fdsailor.blog-city.com — December 2005
Classes and life
Today started off with a bang - I gave two training classes (2 hours each, on two different topics) to 22 people from Harris' Melbourne, Florida division that came to Rochester to learn about developing software for one of our radio products. I feel for these people - they are going through a true "crash course". Three weeks ago, they were given "pre-reading" for all the classes they were going to take, with the idea that they would study it for two weeks, 8 hours a day. They then come up to Rochester, and listen (for two weeks) to 7 hours per day of dense, compact training material. They are motivated to learn it, because they have real work to do with this stuff, and know they will have limited access to the instructors or other help (because we are quite busy at the moment).
If I had to go through this, I think I would be brain-dead by now! They only have two more days to go!
Either way, the training went just fine. And it was recorded for posterity sake (my voice and the presentation from the PC that is - no live video pictures). I actually enjoy this, because (unlike some other training I am asked to do sometimes) I really DO know what I am talking about, so don't have to live in fear of questions I have no clue about!
I then spent several hours recovering (ever tried speaking for 4 1/2 hours straight, with only a 10 minute break at the 2 hour point?). The rest of the day went uneventually.
Sometime soon I need to go to Florida and visit my Mom - against our advice (hear that, Mom?) she returned to Florida (where she spends the winters) 4 days after a category 3 Hurricane passed through the area and had flooded everywhere and generally caused a mess. She lost her carport and screened porch - but went anyways. Well, she is doing fine, but that doen't make life easy... So sometime I will have to go see her. Tough duty, as Florida is soo cold this time of year :-))
Christmas / New Year's update
Well, it obviously has been a while since I have written something - but now is as good a time as ever. Let's see - what has been going on?
Well, first of all, an update on Gwendolyn and her Anatomy class. Well, despite how it may have felt to her as she studied for her final three tests (in a one week period - including two back-to-back on the same day), she did great, and has, well (to avoid embarassing her publicly), we'll say a "very" solid A in the course. 'Nuff said. She certainly is glad to have that over with. Congratulations, Gwendolyn!
I took the Friday before Christmas off (two days after G's final), and until Christmas we did not do anything really serious - more vacationed, which seems fair enough. G did not even do any studying (she has two "self study" semester courses to finish by the end of January!). The week before we had obtained a tree, and we put lights on it, had a fire, and just sort of chilled. On Christmas eve we went to midnight mass at church, which I really enjoy because I get to sing many Christmas hymns-- and smell the wonderful incense, even if I AM allergic to it.
We slept in a bit on Christmas day, having gotten to bed at 1:30 am that morning. The snow on the ground had been melting, but by Christmas morning it was still white - so we did have a white Christmas after all. We called, were called, or IM chatted with quite a few people, wishing Merry Chrismas. We prepared a full Christmas dinner, complete with a roast turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, aspargus, green beans and a wonderful dessert tart G had bought at Wegmans the day before.
It was really a wonderful, and very quiet night - something that could be enjoyed after several days of relaxation. The fire crackled away, time stood still, and life was for a while uncomplicated and simply good.
The next day started the week - which for me was a "vacation week", and for G was really more school work. It is incredible how hard she works, and how dedicated she is. Her focus is incredible and has to be seen to be believed. At times, however, I feel sorry for her - it seems that "learning the material well" is the only option. She will be the most educated Nurse Practitioner around, no doubt.
As for myself, while she is doing all of this hard work, I am doing a combination of things on my to-do lists, some work related stuff (but enjoyable from my standpoint - no specific task work, but rather new tool evaluation - learning, lots of learning), some hobbys, some reading, exercise and eating. Not as many things actually get done as I would like, but in the end, I am on vacation, so that is fine.
For the last several days, I have been encouraging G to pick something FUN she would like to do to prevent study burn-out. This took quite a bit of thought on her part, but in the end she suggested we visit the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester. We tend to go there every several years, and it is a very pleasent pasttime. Admission was free for us, because my employer gives them money.
It was wonderful. Relaxed art viewing and visiting-- some remembered, some not. Now and then you would turn a corner and see some special, familiar piece of art. When this happens, you really feel at home there, like visiting an old friend. There are several pieces that I could look at for quite some time, as well as several other pieces that are wonderful, yet haunting.
We followed this with dessert (cake), and then grocery shopping at Wegmans. Dinner was salmon, eaten while watching "Brideshead revisited" - a DVD G is working through. Gwendolyn joined "Blockbuster online" a month ago - this gives here essentially unlimited DVDs (3 out at a time) - you send one back in the mail, and two days later the next on her online "queue" comes. As Masha demonstrated while she was here, with this arrangement you can watch over 30 DVDs or more a month for your $15, if you are really obsessive. Gwendolyn uses it a bit differently - many of hers are television series that take several sittings to get though, so she is seeing perhaps 3 per week. Still, not bad for $1.25 per rental with no due date. I can't remember the past films, but our current batch consists of:
- Sisterhood of the traveling pants
- Brideshead revisited, disk 1 (PBS)
- Allie McBeale, disk 1
So that at least brings things up to date! More as it happens, or so we can wish...
