Cruisin'

Greg and I took a free bay cruise, courtesy of the Port of San Diego. These tours were established to give San Diegans a better idea of what is happening along the extensive waterfront. As Greg and I have only been in San Diego a year, this was also a great way for us to get familiar with the Bay and learn more about the history of the city. We also enjoyed being out on the water... I don't understand the people who were sitting inside! Here are a few pics:

The USS Midway and the San Diego skyline

I can see these shipyards from work

Nautical Greg

The bridge to Coronado

Back to port

Energy

I didn't have very good energy on Monday. I was dragging, the students were lethargic... just not a good combo. Last night, after my three-hour astro lecture, a student came up to me and told me that I had amazing amounts of energy. He thanked me and told me how important it was for the evening students to have enthusiastic instructors. With his words, this semester is looking up. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy my evening classes?

One day down

Today was the first day of the Fall semester. Enrollments are high. I even have wait-listed students for my night-time class. My physics lab today was standing room only. It's going to be a busy semester. It's also a semester in which I'm teaching a class (intro astronomy) that I took as a student 20 years ago. Whoa! It's fun to mention that to the students, because a lot has changed in those intervening years. Still makes me feel old, though!

Space policy statements

The Planetary Society has posted documents from the two major presidential candidates outlining their space policy. To see, goto http://www.planetary.org/news/2008/0818_US_Presidential_Candidates_Release.html

No guilt

Tomorrow I head back to work after a very nice summer vacation. Classes start the following week. The summer always goes by quicker than I anticipate. You'd think I'd be used to it by now! Although, technically, this is a shorter summer break than I'm used to, as my new college instead lengthens winter break and, thus, the spring semester runs later. Still, I can't believe it's already time for the school year to start!

I'd feel guilty about whining over the end of my copious vacation time, except that I made up my to-do list for the upcoming week and there are 66 items on it (so far). Yup, I work hard enough during the school year to earn my time off.

Reality Check

While on the road this past Sunday, I marked my fourth anniversary of joining Weight Watchers. I had a lot of success the first two years, but this last year has seen my weight creep up some more. And once again, it's my fault, not the program. Moving to the land of the cheap lobster burrito didn't help! In all seriousness, though, I need to get back on track. I'm not exercising enough and I'm not making good food choices. My genes work against me (I'm the "skinny" one in the family), so I'll have to work harder.

So, for inspiration, I will once again post before and after pics:

August 2004

July 2008

Whoosh

Worldcon always goes by quickly, even more so this year, because we skipped the first few days. It's been a lot of fun, though. I saw a few people I know from my time at UCLA, and Greg's fellow writers are fun and kind people to hang out with.

I went to a panel that was a celebration of the life of Arthur C. Clarke. Two of the panelists were Stephen Baxter and Frederik Pohl. I enjoyed hearing their tales about the first science fiction writer I ever read.

I also attended a reading that was worth the trip to Worldcon all by itself - Lois McMaster Bujold read the first two chapters of a new Miles Vorkosigan novel!!!! Listening to those words and experiencing that character again felt like curling up in a blanket on a cold day - welcoming, comforting... perfect.

Now to convince Greg to go to Montreal next August!

On the road

Full disclosure - I'm allowing this entry to satisfy my 15 minutes/day of writing requirement. Hey, I'm on vacation!

Let’s see, what have I been doing the past few days?

• Drove away from a warm, humid San Diego en route to World Con with Greg.
• Arrived in blazing hot (107 degrees) Tempe.
• Had lunch with my dear Carl at much beloved Four Peaks Brewery! Also hung out with Bob!
• Realized that it’s not the heat, it’s the temperature in the interior of the car. The past week in San Diego has been muggy, and the humidity was really getting to me. I was actually functioning better in the drier 107 degree heat in Tempe, until I had to get into the car. Even guzzling water, I was sweating so much that my fingers were pruning up. San Diego wins.
• Drove up to cool, serene Flagstaff amid a lush green Central Arizona.
• Had dinner with Greg at much beloved Beaver Street Brewery!
• Had granola and blueberries at much beloved Macy’s Coffeehouse!
• Drove across a stunningly beautiful Northern Arizona and New Mexico. Seriously, I’ve done this drive frequently, and the desert has never been so verdant and spectacular. No pics, but the images could not have captured the beauty in any case.
• Spent the evening in Santa Fe eating yummy spicy much missed New Mexican cuisine.

Tomorrow? On to World Con!

Milestones

One year ago today, Greg and I left our apartment in Tempe and took up residence in our new place in San Diego. It's hard to believe it's already been a year, but memories of living in the desert are growing dim. I love the proximity to ocean, friends, family, and northern California that the move gave us. Here's to another good year ahead!

Today also marks my completion of Laurie Halse Anderson's "Write Fifteen Minutes A Day" challenge. Even while road-tripping, I managed to find those fifteen minutes in which to write. I'm really grateful to her for the challenge, which seemed much more manageable and maintainable than something like nanowrimo. Now the trick is to keep up the new habit, even when school starts. During the challenge, I mostly followed her given prompts for what to write for the day. Anybody want to volunteer some fiction prompts for me in the comments? Your contribution would be much appreciated by this aspiring writer.

Nerd Prom!

Thanks to houseguests A and K leaving us their badges when they departed last night, we went to Comic-Con! Just us and about 125,000 of our ilk. We were only there for a few hours, but that allowed us to quickly peruse the dealers room, see Peter Mayhew look very bored, and ogle the Owl ship from Watchmen. We also ran into B & A and their really cute kids and met up for dinner with them later.

Promotion for The Mummy, set up outside the convention center:

About 1/8th of the dealers room:

Ah, Comic-Con... can't wait til next year:

Links on My Mind

The New York Times published a horrifying article this week: Botox for Bridesmaids. Apparently it isn't enough now to get manicures together, but brides now expect perfection of their bridesmaids. In one situation mentioned, the bride wanted her bridesmaids to get matching cleavage enhancements. Hell, you'd be hard-pressed just to get me in a dress... heels are not even negotiable! I don't understand the world.

I understand the universe much better, but that's because I was well trained. You may have seen a news story this week about understanding the trigger for aurora. The scientist in charge of the THEMIS mission, Vassilis Angelopoulos, was a graduate student at UCLA when I was an undergrad there. In fact, I was his student worker for my last two years at UCLA. He taught me how to analyze data, enhanced my programming skills, and inspired me with his dedication and his kindness. What scientific skills I may have were first learned at his side, and I'll always be grateful to him and never surprised to see him do well.

Here's a list of possible names for the new Oklahoma City NBA team - Barons, Bison, Energy, Marshalls, Thunder and Wind. Wow, I'm trying to think of worse options, and I am not coming up with any. Could we please send the team back to Seattle now?!?!?!

And now, two nominees for best blog ever: Cake Wrecks and (huge spoiler alert!) Bear's Battlestar Blog. Cake Wrecks takes a horrifying look at professionally-made cake disasters, and I was in tears after laughing at some of the images. Bear's Battlestar Blog is the creation of Bear McCreary, the composer for Battlestar Galactica. Don't read entries for the episodes you haven't seen! I'm just warning you! Otherwise, if you're as much of an admirer of the musical score for BSG as I am, you'll appreciate the composer's insight on making the music work for the episodes and into the creative process. Some musical cues are provided, too!

I'm back

We saw The Dark Knight today, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I also loved the Watchmen trailer. It looks perfect, but the potential for suckage with such a complicated story is high. It's been a good summer for comic book movies, though. Maybe the trend will continue.

We had a great trip to Northern California. San Francisco, Fort Bragg, the Wine Country... it was hard to leave! Here are a few pics to show you why!

Lovin' Northern California

Spent a few days in San Francisco and one night in Fort Bragg. Spending a couple of days in the Napa Valley before returning home. A few comments:

• I have not needed allergy medication since arriving in San Francisco.
• San Francisco is still my favorite city.
• If everybody in the country could eat the produce from the farmers markets around here, we'd all be much healthier.
• The northern California coast is still as gray and quiet and lovely as ever.
• Even if you don't drink any alcohol, like myself, the Wine Country still has a lot to offer.
• Biking around the valley for six hours yesterday has not left me in pain today. Yay!

If any of my pictures turned out, I'll post them when I get home. Hope y'all have been having a good week!

Two things

First, congratulations to our dear David Moles for being honored with the Sturgeon Award.

Second, because the best thing about living in Southern California is its proximity to Northern California, I head north tomorrow. Behave while I'm away!

Be not ashamed

To the neighbor who hurriedly turned off his music after his shuffle playlist started blasting the theme from Chariots of Fire: You shouldn't have fumbled about playing snippets of two rock songs while regretting your Vangelis choices. We all have guilty pleasures when it comes to music. Heck, I have some Vangelis myself - the theme to Cosmos! ;)

Bits and pieces

Spent a lovely Fourth of July with family and friends. Much yummy food was eaten, fireworks exploded without scorching people or property, good conversations abounded.

Just finished reading Superpowers by the wonderful David Schwartz. I really enjoyed it and recommend it.

If you're like me and you're still worried about the fires near Big Sur, this site is useful: http://surfire2008.wordpress.com/

I'm at that point of the summer where I feel worthless as a human being because I'm not accomplishing much, but don't want to work because I'm still on summer vacation. I have two trips to look forward to before going back to work, but I have a feeling that my physics and astronomy schedules for Fall 2008 will be completed by the end of the week. Y'all know I like my job, but I think having a month or two when I'm not working sixty hours per week is a good thing.

I have been accomplishing something, though. One of my favorite authors, Laurie Halse Anderson, has started the "Write 15 Minutes a Day Challenge". She's given prompts for those who do not have a work-in-progress, and I've been participating each day. It's been fun, and it's reminded me that I like to write and perhaps can take time from writing exams, class notes, etc... to do some other forms of writing. (There is, of course, the "does blogging count?"-debate, but we won't go there!)

Almost time for NFL training camps to start. Twitch, twitch...

And because I haven't harassed you with space pictures recently, here's Saturn, from Cassini:

Thinking of Big Sur

I've been watching the news about the Basin fire in Big Sur with great sadness. I love that area. The region is the most beautiful place I've ever visited, and I sometimes think that my love of nature comes from childhood trips to the sea, particularly this region. When I left Sacramento earlier this month, I took the coastal route back down to San Diego and took a few photos. I hope you enjoy and send positive thoughts to the firefighters, not only in Big Sur, but in all of California, battling a fire season that has started too early and unprecedentedly aggressively.

Nobody's basement

Last month, much beloved Kirsten forwarded an article from The Atlantic Monthly to me to get my opinion, and it has been a recent topic of discussion on Female Science Professor's blog. The title of the article is "In the Basement of the Ivory Tower" and supposedly is about the "destructive myth" that college is for everyone. It is written by an anonymous part-time instructor (Professor X) at a "college of last resort." First of all, I agree with the notion that not everybody needs a college education. I think a good debate about society's attitude towards higher education is in order. I think a discussion of how institutions of higher education continue to take money from students who need remediation without providing them such is warranted. However, that isn't really what this article is about, and it horrifies me that people may read this article and agree with the author. I'm going to highlight some of the comments from the article and address them with my experiences.

By colleges of "last resort", the author means a small private college and a community college that he teaches at. He describes the student population: "Mine are the students whose applications show indifferent grades and have blank spaces where the extracurricular activities would go." Because we all know that university students are NEVER like that. Let's see... in my community college experience, I've had students who volunteer at clinics and emergency rooms, work as tutors, are members of national honors societies, etc... And I'm particularly proud of those with "indifferent grades" who come in and live up to the expectations I place upon them.

Another quote from the article:

"Ms. L. had done everything that American culture asked of her. She had gone back to school to better herself, and she expected to be rewarded for it, not slapped down. She had failed not, as some students do, by being absent too often or by blowing off assignments. She simply was not qualified for college."

Why isn't she qualified? Especially for Professor X's discipline of English, which Ms. L. would have been required to take in high school, it seems to me that Ms. L. was let down by her K-12 education. Is that necessarily all her fault? Perhaps she didn't put in appropriate effort in high school, true, or perhaps she was just funneled along like so many of the students I see with math deficiencies.

And then later: "I knew that Ms. L.’s paper would fail. I knew it that first night in the library. But I couldn’t tell her that she wasn’t ready for an introductory English class. I wouldn’t be saving her from the humiliation of defeat by a class she simply couldn’t handle. I’d be a sexist, ageist, intellectual snob."

So basically Professor X doesn't want to do his job. He could have referred her to a remedial English class, one that doesn't count towards a degree, but would have prepared Ms. L. to then take his introductory English class. I've had this discussion, and it isn't pretty. I've had to tell students, "No, I'm not teaching the class too hard. YOU don't have the math skills necessary for this course. Come back when you have made up your deficiencies." It's an awful confrontation, but I've had a few cases where I've seen these students later, after they have obtained the necessary remediation, and they've thanked me for it.

But for me, this is the statement that demonstrates that this article is NOT about whether college is for all.

"Our presence together in these evening classes is evidence that we all have screwed up."

I think I've made my feelings clear about my evening classes. Being in my night-time classes does not mean any of my students have screwed up. And, I haven't screwed up either. I have often weighted my schedule towards teaching in the evening, even while full-time and tenured. I'm sorry that Professor X is so miserable, but I'm even sorrier that he takes it out on his students. How can he possibly give the students the education that they are asking him for, when he is full of self-loathing and despises them?

I just want to make sure that my students know this: we are in nobody's basement. And, if you feel low, I will do my best to bring you higher and will never resent making the effort.

Already?

I had my first teaching anxiety dream for the Fall semester last night. The anxiety always boils down to lack of preparation, so I guess it's time to buy a new teaching planner and get ready for fall. I do wish my subconscious would have waited til July, though!

Lakers are Losers!

Hee hee hee! I'm so happy! Go away, Kobe!

Congrats to KG for his championship, to Ray Allen hitting all those threes, and to Paul Pierce, who really won me over during this series.

I'd also like to point out that the owner of the Phoenix Suns traded away the rights to Rajon Rondo, and I've never been more upset about that.

Kobe lost, yay!!!!