Text

· · to read

So, I clearly haven’t blogged in forever. What better way to start than by complaining about multinational corporations?

FedEx Tracking Map

I mailed my passport in to get a business visa via FedEx Priority Overnight. Apparently, “overnight” means “two days.” They’re at a loss to explain why my passport had to visit Memphis twice, and why it ended up in Orlando at all.

Coming up next: rants about politics, parenting, and revision control systems (though, not all at once, unless I’m feeling especially saucy).

Text

· · to read

Duncan, that you were taken from us so soon is both a travesty & lesson for everyone that knew you.

You embodied so many easily admired characteristics: You were endlessly inquisitive and enduringly dedicated to those things you were interested in.

The travesty is that we will never know what you could’ve accomplished had you lived to ripe old age. Our lives are darkened by the drinks never tried, the conversations never had, the schemes never considered. The world is a gloomier place without your smile, your music, & the ideas we’ll never know.

It is hard to find a lesson in all of this, but there is one: For myself, I have always admired the joie de vivre that you have displayed for as long as I have known you. If your friends & family can take anything from this, it is that we should squeeze every last drop from our lives: we should be endlessly inquisitive & love unconditionally.

Rest in Peace Duncan; you are well-loved & dearly missed.

Text

· · to read

3 questions from rms10:

What’s the best book you’ve read recently?

I actually read a lot of good books in 2006. I think my favorite would have to be either The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy or My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk (I actually just finished Snow, and it was good, but it didn’t grab me the way My Name is Red did).

What is the biggest or most unexpected thing you’ve learned from teaching this semester?

Asking questions is really hard; Exam questions are pretty easy, because I have specific ideas of what they should be learning (gauging the number & difficulty of those questions is a different story!). But, asking questions in class that

  1. elicit an answer from the class
  2. cause them to actually realize something

Are very hard to ask. I’ve tried various forms of multiple choice questions (“so, given these things, what do you think the answer is”) and more basic questions (“in light of what we’re talking about, give me a property of X”), and so far it’s been hit or miss.
n
I’ve been reading books & blogs on presenting and education, though, and that’s all proving very helpful.

All-in-all, though, I really like teaching; and the students seem to be learning things, too!

Where would you most like to live?

I’d like to move west eventually; either to california (not LA) or washington state. I also wouldn’t mind somewhere on the east coast (like near boston, DC, etc). Someplace that has multiple seasons and isn’t the middle of the country basically.

If you’d like 3 questions, drop me comment and I promise I’ll respond in less time than it took me to respond to rms10 (sorry!)

Text

· · to read

http://www.qwantz.com/index.pl?comic=928

I’m sure I’ve got friends who’s job I know nothing about, so, if you’re interested, let me know what you do (for instance, a large number of you are getting PhDs: what the hell is your thesis about?)

Text

· · to read

Well, that’s not true. I can do math (we hope).

cwru schedule screenshot

Late last year, I was asked to teach the university’s discrete mathematics course!

I’m excited. I get a slew of students, a teaching assistant, and pay (mm. more ramen). I picked up a highly recommended book on teaching that I’ve been tearing through.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the the directions this blog should take (considering, well, that I never update it. Part of it will be a teaching blog. There are going to be posts on ideas I’d like to use in my teaching, and how well they worked. I’ve also got some other subjects I’d like to add about. I’m also pondering whether or not I should be using my livejournal for more personal news.

At the very least, you get to expect my rantings and ramblings on teaching (and how good or bad I am at it).