Thoughts about education

I am just finishing up my course of study for a Master of Science degree. One of my dreams since I was very young (early teens) has been to get a Ph.D. My educational career has been anything but “normal” in the usual sense of the word. I have an excellent job as Assistant Dean for Information Technology at a major law school. Although I have had a very successful career, I started my formal education very late in life. When I came into my present job I had an Associate’s degree which I earned in the early 70s. Since I came here in 1997 I have taken courses every semester except one earning a Bachelor of Science degree and a Certificate of Advanced Study. Now have one course left to earn an Master of Science degree.

I am at a crossroad. I have been trying to decide if I want to put in the effort and time needed to get a Ph.D. or if I should just let go of the dream. I am not one to give up easily. However, most people I have talked to are not very encouraging. I have reached out to a couple of people here at the university just asking for some time to discuss what I want to do but haven’t received a response from them. These are individuals that I consider friends but when I asked specifically to meet to discuss my thought about pursuing a Ph.D. I did not receive the courtesy of a response. Very wierd I thought… I have talked to a couple of people who have suggested that I am too old; others have suggested that there is no point in getting a degree centered around research. I disagree – it may be true for them… but it is not true for me! Throughout my life, in the face of doubt I have always been able to accomplish any goal I have set my mind to. This is one dream that is hard for me to put aside. My wife is very supportive of everything I do but she believes I deserve a break at this point in my life and should stop after the M.S. degree.

Thoughts? Comments (please!)?

decisions… decisions…

Technical update (finally!)

For sometime now (about 6 months actually) I have been wanting to update the backend of this blog. I finally got it done today. It involved copying and recreating the site, creating an empty database and migrating the structure and data from the original database to the new one!! Everything seems to be working now. So now that everything is in working order, blog on…

Updates

Lots of updates to css has made this a theme (Emire by Phu Ly) I can live with. Some code was borrowed from Kubrick. All in all I like this one. I need to do some work on the sidebar… but that is for another day.

Themes

ok. I had to get away from k2 for now. I will be trying different themes for a while until I design my own.

Look and Feel

I thought I would try out a new look for a while. This is the K2 theme by Michael Heilemann and Chris Davis. Mike Heilemann designed the default theme for WordPress. I like this one very much; and it will be the basis for my next custom design. The Musyoka theme may make an appearance now and then…

I can see I need to make some adjustments to the make the blog render better. In time, in time.

New Camera Woes

I recently purchased a Nikon D50 with an AF-S DX 18 – 55 mm F3.5 – F5.6G ED lens and an AF-S DX 55 – 200 mm F4.0 – F5.6G ED lens. I really love this camera. It is the first high quality digital SLR camera I have owned. My other digital camera is a Casio Exilim EX-Z50. Even though it takes decent pictures it has always felt like a toy to me. The very first digital camera I owned is a Kodak DC3200 that I got free when I purchased a computer. So I am very pleased to have a digital SLR that is on par with my Minolta X700 SLR film camera. I am really disappointed about the demise of the Minolta camera line. But, that is another story…

I am having great difficulty with this camera. Actually, it isn’t the camera at all, it’s me. I have taken about 100 pictures so far. I have managed to delete all but 8 of them. There were several that I really (really!) liked. But through a series of errors I have managed to delete them. I think I am getting used to the camera now and I truely hope there are no other stupid things I can do to delete pictures.

The pictures this camera takes are really excellent terms of resolution, clarity, and color rendering. The camera pretty much allows the user to point and shoot if you want to but also allows significant control over exposure setting too. I am just getting to be friends with this camera and I’m liking it a lot.

Buried Roots

It is a beautiful spring day as I walk home from work. Syracuse University has a nice campus. Unfortunately, the university has succumbed to a landscaping style that I don’t care for. I call it “Buried Roots”. That is, the common practice of clearing a circle around a majestic tree and then mounding mulch like an inverted cone at the base where the tree enters the ground. It is beyond me why people find this attractive. It is as if the tree in its natural surroundings isn’t good enough for us to admire. Some landscapers seem to have this need to add mulch, sometimes in fake colors (red or black), I guess to “enhance” the appearance of the tree. Feels to me like its origins are being buried.

It occurred to me that we do the same to ourselves sometimes… bury our roots. As if our origins aren’t good enough to expose to the world. We often long to be something we are not; something the world might tolerate but isn’t really who we are if left to our natural surroundings. Oh well… just makes me wonder. It is a beautiful day today.

A beginning

I have been thinking about this for a while. I will write some of my more personal thoughts over the next few months. Some of the things I contemplate are very negative and some are very positive and some are just my thoughts. Never one to be controversial I tend not to say things that may cause discomfort to others or that I may feel intensly about. But reading other blogs have inspired me to attempt to write some things down. There are several topics that will emerge. Some I have a clear picture of. Others will emerge as I write. Enjoy if you care to, criticize if you must. And please comment! But understand… these are my thoughts and feelings. I don’t claim to represent anyone else except me.

Inspiration

Well. Two of my favorite bloggers Rori and Cherryl recently left comments. How exciting! I have been recently lamenting that I have this blog that took many, many hours to design and a lot of effort to write with no visitors – except of course the constant stream of comment spam which is effectively handled by Spam Karma 2. Thanks! I think I’ll write more and and will write more often.

Winter has returned

It has been an unusually warm winter in upstate New York. We have only had about 60 inches of snow so far this season which us unusually low for us. Well, we finally are getting some snow again and the temperatures are colder. I’m glad. I like the change of seasons and I like experiencing the differences in the seasons.