Discovery Channel photos

I know I can't stop talking about the Discovery Channel visit.  Perhaps it was the fact that the gratification of a job well done was so quick... whatever it was I managed to post a few photos as well as put one here.  The shoot was so much fun, and as everyone that week kept saying "no pun intended".  This week I spent time trying to catch up and now that it is the beginning of a new week I am also trying to catch up..... 

Scratch that.  I have actually been really productive.  Despite the three surgeries, kids going crazy, parenting, working on three projects at work at once, taking pictures and organizing backups, maintaining relationships and still managing to run 7-12 miles a week, oh and organize a big hiking trip, I would say I am actually being really productive.  Perhaps my thesis isn't as far a long as I planned (remember I wanted to graduate in May), the thesis is moving along in a really nice direction I think.  I am still working on the bullet chapter, but I think when it is all done it will turn into a really nice paper.  The only stone in the way I am not looking forward to is trying to figure out what to say and write one more paper that includes the 300 or so drops of the many different mass ratio spheres I did this past January.   I was actually impressed that this year I basically took all of the data and processed 4 times more information than I did in the two years previous!  That probably doesn't mean anything to anyone reading this, but for me this is really just a big self esteem booster to keep me going.  None the less I am going to need all of the help I can get to finish this thing by January!  

And as always there is someone I met that is doing three times as many things as I am and four times as successful.  I of course compare myself to them, and wish I was doing what they are doing, and am in total awe at their awesomeness!  But alas, I sin in my wish.  I hope your last week before classes begin is a great one!

Discovery Channel

A lot of people are starting to anticipate my graduation. It seems like everyone I know asks me when my defense date will be. No matter who it is I say something like "I am pretty sure it will be around December". Do I really know? I will bet my committee would say otherwise, based on my most recent performance. But I keep hope alive by moving forward. A lot of exciting progress is being made. Two great things have happened on two fronts in the past two months.

The spinning sphere research has found more recognition (new mural going up in ME headquarters) and Brenden stumbled upon a fairly straightforward solution for curve fitting that is going to turn into a paper and resolve that part of my thesis! Thanks Brenden!

The bullet research has also moved in two directions. The first is that I was able to re-derive the model we have been using for the design process. A task I thought impossible two years ago. It took me roughly 3 weeks but I think it is really coming along nicely. More exciting though is that we were also recognized by the Discovery Channel and they came and filmed our experiment on Friday! I was informed of this opportunity just a week before hand and Rod and I worked very hard to get everything ready for their visit. There was a lot of machining and setup to get back in place for the shoot, and Rod put in some long and frustrating days in the machine shop. Thanks again Rod, you are incredible and I am sure we wouldn't have been ready without your help!

We had to get permission from the pistol coach Will Hart. He was terrific. When I called he said he had had a bad experience with a guy with the same program a year ago but that he would over look that for me and allow us to do the show. The ironic part was that although that particular jerk doesn't work for D.C. anymore (fired or something), the show title was the same. Thanks to Will for letting us move forward despite the past! Although it would have been fun to see Will give the guy a piece of his mind had he been there.

The day was amazing. The crew was extremely nice and I think things went really well. Of course, they had a bit of time to set things up and then things got busy. At times things were going quickly, then there were lots of long pauses, which were sometimes hard to just stand around with so many other things to do in the back of my mind. I was really glad that Alex could do most of the interviewing. She was a natural and it made me less stressed out knowing that I didn't have to worry about that part of things. I got a few moments though and it was fun to just see how they run a show like that.

I wasn't surprised that they wanted to create a sort of story to make the science a bit more interesting. However, it was strange to have to repeat things when they either missed them on camera or on the sound board, or if the director just wanted a second take. It was also strange to be "ghost interviewed". I don't know if that is the proper term but when I got excited a couple of times the director would take me aside and ask questions. They were usually pretty general but he didn't have a mic so it was like talking to a ghost interviewer, and it felt strange. I tried not to make things sound contrived but lets just say I could see them using those clips for some really lame statements. I can't wait to see how silly I look and sound. As you know I am a pretty excitable person and I just hope I didn't say something that isn't true or that comes across as dumb.

That all aside I met some great people the host Jeff Lieberman, and Mat were terrific, the whole crew was interesting and had some amazing stories of their own. Everyone seemed genuinely interested in our research, which was a bit flattering. The producer even stopped by for a few minutes and we talked about the research. Finally I met Wes Skiles who is an amazing director of photography, and he had some really great advice about careers and exploring science and the world without fear and with excitement. He really got my mind flowing with ideas for future projects... lets hope some of them become realities.

In all cases, I was thrilled and excited to be a part of it. Not to mention that the publicity should be a good thing. Here is the only photo I have right now of the event, more to come later. You can see me way in the back. It airs between Oct 13th and end of December. I will keep you posted when it will air exactly. The working title now is "Time Warp" and you can see some previews of episodes here.

Summer times

Summer has been productive and fun, although I wish I felt like I did when I jumped this 15'10".  I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but for somebody who has never long jumped before it felt like a long way.  Perhaps that is what my thesis will feel like when I am finished.  When I look around I am sure that it won't compare to some of the other feats at MIT around me, but it will feel like a long way for me.  Let's just hope I land soon, I am sort of getting burnt out on the writing thing.  

Here is my plan for those of you interested.  Finish my rough draft Sept. 1st.  On to my CV, website, and application filling out for most of Sept.  October I will have my last committee meeting (hopefully, it didn't go well in June!).  Then I will be editing the thesis and writing a paper or two before December.  November is APS in San Antonio.  And then the thesis defense in Dec. or Jan. hopefully before Christmas so that it will be a nice relaxing Christmas vacation, filled with dreams of sugar plums.

What is on the docket for this week?  More of the MIT bullet study chapter, and hopefully moving on to the stuff I did in Maryland.  I have some major edits left in two of the other chapters, and I still have to write the introduction and conclusions, but that is about it.... oh yea, I have a huge digital appendix to setup.  My goal is to make it completely html driven with videos and graphs linked to a large set of parameters that I used for doing the actual experiments.  If anyone has a great idea on how to automate the whole thing I look forward to your suggestions.