geek accomplishments before 9:00 am...

* remove 120 Gb hard drive from firewire enclosure
* remove wife's old 40 Gb drive from (smaller, nicer) firewire enclosure
* verify that the 40 gig drive, is, in fact, kaput
* place my drive into (smaller, nicer) enclosure
* shop for new 350 Gb drive for large enclosure
* practice speech defending purchase of new 350 Gb hard drive to the wife

at least we still have carl kassel...

We're going to Chicago in August and the wife and I have tickets for "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me" but we just found put the Peter Sagal will be GONE and there will be some kind of GUEST HOST. NO FAIR!!! We're crushed.

(This post will only make sense to those of you pretentious enough to listen to snotty weekend game shows on NPR.)

open and shut...

Forgot to mention I had to report for jury duty today. Well... mostly I forgot to mention it because I forgot I had to do it until last night. But it turned out we were all dismissed anyway, since the case was settled out of court at the last minute. You wouldn't believe this village courthouse, though... it made Mayberry look like fucking Law and Order

fitness update...

Seven pounds down. And boy, DO I EVER WANT A COOKIE!

conference recap / teaching manifesto...

I haven't really gone to many talks since the roundtable-workshop yesterday with the textbook publisher. I noticed something during that discussion that kinda put me off the whole rest of the conference, which is... a lot of science teachers at these conferences are insufferable bores and, well... kind of a bunch of jerks. Rather than being interested in improving the state of science education, they all have some kind of personal agenda or some kind of axe to grind. There is far too much tooting-of-one's-own-horn in the atmosphere, and I really have no patience for it. I don't think I approach my talks with that attitude.

The other thing is, all this talk of "Physics Education Research"... the idea that if we give enough tests and do enough statistics, we can figure out the "best" way to teach something, and... I'm sorry, but I just don't believe any of it. I still think Feynman was right when he called education research "cargo-cult science". It looks like science, and it uses some of the tools of science, but I don't believe there is any way to control or to reproduce an educational study. No two students are alike, no two classrooms are alike, no two teachers are alike... hell, I'm not even the same teacher the first, second, or third time I teach exactly the same subject. And I don't care how many scatterplots you draw, I don't think there is any way to draw very many meaningful conclusions out of the sea of uncontrollable variables.

I take exception to the whole idea of "best practices" in the first place. Physics is a science, but TEACHING is not a science. Teaching is an art. I approach teaching much more the way I approach playing guitar than solving an equation. When you are first starting, you see what other people do and you imitate it. If you still suck after 2 years, you are always going to suck. But if you show some promise, and stick with it for a while, eventually you will stop sounding everybody else and start sounding like YOU. There is no BEST way to play guitar. There is no best way to teach. Which isn't to say one can't learn a new chord progression now and then, or try out a new picking technique, or run your sound through some kind of new effects box. But a gifted guitarist can make anything sound good. Likewise a good teacher.

So yeah, I may listen to what other people do every now and then and try to pick up some tips here and there, but this idea of... We're going to find the BEST way to do this through objective scientific study of student understanding... I think is all just ridiculous.

So there. Maybe I should stop coming to these conferences, huh?

Anyway... it' 10:00 AM... I should probably hit the road soon. Although really, I'm kinda enjoying all this laying-around-the-hotel-room stuff. I wonder if there are jobs for Traveling Physicists?

wireless...

I've barely gotten more than two fucking "bars" of wireless network strength ANYPLACE on this trip... not my hotel room, not the conference venue, not the Syracuse campus. It is unacceptable nowadays to sit in a college lecture hall and not have wi-fi. What the hell am I supposed to do... listen to these other presenters???

fitness update...

I found myself tugging my jeans up a lot today. I consider this a positive sign, if a little inconvenient.

technology...

I was gonna express surprise, dismay, and disgust over the fact that many of the presenters in this session are using overhead transparencies for their talks. But given that the last presenter's PC didn't work with the projector, I think I'll reserve my snarky comments until AFTER I'm sure that MY computer is going to work. becuase, unlike the last guy, I do NOT have a backup of my slides on transparencies. But if my computer does work, I may open with a joke referring to the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" commercials.

PS> Yes, it did work, and the joke got a BIG laugh. (My presentation was awesome, btw... in case there was any doubt)

observation...

All of the college students here at Syracuse look MUCH younger than my students. I wonder if there is something about living in Manhattan than makes my kids age faster?

fitness...

Well, after a few days of this... it's nice to know that despite my pushing-40 metabolism, I can still lose 3 or 4 pounds if I COMPLETELY FUCKING STARVE MYSELF. My short term goal is 200 lbs... long term goal is 185. Medium term milestone is 36" pants. Absolute dream... 34".

I haven't gotten into the exercise portion of this program yet. Not formally anyway. Yesterday my exercise was to install a basement ceiling. Today it was to walk all the fuck over Syracuse. I've also been doing a sort of "yoga-with-weights" thing... basically very slow sun-salutations with a 10 pound weight in each hand. Once I've lost a few more pounds and restored a little lost upper-body strength and back flexibility, I'll be going back to yoga class.

I'm not fucking around this time. I'll post some pix of my washboard abs before xmas!

syracuse...

I made it up here in the MapQuest-estimated time... awesome, sunroofy day to drive. The hotel is about 200 yards from the highway exit, which means I found it without getting lost. The room is HUGE and nice and has wireless access. They day couldn't be going much better.

Well... I did walk about a million miles to get to the conference center, only to find that registration was closed and wouldn't re-open for 2 hours. So I went and grabbed a sandwich and a Starbucks and sat and finished my Keynote presentation for tomorrow. So, even the mishaps have been productive.

While I was sitting in Starbucks, there was a table full of physics teachers nearby discussing physics teaching, and while half-listening to them, I came to the conclusion... I don't really like talking about teaching. Or physics. I think it's boring. I do plenty of analysis of my teaching inside my own head without going on and on about it with other people. So why am I at a physics teaching conference? It's all about padding the CV with another talk, folks... nothing more. Every time I look at the conference program, I think... god, there is NOTHING here I want to see. Maybe I'll sleep in tomorrow.

away again...

The latest chapter of Dr. Dave's Crazy Busy Summer... 3 days in Syracuse for the AAPT conference. I'll update you all from the hotel, no doubt.

autobots wage their battle-to destroy-the ev il-forces-of...

Call me a geek, I don't care, but for the entire cruise I was unable to stop noticing the disturbing resemblance between the Royal Caribbean cruise line logo, and that of the Decepticons...



.. especially at a distance, or out of the corner of one's eye. I wouldn't have been at all surprised to see the cruise ship transform into a giant humanoid robot.

back to yoga...

Eaaaaasing back, that is. A few forward bends... a few downward dogs... just to get things loose again. I was surprised how quickly the looseness comes back.

In other news, I'm not eating anything anymore. At all. Only water. YUM! WATER!!!!!

Also, I'm doing things with heavy weights until my arms hurt. This won't last long.

no, ours wasn't the one that tipped over...

But our day yesterday was almost as bad. I'll begin at the end. Last night our flight was supposed to leave Florida at 5:10 PM and arrive in Newark 3 hours later. Instead, it sat on the runway for an hour, left Florida at 6:15, circled DC for two hours, landed to refuel, sat on the runway for 4 more hours, left for New Jersey a little after 2 in the morning, and finally landed in Newark at about 3:30 AM. (*) Then we had to drive 2 hours home. Needless to say, it's difficult to look back and write an upbeat account of the cruise on less than 3 hours of sleep. Hell, it was hard to be upbeat a lot of the time DURING the cruise. Here are my thoughts, in no particular order, in bullet-point form...

* I have no explanation for why a family of four pasty-white couch potatoes would decide to go on a vacation to the Florida Keys and Mexico in fucking JULY. In fact, I may have raised this objection during the planning process, but no doubt my objections were soundly poo-poo'd at the time. It was pretty fucking miserable all week. But somehow, through diligent twice daily applications of SPF 40, we have all returned home sunburn free.

* I'm really glad my book project got hung up, so I wasn't tempted to write or work at all during the cruise because there is no way I would have been able to fucking THINK with all of the breasts on display. Jesus. The wife's take on the situation... "Jeez, there sure is a lot of JAILBAIT on this ship."

* The best part of the cruise was sitting on the deck at night and reading 50 pages of a book - uninterrupted!

* No wait, the best part of the cruise was the full-body massage from the hot blonde Australian chick. But the reading was a close second.

* Now that we are home, a strict dietary and exercise regimen will begin. I mean... I didn't exactly gorge myself on the boat (I simply don't really like food that much) but I did eat three full meals a day, including big breakfasts with lots and lots of bacon. Yeah. Lots of bacon. Ok... maybe I did gorge myself, but only on the bacon.

* We went to Ernest Hemingway's house in Key West, and our guide was enough of a character to actually make the tour interesting. I feel strangely compelled to read some Hemingway now, even though I know I won't enjoy it. Anyway, we took lots of pictures of cats, then trudged through the heat with the whiny kids to a cafe where the wife had some Key Lime Pie, and I had a mojito. About halfway through the drink, I realized... hmmm... I usually drink my liquor actually MIXED with some other liquid... this is pretty much just a tall glass of rum with some sugar in it. When I held the 3 year old's hand on the way down the stairs, it was so that HE could help hold ME up.

* In Mexico, we went to see some Mayan ruins. They call them "ruins" because that's what it does to your vacation when you take two children there when it's 105º. (**) They were NOT up for the walking.

* At one point walking the streets of Playa del Carmen, I looked around and said to my wife... "I keep seeing people who look like extras from a Robert Rodriguez movie", to which she replied - "You mean... MEXICANS??"

* On the last night of the cruise, I pulled out my once-per-decade karaoke rendition of Aerosmith's "Dream On". The last time I did it, my voice survived to the end. This time it kinda gave out, but I think it was still ok. The wife was impressed anyway.

* On the way home, the head flight attendant was this guy who had an outrageous and incomprehensible French-like accent that reminded me of the wedding planner "Franck" that Martin Short played in Father of the Bride. "... A kwoomumba weel lut yoo now wun zee moskis noolanga nodded". It was frequently unclear whether or not he was speaking zee English. He also wore FAR too much cologne for a man who works on a fucking airplane.

Anyway, I may think of more specific things to write over the next couple of days, but that was the highlight reel. It was an ok vacation. The first two days were all-around relaxing, the next two days were all-around grouchy, and it wrapped up ok despite the airplane nightmares. Still... next time, were going on a cruise to Alaska or Iceland or something.

------

(*) Were it not for the free individual TVs on jetBlue, there would have been open mutiny on the plane.

(**) Ok, that was the heat INDEX, but it was still fucking hot.

i really have no idea what this means, but i suspect somebody is gonna get fucked...

... most likely ME.

So, I have 2 emails outstanding to the editors of the textbook I'm working on. One about an invoice, one about a deadline. I hadn't gotten a reply in a while, but was putting off sending a follow-up until I could send the next chapter draft along with it. Now before the next bit makes sense you have to know that the editors I've been working with are a not employed by the textbook publisher... rather they are a kind of independent go-between entity between the publishers and the many authors of the compilation. So this is the email I get today...

"Thank you for your message. The editorial management for this project is in the process of being transferred, so we have all sent all work directly to the publisher for evaluation, and you will receive further information as soon as possible.

We expect that this project will continue but the details are in the hands of the publisher at the moment. As soon as we have more information we will share it with you, or the publisher will contact you directly.

We appreciate your patience and understanding."

You are fucking kidding me, right? I'm still waiting to get paid for the first fucking chapter. What the fuck? Dave asks calmly...

"Thanks for the information. I'd like to know about the financial implications of the transfer, since I've already invoiced [you idiots] for the first entry, but I haven't received payment yet."

Firm yet diplomatic. The reply...

"Dave - I can appreciate your concerns, as we have similar concerns ourselves. We do not have answers for your question at the moment. As soon as we have more information we will share it with you, or the publisher will contact you directly."

Appreciate my concerns? You know what I'd appreciate? GETTING PAID FOR THE TWO THOUSAND FUCKING DOLLARS WORTH OF WORK I JUST DID!!

Can I just say... Fucking-Mother-FUCK. On the bright side... at least I don't have to worry about working on the next chapter during the cruise.

attention...

Oh, how I would just love to blog and blog and blog this morning. It's a train day... a city day... the first in many weeks. But I have all sorts of piddling work-things that need attending to, so I'm going to attend to them.

First I'd like to mention that the recent "thwarted terrorist plot" in NY, in case you haven't made the connection...? That was to blow up the train tunnels I take to work every day. Pleasant thought, huh? I know that the "plot" was really just some guy in Canada talking on the phone to some guy in Lebanon. Nobody had ever been to the US or to NY or had access to any explosives or blueprints or money. I get the idea that the "plot" consisted of - "Dude... you know what we should do? We should blow up an underwater train tunnel." "Yeah... uh-huh-huh-huh... that would be cool." Still, I'd rather not have the knowledge that my SPECIFIC route to work is being targeted, even if it is by Ahmed and Butthead.

Anyway... like I said... I'm off to... attend...

the week to come...

Monday: Work meeting, finish incomplete grades, work on book chapter
Tuesday: Work meeting, finish book chapter, pack for cruise
Wednesday: Fly to Florida, stay in hotel, perhaps go to beach
Thursday: Board ship, embark. Locate spot where ship was cut in half and re-welded. Locate lifeboats
Wednesday: Relaxation, blur of tropical martinis
Thursday: Rinse, repeat
Friday: Finally stop humming theme to Love Boat all day
Saturday: Trek around Mayan ruins too close to equator. Entire pale family gets sunburn
Sunday: Finally give in and pay 50 cents a minute to check email from the ship.
Monday: Return to Florida, perhaps go to beach to sear off any remaining flesh, stay in hotel
Tuesday: Fly home, catch up on remaining 30 emails and 200 blog posts. Weep for sudden lack of all-day daycare

shiver me timbers...

I don't know what came over me... maybe it's all the pictures of Johnny Depp all over my latest Rolling Stone, but today while shopping at Kohl's, I found myself buying this...



My reasonable-sounding excuse is that I'm going to remove the lacing and use it as a beach shirt/swim-coverup on the cruise. But I reserve the right to break out the eyeliner, head-scarf, and hoop earring at any time.

Arrgh...

writing exercise...

Here's a little assignment for you all. Make up a story that features the following objects, in order...

a ladder, an open toolbox, a sharpened graphite pencil, a human foot, a pair of tweezers, a sewing needle, a band-aid.

There is no prize, but if you're very imaginitive, you may well get a little peek into my afternoon.

mild panic attack...

Last night while working on my computer, I noticed that every time the hard drive would spin down after a task it would make this little noise... *chik*. Close a window... *chik*. Open a file... *chik*. This tiny sound led to an immediate fury of backing up a handful of important documents, just in case my HD was about to completely fucking fail on me. But after very loooong, nail-biting restart, the noise seemed to go away. Still, it's amazing how much a little sound like that can raise your heart rate when there is 60 gig of data in possible jeopardy.

we're not worthy...

As if the recent trip to Harvard hasn't had me depressed enough about my third-tier academic status, a glance at my IP logs today revealed that someone has been reading my blog from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics.

Go away, real physicist!! You will only make me feel like a failure. What are you doing reading blogs anyway? Shouldn't you be publishing something?

hey look! summer is half over...

Yesterday I took a look at the proposed syllabi for my three fall courses, one of which is brand new. Crap, do I have a lot of work to do. Not just on the new one either. I had big plans for revamping the astro course to include a week on the history of space exploration (which I find students know nothing about) and some more math here and there. And then there is the basic physics course, where I want to add more problem solving and lab activities, and looking at the syllabus I can't begin to see how to fit it all in without knocking out some of the historical readings I like to do.

Anyway, I'm going to print out my syllabi and stick them in the back pocket of my overpriced Moleskine notebook and bring them on the cruise. I also will be writing an outline of the next book chapter (Quantum Mechanics... oy). So, I'll be the guy by the pool on the cruise ship sipping cocktails and working on physics the whole time. And before you say... "Hey, Dave... shouldn't you be having FUN on the cruise??"... remember who you are talking to. What could be more fun than writing syllabi on a cruise ship?!

didn't there used to be a blog here...?

I know. It happens every summer. It doesn't help that I've been sick as a dog, but blogging just doesn't fit into the picture during the summer months. Any quiet time I get to myself is devoted to the Book thing. It's only gonna get worse. Next week is the cruise, and I don't think I'm bringing the laptop. (Wife's orders.) So I'll essentially be blogging via Moleskine, and transcribing it when I get back.

In the meantime, I'm doing a little housekeeping... cleaning out the blog archives and saving stuff to the HD. There may be a redesign and relaunch of the blog in the future, and a coming together of the anonymous and non-anonymous (nonymous? onymous?) Dr. Dave personae. Still not sure how it all will wind up.

Next Monday and Tuesday, I'll be heading into Manhattan, so I should at least have a few good "send-off" posts before the cruise. Until then...