Dot Dot Dot

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!)

My Alter Ego

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

Let It Snow!

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.

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. :-)

You Are What You Drink

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

Suppose the Team is Down 21 Points...

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.

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?

If you have a million monkeys pounding on typewriters...

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?"

Funny Citation

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.

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!

New Linux Supporter

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.

3D in JavaScript!?

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!

Wireless Corvallis?

Might Corvallis become a wireless city? It looks like the city has a call for proposals. I think municipal wireless is cool, but I always wonder about bandwidth issues. What I really wonder if this wireless infrastructure might be sufficient to replace a per-house Internet connection.