Dot Dot Dot : Personal

Add Salt for Flavor

What do you do to spice up bland food? Add salt, of course! So, what do you do to spice up a bland fish tank? Add salt! And that's exactly what I did one-and-a-half months ago.

On October 16, I became the proud owner of a saltwater fish tank. Lisa came across the tank when someone from her work was selling it off. It was ideal for us because we could get the whole works (the tank, the live rock, fish, snails, etc) for a good price. I've had plenty of experience with freshwater tanks, but I was pretty nervous about running a saltwater tank.

Turns out running the tank isn't too complicated. After the first couple of weeks, I got to the point where I understood all the major facets of a saltwater system (salinity, biological filtration, protein skimmer, water polisher, etc.) I monitored all the stats every day at the beginning to make sure the system was stabilized. I love it! It's been fun, interesting, and a nice diversion from the stresses of life without consuming too much time. And of course, Emily is thrilled to have her own real life "Nemo" swimming around in the fish tank.

You can see me as the proud owner of the fish tank in our photo gallery. Also, check out my Saltwater Fish Tank wiki page for all the details.

On related note, I looked in the tank and saw the hermit crab's shell sitting at a really odd angle. When I looked closer the shell was belly up. I thought, "Oh no! The hermit crab died!" But then, I saw a shell moving around in the back. Turns out the hermit crab changed shells sometime since yesterday evening. Unfortunately, I liked the old shell better. :-P

Mmmmm... Peas

There's nothing particularly fantastic or monumental about eating peas, unless, of course, you're an 8 month-old baby. In that case, eating peas can separate the babies that eat the ewey, gooey, slimey paste food from the babies that eat soft little squishable chunks of food. And today, Katrina has graduated to the latter class with more than a hearty grunt of approval.

I cooked up some peas to eat with dinner, and due to my less-than-keen cooking skills, they came out on the mushy side. After eating one or two I thought Katrina should be more than able to smash these around in her mouth, so why not give it a try? During the first bite, she had a strange expression on her face that then turned into a huge smile which morphed into a gaping-wide open mouth. After she snorted and wiggled around like a crazed monkey for a second or two, I got the idea that she might actually like these squishy green things. So, I kept loading them in until she was full--and it took a while. She just loved peas!

I'm excited to see Katrina progressing to more interesting forms of food. I'm also glad I'm not the one changing her diaper in the morning. (I love you honey!)

Scheduling Fiasco

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. :-)

Done and Gone

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?

The Pretend Mean Girl

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. ;-)

New Approach

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!

The Favicon Has Landed

I finally got sick of seeing a blank little icon in my URL bar every time I visit my own site (neumannhaus.com, you know, where you're at right now!) With a little gimp and a nice font, volia! a favicon was born. It was pretty easy to create. I worked with a 64x64 canvas and then scaled it down to 16x16 at the very end. It's nice that gimp allows you to save directly into the windows icon format, apparently it didn't used to.

One caveat, if you have more than one layer when you save the icon, they will each be stored as separate icons in one icon file. I was a bit confused for a minute when I was viewing my icon in Firefox and all I saw was white. Apparently the white "background" layer was saved as a "white" icon and the black "N" was saved as another icon--all inside one icon file. Firefox defaulted to the first icon it found--the white one!

So know you can ooh and awe at the big "N" in your URL bar.

Oh Wow

I'm still in a bit of shock, but I found out Bryan Ruan, a former classmate/choirmate of mine, died a couple of weeks ago. He was working at his construction job when he fell off a roof onto a concrete floor. He died due to complications with brain swelling. I was never a close friend, but I remember him well. This is also the first person I know that is my age that died.

There are miscellaneous blog postings and news articles: here, here, and here.

Silver Falls State Park

My birthday was this past Sunday (the 16th), so to celebrate the day, we went to Silver Falls State Park (state park website here). We hiked most of the "Trail of Ten Falls," so we got to see seven waterfalls. It was beautiful. I'm not sure if my pictures do it justice, but it is a gorgeous place to visit if you are ever in the Salem, OR, area.

On the Blog Wagon

Now I have little competition in the blog-o-sphere. Lisa decided to jump on board this blogging bandwagon and give you the Neumann news as it "really happened." (Another working theory is that Lisa was jealous of all of the quality time I've spent with my blog, so Lisa had to get her own.) So, saunter on over to Lisa's blog and check it out. Maybe you can even leave her a comment and tell her how much you like it. ;-)

Defense of the Masters

Yup. That's right. I defended my masters this last Friday from 2:30-4:30 PM. Why am I writing about it today and not on Friday. I've just been *that* busy.

I was pretty nervous about my masters defense all the way up until I started talking. The room was packed--literally. All the seats were filled and some chairs had to be borrowed from the room next door. I estimate there were 25-30 people there. A couple of people were teasing me about bribing grad students to come to the defense by offering free food. (Of course, everyone has food at their defense. It's just one of the things you do.)

On the matter of food, I had donuts, bananas, orange juice and apple juice--a kind of afternoon breakfast. In better words, you could call it "second breakfast." Breakfast is one of my favorite occasions for eating and my defense being my shindig, I had to have breakfast food.

My committee was made of: Ronald Metoyer (my adviser), Margaret Burnett, Rajeev Pandey, and Jimmy Yang (Grad Council Rep, professor in the School of Business.) I'm very thankful for their feedback and willingness to be on my committee.

The defense was structured like so: I presented my research (which I had written up in my masters), I fielded questions from the audience, the audience was kicked out, I answered questions from my committee about my thesis (and presentation), and then I was grilled on anything the committee members wanted to ask that was relevant to my coursework. After all that, I was kicked out while my committee came to a pass/fail decision. Happily, I passed.

I really enjoyed the challenge of presenting my research. I found the Q/A session with my committee challenging and exhilarating. It was satisfying to realize how much I have learned in grad school.

I was relieved to find out my committee really liked my thesis. I received several fine compliments about it. After reading my committee's comments, it looks like I don't have to much editing to do before I can turn the final version. Mostly I feel like I have accomplished something and very relieved that it went well.

Ahoy Comments

Well, due to user error--that would be me, not you--the comment system was broken for about the last month and a half. Thanks to Kevin for an IM pointing out the problem. I installed Perl's GD bindings and it was back up and running.

Thanks to everyone who has taken to the now-working commenting system. It's nice to know people are reading and I appreciate what you wrote in the comments. Thanks for all the feedback about the purpose of blogging and your tips for managing photos.

I look forward to many more posts in this worldwide blogging experiment.

Why Blog?

Recently I've been thinking about why I haven't blogged much in the last several months. I guess it's because blogging seems more like talking to the clothes in my closet than having a meaningful conversation. For me there is something motivating about conversing with other people. In interaction there is something to keep me interested and engaged. I have limited use for just writing thoughts down just to get them "out there." (Ironically, like this blog entry.)

On the other hand, I have had several people tell me in the last couple of months that they saw this on my blog or that on my blog, so I guess people are reading. It does make for a nice way to let people know what's going on. A kind of news feed for the Neumann family.

So, I guess I'm in a bit of a quandary: I kind of like my blog and I kind of hate it. I like it because it seems to be filling its role, but I hate it because as I generate content it doesn't feel like I'm doing anything worthwile I certainly don't need a place to just rant.

I'll have to think about this more. If you have any suggestions, feel free to post them.

New Photos of Katrina

I just posted some new photos of our little bean. Boy has she been growing fast. Check out our photo gallery.

Just to clear up some past confusion. There were some photos in our gallery of my parents, siblings, etc. I moved them under their own heading for all of you who were wondering about those strange people you didn't recognize.

We've been pretty busy lately. This past weekend, Lisa and I celebrated our six year anniversary. Boy does time fly. Emily stayed with some friends for the weekend, so it was nice to have time alone...well almost alone. Katrina is still to little to go away, so she tagged along and slept most of the time.

This coming week I'm wrapping up my masters thesis. It will be nice when that's off my chest. Most of the content is written, so I'm in the revising phase.

Overall, we're doing well just plugging away...

Humanoids

Out of the blue Emily drew her first humanoid-like creatures today. I'm not sure if she's been watching too much Veggie Tales or secretly practicing in her room, but with careful and deliberate construction, she rendered her first recognizable forms: Daddy, Mommy and Emily. She presented them to us quite proudly. Sadly, Katrina was not deemed worthy of being imortalized in art. Check them out.

Happy Easter

I hope everyone had a happy and meaningful Easter. We had a good Easter. Marilyn, Lisa's mom, was still in town so she spent Easter with us.

On Saturday, we dyed easter eggs and had an egg hunt with other families from our church. On Easter Sunday we went to church in the morning came home and rested and had our Easter meal in the late afternoon. We cooked up some ham, shrimp cocktail, sweet potatoes, scalloped potatoes, green beans, salad and dinner rolls. It was a great meal.

I was joking with Lisa that ham and shrimp are the perfect food choices for Easter. After all, it's because Jesus redeemed us and fulfilled the Law that we are not held to the ceremonial food laws of the Old Testament. And Peter's vision in Acts 10 reminds us what God deems clean is clean. So, being sanctified by Christ, and free in him, we can celebrate what Christ did by enjoying previously "unclean" foods. :-D

Welcome Katrina

The last few days have gone by fast. So, here's a recap.

Lisa and I went into Albany General Hospital at 7:30 AM for an induction. Lisa was able to get up and walk around for most of the morning until they wanted her to lie down for monitoring at 11:00 AM. Katrina was being a little uncooperative by having a slightly erratic heart rate. After Lisa found a good position, the heart rate stabilized. At 11:30 the contractions really kicked in, and by 12:00 Lisa was asking "where's my mom?"

Marilyn, Lisa's mom, had stayed home with Emily in the morning so Emily didn't have to get up early. Apparently Marilyn had some trouble getting Emily out the door, so Marilyn and Emily finally showed up around 12:20. We passed Emily off to Becky Hiller (who offered to watch Emily), and things really got moving. When the doctor came to check things out at 12:50 she realized she better get her scrubs on right away. Then viola! Katrina was born at 13:03.

Lisa and Katrina are doing very well. Everything has gone quite smoothly. We left the hospital Thursday evening after our celebration dinner (see day one photos.) We had a number of visitors from Lisa's former work (the labor and delivery floor where we had the baby) and her current work (the pediatricians offices across the street.) After crying practically non-stop the first day, Katrina has settled into a nice groove. Katrina isn't too fussy except when she's hungry.

My cousin Brooke and her husband Ryan are up visiting us for the weekend. It's been good to see them and it's been great hanging out with them. This morning we went on Oregon-style walk that featured both sunshine and rain. (Katrina stayed home with Marilyn.) Overall, we are relaxing and keeping things low-key.

I'll keep posting photos in our photo gallery. I'm also adding little video clips in with the photos now too.

The Baby Has Arrived

Katrina Elizabeth Neumann
8lbs 8oz
March 29, 2006 @ 13:03

Lisa and Katrina are doing very well. Emily is excited, but still adjusting to having a little sister.

You catch the first sets of pictures in our gallery:
http://neumannhaus.com/photos/

The Missing Pictures

In case you are one of the thousands of people who are on my mom's email list. And, in case you want to see the pictures of the manufactured home that are allegedly on my blog. Well, look no further than my photo gallery.

What Is It With 40?

What is it with 40? It seems so complete. There were those 40 days and nights on the ark. The 40 day fast in the wilderness. 40 days of lent. 40 of anything seems significant, even monumental. So, being awake for 40 hours with no sleep seems outrageous. After all, it is a personal best.

Unfortunately this is an all-nighter that went bad--it be came an all-dayer followed by a late-nighter. I've been working like an animal on my submission for VL/HCC '06. That's right, a special kind of animal that can think and write and compile LaTeX: a "grad student." (Well...compile LaTeX for sure...) But let me tell you, if writing the paper hadn't been so interesting, I would have passed out by now.

I better get to bed before it hits 41. That doesn't seem nearly as exciting.

Happy New Year

Well, it's been a while since I blogged, and this new year, I resolved to resolve not to resolve to resolve to write in my blog every day. But, I hope to post a little more frequently than before.

So, happy new year. I hope the Christmas season was meaningful and rejuvenating for you. And remember to get your taxes done early this year so you can get your refund faster. ;-)

Oh yes, if anyone has suggestions on how I can keep doing this blog thing without feeling like I'm talking into some sort of black hole of the Internet, I'm all ears. After all, what fun is a one-way conversation.

Hello Face of the Earth

It's nice to see the face of the Earth after dropping off of it so long ago.... So, what have I been up to? Mostly school and church (aside from the obvious busyness of parenting.)

On the school front, me and my colleagues just submitted a very large paper for the Journal of Visual Languages and Computing (JVLC) today. I've been collaborating with two other students, two professors, and two industry experts for a grand total of 7 people! The paper is about how one can avoid breakdowns in the Cognitive Dimensions framework when using it to analyze a visual language one is developing.

On the church front I have been very involved in the Family Foundations group: from leading and helping lead worship to starting two small groups and continuing to plan the monthly BBQ and Hangout. (Family Foundations is an "interaction group" for a parents of small children.)

This past weekend was very nice. We went to Don and Susan Hoffman's for the third year in a row (Lisa has three years more than that.) Once again, they were very gracious hosts. We all went to Cooper Spur for an excellent Thanksgiving dinner and returned back to the Hoffmans for a big fire and good pie. Overall, the weekend was very relaxing--except for waking up at 3:00 AM to go shopping the day after Thanksgiving and staying up until 2:00 AM on Saturday night working on the JVLC paper.

So, what have you been up to? It seems my blog hasn't been the only silent one. ;-)

Firefox One

To celebrate 100 million downloads, Firefox launched a weather balloon satellite from Oregon State's Memorial Union Quad. Since this is my home turf, naturally I had to go. And since it involved a really big balloon, I had to take Emily. Check out my photos.

Emily loved it. She couldn't stop talking about the "big balloon." She just kept saying, "Daddy, look at the big balloon!" "Daddy, can I play with the big balloon?" "Is the big balloon going to go home now?" She's a cutie.

Front and Center

This time of year I always miss Southern California (despite my previous taunting.) Not every place gives you a front row view of some of the most spectacular wildfires in the country. I have fond memories of crusing around for two whole days taking pictures of the Williams Fire in 2002 (day one, day two). I guess no one state can have everything.

Back Home Safe

I flew back home yesterday. Turns out hurricane Rita wasn't nearly the monster of destruction people were expecting. We had no trouble getting to the airport and catching our flight. In fact, we even caught an early flight.

Friday was the last day of the "conference" part of VL/HCC. Another smattering of good papers. The most interesting papers (see the list) for Friday were: 1) "Easing Program Comprehension by Sharing Navigation Data" by Robert Deline et al at HIP group in MS Research and 2) "Achieving Flexibility in Direct-Manipulation Programming Environments by Relaxing the Edit-Time Grammar" by Birnbaum et al from Washington University in St. Louis (about the JPie project).

Saturday was the Cognitive Dimensions of Notations tutorial and workshop. The sessions were lead by Alan Blackwell, and he did an excellent job, per usual. I was particularly fascinated to be on the "business end" of a research workshop.

Overall, VL/HCC '05 was a great experience. I hope I can attend again next year, especially because it will be in the UK and co-located with PPIG and SoftVis.

VL/HCC Day Three

Since the conference is in Dallas, hurricane Rita is getting our attention. Dallas is far enough away from the hurricane that no one is worried about a direct hit, but residents of Houston are evacuating to Dallas and obviously air traffic in Texas is going to be affected. Rita is supposed to hit ground very early Saturday morning and I'm scheduled to leave Saturday evening. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

I'm enjoying the conference. There are a steady stream of interesting papers. Several of the presentations today were very interesting, but I don't really feel like typing up the details. ;-)

The banquet at South Fork Ranch was fun. The mansion at the ranch is amazing. Very luxurious, but nothing like seeing an "old money" mansion back east. We had an excellent dinner with steak and salmon. Delicious.

VL/HCC Day Two

I would have posted yesterday, but I had an apache meltdown. Gentoo changed the structure of the apache configuration files to better match the apache upstream. I did not discover this until after the emerge was complete and the apache service refused to restart (due to the old configuration), but that's another story.

The conference has been going great thus far (yesterday and today). The graduate student consortium was very interesting and the personal feedback was informative and helpful. Despite being the last to present, people seemed genuinely interested in my research, asked good questions and made thought provoking comments.

Today was the first day of the general conference. It's fascinating to see new research and ideas. I love being able to mill around and talk to top researchers during the breaks, probe them with questions, and get their advice.

We had a clean sweep of OSU students for the "End-User Debugging and Testing" session. It's been exciting to see OSU perform so well. It's great to see my peers give solid presentations of interesting research.

This evening we had a reception to give people an opportunity to mill around, discuss research, and ask each other questions. The reception started at 6:30 PM and I stayed around talking until 10:00 PM. I can't believe how fast the time flew.

Tomorrow is another full day. After all the paper presentations during the day, we are going to the South Fork Ranch (a.k.a. the set of "Dallas") for a banquet. I'm looking forward to another great day.

VL/HCC '05

I traveled to Dallas today. I'm attending VL/HCC this week. I'm thrilled. Last year I went to Rome--this year, Dallas. The venue isn't as exciting, but the conference should be great! The time change is messing with me a little. I can't believe it's almost midnight Dallas time.

Tomorrow is the Graduate Student Consortium. Graduate students applied to participate. We have the opportunity to present our research to domain experts and graduate students for feedback. I found it very helpful last year, so I'm optimistic for tomorrow's session. The only bummer is that I'm presenting dead last at 5:00 PM.

I better get to bed and get some rest. I'll keep you posted throughout the week.

Pain in the Neck

I tweaked my neck on Saturday and proceeded to be in immense pain for the rest of the weekend through Tuesday. Pain was radiating all the way through my right arm and down through my whole right torso. I couldn't find any position that felt good. Ironically, burping (and hiccuping) was one of the most painful things I could do.

I spent my labor day weekend flat on my back watching TV most of the time. I suppose that's what other people did too, but it just doesn't seem the same when it isn't by choice.

Of particular note, when I was finally able to see the doctor on Tuesday, he prescribed a muscle relaxer. Boy do those things wipe you out. I could hardly keep my eyes open on Tuesday I was so tired. I suppose I shouldn't have been operating that forklift all afternoon (just kidding.)

The good news is that I was feeling well enough to go back to work yesterday and today I have very little pain. Now it just feels like a very sore muscle.

Foo Is Dead

That's right, my beta fish, Phineas II (affectionately know as "Foo"), died sometime yesterday. I presume it was peaceful, but the pleco hasn't left much behind for forensic analysis. Foo wasn't doing very well for the last week. He was sitting on the ground and the fake plants almost all the time--even during feeding time. Poor Foo.

I got Phineas II at PetSmart October 2003--a couple months after moving to Corvallis for grad school. I had to leave a very aging Phineas behind (in good care) in Azusa when I moved. "Finny" died a couple weeks later. I'd like to believe it was from a broken heart. ;-)

In the grand tradition of extending the painful programming metaphor, I will probably name my next beta "Bar." That's right, the successor to "Foo."

Connecting Hose to Brain

I'm always impressed by what I can find in Wikipedia and how helpful it usually is. When I want to understand a concept in computer science or higher math, Wikipedia is the first place I look, but I'm discovering the content is very, very diverse.

For example, I'm doing research that involves American football. I know basically nothing about American football other than how to keep score and who has possession of the ball. I was looking all over (via Google) to find a good overview of some of the finer details of the game. Finally after much frustration, I decided to check out Wikipedia. Volia! Wikipedia has a great article about the fundamentals including links to lots of other wiki pages for even more detail (of course.)

Now, if I can only interface Wikipedia with my brain, I'll be set.

Elmo!

For some reason Emily has taken to swearing lately. No, it's not the cursing like a sailor variety, but it sounds like swearing none the less: Elmo! That's right. Elmo! When she's startled, she shouts "Elmo!" When she falls down and gets hurt, "Elmo!" When I chased the cat out of her room while making loud noises, "Elmo!"

How did this all get started? One can only wonder. How long will it last? It's been a few weeks and still going strong. Who knows what goes on in the mind of a 2 year-old?

OSCON

Joey Lawrance, Mike Miller, and I went to OSCON this past Wednesday and Thursday. It was a blast. We decided to go since it was nearby (in Portland) and free (exhibit hall only.) Even without the keynotes and workshops it was still a blast. The best part about the conference was that we talked one-on-one with many developers and advocates in the open source community.

OSCON was different than other conferences I've been to (eg. JavaOne, E3). Instead of having some marketing/PR person give you a slick talk about how wonderful their product is, many of the people manning the booths were volunteers, developers, or the company founders. Everyone was excited just to tell you how cool their project is. The most excited people were the ones not selling anything--they simply wanted to know about their project so you could go and download it. It was great.

Of course, no conference is complete with out swag. And boy did I get some cool swag. At the top of the list, I got a free Perl shirt which I had autographed by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, Damian Conway, Randal L. Schwartz, Tom Phoenix, and Brian D Foy. It was awsome to meet them and get their autographs! Since I was wearing my JavaOne backpack, the Sun rep just up and gave me a wireless network finder and a retractable network cable. Very cool! I also got a great shirt from No Starch Press and had a great talk with the founder. (Look for a future review of "Silence on the Wire." I'm reading it right now.) I bought a PostgreSQL pin and put it on my backpack. I have a Gentoo sticker on my notebook. I have a mini swiss army knife from the Perl folks. And I have more swag I won't bother mentioning. I'm all decked out.

Wednesday night was a blast. Patrick Mochel had a BBQ at his house in place of the regular kernel hackers meeting. Greg K-H invited Joey, Mike, and myself to come along. (We know Greg from his visits to the OSULUG.) It was a mix of a few kernel hackers and a lot of their friends. It was funny when I mentioned Linux and one of the friends rolled his eyes and walked off because it was the last thing he wanted to hear about (not being a hacker himself.) In the end, I spent most of the evening talking to Jeff Waugh (the Gnome release manager) about Gnome, life in Australia, and Ubuntu (yes, he works for Canonical.) Jeff was a blast to talk to, and it was fascinating to hear his story about how he got involved in the Gnome community (hint: it wasn't because he was an awsome programmer.)

All-in-all, I expect an OSCON repeat next year. I can hardly wait!

Camping and a Birthday

Lisa, Emily and I went camping over this past weekend. Incidently, the weekend also included my birthday. We had a great time! It was fun because it was the church campout, so we arranged to be next to all the other families with small children. The adults got to hang out while all the children ran around and played together. It was a blast!

On my actual birthday (July 16), I got up early and went crabbing in Newport harbor. (We were camping at South Beach, just south of Newport.) We caught 9 large sized (a.k.a. legal size) dungeness crab and 19 red rock crab (no legal size minimum). That evening we boiled them up and ate them along with my birthday cake. Delicious!

Emily took to camping pretty well. She woke up a few times crying for "Mommy" and "Daddy", and of course she wanted to sleep right next to us. Overall, Emily loved playing with all the other kids, running around as much as she wanted, and eating camp food.

The only question I have now is when can I go camping again?

The Ice Maker

It started with a shriek as Emily came tearing through the kitchen and dining room to where I was sitting in the living room. The rumble of the ice maker had freaked her out. I picked her up, let her sit on my lap for a while, and tried to comfort her. Finally I asked, "Do you want me to sing you the ice maker song?" "Sing the ice maker song, Daddy!" Go ahead...listen to it.

After a while, Lisa poked her head down the stairs and asked why the cat was yowling. I said that it was just Emily and I going "Aaaaaaaah!" Lisa said, "No, it's the cat." Right about then, the cat came wandering down the stairs and was milling around my feet. I decided to go for another stirring chorus of the Ice Maker song. Every time Emily and I went "Aaaaaah!", the cat yowled--predictably. It was hysterical.

So now there is a new favorite song in the house--both for Emily and the cat. Although, Lisa doesn't seem to find it as hysterical as I do. Probably because Lisa's trying to sleep.

Independance Day

I hope you had a good Independance Day yesterday. It's sobering to reflect on the high price our founders paid to establish the United States of America. I hope you had a good celebration with good friends and good food.

We spent our July 4th by BBQing, spending time with friends, and shooting off lots and lots of fireworks. I'm particularly pleased that fireworks are legal in Oregon, so naturally I must exercise my legal right to the fullest extent of the law. :-) And thanks to Costco for providing me with a great deal.

I throughly enjoyed grilling at home after not doing so for over a year. It was high time I bought a grill, so I picked up a nice, but not too expensive, grill at Sears during their 4th of July sale. We grilled up some top sirloin and corn on the cob. Of course, I plan to be grilling as much as possible all summer long.

May you continue to enjoy the summer always cherishing the privilege you have living in the United States. Happy Independance Day!

Back Into Summer

Lisa, Emily and I are back from our vacation down to Southern California. We rolled in at 1:20 AM on Thursday morning. We drove back in one long day on Wednesday. With 15.5 hours of driving and 18.5 hours for the whole trip back, we were ready to be home.

Primarily, we went down to So. Cal. for my cousin Amy's wedding. Yes, it went off with a hitch. ;-) We also got a chance to see family, relax and have some fun. This trip was also the first time I was able to get down to So. Cal. since my grandmother died, so the trip was a bit emotional for me at first.

One highlight of our trip was taking Emily to Disneyland. She's just old enough to enjoy the kiddie rides in Fantasy Land. We pretty much wiped her out after about 3 hours in the park. The rest of the day Emily was very, very mellow just taking it all in. To give you an idea of how exhausted she was by the end of the day: she fell asleep in my arms during the fireworks show. Check out the pictures of Disneyland. Note the point in the day when Emily really mellows out.

All Done Once Again

I just turned in my last assignment for the term. It feels great to be done. I look forward to a summer of research and personal projects. Ah...the sweet relief of summer.

Cell Phone

One of my morning traditions is racing out the door. It's not that I don't get up early enough, but I forget how long it actually takes me to get loaded in the car and take off. So after racing out the the car, I realized I had forgotten the cell phone inside. I came barrelling back through the door past Emily who was coming down the stairs. Without me saying a word, Emily shouted out "Daddy forgot the cell phone!" It's just amazing what a 2 year-old can notice.

Of course, after saying this, Emily got a gleeful look of satisfaction on her face. Almost to say, "Hello world! Look at me! I just identified what is going on." She was laughing, not at my air-headedness, but from delight in her own ability to make an observation. Kids are amazing.

Happy Birthday

Emily turned two a couple of months ago. Somewhere in the process she started to understand birthdays are a good, happy event, and she learned the birthday song. Lately she's been walking around singing happy birthday to everything. Happy birthday to daddy. Happy birthday to kitty. Happy birthday to kleenex. That's right, kleenex. Go figure.

Yes, I Exist

Yeah, I haven't blogged for a while. It has been rather crazy for the last month-and-a-half. As I mentioned before, my grandma died. Then we had vacation. I've been doing lots of work for my research and classes. Lisa's Mom visited for a while. My mom was up for a little bit. Lisa's brother Joel is living with us for a while while he gets started working and taking classes here in the US. I've been teaching in our interaction group (think "Sunday school" for adults). We've been busy with lots of ups and downs. Nonetheless, look for me to be writing here letting you know what's going on.

Nana

Nana (my grandma on my mom's side) just died. I can't believe it. I'm still in shock. My Nana has been a great influence in my life and she means so much to me. All this came about suddenly. Please pray for me and my family as we go through this hard time.

My grandma was suffering from crippling pain caused by arthritis buildup in her spine. The doctors tried pain management, but it wasn't working. Last week she had surgury to relieve the pressure on her nerves.

The surgery was textbook. Everything went smoothly. The pain was much better. She was even able to get up after a couple of days. Things took a turn for the worse when she started having chest pain and couldn't keep food down.

This past Sunday, she had two strokes and lost her ability to move her right arm. She also had to have a feeding tube, so she was sedated to help deal with the discomfort.

Friday (yesterday) she crashed. She had been on blood thinners after the stroke, but they caused internal bleeding (through her ulcers and other places). She was resuscitated and moved to the ICU. Over the last day her blood pressure dropped, her lungs filled up with fluid and blood, and she wasn't absorbing oxygen. Today, around noon, she died.

I already miss her.

New CD and DVD

My brother and his church just released a new CD and DVD. It's great! You can check out some information on his news blurbs page and some song and video clips on his music page.

On a technical note, I did all the clip editing and encoding using Linux. Yup, even the Real Media clips. Real has an encoder for Linux.

All Done!

At 8:35 this morning I walked out of Owen hall, having just taken my graph theory final, thus marking the conclusion of this term. And, oh boy, it was just in time! The last weeks have been a blur of grading, writing, programming, and studying. I have gone from being sick to being sick and tired to being sicker and more tired to simply being sick. And now, with some rest, I can put it all behind me.

So here's to the end of the quarter.
Here's to spring break.
Here's to a new beginning.
'Cause I've had all I can take.

Go Away

Lisa was watching Emily when Lisa noticed Emily was playing with something on the floor. Lisa stopped reading and went over to investigate when Emily said "go read a book."

Peering inside Emily's brain we see: I know what reading a book is. Mommy was just reading a book. Ergo, Mommy should go back to reading a book instead of bothering me.

It's amazing what can go through the head of an almost-2-year-old, and it's amazing how conscious she is of what we do (see previous post too).

Wake Up Already!

While Emily was watching Sesame Street today, she saw Ernie singing a wake up song to Bert but Bert didn't want to wake up. She kept pointing to Bert and saying "Daddy". Am I really that tired in the morning? I guess so. :-)

Life As a Grad Student

Yeah, I know I haven't posted for a while. This quarter at school is wrapping up, so things have been insane. Why does it always seem like everything happens at the same time? With only three important things remaining before the end of the term, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I just hope isn't not a train. ;-)

On another note, I was wating outside of Dr. Quinn's office (he is my graph theory professor) to talk to him about the homework due tomorrow. Two other students were also waiting outside. I asked them if they were in Graph Theory. (I sit near the front. I don't see many other people.) They reacted with an emphatic "no way." They asked, "Isn't that class really hard?" I said that I have been enjoying the class and thought it to be one of the most fun and straightforward classes I have had taken thus far in grad school. They said, "oh, you're a grad student" and just looked at me like I was crazy. At that moment I realized my transformation is complete. I am truly a grad student now.

My Sweet Baboo

Lisa and I bought a Peanuts calendar for our fridge this year. On Thursday evening, I was reading the comic for February when Emily came toddling over....go ahead, read it. Then read the rest of this blog.

So, you read it, right?

Just off the top of my head, I said "Hi, my sweet baboo!" Emily just looked up and smiled and said "Sweet baboo! Sweet baboo!" and just keep repeating it for the rest of the evening. Friday, I was off to school all day. I called home in the afternoon to check up and see how Lisa was doing. Apparently Emily had been asking about me and saying "sweet baboo" all day.

It's funny how a little silly moment can mean so much for Emily. It melts my heart and reminds me how important everything I do around her really is. God granted me the privilege and responsibility of helping to mold and shape who she is. And it's convicting and so rewarding! I love her so much and she is so sweet. She is my sweet baboo.

On another note, you can read more about Peanuts and Valentine's Day here.

It's Beautiful

We've been having gorgeous weather for the last few days up here in Corvallis, Oregon. I hear Southern California's been having non-stop rain. It looks like all the Oregon weather either got confused and went to the wrong place, or just decided to go to So Cal on vacation. Although, I have a hard time remembering when, in the last year-and-a-half, we have ever had non-stop rain for days here in Corvallis. Maybe just once or twice.

New theory: California is going through an identity crisis. After all, the California state quarter just came out depicting a beautiful scene in Yosemite. California realized it doesn't know how to reconcile this image with that of millions of homes packed to together in a desert transformed into a suburban jungle. So, until it figures it out, it will just behave like it's greener neighbors.

Crazy and Fun

It's been crazy. I mean CRAZY! I can't believe how much work I've been doing. Between classes, TAing, research, and family stuff it seems like I never have enough time for anything. So, one bright spot in the craziness was our Super Bowl party today.

The Super Bowl always gives us an opportunity to have lots of people over to hang out and bring us food. I don't care for the game much, but it's fun to sit around, chat, keep tabs on the score, and snack...and snack...and snack. It's great!

We had a bunch of people from church over. We're part of the "Family Foundations" group. The group's for people who have kids 5 years and younger. It's been great to hang out with people in the same stage of life as us. Needless to say, our party was somewhat of a zoo. Kids running up and down the stairs. A tantrum here, a poopy diaper there--typicall kid stuff.

All-in-all, it was a blast. I can't wait until next year. I guess we'll have to come up with an excuse to have a party before then.

Christoph's Horrible Schedule

Yesterday, out of complete necessity, I spent some time drawing up my schedule for this term. The first two weeks of school have been insane, so after some advice from my graphics advisor, I started blocking out time for all the things I'm supposed to be doing. After scheduling time for classes, homework, TAing, and research, I found out that I'm supposed to be working 60 hours a week. It's going to be one long term.

The good news is that I have Sundays completely off. And when my TA load lightens, so will my schedule. I figure if I can get my TA load down to 10 hours a week, I might be able to squeeze my work time under 50 hours.

And So It Begins

Yesterday was the first day of classes for winter term. It looks like it's shaping up to be a good term. I'm taking CS 520: Graph Theory with Dr. Michael J. Quinn and CS 523: Algorithms with Dr. Paul Cull. Both are great teachers, so I'm looking forward to the classes.

I'm TAing for Dr. Timothy Budd again. This is the 3rd time I've TAed for him. I'll be helping out with CS 480: Translators It will be my first TA repeat class. The very first class I TAed was Translators with Dr. Budd. It's a great class.

Holdays and Beyond

Wow! It's been busy! I can't believe I haven't blogged for two weeks. Really, it only seems like it's been a week. Well, enough about that....

My family came up to visit for Christmas. They stayed for about a week. We had a great time! It was the first time Lisa and I were responsible for hosting the Christmas celebration. Wow! It was quite a bit of work, but well worth it. I got about six hours of sleep a night for about 5 nights in a row. I wanted to stay up until 2:00 AM with all the night owls, but had to get up at 8:00 AM with Emily.

Within the first day, Emily had everyone's name down cold. In particular, she loved shouting "Grandmommy." My theory about that is Emily loved it because my mom would react with unbridled excitement. So, Emily would say "Grandmommy" and my mom would shriek, so Emily would shriek "Grandmommy" and so on. It made for great family entertainment.

On Thursday--the day before Christmas eve--we baked Christmas sugar cookies and decorated them. This is a longstanding Neumann family tradition. It's something I enjoy doing, although I always think it's going to take less time than it really does.

On Christmas eve, Lisa baked a delicious Italian meal--a longstanding Guido family tradition. We hustled off to the Christmas eve service at church. Then we came back and spent several hours singing Christmas carols. Peter played keyboard and I played guitar until my fingers went numb and stopped working. It was great to slow down the busy season, enjoy the ambiance, and reflect on the meaning of Christmas. Christmas carols have profound lyrics and I'm continually amazed how the authors can pack so much meaning in so few verses.

On Christmas day, the gift exchange was an Emily gift fest with other people thrown in. My mom, Lisa and I went a little nuts with gifts for Emily. We ended up keeping back three presents for Emily because she had so many. She'll like them just as much on her birthday. ;-)

Lisa gave me Mario Party 6, so Christina, Linda, Lisa and I had fun playing the game for hours. All I can say is addictive mini-games...addictive mini-games...addictive mini-games....

My family stayed a couple days after Christmas. We just lounged around, hung out, went on walks, played games, ate good food, and relaxed. I guess it was recuperation for hectic pace until that point.

All-in-all it was great to have my family up for Christmas. Things went swimmingly well. We enjoyed hosting them for a memorable Christmas celebration.

Party and Beyond

Yesterday evening Lisa and I had our first Christmas party ever. It's was a fun event. We had 4 other couples over (with their kids) for a grand total of 10 adults and 7.5 kids. Our house was really hopping. None of the kids had a serious meltdown and the adults had a great time sitting around chatting.

So as the party was winding down, some of us got the bright idea of watching "Oceans 11" that night and seeing "Oceans 12" the next day. So, after staying up to 1:30 AM last night, watching "Oceans 11", we all got together this afternoon and evening to see the "Oceans 12" and have dinner (sans kids). It was a blast. It felt like I was in college.

All-in-all, I realized spontaneous fun is something to be treasured and sleep is something you can catch up on. Speaking of which, I'm off to bed....

Back In the Blog

Yup. I'm back at this blogging thing again. Look for me to post something or other a couple times a week. I quit blogging when I thought no one was reading it. Then after several people assured me they were reading and encouraged me to start, I resolved to start anew.

Well...that was a month ago. Rememember to never try and start a new habit when you are super busy! Now that the fall term is over, I have some time to reinvigorate my blogging habit over the holidays. :-)

The Tornado

What's the difference between a toddler and a tornado? You can catch a tornado.

That's what was running through my head as I was clearing a path through my living room today. This morning, before I got Emily up, the living room was clean and organized. After a mere couple of hours, Emily had "freed" her toys from their bondage and placed them in their "proper" locations all over the floor. I can't wait until she gets the hang of putting the toys away too.

Busy and Gone

I've been busy and gone for the last couple of weeks. Maybe you haven't noticed I haven't been blogging for a bit.

During the week of June 6th, I wrapped up all my major projects for the spring term. Lisa, Emily and I then took off to Santa Barbara where we saw my sister Karin graduate on Saturday, June 12. We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with Karin and then plowed backed to Corvallis on Monday with my sister Christina in tow.

Christina was with us from June 14-21. We had a great time hanging out, showing her the sights around Corvallis, the Oregon coast, and Northwest Oregon. Most of all, it was a time for everyone to just relax.

After giving Christina back to Southern California, we geared up to go away on our 4 year anniversary trip. We took off on Wed, June 23, and spent some time relaxing at the Bonneville Hot Springs Resort. Our friends, Don and Susan Hoffman kept an eye on Emily while we were relaxing. We then hung out at the Hoffman's house for a few days and then came back to Corvallis.

I've spent the better part of this week catching up with work, bills, and other artifacts of life. I think I'm finally in a "consistent" summer schedule now, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I'm Addicted

With my new notebook computer, you would think I spend all day playing on the computer. But alas, I must confess my secret addiction. I'm addicted to one of Emily's toys. Her Little Tikes Little Rythm Maker Piano.

Maybe you could blame it on my musical family. Maybe I haven't had enough xylophone in my life. Maybe it's just fun to make noise. Whatever the reason, reality is that I like the piano more than Emily.

Well, enough of this. Time to PLAY!

Obession Starts Young

As a new parent, I've been discovering all sorts of things that have been shrouded in mystery until now. The orgins of obsession, for example.

Why is it women obsess over shoes? I'm not sure, but at 14 months, Emily's already infatuated with them. She runs around the house distributing whatever shoes she can find, only to run around collecting them again. Half the fun of collecting them is trying to put them on.

Lisa discovered that we simply have to say, "Emily, find your shoes," and Emily immediately sets off to search for them. Sometimes Emily remembers where she left them and she's back in a flash. Sometimes it takes a bit longer. But when she returns, she walks up, grunts, and holds out the shoes expectantly. After all, why have shoes if you don't to put them on, right?

When Emily's not trying to put her shoes on, getting Lisa or me to put them on, or distributing them around the house, she tries to eat them. That's right. Eat them. We hope to cure her of this digusting habit sooner than later. It can't be healthy, but Emily's particularly sneaking about shoving them in her mouth. You look away, look back, and there she is, sucking on her shoes. This get's me thinking...when does "grossness" start?

Apathy

What is it about the end of a term that brings on apathy? There's something so appealing about the freedom of summer that it makes me want freedom now! Why should I have to wait two weeks? Unfortunately, I don't have time to be apathetic, and I really can't afford to be. I've got way too much resting on the end of this term. I can almost hear the words of APU's president, Jon Wallace, "Finish well!" God calls us to be dilligent--to make good on our commitments. So, I will finish well, but I can't wait for vacation.

Be Vigilant

This week, 1 Peter 5:8-9 kept coming to mind. Sometimes I tend to think of Satan as a force, an influence, rather than a real being who seeks to do me harm. I think the society promotes the idea that "badness" is a force and should be resisted with a "good" force. This verse spells it out: Satan exists, is very much alive, and wants to do me harm. Satan doesn't simply want me to mess up, he wants to completely destroy me.

I love how this verse is set in the context of humility. How many times have you been plowed down while being prideful? How often have you seen it happen to others? But don't miss out on verse 10! It's Christ Jesus who, through his grace, has forgiven us, strengthened us, and provides the basis for us to stand on.

Happy Mother's Day

This Mother's Day, Psalm 139 keeps coming to mind. I've been thinking quite a bit about raising Emily. Isn't it amazing to know that God created you for a purpose. You are not an accident or simply a fleshly product of biology. You are a person. Through motherhood (and fatherhood), God allows us to participate in the process of bringing persons into the world. It's convicting. I know I've got flaws. I'm not perfect. But then I remember that God created and designed my little girl. God has a plan for her. She's in good hands.

Psalm 139:13-16
13. For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
15. My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place.
    When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16. your eyes saw my unformed body.
    All the days ordained for me
    were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
    

Out Of Shape

Today I took the bus to school. I got stuck there doing work, so I wasn't able to make the last bus home at 6:45 PM. No big deal, I just figured I'd walk home. It's only 2.5 miles. I was impatient to get home, so I figured I'd jog a little. Well, I only made it about 1.5 miles before curled up and died.

It's not like I was running full throttle, and my backpack is only about 15 pounds. I'm just flat out of shape. Muscular Jello. It looks like I need more exercise. I guess I'll be riding my bike more now that it's sunny outside.

Back In The Blog

Well, I'm back. I took a mini-hiatus because my life was in chaos. Between school, my TA position, my RA position, and all the company I've been having, things have been nuts. Now that I'm caught up on work and sleep and my in-laws are headed back to Ecuador, things are much more sane. I look forward to sharing more with you in the near future.

Happy Tax Day

Happy income tax day to y'all. I hope this is a happy occasion that involves getting a check instead of sending one in. This is the first year in the last five that I'm going to get a refund. I'm excited!

Ironically, I'm up late working on school, not taxes. Some way to celebrate tax day.

Happy Birthday Papa!

Happy birthday Papa! Thanks for being a great dad: teaching me, supporting me, and loving me. I hope you have had a great birthday and have many great birthdays to come.

Happy Easter!

I want to wish you all a happy and meaningful Easter celebration. I can't help be be reminded of what Paul says in 1 Cor. 15:12-19. If Christ didn't rise from the dead then I am not saved, my sins are not forgiven, and my faith is worthless. Moreover, if Christ didn't rise, Christians are the most miserable of all people. But, Christ did rise, so we can have hope! That is the message of Easter.

I found this nice little summary of the truth of the resurrection. For those who are skeptical, don't ask me to prove Christ rose, prove to me Christ didn't. The resurrection is the only explaination that makes sense.

In-Laws Are In

The in-laws have arrived. Lisa's parents and brothers are visiting for a couple of weeks. Needless to say we have a full house. It will be fun to see everyone and hang out. Too bad I have to go to school and do homework. Ah...if I could only pause the term for a while. Hm...software to pause school. I wonder if I could get a grant for that?

April Fools

Happy "April Fools" for all of you who celebrate it. I never do because I think it's stupid. Really, I do. No foolin'. Although, there was that time Lisa and I emailed Lisa's mom to tell her Lisa was pregnant when Lisa really wasn't...but other than that....

First Day Of Classes

Today is the first day of the spring term. It's shaping up to be a good one. Once again, I'm a TA for Dr. Budd. This time I'll be helping out with CS 162, Introduction to Computer Science II. This will be very a different TA experience than last quarter in CS 480 (Translators).

I'm also going to be working with Dr. Metoyer on end-user programming of character behavior for a immersive football simulation tool he is developing. I'm excited to get my first real research job. I already did quite a bit of reading last term, so this term I get to make stuff. I like making stuff.... :-D

When I'm not busy with work, I'll be working on my two classes, CS 552, Computer Animation, and CS 589, Human-Computer Interaction. Animation facinates me, although my own experience is limited to simple video games and using Maya. I'm excited about the HCI class because I don't know anything formal about HCI, I just have intuative ideas I've picked up over the years.

It looks like it will be a great, busy quarter.

Happy Birthday Joel

Happy birthday Joel! You are one of my two favorite brother-in-laws. It's been a pleasure getting to know you better, and I look forward to spending lots of time hanging out in years to come.

Back To Real Life

As you can probably tell, I've spent most of my spring break avoiding the computer. I've spent some time playing Gamecube and guitar, but I've spent most of my time running around Northern Oregon. All-in-all, it's been relaxing and fun.

I dropped my mom off at the airport yesterday. She was here for a week and it was great to have her visit. She, of course, was happy to see us and thrilled to see Emily. Wednesday evening, on the eve of her return flight, we went out to eat at the McCormick & Schmick's Harborside Restaurant. Unbelievable food, reasonable prices. I would highly recommend it to just about anyone. Alaska Airlines gave us a $20 gift certificate when we flew down to California for Christmas. I wasn't familiar with the restaurant, so I thought it would be fun to try out. Boy am I glad we did.

Now I only have a few days to tear myself from spring break and get ready for school. I'm not sure if I'm a fan of the quarter system. It seems the school year should be over by now. Fortunately, there are some really fun classes scheduled this next term. It seems the faculty schedules the really fun stuff in Spring to make up for the long school year. We'll, I'm off into the next term. I look forward to telling you about it.

Spring Break In Full Swing

Friday at 2:00 PM, as I was walking back to my car, I was filled with a sense of exuberence and freedom. I had just participated in a "Thinking Aloud" study for analyzing the usefulness of aspect oriented programming. With that done, all of my commitments for Winter term were complete! The sun was shining. The flowers were in full bloom. The weather was gorgeous. The world stood still for a moment to give me a breath of carefree fulfillment. Ahhhh....

Since then, it's been a blur. Later that evening, I picked up my Mom at the airport. We went to the coast yesterday. We went to church and cruised around Corvallis today. We've had lots of catching up and hanging out.

This afternoon I found the "Sunday nap" I lost about 8 weeks ago. Maybe tomorrow I'll remember what it's like to sleep in. Probably not, Emily likes waking up at 6:40. Is it midnight already? It is? Where does the time go?

Almost Done

I was hoping to be done with my object oriented programming report today. Well, I'm not done yet, but I will be tomorrow. I'm excited that the term is almost over. It's great to have that sense of completion. I've finished two terms of grad school and I'm going on a third. Oh, the things I've learned!

Only two-and-a-half pages of writing stand between me and the finish line. I'm almost done. I'll see you on the other side.

Finishing Up and Getting Ready

The end of winter term is wrapping up nicely. I've finished all my work for my graphics class and all my grading for my TA class. Now all I have left is to write a report on object oriented programming. Writing it should be both interesting and fun.

Lisa and I are gearing up for lots of company. This Friday, my mom is arriving to visit. She's staying until Thursday, the 25th. On Saturday, the 27th, Brooke and Ryan Heasty (my cousin and her husband) are stopping by on their way up the coast. On April 2, Lisa's family arrives for a two week visit. On April 4, we're inviting family and friends over to celebrate Emily's 1st birthday. It will be great to see people we haven't been able to see in a while. There will be lots to do with little time.

So, if you don't find yourself on this list of visitors, we would love to see you when you get a chance to take some vacation. Spring has arrived, so it's just beautiful up here. It's a great time to visit. We'd love to have you over.

Busy As Ever

The winter term is wrapping up, so I've been extremely busy between writing two reports, participating in a workship, writing my volume rendering software, and grading programs for CS 480. There's lots to do and I'm still not done!

Recently Lisa and I have been busy looking for a home up here where we can live while I finish out my Ph.D. It's amazing to see the price difference between real estate in Southern California and here. Prices here seem much more reasonable even though Corvallis is one of the most expensive places to live in Oregon. I'm not sure how people afford to live in Southern California, and I was just recently a resident.

Emily has been as active as ever. She is tearing around the house on all fours. Now that she's pulling herself up on things she's finding a whole new world of opportunity a few feet from the ground. She's recently discovered if she crawls over to Lisa or me, pulls herself up, and taps her hands on our legs, we'll pick her up eventially. This is very cute and irresistible--except when I'm trying to work.

Daffodils Everywhere

I have never seen as many daffodils than I have seen here in Corvallis. They're everywhere. Most every yard has them somewhere. One might think they grow wild. What a beautiful flower sitting there smiling at you and the sunshine. They brighten up my day when I'm walking to class. Maybe you should get some daffodils and brighten up yours.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Nate and Sara Jones and Melissa Kadera for running and completing the LA Marathon! They have been training hard, and today it paid off. They are not simply marathon participants, but marathon finishers. What a great test of training discipline and physical stamina. Good job! I'm proud to call you friends.

Check out Nate's blog and Melissa's blog for more information.

The Passion of the Christ

I saw "The Passion of the Christ" yesterday. All-in-all, an excellent film. Going into the movie I had two apprehensions. First, I wasn't sure I wanted to watch two hours of unspeakable brutality, and second, I wasn't too sure how much Gibson's Catholic background would influence the film. The movie was less difficult to watch and more biblically founded than I anticipated.

The violence was disturbing--particularly because it is accurate. Scourging is a horrific punishment and crucifixion is unspeakably cruel. Gibson clearly shows the injustice of Jesus' execution without compromising on Jesus' power to avoid the whole ordeal. What drives the message home is Jesus' love and compassion on those inflicting this horror upon Him. Jesus is not the victim. Jesus choses to die. Gibson states this essential Christian message with power and clarity. Christ layed down His life for us--He accepts our punishment in our stead.

I understand the symbolism of the Satan character presented throughout the films. I thought it was clever way of showing the underlying epic battle of Jesus crushing Satan. Some symbolism that struck me as odd was Satan's "children" harassing Judas and the raven who pecks at the unbelieving criminal. Both were extrabiblical and didn't seem to fit.

I liked the focus on Mary and Jesus's relationship. As a new father I can readily identify with the heartbreak of watching my child suffer. Emily recently had pink eye and we had to administer eye drops. For the first few days she would scream and cry, looking at us as if she had been betrayed by her most trusted caretakers. Emily's suffering is nothing compared to Jesus's suffering. Gibson captures a mother's anguish while mainting a strong Mary who understands Christ's necessary death.

Although the movie vividly reminds me of Christ's sacrifice, I'm not sure how clearly the gospel message is conveyed. It seems one must be reasonably familiar with the gospel to extract meaning from the film. The movie greatly impacted me, but I'm not sure what impact it would have on a non-Christian. It could be nothing more than a violent film about a great man who suffered unspeakable torture. I hope that the film creates an opportunity for good discussion between Christians and non-Christians alike and the controversial rhetoric surrounding it's release won't distract from it's important message.

Happy Birthday Karin

Happy birthday to my little sister Karin! I hope you have had a great day and have many good birthdays to come. It's been a pleasure growing up with you. I wish you much success as you finish up at UCSB.

Spectacular Rain

Today, we had some of the most spectacular rain I have seen in a while. It was just pouring down in sheets. I saw lightning and heard thunder for the first time since we moved up here to Oregon! Just amazing.

I was waiting for the bus when the rain started to pick up. The city builds covered rain shelters at all the major bus stops. Shortly after I sought cover, the sky just opened up. The drops were pouring in a thunderous roar. The wind was wipping the water everywhere. When the bus finally pulled up, I ran out of the shelter to get in the bus. I only in the rain for about 15 seconds, but I got soaked.

Typically, the rain up here is moderate to light. I usually doesn't pour. Today was the exception. What a sight!

Emily's Nobel Quest

Emily has been endowed with a nobel quest. There's no Lady of the Lake or sword Excalibur. There is a table, but it's not round. It's our rectangular coffee table, and Emily is on a quest to keep it clean.

Now that she can pull herself up on the coffee table, she has discovered a whole new world of opportunity before her eyes. This cluttered surface just begs to be organized. So, when she escapes our gaze, she grabs the closest thing and tosses it on the floor.

Fundamentally, she's driven by a need to empty things. She finds her toy basket and, one-by-one, emptys all the toys on the floor. In the bathroom, she'll crawl to her laundry basket and proceed to place all the clothes in two piles--one on each side of her. Of course, when the basket is empty, she entertains herself by relocating the pile on the right to the left and visa-versa. She does all this with the serious look of labor appropriate for one who has been commissioned.

With this innate talent for organization, I'm looking forward to training her to do the opposite--pick stuff up and put it where it goes. Hm...we could call it the "second quest."

See Emily at work

Spring Is Coming

Lisa and I went to the "Home and Garden Show" in Portland today. Lots of neat booths, products, and displays. I particularly enjoyed the flower and garden displays. Just beautiful. It reminds me that spring is coming soon.

I can't wait for spring and summer here in Oregon. Now, I'm not complaining about the winter. The winter up here is nothing, even though native Oregonians seem to feel compelled to complain about it. I was joking with Lisa today that we should print up t-shirts that say "I survived an Oregon winter." We could wear them on our trips to California. Other Oregonians could laugh while we garner sympathy from those endowed with more sunshine.

No, I can't wait for spring and summer because I'm told that it is absolutely gorgeous! It will be time to go hiking, visit national parts, and enjoy the perfect weather with optimum sunshine. The "Home and Garden Show" whet my appetite. Now if I can only make it through the rest of the term.

Whoa Nelly!

It's been one crazy weekend! Basically, I wrote a four page research paper over the weekend. That, and I took Lisa out for Valentine's Day. Oh yeah...there was church on Sunday morning too. And, I read through a quarter of an interesting dissertation. I'm trying to remember if I got sleep somewhere in the maddness...hm I have a vauge recollection...maybe I'll just sleep on it.

So, why write about the weekend now, on Tuesday? Well, I didn't have time until now. A word of advice to all you out there considering grad school. You don't even know what busy is yet. :-)

Well, I'm off to do some grading. Have yourself a restful and relaxing day. If you have any extra rest or relaxation left over, just send it my way.

Happy Day!

Happy Valentines Day for all of you out there with a significant other. I hope you treated them even better than they deserve. Happy "I'm glad I'm free of women" day for the rest of you!

Lisa and I went to the "Best Little Roadhouse" in Salem to grab a steak dinner. The 50 min wait was worth it because it was delicious! I highly recommend it to anyone. Dinner was, of course, after a nice afternoon of shopping at the outlet stores to get big Presidents' Day sale discounts. I think the most we payed for something was 50% off. Most of what we bought was 75% off! Not bad at all! Emily now has clothes to get her through the next six months and Lisa has clothes to keep her looking nice while carrying Emily around.

Happy Birthday Lisa!

Happy birthday to my wonderful and precious wife Lisa! I look forward to spending many more years with her. She is a blessing and a joy to me!

King of the Tank

My beta fish, Foo, got a space "upgrade" today. He moved from his filthy little beta tower into my 2.5 gallon fish tank. He wasted no time in establishing his domain. He immediately started flaring his gills and chasing the poor plecostomus and red-eyed tetras around the tank. It was fun to watch Foo stretch his legs, ahem, fins. It's funny, because I haven't seen a beta that active in a while.

Foo is named after my previous beta Phineas. Foo's full name is "Phineas 2" which I simply reduce to "Foo". Phinny lived to a ripe old age of at least two years when I left him behind in the APU fishtank. When I parted with my dear Phineas, he was having significant difficulty "attacking" his food pellets in stationary water...poor thing.

Foo is young and has his best years ahead of him. Here's to the new king of the tank...and here's to my entertainment watching him. :-)

It Finally Happened

Before I became a parent, I was unaware of many things. One such thing was the ins and outs of child care. I figured that when I needed someone to watch my child, I would just call them up, let them know she is coming, and then drop her off. Needless to say I was surprised to find out the usual policies of "drop-in" care. And this morning, those policies finally caught up with me.

Basically, any organization that watches children as their business, wants you to commit to bringing your child in a set amount every week. This is well and good if you have one of those "normal" lives with fixed schedules. (Read, not a student or a nurse.) Consequently, Lisa and I rely on drop-in care whenever our schedules collide.

The way drop-in works is you call the morning of you want to drop-off your child and hope they have availabillity. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. If you try to call and make arrangements in advance, they tell you to just call in the morning. Now, I understand this from a business standpoint. A business can't just sit around hoping you'll drop off your child so they can watch him. But the uncertainty of this arrangement puts a parent in quite a predicament. You are putting your child in daycare is because you must do something, but you cannot be assured that you will actually be able to do what it is you must do.

As a resourceful parent, I have a list of the only three places in Corvallis that provide drop-in care. None of them were free this morning, so I stayed home to watch Emily. Fortuanately, there is nothing critical in class this morning, but that's because the midterm that was scheduled, was turned into a take home exam. I can only wonder what I would have done if I still had a midterm this morning.

Rush, Rush, Oops

So, have you ever stayed up really late to get something done only to find out that it is due later than you thought it was? Well, last night I stayed up until 3:00 AM to get my graphics program done thinking that I was supposed to turn it in during class today...well I was wrong. It's due at midnight. Doh! At least I can go to bed early. ;-)

Oh, the Insanity!

I thought I would mention that I've been incredibly busy in the last few days. This might be the first time in a while where I feel like if I stayed up night and day, it would still take a few days to catch up. Boy it's been crazy! Well, I guess what grad school is all about. But, with my fast Internet connection, I'll be sure to keep blogging despite the insanity.

Yipeeeee!!!!

Bring on the high speed Internet connection! This is my first "official" blog entry over my new high speed connections. I have "Comcast High Speed Internet" with 3 Mbit down and 256 Kbit up. Woo hoo! I'll guess I'll just have to wait and see how the service is, but so far I'm happy.

I've been holding off on the high speed connection to save money. OSU provides "free" dialup. The dialup service is fine, but I've been spending more time lately SSHing into OSU's servers. Also, on-line research goes much, much slower on dial-up. Now that I have a TA position (for a little extra income), I decided to go for the high speed. At about $45 a month it's not a bad price.

Always Something To Do

It seems like there is always something to take care of. Take today, for example, I don't think I accomplished one major thing, just a bunch of little stuff that had to get done. Of course if I try to remember everything I got done today, I can't, but at the time it seemed like it needed doing.

The funny part is that if someone asks me..."What did you do today?" I'd probably just say "Not much." :-) That seems easier then trying to remember.

Super Monkey Ball

Sega gave up on making their own console and went back to simply making video games. This was as great idea because out of the unholy union of Sega and the Nintendo Gamecube, comes Super Monkey Ball! I think "addictive" might be a euphamism. This game is a blast!

Check out the game site. If you have flash installed (why wouldn't you?!?) then you can play a fun little online version!

Busy, Busy, Busy...

I have been rediculously busy lately. I mean, no free time at all...not even for blogging. Well, today has slowed down a little, but I still have tons to do. I don't think I have ever been this busy before, and if I have, I certainly forgot what it was like. Bottom line, grad school = busy.

The real challenge is figuring out what order to do stuff in. You don't want to procrastinate, but you can't do everything first. Do you work on what is due next? or what will go the fastest? It's a tough call. This week I made the wrong call and put off working on my graphics assignment until Monday and yesterday. That was a mistake! I discovered a problem with the assignment yesterday (the day it was due) and couldn't really get it clarified before I had to turn in my assignment. Next time, I'm going to start graphics earlier.

Grading Is An Art

I spent 4 hours yesterday and 4 hours today grading programs for CS 480. I've learned two things. People have wildly different programming styles, and grading is an art.

It's easy to grade something that is correct. The student is right, end of story. It's much more difficult to grade something that's wrong. How "wrong" is the error? How many points should be deducted? What sort of helpful comments should I write?

Fortunately, I'm TAing for a very experienced teacher (Dr. Budd) who is exceptionally helpful when I have questions or dilemmas. I'm just hoping I'll be a much better (and faster) artist by the end of the term.

I Like My Desk

Since I'm a TA, OSU assigned me a desk. I share the desk with another TA and there are a total of three desks in the office. It's convenient because the office is in a building adjacent to the Computer Science building. Giving graduate assistants a desk is a great idea! It gives me a place to go where I can get work done with some more privacy and quiet than the computer lab. Plus, I have a big window right next to my desk! You can't beat that!

Today was the first time I spent significant time at my desk. I was correcting programs for CS 480. I was amazed how much I could really focus by getting away from everything. There really isn't anything to distract me there, so I just buckle down and work. In short, I like my desk. Pictures to come....

Automata, Automata, Automata

Well, I just finished grading a bunch of papers for CS 480. I knew how to construct automata before, but if grading 29 homework assignments doesn't hammer it in, I don't know what will. It's funny how they say one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it...well, grading must be one of the best ways to get it down cold.

And for the record, a DFA does *not* have epsilon transitions! Repeat after me..."A DFA does not have epsilon transitions...."

Photo Contest

The Oregonian is having a photo contest for pictures from last week's big winter storm. The winners get free stuff, so I submitted a few pictures. Here are the ones I sent in.

Snow, Snow, Snow, Ice

I got a chance to upload and index my winter weather photos. You can check them out in the photos area. The snow was beautiful, and the ice was amazing! The freezing rain coated everything in a shell of ice. I have never seen anything like it before.

OSU Closed Again

"OSU will be closed Wednesday due to inclement weather conditions." What a great word: "inclement". Leave it to a university to expand your vocabulary through a press release.

Yesterday I didn't miss any classes. Today, I'm missing classes.

OSU Closed

We are having freak weather up here, so OSU closed for the day. The press release says that this has only happened a few times in OSU's history! My favorite quote is: "The decision to close the university is always difficult," McCambridge said. "It's only the second day of the term, so there shouldn't be many midterms scheduled."

New Assistantship

Well, today was my first official day as a teaching assistant. I'll be assisting Dr. Timothy Budd for Translators (CS 480). I'm exciting about this since I ultimately want to be a college professor. It looks like my duties will entail lots of grading and whatever else Dr. Budd assigns.

Assistantships are really the way to go. They cover tuition as well as a monthly stipend. OSU has both research and teaching assistantships. Essentially, you get paid to go to school!

I thank God for providing this assistantship. I wasn't expecting an assistantship this early in my grad career although I have tried for a TA position since I applied to OSU. I had already written off this winter term until I found out about it at the last minute. It's a blessing because I'll save thousands of dollars and have extra income.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow...

It snowed most of the morning today. It was beautiful! Apparently this much snow is unusual for Corvallis, but I'm loving it! How appropriate for the first day of winter term. I'll post some pictures when I get a chance to upload them.

Here Goes Nothin'

Well, I'm starting a blog. Yup, a blog. I hope to keep things short and interesting and up-to-date. Happy reading.

I'm using this ecclectic blog engine called "Movable Type". Installation isn't for the faint of heart, but it has lots of features. :-)