Science Faction

Think about it.

2009-12-22T12:16:00.005-05:00

This could be a major problem. I love burritos.

End of the semester, RA next year

2009-12-15T07:24:00.002-05:00

The end of the semester is always bitter-sweet. Bitter because I generally lose touch with all the great students that I have been able to teach. Sweet because it marks the start of the break. The break is great for research because student interaction is essentially non-existent. The problem really is motivation. After a long semester, it's hard to get motivated.

I've been motivated to get things in order for the Spring semester. I'm not going to be a teaching assistant anymore. I'm going on RA. This is the coveted post that every graduate student wants. The position that allows you to focus solely on your research. I'm very happy about it, but it comes with a lot of responsibility.

I'm supervising 6 students next semester. My boss has some extra money and there's a lot of work to do. So he's hired a few of his experimental students out to me. This is a big responsibility and I don't want to squander the extra workers. It's nice to have people to help, but I'm really looking for collaborators.

That's what I really need. People with interest to counce ideas off of. There might be one on the horizon, but we'll see. Until then I'll just have to make due with a few extra hands.

A cv is not a resume

2009-11-24T19:24:00.007-05:00

I decided to apply for the adjunct professorship after consulting with my advisor. I thought it would be a worthwhile opportunity. Teaching a calculus-based class on my own at a school that's not afraid to try new things sounds like a great experience. My advisor agreed.

While collecting all the necessary documentation to send in my application, I realized that I needed to update my curriculum vitae (cv). I haven't used my cv for anything important yet. I've really just treated it as a way to keep track of all the crap I do. But, now I'm applying for a job and I had to really think about what goes on the cv and what doesn't.

First of all, a cv is not a resume. It's not limited to one page nor does it read like a sales sheet. It is a collection of your accomplishments, so keeping a living document is important. But when it's time to dust it off and use it, make sure you've read over it for typos and the like.

The most important things to put on your cv are:

your degrees and certifications,
your work experience (research and teaching),
a list of publications, posters, and presentations (this is why you keep updating it),
awards or honors you've received.

You shouldn't put your hobbies, age, or citizenship on your cv. And leave off the high school accomplishments, seriously. You can put any outreach work you want, but make sure it's relevant.

Keeping your cv up-to-date will keep the bother of cleaning it up and remembering all your work to a minimum. I guess we'll see how mine works out.

Career choices? Not yet, please.

2009-11-08T19:54:00.005-05:00

Timing is everything. Whether it's comedy, dating, or cooking; it's all about timing.

Lately, I've gotten a bit tired of the day-to-day of being a graduate student. Usually, this happens to students in near the end of their career. I'm in the middle of year 5, which is pretty near the end. What makes things worse is the not so subtle temptation of a real job. Education is my passion and the allure of a real teaching position has been overwhelming.

First, I received an email from an on-campus research group looking for a post-doc. The position involves developing a science curriculum for middle and high schools built around robotics. And not just any robotics, the LEGO Mindstorm system. Oh my gosh! Are you kidding me? A post-doc working with kids and playing with LEGOs! That's awesome. I contacted the team leader, whose parent group awarded me the outstanding graduate teaching assistant award last year. She said that they would hold the position for me, if I were interested. She said I could start as soon as this summer, then move into the post-doc position as soon as I graduated.

But, then I thought about the career to follow. Working with K-12 isn't bad, it's just not me. I'm a physicist and teaching people about the natural world through physics is what I want to do.

Enter career choice 2.

When I attended the SACS-AAPT meeting a few weeks ago, a professor at Gainesville State College asked me when I was graduating. I told him I wasn't exactly sure and yet he urged me to consider a position at GSC. This weekend, I attended another conference. This time, he asked me to consider an Adjunct (Temporary) Professorship next semester. He said I could teach as few as two days a week. The facilities at GSC are incredible for any college not just a state college. The focus is on teaching, which I love, but I have to ask myself: Do I have the time? Will I be able to work at GSC and then when I'm done at Tech, walk away? Is this making a career choice too early?

I think the answer to the last question is yes.

To make matters worse, my boss and I have laid out a plan for me to finish in the Spring of 2011. I have a date -- and it's pretty finite. So I need to start looking for position that will open in the Fall of 2011. I don't want to be unemployed when this date comes up. But, he's said that I should have no problem finding a job at a Tier 1 school. Is that true? Tier 1? That's a tall order.

Maybe I'm just afraid of leaving school. I've been in a college for almost 10 years. It's a different state of affairs when you're on the other side of the student-educator spectrum. And being a graduate student is not being on the other side, you're still a student.

Weekend's over: Alternator replaced, Python explained

2009-10-25T21:27:00.005-04:00

Another weekend down. Another long lists of to dos left undone. I did, however, manage to finish a couple of things. One planned. One unplanned.

I'm giving a talk at the first meeting of the Atlanta Metro Physics Teachers Network. It's a small gathering of local physics teachers to support the development of new teaching techniques and foster the appropriate use of technology in the classroom.

I'm talking about introducing computer modeling to high school students in physics classes. Python has a very nice module written for it that generates objects by simply calling those objects. The ease with which students can make objects and instruct them to obey physical laws is astounding. The module is called VPython.

I've spent a lot of time this weekend writing out an explanation of the module and how to use it. That work is almost done. I still need to go over my talk and make sure I've written all the simulations I wanted to show.

Last night, my truck stopped running. The lights went dim. The dash started flashing. And the speedometer and tachometer shut down. As I rolled into the driveway, it died. Luckily, I had made it home.

The electrical system had been giving me trouble for the last couple of months. The wipers were failing intermittently and the driver side window motor died. The battery was outputing to high a voltage when the truck was running, 22V or so. I figured the alternator was to blame, but the problems were so random I ignored them.

This morning, I tested the battery. It was low, about 11.5V. When the truck started this morning, the voltage dropped to 10V. Then it wouldn't start -- so I pulled the old alternator.

I replaced it which was an ordeal. The automatic belt tensioner on the truck is pain to reach and even harder to turn. After some grunting and yanking and some help from Jamie, I got the belt back on. I put everything back together and...

It didn't start. Jamie reminded me to jump the truck first. The battery was so low it need to be recharged by the alternator. The jump started the truck and I left it running for 10 minutes. It's running great again and no intermittent problems. The driver side window motor still doesn't work.

Rebooting web log

2009-10-20T14:48:00.002-04:00

I'm restarting my blog. I think that writing is probably an appropriate thing to work on over the next few months. I hope to start writing my dissertation next summer and I need the practice. Keep watching for updates.

New Ubuntu almost kills 1, so far.

2008-10-31T18:22:00.000-04:00

As the resident linux guy in the lab, I have to deal with a few problems. However, today when i piloted the new Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex update on one of the machines, I was a little lost. Only for a bit, but it was annoying enough.

After a flawless install, I restarted. Then nothing. The machine hung after running a few boot scripts. After a couple reboots, I got it into a terminal and found out that the new install messed up my X configuration. Simple but annoying. After a few tweaks, up and running. It's very nice.

I got home and upgraded. No problem here. No annoying X misconfiguration or hanging boot. But I'd give it a couple months if you're uncomfortable with making changes to xorg.conf.

Testing out Ubuntu Blog Widget

2008-10-25T09:52:00.000-04:00

Ubuntu Kung Fu has some great tips on configuring and tweaking your Ubuntu desktop. This is one of them, the Blog Widget that allows you to post to your blog without actually navigating to it. More tips are available here.

First Fail!

2008-08-24T09:40:00.000-04:00

Yesterday from 11am to 9pm, I was in a partial outage. Obviously no internet, no Skype. But the thing that really pissed me off was "average time" of an outage. I called Comcast around 11:30 and was told partial outages typically last 2-3 hours. I said ok and went about my business.

Seven hours later, it was still out. I called again and was told that these outages last around 4-6 hours. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?! They're just making it up. I'd rather they say I don't know. At least, they'd be telling the truth.

First Week

2008-08-11T19:31:00.000-04:00

I have stopped taking my phone to work and I realized something...no one calls me...at all. That's fine, because I will be saving some money after November. The first week hasn't been bad. The only thing that's been annoying me is running upstairs to answer calls. Other than that, I haven't noticed any problems. Maybe, I'll get a VOIP phone. Maybe not.

Skype at Work!

2008-08-06T09:24:00.000-04:00

I got Skype configured at work. I had some issues with the sound card (it's ancient) and ALSA but got them figured out. I just need to test the sound levels to make sure I am not annoying anyone with a particularly high microphone level.

I started leaving my cell phone at home to wean myself from using it. If you need to call me try my SkypeIN number. If I don't answer you can try the cell, but I probably won't be near it.

Switching to Skype

2008-08-04T08:46:00.000-04:00

I decided that I am tired of paying so much to communicate with people. And I'm not sure that I need to be connected to everyone at all times. A cell phone was always too much for me. I was phoneless is Austin for quite a while and I never noticed that it was a problem.

I am phasing out my cell phone and replacing it with Skype. I am using SkypeOUT and SkypeIN. I will be semi-connected since I can use Skype on any computer and SkypeIN allows people to call me using a normal phone number. We'll see how far this little experiment goes.