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The Move

Since the last time I posted, Heather and I have moved to a new apartment building.  Thanks to a good brother-in-law, the U-Haul company, our killer Nissan Versa, and Smith and Wesson (my trusty muscles), the move went smoothly and quickly.  Photos will follow.

Renting a U-Haul was a good life experience.  Neither Steven (brother-in-law) nor I had ever done that before, and overall it saved me a lot of time and money (the gas I’d have spent on a billion trips in the Versa).  I’ll tell you one thing, though: I was sure glad I’d had some practice driving huge trucks around (Nate’s truck!) because haulin’ cargo in a huge, beastly  U-Haul was at times a tricky drive.

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Leadership from the Final Frontier’s Finest

As I was writing my post about Jean Luc Picard I came across a true gem in the form of a paper on the leadership styles of Star Trek captains. The authors, Paul Kimmerly and David R. Webb, both have military backgrounds (a fact that makes their analysis even cooler). Here is a snippet from the introduction:

Foremost among the characters were the five starship captains. Each of them had unique challenges, personalities,and approaches to managing their ships.The individual captains brought different styles to their commands, and each of their styles provided examples and lessons for managers in today’s world. Let us look at each of the captains in detail and in chronological order as they appeared on our television screens.

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Great Characters – Jean Luc Picard

When I read a really good story I often feel like the characters have taken on a momentum of their own: they persist as a reality long after I’ve shut the book. Every time I revisit them it feels like I’m catching up with a friend.

In fact, in a fascinating twist, it’s an odd experience to go back and reread the story because in doing so my friend–who I know so well–reverts back to his/her old self,  and memories and bonds must be reforged time and time again.

One such character, for me, is Captain Jean Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise (Patrick Stewart), the main character of the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series.

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Firstborn by Brandon Sanderson

 While safe aboard his flagship, there were two ways for Dennison to watch the battle.

The obvious method relied on the expansive battle hologram that dominated the bridge. The hologram was on at the moment, and it displayed an array of triangular blue blips representing fighters flying about waist-high. The much larger blue oval of Dennison’s command ship hung a moderate distance above and behind the fighters. The massive and powerful but far less agile leviathan probably wouldn’t see battle this day. The enemy’s ships were too weak to damage its hull, but they were also too fast for it to catch. This would be a battle between the smaller fighters.

And Dennison would lead them. He rose from his command chair and walked a few steps to the hologram’s edge, studying the enemy.

 Believe it or not, I had never heard of Brandon Sanderson until I encountered this short story (“Firstborn”).   I found it on the ever-dangerous “Recommendations For You”  page on Amazon.com and downloaded it to my kindle to read in my “down time” (Which, like so many atomic elements I’ve studied in my chemistry classes, does not actually occur in nature, but has to be made).  I finished it last night and was rightly impressed!

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NCUR – The Conference

Representing one of the most interesting and challenging episodes in my undergraduate years, the 2011 National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) was held from March 31-April 2 at Ithaca College, NY.

For over a year I’ve worked at the ARUP Labs on the University of Utah’s campus under the direction of Dr. Marzia Pasquali.  In that time I’ve labored to develop second tier tests for two metabolic disorders: homocystinuria and SCAD deficiency.  Dr. Pasquali has on numerous occasions gone far and beyond her role as adviser and helped me put together my research project.  For this and previous conferences, especially as it comes to my research poster, she should be credited with the fantastic final product.  I am very grateful to her for all she’s done to make my research experience successful and interesting.

To present this research at a national forum was, at times, electrifying.  It was awe inspiring to see the opportunities “mere” undergraduate students have in this day and age when it comes to participating in serious, real research.

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