I bet you didn't know that I'm a world famous soccer player for the German national team. Really, it's true. Just listen to this audio clip from the third place game (Germany vs Portugal) from the world cup this year. I clearly hear the announcer say "just praising Christoph," don't you? See, I'm famous!
Just in case you aren't convinced, let's listen to this objective clip from a recent interview on Public Radio International's show "The World." That's right, I make the news. :-D
A happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone. We went up to visit Don and Susan Hoffman for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. It was relaxing and great to see them. Continuing their 19 year tradition, we had Thanksgiving at Cooper's Spur. It was snowy and beautiful all during our lunch. Afterward, we went out in the snow and introduced Katrina to cold snow on the face and Emily to snow angels and snowballs. Beautiful and fun!
Continuing the snow theme...it's been snowing almost all day here in Corvallis. The temperature outside is about 34 degrees, so the snow is fairly wet and isn't sticking around much, but there is a light coat of white on almost everything outside. I'm sitting at the desk in my office just admiring the whirling flurries of snow. It's been the best of both worlds. Lots of snow to enjoy without any ice problems. We'll see how things go tonight since the temperatures are expected to dip into the high 20's.
I turned in the written portion of my qualifier on Tue, Nov 7. (As I mentioned here.) It felt great send the paper off after working like a dog to get it done. There is a presentation and oral exam component that I still have to complete.
After 3 weeks of trying to get presentation scheduled, I finally got it scheduled today. Wow! Everyone on my committee is busy! It took three rounds of emails as well as some personal conversations to get the meeting scheduled. It makes me really appreciate calendaring software.
So, I'll be presenting for my qualifier on Tue, Nov 21 from 9:00-11:00 AM. After that's over, I'll have another thing to be thankful for on Thanksgiving. :-)
Maybe it's just me, but when I hear the name of the tea "Constant Comment" I immediately think, "the tea for nagging wives." Lisa just bought a box of the tea and she doesn't seem to find my joke nearly as funny as I do--even though I reassure her she does not fall in the "nagging wife" camp.
What makes this joke even funnier (if you accept the whole "tea for nagging wives" business) is that Bigelow claims "Constant Comment" is "America's most popular specialty tea." I just think: "We create a specialty tea for nagging wives and now it's America's most popular tea!"
Or maybe this is all a result of my sick sense of humor. :-P
and they're 3rd and goal. The center snaps the ball to the quarterback. The receivers hightail it into the end-zone--that is, all except one. He just stands there and waves his hands in disgust. He doesn't even try!
So, if you're watching this scene unfold, you would probably be pretty ticked off. What a defeatist attitude! Sure, the team is losing big, but you have to at least try! You might even have a chance for a big comeback. Of course you're going to lose with an attitude like that.
So, did you vote on Tuesday? Or did you allow your inaction to strengthen the votes of those with whom you disagree?
In the last couple of years I've heard a number of people complain about how "voting just doesn't make a difference." Yet they, in their absence of action have literally made a difference: they have helped their opponents--they are supporting the very people they say they disagree with. By not casting their vote into the pool, they increase the relative percentage of those with whom they disagree. So those who do not vote can congratulate themselves for all the victories of the opposition--because they, themselves, helped make it possible.
I finished up my qualifier this afternoon. I'm happy with it, but I still don't have a good sense of what qualifies as "research" unless it is empirical work. The qualifier doesn't require a research contribution, but I hope the content of my qualifier can help me toward another publication.
It feels good to be done. Now I'm going to get some sleep!
And oh yes, happy election day! Go democracy! I voted, did you?
I'm still plugging away at this seemingly never-ending qualifier. Emily likes to come in the office and play while I'm working. I think she just likes my presence. Today, I asked Emily if she could sit at my computer and write my paper for me while I play. She sat down in my chair with a smile and looked at me sheepishly and said, "Daddy, I don't know which letters to push. Which ones are the right ones?" I said, "That is the problem, isn't it?"
So I'm still hacking and hacking and hacking on my qualifier. It finally seems like all the writing has come together into something cohesive. There aren't very many funny things about writing a research paper, but I'll take any sort of entertainment I can get. There is a programming environment for teaching called Alice. The key paper describing this was written by Cooper et al. So, every time I cite this, I end up with something that looks like "Alice [Cooper 2000]". Yup, "Alice Cooper." Is this really all that funny? Probably not, but hey, just keep looking at it over and over and it will get funny after a while. Trust me.
Today I'm spending the whole day hacking away on my qualifier paper. Over breakfast, Emily wanted to share a story with me before I got working.
"Daddy, yesterday I was playing with a pretend mean girl. She was so mean. She kept throwing me in the trash can. After a while, I started throwing her in the trash can too!"
Hm...where does she come up with this stuff? I know I never taught her about throwing people in trash cans. It always makes you wonder what goes on at preschool. ;-)
I keep an eye on Steve Kollmansberger's blog. (Hi Steve!) One thing I've noticed is his "here's whats going on" approach blogging. Seeing that I have no plans to top Digg and basically only my friends read this, I think I'll start taking that approach. Frankly, I don't have time to be inspirational or profound, so I would rather just say how things are going.
I hope you enjoy reading the new format and I hope you start posting more often in your own blog--I'm reading!
What major software company is now offering sales support for Linux and collaborating with Novell for Linux technology? That's right, you guessed it Microsoft.
WSJ article
the joint open letter
the FAQ
I'll file this in the "unexpected and interesting turn of events" category.
Yes. I've been ridiculously busy with my PhD qualifier. Hopefully blogging will recommence after Monday, Nov 6. In the meantime, you have to see this crazy demo of implementing a triangle based 3D model in JavaScript in realtime!