Happy Anniversary!

Today is my parents' 32nd anniversary.

Happy Anniversary!!!

'Thanks, buddy'

So I didn't hear from anyone about the probability problem. I don't know if that means you are all lazy, or you simply don't care. For those who do care, the answer is 1, which is 100%. In the previous 14 games, if I have scored, our team has won. Maybe this is why Rebecca, our team coach/manager, often gives me orders to score a goal. She's been asking for a mention on here, so there you go. Everyone wants to be associated with the de anza math teacher.

I've spent the mornings (and half the afternoon today) on the De Anza campus. School is not in session, and the campus is deserted, but I go to the gym and then work for a few hours. It's hard to motivate myself to work during my vacation, but without Lauren here, I find that work is a productive way to get through the day.

My title today has to do with an incident that happened on campus today. I was taking a break from work in my office, and took a walk around campus. I came across three new international students, who looked very lost. They asked for directions to a building, so I gave them a vague idea, after which one of them said "thanks, buddy", which didn't sound quite right coming from his mouth. I then gave more specific directions, and then again "thanks, buddy". It still didn't seem right coming from him. And finally I told them they needed to know that the building they were looking for would involving crossing the street that goes around the campus. Again, "thanks, buddy", and another one as I walked away.

Four "thanks, buddy"s. I think all the guy said to me was "thanks, buddy" (his friend was the one who asked for directions).

I don't remember the last time someone called me "buddy". It's amazing what parts of American culture is picked up in other parts of the world. In an odd way, it reminded me of the scene in Pulp Fiction where Vincent and Jules are talking about eating at burger places in France.

Speaking of buddies, Happy Birthday Doug!

A Probability Problem

I realize it's summer for De Anza students, and the last thing you want to do is a probability problem, but I couldn't resist....

This post is for those of you who know some basic probability. For those of you who don't, feel free to email me (jefferson_deanza@yahoo.com) for an explanation.

I went through a scoring drought (that was broken this evening, when I scored a controversial) on my soccer team. I hadn't scored in 5 straight games. I began to think about how my scoring in a soccer game affects the team's winning or losing that game.

I will let W = a game the team wins and S = me scoring at least one goal in a game.

Over the past 14 games (spring season, a friendly game, and 3 games into the summer season), the team has won 8 of 14 games, and I have scored a goal in 5 of 14 games.

The probability of winning is P(W) = 8/14 and the probability of me scoring is P(S) = 5/14. The probability of winning or of me scoring is P(W or S) = 8/14. Given this information, what is the probability of the team winning, given that I score a goal: P(W | S) = ??

The answer is kind of cool, I think.

The MBA

I had my first class of an MBA program last night. It went from 6-10 pm. That's a long time to be in class, but it's something I'm going to have to get used to.

The class meets for 8 weeks - 8 Tuesdays and 2 saturdays. Each class is 4 hours long.

I have to say, it was not quite what I expected, but that is by no means a bad thing.

The class felt borderline psychology (even though my only psych class was a gigantic lecture class I took my sophomore year of college). The professor passed out cards with words on them, and we had to choose 3 cards we liked, for any reason at all. We then talked about why we chose the ones we did, and why we rejected the others.

The class is about leadership, which is a big part of an MBA.

As much as I say I'm taking this "for fun" (who gets an MBA for fun, right?), I hope it's of some use to my job. I figure I can use leadership in my teaching, and if I ever choose to take on any kind of "leader" role at De Anza.

Not much else is going on. I went to an orthopedic doctor yesterday, to have my ankle looked at by someone other than Susan, to see if there would be any difference in diagnoses. He basically said that it would heal with time, and I should by a brace to play soccer in.

This is kind of a dull post, especially when compared with my facial hair post, just below.

The facial hair is gone

After talking to myself about the whole facial hair thing, I decided to shave it off. I grew to like the beard, and will probably grow it out again, when Lauren goes to South Africa.

Random...

I'm bing a bum today. I turned in my grades and gave Herminio (the counselor for the MPS program) 3 calculators I had been holding onto for the past 6 weeks. When I went to see him, I told the student secretary that I had some calculators for Herminio but I never said who I was. She called him and said "there is a student here who says he has calculators for you". He chuckled when I went to his office, at me being thought of as a student. This case doesn't bother me (unlike my previous post), because, in all honesty, the student secretary didn't know me from Adam, so I could have been a student (the fact that I was wearing an MSU t-shirt didn't help).

I miss MSU. I never liked East Lansing when I lived there, but I really want to go back. Not for any real reason; I know almost no one there any more, and it's not the most thrilling city in the world, but it's East Lansing. I spent 7 years of my life in the place. I can picture walking on a stretch of land from the Library to the Union, past the clock tower. I can see it, and smell it; that piece of grassy land. I don't how many times I was making that (very) short walk, when I would see people I knew. People I don't know anymore, people I wish I still knew, but can't seem to get a hold of.

I posted this cool thing at the bottom of my blog (and my webpage). It shows where in the world people are, who look at my blog. I'm not surprised to see that people from Asia are looking at my blog, because I know I have a number of students who headed home for the summer. What did surprise me was the dot that showed up in the center of the US. Who are you people? Give me shout-out, or something.

My thoughts go out....

I found out a few days ago, that a student I had during the Spring Quarter, died. I was thrown by it, not only because I found out she died, but because of the way I found out, and other odd things that happened over the next several days.

I don't want to mention her name, for privacy reasons, but my thoughts are with her family.

The Most Annoying Moment of the Summer Session

The Summer Session is now over. I'm going to turn in my grades tomorrow. I now get about a week off, before starting an MBA program at San Jose State University.

I'm still not completely sure if the MBA is a good idea. We'll see how it goes, I guess.

I wanted to talk about my least favorite moment of the Summer. It had nothing to do with my class, which warmed up to me over the course of six weeks. It had to do with another faculty member.

I often get mistaken for a student by other students, by faculty who think I'm parking illegally in staff parking (which I don't get, because I have a staff parking sticker on my car), and by people who just see me on campus.

This summer, someone from within my Division (Physical Sciences Math and Engineering) thought I was a student. What bothered me about it was, this is a person I see ALL THE TIME, in the Division office. I have rarely talked to this person, but at least I would recognize them, if I saw them.

I was turning in some paper work to the Division office, only to find it was locked. I saw a face I recognized through the glass door, and knocked. I was told by this person, who I see ALL THE TIME, that the office was closed and I would have to come back later. I was so insulted. I told them I was turning in paper work (that only faculty could turn in), they told me to come back later. I said "I"m faculty", then they turned it around and said, "Oh, you were trying to pull my leg, pretending to be a student." I don't see how me saying I wanted to turn in paper work, that only faculty could turn in, was pretending to be a student.

Frankly, that pissed me off. How self-centered can you be to not recognize a co-worker, who is fairly recognizable (not many people walk around campus with dreadlocks), and who has sees you ALL THE TIME in the Division office.

I think this illustrates a problem I've had with De Anza for a while. There seems to be this air that is put out there about what a great sense of community De Anza has; in my experience, the sense of community has been no better than anywhere else.

My (slightly) new look

So, Lauren is back. Geordi was so excited, he got in one of her bags...



I said I would shave after she got back, so I did, a little. I decided to go with the goatie look for a little while. We'll see how long it lasts. Here are before and after pictures.

Before

After

I wanted to post on other things also, but the other things I have to say are very different from posting about facial hair, so I'll post those thoughts later.

It's 6:19 am

I'm posting this at 6:19 am. I went to bed at about midnight last night. I've been awake for about an hour this morning.

I have no reason to be up early this morning. I don't have class, or anything pressing that needs to be done; I just can't sleep.

I've had a hard time sleeping through the night since I hurt my shoulder a couple of weeks ago. I've been told I have Grade I shoulder separation. It sounds worse than it is. You can read about that here.

I'm hoping to at least be productive this morning, since I'm up so early. I have a number of tasks that I would like to get done, before Lauren gets back tomorrow.

The Summer of Geordi

Lauren has been out of town since the middle of June. Because of this, Geordi and I have spent a lot of time with each other.

I have to say, I like him more now, than I used to. He doesn't seem to get on my nerves quite as much, and I think I don't get on his (although he got quite upset last night when I tried to clip his nails, while he was sleeping).

He lets me sleep, which is new. He used to be so annoying in the mornings, as soon as there was any movement, or signs that there might be a human awake. Now, he just sits on the bed, and doesn't do anything, until he sees that I'm actually getting up, then the super loud purring begins.

I took this picture yesterday. It's a good example of our coexistence this summer. He's not even trying to get to my food!