Catching up

I’m back from my conference.  I did two presentations - both went very well.  I met some good contacts and was introduced to students at my alma mater.  I’ve never had so much to do outside the conference - restaurants by the hundreds, good music everywhere.  I can’t wait to go back with just friends.  I tried switching which card the room was charged too and they didn’t remove it from the initial card presented.  I have to give the hotel a call and take care of that.

When I got there, I discovered my laptop wasn’t working.  It’s a dinosaur, but up until then had worked just fine.  It acted as though a key was being held down - system beeps during start-up, start menu not staying open.  Pretty frustrating since one of my presentations wasn’t finished at arrival.  I finally fixed it - but I’m not quite sure how.  The hotel wanted to charge $15 per day of internet wifi access.  Yeah right.  With the laptop acting up, I didn’t want to take it to the convention center.

All that to say I didn’t do any blogging while away.  I also didn’t have access to email - yikes!  So I’m catching up on this.  I kept track of national news, but nothing local.  So here’s the first thing I found:

Rep. Udall (CO) has introduced a bill that might do some good things for consumers using credit cards.  He’d like to include H.R. 1461 to the economic stimulus bill (as of the 21st of Jan.).  The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2007 would, among other things, require advance notice of increases in card interest rates, impose a freeze of interest rate terms and fees on canceled cards, prohibit penalties for on-time payments (thank you!!!), prohibit fees for non-use of cards, and prohibit over-the-limit fees for creditor-approved transactions.

While these steps don’t go far enough, in my opinion, they sound like good steps.  I’ve written about this before: the frame that needs to be applied to this situation is one of taxes being applied to consumers that are not directly approved by legislation.  It could be argued that by inaction, Congress approves of banks taking advantage of us, but that’s not how things work at the end of the day.

I think interest rates should be capped at a more realistic level.  I also think that since banks couldn’t do a good enough job discriminating people who posed too high a risk to the products they were seeking, Congress should intervene there too.  It’s not a stretch to argue that its in the interest of the entire economy, and by extension the world economy, that banks shouldn’t be allowed to run around without oversight.  It’s clear to me there hasn’t been enough oversight of banks for some time.  It’s time for Congress to exercise their duly appointed powers.

Work and play

One year ago, I had a paper written and had started on a presentation for a conference.  Then the sponsor revoked travel authorization.  No presentation for me.  So I wanted and needed to present something this year.  It turns out I got the chance to do two presentations - one for each group I work for.

When I submitted abstracts last summer, I was very excited about the thought of presenting.  I need to write papers and present results to continue to advance in my career.

On a slight tangent, I took an Oceanography course last fall.  We were responsible for writing seven research papers during the semester, which really wore me down.  It was a very aggressive schedule and we had to use software and datasets that had high learning curves associated with them.  What ended up happening was I spent a large amount of time writing for class and letting my work papers slide.

So crunch time came today: the papers had to be submitted to make it into the official program.  One paper was in pretty good shape, as I’ve worked on that material for almost four years now.  The other paper was much more raw and unpolished.  I finished writing a draft this morning and sent it to my boss.  I met up with him earlier this afternoon and he laid down the hammer on me.  He basically said it was too raw and as written shouldn’t be submitted to the official program.  I would still present results, but he didn’t want what I had written to be in the permanent records.

He correctly summed up the paper by saying it lacked coherency; too many stray thoughts pushed together.  As I said, he was correct in his appraisal - I was thinking the same thing as I sent it to him.  But to hear something like that from your boss is fairly disheartening.  In the immediate aftermath, my confidence is shaken.  I know I put off writing it too long and couldn’t recover in time, but….

So he’s working on it now, hoping to finish it by the submission deadline later tonight.  He also made it clear that him fixing the paper really doesn’t help me.  I need to work on fixing it so I learn how to write better.  I’m debating whether I should look at a version that he uploads.  I need the experience in continuing to work on it.

Anyway, I’ve been crazy busy the past few weeks and am glad the conference is almost here.  I really just want to finish up with everything and put it behind me at this point.  I haven’t been able to write here about the things I’ve been keeping track of.  And it’s likely I won’t be able to for another week or so.  But, there’s a time for work and a time for play.

Speaking of which…

Digital Camera

I don’t have one and I want to buy one.  Maybe one like this.

Not for that advertised price, however.  Microcenter had it on special for $129.99 around X-Mas time.  $149.99 with a $30 rebate?  I don’t think so.  I’ll wait until I see a better price.

Sigh.

Work and play

I’m doing two presentations at a conference later this month in New Orleans. I’m also starting a vacation tomorrow. What does that mean? I may not do too much vacationing: I still have to write a paper, gin up a powerpoint, and set up a poster. Ugh. But things should work out just fine. I plan on enjoying my vacation, so work will just have to slide back.

Beach drinks? Yes, please.

Errata: 29Dec2007

Some things running around:

The Rocky’s Lynn Bartels put in a sob story about poor, picked on Marilyn Musgrave. It’s all the mean attack ads that were run in 2006 that led to her garnering only 46% of the vote in CO-04. Riiiight. Supporting a U.S. constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and introducing legislation to ban abortion had nothing to do with that. Funny - neither manage to crack the top 10 in voter concerns, even those of Republicans. Anyone want to guess who had more 527 ads run on them in 2006: Marilyn or Angie Paccione? If you can’t take the heat Marilyn, don’t help dish it out. She’s the same politician, folks. She’s just trying to sing a different tune now that she’s in the minority.

King George has taken the next step in changing our country’s government. Apparently, he can “pocket veto” without pocket vetoing. Or something. Congress, if you plan on letting him get away with this nonsense, please don’t go back to work in 2008. The rolling over dog act isn’t getting anything done for the people. Kagro X raises some good questions. I think his last question is a little off, however. I’d rather have it asked, “How much more can the Americans people and our brand of democracy take?”

Heh. This would be interesting.

I have a slightly different take on this situation. How about ‘If you’re willing to do it to your mother, it’s not torture’? Although starting out with yourself would be a decent beginning. Seriously, I cannot for the life of me understand why we’re debating whether it’s torture or not. When it starts happening to American soldiers and citizens, don’t act all surprised, ‘kay?

Sweeny Todd is pretty good. AVPR not so much.

The shuttle Atlantis may not fly in January. Dang it. NASA needs to get the ISS constructed before the fleet is retired. Thought I’ve thought since the 2010 retirement announcement that they’ll likely extend their lifetimes.

Where will Santa live?

I hadn’t considered the ramifications of the ice extent in the Arctic Ocean declining to extend to Santa Claus before I read this comment at dKos.

Global warming Denyers have spent a great deal of time and money trying to build up science credibility to their claims. They’ve set up think tanks and journals dedicated to providing support for their cause. I guess they did this because they think that’s how scientists have done it and from their worldview think there’s no difference.

One of the leading climate Denyers in our government is Sen. Inhofe (R-Exxon). His minority post on a subcommittee released a report just prior to the Senate adjourning for the holidays. Events like this over-politicize the discussion over global warming.

But I believe my first remark may undermine their project in ways I hadn’t considered before. What does the myth surrounding Santa Claus include? A shop at the North Pole. Now, kids are sharper than most give them credit for. What will happen as they come across news stories that the ice sheets covering the Arctic are shrinking more and more every year? How is that shop supposed to exist in an ocean? At the very least, Santa and his elves would have to work on their buildings to make sure they don’t sink to the bottom.

But on a more emotional level, think of how kids would react to news that we know the ice sheets are melting due to human behavior. And not only did people like Inhofe stand in the way of changing that behavior when it could have done some good, but they worked to subvert those efforts every step along the way.

Why, Inhofe could be labeled as anti-Santa Claus. And that’s not very Christian of him and his friends, now is it? What about the War on Christmas? Who’s perpetrating that? Godless liberals or Climate Denyers?

Project

Based on work I’ve done at SquareState and Luis’ comment, I thought about a project that might be interesting to do.  Since fundraising by presidential candidates and support both on-line and not don’t seem to be very well correlated, is there a way to quantify that?
1) a)Fundraising and on-line support scatterplot.

b)Fundraising and “real-world” support scatterplot.

Support being percentage response in polls - both official and straw.

There might be additional aspects to consider, but I wanted to get this down while I was thinking about it.

White Lights This Christmas

I’m putting up white lights this year.

The Beginning

I’ve thought about starting a blog for some time.  At the risk of adding one more thing to the already too-long list of things I do, I’m going to start my own today.

I’ve got plenty of experience - I’ve read blogs (predominantly political) for years.  I’ve commented and written diaries at community sites for years.

But I want my own space.  I want to use this as a place to flesh out half-thoughts; to rant and have all the responsibility fall only on my shoulders; to include the non-political things that I take an interest in (trust me, there’s plenty out there!).

So here’s my new space; my own canvas upon which I will throw whatever I please.

Yay for me!