Month: May 2014

My day job is getting more interesting

By Dad

On Thursday, May 29, 2014

After a year and a half of hard core travel to Arizona and Colorado, our first product is almost to the point where it can move into production. It is exciting and I wish I could say I will have a life after that, but here is an even more exciting, revolutionary really, in the pipeline. I have worked on a lot of products, but none that has a chance to be a true game changer on the level of this next product. So it does not look like I will slow down much through the end of the year, but I expect not to have to travel so much. Wow! This is exciting. I will talk about it when I can.

Betty Blonde #121 – 01/01/2009

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Back to work on GaugeCam

By Dad

On Wednesday, May 28, 2014

In Software, Technology

I have finally gotten a chance to spend an hour or two on GaugeCam. I really did not have the time, but was so burnt out on everything else, I took a little time after dinner last night and fixed a few things. Here is the blog post for the latest update. The video shows what I did. It used to take three or four clicks of the mouse to calibrate the water level measurement system. Now it only takes one. You can see it in the video above.

I have decided I am going to spend some more time on this over the next few months until Lorena and I have had a chance to figure out what we will do next. More and more people are getting interested in it and we keep thinking of new things to improve. It should be fun.

Betty Blonde #120 – 12/31/2008

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Thinking it through takes time

By Dad

On Sunday, May 25, 2014

I leave a pair of dress shoes and a Bible in my desk drawer at work so I do not have to haul them back and forth between Raleigh and Prescott. I do almost all of my Bible reading these days either on my computer or on my phone. So, when I am in Prescott, I run into work to grab my Bible and change into my dress shoes before I go to meeting. As is my morning habit, I grab a cup of hot Joe at the hotel on my way through the lobby. It is pretty good coffee, not that that is so important to me. Hot and bitter is about all I ever need. So that is why I find myself sitting at my desk at work in Prescott drinking a nice cup of coffee and writing on my blog as I wait to go to meeting.

Meeting is over for the family out on the East Coast. Lorena and the kids are all together in the Atlanta area to attend the festivities around our friend Hannah’s high school graduation. It surely sounds like they are having a great time. The cool part is that Hannah will head out to Flagstaff to go to school in the fall and her parents have a house in the Phoenix area, so Christian will have some additional friends in the area when he moves out here.

I have quite a bit of alone time over the last few days and have to admit I have been somewhat frantic about figuring out what to do next. We will be very busy for the next couple of months because we have to get the kids moved out West to their colleges, but after that things will slow down pretty dramatically. With now formal responsibilities for the kids homeschool or college anymore, it surely seems like I will have too much time on my hands. I see that slowdown coming fast and it has had me worried, but it dawned on me while I was drinking my coffee that it probably makes sense to take a little time and think about it before I jump into any new big projects.

I realize that I have a couple of really big work projects (GaugeCam and my day job), I am not going to be completely unoccupied. Lorena has stuff she wants to do, too. She is getting very close to her degree and she might want to go to work or start a business. At any rate, we have a big cross-country drive in the plans so we will certainly have a chance to talk. I think we just need to slow down a little, drink some coffee together in the morning and take a little more time to do a little more planning than usual to help us decide what to do next. I am not so good at taking things slow, but it seems like the right thing to do now. It seems like a luxury really–when I take the time to smell the coffee and think about it.

Betty Blonde #119 – 12/30/2008

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New projects

By Dad

On Friday, May 23, 2014

I got started on my own list of “what to do next” today. Beside home improvement, travel to see family, hanging out with Lorena and reading of books, there are only a few things that require much planning. Even those things are things that would probably be better planned by someone else. In fact, I can think of only two projects that seem interesting right now and they are really holdovers from homeschool. The are:

GaugeCam water level finding project
Comic aggregation program in python for Kelly

I am definitely going to have to do better than that. I will try to keep thinking about it.

Betty Blonde #118 – 12/29/2008

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The end of 1000 days

By Dad

On Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Day 1000 of 1000

Done. I read a few chapters extra this morning to adjust my attitude, finish the 1000 days well, and finish the second of three reads through the Old Testament that I started tracking on February 9, 2006. Next, I will complete two reads through the New Testament. It has been a great 1000 day run and I am glad I tracked it. I have to think now what I want to do with both the blog and some goals for something good over the next four or five years. By good, I mean something with spiritual value. I have decided I am going to sit down with Lorena and think about it for several months after my current hard push to get the kids settled on their own out West at college and at work bringing our company’s first product to market. Lorena has some stuff she wants to accomplish, so maybe “good” means focusing on her goals now that she has been such a great and selfless champion of her kids to get them where they are.

Betty Blonde #117 – 12/26/2008

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Changes in the changes

By Dad

On Monday, May 19, 2014

Day 998 of 1000

Life just got a little less complicated for Lorena and I. Due to work and other considerations, we do not have to move from North Carolina, at least for the next few years. The house comes off the market today! We both felt a quite unexpected sense of relief. An added benefit to the big changes are that I will finish my current phase of work in Prescott that has required me to be there 2-3 weeks per month in June or July. After that, I will only need to be on the road one week at a time and I will be home on weekends. In addition, I will need to go to Portland about every other trip to work with members of our image research team there. Throw me to the brier patch!

Betty Blonde #116 – 12/25/2008

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Our ten year plan is coming to a conclusion

By Dad

On Sunday, May 18, 2014

In Family, House and home, Money

Day 997 of 1000

Ten years ago, when we restarted our homeschool, we made a plan to get Kelly through college by 2014 followed by Christian in 2016. We did it two year early because Christian finished two years early than our plan. I only thought about it about once per year when I made the yearly plan for the next year’s homeschool and bought the books from Sonlight. The plan was completely forgotten while we did the work of homeschooling. Now that we are at the end, it has dawned on me that we have not given much thought to what comes next. Of course, I have my work, mortgage, and retirement to consider, but those are continuing things that require thought and readjustment on a regular basis when I change jobs, move, run into an unexpected expense, etc. We have goals in all that, but they are just going to be part of life until I die, so I planning for that kind of thing is just part of the landscape.

Now though, Lorena and I have to figure out what we want to do next. Does Lorena want to finish her degree or start a business or do both? Do we want to live in Portland or Phoenix or Prescott or stay where we are? There are competing interests in all this. The kids are both going off to graduate school on the west coast. We would like to be near them so we could see them on a very regular basis, but they are at the age to start making their own way without too much interference from us. Are we thinking of moving just so we can be by them? Maybe. But is that bad? Maybe, maybe not. I thought life was going to get less complicated at this point, but it looks like I am wrong.

Betty Blonde #115 – 12/24/2008

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Returning to sanity after graduation

By Dad

On Friday, May 16, 2014

In Family, House and home

Day 995 of 1000

All the guests are gone back to Oregon. Kelly is hard at work on her summer projects for her professor. Christian has started preparation for his summer Partial Differential Equations graduate class. Lorena is hard at work making sure the house is ready to show at a moments notice. My flight to Arizona on Wednesday was delayed long enough that I had to fly out yesterday, promptly lost my luggage and am scheduled to work through the weekend. In the midst of all this we are all trying to find new places to live out West and are finding out it is not that easy. Nothing really seems too settled right now. We can all hardly wait to get back to more controlled lives.

Betty Blonde #115 – 12/24/2008

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Kelly receives her diploma from NCSU 2014

By Dad

On Thursday, May 15, 2014

Day 994 of 1000

Kelly receives her diploma from NCSU 2014

Betty Blonde #114 – 12/23/2008

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Christian receives his diploma from NCSU 2014

By Dad

On Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Day 993 of 1000

Christian receives his diploma from NCSU 2014

Betty Blonde #113 – 12/22/2008

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Graduation visitors

By Dad

On Monday, May 12, 2014

In Education, Family

Day 991 of 1000

Grandpa Milo, Aunt Julia, and Gladys visit for the kids graduation in North Carolina I am going to write a few posts over the next few days about the graduations that occurred on May 9^th (Christian) and May 10^th (Kelly). We thoroughly enjoyed all of it. I thought I would start off with our visitors. Aunt Julia was very kind to fly out with Grandpa Milo. It would not have been possible otherwise. We were very much humbled and impressed with the care Aunt Julia showed toward Grandpa Milo with the current state of his memory. She gave us a very good lesson in how to think about all this and particularly, how to treat a person with this condition and enjoy them in their current frame of mind. For his part, Grandpa Milo was an enormous addition to the celebration. We can only imagine how much impoverished the event would have been without his presence.

Grandma Sarah, the great higher education advocate in our family could not attend, but was here in spirit. Even though our dear friend Gladys would have been a fabulous addition to the party if Grandma Sarah would have been able to make it, she was absolutely essential in Grandma Sarah’s absence. She is so kind and accomplished in her treatment of people, especially in these kinds of celebrations, we could not have done it this nicely without her. Beside listening to everyone, helping out in every way she can, and always saying the uplifting thing, she (as always) did one other thing that brought great joy to the festivities: She truly enjoyed herself and had a smile on her face the whole time.

I will talk a little bit more about the events of the weekend in subsequent posts, but for this post, we just want to thank Grandpa Milo, Aunt Julia, and Gladys who made such a great effort to be with us to celebrate the kids graduation.

Betty Blonde #112 – 12/19/2008

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Why not skip high school? (Part 11) The fact sheet (how we did)

By Dad

On Thursday, May 8, 2014

This is the eleventh and last post in a series of posts on the benefits of skipping high school and going straight to college. The introductory post and index to all the other posts in the series is here. You can see their undergraduate results and post-graduate (PhD) chase here. I try to keep the results updated as they occur.

[Previous post in series]
[Next post in series]

With the graduation coming up, I thought it might be good to provide some of the kids’ graduation facts as the final post in the why not skip high school series. It is also a follow-up to all the posts we wrote about our homeschool and particularly the series on skipping high school, Sonlight homeschool curricula, CLEP testing, and homeschool socialization.

Christian

Department graduation ceremony May 9, 2014 (SAS Hall, NCSU Campus, Raleigh, NC)
Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics (Honors)
Summa Cum Laude (GPA: 3.93)
Dean’s list all semesters for which the course load made him eligible
Will attend the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University for a PhD in Electrical Engineering
Awarded Dean’s Fellowship (Full scholarship and stipend for four years)
Supplementary first year fellowship
Research sponsorship provided by MIT Lincoln Labs (where Christian will perform research during the summers)
Entering his PhD program at age 18 after skipping high school
Earned PhD in EE at age 23 with research in Information Theory and three refereed journal articles

Kelly

Department graduation ceremony May 10, 2014 (Ephesus Baptist Church, Raleigh, NC)
Bachelor of Science in Statistics
Magna Cum Laude (GPA: 3.64)
Dean’s list all semesters for which the course load made her eligible
Will attend Michael G. Foster School of Business at the University of Washington for a PhD in Marketing
Awarded TA/RA funding for four years
Supplementary fellowship for duration of PhD
Awarded funding for training and conference attendance by the PhD Project of the American Marketing Association
Enter her PhD program at age 20 after skipping most of high school
Mastered out at age 22 with MS in Marketing Strategy

No job offers for people with no hard science in their degrees

By Dad

On Thursday, May 8, 2014

In culture, Education, Work

I am always amazed when a hard left rag like The Minneapolis Star-Tribune publishes a column like this one written by a medical device company CEO explaining why he is unable to hire liberal arts graduates from the local “Big State U”, in this case University of Minnesota. His company had a need for someone in technical communications. Here is what he wrote about that student:

[He} took college classes in karate, guitar, Latin dance, handball, saber fencing, golf and master gardening. Then, for some of his core curriculum, he took courses in team leadership, Internet tools, visual rhetoric, intimate relationships, proposals and grants, exploring the universe, and technology and self.

So for a degree in scientific and technical communication, this student had no hard science, very little technical learning and only a “visual” communications course on his transcript. Even though we would like to hire an additional apprentice for our medical communications department, we didn’t hire this graduate because, despite the title of his degree, his curriculum failed to develop the ability to learn and communicate any subject even remotely as scientific or technical as a medical device.

And by no means was this student the exception. Other U graduates we interviewed had loaded their schedules with courses in honeybee management, personal leadership in the universe and my personal favorite, “cash or credit,” with the stated goal “to help students decide whether or not they want to apply for a credit card.” One credit awarded.

I am glad he added additional commentary about the fact that he did not expect the University to be a trade school. His company expected them to train people on hard technical stuff, but not on stuff specific to his company and industry. His company just needs people, even liberal arts majors, with a technical base that can only be achieved only through a classical liberal arts education which includes substantive courses in “science, math, literature, composition, and speech.” Come to think of it, I believe we got more of that even in homeschool than many of today’s liberal arts students get during their entire undergraduate degree.

Graduation ceremony guests arrive today

By Dad

On Thursday, May 8, 2014

In Education, Family

Day 987 of 1000

We are sad that Grandpa Lauro and Grandma Conchita will not be able to be here from Monterrey for the graduation. We have planned a special trip to visit them in Mexico later this summer to celebrate the graduation, but it would have been so nice if they could have been here. We hope to get some video and pictures of the ceremonies so we can send them and plan to call as soon as the ceremony is over.

Aunt Julia, the kid’s über-aunt is flying out from Oregon today with Grandpa Milo so they can attend Christian’s graduation ceremony on Friday and Kelly’s graduation ceremony on Saturday. She is filling the place of Grandma Sarah who at age 83 really has gotten past the ability to take cross country trips. We are so glad both Aunt Julia and Grandma Sarah were willing for this as Grandpa Milo now has some memory issues and would have a struggle to make it on his own. We hope to send video and images back with Aunt Julia to show to Grandma Sarah. Grandma Sarah has been the principle cheerleader and advocate in our family for higher education. She did not do so bad either. All four of her living children have Bachelors degrees and three of them have Masters. After this weekend all six of her grandchildren will have Bachelors degrees one of which has a Masters degree and two more will be starting PhD’s in the fall. Not bad for a lady who picked strawberries and beans in the summer to support herself through a Pharmacy degree, one of the first three women to complete the degree at Oregon State alongside the first black man. She graduated in 1952 when it was still Oregon State College, not Oregon State University.

We are so grateful Gladys from Oregon will arrive this afternoon, too. She is a very dear friend and honorary grandmother to Kelly and Christian. It is just amazing she was kind enough to make the effort to be here. Of course, every place she goes is better off for her presence, but this is especially gratifying because of the huge and unique role she has played in our family for two generations now.

Betty Blonde #111 – 12/18/2008

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Kelly’s last writing class: The” Why study Statistics?” video

By Dad

On Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Day 986 of 1000

Kelly and a friend were required to do a video for their Technical Writing Class. Not brilliant, but not bad either. I am putting it here for posterity.

Betty Blonde #110 – 12/17/2008

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My new, new favorite singer: 8 year old Angelina Jordan from Norway

By Dad

On Tuesday, May 6, 2014

In Music, Weekend Music Video

Day 985 of 1000

Betty Blonde #109 – 12/16/2008

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Cinco de Mayo flame war on NCSU facebook pages

By Dad

On Monday, May 5, 2014

Day 985 of 1000

The commie professor--last day of school What a great way to finish her undergraduate career–defending her cultural heritage against all enemies, foreign and domestic. There were some pretty powerful accusations made against NCSU Dining services for featuring sombreros and chocolate mustaches. Kelly and Christian defended their cultural heritage against these whining, perpetual victims and their racist invective. It reminded me of the commie professor and was great fun. Here are a just a few excerpts:

First, the bigoted invective:

To my Wolfpack Family,

Our NCSU Webpage states:
“At NC State, our diversity makes us strong. We will continue to initiate academic curricula and courses, research areas, outreach programs and a campus culture where diversity of ideas and people is embraced.”

Words cannot describe the tremendous pride I felt this past summer when I served as an Orientation Leader with NC State New Student Orientation. I had the opportunity to welcome over 4,000 first year students, transfer students, and their families to our Wolfpack community. We presented an open script play and then led a discussion which focused on diversity, stereotypes, and the community we would like to build at NC Sate. The “Cinco De Case-o” event in which sombreros and fake mustaches were given to students goes completely against NCSU’s statement and the efforts of our students and faculty who are attempting to truly create an inclusive community. A community in which everyone is respected and accepted for who they are.

I know every single student and faculty member at one point or another have felt excluded or ridiculed. I want you to think back to that moment, to relive the emotions and thoughts that were going through your head. That is exactly how the students who associate themselves with the Mexican culture currently feel. The fact that NCSU Dining has reflected and downgraded the rich Mexican culture to simply “sombreros” and “mustaches” is not only “uncool” but completely disrespectful.

It is not okay to make a mockery out of a culture. It is not okay for our institution to support and celebrate stereotypes. We are the future leaders of our Nation. If we are unable to create a welcoming, inclusive environment on this campus how will we be able to create it for our nation?

I hope that we can all take this event and transform it into something positive. I hope this can serve the purpose of making our students and faculty realize that we are far from having “a campus culture where diversity of ideas and people are embraced.”

Respectfully,
Yaseline Muñoz

Kelly’s response:

As a Mexican-American woman I find it incredibly offensive that people view the “sombrero/mustache” thing as a hurtful, negative stereotype. It’s fun! It’s not a mockery, it does not exclude or make anyone feel unwelcome. In fact I think it is amusing! It’s a celebration. I figure any positive attention to Mexico, no matter how superficial, is a positive thing. It opens a dialogue about culture. When we start getting offended at something as innocuous and well-intentioned as this, that dialogue shuts down fast.

More invective:

Kelly Chapman if you do not take offense to the Mexican culture simply being portrayed with “sombreros and mustaches” that is good. I am glad that you can look at this issue in a positive manner.

However, the problem here is the fact that we are supporting stereotypes and encouraging them among this university that is filled with scholars and the future leaders of our Nation.

More of Kelly’s response:

Are you saying we can’t have fun with hats and still be scholarly? Oh dear, oh dear, what a horrible stereotype you are making of Mexicans!

Christian’s response:

I for one am Mexican & am outraged at the fact that this isn’t available every day.

At least the Irish get to drink green beer without a bunch of PC moralization on WPS

It went on like this for quite some time. Kelly and Christian absolutely won the Facebook “like” vote and fun was had by all except the pseudo-victims.

Betty Blonde #108 – 12/15/2008

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Christian’s last final

By Dad

On Friday, May 2, 2014

Day 982 of 1000

He is in it right now. It is in a class called MA 426 Mathematical Analysis II. Actually, Christian has to take one more online, five-week class to finish up this summer, but will graduate with his class in about a week, so this will be his last real final. He is turning in his last research paper at the same time. I will post those papers online with the other papers, probably tomorrow. We are now working to get ready for the graduation events that will take place at the end of the week next week.

Betty Blonde #107 – 12/12/2008

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Matt Walsh: Homeschool socialization

By Dad

On Thursday, May 1, 2014

Day 981 of 1000

Matt Walsh takes on the government schools and the “socialization” that takes place there. He nails it. You can read it all on his blog here.

‘Socialization’ — in the public school context — means that your child will simply absorb behavioral cues from her peers. She learns to socialize by aping her friends, who are themselves only copying other girls. She learns to repress the parts of her that don’t fit in, and put on an exterior designed to help her fade into the collective. I’m not theorizing here, this IS the social process in public school.

…

There is nothing positive about any of this. Nobody is better for it. Nobody benefits. The psychological damage can be lasting, maybe even permanent. Again, this is not my theory. This is just the way it works.

Betty Blonde #106 – 12/11/2008

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