, finally, Riker argued that our conceptualization of democracy as representing the people's preferences is a fundamentally flawed belief. Take for example one individual voter who has a diverse set of beliefs on a variety of subjects. If they are restricted to a choice between a number of candidates that is fewer than the number of preferences they have, they must give up some of those preferences (determine which is the most important overall) in order to make a choice. Extend this to 10,000 voters all giving up some preferences in order to make a choice between two candidates. How can this diverse set of preferences among the people be represented at all, let alone when the threshold for winning the election is at 50% plus 1 vote? In other words, how can the likes of the people be pooled together (an impossible task - thanks Arrow), determined by a plurality vote (the functionally easy part, with its own set of underlying problems), and then represented by an individual (with their own set of diverse preferences, and no clear idea of what his constituents want) who may have been chosen at a very low threshold? Rather, the power in democracy rests in our ability to remove bad representatives.

Where am I going? Early social choice theorists (Downs, Black, Dodgson, et al.) argued that in our single member district, two party system, the parties end up competing for the votes of the centrist, uncommitted voters. In order to get those votes, they have to push their platforms towards each other and blur the lines of distinction between the parties. (aside- has anyone noticed that McCain is about reform and Obama is about change? = same thing: have you seen a defined platform for the parties? Where do they overlap and what is left off?) Citizens have to work hard to figure out all of the differences between the candidates, only to have to restrict some of their preferences in order to choose between the two. Why waste the time on acquiring information? If you are going to vote, you should choose the issue that you want the most and find the candidate that fits that belief.

Unfortunately, some people won't even do that. They may simply not care or have done the research, and their vote counts as much as yours. (I, for example, will be wasting my vote on someone with a funny name; a pattern I have followed since my first experience with voting in high school. I voted for a female with a name that could be made into a sophomoric reference, not worth repeating now). I personally think that everyone should have a chance to be a representative, and if they do a bad job, someone will vote them out next time.

The conclusion of many social choice theorists is that 1 voting is irrational for a variety of reasons (some not included here, like cost/benefit, expected payoffs, liklihood of impact), 2 voting does not produce an outcome that is 'the will of the people' and 3 spending a significant amount of time choosing a candidate is time lost given the constraints of our system. If you love learning, go ahead and enjoy the campaign. If you don't, don't worry about it, you are not a bad citizen. And you can complain about the outcome even if you don't vote. I have never seen a law forbidding it.

Voting

Most of you know my position on voting.

I have been asked by a group very important to me to vote this November. This is one of those instances when the benefits inherent in voting are intractable and the costs extraterrestrial.

The only problem is that I have always voted for the loser (Bob Dole, Ralph Nader). Should I vote for or against? I am inclined, given my record, to vote against so that it passes.

This is the life of an overly analytical professor.

Magic

The breath of life has been given to campus and, like a magic performance, appear the students. Campus is packed with late students scrambling to find parking. There are the standard long lines for food, enrollment, and the bursar's office. It feels nice to be part of such a gigantic coordinated process. I am sure that that will fade over time, but for now, I truly enjoy it.

Whirlwind

Today I finished orientation. It was an informative but arduous process of learning how complex it is to be a new faculty member in one of the largest schools in California. The institutional research people even said that CSUF will likely surpass UCLA in enrollment (including part-time students) and all other CSU schools this term. So, an update is in order.

Move -> fast, furious, mostly painless, time consuming
New House -> clean, painted, full of boxes, and organized according to our desires. It is not finished, but the major projects (excepting the kitchen) are nearly completed.
New Courses -> nearly ready, but still no syllabi (that is next on my list)
New Commute -> about 1 hour 45 minutes on average. That entails around 11 bike miles and 40 train miles. I could likely do it fast in the car, but I can exercise before my commute (bike), work on the train, exercise before school, work all day, exercise after school, work on the train, and exercise before I get home. I should be fit, right?
New Colleagues -> unbelievably welcoming and warm. From what it appears on the surface, they are interested in retention in tenure, not expulsion.
New Office -> still no furniture, no computer, but a nice clean floor and a good view from the window. I think that if I stayed late enough, I could watch the fireworks at Disneyland from here.

Two worthless movies

I was treated to two movies in two days. I haven't seen two movies in a theater in years, let alone two days. It is a personal record. The first, Dark Knight (IMAX version), was interesting but left me in a funk. It was simply disturbing on many levels. The action was complete and the gratuitous violence plentiful. Although the plot line was generally credible, it seemed to be overly tight. For a self-proclaimed anarchist psychopath to have hatched such complex and diabolical plan seems unrealistic. There is no doubt about Heath Ledger's performance deserving accolades. The second, Hellboy II, can only be described as a Lord of the Rings-esque romantic, action, fantasy thriller that was full of puns, allusions, and 1960's themes. My brother-in-law feigned a snore during the 'get-drunk to soothe our girl troubles' scene, and guffawed during the delivery of most cheesy lines.

First day

Monday I did my first trial run of the work commute. I clipped myself into my bike and away I rode. About 4 miles into the ride, I stopped at a red light and promptly fell over. It was my first time. I made it to the train station in time to buy the wrong ticket and board the train 2 seconds before the doors closed. I got corrected by the conductor for not securing my bike to the wall properly. From my stop, I followed a 6 year veteran bike commuter to the campus. I spent all day trying to get an ID, keys, and all of my paperwork filled out. When I got my keys, I opened my office to... a completely empty office. They said that the bookshelves and desk were on order and should come in soon. They also had to reorder my office computer because they got me the wrong kind. So I spent the rest of my first day sitting on the floor of my office prepping classes. Although it sounds bad, it was a wonderful day. All of my colleagues were happy to have me around (at least that is what they said), and I feel at home. Just before I was planning on going home, I stopped into the bookstore to check out their Mac supply. They had a clearance special on the 24" that made it less than the price of the 20", so I bought one. I got a free iPod touch. Because I was lugging this huge computer around, I had to ride the bus to the train station. Everyone was very helpful and wanted to hold the computer whenever I did anything (like put my bike on the front of the bus, or try to get my bike and boxes on the train). It all became a big joke to everyone on the train that I was so paranoid about losing my computer and bike. I called a friend to pick my up at the station so I didn't have to walk it all home. All in all, a super first day.

Problem

It all started with the pedals.



I started reading biking websites and found that I might want to try a single speed bike. It has the benefits of simplicity, robustness, and all of the current kudos for being in the know. I called one of my wife's cousins. He had a decked out single speed bike that we would trade for one of my collectible items.



So, now I own two new bikes. Both of which are red.



I re-geared the bike so that I can make it my rainy day commuter.



I understand that my legs will thank me. If nothing else, all of the cool kids will love to see an en vogue, bow tie wearing, bike riding professor.

Linux love

When I got my laptop about a year ago, I tried to make sure that it would be compatible with some Linux OS. I chose the Ubuntu flavor and gave it a go. After two failed installs, it finally worked. Shout out to Josh. It turns out that the install disc was corrupted. During this process, I heard many woeful tales of destroyed data that had not been properly backed up. I have tinkered and worked a little, but mostly I enjoy playing the games. The only unfortunate part about the install is that it failed to recognize my wireless card, and so I have to use an ethernet cable if I want to hit the net. Everything is intuitive except for the terminology. Point, click, play. Point, click, download updates. Point, click, create slideshows.

It has some distinct advantages over microsoft...
First, you get it for free. You do get what you pay for in support, it all comes from other users.
Second, it allows your machine to run as fast as it says it will (no behind the scenes stuff going on here).
Third, you look super cool to all of the 'in the know' people (i.e. Geek Squad underlings, programmers, almost anyone with pocket protectors)
Fourth, you get to be part of the open source movement, whatever that means.

Did I mention that I enjoy the games?

Accepted

Today I received notice that one of my (a co-authored) papers has been accepted for publication! It was one highly modified chapter of my dissertation. It is in a top 20 journal which makes me feel like my work has some merit. I am now 25% closer to tenure. Hurrah and Huzzah!

I got over it... why can't he?

I am in need of a new quote about slander. Not gossip, but slander. In my mind, gossip is indifferent to the truth, whereas slander always takes the side of untruth. My favorite quote about slander was pilfered from a previous employer and I cannot find its true citation. (Why have a quote when you can't attribute it to anyone?) It goes "what Peter says about Paul says more about Peter than it does about Paul." It has been of great comfort lately and speaks volumes about slander. Most of all, I am simply disappointed. "Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another." - Arthur Schopenhauer

[Postscript...] The other day, I did some legal research and found that may states have dispelled their slander law on the grounds that they violate free speech and are generally antiquated. Antiquated? Is that to say that a person's reputation shouldn't have to be protected by the law? I also found that such legal cases are difficult to adjudicate because slander and libel cases have extremely high hurdles to demonstrate harm. Two big wins for the liars of the world and a hurray for our legal system!

Routine reading

When we moved to F-town two years ago I fell in love with this book. It was my wife's grandma's. when we moved out of their house, I longed to have a copy. Then about a year ago, I got one as a present. Mine happens to be a version prior to the printing of other volumes. And, until tonight, I had no idea that there were other volumes.

It is a compilation of "single-sitting summaries" of great books, biographies, and quotes. I have recently read about Einstein, Madison, Jefferson, Adams, Washington, Copernicus, and Galileo. I have also read the summaries of about 15 books that I never got around to reading when I was younger. The best part is that they really are single-sitting summaries! Enough said.

Commuting Plans (a.k.a. The Story of My Bike)

We hope to have one car in California. I know it's heresy to not own at least one car per driver there, but I can live with being a heretic. My trip to the train station in Riverside is about 5 or 6 miles on bike. I thought that it would be nice to treat myself to some super-clearanced clipless pedals (they are called clipless, but they clip you into the bike, so I don't completely understand the name).

They were to be a welcome addition to my trusty old mission bike. The other day I figured that it had at least 10 k miles on it. Besides having to replace parts from theft and decay, it has served me very well.

Then, I remembered that I used to ride with slick road tires on the back to make the ride more efficient. So I bought some of those. They look funky, but they work great. Plus who cares, because I wear bowties.
I remembered that my front fork was held together with zip-ties. Really, my fork is broken and could shoot off at any moment if it were not for these plastic wonders. This is my second fork on the bike. I think that my weight and riding style significantly influence the life of a fork. Anyway, I called around for a cheap replacement and found used rigid and suspension forks at a store in Durango. We had gone to spend the weekend at my in-laws cabin, so it wouldn't be a hassle to just look, right?

I went in looking for a fork, and came out with a used Bianchi. It was cheap, and it is fast. I couldn't withstand the temptation to have a smooth styling, super fast ride to the train station. Just the other day I hit 40+ mph on the straight away (compared to a measly 28mhp maximum on the mountain bike).
And guess what? They had some matching (used) road shoes for my new clipless pedals.
I still love my mountain bike. I hope to enjoy many miles on my roadie.
Isn't it great when the winds of shopping blow you a great setup?

Progress

Limbo would be an appropriate description of last month. Lots of travel, relaxation, housework, and nothing that moves us forward of backwards. Finally today a breakthrough, opening escrow. Maybe in the next few days, we will have a closing date. Prior to today we faced the question 'What do you start packing when you don't know when you are going to leave?' Let us start the mad rush. Bring it on!

Evals (take 2)

As a part of my visiting position, L&C requires that I write a letter addressing my evaluations. Thankfully, I gave it a week before I had to look at them again. Today instead of looking at the written comments first, I went to the summary statistics. Why I didn't do that in the first place, I will probably never know. I won't repeat that mistake again.

Overall, I did better than I previously thought. [My detailed discussion follows. If you are not interested, skip to the next paragraph.] My mean was no more than one standard deviation from the department and division averages for all of the scores except two. Then by class, I found that one class scored me at the mean of the department and division, one class scored me slightly less, and the last class gave me some pretty bad scores (4 on a 7pt scale). The class with the bad evaluation scores was full of juniors and seniors, did worse on their exams than the other class, and were generally disrespectful. It was their written comments that stuck in my head the most from my last reading of the evaluations.

I think that good written comments are relatively rare and negative written comments are more prevalent. So I screwed myself by reading them first and passing over the summary stats.

Bank-repo-beautiful!

It's no looker, but it was cheap.

The ghetto outside (you can't see the bars on the windows).
The soon-to-be remodeled kitchen.
The living space (you can now see the bars on the back window).
The repo-licious backyard. We plan on planting a huge garden on the hillside behind the house. I hear that you can get two seasons of vegetables in R-side per year.

Teaching Evaluations

When professors think that they are safe because the semester is over, the writing is getting done, and preparation for new classes is starting, the teaching evaluations arrive. It is just part of the mania of being in this profession.

These being my first and only from L&C, I must recognize that they are unimportant for my tenure, but valuable for guidance. Having said that, it is difficult to not be discouraged. I think that I did a reasonable job given what I knew, but obviously it was not enough to become super stellar prof-guy. What can I say, it was my first real gig outside of graduate school, and after 4 years of not having been in front of a classroom. Now I feel better.

I think that I know what went wrong. First, I tried to teach thematically rather than substantively. I have come to understand that students would rather have the details, than a method of putting it all together into a coherent way to view the world. Second, I taught at the worst times of the day. I had class at 9 am, 9:45 am, and one from 7-10 pm. Third, I underestimated the willingness of students to tell me how they are doing and what they would like to have changed in the class. I used to do it, so why wouldn't they? Fourth, I was a first semester prof at a unique school. As much as I loved being there, the school has different expectations that are higher than state schools and bordering on graduate school. How could I have known? Fifth, there were a variety of odd situations that simply created a disaster. I taught intro an intro class full of juniors and seniors and they nailed me for not being challenging enough. (The same class full of freshmen and sophomores gave me reasonable evals.) I taught a methods class to people who were graduating the same semester. (They should have taken it as juniors.) And in summary, it was my first time. It can only get better, right?

Do you have any suggestions / stories about what makes a great professor? What did you like the best? What does not work? Help me out. Please.

[I just took a short break to read comments about teachers I know well on ratemyprofessors.com Now I feel a little better. CSUF will not be the same as L&C, but still please leave some advice]

Hurray for Bank X

To the shareholders of Bank __X__,
Thank you for allowing me to buy your house for our offering price. I know that you could have made $2k more by going with a riskier buyer, but you lost a few more dollars and went with the sure bet. Obviously you have already lost a lot of money following risky deals, so maybe $2k wasn't all that much to lose on the last leg. It all started when you gave a loan to a significantly underqualified buyer. My guess was that it was a subprime loan with a 6-month ARM. Maybe there were multiple families who occupied the house and they pooled their W-2s to qualify. With the increasing prices in the area, I am sure that $450k for a 1480 sqft, 4 bed, 2 bath house seemed like a good buy. They were trustworthy buyers, so they could make the payments when the rate reset. Oh, wait, they couldn't.

Fast forward to June 2008. There is a glut of houses on the market. Potential buyers are having a difficult time qualifying for loans. Housing prices in some markets have dropped 25%. But you bought a house that was super inflated in value. You lose over 60% of value. What is another $2k when you already lost $250k.

Gratefully yours,
One happy Bowtie Professor

College Night

Last night I went to visit a BCL friend, JRN. He and I share similar hairstyles, among other things. He is also a displaced Midwesterner with a sensibility about life. He loves mines and reclamation, and I have lost all interest. In the absence of an involved owner, we ran a successful business, walked a lot of miles, and shared 2 great seasons of fieldwork.

We and a couple of friends went to Sonic and then to Denny's. I was out until past midnight. It felt like I was an undergrad again. We talked smack and watched the only un-committed person in the group hit on all of the waitresses. Only a few things would have made it more of an undergrad night... eating wings, walking home, getting lost, eating a pint of Ben and Jerry's, and watching some horrible tv show like Beavis and Butthead.

Having said all of that, I can't believe that I turned out to be a bowtie prof.

Pins and Needles

We are waiting for a response from the bank on whether or not they will sell us their house. We submitted an offer a week and a half ago. We had hoped that we could get into it and remodel before I started work. At this rate, we won't. Our realtor said that the bank is courting another contract that will provide a whopping profit of $2K more than they would make on us. And the prospective buyers need down payment assistance. After a year of financial devastation, the bank is pinching us out of our house for $2k. Shareholders of __X__ bank should be proud!

In Memorium

Today I sent my boat off to my brother. I will miss the fun, but not the trouble. Joe and I had many a great ride in Kansas, and I will never forget how much fun it was growing up in Ohio. The times it worked were great. The times it didn't were simply embarassing. I can't count the number of times that I paddled or swam it in to the docks. I also can't count the number of times that I never thought it would be able to run as well as it did that day. Unfortunately because of my body's super efficient fat-storage system, even on the good days it will no longer allow me to ski behind it in the manner of my choosing. My brother got the thin genes, so he won't have that problem.

I had planned on taking the boat to Idaho in January when I left for Lewis & Clark, but due to snow on the roads, I chickened out. Looking at today, I am glad that I did. My in-laws volunteered to take it to Utah today where my brother will pick it up. They needed to take a few items to friends, and their truck is much more powerful than our old Jeep. A few hours into their trip, one of the tires on the trailer blew out. They didn't notice until it had eaten up part of the rim. The boat had a spare, but no tire iron. Luckily, they were only 15 miles outside of Moab, so my father-in-law unhooked the trailer and went into town while my brother-in-law and mother-in-law sat in the boat and ate dinner. They said it was like any other day on the lake except there was not water. Finally, they got a tire iron, put the spare on, and left for Salt Lake. A few hours later, in Price Utah, the spare tire gave out. Luckily, they are near a few tire stores and are not a schedule.

Maybe the boat is exacting its final revenge on me for not using it for the last two years. Rachel believes in the personification of inanimate objects, so this would not be a difficult thing to imagine for her. I envision the boat with a stern grimmace trying to figure out how to best inflict pain on me... "Rachel hates me, and her family is doing him a favor, so if I can make the trip hard, he will feel bad, and she will multiply the anguish by complaining about me and the ordeal. It is a perfect plan." It is also possible that a 10 year old tire and a 30 year old spare simply can't handle the pressure of making a final road trip.

I tend to think that it is the boat's final farewell. It's new owner will surely use it, for he is a professional fisherman. It was first purchased in Idaho, and to Idaho it returns. From a fisherman, to a recreationalist, back to a fisherman. I think that it will enjoy the cool river and lake water there.

May you live out your days is wet peace, dear boat.

Mental stimulation

I read two books on my trip to California... The Richest Man in Babylon and The Alchemist. The Richest Man in Babylon is an old financial advice book that can be boiled down to save at least 10% of what you make to pay yourself. Then take that money and use it to make more money. Simple right? It explains this concept in different variations through the telling of fictional tales of people from Babylon during its glory days. Where did it get Babylon? RICH... then destroyed. It gives the concept within the first few pages and then pounds you over the head with it again and again. Mostly I stuck with it because I found it on the bookshelf at my parents house with a note from my grandfather and grandmother to my parents in 1976. Now that I have read it, I think that I can honestly declare that none of my family has ever read the book or followed its theme.

Everyone has read The Alchemist so no need to repeat the theme. I was struck by one passage that bears repeating. It is shortly after the boy watches the hawks fight and thinks of it as an omen. It is on page 101 of my version... "He knew that any given thing on the face of the earth could reveal the history of all things. One could open a book to any page, or look at a person's hand; one could turn a card, or watch the flight of the birds... whatever the thing observed, one could find a connection with his experience of the moment. Actually, it wasn't that those things, in themselves, revealed anything at all; it was just that people, looking at what was occurring around them, could find a means of penetration to the Soul of the World." If I were to have written it, it would say something like... 'Actually, it wasn't that those things, in themselves, revealed anything at all; it was just that people, looking at what was occurring around them, could find a means of looking backward, seeing forward, and piecing together the story about to unfold before their eyes.'

While it is mentally stimulating to read, both books left me a little blah. Is it too much to ask for a new message? I guess that's what I get for reading old books.

Summer Broken

Summer break is great until about 4 weeks into the break, at which point begin to I long for a routine. This summer has been more difficult than most in that I returned home from a long absence, my wife is increasing her business stature, we made a rush trip to Ohio, and a house hunting venture to California. For the rest of my break I have to write some papers, prepare courses, pack the house, move, remodel a kitchen, start a new job, and be a supporting spouse.

Having said all of that, I have the best job in the world. This summer is just broken.

All a dream

I have discovered a wondrous ability to dream. I start by meditating on something and gradually I fall asleep. I am immediately in a dream-like state. The other day I went from meditating to dreaming to awake again in under ten minutes. It is a great way to nap.

Unfortunately, Portland seems like a dream. I remember the students faces, going to my office, and apartment, but it seems so surreal... almost as if I had never been there. I realize that I was there, but it is all fuzzy and gray in my mind. Maybe it really was fuzzy and gray there... It was Portland.

Summer break

The semester is over, the final grades are in, and I am going to enjoy being with my family. The last four months away were a good experience, but they were long. Now I get to enjoy the fruits of the academic lifestyle... summer break (without a paycheck until 1 October).

My to do list:
write two publishable papers
prepare two classes
buy a house in a deflating real estate market
move to California
perform all of my domestic duties
lose 20 pounds

Ambitious? yes. Manageable? who knows.

My Ferrari Weekend

I slipped away to Cannon Beach to grade papers. After I graded them all (about 80), I went downtown to see the annual Ferrari show. This is the view down the side street with the cars. Not only were there Ferraris but there were Mazaratis, DeTomasas, Lamborghinis, and a few others.


I was totally surprised when I saw this F40 with its hatch open. I spent a significant amount of time looking at the transmission, intakes, engine, and other farkles. Needless to saw, I am sure that it is a safe car, but I wouldn't want to get in a fender-bender with it.

I was also impressed to see this machine on the road. The Maclaren - Mercedes Benz SLR is everything you could expect from those names. It has a gigantic hood that looks cartoonish. They say that it can get from 0-60 in 3 seconds. This one had a license plate holder that offered napkins for the droolers. I guess you can expect that from a car with a base price in the $400Ks.
In the end, I couldn't choose where to spend my money. So, I got both the 308 and the 328. Who can argue with their class?

Encyclopedia

The last time I picked up an encyclopedia, I was in high school. I don't even remember what I looked at, but I do remember that it was a World Book Encyclopedia. They seem to have cornered the market on library resources for secondary education. It is now over a decade ago that I last touched a paper encyclopedia. Our current pluralist conceptualization of information has spawned Wikipedia, the ever changing, not quite always reliable source of information about all things. As a professor, I am conflicted about allowing its use as a source of information. A year ago, Wiki ate my favorite website for electoral institutions information. Electionworld.org fell prey to the instant accessibility of Wiki. I felt sheepish when I told my classes this semester to look up electoral systems information on Wiki. I told them "you can use it for [this information], but please don't tell your other professors that I condone its use as a scholarly source." Obviously I do not encourage its use, but why not look at it to get a start on finding higher quality information? More importantly, what happens when a reliable source becomes part of the monster?

What differentiates Wiki from the World Book? Obviously content can change very quickly on Wiki and it is reviewed and modified constantly by interested parties. Who wrote the World Book, and why should I trust them? The librarians did, so should I?

This question has hit more closely to home as I write my encyclopedia article. It will appear in a hard-bound, true-to-life, paper encyclopedia (that is if I can finish it in time). Yes, they still make them. Yes, these people know about the information on the internet. Yes, they invited me to write an article. But what makes me more suited to writing an encyclopedia article than the multitudes of people who contribute to Wiki? With the exception of my degree, I haven't figure that out. There are editors who will correct major errors, so there is a check in the system.

It is scary to me that someone may pick up a book, find my entry, and consider it trustworthy because it came from a paper encyclopedia.

A true antique in the age of Wiki.

Luddite

In case you didn't know, my lovely wife has never seen any of the Star Wars movies. One of our friends indicated that if you didn't know what a "snap-hiss" was, you might be a luddite. I contend that if you don't buy a flashing cell phone headset, but rather use your ear lobe to hold the phone during mobile conversation, you might be a bluetooth disabled neo-luddite.

More mice

Since the last mouse update, I have prevented at least another 10 mice from breathing more of my precious apartment air. Supposedly there is a mouse population explosion in the vicinity, and thus I get to see them in my house. It is going to snow tonight, so I expect more kills. I will carefully bait the traps and wait for the cold weather...

No physical disability for me in Scotland

According to a Glasgow tribunal, I would not receive disability payments for emotional injuries that occurred due to my personal deficiency. I prefer the Elisha method of setting the score straight.

Catholic and Mormon Snobs

I was surprised to read that excessive reproduction could be interpreted as snobbery in the big city. I always thought that only having one or two was elitist, and thus the active Mormons and Catholics were the lower class. I never imagined that you could work your way up the social ladder so easily.

Teaching Effectiveness

Today I know I did my job. A student came up to me after class and unaffectionately said "thanks for roping me in to learning." I laughed and she grumbled about how she could have been paying less attention if she had only known it was a lecture.

My new favorite reference

I stumbled upon what has become my new favorite reference site. I was looking for an explanation of why one uses "e.g." instead of "i.e." When I went up one web level and saw the entire list, I spent a while just smiling at all of the ways in which we use the English language poorly. I am not an expert and often make errors, and I think it is a little obsessive to list them all, but what a great list!

By the way, did anyone see my other new favorite link?

Mice, not nice

Today I captured my 10th mouse in the house. I caught 6 the first week of my discovery of them (while R was here) and then at least one every week since. I have never lived in a place with mice, so this has been a new experience for me. While they make the house less lonely, it is not the sort of company that I prefer.

Tag - I'm it.

I've avoided these, but must concede due to hypocrisy. I love reading them, but don't like to disclose. I was tagged, and thus here are my answers. Sorry to those of you who thought this was a professional blog. It isn't.

1) 10 years ago: I was somewhere in the central valley of California. It was March so it must have been Ceres (Modesto). I only miss the shrimp burritos. I wore a tie everyday, but not a bow tie.

2) 5 things on my to-do list: grade literature reviews, write an encyclopedia article, prep the last of my comparative politics classes, prep my conference presentation, and prep my research methods classes. (all job related)

3) 5 snacks I enjoy: milk and batches of cookies (why eat one when you can gorge yourself on an entire soggy batch?), chips and salsa, good cheese of any type (but given the choice, it would be Huntsman), hot chocolate, leftovers

4) 3 bad habits: procrastination (I'm doing that right now), being overly forthright in conversations (ask R.), being uptight about unimportant things

5) 5 places I've lived: why stop at five? Boise Id, Heath Oh (at least 3x), Flagstaff Az (2x), Firebaugh Ca, Exeter Ca, Ceres Ca, Livingston Ca, Riverbank Ca, Atwater Ca, Farmington Nm (2x), Lawrence Ks, Portland Or... is that all?

6) 5 jobs I've had: why stop at 5? Boy Scout Camp counselor, laborer (home construction), township employee (bury bodies [legally], pave roads, remove roadkill, mow and trim cemetery), waiter (2x), high school theatre director, missionary, computer tech, natural resource intern (state job), shelf stocker (hardware), intern, youth conservation corps supervisor (Americorps program), graduate teaching assistant, graduate research assistant, survey research center manager, environmental consultant, and professor. I'm sure it seems like a lot, but I've been working since I was 14.

7) 5 things that you don't know about me: doesn't anybody who has ever met me know everything about me? I concede too easily to point-mongering students, there are multiple missing generations in my family tree (my grandma was born in 1910, so in terms of time, she should have been my great-grandma), I have a stepbrother that I haven't seen in 15 years, I only recently adopted the bow tie, and I love to front-load my life (get things done early).

Redemption

One of my students gave me this article today. It not only made me smile, but now I feel vindicated. A chubby balding professor is ahead of the fashion curve. (I just won't pay $90 bucks for one).

Scandals

The NY Governor sex scandal is wonderful!! I can't get enough of it. It feels the same to me as reading Laud Humphrey's A Tearoom Trade. The best part of it all is that they didn't catch him, and probably won't prosecute him, for the prostitution. They caught him because of wire transfers of money out of his business account. Just years earlier, he warned Wall Street traders and skin mongers about not leaving e-mails, text messages, and other records that could be traced. He got caught doing what he was best know for prosecuting. There must be some 'cast the first stone in a glass house' joke combo in there somewhere.
So the government probably won't charge him with the prostitution crime, but it certainly will be the cause of his impeachment, not to mention his divorce. I love our government scandals. Maybe they'll let me teach a class on it sometime.

Gratitude

Someone came to my office hours today to give me feedback about my class. It was really nice. To spare you all the details, he wanted to let me know that I was doing fine as a teacher and he provided some insights into how to better structure the tests. I was grateful. When you spend time worrying about and caring for others, it is simply fulfilling to have someone say thank you.

Daytime post

I haven't posted anything during daylight hours in a long time. My mind is fresh so maybe it will be clear. Probably not.

I did some statistical work on the test scores and I feel much better. The average was around a B, so they did better than I thought. I still let them vent to me about the test via a few in class questions that they turned in for participation credits. I will probably never, in my future positions, ask for so many assignments. The grading is so time consuming. I used to laugh at all of the people in the academy who complained about service and grading. To me it was no big deal to get all of that work done. I just never saw all of the other stuff that was required. Now I just nod my head in support. Then again, once all of my classes are prepped, life will be much easier.

Happy Birthday!!

To my dearest E. on his 4th birthday...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

I hear that you may have a balloon party for your birthday. Aren't these guys funny?

For your birthday, I put together a little post full of our fun things.

Every time that I find a new cheese, you ask for a taste. More often then not, you decide that you don't like it. I know that you don't like stinky cheese, but I thought that it would be fun to have a reminder of how much I love it.

What we really love to eat together is CALAMARI!!

We also love to go for rides in the Land Cruiser. This summer we will take the top off and play. You will have the wind blow through your hair and I will get a sun tan. on the top of my head.

I want to go camping and teach you about the stars. Maybe while we are there, we could go to the cabin and take some hikes.
This summer I am planning on going swimming and riding the slide together.

You probably don't remember how or why you started talking about chickens, but I think that I had something to do with it. I have always had an affinity for them, mostly because they are so weird. It was not until I moved to P-Land that I got to be close to them. My chickens here look like this.

Here are some Israeli ones without feathers. Don't they look funny?

I think that it is so funny when you point out how much I like motorcycles, so I have included one of my favorite types, the cafe racer.
I love you very much and I am glad to have you as my son.
Happy birthday!!
Love,
Dad