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DER Conference, Day 2
Another day in Norfolk, more of the conference. Fun fun. Today was “breakout sessions”, which means they had 4 different sessions going at the same time on different topics. I attended mostly the “policy and guidance” sessions, which were an overview/intro to the tasks of a DER. Once again, they were mostly presented by engineers who apparently have lousy public speaking skills. I’d better watch out; if I get a few years of DER experience under my belt, they’ll start asking me to present!
The other thing that has surprised me a bit is just how small a community it is. The conference was limited to 300 participants; that is basically all of the software DERs in the country. For the most part, they’ve been in these roles for a long time, so most everybody knows everybody. It will take a little bit of time for me to fit into and gain the respect of that group.
After the conference was over, I shelled out my $17 and took a 3-hour tour of the Norfolk harbor. It was pretty cool. We saw the huge container ships, a whole bunch of destroyers and missile boats, a few submarines (well, just the tops of the submarines), and then an aircraft carrier. The pictures don’t do justice to just how immense that ship is.
Got back from the tour, had a late dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack (I know, it’s lousy chain food, but it was the closest restaurant to the hotel and I was tired and hungry), and then came back to my room and talked to Becky and then my folks on the phone. I should really be getting to bed… it’s nearly 12:30 here. But I’m still on CDT, which means it only feels like 11:30, which is about my normal bedtime. Oh well, the conference doesn’t start until 8 in the morning, which will give me back my hour… unless I want breakfast. I haven’t eaten a breakfast yet this week… slept through them all. Maybe tomorrow.
DER Conference, Day 1
Today was the first day of the DER software conference (excuse me, the official title is the “FY2005 Software/Complex Electronic Hardware Standardization Conference”) here in Norfolk, VA. (It’s at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott, if you’re really interested.) It started out pretty boring today. Most of today’s topics were on the certification of Complex Electronic Hardware (i.e. FPGAs, ASICs, PLDs, etc). Since I’m mainly a software guy, this hardware stuff wasn’t that interesting.
I found that the other danger of having an engineering conference with presentations by engineers is that, for the most part, engineers have lousy public speaking skills. The one presentation I thought I’d really be interested in was at the end of the day; the guy works for Honeywell (OK, they’re my competitor, but I can forgive him that) and has been a DER for 15 years. He was giving “perspectives on being a software DER”. Now, I’ll give him credit, the material was insightful. Unfortunately, his presentation skills were sub-par. He basically read/mumbled the content from his slides in such a quick, low tone that most of us wouldn’t have understood him if it wasn’t that the text were on the screen. Why is it that the good engineers can’t have some social skills, too?
I wandered around the waterfront plaza here in Norfolk during the lunch hour. After the conference finished for the day, I jumped into that shiny gray Mustang (sweet rental car!) and headed out to Virginia Beach (about 15 minutes away). I’d never been to the Atlantic Ocean before. I found an empty spot on the beach (a tough trick when it’s 100+ degrees outside) and just sat and absorbed for a while. There’s just something incredible about the ocean; the immenseness of it all, I suppose. The continual pounding of the waves, nothing but water as far as the eye can see; the knowledge that if you head out that direction, the next land you’ll come to is Europe.
Back to the hotel to get cleaned up, then I walked over to a restaurant called Max & Erma’s for a late supper. It was nearly 9:00, and the place was pretty empty. I had just talked to Becky on the phone and was feeling kinda lonely sitting in a booth all by myself staring out the window at the cars on the street. On the upside, though, I had one of the nicest servers I’ve ever had; she was very friendly, service was excellent. I ordered the “Garbage Burger”, which came with Bacon, 4 kinds of cheese (American, Cheddar, Swiss, Mozzarella), onions, mushrooms, guacamole and marinara. It was tasty. It was nice to walk the 4 blocks back to the hotel; unfortunately, it was so swelteringly hot that I wasn’t motivated to walk any further.
The one task I should still complete tonight is to prepare some slides for Sunday; I’m teaching Sunday School, and we’re discussing stem cell research. I think I pretty much know what I want to say, I just have to get it compiled and put some pretty slides together. But I know how to do that. :-)
On the road...
I’m writing tonight from a hotel room in Norfolk, VA… I’m here to attend the 2005 FAA Software DER conference. I’m not actually a DER yet, but have applied to be one and my company figured it would be good if I came and got some training.
So far the trip has been uneventful; flew from Cedar Rapids to Detroit and then on to Norfolk. I’d never been through Detroit before; it’s a pretty nice airport. The tunnel between Concourse B (where I landed) and Concourse A (where I needed to go to catch my next flight) was pretty wild; the tunnel walls/roof had funky psychedelic colors that semi-randomly changed… would’ve taken a picture if I hadn’t put the camera in my checked luggage… :-(
Got to Norfolk and was pleasantly surprised at my rental car; it’s a silver 2005 Ford Mustang. Pretty cool. Managed to find the hotel, the Marriott Waterfront hotel, very nice. It has a view that overlooks the Elizabeth River and just around the corner is an old battleship that’s part of a museum. I’ll have to take some pictures tomorrow.
It’s a little bit lonely and quiet right now. I haven’t met up with any of the others from Cedar Rapids yet; I’ll have to find them in the morning. So, I’m sitting in my hotel room, just finished ironing all the clothes I brought along, thinking it’s probably time to head to bed. Unfortunately, I’m still on central time, which means it only feels like 10:30 PM but the clock says 11:30. Oh well.
On the bright side, the web tells me that the Cubs came back to win in the 9th inning, 3-2. Go Cubbies!
wait, don't work on it yet...
It never fails. I start working on a not-approved-yet-but-probably-OK change request today, and after about an hour of code modification the requirements guy sticks his head into my cubicle.
“Hey Chris, don’t know if you’re working on those changes yet, but they should all be OK except for Oil Pressure - there’s some big changes coming for that one.”
What have I been working on for the last hour? Oil Pressure. :-)
Randall Goodgame, where have you been all my life?
Tuesday I found a bootleg concert recording of Randall Goodgame opening for Caedmon’s Call in Minot, ND. I’d never heard his music before; I knew that he’s written some good stuff for Caedmon’s, and that Andy Osenga speaks highly of him, but that was about it. So, I downloaded the songs and decided to give him a listen. Wow, what I have been missing!
The song that has totally captured my head at the moment is from his Peanuts trilogy on his latest album, War and Peace. I’m not sure whether it’s #1 or #3; the bootleg says it’s #3, but when I listen to the clips of his songs from his website, it sounds like it’s #1. I guess I’ll find out for sure once I get the CD; I ordered it back on Tuesday. Hoping it might come before I head out to Norfolk next week, but I’m not holding my breath. Anyhow, he has Danielle Young (of Caedmon’s) singing with him on this one, and it’s just the perfect folksy mix of terrific lyrics and fun music; I’ve had it on repeat for the last hour or so in iTunes and I’m not ready to turn it off yet.
He [Schroeder] played like Harry Truman, without those cokebottles that only Marcie wore, Like Harry Truman, without the atom bomb, Without the burden of a third world war.
Brilliant.
nothing is constant except change
It has been one of those summers at church. We had a leadership meeting last night (to review: I am the worship leader and an elder apprentice) where we started through everything… it went all evening. Just a thumbnail sketch:
- We’re going to a two service format starting in September. This will of course require extra organization and willingness to change from everyone involved.
- We’re eliminating our adult Sunday School classes in favor of 8-week weeknight courses to be held off-campus, at coffeeshops and the like. The goal is to get folks to bring unbelieving friends, and for the unbelievers to have a more comfortable place to come and discuss the Bible. Adult SS attendance has been waning, so it’s a good time to change.
- We’re starting up a ministry with a focus on the arts - drama, music, film, etc. Fortunately I’ve managed to stay out of any responsibilities with this one so far. Hope it stays that way - I just don’t have the time.
- Our youth pastor is moving from full-time youth pastor to part-time associate pastor. He has sensed a calling away from youth ministry, but wants to stay on somehow, and we want to keep him. To go along with that…
- We’re going to hire a new part-time youth pastor. At the moment, our #1 candidate is the senior pastor’s son. We’re hoping this doesn’t cause too much controversy. I think personally he’s the right man for the job.
- We’re going to change the name of the church. I’ve talked about this before. We know we should change to remove any hindrance that the word ‘Baptist’ causes… but it’s hard for some of the old-timers to want to change.
I have to remember in the end that ultimately, it’s God’s church, and He will have to work His will in everything we do. He will get done exactly what He wants to get done… we just have to make sure we don’t make hindrances and slip the schedule by months or years. Such is the lesson for today. :-)
a busy week...
This upcoming week is gonna be a hum-dinger. Tonight is softball, first umping, then playing. Tuesday night is a church leadership meeting. Wednesday night is worship team. (Note to self: gotta get WT reorganization plans going.) Thursday night Mark Smiley is coming over for dinner. Friday night my folks, brothers, sister, and friend come to visit for the weekend and celebrate Laura’s birthday. They stay until Sunday night, and then Monday I take off to Norfolk, VA, for the DER conference. Maybe I can get some rest there… :-)
occasional down time
Don’t be surprised if you see occasional downtime on my blog here over the next several days; the server on which it runs has been under attack by spammers for the last week and Geof (the trusty and generous hosting provider) is having the server wiped and then doing a full re-load this weekend.
Best wishes to Geof as he spends his weekend at a no-fun task.
The day I became Fred's hero
I don’t know what triggered this memory today… but I might as well tell the story while I’m thinking about it.
I was in my third year at LeTU when I got asked to be the pianist for some special music during chapel. Now, this was not an unusual request; by this time in my college life I had become the de facto college pianist, doing lots of special music, I was lead accompianist for the singing group, etc. On this particular day, though, the musical content was going to be a bit different.
My friend Mark Holmes, a phenomenal tenor in the Singers, was slated to do a special, and he was having a hard time deciding what to do. Finally, in a move worthy of a bad college movie somewhere, he chose to sing a “Christianized” version of the classic Johnny B. Goode. As I recall, the lyrics were totally cheesy; the chorus ended “go, Johnny, go - go preach the Word.” Yikes.
So anyhow, I had been recruited to play the piano to back him up; we also had a good drummer, a bass player whose name eludes me, and then Fred playing the guitar. Fred was a couple years behind me; he was tall and redheaded, with a beard and ponytail completing his wanna-be rock star image. He was pretty much a goofball when it came to music, which made him fun. He was thrilled to have the opportunity to prove his electric guitar prowess on this dubious semi-cover, and so our band was complete. We practiced a few times, and got it polished enough to be acceptable at the musical abyss that was LeTourneau.
The morning came for chapel and we were slated to do special music right before the message. We revved it up and did an energetic (if not totally polished) rendition, just as we had practiced. What I had not practiced, however, was coming down on a glissando down the keyboard (that sweeping motion where you just run the back of your fingers down the keyboard) and hit a black key the wrong way, and, lo and behold, the black part of the key just broke off. I’ve never seen it happen before or since. The wood was probably kinda soft in that key, and I just torqued it the right way. It’s the only time (to my knowledge) that I’ve ever caused damage to a piano by playing it.
When we were packing up our gear after chapel, I picked up the key and tossed it over to Fred. You’d think he had died and gone to rock-n-roll heaven - he thought it was the most cool thing that somebody had broken a piano while playing a song. I think every time we did music for chapel after that the subject came up, always with amazement and laughter. Fortunately for me, a little bit of Elmer’s wood glue was sufficient to fix the piano so the next pianist in line could have their E-flat.
The epilogue to this story is the memory that this wasn’t the last time I played Johnny B. Goode in chapel. A year or so later, an instructor at the school (also a talented guitarist, now a co-worker here in Iowa) was up for special music, and he chose to do Johnny B. again. He did the original version, complete with the word “hell”, which raised a few of the stodgy faculty eyebrows. :-) He introduced the song this way:
“Last week, a Romanian choir came and sang some traditional songs from their homeland. This morning, I’d like to sing a traditional song from my homeland.”
This time, I managed to keep the piano in one piece.
Sahara
Last night we had a babysitter available and so we went to the cheap seats theater in town and watched Sahara. It is loosely based on the novel of the same name by Clive Cussler. Becky and I are both huge fans of Cussler’s Dirk Pitt series, so we were looking forward to seeing what they’d do with his novel in the movie.
It’s beyond me why they haven’t tried to translate more of the Dirk Pitt series onto the big screen; for swashbuckling adventure tales, they’re tops. (The one attempt thus far, Raise the Titanic! may have discouraged others from trying… it was horrible!) Perhaps it’s the slight lack of realism… but wait, we’re talking about Hollywood here. Part of what makes Cussler’s books so fun, IMHO, is that if the hero is on a quest to find some mysterious hidden treasure, he finds it. None of this “oh it didn’t really exist at all but at least you had a good adventure” type of ending for Mr. Cussler. Nosirree. The hero gets the girl, drives a cool old car, wisecracks with his trusty sidekick, saves the world, and finds his treasure to boot. Realism? Who needs realism?
I wasn’t so sure about the casting of Matthew McConaughey and Steve Zahn as Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino. Fortunately, they suprised me. McConaughey was excellent, and they captured the fun-loving spirit and wise-cracking nature of the two characters really well. They interacted as though they had been friends for their whole lives (which, in the books they have been). My only gripe was that Zahn’s character was too dumb most of the time. I realize Steve Zahn has made a career out of playing “hi, I’m a doofus” characters. I wish they could have made him just a bit more heroic; in the books Al Giordino is just as much a thinker as Pitt; just with a different personality. That didn’t come through so well in the movie.
At the end, Becky asked “where’s the Clive Cussler cameo?” If you’ve read any of the books, you know that Cussler writes himself in with a small cameo appearance in every book. (Becky likened this to Hitchcock’s appearances in each of his movies.) It’s another one of those things that makes Dirk Pitt novels so much fun - when is Cussler going to appear? It would have been a neat nod to the books if they had written it in somehow… but it was not to be. I guess they can only base so much on the book.
All in all, it was a fun night out. And it was only Thursday. That almost makes it feel like a longer weekend, if it just wasn’t for the fact that I’m working today… :-)