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Something I learned in high school

Way back in my prehistory, my 10th grade math teacher (and school vice-principal) threatened to kick me out of class because all I would do in her class was read a book. Usually not a math book either. This perturbed her mightily, so one day she took me aside to ask why I never paid attention during class while she was lecturing. I told her quite plainly it was because I already knew the stuff she was teaching and had already done the homework (usually I was doing the day’s assignment in class while she was teaching us about it).
So she decided to give me a test to challenge me. If I did well, I could spend my time in the library. It was a tough test, but I did very well on it. I told her I just wanted to stay in class and keep reading. She left me alone after that.
Anyway, a couple of years at graduation and being the vice-principal of the school, she gave one of the commencement addresses. There she gave everyone a valuable piece of advice that has stuck with me ever since.

A good speech has a beginning, an end and no middle

It’s something I keep in mind whenever I have to do any public speaking. Maybe if more people kept this in mind when writing speeches they would be less boring to listen to.

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It’s always nice to see a project come together

A few years ago the department director had me work on a project to replace our paper radiology request forms. The problem with the forms were numerous: sloppy handwriting, eaten by the fax machine, faxed to the wrong number, duplicate requests, etc. I had set up a couple of web-based databases already, and word got around that I knew how to do this kind of thing so I got ‘volunteered’.
So I created a prototype system that was essentially an on-line replacement for the paper forms. PHP/MySQL powered with everything stored in a database (for future datamining/auditing) and requests being emailed out for legibility. Then it languished for a while because we/I didn’t have enough resources to develop it further and lacked the political power to get help developing it or to get people to use it.
Then a resident committee, tasked with finding ways to make residents more efficient in light of the new limitations on resident work hours, said “We spend way too much time filling out and tracking radiology requests. We need a better system”. So a new committee was formed to come up with a solution. Out came my prototype for a few demonstrations and discussion. With the backing of hospital administration and medical staff, we were able to take my prototype to IT and get someone with more skills than me to create a production version.
Now a year later the project has gone from my initial PHP/MySQL based prototype to a JSP/Tomcat based solution developed by the IT guys (because they have the resources, skills and know how to connect to other hospital databases that make it more useful) and is being used throughout the hospital now. Even though I’ve had fairly minimal involvement with developing the current incarnation, I still get a sense of pride at seeing how well the product has been received.
It’s like seeing a kid grow up and become successful 🙂

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Wallace and Grommit!

I’m a huge fan of Wallace and Grommit so I’m really looking forward to the feature film coming out in a couple of months.
Of course the wife doesn’t understand why I enjoy them so much, but she did like Chicken Run so maybe I can get her to go see this one too.

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Check Irene off the list

TD 9 got named Irene yesterday morning. May not stay a storm for much longer, but in any case looks to be curving back out into the Atlantic and shouldn’t be a bother to the US at all. With nothing else brewing out there at the moment, back to our regularly scheduled enjoyment of the weather.
From this morning’s 5 AM discussion:

IRENE IS IN AN ENVIRONMENT OF MODERATE NORTHWESTERLY VERTICAL SHEAR…AND THIS WILL LIKELY CONTINUE FOR 36-48 HR. THIS SHOULD LIMIT STRENGTHENING EVEN THOUGH THE STORM WILL BE MOVING OVER WARMER SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURES. AFTER THAT TIME…THE LARGE-SCALE MODELS ARE IN POOR AGREEMENT ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE UPPER-LEVEL WINDS NEAR IRENE.

THE INTENSITY FORECAST IS BASED ON A GRADUAL DECREASE IN SHEAR THAT WILL ALLOW SOME STRENGTHENING THROUGH 72 HR. AFTER THAT…THE FORECAST TRACK TAKES IRENE OVER COOLER SSTS…WHICH SHOULD LIMIT STRENGTHENING. THE INTENSITY FORECAST IS BASED ON THE SHIPS MODEL. IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT THE GFDL IS AGAIN DISSIPATING IRENE IN LESS THAN 48 HR.

TS Irene - 8-Aug-05

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House prices going up and up and up

The house next door has gone back on the market already. The people living there were just renting the place waiting for their house to be finished. Nice enough folks. Maybe the people who buy it will actually live there instead of turning it into another rental like many of the other places around here.

It’s a nice enough house with a nice big porch out front and 2 levels. A little bit smaller than ours but without the wide open floor plan like ours (one of the reasons we didn’t put it on our list). I remember walking through it while it was still being built and checking it out to compare with ours.

The selling price is a whole other matter all together. The asking price is almost 10% higher than what we paid for ours and I think at least 15% higher than what the house was originally listed at. It would be interesting to find out how much it ends up going for.