I am a member of a grant writing committee here at Spring Hill. We are applying for a grant from HHMI (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) that will hopefully allow us to do some research. The focus of the proposal seems to be several research projects related to the biology of the Mobile Bay. There will be much data collection. One of the requested items is an air-boat. It’s gonna be awesome. Anyway, I had to think of a way to incorporate mathematics into this proposal as it is intended to be interdisciplinary. Here’s what I submitted. What do you think?

“The data collected related to salinity, nitrogen levels, and indeed any other quantity measured as a concentration can be modeled using the standard heat equation, here thought of as a diffusion equation, provided we think of the bay as a flat disc. It would be an interesting exercise for students in the mathematical modeling course to adapt this two dimensional flat model to one that incorporates more of the physics of the bay. Measurements taken regarding flow can be treating as damping forces and gross approximations of the topographical data for the bay can serve as a boundary component. With the proper computation tools, predictions may be made which describe high levels of concentration of particular elements based on the observed initial conditions. Students would have the benefit of being able to use real data to explore the mathematical models and the level of complexity is fairly open ended. The more advanced student may wish to study the flow dynamics of the bay and see how changing the topology of the bay, by constructing the causeway, changes the flow-lines that were established. The change in the flow-lines almost surely has had a large impact on biological life in the bay area near the causeway. Predictive models incorporating the new topology may give insight on ecologies that are more subtly affected by the change in natural currents.”

Well, I just got a voicemail from Melinda. There was good news and bad news. The good news, Scout just pulled up. She was on the floor near Drake’s train table and evidently wanted to see what was going on, so she pulled up to standing…by herself. Holy crap, that kids gonna need skis before she’s one. The bad news, she pooped on the floor. I guess one needs to punctuate significant events in their life in whatever way they know how. That’s my girl.

Unfortunately, both kids have colds now. They are both pretty stuffy, but they don’t appear to be running a fever. We are worried to death about Scout catching the RSV virus. That really did a number on Drake, but he was significantly younger than Scout is now when he caught it. She doesn’t seem to have any problems breathing except for the clogged up sinuses. It doesn’t sound like there is anything in her lungs yet. I could really do without her catching the virus this early. She felt so crummy last night that she had to sleep with her Mom and Dad, which meant that Drake slept with Mom and Dad too. It was pretty crowded. At one point (at around 2:00) Melinda, who can’t sleep well with the kids in bed because she worries about rolling on them, headed upstairs with Drake. She evidently hadn’t been able to get any sleep yet. Scout and I stayed downstairs and she slept solid until about 6:00 (a late morning for her). I let Melinda sleep until about 8:00 but I had to wake her up so that I could head off to work. Scout fell asleep again right before I left and Drake was awake and in good spirits playing with Mom.

Drake is *really* looking forward to his Grandparents coming out this Wednesday (as are Melinda and I). He’s been counting the days down on a calendar. He’s hoping that Scarlet can make the trip as well. I wish my mother and father (Melinda’s folks too) could spend more time with Scout. I reckon I need to work on another degree so they can babysit again. Maybe *shudder* physiscs? Nah. I’ll never use it for anything.

We went down to Fort Gaines over the weekend, and it was mostly a good time. Drake really enjoyed running around in the tunnels and playing with a really big anchor that was in the middle of the fort. I got a chance to meet and talk with a blacksmith while I was there and he gave me some good suggestions about getting started in the trade. Specifically, he mentioned the site anvil fire which has links to clubs that meet in the mobile area monthly. He suggested going to a few of the meetings to meet some of the blacksmiths and get a chance to try out using their forges before spending any dough (a good steel anvil costs about $550) on equipment. This is also a great way to get your hands on used tools, which typically get passed on from one blacksmith to another. It’s primarily the stuff that no working blacksmith wants that gets sold at flea markets. To find decent blacksmithing tools, seek out a decent blacksmith. Makes sense to me. I hope to have a chance to do that.

I guess it was Tuesday of this week when I came home from work and was playing with Drake and Scout. Out of nowhere Drake said “Drake Happy” and gave me a big hug. Melinda and I were ecstatic. Later on that night, Scout decided to start crawling. It was a big day.

Leia has had to go the vet and stay overnight. She has a urinary tract infection again and they wanted to watch her over night to get a sample and make sure that crystals have not developed. That poor cat. She has such small pipes she’s forever getting infections. On a positive note, she has fattened up nicely. When she came back from her three week jaunt to who-knows-where she weighed in at a mighty six pounds. Yesterday she was a little over ten. Fatty. Yoda, on the other hand, weighs in at around twenty four pounds.

We had a little problem with the laptop cable at our house last night. It turns out, the folding mechanism in a recliner is not entirely dissimilar from scissors. The object that inspired this observation was the $80 power supply cable for our MacBook^TM. I contacted the fine folks at apple via chat and asked them if the $250 Apple care plan (read “insurance”) covered such a happenstance. Right after I typed the question I immediately typed “That’s what I thought. Thanks.” as I anticipated the answer to be negative. However, I was temporarily made hopeful when he said that he didn’t know whether or not that was covered and I needed to contact the Apple care people by phone. After a short conversation (in English sans accent even) I was told that the Apple care plan did cover the user cutting the cable with a chair! They are sending us a new one at no cost (provided we send the old one to them within ten days of getting the new one). Go apple! I figure I need to tear up about two more cables to make the Apple care package worthwhile. The plan still has another year and a half before it runs out, so, given the peace of mind aspect, I’m starting to think it was money well(ish) spent.

There was aband that played in Mobile last night (the Subhumans played at the Soul Kitchen where that student of mine works). The Subhumans are a british punk band from long ago that I like. I found out yesterday afternoon that Melinda and I were put on the guest list in the hopes that we could find a baby sitter and go. I didn’t even ask to be put on the guest list. How cool is that?! Alas, we couldn’t go (Scout is teething again we think), but I thought it was an incredibly nice gesture. I also found out that one of my students is compiling a list of Dr. Mullikin quotes. His favorite so far was “Well, a zombie can’t run at you in the night. They shamble at you.” I have a line (which I stole from Dr. Cain) I use in class something like “A person runs at you in the night and hands you an equation, puts a gun to your head, and demands a solution. What do you tell them?” or something similar. A student suggested in my claass that maybe it was a zambie that ran at you in the night since I like zombies so much. Hence my reply. I’m pleased someone is compiling a list.

I received an email a couple of days ago from a student I had over the summer. Great guy, but he made the mistake of taking precalculus as a first semester freshman and then taking calculus as a third semester senior. He tried incredibly hard, but didn’t quite get what he needed to graduate in the summer. I felt horrible. I know that I shouldn’t, after all the students earn their grades. But I’m still the guy that had to type the letter next to his name that would require him to come back again (and shell out a bunch of money) to take the class over again. What’s worse is he’s really my kind of guy. He works at a club in mobile where GWAR played recently. It seems like the club (the Soul Kitchen) is not unlike the Somber Reptile where Round Ear Spock played frequently. Never-the-less, he didn’t quite pass and had to come back. There are two sections of Calculus being offered now and he requested that he be put in my section. That makes me feel much better. Now I need to convince him that he still needs to study hard even though he has taken the class before. Sometimes it helps students to point out to them that while they did take the course before, they didn’t get much out of it and as a consequence will likely need to study more than most. Or as Dr. Cain once put it when a student told him that he had taken a class already, “The third time’s the charm.”

On an unrelated note, it is incredibly difficult to remain grumpy when there is a little baby laughing her head off and reaching for you to get a hug. Every morning I get up at 5:00(ish) because Scout woke up. Every morning I’m pissed off about it. Every morning I realize (again) that she’s just excited to start another day and see her father. Every morning for breakfast I eat crow and I love it.

Well, it happened. Drake was taking a bath with his mother and sister the other night while I was trying to get the other laptop working. There’s a small flurry of excitement and I’m informed my presence is needed. When I get in there, Drake is standing up looking very serious, holding his bottom, and telling me “Make poopie Daddy.” Without delay I hoist him out and sit him down on the throne at which point he falls in. I’ve still got a hold of him, but the poor kid looks like he’s been crammed in the crapper. After a little readjustment he’s able to do his business. That was a first. He was able to tell us he needed to go and was able to hold until he got to the toilet. I was really proud. I’ve got pictures. Three I think. Drake is getting really close to being potty trained. I’ll bet he won’t be wearing diapers anymore in a couple of months.

Melinda and the kids went to the Exploreum again today with the Mom’s club. Drake evidently behaved very well, as did Scout.

I was contacted by an old friend of mine recently (Doug Wyatt) through the magic of facebook.com, a social networking site. Each of us contends that we were contacted by the other. Regardless of who drew first blood (Doug) it’s good to hear from him. It’s a little surreal to receive an email from someone you only remember as 12 years old who is now an adult. As I mentioned in an email to him, the last vivid memory I have of him was when he was inflating a cow’s lung in our 5th grade class. He did this using a tube and his own breath. Now he has a M.S. degree from MIT in computer science and is beginning law school in New York. I guess he couldn’t get in to Georgia Tech. If he becomes a politician, he may be able to filibuster without having to inhale.

If anyone out there has a spare battery for a compaq presario 700 series, I’d love to get my hands on it. I found them at eBay for about 30-40 dollars, but that’s a bit much to spend on something that may not fix the problem. My old laptop simply won’t start, even when plugged in. I have done some looking online and I have found that this problem has happened to other folks as well. My best guess is that either the switch is bad (which I don’t think is the case) or that the battery is so dead that it can’t even hold enough of a charge to start the laptop. It would be neat to get it running again since I’ve got linux installed on it. Mac’s version of linux (Darwin) is great, but it doesn’t have some of the tools that I like to use (like Valgrind) when debugging code. I have a linux box out above the garage, but I seldom get the chance to go out there. Maybe I’ll buy myself a battery for Christmas. I probably need to take the machine to a diagnostic center (Best Buy maybe?) to see if they can tell me whether or not that will solve the problem before I go out and buy a battery. I just don’t think it likely that they will have a battery on site that will work in a six year old machine.

Melinda, Drake, Scout and I planned on doing something for labor day yesterday. After a little thought, we decided that the beach was probably not a good idea. Too many people. Drake had said the night before that he wanted to see airplanes (he’s been watching a video series on busses, trains, and planes) and so we decided to go check out the battleship Alabama which I pass every day on my way to work. It cost $24 to get in to see the ships. If anyone asks, Drake isn’t quite 2 yet. I think that it was money well spent. Drake really seemed to have a great time running around on the ships. The battleship is older than I had originally thought. In fact, the deck was wooden instead of some other (more durable) material. It has help up suprisingly well though. I think I may have missed my calling. After leaving the battleship I kept thinking how neat it must be to be able to live on a boat like that. Everything you need is there. You just have to worry about getting sunk, or (worse) having to sink other ships. I wouldn’t have liked that. Maybe I should quit the rat race and get a job on a fishing boat. Who needs fingers?

Scout was able to see most of the park, but we didn’t think it wise to try to cram her into the submarine. So, Melinda and Drake went on that tour by themselves and I stayed behind while Scout took a nap. It was an incredibly fun day. In fact, Drake was so well behaved that he got a new toy. It’s an aircraft carrier complete with two F-18’s. I’m not really sure why that was for sale in the gift shop since they had no aircraft carriers on site. Maybe it was for the F-18’s.

Today Melinda took Drake and Scout to the pool in Fairhope with Kelly and her daughter Georgia. It gets kind of confusing telling Drake that we can’t quickly drive to see his grandparents since they live in Georgia while Georgia lives in Alabama. But I digress. Kelly and Georgia are really neat folks. Melinda didn’t have very much for Scout to play with at the pool and so Georgia came over (without being asked) and gave Scout one of her toys. Georgia is 2. Remarkably sweet kid. Her mother is a great lady too. Melinda has gotten to know Kelly pretty well and I am really pleased that she has actually met someone here that she is really enthusiastic about spending time with.

In academic news, I’m now trying to find an algorithmic way to make a closed polyline equilateral. I’ve about got it, but I haven’t yet figured out a good way to do it that doesn’t risk changing knot type. Further bulletins as events warrant on that front. Dr. Cheney (the department chair) told me what classes I will be teaching next semester. It’s a lighter load than usual. So far I’m only teaching ten hours instead of the usual 11. The calculus classes here run 4 hours a week and usually folks teach two of those in the fall along with two 3 hour classes, then in spring teach two calculus classes and a 3 hour course. In the fall this works out to 13 hours and in spring 11 so that the average is 12. This year there is a faculty member who is in grad-school but is now ABD and she wanted to teach one of the calculus classes. Have at it. One less hour for me. I get to teach vector-calculus as my upper division course in the spring. Dr. Cheney showed me the book that he was using and asked what I thought. I mentioned it would be great to use Spivak’s book and he chuckled. Evidently he thought I was joking. *sigh* Oh well.

I re-discovered a neat website recently. It is a part of the “music genome” which, I think, is an attempt to classify music based on user likes and dislikes. The site is pandora.com and it has had me pleased whenever I have used it. The idea is that you seed it with a song or artist that you like and will play songs at you that are in some way similar to the ones you like. As it plays the songs it gives you the option of saying you like or dislike and it modifies its selections based on your input. You don’t need to provide any input, but it really does hone in on music that is more to your tastes. It’s quite an interesting project. I wonder what their scheme entails. It’s a great way to find new artists that you have not heard of before. The core of songs that they have available is evidently pretty large and I find a new band that I like every time I listen.