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July 22, 2005
Ha Ha
Does anyone else today have the distinct urge to laugh out loud at the failed London terrorists? I do. I keep hearing the Bart Simpson voice laughing out, "ha ha." Not that I don't take this last attach (or set of them) seriously, but I think that we should be able to gloat over their failure, just as they gloat over ours. We should play the video of the bombers running away over and over again. SNL should make up a skit about stupid terrorists who fail. I don't really want to egg them on, but I can help but wanting to. Personally I think the more we portray them as cowards and bumbling idiots the less people will want to emulate them. Of course I could be wrong and this might have the opposite effect, but there it is anyway.
Posted by kfeigh at 04:28 PM | Comments (1)
July 20, 2005
Frustration
I am regualarly frustrated by the limitations of classes. Even higher level classes. Why is it that I can never seem to find statistics classes which seem suited to my research? My stuff always seems to be mentioned in the last sections of chapters, and in apendixes. It is rather frustrating. Sigh.
Good luck Sarah in your quest to master C++. Really once you get pointers down and some basic syntax the rest is just like programming in Matlab. I have two recommendations that you not let your instrutor get by without teaching: 1) how to find help on standard functions/libraries 2) how to interpret compiler & linker errors and 3) fprintf. MSC++ has a good set of help (magic F1 key) as long as you can understand what is written within the help file. Also it was my understanding that VisualC++ by MS works with standard C++ libraries (at least the basic ones)
Posted by kfeigh at 12:46 PM | Comments (9)
July 18, 2005
Run, run, run
That is all I seem to do these days. I'm constantly running from one thing to another. Let's see last week and this week have been a whirlwind of experiment pre-data analysis. You know the phase that is supposed to come before the data collection where you plan just how the data you are proposing to collect will help you answer the questions you've designed your experiment to answer. Only no one ever manages to be that organized so you do it just before (sometimes during) the data analysis phase.
In other news the summer semester is quickly creepying to a close. Next thursday (not this thursday) is the last day of classes and the day that my major project is due. Of course I've linked my current data analysis to this project so it is all happening really fast!
Also the new FASET people are here. They are so cute. Especially the parents. Now if they would just get out of my way at the food court I would tolerate them much better:)
Last weekend I began my curtain making project. So far I've made paper templates, modified paper templates and am waiting to buy fabric to this weekend (or a later date) when someone else is available to come with me.
Posted by kfeigh at 03:54 PM | Comments (0)
July 11, 2005
Rain, rain go away
Yes I officially got back last Thursday morning (EARLY), I was actually supposed to get home on Wednesday. Anyway, since then it has rained everyday but one. Sigh. From opressive drought in undergraduate days to monsoon in grad school.
So just to fill you in. Monday - Wednesday I was at a conference in Baltimore. It was a great conference, people liked my talk and a good time was had by all. Thursday was spent traveling from DC to Poquoson. 2.5 hours by train and then 2 hours by car with lunch with Denise K. in between. The day was topped off by a visit to the dentist office for a cleaning. (Prices in Poqouson are 50% cheaper than in ATL)
Friday was spent with mom shopping and waiting for Brian to land (they boarded his plane 3 times before finally taking off). He arrived just before 11pm (scheduled to arrive just before 6pm). Saturday I was up early to drive over to Richmond for Ryan's wedding. Beautiful service and great reception with chocolate fondue fountain.
Sunday & Monday were spent relaxing and eating. Tuesday I was off again.
I flew up to DC to observe at the national air traffic control systems command center. These are the folks who plan ground delay programs, ground stops, reroutes for weather etc. All with an eye to keeping things flowing efficiently. Wednesday was long because both our airplane and TS Cindy all tried to pass through atlanta at the same time. Cindy won out, and we diverted to Columbia, SC.
Our pilot was awsome. After we landed in Columbia, he came on the intercom and told us that if we could have just held out for 30 more minutes we would have been cleared to land at ATL (good news because ATL had been shut). He further informed us however that in aproximately 10 minutes (1/3) of the time needed that things would have gotten really quiet and we would have heard screaming from the cockpit. So they made the wise decision to land and pick up more fuel.
Thursday and Friday were spent picking up the pieces which had fallen loose in my absence (including HW, test prep, etc.).
Today I have been studying for a test and trying to dismantle the experiment room. We still have one group left to run through things, and they are proving hard to schedule.
Oh and did I mention that we have gotten 5.38" of rainfall yesterday?
Posted by kfeigh at 12:53 PM | Comments (0)