Road Scholar

Well, the new vehicle is streetworthy... turns out the initial snafu at the emissions testing site was just a false alert, and she is set.  Plates transferred and paid for, new title applied for and on the way.  I think I shall name her Elyra, possibly Lyra for short.  Below, I have included pictures.  Note, these are not Lyra herself, as I don't have a working digital camera at the moment, but they are web-acquired shots of some of her make, model, and chassis- design twins.

\

The Age of Alero

Entries have been sparse, as I've been busy doing things in real life, but I wanted to note the occasion.  Brunhilda (my old van, in case anyone wasn't aware that I'd named her) is dead, may she rest in peace, and new car has been purchased.

It is a 2001 Oldsmobile Alero, as yet unnamed and ungendered.  Updates, and probably a picture or two, coming.  So far, we get along well.  I feel like she (and yes, I did decide it was "she" just there) has stories to tell.

Worst. Meeting. Ever.

So... my graduate program's parent department at my university... which will henceforth have to be tactfully nameless as I will most likely be ranting about it herein, is hideously disorganized.  It is, of course, an Ed. department, and therefore at the mercy of state licensing boards, but intradepartmental communication has not yet reached the string and cup level.

Graduation requirements have just been changed, not because of licensing needs, but seemingly on the whim of the department chair.  The curriculum committee was not consulted, or apparantly even notified, since the NAMES of the requirements have not been altered; their content has "merely" been completely redefined.  Much of the work fourth/fifth year undergrads, and second year grad students, have done is now rendered invalid or void, and either must be replaced or redone.  This was apparantly decided while the chair was out of the country, and no attempt was made to phase in the new requirements.  The real kicker?  Most of the new content has not yet actually been defined.  It has been named and stated, but there is no clear description of what is required to complete it.

This is on par with the great error analysis debacle out in California, which prevented a year of my life from bearing any fruit I can point to, and so far as I know has kept least three of my former physics professors from publishing their own, more in-depth and more far-reaching study.

I appreciate the opportunity this program represents.  It's heart is definitely in the right place, and I hope to make use of both of those facts for my own good and the good of others...  but this program needs to be taken seriously by the university, and a big part of that may need to be reorganizing the entire department, or at the very least ensuring that there is some form of external accountability.

And all was laid to derivation...

Pretty much what it says on the tin.  Did my first honest-to-goodness derivation in class today, having a subject that was straightforward enough that I could lay it out in mathspeak for the kiddies and 1) be sure they knew all the background information enought to follow it, and 2) be sure I wouldn't have to do too much handwaving (which makes me seem smart, sure, but negates the entire reason for deriving a relationship instead of simply delivering it from the lofty seat of a high school physics teacher in training).

The subject of this Great Leap Forward?  The formula for the centripetal acceleration on an object maintaining uniform circular motion.  Huttah!

Also, my 7th hour kids somehow found my facebook account and learned that I am a "Dragon Person."  I can only assume that they meant my DnD hobby.

It's about time I said this...

Last July, very suddenly, Professor John Steven Paul died.  At the time, I really wasn't in any state to say anything; JSP was director and found of Soul Purpose, and a professor at Valparaiso (though I never was able to actually attend one of his classes).  For me, though, he was among that awkward group of people within which "teacher" and "authority figure" are no longer exactly synonymous, and therefore "teacher" and "friend" are no longer slightly contradictory.  My situation isn't the greatest right now, especially with the passing of Brunhilda, but I intend to do whatever I can to help ensure Soul Purpose continues.  I think he would want that.

He will be missed, and not only by his family.