I was reviewing my blog statistics tonight due to insomnia, and I noticed that I'm getting a sizable number of views from a russian domain that forwards to a conspiracy theory website, as well as a few views from Germany and Saudi Arabia.
Weirder still is that I don't know anyone in those countries, so I'm not entirely sure how my humble little blog got navigated to by people I don't know, but I suppose I can't complain?
More interesting still is that a majority (As in more than the G+ links that I post) of the domains that send users here is coming from the same Russian domain name. I'm guessing my blog was randomly linked by a bot since I can't seem to figure out how one would post a link to the site in question, but it's an interesting trend no less.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Friday, December 16, 2011
Happy *****
I'm going to open this one with a warning - If you are of a strongly religious stance, there's a good chance something (or everything) about this post will offend you. While you're more than welcome to disagree, and I welcome civil discourse in the comments, any baseless accusations or harassing comments will be deleted.
The present prominence of faith in our politics and our day to day lives is starting to get a bit excessive. For the sake of debate, I am going to leave my own beliefs out of this. From Rick Perry'sbigoted poorly planned campaign ad opening with the implication that Christianity is an oppressed religion (hint: it's not) to the yearly bickering over saying Merry Christmas in public, I feel like I can't get a word in edgewise to ask why we're getting bent out of shape about this at all.
I think what's really been irking me is the preponderance of posts on various social media sites using phrases such as "So glad to see that (place) is not afraid to say Merry Christmas!". It's the use of afraid, once again acting as if Christianity is some repressed and secretive lifestyle in the U.S and Christmas is some frowned upon holiday that only the very brave celebrate, that really starts to get to me (In part due to the negative connotations anything but christianity has in social circles, but let's not go there).
The corporations and the media do not avoid saying 'Merry Christmas' because they're afraid of offending someone, or afraid of expressing their beliefs. The reason they say happy holidays is because, even though Christianity is a majority of people, it is not the only religion in the United States, and it's not the only one with a holiday that falls at the end of the year. Heck, in today's society, implying you're celebrating The Day of Ashura, an Islamic holiday which is a public holiday in other nations, could be enough to get you beaten up, probably by some form of extremist who thinks you're on your way to blow up the White House.
Nobody is trying to take away Christmas. If anything, this constant bickering over the phrase is taking away the right to celebrate anything other than Christmas. Have we really become so narrow minded as a nation that we've forgotten that there are other holidays out there that fall around this time? That we have to call it a 'christmas party', even though Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Atheists, and who knows what else may be there, lest we give up our countrys' freedom? What would happen if we called it a Hanukkah party?
This idea that we're trying to oppress Christmas by including others is becoming silly at best and insulting to this nation's background at worst. The mainstream media has noticed that we're not a nation of just one religion (although they seem to be quickly forgetting this fact), and it's time that the American people do as well.
The present prominence of faith in our politics and our day to day lives is starting to get a bit excessive. For the sake of debate, I am going to leave my own beliefs out of this. From Rick Perry's
I think what's really been irking me is the preponderance of posts on various social media sites using phrases such as "So glad to see that (place) is not afraid to say Merry Christmas!". It's the use of afraid, once again acting as if Christianity is some repressed and secretive lifestyle in the U.S and Christmas is some frowned upon holiday that only the very brave celebrate, that really starts to get to me (In part due to the negative connotations anything but christianity has in social circles, but let's not go there).
The corporations and the media do not avoid saying 'Merry Christmas' because they're afraid of offending someone, or afraid of expressing their beliefs. The reason they say happy holidays is because, even though Christianity is a majority of people, it is not the only religion in the United States, and it's not the only one with a holiday that falls at the end of the year. Heck, in today's society, implying you're celebrating The Day of Ashura, an Islamic holiday which is a public holiday in other nations, could be enough to get you beaten up, probably by some form of extremist who thinks you're on your way to blow up the White House.
Nobody is trying to take away Christmas. If anything, this constant bickering over the phrase is taking away the right to celebrate anything other than Christmas. Have we really become so narrow minded as a nation that we've forgotten that there are other holidays out there that fall around this time? That we have to call it a 'christmas party', even though Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Atheists, and who knows what else may be there, lest we give up our countrys' freedom? What would happen if we called it a Hanukkah party?
This idea that we're trying to oppress Christmas by including others is becoming silly at best and insulting to this nation's background at worst. The mainstream media has noticed that we're not a nation of just one religion (although they seem to be quickly forgetting this fact), and it's time that the American people do as well.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Grad School Story (Part 3)
So this should hopefully wrap everything up as it stands now. In my previous post I wrapped up by talking about my re-found interest in atmospheric science, and that it turned out it was more viable as a career than I had originally thought.
I started off my (new) search by writing emails to a few schools of interest. This included Penn State (again), but also included the University of Illinois, the University of Washington, and the University of Arizona. The emails were pretty basic - stating my interest, and asking a few questions about the program, how my academic background would affect my admission (and success), and what sort of research topics were open at the present time.
I should preface this by stating that whenever I emailed a professor in Engineering, here or at another school, if I got a response, it usually took 2 - 3 days. Even then, the response was short and typically not very helpful. This is also why Penn State's program was of interest since it broke this mold. For this reason, I was not overly optimistic about any responses I was about to get since I figured it was the way of the busy professor.
Much to my surprise, my first response came within 30 minutes. It was actually extremely helpful, advising me to contact a few other professors whose work would be of interest, talking about the nature of the program, and the process of being accepted. This one email had already trumped the overall helpfulness of every other engineering program I had contacted.
The next morning, I had a total of about 7 or 8 responses from the other professors I had emailed. Each of them was just as helpful as the previous, talking about their work, the work of others in the department, how I could be involved, and what the application process was like. The department head at one school even asked me for my number so he could call me in person and discuss the program in depth with me. That call was just as helpful as everything else that I had gotten, and cemented my feelings that I was on the right track.
Overall, I got an overwhelmingly positive response from these professors and the program in general. Not only did they all seem more interested in the students themselves, but the program was in general far more laid back, and even had the opportunity to steer my thesis topic as opposed to being constrained to whatever a company would sponsor.
The more laid back nature of the program at once excited and concerned me. I was (and to a point, still am) somewhat concerned about being bored academically. My mom made an excellent point, though, in that sometimes it's better to be overqualified for a position because it means you're never stressed out.
So now we arrive to today, after 3 entries encompassing the last semester of ups and downs. I had submitted applications to the graduate school in Atmospheric Science at the University of Washington, and the University of Illinois, and to the Meteorology program at Penn State.
As it stands, the University of Illinois is most interesting to me due to the overwhelmingly positive response I got from their faculty (their dept. head was the one who called me), the possibilities of getting involved in convective storm modeling, the involvement of one professor with the VORTEX2 project ('Twister' was a dramatization of VORTEX, and Storm Chasers follows VORTEX2), and the general open-endedness of their graduate program in terms of topics of study. There also seems to be funding readily available. Following that, Penn State is probably second and Washington is third.
The applications are submitted, references sent, scores entered, and all that other fun stuff making my application complete. From here, it's just a matter of waiting, and suffice it to say I will keep those reading here updated as it comes.
From here on, though, I'm hoping to focus a bit more on topics of interest to people other than me. Scientific developments, technology (I have a review of Linux/Debian in the works), and political movements. Should be interesting!
I started off my (new) search by writing emails to a few schools of interest. This included Penn State (again), but also included the University of Illinois, the University of Washington, and the University of Arizona. The emails were pretty basic - stating my interest, and asking a few questions about the program, how my academic background would affect my admission (and success), and what sort of research topics were open at the present time.
I should preface this by stating that whenever I emailed a professor in Engineering, here or at another school, if I got a response, it usually took 2 - 3 days. Even then, the response was short and typically not very helpful. This is also why Penn State's program was of interest since it broke this mold. For this reason, I was not overly optimistic about any responses I was about to get since I figured it was the way of the busy professor.
Much to my surprise, my first response came within 30 minutes. It was actually extremely helpful, advising me to contact a few other professors whose work would be of interest, talking about the nature of the program, and the process of being accepted. This one email had already trumped the overall helpfulness of every other engineering program I had contacted.
The next morning, I had a total of about 7 or 8 responses from the other professors I had emailed. Each of them was just as helpful as the previous, talking about their work, the work of others in the department, how I could be involved, and what the application process was like. The department head at one school even asked me for my number so he could call me in person and discuss the program in depth with me. That call was just as helpful as everything else that I had gotten, and cemented my feelings that I was on the right track.
Overall, I got an overwhelmingly positive response from these professors and the program in general. Not only did they all seem more interested in the students themselves, but the program was in general far more laid back, and even had the opportunity to steer my thesis topic as opposed to being constrained to whatever a company would sponsor.
The more laid back nature of the program at once excited and concerned me. I was (and to a point, still am) somewhat concerned about being bored academically. My mom made an excellent point, though, in that sometimes it's better to be overqualified for a position because it means you're never stressed out.
So now we arrive to today, after 3 entries encompassing the last semester of ups and downs. I had submitted applications to the graduate school in Atmospheric Science at the University of Washington, and the University of Illinois, and to the Meteorology program at Penn State.
As it stands, the University of Illinois is most interesting to me due to the overwhelmingly positive response I got from their faculty (their dept. head was the one who called me), the possibilities of getting involved in convective storm modeling, the involvement of one professor with the VORTEX2 project ('Twister' was a dramatization of VORTEX, and Storm Chasers follows VORTEX2), and the general open-endedness of their graduate program in terms of topics of study. There also seems to be funding readily available. Following that, Penn State is probably second and Washington is third.
The applications are submitted, references sent, scores entered, and all that other fun stuff making my application complete. From here, it's just a matter of waiting, and suffice it to say I will keep those reading here updated as it comes.
From here on, though, I'm hoping to focus a bit more on topics of interest to people other than me. Scientific developments, technology (I have a review of Linux/Debian in the works), and political movements. Should be interesting!
Grad School Story (Part 2)
Okay, really, really! I promised I'd update that same day, but well... then I got wind of a few scores I didn't know before then, so needless to say that studying took priority. The good news is that finals, and my second-to-last semester as an undergrad are now DONE! And what better way to honor the occasion than to talk a little bit more about where I'm hoping to go after that.
I wrapped up my last post with a bit of a cliffhanger - essentially, the professor at Penn State had said he was very much interested in having me there, but that funding to attend was going to be an issue. Still, he had a few grant proposals out that could fund me, and he said he'd keep me in the loop as to any developments.
About... say, 2 weeks after this, I got another email from the professor. It turned out that the grant had not been funded and the money was (most likely) not there for me to go. He did say that the sponsor of the project was hoping to try again, but I could tell that he was not optimistic about that playing out in my favor.
It goes without saying from my point of view that this was quite a setback. Perhaps the biggest setback at this point was that Penn State, and this professor, were well above and beyond the responses that I got from any other school. To have what seemed to be a promising lead dry up on me was definitely a blow. However, if there's one thing that I've learned, it's that life has this really funny way of making things work out.
I took the time to consider my options - Should I keep searching and pushing at other schools and hope that I got somewhere? Should I just abandon the grad school track alltogether and start looking for a job? The possibilities were pretty broad.
A weird series of circumstances led me to the answer to this question. In the process of trying to do a homework assignment for another class, I was put in contact with someone whom I did an independent research assignment with a few years ago in the Atmospheric Sciences department. Now, Atmospheric Science has been ainterest passion of mine from a young age. The thing is that I remembered looking into the program a while back when considering a change of major. There were few jobs, the ones that did exist were highly competitive, and even if you got the job, it didn't pay well (< 40k), even with a masters. Figuring I could start ~60k with a bachelors in engineering in an equally interesting field, I chose to stick to that path.
Well, I decided to look this statistic up again from census data. Much to my surprise, the job market for atmospheric scientists has exploded, mostly due to the increasing reliance on climate trends and the effects on business in this economy. What originally was a highly competitive, 40k on the high end field now didn't have nearly enough people and was paying on average 80-100k (mean, not starting). I admit that the statistics did not specify WHERE these people worked, but they did say that the demand for them was increasing very quickly, and expected to continue that trend for the next several years.
I took this as my cue to look into the atmospheric sciences programs at other schools (including here, despite my lack of desire to remain), to see what my options were there, and what that sort of change in focus could mean. And now that it's approaching far-too-early AM, I am going to wrap this one up here. Part 3 should be the conclusion of everything as it stands, and will hopefully come tomorrow!
I wrapped up my last post with a bit of a cliffhanger - essentially, the professor at Penn State had said he was very much interested in having me there, but that funding to attend was going to be an issue. Still, he had a few grant proposals out that could fund me, and he said he'd keep me in the loop as to any developments.
About... say, 2 weeks after this, I got another email from the professor. It turned out that the grant had not been funded and the money was (most likely) not there for me to go. He did say that the sponsor of the project was hoping to try again, but I could tell that he was not optimistic about that playing out in my favor.
It goes without saying from my point of view that this was quite a setback. Perhaps the biggest setback at this point was that Penn State, and this professor, were well above and beyond the responses that I got from any other school. To have what seemed to be a promising lead dry up on me was definitely a blow. However, if there's one thing that I've learned, it's that life has this really funny way of making things work out.
I took the time to consider my options - Should I keep searching and pushing at other schools and hope that I got somewhere? Should I just abandon the grad school track alltogether and start looking for a job? The possibilities were pretty broad.
A weird series of circumstances led me to the answer to this question. In the process of trying to do a homework assignment for another class, I was put in contact with someone whom I did an independent research assignment with a few years ago in the Atmospheric Sciences department. Now, Atmospheric Science has been a
Well, I decided to look this statistic up again from census data. Much to my surprise, the job market for atmospheric scientists has exploded, mostly due to the increasing reliance on climate trends and the effects on business in this economy. What originally was a highly competitive, 40k on the high end field now didn't have nearly enough people and was paying on average 80-100k (mean, not starting). I admit that the statistics did not specify WHERE these people worked, but they did say that the demand for them was increasing very quickly, and expected to continue that trend for the next several years.
I took this as my cue to look into the atmospheric sciences programs at other schools (including here, despite my lack of desire to remain), to see what my options were there, and what that sort of change in focus could mean. And now that it's approaching far-too-early AM, I am going to wrap this one up here. Part 3 should be the conclusion of everything as it stands, and will hopefully come tomorrow!
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Grad School Story (Pt. 1)
So, this is going to be the first of two eventual posts today, albeit with two very different focuses. This one is coming during a study break for finals, and focuses on what I have in mind post graduation since it's been a recurring question I have gotten. As such, there's a bit of a story to be had...
Those who know me in real life know two things - first, that I am an Aerospace Engineering major, and second, that I intend to go to graduate school. Not because I need it, but because I can see myself too easily becoming bored in the regular 9-5 jobs that most engineers take post-graduation. A career goal of mine is also to become a college professor, and naturally graduate school is the means to that end.
I decided over the summer to get a drop on applying for graduate schools. If I could get it all done early, it was one thing off of my plate, AND my application was sitting on top of the pile. So, I took the GRE over the summer and began searching for potential graduate programs of interest.
In the process of narrowing down schools, I started flipping through a few professors' work at each school to see if their research interested me. One professor at Penn State stuck out for his work on aerodynamics, so I resolved to contact him that next week. I decided to take a different route to help myself stand out, so I chose to call the professor as opposed to the typical emails that I'm sure he got.
One ring... two rings... "Hello?". Whoa whoa whoa, wait a minute. I actually got an answer? A professor at the UA answering their emails was a rare enough occurrence (and I honestly figured it carried to most other places), but I actually got an answer on the phone! This meant I had to actually think on my feet now. The professor and I had a nearly 20 minute conversation about what I'm interested in, the work he does, and other topics. At the end of the conversation, he actually invited me out to the campus to meet him and tour his labs. Needless to say, I got to work on my ticket there right away.
A few months passed and I was on my way. Thanks to some good friends from high school, I had a place to stay as well. Off I went to Penn State to meet the professor and tour the labs, which turned out to be a very enlightening experience. The professor said he definitely was interested in having me there, but there was one problem - the ever present money issue. I didn't realize it at the time, but Pennsylvania is hurting financially worse than most other states. He said he did have one grant out at the moment, and he'd let me know how that one turned out. If he got it, the money would be there... if he didn't, well... you get the idea.
All and all, I felt the meeting went really well. The professor was honest with me in terms of my strengths, weaknesses, and problems that may lie ahead. He didn't sugarcoat anything, but he was honest. He felt that I had an excellent chance of getting accepted, but that getting the funding to go would be a definite question mark, as it was for a great many students today. He said to keep in contact, and to let him know if I had any other questions for him, and he would let me know about how the grants played out.
As a bit of a side note (since when I tell this story, this part tends to surprise people), in science and engineering fields, it is very common that graduate school tuition is waived, along with paying a stipend. In most engineering fields (and a decent percentage of science fields), there is an unspoken rule that if you do not get funded, it's a sign that the school doesn't particularly want you and you should look elsewhere. This is not specifically the case here, but the rule regarding that you should be funded for graduate school stands. This is why funding came up at all as opposed to 'take a loan ya bum'. Well... that, and I can't afford to go to graduate school without it.
I now realize that this one entry is getting pretty lengthy, so I think I'm going to call this part of the story good here. It's an excellent stopping point, and I will just figure to add on another post later today during another study break (in addition to my already planned post from earlier) that will wrap up the second half of this story.
Those who know me in real life know two things - first, that I am an Aerospace Engineering major, and second, that I intend to go to graduate school. Not because I need it, but because I can see myself too easily becoming bored in the regular 9-5 jobs that most engineers take post-graduation. A career goal of mine is also to become a college professor, and naturally graduate school is the means to that end.
I decided over the summer to get a drop on applying for graduate schools. If I could get it all done early, it was one thing off of my plate, AND my application was sitting on top of the pile. So, I took the GRE over the summer and began searching for potential graduate programs of interest.
In the process of narrowing down schools, I started flipping through a few professors' work at each school to see if their research interested me. One professor at Penn State stuck out for his work on aerodynamics, so I resolved to contact him that next week. I decided to take a different route to help myself stand out, so I chose to call the professor as opposed to the typical emails that I'm sure he got.
One ring... two rings... "Hello?". Whoa whoa whoa, wait a minute. I actually got an answer? A professor at the UA answering their emails was a rare enough occurrence (and I honestly figured it carried to most other places), but I actually got an answer on the phone! This meant I had to actually think on my feet now. The professor and I had a nearly 20 minute conversation about what I'm interested in, the work he does, and other topics. At the end of the conversation, he actually invited me out to the campus to meet him and tour his labs. Needless to say, I got to work on my ticket there right away.
A few months passed and I was on my way. Thanks to some good friends from high school, I had a place to stay as well. Off I went to Penn State to meet the professor and tour the labs, which turned out to be a very enlightening experience. The professor said he definitely was interested in having me there, but there was one problem - the ever present money issue. I didn't realize it at the time, but Pennsylvania is hurting financially worse than most other states. He said he did have one grant out at the moment, and he'd let me know how that one turned out. If he got it, the money would be there... if he didn't, well... you get the idea.
All and all, I felt the meeting went really well. The professor was honest with me in terms of my strengths, weaknesses, and problems that may lie ahead. He didn't sugarcoat anything, but he was honest. He felt that I had an excellent chance of getting accepted, but that getting the funding to go would be a definite question mark, as it was for a great many students today. He said to keep in contact, and to let him know if I had any other questions for him, and he would let me know about how the grants played out.
As a bit of a side note (since when I tell this story, this part tends to surprise people), in science and engineering fields, it is very common that graduate school tuition is waived, along with paying a stipend. In most engineering fields (and a decent percentage of science fields), there is an unspoken rule that if you do not get funded, it's a sign that the school doesn't particularly want you and you should look elsewhere. This is not specifically the case here, but the rule regarding that you should be funded for graduate school stands. This is why funding came up at all as opposed to 'take a loan ya bum'. Well... that, and I can't afford to go to graduate school without it.
I now realize that this one entry is getting pretty lengthy, so I think I'm going to call this part of the story good here. It's an excellent stopping point, and I will just figure to add on another post later today during another study break (in addition to my already planned post from earlier) that will wrap up the second half of this story.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
It's not dead!
I promise I haven't forgotten about this site! I've been really busy wrapping up this semester, but there will be plenty of things to write about when I have the time to sit down and actually write!
Until then,
-Kevin
Until then,
-Kevin
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