It's ALIVE!

Today I presented to a group of Midlakes Middle School 8th graders. Since so many of them already saw me back in January, I decided I would need to switch things up a bit. As it turns out, the Freshmen were supposed to be performing their first live demonstration of their PTM dome for the IS&T (Imaging Science and Technology) student chapter meeting today. BUT, there was a scheduling issue - a luncheon was scheduled until right up until IS&T time in the usual meeting spot, and the freshmen were going to need a good amount of time to get everything set up and test it to make sure it was all working properly. Well, since I already had the Carlson Auditorium booked for my presentation, all we had to do was add some extra time on both ends of my reservation and we could present the dome twice - once for Midlakes, and once for IS&T! Genius.

So here's the thing about the dome: It literally was not operational until last night. So this was kind of a huge deal to get this thing working this morning in front of an audience! It was also no small feat to get the entire device down into the auditorium - it barely fits through doors, is too large to fit on a cart, and is pretty delicate. But, everything went pretty smoothly, save for a few small hiccups. Luckily, everything was operational by the time the students started filling in to the auditorium - aaaaand we're off!

I started off the presentation by telling my usual "about me" story, this time interspersed with a few videos, including: What is Imaging Science?; The Freshmen Imaging Project; History of PTMs; and What are PTMs. From there was a natural segue over to Joe & the Freshmen to briefly discuss what they were about to do, and get the dome fired up. It was awesome!!! There was a webcam showing what was going on inside the dome while lights flashed and the camera shutter opened and closed. After all 23 lights and images fired (yeah!) the data was all assembled. This step was not without some minor setbacks, but they were all easily overcome. Luckily, Joe has really good entertainment skills with the kids - asking questions, poking fun, and encouraging applause. And, what do you know - the whole thing worked!!!! Once the finished PTM was displayed and animated, the crowd rose to their feet and gave a standing ovation. (Okay, Joe told them to - but still!) It was a major accomplishment and very thrilling to see the dome actually operating. The 8th graders may not have quite realized the magnitude of this accomplishment, but nonetheless I think they enjoyed the presentation (and probably also appreciated the fact that we really were doing it on the fly).

I'll have some pictures from today's event posted next week! GO FRESHMEN!

They say smells and memory are strongly linked

Random observation: On warm, humid days like today, Building 76 smells exactly the same as it did when I first walked in here as an intern 10 years ago. (Which is not to say it's smelly - it just smells like summer.) <3

Have I ever mentioned I have the best job ever?

This morning I got a special delivery!

Talk about a warm fuzzy!

My Midlakes friends sent me another token of their appreciation! Gee how did they guess I would like a big pink fuzzy pillow?? Thank you so much, girls (+ families)!!! You are too much - I had just as much fun showing you around as you had visiting! :-)

Variety was the name of the game this week! (Every week?)

Fresh off Sunday's alumni reception, I'm already knee deep in helping put together another reception for this coming Tuesday in Orlando to correspond with the SPIE conference happening there next week. CIS has a number of professors, students, and alumni attending and presenting, so we thought it would be a good idea to have a happy hour-type celebration to go along with it. Unfortunately, being only 1 week after the DC reception posed some difficulty in planning. Hopefully everything will come together in time before Tuesday... I'm confident a group of people will get together and have a good time, no matter what the attendance numbers turn out to be.

As this was break week for local schools, we had a number of visits this week from potential students. Campus had a funny dynamic, as RIT itself was rather quiet and a lot of people took vacation, yet we were all abuzz with campus tours and potential future students. I had an accepted student visit on Thursday who was very engaged and enthusiastic, and seemed to take quite a liking to the freshmen class. I hope that she chooses to join us this fall! I also had a potential transfer student visit on Thursday whom I enjoy meeting with. She's really not sure what she wants to do (which actually makes her a great fit for Imaging Science), but I'm pretty sure her future will involve Imaging in some capacity, whether it be major, minor, or masters. Yay!

I have also been busy starting to organize next year's seminar series. Part of the responsibilities of the series are actually going to someone else for next year, but I want to make sure all the materials and spreadsheets I pass along are clear and concise so that the transition can be as smooth as possible. I am nearly finished assembling everything, but I don't think that will get finished until Monday.

Intern applicants have all been notified of their status! We've already had 1 applicant who was accepted drop out, meaning we got to dip into the alternate pool. I actually love it when that happens! The accepted applicants are now letting us know whether or not they accept their positions, and it's a lot of fun to see their excited responses come back. This is going to be a fun summer, I can sense it already.

Oh yeah - I've been nominated for a Staff Recognition Award :-). So another thing I'm working on is an essay I need to submit to Staff Council about myself.

The Hunt is tomorrow!!!! (What is the Hunt?) Oh, and Kurt no longer has dreads. He got them shaved today for charity - Joe and I observed. And far in the distance, I thought I heard a melancholy trumpet playing Taps...

DC Adventure Part VI: Show me the way to go home, I'm tired and I wanna go to bed

After the alumni reception wound down, we all piled into the Mazda and made our way back up to Baltimore. And I finally got to take a nap, yay! So obviously I don't have much to offer about this leg of the trip, though Joe says I must have been in deep REM sleep because Kurt and Nadya were making a lot of noise and I somehow slept through it all. I think there was something about assigning class superlatives, or something.

We ate dinner with Nadya's family at this Mediterranean tapas place called Kali's Mezze. Nadya had been talking this place up allllll day, and it definitely lived up to my expectations! Tapas style eateries are my favorite kind of restaurants anyways, because it's impossible for me to ever make up my mind and I love sharing. And Nadya's family was really friendly and very willing to share, so much so that I practically felt a part of their family (which was awesome). I must have sampled at least 7 things off the menu, AND had dessert. AND I finished Kurt's pistachio custard dessert too, haha.

Besides the good food, there was lots of good conversation. We had an interesting discussion about airport scanners; and Nadya's opinion, while controversial, reminded me very much of myself when I was her age. (Okay just saying something like that makes me sound like I'm really old and fancy myself some kind of wise person - which I am not and do not - but it was just funny to me.) Nadya's family was a lot of fun - and some of them will be coming up for ImagineRIT, too!

We parted ways with Nadya's fam to make our trip back to the airport and home. Nothing too eventful happened for the rest of the evening, though I did find an awesome ghost sticker on the side of a trash can and took it (it peeled off easily enough...). We sat around the airport watching YouTube videos of SNL sketches and Don Hertzfeldt cartoons until taking off for our return flight, which was another smooth and on time trip (believe it or not). We landed right around 10:40 PM, thus concluding my 20 hour DC Adventure day.

The end! Thanks to everyone who made the trip possible and memorable!  
Everybody dance! Life is good!

DC Adventure Part V: Now it's time to party and we'll party hard (party hard)

Having arrived 45 minutes late, the party was already in full swing when we arrived. After getting to have a few initial hellos, we broke in with some general announcements. Last year we had formal presentations, but we decided that this year would be more casual: simply announce some headlines, introduce the freshmen, and suggest speaking to us personally if more detail was desired. I had an iPad set up with a slideshow of pictures, mostly ones of the freshmen class but also some other images mixed in there of old conferences, current outreach, annual report images, and so on. Conversation flowed freely and everyone had a great time catching up. We also had hors d'oeurves and a cash bar available, though I chose not to partake as I was very much full from breakfast with Kurt's family and also very much looking forward to a tapas dinner with Nadya's family.

All in all, another successful alumni reception! We all had a great time (minus that whole getting lost part), and hope that everyone who joined us had fun as well. See below for some pictures from the festivities. (There are many more posted on the CIS Facebook page.)

Mix 'n mingle

Me, new parents Kyle and Courtney with 8 day old future alumna Claire, and Tiffany.
As usual, my hair upsets the whole color balance of the photo... I did what I could to fix it up.

Old meets new: Freshman Kurt speaks with class of '66 alum Richard.

Still to come - Part VI: Nadya would rather blow up than have everyone get their privacy invaded...

DC Adventure Part IV: We Get LOST

Next should come the actual "business" part of our day: The 5th Annual DC/Maryland/Virginia CIS Alumni Reception! A little confused over where our starting destination was, it seemed smart to use the GPS on my phone to get us to the reception venue, Clyde's of Tyson's Corner. After some fiddling around and waiting for accurate triangulation, we were on our way on a < 3 mile trip that was predicted to take over 12 minutes. Eh?

The roads and turns we were taking seemed screwy, but Google is never wrong! so we followed. At exactly 1:59 PM, we arrived with perfect timing at the venue. But... where was it? There was nothing to be seen but a leafy thicket. The Google Maps on my phone was even kind enough to switch to a street-view of what was supposed to be Clyde's - but it literally gave me a STREET VIEW. Of CARS. Ooookay.... So we pull over. At this point referencing Joe's printed out map, I typed the exact address of Clyde's into my phone, which then tells us to go in the opposite direction for 3 miles - another 12 (or more) minutes. And why was this different?

After waiting through what seemed like every one of roughly 239507 traffic lights, Google tells us we're there - but we see nothing but SAIC and some retail stores. After a few minutes of ruthless mocking of my navigation skills (which I would like to go on the record as saying are normally very on point), the decision was made to follow Joe's map, instituting a "like we should have in the first place" attitude. Off we go again in the opposite direction when we realize: Joe's map is just a print out of Google Maps, so it's taking us to the same place the GPS in my phone did the first time around. So we end up up by Wolf Trap again, and I reference the Directions tab on Clyde's website; which in its infinite wisdom says the following:

"Construction of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project has made accessibility to Clyde's of Tysons Corner challenging... Please call us for the directions of the day, and we'll also tell you the soup of the day!"

Wait, seriously...? So Nadya calls and gets more directions, this time taking note of significant visual landmarks ("Behind the Men's Wearhouse", for example). Another 12+ minutes in the opposite direction (and a top notch joke that a car rough roading it in the wrong direction within the adjacent construction site was being driven by one of our fellow RIT'ers who was also lost), and we're there. Well, we're behind the Men's Wearhouse, still trying to find our way. But eventually, the Benny Hill music ends and we finally make it - all in all, 45 minutes late to our own party. Oh, brother.

Here's a fun experiment to try when you're bored sometime: In Google Maps, type in "Clyde's of Tyson's Corner" and take note of the location it shows. Now try clicking "Get Directions" and put in a starting address of, for example, Anita's Mexican Food in Vienna. Now take note of where it actually directs you to go.... See, we're not that stupid, after all. Google CAN actually be wrong, sometimes.

Coming up next - Part V: Let's Party!