mathfridge

Championship Sunday: A random assortment of thoughts

2011-01-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

Championship Sunday: A random assortment of thoughts

Happy Championship Sunday everyone. That’s right the AFC and NFC Championship games, the Sunday where legends are made. Where the super Bowl is great, most of what it is about is hype and commercialism. This weekend is about Football!

I am celebrating the day by updating my blog and slow cooking a turkey! Actually that is not entirely true. Yes I am doing both those things, but the main reason is not because of the games. Friday Rachel were out shopping and I saw a 4lb bird in the frozen foods and said “You know that would fit in the Crock pot”. And the updating my blog is more about insomnia then anything else. But hey Championship Sunday is a good reason too.

So Since I rarely update I want to make it worth it. Three times in 13 months is not that much. And my thoughts are mostly random and not actually that much about football.

This is my (hopefully) last semester at LSU. I was just thinking about how radically different my life is now then when I started here four and a half years ago. Today I am married to a beautiful woman. We have an adorable little 8 month old girl bouncing in her jumper in the kitchen, eating pureed avocado and banana, and giggling each morning when the sun pours in her window. I can’t wait until she can talk. I am certain there are seasoned parent out there saying, “But once she starts she won’t stop.” But I look forward to talking with her, telling her was an amazing joy it has been for her to come into her mother and my life.

(On a side note I also look forward to telling her about the legends of Championship Sunday. How Peyton Manning finally took down his playoff nemesis Tom Brady in the final minute of the AFC Championship. I have it on tape. Someday, my daughter and I … will watch)

My life could not have been any more different four and a half years ago. I arrived in Baton Rouge in early August of 2006. All my earthly possessions were crammed into my little Blue car with a clamshell strapped to the roof. And I start working as a Graduate Assistant in the LSU math department.

That was also the August that Steve Colton died. Mr Colton was the band director at my old high school. He was a member of my Dad’s church, a pillar in the community, a mentor, a role model and friend to hundreds of people. It was a profound loss for every live he touched. This amplified my homesickness tenfold. All I wanted to do was to go home. I wanted to go to the funeral. I wanted to walk the halls of my highschool and talk with my former teachers and classmates. I wanted to see Mr Colton’s three kids and hug them and talk with them about hold Mr Colton had impacted my life. But I couldn’t. I had just arrive. Classes were starting. I had a job to do.

It became abundantly clear there was no one with in an eight-hour driving radius who had known me for more then two weeks. That is a lonely feeling. And the only one that I could turn to was God. Pastor Scott is Senior Pastor at the church I attend here in Baton Rouge. He had just started a sermon series on the Gospel of John. At the tail end of chapter 1 he drew an interesting parallel between Jesus calling Phillip and the story of Jacob fleeing from his brother. In both cases they are leaving home. The image of Jacob sleeping in the desert alone was very vivid for me at that point. I also might add since then God has brought “Rachel” into my life and I didn’t have to wait 14 years.

This morning I went out to pick up the ingredients for the crock-pot turkey. As I was driving home I was listening to the Christian radio station and they were talking about how the Christian life is about relationship with God. Now I would like to say that word relationship is often over used in today’s Christian culture, while in contrast the word reverence is underused. Not all the time, but some times. God is holy and relationship with out reverence does not acknowledge who he is. But he is a loving Father. He does want relationship with his children.

Listening to this on the radio I was struck with how different life was in August of 2006. My relationship with God was all I had. It was a feeling of desperation. He was the only one I could turn to. Today I have a wife and baby I can turn to, for better or for worse.

Now I really want to acknowledge that being single is really tough. It is a hard path to walk and I walked it until I was 30. I love my wife and daughter and would not trade them for the world. And for those who have walked that path longer then I have, you have paid your dues. But Paul is right when he talks about the divided loyalty of a married man. When I was single relationship with God was more at the forefront of my thinking. It should be just as vivid for my now, because of my wife and kid. But marriage is community. Marriage is relationship. I need to fight to remember that HE is the reason I have this relationship.

I had another thought about Mr Colton. He was very talented at what he did and very successful as well. He had top rankings at most of his band competitions, many All State musicians came from his tutelage and he was revered statewide. But I think those who knew him would agree with me that he was a pretty humble guy. It wasn’t about him; it was about the music. And I want to be like him in that.

Rachel and I were talking recently about coming to the end of graduate school. And she said to me, “You like the thought of being Dr Dave, don’t you?” Ouch! That’s tough. It is difficult not to place your worth in you accomplishments. But whether I feel it or not I and just as needy as the lonely kid from Iowa newly arrived in Louisiana. And even now I am waiting to hear from people for job interviews. That’s a rather desperate feeling. But hopefully the job offer will come. And when it is his provision. My hope is in him, not the job. May I never boast except in Jesus Christ and him crucified. That’s the way Mr Colton lived his life. I hope to live mine that way too.

Well enjoy the games. I think it is going to be Green Bay and Pittsburgh. And maybe I will update again before the next Championship Sunday.

NFL 2009 parity wheel.

2010-11-25T23:08:00.000-08:00

So there was an online post of an NFL 2010 parity wheel created by danchan22 at Reddit. It basically shows a cycle in which every team has won a game against the next team in the sequence. All 32 teams are present, so the wheel represents 32 games in which every team has one exactly win and exactly one loss. Here is a link to the wheel:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/early-lead/2010/11/nfl_parity_exists_because_ther.html

Now I saw a post where someone stated "the complete win-lose circle actually happened for the first time ever in NFL history". The seemed extremely unlikely to me. The majority of teams in any given year end up with roughly the same number of wins as losses. Last year 13 out of the 32 teams ended with at least 7 wins and at least 7 losses. Thats about 40%. Those teams will be very easy to fit into a parity wheel

Now what is tricky is the teams with either very few wins or losses. But that just means finding those games that the teams with winning records lost and the games teams loosing records won and fitting those into a wheel. Now this might mean the wheel is not easy to find. But that doesn't mean it won't exist.

Clearly there are seasons that do not have such a wheel. The 72 dolphins were 12 and 0. The 2008 Lions were 0 and 16. If a team doesn't have one win and one loss a wheel won't exist. But last year the St Louis Rams were 1 and 15 with their only win over the Lions. That means if a wheel exists that Lions-Rams game must be in that wheel. So does a wheel exist for the 09 season? It turns out one does.

I haven't made it up as pretty as danchan22, but this is a parity wheel for the 2009 season. Each team won at least one game against the NEXT team on the list. The final team (the Rams) beat the first team (the Lions) as already mentioned:

1) Detroit Lions
2) Washington Redskins
3) Denver Broncos
4) San Diego Chargers
5) Cleveland Browns
6) Jacksonville Jaguars
7) Houston Texans
8) Cincinnati Bengals
9) Baltimore Ravens
10) Kansas City Chiefs
11) Pittsburg Steelers
12) Tennessee Titans
13) Miami Dolphins
14) New England Patriots
15) New York Jets
16) Carolina Panthers
17) New Orleans Saints
18) Buffalo Bills
19) Indianapolis Colts
20) Arizona Cardinals
21) Seattle Seahawks
22) San Francisco 49ers
23) Chicago Bears
24) Minnesota Vikings
25) New York Giants
26) Dallas Cowboys
27) Oakland Raiders
28) Philadelphia Eagles
29) Atlanta Falcons
30) Tampa Bay Buccaneers
31) Green Bay Packers
32) St Louis Rams

There is a quick way to check if my work here is right. Here is a link to the season:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NFL_2009#Final_regular_season_standings

Pick your favorite team and click the "Details" link by their record. Scroll down to season schedule. Teams in green are from games won and teams in red are from games lost. You should be able to find the NEXT team on the above list highlighted in green. Click on that team and repeat with the next team. This list should take you to all 32 teams exactly once.

Now note that the team you need to click might have split two games. So for 23) Bears the next team is the Vikings. The Bears lost to the Vikings on Nov 29th they won the second game on Dec 28th. The Vikings link will be red because of the first loss, but this won't be a problem because the second game where the Bears won will be the game on the wheel. Also the Giants won both there games over the Cowboys so either game would fit this wheel.

My next question would be does such a wheel exist for the 1985 season? That list would have the Bears at the top and the Miami Dolphins at the bottom representing the Bears only loss.

I will trade you three Iguanas for a honeymoon photo.

2010-08-31T14:13:00.000-07:00

This story starts two years ago this month. We took some gorgeous photos in the mountains of North Carolina. It was a good time.

At the end of August, Rachel and I arrived in Baton Rouge after a lovely honeymoon. One of the goals at that point was to gather all of our digital photos and put them together the same (an hopefully secure) place. Five months earlier in March, Rachel got a flash drive with a ton of memory on it. We decided to transfer the pictures onto there. For those of you keeping tabs of Rachel's blog her post March 15th of '08. Here is an excerpt:

“I thought I'd get an USB flash drive with lots of memory and start transferring away. ... I didn't want to buy one without a brand name of some sort listed. So there were some cute sleek ones, but no brand name. ...In the end, ...I only paid about 9 bucks. I got one that is black with some green on it and is also waterproof because I like to sit at my computer desk and drool excessively and sometimes randomly throw water at stuff. Oh, and this brand (Adata, which I've never heard of and my brother will probably write and tell me it's the worst in the universe) had a much cuter one in black and orange and I like orange better than green, but the green one was cheaper.”

In the comment section of that post was the following:

Sheldon said... I've had Adata stuff - should be fine.

Cue the dramatic music indicating some ironic doom is impending. That Fall we continued putting our photos on the drive. Then in that next spring, about a year after buying it, the flash drive that had been cute, sleek and green was still green. However it was neither cute nor sleek. There was a virus that had corrupted the drive and most of the data that had been saved was inaccessible. But not to worry the data was still on my computer. By the way if you reread the March 15th we still had Rachel's computer that was slow and had next to no memory space on it.

At the beginning of April we got a hold of my friend Chris in the Math department. He was able to reconstruct the majority of the photos from the flash drive and put them on a CD. Then out of the blue the monitor on Rachel's computer fried and the mother board of MY computer fried. But the data was still on the hard drive. No sweat. So we decided to get a new computer and we transfered everything from the two older hard drives and the CD over to the new computer. Over the next eight months Rachel's slow computer sat in the closet, my broken computer sat in Chris' office and our lovely new computer sat at our desk. We had been meaning to back up the data on the computer, but there really wasn't much to worry about. All the data was one one of those computer. And what could happen. Cue the next dramatic music indicating more ironic doom is impending.

We went to visit family up north over Christmas and our apartment was broken into. They were targeting electronics. They took our new computer and my ipod. Very upsetting, but at the same time not that much to worry about because we still have the hard drives from the old computers, right?

Fast forward another eight months. We just got a new laptop so it is time once again to back up the photos and get them together. Ideally we would like to recover all the photos. But there are specific groups of photos like Engagement pictures, Wedding pictures and Honeymoon picture. Well the Engagement pictures and Wedding pictures were all accounted for. However we took a little over 400 photos during our honeymoon and they were not together in the same place. Mostly because as we were sight seeing Rachel and I had separate cameras. The CD reconstruction of the no-so-cute-not-so-sleek flash drive turned up about two thirds of the photos. The obvious place to find the missing photos was the hard drive of my old computer with the busted mother board. We just transfer the data over to the new computer. No problem right? The plot thickens yet again. Back up to when we first bought the computer that ended up stolen, just before the mother board fried. The new computer was set up and all the data was transferred. I asked Chris if we could set up my old computer with a new installation of Window for a back up. He said sure, he reinstalled windows and boom that was when the mother board fried.That's why it had been sitting in his office for months and months. Back to today we access the hard drive and the memory has been erased. A third of the honeymoon photos are just gone.

So I am about cover my self in ash and wail to to the heavens. But then enter the heroes of our story, Jeff and Nic, the tech guys from the top floor of the math building. The very last thing that had been done to the hard drive was a re-installation of Windows. Up to that point the data had been there. If the computer had been in use all the time the data would be completely gone. But there is software out there that can reconstruct data that has been wiped, provided it hasn't been written over. Well the new copy of Windows had been installed. My only hope was that the part of the data that had been wiped out by that was some old saved game of Roller Coaster Tycoon and not the scenery of North Carolina.

After some time they had reconstructed a ton of pictures. The first run turned up most of the missing photos about 90%. They checked again and there was record of all the photos was took 410 in all of which 401 were either on the new computer, or accessed by the old computer. That's a 98% recovery. Pretty incredible if you think about it. The big question was what were those 9 remaining photos. Eight of those photos that would have been flowers or arches or staircases in Bildmore. And honestly we have dozens of photos of those exact flowers and archways just at different angles and such. If that's all that is missing not bad. However when driving through the mountains we had asked a random fellow tourist if she would take our photo with the Mountains in the background. The 9th and last missing photo was that one. That is what you would call an irreplaceable photo. Now I will note that picture is on Rachel's blog. But it is the resized cropped picture. It isn't the original. Not too bad, but still.

Now what does any of that have to do with Iguanas? Well I'll tell you. Just before the cute and sleek flash drive became the not-so-cute-not-so-sleek flash drive Rachel's former room mate Bethany came to visit. It was in November '08 right before Thanksgiving. Jump ahead a little over a year to January of 2010 when we just had our computer stolen. We had some old memory cards that had pictures on them. The earliest of which were from that trip. We decided back those pictures up. During that trip they went to a nature sanctuary. They took this photo:

As I mentioned Chris reconstructed the no-so-cute-not-so-sleek flash drive we got a ton of pictures including THIS photo:

Nic and Jeff did a great job reconstructing the hard drive. Like I said 98% recovery on the honeymoon pictures. They also got a bunch of other pictures including THIS PHOTO:

I mean it is a nice looking Iguana. But really if we never sow THAT photo again would we even remember it. And the fact that we three original sized un-cropped copies of the same Iguana. But only a resized cropped picture of us in the mountains. We would gladly trade all three of these Iguana pictures for that one shot.

But the story is not quite over. This morning I stopped by Nic's office to see how the recovery turned out. He found a bunch more pictures including THIS PHOTO!!!!

Yes that is the one. I can say at this point 100% recovery on the honeymoon photos. I mean I'll have to check for those flowers and archways. But in terms of what's important, we've got'm. Good job guys.

So what is it like being born in 2010?

2009-12-31T15:17:00.000-08:00

Dear Kumkwat,

So what is it like being born in 2010? What memories will you have? I suppose in a sense you only really know what it is like being born in the year you were actually born. So being born in 1978 my first memories are of Pac-man and E.T. and Rubik's cubes. What are the things that influence your early memories? It is funny to think that you will feel the same way about Pac Man and Rubik's cubes as I do about the decade of my dad's first memories; of Howdy Doody and Buddy Holiday and I Love Lucy.

What about your mother and me? How do you think we have done as parents? What have we done right? What have we doen wrong? What do you wish we had done differently? This has been on my mind a lot lately. Here I am coming to the end of 2009 with you kicking inside your Mommy's tummy. And so today, how should I think, how should I act, how should I pray in order to do right by you as a father?

There are many things I would hope that you would say if you were to reflect on our parenting. I hope that we have parented in such a way that you are tender hearted. That you want to be kind. That you would be compassionate. That you would think of others beofre yourself.

Even more so I would hope that you would be wise. Not just knowlegable. Not just understanding. But wise. That your words may benifit those who hear them. And even as I think about it being truly wise would mean you were truly compassionate. That you would be truly tender hearted towards others.

But even if you lived a life that was both wise and compassionate and that was it, I would feel like I failed you as a father. You see my life, you mother's life and or marriage together are rooted in both these things. But they are secondary to us. The primary foundation for us is Christ. I mean if nothing else I fully intend that you will know, "Yeah Dad is a passionate guy. He is passionate about math, about the NFL, about Star Trek. But there is nothing that he is more passionate about then Jesus."

That is acually more important to me. So on the one hand you might end up saying, "Man he was great Dad. He was loving. He was a good listener. He was strong. He alway made time. But this God that he beleives in doesn't really cut it for me." Honestly that would break my heart. But on the other hand if you said, "You know my Dad made lots of mistakes. There were times when he wasn't wise, when he wasn't fair when he wasn't kind. But I trust the God he trusted". I mean I want to be wise, kind and fair. But lets face it I won't be all the time. I just long for you to look away from me and look to him.

But even so I would go even one step further. As bad a flat out rejection would be, it would be far worse if you called yourself a Christian simply out of obligaiton and think that the main reason to follow this God is because that was what Mom and Dad did. And then to come to the end of you life and realise it was just for show. That every one else thought you were a Christian, but deep down you were a fake. Oh that is far far worse.

I truly beleive if the evidence is weighed out Christ will win. Not me and not even an organization. But long after I am gone, Christ will win. So I long for you to say, "I want to be clear thinker. I want be be some one of reason." That will put a smile on my face. You bet it will. So if you were to come to me and say, "You know Dad, I know how much you love God. But I am having a hard time beleiving in him right now." If that day comes I hope to welcome you with open arms. And I want to walk along side you through that. In that day I want my faith to be shaken just as much as yours faith. I want you to live for Christ and I want you to see me doing the same.

I want to do right by you. I can't wait to meet you.

Your dad,

David H Chapman

Julie and Julia: my thoughts on the movie

2009-08-09T00:54:00.000-07:00

I wanted to comment on the movie Julie and Julia which I saw this weekend (I really enjoyed it by the way), but I first wanted to reflect on a trip I took three years ago. In the summer of 2006 I spent a couple weeks with my grandparents at a beach house on the ocean in South Carolina. My two great Aunts and my great Uncle came to visit. So I was 28 at the time, spending my summer vacation with 5 people all between the ages of 75 and 85, representing over 400 years of life experience between them. .It was such a sweet time especially because it was the last time I saw my Aunt Pauline alive. Uncle Cliff told me about the battle of the Bulge and I told Uncle Cliff how to solve Sudoku puzzles. But there was one conversation that stands out to me that I had with my Aunt June. We were walking along the beach and I started asking her about what it was like for her while Uncle Cliff fighting in the War. What was significant to me was how brief her answers were, “We dated before the war but he broke up with me before he left”. “When he got back he needed some time to himself, but eventually he decided to ask me to marry him”, while she was quick to talk with me about what was happening in their lives today “There are several shut ins that we got to deliver food to during the week.” “At the hospital where I volunteer at there are people suffering with HIV who I care for.” Here comments did not put value upon herself rather upon something external. She didn’t want to talk about the days of old, she wanted to talk about the AIDS patients and the shut ins.

The movie Julie and Julia contrasts two individual of two distinct eras. One is Julia Child who was a diplomat’s wife during the McCarthy Era of the 1950’s, just a little older than my Aunt June was at the time. The other is Julie Powell a young professional in New York City writing a blog in 2002, who was just a little bit older than I was at the time. Now before I had seen the movie I heard a radio piece saying that the story line of Julia Child was compelling and engaging while the story line of Julie’s blog seem shallow and dry. I would agree with that statement. The radio critic said that it was because Meryl Streep’s performance as Julia was so much better than that of Amy Adams who played Julie. Although I agree that Meryl Streep gave an incredible performance, I think the reason Julie came across as shallow had less to do with the performers more to do with the script. And I believe the underlying reason has to do with the different societies each woman lived in.

The story follows each woman setting out to achieve a specific goal. Julia's goal is to write a cook book that will bring French recipes to American homes. Julie’s goal is to cook all 574 in Julia Child’s cook book over 365 days and blog about it. But the deeper question is not what the goal is that each of these women has, rather it is WHY they want to achieve this goal in the first place. When we are first introduced to Julia Child she has just moved to Paris and is looking direction in her life. When we are introduced to Julie Powell she has just moved to Queens and is also looking for direction in her life. To sum up the first 20 minutes of the film Julia says, “I love to eat. French food is spectacular. I want to teach Americans how to cook French food.” while Julie say “I have not had success as a writer, my day job is horrible. The place where I find PERSONAL fulfillment is cooking each night. Perhaps blogging through Julia’s book will make my job seem less miserable and maybe it could even spring board my writing career.” Notice the emphasis each woman has. Julia’s focus is external. The focus is on French food. Julie’s focus is internal. Although french food is PART of what she is doing, her main attention is on her career goals and her personal fulfillment.

Today culture is plagued by self esteem. It says that success starts with feeling good about yourself. I think this mentality has brought about a society that is shallow and superficial. Who are the true heroes? Are they the people who say, “I want to be a hero today. It would make me feel better about myself if I did”? Or are they the type of people who say, “Look there is a heroic task. No one seems willing to do it. Somebody should. Maybe I can.” if you look at these two types of people to quickly they might seem to be doing the same thing. But one is a hero of substance the other is not. And I don't want to say that the older generation is perfect. No generation is perfect. What I am saying is that in today's culture self esteem is not a strength, it is a weakness.

Now compared to say war heroes like my Uncle Cliff neither woman in this movie is that heroic. On the other extreme I’d say both women are much more heroic then I am. I could neither come up with those 574 recipes nor dream of cooking them in 365 days. But let’s be honest, what legacy has been left by each of these women? Julie Powell fed her husband and her friends over the course of a year, while entertaining people on a blog, later through a book and eventually through the movie that came out this weekend. In comparison, if the movie was accurate, Julia Child walked into Paris in 1949 knowing next to nothing about cooking and said “This food is amazing Americans need to be able to make it." And now I could go out and buy Julia Child from Barnes and Noble and omelet and crepe to my heart’s content. Which has the bigger impact? And buy the way while you are in Barnes and Noble I suggest you keep away from the self help section.

There has been a commercial on TV lately commemorating the 40th anniversary of the moon Landing. In it John F Kennedy says “We choose to go to the moon, not because it is easy, but because it is hard.” You don’t get to the moon by focusing on yourself. You get to the moon by focusing on the moon.

Beating Rachel to the punch =)

2009-07-13T12:35:00.001-07:00

Rachel wanted pictures on her blog of our living room before we moved to the new apartment. But this week end our place has been covered with boxes. So I made the living room look pretty and posted these pictures. If you notice around the edges of the pictures there are what appear to be Tupperware containers and boxes and things. But that's just your imagination. Our place always looks pretty. hehehe

Summer Employment

2009-07-09T22:10:00.000-07:00

This evening was Rachel and my eleven month anniversary. We celebrated by going out for ice cream and then walking along the levy. I can't believe it has almost been a year. It's gone by quick and at the same time not so quick. =) I mean it was not too long ago that Rachel and I met for the first time, and yet I can't hardly remember what life was like with out her.

I have been enjoying the work I am doing this summer. Instead of having one full time job I have had a couple part time jobs. First off I have an internship through the university. I am working for CAMD which stands for Center for Advanced Micro-structures and Devices. Basically in simple terms CAMD is a great big X-ray. The internship is for “pure” math majors to work in the “applied” sciences. It is really neat because most of the time what I am doing at LSU is sitting in front of a black board filling it up with equations and such. The question “What is this used for?” is the last thing on my mind.

The specific branch of CAMD I am working for is the tomography department. What they do is they take 2 dimensional shots of some object and try to reconstruct what it looks like inside 3 dimensionally. They have showed us 3d models of the way a cat claw grows. The first time I was at CAMD they were checking out the porousness of sandstone for the off shore drilling that Exxon is doing in the gulf.

So what am I working on? Plastics! So you are reading this on my blog. The monitor you are looking at is mostly plastic. But chemically that plastic is very similar to gasoline. That is why the plastics are made with flame retardants. What we are working on is several shot of plastic that is being melted. What were are studying is the movement of the plastic as it melts.

The pictures below are 3d images of an air bubble floating inside the plastic. As the plastic is heated the bubble is moving. The flakes all around the bubble are the flame retardant. We could try to follow the movement of the retardant, but it’s easier to follow the bubbles since they are bigger. There are multiple bubbles in the plastic but the pictures below have just focused on a single bubble over six time frames. So the bubble is expanding and moving upward as the plastic is being heated.

In addition to the work at CAMD I have also been doing work through a temp agency. I have been driving around the surrounding areas working for COX which is a phone and cable company. My work has entailed taking a disposable camera and taking picture of what are known as VRADS. What is a VRAD? It is a video ready access device according to Wikipedia. It is basically a big box connecting to underground cables. Cox has the latitude and longitude of where these VRADs are located. My job was to look up these locations on google maps then drive around to take pictures of them when I find them.

What’s funny about this job is how it makes you look at the world differently. For example did you know that next to every four way traffic light and every railroad track that has lights of some sort there will be a big box nearby. Look for them, they will be there. The reason I noticed this is by looking for VRADs and realizing those were not them. The specific thing that distinguishes VRAD will be the Att&T logo or the old bell logo on older equipment. The older smaller boxes are not actually VRADs, but they often are up graded to become VRADs.

The other part of my work this summer has been studying. (no pictures regarding this, but it would mostly be blackboards filled with equations) I have a Phd adviser and I am scheduled to have my oral exam in the Fall. I don’t know yet how much longer I will be working on the Phd, but things are moving forward.

I know I don’t post very often. I’d like to post more. But I hope that my small fan base enjoys it when I do post.

Pictures from my jobs

2009-07-09T19:51:00.000-07:00

ABOVE: These two shots are picture like those I would have taken while working for COX. The first big box with the meter next to it is a VRAD. The second smaller cabinet is not a VRAD. It is an older cable box that could be ugraded to a VRAD.

BELOW: This is the type of 3d modeling I am doing with CAMD. The first shot shows a bubble in red and then the SAME bubble 10 minutes later in purple. So in that time span the heating of the plastic has cause it to expand and move to the right (as we are viewing it). Each of other rainbow colored bubbles is this same bubble at two minute time intervals between the starting point in red and the ending point in purple. The biggest change in both size and movement is from two minutes in orange to four minutes in yellow.

Bea, Pearl, and Barb

2009-03-23T12:41:00.000-07:00

I first met Bea Hoekstra in the fall of 1997. It was my first Sunday at Collegiate Presbyterian Church on the west side of the Iowa State campus. When I told Bea I was a freshman she said, “I always love hearing that. It means you will be here for a long time.” Bea and her husband Jim were kind of like spiritual parents to us young college students. Their door was always open. I think about coming to their home during some of my dark lonely times my Sophomore year. After college I came to visit Jim and Bea. It was right after I had left my job teaching in inner city Chicago. It felt ironic to me that although Bea had been battling colon cancer for many months, she was the one strengthening and encouraging me. In January of 2006 I came back to Ames again to see Jim and Bea. I was applying to 6 different PhD programs, and I was picking up my college transcripts from Iowa State. I remember hearing Bea pray for me at lunch, “Lord give Dave 5 closed doors and one open door”. Over the next 3 months I received three rejection letters and one acceptance letter (to LSU) the other two schools never got back to me. The prayers of the righteous are powerful. That lunch was on a Wednesday. The next day, Thursday, Bea went in to the hospital for chemotherapy.

The last time I saw Bea was 3 months later over memorial day weekend. A friend from college, James, went with me to see her. Her body was frail, but her spirit was so strong. We were sitting in the hospital lounge when another women joined us. She was asking about the puzzle on the table. In the discussion I mentioned my family had a Narnia puzzle we would solve during the holidays. “Have you read those books?” Bea asked the woman, “The Lion in the stories represents Jesus." How sweet it was to hear that name on those lips.

That next October Bea passed away. It just happened to be the weekend I was back in Iowa for fall break. Being a northerner living in the south I was missing the changing of the trees. Bea's funeral was on a Sunday afternoon. It was a bright, crisp day and the red orange and yellow leave were falling silently across the cemetery. It was so sad to see her go, but it was abundantly clear the joy that Bea had now come home.
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My Grandmother Esther was one year younger than her sister Pearl. There were six siblings total in their family spanning over 2 decades: Lowell, Pearl, Esther, Rosalie, Joe and Jean. My Great Aunt Pearl never married. She went straight to Hougten College from high school and went straight to Haiti from Hougten where she was a missionary for the remainder of her life. She would spend three and a half years in Haiti and 6 months back in the States. My mom talked about how exciting that forth year would be when Aunt Pearl would come home to see everyone. I saw a picture this summer of my Mom when she was about five with Aunt Pearl, Aunt Rosalie and Grandma.

One of these years that my Aunt Pearl came home was in 1974 when my mom was in college. She brought home this long haired kid named Howard Chapman, my dad. Grandma didn't know what to think of him. But my dad's parents had also been missionaries that came out of Houghten. In fact a neat little story about this was a trip Rachel and I took this summer. I wanted Rachel to meet my Aunt Rosalie who is now in her 90's. Rosalie gave me Aunt Pearl's old college year book to give to my mom. In the year book was a note from Pauline Chapman who was a Freshman when Aunt Pearl was a Senior. That would have been my Dad's aunt, years before my Grandparents had even met. So when my Aunt Pearl met my dad they had lots of stories to swap. Aunt Pearl told my Grandma, “He would would be good for Judy. He comes from a solid missionary heritage”.

In December of 74 Aunt Pearl passed away from cancer. Two years later my parents were married and two years after that in 1978 I was born.
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Five years ago today Rachel's mom, Barb Yutzy, lost her battle with MS. I knew I wanted to write something about her today, but I wasn't sure how to do it. I never met Rachel's Mom. And how do you show honor to someone you have never met?

From what I have gleaned about Barb from Rachel and her family members, it seems to me that these three women were made out of the same stuff. Part of what links them together in my mind is that they all lived roughly the same number of years, Aunt Pearl 55, Rachel's Mom 60 and Bea 62. But deeper then that was that all three loved and served the living God. And the thing that truly humbles me is that there is no doubt in my mind that when they were alive, all three of these women prayed for me, specifically. Bea's prayers are a huge part of my role here at LSU along with countless other ways she prayed for me and the other students from Iowa State. Although Aunt Pearl died four years before I was born she had to have prayed for “Judy kids” some day. And how many thousands of prayers must Barb have prayed for “Rachel's future husband”. And these are the seeds sown into my life.

Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked before us.”

How I long to live a life the reflects the faithfulness of those who have gone before me.

Valentine primes

2009-02-14T21:37:00.000-08:00

There are two candles. There are three sections of candies. Each section has five candies. Two candles plus 15 candies is 17. Oh the chimichangas and the desert that Rachel made for Valentine's day were both awesome.

I hope my story was a gift to you. =D

Crawfish with my in-laws

2009-01-22T05:05:00.000-08:00

Rachel's brother Mike was in town with his wife Helen, his daugther Sam and his Grandson Xander. We went out with them out for some of the local grub. Good times.

Three in the morning is a great time to post.

2008-12-14T01:35:00.000-08:00

Season's Greetings friends and family. We are about to leave the Red Stick (Baton Rouge that is) and heading towards the Red Lake. I turned in my grades for my Calc class late last night. I can't believe the semester is over. We are hoping to get on the road very close to 4 AM central time. We will see many of you very soon and some of you even sooner. =P

We drive 14 to 18 hours today to get to my parents house in Eastern Iowa. Then we "sleep in" on Monday to continue north at 6 AM. I am excited about driving through Northern Iowa. We are meeting Lori Adams for breakfast. She has been a good friend of mine for over 10 years now. She was the coordinator for my mission trip to to Uganda back in 02 and she prayed at our wedding this summer. I am looking forward to some time that Lori and Rachel can get to know each other a bit.

So 9 hours or so of driving to spend Monday night in International Falls with Rachel's brother Sheldon and his family. Finally we ONLY have 6 hours of driving on Tuesday to arrive in Red Lake Ontario.

* Pray for safe travels. Pray that the 30 plus hours in the car would be a time the strengthens and deepens our marriage. And pray that the time over the next 3 weeks with friends and family would renew us both for the coming year.

Hope to post again soon.

It's snowing in Baton Rouge!!!!!

2008-12-11T05:19:00.000-08:00

OK so Rachel made a comment on her latest post about not wearing pants while going uptown. And yes she meant shorts. (She'll think I'm not so tough, just because I'm in love with and up town girl, Ah Billy Joel).

So yesterday I had to go to campus. I was about to put some khaki pants on when Rachel said to me, "Say sweetie, it's not that cold out and I'm trying to get enough laundry done for the trip. Could you wear shorts to campus?" Eight hours later I am sitting in the math building and my lovely wife pops up on IM. She asks me, "Hey Dave how safe are you going to be driving home? They are predicting frezzing rain in parts of Mississippi and Louisiana." I didn't freeze here, but it was raining a bunch and in the lower forties upper thirties while I was walking down the hill to get to my car. In shorts that isn't fun. I made it home last night and I felt like a mathsicle.

So life isn't dull around here. We are putting in about 30 hours of driving in three days at the begining of next week. So pray for us. And we will see many of you in the great white north.

***********************************

Hey I just posted this blog and looked outside and there is about an inch of snow outside. In Baton Rouge!!!!

crazy stuff eh? =)

A shorter post that should make you want to read Rachel's longer post.

2008-09-09T12:39:00.000-07:00

Hello all. It is September 9th. One month I have been a married man. Rachel has been doing most of the blogging from our neck of the woods. Although it has been less of a neck of the woods since Gustav knocked so many trees down.

Yes Rachel does get violent being cooped up inside. She also tends to start sentences and then shift into a totally different sentence before she finishes the other one. (she does bug me that I start sentences and then never finish them. But that's not quite as fun. =D ) She does it all the time and I need to be writing them down because they are stinking funny. One time we were driving and Rachel was flipping through the atlas. She said, "Why can't an atlas be more like google maps. You know so you can zoom in and out. It needs to be more Accu- whole picture." I'm still wondering what an accuwhole picture is.

Rachel did teach me how to play 10,000 and it has been so fun. Yes she beats me most of the time. However I want to mention that last night I won. It was great because it was all her fault. I had forgotten that 3 fives was 500 and not 150.

D: So on my first roll I got 150 and another 100 makes 250.
R: No it's not. That first roll was 500. So the next 100 makes 600.
D: Oh yeah, SWEET! I'll take 600 then. I was at 9400 added to 600 is 10,000. I WIN!
R: What??? No, you wouldn't have gotten that if I didn't remind you.
D: Yeah but I still win.

So that brings my win total to 2. Which is nice cause Rachel is like a dozen games up on me or something.

By the way we did get to Walmart on Sunday to get stuff to put the desk together. Yeah Saturday was crazy. A whole bunch of running around for very little bought. But it was worth it for one reason. OUR SPOON REST!!!! Really we got the sweetest spoon rest on Saturday. (That's the day Rachel blogged about when we couldn't find the bathroom. See I told you this post would make you want to read it.) Anyway having made my first french toast last week made me truly appreciate the need for a quality spoon rest. At the first Bed Bath and Beyond we found a nice looking metal spoon rest. But as Rachel mentioned we didn't get anything there. But at the second Bed Bath and Beyond we found a spoon rest at HALF the price that matches our new dishes perfectly. Now there is a win win situation if I ever heard of one.

I hope my story was a gift to you. I hope to blog a picture of our spoon rest soon.

Fourth of July weekend

2008-07-06T02:09:00.000-07:00

It’s been a while since I have updated my blog. Part of the reason is that because I am living in Warsaw for just a few months this summer I decided not to hook up internet in my apartment and I still only have a desktop. So I am writing this from my Parents computer. I am actually burning some CDs to listen in the car on the way back to Warsaw. (Don't worry, they are Jon Piper sermons so it's legal) Right now it is really really late so I am not sure how amusing this blog post is going to turn out. =P

Thursday we decided to take a longer rout around Chicago to avoid the traffic. It made for a long drive but a gorgeous drive. At one point we actually saw a sun dog. They are extremely rare I nearly swerved off the road. Rachel advised me that I should try to make it home in one peice. For supper we had Jimmy Johns. Oh do I love Jimmy Johns. =)

Rachel was able to meet my Uncle Glen and Aunt Heather this weekend. They are heading over to Kazakhstan with their two younger boys in August. So there is a possibility that they might not make it to the Wedding. It was nice that Rachel could meet them before they left.

We spent the fourth of July at the house of my brother Jon. He and his wife Kari just bought the house in February. It was something else. I vividly remember the day when the guy was born and now he actually has his own house. Crazy.

So the Coralville fireworks can be seen from my brother’s back yard. But some of the trees were blocking the fireworks closer to the ground. So Rachel and I decided to walk down the hill to the park to get a better view. Afterwards we came back and roasted marshmallows in Jon’s fire pit.

Saturday we met up with Rachel’s friends Karla and Brain along with their two kids Titus and Kyle. We had lunch at Carlos O’Kelly’s and then walked around the Westdale mall. The evening was gorgeous. We had barbeque in my parents’ backyard. Then this evening I went with Rachel and my brother Alex to see Prince Caspian. I had been aching to see it for most of the summer. Fortunately the Collin’s Road Theatre was still showing it

Well my CDs just finished burning. I better get some sleep. We appreciate your prayers as the Wedding day approaches. I hope to blog again soon.

Whenever I see your smiling face, I have to smile myself

2008-04-28T20:36:00.000-07:00

Just two more weeks. The last of the trig grades to post. The last of the Algebraic Geometry to work through. The last few hours in the math computer lab over in Pleasent Hall. And then ... AND THEN ... I'll be in my little blue car heading north to Indiana. Just two more weeks.

My favorite fish in the aquarium.

2008-04-13T00:03:00.001-07:00

Catfish!!!

Oh man did I love those catfish. Sure the Atlanta aquarium had whales and sharks and penguins and things. But the highlight was definitely the catfish. Sorry I take that back, the highlight of the day was Rachel. The FISH highlight of the day was the Catfish. Those Catfish were huge. It's hard to get a frame of reference from the photo. But those fish were like the size of your head. And they had the Aquarium set up so that you could walk under neither the Tanks. So the fish were swimming right over your heads.

Rachel wanted to get to the bottom of why I was so excited about catfish.

R: Why in the world are you so excited about catfish?

D: Because of Galatians Chapter 2.

R: What do you mean?

D: Before certain men came from James he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived he began to draw back separate himself from the Gentiles, because he was afraid of those who belong to the circumcision group.

R: What in the world are you talking about?

D: Paul confronted Peter because he was afraid of eating with the Gentiles in front of the Jews! ... THE JEWS!

(pause)

R: I don't get it

(I point at the Catfish with a big grin.)

D: Catfish! Jews!!

(An even more awkward pause.)

D: Jews! CATFISH!!!!

It was a very funny moment.

So here is the point that I was SO excited about that I could not express to Rachel in an intelligible way. According to Old Testament law catfish are unclean animals. They are bottom feeders. Disgusting creatures that should not be eaten. That was the Law. But Paul says in Galatians “If righteousness could be obtained through the law then Christ died for nothing”. So when Peter was eating with the Gentiles the reason he was afraid of the Jews seeing him was because the Gentiles eat unclean food. LIKE CATFISH! So Paul was mad at Peter because Peter was taking the issue of food and making it more important then the Gospel, which is why Paul confronted him.

And it is an astounding thing really, that I am a Gentile. I’m an ethnic catfish, outside of the Jewish line. But Galatians say, “Consider Abraham: ‘He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’ So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”

And my thought is “Are you kidding me? Really? A slimy bottom feeding unclean Catfish Gentile like me can be considered righteous like Abraham?” Like the Syrophoenician Gentile woman in Matthew 15 saying “Even the dogs eat the crumbs under the master’s table”. And Jesus responds by praising her faith.

So yeah! =) Whenever I see a Catfish or I eat a Catfish I think YAY CATFISH! It reminds me that before I knew Christ I was a filthy catfish. But now through the Gospel I am righteous in the eyes of God.

Later on in the aquarium Rachel was showing me pictures of the sea nettles. They were really pretty sea nettle pictures. I in my random way I said out of the blue, “Say, can we go back and look at the catfish again?” She looked at me with a bizarre puzzled look. Then she smiled and said in here sweet voice. “Sorry Sweetie. I don’t want to take away from your catfish joy.” And said to her, “I don’t want to take away from your sea nettle joy either”. I was very funny.

So yeah Catfish.

YAY CATFISH!!!

A link

2008-04-07T10:21:00.001-07:00

I tried to post a link on Matthew and Rhonda's blog and for some reason it didn't work. So I am going to post it here:

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2002/109_The_Radical_Cost_of_Following_Jesus/

Do you get it? =D =D =D

2008-04-03T21:12:00.000-07:00

Say Dave, what section of the Atlanta airport were you in?

Your Welcome! (badump-ching)

Phantom flights, cheese bagels and a guy who looked like Chuck Norris.

2008-03-08T21:18:00.000-08:00

So I spent last weekend with Rachel at my Grandparents in Cincinnati. It was a great time. But what was absolutely insane was flying back to Louisiana from Indianapolis. Flying in on Thursday was pretty hectic too. I had eleven minutes in the Detroit to run through fifteen minutes worth of airport, gate B11 to gate A57 if I remember correctly. Then when I landed Rachel was having car problems so she wasn’t at the airport right away. After some time walking around the airport I spoke to an airport employee who told me where to page some one. After that didn’t work, I was able to use someone’s cell phone to call up Rachel. She had just got to the terminal when I called her. We had the car towed from Indy to Cincy and didn’t get there until 3AM.

But flying Sunday was much more crazy.

Noon in Ohio,
5PM in Indiana,
7PM in Michigan,.
10PM in Texas,
and Midnight in Louisiana.

So Rachel and I had lunch in Cincinnati with the guy who invented Always. We drove that afternoon to the Indy airport. We said goodbye (you know I’m getting tired of doing that) and I got on the plane.

So my plane gets in to Detroit airspace. The pilot comes on to say that the plane is in a holding pattern and we won’t be landing for another twenty minutes. I check my ticket stub and I turns out my flight to Houston is boarding two minutes after we land. If I have fifteen or twenty minutes of airport to run through then I am royally hosed! So I page the stewardess to let her know my situation. She says that they will probably wait for me in considering the circumstances.

The plane finally gets on the ground. I come bursting into the airport looking for a clock. They say be on board with in 15 minutes of take off. The plane takes off in less than 18 minutes. So I start bolting. Fortunately this time I was at A27 and needed to make it gate A10. That’s much less airport to run through. I make it there at the same time as half a dozen other people are converging to gate A10. Looked like they were all out of breath and also dealing with the same situation. But I did make my flight on time. When I made it to my seat all the overhead storage bins were full. So I asked a stewardess what to do. She said they would put the bag below and I could retrieve it in Houston. The plane was taking off soon so I made it my seat to attempt to catch my breath. So that was twice I spent less then twenty minutes in the Detroit airport. It is a really pretty airport. I’ve been there before. To bad I couldn’t have enjoyed it more.

So the plane lands in Houston. Looking at my ticket stub I said to myself, “Hey an hour and a half lay over. I can take my time this will be great.” I am exiting the plane and I ask the stewardess if I can have my carry-on. She says to pick it up at the in baggage claim. I ask, “Wait a minute, do you mean the New Orleans baggage claim?” Her jaw hits the floor, “You mean you have another flight to catch tonight.” My flight to New Orleans was at 10:50. She didn’t think any one would have a lay over that late. So I make it to the help desk inside the terminal and ask the attendant on duty. At first the attendant starts freaking out and she is hollering down to the baggage guys on her walkie-talkie. The she looks at my ticket and says, “Wait a minute. Your plane does take of until 10:50. You have plenty of time. Just head out to baggage claim in section A to pick up your carry on. Hop the underground train to section C to come back through security. Make your way over to section E to get your flight.” Yep the Houston airport is BIG!

I get my bag from baggage claim and head to the underground train. Then trains are these funny rickety slow moving things. I hop into the train car and there is just one other guy. He was kind of creepy looking. He had cowboy boots on and he kind of looked like Chuck Norris. I mean that was just kind of cool. Winding your way under the Houston airport in a wobbly train with a spooky looking guy who resembles Chuck Norris. I can die a happy man now.

So here I apply my skills of mathematical reasoning. I left from terminal A. The next stop the doors open and there are big signs that say terminal B. What would you do in this situation? The attendant said go to terminal C. So I decided to wait and get off at the very next stop. I get off the train and make my way towards the set of escalators. The fact that there was no big sign saying terminal C should have raised my suspicions. I was kind of confused that there weren’t signs with gate numbers or anything. At the top of the escalators was a very nice carpeted floor (not an airport norm), which was being vacuumed by a janitor. I asked him where would I go to find the flight to New Orleans. He was Latino and hardly knew a word of English.

I don’t know any Spanish, well at least nothing useful. I do know “?Permiten osos en la fuente?” and “El hombre De los moleculos” which mean, “Are bears allowed in the fountain?” and “The molecular man” respectively. Neither of those phrases would have been very helpful at the moment. But the janitor pointed upward to the top of the next set of escalators. I trustingly followed his directions and continued up. At this point I was clearly in a Hotel Lobby. A restaurant on one side, a gift shop on the other side and a ways down the middle was a check in desk. I haven’t a clue where I am or what is going on. The folks at the desk were clearly busy with customers. So I decided the gift shop would be the best place to determine if there was an airport hiding some place near by. No clue where I was but at least I had my carry on back in my possession. That was a happy thought. I ask the gift shop clerk where the I could find the flight to New Orleans. She said I got of at the wrong stop. The next stop was terminal C. I needed to go back down to the train.

I got back on the train. I no longer had the creepy feeling that someone who looked like Chuck Norris was glancing at me. I look at the wall of the train, which has big letters on it. Sure enough, the letters were A then B then H (for Hotel) and then C. I hadn’t remembered H being between B and C in the alphabet. I get off at terminal C and get through security.

I look up at the flight boards and my flight isn’t on the screen. It was like a phantom flight. This flight wasn’t on any of the monitors in New Orleans either, but I’ll get to that later. I ask an employee where the flight to New Orleans. He asked what airline and I said northwest. “Oh that would be over in terminal A” he said. “That’s where I just came from. The attendant said terminal E.” He told me to head towards the Continental desk a ways down the hall. As I was walking I saw a clock on the wall. It was 5 until 10. Where did that last half hour go? Oh yeah, creepy Chuck Norris dude, not know Spanish in a hotel and such. I remember now. I get to the Continental desk and they finally have the answer I have been looking for, “Gate E8”.

I didn’t get to eat in the Detroit airport so I am ready for anything. It was nearly 10 after 10 by the time I actually made it to terminal E. All the fast food places closed at 10. There was one smoothie place open which had a long line. Again everyone was in the same type of situation. I got a nice little ham and cheese bagel. It was super hot, but it was well worth it.

So I am walking of the plane in New Orleans. And I think to myself, “Yay my troubles are over.” Do you remember how I mentioned that Rachel wasn’t at the airport right away when I landed in Indy? Well my roommate Brian was going to pick me up in New Orleans. I come out into the terminal, no Brain. I go to get my suitcase from baggage, no Brian. I walk up stairs in the airport; I walk downstairs in the airport, No Brian! Finally I call one of those white phones and have them page Brian. And sigh of relief there is Brian.

Well here is what happened. The flights from northwest usually land in terminal A. My lovely phantom flight landed in terminal D. And none of the screens in the airport displayed the flight from Houston at all. Brain hadn’t a clue where to go. I hadn’t a clue where he would be. So for twenty minutes or so we were both wandering around the airport. Brian was upstairs when I was down stairs. Brian was down stairs while I was up stairs. Passing each other like sheep in the night. Do sheep pass in the night? Maybe they do that while sailing.

Any who, that’s my story. It got kind of long. But hey I’m making up for all those posted I didn’t make this last November.

Man that guy was creepy looking. But he did kind of look like Chuck Norris.

walking on the levy

2008-02-27T16:12:00.001-08:00

I took some pictures the last weekend on the levy

1-my apartment
2-the levy
3-a boat on the Mississippi
4,5 & 6-some flowers along the levy

Leap Day can’t come soon enough.

2008-02-13T16:34:00.001-08:00

Greeting bloggers. Yes Rachel and I are engaged. Ironically tomorrow is Valentines Day and we are going to be 18 hours a part like we are on most days. Well we weren’t on Ground hogs day. That’s the day I asked her to marry me. The next time we will see each other is the 29th, Leap day. You know I heard somewhere the leap day is the one day when it is kosher for a woman to propose to a man. I guess I’m glad I got to beat Rachel to the punch.

I wanted to share a bit about the engagement ring. The diamond was the original diamond in my Great Grandmother’s Engagement ring. My great Grandma Jenny. She was born Jane Hockaday and Became Jane Bennett when she married my Great Grandpa Leonard Bennett in 1921. They had two daughters, my Aunt Laraine and my Grandma Marybelle who later became Marybelle Chapman when she married my Grandpa Harold “Chappie” Chapman. Grandma Jenny and Grandpa Leonard were married for 61 years from July of 21 until December of 82 when Grandpa Leonard passed away. My brother Jon was 9 months old at the time, but I was four. I have vivid memories of both Grandma Jenny and Grandpa Leonard. Specifically I remember being at their 60th Wedding anniversary party the summer I turned three. I also remember opening Christmas presents on Grandpa Leonard’s lap very soon before he passed away. Grandma Jenny lived another 9 more years and passed away in 1991.

Fast-forward many years to early January of 2008. The LSU tigers had just beaten the Ohio State Buckeyes in the national championship. The next morning I had received a phone call from my Aunt Robyn (That’s Grandma Marybelle’s daughter). Both Robyn and her husband Ted are Ohio State fans so I thought that was what she was calling about. She had got wind of the fact that I had been thinking about asking Rachel to marry me. So she asked, “David would you like Grandma Jenny’s engagement ring”. My jaw hit the floor, “Yes!” I said “Absolutely, I am bit overwhelmed right now … in a good way”.

Because my Aunt is in Ohio she had it sent through secure mail. I was on campus during the day, so I had it sent to my friend’s Nick and Laura LiBassi. A rainy Friday afternoon Laura called to let me know it had arrived. I was just so excited. I bolted over there as soon as I could. The diamond was the original diamond as well as the setting, which was in platinum. While the ring itself was made of yellow gold and set sometime later. Laura said, “Dave the diamond and setting are so beautiful. Rachel is going to love it”. That was good to hear.

The ring was bigger then Rachel’s finger. I knew she liked white gold, but the question was when and how to reset it. I had called some places up in the Indiana area to see if there was a place Rachel and I could go together to set the ring after I proposed, but nothing seemed to be panning out. I was praying, “Lord I just want to give her the best ring possible”. Thursday January the 31st I went over to a jeweler down here in Baton Rouge named Robert Roth. That was the day before I left for Indiana to see Rachel. He said he could have the ring in it’s original setting set in white gold and to me by 4 PM that day. Wow! After class I was driving across town (again the rain) so excited to see the ring. Once I had it in hand I went out to my car and sat there looking at it. I was on the verge of tears. It was so beautiful. There couldn’t be a better ring in the whole world to give to this incredible woman.

I had thought that my Aunt Laraine would have received the ring after Grandma died. It turned out Grandma Marybelle did. She later gave it to Aunt Robyn. Last month Aunt Robyn gave it to me and at the being of this month I gave it to Rachel.

I’ve got some photos. The first is a picture of me sitting on Grandma Jenny’s lap back in the summer of 85. I would have been 7. The second is a picture of Grandma Jenny holding some flowers. The picture was from April of 76 which was a month before my parents were married. The next is a picture from last October of Rachel with my Grandma Marybelle and the last picture is of Rachel with my Aunt Robyn. Yes my Aunt is black. She was adopted.

Both Aunt Robyn and Grandma Marybelle are so excited that Rachel is wearing Grandma’s diamond.

And I am too.

Canuck in Cajin Country.

2008-01-21T10:17:00.000-08:00

My favorite girl came down to Baton Rouge over the weekend. We got to walk around the LSU campus as well as visit downtown. I hadn't yet visited the capital building. Also Rachel got to experience the Baton Rouge specialty of Raising Canes chicken finger. Rachel's opinion, "Good, but heavy".

I'm tired of studying for this final, So I am posting some thoughts about Peanut Butter

2007-12-11T20:17:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow is my Probability Final. My Lie Algebra and Commutative Algebra are long behind me. All that is left is Probability. So for the last week I have had my nose in a Probability book nearly all day every day. It's going to be tough.

So as my Tuesday evening studying is winding down I notice the label one of my empty Peanut Butter Jars. It has a great big "#1" on it with the words "Choice of Choosey moms". Now here is how the fried brain of some one who has been staring at theoretical probability thinks about that statement:

Hmm what percentage of the set of all moms is the subset of moms who are also choosy? What is the probability that if I select a mom at random that mom will satisfy the conditions of being choosy? Come to think of it what DOES make a mom a choosy mom? Do there exist moms in the world that would not define them selves choosy? Or is it determined by the kids? For an example there could exist a mom who considers herself rather choosy, but if you were to ask her kids they would say that mom is not very choosy at all. If this was the case would you define her to be choosy, or would she fall into the category of non-choosy moms? Apparently those are the types of moms that Peanut butter company's frown upon.

All right so lets suppose we have figured out the "choosy" part of this sticky situation. Can we in fact precisely determine what the number one peanut butter in the opinion of these so called choosy moms? I'm guessing there might be quite a few of them. Are you polling ALL of them or only a select few? And even if you were to accurately poll the entire earth's population of choosy mom how would you weight the voting? Surely there exists at least one choosy mom who has another Peanut Butter as choice number one. And there clearly exist three or more brands of Peanut Butter in the world. So there may not even be a single peanut butter that holds a pure majority of choosy mom's votes. Would that Peanut Butter still be number one? And would it not be valid to some how also weight the second and third place votes. Like Jif might hold 34 percent of the choosy mom vote while no other Peanut butter holds more than about 25. But then suppose that all 34 percent would take Skippy as a second choice while the non-Jif voting choosy mom DESPISE Jif not even ranking it in the top five. While 90 percent of mom's might put Skippy in the top three. You see in a two Peanut butter system that would never be a problem. But clear our world is a three or more Peanut Butter system. Our choosy problem it kind of in a tailspin here.

There clearly is an easy solution here. Do what any good Mathematician would do, redefine the terms. So I will ignore your reality and substitute my own. Let us define the set of "Choosy" moms to be the set of all moms who are either executives of the Jif Peanut Butter Company or married to an executive at the Jif Peanut Butter Company. This is clearly a reasonably smaller group of moms to survey and I am fairly certain that this group of "Choosy" moms have a very high probability of choosing Jif.”

On that note I think I am heading to bed. I wonder what is the probability that there will be any Peanut Butter questions on my final tomorrow?

2007-10-18T20:11:00.000-07:00

So I was in Cincinnati with Rahcel this last weekend. I have many photos but this one is by far my favorite. Rachel just looks so happy. We were sitting on a park bench near a pond. The best part was there was a sign near that pond that had some braile written on it. I said "Isn't it nice that there is braile to tell blind people about the pond that the can't see. We started to wonder what places in the world might have braile signs. Rachel said "The Swiss Alps" I said "The Grand Cayon". Anyhoo this picture makes me smile.

Total Chaos and Total Control

2007-09-13T18:02:00.000-07:00

This semester I am taking a course on probability theory. It’s been a fascinating class. One basic concept is that any system involving chance will have some level of control and some level of chaos. For an example consider coin-flipping verses rolling dice. With coin flipping you can have either heads or tails, each has a 50% chance of happening. As for a die you have 6 possible out comes, making the system more complicated. So coin flipping is more controlled, while dice rolling is more chaotic. Also each of these systems is much more controlled compared to say lottery tickets.

Here is another way of looking at it. Suppose you wanted to come up with some number between 0 and 100, but you are going to use American coins to represent that number. How many numbers can you come up with using only quarters? Well that is five: {0,25,50,75,100} How many more could you get using dimes? Or nickels? Or pennies? Each time you are adding more and more numbers making the system more and more chaotic.

So in upper level math we want to think about probability in a general sense. Every system will lie between two extremes: A system of total chaos or a system of total control. Now in probability the chance of something happening is between 0% and 100%. In a system of total chaos anything can happen: 55.29%, 99.44%. You know the number pi? Well in a system of total chaos you could have 3.14159265358979….% chance of happening. Imagine taking that system with coins I mentioned earlier and now add coins worth pi cents. How many outcomes can you get now? I know what you are thinking, “Yuck, how am I suppose to figure that out?” That is exactly what total chaos is, you have no idea what is going to happen. Say jigawatt remember learning about Borel sets last year? Well the rest of you should feel lucky you didn’t. Let me just say that a system of total chaos is very nasty indeed.

The other extreme is a system of total control. There are only two possible outcomes: 0% or 100%. Either some happens or it doesn’t, end of story. There is a guaranteed yes or a guaranteed no. There is no middle or the road.

So basically in probability theory (like in most math) you want to move away from the complicated and towards the simple. So you take any old system and try to boil it down away from the chaos and towards the control.

So this Fall Pastor Scott has been preaching through the book of Hebrews. The system in the Old Testament was a good system, however it wasn’t perfect. You had to approach God through a high priest. What is the probability that any given priest would be faithful? What are the odds that he would intercede appropriately? 17%, 64% 96%? What the author of Hebrews says is that we have a new high priest that is much more consistent. The old system was only a shadow. This new system is the reality.

So I have busy schedule right now. I am taking class while teaching classes at the same time. There are times when I find myself dealing with stress and anxiety. This week I was sitting in my probability class learning about total chaos and total control. This thought came into my head. “Dave what is the probability that Jesus is anxious right now? 0% What is the probability that he is righteous right now? 100%” Everything in this world, even the good things, have some level of chaos. The only constant is Christ. Total Control; that is a good way to describe him. Jesus is always kind, he never lies, he will never leave us, and he will never forsake us. He is always holy, he is always just, and he is always good. 0% or 100% with Christ there are no other options.

Marchingbands, apathy and fabric softener

2007-09-10T10:24:00.000-07:00

Saturday I got to enjoy LSU football tailgating experience. I didn't have tickets to the game. But I did watch the band march to the stadium. My roommate Brian had tickets so I met up with him and his buddy Clay. while waitng for the band to come down the hill I was talking with Clay.

"My girlfriend and her roommate are watching a play about Amish people today."

Clay looked at me and said, "Why? Its LSU game day. Why aren't they here?"

"Um ... cause they live in Indiana."

"Oh." He said, "Well they've got college football in Indiana."

Yes they do and Notre Dame is 0 and 2 right now. To think that after the Michigan game one of those teams will be 0 and 3. Also from my understanding Rachel said she would have enjoyed a football game more than the play. And that is saying a lot because she is always making fun of my love for American sports that don't involve a puck. =P

So I watched the first quarter of the game over at the Christian Student Center south of campus. One of the kids said, "You know the real opposite of love is not hate. It's apathy." They were joking around about dispensing apathy on one another. At one point I found myself enjoying the game in one of the more comfortable chairs. After a while I decided to get up for my second helping of hamburgers. When I got back I found that one of the kids had taken my seat. I looked at him and said "Do you apathy me?"

Sunday after church I went to Walmart to pick up some groceries. Now have you ever had a piece of modern technology that was irrationally overwhelming to you. You know that it should be easy to use, but for some reason you are scared to use it because you might do something wrong. I don't know, like a gas pump or something. ;) Well to be honest I kind of feel that way about washingmachines. I mean I get the whole whites verses darks thing. But warm then cold, or is it boiling hot then lukewarm. And there is that knob that says delicates verse sturdy verse other kinds of things. I mean I'm a 29 year old guy. My wardrobe seems to be fairly simple. I put the Tide in the machine, I put in my clothes, I turn the one knob to hot, I turn the other knob to normal and everything seems to work out fine.

Any who back to Sunday. I am in Walmart getting groceries. I reach the laundry detergent isle and panic sets in. I am looking for a bottle that has one word on it, "Tide". That bottle wasn't there. Oh there were bottles that said Tide, but they had all sorts of crazy other things on them. There was Tide with bleach, I've seen that bottle before. I have been fearful of that one because legend has it that bleach can eat through clothes. There is one bottle that say "Tide money saving cold water blah blah ... and other things". That is much more complicated then the hot knob plus normal knob equals done laundry. Then there's a bottle that says "Tide with Febreeze". What??? Isn't that the stuff the use to clean your windshield wipers? I mean all I need is Tide, T-I-D-E! I am afraid if I use one of these other things I am going to turn my clothes green or something else that is very bad.

Finally I find a bottle that seems reasonable, "Tide with Downey". Now I know what Downey is. That was the commercial back in the eighties with the Teddy bear bouncing on a stack of towels. Tide with fabric softener. Ok so I put Tide with Downey in the machine, I put in my clothes, I turn the one knob to hot, I turn the other knob to normal and everything will be soft like the Teddy bear. We can handle that. =D

I am planning on doing my laundry during the Bengal vs Ravens football game tonight. I hope every comes out OK, for the Bengals and my clothes.

Dumb movie quotes.

2007-09-06T17:07:00.000-07:00

Now I know what you are asking: Are you talking about dumb movies or are you talking about dumb quotes that happen to be from movies? My answer is yes. Actually not quiet, I do like some of the movies I am going to quote. In any case the quotes are very, very dumb.

My first quote is from the Matrix. It’s fun, but the movie takes itself way too seriously.

Trinity: They are killing machines designed for one purpose.
Dozer: Seek and destroy.

Think about that for a second. “They are gardening machines designed for one purpose: Car waxing and poodle shaving.” So which one purpose are they designed for: do they seek or do they destroy? Through out the Matrix they use this type of language. “I’m here to teach you ONE thing”, “Let me sing you ONE song”, “For breakfast I will cook you ONE thing. There is no option: bacon or eggs, not both!” Ok maybe I am going a little over board, but you get the picture.

My next quote is from a movie I love, “The Empire Strikes Back.” At one point Luke asks Yoda about the future. Luke says:

“Will they die?”

Yoda then proceeds to close his eyes and say:

“Very difficult to see.”

Well I wonder why? I am imagining movie commentary for John Madden “Now here is a Jedi Master who when he opens his eyes he can see better.”

Another movie that is fun, but takes itself too seriously is “Field of Dreams”. Yes I moved to Iowa as a tenth grader. There are bumper stickers all over that say, “Is this heaven? No, it’s Iowa.” I like my mother’s version of the line “Is this heaven?” You respond with deadpan, bored look on your face, “No, it’s Iowa.”

But that wasn’t the quote I was going to bring up. The following line is in my opinion one of the ultimate quotes of cultural isolationism.

“The one constant through all the years Ray has been baseball.”

Hey people of war torn Afghanistan, do you know what is the ONE constant through ALL the years? Hey tribal people of Vanuatu off the coast on New Zealand, do you know what is the ONE constant through ALL the years?

The amazing thing about this quote is it not only reflects cultural ignorance but historical ignorance as well. I thought baseball was invented in the 1860’s. I guess I was wrong. So how did the Aztec Indians feel about the in-field fly rule? And did Gangues Khan and his Mongolian hordes observe the seventh inning stretch? How do you say, “Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks” in ancient Mongolian?

“The one constant through all the years Ray has been seek and destroy.”

All right Mel Gibson has had some good action films, but in my opinion “Conspiracy Theory” was not one of them. There is one point in which Julia Roberts is standing in a cemetery looking at a tombstone and she says:

“I miss your face.”

Now I appreciate the sentiment and all, but let’s be honest that line is dumb. The first time I saw this movie in the theatres, when I heard that line I nearly died laughing. And if I had died would somebody have missed MY face?

My final movie quote is from an amazingly dumb movie. The name of the movie is “Speed 2”. I have only seen this movie once and have avoided it like the plague since. Most quotes I have deliberately deleted from my brain so I don’t have an exact quote. But I am going to give you an approximation of the quote and then explain it.

“Blah blah blah Chainsaw blah blah.”

Now what is the context of this line? “Speed 2” is a sequel to the movie “Speed” which is about a bus that is traveling at 70 miles per hour and if it slows down it will blow up. In the sequel there is now a huge ocean faring cruise liner that is traveling at some ridiculous speed and if it slows down it will also blow up. At one point somebody is locked in a room on this boat. And Sandra Bullock is trying to get the person out. Then she say something like, “Quick, hand me that chainsaw over there.” or maybe she say “I wish I could bust through this door. Look a chainsaw. I can use that!”

This line makes me ponder. (hmm …hmm) Suppose I were the captain of an OCEAN TRAVELING VESSEL. So I am standing on shore and making plans for the trip. “Did we forget something?” I might ask. “Well we have the life rafts. Oh and we have got the life jackets. Yes plenty of those. Let’s see navigation equipment, flares. What am I forgetting? Hold on I’ve got it!! WE FORGOT THE CHAINSAW!”

I mean if you are watching a movie like “The strapping, Oregon mountain man” or “Norwegian Chainsaw juggling: a tale of love.” It might seem reasonable to hear and line like “Quick, hand me that chainsaw.” But if you are watching “Speed 2: the really fast moving cruise liner that by the way is in the ocean and as far a forest as you can possibly get.” Then the line “Quick, hand me that chainsaw”, seems a little out of place.

Actually now that I think about it “Quick, hand that chainsaw” is a dumb line. And if you hear it, then you are watching a dumb movie.

My second post: the mathfridge has landed

2007-09-04T21:49:00.000-07:00

I made this comment on my facebook about a year ago, but I think it is worthy to bring up again. It is fall once again on the LSU
campus. That means two things, football and hot weather clothing. As a
Christian guy I kind of want to gouge my eyes out with a spoon.
Fortunately I am quiet near sighted so I find myself often taking my
glasses off. Then I start thinking about the lovely architecture instead of campus wardrobe or lack there of.

What would people think if I went walking around campus wearing spaghetti
straps and a mini skirt? They would think yuck I don't want to see
that. That's right I don't either. I understand the need to dress
comfortably, but I think I am comfortable in knee length shorts and a
normal t-shirt.

Any who, I am excited about the LSU football season. And like most of the campus I am whistling the fight song and pumped about hearing the Golden band from Tigerland. But in light of my above thoughts, I rewrote the lyrics about a year ago. Here is a link:

http://www.fightmusic.com/sec.html

Scroll down to the LSU
section and click on "Hey Fighting Tigers". I do have the real lyrics
memorised, but I thought you might enjoy my revised version.

I love Capris! Oh I love Capris!
I'm so happy not to see your knees!
I want to see less I don't want to see more.
I'm impressed with the girl in the dress
whose hem goes to the floor.

If you could rise up the neck line high on the shirt
In fact I would think a sweater wouldn't hurt.
With an outfit that's full of cotton and wool
And a whole lot less to view.
Modesty I love you!

Dave is now a blogger

2007-09-04T12:29:00.000-07:00

Greetings to all who are reading this,

I figured It is about time I start my own Blog. I have been posting my thoughts on facebook a while now, so I suppose that bloging is the natural next step.

If you don't know me me name is Dave Chapman. I am 29 years old and living in Baton Rouge Louisiana. I am a graduate student in the LSU math department and I am working on getting my Phd. I grew up in up state New York. Specifically Webster which is a suburb of Rochester, right on Lake Ontario. I spent my high school and college years in Iowa. I have two younger brothers. My brother Jon is 25. He just got married in April and he and his wife Kari are living in Iowa City. They are both doing research, he is working in Biology and she is working in Chemestry. My brother Alex will be turning 22 in less a month. He is A Senior at Simpson college which in near Des Monies. My parents live in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. My Dad is a Pastor and my Mom in a coordinator in the education department of Graceland College. My mother's father live in Sherman New York, which is between Jamestown and Erie Pennsylvania. And my father's parents live in Cincinnati. GO BENGALS!

So yeah, a pretty boring first blog I know, but you have to start somewhere. I promise to be more exciting in my next post.

Dave