November is just a week away. The high temperatures is going to plummet from the low 90s to the 60s because of a polar front coming through, and when it rebounds it may only get as high as the low 80s. Maybe. And the sharp drop is another reminder that my time on sabbatical is disappearing.
I let the folks at the Health District know that I've decided to wrap up my time with them on November 13. At this point, there really isn't enough time to launch into any new projects, and the things that I'm currently working on are wrapping up, so staying around an extra week or two doesn't seem to benefit anyone. The last couple weeks have been decreasing in productivity relative to before. I've spent a lot of time learning about Apache Nifi and making various data flows from it, but it's all just playing in the sandbox. And that's really about it.
My class at UNLV is going well. We're just about to get into the predictive analytics stuff, which is the main thing I hoped to learn from this class. We're just starting into our basic modeling right now, and then we'll see what sorts of things happen from there. The last assignment took me longer than probably any other assignment so far (since the start of taking these classes), so I'm hoping that I'll get to see some newer and more challenging things.
During my sabbatical, I've been playing around with two different ideas for papers. I've decided to set one of them aside because I'm having some problems with the numerical integration package, and it's the one that I think is less likely to be published. The one that I think is in better position is a study that we've been doing about student attitudes towards mathematics. We've been putting our these surveys for a while, and I think I'll be able to get away with doing just some observational analysis of it as the foundation for potential interventions.
I've started to invest some time back into thinking about the Spring semester, especially as I'm picking up those new classes. I've been slowly cranking out a set of videos that I'm intending to use with my MATH 283 (multivariable calculus) course. That one is going slowly because it's kind of been just a background thing so far. At some point, I'm going to have to come up with some linear algebra notes and some complex analysis notes. I've been debating whether I want to try to do "live to tape" lectures for one of those classes instead of doing synchronous teaching. I probably won't do it for both, but I might do it for neither. I'll have to think about that some more.
I bought a small package of potentiometers for $10 off Amazon, so the idea of fixing my alarm box to make it work is back on the table. I'll probably just resolder a separate PCB for it and just swap it out. I think I would also like to make a volume control knob on the beeper, because it's just a hair louder than I wish it were. So there are at least a couple things that I could do to mess around with it. But I'm not yet interested in diving into that project yet.
My indoor herb garden is moving forward with round 2. The first round was just the company's premade seed and soil bundles (tomatoes, basil, lettuce). I was pleased with how the basil turned out, but the lettuce was too much waiting for not much lettuce (it did have a strong peppery bite to it, which isn't what I was expecting) and the tomato plants offered relatively little yield (though the flavor was good). I bought some seeds (parsley, oregano, chives, cilantro) and those have been growing for a bit. There's some sort of mold that's fighting with the oregano. I've been trying to clean that one up a bit, but I may end up just trying to start a second plant in the other spaces. I still believe I overpaid for the indoor growing light and watering system, but it's gotten me to do something that I wouldn't have done otherwise, so I don't think it's as much of an overpayment.
I don't really have much else to say. I guess it's been a slow couple weeks. Car is fixed and is not giving me any problems. No piano time. I haven't heard much about the test tube suspender project. COVID cases in the US are at record highs, so social distancing is likely to continue for a while. Election Day will probably pass before the next time I sit down to type and think like this. The outcome will be whatever it will be. And the consequences of that outcome remain to be seen. I've had some good conversations with a number of people in the last couple months, and I'm mostly optimistic that a good chunk of Christians are seriously rethinking their politics, which I think is a good thing.
