Graduate Grumblings

This Saturday I was in two rowing races during the Des Moines Regatta. In the morning, I rowed port in a novice mixed 8 with the crew that I have been practicing with on Saturdays. In the afternoon, I rowed starboard in a men's four that I had never rowed with. Last week we practiced the race course in our lineup and cruised. Our speed was enough that our cox felt like we could totally win it. We had few problems and our timing and balance were good. For practices we have been using the older, heavier, wider fiberglass and wood boats. For the race, because we were doing so well, our cox arranged for us to get a carbon fiber sliver of a boat named Caliente.

The day of the race we had to row up from the dock a couple of miles to the start before the race. Conditions really were perfect. Cool, flat water. The mist rose up in thin tendrils from the river. The sun was warm, but the air cool. We wore our jackets rowing up, but it was comfortable in shirtsleeves once we warmed up. The boat was light and thin. Carrying it to the river was a breeze. As soon as I started putting my oar in I could feel though how tippy it was. When we were all in and pushed away from the dock, we all felt it as minute adjustments on one side buried the oars on the other side. We had some trouble getting back in rhythm and keeping the balance on the way up, but as we rowed past the park and under the bridge it felt good. We turned, chatted with the boat behind us in the lineup and got ready to go.

Then, it all fell apart. The stroke seat sets the timing of the boat and he immediately got his oar stuck in the current. It whipped behind him and he had to lay down and pull it back. Then it happened again. And again. We got into a decent pace, but never really recovered. The boat behind us passed us easily and we struggled to keep the boat balanced, tending to list to port, which made the stroke's ability to keep control of his oar worse. So we lost. Not horribly - 26 minutes for the course, but in practice we were almost 5 minutes faster.

I had the best cheer squad along the river though!

The afternoon race was with the same guy in stroke, we also had never rowed together, and we were in a different boat then planned. The original boat actually sank during the women's race earlier in the day; so we dusted off an antique hanging from the ceiling and hefted it down to the river. My seat was broken. The footstretchers had odd leather straps instead of shoes that were held in place with ties that no one figured out. The whole boat creaked and groaned with every stroke. To make it worse, our stroke was still nervous from the morning where his oar seemed intent on knocking him out of the boat, so he was very timid. The guy behind him overcompensated pushing with all his might and veering the boat each time. We were late getting to the start and then disqualified for basically rowing very badly.

Rowing back, we changed the person sitting in the stroke position and taped our feet in. I kept my seat in the rails, and we were a creaky, but smooth boat. We easily passed the boats ahead of us and slid along the dock, but it didn't matter by then since we were exhausted and out of the race.

A total blast though. There were hundreds of people competing, from colleges around the Midwest and community clubs like ours. In the morning I helped unpack 4 bushel boxes of bananas by the registration booth along with 3 boxes of apples and a table of muffins. I thought there couldn't possibly be enough people to eat all of that. It was gone by 7:30. The crowd was much larger than I expected, with lots of cheering and music. It has been the highlight of my summer and I have had so much fun.

I can remember seeing a boat like these in Boise when I was walking home from school one day and wishing I could try one out. I put it on my "bucket" list, and it was awesome to be able to try. Next year our crew has committed to practicing together again and plan on practicing on the carbon fiber boat and will be quite competitive.

Kate's drawings of cats, scary monsters, and horses. Oh, and her name. Just ask her.

2011-09-26T19:57:00.000-07:00

The pickle experiment

2011-09-25T19:15:00.000-07:00

My attempt at making senf gerkin was a failure.

When we looked at the jars and realized that the pickles inside were translucent and soft, Emily and I decided to try an experiment to test what we did wrong. The recipe called for heating the cucumber slices in the brine/syrup/vinegar prior to sealing in jars. Our hypothesis was that excessive heat cooked the cucumbers to mush. Emily was my scribe for the treatments. So we tested 5 methods with the same brine/syrup/vinegar and an additional brine with the leftover cucumber slices:

The original recipe, cooking the cucumber slices in the brine, and then sealing the jars in a boiling water bath.
Adding boiling brine to cold cucumbers and then sealing in the jars in a boiling water bath, letting the cucumbers sit in the hot brine prior to sealing.
The same as 2., but immediate transfer to boiling water bath..
Adding boiling brine, but no boiling water bath to seal the jars
Cold brine, no boiling water bath
I had some cucumber slices left so I made a different brine recipe for refrigerator pickles.

Emily made daily observations of the jars and recorded details of the pickling process for each treatment. One of the jars from treatment three burst in the rolling water bath. After two days all of the jars tops were sealed, even treatments 5 and 6 which were not sealed in the water bath. Only when the cucumbers were heated in the brine and then sealed, treatment 1, look like jars of gloop. Treatment 2 is intermediate between 3 and 4. Five is definitely the whitest.

The original recipe called for 2 weeks of pickling prior to opening the jars. I considered opening each of the jars and having a taste test today, but then what are we to do with all of the open jars but throw the leftovers away? So for conclusions of taste and texture we will have to wait until we have tried each one. Emily has kept her notes and wants to record our observations when we open each.

Our preliminary conclusions support our hypothesis and suggest that our previous mushy pickles from two years ago had the same problem: excessive heat. The brine and vinegar really are all that is needed to preserve the pickles, but sealing the jars with a rolling water bath certainly reassure me that they won't rot over the months between pickling and eating. So, the cucumbers should be kept on ice until the moment they are added to the brine in the jars and sealed. That way the heat of the canner won't have as much time to seep into the cold cucumbers. They probably don't need very long in the canner either.

Update: As I was cleaning up I opened the refrigerator pickles (treatment 5 and 6). Nice and crunchy. Touch of sweetness, but still tangy. They reminded me of the summer quick pickles I make with vinegar, sugar, and salt.

Work in Progress Weekend

2011-09-11T14:33:00.000-07:00

Leila each week posts her "Work in Progress Wednesday" on her quilt blog. It is linked to her other online quilt friends' blogs so they can cheer each other on. Pretty good idea really. Here are some of the things the kids and I have in progress:

Senf Gherkin:

My neighbor has been telling this last month I have the perfect cucumbers for senf gherkin, i.e over-ripe yellow monsters. They look pretty good so far. I have never been a big fan of sweet pickles, but these have enough vinegar that I think they will be pretty good.

Our monster yellow cucumbers next to Mike's perfect green ones.

Kate helping me freeze green peppers from the garden

Aleah sewing with the machine that Leila bought from the garage sale.

I still need to paint my container I built for my work truck. I have a bunch of safety supplies and things I bring with me to work and I got sick of them rolling out from under the seat.

Here is the view from the side

I still haven't stained the benches I made for the Cook's visit.

The Storm in Washington D.C. and the National Debt

2011-08-27T22:52:00.000-07:00

There is a hurricane headed for D.C. right now. It has been downgraded to a category 2 storm and will probably blow through in a couple of days. There will be some flooding and some trees blown down and in a few more days everyone will go back to work.

However, the real storm is still yet to hit. (OK, so that was a gimmicky start. anyways down to business) The Congress and the president passed a stop-gap bill to raise the debt ceiling. This bill sets up a committee to decide what to cut and what to keep. This sets a series of deadlines, outlined by the Washington Post:

The problem with this solution, is that it solves very little and drags debate about the solution out over the next year. My frustration with this solution could be graphed in much the same way. My frustration with the Republican and Democratic rhetoric and talking points about taxes and spending cuts would have to be a logrithmic curve. The Republicans seem particularly unwilling to bend and I have struggled to see why. The numbers are are convincing to me that a balanced approach with revenues needed to balance the budget and reasonable cuts, especially to the biggest expenses. If you want to play with the numbers and get a feel for the effects of changes to the tax code, defense spending, etc., the New York Times in November 2010 had an interactive webplayer for playing with the budget that is great fun.

From this webplayer, it emphasized to me that the federal government takes in a lot of taxes and changes in the tax code results in drastic changes to budgets. I was surprised to see how much of an effect it had on future projections ending the Bush Tax cuts and reducing defense spending. I am going to insert a couple of other graphs from the New York Times, that show this. I worried about putting them in here since they lay the blame for the deficits on Bush's shoulders instead of Obama's. This is an oversimplification, not the whole story, and divisive. I wanted to discuss this without the polarizing effect of Bush and Obama, because I think this is a bigger problem than these two presidencies.

Deficit and projections. One deceptive piece on this graph is the projects are only from 2 years: 2001 and 2009. It would be more informative to have the previous year's project on the next years actuals.

The Blame Chart. I think rather heavy handed and deceptive. The healthcare bill is going to be very expensive. Medicare is not getting cheaper. We still are involved in two wars in the Middle East. Yet, we keep cutting taxes. These tax cuts have a significant effect since budgets were not cut at the same time.

In the end, it doesn't matter who did it. We need a solution. Leila's Aunt Janie proposed that we show our support by donating to the national debt. I was excited by the proposal, not because it would make a substantive dent in the debt, but because it expressed something that is lacking in this debate: Americans can band together and sacrifice to do the right thing. It frustrated me that instead of asking us to sacrifice to support the Iraq War the federal government cut taxes and sent out rebate checks, while keeping the cost of the war off of the federal budget. We should have been asked to buy War bonds, ration food, recycle cans, something, anything, if the war was truly worth it! The impression I got was that the federal government didn't believe that the public would support it if they had to sacrifice anything at all. This is wrong. We can do hard things. We can sacrifice and all do our part.

Leila and her aunt were interviewed by Cezary Podkul from the Washington Post. (Not only is Leila now a famous quilter, she is a national political commentator now) His article appeared July 24th in the Post. In his very informative article, he reveals that the cited law allowing direct donations to the Treasury for the National Debt is not what we thought. The money does not go directly to the the debt, but into the general fund, which pays a little of everything. You know, like taxes. Leila was embarrassed by this, because we donated our money, and it felt like we had been hoodwinked, swindled by the Federal Government.

I stand by the sentiment behind her post. The blame for the mess of our federal deficit does not lie with a presidency, a political party, or congress. It is on our shoulders. As a nation, we have not taken responsibility for paying our own debts and that bleeds into the actions of our governments. This has to change if we are going to be successful as a country.

At the heart of the Tea Party and Republican cry for smaller government is a distrust of government and many of the discretionary cuts show that. I would argue though that the biggest expenses and budget problems we have are due the leaders of the government not trusting that the American public would support them if they had to ask us to sacrifice. I think both should be wrong. I would like to have a government I could trust. I would like to be part of a country where people support the right thing, even if it requires personal sacrifice. But we have become a greedy and selfish people, and that needs to change before we will be able to get our house in order.

On writing and wandering through corn

2011-08-12T12:44:00.000-07:00

I have struggled to find time and motivation to write recently, in my journal, blog, or at work. But today, I have set aside the entire day for analyzing data and writing. And instead, I find my self looking out the window and thinking how it probably isn't going to rain and I could be outside wandering around the corn field.

From Huxley

A big part of my job is taking notes on corn fields. Plot by plot, looking up the rows, guaging ear height, plant height, disease progression, leaf angle, tassel size, and yield potential. Most of that gets boiled down to a single rating and shorthand comments, for example A/B:@.0023.@: rating 3;sm pl, tssk4, gls6, (translation F4 bulk from parents A and B rating - good. small plant some tassel skeletonization, susceptible to grey leaf spot - disease above the ear) or the worst rating possible rating A/B:@.0240.@; 9 ug (translation F4 bulk. Discard. Ugly line). Repeat over and over again. My goal most days is to look at 3000 plots in a day. At 2.5' between plots that are 23' long that is walking 2 miles in 4-6 hours. Not fast. Not really that far, but it seems that way.

From Huxley

View of inbred plots

From Huxley

Northern Corn Leaf Blight starting to infect the leaves

Spending that long in a corn field means I see a lot of details: bits of pottery, rocks, the swallows that follow you through the field, killdeer, insects, the gel roots exude to push through the dirt. The world is divided into rectangular sections defined by straight rows of corn, but wildness pushes through. There are prairie grasses still at the edges of fields that have been plowed now for 100 years, waiting for their chance to reclaim their inheritance. Wherever there is light, dirt, and extra nutrients weeds will appear. In Argentina, burrowing owls were common in corn fields. In Iowa, I see chipmunks line up along the dirt path like sentinals awaiting orders and from the frequent tracks deer must be hiding just out of sight all over the field. In the evening, the coyotes chase rabbits. Racoons knock down sweet corn as soon as it's ready. Rarely do I see foxes, but they are around. In the mud near the front of the field there are tracks like a highway.

From Huxley

Gel coating brace roots

I need to write more though and analyze more data. Doug, my friend and philosopher, has convinced me that writing is like any other activity; it needs excersize and practice for improvement. So I am going to set aside part of my day to write and think and plan. We will see how it goes.

For now, I am giving in and going back out to the field. The swallows are calling and the rain has moved north.

From Huxley

You know it's a HOT summer in Iowa when. . .

2011-07-25T11:39:00.001-07:00

From Drop Box

Family History - Benjamin Viles

2011-07-10T20:22:00.000-07:00

While we were in Washington, I spent time on Bonnie's computer and ancestry.com account. It is amazing how much easier family history work is now than when I took a class on it at BYU in 1995. So many of the records are online and easily searchable. Other people have posted their pedigree files, photos, stories, and documents. The LDS church websites also have gotten better and better with more interactive ways to look up ancestors, view possible duplicates, and share research results.

I found that I was more interested in trying to find out about some of the people than hunt for the next ancestor. I kept trying to fill in the story behind the pieces of records I could find. In some cases, you could see quite a lot from the census records, tracing my great-great grandmother Delsie Orcutt after her divorce when she moved home, still living under her married name, then as a housekeeper under her maiden name, to her second marriage to John Campbell. In other cases, there are more questions than answers. Too many of my ancestors have changed their names, with no records of why or who they were.

One ancestor that I knew nothing about previously, that I was able to find quite a bit on Ancestry.com was Benjamin Viles:

From Ancestry.com, based on later pictures, this is probably him.

Benjamin Viles was born July 9, 1831, the son of Alfred Viles and Thankful Norton. He was born in Massachusetts July 9th, 1831, a descendant of John Hancock, but not the John Hancock, and died in Prosser, Washington in 1908. One census has his birthplace as Wisconsin, but others as Minnesota, with his father from Massachusetts and his mother from Maine. He was a farmer in Minnesota and Washington. He met his wife, Emily Rock, while farming in Minnesota and were married before the Civil War. During the war, he joined the 6th Minnesota infantry company C and was a private in the army. From the little I have read, the 6th infantry fought Sioux Indians during the first part of the war and then moved to Arkansas - where they all got sick of malaria and then further south to New Orleans for the last battles of the war. Benjamin though was injured in 1863 and was discharged due to disability. When he died, his wife applied for his military pension.

This was posted by an ancestry.com user. I love the beard. I wish I had such a beard.

His daughter Anice married Henry Lyons while they were in Minnesota and then they moved to Washington along with a sizeable portion of their extended family, including Benjamin. From the 1910 census, just after Benjamin died, Anice and Henry lived almost next door to the Rock family, the Viles, and other Lyons.

Benjamin Viles, Anice Viles (Lyons), Myron and Luella Lyons.

According to an ancestor.com member this is a picture of Anice Lyon's house in Rattlesnake Hills.

According to his death certificate he suffered died of old age due to complications from asthma in 1908.

The problem with the past is that it takes such effort to hold on to. The present is so demanding and it is easy to forget. It is sad that even stories about my own grandparents are not written down and will fade in memory, unless written down and remembered. Time is truly like a river, always moving downstream with the present like a leaf floating in its current.

I don't have any personal stories about Benjamin Viles that would say what kind of man he was. Was he religious? Was he funny? Did he smoke a pipe? Was he kind to his children? How did he and his wife meet? What did he enjoy doing? Did he enjoy farming, or did he desire something different? How was he injured in the Civil War? Why did they move to Washington?

I found the photos of him and his family on Ancestry.com along with his death certificate, headstone info, and census records.

I would like family history to be something more than names and dates. It is a way to remember, to keep the past from being forgotten, but it takes effort and the present responsibilities tug at me and it is easy to put off. But, every year I do, the less likely it will be that I can find people in my family that remember personal stories. So I am going to try to work on this once a week and will post here some of what I have found.

A Call to Action

2011-07-04T16:36:00.000-07:00

Reprinted with permission from my wife's blog:

A few days ago I received this letter from my Aunt Janie:

Dear friends and family,

In the 1960s I learned about a law that allows citizens to give gifts to the U.S. Treasury Department that may only be applied to reduce the debt. I've been so troubled by our current problems, most especially the August 2, 2011 payment deadline, that I dug out the old information on the law. It still exists.

For some months now, I've wanted to let people know about this opportunity for us as individuals citizens to come to the aid of our country just as we have done for victims of natural and political disasters around the world. We are a generous people and now our own situation is dire.

So, I dug out the old information on the law and then sat on it because several people felt my idea of encouraging us to help out was impractical. I believed they must be right. Then, last Sunday, June 26, 2011 I awakened with a dream about this possibility and a tremendous sense of remorse because I had not acted upon it.

This week, I sent out the attached letter which was published in the Las Vegas Review Journal's"Letters to the Editor" section. I also sent it to several politicians, but I do not expect a response because I know they are swamped with mail.

I don't have much money but I am sending a little to the Treasury specifically for the August 2nd deadline. If you are so inclined, the specific information is in the attachment. Be careful if you try to pay online. Make certain you have the Treasury Department. There are all sorts of sites that start with "pay.gov." If you would, please send this email and attachment to others you know might be interested in helping.

Love and thanks.

Janie

I think that this is a brilliant idea, not necessarily because it will pay down the debt in any significant amount (although if every American donated $10 we could pay down the debt 3 billion dollars), but because we will be able to show our leaders that we are committed to debt reduction. Imagine, hundreds, thousands, millions of people donating what they can to pay down the debt. Imagine them writing to their Congressmen urging them to work together to work out a national debt reduction plan. (Yup, I am afraid we will have to work together to cut spending and raise taxes.) Here is a site where you can look up your Congressman's contact information.

Imagine people having debt reduction garage sales, raffles and lemonade stands. Imagine this movement going national, viral and being talked about on national news. Everyone has profited from government programs and tax breaks. The debt is everyone's problem and we need to show that we are engaged and willing to sacrifice and do our part to pay it down.

Does that mean we will have to pay more taxes? Yes. Does that mean we might not qualify for government programs anymore? Yes. Are Americans tough? Yes! Can we sacrifice like our ancestors for the benefit of our country? YES!

Let us show everyone that we are willing to tighten our belts, make the tough choices and sacrifice to make our country a better place. Please consider making a donationto pay down the national debt. Please contact your Congressmen telling them about your donation and your commitment to debt reduction. You could also contact your local newspapers. Here is a letter Janie has written up that you could submit as a letter to the editor:

In as much as we face an immediate crisis with a considerably large payment on a portion of the national debt, and in as much as the Republicans and Democrats are entrenched in opposite positions, each of which has merit, it seems appropriate to ‘think outside the box.’ There is a third possibility.

H.R. 311 Public Law 87-58 (also found as Search 31 U.S.C. 3113:US Code-Section 3113) was passed on June 27, 1961. It permits individuals and groups to give gifts to the United States Government to be used only to reduce the public debt. Contributions may be mailed to Department G, Bureau of the Public Debt, P.O. Box 2188, Parkersburg, WV 26106-2188 or paid at www.pay.gov (U.S. Treasury, Gifts to Reduce the Public Debt). In the present case, contributors should specify that the monies are to be used for the immediate debt crisis.

Cities, states, businesses, and organizations as well as private citizens of all economic positions could compete for recognition of their patriotic generosity. Efforts need to be transparent with regular reports of progress in the news, on the internet, and on television. A concerted, ongoing effort to reduce this debt would 1) find enthusiastic participants, 2) make evident our determination to meet our financial obligations, and 3) demonstrate to the world the patriotic fervor of the American people.

Should this suggestion prove impractical, it may at least stimulate further discussion and the opportunity to ‘think outside the box.’

Sincerely,

Your name

Please help spread the word!

Row, Row, Row your boat

2011-07-03T07:24:00.000-07:00

When I graduated with my Ph.D. and got a "real" job, my brother Marc asked me what new hobbies I was going to start with all my new free time. We moved to Indiana and bought a small hobby farm, which promptly swallowed all my free time and money. I miss the cows, our pigs, and my dog Sam, but I do have more free time.

When I was surfing around the internet (Do people say that still?), I ran into some wooden boat sites and really liked this boat:

It is an Adirondack guideboat, a rowing canoe essentially. I have never used a rowboat, but I liked the principle of it. Loud motors aren't really enticing to me and I love canoes and kayaks. I have been ocean kayaking in Hawaii and Mexico and canoed at scout camp as a kid. Emily and I went kayaking in Gig Harbor and it was the highlight of our trip.

In addition, while in Gig Harbor, Leila and I visited the Gig Harbor Boatworks and looked at his rowing/sailing boat the "Melonseed". It had beautiful clean lines, a thoughtful design, and a big price tag. I have always wanted to be a sailor, but never have had the chance. When the owner of the boatworks showed us the workshop and their boats they were building, he told us that there was about a 3-5 year delay between someone showing interest and someone buying one of his boats. Yeah, not going to get one any time soon.

My next step was to see how much a canoe, kayak or row boat was going to cost me. I could get a canoe or kayak for 400-900 dollars. I found a kit boat site with kits for wooden rowboats, canoes and kayaks around 1000 dollars per kit. Then, I found the Des Moines rowing club, for less than 150 dollars I could join the club and row on one of the novice teams.

I was hooked. I need to get some pictures of rowing on the lake with the team. We meet once a week on Saturday mornings. The instructor/coach/cox sits in the back of the boat and instructs and guides the boat. We went out the first day on a 4 person sweep boat that glided along like an iceskate. It also balanced like a knife on the water. Two inch movements with the oars or seat threatened to capsize the boat. It is odd to face backwards the whole time. In that way I prefer canoeing, but it sure moves fast when everyone rows in sync.

So, for now my new hobbie is rowing. I still miss our little farm, and my garden and chickens help fill that void, but I am having a great time learning to row.

Maybe next year I will take up sailing.

Walking Kate Turns Two

2011-06-25T14:20:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, we were getting worried about Kate. She was approaching two years old and still didn't walk. She seemed quite content to crawl or knee-walk wherever she went. I told Leila that if she wasn't walking by two I would be concerned. Other people, including her doctor, then the specialists we took her to, were all very concerned that she wasn't walking. We even went so far as to get an MRI on her nervous system to make sure that all was well. All of her tests were normal, the physical therapist recommended braces, the orthopedic guy didn't, and meanwhile she was happy on her knees.

Then, about a six weeks ago we had friends over for dinner. They fawned over Kate and applauded her attempts to free-stand. Then the next day she tried it again, with a few steps. By the end of the week, she was walking by herself like a champ. She just had to want to enough.

She turned two last week. We have now been in Iowa over two years and time has flown by. Kate is still the wild-haired, thumb-sucking, hair-twirling, daddy's girl she was a year ago, but she also is communicative and caring. She is the first to give her sister's a hug and a kiss and is quick to say sorry. She still takes long naps and is often content to sit on the counter while meals are made or dishes done. She is fascinated with puppies, birds, and other animals. She loves carrying a bag and helping. Unfortunately, she has a real sweet tooth, little patience, and hates sharing toys, books, or her dad. But, she is careful to keep clean and insists on washing her hands and face often and is disturbed by containers without lids.

The next few years will probably speed by even faster. I hate to think how we will have to break the thumb sucking habit, but other than that I look forward to seeing her and her sisters grow up. It still amazes me after 4 children how each of them is so much themselves, even very little. Kate's personality really has shown through since she was just a month or two old.

Note: the pictures in the slideshow were supposed to be in chronological order, but our camera has been putting the wrong date on each file and I didn't change them. If you can't see the slideshow, I will add photos to the post, let me know.

June is flying by

2011-06-18T12:42:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe how fast the days of summer fly by.

But swim lessons have begun so the fun of summer is here. Aleah just beams all lessons. She doesn't swim as so much as half drown while splashing generally forward. She has no fear of the water, even though she sinks like a stone. Emily swims well enough that her class is focusing on doing the strokes right, which isn't quite as fun sometimes. Colleen splashes on the edge and watches with her friend.

The first part in June we spent in Gig Harbor, WA visiting Leila's family. Then I went to Boise to see my family for a few days.

Presenting without powerpoint: Edward Tufte's training course

2011-05-16T15:01:00.000-07:00

I am in D.C. right now with my mom. We just got back from Edward Tufte's course on presenting data and information. We wandered through the very large conference center past a very large medical conference. There were only a few legal paper sized signs with hand drawn arrows pointing to the very back of the hall to guide us. As I saw them, I thought, "Oh no, this is going to be just a few people in a tiny class with this guy."

But, I was very wrong. We had a ballroom in the back that could easily have seated 500 people. Very few seats were empty.

The schedule was different than any other conference I have been to. Each attendee was given a box with four books and a reading assignment. We had an hour to read before the show got started, an hour. ET walked around and signed books while we read.

Then the lights went dark and the screens lit up with small bars that moved along with the classical music:

Then we would read a section in the book, usually focused on a single graphic and he would discuss design principles from this. 500 people turning pages in unison echoes in a ballroom like waves against stones. Not a sound of talking, just scratching of pens and scraping of pages.

For example, study this map and chart by Charles Minard to describe the loss of men as Napoleon marched across Russia and back. The size of the tan and black lines correspond to the size of the army. You can easily understand the devastating losses as they marched in the freezing cold and see the despair of their retreat as they returned with only 10,000 of the original 400,000 men.

Another supergraphic we discussed in detail was Reebee Garofalo's "Genealogy of pop and rock music." You will need to click on the image and expand it to see much detail. It tracks the progress of each pop music fad with the band and the volume of record sales.

There is a lot of detail in his books about how to handle visualizations to maximize the amount of data being communicated to the reader as clearly as possible and as simply as possible and getting his books as part of this course made the steep entry fee worth it.

The take-home messages for me about graphics
1. Don't use PowerPoint - PowerPoint is inefficient at transmitting data. It is also full of clunky formatting and graphing "tools" that obscure the meaning of the presentation. Really PowerPoint is not to blame, it is our utter dependence on it for communication. I can't count how many times I have asked for data at work or wanted to discuss a proposal or results of an experiment and the only way the data is stored and communicated is through PowerPoint.

Why is that? It is faster to make a PowerPoint presentation than a technical report. Writing takes time, thought, and preparation. PowerPoint is used as a shorthand, and according to Tufte a crutch that weakens our intellectual and reasoning skills instead of healing them.

Am I giving up PowerPoint? No, but I am going to think carefully about how I am using it. I am also recommitted to technical reports and clear writing.

2. Maximize the amount of information contained in a graphic. Charts, graphs, tables, etc should help the reader to make comparisons and draw conclusions. Maximize the amount of data per amount of ink it would require for the graphic. Try to incorporate multivariate data. Get rid of chartjunk and PowerPoint ppflugh.

3. Your credibility is on the line - inaccurate and poor presentation not only weaken the argument of the presentation, but they make the presenter look bad. It is also hard to make right conclusions without understanding the data, its limitations, and relationships - see what happened with the shuttle in part due to badly written PowerPoint slides as a substitute for a technical report. How many other bad decisions have been made in bored meetings because bad presentations (misspelling intentional).

Advice for presenting data
He advocated strongly for the format used in the training session, except that with small groups questions and discussion is more feasible. He also plugged the iPad pretty hard numerous times due to its high resolution screen and ability to handle multimedia and statistics. He expects within a short while that we won't have to worry about PowerPoint because each person will come with their iPad equivalent to every meeting. Data will be exchanged and discussed with that instead of a projector and slides.

1. "Remember that the group of people most like you in the world outside your immediate family are probably in the room with you." I thought that was actually pretty profound. Taking that into consideration will prevent patronizing and should help communication.

2. High resolution data dump - use a supergraphic like the examples shown previously to give perspective and generate discussion later. He recommends giving each audience member a handout with a summary of the analysis, thoughtful graphics, and data tables.

3. Spend your presentation time letting the audience read and digest material. Data transfer rates for reading far outstrip the amount you can talk.

I am not sure how well this would work in many situations. I am willing to try it for some presentations, but I am unsure how this will go. This is not the culture and method people are used to. I can see some cases, especially if meetings are small and there is a single presenter this would work well. But, how do you do this when there are a slate of presenters or a large and varied audience? It worked well for the conference. I preferred this to the couple of times that he went on and on about the beauty of Apple products and the other time that he droned about computer interface design.

4. Guide the audience through key points and conclusions. This makes sense.

5. Let the audience interrogate you, if less than 50 people. Since they have read the material and you have explained key points, this actually should go pretty well.

6. End early. No one likes long meetings. He argued that with this method, instead of PowerPoint, we should be able to present more information in 30% less time.

Besides the few rambling and self-promoting sections about design of computer interfaces, this was a fascinating training of how to improve data quality.

To my mom.

2011-05-07T07:53:00.000-07:00

It is Mother's day tomorrow. The day when in LDS wards in the US all Mom's get a flower, usually potted petunias or geraniums. I am not sure if they really want them, but that is what is easy to organize for them. One year my well-meaning bishop in Indiana gave out booklets on motherhood - that didn't go over well. Needless to say the next year we gave out flowers.

This year I will be flying to DC to visit my Mom next week to go to a stats training seminar together. My mom is working for NSF this year as an Einstein Fellow. When my parents got divorced, my mom went back to school. She had started her associates in math at Ricks College, and we moved to Boise so she could finish her bachelors at Boise State. Why math? Glutton for punishment, that and if you want a teaching job, math is the place to be.

I was 12 when we moved and we lived on campus in a 3-bedroom apartment. Mom studied, tutored, graded papers, and studied some more. There were a lot of nights that she was studying when I went to bed near midnight and when I woke to deliver papers before 5AM she was still at the table working. I don't know anyone that worked harder than she did.

When she graduated, she worked at a bank for a while and then started teaching at Mt. Cove Alternative school - (Glutton for punishment). When I was in highschool some of the kids at her school would tell me she was tough as nails (not their words exactly). She worked there until last year when she took a year off to work in DC with NSF.

Often people will tell me that we look alike. I take pride in that. Because I do want to be like my mom. She has inspired me my whole life.

My brother in law found this awesome biologists tribute to his mom on youtube. Here's to you Mom, to paraphrase the song, More than half of who I am is due to you.

(Check out his other songs about St. Patricks day and NPR.)

Simpson Clouds out my window

2011-04-04T11:18:00.000-07:00

This is the view out my window right now. I have the theme song stuck in my head right now.

Sick kids and weird dreams

2011-03-27T04:46:00.000-07:00

This month has been flu month for us. Everyone has been sick. Kate has had it twice, Aleah missed 5 days of school the week before spring break. Colleen was so sick that for two days all she did was get up, go to the bathroom, and then fall asleep on the floor. She slept more than 20 hours one day. Then Leila caught it when I was in St. Louis. The next week I had it. As long as I kept myself doped up on ibuprofen I felt OK, but major headache, achy fever and sore throat.

It looks like Colleen and Kate have fevers again, but at least Colleen is the most cheerful sick person ever. It makes taking care of her as pleasant as sick kids can be. This morning she has a fever again. I heard her get up and stumble around in the dark. When I found her she was coming upstairs from the basement in fresh PJs. She told me, "Little kids can't find the light, so had accident. In bathroom, uhhuh. That's right. In bathroom." She tried to clean it up, then she went downstairs, found fresh PJs and unders and just now went up to bed, because "me so tired."

I hope I am not coming down with it. When I was sick last week I had very vivid dreams every night and last night they were back. Some of my favorite dreams play like a TV show or a movie. These last night were like being in a Firefly episode in the Twilight Zone. There was a spaceship, run by my older brother - but not my brother brother, some other guy. There was a Pakistani woman, myself, a Hindu Indian, and some other people that are fading already. We were on some odd planet where physics did not seem to apply. Things could fly that were too big to fly. Some animals were invisible. Plants seemed to grow upside down and in the air. There was a mysterious spiral stairway that ascended into an ominous storm cloud. Most of the dream was about preparation for going up the stairs. We had a big feast made by the Pakistani woman - biryani and a series of small dishes that were spicy or sweet or pungent. Then another passenger accused her of taking his pistachios he had hidden away. I lied and told my dream brother I had eaten them. He tied me to a stake and left me that way as they walked up the staircase.

Critical analysis of state budgets by Bill Gates

2011-03-07T21:53:00.000-08:00

Watch it, then check out his online tool for analyzing state budgets Here

Then, read this funny blog post about why white people like TED talks

Scott Westerfeld Novels

2011-03-06T12:57:00.000-08:00

Scott Westerfeld writes Young Adult scifi and steampunk. Leviathon and Behemoth, his steampunk books, are like a good dessert. Sweet, a bit tangy. Probably not great for you, but hard to put down. They take place at the beginning of World War I between the "Darwinist" and the "Clanker" nations. The Darwinists have transgenic, bioengineered, intergeneic species instead of machines. The Germanic Clankers rely on steam powered mech warriors. Great fun. There is one more book to go in the trilogy.

Pretties Trilogy plus one
Extras
Extras is the fourth book in a sci-fi trilogy that had to be inspired by web growth and incorporation in daily life. The other three books tell the exploits of Tally who starts as an "ugly" 15 year old just before her first birthday. In their culture, at 16 citizens get an extreme makeover to become "pretty." Pretties are kinda bubbly - due to surgery induced brain damage. Tally is unique because the surgeries do not seem to hold her back.

In Extras, the main character, Asa, lives in an Asian future city that has a "fame-based" economy. She is a "kicker" - like a blogger or someone that posts to Youtube, with few hits. Kinda like this blog, although if it was ranked against the rest of the net it would be near the very, very bottom. The storyline is OK, but the beauty of the book is the mirror it holds up to the world of the web that is superimposed on everything we do. Just look at how much money the top highest ranked websites (google and facebook) have: Facebook makes $2 BILLION in profits every year!!!

The jargon of the book is viral, very thought-making. Now opening a website or kicking a story on my blog it makes me wonder how our fame economy works and how I want to be part of it - or if I want to drop out and away. Is it enriching our world or debasing it?

Back from travelling

2011-02-22T14:27:00.000-08:00

View Winter travels in a larger map

When I was 19, I went on a plane for the first time to Nicaragua. I remember sitting in the window seat, looking out at the ground pulling away from the plane. I was enthralled.

I looked around after we were in the clouds and was surprised that no one else seemed to care how amazing it all was. Some were reading. Some had their heavy laptops out. Some were sleeping. I was wired, adrenaline racing.

This last bit of trips has killed the wonder of flying to me.

Christmas at the Capital pt 2

2011-01-09T13:17:00.000-08:00

Leila, Colleen, Emily and I in front of the Washington Memorial

One of the first places we went was the Natural History Museum. I could have spent a week there. We only went through part of the one building. Leila and the little kids went back to Mom's apartment to take a nap. Emily, my mom and I went on to the Air and Space Museum.

On our way to the Smithsonian

Kate rode in the backpack carrier most of our trip. She is remarkably well behaved when she is back there. But she is now 18 months and has not attempted to walk. I try to hold onto her hands and help her practice, but she still prefers to "knee-walk" or crawl.

Aleah in front of crocheted reef

They had a huge display of a coral reef made entirely of crochet. Most of it was yarn, but included plastic bags, pop tabs, rope, and rags. It must have taken ages to make.

At the Air and Space museum we spent the most time looking at Amelia Earhart's plane and display. Emily has done two reports on her; one in third grade and again this year. She already was quite a fan. It is amazing the courage it must have taken to get into some of those planes. They had a full size model of the Wright Brother's "plane" also. Their safety device to keep them clutched to the bottom wing was a small box that their feet rested in with 4 inch sides. They also had a moon lander that wasn't used in the Apollo program. Amazing.

Corn decorating the pillars of the Capitol.

Leila in front of the Capitol building

We emailed Sen. Grassley's office and they were kind enough to give us a tour of the Capitol Building - at least the Senate side. One of his staffers met us at their office and took us over through the underground tunnels to the Capitol. There is a small tram that runs under the streets. I am sure the tour would have been really great, but unfortunately the kids were tired and temperamental. By that, I mean completely out of control, throwing temper-tantrums like tag-team wrestlers.

Carrying Colleen and Kate

Plus, the tour meant lots of walking: from the bus to the office, from the office to the capitol, up and down stairs, down long hallways, past security, more hallways, stops not for snacks or rest but discussions on where dead senators once sat.

Isn't family togetherness fun?

Leila and her Bikeshare bike

Leila and I went back to the Mall another day, but left the kids at home. We checked out bikes from the DC bikeshare program. They have bikes distributed around the city that can be checked out with a credit card. They are free for the first 1/2 hour and then ~1.50 per half hour after that. Cool idea, but not many were in use. We only saw two others riding them. Going by bike is the best way to see the monuments around the mall. It is a long walk from the capitol to the Lincoln memorial and another hike up to the White house.

Rented bike and the Capitol

We stopped for New Year's Eve at our friends house in Ohio. We have had a tradition of eating Thanksgiving with the Hansens since grad school, but we didn't go this year because it is a longer drive from Iowa. This may be our new tradition. Last year they came to our house. I even watched football on New Years day and the last time I watched a whole game was probably Superbowl of 1993. Nels doesn't even get annoyed with my ignorance. That is when you know you are friends.

Visiting the Hansens in Ohio

Christmas at the Capitol pt 1

2011-01-06T17:55:00.000-08:00

We drove from Huxley, IA to DC starting on Wednesday before Christmas. I was not looking forward to the drive. Looking at the maps on google.maps, 16 hours seemed like an eternity, but expensive flights talked me into it.

I bought a small DVD player even, but we didn't use it that much. Leila did most of the driving and I played with the other kids in the back. Pretty nice. We could do this again.

We spent Christmas morning at my Mom's house. The look in their faces really shows how excited they were to open presents and see their Grandma. Just the memory of Colleen walking around the house saying, "Gamma Benda" cheers me up.

Colleen with her favorite doll

Leila got them pretend cooking supplies and food to go with the playkitchen I have part-done in the garage. (Gotta finish that before winter nursery trips start.) My mom got them winter animal hats. I sooo want a frog hat. Leila's mom made them awesome doll clothes that went with Leila's old doll. The only problem with that is that Colleen fell in love with the doll, her pretty hair and clothes, and thus, didn't want to share.

We also visited with my brother Marc. Heidi rolled her eyes at Marc because "Gardunia's and their tongues." I hadn't realized until then that in previous photos I did the same thing.

Emily and her cousin Ashlyn

Somehow Emily ended up in a lot of photos, mostly because she is growing up so fast and she makes funny faces.

Visiting the monuments in DC

2010-12-28T15:04:00.000-08:00

From Wikipedia: Capitol Building

We are in D.C. visiting my Mom. She is here working as an Einstein Fellow for NSF and has a great basement apartment in a row house right near Capitol Hill.

More pictures to follow.

Kate keeps helping me type. I will post more when the kiddos are in bed.

Powerpoint, I love you . . . I hate you.

2010-12-02T20:38:00.001-08:00

The Cotton Beltwide meeting has a contest each year where the graduate student with the best presentation wins a cash prize. I won every year when I was a graduate student. I have a hard drive full of powerpoint presentations. I use them at work to present data, proposals, ideas, just about anything. I love powerpoint. I am "good" at powerpoint.

I hate powerpoint though. I used to sit in classes where the prof relied on powerpoint and fall asleep as soon as the lights went down. My favorite teachers spurned powerpoint for transparencies with a projector or chalkboards. (Plant Phys with Bruce Smith was an exception. That man could not stay out of his own projector's way. Three months of trying to read the Calvin Cycle off of his shirt pocket and bulky ties. The only day he was a great teacher was when he put the projector away and taught us about schizophrenia. His sons both suffer from clinical schizophrenia and he was a devoted advocate for people that suffer from mental illness. A day I will never forget.)

This Potential powerpoint slide captures it perfectly (Yes, I know it is ironic/sad/contradictory that a powerpoint slide communicates this so clearly. . . That is why I love powerpoint. Wait, I hate power point. . . So confused.)

Edward Tufte - Check out his explanation about powerpoint and the shuttle explosion.

Snapshots

2010-11-28T12:55:00.000-08:00

Aleah

Leila asked me to write a moment that captured Aleah's personality for her birthday. As I talked about what to write about with the other girls they each wanted one. We will see how I do.

We had a picnic after work one evening with a dozen breeders and our bosses. Leila wasn't feeling well and I needed to get the kids out of the house so I dragged them along. We were the only ones with family there.

When I opened the of the van, Aleah jumped out and ran into the mix of mostly middle aged men playing horseshoes and washers. She grabbed my boss's boss by the hand, gave him a quick hug and inserted herself onto their team. For the rest of the night she moved from group to group, playing first horseshoes, then washers, and finally bocce. She laughed at their jokes and told her own and cried on the way home because she wanted to stay longer.

Colleen

At dinner a few weeks ago, I got after Aleah for "talking baby talk." Colleen, turned to me with her hands on her hips and said contemptuously, " Me no talk baby talk, my age. Aleah talk baby talk." And chuckled to her self. Ever since she will tell you proudly that she doesn't use baby talk, "her age."

She is currently asleep face down under my chair. She won't take naps, another part of "her age" she tells me. When I ask her about her nap today, total denial.

When it gets dark, she will come in and inform us that "The clock say, 'nighttime'." Yawn loudly, stretch and ask for help to get into her pajamas.

Me and the kids

Sometimes I get stir-crazy and want to do "Something Fun." Last week the girls and I went to Ames to go bowling or ice skating. The first bowling alley we went to looked like it had been closed for a decade. No lights. Railing falling down. Then we went to the ice skating rink. It was closing for a hockey game in 15 minutes. We loaded back into the van and went to the bowling alley/laser tag/arcade/pizza place. I only yelled no whining because we are having fun once.

Emily bowled 87 points and only beat me by ten. Colleen insisted on using a heavier ball than the other girls and would carry it like a boulder to the edge and give it a push. It got stuck once halfway down about three feet from the bumpers.

American Gothic Emily

This is a great picture of Leila and Emily lurking in the background. We went to Nauvoo to go to the temple, but of course we forgot to call ahead, assuming it would be open on a Saturday in October. It was closed for cleaning and new carpets. I have been to the Salt Lake Temple three times and every time it is closed for repairs or cleaning. There is a message there. I try not to think about it.

We had a great time wandering around the sites and then we drove back. On the way back we stopped at the American Gothic house and took some pictures. Emily has studied it in school and was in perfect form at all times.

Emily has also started cooking. Last night she made the entire dinner - homemade mac and cheese, edamame beans, and sweet corn. Today she is making pigs in a blanket, but since we don't have hotdogs made mile high biscuits and then meatloaf "pigs". She insists on doing it by herself without much consultation.

Kate

Kate's classic pose is thumb in mouth, hand in hair, on her knees. She doesn't walk, or really talk, but has mastered communication by grunt, yell, lean, and grab. She wants me to hold her as soon as I get home and I end up carrying her in the backpack carrier or on my shoulders until bedtime. She is basically spoiled rotten.

Blog Stats after 6 years

2010-11-28T11:44:00.000-08:00