Chapman Kids Blog

"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." –John 16:33

San Pedro Garza Garcia

Tag: Russia

My last day at Bioptigen

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On Tuesday, December 13, 2011

In Health, Technology, Work

Day 113 of 1000 (212.8 lbs.)

You will notice that I was shamed into putting my weight back up again (Thank you, Wendy–hold my feet to the fire!)  The problem now is that today is my last day of work here at Bioptigen.  They will take me out to lunch as some place really good, probably the Carniceria around the corner that has a working man’s Mexican restaurant with handmade corn tortillas.  How can I resist that?  I think it would offend everyone if I did not eat a couple barbacoa tacos.  So, I will skip breakfast this morning in hope that I do not shoot up five pounds.  They really should start a research project on my energy conversion.  For every pound I eat, I think I gain four or five pounds.

My stay at Bioptigen has been great.  The work was interesting (image processing algorithm development for ophthalmological optical coherence tomography), the people were really great, especially my new Russian friends, and I will miss it a lot.  I hate the last day of work at a job after I have made good, hopefully lifelong friends and done very interesting work.  I always wonder whether or not I am making a mistake, but the new work is also interesting with great people, and what appears to be more opportunity, so I am looking forward to it.  I will talk a little about my new job tomorrow.

The greedy man pays twice

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On Friday, December 9, 2011

In Education

Day 109 of 1000 (212.8 lbs.)

Stepan and I continue to talk in the mornings when we arrive at work.  I am going to miss that a lot when I switch jobs next week.  He told me another Russian proverb today:  The greedy man pays twice.  He says that not only applies if you buy cheap, shoddy stuff, but also in life.  That is certainly true.  I do not know whether my recent travails with Kelly’s and Christian’s classes have anything to do with that, but it certainly might.

I signed Lorena, Christian, and Kelly up for spring semester classes at Wake Tech, but in the confusion and busyness associated with my job change, I forgot to pay for them on the specified day.  We were able to get both of the kids into Linear Algebra at Wake Tech with their favorite math teacher, Kelly was able to get her Macroeconomics class, and I was able to recover a couple of classes that had filled up by signing the kids up for two distance education courses each at Central Carolina Community College.  I had to switch Kelly from Astronomy to Physical Geology, but that all worked out OK.  The big problem was that Differential Equations and Physics II were both full.

It took about three weeks of pain and frustration, but I finally have him signed up for both classes at Johnston Community College.  Lorena want to drive over there with him, so I signed her up for a couple of classes, too.  To say it is a relief to have all this done is a wild understatement.

Update:  When it rains it pours.  They have Lorena as an out-of-state student and want here to pay more than three times as much for her six ours of classes than Christian paid for his seven hours of classes.

Stepan tells a little of his story

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On Thursday, December 8, 2011

In Christianity, Family, Politics, Work

Stepan stopped by my desk again and told me a little story about his great grandfather, Nikolai, who was originally from the Ukraine.  Nikolai was a successful, small family farmer.  So successful, it turns out, that In the 1930’s, Stalin’s thugs took the farm and sent the whole family to Siberia.  Somehow, Nikolai was able to bribe two guards so the family could escape.  They changed their names and lived as illegal aliens in Murmansk.  I looked up Murmansk on Google maps.  It is in the very Northwest corner of Russia, not too far from the border with Finland.  His family probably did not live too far from our relative in Northern Finland during World War II.  It is an amazing story.  Stepan’s family did not  hear about it until Nikolai’s wife told them about it after the Soviet Union fell in the early 1990’s.

He also told me about his wife’s great grandfather who is German/Dutch extraction.  During World War II, he got sent to a horrible concentration camp in Kazakhstan where the vast bulk of the prisoners died.  He had abandoned his factory in the Ukraine and made his way to the south of Russian when he saw that Stalin and the communists were going to come and take it from him.

Needless to say, Stepan does NOT have too many warm fuzzy feelings about atheism, communism in general, and Joe Stalin in particular.

Stepan on maturity

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On Thursday, December 8, 2011

In Socialization

My Russian buddy Stepan and I discussed maturity this morning over coffee.  I told him Grandpa Lauro’s maxim that, with boys, the blood doesn’t ever really start getting to the brain until about age 30.

Stepan laughed and said, “We have a saying like that in Russia, too, but I can’t tell you what it is.”

I asked, “Why not?”

He said, “Well, the saying is the something only gets to the something.  You are going to have to figure out what are the two somethings for yourself.”

Stepan’s theories on the space shuttle

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On Tuesday, December 6, 2011

In Business, Politics, Technology, Work

Stepan, my Russian, chemist friend and I got into one of those discussions common to rooms full of engineers: the relative benefits of the different ways to go into space.  He has a very interesting theory.  The mundane part is that it is cheaper to send up rockets than maintain a space shuttle fleet.  The really good part is that he is against the private sector getting to deeply into making rockets for space travel.

He says, “Can you imagine, the next thing you know, we will have an atomic exchange between IBM and Cisco!”

Homeschool and why Stepan never asks “How are you doing?”

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On Tuesday, December 6, 2011

In Art, Education, Homeschool

Day 106 of 1000 (214.1 lbs.)

I have talked previously spoken about my buddy Stepan from Russia here and here.  Stepan has a family to whom he is very devoted.  He is very interested in assuring his two little girls (ages 1 and 3) get the best education possible.  His oldest daughter started Suzuki violin at age one with a teacher who is serious.  The teacher told Stepan that her students should NOT play anything other that what they given so they would get in the habit of playing ONLY in the most correct way.  Stepan liked that.

The three year old started preschool earlier this year.  As is their wont, the teachers at the preschool had them do some fingerpainting.  Stepan was not happy.

He said, “The only thing they do there is have fun.  She already knows how to use a brush.  Fingerpainting is NOT art.”

He has begun to notice that schools in the United States, public and private, are not so good.  From the time Stepan was very young, he went to school to learn.  There was no fun or self-fulfillment about it.  He believes that life is a lot more fulfulling if you accomplish something.  The only way to accomplish things is to work hard and not necessarily have fun.  He believes the only way his daughters can get a good education here in America is through “home education.”  I concur with the bulk of that.

It reminded me of when I asked him “How are you doing?” one morning when he came into work.

He said, “We never say that in Russia.”

I asked, “Why not?”

He said, “Because, in Russia, it is usually bad.”

“Well, what do you say, then?” I asked.

“We wish people health.”

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