Schooly-D

School's out, school's out

Teacher let the monkeys out

One was jailed

And one prevailed

Both asked God

"How have I failed?"

-Grad School chant (traditional)

Good stuff from Matt Groenig's book "School is Hell."

I've finished my first class towards my masters via the Virginia Tech online system.  It wasn't too rough; I think it did what I needed it to, which was reacquaint me with the habits of study and homework.  Now over the summer I'll be taking a course with material I've never taken before, Manned Submersible Design.  I'm looking forward to it - submersibles are what got me interested in this field in the first place.  You can draw a straight line from Peter Buonincontro buying me a copy of Seven Miles Down at the middle school library sale through my acceptance to the Coast Guard Academy to finishing my BS in Ocean Engineering and earning my PE in naval architecture.  And it looks like that line will continue with a masters in Ocean Engineering... in about 4 years.  At least I'm off to a good start.

Wild

I watched Into the Wild earlier this week.  I had never seen it before, nor had I read the book.  I'm usually pretty good about reading books before seeing movies based on them - the books are almost always better.  I think I may have to go back and read Krakauer's book - but not because I liked the movie.

It was a very interesting movie, but I found it frustrating.  Not the movie itself, but the story it tells.  As a technical exercise, the movie is very good - Sean Penn directed it and does a good job of giving the movie the visual scope it deserves, since so much of it takes place in the great wide spaces of the American West.  My trouble is one that many others have - the young man in the movie, Chris McCandless, was gifted and willful and capable and foolish.  He essentially walked away from his life and tramped for two years, ending up in the hinterlands near Denali National Park, where he eventually starved to death.  My reaction, over and over in the movie, was that almost every choice reflected staggering hubris and egotism.  From his surviving letters and journals, plus the recollections of the many people he met and befriended, McCandless was looking for a latter-day Walden experience, to live as Thoreau did.  This does not align with the spirit of Walden in some ways - Walden was basically a suburb of Boston, even when Thoreau was there, just out by Lynn, inside route 128.  He would often leave the cabin and visit town.

Though perhaps McCandless was more right than he knew; he benefited from the kindness of those he met on the road many times, and Thoreau was actually living on his friend Emerson's property.  Yet he still thought he could walk out into some of the harshest country known and survive on his own.  Even if he had the skills and wherewithal to do so, I think I may have a fundamental issue with his desire to isolate himself.  I prefer Donne to Thoreau:

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee

Krakauer himself has argued in McCandless' favor, saying that he didn't take a map so he could "create" a blank place on the map to explore.  I don't find self-deception sympathetic.  Others who agree with Krakauer argue that McCandless was trying to live in harmony with nature, and acted out of respect.  Nature is one mean mother, and respect first means you never forget that she is trying to kill you (and eventually will).  I feel like his actions were fundamentally disrespectful - he acted as one trying to impose their will on nature, to live as they see fit rather than as they can.  And lastly, for someone who has been described as being so personable and friendly, his willingness to walk away from so many people strikes me as cold.  Even in the movie's depiction of him, I found him selfish.

I have to admit, all I have to go on is the movie.  I have not educated myself on the facts.  So I will definitely read the book.  My real point is that the movie, whether or not you enjoy the story, is very good, because it forces you to form an opinion, to think about what you've seen.  I enjoyed that, and look forward to learning more.

Beep Beep Ribbey Ribbey

After a brief but thorough search, I have a successor to Stella.  I picked up a 2008 Subaru Impreza hatchback this week.  While it is used, it was never sold - it was the dealer's, a "corporate fleet" vehicle.  Not sure exactly what that means, but it has under 10,000 miles and is in great shape.

It seems they've made real strides in automotive features since they built Stella in 1996.  The car is quieter, rides smoother, and the radio even tells you the name of the station you're listening to.  What an age to be alive.  All jokes aside, it is a great little car, just the right size - my kayak will fit on top once I get new adapters for the roof rack, and my groceries fit perfectly in the back.  Also, the engineer in me gets a kick out of the opposed pistons in the flat-4 or boxster style engine.  Much cooler than the more common V or inline arrangements.  Too bad it isn't a rotary...

Jane was good enough to help me when I went to test drive, and then again when I bought the car.  That proved invaluable, as I had never actually bought a car before.  While I did test-drive Stella back in '99, my folks took a look the next day and made the purchase.  They said "We bought it; if you liked it, you can pay us back, but otherwise we like it so much we're keeping it as our second car."  So I never haggled over a car price, never had to assess financing (since the Academy car loan was also taken care of for us, for the most part), never took care of title transfers and such.  I've been getting by on luck and good looks for too long, maybe.

So the new car is in the garage, and Stella was towed to the wreckers this morning.  I've moved all my maps and such into the Subaru, and set my radio stations.  Pretty soon it will actually feel like my car.

Le Car est Mort

The days have been just packed.  I enjoyed two day long meetings down at Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren this week, which was awesome.  Well, the part where I heard them test-firing the guns was.  Everything else was somewhat less fantastic.  It ate up all my time, and driving back and forth ate up even more time, and my other project is stuck in the mud, and whine whine whine.

Also, Stella has passed on.  After just over ten years of faithful service, my Saab 900S is no longer viable.  Panamanian running lights, so to speak.  Her transmission is shot, and it would cost twice her blue book value to repair.  So she's headed out back like Old Yeller.

Stella was my first car, and most of the work of buying her actually fell to my parents.  So I've never bought a car myself, really.  I'm concerned I'm going to get taken.  So I'm doing all sorts of research, and trying to figure this out without taking a lot of time - I'm picking up a rental tomorrow, and I'd rather not be in the kickin' Hyundai Accent longer than I have to be.  Though I should keep an open mind - Ryan & Bethany have an Accent, and it seems to be working out for them.

I figure I need something that I can car-top my sailing kayak and load up with my groceries.  It would be nice to have something with a tow hitch, since I already have a hitch-mounted bike rack.  so I'm spending lots of time on the Carmax website.  And USAA, figuring out what kinds of loans I can get.  Super fun, mostly because I love have to deal with things where I have no clue what I'm doing.

Turn for the better

I was in a crummy mood after some dodgy business at work this week.  My nice stone desk globe, a graduation gift, was knocked off my desk and broken by parties unknown.  I found out I'll have to take a two-day meeting of the most boring variety down in Dahlgren.  And when I went over the monthly invoice for one of my projects, I learned why we're burning money so fast.  Still haven't learned how to fix that, however.

Yesterday was better - had a very productive day, including a solid Study Group.  Sarah even passed along a book from Paul and her dad, Halsey's Typhoon, which looks very promising.  But things really picked up today.  The weather suddenly got perfect, and all my chores were done and there was nothing in the To Do pile.  So I finally got back out on the bike paths.

Luckily, my road bike didn't need too much pre-season tuning - just reinflate the tires and go.  There were some headwinds to buck, but nothing too bad.  And though they haven't had the official ribbon-cutting, the underpass on the Four Mile Run trail under West Glebe Road and I-395 shooting straight into Shirlington is open.  It's great, much better than waiting for crosswalk lights and riding up the side streets to the pedestrian bridge.  That set the tone for the whole ride - so good to be back out there, even if it was kind of crowded down along the Potomac.

The most kindest cut of all

I had my do-over back surgery last week, and it went even better than the first time.  Instead of getting nauseated by the painkiller IV and staying overnight, I came out of surgery feeling great and they let me go late in the afternoon.  I was home with my mom for dinner, which was worlds better than the night of tossing and turning I worked through after the previous surgery.

I should say it was not all perfect.  Originally, the surgery was scheduled for Thursday morning, but the night before the doctor's office called and canceled due to an emergency.  I never did get the full run down on that.  It was rescheduled the next day for Monday morning.  This was difficult, since it meant either finding someone else to get me to and from the hospital, or extending Mom's stay by changing her flight.  We actually ended up buying  her a one-way ticket home - it was cheaper than trying to switch her return.  And everyone here and in Maine had to adjust their schedules to accommodate, for which I'm grateful.  I burn up some vacation days, Mom misses some more work, Dad has to feed himself for a few extra days - sacrifices were made all around.

It's been almost a week now, and I don't even need my painkiller prescription for the incision pain anymore.  I'm still stiff, and I have to take it easy so everything heals up inside and out, but I feel like I'm doing really well.  It has been beautiful weather the past few days, so between that and the immense increase in comfort, I'm excited about getting back in the saddle and taking some bike rides.

Which brings me back to the CVT bike Matt and I have been discussing.  I've been reviewing his various proposals, and they all sound pretty fantastic.  What I really need to do is figure out where and how I'll use this bike, so we can build it properly.  I need to educate myself some in order to make an informed choice, as well.  But the trails will beckon soon.

Burst

The past few months, I had been having trouble with my back again.  Nothing overwhelming, but enough so that I got it checked out.  After some examinations and an MRI, turns out the disc had burst again.  Well not technically I suppose - discs are made of fibrous casings containing a more fluid filling.  The fibrous case is similar to hair, in that it there is no blood flow to it and it cannot heal.  So when I got my back fixed the first time, the surgeon just trimmed away the part of the filling that had pushed out of the casing.  But the hole remained, and it looks like more filling has burst forth.

In anticipation of surgery, I decided to get my car serviced, since I didn't want anything to happen while my Mom was here in town driving me to and from the hospital.  It was time for some fluids and filters.  The day before I went to Jiffy Lube, I happened to get a low coolant warning.  What good luck - I was headed in anyway.  As I pulled up to the garage, though, I noticed more smoke than I'd like to see coming out of my hood.  Turns out I had burst the upper coolant hose from the radiator.  Luckily, the service station next door was able to fix up my car in fairly short order.

Now, I'm fit to burst.  My do-over surgery was scheduled for tomorrow.  The doctor's office just called, and informed me that due to an emergency, my surgeon is unavailable until Monday.  I will probably be "first on the list" for surgery then.  Great news, now that my mom has paid to fly down here, I've arranged my work schedule to accommodate the next two days off, and I have arranged everything to take care of this Thursday.  So now I get to take more time off next week to get the new surgery date, and need to find someone new to take me to and from the airport since Mom will have flown home by then.  Just a string of bad luck lately.

On the other hand, Matt has some great ideas for a possible home-built CVT road bike for me.  That's worth getting excited about.