MS Degree

A few weeks ago I received the paper version of my Masters degree in the mail! In our program the MS degree is just proof that you've gotten to a certain stage as you work toward your PhD so it's not as exciting as it could be (this concept still baffles my family). However, it did give me something exciting to tell my family at the beginning of March! My grandfather was the most excited, I think. Here is an excerpt of what he wrote back to everyone on the e-mail I sent (I've edited using standard punctuation to denote my edits):

...We now have five such degrees, either MA or MS, in the family. This includes your dad, [cousin's husband, other cousin's husband, cousin,] and yourself. I was within two credits of completing mine, when attending night school and summer sessions on the GI bill while teaching full time, when the first of my credits earned started rotting because of excess time. By that time I was within just a few years of my second retirement and decided that the increased effort to reinvigorate old credits would not be worth it. I do admit, however, that I would LOVE to be in the group listed above and I have the greatest respect for the intelligence, focus, and willingness to persevere required to achieve this and higher objectives. You GO girl, we all love and admire you...

I share that part of that e-mail because I think it's very indicative of a lot of things. The first, is that I have a very supportive family that totally encourages both the men and women to pursue whatever type of career/degree path they desire. A lot of women don't have that, and I believe that's one of the reasons that technical fields in general see fewer women in them.

The other aspect is that it is not assumed that anyone will go for a graduate degree even if they do pursue an undergraduate degree! It's amazing to me that some people I know have parents with graduate degrees, grandparents with graduate degrees, etc. They are all almost expected to obtain that level of education; even if they aren't actually expected to, there is at least that perception growing up. I will be the first in my family to get a PhD (at least as far I am aware of!), which makes it feel even more exciting! I guess the MS qualifies for that general type of status as well (being part of the first generation with a large number of MS degrees). I certainly don't think I'm better than other relatives for having done this, but I do think it's interesting to have chosen this path despite not having many family members to have also done so. This is especially true when I think about how few women in the US go for the PhD in general!

Barbara Liskov wins Turing Award!

What an amazing day! I was just casually checking my e-mail and what do I find out? That another woman has won the Turing Award!

MIT Press Release
ACM Press Release

Although I feel bad to be surprised about the fact a woman has won (why should anyone be surprised about that??), I don't know how I could not be excited. When Fran Allen won it seemed like a barrier had been broken, but it still seemed like it would a long time before the community was willing to honor another woman. Apparently we are better than I thought! From reading through the press releases she sounds like an amazing researcher. I wanted to share a few paragraphs from the ACM Press Release:

The award cites Liskov for her foundational innovations to designing and building the pervasive computer system designs that power daily life. Her achievements in programming language design have made software more reliable and easier to maintain. They are now the basis of every important programming language since 1975, including Ada, C++, Java, and C#. The Turing Award, widely considered the "Nobel Prize in Computing," is named for the British mathematician Alan M. Turing. The award carries a $250,000 prize, with financial support provided by Intel Corporation and Google Inc.

The first U.S. woman to be awarded a Ph.D. from a computer science department (in 1968 from Stanford University), Liskov revolutionized the programming field with groundbreaking research that underpins virtually every modern computer application for both consumers and businesses. Her contributions have led to fundamental changes in building the computer software programs that form the infrastructure of our information-based society. Her legacy has made software systems more accessible, reliable, and secure 24/7.

I want to go dance around the block! Maybe one day (in many decades) my research will be great enough to receive this type of acknowledgment. Once can only hope! Despite her obviously being a deserving recipient, her success will help highlight what great things women can do (and are already doing) in the field of computer science.

Guitar Hero World Tour!

Last month was Tim's birthday, so some friends and I got together to buy him Guitar Hero World Tour with the complete band. We had a huge debate about Rock Band vs. Guitar Hero, and in the end Guitar Hero won out.

Since then, we've played many times. Recently we bought 2 more Wii controllers (we only had 2) and a second guitar so that we could have 4 people playing at once! Our first Guitar Hero "party" was a big success, and we plan to have more. Since our living room is small, we can't have very many people over at a time, but we'd like to have everyone over eventually who helped buy the game for him. Between that and Killer Bunnies, we have lots of weekend activities and not enough time to do them!

I've become a big fan of the drum set. I didn't realize that it came to me more naturally than others until we had our Guitar Hero party and multiple people had problems with the basic drum beat. I've never played drum before (although I've always thought it would be "cool"), but I've been involved enough in music that I can easily keep a beat. It's a lot of fun to learn how to control your hands independently so you can hit the 5 different drums/cymbals in many different patterns. I'm nowhere near an expert, but I hope to be able to play all of the songs on Medium difficulty soon on drums!

One of our friends actually plays guitar, and he was a natural at Guitar Hero guitar. He was very quickly playing on Medium difficulty, and had no trouble with songs that Tim and I couldn't play (even though we'd played Guitar Hero guitar for many hours on Medium before then)! So it seems that musical experience can definitely help in this game.

Overall though, it was a great investment. If you can find a way to afford the $200 for this game, you should definitely get it. We use it to wind down in the evening, or take a break from work on the weekends. It's great for multi player or single player, and it feels great to see yourself getting better! Although music experience may give you an edge, you don't need it to play. You don't even need to be able to keep a beat to start playing this game, although the drums may be the hardest instrument for you. I can't see us getting sick of it anytime soon though!

Mists of Avalon - the movie

A few weeks ago I watched the made for TV movie Mists of Avalon. If you haven't read the book, you will most likely enjoy the movie. It tells a compelling story, has decent acting, and is interesting throughout.

However, it tells a different story than the book. If you really enjoyed the book, I would recommend skipping the movie. I was frustrated throughout on how they warped characters, warped storylines, and warped overarching points the author was making with her characters and plot lines. I think if I had watched this movie without reading the book I would have really enjoyed it and found it interesting. But after reading the book it was quite unpleasant and almost upsetting to watch. They completely missed the point!

If you want to watch this movie AND read the book, I recommend reading the book, waiting about 5 years (unless you have a really good memory about books), and then watching the movie.

Mists of Avalon - a must read!

Two Saturdays ago I finally finished the book Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. It took me about two years to read (with at least 5 other books started and finished during that time), but was well worth it! The characters are very deep, the storyline is very compelling, and the writing is fabulous.

For those who haven't read it, the book is essentially the King Arthur legend told from the perspective of the women. There are multiple perspectives given for any given period of time, and those perspectives are often from opposite sides of the spectrum. It is a great new way to look at the legend, and is very interesting in how the events intertwine with the social forces that are at work today.

I truly believe that everyone should read this book, as it is enlightening in many ways, but I especially believe that all women should read this book. It is very touching, and actually a bit empowering as you are reminded that women really can accomplish great things even when the social norms may not allow it.

Now of course I want to see the movie (The Mists of Avalon), although I doubt it will be as good as the book. How will it deal with the internal musings that encompass most of the writing?? And how will is condense almost 900 pages into a few short hours? Should be interesting.

I've also just discovered that there are two more books whose storylines occur before Mists of Avalon: Lady of Avalon, and The Forest House (Avalon, Book 2). Despite the fact that I have many other books to read, I may have to pick these up at some point as well. There are also a number of books written by a different author that relate to this series of books.

Since it's been over a week since I finished it and I am still gushing about how wonderful it was, I think it is fair to say that this is one of my new favorites!

Experiencing Undergrad Class Again

Classes just started up again, and although I am officially done with all course credits for my MS and PhD, I am sitting in on a class. This is not just any class though; it's an undergrad biology class! I know, I know...shocking.

The first class meeting was yesterday morning, in an auditorium. It wasn't a huge auditorium though, probably only about 100 people can sit in there (at least if you are limiting people to sitting on chairs). Of course, my first impression was "oh my goodness, they are all so little and young!" but after that all I could think was "shush!"

Sure, sure, I might not be able to say anything about looking young (I can still be mistaken as an undergrad by people over the age of 30!), but I definitely have no qualms talking about the noise level. It was quieter during class than before or after, but the chatter never completely stopped! I can see people thinking they could get away with it in a 200 or 300 person class, but 100? Maybe it was just because I was in the 3rd to last row that I heard it all, as maybe the first 10 rows know how to be quiet, but I doubt it. There was a girl sitting 2 seats away from me who was only quiet when the professor was explaining how the class would be graded. Otherwise she was chattering away with the people around her the entire time!

On top of the general noise, 5 minutes before class was supposed to end it got very noisy. I was very confused for about 20 seconds, and then the professor said "By my watch it is only 12:00, and class ends at 12:05 unless we end early." Apparently everyone was packing up and chatting and getting ready to go! 5 minutes early! I still can't believe it. We knew better than that in high school, and I'm really not THAT much older than these kids. To be fair, where we were at in the slides at 12 easily could have been mistaken for a stopping point, but the professor hadn't stopped. At least they quieted down rather quickly, we had 5 more minutes of class, and then we left.

I do feel sorry for the kids in the class though. They have FOUR exams this semester, quizzes, and the class is going to be taught differently than normal. Usually it is on 2 topics, half and half, but this semester it is primarily only 1 of those topics. It should be interesting to see how much that affects their later classes. Not to mention that those seats are hard, close together, and not very comfortable! There was lots of dried gum under the pull-out writing desk for my seat as well. Gross!

I have to say that I do not miss taking this type of class, and I think it will definitely be interesting to be teaching one in a few years!

New niece!

My sister gave birth to my second niece last night, at 1:28AM! What a night! I had really hoped to be down in VA when the new one came into the world, but I had two conference papers due last night at 3AM! The original due date for the baby was New Year's Day, which I would have been there for, but such is life!

Well, I don't really have classes to worry about right now so maybe I'll get a chance to see the baby some time in the next month or two. That's one of the worst parts about being in MA, I'm far enough away that I miss out on things like this! Of course, having conference submission deadlines in January doesn't really help much in general either. The best part about being a graduate student though is I might actually be able to take off enough time to go down and visit!

I hope everyone's new year is starting off with great events like this as well!

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Just before Christmas I made my way down to Virginia, via a few stops in New Jersey. It was so sad to leave so much snow; we had at least a foot of snow at my house when I left, and it was still falling! It definitely didn't help with driving progress, but I still made OK time. My bigger driving problem was that I was still on 66 near DC at 3:00 when rush hour started. Over an hour was added on to my total trip because of that timing. Oh well, I still made it home in time for dinner!

Christmas was great as I was able to see my adorable niece. She is around a year and a half old, and has grown so much since I saw her this summer! I gave her a play camera for Christmas as she loves having her picture taken, and she seemed to really enjoy it. It may be another year before she really understands how to use it, but she likes pushing the buttons on it and having other people pretend to take her picture with it.

Today though we actually had some flurries here! I couldn't believe it was actually snowing, especially since it was warm enough for me to wash my car yesterday morning. It didn't stick though, and also didn't last for very long. But at least it felt like winter for a bit. How amazing, winter in December!

Well, I only have a few more days of vacation left, and then it's back to Massachusetts to work on all of those paper deadlines that are rapidly approaching. It was a fun break though, and since it's snowing in MA again today I'll definitely have snow when I get back!

Officially Class Free!

As of 12:30PM this afternoon, I have finished all of the course requirements for my graduate program! This is of course assuming I pass the class whose final I took this morning, but I'm not very worried about that.

Yes, I am a fourth year graduate student who is just now finishing classes; but for my department, this is a normal amount of time. Luckily, they just decreased our required course load by 4 classes, so instead of taking classes again next semester, I can completely focus on my research. What a relief! I am not opposed to classes, but I have lost so much time in the last 3.5 years because of classes that I can't wait to catch up on all of the different research pursuits I've been working on. I plan to still sit in on some classes and take a few interesting seminars, but now I can choose solely based on what is useful to me, and therefore concentrate on learning what I need to know instead of worrying about a grade.

It's an amazing feeling to be done. Sure, I have a year or two left in the program (our median is almost 7 years), but I finally don't have to take classes! Amazing! It's similar to the feeling I had after taking my last final in undergrad, where this immense burden is just gone. An important goal has been accomplished! I feel as if I have plenty of time to accomplish anything I want. Hopefully that will last at least a few days.

You can have an Obama [insert anything]!

It's interesting how many e-mails I get from Barack Obama's campaign as well as MoveOn.org a month after elections have ended. They are still trying to raise money, and are going about trying to get donations by offering many different free items for your donation. In the past few weeks I have been offered "limited edition" calendars, hats, scarves, t-shirts (first there was a Victory t-shirt, now there's an Inauguration t-shirt), long-sleeve t-shirts, and stickers. Actually, the stickers from MoveOn.org were free right after the election, although they encouraged you to also make a donation (I got a free one).

Do people really need to be essentially bribed to give money? Wouldn't it be more effective if all of the money went to the campaign, instead of also having to pay for the goodies? But yet, I can't help but want the goodies myself. The idea of "free" things, even if I'm technically paying for it, can be too much to resist! However, I have indeed resisting giving more money to anyone this late in the year (Although I did get conned into finally giving to an environmental group, and my "gift" for being a first time donor should be coming in the mail soon!).

On another note, anyone who watches The Daily Show is probably thinking about the segment they did just after the election about all of the Obama stuff that is floating around nowadays. "Get your commemorate plate now, to celebrate the election of our first black president!" It's consumerism at it's best (or worst, depending on how you look at it), but yet I still want "stuff" so I can commemorate such an exciting time in America! So far I've only succumbed to stickers though, as I'm trying to get less "stuff" in general!! I guess it helps to have a limited amount of disposable income, thank you graduate school! Although most people can probably "thank" the recession for giving them that same situation.