kids these days...

It's another sign.

I try to keep up with new music. I listen to "Alt Nation" on Sirius... I try to watch all the new bands on the talk shows... I periodically steal music by new artists when I read about them. But I find myself always having the same reaction when I see one of these bands of youngsters performing...

"Uhhh... Is this a joke?"

It's not that the music is BAD... it's just that... these bands just all seem... flippant. And not just the intentionally flippant bands like Weezer... bands like "Death Cab for Cutie"?? I mean... the music is kinda nice, but... they can't be SERIOUS, can they? I just get a weird feeling like the whole band is just some kind inside joke that I'm not in on. I saw "The Arcade Fire" on Letterman the other night, and I couldn't even pay attention to the music because I spend the whole time going - "Is that a French Horn? Why is that guy banging on a marching band drum? Is that all he does? Why is the singer looking like that? Why is he pretending to play his guitar backwards? IS THIS A JOKE??"

Maybe it's because I grew up in the Pre-Irony Age, or maybe the whole point of being old is not being able to understand anyone under 20. (Or conversely, maybe the point of being under 20 is behaving in such a way that old people don't understand you.) Either way... it's kinda sad that pretty soon all new music is going to seems as stupid to me as mine did to my parents. But in the meantime, I'm a'gonna go see that-there Jack White feller with the red dungarees next weekend. I just hope it's not too loud.

indulge me...

OK... so when a 2x former student finds out that you're back teaching again... immediately goes to the registrar to drop a class and add yours... comes to class the next day, then comes up after class to announce, "I am SO happy you are BACK!!" It's not really about the physics teaching. right?? I mean... come on. Nobody can make physics that interesting... not even ME.

the paradox of progress...

Well... I wasn't totally fucked this morning after all, but it required some work...

The deal is this. I use a program called "Interactive Physics" to do demonstrations during lectures. The program has been around for years... I have a version of it on my laptop that I swiped from my old school years ago. Now this program is a "system 9" program, or what we in the Mac world call a "Classic" application. Basically when Mac OS X was introduced there was a complete change in the system architecture and old programs would no longer run in the new OS. To make the transition less painful, the Mac OS X includes an EMULATOR of the Classic OS 9. So you can run your old programs in emulation inside of "Classic".

It usually works pretty well, but something as processor-intensive as real time physics simulations? Well... it seems to me they used to run FINE when I was running 10.1... but now that I'm running 10.3? The thing fucking CRAWLS! So the more the operating system advances, the LESS WELL it runs older emulated programs?? Whatever. All I know is... this is NOT running well enough to show my class.

So... what are my options? First check the website to see if the company has developed an OSX native version of the app. They haven't. Fuckers. Inexcusable. Next?

Well... it turns out that since my machine is of a certain vintage I can get it to BOOT into OS9 rather than run it in emulation. The quickest way to do this is from a CD, so I pulled out an OS9 install CD... shut down.. rebooted (hold down the "C" key!) and booted into OS9. Double click "Interactive Physics"... load an old project file... click "Go"... runs like LIGHTNING. Sweet.

Good. Hmm... I'd better see if I can run an external display in OS9, since I have to hook this up to the projector in class... dig out VGA adaptor... unplug monitor on desk from DEll PC on floor... plug into iBook... NOTHING! Well, crap. Why?

Well... turns out the installer CD-ROM I booted from loads an extremely stripped down version of the OS... no "Control Panels"... therefore no external monitor support. Have to load a full version of OS-9, I guess. Reboot into OS-X... System Preferences... Startup Disk... select OS9 folder...

REBOOT!

(I realize this is about as exciting as when Mr. Dooce chronicles his perpetual reinstalls of Movable Type over at Blurbomat, but... it's how I spent my morning...)

Ok. So now the iBook is running a full install of OS9 from the HD rather than the CD-ROM. Interactive Physics? Check! External monitor... CHECK! Check watch... shit... I've been doing this for an HOUR?? Time to go to class.

There were assorted other peripheral issues, but I won't go into it here. Suffice it to say... that is WAY more computer-fuckwithery than I want to engage in before 9:00 AM.

no rambling entry today...

I graded papers on the train this morning. I know, it's hard to believe...

And I now present my lesson plan for astronomy today.

Kepler - rules with no "why"
Newton's law of gravitation. explain. 1/r^2 necc and suff for Kepler.
Interactive physics: show attraction, orbits.
Track orbit... dots conform to Kepler II
Show earth/mars example... more distant planet, lower v
Show OTHER force laws. 1/r, 1/r^3, etc...
Perhaps some discussion of solar system formation... circularization of orbits?

That's probably not QUITE going to stretch out to an hour and 20. If I need to fill up time I'll start the first topic of next lecture... my famous "What Can We Learn About Stuff Just By Looking At It?" lecture and talk about how looking at orbits can tell you the mass of the central object.

Anyways... off to make sure that "Interactive Physics" still runs on this machine, or I am FUCKED!!


d.


(PS... I'm fucked!!)

commentary...

(Dave's wife's reaction to the "He's nothing like YOU..." comment)

Wife: That's very nice, honey.
Dave: Yes it was.
Wife: Getting our ego stroked today, are we?
Dave: (pause) Maybe...
Wife: Uh-huh. Just so long as that's all you're getting "stroked".

a first...

I actually had my first "in-real-life" meeting with a blogger/acquaintance today... one Caryn from "a picture of me". She and I have chatted a few times on AOL IM, and we recently discovered that we work maybe 8 blocks from one another. So today while I was blowing off yoga class (excuse! fever!) we decided to hook up at the Barnes and Noble down the block. We met in the Physics section, grabbed a drink, had a nice talk... she was very sweet, although both shorter and more animated than her writing would suggest. She also has a very high tolerance for talk about physics. (No, she was NOT just being polite! Shut up.)

It's so weird... meeting somebody whom you've been reading long enough to have formed some kind of ill-thought-out "sense" of them from their writing voice. Even though this is the first time I've met someone from the Blog World in person, I've had the experience of seeing people like Mimi Smartypants or Dooce do TV things, or of talking to certain Blog People on the phone a few times... and it's always just a little weird. Not in bad way... just a little... "off" in a way that's hard to pin down. Kind of like seeing a book you really love made into a movie. No matter how amazing the direction or how perfect the casting... there is always a kind of battle between the image you see in front of you and the one you carry inside your head.

ANYWAY, it was a perfectly wonderful way to blow off an afternoon, and we parted with a hug and a promise to hook up again soon. So... it was a good first time.

Speaking of hugs... I also ran into a former student here at the college who gave me a warm welcome back and a big hug. Perhaps I've mentioned her before? Lithe dance student with a Catholic schoolgirl name that is so painfully innocent that it sounds naughty, and who took 3 of my courses for no other reason than her unspoken, front-row, "Indiana Jones" style intellectual crush on me? Yeah. Did I mention the big hug? When I asked her how her professor was for the "Scientific Revolution" course she was taking this semester, she paused and said... "Well... he... He's nothing like you."

You got that right, baby.

Seriously, though. It's good to be appreciated, and missed. I remember remarking to a co-worker once while watching a scene between a teacher and her former students - "See, I'll never be THAT teacher... I have my students' respect, but I'll never be the teacher who gets the squeals and the hugs from their former students." I suppose it's nice that this is not 100% true.

Anyway. That was today. It was a hugfest! Go Dave!

chugga chugga...

Is it bad that it's the second week of work, and I'm already a little tired of riding this fucking train? The commute is just a tiny bit longer than it was from Long Island, but it's also less convenient and more crowded and...

... and I'm also coming down with this fever that the two kids have been passing around all weekend, just like I predicted... right before I have to teach... so, I could be a little crabby because of that. I brought my yoga bag today and everything... but I won't be going to my first class if I have a fever. I did that once. It was a mistake.

Anyway... fuck.

I'm doing a lab activity with the physics students today, so I'm taking a slightly earlier train than usual in order to get into the campus with ample time to dig around in the lab and figure out where they've hid all my physics apparatus after a year of no-physics-classes in my absence. Not that I have a key to get INTO the science lab. Or that I ever had one before when I worked here, even though I was here for two fucking years. Why are the simplest things so impossible to attain at a University? "Hello and welcome, new science teacher! This is your office! And here are the keys to the science lab!!" Wouldn't you think? You'd be wrong.

Anyway... I should probably stop ranting and think about what I'm going to do in Astronomy today. The results of said thinking will be exhibited below...

Review Ptolemy/Aristotle and Copernicus
How to tell the difference... Galileo and Siderius Nuncius
Galileo's physics, the missing "why". The Dirty Secret of Epicycles in Copernicus.
Kepler and his laws. Newton and gravity. (IP orbit demos??)

There you go... that's an easy 1 hour and 20 minutes. Probably more, even. So, if you ever wanted to know what a Dr. Dave "lesson plan" looks like... that's pretty much it. I'll walk into class... jot that list in the corner of the wipeboard in tiny letters that only I can read... and start talking. At least that's the way it works when I'm teaching something I KNOW. Next semester I'm teaching a few things that I don't know much about at all. (More on that later.) I need to remind myself that when I don't know anything about a subject, I kinda need to plan a little bit more what to say.

So... next semester...

There was some discussion last Wednesday at the departmental meeting about what course I should teach as my third class in the Spring. (My other two classes are pretty much set in stone.) There were two options... one a course on the "History of Scientific Thought"... a kind of philosophy-of-science course that I am WOEFULLY ill-qualified to teach. The other course option is a "Physics of Sound" course... which would be easy enough, except that I don't want it to be JUST a "physics" course... I want to talk about the biology of the ear and the neurology of hearing and the psychology and cognition of music perception. Which sounds great, except that I don't know anything about any of those things.

And the thing is... it's not like anybody is MAKING me teach stuff I know nothing about. These courses were MY IDEA!! This is what I do to myself, because I tell myself I like learning new things. Which is kinda true, but I also hate having to work.

(Fever Update: Ooooh, I'm starting to feel like crap...)

So the upshot of all that is... next semester I'm teaching "The Science of Sound and Music", which means I need to find a good textbook and some movies and a guest speaker or two to fill up all the gaps in my knowledge. I also need to make some really gee-whizzy PowerPoints with cool graphics to cover up my lack of expertise. I'm excited about the course, but I think it's going to be one of those situations where the excitement ends when the syllabus is written, and is replaced with... "AAAAAGHHHHH!!"

Christ... it's been a long time since I've rambled on in an entry like this. Maybe this train business DOES have some advantages...

chugga chugga...

d.

moving van...

I drove into Manhattan today... in a van!! And I lived to tell about it.

All my stuff fits pretty nicely in my office, despite the "Urban Studies Sprawl" of my office-mate's stuff. I didn't lay claim to as much space as I hoped to, so I'm sure his stuff will leak out to cover every remaining surface. But my greatest fear is that they're gonna move me next academic year, and I'll have to do this all over again!

Anyway, pix of the office will come soon, I expect... as soon as I get back into the habit of using my little "shirt pocket" digital camera again.

Wish me luck on the drive home.

d.

scheduling...

I function MUCH better in life when I have a rigid schedule to adhere to. So I'm trying to get that started... first with work stuff, and then with home. I've adopted Apple's iCal program as my scheduler. I used to use a Palm, but I quit using it at pretty much the same time that my iBook became my sole computer. Since it's pretty much always with me, why use another gadget? Plus iCal syncs with my iPod, and having my schedule on my iPod is just too cool NOT to do.

So, my classes and meetings are all in there. The next task was office hours. I have the times set up for office hours, three times a week as mandated. The thing is... nobody actually comes to my office hours... EVER. So I have particular tasks scheduled for each block of time. Tuesday is for short range class planning. Wednesday is for grading and writing assignments. Thursday is for long range course planning.

There are also two blocks of "free time"... one of which I hope to fill with a yoga class. (Tuesday at 2:00) The other block will be for shopping trips around the city, etc.

I also want to schedule my train time, lest those 3+ hours a day be wasted. Blogs in the morning, of course... and class prep on T and Th. I should probably set aside one grading day on the train as well. And one day... Wednesday morning perhaps, for working on papers and publications.

Then comes the at-home hours. Some writing time during evenings when there is nothing on TV... particular weekdays on which we actually COOK dinner... home improvement projects scheduled for particular weekends...

I'm serious about this, people... Dr. Dave is tired of sitting around eating Froot Loops in his sweatshorts. It is not good for him. It is not in my nature to be effective or productive... I have to FORCE those things to happen, and this is the only way I know how. Expect a progress report later this month.

my head...

I'm having a lot of little problems with my head and the area around it. Among them...

1) A zit on my chin the size of which, if I did not have a beard, would frighten children.

2) An ear-fluid issue. When I tug on my right earlobe, my ear makes this kind of sl-u-u-urp sound, almost like when you get water out of your ear after swimming. It doesn't hurt, and I think I can still hear ok, but it just doesn't seem right.

3) A weird little painful lump on the underside of my chin, just left of center. This one has me baffled. I'm guessing either abscessed tooth, clenchy-jaw muscle pain, or cancerous lymph node.

4) Peeling. "Hey, who do you have for physics?" "The prof with the ponytail and the bad case of dandruff." It's not dandruff!! It's the SUNBURN!! I WAS IN CALIFORNIA!!!