SamR's Site: Sam's Plans

Here you can find a random selection of historical data from my plan and some of the people who mention me in their plan You can find out more about plans from the plans home page. In essence, plans is a combination Blog/Chat that focuses on the Grinnell community.

I've also included the quotes that inspired some of my responses. If you object to having your work included here, please let me know.

Warning! The latest archiving was only cut-and-paste with no editing. Editing will come later.

Archive

Sorry, no wise thoughts on this latest event. Just "take care of yourselves, please".

I think it's time for me to escape into the comfort zone of plans, programming, and paperwork.

[WatsonD], [Stone], [SimpsonE], and/or [HeroldK]: Today's minor linguistic question: We often refer to a house in terms of the owners. For example, I might say that I'm having cocktails "at the Osgoods'". What is the proper punctuation for such a phrase? As you can see, I use "s apostrophe", since I think of it as shorthand for "at the Osgoods' house". I suppose one could also use "apostrophe s", as in "at the Osgood's", or no apostrophe at all, as in "at the Osgoods". My experience is that most people leave off the apostrophe, but that seems wrong. I agree with [HeroldK] that the worst abuses are on household stones, but I can't remember what most people do there.

Followup: For those of you who read [SimpsonE]'s plan, Merriam-Webster OnLine says that "metonymy" is "a figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated (as 'crown' in 'lands belonging to the crown')".

Followup: Of course, for those who believe that English is an evolving language, it seems clear that in a few years the apostrophe will be optional (not just here, but elsewhere), and we'll determine plurals vs. possesives from context.

Followup: I had some difficulty finding an appropriate section in The Manual of Style (that's the Chicago manual of style, for the uninformed). Section 6.23 notes "Among some circles, there is a penchant for omitting the apostrophe from are sometimes regarded as possessive constructions. Some business establishments and factories, for example, refer to the cafetria for their employees as the employees cafetria, and some organizations and departments have such names as Diners Club, Actors Equity, Department of Veterans Affairs. Actually, this might just as properly be said to constitute an attributive rather than a possessive use of nouns. A noun functions attributively if it performs an adjectival role in modifying a following noun. [...] There seems little justification for restricting the attributive function to the singular noun.

Followup to followup. I love The Manual of Style. My current edition is now ten years old. I wonder if there's a new edition. I'd think they'd need to incorporate stylistic issues for Web-isms. Yay! It comes out in August. Time to add it to my Amazon wish list. (For those who want to learn more, there's a nice Web page along with {"http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/cmosfaq/cmosfaq.html";"some sample questions and answers"} for the linguistically pure.

[Hernanda]: I relayed to [Lopatto] that he was one of your favorite profs. He seems somewhat nonplussed by the whole plans thing. I suppose it didn't help that one of his summer research students came up to him and said something on the order of "I hear you're going to get a plan". Anyway, drop him a note and tell him how/what you're doing.

[Quellhor]: Some occasional stress is okay. Regular stress is not. The extreme stress that many of you suffer at the end of the semester seems downright dangerous. However, I would like that hat and shirt. Oh, by "From Rebelsky", I assume you mean hits on my plan plus hits from my reading, right?

Agh! It appears that my plan got so long that it broke the system and I could no longer edit it. Due to the wonders of my Web knowledge, I was able to clear it and start again (copying in some of the old text). I wonder what, if anything, I lost.

[IvanovL]: I wanted to note that your note about depression (and my observation that it didn't change the way I interact with you at all) gave me courage to post my own note. Thanks!

[Marshal1]: Thanks for the link. I particularly like {"http://www.brainplace.com/bp/dosdonts/default.asp";"50 Brain Do's and Don'ts"}.

[SchmitzC]: Glad the paper is done. When do you and [Rosenblu] move in to running house?

[Spurgeo1]: Sorry about screwing up your planid. And I approve of your summer project.

[Rosenblu]: If you use the standard server authentication method (sorry, I forget its name; it's the one that gives you a nice popup dialog box), no cookie is involved and the browser remembers the login.

[HeckR]: Hmmm ... How about a "Media Studies" minor. Some film. Some English (pomo lit or whatever). And Congratulations on finishing your M.S.!!! Do we now refer to you as "Master Rachel"?

Although I keep cookies on, there are a large number of Internet users who don't trust cookies. You should work without cookies. (Yes, [Rosenblu], I know that plans also uses cookies. That doesn't make it the correct solution.)

Although it claims otherwise, it still lets me create incorrect dates (and then stores them with a date of 00-00-0000). I tried 13/1/2003, 40/1/2003, and 1/50/2003

I think the "quick links" should be in the menu, rather than just on the welcome page. At worst, they should also appear on the search pages.

It would be nice if there were some sample data in the the database so that I could test signing up for rides. (I'm happy to see that you won't let me sign up for a ride in my own car.)

It doesn't look like I can change my mind about an offer. Shouldn't I be able to update offers? (E.g., to remove or add available seats, as long as there is still room.)

What happens if I try to remove a ride I've offered and someone has already signed up for it?

When I click for the details on [KaufmanO]'s June 4 request to get to the airport, I get no details.

[DowdJ]: What do you mean you're going home on Saturday? Aren't you spending the summer in Grinnell, working on CARD?

I should have remembered that microphones are magnetic to Jonathan. So, while I didn't get to read last night, he and William did. Thanks for putting up with them.

[CaseEvan]: While I wouldn't impose [GumBen]'s restrictions, since I do believe in self-governance, I do worry when you say things like "we need to work to make psycho- and psycho-pharmacological therapy as acceptable as drinking and drug use." I agree that we need to make therapy more acceptable. However, I also think that we need to make excessive drinking and drug use less acceptable. As I've said in a much earlier plan, turning to alcohol and drugs for stress relief and depression relief is just a bad idea.

[Hernanda]: I relayed your congrats to [Lopatto]. He asked why I'd been talking to you. I said something on the order of "it was in his plan". Lopatto replied "But he gradauted a few years ago". He is now intrigued by plans, and may check them out over the summer. Send him some email.

[Allenton], [CaseEvan], [IvanovL], and others: Thanks for your clear and valuable comments on my "treat chemical imbalances with chemicals" comment. You are correct that medication is not enough.

[Marshal1] and [Spurgeo1]: Sorry, I don't think I have any influence on other professors joining plans. The professors I've suggested it to have said "No, it's not for me." [Mehboob] is the one who's been doing it (I assume by talking up plans, asking them to join, and making it easy for them.)

For those thinking about choosing passwords, here's {"http://www.noucorp.com/passwd.mp3";"a song by Clif Flynt"} (who taught CSC152 at Grinnell for a semester). Clif says that it was "Recorded on a low-quality RadioShack Computer Microphone in a room with six or eight computer fans running in order to achieve the proper ambience." Maybe [Kuper] will do her own version.

[BrownPet], [Cleinman], [KaufmanO], [Kuper], [RamdialR], and [Rosenblu]. I'll add comments here as I come up with them.

On the https issue. It's fine that you don't use it now. However, if you're relying on an important password (and an email/NT storage password *is* important), you should run over https. (Yes, I think ITS should do so, too, and I'm happy they are for {"http://mail.grinnell.edu";"Outlook for the Web"}.

Similarly, how do I cancel or update an offer of a ride or a request for a ride?

It's nice that you can click on a userid and bring up info on the user. (I as going to suggest the feature, but you beat me to it.)

Once I bring up the info, shouldn't I be able to click on someone's email address to send email to him or her?

It's great that you don't have to enter all the info for a search. Indicating somewhere what you can do without would be helpful.

I created an offer with really stupid values (e.g. 99/99/0001) for the dates. It didn't get entered (which is good), but I got no error message (which is bad). Scratch that. It did get entered, sort of, but with the wrong info. My original offer seems to have been duplicated, rather than creating a new offer with the bad info. No, strike that. It's the "My Ride Status" that seems to be screwed up. It repeats the same offer again and again, rather than showing each separate offer. (It looks like you accept the stupid values and change them to something equally stupid, like 00-00-0000.)

Tonight. 9 p.m. Bob's. [Rebelsky] reads. Hmmmm ... what to read? Uncle Shelby's? Jabberwocky? Green Eggs and Ham? Spud and Cochise? The fight scene from The Princess Bride? Something else? (Also reading: [Borovsky], [Drake], [Eckhart], [Kang], [GreeneR].)

Someone stole the department's Alice in Wonderland poster (from the departmental lounge). For those who are confused about the issue: this is not a poster from one of the college events, it's a full-sheet poster for the "book" as it were. It was framed. The frame was opened and left on the table. If you took it (or know who took it), please return it.

[Khannabh], [DowdJ], and [Koomjian] present their awesome MAP project today at 4:15 in Science 2413. Be there! I'm providing munchies.

I've been debating how to say this, and I don't know if it will help, but let's work on the stigma anyway: I suffer from depression. Although I have never been to the mental health center, I have had it treated by a physician. I'm on antidepressants. I probably couldn't make it through most days without them right now. (I had a long time that I wasn't on antidepressants, but it seems like I'll also need to be on them for awhile right now.) Have I had suicidal thoughts? Slightly, but I have the best reason in the world not to commit suicide: I could never, ever, do that to my children.

[Herold]: I agree, six weeks is completely insane (please forgive the word choice). Even one week seems like a long time. Make sure to forward your thoughts to someone on the future committee. ([SternJM] or [Crady] would probably at least listen.) As to your note about "so ironic that these things happen in the spring, when everyone else on campus is so happy to see the sun again and watch green things bloom and grow". Well ... Dr. Van Cleve, who was at the weekend faculty meeting, said that for most people with depression (mild or serious), spring is the worst time of year. Even worse than the holidays. [Crady] acknowledged that spring is an awful time for students at Grinnell. Should that be comforting? I don't know. Yes, we will try to do something about it. More and easier-to-get counseling visits alone won't do it, though. My sense is that if faculty knew more about how much stress we put on you (that is, what a typical student's week is like), perhaps we'd find ways to make things a little less stressful.

A number of you have suggested having a full-time Ph.D.-level counselor on campus. I wasn't here when we had one, but the fallout from the last one's suicide (yes, that's right, the counselor's suicide) was bad enough that I'm sure that it makes people think twice about having such people on campus again.

A number of the complaints have dealt with the tendency of MHC staff to put people on medication. If we believe that depression is primary chemical (and there's some good evidence that it is), then it makes sense to treat it chemically, at least in part.

I talked to Michelle (Dr. Rebelsky, family physician, for those who don't know) about the "only 8 visits" issue. From the physician's perspective, there's support after that. Many of you have insurance that will cover you for more visits. For those of you who don't, the MHC has a sliding fee scale, and tries very hard to be affordable for everyone who needs the care.

Okay, at Grinnell, we supposedly don't use the term "Freshman" because it's gendered or "Sophomore" because you should be free to act sophomoric no matter what your year at Grinnell is. So, why is it that your transcripts list "Freshman tutorial"? I guess that's a question for Stephanie [Henning] when she returns from leave.

For those of you who are graduating this year, the graduation prank used to be an important part of graduation (or so I was told), and it would be nice to see it return. For example, I've been told that one year, students gradually mixed Pam a martini as they walked across the floor (i.e., student 5 gave her a napkin, student ten gave her a glass, student 15 poured in some gin, student 20 added a drop of vermouth, student 25 added the olive, ...). In my first year, a big board was set at the front of the stage and, after each student walked across the stage, he or she added a small picture to the board. At the end, all the little pictures formed a picture of Pam, so that she was at that graduation. The one attempt I've seen during the Russell era is that a group of people handed him golf balls. I think the intent was to give him so many that he wouldn't know how to handle them. Unfortunately, all Russell had to do was hand them to Stephanie, who dropped them in a box as she grabbed each new diploma.

Woo hoo! New MathLAN machines will have 17" flat-panel displays and optical mice. Early summer installation! Now I have to figure out where to put eight old MathLAN machines to be used for services like [RideBoard].

[SchunaCa]: Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book is by Shel Silverstein. I'll see how long I'm allowed to read for.

[Armstron]: Welcome aboard. Let's see: Humanities has four faculty on plans (two Russian, one English, one Music); Science has five (three CS, one Math, one Chemistry); Social Studies has zero!

[WatsonD]: I deserve no credit for the profs on plans. I think it's [Mehboob] who has worked hard to make it easy for them to get on.

I'll admit that I have some mixed feelings about the number of profs joining plans. On one hand, it's nice to have more of my cohort aboard. On the other, it was really cool being special. Oh well, few other faculty are insane in quite the way I am, so perhaps I will always remain special. And most of the plan profs don't have tenure, so I may still be the one saying things that might not otherwise get said.

[SimpsonE] and [Aswell]. I agree, {"http://www.20q.net/";"20 questions"} is grand. Hmmm ... another example for [Stone]'s AI course?

Hmmm ... Gries does use log_2(ub-lb) as his bound function. Time to talk to [Stone] to see what he thinks I should do. [Stone] and [Adelbe] agree: If you copy incorrect answers, you deserve the associated penalty.

Rebelsky's rideboard and related reflections AKA, Geeky programming reflections.

[CaseEvan]: Don't assume user error first, particularly not with sophisticated users (like yourself).

[Rosenblu]: Why not just generate your own certificate? That's what I do for my site. That way, the certificate serves to encrypt, but not to authenticate.

[Kuper], [Rosenblu], [KaufmanO], etc.: Posting your code doesn't make me any more comfortable than your "We promise not to steal your password" statement. I don't want to give my password to anyone other than a completely trusted service (yes, I know calling ITS "completely trusted" is silly, but you know what I mean). Neither should anyone else.

[Kuper]: When I note that I'm upset about the "everyone else was fine", I'm not upset with you. I'm upset that people are picking NT passwords from a limited set of characters. It is not a criticism of ride board.

[Kuper],[Rosenblu], et al: (1) You need a [RideBoard] plan. (2) When I search for requests, I'm now seeing a list (yay)! However, it only has people, not the particular places they want to go from and to. Is that yet another "work in progress" aspect?

[Kuper]: No, I don't like the dashed attribute, at least not for your pages. As I said, I think it makes things look like coupons. But that's just just personal preference. The things you fixed were clearly UI flaws. Let me know when you're ready for the next round of criticism. I love picking apart user interfaces. (Oh, I tried to use it at about 10:30, and I got the fascinating error message that "Hugh and Dave's Online wines is temporarily unavailable ... Could not connect to DBMS"). Fascinating, simply fascinating.

[Kuper], [Rosenblu], [KaufmanO], and the rest: Yes, I see that you now {"http://ssh.cs.grin.edu:8888/securityandprivacy.php";"promise you won't keep my password"}. However, nothing except your promise prevents you from keeping and using my password (reading my mail, deleting everything on my NT account, ...). Do you trust spammers when they say "Click here to be removed from our mailing list"? No, I don't think of you as spammers, or even on the same moral plane as spammer. I do think that password security needs more than an "I trust that you won't steal my password".

[Programmers] (particularly those interested in security and login systems, such as [Brantley], [KaufmanO], [Kensler], [KenslerJ], [Stone], [VickeryJ], and myself): Given the increasing prevalence of account-based Web applications on campus, it would be nice to have a trusted centralized password system (no, NT does not count). I'm hoping Kerberos does what I want, but a quick chat with Mr. [Stone] suggests that it may not. My view of the world: There are "trusted" services (e.g., kerberos.mathcs.grinnell.edu accessed over https) and "untrusted" services (e.g., ride board) that want to use your standard password. In order to gain personalized access to the untrusted service, you log in through the trusted service. The untrusted service can know who you are, but can't forge your identity for other services. It's also easy to use (say, for the folks who don't even think to put non-alphanumerics in their passwords). Since I don't know enough about kerberos, I'm not sure whether it can support this nicely. Mr. [Stone] says that our installation currently does not have a Web interface.

[RinneAnd] suggests that having to go to two sites and enter two passwords is too much effort. Most Grinnellians would rather be lax in security than spend more effort.

Okay, TNT is currently showing a commercial that simultaneously promotes The 2003 NBA Playoffs and The Incredible Hulk. Someone is clearly taking too many drugs. (Disclaimer: This plan comment is not intended to promote drug use. Please behave responsibly.)

[HeroldK]: It's comforting to see that you're also reading plans after 11:30 at night. I knew [IvanovL] did, but for some reason I assumed you'd be more sensible. I like your approach of using plans to search for babysitters. Although I've never used her, I bet [PerryA] is a damn good sitter, and she's looking for work this summer! (Amanda, if you'd like to babysit my three wild children, we can probably use you.)

[Hernanda] and [Raulerso]: [Lopatto] got the ROLE grant a few years ago. It permits him to study the effects of summer research on undergraduates. He's working with Elaine Seymour (anyone interested in women in science should read her "Talking About Leaving"). Seymour is doing textual analysis of interviews. [Lopatto] is developing and validating a more quantitative instrument. My favorite quote from Seymour (approximated): "They're watching what you're doing." That is, when they see faculty having fun with their kids while doing their jobs, they think it might be a reasonable job. When they see bozos like me working until late at night, they think "I appreciate it that my profs work late, but that's not the life for me." I've also learned a lot from Dave and "Dave's Slaves" (my term, not his) about the conflicts that taking volunteers sets up in Glimmer labs.

Hmmm ... almost everyone I've graded has chosen the same bound function for binary search: log_2(ub-lb). I wonder if Gries uses that bound function, because it's not a good one. Why not? Its range is the reals rather than the integers. Hence, we can decrease it repeatedly without ever reading 0. I need to look at the book (not here). If they're echoing Gries's error, should I take off less? Hmmm ....

[Chamberl]: Welcome aboard. It's nice to have my departmental opposite (Sam's office is the messiest in the department, Prof. Chamberland's is the neatest) on board.

[Dimova]: You had a wonderful collection of information on your plan earlier this week. Is it archived anywhere? Thanks.

[Rosenblu], [Kuper], and the rest: Yes, dealing with special characters helped. Ready for the critiques, since it's a work in progress? (Remember: I'm much better at negative feedback than positive feedback.) Is there a reason that your pages all look like "cut here" coupons? I can't believe after Y2K you're still using two-digit years. I'm not finding much in my searches. Are there good things to search for? The "Search for a Ride" thing doesn't indicate which order to enter DDMMYY (or MMDDYY or ...). It might be nice to have a "Browse" feature (I want to escape Grinnell, let's see who's giving a ride ...). Doesn't the ride board have parts of the country? I might want to look for something anywhere within fifty miles of Boston. Your interface is inconsistent. Sometimes I enter months with popup menus, sometimes with text fields. Why aren't you running over https? Once you give me some data to search for, I'll give you more suggestions :-). What else? It looks clean and generally clear to use. I'm impressed that you were able to use NT validation (you might tell [NtiAddYa] how). Since many of my students' projects are often left incomplete, I am impressed that you are mostly complete.

[Rosenblu], [Kuper], and the rest: I don't seem to be able to log in to {"http://ssh.cs.grin.edu:8888";"ride board"}. Could it be that there are semicolons in my password? (It seems that was the problem, as you indicated you fixed it. The scary part (at least to me, and probably to [Stone] and other security-niks) is that the note that "everyone else was fine" indicates that few people use non-alphanumerics in their passwords.) I'm also not sure about the wisdom of entering my NT password in a student-written application, but since ITS lets passwords float around in cleartext, I'm willing to ignore that reservation.

William's sick. I stayed home with him (except for a nice lunch with Andy and Amanda where we deconstructed CSC151). I expected to get work done. But no, morning was nap and cleaning. Post-lunch was trying to do Origami with William. Flowers were a failure. Catapult and basketball hoop were a success.

[Finnessy]: Wireless does not reach far from campus. However, I have heard that some folks with line-of-sight to campus can focus the signal.

You know you're in Iowa when you see people selling small plastic bags of stuff on the corner for $10.00 and it's not marijuana, it's mushrooms (and not even the psychedelic kind).

[KenslerJ]: I really prefer < strong > to < b > and < em > to < i >. Any chance you can support them (and < code > and < blockquote > and ...)?

William is sick. I'm at home. If you need to talk to me for some reason, feel free to call (236-7445). Yes, I'm still doing lunch with (Amanda Catherine)^2.

[Kuper], [Rosenblu], [KaufmanO], and the rest: Congrats on finishing! Of course, rather than using NT, you should tie into [Stone]'s Kerberos server. (Sorry, that's among my plans for the summer: Once we have lots and lots of Web services, they need a common account system so that they can support on- and off-campus users. [Brantley]: Another project for you?)

I know that it's somewhere on someone's plan, but I'll remind all of you of something that Lisa Bard said yesterday: Different people can be in different stages of dealing with the suicides. For those impacted (either directly or indirectly), anger, grief, denial, numbness, and more are all stages to go through, and people go through them differently. If you're feeling sad and you see people playing on Mac field, don't be upset. They may be at a different stage, and they may cope differently.

Also: No matter what [Blah] says, it's okay to feel bad even if you didn't know Jonathan or Lenko well. Many of us have had crises in our lives (divorces, deaths, attempted suicides, ...) and new crises tend to bring up past crises consciously or unconsciously.

[TorresG]: I couldn't make it to the concert, but I'd love to have a copy of the CD.

I was talking to Katherine [McClella]nd about Saturday's faculty meeting. She noted that she was pleasantly surprised to see the faculty so humble. No one was pushing an agenda. No one was worrying about his or her ego. We were just thinking about what was/is best for the students. She also noted that Arnie [Adelbe]rg saying that he was making his final optional gave many junior faculty greater comfort in doing so. I wish I had her insight.

[CaseEvan]: There will certainly be an opportunity for you to communicate ideas on stress and such to the institution. It may not happen until fall, though. The committee (mentioned somewhere below in my plan, I think in the report on the meeting) will certainly be a good avenue, but there are others. (And even though I've said something to the contrary elsewhere, I can forward suggestions.)

Plans clearly rule my life. At lunchtime, I went to a small-group meeting about how students deal with grief. Alcohol came up, and I asked how we can discourage excessive drinking. [Skerrett] said something on the order of "The boldfaced phrase on your plan is helpful Sam." (In case you're worrying, she does not regularly read plans, but a student was showing her my plan.) Afterwards, I was walking into the science building and someone (um, sorry, I forgot, I think it was [HallPatr]) thanked me for having a plan.

Oh, [Skerrett] says she needs to stay away from plans. My quest for multiple female colleagues on plans continues. ([HeroldK] is now on board. Welcome!)

[Mills]: The on-campus and off-campus pages have the same content, but different appearances. Thank [IvanovL] for the clever design of BornFree which permits that.

[Sarafsau]: I thought I'd been updating my plan. There's not a lot to say right now. Too much of what I might write seems self-serving. But boy, couldn't your planlove for me be for something other than my plans addiction? How about for the interesting things I write?

[Brantley]: /home/rebelsky/Glimmer/CVS, project Ravel. Talk to [Fuller] or me about installing it once you've downloaded it. I have a new API somewhere, but I haven't found it yet.

The [SandB] asked for notes about the events on campus. I wasn't going to write anything, but I was inspired by [Plowman]'s use of my "What I hoped you learned in my course" handout. Any thoughts on something like the following?

When I was in college, my mother, a professor of psychology, was looking for a new area of research. We were talking, and she said something like "I was thinking of studying the professor as moral model." My reply went something like "Mom, I know that you serve as a moral model to your students. However, I think you're the exception. Few faculty serve as moral models." At Grinnell, particularly in this time of crisis, I need to retract that statement, as I think we do serve as moral models. I hope you've learned (and continue to learn) the following (and more) from us:

It sounds like some of you are unwilling to ask for the academic allowances. Whether or not you knew Lenko and Jonathan well, if the crisis on campus is hitting you hard, you should feel free to ask your faculty for accomodations.

[LindseyD]: Things are not going on as normal. If you have finals tomorrow, I'm sure you can talk to your faculty. There will certainly be more times, both informal and formal, to talk, to grieve, to scream.

I came back from the faculty meeting intending to write a short summary, but family matters intervened. We also took the equipment offline with the storm. So ... I'm writing this without knowing what the other faculty are writing.

This meeting was one of the best-attended faculty meetings I've seen. Faculty are clearly concerned about what's happening on campus. Most of us have little training about how to deal with these issues and are relying on academic affairs for guidance. I saw a number of faculty in or close to tears.

Tom Crady led the meeting and had to pause for a significant time to regain his composure during his recounting of the events. It's clear to me that the academic affairs staff are (and have been) working hard to support the students on campus in this time of crisis. I know many of you are angry with academic affairs, but please remember that they're people, too, and that they're trying very hard.

Tom is creating a committee of staff, faculty, students, and parents to think about how to make the campus a less stressful place. April is clearly a hellish month, and we need to do something about it.

The faculty seem relatively unanimous in feeling that most work this week will not be representative of what you've learned in the course, that grades are comparatively unimportant, and that we want to support you as best we can. At the same time, we think some of you are relying on finals and other finals-week materials to "pull up" your grades. We're also concerned about how many of you will deal with having no work. I expect that most faculty will be in their offices much of the time this coming week and would be more than willing to discuss options with you.

We didn't vote on anything at the meeting (although I expected we might). We simply discussed last night's announcement and ways to help students.

What else? We didn't discuss it at the meeting, but the following is clearly an issue. In case you need to be told: This is not a good time to drink, and certainly not a good time to drink heavily. It won't help you cope, and it won't make the grief go away for long. It may even make the grief worse.

I'll be in my office much of this coming week if any of you want to stop in and chat. I have no training in these issues, but I can at least listen.

Late addition: For many of you, it's probably a good idea to call your parents. They love you, and they're among the best support networks you have. (I realize that some of you also have horrible relationships with your parents, and I'm very very sorry if this recommendation hurts. If you can't talk to parents, talk to friends, profs, someone.)

[Mills]: (1) As to reports on the college Web. There's nothing on the front page for off-campus users (but then again, there's never anything on that page). If you click on "News and Events", you get the same text that's on the internal front page. (2) "Tragic deaths" seems appropriate. It's tragic that we lost them. They're dead. At last check, the coroner had not yet ruled Jonathan's death a suicide. (Yes, everyone is pretty sure that it was a suicide, but ....). (3) We were told that [Osgood] is sending a letter to all parents. I have no idea what it says.

[LindseyD]: You can convert classes to S/D/F. You can take incompletes. We did not cancel or suspend finals. There is no general rule that finals are optional. Many faculty are making their finals optional. I think all the faculty there were willing to talk to their students one-on-one to work out the best approach for each student.

[Bry] and others who read my plan to see that faculty care: Many (probably even most) of us care a lot about you. We show it in different ways, but we certainly care. [PurcelSJ] was in her office all day today meeting with students. Others were up beyond midnight last night doing what they could. Others couldn't be there, but their thoughts were there.

On the "will we ever have a woman faculty member on plans?" issue: I asked [PurcelSJ] if she'd join plans, and she said something on the order of "I wouldn't touch plans with a ten foot pole". She also noted that many of the students she's talked to have found plans supportive in this horrible time.

[Houston] Sorry, I didn't see your note until after the meeting. As I note above, we decided that "talk to your faculty member" is probably the best option, and we'll do what we can to be supportive.

The college faculty are meeting at 4pm to discuss what we can do to support students. It sounds like we'll discuss cancelling finals or making them optional. Students should have received email indicating that you can switch to S/D/F or take incompletes in any course. If I can make it (three munchkins to watch), I'll ask what effect such choices have on graduating seniors.

Things I really really didn't need today: Garrett of the Grinnell Coffee Company Shouting at me from his truck: "Are you Sam Rebelsky?" "Yes." "Well, the next time you have a problem with me, take it up with me and not with my partner!" For background: About a month ago, I decided to get the other side on the Saint's Rest / GCC dispute. I asked the person I knew best on the other side, Garrett's partner. I've attached the email conversation. For this, I deserve abuse?

Sam, Wow, the rumor mill of Grinnell never ceases to amaze me. Your students are incorrect. Garrett has frequented Saints Rest since Jeff opened, almost daily. He was a regular patron, not interested in Jeff's ideas about how to run a business. Garrett has is own expertise and interest in the coffee business that well predate our arrival in Grinnell. I'm sure Garrett would be happy to set the record straight with any one who would bother to ask him - so far no one has.

===== Original Message From "Samuel A. Rebelsky" <rebelsky@grinnell.edu&t; =====

A number of my students have complained that Garrett asked Jeff Phelps for help setting up the place without telling Jeff that he was opening a coffee shop. I'd like to hear your side of the story (particularly since my "Day in the life" reported me taking my class to Saints' rest), if you're willing to tell it.

[Rosenblu]: I'd expect that your sculpture could find a temporary home in the MathLAN. [Stone]: What do you think?

[Simonson02]: The wonder of wireless: I'm on my computer too much, and so update the plan regularly. Enjoy AmericaLand.

This probably isn't a good time to ask, but is anyone gathering (and maybe translating) the plan reminiscences about Lenko for his parents? I can't imagine losing one of my children, but it strikes me that seeing how they interacted with friends would have been nice. Maybe [Dimova] could add this to her list of tasks that sound so emotionally wrenching that I don't know how she does them.

[Aswell] In case the planlove is now gone, I want a copy. I think [GumBen] does, too.

[Stone] What were you doing on at about 5 a.m.? I can't believe that Phia's swimming practices start that early.

[Stoltzfu] As a professor on plans, I'll note that I don't really think too many of my colleagues will join on, so there's not that much worry. Of course, when I had a team of students trying (and failing) to create a new versions of plans, I did suggest that each person might divide his/her plan into public, Grinnell-only, and students-only sections. [KenslerJ]: What do you think?

[SimpsonE] I, too, refer to them as "jimmies" (also a term used in the Boston environs). As a Philadelphian, are you a fan of Goldenberg's Peanut Chews? (None of the students here had heard of them.) My son, William, like Cyclones with cookie dough and peanut butter cups.

[Pokhodny] (1) As I said, even if you wrote bad things about professors in your end-of-course evaluations and they recognized your handwriting, most of us have enough moral fiber (fibre?) that we wouldn't let it affect how we interact with you. (2) You can take CSC151 without having any math. You can even succeed at it. The same holds for CSC152. Beyond that, I wouldn't make any promises. (3) I try to tell my students honestly how they're doing. However, I do think that most of them are doing acceptably well. I also know that when Grinnell students don't think they're doing acceptably well, they often withdraw instead of putting in extra effort. (And yes, I understand that given the typical stress of a Grinnell semester, extra effort may not be possible.)

[Raulerso] Thanks for the reflections. I'll do my best to incorporate them in my tutorial. Congrats on the really good physics paper. Let me know when it gets accepted!

[Raulerso] It's spring. It must by syrup time in New England. Can I get you to send me a big jar of grade B? I'll send you a check or paypal.

[TanMarie] Women profs have better things to do with their lives than be on plans. (I'm not sure what that says about the male profs on plans.) If she weren't leaving, I expect you might have eventually convinced [ThorsonS] to join. Maybe [Praitis] would find them interesting. Hmmm ... who else?

In all the plan moves, the link to my {"http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~rebelsky/about-eoc.html";"essay about end-of-course evaluations"} seems to have been lost. John Stone recommends it (I think).

[Venugopa]: I miss you. I know I never call when I come to Chicago, but perhaps we'll see you here sometime?

[SimpsonE]: Will you be around this summer? Can I have my research students talk to you about ways in which they could make it easier for you to write your site without handcoding HTML?

[GumBen]: As long as we're suggesting PlanChanges to [KenslerJ], why not PlanDiff (which shows the changes between the last time you read someone's plan and the current time). Hmmm ... maybe it's time for PlanMAP. (That reminds me: [KenslerJ], I'd appreciate it if you'd send me a copy of your MAP application.)

Thoughts of concern to [KenslerJ], [CookA], [Brantley], [Carey], [Dimova], [LindseyD], [Staicut] and anyone else who needs them.

[Haile], [Kuper], [CaseEvan], [Lentz], [Palermo], and [Others]: You've commented directly and indirectly about the mental health problem on campus. [Haile] asks why professors don't do more about it. I don't think we (the faculty) know how bad it is. We know about the suicides (which, fortunately, are rare), but no one tells us about the number of mental health admissions, attempted suicides, and such. Most of us have no training in how to help others deal with stress or depression (or even to deal with them ourselves). Do you have suggestions for things we can do to help you? If so, tell us. (However, don't use me as the conduit. I make enough suggestions that people tend to ignore many of mine.) Perhaps [MIDSG] can suggest things, once it exists.

I do think it would be useful if students shared with the faculty their typical schedules. The ones that appear in "A Day in the Life" don't really sound that stressful. Yet I know that many of you are managing 60+ hours per week of work, classes, and classwork. As I mentioned in an earlier plan, I'm hoping to gather some "this is what you have to fit into your week, how do you do it" cases to share with my incoming tutees as we talk about time and stress management. (And yes, I'm going to try to talk to some experts first.)

[Brantley] I have no MIPs working on html2ps. I have no one working on html2ps. I have MIPs working on Web Raveler (with you) and on Clio 3D (with [LindseyD]). I have four volunteers working on a site building tool (with [OforiAdd). Two of the volunteers ([FynnAp] and [Finnessy]) are upper-level CS students. Two of the volunteers ([KaramJL] and [LeachALe]) are new CS students, but that doesn't mean that they can't contribute. Will the group finish the project? Probably not, but they'll make good progress.

[NtiAddya] I'm sorry that I inadvertently made you feel bad. I always remember that we have Thursday meetings; I just didn't realize we'd scheduled an extra meeting (and the tone of your message suggests we didn't). I am amazed at the amount you got done this summer. (For those of you who don't know, Yaw reimplemented most of BornFree as a Web service.) I was about to use you as an example to [Brantley] as to why I think the Siteweaver group will succeed. I'm still looking forward to a finished paper. (And 9:30 is not "early morning".)

[WylieDav] Stop with the suckup already. It's okay that you hated CS. It's okay if you didn't like the course. It's even okay if you didn't like the way I teach. (I'm glad that you seem to, but it's okay if you don't.)

Today I got email from [HunterJ] with the unattributed quote To iterate is human, to recurse, divine. Since I wanted to present the quote to my students, I asked her for the source. Surprisingly, she didn't have one, and noted that it's on a lot of writing (!!!) sites without a source. A Web search reveals at least two possible authors (L. Peter Deutsch and Robert Heller), the first of whom is the author of Ghostscript. The Web is a fascinating place. (Reading {"http://www.usenix.org/publications/login/1998-10/interview.html";"an interview with Deutsch"} also reminds me of why I will probably never write a program of the scale of Ghostscript: "I didn't have much of a social life. At the time, it didn't matter much to me.")

Hmmm [HunterJ] actually has a plan! Is it the legendary leader of the reading lab, or someone else?

I realized I get sick of seeing the same planlove again and again (that's a hint to [GuhaArju] and [GumBen] that it's plan cleaning time). I've now move {"http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~rebelsky/Plans/autofinger.html";"my autofinger list"} to a separate document (without links right now).

[Quellhor]: Thanks for the info on [Omvig]. I hope lots of students show up. (Faculty, of course, will be at the faculty meeting scheduled at exactly the same time.) By the way, when do I get my hat and t-shirt?

[VickeryJ]: I just bought an Iowa Telecom standard modem. Nothing fancy, but my wireless hub works fine with it. And it came with five more of the line filtering doohickys, which should be useful when we add even more phone lines to the house. Thanks for the concern.

The talented [Techaval] will be presenting a talk on Internet Censorship in China Thurday at 4:30 p.m. in Science 2413. Come at 4:15 for refreshments and stay for the talk!

Thanks to the wonderous [WatsonD], my kids now have a Yu-Gi-Oh Manga in Japanese. So ... they now want to learn Japanese. Anyone want to help them learn a little this summer?

My mother's visit makes me think of many of the things my parents and grandparents did of which I'm quite proud. In my normal self-deprecating way, I'm going to refer to them as why I'll never live up to the example my parents and grandparents set.

I met with my former tutees tonight for our final dinner together. One thing we ended up discussing was possible changes to tutorial. They seemed to feel fairly strongly that tutorial should cover time management and stress management issues. I'm not sure whether or not I agree, but I'm thinking about it. I expect that if I talk to my students about time management, it would be helpful to be able to talk to them about typical and bad weeks. I know that the some of you keep careful records of your work. Would you mind sending me lists of the stuff that you needed to fit in to each of the past few weeks so that I can use it as an exercise (for myself and for them)? (I also think some faculty would benefit from seeing such lists.) I'll work to make them anonymous (or you can do so). Thanks!

My thoughts are with those of you grieving. Let me know if I can do anything to help.

[LeachAle] Your mailbox is full. Send me your schedule for the fall so that I can plan your guided reading.

Many of you are now filling out end-of-course evaluations. If you'd like to know how they're used, read my rant entitled {"http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~rebelsky/about-eoc.html";"about end-of-course evaluations"}.

Agh! No Internet connection at home. The withdrawal was so bad, I came in to the office. No, not to read plans, but to put files on my powerbook so that I could work at home. I answered lots of email about exams. Now I'm going to read plans for a few minutes.

[WatsonD] I hope you made it in safely! You haven't updated your plan yet, but I'm hopeful.

Agh! Two days of not reading plans means too many plans to read. Oh well. I guess I'll let them build up some more. The key ones are the alums.

[Kensler] If you're around on Sunday, I'd love to see you. We'll be at the soccer fields on 12th and Penrose from about 1:30 to 3:00. Home afterwards. Unknown location beforehand (probably home after noon).

[Carey] Michelle wants to know if you'd like to give William and Jonathan private swimming lessons this summer.

The best thing about having no DSL? No temptation to waste time on the computer. In bed by 9:30, asleep by 10:00. Yay! Of course, I'm behind on my plans reading, but that's life.

[WylieDav]: I'm sorry that CSC151 didn't work for you. I'm glad you gave it a try, and I really enjoyed having you in the class. It's clear that CS isn't for everyone (not even for all really smart people).

Extra for Tuesday, 6 May 2003

Tutees Dinner: 6 p.m., Tuesday, 6 May 2003, Chez Rebelsky. Bring food or don't. I'll provide pizza and drinks. Invited are [Gallaghe] [Lentz] [Mehboob] [Murphy] [Omvig] [Palermo] [PortilAJ] [Staicut] [Wilson] (oh, and [Rebelsky]). Whoops, I should tell [StuhrR], too!

Extra for Monday, 28 April 2003

The following was included on my plan for about a week before today. The last sentence said something about making lots of kinds of cheesecake (until the event mentioned there).

Are you looking for something fun to do Monday, 28 April 2003, at 2:15? Come to science 2417 (the MathLAN) and watch CSC151 students present their wicked-neat projects. The four projects to be presented are the "Grinnell Hell-Week Stress Test"; a Web-based buy/sell/free board; a Web-based poker game; and a strategy board game. 's paper is taking too long, so we'll have treats other than cheesecake.

Wednesday, 30 April 2003

I went to bed relatively early last night with the thought that I'd get up and prepare class this morning. Unfortunately, my DSL connection was down (presumably because of the thunderstorm).

Tuesday, 29 April 2003

[Quellhor]: I'd love a t-shirt. Do you have extra-extra fat? If not, that's fine, I'll let my kids or wife wear it.

I have to admit that I find it funny that this page fails to validate. Would you trust someone to teach you English if their ads were riddled with grammatical errors? (A few, maybe, but so many?) (And my [CSC195] students are not allowed to make sarcastic comments about the exam in response here.)

The reason the EBoard wasn't updated very frequently is that it was a lab!. If you miss class due to illness tomorrow, I'll be sure to insert rants so that you know what's up.

After some reflection, I've decided that under the current setup, has every right to do whatever he wants with plans. However, I do think we should make management a shared responsibility, rather than an individual responsibility.

Getting to sleep by 12:30 a.m. didn't help. I'm still exhausted. Oh well. It's almost summer.

[GuhaArju] writes "Even though I wrote a note to [rebelsky], telling him not to cut marks for miscitation, he still did so [on] my exam." (1) The second thing in braces is not planlove. It is standard notation for "you forgot this word, but I knew what you meant". (2) And why should I pay attention to this statement? What's next? "I realize this code doesn't do what it says. Please don't take off points." Perhaps "I realize this code does not do what it says. Plesae do not cut marks." Perhaps "I realize this exam is blank. I still deserve a 100." Monday, 28 April 2003

Well ... it's basically midnight between Monday and Tuesday, but I'm logging this on Monday. I've graded my CSC153 exams. I've prepared my CSC151 and CSC152 classes. I think I can use tomorrow to finish the CSC195 exam and prep that class. I need a planbreak.

: Yes, the exam said "Released". I just predated the release announcement. (It said that it was released on Monday.)

: Bad Evan! No plan updates! By the way, [Chenet] says that he's giving you to me. Have we finished your planning?

Positive thoughts for my regular and temporary advisees who need it. (They know who they are. I think it's probably inappropriate for me to planlove them directly.)

Sunday, 27 April 2003

[WylieDav]: Too late! I wrote the CSC151 exam first. I've now written two exams and prepped two classes. One more exam to write and I'm calling it a night, even though I haven't graded my CSC153 exams.

Since [TanMarie] and [FynnAP] commented on it: My son, William, had his first communion today. He's thrilled. Although I'm not a Catholic, I'm still proud of him for making a serious committment to something he believes in. I also like to see him so happy. As a non-practicing Jew, I also feel surprisingly conficted about it. I'd like him to know more of his Jewish heritage. He and Jonathan are certainly enjoying reading and rereading the book about the seder we bought. (And I just picked up "The Jewish Kids Catalog" to spring on him later.)

: My cool purchase this weekend: An Underdog DVD. I also picked up two TerryToons videos you might use in your tutorial.

There more I think about it, the cleverer I realize is about teaching a tutorial on animated cartoons. Just think! Everything he buys related to the tutorial is tax-deductible. Hmmm ... perhaps it's time to rethink my tutorial topic. Instead of "Intellectual Property in the Information Age" it could be "Intellectual Property in the Information Age and Its Relation to All the Stuff Sam Wastes Money On" (or is that "On Which Sam Wastes Money"?). Let's see ... even ignoring the title switch, I could buy lots and lots of comics and cartoons to reflect on those occasional "tributes" and whether they relate to copyright violations.

Latest stupid move: "Let's see ... we have about ten people visiting this weekend. Sure, I can write a new exam for each of my classes, prepare those classes, and grade an exam." One exam down, one class prep down, two of each to go. (Related stupid move: Updating plan instead of writing exams.)

[MichaelH], [VickeryJ], and anyone else discussing cobbling together a Plans server: [FrancisB] has agreed that I can keep eight of the current MathLAN machines for student projects. He even suggested that we use one for plans. So, just wait until the end of the summer and we'll be set. (To his credit, has been working hard behind the scenes on this issue.)

: I noted your excessive planlove and that you stopped updating your plan. You've started updating again! So I've once again noted that you have more than two planloves for me. Keep going, and the independent may go away.

[SimpsonE]: Welcome aboard! It's nice to have another professor (and copious writer) aboard.

Given [SimpsonE]'s emphasis on the electronic in his teaching, I guess it was likely he'd join. Who will be the next adventuresome (or is that adventurous?, I'm sure will correct me) professor to join plans? I'd bet on [Borovsky].

[Aswell]: I'd like a book. Given that my Tigger suit starred in your award-winning film, do I get one for free? (Just joking, I'm happy to pay $4.00 for it.)

Friday, 25 April 2003

[Gallaghe]: The bookstore has a catalog from an art exhibit at the Des Moines Art Museum by "Ellen Gallagher". Is it you? I never knew. I thought [PortilAJ] was my artistic advisee.

By the way, the Des Moines art museum is way cool. I recommend that everyone visit it sometime. Lots of interesting modern art.

: My [CSC153] class (including , who should know), all agree that the sound PacMan (or at least Ms. PacMan) makes is "Waka Waka". Clearly a postmodern reference to the poetry of videogames.

I'm sorry that you find my reflection on 's authority "presumptuous and graceless". From my perspective, Plans has generally been a communal project, but always with a central figure. wrote the first version, but and others certainly contributed code and suggestions. [VickeryJ] also provided some database advice. When left, my impression was that she left it with a group of students to manage (which the FAQ describes as "the current maintainers of plans) with , but his colleagues drifted away. I note from the [Plans] plan that is thinking that a group is, in fact, appropriate.

In terms of the particular issue at hand. Do I think [Laiu] should have been removed? Yes. Do I think should have been removed? No. Do I think , , and others overstepped their bounds. Yes. Do others feel that these folks should have been removed? Yes. Do others feel that none of these folks should have been removed? Yes. Are we a community? I think so. Should we then resolve these issues as a community? I think so. Could we resolve them as a community? I hope so.

Followup on the "must rat" aspect of honor codes. On occasion, students observe behavior in their colleagues of which they don't approve and which they then must decide whether or not to report. For example, what should you do if you see a colleague cheating on an exam or falsifying credentials? While I think it's useful for students to spend the time considering the possible implications of reporting or not reporting, I also think that's a lot of stress to put the observer under. A "must rat" policy removes some control from the observer, but I think that's to the observer's benefit.

Note that I would not want to see an honor code implemented for drinking, alcohol, or related behaviors. I hope that self-governance takes care of these things. I do think an honor code that speaks primarily to academic honesty and includes a must-rat clause is a useful thing. A good honor code also helps students think actively about these issues.

I think I've figured out why I object to having sole discretion about removing people from plans: It doesn't fit in with the Grinnell ethos of decision by committee. For example, as a faculty member, I don't have the right to decide that a student has cheated and then fail him, I need to ask a group to consider the evidence. While is responsible for maintaining this system, I think it would make sense for there to be a committee (not necessarily a college committee, just a group of plansfolk would be fine) that weighs the evidence and decides who should be excised from plans.

: In the ever-escalating war: Each time I detect more than 2 planloves for me in your plan, I will take note. If I take enough notes, I will no longer offer you the 152 option in the fall.

: According to your formal dictionary definition, I am clearly disheveled. It's also clear that wearing a sportcoat will do nothing to detract from my disheveled demeanor.

By the way, sport coats are surprisingly great. Not only does wearing one make me look slightly neater, it gives me lots more pockets to shove things into. The outer pockets neatly hold the Megatokyo graphic novel (yes, I found that out yesterday). They currently contain: Left pocket: Cell phone, scrap of "Return to Neverland" poster, receipts from food for class, cash left from food for class (now being moved to wallet), note from Day care about Jonathan, and a Jones soda cap saying "A friend will soon bring you a present; Right pocket: More cash, another receipt, a random Walmart receipt for the stuff we bought to make William and Jonathan's cubscout cakes, prescription drugs (oh, good reminder: time to take them), mom's flight info, Chuck E. Cheese token, and some Borders gift card; Left breast pocket: Reimbursement check from recent conference trip; Right breast pocket: nothing, surprisingly.

: By indicating that CSC151 was time consuming, I was not trying to drive [RinneAnd] to your class. Rather, I was warning him about the rigors of the course (which I will try to ameliorate). I'll note that your section wasn't even on his potential list, probably because it conflicted with one of the courses he was already planning to take. So ... stop the damn "take Rebelsky's class instead of mine" spiel. We want lots of students to take both of our courses!

You are forbidden to include a phrase like the following in your plan or to say it aloud: "Isn't it cute how and [Rebelsky] are fighting about whose clase is harder?"

[Harrantr] Reports from my students are that [HeroldK] is quite good. She's shown up in a few responses to "Who's the best professor you've had at Grinnell" surveys. I'll note that I also enjoy having her as a colleague.

Woo hoo! I'm in the top three of the "Planlove received" list (both with duplicates and without). And it's not because of the latest plans controversy (okay, it's because of the secondary plans controversy that I created, not the "I suspect [xxxxxxxx] of hacking [yyyyyyyy]'s plan" controversy.) By the way, [Fuller], if you suspect someone of changing someone else's plan without permission, you should consider reporting them to the computer and telephone hearing board, as it is a violation of Grinnell's appropriate use policy.

On that note, I often wish Grinnell had a real honor code (with the legendary "must rat" policy).

Thursday, 24 April 2003

: (1) I may deduct one point from your final grade for every blank planlove for me you include in your plan. (2) The new "Video Game" from ThinkGeek is the "Atari Classics in a Joystick" thingy.

My mother arrived today (yay; I see her all too infrequently). She got to read "A Day in the Life of Sam Rebelsky" (which I hadn't told her about in advance). Her first comment? "Sam, 'to wake my wife and I'" is grammatically incorrect." Thanks mom. She did laugh at the rest and symptathized about my busy but interesting day. Her best comment: "You get to talk to a lot of people during the day. I rarely talked to so many colleagues during the day."

Followup: I went back to my original (that which I wrote) and it said "... to wake us up". It appears that my "editor" [SchunaCa] wanted to make me look bad (or perhaps just worse).

[SchunaCa]: In response to your plan survey, my answer is "masochistic tendencies". (Remember, though, I'm biased because writes things like "Rebelsky is a bozo" in his plan and fills my QuickLove with dozens of planloves.)

[Rinneand]: You should, of course, take my CSC151 course as it's a lot of fun and requires lots of work, therefore making every other Grinnell course seem easy in comparison. However, I've had at least one advisee tell me that he learned more about writing from Monessa Cummins than from anyone else in the college (that was in HUM101, but I expect she's equally good elsewhere). Note also that you probably can't take MAT215 (Linear Algebra) and MAT218 (Combinatorics) in the same semester, since MAT215 is a prerequisite for MAT218. So, take CSC151 and a Cummins course.

: You are on my autofinger list (as I realized when your changed plan showed up). Sorry for not listing you originally. I still think it's funny that said that he thinks you're "shy" To make up for my negligence, I'm forwarding you a job offer (which I was planning to forward anyway).

Noon: For those looking for me: I'm off to Des Moines to pick up my mother at the airport. Try sending me email if you have questions.

I wanted to attend today's convocation. Really I did. But one of my project teams from 151 had some hard questions, and I think answering their questions should be my priority. Oh well. I'll watch the tape later.

Wednesday, 23 April 2003

Today in class, I referred to a student's plan. The student seemed genuinely surprised that I read the student's plan, even though I've sent comments on it in the past. Another student said "Yeah, Sam, since I know you read my plan, I censor myself." That raises the question: Should I stop reading plans? Should I only read plans that planlove me (which makes plans much less fun for me, since I like following the planlove links when reading at 2 a.m.)? Should I ask to add a "No Profs" options to plans?

How geeky is ThinkGeek? They sent me the return shipment label as a PDF attachment.

Why I love my neighbor's friends: They take orange bikes when they come visit and then leave them on the lawn. They park in my driveway and don't even think about whether it might be appropriate to ask first. They leave kegs on the lawn.

My ThinkGeek order arrived yesterday. I opened it about now. It was the wrong order. Blah. No Revolution OS DVD. No Megatokyo GN. An extra silly video game, though. Clearly, it's time to give up on class prep and go to bed.

Tuesday, 22 April 2003

Last night (Monday night) I started class prep at 10:00 p.m. Tonight, I'll be starting class prep closer to 11:45 p.m. Some days are just too damn long. And what am I doing reading plans? Who knows.

, , [KearneyM], and other Glimmer lab students and their roomies: my beloved spouse said something insane like, "Any of your students who want to camp out in our living room until they get into their rooms are welcome to do so."

You know there's something wrong when you're too tired to prep class at 1 a.m., but still watch the last 45 minutes of Bio-Dome.

Agh! It's preregistration week! Goodbye free time. Oh well, almost no one used my advice of free mediocre preregistration advice, so I have more free time than I expected to meet with my actual advisees.

Wo hoo! My mother arrives for a visit on Thursday. I wonder if I can get her to come to Friday's classes? (Yes, these are positive reflections, even though they may seem sarcastic.)

Monday, 21 April 2003

: Thanks for the "compliments" about my {"http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~rebelsky/recommendation.html";"requested information for letters of recommendation"}.

[gablee]: "Reverse Finger" is "Find out who has me on their autofinger list". If you want to get good arguments going about plans, ask people about their opinions on this topic.

Friday, 18 April 2003

[Raulerso]: Guess what? fixed my iBook by zapping the PRAM. And he only charged $3.00. (He has since refunded most of that $3.00.)

Once again, a package addressed to my home address arrived at the science division office. I just don't know how to react.

In my attempts to be humorously sarcastic or sarcastically humorous, I've offended some of you with my plan. I very much apologize. I'll try to leave the laughs to my own expense and not those of others.

This morning, the orange bike was still on my neighbors' lawn. It was temporarily joined by another last night, but that one went away. However, it seems that once again my plan has given people initiative to put things back; the bike is now gone (as of early afternoon).

: I've been rethinking your BB offer. While I'm no longer using it for my own classes (for the philosophical reasons that regularly presents), I do end up being involved in discussion boards, such as those about MAPs. Knowing when postings are added (or even getting them via email) would be great. What do I need to offer?

Thursday, 17 April 2003

A few months ago, I was reading a chair ad (okay, I was bored). There are chairs whose style involves the word "Marty" (I think these are high, bar-stool like chairs) and chairs whose style involves the word . Yes, there was even a Marty . Will I ever find that ad again?

When I woke up this morning and looked out the window, what did I see on my neighbor's lawn? An orange bike. I suppose removing them from campus and leaving them on the lawn in the rain is better than throwing them off the logia, but only fractionally.

What did I read in the paper this morning? "Just Born [the candy company that makes marshmallow peeps] also is acquiring Goldenberg Candy Co., a Philadelphia company that has been making peanut chews since 1890." How to react? Part of me wants to say "Ah hah! They're still using the peanuts from 1890. That's how they get the special taste." Part of me is concerned that the chews will change. Part of me is hopeful that they'll get wider distribution (since Peeps (R) appear in nearly every store in America). But is wider distribution really good? They're special because so few people know about them. Hmmm....

Anyway, I'm going to place an order at peanutchews.com. Shipping is cheaper if we combine orders. Does anyone want me to order something? (6 lbs of peanut chews cost $15.00; t-shirts cost $10.00; caps cost $10.00; collector tin (one lb of peanut chews) costs $7.5).

: I did nothing to my iBook. The kids used it to kill an ant in the house. It worked fine afterwards. We closed it and brought it upstairs. It started to exhibit the described behavior. I'll bring it in on Friday and let you play with it, if you'd like.

and : You can choose to rewrite Datatel or any of the other software on campus. However, ITS and the Dean strongly believe that "student-developed software is unreliable".

About two weeks ago, I saw some information about the new Revolution OS DVD that is being released without CSS (no, not cascading style sheets). It's available from thinkgeek.com. As I browsed for other stuff, I saw that they had a Megatokyo graphic novel ("Out of stock, but due in March 30"). The graphic novel stayed out of stock until three days ago. Then, guess what? Revolution OS was out of stock. Anyway, both are back in stock, so I was able to order lots of geekstuff. Thrillsville!

[DowdJ]: The advisor knows all. Sorry. I'm still letting you take the course. And it's 's fault that I read it in your plan.

Wednesday, 16 April 2003

More on National Pipe-Cleaner Day: The wonderous pointed me {"http://web.grinnell.edu/sga/jointboard/minutes031799.html";"to some old join board minutes"} that seems to suggest that it's May 5. Still a few more weeks. I miss 's and 's creations.

and [Quellhor]. [Adelbe] tells me that Alice used to include a giant live chess game. He's even run the chess game in some years. Any plans for such an event this year?

Are you a CS major or a CS major wannabee? Come see Sorting Out Sorting! Two showings in the MathLAN, both on Monday 21 April 2003. The first is at 10:00 a.m.; the second at 2:15 p.m. Is it a coincidence that those are times that I regularly teach? Guess.

Positive news: Went to bed by 11 p.m. last night. Didn't prepare classes for today, but got a good night's sleep.

I think "disheveled" is an understatement for me. I wear the jacket (and the tie, once in a while) in an attempt to look less so.

You can camp out in our living room from graduation to June 1. As can the rest of [Glimmer]. Hmmm ... we need a [Glimmer] plan! In terms of your reflection: Why is control so important to you? Accept that it's fine that something may be slipping out of control, and focus on the rest. Things resolve.

[GMUG] My first-generation iBook is very unhappy. When booting, the screen lights up for about five seconds and then goes blank. The hard disk chugs like it's successfully booting (and I think it is), but I can't see anything. I also get similar behavior if I boot from CD. Any ideas? Am I hosed?

I knew you were joking, but felt I should respond anyway. Play up your successful group work on your resume.

You seemed much more like the Amanda Catherine of old yesterday. I think teaching suits you.

Can I have plan accounts for [Glimmer] (my research team) and [WICS] (women in computer science)? Thanks. Maybe I'll even email you this request.

Tuesday, 15 April 2003

Whatever happened to pipe cleaner day? Is it still scheduled for this year? I remember fondly the wonderous creations of and . Does anyone know anything about it?

Information should be public! Why can't I give people Web access to my schedule? (Yes, I know that few people other than the other Dr. Rebelskys would want access, but still ...). I guess that can be another {"http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~rebelsky/todo.html#software";"summer software project"}.

Spring cleaning returns. Plan still excessively long, but shorter. Given the amount of PlanLove they have for me (therefore making quick love irritating), I'd hope that and would also clean out their plans again.

[MathSEPC]: Um, not to be offensive, but aren't you the [MathCSSEPC]? Or is there a separate [CSSEPC]? Can I rename you the "Student Educational Policy, Teaching, and Instruction Committee"? Thanks for returning the chairs. Um ... eight letters. How about [MaCSsepc]? Oh well, it won't matter in a few years.

Will you also provide CD's of Open Source software for MacOS? I'm sure or [GMUG] would be willing to put one together.

Cool news: Jeff Phelps agreed to have me host my tutorial at Saints' Rest. You can use 2417 if you'd like.

Scary note: [Rebelsky] is trying Outlook Web Access: Calendar. Any idea how I make my calendar public?

In the "How stupid can you get?" category: I've decided that since I'm already getting far too much spam every day, I'm going to try clicking on the "Unsubscribe Me" buttons.

: It would be wrong to list the award. It will also be wrong to list the Glimmer award you're going to receive.

: You are free to attempt to sell your Glimmer Labs (no-tm) shirt on Ebay (R), even if I don't change the name. Note that "TM" means "Trade Mark Applied For" and "(R)" (preferably in a circle) means "Registered Trade Mark".

: As one of the four people who read your plan, I must admit that I rarely think. ("Do one of you have any thoughts?")

Monday, 14 April 2003

[Etc] Should we think about big bean bags for the forthcoming CS lounge, Math lounge, CS learning center, open lab, ...? (Of course, given that they've "walked" over here, perhaps they'd walk from our labs elsewhere.)

Woo hoo! Going to bed before 11 p.m. Such an accomplishment. (Seriously.) Sorry [CSC153]ers; grading waits another day.

I am not cute. I may be fatter than Pooh Bear, I may be insanely happy at times, I may interact easily with my children, but I am not cute. Of course, the whole point of this cuteness "debate" was to encourage more students to take CSC151, right?

Non-Dated, Week of 14-21 April 2003

Samuel A. Rebelsky, Associate Prof. CS, Chair Technology Studies Department of Mathematics and Computer Science Grinnell College, 1116 8th Avenue, Grinnell, Iowa 50112 Office: 641-269-4410 ; Fax: 641-269-4285 ; Home: 641-236-7445 rebelsky@grinnell.edu ; http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~rebelsky/

If you juggle too many eggs, you're bound to drop some, but some may spontaneously turn into souffles.

Since [OforiAdd] violated copyright and copied my addiction quiz I've decided to remove it from my plan. No, I'm not upset. I just want a shorter plan.

A. What do you think about adding "reverse finger" to plans? 1. How can you reverse a finger? 2. I've heard about it and have no opinion. 3. I think it's a bad idea. 4. I think it's a great idea. 5. I debated it two years ago in WSE. 6. I implemented it.

B. What do you think about adding a spell checker to plans? 1. Sure, why not? 2. Spell checkers wouldn't catch the substitution of "addition" for "addiction". 3. Intelligent ones would.

C. How many other features can you suggest adding to plans? 1. None 2. One 3. Two to Five 4. More than Five

Scoring: If you took this quiz, you should probably volunteer your time to help add to plans. Also send your score (the sum of the numbers) and a list of recommended additions to [Shapiro]. (Note that the last comment was a joke.)

Since I already have about thirty advisees (including the ones I've temporarily stolen from Mr. [Walker]), I now feel compelled to offer registration advice to anyone who asks on plans and whose plan I see. Yes, I check for plan love.

For those of you planning to take CSC151 next year, note that and [Rebelsky] will be teaching it in the fall and and [Walker] will be teaching it in the spring. For those of you planning to take CSC152 next year, note that [BishopD] will be teaching it in the fall and will be teaching it in the spring.

[Burchfie]: Courses of interest should be good no matter what time you take them or who teaches them. (How's that sound for following the party line?) Next year is [Jepsen]'s last full-time year, so that might be an incentive to take a particular section.

: Japanese, CS, Math, and ....? Um ... I'd say "No" to Physics and "No" to Chinese. Take something different (and something that won't be intensely time-consuming, if such a thing exists at Grinnell). Plus, Physics in the spring should be workshop-style, which is way cool.

: A double Chinese/CS major is not novel, believe it or not. [Wislocki]'s older brother did it. I'd say take Chinese II and delay CSC152 by a semester. We can work out a four-year plan at your convenience.

: Go for AI. It's a really cool topic. In terms of choosing a section of linear, note that Mr. [Herman] runs a lab-based linear and we don't yet know what Ms. [Shuman] will do (since she's new). You might also talk to [Skerrett] about what benefits you gain from having a math professor of the same gender.

, , and [PalmYvon]: Don't forget, language geeks can always try to find someone to support ALSO (Alternate Language Study Option) in a language of your choosing! Try Finnish or something.

: I've added a sample four-year plan for the CS part of your career (an unpleasant looking one, I must admit). Do you have enough credits for a semester or year on leave? Will information leave your head? Probably. It seems to leave most students' heads the day after the final.

Disclaimer: I never said I was a good advisor, just that I like to provide advice.

Someone like [Fullmer] (currently in 151 and Calc I; wants to take a semester abroad.

F1: Anything
S1: CSC151, MAT131
F2: CSC152, MAT133
S2: CSC201, MAT215
F3: CSC211, MAT218
S3: Abroad
F4: CSC301, CSC223
S4: CSC302, CSC341

Someone like (currently in in 151 and Calc II; wants to take a semester abroad, wants to take Chinese in the fall).

F1: MAT131
S1: CSC151, MAT133
F2: MAT215
S2: CSC152, MAT218
F3: Abroad
S3: CSC201, CSC362
F4: CSC301, CSC211
S4: CSC302, CSC341

Week of 7-13 April 2003

I was attempting plan-leave this week and so did not update my plan regularly or keep track of when I'd sone so.

We now have Pioneer Cards, PioneerWeb, and PioneerServer. What's next? PioneerOS? Pioneer Prospectives? Hmmm ... maybe it's time to rename Glimmer Labs to PioneerLabs.

: I hate to contradict you, but Compilers is clearly the crown jewel of CS. It merges theory and practice better than any other course. Oh, and I'll stick with "The Cute One". Consider the recent tutorial committee meeting in which we gave the subject matter of our tutorials: "Traditional tribes of the amazon and the search for environmental responsibility"; "The conflict between the search for self and the search for community"; "I plan to take my traditional exploration of postmodern issues of community and restructure it for a post-9/11 society"; "Intellectual property in the information age"; "I think I'll do animated cartoons, but I'm not sure what the students would read other than trasncriptions." I stick by "Cute". (I also think your tutorial will be a lot of fun.)

: I think I said "A trained monkey could do most of the tasks of technology studies chair." While much of my job is throwing out paper, I do ocassionally interact with people (e.g., to explain to Noyce/Intel applications that startups that are leaking money are not nonprofits).

: "Mr. Summer Research" is just one aspect of "Mr. ICare" as in "I care so much about providing opportunties for my students that I'll try to hire a dozen and write letters complaining about not getting enough, even though I could make more money and have more free time if I went to Chicago to teach a summer course."

said something on the order of "Why do you tell us to get to bed by midnight if you rarely do so?" I'll note that this is the first semester I've been at Grinnell in which I have not regularly been asleep by about 11 p.m. (I am asleep by midnight most nights this semester, but there are certainly too many nights when I'm up later.) Why is this semester so problematic? One reason is that I'm teaching two new courses, which means that I have much more class prep than normal. A second is that Michelle just moved offices, which means that I have more home responsibilities than normal. A third is that I decided to be more responsible about grading homework (yes, I know my current students probably have trouble believing that, but ask and [Venugopa] about the semester they took CSC152 from me). A fourth is that I have an incredibly addictive personality (that is, I easily get addicted to things, not that others get addicted to my personality) and plans probably keep me up an extra 30 minutes each night.

So ... Despair not, young people. It is indeed possible to have a well-paying, rewarding, and fun job and also get sleep. (Just not this semester.)

In one of my classes, a student experienced a serious computer error. I said, "Ask your advisor for help", knowing that her advisor is . Someone piped up with "Boy, you say that a lot." Well, I must admit that he knows more than almost anyone I know. Insert whiney voice: "Mr. , my students' computers don't work. Can you fix them?" "Mr. , I can't remember the precise difference between eq? and eqv?. What is it?" "Mr. , my students claim that 'what' can't serve as a pronoun. It can, can't it?" "Mr. , what's the adjective for 'taking place in winter?" I'm amazed that he puts up with me.

However, I guess that we each serve our own role in the CS half of the department. Mr. is the keeper of all wisdom. Mr. [Walker] is our fearless leader. Mr. [Rebelsky] (that's me) is our semi-insane, overly-enthusiastic, too impulsive person, whose purpose is to show the students we care. (All five of us care about our majors; I'm just a little more vocal than most.) Mr. is the cute one. Mr. [BishopD] is, um, just Mr. [BishopD] (sorry, I'm no longer creative).

Sunday, 6 April 2003

Okay, wins. I made it less than a day. If I wasn't working until 1 a.m., I probably would have enough self control to skip plans, but I don't, particularly given the current controversies.

On the whole ///[OtherGeeks] vs. controversy. It seems to me that plans is a community. It is therefore the responsibility of the community to set the rules as to what is and is not appropriate. If the majority of plans users object to folks hacking plans, then they might vote to throw off those hackers. I very much appreciate all the hard work that has put into updating the code for plans and then working as PlansLord. However, it does seem to me that it should be a shared task, and that no one person (not even the great or ) should have total control over plan policy. There's a great story about a MUD solving a much worse crisis as a group and not simply with individuals asserting their authority.

On the related "Reverse Love" controversy: I think this, too, can be settled by community discussion (or even by technology). Why not have a setting that says "People can check who I love" (or whatever) so that isn't tempted to write silly software and "Check who loves me" could then be part of the system. I would expect that the members of the community would then respect the wishes of others who didn't want their love to be know.

Saturday, 5 April 2003

Brand-New Phase II Question: Should we set up EMail/Plans Kiosks throughout the science building?

Followup: Do you really believe that the non-Linux folks can successfully read their email and plans in the CS Linux Labs? (Yes, that's right, the third floor should be as Microsoft-free as we can make it.)

Unasked-but-answered Phase II Question: Blackboards or Whiteboards in student study spaces?

Blackboards: Whiteboards: [AndersEB] [Laiu] Unable to understand that blackboards/whiteboards is not a yes/no question:

Hmmm ... maybe we could mix the blackboard and whiteboards in a cow-like pattern.

Current Offers for Summer Research Volunteers: Free meals in exchange for cooking once per week. Cheesecake served at at least one meal. Still working on free housing in faculty houses in exchange for something. Volunteers expected to work at least 8:30 a.m. to noon, Monday-Friday.

Long-Awaited Return of "Support Your Classmates" Extra Credit: CS151 students get a point for attending Fleeting Fictions. Details available from .

Sam's favorite regional junk-foods: Vernor's, Raspberry Lime Rickeys, Goldenberg's Peanut Chews, Blenheim.

: If you really believe that my exams are getting easier, you should read comments by , , and .

Impulse control? What impulse control? (In reference to spending time writing a plan-addiction-quiz.)

I'm not sure where GeekHouse is planning to locate, but I chatted with the women in the house north of Chez Rebelsky and the next set of students will be the women's cross-country runners, who will probably want summer subletters. The plan-exiled has also been informed.

The women's soccer players to my north borrowed a shovel to build a fire pit. I say, "So, why are you building a fire pit?" They say, "All-campus party tonight!" Am I doomed to no sleep?

Today's cool discovery: Discover card will send me Borders gift cards worth twice the amount of "Discover Cash" I've accumulated. I can use those gift cards on borders.com, which is just another name for Amazon.com. That means that many things start out discounted heavily. and are effectively further discounted by the cheap gift cards. Woo hoo! Spending spree time.

Friday, 4 April 2003

: Perhaps if you got enough sleep at night (say getting to bed before 2 a.m.), you might be able to stay awake when you did your reading.

: I tried to make it to Singers. I really did. But the kids were just plain fussy tonight.

[Simonson02]: Haven't read many mainstream comics since coming to Grinnell, so it's hard to say what of Uncle Walter's stuff I've read, but his is certainly a name that rang bells. I know I have StarSlammers somewhere in my stack of books.

: I hate to tell you this, but you're the only computer scientist at Grinnell of whom I have not heard mixed reviews.

: Sorry, students will always flock to your classes because you're a good teacher. I keep 'em away by being viciously sarcastic (e.g,. to ) and infamously difficult when grading. [AnyoneElseReadingThis]: I'm happy to have lots of students. I am a notoriously difficult grader, but most students do learn from me (and most even have fun doing so).

[CS151 Students]: Should I orient the full semester of CSC151 around Script-Fu programming? (That is, make almost all the labs and exercises have to do with graphics?)

[Simonson02]: Just saw in your plan that Walter Simonson is your uncle. Note that he's not just any-old comics artist/writer; he's a very well respected one. (On a more appropriate note: I hope all is going well for you oh so far away.)

: Did you tell the admitted student about Zander Cannon '96-or-so? Wrote and illustrated well-respected indie (Replacment God). Now draws stuff by Alan Moore.

: I expect that the aquarium will have shades. The library windows will also have some sort of light-dampening effect. We're considering filling some of the wall to the hall with a blackboard/whiteboard (preferences?). Finally, it's North light anyway.

[Stoltzfu]: The aquarium is intended as a lounge for majors. It is not intended to be a replacement for the MathLAN. (The replacement MathLANs are across the hall, although we expect majors will also want to do computing in the upper-level labs and the research labs.)

[BendichPaul]: The pseudo-love is easy to do. It's just a plan-link in brackets. Repeat after me: Left bracket, left brace, double quote, URL of plan for loved person, double quote, semicolon, double quote, alternate name for loved person, double quote, right brace, right bracket. I used it primarily to annoy and to obey Ashcroftian language rules, but I suppose there are all sorts of other ways to use it to annoy your readers and subvert Plan Love.

Thursday, 3 April 2003

[Quellhor]: I'm glad you're enjoying the hat. And yes, Gabe did borrow the Tigger suit from me.

Sometimes I wish I had more time. I love acapella. I missed the G-tones last night. I'm going to miss Rockapella tomorrow night. I'm also going to miss the Grinnell Singers (although I'd prefer to see Rockapella). Bleh. (Oh well, at least I get to go to "Fairview Fun Night" with my kids tomorrow night.)

Things that make no sense to me: The Laurel Leaf Events Calendar reports that the Grinnell Relays are being held on April 20. They're having a picnic for faculty and staff and their families. From what I've heard of the traditional relays, the Relays are not a family-oriented activity. Am I missing something?

I'm sorry my exam sucks. At least it's only four questions. Don't forget that your three weeks for fun will also include a project in my class. You can also say that it's my class that's making you feel dumb (if it is my class). I may insult you about it in class, but the odds are that I'll decide to insult you about something in class.

I left a full basket of stale Peanut Chews in the MathLAN last night. They were gone by morning. Scary.

Current plan for the CS Majors Room in Phase II: About 700 square feet. North wall is glass (looking out through library to more glass and then to the new student center). South wall may be mostly glass. Hmmm ... can you say "Aquarium"?

[Chitty]: (1) Here's the approximate dialog (shortened). /via plans "People I know: I have lots of comic books to lend." [Rebelsky]/in person: "Hey, when you return the current set of Asterix, lend me some comics." /via plans: "Long-winded attempt to figure out what Sam likes." [Rebelsky]/via plans: "Long-winded attempt to explain what Sam likes." (2) Sorry that we don't give you enough useful things to do with your interesting skills. If you're not graduating this year, there's always a MAP. (As I said, I like Watchmen. I've read V for Vendetta, but many many years ago.)

Sometimes different aspects of my life just come together. Late Tuesday night (or early Wednesday morning) I worried about colors names. The esteemed Andrew sends me this page which, surprisingly enough, contains a set of colors named by someone whose last name is "Raveling". And how do I describe my normal research? Our slogan is Glimmer Labs: Raveling the Web.

Wednesday, 2 April 2003

[BroadweP] or [Other Graphics-Savvy Person]: I'm looking for a consistent and large set of color names for my Script-Fu code. Unfortunately, there seem to be significant differences between different pages. For example, consider the color "Maroon". Many sites give it as rgb(142,35,107). I think many of those sites took it from a now-dead page at colors.infi.net. The SVG recommendation at W3C says that Maroon is rgb(128,0,0). One of the largest sets I've seen has four versions of Maroon, but the primary one is rgb(176,48,96). A 500+ Colors Page gives it as rgb(255,52,179). How do I choose a naming set? Is there a real standard? I assume Pantone provides a kind of standard, but I thought Pantone was primarily numeric.

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; ; Check with Bobby

Samuel A. Rebelsky
rebelsky@grinnell.edu