Archive for March, 2008

This is five minutes.

Sunday, March 30th, 2008

My next panels. Satisfyingly, my images are starting to take on a theme which is indicated by the billboard here. What word could better represent the city in flux? For this piece, I was excited to find a site in San Francisco where twin buildings were being constructed. After biding my time, I finally got a shot in which the first building was finished and the second was still under construction, just a skeleton of the structure to be. So I’m excited about this one. It’s going to be really hard to find an image that captures the transformation of the city in a better overall composition.

I might not even try:.The unfuckable-with perfectness of the billboard and the depressingly slim chances that such perfection will strike twice got me thinking that (when this series is done) maybe I will start constructing these scenes from scratch, so every part of them is perfect. Certainly sounds like something I’d do.

construction

The defense was up to snuff as well.

Thursday, March 20th, 2008

Almost-done panels! The color mixed out more blue than the green I planned for, but sometimes life gives you blue. Just have to roll with the punches.
ship panels

Incidentally, I visited this site again today. It’s at the Pier 66 boatyard, down a small path from Illinois Street, next to The Ramp restaurant. Definitely one of my new favorite spots in the city.
pier 66 boatyard

Tomorrow: video from the first day of spring in the Mission.

Find out the simulated results for every single game.

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

Who will be the 2008 CMA commencement speaker, you ask? The more link contains all the answers you seek.

(more…)

Our facility serves you in many ways.

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

On the drive home from work last night I got a text message from a student:

Approximately six seconds later, turning on to Cesar Chavez Street, I entered a plume of brown smoke quickly sweeping through the neighborhood. The smoke was coming from Valencia Street and before I knew exactly what was going on, there was a palpable sense of dread.

.

The fire was two blocks away, though. A full smorgasbord of citizens of the Mission-Valenica corridor gathered on the street to watch the scene unfold.

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Nothing brings the neighborhood together like a four alarm blaze. I even saw Colleen (a fellow survivor of the UCSF Puttlitz Lab) for the first time in over a year.

Our faces mirror each other

Sunday, March 16th, 2008

My second panorama is just about done! It’s an abandoned cruise ship in the old SF shipyard. Exciting stuff for me. It will look something like this.

a ship

You won’t like the answer, but there’s no rule against it.

Sunday, March 16th, 2008

Saturday was good. Me and CW started the day at The Grubsteak, the old rail-car restaurant where dining options fall into two distinct categories: diner food and fine Portuguese cuisine. We got the greasy breakfast. Recently, CW has been revaluating how much of me she wants to see around. It is a complicated question and many factors, such as her new rescue dog who wants to devour my leg, are working against me. For the moment, though, I had the undevoured leg up on the little bastard for long enough for a waterfront ride along the Embarcadero to the Ferry Building farmers’ market, where the determined cheapskate can fill up on locally grown organic miscellany, one quarter of an ounce at a time. And Pier 39. A more determined version of myself would have the energy to explain why the dude who jumps on glass reminds me of myself. Needless to say, there are some good things about Fisherman’s Wharf:

[flv:http://www.feather2pixels.com/blog/post_video/pier_39.flv 640 480]

And later, alone, I rode to the ocean, where it turned out to be one of those days you have to be kind of crazy to be there. I couldn’t keep my eyes open because the entire beach was engulfed in a small sandstorm and later in the shower I was rubbing the California Coast out of my hair for at least ten minutes. I needed it, though, and that’s what I love about cold, slightly disgusting and dangerous Ocean Beach–I haven’t done anything that deliberate in weeks. Plus, there were driftwood sculptures.

sculptures at the beach

I’ll cut to the chase: the most important thing that happened on Saturday was Pitt’s dominating Big East Tournament championship. They were simply unstoppable. It was totally unexpected. Why, it was just two weeks ago that I was sitting alone in the Pinole Valley Applebee’s parking lot, sobbing to myself after a fourteen point spanking by West Virginia in what must be the most pathetic snapshot from the last couple of years of my life.

I’m happy now, though.

pitt wins!

Lunch with the Search Committee.

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

One pothole to rule them all.

the one pothole

The Pope will be apologizing.

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

Here are the results from my Statics midterm:

histogram

The reverse bell curve. The ditch. The grave.

I spent a bunch of Sunday thinking about what this data really means. On the surface it seems like half my students get it and the other half don’t. I don’t really believe that, though. I keep pretty close tabs on my class and I think most of them are getting Statics. I think this data means that half of my students are good test-takers and the other half aren’t. And I think I’m still idealistic enough about education to believe that being a bad test-taker shouldn’t stop a student from being successful.

Of course many people might say that success should have nothing to do with exams at all. I’m not sure I totally believe that either. One of the most useful and least tangible things you get from engineering school is the confidence of finishing. Later on, you might learn how to actually engineer something. So good:I’m glad 14 people failed! If my 14 F students can find a way to improve their ability to solve highly irrelevant math problems under timed conditions, I believe they will have gained something significant. And if I can find a way to help my 14 F students get better at solving highly irrelevant math problems under timed conditions, then I will have achieved something, too.

Come for the speech, stay for the disinfectant.

Saturday, March 1st, 2008

America’s election fever is so hot that even the Maritime Academy’s come down with a temperature. Cadet political action reached a one year high during student election week. A recent stroll across the major bulletin boards of campus revealed campaigns in the throes of various degrees of apathy.

Taking advantage of the carriage return feature of Microsoft Word, this candidate invoked the might of Nordic mythology. Although the office sought is perhaps a bit unclear, the candidate’s platform on flaming hammers is not.

Rejecting the slippery slope of university-printed campaign materials, this political poster explores the possibilities of an underused format. And with limited space to make a memorable impact, what could speak more to the people than a thoughtfully worded Post-it?

Stepping the bar way up was Ms. Wood. This one had it all: color, rhyme, humor. I loved it. However, with one of the highest jackass to female ratios in the state, I suppose vandalism was inevitable on this campus. This is an outrage. Or, you know, would be an outrage if it weren’t so funny.

…And anyway, attempts to elude would be vandals means that your high-posted poster loses impact, if not intelligibility.

Pro-growth policies will be ineffective.

Saturday, March 1st, 2008

Feather2pixels has been on unofficial hiatus and make no mistake: the only reason I am writing now is a gigantic stack of grading situated on the corner of my desk in dire need of procrastination. I can do that. This year’s tease of a spring break–two days, extended to three by a technique I call canceling classes–is coming to a close and we need to pull it all together before April’s graduation. This is me pulling it together.