Snow!
Its been snowing here for about three days - just a slow stead snow. Some of it melted yesterday, but we got a lot last night. I would estimate 8 - 12 inches total, which is a lot for this area. Taos will get a few inches and then it will melt away due to how bright the sun is here, but its been so cold this winter the snow just keeps sticking around.
Oh, and its so dry here the snow is very powdery - its really amazing.
Anyway, the dogs love it - her is the proof:
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Rina: We are very close to CO, like 20 minute drive to the border. So we are in north NM - it does snow in Santa Fe tho too.
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Kona's ears are starting to stick up - they look pretty silly right now. Hilo's are the same as always - they will not stand up - IMO.
The clouds cleared - so I got the first glimpse of what all this snow did to the Sangre de Cristo mountains behind our house... I added some other pics so you can see what the normally look like too.
Looks so pretty:
Loa is getting big. Is he as big as Ahi? I love Pic#7 of Hilo and Ahi
Paul is very envious of you guys living in New Mexico.
You left us for that?? I guess I just dont see it!
Absolutely gorgeous! I thought the same about Hilo's ears...they look like they are up.
Uh Brad, remember what I posted about you moving somewhere majestic and awe inspiring.
I meant it.
Rina - It's very much worth it - moving out here was a very big change tho!
Dorothy - Pic #7 is my fav. too, I love it! Loa is 30lb now, Ahi is 45lb. Loa is growing like a weed - and starting to get her colors. Tell Paul he can come and stay in my Teepee in the backyard (I will be getting it this summer - sleeps 8!).
Dave - Every time I look out my back windows I have to stop and just take it all in... its crazy... having said that, the stress from my job didn't stay in ATL, it came with me to Taos (not that I thought it wouldn't). I agree tho - we are extremely fortunate, but it was not without hard work... you know tho, the hard work I think is what made it that much more special. Feel free to come and stay in my Teepee (see above)! - As for the dogs, most of them seem to have a certain calmness from this spot... they seem to just enjoy laying in front of the window and watching. Ahi tho seems a bit tortured by the vast open space - she just wants to run and be free... unfortunately we don't have our fenced in yard yet so she only gets to do that on a lead... so I feel bad for her. We met with the fence guy last week tho and will be getting a fence put in next month - yeah!
Rachael - Hilo's ears do look a little more up in pic #7, but I think it's the angle. Tell "The Chad" to steal a plane and fly you and the dogs to Taos... we are like 5 minutes for the airport! You can stay in my Teepee too!
Jessica - Thanx! :c)
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I am really stoked for my Teepee.
Brad: Careful, Lucy and I (and soon Joey too) may just take you up on the teepee offer! I don't find it surprising at all that you haven't left your stress behind. It would seem to me that if you are the type of person that can endure 10 stressful years of working toward your goal then you wouldn't be the kind of person that can just leave it behind. I'm a graduate student so most, if not all, of my stress is self-imposed. I expect that wherever I get a job that same self-imposed stress will follow me if no increase. When I was an undergrad, I went to school at Colgate University (go gate!) which is a very pretty place too.
Somehow it just seems that when you are in places like that, although the stress continues, it just seems to matter a little less.
That is a pretty place! Jen and I looked all over the country before we choose Taos... We choose Taos for a number of reasons, diversity, open-mindedness, less law, scenery, and investment. Taos Mountain (15 miles from us) is a Ski only mountain - I am a snowboarder... but I knew the ski only thing wouldn't last, and it didn't, starting March 19th Taos Ski Valley will allow Snowboarding!!!! That means there will be a large increase in visitors to Taos over the next few years... and that means (hopefully) or House will go up a lot in value.
Anyway, I kinda got off track there... sorry...
The stress thing sux - I inherited the stress gene from my parents, they are high stress people. Both have been high-power execs and sold their businesses, so I was raised by housekeepers and listened to my family talk business at the dinner table all my life. So a superior work ethic and competitiveness haunts me, and I can never escape it. I literally work 15 hours a day, 7 days a week - even here in Taos... but at least now I can take a break and look at the mountains or go snowboarding. So yes, living in a place like this does make the stress easier to swallow - but like you most of my stress is self induced. At the same time I spend a lot of my time trying to escape the stress, which really makes no sense since I create it anyway. Kinda stupid really.
That was the core objective in our move out here, our thought was: "If we created the stress in our lives by buying all this crap and having all these bills, lets just get rid of them and maybe that will reduce the stress". So we sold off the majority of our things (like our TV) and moved to a place where no one really values material wealth. I would say the plan has worked by about 50% - it's still a work in progress tho.
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I promise I will spam all of you with Teepee pics once I have it built. There are a number of Teepees in my "neighborhood", they are so cool and well engineered. They are really just amazing dwellings - way superior to any of the building designs of modern homes.
Good luck with the investment on the house! I seem to have bought my house in Smyrna at exactly the wrong time. But that's the nature of an investment I guess.
I completely agree with the nature of stress genes. My parents are both highly accomplished academics that work incredibly hard. My father gets hundreds of emails a day and is frequently up in his home office until 1 am or later dealing with them. He averages five hours of sleep a night. Something that the stress craving side of me admires. My mother is a quite a bit better at taking things easy. She relaxes with a glass or two of wine every night. Something that the stress shedding side of me really admires as well. Like you, I spent my childhood discussing academic politics at the dinner table as well.
It sounds like you have some hobbies which is good. Snowboarding and surfing are great ways to get away. I like hiking, golf, and cooking personally. Being in the computer field, I can appreciate how easy it is to stay at the keyboard for way too many hours a day. I have many friends that use the computer for recreation in addition to their profession and I just don't understand it. When I'm finished working for the day (which, granted, may be shortly before I go to bed) I make sure to get away from the computer. When I get busy, 100 hours weeks are not uncommon but I try to balance them out with vacations and 20 hour weeks when I can. The tough part about being in the Atlanta area for me is those five minute breaks where I used to be able to go outside and soak up the beauty of nature and the fresh air and now I get exhaust fumes from the nearby interstate and high-rise buildings.
I completely understand the contradiction between imposing stress and trying to escape it as the same time. It comes from the drive to succeed but the will to live life. I find myself taking on responsibilities all the time that I probably shouldn't. When I do manage to work in some free time or when I'm in between deadlines I find myself feeling guilty for not being productive (which is stressful).
Lucy has been a great influence on me in that respect. I know she depends on me for companionship, exercise, and care. Therefore, the few hours a day that I devote exclusively to her are a way for me to get away from the stresses of my deadlines without feeling guilty. I guess we're programed for it. Its nice to know there is a light at the end of the tunnel though!
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Can't wait for the teepee pics. Like most boys growing up in the US, I loved playing cowboys and indians so a real teepee would be a huge treat for me!
Dave - I am exactly the same way about personal time at the PC - My PC is for work only (and this forum)... I don't play games or anything on it. Honestly I would rather not be at my PC - even tho I spend most of my time here.
One thing I have been trying to do is alter my view of what "success" is. I have been trying to train myself to not view hot cars or big houses as a sign of success, coming from where I was it is very hard. I admire my family so much and I look up to people like my boss who have money and can do things most can't... but then I start making more money and end up with more stress. So it has become my mission to ween myself off the material wealth and typical capitalist view of "success". Its hard tho.
I know what you mean about Lucy - our dogs have done the same for us. They get you out and away from the PC and the work world.
So, what type of computer work do you do?
Brad: You make an interesting distinction between a material definition of success and others. I have been lucky in that regard...my parents have always defined success in terms of their professional achievements which has rubbed off on me. My drive is to succeed and make a name for myself in my chosen field. If money and possessions come with that then all the better. My motivations are very intrinsic though.
Like I mentioned earlier, I'm a graduate student. I'm working toward a PhD in computer science in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. Roughly speaking, my area is at the interface of multiagent systems, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. I draw a lot of inspiration for my work from other fields though. I've been reading a lot of narrative theory, social psychology, and even some ethnography. Specifically, I study issues of authorship for interactive narratives.
What, you may ask, is an interactive narrative? Well, I was hoping you might ask that!
I could go on for pages and pages, but that should give you an idea. My work up until now has focused on the drama manager and the development of algorithms that enable it to make appropriate coordination decisions for the environment and the NPCs. I've been reading social psychology to better understand influence and persuasion so I can model it for interactive narratives and try to enable the drama manager to affect the human participant in ways similar to how it affects the NPCs. That is the basis for my dissertation work.
My website (http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~robertsd/) is somewhat out of date, but has some more information. If you interested in playing with an interactive narrative, I reccomend Facade (www.interactivestory.net). Facade is the work of Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern and has won a number of awards at indie games festivals. If I played computer games more often, I would totally be addicted to it.
Sorry for the long off topic post, I can't resist an opportunity to talk about my research!
Edgewood - Thank you for sharing your story - its inspiring! I'm glad to know others feel the same way I do about priorities, seems like so many people now days have really far out values.
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Dave - I envious of your major... its very cool. I have dabbled in very low-level basic AI concepts. I am also a total robotics geek. There is an interesting article in the current issue of Wired about two AI developers. I have always loved AI and tried to combine the concepts to my work - even tho it is surface level UI development. I am a freak about design patterns and a lot of the AI theories and how they apply to user interaction.
I am a self-taught programmer, I went to Art school. I enjoy programming now more than design, tho I still consider programming to be fairly creative - at least architecturally speaking. I always wanted to go to school to study AI and Robotics but I am not what you would call a "traditional academic learner". Due to a rather crippling Processing Deficiency (aka mild Asperger's syndrome) I basically all but failed out of most of the schools I went to. Hence why I got a two year Art degree.
Blah blah blah....
Chad and I cant wait to come visit. Maybe if we make it to MN this year you will be our next trip. Considering we are going on 4 years since being home it is about time. How far of a drive is it? Maybe a road trip...we may have a lucy and dave stow aways in the car. I think we would need a cargo van or mobile home! Do you have the dates that you folk will be back here? Will you be here longer than at christmas?
Edgewood: I too appreciate the story. I've still got some time before I'll be on the job market, but I have three jobs that I know I am going to apply for. I've always wanted to be a university professor and those jobs run the gamut from ultra-competitive super stressful at a major research university to being "dead weight" at a teaching university. The three jobs I know I'm going to apply for are Stanford (ultra-competitive), University of Hawai'i Manoa (teaching university), and University of Colorado Boulder (right in the middle). I've driven through Boulder and liked it a lot. Right now that's at the top of my list of jobs I would love to have. It would be a nice balance of access to research resources and being slightly off the beaten path to reduce my stress levels.
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Brad: Robotics is the wave of the future. There is a lot of really interesting stuff going on in the robotics field right now. Georgia Tech has a huge research initiative in that field and is even starting a PhD program in robotics (I believe the second in the country).
I'm actually quite familiar with many of the AI approaches for UI design...the whole Pattie Maes "interface agents" vs. Ben Schneiderman "direct manipulation" debate. Very interesting stuff. If you are interested some cool technical reading on the subject, check out Dan Weld at the University of Washington. He has an interesting approach to interface optimization that blends some "old school" AI work with "new school" machine learning.
My background is very technical and nerdy. I was a double major in Math and CS as a undergrad so getting exposure to narrative theory and social psychology has really taken me out of my element. To be honest, I think I would have had an easier time coming at it from your direction. I'm not the creative thinker that you are, but I completely agree that programming is a very creative act. I wish I were better at it. Most of the code I write is for demos and has to work only for that small demo.
If it makes you feel any better, I think all computer scientists/programmers have some deficiency or another. My advisor is convinced that all university professors in CS have mild Asperger's. In my case, I think its a little OCD/ADD.
Oh man - I have read all about that debate ("interface agents" vs. "direct manipulation"), it's so interesting to me and sometimes totally over my head. lol I used to work for an elearning shop and worked with the head IT guy there (who studied AI in school) to build a "dynamic pathing" concept for test taking. I really enjoyed it. I'll look up Dan Weld - thanx!
I am familiar with Tech's initiative in Robotics, I met with the guys that built that car for the DARPA race. It was really cool! I saw them at a car show that was held at Tech - I have a lot of friends that went to Tech, so I tagged along with them.
I agree about scientist and programmers having some sort of deficiency, tho I would bet the majority of it is a social deficiency.
BTW: I love the Stanford campus - my brother graduated from there. I dunno tho, Hawaii would amazing too - Bolder too... wow... that's a hard choice.
Brad, you are very wise to give up more of your material possession. I like to say that the person who is truly rich is the one who can be happy with less. Noah and I have goals of living a simpler life. It's all part of moving to the country, being self-sustaining, consuming less, fewer debts, fewer vices... just a simpler, more fulfilling life. My idea of success is living a fulfilling and moral life. I know some people probably think it's ridiculous that I would never want to own a big house even if I had bucket-loads of moeny, but to me, they just mean more pollution and consumption. Not to mention that when things cost more, you have to work more, which means less time spent one-on-one with the kids, less time to enjoy the things I really like, and less time to volunteer in the community, all of which are more important to me than keeping up with the Joneses. Waste not, want not, more freedom, less impact, and so on.
Not to mention, I'll probably kill myself if I try to do the whole workaholic, high-stress thing. I always react to stress my getting sick. There was a while there where I had all these symptoms and my doctor thought I had a brain tumour but it was all just stress-induced from post partum anxiety. It runs in the family. Lots of people in my family have died young or have serious health problems because of anxiety-related issues, so... yeah, better poor and healthy than rich and dead.
We got 13 inches of snow yesterday. It snowed all day long. My drive home usually takes less than 10 minutes, yesterday it took about 45. On the way home I helped to push out 4 people that were stuck, and then when I got to my parking lot, I dug out a parking spot. I still love snow, it looks so nice out.
Brad: That work on dynamic pathing sounds very cool. I've always been interested in how to personalize/adapt software for individuals. That test taking work is a perfect example. A lot of people in my field apply their work to education. When I apply for funding, I usually put an education and/or training spin on my work. Its not hard to make the connection between a narrative and a lesson plan (for example).
Its a shame Tech did so badly in the DARPA urban challenge. I know they worked really hard (and sunk a lot of money into it). There was a lot of hype. But hey, even though they didn't win, at least they had a Porsche!
"...that's a hard choice." Don't get ahead of me here. I still have to finish my degree and then convince them that 1) I'm worth hiring and 2) they are interested in my particular field of study. When the time comes, I'll probably apply to upwards of 60 schools in the hopes of getting two or three offers. The academic job market is very tough.
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Brandon: That story is actually hilarious to me. When I was an undergrad I lived in an area of heavy snow in New York state. We generally got an inch a day at the minimum. Most people would hate for something like your story to happen, but I love it! I miss that dearly. Got any pictures of the winter wonderland?