Post-conference Musings

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What's Going on?


K serves up a winner

K has been playing tennis after a few weeks off. He played in some instructional matches over the weekend, where they don’t keep score of the games, they’re just to give the students practice. He's going to practice weekly with a group consisting of other students 14 and under.

He also got a new violin not too long ago. Shar Music allowed us to borrow some to try at home before buying, and K picked out the one he liked best. Violin cases are very, very light these days, so taking it to school doesn’t strain his muscles much more than his backpack already strains them. Whether my wallet is strained is another question.


The mysterious sport of Ultimate Frisbee is partially depicted here. Parents are not allowed to know the rules or why it's played.

M is doing more Ultimate Frisbee and scoring points and it’s all still a great secret to his parents who aren’t really welcome at his games. But that’s OK - when he’s out playing Frisbee with his friends, we’re at home going through his room to make sure he’s not hiding anything from us.


The schedule for the conference at which I spoke

I spoke at a conference on Monday, the first time I’ve done that. The conference was sponsored by my company, and I was on the committee that organized it and picked the speakers. And volunteering to do it filled in an empty space in the schedule, so the committee (including me) were clearly not employing high standards in filling the slot. But - it counts. So there.

The talk was titled “C is for Cookie: Web Development Concepts for Analysts and Managers”. Before the class began, we watched this video. The “cookie” in my talk wasn’t an edible cookie, but rather the kind of cookie that your computer might store when you’re browsing the web. The point of the class was to introduce technical concepts to non-technical members of our development staff. It went well: the audience laughed when I hoped they would, my rehearsals in front of other people paid off, and it was a fun experience for me.

Book Nook
I read the book "Divergent" which is very popular with the kids these days and is also a movie. It was a pretty decent book until the end, which was quite unsatisfying. I'm not the only one who feels that way. Divergent belongs to a genre that has been very popular: books set in dystopian societies. "The Hunger Games" and "The Giver" are two more examples. Doesn't anyone write books about talking pigs and spider webs anymore?

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Back To School

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I know that guy.

Update: K and M Edition
It's September, so that means it's back to school for the boys.

K is in seventh grade, taking eighth-grade algebra, playing violin in the orchestra, taking piano lessons, and going to try out for the soccer team. He's continuing his tennis lessons and will play some matches this fall. I guess you could say he has a few things on his plate. When I think about it all, I have to go take a nap.

M is starting ninth grade with a bang - on his second day of school, he trekked to a park near Pioneer with a lot of other students (most of whom he didn't know) for the first Ultimate Frisbee team practice. They had their first game this morning, and Mark scored a, um, well, actually, I don't know what it is called when you score in Ultimate Frisbee? Touchdown? Ultimatum? I'll have to go look that up.

After enduring what sounded like a very tough week at band camp at Interlochen last month, M is playing sax in the Varsity band. He's still taking piano lessons, and has to rest his eyes often from marathon girl-watching. Don't tell him I said that.


Not me, but I have the same racket! (It's Andy Murray)

Update on Me
As you can see from the picture at the top of this post, I am presenting a class at an upcoming conference in Ann Arbor. The conference is sponsored by my company, and I am on the committee to organize it, invite speakers, make sure the conference site is set up correctly, and so on. It's been a lot of work, but fun to go through the process.

I finished the tennis class I was taking, and am on a waiting list for taking another in the fall (I waited too long to sign up - some of the classes are really popular). I got a lot better during the class, and also bought a new tennis racket. The racket I bought is one that some pros use, and it was a bitter disappointment when I discovered that merely using it did not make me play like a pro.

Family Picture

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August 16, 2014

One Week, Four People, Up North

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Scenes from our recent vacation


Here is a group of artists and their easels on the beach. It's hard to get the colors right when sand keeps blowing into the paint.


Four old friends take a break from a game of mini golf.


M and K play a game at Lucky Jack's - they have this game at home, so why not pay someone else in another city to play it when you're on vacation?


"So then I said 'I know you're still wearing it, but I found the watch, so it's mine. Ha ha ha ha!'"


K and Laurie play a game where they shoot balls at a target at Lucky Jack's.


A nice evening shot of the Frankfort lighthouse - picture by J.


On the way home, we stopped at Adventure Island in Cadillac, MI. M and I challenged each other to a few laps on the go-kart track. M demonstrated outstanding leadfootery and reckless driving, two traits I hope he doesn't carry with him when he starts to drive real cars.


M and K enjoy a plastic straw full of honey at Bee Dazzled, a farm in Benzonia (near Frankfort).


K and M on the beach.


M and K enjoy a decaf mocha while playing checkers at Trick Dog, an art store and coffee shop in Elberta, across Lake Betsie from Frankfort.


"...and I found the '64 Buick over there where that seagull is. I told you about the '64 Buick, right?"


This is what the lighthouse looks like when you're standing right next to it. It's much taller than it appears from shore.


Another great sunset shot by M.

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A Trip to Jackson, Some Tennis, and a Few Links

Jackson Visit

We went to Jackson last week to visit Mom and Dad (Grandma and Grandpa), and especially to see Dad's (Grandpa's) most recent sculpture outside Ella Sharp Museum.

It's titled "The Blonde Trick-Rider Practices for the State Fair".




At Ella Sharp, M finally realizes his dream of being on TV. Or in TV. Or behind TV.


M and K try out the "Whispering Bench", so named because a person can whisper into one end and the other person can hear it perfectly.


A yucca plant next to the house has sprouted quite a stalk.


While we were at Ella Sharp, we noticed a lot of hot-air balloons taking off. We were a little puzzled since the Hot Air Jubilee is scheduled for this coming weekend, but we were told that this was a preview of the Jubilee, intended to create excitement and publicity for the real thing.

Tennis Update
K played his first official USTA tournament over the weekend. He played four matches over two days, and we were exhausted just watching him play. Three of his four matches were against kids who had played many tournaments in the past, but he played hard and didn't give up any easy points. For all the time we were there, we somehow neglected to take even a single picture.

Links
Gears, gears, and more gears.

A clever idea for the reader on your Christmas list.

Shops and shopkeepers.

I keep looking, but I've never seen one of these to rent at the canoe livery.

And finally - nope, nope, nope-ity nope.

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Happy Independence Day, America!

M, facing the camera, in the middle of the action, wins the pie-eating contest. The boy with his back to camera who jumps up and celebrates has not actually won - M won, as determined by the judge in the orange shirt. M has dominated this contest two years in a row. Sadly, this is not the kind of talent that helps him get better grades or leads to a promising career, although it does temporarily satisfy his desire for dessert.

July 4th Greetings to All!
We are having a beautiful July 4 here in Michigan. The weather barely hit the low end of 80 degrees, and we had a picnic with a number of friends, acquaintances, and several people we hadn't met before today.

[Editor's Note: I started this on July 4th, but then we got together with some neighbors to eat s'mores and set off fireworks and it got too late to get it in before midnight.]

Happenings

A band plays to a pretty good-sized crowd at Top of the Park
We went to Top of the Park, part of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival last night. We had some yummy local food, saw some great musical acts including local favorite Laith Al-Saadi, whose music reminded me of southern jam-band blues. Great stuff. M and a friend of his stayed late to see the movie, which ended around midnight. J and I went home and went to bed at a sensible hour.


A Global Hello
I want to say hello to my friends and coworkers in India who tell me they regularly read this blog. Hello to Mahesh, Sai, Sampath (who have told me they read it) and all my other colleagues there.

A Graduation, and End of the Year Honors

M outside the school, on graduation day

Graduation Day
He finally did it - M completed eighth grade on Friday! There was a ceremony in the gym with all the students, and it was a packed house with parents, grandparents, and quite a few siblings who had taken the morning off school to see their brother or sister.

We were proud to watch M receive honors for being one of the top science students in the grade. He also was recognized as one of the 31 students who received all A's for every quarter from sixth through eighth grade. Last but not least, he was nominated for the "Golden Bear" award - two boys and two girls are named "Golden Bears" for being all-around great students, citizens, helpers, and just plain good people. They are nominated by teachers, and each teacher gets to vote for the winners. As they say at the Oscars, it's an honor just to be nominated, and the fact that M's teachers felt highly enough of him to nominate and vote for him makes his parents extremely proud.

During his three years at Slauson, M played soccer, volleyball, and tennis. He was a member of the Science Olympiad team for two years, the second of which saw him get a medal at the State competition. He was one of five students who made the morning announcements each day during the past year. He is going to do some volunteer work this summer at Safety Town, a class for preschoolers who will be in Kindergarten next year. He will also be going to band camp in August.

He has made a fine impression on his teachers and classmates in middle school, and we know he'll do the same next year at Pioneer High.

Great job, M!



M plays a sax solo with the Slauson Middle School Jazz Band before the graduation ceremony.

Math Olympiad Wrap-Up
On Saturday, another (long) year of Math Olympiad ended with a ceremony and lunch celebrating the hard work that all the students exhibited in the name of math education. This ended K's second year in the Math Olympiad program, and his second year of receiving a medal for being the top student in his class. His "top" status was determined by test scores, attendance, participation in class, homework, and other factors.

K has a special talent for math that he is going to continue to grow in the years to come. He was taking seventh-grade math this year as a sixth-grader, and next year will take eighth-grade math. In eighth grade, he will likely go to Pioneer High for first-hour math, then go back to middle school to take his other classes.

Congratulations to K on his high level of achievement in Math Olympiad!


K (third from left in the front row) has two medals - the one with the yellow lanyard is for being the top student in the class


K outside Tappan Middle School, where the Math Olympiad classes were held every Saturday morning during the school year.