It's been a long time since I last posted anything. Looking back over it, a fair amount has happened. First, the semester is over, except for the grading. Second, I must have had another preorder. It's now the 265,000th best seller on Amazon. I wonder if that's what happens from a single order, or if that means there have been several. It was at about the 3.8millionth best seller. Seems quite a jump. Just as I've been writing, it's moved to the 275,000th best seller. I'm guessing that there's only been one, but it was this morning. They say we're still on course for a 1/10 release date. The project manager said she will get me a copy as soon as it's out. I'm waiting with bated breath. In the mean time, I'm still plugging away at the instructor's material. I'm up to Ch 9 on it, a little over 1/3 the way through.
In my last entry, I bemoaned the loss ND suffered to Navy. Well, the following week, they also lost to Air Force. That was the first time since 1949, I think, that ND lost to two service academys in the same year. However, they did win their last two games of the season, for 3 wins on the year. By no means up to ND standards, but a little better than only 1 win. Still coach Weiss seems to be secure for another year. I'm glad people didn't jump too quickly for his head. Hopefully, they'll give him a few years to build his program before jumping to conclusions. And hopefully, he'll get some things sorted out for next year, so that we domers aren't the butt of national jokes again.
However, the biggest news is probably my daughter. She has had some really big successes lately. Not long ago, she placed first in the last of the dances she needed to in order to move up to the prizewinner level of Irish dance. She's also already got two of the four placements she needs to move up to the preliminary championship level. A few weeks ago, she tried out for the Tennessee all-west orchestra in flute and made 3rd chair, a position more often held by seniors (she's a sophomore). Then last weekend, she tried out for all-west band and got 3rd chair in the wind ensemble, which also qualifies her for all-state. The wind ensemble is the top level group fielded from those who try out. Interestingly, the two girls who placed ahead of her in orchestra did not do nearly as well in the band tryouts. Neither of them is in the wind ensemble. The youth choir director at church was suitably annoyed--that's the position she got as a senior. But the biggest achievement is probably her PSAT scores. It won't be until next year when she takes it as a junior that the scores will be used for the National Merit Scholarship program. Nevertheless, she did really well. When she got home from taking the test, she said that in consultation with some of the teachers after the test, she was pretty sure she had gotten all the correct answers in the math section. When she got the scores, not only did she get a perfect score in the math section, she also got a perfect score in the writing section. She missed only 4 of 48 question in the reading comprehension section. Of course, that's identified as the 99th percentile across the board. Then yesterday, as icing on the cake, she took her robotics final exam where she had to demonstrate her robot doing something. She programmed it to go through a maze. (It could have been more interesting had it sensed the walls and actually solved the maze, but just following the preprogrammed path was the most ambitious of the class.) Apparently, they videotaped it and had a number of teachers and adminstrators stop by to see it in action in the hallway. I wish I could take credit for it all, but she's just that good.
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2 comments:
First off, congratulations to you & your daughter on so many outstanding accomplishments! It sounds like she has many talents, all of which make her a star among the sky. At such a young age, it's certain that she has many more glorious years & accomplishments ahead of her yet!
Well, it's been a long, certainly challenging semester, & it's come to an end. I need to thank you for the challenges you put forth for my fellow students & me. I took some time away from my studies a few years ago, and as I called an old friend to get a feel for the notorious "blue sky" question on the first test, he told me that he always felt that I missed out when I didn't hang around long enough to take your class. As we have drawn to an end of this semester, I can understand why. You certainly bring a great depth of knowledge to the class, & what's more, you bring a talent for conveying that knowledge to students. I've truly enjoyed your class & best of luck to you with your book. I thought about ordering one, but I think I'll hang on to my rare edition for when you hit it big. :)
Thanks for the kind words. I certainly agree that my daughter has a lot of possibilities ahead of her. I can't help but be a proud daddy...
And I'm glad that you got something out of this semester. It's always a humbling and gratifying thing to hear that kind of feedback from students. And as to the book, when I was in college, I took a class from a Math prof who was writing the book while we took the class. I remember one day when he arrived in class and said that he had just finished a section and the dept. secretary would be in with the copies in a few minutes. I kept all that draft material for similar reasons. Then, many years later, I ended up teaching a couple of classes from the second edition of the book. And to top it off, there's a scene in the movie RV where that book (or one with an identical cover) shows up.
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