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Monday, July 09, 2007
What have I been up to lately?
Since a few people have asked me, here's what I've been doing.
Portugal Conference
Went very well. I met more people than I did my last two conferences, including a lot of great graduate students. The location was lovely (the hotel itself, and its food, kind of meh). The talks, for the most part, went far too fast and gave too much information. After stressing about my own talk all week, in the end I think it went pretty well. I got some interesting questions, many people congratulated me on a good talk, and Bill Lawvere even came up to me at lunch afterwards, shook my hand, and said "great talk"! (That, right there, was worth the price of admission). I'd love to see more of Portugal. We were in a very touristy town, but the natural scenery was beautiful, and the people were very friendly.
Teaching Calculus
Last Wednesday I started teaching a compressed (6 week) first-year university calculus course. Man, was I ever nervous in the hours leading up to the first lecture. It all seemed to go pretty smoothly, though. The class (~35 students) seems like a very good bunch. I'm using an online assignment system, and that has had a few issues, but hopefully it'll be running smoothly soon enough. Hopefully this is the first of many courses I'll be teaching...
The Usual Games Nonsense
M and I got a new computer (it was getting really difficult only having one, as we both use the internet and type stuff all the time). As her birthday present to me, M got me a nice graphics card for the new computer. After reading some of the stories about it, I knew I had to try Stalker on the new computer that could actually run the thing. I'm really impressed with how well they've made the world feel real. Factions fight each other, people die and events happen when you're not around, the dynamics and social interactions of the world seem to be constantly shifting, you have to make real moral decisions. It's really quite impressive.
Since a few people have asked me, here's what I've been doing.
Portugal Conference
Went very well. I met more people than I did my last two conferences, including a lot of great graduate students. The location was lovely (the hotel itself, and its food, kind of meh). The talks, for the most part, went far too fast and gave too much information. After stressing about my own talk all week, in the end I think it went pretty well. I got some interesting questions, many people congratulated me on a good talk, and Bill Lawvere even came up to me at lunch afterwards, shook my hand, and said "great talk"! (That, right there, was worth the price of admission). I'd love to see more of Portugal. We were in a very touristy town, but the natural scenery was beautiful, and the people were very friendly.
Teaching Calculus
Last Wednesday I started teaching a compressed (6 week) first-year university calculus course. Man, was I ever nervous in the hours leading up to the first lecture. It all seemed to go pretty smoothly, though. The class (~35 students) seems like a very good bunch. I'm using an online assignment system, and that has had a few issues, but hopefully it'll be running smoothly soon enough. Hopefully this is the first of many courses I'll be teaching...
The Usual Games Nonsense
M and I got a new computer (it was getting really difficult only having one, as we both use the internet and type stuff all the time). As her birthday present to me, M got me a nice graphics card for the new computer. After reading some of the stories about it, I knew I had to try Stalker on the new computer that could actually run the thing. I'm really impressed with how well they've made the world feel real. Factions fight each other, people die and events happen when you're not around, the dynamics and social interactions of the world seem to be constantly shifting, you have to make real moral decisions. It's really quite impressive.
Comments:
thanks for the update -- it's weird to think of you being an actual, real professor (you're still just my teenage brother in my head, like I'm still about 15). But after all the times you've patiently tried to explain mathmatical concepts to me, I'm sure teaching first-year calc is a breeze! good luck with the rest of the course!
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