Another semester, has come to a close in Norman, and now it looks like I only have one semester left in school! To celebrate finishing the semester, a couple friends and I went to take in Avatar, the latest film spectacle from James Cameron, the director behind The Terminator, Aliens, and Titanic to name a few. This film has been touted by many to be a industry changer with its use of 3-D and motion capture technology, not to mention that it is most likely the most expensive film ever made. So needless to say, expectations were pretty high.
If you’re unaware of the story of this film it’s basically this: a paralyzed marine travels to a distant planet to assist in a mining operation of a valuable mineral. However, the planet is inhabited by an alien species that is reluctant to move, and of course, this leads to conflict. If you’ve seen Dances with Wolves, The New World, or The Last Samurai, you probably have a good idea of how this plays out. The one unique thing about this particular film however is how the humans interact with the aliens - through the use of “avatars,” which is transporting your consciousness into an alien body, which happens to be about 10 feet tall and blue.
While the story itself isn’t terribly revelatory (not too surprising given Cameron’s other movies), the imagery is astounding to say the least. First, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a digitally produced landscape this impressive; I was constantly scanning the entire screen to try and take in as much of the alien landscape as possible. Add the fact that its 3-D, and it’s even more impressive. I’ve seen a few movies in 3-D in the last couple years, and was never that impressed with what they did with it. In Avatar however, the 3-D is not used in a gimmicky fashion (pop outs and stuff flying out of the screen), but rather to create an immersive environment - after a while I completely forgot I had the glasses on. If you think you’re interested in seeing this movie, you owe it to yourself to see it on as big a screen as possible, and in 3-D.
Also impressive on the technological side was the use of motion capture technology for the alien species. Again in prior circumstances where this technology was used it only sometimes succeeded (Gollum in LOTR was good, Beowulf not so much), but there seems to have been a huge leap forward in the realism involved, especially in terms of facial characterization. You can definitely see the emotions in the characters faces, and you can totally believe that these creatures exist, at least in this environment. It also helps that the actors involved did a good job, especially Zoe Saldana as one of the alien leaders (she almost certainly would be nominated for awards had this not been a motion-capture performance).
While this movie is technologically impressive, the big critique has been on the story side. Yes, the story is fairly predictable and has been seen in a few other incarnations before (the movies listed above as a few examples). However, I feel like the story is done well enough, and most importantly, the emotion behind the story is strong enough that it still keeps the movie from being too hokey. For instance, the main character (played by Sam Worthington) is paralyzed, but when he inhabits his alien body, he can walk again, and the emotion at being able to regain mobility is shown well. I also found it interesting at how after several months inhabiting his alien body, he began to have difficulties returning to his human body and interacting with his human counterparts. I think if the story had focused more on these ideas than the traditional story it has, it might have been looked upon as one of the greatest movies in recent history. That being said, this movie will still be well received and will make a bundle of money. I enjoyed Avatar quite a bit, and it’s definitely one I look forward to seeing again.
Sunday, December 20th, 2009,
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This last week I took my general exam, which is one of the big points in a doctoral degree process. I gave a 45 minute presentation on my research, answered questions over it for another 30, then I was questioned over all of my course work for another 30 minutes. As you can imagine, this was pretty harrowing given they could ask just about anything, and so I spent about 2 months studying my old notes and textbooks in preparation. The last couple weeks proved pretty stressful due to the amount of studying, but the presentation and everything went well, and I passed! It was a great relief to have it all finished. Now the only thing left for me to do is wrap up my research and write my dissertation, which should take most of my time between now and May. But the end is in sight, which is sort of weird considering I’ve been in school without any long breaks for about 8 years.
I’ve held off from writing about the Sooner’s football season because it’s been so depressing to watch - the combination of bad luck and poor play has been frustrating for most Oklahoma fans. While I was fairly certain OU would not compete for the national title this year, I have been surprised to see how quickly we dropped from the national picture. I’ve been trying to come up with a good term to describe this year’s team - with so many injuries and bad luck in games, it’s like the opposite of what most call “a team of destiny.” In 2000, OU was called a team of destiny because they had almost no injuries, and when the team needed points or a defensive stop, they always got it. This year injuries have been almost weekly, and no one seems willing to step up to be a leader to get the team through the tough moments. While injuries can’t really be avoided, having no leaders really troubles me, especially for next year.
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009,
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Yes, it’s been a while since I posted something (my birthday came and went during the hiatus), but it seems like many of my posts were of the same thing, just updating on what had happened recently in my life, which wasn’t terribly exciting - I just didn’t seem to have any ideas about anything else to write about. Fortunately, I have had a couple ideas recently and hopefully in the next few days I can put them out there.
In the last 10 years or so, many people have talked about the decline of the written word; whether due to email, text messaging, cell phones or other means, it seems like simple acts like writing a letter to someone or keeping a journal have gone by the wayside in favor of simplicity and ease. I don’t consider this as big a tragedy as many others do, but I do think it costs us more as a culture than we gain from technological advances.
As my birthday crept closer earlier this month, I of course received correspondence from many folks wishing me a wonderful day - mostly in the form of emails, but a few cards and packages as well. This caused me to think about how much of my mail is actually a message from another individual person; unless its a holiday I rarely receive a letter from a family member or friend. Again, it is easier (and cheaper) to send an email, and since lines of communication are much more numerous now than ever, it isn’t that surprising to only hear from people by email or phone. But, I feel like we are losing a lot from this - first in a historical sense, then more importantly in the ability to put ones thoughts into words.
I was watching the most recent Ken Burns documentary covering the National Parks, where Burns presents the course of history that brought the introduction of the National Parks to the United States, and the people that brought it about. As with any of Burns’ documentaries, the story is told with both interviews and historical pictures and documents. In fact, many of the most poignant elements of the story are quotes taken directly from letters and journals from the era. While watching the documentary, I thought about how this decade would appear in a documentary in the future - obviously there would be plenty of audio, video and images to tell the story, but what of the personal reactions that paint the emotional picture of the human response to an event? While there will always be video and audio interviews, I feel like we lose a big component without written testimony.
The other concern I share with many about the continued advance of electronic communication is the effect it has on writing skills. I was editing a manuscript for an undergraduate student last week, and while I was editing out the “too casual” phrases out of the supposedly technical document, I realized that this is a problem I encounter more often than not, especially for students. The students, whether its a professional document or not, have the tendency to “write like they talk,” where the students simply write or type down their exact thoughts without thinking how it would read on paper (don’t even get me started on “text-speak”). Of course this is something that any instructor in charge of improving a student’s writing harps on, but I think this lesson could potentially be more important with writings that are not professional and/or technical in nature. There’s no reason to think that good writing can’t be used in places as simple as a short email to a friend - not only would it hopefully sharpen your wit and skills as a writer, your recipient will hopefully be more engaged by the writing and you might start a trend! The art of crafting a phrase is something that anyone can do, and it’s a shame to lose that ability because of increasing technology.
A short disclaimer - I am by no means a professional writer, so I don’t believe that including more casual phrases in language is by any means a bad thing - after all a fast food cheeseburger can be just as satisfying as a prime cut of steak. I am guilty of many of the same things I lament in this post. But, I do believe that having that variety in language, written and spoken, is just as important as having that variety in diet, and just as a poor diet will inevitably cause health problems, a weak language diet will lead to loss of a sharp mind.
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009,
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Here we are almost 1/3 of the way through the semester, and things are going pretty well. Unsurprisingly there isn’t much about a school semester that I wouldn’t be prepared for at this point, but it’s nice when things go as expected. Teaching is going very well so far, even though the students are packed into the classroom like sardines. While I won’t say things are perfect, I feel like I do a very good job of teaching Thermodynamics, and it’s nice to see some appreciation from the students.
My course I’m taking is also going fairly well. And though it sounds a little weird, I’ve even enjoyed doing a little homework associated with it. The class is a math/probability course, and it’s a been a good mental exercise to work through the problems. Also, since it’s a probability course, it lends itself to fun problems, like the odds in poker, craps and blackjack. My textbook even had a problem involving a “neighborhood bookie.”
More good news came through last week: after months of trying to find new laboratory space, the emeritus professor I share my office suite with vacated his office and I get to use it! It’s not a completely ideal space (no running water) but since it’s attached to my regular office I can work on things quickly and easily.
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009,
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This year’s Heisman race should be fairly unique, with not only 3 returning finalists, but also 2 returning winners of the trophy still hanging around in the college ranks. While it would be silly to believe that Bradford, Tebow and McCoy won’t be considered for the award again this year (I personally believe we’ll see at least 2 of the 3 return to New York), it’s just plain boring to include them in a prediction list. So here are some other folks I think have a decent shot:
Jahvid Best: It would be nice to see a running back or two break up the QB monotony that has mostly dominated the last decade, and Best is at this point the best hope. If Cal has a good season, it will be because Best ran all over the Pac-10, and that could secure a selection.
Jermaine Gresham: Could a tight end win the Heisman? Probably not, but with the amount of attention Gresham will get this year it’s not completely outside the realm of possibilities. Granted, he will have to amass an incredible number of touchdowns and yards to even be considered, but he will most likely be the primary target of Sam Bradford to start the year, so it’s not impossible.
Terrelle Pryor: This pick is probably a year or two premature, but Heisman loves dual threat QBs and Pryor could be the next great one. If he leads Ohio State to victory over the Trojans, expect to hear a lot of buzz about this guy.
Jonathan Dwyer: Again, I am very intrigued by the success of Georgia Tech’s option offense last year, and am interested to see if that success continues this year. Dwyer is a big reason they are successful, and if they have another big year he could garner consideration.
And a darkhorse candidate: Damion Fletcher. This running back from Southern Miss is a longshot to say the least, but a monster year from Fletcher (along with an unbeaten record) could cast some interest down his way.
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009,
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Yes, it’s that time of year yet again, when a young man’s fancy turns…to football. As always, I’ve pored over the schedules of most college teams this year to make some predictions on the major conferences, the national championship, and some potential Heisman finalists. And here…we….go!
ACC: 10 years ago, this conference was basically 3 teams: Florida State, Miami and Virginia Tech. Then the conference added some teams, and things were different for a few years with new teams stepping up to take the mantle away from the Florida teams. But, now it appears we are back where we were a few years ago, with Florida State, Miami and Virginia Tech looking decent, but not much else. I’m intrigued with the continuing experiment that is Georgia Tech’s option offense, but with more exposure I think many teams will figure it out. My vote in this conference will be Virginia Tech - their defense is just as good as ever and their offense should improve from last year.
Big East: Perhaps the toughest conference to determine this year, simply because the top teams in the conference have slipped back to the pack. People seem to think Rutgers might be making a return to the spotlight, but I think Cincinnati will repeat as champs - even though they are replacing a lot of their defense, their offense retains their QB and some other skill players.
Big 12: Tough one. Two returning BCS teams, two returning Heisman finalists and a host of preseason All-Americans. So it comes down to the OU/Texas game to decide the South division and eventually I believe, the Big 12 champs. Unfortunately, I think OU has to replace too many people (especially the O-line and secondary) and Texas will have sympathy in the polls this year so even if a tie similar to last year’s happens, there’s no way we get the nod again. Texas wins the South, and Nebraska fights valiantly but falls in the Big 12 title game.
Big 10: Conference power in college football is very cyclical, and right now, the Big Ten is way down. Traditional powers like Michigan and Wisconsin are well below usual expectations, and better than average teams like Michigan State and Purdue are even worse off. This conference will come down to Penn State and Ohio State, and I like the Nittany Lions experience at the skill positions over the Buckeyes. I will say however, that Ohio State will stomp USC at home and will get a lot of attention until their showdown with Penn State in November.
Pac-10: Until a week ago, I would have called this one for USC for another year in a row. However, since the announcement that a true freshman would be starting at QB for the Trojans leads me to believe this will not be their year. So who will it be? Cal and Oregon appear to be the most likely candidates, and with Jahvid Best in the backfield, I think California will be tough to beat.
SEC: Quite simply the strongest conference in college football right now - 5 teams in the top 15. Everyone seems to think that Florida’s path to return to the at least the SEC championship game is relatively uncluttered, and a tend to agree with that sentiment, especially due to the lack of strength in the SEC East at the moment. The SEC West should be very interesting to watch, but I’m quite certain that Ole Miss will not be nearly as good as everyone thinks. So it’s down to Alabama and LSU in the West, and I’ll give the nod to the Crimson Tide since they host the Tigers late in the season. So can they give the Gators any trouble in the SEC championship game? My heart says yes, but my brain says no; Florida repeats as SEC champs.
BCS busters: Every year the debate rages about the validity of an undefeated non-major conference champion, and I tend to side with the upstarts; yes they didn’t play as many strong teams, but there have been examples in the past of teams in major conferences with that same issue that are included. The time is coming soon when a team outside the major 6 conferences will get into the national championship game, and there’s no reason to think they won’t win. This year there are 2 teams with a big chance: BYU and Boise State. Both have performed well in recent years so they won’t be ignored, both have big non-conference games (BYU vs OU and and FSU, Boise vs Oregon), and they are the class of their respective conferences. Chances are only one will make it through unscathed, and I think it will be Boise State, since they are in the weaker conference (Heck, the Mountain West has 3 ranked teams, which is 3 more than the Big East!).
So here are my predictions for the BCS 10:
Sugar Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Alabama
Rose Bowl: Penn State vs. California
Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma vs. Ohio State
Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech vs. Boise State
BCS National Championship Game: Texas vs. Florida
Yes, a very common prediction this year. But consider the amount of talent both teams have returning and it doesn’t sound too unreasonable. While Florida will most likely not reach the summit unscathed, being in the SEC has its advantages, and one of them is being granted a pass due to the strength of the conference. Texas’ schedule lines up very well and they have a chip on their shoulder from last year’s finish. So who wins? Last time I felt Texas was this talented they won it all, so I think I have to go the same way again: Texas 27, Florida 21.
Coming up tomorrow: Heisman predictions that don’t include the 3 returning finalists.
Monday, August 31st, 2009,
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So the summer is quickly wrapping up, but I’ve had a chance to get out of town for a couple weeks before things ramp up again. The last 2 weeks I made a tour of the South, visiting relatives and making a brief stop in Atlanta.
I first headed down to visit my dad in Jackson, Mississippi. There wasn’t much on the agenda, outside of eating a lot, especially at what my be my favorite restaurant: Hamil’s barbecue. It’s a buffet restaurant that serves perhaps the best barbecue I’ve eaten - certainly better than anything I’ve managed to find in Oklahoma. After a few days, I went on to Alabama to visit my grandmother for a couple days, and also I spent a day in Atlanta to visit a friend from high school and also catch a Braves game. The game went the right way, with the Braves pulling ahead in the late innings, and also featured one of the most amazing plays I’ve ever seen with pitcher Mike Gonzalez avoiding being decapitated by a batted ball and catching it as well. You can see the play here.
Now things are beginning to start up again for the fall semester. While I’m no longer heading out to teach at the high schools, I should still be very busy with teaching thermo and also preparing for my comprehensive exam, which is a 2-hour oral examination from my dissertation committee. Basically, I will be tested on all of the things I’ve learned over the last 9+ years in engineering. So as you might imagine it will require a great deal of studying, which is something I’ve never been a huge fan of. I’m also headed back to the classroom as a student, which will be sort of weird since I haven’t taken a class since the fall of ‘07.
Monday, August 17th, 2009,
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I’m back in Norman after 5 days in San Francisco for the Heat Transfer Conference, and I thought I’d recap the last 3 days of the trip:
On Tuesday I spent the morning at the conference listening to presentations since it was still pretty cold outside. After enjoying lunch at a nearby pizza place, I took the bus up to the Golden Gate Bridge. Being an engineer, I usually appreciate massive building projects like this over most anything else I see on a trip:
Golden Gate Bridge
The weather wasn’t the greatest for seeing the bridge in all it’s glory, but I did walk out to the first support and took some pictures of it disappearing into the fog:
Golden Gate in the fog
After that, on my way back to the hotel, I decided to make a quick stop at another well known location in San Francisco, a park with some famous houses:
Full House!
Yes, the houses from the opening credits of Full House! Bringing back fond memories of TGIF on ABC.
That evening, the conference hosted a banquet for attendees with a nice meal and a couple awards for exemplary members of ASME. The first award went to a pioneer in the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) business, so well known in fact that I learned many of his algorithms in classes I took and used some of them later on for projects. It’s not often you meet someone that had such a dramatic effect on an industry, so I thought it was pretty cool to be in the same room as him, and if I had my CFD book with me, I might have had him sign it!
Wednesday was the last day of the conference, and again I avoided the cooler morning weather by listening to some more presentations, and then just walking near the hotel. I found a movie theatre, and decided to head in to catch the Hangover. My verdict? Not as funny as everyone has been telling me, though certainly better than a lot of the things I’ve seen this summer. I then headed back to the hotel and joined my advisor and another colleague for dinner in Chinatown.
On Thursday before I headed to the airport I went out for one final sightseeing trip, and headed to the east side of San Francisco on the light rail. I got a chance to see the other big bridge in the area, the Bay Bridge:
Bay Bridge
And that was it! My overall impression of the city was nice, but I don’t know if I would enjoy the weather, especially during the summer - I need it to be at least pretty warm in July if not 100. I really enjoyed the variety of experiences I had there, from the entertainment to the food to the landmarks. With respect to the conference, I really enjoyed my first experience at a national conference and I feel really recharged as far as my research is concerned. I’m excited to get back to work with renewed energy and enthusiasm.
Friday, July 24th, 2009,
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The above statement is completely true - I will get to that in a moment.
Sunday morning I got up early and caught a flight out to San Francisco - my agenda was to present one of my papers at the ASME Heat Transfer Conference and take in the sights of one of the more interesting cities in the U.S. I arrived Sunday around noon and began sightseeing by visiting the Golden Gate Park, which oddly enough is not near the Golden Gate Bridge:
Golden Gate Park
One thing that surprised me as soon as I arrived was the weather - it only gets up to about 65 degrees right now which is fantastic compared to the 100+ days we’ve been getting in Norman. I walked around the park for a while, then got scored some free Ben and Jerry’s ice cream they were handing out. I then took the bus back to my hotel and slept a while since I had only gotten about 2 and a half hours of sleep the night before. I took it easy the rest of the evening to make sure I would be rested for presenting the next day.
Today the conference began officially, and it was actually more interesting than I had thought it might be. Up to this point all the conferences I had attended were smaller, regional conferences that were broader in scope, which gives a lot of variety but usually means you don’t know enough about the topics being presented to understand them clearly. Since this conference is only about heat transfer related topics the majority of the presentations are over topics I’ve studied so it’s easier to understand what the presenters are talking about. The backgrounds of the presenters have also been fairly interesting; not only are there presenters from universities and industry from all over the U.S., there are a lot of folks that have travelled from all over the world to present their research - I’ve listened to presentations from Ireland, Turkey, South Korea and Brazil to name a few so far. After listening to a fair amount of presentations in the morning, it was my turn to present my research. I felt like the presentation went very well and I got some good questions afterward.
To celebrate my successful presentation, I ducked out of the conference a little early to visit Fisherman’s Wharf, a relatively big tourist destination. From the piers I could see the Golden Gate Bridge draped in fog and Alcatraz Island; I hope to see both of those a little closer later this week.
Alcatraz Island
I decided to take in some local food by having a bowl of shrimp and crab chowder for dinner, and since I get 60 bucks a day for food, and my breakfast and lunch were covered by the conference, I decided to have a little desert in the form of a ice cream cone. As I was walking back towards the bus stop and about halfway done with my cone, I felt a whoosh past my left ear and all of the sudden my ice cream was gone - a seagull had swooped in a snagged it right out of the cone. Instead of getting mad about it, I pulled out my camera and took a couple pictures of the seagull enjoying my ice cream:
ice cream theivin' seagull
After the seagull debacle, I realized I was close to the famous crooked street, so I hiked over to the famous street to take some pictures. I’m pretty amazed at the grade of some of these streets here - they seem steeper than most of the roads I’ve encountered driving in the mountains in Colorado.
Lombard Street
I have 2 and a half more days in San Francisco - I hope to take in a lot more sights before I have to go.
Monday, July 20th, 2009,
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So a big chunk of the summer has passed by without a post, but there really hasn’t been much to report - another summer in Norman, where I don’t have a huge amount of responsibilities outside of continuing my research, although that has been halted due to the fiasco that is my quest for a new lab space (still waiting!). So the majority of my time has been spent working on the lesson I had to teach this week for the Summer Engineering Academy on water quality. Next week we will host a group of about 40 high school students, and that will conclude my 2 year fellowship experience.
One thing I have managed to do with the extra time I’ve had recently is see a few of the big movies that have come out this summer, in fact all of them have happened to be sequels to previously successful franchises: Wolverine (X-men), Terminator Salvation, Star Trek, and Transformers 2. I thought I’d throw out my thoughts on all of them:
Wolverine: I’ve always like the X-Men movies, in particular Hugh Jackman’s work as Wolverine, and while he continued his good work with the character, the story was not too compelling. I think it suffered like most prequels do since the audience already knows where the story will continue, there’s not much suspsense about what is going to happen.
Star Trek: First, I must admit I was never a Star Trek fan, so I didn’t really have many expectations going into this one. I thought they made excellent selections to fill all of the classic roles, and they all played the roles very well, especially Zachary Quinto as Spock. And it was nice to see a summer movie that had some story in addition to the special effects. I am actually looking forward to seeing how they continue with this franchise.
Terminator Salvation: Why this movie (and the planned sequels) was made I’ll never know, and even having Christian Bale as John Connor wasn’t enough to make this movie worth watching. I was impressed with Sam Worthington who played the new type of terminator; I think he’ll end up being the next big action star, but overall the movie felt flat to me.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: My inner 8 year old was very excited about this one: Vehicles that turn into robots, what more could you ask for? And the first movie played the line between good action and humor without delving too far into silliness. While parts of the movie were highly entertaining, I think Transformers 2 fell victim to the classic sequel problem: trying to go bigger in every way possible. The effects were bigger and just as impressive as the first movie, but the bigger story ended up just being confusing. And I felt like parts of the movie were way too silly, and I’m not going to say there shouldn’t be any silliness (it’s a movie about a kids cartoon you know) but I think they lost the good balance they had for the first movie. Fortunately, the movie is making huge amounts of money so it basically guarantees another sequel and an opportunity for them to try again.
Thursday, July 9th, 2009,
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