Amalgamate 'Em

Favorite Sporting Team Cheer at Dental College

RE: 12/12/12

"The whole point is that the drive to incorporate technology must not deny basic human rights. When it does we cease to be relevant. If what cannot be disproven is given the appearance of truth then all will suffer."

'Twas The Night Before...Mathematical Proof

Glad.

Roll over Beethoven

Many of you know (though most don't) that I returned to school so I could answer the question, "What do I want to be when I grow up?" After 25+ years of being an engineer I decided "an engineer" was no longer a viable answer. I am pursuing "become a math teacher so I can teach Algebra to high school students" as the correct answer.

This shift in emphasis necessarily includes change. For example, I doubt that I can return to Tuesday night choir rehearsals in the forseeable future. Adaptation of scheduling is accompanied by hearing loss (I do have an appointment with an ENT Doctor).

I hope everyone understands. We are all challenged. (In particular I am challenged with developing an understanding of math after a 30 year hiatus from being a full-time student.)

Dab

Correction! (i.e. Think Outside The Box)

To become a better engineer I had to let go of strict adherance to mathematical certainty. In other words, "Get out of my comfort zone." That worked fine for the first 25 years after graduation.

To become a better caregiver I had to accept responsibility for giving increased care and to show more concern for loved ones; this increased my empathy.

To become more balanced and in order to develop physical coordination skills, I had to adopt a rigid regimen of right-brained activities, thus improving my stamina.

To become a better person I had to open a window in my soul. By practicing expository writing I am merely finding a way to express what you all surely must be thinking already. Does it need to be said? In many cases, "Yes...if we're going to act upon it."

Window Washer

I'm washing the windows of our house one-at-a-time. Actually it was one-room-at-a-time for about a room and a half.

Systems Engineering would have me wash all windows from all rooms so that peak efficiency might be gained. But what about the desires of my other home-dwellers?

The legal system interprets just action as "doing that which is right so all windows will receive the same cleaning." It is ludicrous to think the people who live behind windowless-walls are really being served by such a mindset as systems engineering.

Great Expectations

We pick up the pieces and begin afresh, wiser for the failure, more dedicated than ever, and committed to the cause:

aa

• You ask too much.
• Goddamnit...no I don't.

bb

• You don't allow others the freedom to make mistakes.
• Right. So that's your life we're toying with.

cc

• You want me to try again?
• Absolutely. It's not over. We're just getting started.

dd

• What guarantee can you give?
• It's not going to happen without your help.

ee

• Lord forgive us.
• At least now we're all in. It's not perfect. Nothing ever is. But we're going to give it our best shot.

Engineers and Mathematicians

Are engineers mathematicians? Are mathematicians engineers?

To become better engineers, mathematicians must let go of strict adherence to mathematical principles; to put it another way, we must not be so nit-picky.

To become better mathematicians, engineers must show proof that the fruit of their analysis is meaningful, significant, and worthwhile. This implies being open to the possibility that our efforts are immaterial, inconsequential, ineffective, and unimportant.

One way for doing this (i.e. both engineering and mathematics) is to acknowledge the presence of God. We may or may not have adequate resources to make a difference by ourselves but with humility and collaboration we can assume that mountains (which couldn't be proven to exist) have (or will be) moved.

Baggage Assessment: Save Or Delete?

Let's take a little trip, you and me. Now be careful!

There is a problem with being a saver: only those things which the "savee" deems appropriate are preserved. As a result the value system of the "savee" along with all their errors, flaws, and mistakes get recorded. Future returns to the collection might best be described as a "Cover Your Ass" exercise whenever efforts are made to view damages in their best (most conducive to the "savee's" agenda) light.

There is a problem with being a "cleaner" too: any attempt to clear debris might also be regarded as misconstruing evidence.

I hunger for righteousness.

What Is Best?

Does anyone really know what is best? We try to do the right thing, follow our belief systems, and adhere to morals...but what does that get us? The best part of a good life is spent setting, seeking, revising, and attaining goals.

A Chinese Philosopher once wrote (paraphrased), "It is not the destination but the journey which brings happiness and gives life." This statement must be regarded as wise--regardless of the culture from which a person originates. Essentially it says "Do your best and the outcome won't matter."

There is value and a sense of self-worth which  comes from hard work. When we work hard and pursue goals we feel best and truly make a difference. In contrast, those who attain "the Good Life" early or without hard work often fail to appreciate the sacrifices required to earn it. Much like a body building antibodies for disease control and resistance to infection, if we become accustomed to liberal doses of medicines or anti-bacterial treatments, it won't be long before those culprits mutate and multiply, creating antibiotic-resistant strains for which there are no easy cures.

Imagine how minor aches and pains (headaches, sore muscles, etc)--easily treatable now with aspirin or Ibuprofen--would appear if cures required overnight  hospital stays.

Further along this point, when those living "the Good Life" become accustomed to certain pleasures, avoiding deprivations and attaining expectations, the inherent weakness becomes "following the path of least resistance."

In the long run the Objective of Life should be to work hard, appreciate the contributions of others, and be satisfied with a varied existence.

Gladly It All Ends (Sadly)

How much misery and brokenheartedness can one person endure?

When Caring Isn't Enough

I like it: http://mlbergcarefreehighway.wordpress.com/

Purpose For Making Plans

1. Think without Knowing
2. Know without Acting
3. Act without Thinking

Progress:

• Create Plan
• Stick to Plan
• Complete Plan

Not enough time for everything? PRIORITIZE Planned Items

Do the best you can and be satisfied!

eViction conviction

Does a fish suddenly decide it will swim no more?

Where lies the greatest peril?

Get out. Get the hell out.

This water we're drowning in...recesses if we get out of the pool.

I'm sure of one thing: I'm doing the best I can.

Nothing Plainer

Weasel Words

The lower and upper fence points for the women are 84.75 and 194.45, respectively. There is one outlier for the women, 200, since 200 is outside the fence points.

The lower and upper fence points for the men are 30.5 and 210.5, respectively. There are no outliers for the men, since there are no values outside the fence points.

The median women's score is  larger than the median men's score; the men's range is larger than the women's range; etc.

Women-75th percentile=153.5, Men-75th percentile=143 Seventy-five percent of scores in the4 distribution for each group is at or below this value.

The average donation to the volunteer firefighters was $29.

Half of the donations were for $25 or less, and half of the donations were for $25 or more.

The most frequently occurring donation amount was $10.

If one counts customers arriving in a store over multiple 15-minute periods, on average, 2.65 customers will arrive every 15 minutes.

In the long-run, an average of 9.6 orders out of 16 will have an entry form.

Steve's z-score is 0.51 and Rachel's z-score is 0.49, so Steve scored relatively better than Rachel on Exam 2.

Since the normal probability plot is roughly linear, it appears that scores on this test are approximately normally distributed.

We can be 90% confident that the percentage of all people who prefer foreign cars over domestic cars is between 24.76% and 31.15%.

We can be 95% confident that the mean price of all college textbooks is between $106.88 and $1114 is between 24.76% and 31.15%.

We can be 95% confident that the mean price of all college textbooks is between $106.88 and $1114.12.

We can be 99% confident that the mean magnesium concentration for all seawater is between 0.6172 cc/cubic meter and 0.6848 cc/cubic meter.

At a 5% significance level the sample provides sufficient evidence to conclude that the mean battery life for these car batteries is less than the company's claim of 65 months.

At a 5% significance level the sample does not provide sufficient evidence to conclude that the proportion of large pizzas ordered is greater than 0.75.

There is moderate to strong positive linear relationship.

For every increase of 100 square feet, predicted price increases by $15,890.

This means a house of 0 square feet has a predicted price of-$109,920. This makes no sense. The least squares regression line is not an appropriate model for values outside of the given range of the independent variable.

68.68% of the variation in price is explained by variation in size.

Distribution is slightly skewed to the right since (x-bar) =27.1>26=median.

The normal probability plot indicates that the data is somewhat questionable with regards to normality. This hypothesis test should not be performed.

At a 5% significance level the sample does not provide sufficient evidence to conclude that the average amount of money that all JCCC students spend on gasoline in one week is greater than $40.

We are 90% confident that the mean study time for all students is between 3.93 and 5.79 hours.

Time increases by 0.8 minutes for each additional mile away from the college.

88.5% of the variation in time can be explained by variation in distance.

For a student living 30 miles away, it will take approximately 32.7 minutes to get to JCCC.

Best Advice:

"Get more involved with computers."

Contributions

What are some possible reasons for interruption (of an activity, a course, pursuit of a goal, etc.)?

• Insufficient resources to go on
• Lost motivation to continue
• Shifted priorities elevate a change in direction for travel

What's new? You can't have it both ways. Hopefully these musings will reach good (or at least pertinent) stopping points before discontinuation. Plenty of links and backlinks. Let's hope you know how to use them.

Dan

Type I Errors: False Positive

Could it be that since the individuals or groups in power have responsibility for contamination, untruths are misrepresented?

No Duh

Stick to your guns.

When you know you're right nothing else really matters.

What do you think?

If you think engineering banter was driving me insane I can explain.

If you think I made the wrong decision to change my priorities I could justify those.

If you think there is a reason to absorb more madness than is humanly possible I will caution you: none of us is wild about the alternatives.

Truly Remarkable: Central Limit Theorem

• For sufficiently large n, the sampling distribution of the means is Normally Distributed.
• Regardless of the population distribution from which the samples are drawn.

(Source: ActivStats by Data Description, Inc. and Paul Velleman.)

What does this imply? Is it possible to predict the future or more probable that the future will be restricted to what it is possible to predict?

The Law of Large Numbers

There are statistical conventions to describe how the mean of random events settles down and becomes a predictable value (I think the weasel words are "In The Long Run..."). What does this mean? Put differently, "What Goes Around Comes Around."

Just because you practice doing the right thing doesn't guarantee the wrong thing can't or won't happen.

How else might this be described? Everything averages out. "Must suck to be you" (at this particular instant) could, should, and will become everyone's mantra (i.e., This sucks").

What we do (or don't do) to help our fellow human beings now will at sometime become the cause of events which happen to us (or to our loved ones). It doesn't take a rocket scientist's mind to understand precarious balances.

So race to the death in good cheer or change. The road we (as a global society) are on is not sustainable. I can't put it any plainer than that. What are you going to do about it?

"IGNORANCE OF OR MISUNDERSTANDING (OF...) IS NO EXCUSE."

"IGNORANCE OR MISUNDERSTANDING (OF...) IS NO EXCUSE." I think that's an understatement. What about all the oblivious bastards who think strong-arm policies are a license to impose opinion? It is my opinion that society is in need of an overhaul for our value system. Sure, it makes sense to enforce constraints by blocking out options in order to achieve desired results but that is not good logic for denial of extenuating circumstances influencing real time stressors. In point of fact we are not machines. To some extent we are programmable; repetition breeds habit. So I guess that's where I got the greatest heartburn from systems. If what you don't know can, does, and will hurt you, what you do know can, does, and will hurt you, and what you do or don't know can, does, and will hurt others, where is the room for compassion in that?

When I worked as an engineer I saw all these arguments reaching a fulcrum which did not leave as a viable option anything other than exiting the charade. I would not be responsible (my choice) for contributing to mistakes which ensued just because corporate owners kept the priorities of their vision focused on profitability yet I could be held liable for all errors. I simply did not have resources to cover my own rear and the asses of others. There is a lot of energy dumped into medical and legal consideration these days. It is like people are chasing upsets in one area so they can receive overcompensation in another.

None of my designs failed, nothing I analyzed crashed or exploded, and no details were overlooked yet I never imagined a "let the buyer beware" type of approach would someday become sanctioned by the court.

Essay on Giving Back

Giving Back

 

I wish to give back in a different way. By performing analysis in seven different industries I gained focus on motivators. Throughout the years I was privileged to serve in soup kitchens, teach in literacy programs and advocate for those less fortunate. The clear reality is that our children will not succeed without education, safety nets, and community support. Doing what is right and serving the common good is the only way to achieve a healthy society in which future generations may flourish.

 

The soup kitchen experience opened a window for looking into a kind of poverty that I did not realize existed. This was the poverty of illiteracy. I helped clients fill out applications so they might apply for minimum wage jobs. Many could not read or write and several had no grasp of basic math skills.

 

Volunteering in the adult literacy program gave insight on bias. Anyone without a firm knowledge of reading, writing and arithmetic must overcome additional difficulties in order to become successful.

 

I am discouraged by how the simple lack of knowledge in math makes absent the joy of checks and balances. Problem-solving thinking must be instilled in students. Inflexible dreams, goals, and aspirations are not available to everyone. For a while, living kept me busy with accomplishing tasks while others were traumatized by life. Now I add diversity to a global community.

The corporate world often misunderstands complex problems. I became tasked with providing leadership in work groups, designing dialogues for job instructions, and completing company documentation to meet regulations. Not only must we do the right thing; we must show that the right thing needs to be done. Solutions can be both challenging and frustrating when lack of knowledge causes fear in the workplace over problem-solving. But achievement of common goals need not lead to self-serving competitions. Strategic innovation is necessary for well-being and it can be learned. This too must be taught in schools.

 

Teachers are called to tell stories. They draw upon their imaginations, zeal, courage, and passion! To be effective they must also be compassionate and inspirational. Teachers encourage left-brainers to dance in tight spaces where right-brainers can only hover. They must fortify right-brainers with resolve to resist temptations for glazing over whenever left-brainers spew logical discourse!

 

While tutoring a youth I discovered how she had been passed from tutor to tutor just to move her on. I wondered if I could make math fun and interesting without sounding demeaning. Perhaps we should play a little game between student and teacher? It worked. She beamed when our session was over and she amazed us tutors.

Orientation, drive, and focus are all indicators of potential. Environmental concerns, as well as empathy for the oppressed, are motivations for adapting. I will work hard to gain the confidence of students, parents, peers, and instructors alike. Complete independence is not the requirement; nobody does it alone. Some educational processes produce situations which are impossible to satisfy. Difficulties might be navigable but examples of unselfish caring need to be visible, observed, and appreciated. Decide to enable others and ensure that they can set and reach attainable, realistic goals. Everyone shapes reality. I have promise for teaching.

 

Resume

 

Objective: Earn a Master's Degree in Education with emphasis in math and become an Algebra teacher. I want to help caregivers improve communication by enhancing logic controls, thus developing customized tools which build essential support networks as required. I seek an opportunity for teaching at the high school level on a front-line basis.

Goal: Work in the field of education.

Summary of Core Competencies

Technical consultant with analytical judgments Vendor credentialing Start-up and operating procedures Strategic planning Quality improvement Qualification testing Quantifiable deliverables

· Application of engineering principles and theory · Document controls and manuals · Design reliability · Specification control · Interface definition · Unique solutions

Education, Accomplishments, Awards, & Demonstrated Commitment

• BS Civil Engineering, Kansas State University, May 1981
• Patented Stowage Device
• Professional Engineering Licensure (MO & KS)
• Innovator in Caregiver Advocacy

Current Status

• 2012/2013 UMKC Student (Mathematics)

Recent Endeavors

• S2012 Student (JCCC Statistics), Math Tutor ( JCCC Intermediate Algebra)
• F2012 Conference Attendee (22nd Annual KCRM Tech Expo, Annual KCATM)

Integrating Values through Community Involvement, Kansas City Metro (2001-present):

· Community Care Coalition (Member Board of Directors, participant in Stroke, Stroll & Run and CCC Garage Sale fund raisers)

· Good Shepherd Church (cantor, choir member, music selection committee, confirmation mentor, Learning Club-Juvenile Tutor)

· Veronica’s Voice (Walk for Awareness, Board Member 3 years); Catholic Worker House, St. James Food Kitchen, KCMO Food Pantry; Christmas in October

· Volunteer work with nonprofits, cancer recovery advocate; concern for the marginalized

Industry Experience (25+ years in Engineering)

• Telecommunications (5)
• Power Delivery (1)
• Steel Fabrication (1)
• Dot.com Startup (intangible goods)
• Lifting Products (5)
• Petrochemical (4)
• Aerospace (9)

Personal Journey “Caregiving is only taught by example.”

Where did we go wrong?

A mathematician will simplify in a way that maybe a pattern will emerge.
An engineer will examine cause-and-effect relationships and try to explain observed phenomena.
A judge will assign blame.
A statistician will tell you: we're all skewed.

Parameters of Challenge

The ability to obtain, maintain, attain, and retain focus is a gift and the greatest achievement an individual can make. Change brings an end to things, both good and bad alike.

FLD-JIT

Fight Leading Deceptions--Just In Time: figuring stuff out with a spoon-fed approach just don't cut it anymore.

Variations on a Theme--Criminal Minds

I once displayed a prized possession, demonstrating charmed life with a fatted calf

No harm would come as long as I tended the tether

But then the blinders fell off and life was viewed through the eyes of a caregiver

Take a moment to express encouraging words for all who follow

Recognize a world filled with misunderstanding

...slugging it out through adversity and trying to do the best we can



What gave me the right to advance, to ignore the plight of those grossly ignored, and to unjustly trample abandoned hopes? In my mind neglecting the cries of humanity became most criminal


So I listened and I learned, trusting and accepting that God has a reason for everything, especially to ends where it makes no sense:

For as long as we've got it good another suffers

As far as we've come someone else is left behind

And as marvelous the joy that dances into our lives there is grief and sadness and sorrow


Why?The answer is really too much for the naked heart to bear


In the long run I'll not have regrets even if I can't hang in there

Ordered Sets--Life Viewed Thru The Eyes Of A Bean Counter

Interaction, Bias, & Weasel Words

I don't wish to discuss it.

Things I Would Do Differently

Let's begin with the bottom line: I wouldn't do anything differently; I would do my best.

That much being said, what is the most difficult part about not having control over variables?

I think randomness is neither good nor bad (or both good and bad). So while things randomly go our way we become prone to taking credit for the trends. Similarly we assign blame when ill conceived events hatch.

It is hard to make plans in a world that dismisses logic.in favor of selfishness.

Variation On A Theme: Happy St. Patrick's Day

No need to sanitize! See also Indestructable Santa Ties.