tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-112759892009-12-15T13:40:09.378-08:00Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.comBlogger400125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-89416040545659303152009-12-15T13:13:00.000-08:002009-12-15T13:40:09.575-08:00

Surprise!!!! I still know that this blog exists, I just tend not to have the time or desire to post anything to it. I've found that twitter and facebook have offered adequate ways to vent my frustrations. Until now.It seems that this semester is determined to suck every last drop of joy and interest I have in teaching. The students have been the most apathetic I have yet encountered and the

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-41379885900277560152009-08-14T13:37:00.000-07:002009-08-14T14:08:19.383-07:00

Some bike rides are just turn out great, others are far from it; in the past week I've had one of each.Last Saturday I did the usual group ride at 8:00 am. As the first day of my week long break from work I wasn't too enthused to be getting up so early, but the ride is a good one and I rarely can sleep later than 8:00 or 9:00 anymore anyway. Well, this day that ride just went wonderfully. I

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-41325344022615304832009-08-01T23:42:00.000-07:002009-08-02T00:26:03.986-07:00

The past few weeks have have just been a blur. I was read somewhere, a couple of days ago, that it had been over a month since Michael Jackson had died. I was stunned by this because I was certain that it had only been a week or maybe two ago. But it seems when your days are dominated by writing grants the days just blur together.But I'm finally done! In the past two months I have completed

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-38307335148935295682009-06-29T16:22:00.000-07:002009-06-29T16:47:24.181-07:00

So if you are at a university and the weekly email newsletter has a link to the bookstore's "MAC-over" you probably assume it's some kind of Apple promotion. After all, most university campuses seem to have a deal with Apple computers for educational discounts. Sure, it's commercialization of the university, but an argument can be made that it is related to academics/education by virtue of the

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-50032654491552017272009-06-24T22:21:00.000-07:002009-06-24T22:53:12.610-07:00

So I have been wanting to post this for a few days, I just hadn't gotten around to it until now. But a few days ago I got an email from the California Faculty Association; it was not good news. It seems that the California State University (CSU) system, of which I am a part, is getting hit with a huge budget cut this year; over $500 MILLION!For a bit of background I should point out that

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-42697121124869170052009-06-19T18:59:00.000-07:002009-06-19T19:28:47.253-07:00

The ride home from work today once again reminded me why I like bicycling to work so much. The ride itself is pretty unspectacular, there is a nice enough descent and a pretty good climb, then a whole lot of traffic lights; but it's the act of riding that makes it worthwhile.By the end of the day I was feeling pretty run-down and just in a bit of a funk. I think this has something to do with

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-1961114646516660572009-06-10T19:11:00.000-07:002009-06-10T19:38:14.856-07:00

So if you've been following my few and random twitter posts you're up to speed on most of what is going on with me; albeit in absolutely tiny context-less amounts. So this will be a bit of a recap, or for those with better things to do than wait for me to tweet, the whole story of what I have been up to.One of the things that I have been doing a bit more of lately is bicycling; mostly to work

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-16055255581044375962009-05-03T22:37:00.000-07:002009-05-03T23:10:44.041-07:00

Ok, so here's a little update from what has been going on for the past few week. I haven't been posting much here, but if you've been following me on Twitter I'm using that with a lot more frequency than I have been posting here. Of course, 140 characters is far from enough to say everything properly.Obviously the big news has been the swine flu. Things down here are pretty much normal, no

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-63803242425237988602009-04-07T23:12:00.000-07:002009-04-07T23:35:27.414-07:00

So I was finally able to get down to the park to check out some racing tonight. That had been one of the great things about living here that I hadn't taken advantage of, the velodrome is less than a mile from my place. So after riding home from work, getting cleaned up and eating Deirdre and I went down to the park.I have to admit that I was very surprised at the crowd that was on hand to watch

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-66253812392690276492009-03-25T22:22:00.000-07:002009-03-25T22:40:02.790-07:00

I've come to a bit of a realization of late, I just don't have the impetus or really even the time, to write dedicated meaningful blog posts lately. It kind of sucks, because from time to time there are things that I would like to share with you guys, but for the most part it just doesn't seem like the topics would make meaningful posts.So, I'm succumbing to the darkside and I've signed up for a

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-16700151295340168132009-03-21T00:16:00.001-07:002009-03-21T00:55:34.824-07:00

Yeah, it's been a while since I posted on here but who really cares. A lot has been going on, mostly work though so it's really not that exciting to talk about. So instead I will take this opportunity to point out that I fucked up this afternoon. On the way to a dinner with some fellow faculty members I managed to run into a car, with my car. Actually, more accurately, I pulled out into the

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-21349263957680654682009-02-21T14:00:00.000-08:002009-02-21T14:14:36.656-08:00

So I was just in the middle of grading midterms after having been to the dentist this morning to get some cavities filled; yeah, talk about a fun day. As is expected, the anesthetic is slowly wearing off and I can feel my face and jaw properly now that I've been home over an hour. As the feeling began to return to my tongue I noticed that things didn't feel quite like they are supposed to. My

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-89800883669686104122009-02-19T20:35:00.000-08:002009-02-19T21:38:11.799-08:00

So did anyone else hear the news that North Dakota has passed a new bill wherein any "any organism with the genome of homo sapiens" is considered to be a person, protected by all state laws and rights. The idea behind it is that this way a fetus is now considered to be a person, obviously making the legality of abortions a big question now. Now ignoring the fact that a fetus really isn't a

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-24694378130292613822009-02-02T21:49:00.000-08:002009-02-02T22:43:02.324-08:00

So after about a month of not riding my bike to work I decided that it was time to get back to it. The reason I chose to stop riding was mainly due to the lack of light on the way home, plus it was getting pretty cold in the mornings. I have mentioned before that I'm now a wimp about the cold right? It now feels like anything below 10 C is downright frigid. But now that things are nicer, I'm

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-13949109843557357232009-01-31T11:55:00.000-08:002009-01-31T12:58:56.832-08:00

So as an academic researcher I'm dependent on outside sources of funding to pay for my research; thankfully not for my salary, just for the tools/chemicals I use. Fortunately what I do most of the time isn't all that expensive. Now that I have the main instruments for my research lab the chemicals I use are needed in very small quantities and typically don't cost much; though some can easily

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-46700494490370808162009-01-25T12:59:00.000-08:002009-01-25T14:02:48.552-08:00

Now I'm not sure how many people are aware of this, I know that I certainly wasn't before I began teaching; but the act of teaching a class really does seem to be similar to a theatrical performance or acting. Of course, having done nothing like acting other than distantly remembering being Joseph in some church Sunday school Christmas thing, which obviously doesn't count for much. After all,

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-592518378534620702009-01-21T21:32:00.000-08:002009-01-21T22:57:50.685-08:00

Well, it was nice while it lasted, but we all knew that it was coming to an end. The glorious time between semesters when a prof doesn't have to follow any real schedule; work that you feel is important gets done rather than needing to prepare lectures or grade assignments. But of course it must always come to end at some point, such is the life.I was surprised at how much time off I had

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-19005376925372013672009-01-14T21:16:00.000-08:002009-01-14T22:28:19.110-08:00

As I've said in prior posts, lately I've been spending more time in my lab. I've also said that I'm enjoying the process quite a bit. What I haven't mentioned are some of the things that I have seen my students doing in the lab that make me wonder what on earth goes on when I'm not around.Some of the more interesting and head scratching things that I have noticed in the past week are below.

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-49027087330083319632009-01-09T20:27:00.000-08:002009-01-09T21:00:32.021-08:00

Today was a good day, for the first time in far too long I got back into the lab and actually did some of my own work. At the same time I was able to observe some of my students doing their work as well... let's just say that I should be doing my own work much more often. Sadly it seems that what I need to teach my students most is common sense, of all things, why that?Anyway, let's not focus

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-70377314244267830062009-01-08T23:30:00.001-08:002009-01-08T23:30:44.520-08:00

So a couple of days ago I had a bit of a problem with my laptop. I'd just finished reading some emails at my desk at home and decided to move to the couch to continue. Now there's nothing special about this, except that when I opened the lid again nothing happened. The screen was black. It took me a couple of hard restarts to realize that the computer was working fine at the CPU level; the

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-81619489142557439272009-01-04T17:45:00.001-08:002009-01-04T18:09:03.465-08:00

Well, it's done with, tomorrow I head back to work. I really probably should have gone back in sooner but I felt I needed to take some time off to recover from last semester. As I'm sure I mentioned on here, I was put in a position to teach a grad level course only three weeks before the start of the semester; so I was playing catchup with that course the whole semester. On top of that I was

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-87777835553312226742008-12-12T20:13:00.000-08:002008-12-12T22:07:48.170-08:00

So part of my research involves, or at least will involve the use of lasers. Yeah, I know, it's freaking cool! Ok, it's not sharks with freaking lasers, but at least they are still cool, they're lasers after all. Well up until this point I was unable to do anything significant with this part of my research because I didn't have a dark room. Despite the inherent coolness of lasers, to use them

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-78160462145212164452008-12-04T20:55:00.000-08:002008-12-04T21:24:29.874-08:00

So part of my teaching theory is to treat my students as adults, sure I know that it's a gross assumption, most of them are probably only adults in years. But just the same, it makes my life easier to treat them as though they are responsible enough to know what to do in their own best interest, this includes allowing them to chose to come to class or not. I post all the slides I use in my

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-14717326912099638672008-12-03T23:32:00.000-08:002008-12-04T00:10:53.937-08:00

Well what do you know, it's been over a month since I last posted, I think that's a new record for me, not that I was trying for one. It just seems that lately I'm too buys, yet to boring, to have anything to write about. Maybe it's just a matter of perspective, but somehow I doubt that the minutia of my days, preparing lectures, grading homework and trying to keep a lab running are all that

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11275989.post-7916739392361157062008-10-19T23:11:00.000-07:002008-10-20T00:17:01.596-07:00

This weekend I've had the unfortunate pleasure of spending large amount of my time trying to decipher the most uninterpretable form of human communication ever devised, college student homework. It seems that along with not being taught how to do basic math, read properly or even how to use a textbook to find information they are apparently not taught how to right write in any clear form.The

Christopher Robinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07786465833024782197noreply@blogger.com0