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PowerPoint Needs to Die

I was reading gapingvoid today. Hugh’s comic pretty much sums up my thoughts on PowerPoint:

powerpoint322-thumb221.jpg

I’m convinced that less then 1% of the population knows how to use PowerPoint. I’ve been sitting through my Introduction to Space Exploration class and I can’t tell you how horrible all (not some, all) of the presentations have been. Yellow text on a black-to-dark-blue background, tons of information on each slide, the presenter reading off the slide, verbatim. Worse yet, the slides aren’t available online! This also isn’t a problem unique to our school, we have presenters from the likes of Lockheed Martin, Ball Aerospace, and guest lecturers on a weekly basis. Every one is plagued by the same problem.

The Situation

This is a follow up to this mornings incident. This is what the situation seems to be:

The Lady-Downstairs is hearing noises, but can’t identify what they might be. She says it sounds like a printer. I’m upstairs going about my businesses in a reduced fashion in order to be as quiet as possible. He’s the frustrating part, her statements are so vague and inaccurate that A) I don’t know what she’s talking about, or B) She complaining about something that I have the perfect right to do. Either way, I can’t do anything about it.

My hands are tied and she’s bitching and complaining about it.

I have less then 3 months left in this apartment. I’m contemplating considering moving out, I don’t know where. Maybe a hotel or something if they’d cut me a deal. I really can’t have any more of these knocking incidents as they keep me up longer then I want to and cause me great stress, frustration, and anxiety.

As it turned out, I did end up skipping my first three classes today. Mostly due to lack of sleep, also due to the fact that I am sick. I also email my circuits professor and he’s agreeable to let me take the makeup circuits exam next week. That will help with the stress and anxiety of today and tomorrow.

Bob Francisco Fired

Everyone knew it was just a matter of time before old Bobby boy was sacked, and it finally happened.

I first heard about it from Travis. Here’s basically what I was told happened with some of my comments inserted:

Some kid (i.e. probably some freshman) at Mines Park (part of the residence halls at Mines) built some rails (rails are long pieces of tubular metal used to grind skateboards, bikes, rollerblades and likes on) and Bob took them down. Arguably, Bob was within his jurisdiction when he did that. So all is good. Anyway, this kid sets up a meeting with Bob to talk to him about it which I think is a great idea. So this kid goes to this meeting. He shows up and instead of talking about it, Bob just chews him out and doesn’t stop. So the kid goes home and writes a seven page letter and sends it to someone; maybe President Scoggins, maybe the Board of Trustees, I don’t know. This is last Thursday. The very next day Bob is given the choice to resign or be escorted out by the police.

Yesterday, Harold R. Cheuvront, Vice President for Student Life & Dean of Students sent the following letter to all faculty, staff and students:

Bob Francisco, who has been with Colorado School of Mines since 1988, recently resigned his position as Director of Student Life. I know I speak for many students who attended CSM during Bob’s tenure in thanking him for his many contributions to the quality of Student Life, especially in the areas of facilities construction and maintenance. Bob was intimately involved in the construction and renovation of the Student Center, the renovations of Morgan, Thomas, Bradford and Randall Halls, as well as the construction of Mines Park, the three sorority houses, the FIJI Fraternity House, and the Recreation Center.

I’m actually not quite sure how many people would actually thank Bob. He seemed more like a pain in many peoples ass than helpful team player. But he’s gone. So that’s that.

Who Would You Hire First?

My Circuits teacher, Mark Lusk, made this point the other day:

Lazy Industrious
Idiot
Genius

Given the above table, what order would you hire the listed people (Lazy Idiot, Lazy Genius, Industrious Idiot, Industrious Genius)?

One might think this would be the solution:

Lazy Industrious
Idiot 4 3
Genius 2 1

…potentially switching 2 and 3 around. But this would be incorrect! The actual order is:

Lazy Industrious
Idiot 3 4
Genius 1 2

Now you may be thinking, What?! Why would I want to hire the industrial idiot last? Better yet, why would I want to hire the lazy genius first?

Think of it this way. The industrial idiot is going to work hard (he’s industrious, remember?). But he’s going to work hard at the wrong thing…or he’s going to do it wrong (he’s an idiot). Working hard toward something that isn’t a company goal is bad. Even worse then doing the wrong thing half-assed.

Now, for the lazy genius. Why wouldn’t you want a smart person working hard? Because there’s always better way to do it. And that’s what the lazy genius will find: the lazier (and presumably easier) way to accomplish the task. Less time means more money saved.

Simple really.

First Day Back

8am – 8:50am Circuits(BB 204A)
9am – 9:50am Thermodynamics(BB 204A)
10am – 10:50am Probs and Stats(MH 357)
12pm – 12:50pm Diff Eq(AH 134)
1pm – 1:50pm Mechanics of Materials(BB 201)

Lack of Time, Literally

For whatever reason, I’ve had my hand pretty full since finals ended on Tuesday around 9:38am. One of the things that sucks so much about finals is that it’s pretty much just a balls to wall studying extravaganza. Time and space separate and you ignore one whilst living in the other. Having no sense of time is somewhat liberating. I remember a talking with Jacqueline Passey just over a year ago about her experiences in Costa Rica. One of the things she said was very interesting: Americans typically think of time in 5 minutes units; Costa Ricans use 30 minute increments. To be able to forgo all units of time was interesting. All I really knew was that I had an exam in so many hours and minutes and seconds. But that didn’t translate into a time of day for me.

I’ve been desperately trying to get back onto normal time so that I can function normally again. Tuesday night I went to the Denver Botanical Garden with Dave, Laura, Manya, and company to see the 18th Annual Blossoms of Light. It was good to get out of Golden. I took my camera and Matt’s tripod and had some fun taking pictures too.

Went telemarking on Wednesday with Katie and Trevor up at Winter Park. That’s 4 days of skiing this year so far. Hung out with Bailey at the Mall for a while.

And then we all know what happened last night.

Surely You’re Joking

These past few days have been mostly a blur. Studying late in to the night, getting a quick bit of sleep, and then waking up to take whatever final I might have. Only to repeat the same schedule, irrespective of the time. This has lead to some serious issues for my biological clock, thusly I really don’t have a natural idea of what day or what time it is.

And so it was just past midnight, in my somewhat futile attempt to study physics that I decided to go look up a book I’ve been meaning to read for some time now: Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!

I read the first few pages and then returned to my studies. However, I decided to take the book with me so that I could finish it off at a later point.

Well, 3am rolls around. I’ve been laying in bed for a good while now, to no avail. I pick up from where I left off.

It’s now just past 4. I’ve been reading for an hour straight. This is simply one of the best books I’ve ever read. I really wish I could have met him.

The little lady came back again and said, “Mr. Feynman, Mrs. Eisenhart would like to see you.”
“OK, OK!” and I go over to Mrs. Eisenhart, who’s pouring tea.
“Would you like to have some coffee or tea, Mr. Feynman?”
“Mrs. So-and-so says you wanted to talk to me.”
“Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh. Would you like to have coffee, or tea, Mr. Feynman?”
“Tea,” I said, “thank you.”
A few moments later Mrs. Eisenhart’s daughter and a schoolmate came over, and we were introduced to each other. The whole idea of this “heh-heh-heh” was: Mrs. Eisenhart didn’t want to talk to me, she wanted me over there getting tea when her daughter and friend came over, so they would have someone to talk to. That’s the way it worked. By that time I knew what to do when I heard “Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh.” I didn’t say, “What do you mean, ‘Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh’?”; I knew the “heh-heh-heh” meant “error,” and I’d better get it straightened out.

In writing this post, I stumbled upon http://www.gorgorat.com/, which appears to have the complete text of the book online. I would still recommend checking it out from the library though.