Thoughts and Ramblings

Well, MS has changed their mind… They want me to go to Silicon Valley instead of Seattle. I have to say, it is likely a much better place to go, so I am not really complaining. It was just interesting how they made the travel arrangements for me to go to Seattle before it all got straightened out. Interestingly enough, the trip to Seattle was supposed to be on a puddle jumper from CLL (College Station) to DFW, then direct to Seattle. The flight to Silicon Valley is the puddle jumper from CLL to IAH, and then direct to San Jose. Looks like a much better flight IMHO.

Well, spring break started off with moving offices…. I had a bit of confusion when it came down to which office I am to move in to. At first, I was supposed to move into 331C, which was at the very corner of the Computer Engineering Group’s new space. When I went to key control to get the key, they couldn’t find it. After some digging around, we found out that there was already two students in that office, so they had to find another one for me. So, then I was assigned 331E, a very large window office. Then they brought up the concern that if they hire a new faculty candidate, they would have to give him/her that room, and I would have to move again. Finally, I was assigned 331D, my final office, but there was a bunch of cubicle walls and other furniture in that room, so the movers had to move all of that out first. In the end, I got a slightly larger window office, but a worse view. At least I can tell when it is raining or not, so it is not a terrible loss. I am sure I will enjoy having more space though.

Well, I had a nice time at my parents’ place. It was nice to get out of CS for a little while, and I did enjoy dad’s chocolate rum pie :)

I have noticed a tremendous number of access to this site trying to access sites other than this site. So, my solution, let them know quite concisely that they should go away:

Learn what DNS is and fix your computer!

People often ask my why I don’t check my snail-mail as often as they thing I should. So, in answer to that, here is the breakdown of what I get there:

• 70% trash (including envelopes and the like)
• 10% keep for records (bills and the like which I have already paid online)
• 15% shred (Things like credit card applications, checks, etc.)
• 5% actual important stuff

That breakdown should quite clearly demonstrate why I don’t check my snail-mail very often.

Well, this week was the Veritas Forum. I really only went to one talk through the thing. Unfortunately, I really wanted to go to the one Tuesday Evening by Dr. Hugh Ross, but I couldn’t because of Breakaway. He had another presentation at 4 where he presented some of a scientific theory which includes a creator of the universe. There was one statement that he made during the talk that caught my attention. He said that the Intelligent Design that is taught in the schools actually has no scientific basis behind it. This explained some of the statements I have heard in the scientific community which I previously attributed to just whining. It didn’t occur to me that teaching of Intelligent Design in a science classroom would not be done on a scientific basis, because I knew such a basis and theory does exist. I hope that people will start to actually teach the science behind the origin of life. I imagine that teaching Intelligent Design from a scientific viewpoint will receive far less criticism, leaving much of the remaining critics to be nothing more than kids crying when they can’t get their way.