Changes. Big Changes.

In about two weeks, I leave for Greece to visit Victoria's family.  And as many of you have guessed, I plan to ask her to marry me while we are over there.  I would ask you to wish me luck with it, but she and I have already discussed marriage, and I'm pretty sure what her answer will be.  (If it turns out I am wrong, well, you won't want to be around me for a while.)  As of now, my parents know nothing of this.  My mom might be suspicious though since I asked her for my baptismal certificate so that I can have it if we need to pick out a church while we are in Greece.  So there should be excitement in Crete for me this summer.  We'll put it on Facebook when we've informed our families.

Also, once Victoria comes back from China, I will begin moving into her apartment.  Yes, we are going to live together before we are officially married (legally in January, in all likelihood).  Make your jokes in the comments section.

Okay, post over.  I figured you guys, who have supported me through a lot over the years, deserve a heads-up on this.

2012: Not the Last One, After All

Well, despite all the hoopla about the Mayan doomsday prophecies (interestingly NOT coming from Mayans), we are still here, on the brink of entering 2013, and for those in the United States, falling off the fiscal cliff.  And despite the lack of posts this year (this will only be the eighth), 2012 has certainly been eventful for me.  Now going generally in the reverse order from the list I made at the beginning of the year, here is my year in a single blog post.

• Well, we survived Campaign/Mud-War 2012.  Obama was reelected (fortunately), and every ballot item in Maryland passed (fortunately for some, unfortunately for others).  
• I'm still on the church council.  Unfortunately, the interim pastor we had found a full-time job somewhere else, so I have preached twice since the beginning of November, which meant Victoria finally got to see me preach (more about her in a bit).  Hopefully the council finds someone soon, because I have that dissertation thing to work on the first few months of 2013.
• The job hunt has begun.  I have already been short-listed for a postdoc at Carnegie Mellon, but more interestingly, St. Mary's gets a new tenure track line starting next academic year.  I'm kind of hoping for that one, but realistically, not incredibly optimistic.
• I visited Europe for the first time, going to a conference in Italy and giving my first conference talk.  I also spent nine days in a row outside of Maryland, the longest such streak in my life.
• The proceedings article has been written and another paper submitted.  And the dissertation is well on its way, already at 96 pages.
• I attended three weddings this year: Adam and Ranwa, Laura and Nick, and two friends from graduate school.  And for the last two, I was able to bring a date (although she was invited in her own right to the last one), which leads to
• I have a girlfriend after just over six years of being single!  And each day I spend with her, I feel closer and like a love her even more.  No offense to anyone reading this, but she is probably the best thing to happen to me this year, or in several years.  She has also met all of my relatives I see on a regular basis (that is, more than once a year), and is well liked.  Indeed, my mother adores her.

Well, that's it for 2012.  Hopefully I see many of you New Year's Eve.  If not, best wishes for a fine 2013.  The look ahead will come later, hopefully before I go to San Diego.

Gay Marriage in Maryland

This year, Governor O'Malley signed legislation making gay marriage legal in Maryland on the first of next year.  Now, the legislation is subject to a referendum in November.  As such, those of us who are registered voters in the state have a decision to make: will we support the legislation?  Responsible Christians (this post is written from a Christian perspective, so the arguments herein may not apply to everyone) will wrestle with their faith on this one.  Here is my line of thinking about some of the reasons we as Christians are not to support this legislation.

1. Homosexuality is a sin according to Scripture.  This very well may be true.  However, we do not live in a theocracy, something Christians should be very happy about.  Otherwise, it would be less likely we would be able to have disagreements about Scripture for fear of government reprisal.  Remember medieval Europe?  (On the other hand, the mainline Protestant denominations and the Catholic Church would be able to put an end to the creationism movement.)  As such, just because something is a sin is not enough for the government to outlaw it.  Otherwise, the Constitution of the United States would not exist (that whole free exercise of religion thing).
2. The law redefines marriage.  This statement is completely true--for the government's definition.  However, because of the doctrine of separation of church and state, the government's definition of marriage has no bearing on the church's definition.  In fact churches are free to refuse to recognize interracial marriages, if they so choose (and has been done in the past couple of months).  Granted, there may be some explanations needed at Judgment, but the legal right is there, free of government interference.
3. Gay marriage will ruin the sanctity of marriage.  I'd say we heterosexuals have done a good job of that, with the divorce rate the way it is.  Besides, I doubt gays getting married will have any effect on my parents' marriage of over 32 years.  And if opponents of gay marriage actually want to preserve the sanctity of marriage, divorce would only be allowed in cases of adultery (or, for the sake of argument, abuse, although Jesus doesn't actually mention this, unless you consider spousal abuse a form of adultery).
4. The nuclear family is the foundation of American society, and this legislation will undermine it.  With the number of single-parent and step-parent households, this "fact" has changed, if it was ever true at all.  Don't get me wrong; the nuclear family is a foundation of American society, perhaps even the best one.  But it is not the only viable one.

There are other reasons, along the lines of homosexuality being a mental illness or such.  However, the psychological community does not agree, and I'll side with the experts on this.  As such, the only reasons with truth behind them involve homosexuality being a sin.  Ignoring the fact that according to Scripture, only the act is a sin, not the attraction, and there is no legal way for anyone but the people involved to know if the marriage has been consummated, this is not sufficient reason for a pluralistic society to ban something that does not impact the liberties of any other citizens.  As such, we render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and render unto the Lord what is the Lord's.

But wait, aren't we Caesar?  This is a democracy, correct?  Well, not quite.  We live in a democratic republic.  And in our government, the majority rules so long as the rights of the minority are protected.  Thus, we Christians must render that responsibility onto our society.  Not doing so means that we are not giving our full abilities to our society, which God calls us to do.

The only exception to this is if the government requires us to do something against our beliefs.  However, no one is being forced to have or even condone homosexual marriage.

Therefore, I will vote in favor of the legislation, not in spite of my faith, but because of it.

An Open Letter to the University of Maryland's Human Resources Department

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am writing to you concerning an error you have made that is preventing me from getting the fellowship stipend for the fall semester that I am due.  The problem is that when the charges for the semester were posted, not only did the fellowship post the tuition remission I was supposed to get, but your office posted an extra one to my account, presumably still considering me a graduate assistant for the fall.  However, I informed the math department in April, who subsequently informed you, that I will not be a university employee in the fall.  As such, you had about four months to make the appropriate changes to your records, which apparently, you did not.

While the ideal solution would be to request a partial refund from my student account, the Bursar's Office has informed me that I cannot do so.  And since in trying to do the right thing I informed them that you would be taking the extra tuition remission off my student account, I do not believe that the Bursar's Office will give me the refund since they know that there is a credit in error on my account.  Thus, I cannot get the stipend that is owed to me because of your office's mistake.

After some correspondence with Ms. Celeste Regalado, she forwarded an email to me from your benefits office that stated that the change would be made to my account Friday, August 17, 2012.  However, such a change has not been posted as of the morning of the 18th. 

I do not know why it is taking so long for you to fix your mistake, but it should not take over a week and a half to fix this relatively simple issue.  And since it has not been fixed, I cannot get paid for the fall semester, which is a considerable problem since once this gets fixed, I will not have a lot of time between getting the refund check from the bursar and paying rent, airfare and accommodations for a wedding I have to attend in October, registering for a conference I have to attend in January, estimated income tax payments due in mid-September, and other assorted bills.

I hope that you will be able to quickly fix your mistake and that your office will institute changes that will prevent this kind of mistake from occurring in the future, or at least resolve this kind of error much more quickly.  I have been supremely disappointed in how this has been handled on your part.  If you cannot fix it by August 20th, I may be left with little option but to explore options for help outside of the university (including, but not limited to informing legislators in Annapolis).

Sincerely,

Joshua Ballew

Traveling (and Other Observations)

About a month ago, I returned from my trip to Italy.  Although most of you reading this have heard about the trip, for the sake of completeness, I'll post the high- (or low-) lights here:

• I still don't eat a whole lot when I'm nervous.  And I get nervous traveling alone.  As such, by the time I arrived back in the United States, my belt was fastened at the last hole and was still loose.
• I missed the derecho on June 29th.  Fortunately, it appeared that my apartment didn't lose power.
• The city of Padova does not have many English speakers outside the university or train station.  However, Venice is practically bilingual.
• I was glad that I decided to book a hotel next to the airport the night before returning as the organizers did not call me to let me know when the airport shuttle was supposed to pick me up the next morning.
• One gets a lot of food with a meal in Italy.
• My adviser found out about Victoria and me, and is very happy about it.  I think she may have been happier for Victoria than she was for me.
• I had to give my talk in front of one of the experts in compressible fluids.  Yeah, my first talk at a conference--no pressure.  But, my adviser says it went well, and was extremely excited about it until, well, see the previous point.

In other travel news, my parents and sister went to Hawaii for about two weeks.  I didn't go, and am glad I did not since I would have just gotten back from Italy and I need to save up for a couple of upcoming trips.  First, I have to go back to San Diego for the AMS/MAA Joint Meeting in January (and hopefully will get to take Victoria with me, but probably not), and then next spring or summer after I defend, I am planning to go to Greece.  You can probably guess why.  So for someone who didn't fly at all after the summer of 1994 until November 2011, I have and will have done a fair bit of flying from November 2011 through the summer of 2013.

Oh, and for those of you who missed the Facebook update, this post has been typed on my new computer (thank you Nick for getting it ordered).  Yes, after nine years, I have retired the Gateway.  I still have it as a backup, but it has earned a bit of a rest. Thanks to Jon, the computer is properly equipped in the way of software (i.e., Portal and Portal 2).  Now if I can find a nice LaTex editor and compiler, I will really be set.

Whoooooooooooooooooooooo!

First of all, congratulations to Laura and Nick on their wedding, and thanks for letting me be a part of it. 

Second (and the reason for this post), after 2195 days (I did the calculation waiting at a red light while driving home this morning), I have a girlfriend, whom most of you met at the wedding, so I will refrain from gushing about her here. 

Now comes the hard part: telling my adviser this week.  That should be interesting.

But yeah, it may be a while before the smirk disappears.

Mate In Two?

On Saturday, for the first time in my life, I will be bringing a date to a wedding.  Yes, that means those of you at Laura's and Nick's wedding will get to meet Victoria.  As such, I believe I may be well into the endgame of things (the chess reference leading to the title, despite how dirty you may want the title to be--*cough* Jess *cough*).  It couldn't hurt that I had barely finished the question when she said yes, right?

So, yeah, today was a good day.

The End of Uncertainty

So, it seems my last post was back in January.  I believe that means it is time for an update (okay, several updates).

• The proofs for my first published article have been reviewed and submitted.  So in a few months, I think, I will be a published author in a mathematical journal.
• My talk about that paper and a slight extension was accepted for the conference I am attending in Italy at the end of June.  However, I still have to cut 15 minutes of it out.
• My advisor and I submitted my second paper a couple of weeks ago.  We'll probably find out about it by the end of the year.
• My dissertation prospectus has been approved.  I am planning to defend in March.  Fortunately, I pretty much have over half of it written.
• I will in the next few weeks be getting a new computer.  I think it is time to retire, with full honors, the Gateway after nearly nine years.

But none of the above items even comes close to the biggest news in my life right now--I may be on the verge of no longer being single.  (A couple of you already know about this, and can skim this part of the post.)  She's a fellow applied math graduate student at Maryland, and, well, I'll refrain from gushing too much.  I have gotten farther in dating her than I have in dating anyone else since, well, since I had a girlfriend.  Over the past couple of weeks, I have attended a game night and potluck dinner with her, spent lots of time on campus talking, attended one of her choral concerts, had dinner with her out in Silver Spring, ate a lunch she made and brought to campus, and Saturday spent the day touring EU embassies with her and her roommate.  And today, we spent about 90 minutes to two hours just talking.  So, I am more than slightly optimistic. 

Yet, there is still uncertainty.  We will be going to lunch together sometime this week.  I'm not sure, but I think I may have THE talk with her then.  Hopefully, I can judge if it is a good idea.  But I have to do something; the uncertainty has started killing my mathematical productivity.  And while my advisor would almost certainly understand, I can't tell her why.  (Unless I want my life to get VERY interesting.)

So, yeah, expect a mood extreme from me in the next week or so.  I'm not sure which way it will go, but I am hopeful.  Wish me luck, because I am going to need it when I check Schrödinger's cat.

2011: A Look Back

Yes, I know it has been a while since my last post.  Granted, the only major event in my life that has been missed in that time was the trip to San Diego for a conference.  Now, in what has become an annual tradition, I give you a recap of my 2011.

1. At the beginning of the year, I officially advanced to candidacy.  Thus, my time at the university is spent on my research, with no more classes to take.
2. I served as a teaching assistant for what will probably be the last time as a graduate student.  Luckily, I did get a nice letter of recommendation for my file when I covered two sections at a time for four hours at the end of April.
3. The dateless streak fell on the Ides of March.  Granted, it hasn't led to anything lasting, but it is a step in the right direction.  And it absolves me from any forced blind dates as a agreed to at the beginning of the year.
4. The move occurred.  And after three years of living alone, I'm liking having a roommate.
5. I attended my first professional conferences this fall.  One was in Pittsburgh, the other in San Diego, marking the first time I have seen the Pacific Ocean and the farthest west I have been in my life.  It was also in the San Diego where I found out that I am my advisor's first doctoral student.
6. My first mathematical paper, co-written by my advisor, was submitted and accepted this December.  So in a few months, I officially will be published.
7. I was elected to another two-year term on my church council, despite having warned them that I am not sure where I'll be in eighteen months or so.  Oh well, I gave them an out.

Thus, 2011 was a very good year professionally, and not half-bad personally.  Here's hoping the trend continues.

Next post: A non-political look ahead to 2012.  (There will be plenty of opportunities for politics next year, I think.)

Standards (EC-10)

No, this is not a post about definitions for units of measurement.  Instead, it deals with a more personal issue in my life.  As you can probably guess with the lack of updates on the front, my dating life lately has been nonexistent.  OKCupid has been dry lately.  As such, I'm beginning to wonder a couple of things.  First, are my standards too high?  In a nutshell, they are

• Straight, single, non-smoking female
• Not on drugs
• Reasonably well-educated (i.e., college degree)
• Christian (just to clear up any confusion, Catholics count as Christian)
• Be willing to consider waiting until marriage (I'm not sure that this will happen, but I do want the option open to me.)
• Live nearby (within 25 or so miles)

N.B.: I consider dating a means to an end, the end being finding someone I would marry.  Hence some of the standards.

The other thing I've been wondering about lately is if it is in the cards for me to actually marry someone.  I know it is probably premature for me to be thinking such thoughts (I am only 26, after all), but it has been almost five and a half years of being single now.  It is getting very, very old.  It also doesn't help that I know of three couples getting married next year, and another one who just got engaged.  So, yeah, that explains the emo post.  Hey, it has been ten months since the last EC-10 post (yes, I went back and checked).  But I needed to write it down/verbalize it at some point.

In happier news, research is coming along well.  I give a talk next week, and will likely have two papers submitted in the next couple of months.  At least that part of my life is coming along.

Also, since I haven't had to preach a sermon in a while, but have had some good sermon ideas pop into my mind, I am thinking of starting a second blog for that.  I would probably also want others who are interested in writing their own Christian sermons/homilies/musings to join in as well (you know who you are).  I still want to think about this for a bit though, especially about the details, but if you are interested, let me know.

Okay, that's enough for this post (and hopefully this insomnia, as you can tell from the time-stamp).  I think I need to update a bit more frequently so that I'm not writing a mini-dissertation for each post.

Year Number Four

My fourth, and probably second-to-last, year as a graduate student has begun.  Hopefully the earthquake and hurricane from the previous week aren't omens of things to come.  I don't get to teach this year, mainly so that I can focus on my research and go to conferences like the one in Pittsburgh in October and possibly one in San Diego in mid-November.  If I go to the San Diego conference, I may get to visit my aunt and uncle in Albuquerque on the way back.

Anyway, since it apparently has been about a month and a half since I last updated this thing, I guess a status report is in order.

• The move is completed, as many of you have seen.  I also finally got the move-out voucher from Graduate Hills last week, so that lease is ended with no damage charges.  Looks like those pictures I took weren't needed after all.
• On the subject of pictures: during the cleaning for the move, my cell phone fell into a bucket of water.  Fortunately, after a night of drying out, it worked the next day, but since two years had elapsed since I got it, I was able to replace it just in case.  Thus, I now have a cell phone with a camera, QWERTY keyboard (the one without was more expensive for some reason), and Internet capabilities.  This last feature came in handy for
• Hurricane Irene.  We lost power here for about 24 hours, but I still got to check email.  And I still am adjusting to having water without electricity.
• I have had another date since the last post, but nothing is going to come of it.
• I have watched Frederick County politics devolve into corruption that even the DC government would shake its head about.  The county commissioners are now proposing that instead of county inspectors, developers would hire their own inspectors to inspect new buildings.  Yeah, that's not a conflict of interest at all.  Maybe the General Assembly will consider legislation allowing for recalls of county commissions in the next session.
• And time to rant about CNN: CNN.com recently had a poll asking people if they believed the US is in a recession.  By the definition, the country is not.  However, about 80% of people think it is.  Guess what, CNN--it doesn't matter that the majority of people think we are in a recession.  If the economic conditions do not meet the requirements of the definition, we are not in one.  So I guess that means 80% of the respondents to the poll question do not know what they are talking about.  Of course, a better question to ask would be "Do you think the United States will soon be in a recession?"  That to me is a reasonable question to ask as a poll question.  Chalk it up to another case of the "news" media screwing up our political system.  Okay, rant over.

So, that is my life over the past month or so in a nutshell.  Not very exciting, but productive.

FNP for Vendetta?

Either the Frederick News-Post has massively incompetent editors, or it has a vendetta against Frederick County Public Schools (or possibly a combination of the two).

Over the past few years, the paper of record in Frederick has published stories that because they lack all the facts, seem to make FCPS look bad (the story about FCPS saying it wouldn't do immigration checks comes to mind).  However, today's paper (since corrected on the webpage), ran a headline saying the school board approved a decision that was actually voted on by the county commissioners.  The decision essentially gives the developers in the county the right to develop anywhere even if there are not adequate public facilities like roads and schools by paying a mitigation fee.  Unfortunately, paying fees does not guarantee that the infrastructure will be upgraded.  Knowing this board of commissioners, the money will probably go to more short-sighted privatization studies.  Even though a few weeks ago the BOE voted unanimously to oppose this policy, the editor put the wrong board in the headline.  Either this is a subconscious response to the institutional bias against the public schools at the FNP, or is the height of incompetence for the editor.  Either way, I would hope the editor (a term I can only use loosely at this point) suffers at least a suspension with pay.  I'm not too sure this isn't a firing offense.  Imagine, sending out 40,000 newspapers with the wrong headline.  On the bright side, I think I have a nice scenario for a word problem at the Frederick County Academic Tournament next winter.

So, yeah, I can't say that I miss living in Frederick County right now.

Godspeed, Atlantis

Today for the last time, an American space shuttle took off for orbit.  In about twelve days, Atlantis will land, bringing a close to the shuttle program.  Good luck to the astronauts, and all those involved with the program.  Now, for a few thoughts:

• When I went to sleep last night, there was only a 30% chance of the weather cooperating with the launch.  Looks like things turned out well on that front (no pun intended).
• The launch pad almost didn't let the launch happen.  At T minus 31 seconds, control reported a failure.  The "beanie cap" for the liquid fuel tank had not fully retracted.  However, a quick check on the cameras showed it had retracted enough, and the countdown resumed.
• The major networks (ABC, Fox, CBS, NBC) cut it close when breaking in for the launch.  I think ABC cut in about a minute before the scheduled launch at 11:26.  For crying out loud, this was the LAST ONE!  Couldn't they have cut in around 11:15 at the latest?
• President Obama also cut things close with his address on the jobs report.  I'm sure people will complain about not waiting until the shuttle launched.

In more personal news, I have signed the lease at the new place, set up the accounts for electric and gas, set a date for discontinuation of service for my cable account, and given my 30 days notice here.  Next week, I will be moving things over each day.  So if anyone has any free time and wants to help...

Also, I found out I'm getting an extra thousand dollars this summer.  Yay for advisors' research grants.  However, I do have to have a first draft of my paper ready by next Friday.  At least I'm a third of the way there.

And So Begins the Summer

According to any of the calendars in my apartment, we have passed the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere.  And I am beginning to realize just how much I have to do this summer.

1. Finish the calculations for my research project and write the paper.  This will also count as chapter one of ?? of my dissertation.
2. Move.  The paperwork allowing me to move in with Jon should be completed tomorrow.  I will almost immediately begin moving stuff into the new place, with the large stuff hopefully being moved around July 9th.  If it weren't for the bed and dresser, I might have been able to get away without renting a U-Haul.  So, who wants to help me move?  (The official call for volunteers will come later.)  The move will require a lot of change of address notifications, and will allow to (finally) get a passport (no sense in getting one with an old address right now).
3. Plan and help lead the orientation for the incoming first-year math graduate students.
4. Maybe help my sister move on July 23rd.  (I've helped her move before and she has never helped me, so I'll have to see.  My mom isn't exactly pushing hard for me to help.)

So, yeah, a good deal of things to do this summer.  At least it looks like I don't have to preach in the next few months.

Oh, yeah, I need to make sure I'm free on July 8th, the scheduled day for the last ever space shuttle launch.  Definitely want to watch that one.

False Prophets

It looks like Harold Camping did it again.  Just as when he predicted the end of the world in 1994, his prediction/mathematical calculations were wrong in 2011.  (I would love to know what "error" he found in his 1994 calculations, though.)  However, it didn't stop the media from making a huge deal out of the possible doomsday today.  But, Christians who have actually read their Bibles already knew there was a good chance today would not be the day of the rapture.

1. Jesus warns his disciples, and us, about end-times prophets.  In particular, Luke 21:8 (all Bible quotations are from the NRSV): And [Jesus] said, "Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and 'The time is near!'  Do not go after them."  
2. On the subject of prophets, the Bible has a very good test for determining false prophets (Deuteronomy 18:22): "If a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord but the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a word that the Lord has not spoken.  The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; do not be frightened by it."  Since we already knew Camping prophesied falsely in 1994, we knew we did not have to worry about what he said.  If God had wanted us to know May 21st was the day of the rapture, I imagine He would have found an honest broker.
3. Camping kind of put himself in the position of God (Mark 13:32): "But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."
4. Jesus uses the analogy of coming like a thief in the night (Matthew 24:42-44).  I find it hard to believe a thief would post advertisements in the New York City subway and on the National Mall giving the date and time he is going to rob your house.

Now, if those of us who profess Christ and have read the Scriptures knew this, why was there so little heard from us on this matter?  One, the media don't want to focus on reasoned discourse.  They focus on sensationalism anymore.  Two, we weren't sure May 21, 2011, at 6 p.m. local time, wasn't going to be the second coming.  As stated in point two above, we just don't know.  Camping could have gotten a lucky guess.  And three, this kind of thing has happened so many times in the past, we have been a bit jaded by it.

Unfortunately, Camping and his group have done damage to Christianity.  He has scared people, believers and possibly some unbelievers, without cause (well, except maybe his own fame).  And he has allowed the addition of skeptics who will question if Jesus is even coming again, and perhaps the entire Christian faith.  They will scoff and point out this false prophecy, even though it is hardly in line with true Christian belief.  And of course, there is the whole thing with the people who spent their life's savings or donated it to Camping.  They will have some hard times ahead.

Yet, I am convinced some good has come out of this incident.  First, I imagine many people at least paused and considered what they had done with their lives, and how they would feel if there was not going to be a tomorrow to make things right.  Second, we may have gotten a glimpse into why God won't let us know the date and time of the second coming.  We saw the believers of this false prophecy withdraw into their families and their churches, which is human nature.  When facing the unknown, we tend to withdraw into comfortable surroundings.  However, this is not what God wants of us.  He wants us out there in the world, being examples of His love.  Pleading the case of the widow and the orphan.  Working for justice for the oppressed.  He doesn't want us spending the last week of our lives huddling in churches waiting for Him to come again.  He wants us working for the "least of these," instead.

Third Year = Over

Minus some paperwork and final determination of grades for my students, my third year as a graduate student is almost over.  As a result, I now know that yes, doctoral candidates do get assigned grades for their dissertation research "course" and that our advisors just click the "A" button on the grade submission website.  Even more reason why grades don't matter to doctoral students.

In good news, my students did really well on their final exam.  Twenty-five out of seventy got a score of 90 or higher (out of 100).  As a result, at least 21 of them will get A's for the semester.  I may be able to argue a couple of more cases on Tuesday when we finalize the grades.

However, with the end of the school year comes a laundry list of things that I need to take care of.

1. I have to register for a conference my advisor wants me to attend in October.
2. I have to join SIAM, a professional organization for applied mathematicians (again, because my advisor thinks it's a good idea for networking and such).
3. I have to take the car in for the 108,000 mile service before
4. Reunion Weekend!  Now just to make it to the second weekend in June for my summer vacation.  It remains to be seen if I will bring work with me.
5. See my family's financial advisor.  My mom and aunt sold my late grandmother's condo a couple of weeks ago.  My mom cleared $65K, so she is paying $13K of my sister's student loans off and giving me the same amount.  Some will be used to open a retirement account; I'll talk to the advisor about what to do with the rest.
6. It looks like I need to prepare for a move this summer.  However, I'm not putting in a 30-day notice until paperwork is signed.
7. After the move, I need to (finally) get a passport.
8. Oh, yeah, I have that birthday thing in seventeen days.
9. And a get-together with grad school friends on June 3rd.

In any case, the performance of my students has made me really happy.  So it makes up for the not-so-happy things earlier this month.

Last Call

Monday, I start the spring semester, complete with teaching duties (Wednesday mornings are going to be a pain), but lacking in classes for me to take.  As such, a relatively low-productivity break comes to an end.  But, I did accomplish some things over the past five or six weeks.

• Spent Christmas (and completed the requisite shopping, etc.) with family, finding out some interesting facts in the process.
• Gave a sermon on some of the mistakes in traditional Christmas imagery (if you want an emailed copy, let me know).
• Read a paper my advisor wanted me to read over break.
• Finished half of the regular season academic tournament math questions.
• Proctored a qualifying exam, earning $60 for sitting on my rear end for four hours.
• Started using the online dating account.  Whether or not it shows any utility remains to be seen.
• Created a professional web page.  I just have to add the html files to the public folder on the department's network.
• Spent some time with friends.  Easily one of the more enjoyable parts of break.

So, break was more productive than I anticipated.  May the same be said for the spring semester.

Proverbs 11:29

Today, one of the more heinous crimes that can be committed against a democratic republic occurred in Arizona.  A crowd meeting with their congresswoman was gunned down outside a grocery store.  The congresswoman was shot in the head, but is expected to survive.  Six others, including a federal judge and a nine-year-old girl, were not so lucky.  Almost immediately, the reader comments on CNN's website devolved into accusations of either the liberals or the conservatives being behind the attack.

As of the time of writing this post, the gunman's motives have not been made public.  But what does it say that people are willing to believe the opposite political side would be behind this attack?  It says that the level of political discourse in this country has hit rock bottom.  This is in no small part due to the rhetoric from the likes of Limbaugh, Beck, and others on the extreme right and left.  Using loaded terms such as "communist" and "fascist" only serve to dehumanize the other side.  Such a level of discourse does a great disservice to a republic committed to the civil debate of the issues.  Neither side is committed to the destruction of the country, as neither side has nothing to gain by it. 

Ultimately, it appears that the face of this tragedy will be the Arizona congresswoman, and to a lesser extent, the slain federal judge.  But maybe the face of this shooting should be the face of that nine-year-old girl.  A girl who was with her parents to do some shopping, or perhaps with her parents to see the democratic process in person as a lesson, but was sadly in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Now, it is a bit early to say if this shooting was politically motivated.  But from the reactions today, we all know it could very well be.  If it was not politically motivated, we should consider this a warning to tone down the rhetoric.  Take a few seconds and think of a couple of good things that the other political side has done for the country.  An adversarial system is okay, so long as it is not taken to extremes.  Otherwise, we may see more of these nine-year-old girls in similar situations. 

Abraham Lincoln once compared the United States to a house.  (That whole, "a house divided against itself cannot stand," thing.)  And this brings me to the title of this post.  These political pundits and "leaders" who demonize the opposite side at every turn should heed this verse from Proverbs: "He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind."  And probably lead to the destruction of more innocent people.

In the Beginning (of 2011)

The new year is off to an interesting start, and all indications are that this trend will continue, at least for a while.  So, here is a forecast of sorts for me for 2011.

• Last night, I went to a trivia night at a bar in Baltimore with Oscar, Laura, and some of Oscar's friends from Baltimore.  I definitely see a good probability of me going the next couple of weeks.  I'll have to see when I teach to make a decision about the semester.
• I have officially advanced to candidacy.  With this comes a step increase (read: pay raise).  I also will no longer be taking classes, at least for a grade.  I may sit in on the occasional class but not worry about the assignments.  But 2011 will be the first year since 1990 I take no classes for a grade.
• I may have to get a passport this year.  My advisor mentioned the possibility of sending me to a conference in Italy for a week during the summer.  Hooray for my advisor's grants paying for it.
• If I don't make some progress on the dating front this year, I'm probably in big trouble. If I do make it to 2012 with the streak of no dates still intact, I will hereby give my friends the authority to act on my behalf with no veto from me.  (There, you have it in writing.)  Not that you guys can't try set-ups this year, but in 2011, I will still retain veto power.
• It looks like I may be off the hook for preaching the rest of the year.  The council president thinks the council has found an interim pastor.  There are still some details to work out, so this could be a false stand-down.  But in any case, the sermon seemed to go well.  I've had to email the written copy out to about half a dozen people.
• Here's hoping we don't see the snowfall this winter we saw last winter.
• I now have a couple of weeks of boredom ahead of me since I finished reading that paper yesterday.
• One set of math questions sent out, six more sets to go.

After finishing this, I realize that December will be fun when I revisit this list and look at its accuracy, or lack thereof.

May everyone have an enjoyable 2011.

As the Decade Ends

As 2010 draws to a close, I'm still not sure how I feel about it.  Sure, I had some good moments this year, but I also had some not-so-good moments.  There were also some things this year that I can't label as either good or bad.  So, without further ado, here is the year in review.

First, the good:

• I advanced to candidacy (okay, this isn't official until the first of the new year, but the work and paperwork was completed in 2010).
• The first wedding in my group of friends went off (congrats, Mairead and Alex).
• Reunion weekend in June was a good way to spend a summer (okay, late spring) weekend.  Among other things, I went sailing for the first time in my life (yes, I was a bad SMCM student).
• I have been much more social this year than in previous years.  Well, it seems so, anyway.
• I now get to write the ATT math questions for Frederick County.

Now, the low-lights of the year:

• I now have only one living grandparent.
• It has been over 3.5 years since my last date; over 4.5 years since I've had a girlfriend.  Granted, I sort of knew going in that 2010 was probably not going to be the year to break this streak.
• *Bleep* Snowmageddon.
• It took Pepco a week in July to restore power after a thunderstorm.  
• Frederick County put the patients in charge of the mental health facility known as the county government.

And the things I can't quite label:

• My church's preacher left.  Thus, I've had to serve and preacher a couple of weeks (and start off 2011 doing so, as well).  While I enjoy preaching every once in a while, I'm a little worried how long this may last.
• More seniority in the math department means more responsibilities (like helping with orientation and proctoring qualifying exams).

So, while my 2010 has been better than that of many others, I think I'm ready for 2011 (more on that in the next post).