I'm Certifiable, Apparently

Last weekend, I attended a 2-day CrossFit Level 1 certification at Trident CrossFit in Alexandria. The event consisted not only of multiple lectures on topics such as CrossFit's definitions of fitness and health, the correct form on the 9 foundational movements (and others), and nutritional, but also breakout sessions in which we practiced performing and teaching the various movements, 2 workouts, and a written exam. I learned today that I passed the exam. Thus, I am now a vetted CrossFit Level 1 Trainer.

Yay me.

Introspection: Girl Friends (not Girlfriends)

I've been thinking about college a lot of lately, in part because I've recently re-connected with someone I knew at Rice. I'm reminded that, although my closest 2 or 3 friends were guys, most of my "second-tier" friends and many of my friendly acquaintances were girls. What makes this fact especially interesting---to me, at least---is that I was quite intimidated by women throughout college.

In grad school at Georgia Tech, and during my postdoc at NRL, the population of my peers was predominantly males, so it's difficult to draw any conclusions from my time at those institutions.

At my current workplace, there are decent numbers of both males and females. The men certainly outnumber the women, though, especially on the projects I'm involved with. Still, most of my work friends are women. Meanwhile, I long ago got over any intimidation I once felt, which may be a result of my relationship with Alison; I'm not on the lookout for a romantic relationship.

I can't help but wonder what this gender distribution of my friendships says about me, if anything.

Slouching Toward Austin

I'm horrified by the recent vote by the Texas Board of Education to include language in their teaching standards that encourages the teaching of creationism/ID. My "favorite" part of the article I've linked to is the Board Chair's statement that "Someone has to stand up to experts," presumably because experts don't know what they are talking about. I don't think this guy knows what "expert" means.

Congratulations, Dr Alison

My lovely and brilliant bride successfully defended her doctoral disertation today.  So I'd like to congratulate Dr Alison on her acheivement.

Congrats, of Course

As expected, Alison has just been given permission to schedule her defense---we're hoping she can set the date for mid-December---so congratulations to her.

Congrats, Ash

Last week, Alison and I traveled to the Land o' Lincoln to see her sister, Ashley, graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Ashley was awarded University Honors, which are reserved for the top 3% of each class. She was the only history major so honored.

How is She Still Alive?

I've just learned that my lovely and intelligent bride is entirely incapable of flipping a coin. She had to do it repeatedly today as part of her TA gig, and it apparently went rather poorly. She gave me a demonstration of her "technique" this evening, and she nearly had to administer oxygen to me after the laughing fit that ensued. Please, the next time you see her, ask her to repeat the demonstration for you. Just be sure that you aren't eating at the time. I only hope the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration doesn't see her attempting this "feat," or they'll surely revoke her license to drive.

Apparently, in the same class, she needed to open a Venetian blind to let some light in. When she pulled the cord, the entire blind came right off the wall. Maybe she should lay off the CrossFit for a bit.

She told me, "I'm sure [my adviser] thought I was a spaz, but I really wasn't doing it on purpose." When I explained to her that a klutz wouldn't do it purposefully either, she replied, "So Elizabeth correctly thought I was a spaz." Yes, correctly.

I realize that I'm not the most athletic person in the world, but for crying out loud! I think this could be a deal-breaker.

That's Dr. Michael to You

When I finished grad school, and people started addressing me as "Dr. Surname", I must admit I found it new and exciting. After a short time, however, I began to expect it. Now I feel ever so slightly insulted when someone calls me "Mr.", even if it's in a context in which the title is irrelevant. I realize that's more than a little conceited, but there it is. I'm a bad person.

Hooray for Vacay!

Hello everyone! Lots has been going on around here with me lately. The most important news, of course, is that I finished my oral exams. WOO HOO!! I am now ABD (all but dissertation). Ha! As if that were some mean feat...all that's left is the measly little dissertation. No biggie, right? Still, I feel like I have finished the preliminaries and can now get started on the cool part, y'know?

After I finished up, I did a little bit of traveling to celebrate. First, I visited some family in Florida, which was fun. I managed to go to the beach twice and not get horribly sunburned. I only peeled a teeny bit on the tops of my shoulders. This is a major accomplishment for me. The beach and I don't exactly get along famously. Anyway, after my trip to Florida I returned here for a few days, only to turn around and leave for Vermont shortly thereafter. I went up there to visit my old roommates from Atlanta, one of whom (Melinda) now lives in Burlington. The other roommate, Leah, and I drove from MD to VT, which was not a bad drive, really, except for a couple of things. First of all, it cost us approximately $20 in tolls each way. CRAZY. Also, Google maps is great at finding you the shortest route and, don't get me wrong, the directions were completely accurate. However, we ended up on some very, very tiny country roads, none of which were marked clearly or, um, at all, around the New York/VT border right at dusk. That was...challenging. Also, there were farm smells and at least one skunk. We affectionately named the area "New Vermork" since we were not terribly clear on which state we were in, exactly. New Vermork is not easy to navigate, so I don't recommend going if you can avoid it.

Vermont is REALLY pretty. I was kind of surprised by how rural it is! I suppose that's ignorant of me, but I was expecting Burlington to be a fairly big city. On the contrary, although it is the largest city in VT, it is not that big. The downtown was super cute and quaint with pretty little shops. We spent one day strolling around down there poking around. It was really nice. We also pretty much ate our way through the state. We toured the Cabot creamery where we got free samples of cheese, the Ben and Jerry's factory where we got free samples of ice cream, the Lake Champlain Chocolates factory where we got free samples of chocolate, and the Cold Hollow Cider Mill where we got, you guessed it, free samples of cider. I have no idea why people in VT don't weigh 500 lbs apiece. If I lived there, I guarantee you that someday someone would be prying the wall off my house to lift me out with a forklift while Richard Simmons cheered me on. It would be BAD.

Anyway, I'm back now, having successfully navigated New Vermork not once, but twice, and having eaten way more than my fair share of Vermont's dairy products. I was a very silly girl and did not take my camera with me, but when Leah and Melinda send me their photos, I will post a few for your viewing pleasure.

What Do You Call Spam That Comes Through USPS?

I recently realized that Alison and I receive unsolicited mail, at various frequencies, from seven different schools. Alison gets mail from these:

• Johns Hopkins University
  
• Harvard University
  
• Emory University
  
• University of Illinois
  

Meanwhile, I get mail from these:

• Johns Hopkins University
  
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• Rice University
  
• Woodward Academy
  

So, apparently education (and employment) has a cost beyond the financial one, and it's called junk mail.

That's My Girl!

Alison gave her dissertation proposal today. It went very well, as I knew it would.* So, we should all congratulate her on passing this major milestone. Congratulations!

* Because she rocks!

Is Newton Doomed?

The instructor at the puppy school* where we go with Newton, Howard Weinstein, is, in his "other life," the author of numerous Star Trek novels. You might worry that, by exposing our pup to Howard's influence, we risk turning him into a doggie geek. However, given the affection Alison and I have for science fiction, fantasy, science, and technology,** I believe the little guy was doomed from the day we brought him home.

* I think the course should be called puppy-owner school. The class doesn't really teach the dogs anything; instead, it teaches the owners to teach their pups.

** Note all the subject tags to the right.

1 Down, 1 to Go

Well, tonight I took the final exam in my Java class. Now I just need to give a talk on production of polarization-entangled photon pairs by four-wave mixing in optical fiber---a subject I know very little about---and I'll be done with both my classes. Remind me, why did I want to go back to school?

Rice University to Add 2 New Colleges

Somehow I missed it, but my undergraduate alma mater, Rice University, has announced some major expansion plans. The school intends to increase the size of the undergraduate student body by 30 %. I'm not sure I agree with that move; I think perhaps Rice should stay the small---some would say "elite"---university it's been for so long. Anyway, to accommodate all these new students, the school will be adding two new residential colleges. That's right: a tenth and an eleventh. What's more, these two colleges are slated to be occupied by Autumn of 2009. It appears that the new colleges, along with their joint kitchen/servery, will be squeezed into the north side of campus, next to Jones. The tenth college will be named McMurtry, after a couple who began dating as Rice undergrads and who have recently donated 32 M$ to the University. That's 32,000,000 dollars. (I think it's safe to assume the McMurtrys are doing pretty well for themselves.)

A bit of Rice history: In the late 1990s, the University planned to add two new residential colleges to its set of eight. After the most recent recession began, the money dried up, so the plans were scaled back; only the ninth college was built. I guess the cash must be flowing more freely now, but I wonder how long it will last, or if the eleventh college will be constructed anytime soon.

I know two occasional readers of this blog are Rice alumni. I'd like to hear their opinions on this news.

Back to School

No, this post isn't about that insipid Rodney Dangerfield movie. Instead, it's about how 24 years of schooling and a Ph.D. apparently aren't sufficient for me. You see, I'm taking a couple of classes offered by the university that runs the lab where I work. One is an introduction to programming using Java, and the other is a course on quantum information processing. After attending the first meeting of each class, I suspect that I'm in for quite a lot of work this fall. Perhaps I'll get back to you about that.

Yay! I'm done!

Wow...that level of exuberance just took a lot out of me.

Hello again, everyone. You may recall that I, too, am a contributor to this blog. Although, you wouldn't know it based on the past month or so. Sorry for my long absence, but after finals (which were pretty horrendous this term) I had to prepare for my written comprehensive exam. This was a two-part exam spanning two days, the second part of which I completed approximately an hour and a half ago. Woo hoo! I am really happy to be done, although I am not sure that it has completely sunk in yet. Mostly I just feel reeeeeeally tired. My main objective for the rest of today is to not think. Therefore, I should probably stop writing and go veg. So, in conclusion I promise to write more soon, but TTFN.

I'm baaack.....

Hello everyone! Well, I survived finals and spring break, so now my schedule is back to normal and I can blog again. Please, wipe away those tears of relief! I wouldn't leave you all alone to read blog entries exclusively about robots and such. No, today we are going to have a couple of girly blog entries! Entries about...puppies! :D

I thought I would put up a short review about a book I recently read entitled, Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog. It was mentioned in a comment on a different post a few days ago. Check out the link for a synopsis. Basically it is a true story of a family and their dog, who was not very well behaved to say the least! Of course, they loved him anyway and he became an integral part of their family. This book is a quick read and I honestly laughed out loud regularly while reading it. Of course, I also cried at the end, so be warned: buy tissues before reading this book. Nonetheless, I highly recommend it!