I am in the process of planning some sort of wild and crazy Spring Break trip right now (by wild and crazy, I mean sort of out of the blue type, some place I've never been before). I'm a transportation planner and I know that there is really no rhyme or reason as to the pricing scheme airlines use in calculating their ticket prices, but I've been really amazed at some of the results for some cities I've been considering, that they're all ALMOST EXACTLY THE SAME PRICE FOR THE SAME DATES. No biggie, you say? Here are some of the cities I'm considering for March 7/8/9 - March 14/15:
Helena, MT
Anchorage, AK
Honolulu, HI
Again, no big deal--they're US cities, and capitals of their respective states, but here are two more cities I've looked at:
Edinburgh, Scotland
Budapest, Hungary (Why Budapest? I know someone who teaches at a Christian school there from Trinity in Montgomery and has an open invitation for anyone to come visit him).
They're all within $100 of eachother, despite the fact that I HAVE TO CROSS AN OCEAN AND FLY INTO A DIFFERENT COUNTRY COMPLETELY. (I have to cross an ocean to Honolulu, but it's still in the US). I think the Edinburgh flight may actually be the cheapest of them all (granted, it is a direct flight out of Atlanta, but still).
Anyway, here are my plans for Saturday:
1. NOT STUDY
2. Straighten/Clean my apartment and car
3. Help Colin & Heather Chapell move across town (PCA folks...might recognize that name: Colin is Bryan Chapell's son and is a Ph.D. student here at UA, Heather is the Director of Youth and College Ministries at Riverwood, basically what Tim was doing before July, but without the ordination).
4. NOT STUDY
Exam run-down:
1. Urban Analysis Planning: One essay. Professor said with kind of a smirk on his face, "I don't think you'll find this too painful. You've had enough pain all semester." Half the class of all grad students, including me, finished it in a half hour. The rest were probably 35 minutes finishing it. I was struggling to get three pages--going only one line onto the third page (not "front and back", one whole page front and back, then one line onto the front of the next). Ask me about the mutant race of clowns.
2. GIS-T: Took two hours, but not too bad. One (of six) definitions I was weak on. The essay I wasn't terribly strong on, but I think I got it (and hope I clearly articulated what I was trying to get across). I felt good about the two procedure questions. One we had to find the distance between two places using the gravity model with known variables. It was basic Algebra, but if you didn't know how to work the equation in the first place, you'd be lost. All my results came out nice even numbers, so I must have done something right there (and I plugged them back in and got the right answer). The second was calculating a network autocorrelation/Moran's I on traffic accidents for a 100 mi. stretch of I-10 in Arizona. This is something that can be done easily in Excel, or in GIS with a simple algorithm, but we had to do this by hand. I got my results (Moran's I = 0.93 for this stretch--meaning higher accident values tend to cluster together), and looked back at the map where we got the accident data, and it seemed to be reasonable.
I also got my second non-thesis project idea approved. Basically it's my Richmond project from this semester using ONLY Richmond, then adding three other cities of similar size across the country (Boise, ID; Des Moines, IA; Mobile, AL), add a few more things to look at (fire station coverage of schools, population, etc.) and compare and contract the four cities. I start this up on Monday, and thus ends my holiday--which is why I'm planning a big shebang of a Spring Break trip, since all my non-thesis work should have final drafts turned in by then (to the first reader at least...the second, from what I can ascertain, is somewhat of a formality to avoid any conflicts of interest)
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Misc.
It's been a long time since I Rock 'n' Rolled. No wait...it's been a long time since I posted--that was me being a music nerd. Here's what's shaking:
1. Thanksgiving (the majority has been ehmpasized by my lovely sisters in their blogs). I went to the Florabama with dad on Friday just so I could stand with one foot in one state (Alabama) and one foot in the other (Florida) at the same time. I went home by myself that Sunday up US-43. A VERY pleasant drive--aside from nearly getting killed as I got into Linden. Fun towns along the way: Mobile, Mt. Vernon, McIntosh, Jackson, Grove Hill, Thomasville, Dixon's Mill, Linden, Demopolis, Forkland (Mom...that's where those hey sculptures are...between Demopolis and Eutaw), Eutaw. Was able to knock off four more counties (Washington, Jackson, Marengo, Greene) from my trek to drive my car in all 67 Alabama counties. I'm a geography nerd, I admit it.
2. Wrapped up semester papers and presentations. Got a few positive comments on my presentation on waterfront (re)development, though I thought my presentation on Fire Station Coverage in Richmond VA went better (it was the second presentation, so maybe I was warmed up).
3. Now is the time to start my non-thesis papers/projects. It will be no Christmas "break" for me...rather it will be a grand opportunity to get some work done. I got the official go-ahead to resubmit my Ghana transportation paper. I have to restructure it, re-title it, and add a few pages on sustainable transportation (which I have a few articles on...so THAT shouldn't be too bad). I'm thinking about expanding my Richmond project a ways since I think I might need to do a major GIS project for a non-thesis. I'll talk with professors involved in the coming days.
4. Had a going away luncheon for the girl I'm replacing over at land management. She got presents. Maybe I'll get some presents when I leave in May...then again, she had been there a year and a half, I'll have been there four months. Oh, Kelly, they had some raspberry shortbread bars VERY similar to yours (but not better, of course).
5. Prattville plays Hoover today at 3 for the state title at Legion Field. I had thought about going to the game, but I have WAY too much to do here in Tuscaloosa:
6. UA can't seem to find a coach for its football team. I say hire me. I have a proven track record. I have 150 wins compared to two losses and eight straight national championships (and 9 out of the last eleven seasons). Mind you, this is in NCAA 2005 on my Nintendo Gamecube...
7. Had my first Christmas party/open house of the season last Sunday night at the Liens'. Last time they had one I was there from 7pm until 2am--so were several other people. This time I wasn't there quite as long...6:30pm until roughly 10:00pm.
8. I turned my heat on for the first time two nights ago. Apparently the teens is my threshold for turning the heat on. Dad should be proud of me.
9. I have two exams. One Thursday morning (I THOUGHT it might be a take-home...but it's a regular in-class exam), then one Friday morning after which I go to Suzanna's Christmas pageant/program.
10. I have to return a book to the Bruno Library today (which is were Paul works). No reason for anyone having to know that other than I didn't want Paul to feel left out since I've mentioned everyone else's name here in my relatively immediate family. Also I wanted a nice even number of talking points.
That is all for now.
See-ya!
1. Thanksgiving (the majority has been ehmpasized by my lovely sisters in their blogs). I went to the Florabama with dad on Friday just so I could stand with one foot in one state (Alabama) and one foot in the other (Florida) at the same time. I went home by myself that Sunday up US-43. A VERY pleasant drive--aside from nearly getting killed as I got into Linden. Fun towns along the way: Mobile, Mt. Vernon, McIntosh, Jackson, Grove Hill, Thomasville, Dixon's Mill, Linden, Demopolis, Forkland (Mom...that's where those hey sculptures are...between Demopolis and Eutaw), Eutaw. Was able to knock off four more counties (Washington, Jackson, Marengo, Greene) from my trek to drive my car in all 67 Alabama counties. I'm a geography nerd, I admit it.
2. Wrapped up semester papers and presentations. Got a few positive comments on my presentation on waterfront (re)development, though I thought my presentation on Fire Station Coverage in Richmond VA went better (it was the second presentation, so maybe I was warmed up).
3. Now is the time to start my non-thesis papers/projects. It will be no Christmas "break" for me...rather it will be a grand opportunity to get some work done. I got the official go-ahead to resubmit my Ghana transportation paper. I have to restructure it, re-title it, and add a few pages on sustainable transportation (which I have a few articles on...so THAT shouldn't be too bad). I'm thinking about expanding my Richmond project a ways since I think I might need to do a major GIS project for a non-thesis. I'll talk with professors involved in the coming days.
4. Had a going away luncheon for the girl I'm replacing over at land management. She got presents. Maybe I'll get some presents when I leave in May...then again, she had been there a year and a half, I'll have been there four months. Oh, Kelly, they had some raspberry shortbread bars VERY similar to yours (but not better, of course).
5. Prattville plays Hoover today at 3 for the state title at Legion Field. I had thought about going to the game, but I have WAY too much to do here in Tuscaloosa:
- Study
- Clean/Straighten
- Grocery Shop
- Christmas Shop
6. UA can't seem to find a coach for its football team. I say hire me. I have a proven track record. I have 150 wins compared to two losses and eight straight national championships (and 9 out of the last eleven seasons). Mind you, this is in NCAA 2005 on my Nintendo Gamecube...
7. Had my first Christmas party/open house of the season last Sunday night at the Liens'. Last time they had one I was there from 7pm until 2am--so were several other people. This time I wasn't there quite as long...6:30pm until roughly 10:00pm.
8. I turned my heat on for the first time two nights ago. Apparently the teens is my threshold for turning the heat on. Dad should be proud of me.
9. I have two exams. One Thursday morning (I THOUGHT it might be a take-home...but it's a regular in-class exam), then one Friday morning after which I go to Suzanna's Christmas pageant/program.
10. I have to return a book to the Bruno Library today (which is were Paul works). No reason for anyone having to know that other than I didn't want Paul to feel left out since I've mentioned everyone else's name here in my relatively immediate family. Also I wanted a nice even number of talking points.
That is all for now.
See-ya!
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