New Address

Hi. My father complained a couple of times about the "ranting like a moron" URL. So I've changed it, which you likely have discovered if you are reading this. From now on this site can be viewed at:

http://mydaddidntliketheurl.blogspot.com/

That is all.

Foundation blocks of my life

RRR... I lost this post once, so it's not going to be as verbose as it could have been. I had it all written and then has highlighted the whole thing to copy it into word to spellcheck, the blogger spellcheck leaves something to be desired, when I accidentally deleted the whole thing - and since its web-based there is no crtl-z undo available. ...RRR

I am really liking the random image generator app on this page. A couple of times now there's been a picture of the Millenium Falcon in there. Yesterday I lit it up to see what it was, and that leads me to this...

Two "links of the day"

http://www.fbtb.net/customs/

http://shop.lego.com/department.asp?d=5&t=3

The "fbtb" in the first url stands for "from bricks to Bothans." It is a reference to Lego and to Start Wars. Two substantive tides during my own formative years.

I often think my generation ought to be the "Star Wars" generation. It seems like a much more creative and descriptive designation than "generation x" which is neither and often seems to me to carry a hint of "being that you are so much less consequential than us 'baby-boomers' we're not really going to think of a name for you guys." (note to self, baby boomer rant another day) Not only does this speak to a movie we all saw over and over, and to a new way to make movies - and a new way to market them, but it also evokes a reference to growing up through the thick of the nuclear cold war and the Reagan administration. I have many memories tied up with Star Wars, seeing the movies, playing with the toys, reading the comics. Its is a big chunk of personal history. I do think at the time it reinforced my interest in space and science in a way that school could not have. It's still with me too, to this day I still buy and read Star Wars novels as they come out.

For me, Lego also holds a place of honor during my formative years. Hours and hours were spent on a converted air-hockey worktable making spaceships and buildings and the like. Miserable with the chicken pox, here's a brand new super-set. Can't get your homework done, here's a Lego for homework incentive program. Certainly the use of this toy helped set the stage for the technical problem solving I do at work every day today.

I remember one shopping trip to Toys-r-us where I met a guy who must have been close to my age now. He was there doing the same thing I was, trying to figure out which set to buy. The second link above is clearly for that demographic: people my age still into Lego. This is Lego's Star Wars line of models. Its good for my folks that it took people like me to know that people like me would be interested in these sets, because if they had figured it out back then I am quite certain a second mortgage would have been required. I have to say, even now I think I can find a place for that X-Wing model in my office.

It's not just the Start Wars line that keeps Lego interesting to older people. They have really stepped up their implementation of mechanical components of late. We've been using these components to help teach stage machinery, they make an excellent prototyping tool. Lego has really beefed up the form and variety of actuators. They now have compressors and pneumatic cylinders. There's even a full blown PLC that with only slight modifications could likely run actual automated scenery. Now if we could only stop feeling stupid about using what we see as a toy as a teaching tool. Too bad for me these bits weren't around back in the day (but a saving grace for Mom's checkbook, again).

I still own quite a bit of Lego. Its boxed up in my parent's garage. When we used to go visit my Dad's parent's I used to go up to the attic and play with my father's Lincoln Logs. I've a similar hope for my Lego.

Check out the galleries on the first site. Some of the models are simply fantastic. The "AC Pin" gallery is particularly good. If I had never met a girl and never left home I think I might be doing models just like these. Even still, $300 isn't too much to pay for a full blown Star Destroyer model, is it?

Maybe I should think about something else for a while.

Ultimate self esteem - or "that's not a sport"

As one might be able to tell from the links on the left, I play ultimate. There are other things one might surmise from the list as well, such as that I am a lesbian stage technician with an affinity for tiny swimwear. The conclusion about ultimate would be correct.

Ultimate used to be ultimate frisbee, but sometime between when I went to college and my teaching at college Wham-O fell out of favor, ultimate players started playing with Discraft Ultrastars, and ultimate frisbee became "Ultimate." The most humble of sports names. The people that play ultimate tend to be dedicated in a way that often wouldn't apply to other sports. There is an element of service and sport development present amongst Ultimate players. This is due largely to the youthfulness of the sport and in some small part a defensive reaction to when people say "you play what? Oh, frisbee. I love the dogs." Talking about dogs and frisbees is enough to bring most Ultimate players to a froth.

So why are we talking about this? I guess because over the last couple of days I have felt fairly disenfranchised as an Ultimate player while watching the summer olympics. For as long as I have played disc, players and organizers (Ultimate has a federation, the Ultimate Player's Association or UPA) have been talking about having Ultimate made an Olympic sport. There are rules that govern this. The sport must be played in a given number of countries, and then a host nation must present it as a demonstration sport. Since I have been playing Ultimate has amassed the critical number of countries, but has never been at the top of the list when it came to demonstration sports. There was an inkling for LA in '84 and then again in Atlanta. But in both cases other programs got the call.

In the interim the Ultimate community has had to watch several other sports play on the Olympic stage. Some of them you might expect: baseball, softball, taekwondo; and some, well, less obvious: beach volleyball, windsurfing, and rhythmic gymnastics. Its the last of those that started me on this little jag this time. Last night I watched the hoop prelims, and then today a watched the group finals and inside I could hear an irate Ultimate player screaming.

Its not that I don't think these people are talented, and that they don't have to train hard and be in great shape to do what they do, but I have trouble seeing the lines. Its much easier for me to see "artistic" gymnasts along side of track athletes and wrestlers. Rhythmic gymnastics I kind of group with Ballroom dance, cheerleading, or competitive aerobics (a sport I have never really understood). I have to say that I would likely lump synchronized swimming in with this class as well. I worked with a bunch of former olympic synchro swimmers when I did the O show. I'll will grant you they were athletes, but I never would have thought what we were doing was a sport. For that matter, that forges another connection. Are synchro swimmers or rhythmic gymnasts all that far from trapeze artists? Why is Ballroom dancing not a sport when Ice dancing is? And don't say its because of the skates, I think a lot of what the dancers do is likely harder without the skates.

Strange, I don't have too much trouble with diving. I guess the difference between diving and synchro is much the same as between artistic and rhythmic gymnastics. Maybe this is it: anything where you wear a costume designed more for looks than for utility, any sport where judges are looking at "artistic impression," that's just not a sport. That's a show. Not to say it isn't physical, not to say it isn't difficult, but I think I am saying its not for the olympics.

Maybe we need another event, something like the world entertainment games. This would be the rightful home of all the artistically judged events. Plus we could add the aerobics, cheerleading, ballroom, and then the trapeze and acrobats, plus drill teams, marching bands, and drum corps. Maybe there's a place here for ballet and modern dancers, or for vocal or instrumental musicians. Is who can sustain the longest or sing the highest note really any less significant than who can lift the heaviest weight? They already have established the x-games as a commercial venture for new sports that are too fringy, someone should do the art-games for events that are as much art as effort. Maybe move these events out of the olympic summer games, and make room for my Ultimate.

More Education

Orientation, day 2. Today we talked to the incoming first year grad students. I really had to motivate because this year PTM admissions totals for grads were:

Production Managers: 0
Stage Managers: 0
Technical Directors: 0
Other: 0

So mostly I thought that I should just stay home and sleep. Perhaps trying to dream up better strategies for recruiting. I'm hoping that this can help solve itself. Now that I have an actually SM faculty member, and have two classes each in stage management and production management the interview conversations should go a little better. Actually, the group seemed real small to me anyway. I guess maybe admissions are down across the board.

I reversed my speech for this group, instead of telling them to be concerned about getting to narrow I admonished them to not get too wide. Once again I failed to get to the end of my speech. I guess if that stuff is as cool as I think it is that I should move it up front so something else gets clipped. At least today I remembered to talk about our initiative to more closely tie production to classwork.

Our motley crew was augmented by quite a few more instructors today. Of special note was the vice-provost for education. Having her there really made me feel foolish about my little talk. She's got just a little bit more experience than I do - something like 8 to 10 times as much. Interestingly though she picked right up on what I was saying and continued, both like we had prepared the talk - which we hadn't, and like I knew what I was talking about - which is debatable.

We've been having a lot of trouble with expectations of grad students lately. The provost took up the theme of grad responsibility. She pinned the difference in grad and undergrad programs in a way I hadn't heard before. She says that undergrad is about "identity" and that grad is about "authenticity." That as an undergrad you are learning and establishing you identity as whatever it is you are studying and that as a grad, the identity part is assumed and that you can start to bring your own self into play - making it an expression of authenticity. Its a neat take and encapsulated many of the issues we've been struggling with.

She also seemed to express that she felt that grad school was much better in the old days, when everything was a PhD and grads didn't take classes like we have now. Its an interesting idea, although I have no idea how something like a Drama school would work in that manner.

So two long meetings later and orientation this year is complete. Classes start Monday. I wonder if I'll be ready.

Random Image

So that little app in the margin found this the other day when searching for images under "blog."


What with all the cat entries it seemed appropriate.

Education

Today, with next to no notice, I had to speak for a few minutes on the nature of the Education pillar of the school's strategic plan. My boss felt it would be better to speak to something of the school's philosophy at our first meeting with incoming freshmen rather than simply discuss housekeeping issues.

The strategic plan has five pillars: Education, Leadership, Experimentation, Community, and Diversity. These are supposed to be the principles that guide all decisions about how the school is put together. As a TD I can get behind most of these. Sometimes I have a little trouble with Experimentation. That particular item gets spun to "don't be afraid to fail." As an engineer and as a manager I tend to have a different definition and reaction to failure in my domain than an actor or a director might have to an artistic failure. But on the whole I think they are good ideas to work from. Our followthrough, that's another story.

Mladen has the best line. He had to cover Diversity. He explained that he believes that we spend too much time labeling with color, that the Indians and the Communists have both been called Reds. He explained that Nazis were called Browns, and that Cleveland has Browns, but that they are not Nazis. I wanted him to explain that at school our color is plaid, which would be inherently diverse, but he didn't. Instead he explained that we are all the same color inside, and that the differences between us are a strength in the realm of learning.

I got to extemporize about Education. My big points were to be sure to recognize the resources around you, to be aware of opportunities for inter-disciplinary experiences, and to take ownership of one's own education in order to maximize and create more opportunities for one's self. I was just getting to the part about how our program is not a service environment, but rather a collaboration between students and faculty and maybe to use a quote that Kevin had given me: "it is the responsibility of universities to but together talented people and then duck." when I paused just a hair to long and Liz said thank you. Which is too bad because I never got to talk about learning more than just skills, but to appreciate the artform, establish a level of professionalism, learn to learn, and to learn from and to teach all the people around you.

I think she cut me off because one of our students was nodding off and it provided a once in four year's opportunity to tell that person to leave and come back when they were ready to participate. Really, I'm not sure I could have stayed awake through my talk if I hadn't been the one talking. Maybe I'll get to do that last bit tomorrow for the grad students.

The continuing FrankenKitty saga

So the uberVet called yesterday.

Trinity does have a "Type 1 Fibrous Sarcoma," or did anyway before the surgery. Type 1 tumors are characterized as "aggressive," which translates into a 90% or better chance that the problem will recur after an unspecified period of time.

Interestingly, having spent some time in a BN going though all the cat books in their pet section, I can tell you that pretty much the sum total of information available is: "Tumors are bad."

So, we're back to square one in many ways. The uberVet is once again proposing either radiation therapy or amputation. The radiation still has the problem that the treatment simply isn't available regionally - and is very expensive in any case. Amputation is still, well, amputation. It'll be another four digit number, and even after that the odds only drop to 50% for relapse. They're sending me a quote, and he's given me another owner to talk to with a pet that's been through it.

I have to say that this entire experience is a strange combination of doctor's visits and auto repair. I've had this feeling about the vet before, for other reasons; principally because they are both people that put their head under the hood and then tell you you need a widget and all you can do is look like you understand and ask "how much?" Cynical, but then I never claim not to be.

It seems like for the time being we're going to do nothing. There are quality of life reasons, both for us and for Trinity. There are of course dollar reasons, and there are odds issues. The long story short version is that it seems likely that whatever we do we can't make her well beyond a coin flip, and under those circumstances it seems that her quality of life has to be the most important factor.

So we'll go get the staples out next week, and I'll keep trying to gather information. See this space for further updates.

Happy Birthday Jessica!!!

Today is my sister's birthday. On today, the anniversary of her birth I want to wish her all the best and send her all of my love.

Inquiring, but anonymous, minds want to know

Buy house - check
buy car - nope
buy computer - in process
buy engagement ring - check
propose - check
close up apartment - check
move - check
unpack - mostly
buy furniture - some
organize personal files - um, no
clean up bank accounts - less so
write book - not so much
go on vacation - sadly no

I did have a lot of help.

Olympic Omnithon?

Can they really call the winner of the decathlon the world's greatest athlete? What about the winner of the heptathalon? The triathalon, biathalon? The Nordic combined? I mean the decathlon winner is pretty special, but whatever happened to Bruce Jenner after the Wheaties box?

Does anyone remember "The Superstars?" This was a made for TV event, a creation of ABC sports where all-stars from a range of sports competed against each other to determine who was the best all around athlete - or maybe it was for a free trip to Hawaii, you'd have to ask an athlete. We got to see football players play golf, baseball players lift weights, hockey players play tennis, and even track athletes row boats. There was a 100 yard dash, a bike race, swimming, and for the final: the obstacle course. Although I'm uncertain this ever really did anoint a world's greatest athlete it sure was fun to watch, and it got me thinking.

I wonder how fast Paul Hamm can swim?

Does it seem strange that we haven't heard about a US Olympic athlete who compete's in say rowing and weightlifting? Athletes do often compete in a range of events, but typically all in one family and rarely in team competition. Would it be such a stretch to assume that the gold medalist in the men's 5000 meter freestyle would likely also be a decent water-polo player? Or that a weightlifter might also be able to achieve in discus? Or for that matter in say cycling and speed skating? I remember that when Eric Heiden was all the rage in speed skating that he was also a competitive cyclist.

We've seen Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders compete in multiple sports at an elite level. Could it be time to create a competition where multi-talented individuals could get the recognition as the true world's best athlete?

I suggest the new Olympic Omnithon:

• 100 Meter Dash
• 5000 Meter Run
• High Jump
• Long Jump
• Discus
• 1000 Meter Canoe
• Time Trial Cycling
• Springboard Dive
• Platform Dive
• Vault
• Parallel Bars
• 10 Meter Air Rifle
• 1/32 Archery
• 400 Meter Individual Medley
• 1500 Meter Freestyle
• Weightlifting

That's 16 events. They currently do the decathlon over two days, so I figure that over two weeks they could reasonably spread out these events. That would really show the world's greatest athlete.

I went back and forth about including an equestrian event, but really that seems like the horse is the athlete. I'm sure that the riders are athletes in their own right, but it just didn't seem to fit in. I also didn't include any match sports like tennis or boxing, but I can see a system that might include these as well.

Thinking about it, I believe that this could be a single open division as well, no men's omnithon and women's omnithon, just the Olympic Omnithon. The spread of skills required might eliminate any specific advantage one sex would have over the other. This might be a stretch, but if we really are talking about the greatest athlete in the world it seems we ought not to make these other distinctions.

Truth be told, the modern pentathalon has the right idea:

http://www.athens2004.com/en/ModernPentathlonAboutSport/redirect

Now, let me tell you about the Ultra-Omnithon. That would take two years to complete, start with the omnithon and add: luge, downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, ski jump, speed skating, figure skating...