Posts
Education is a topic that is close to my heart. My wife and I have three kids already, and the fourth is due in June. Our oldest is in public school. We feel that it's sufficient for now, but she'll probably end up going to a magnet or private school sometime in the future. The (currently) middle child is already beginning to display a knack for language and logic. If we had the money to put her in a Montessori, we would. The (current) baby is the quiet reserved one, best known for taking her time in figuring things out. School is going to need to move at her pace, I'm afraid.
When I was in school, I remember how often the games we played were math or science inspired. Whether tasked with counting and manipulating, or given a question and asked to observe to find an answer, science and math was woven into everything we did. Yearly science fairs accelerated the gifted and were a source of wonder and awe for the younger kids.
Then, we moved to south Dallas.
I remember wondering why it was that some of the sixth grade kids could drive their own cars to school. The concept of being held back was utterly foreign to me. I didn't realize that other kids might not want to succeed, and this new understanding troubled me deeply. Why weren't the teachers interested in the kids, and why did the kids seem to hate the teachers? The whole scene made no sense to me.
Over time, I began to understand the dynamics of poor neighborhoods, why kids with so much potential acted so fatalistic toward their education and their lives. Not everyone was the stereotypical ghetto kid, of course. My first-ever crush went to Space Camp and dreamed of being an astronaut. On the whole, however, education was far less of a focus than was survival. Math, science, humanities, art, all cast by the wayside on the journey to big chains and bigger rims.
My schools were typical of those found all over the country. The decline in test scores from US kids is a direct result of something or other. There are too many problems with the schools to point a finger at any one thing (save perhaps parent involvement - the one key indicator to a child's success in school). The decline of the American student is not going unnoticed or unchallenged. A middle school in Minneapolis is offering a complete curricula in STEM learning.
The Richard Allen Math & Science Academy (RAMSA) has only been open for a year and a half, but it's already showing dramatic results. The curriculum includes math and science foci, as you might expect. Students go on field trips twice a month to reinforce their learning. Daily engineering classes help answer the age-old question, "When will I ever use this in the real world?" And finally. they've built a trebuchet. Who could ask for anything more?
I'm not sure what kind of schools my children will attend. I hope that they are as cool as RAMSA.
Cheers,
-- Zach
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
New Year's Goals
Pragmatism, perseverance, and patience are three essential qualities required for anyone wishing to achieve their goals. Pragmatism is one that I'm good at. I can assess a situation, determine what's going on and what needs to happen, and then choose the most effective next step based on what's possible and desirable. Pretty easy, really. Most folks are good at this one.
Perseverance is the quality of continuing toward something of worth even when it seems too difficult to do so. Seven times knocked down, eight times got up. Getting up to run when it's thirty degrees outside, studying a language instead of turning on the teevee, losing the job or the contest or the girl and still showing up the next day, ready to go.
Patience. It's nearly a lost art in this day and age. The world moves so fast that it seems possible to get anything one wants, right now, with little thought given to how the mechanism works or who might be affected in the process. In this arena, waiting for something goes against the grain. It's even more difficult when you're plugged in 24\7 and constantly in gogogogo mode. I've always had a fondness for trade and vocational schools. Could I start one that teaches patience as well as plumbing?
Here, in no real order, are some of my goals for 2011. This is not a complete list, and things will be modified as time goes along, but it's a reasonable start.
Fitness
Goal: To run a sub two hour half marathon.
Fitness goals are the easiest. I can say, "I'll run a half in this time, and to get there I'll do this and that." A simple progression of steps leads to the prize. What are my steps here? Well, I'll run three halves (Rock 'n' Roll Dallas, White Rock, Dallas Running Club) interspersed with selected 5- and 10k runs. I'll lift a training program out of Runner's World magazine, do all the cross training I can stand, and work to get lots of rest. In the meantime, my general fitness will improve, which is the real effect I want.
Home
Goal: To finish all of the paintwork before the newest arrival arrives in June.
This is also an easy goal to set, the steps are clear and well-defined, the outcomes known in advance. The biggest challenge here is finding the time to complete all of the little tasks that have remained undone since SWWNO was born. Finishing the doors, cutting in the ceilings, repairing the hardware, sealing up the windows, replacing the cabinets, and killing off the persistent clutter are all things that can either be done one at a time in a one task per day manner, or they can be done in a ten minutes here, ten minutes there way. Since I really don't ever have two free hours to string together, I'll have to do it a few minutes at a time.
School
Goal: To get my GPA back above 3.80 by the end of the calender year.
I am not sure I can do this one. Time management is the bugaboo, but the real monkey wrench is school-life balance. Studying with partners is far more effective than studying alone, yet my family requirements dictate that I spend the majority of my time at home. There's nobody here I can study with. Except maybe the cat :-) Perhaps technology can help out here. Skype or some other videochat program might do the trick.
Self
Goal: Lots of little ones - become fluent in Russian, pick up the guitar again, reconnect with my interest in drawing, find a church.
Sometimes goals are little more than a laundry list of to do action items. They have to get done before you can move on to the next things, though. The goals in this category will probably change and evolve over the course of the year.
Career
Goal: Publish two articles in a peer-reviewed forum (Journal, Magazine, et cetera).
Research is at the center of a good science-based career. The desire to know more, translated into action via the application of physical laws, is the essence of engineering. Getting into the field requires some fee, some toll to satisfy the troll on the bridge. Publishing research is a great way to get a foot in the door. I'd like to do something with dissipation of wake turbulence and also with high speed propeller research. Oh, I also need to start looking into grad school.
That's it for now. I don't seem to have time for much more. There are more goals - something about a garden and writing short stories. These goals aren't yet really flashed out, so they'll have to wait for another post.
Happy goal-setting!
Cheers,
-- Zach
Perseverance is the quality of continuing toward something of worth even when it seems too difficult to do so. Seven times knocked down, eight times got up. Getting up to run when it's thirty degrees outside, studying a language instead of turning on the teevee, losing the job or the contest or the girl and still showing up the next day, ready to go.
Patience. It's nearly a lost art in this day and age. The world moves so fast that it seems possible to get anything one wants, right now, with little thought given to how the mechanism works or who might be affected in the process. In this arena, waiting for something goes against the grain. It's even more difficult when you're plugged in 24\7 and constantly in gogogogo mode. I've always had a fondness for trade and vocational schools. Could I start one that teaches patience as well as plumbing?
Here, in no real order, are some of my goals for 2011. This is not a complete list, and things will be modified as time goes along, but it's a reasonable start.
Fitness
Goal: To run a sub two hour half marathon.
Fitness goals are the easiest. I can say, "I'll run a half in this time, and to get there I'll do this and that." A simple progression of steps leads to the prize. What are my steps here? Well, I'll run three halves (Rock 'n' Roll Dallas, White Rock, Dallas Running Club) interspersed with selected 5- and 10k runs. I'll lift a training program out of Runner's World magazine, do all the cross training I can stand, and work to get lots of rest. In the meantime, my general fitness will improve, which is the real effect I want.
Home
Goal: To finish all of the paintwork before the newest arrival arrives in June.
This is also an easy goal to set, the steps are clear and well-defined, the outcomes known in advance. The biggest challenge here is finding the time to complete all of the little tasks that have remained undone since SWWNO was born. Finishing the doors, cutting in the ceilings, repairing the hardware, sealing up the windows, replacing the cabinets, and killing off the persistent clutter are all things that can either be done one at a time in a one task per day manner, or they can be done in a ten minutes here, ten minutes there way. Since I really don't ever have two free hours to string together, I'll have to do it a few minutes at a time.
School
Goal: To get my GPA back above 3.80 by the end of the calender year.
I am not sure I can do this one. Time management is the bugaboo, but the real monkey wrench is school-life balance. Studying with partners is far more effective than studying alone, yet my family requirements dictate that I spend the majority of my time at home. There's nobody here I can study with. Except maybe the cat :-) Perhaps technology can help out here. Skype or some other videochat program might do the trick.
Self
Goal: Lots of little ones - become fluent in Russian, pick up the guitar again, reconnect with my interest in drawing, find a church.
Sometimes goals are little more than a laundry list of to do action items. They have to get done before you can move on to the next things, though. The goals in this category will probably change and evolve over the course of the year.
Career
Goal: Publish two articles in a peer-reviewed forum (Journal, Magazine, et cetera).
Research is at the center of a good science-based career. The desire to know more, translated into action via the application of physical laws, is the essence of engineering. Getting into the field requires some fee, some toll to satisfy the troll on the bridge. Publishing research is a great way to get a foot in the door. I'd like to do something with dissipation of wake turbulence and also with high speed propeller research. Oh, I also need to start looking into grad school.
That's it for now. I don't seem to have time for much more. There are more goals - something about a garden and writing short stories. These goals aren't yet really flashed out, so they'll have to wait for another post.
Happy goal-setting!
Cheers,
-- Zach
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Share your knowledge -
it's a way to achieve immortality.
-- The Dali Lama
Greetings from the heart of Dallas. I hope your 2011 has begun with a bang - mine has. Goals are being set, habits are being reviewed, and I'm telling myself that this, this will be the year that things really take off for me.
Then I turn on the Resolve to Watch NCIS marathon on USA. It's going to be a long year.
My life is full of lots of things - big things, little things, tiny things. It's like some kind of mad three-dimensional Tetris, with pieces ranging in size from a brick to a whole house. The whole thing gets faster and faster, there's no pause function, and I don't get to see the next piece. And, naturally, the pieces only fit together one way.
It's not a bad life, really. It's just incredibly difficult to manage it well. The small things (like trying to convince my ten year old daughter to pick up her clothes) get in the way of the big things (my wife's disability) and almost make me lose sight of the gigantic things (school, career, hobbies). I think, however, that they're manageable given good planning and execution.
Toward that end, I'm making my goals and progress public (for the one person who actually reads this blog (thanks Sofie!)). I'm working on posting daily, both about aeronautics and science, but also about family and school. Today is just a starting block. I haven't written in a minute, and it would be nice to get back in the habit.
Tomorrow, I'll talk about some of my goals for the year. They're not resolutions; I only have one resolution, and that's to increase my GPA via more quality study time stemming from better time management. My goals are things like straight As, a functioning garden, being published for the first time, and running a sub two hour half marathon.
Today is just for loosening up a bit. I'll see you tomorrow.
Cheers,
-- Zach
-- The Dali Lama
Greetings from the heart of Dallas. I hope your 2011 has begun with a bang - mine has. Goals are being set, habits are being reviewed, and I'm telling myself that this, this will be the year that things really take off for me.
Then I turn on the Resolve to Watch NCIS marathon on USA. It's going to be a long year.
My life is full of lots of things - big things, little things, tiny things. It's like some kind of mad three-dimensional Tetris, with pieces ranging in size from a brick to a whole house. The whole thing gets faster and faster, there's no pause function, and I don't get to see the next piece. And, naturally, the pieces only fit together one way.
It's not a bad life, really. It's just incredibly difficult to manage it well. The small things (like trying to convince my ten year old daughter to pick up her clothes) get in the way of the big things (my wife's disability) and almost make me lose sight of the gigantic things (school, career, hobbies). I think, however, that they're manageable given good planning and execution.
Toward that end, I'm making my goals and progress public (for the one person who actually reads this blog (thanks Sofie!)). I'm working on posting daily, both about aeronautics and science, but also about family and school. Today is just a starting block. I haven't written in a minute, and it would be nice to get back in the habit.
Tomorrow, I'll talk about some of my goals for the year. They're not resolutions; I only have one resolution, and that's to increase my GPA via more quality study time stemming from better time management. My goals are things like straight As, a functioning garden, being published for the first time, and running a sub two hour half marathon.
Today is just for loosening up a bit. I'll see you tomorrow.
Cheers,
-- Zach
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
It's a wonder
...that Vista works at all.
I spent the better part of Thanksgiving week updating and securing my loaner laptop. After downloading and installing some 9,378,461 Windows updates, I have finally run into a wall. There are four updates that refuse to install. It's a larger problem for 64-bit Vista than for 32-bit. This means that the help available is for 64-bit, and of course this is a 32-bit machine. The last bit that I could find in the Microsoft Knowledge Base suggested that the fault is due to having the OS load for the first time without having certain hot-fixes and firewalls installed and running (a chicken-and-egg problem if ever there was one.) The solution was (as it always seems to be) to format and reinstall. Of course.
So mu initial research into vortex precipitation is not real promising. This page suggests that a high power laser could do the trick. Of course, you'd have to power the laser with a nuclear reactor, making it somewhat inconvenient for use on an aircraft.
Another page reports that cloud seeding in the Southern Ocean is more successful than average due to the purity of the air. Meaning the converse, dirty air would be more difficult to seed, is probably true. I wonder if you'd need to use traditional seeding techniques to get the energy in a wake to dissipate.
SpaceX might end up beating Scaled and Armadillo to orbit. They have their re-entry license, which is kind of a big deal for the coming back home part of spaceflight.
The Air Force sees utility in hypersonic weapons platforms. I thought that these ideas had died out with the crash of the Valkyrie. Not that I'm opposed, mind you. The engineering challenges are enormous - and fun.
Baby news. Our most recent doctor's visit went smashingly. Baby and mother continue to do very well. We will do the genetic counseling because we're old, but I expect that to be a non issue.
More Wednesday.
Cheers,
-- Zach
I spent the better part of Thanksgiving week updating and securing my loaner laptop. After downloading and installing some 9,378,461 Windows updates, I have finally run into a wall. There are four updates that refuse to install. It's a larger problem for 64-bit Vista than for 32-bit. This means that the help available is for 64-bit, and of course this is a 32-bit machine. The last bit that I could find in the Microsoft Knowledge Base suggested that the fault is due to having the OS load for the first time without having certain hot-fixes and firewalls installed and running (a chicken-and-egg problem if ever there was one.) The solution was (as it always seems to be) to format and reinstall. Of course.
So mu initial research into vortex precipitation is not real promising. This page suggests that a high power laser could do the trick. Of course, you'd have to power the laser with a nuclear reactor, making it somewhat inconvenient for use on an aircraft.
Another page reports that cloud seeding in the Southern Ocean is more successful than average due to the purity of the air. Meaning the converse, dirty air would be more difficult to seed, is probably true. I wonder if you'd need to use traditional seeding techniques to get the energy in a wake to dissipate.
SpaceX might end up beating Scaled and Armadillo to orbit. They have their re-entry license, which is kind of a big deal for the coming back home part of spaceflight.
The Air Force sees utility in hypersonic weapons platforms. I thought that these ideas had died out with the crash of the Valkyrie. Not that I'm opposed, mind you. The engineering challenges are enormous - and fun.
Baby news. Our most recent doctor's visit went smashingly. Baby and mother continue to do very well. We will do the genetic counseling because we're old, but I expect that to be a non issue.
More Wednesday.
Cheers,
-- Zach
Friday, November 19, 2010
Friday!
It's Friday night, and none of my children want to sleep. Sometimes I wish they came with off switches.
School updates. Calculus test this morning. I either got an A or I got an F. Someday I'll feel comfortable with the material. Physics has been going very well of late. My first test was an F, my second an A. With a little luck, I'll do well in this class. I need to have a good first Physics class. Momentum and all that. History is pretty easy, and it's quite enjoyable. I've a paper due Tuesday, but it should be fairly easy to complete. It's simply a book report on our massive textbook. My oceans class is too easy to be a three thousand level course.
On to science type things. NASA will try to launch Discovery December 3rd. The GUCP issue has been resolved and the external tank repair is on track. This will be the first time the tank has been repaired on the pad. Ironic that it happened for the last launch of Discovery.
The troubled life of the F-35 has encountered a new, even more troubling problem. It seems that the rear bulkheads are cracking after 1500 simulated hours instead of the 8000 hours they're designed to last. This issue only affects the B model, because it (the Marine Corps jet) uses a lighter materiel for the part. The best case scenario is that a faulty test regime is to blame for the problem. The worst case scenario is that the problem is a design flaw. That might actually kill the program.
I'd love to have Mike Suffredini's problem: "How are we going to utilize this wonderful vehicle that we've assembled in space?"
In other news, Saturn radiates heat unevenly over its surface. Nobody knows why.
The next space race has begun, but it's about economics, not pride. I think that this has the potential to be the right way forward. Unfortunately, it's going to be difficult without at least some government regulation. Too often the race to be first to market claims safety as its first victim. I'd hate to see good people die because someone was in a hurry to make his money back on a billion dollar investment.
Starting next week, I'd like to add a segment about whatever secondary projects I'm working on. You all know about my involvement with the RGSFOP, and that progress will be recorded there. For my next trick, I'd like to at least research precipitating the energy out of wake turbulence.
Have a great weekend. I and my stomach ache are off to the teevee for a while.
Cheers,
-- Zach
School updates. Calculus test this morning. I either got an A or I got an F. Someday I'll feel comfortable with the material. Physics has been going very well of late. My first test was an F, my second an A. With a little luck, I'll do well in this class. I need to have a good first Physics class. Momentum and all that. History is pretty easy, and it's quite enjoyable. I've a paper due Tuesday, but it should be fairly easy to complete. It's simply a book report on our massive textbook. My oceans class is too easy to be a three thousand level course.
On to science type things. NASA will try to launch Discovery December 3rd. The GUCP issue has been resolved and the external tank repair is on track. This will be the first time the tank has been repaired on the pad. Ironic that it happened for the last launch of Discovery.
The troubled life of the F-35 has encountered a new, even more troubling problem. It seems that the rear bulkheads are cracking after 1500 simulated hours instead of the 8000 hours they're designed to last. This issue only affects the B model, because it (the Marine Corps jet) uses a lighter materiel for the part. The best case scenario is that a faulty test regime is to blame for the problem. The worst case scenario is that the problem is a design flaw. That might actually kill the program.
I'd love to have Mike Suffredini's problem: "How are we going to utilize this wonderful vehicle that we've assembled in space?"
In other news, Saturn radiates heat unevenly over its surface. Nobody knows why.
The next space race has begun, but it's about economics, not pride. I think that this has the potential to be the right way forward. Unfortunately, it's going to be difficult without at least some government regulation. Too often the race to be first to market claims safety as its first victim. I'd hate to see good people die because someone was in a hurry to make his money back on a billion dollar investment.
Starting next week, I'd like to add a segment about whatever secondary projects I'm working on. You all know about my involvement with the RGSFOP, and that progress will be recorded there. For my next trick, I'd like to at least research precipitating the energy out of wake turbulence.
Have a great weekend. I and my stomach ache are off to the teevee for a while.
Cheers,
-- Zach
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Super Slappy Science Updates
Happy hump day, intrepid readers. Normally, I'd be at apogee preparing for the terminal dive phase of my week. Unfortunately, my plans were derailed by sleeping almost ten hours last night. Oh well. I suppose I needed it.
Super slappy science, in no particular order.
Collapse? What Collapse? Societal Change Revisited
The concept that societies simply vanish, or that they die a fiery, cataclysmic death, is one that Hollywood loves. It would seem, however, that it's not consistent with reality. Large societies tend to weather large stressors well, and it is almost impossible to point to one event and say "Yes, the sack of Rome by the Visigoths caused the collapse of Western Civilization."
Civilizations are like tires with slow leaks. Problems exist for long periods of time, occur slowly, and tend to mask their effects. The people comprising the society may not even notice that there's a problem until long after the society is gone.
This is fascinating stuff. Applied to our own civilization, it shows that the fall of the US is not imminent.
NASA - Shaping the Shuttle
It's stories like this that persuaded me to get into this field in the first place. This is why I want to be an engineer.
NASA - NASA to Show Live Webcast of Nanosatellite Launch
Nanosatellites offer the promise of high launch frequency and low launch cost. Of course, miniaturization is an issue...
I just found a post that was supposed to have gone live on October 24th. Oops. It's included here below for the sake of completeness.
------
You know that you're old when your Saturday night is spent furtively trying to get children to sleep (and back to sleep). I put the little ones down at about 8 or so, then promptly passed out. Smersh fell asleep pretty quickly, but SWWNO fought it until almost midnight. Smersh woke up about 12:30 am, likely from nightmares or night terrors. When that happens, the only way to get her back to sleep is to stand in the middle of the living room under the bright bright light and twirl slowly. Counterclockwise. For an hour.
Of course, SWWNO woke back up at 6:30 and woke her sister up shortly thereafter. I thanked my wife for a "rockin' Saturday night" and got up to begin the new day.
Rockin' Saturday nights when you're old. Why didn't they mention this in school?
The failed NASA balloon launch has been studied. From the report:
-----------
That's all I have time for right now. Until Friday...
Cheers,
-- Zach
Super slappy science, in no particular order.
Collapse? What Collapse? Societal Change Revisited
The concept that societies simply vanish, or that they die a fiery, cataclysmic death, is one that Hollywood loves. It would seem, however, that it's not consistent with reality. Large societies tend to weather large stressors well, and it is almost impossible to point to one event and say "Yes, the sack of Rome by the Visigoths caused the collapse of Western Civilization."
Civilizations are like tires with slow leaks. Problems exist for long periods of time, occur slowly, and tend to mask their effects. The people comprising the society may not even notice that there's a problem until long after the society is gone.
This is fascinating stuff. Applied to our own civilization, it shows that the fall of the US is not imminent.
NASA - Shaping the Shuttle
It's stories like this that persuaded me to get into this field in the first place. This is why I want to be an engineer.
NASA - NASA to Show Live Webcast of Nanosatellite Launch
Nanosatellites offer the promise of high launch frequency and low launch cost. Of course, miniaturization is an issue...
I just found a post that was supposed to have gone live on October 24th. Oops. It's included here below for the sake of completeness.
------
You know that you're old when your Saturday night is spent furtively trying to get children to sleep (and back to sleep). I put the little ones down at about 8 or so, then promptly passed out. Smersh fell asleep pretty quickly, but SWWNO fought it until almost midnight. Smersh woke up about 12:30 am, likely from nightmares or night terrors. When that happens, the only way to get her back to sleep is to stand in the middle of the living room under the bright bright light and twirl slowly. Counterclockwise. For an hour.
Of course, SWWNO woke back up at 6:30 and woke her sister up shortly thereafter. I thanked my wife for a "rockin' Saturday night" and got up to begin the new day.
Rockin' Saturday nights when you're old. Why didn't they mention this in school?
The failed NASA balloon launch has been studied. From the report:
In summary, the causes for this mishap evolved from: (1) a flawed underlying assumption, (2) a problematic historical mindset, and (3) an ineffective organizational structure.This is actually kinda neat. I saw a show on TDC about the folks that launch the majority of NASA's balloons. Their professionalism was impressive.
-----------
That's all I have time for right now. Until Friday...
Cheers,
-- Zach
Monday, November 15, 2010
Finally getting caught up
It's incredible. Even with all the best intentions, updating this blog is still incredibly difficult. Here goes.
Family life proceeds apace. My wife was sick for a while. Then I caught an unexpected case of strep throat. Then SWWNO came down with the same thing. My daughter and I both had to go to the doctor in order to get better. I'm still not anywhere near 100%. Maybe by December I'll be back to myself. I sure wish I knew what it was that we caught.
School is kicking me. Hard. Calculus is more difficult than it was last semester, but I think I'm doing better. We didn't focus as much on logs and trig last time. I'd like to think I'm becoming good at trig and inverse trig. Now, we're working on integration by parts. This wasn't even covered in my last class.
I'm doing much better in physics now, thank you very much :-) It seems that I'm much better with relativity and quantum mechanics than I am with waves and optics. I know what to work on for the final, at any rate.
This post is coming to you from a loaner laptop that my kind neighbors are letting me use. They have three total and can only use two at a time. It's about three years old, 17" Gateway (which is at this point really HP), and incredibly heavy. I always think of the old Compaq Portable computer as I lug it around campus. On the other hand, I love it. I can't imagine trying to do all the stuff I'm trying to do without a laptop.
caveat: it's missing the "a" and the "4" keys, and I broke the number "6". Anybody know how to replace keys on a full sized laptop keyboard?
Two quick aeronautics items today:
Boeing refits old Seattle plant for P-8 aircraft production
They made B-29s here. That alone is reason enough to keep the plant active.
FAA reinstates requirement to stay back from Boeing 747-8
So, I guess I'll start looking into precipitating wake turbulence again. I wanted another project!
That's about all I have time for today. It is my intention to get on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday posting schedule. I have tons of material available, so the weak link is me taking the time to write it up. Wish me luck, fellow netizens...
Cheers,
--Zach
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