Back at work.. prepping for a major airshow.. workign on stuff I cant show here.. but here are soem weird abstract shots to remind me what I was doing
Its weird not being able to talk about work most of the time.. but its the right thing to do.
nite all, nite sam
_me
This morning we said goodbye to Larry and Leah and headed back to the airport for our trip home. It’s been an awesome visit.. Whats not to like when the visit include Dr. Pepper flavored Peeps ?!> (ok.. I didt actually try them)
We had soem extr tiem in the pittsburgh airport.. so we went and checked out the robot repair shop art exhibit. Its so sweet and fun.
Flight home was smooth.. some great views coming into BTV.. including great views of Camels Hump.. and even a blurry sight of our house
Nice to be home !
nite all, nite sam
-me
Dan and I are really enjoying our stay in Pittsburgh. It’s so great to spend this time with Larry and Leah. This morning Leah and Diane went out to get some breakfast stuff and brought it back. My friend Jocelyn, who is a music professor at CMU came over to talk with me and Larry. I introduced Jocelyn to Larry and they’ve had a couple of collaborations which is pretty cool. Jocelyn is a, very skilled accompanist and is interested in the entrainment between the minds of the accompanist and soloist.… She’s gotten involved in the projects around ‘jam state’ and meaningful silence that I’m peripherally involved in… It’s fun to have made that connection.
This morning we took off on a hike to see our old house. We walked about 5 miles there and back… Through light rain. It was lovely. It’s clearly spring here and they’re probably a month ahead of us flowers and leaves and trees and all that business.
Here’s our old neighborhood and house. it looks great.. it was such a nice place to live ! I’m glad someone is taking good care of it 30 year later (wow !)
we headed up to the blue slide park and back along frick park
This evening was really special… Larry and Leah hosted a wonderful dinner with my friends Mar and Matt , Larrys aid Heather and her bf Randy and Larry and Leah’s friend Michelle D .. and expert in handwriting analysis. She’s the author of Sex Lies and Handwriting
. Shes done work for the FBI, many lawyers and all sorts of celebrity.. she’s created a science out of analyzing the white people right to link it to their personality. Dinner was really fun and delicious… It was great all hanging out then Michelle asked us all to write something… Anything… In long hand and she analyzed all of us then the job was for her to read out her descriptions without mentioning the name and having us guess who it was. Some people were really easy.. for example Mar and Larry.. But some people were really difficult… Including me.… It was wonderful to hear all the features that she described of people and once you actually associated them, they made a ton of sense. I had lots of ideas going in different directions and sort of like a “composer”… Seemingly chaotic but then bringing things together at the end.… I agree with that
Diane’s handw writing said that she’s extremely intelligent (got that!) And grounded. Also dead on. I’ve got to remember the other adjectives.
it was super fun
it was a wonderful and fun evening
nite all, nite sam
-me
Super fun day at CMU. Its carnival so the campus is packed and colorful
We explored Hammershlag and saw the prep for the Hot Ones session later this afternoon. The Hot Ones is a Youtube sensation where the host Sean aasks famous people questions while he and they eat progressivly hotter hot suaces,, I;d never watched it before now.. Its so fun !.
Anywy Larry has started his own hot ones version where he or another faculty interviews soemwhat less famous people who are known to the ECEC crowsd and turns up the sauce. I’m the second victim. my good freind Anirduh was victim nuber one.. I love hot sauce.. so this is gonna be fun.. I got to see the sauces.. .. they have fancy names.. but I thin I can eat anythign ! 🙂
after a quick lunch , I attended the ECE Advisors meeting which Diane explored our old stomping grounds. SHe went over to Fipps Conservatory and the Pittsburgh museum of natural history
The advisory meeting was great… As always, Larry was well prepared. It was great to see the progress that the department was making, including its campuses in Rwanda and Doha. When disturbing thing I saw was the drop off female applicants due to the changes in diversity rules. thats not soemthign I like seeing.
We then took a tour of some of the laboratories and met some of the undergraduate and graduate students doing projects. Under Larry’s leadership, the department has focused much more on early and openhanded projects. I am so impressed. We saw independent design classes and got to the low-cost semi conductor fab that they’ve built… This is something that was actually pioneer by a high school kid who attended cmu
Then it was time for the hot ones… I walked over to set up. Always funny walking into an empty auditorium.
Larry showed up with his friend Vaiz also a professor in the department. Turns out that Vaiz was goign to be my interviewer.. and would be eatign the hot souce with me. Usually, this is done with chicken wings, but since both vice and I are vegetarians, we had some sort of very delicious cauliflower nuggets. They really were good.
then Vaiz started asking me questions. Before each question they introduced a new hot sauce that was hotter and hotter on the Scoville scale. I believe they started in the 10,000 range and ended at the 3 million range which technically probably isn’t food anymore. Smile… Doesn’t matter though I love it all.
The questions were grea kind of funny questions about my past and advice to students and choices like me and choices. I would make a different way if I had to do it again…Vaiz it was a great interviewer… And the delicious hot sauces made it really fun and easy.… I don’t know if the audience was happy that both of us had high spice tolerance because part of the show is seen people sweat and cry… I think in the end Vaiz was squirming a little, but I tell you I could keep going
…
And that was it… Believe it or not, though I was still starving. I felt like eating some spicy food!
We went back to Larry and Leah’s and had a great hang out. It was super nice..
Nite all. nite sam
-me