It has been 3 weeks since my last post - it has been a busy and productive few weeks. The semester is now in full swing and despite teaching just one class, I am buried in meetings and the occasional opportunity to get some research done. The research I have gotten done has mainly focused on student's research. Post-tenure, this is definitely more of my focus. Its not that I didn't involve students in my work before, but I would drag them along to completion whether they fully understood what we were doing or not at each step of the process. Now I am trying to let them drive the ideas more and especially direct the writing and presenting of material. It is better for them and now that I don't have a deadline looming, I am more than happy to let them take the lead. This led to having two students present their work at the Montana Chapter of the American Statistical Association Fall Meeting. This is actually the first time any of my students presented there and it was really fun to see them do well. I think both are making excellent progress on their projects and heading towards publishable results.
My rehabilitation process has moved from getting normal function to getting full function in my leg. I am walking normally or at least close to normally and have even done some long distance walks. Last Tuesday, I walked close to 4 miles, most of that at the end of the day, and felt great the next day. I am now working on hopping and skipping to start to build up some of the explosive power in injured leg. I have been tempted to do that around campus, but have restricted it to in the house at this point. The rehab is now about getting my leg ready for ski season, which seems to be rapidly approaching as we feel the first chilly nights. I could start jogging now, but am waiting until the hopping and skipping get to be easy before I start asking Teresa to go for a run with me.
We have been remodeling our kitchen recently and that has proved to be a slower process than we had hoped. We have faced a couple of setbacks with a damaged base cabinet and then the counter-top installers are backed up on other projects. We are still a couple of weeks out to getting our kitchen back so the 3-4 week project will be 6-7 weeks, maybe more. So we continue to cook in my work room and do dishes in a laundry sink. Not really that bad, as we have a toaster oven, microwave, two burner cooktop, and a dorm fridge there. It just lacks a bit in counter space. And now we get to have a family visit without a kitchen. We also get to complete our two large tasks in the project - getting the flooring in and then eventually tiling the backsplash. We've never done either before but hopefully all our years of watching HGTV will pay off.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Starting a neighborhood association
In addition to all my other responsibilities at work, the beginning of a new semester, continuing my rehab, and starting a kitchen remodel, I have taken on trying to organize a neighborhood association (Midtown North Neighborhood Association at http://midtownnorthneighborhoodassociation.blogspot.com/). When I look at it in that context, I wonder what I was thinking. That regularly happens to me when I am at work and I wonder why I promised so much work for my collaborators. The neighborhood association idea has happened because it is always a well received idea with neighbors when it comes up, and then nothing happens. I have entirely more experience organizing and leading meetings than I expected as part of being a faculty member. I am also starting to serve on faculty senate, chairing my departmental awards committee, on the departmental promotion and tenure committee, and then there are all the graduate student committees that I serve on. Service is a part of my job description, but most of us don't get into academia for the committees.
I sometimes think that my midwestern lutheran upbringing was excellent training for being a faculty member - lots of activities, everyone chipping in to make things happen regardless of how important the things might be, and being reliable about attending and eventually organizing those events. I noticed that as a graduate student I was always helping out and it was second nature. And it wasn't second nature for all the students... That desire to be involved got me positions as student representative on various committees. The point of all this is that I am comfortable being the driver of the initial organization of the neighborhood association.
I discovered that I am a little less comfortable going up to neighbors I have never met and discussing this. The moment I did this, I started to feel like a politician. But I think I will get over that soon. I am mainly interested in spreading the word about what I've done to this point so people who are interested can get involved. I have tried to create an electronic footprint for the association, with a FB page and a companion page on my blog. Trying to get noticed by the google search engine has been slower than I expected - they own blogspot so one would think they can access it pretty quickly.
In terms of my rehab, it has possibly been slowed a little by my recent efforts related to our kitchen work. Maybe it is rehab to scrape floors and paint ceilings and walls? I suspect I could have focused my exercises more and gotten a little more benefit. On the plus side, I have gotten noticeably stronger recently. So maybe construction is good rehab... The net result is that at around 12 weeks (odd how it is hard to remember the count now and it used to be so easy) I am finally starting to walk without a limp. My pedaling motion is also getting smoother on the bike. My PT has become more dynamic including lunges and moving from a squat to being on my toes. That last one makes me think about jumping even though I am still a bit from doing that. It was really exciting to able to move the leg press sled with 10 lbs of weight (plus the sled and my body weight) on it with my left calf at the end of my last session.
I sometimes think that my midwestern lutheran upbringing was excellent training for being a faculty member - lots of activities, everyone chipping in to make things happen regardless of how important the things might be, and being reliable about attending and eventually organizing those events. I noticed that as a graduate student I was always helping out and it was second nature. And it wasn't second nature for all the students... That desire to be involved got me positions as student representative on various committees. The point of all this is that I am comfortable being the driver of the initial organization of the neighborhood association.
I discovered that I am a little less comfortable going up to neighbors I have never met and discussing this. The moment I did this, I started to feel like a politician. But I think I will get over that soon. I am mainly interested in spreading the word about what I've done to this point so people who are interested can get involved. I have tried to create an electronic footprint for the association, with a FB page and a companion page on my blog. Trying to get noticed by the google search engine has been slower than I expected - they own blogspot so one would think they can access it pretty quickly.
In terms of my rehab, it has possibly been slowed a little by my recent efforts related to our kitchen work. Maybe it is rehab to scrape floors and paint ceilings and walls? I suspect I could have focused my exercises more and gotten a little more benefit. On the plus side, I have gotten noticeably stronger recently. So maybe construction is good rehab... The net result is that at around 12 weeks (odd how it is hard to remember the count now and it used to be so easy) I am finally starting to walk without a limp. My pedaling motion is also getting smoother on the bike. My PT has become more dynamic including lunges and moving from a squat to being on my toes. That last one makes me think about jumping even though I am still a bit from doing that. It was really exciting to able to move the leg press sled with 10 lbs of weight (plus the sled and my body weight) on it with my left calf at the end of my last session.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Smells like... a new semester
As fall begins to hint at its return and coats become mandatory for the ride to work, familiar smells return to remind me that fall is here. Around the MSU campus, these smells seem to be those of weed-killing chemicals and road construction this week. The building has a nice neutral odor. In two weeks that all changes.
The last few weeks have been a little frustrating since the two main conduits into campus from the north have been closed (S. 8th and S. 11th). This has put all the traffic into my biking path on S. 9th and S. 10th. I did "inspect" the new roundabout on my way home recently and I think it will actually be reasonable to use on a bicycle or as a pedestrian. The roundabout is not open because the lights were back-ordered. I have two issues with this. First, you don't start construction until all the "appliances" have arrived - we got this advice over and over again on our upcoming kitchen project. Second, why can't they have it open during daylight hours and close it at dark?
I have been working on starting a neighborhood association for our neighborhood. It has a temporary home as a blog at http://midtownnorthneighborhoodassociation.blogspot.com/. More on this later...
I am writing this while I am sending a loop code off to create vectors of 1.8 million observations. I really don't need or want to do an analysis with 1.8 million observations (over 100 years of monthly observations at over 1200 weather stations), but I want to see if I can do it. First I have to get it formatted the way I want, then I need to see if I can fit the models that I would want to use for it. I guess this is a little like trying to climbing a mountain because it is there but not really planning to tell anyone about it unless you succeed and find a new route to the top. That is the danger of blogging, I guess, sharing your work before it is completely ready to be shared. I guess I've always known that research is rarely a linear process from initial ideas to final results, but it is even more obvious to me now that I've seen a few projects from beginning to end.
We always write up our research as if it was a direct process from beginning to end. It usually takes knowing someone pretty well or a couple of beers to share the trials, tribulations, and nonlinearities that were encountered between the initiation of the project and its completion. Some people are just repeating other work or sometimes publishing the same thing in multiple places - that is a linear research process until a reviewer finds the redundancy, which happens less often than it should.
As I've gotten more experienced doing research, I have been able to see the upcoming hurdles and either bypass them or be prepared to jump over them. When I am really engaged in my research, I have ideas bouncing around, some good and some bad, so much that I have trouble just working on one project at a time. I have a wall full of ideas for research topics and know some will never get worked on. Some of my great ideas have been found in articles that appeared after I had the idea but before I could even have started working on it. Some of my ideas have been so specific to my collaborative projects that some aspect of the research had to be publishable, sometimes it was even novel and useful in general. The best research is based on accomplishing things that initially looked to be un-accomplishable or maybe it is better to say that they have no direct solution to the problem at first glance.
For those wanting updates on my ruptured achilles, things progress well. I am trying to be rigorous with doing my PT exercises. I have had to face the weakness of the leg as I isolate it in various exercises. It amazes me that I can't lift my body up on my injured foot yet but I am getting close. My gait gets better every day and I have minimal pain as I work the area. I managed to walk to the store this week, which adds to the list of accomplishments on the path to getting back to normal. I haven't told Teresa yet, but I did climb the ladder to clean the gutter. And I've been commuting around town on my bike pushing harder every day. It is a long process but I am managing it well.
The last few weeks have been a little frustrating since the two main conduits into campus from the north have been closed (S. 8th and S. 11th). This has put all the traffic into my biking path on S. 9th and S. 10th. I did "inspect" the new roundabout on my way home recently and I think it will actually be reasonable to use on a bicycle or as a pedestrian. The roundabout is not open because the lights were back-ordered. I have two issues with this. First, you don't start construction until all the "appliances" have arrived - we got this advice over and over again on our upcoming kitchen project. Second, why can't they have it open during daylight hours and close it at dark?
I have been working on starting a neighborhood association for our neighborhood. It has a temporary home as a blog at http://midtownnorthneighborhoodassociation.blogspot.com/. More on this later...
I am writing this while I am sending a loop code off to create vectors of 1.8 million observations. I really don't need or want to do an analysis with 1.8 million observations (over 100 years of monthly observations at over 1200 weather stations), but I want to see if I can do it. First I have to get it formatted the way I want, then I need to see if I can fit the models that I would want to use for it. I guess this is a little like trying to climbing a mountain because it is there but not really planning to tell anyone about it unless you succeed and find a new route to the top. That is the danger of blogging, I guess, sharing your work before it is completely ready to be shared. I guess I've always known that research is rarely a linear process from initial ideas to final results, but it is even more obvious to me now that I've seen a few projects from beginning to end.
We always write up our research as if it was a direct process from beginning to end. It usually takes knowing someone pretty well or a couple of beers to share the trials, tribulations, and nonlinearities that were encountered between the initiation of the project and its completion. Some people are just repeating other work or sometimes publishing the same thing in multiple places - that is a linear research process until a reviewer finds the redundancy, which happens less often than it should.
As I've gotten more experienced doing research, I have been able to see the upcoming hurdles and either bypass them or be prepared to jump over them. When I am really engaged in my research, I have ideas bouncing around, some good and some bad, so much that I have trouble just working on one project at a time. I have a wall full of ideas for research topics and know some will never get worked on. Some of my great ideas have been found in articles that appeared after I had the idea but before I could even have started working on it. Some of my ideas have been so specific to my collaborative projects that some aspect of the research had to be publishable, sometimes it was even novel and useful in general. The best research is based on accomplishing things that initially looked to be un-accomplishable or maybe it is better to say that they have no direct solution to the problem at first glance.
For those wanting updates on my ruptured achilles, things progress well. I am trying to be rigorous with doing my PT exercises. I have had to face the weakness of the leg as I isolate it in various exercises. It amazes me that I can't lift my body up on my injured foot yet but I am getting close. My gait gets better every day and I have minimal pain as I work the area. I managed to walk to the store this week, which adds to the list of accomplishments on the path to getting back to normal. I haven't told Teresa yet, but I did climb the ladder to clean the gutter. And I've been commuting around town on my bike pushing harder every day. It is a long process but I am managing it well.
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