I don't have a lot going on right now. I'm back in Livermore for a while, and I'm more or less in full vacation mode. I guess I'm doing some work related to that textbook that I've been talking about, trying to get the sections organized in a way that makes sense. But other than that, it's really a time of getting no work done.
I met up with Kristen last night at a new downtown restaurant. The place is called "The Carvery" and it's the first time that I can remember that I've been to a cafeteria style restaurant. The portions were generous and the prices were very reasonable. Kristen is approaching her interview season, which is an exciting and stressful time. We chatted about academic things, both positive and negative. One of the topics was the nature of an education and the prevalent use of money as a primary factor for why people should be getting educations. It's a little long and rambling, so I'm not going to spend time here to rehash the major points. It's sufficient to say that we both believe that not everybody needs to get a (4-year) college education, nor should they.
I've got the usual family sorts of events going on in the next few days. Christmas day will actually be a little quieter than usual. We're not really doing anything big until Saturday because of various time-sharing agreements with the other families involved through marriages. Saturday will apparently be a double-dinner evening, and then more relatives come out over the weekend through the New Year (at which point I'll be heading back to Vegas). I'll also have a chance to meet up with a friend I haven't seen since high school. I haven't seen him in that time partly because I'm not so good at keeping contact with people, and partly because he moved to Japan. But it should all be good.
I also realized that I didn't do a Christmas email this year. Come to think of it, I don't think I did one last year, either. Maybe I did, but I have no recollection of it. I guess I still have time to do it, but I'm just going to pass this year. Sorry, everyone. If I did, I guess there would be a few highlights: World Series of Poker, finishing my first year at NSC (and my new office), snow in Vegas, and picking up backgammon are the things to look back at. The future is also interesting with potential changes in the complexion of campus, thinking about home-ownership, and become a textbook author (because a one time poker author isn't good enough for me).
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Snow Day in Vegas!
After my last post muttering about snow on the other side of town, tonight it's snowing on this side of town. I was on campus to do some work and enjoy a faculty/staff potluck, and there was about 2.5" of snow on my car when I left. I took a couple cell phone pictures, but I'm not sure how to send them to myself via email so they're stuck there for now. The snow is expected to continue until early tomorrow morning.
I was intending to drive across town to play games with Daniel tonight, but I'm staying home instead. There are too many crazy drivers who don't know how to drive in the snow. As nice as it is to see the snow and to enjoy watching it fall in a place where it's not supposed to fall, it's not much fun to drive in it. It's slow and I have less trust for Vegas drivers than I normally do.
Here's the picture that went up on our school's webpage:
This just in: Clark County School District has declared tomorrow a snow day. I don't work CCSD, and I won't know whether my campus will be open until tomorrow.
I didn't take this picture, but I like it.
I was intending to drive across town to play games with Daniel tonight, but I'm staying home instead. There are too many crazy drivers who don't know how to drive in the snow. As nice as it is to see the snow and to enjoy watching it fall in a place where it's not supposed to fall, it's not much fun to drive in it. It's slow and I have less trust for Vegas drivers than I normally do.
Here's the picture that went up on our school's webpage:
This just in: Clark County School District has declared tomorrow a snow day. I don't work CCSD, and I won't know whether my campus will be open until tomorrow.
I didn't take this picture, but I like it.
Monday, December 15, 2008
The sesmester is over
All I have to do is turn in grades tomorrow and then I'm officially done with this semester. I think my grades are lower on average this time around, but that's fine with me. I had a large number of students in my Math 097 class who stopped showing up after the second midterm (almost every one of them failed).
There's a really cold storm system that's moving through the valley here. The west side of town got snow (two inches in the city, 4 inches just outside of it), but none over where I live or on campus. It would be a little surreal to see it snow on the strip (as if the strip isn't already surreal). But snow there would almost certainly lead to about a dozen car accidents as already bad drivers start gawking out their windows at the falling snow.
I made my first batch of chicken satay tonight for a faculty potluck on Wednesday. They are just a touch salty, but I think the sauce should soften that up a bit. It was the first time I used fresh lemongrass, and I think I like it. I don't like that it's a 20 minute drive to the closest place to get it, as there are no Asian markets on my side of town. The marinade included soy sauce, ginger, garlic, fish sauce, lime juice, and lemongrass. I got the peanut sauce recipe directly from Aileen, which was both easy and tastes about right. I've got a miso-based sauce that is okay. I'm not completely pleased by it, but I'm not sure what I can do to fix it. I'll just put it out there and see what happens.
The potluck is at 1:00, but I need to be on campus by 11. This means that I've got to keep the food warm for 2 hours. I think I have a plan that will work. It involves four bricks, the oven, and a towel. When I heat up the satay on Wednesday morning, I'll also heat up the bricks, and then lay them across the bottom of my cooler on top of a towel. I think if I keep the oven temperature below 200, there should be zero risk of fire or anything like that, right? The cooler and the stored heat in the bricks should keep warm for at least a couple hours, which is about how much time I need. I must remember to buy bricks tomorrow.
There's a really cold storm system that's moving through the valley here. The west side of town got snow (two inches in the city, 4 inches just outside of it), but none over where I live or on campus. It would be a little surreal to see it snow on the strip (as if the strip isn't already surreal). But snow there would almost certainly lead to about a dozen car accidents as already bad drivers start gawking out their windows at the falling snow.
I made my first batch of chicken satay tonight for a faculty potluck on Wednesday. They are just a touch salty, but I think the sauce should soften that up a bit. It was the first time I used fresh lemongrass, and I think I like it. I don't like that it's a 20 minute drive to the closest place to get it, as there are no Asian markets on my side of town. The marinade included soy sauce, ginger, garlic, fish sauce, lime juice, and lemongrass. I got the peanut sauce recipe directly from Aileen, which was both easy and tastes about right. I've got a miso-based sauce that is okay. I'm not completely pleased by it, but I'm not sure what I can do to fix it. I'll just put it out there and see what happens.
The potluck is at 1:00, but I need to be on campus by 11. This means that I've got to keep the food warm for 2 hours. I think I have a plan that will work. It involves four bricks, the oven, and a towel. When I heat up the satay on Wednesday morning, I'll also heat up the bricks, and then lay them across the bottom of my cooler on top of a towel. I think if I keep the oven temperature below 200, there should be zero risk of fire or anything like that, right? The cooler and the stored heat in the bricks should keep warm for at least a couple hours, which is about how much time I need. I must remember to buy bricks tomorrow.
Friday, December 5, 2008
One week to go
Next week is the last week of the semester. I've basically got a mountain of grading standing between me and being done with this semester. If I could, I'd start grading the final exams now, but I can't. They haven't taken them yet.
I think I almost killed my Math 128 class. They were all completely distraught with the results of their last midterm. I've always taken the hard line of not lowering standards, especially in classes that lead to future classes like PRE-calculus. This means that I drive them hard all semester long with a steady, relentless pace. I sort of consider it to be coddling weakness if I don't let them know what is required of them and stick with it. All I do is make their calculus class that much harder. I feel the same way about Math 097 and Math 093.
I came in second place this week at the backgammon club. I pulled out a miracle win and then proceeded to roll really well to take me to the end. I lost in the finals on a thin-lookimg take at about 12:15 AM (the tournament started at 7:00). I was a little surprised at how much mental fatigue kicked in on me, and I suppose it's because it's the end of the semester because I feel like I should be able to focus for that long.
I had another night of vision-forming at church. I'm going to miss tomorrow session because of the Putnam, but that's okay. Tonight was less intellectually rigorous and more inspiring as we finalized core values and mission/vision statements. When I came here last year, I was mostly excited about the prospect of getting in on the ground floor of the campus, and being able to influence the institution before it gets too institutionalized. Now I find myself in a similar position at church. It sounds like whatever happened before I got there really brought a lot of things at the church to a stop, and now it looks like it's getting ready to start up in a new direction.
There were a couple "what ifs" that caught my attention tonight. What if Las Vegas were actually transformed by God? What would it look like? It's hard to wrap my mind around that one. I don't think I have a good big picture vision for the area. However, smaller ideas that got floated out were the ideas of literacy programs, debt management programs, and other things that address the true needs of the area. Debt management was something I talked with Pastor Scott about a few times while I was in San Diego. I can see these things being valued by the community and having a true impact on the area.
I think I almost killed my Math 128 class. They were all completely distraught with the results of their last midterm. I've always taken the hard line of not lowering standards, especially in classes that lead to future classes like PRE-calculus. This means that I drive them hard all semester long with a steady, relentless pace. I sort of consider it to be coddling weakness if I don't let them know what is required of them and stick with it. All I do is make their calculus class that much harder. I feel the same way about Math 097 and Math 093.
I came in second place this week at the backgammon club. I pulled out a miracle win and then proceeded to roll really well to take me to the end. I lost in the finals on a thin-lookimg take at about 12:15 AM (the tournament started at 7:00). I was a little surprised at how much mental fatigue kicked in on me, and I suppose it's because it's the end of the semester because I feel like I should be able to focus for that long.
I had another night of vision-forming at church. I'm going to miss tomorrow session because of the Putnam, but that's okay. Tonight was less intellectually rigorous and more inspiring as we finalized core values and mission/vision statements. When I came here last year, I was mostly excited about the prospect of getting in on the ground floor of the campus, and being able to influence the institution before it gets too institutionalized. Now I find myself in a similar position at church. It sounds like whatever happened before I got there really brought a lot of things at the church to a stop, and now it looks like it's getting ready to start up in a new direction.
There were a couple "what ifs" that caught my attention tonight. What if Las Vegas were actually transformed by God? What would it look like? It's hard to wrap my mind around that one. I don't think I have a good big picture vision for the area. However, smaller ideas that got floated out were the ideas of literacy programs, debt management programs, and other things that address the true needs of the area. Debt management was something I talked with Pastor Scott about a few times while I was in San Diego. I can see these things being valued by the community and having a true impact on the area.
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