back and forth of July

So, not really much to say here. C and A have been gone most of the day, and I got to take three wonderful trips to the southdale mall to get my mac fixed. Srsly, I've never had a computer that looked so good. I've also never had a computer that was so slow, crashed, and died so often. At least there are no viruses... only bad logic boards, trackpads that fail, and an OS that doesn't recognize bad RAM.

may showers bring june flowers?

I really wanted to post yesterday, but the day just got away from me. Adrian and I went to the park in the morning. We did the swing and the slide, but that got boring quick. Probably moreso for dad than for A, but regardless we made our way to a grassy knoll.

A was playing with a stick, and I picked one up and tapped his stick. He burst out laughing and started playing swords. Its the third time this weekend that I've seen him use a tool. The first was when he picked up his sippy cup, and started drinking by himself. It shocked both Cindy and I, as we're used to holding a glass for him to drink out of. We got a video of it, but I won't post it out of laziness.

The second tool usage was when he was playing with this strange dino toy. It's got a button that is really hard to push, but when you push it down it makes weird "dinosaur" type noises. His little fingers just aren't strong enough. I showed him that if you hit it with another toy that it would make the sound. He immediately picked up a toy and started banging it against the button. My son is officially smarter than a caveman!

Oh yeah, he started walking last week too.

pass

So, I passed. I'm exhausted with three months of writing and a month of solid studying. It would've been easier if I had just laid down and let them kick me.

The night before the day

So yeah. I've spent the last month holed up in an office overlooking what may be the ugliest building on the University of Minnesota campus (yes, that would be the civil engineering building). I get in around 9 am and have been staying until 8:30 at night. It would be lying if I said I spent ALL that time working, but I feel like I've done everything to prepare for tomorrow.

Tomorrow. My "prelimenary" oral exam. If I pass, I become a Ph.D. candidate. If I fail I could retake the exam in a few months, but most likely I'll just get my MS and a job. I'm way past the part where I care if pass or fail, just knowing that I've done everything I can up to this point.

No matter what happens, I'll be spending Tuesday with Adrian. I'm starting to think he doesn't know who I am anymore.

I'll try and update sometime soon as to the result.

Oh yeah... Summer is here and there are some serious stereo projects in development. Up next is rewiring my pass pearl, followed shortly by the assembly of an aleph mini.

Also in the works: new speakers (Adam, I promise I'll get in touch next week), and a headphone system for the office. I'm looking forward to good sounds in 08.

Written prelim

I've gotten the grades from two of my committee members. Both passed me. I made some pretty egregious mistakes, mostly due to my poor communication skills (at least that's what my wife tells me).

When describing Matthiessen's rule, I said that the deviatory components came from the resistivity due to interaction of the dislocations and the phonons, and that for low dislocation densities, and moderate temperatures that electrons and phonons don't interact. I'm sure that 99% of people reading this (including anyone in my family) has no idea what I just said, but I'll let you know that the last five words are patently false. I felt like a moron, but I really meant to say that the electron-phonon and electron-dislocation components do not interact. It's not a fine distinction, its the difference between a good assumption in most cases and being wrong. Anyhow, I still passed and thats something.

Strangely, my last post was titled "this process is hell", very similar to "the thousand thicknesses of hell" used to describe the Exum ridge route by Glenn Exum. I didn't find this out until after, but as I'm planning to make this climb in August looks like I've scheduled two trips to hell in one calendar year.

I leave you with this:

"this process is hell"

I turned in my written preliminary exam for my Ph. D. candidacy on Tuesday. My oral exam is postponed due to things beyond my control, but it looks like its only going to be pushed back 10 days.

That gives me 10 more days to recover from the 85 page written. This process is hell.

Friday night: being a parent

Watching my son play with his Habas chew toy. It's not quite what I imagined when I found out I was gonna be a dad, but it' magical in it's own way.

Earlier, he and I danced while listening to Oscar Peterson "plays". It was a nice break from this week, which has been full of "work stress." I've got a major project due date coming up, and I'm trying to tie up a lot of loose ends. Hopefully it wraps up nicely!