About 3 weeks ago, I went roller skating for the first time since I was a kid. I ice skated in middle school, but ended up quitting once I got to high school because I didn’t have time. I rollerbladed a few times in the interim, but this was my first time on old-school quad skates. It went pretty well, but I couldn’t stop at all.

A week later, I bought a pair of third-hand (foot?) skates from one of the other girls training for the derby. I’ve been training about 2 hours/day, 4-5 times/week since then. Tryouts were Tuesday night and I found out last night that I made the cut for Fresh Meat Camp!! There’s going to be at least one more set of cuts. But if I make it through the 12-week training, I’ll be eligible to be drafted onto one of the teams. I am *so* excited!

The toughest thing for me so far is getting over my fear of falling. For the most part, I’m geared up in elbow, wrist, and knee pads, plus a helmet and mouth guard when I’m doing anything crazy. So it doesn’t actually hurt that much when I fall. And once I convinced myself of this, I was able to learn new tricks. I even jumped over 6″ cones at tryouts for the first time!

Thanks to Lenny for actually remembering where his rollerblading pads were and letting me borrow them! And thanks to Seamus (Healey’s 7-year-old) for loaning me his elbow pads! And big, big thanks to Ian for making me dinner the past few weeks when I got home at 10pm starving.

Training starts next week… and I’m missing the first practice because I’ll be at a conference for that one evening. Oh well. I’ll be here the rest of the summer.

Oh yeah. And I graduated!

So here’s the presentation I put together. I’ll spare you the half-hour lecture, but some additional info on all the pirates are below to explain some of the references in the slides.

Artemisia of Caria
Artemisia of Caria came into power when her husband died in 480 BC. She became the only female advisor and commander to Xerxes of Persia. Prior to the Battle of Salamis, she advised him to attack Greece with a combined land-sea strategy to spread the Greek forces thin and leave their ships unattended to protect the people, but Xerxes did not listen to her and decided to attack the Greek fleet head on at Salamis.

The Persian strategy was to overwhelm the Greeks with a massive invasion force, while the Greeks defended strategic locations, keeping the Persian fleet at sea as long as possible. Xerxes was soon defeated in the Battle of Salamis. Artemisia commanded 5 ships in this battle, standing by him loyally. When she was down to 1 surviving ship, she advised Xerxes to retreat, seeing that their defeat was imminent. Xerxes heeded her advice over that of Mardonius, another commander and life-long friend of Xerxes, and survived the battle.

Xerxes expressed his gratitude to Artemisia by sending her to raise his sons in Ephesus and in return the Caria towns prospered in their alliance with Persia.

Teuta of Illyria
Teuta of Illyria came into power after the death of her husband, King Agron of Ardiaei. She started to treat the neighboring states violently and supported her subjects when they raided nearby villages. As the Illyrian pirates extended their reach, they were soon feared as the “Terror of the Adriatic.”

The Roman Republic felt threatened by this and sent 2 ambassadors to demand an end to the piracy, the brothers Gaius and Lucius Coruncanius. Queen Teuta defended her people, saying that in Illyria, piracy was a lawful trade and “it was never the custom of royalty to prevent the advantage of its subjects they could get from the sea.” Upon hearing this, one of the ambassadors disrespectfully disagreed with the Queen, and as a result, she had her men follow them to their ship and killed the offending ambassadors before they could return to Rome. The other ambassador was held captive.

Once word got back to Rome, they declared war on Illyria, sending their entire fleet of 200 ships. Teuta’s governor, Demetrius, surrendered early and was rewarded handsomely with the Queen’s wealth. Queen Teuta eventually surrendered and was allowed to continue her reign, but with huge restrictions on where her ships could sail and stripped her of her properties. They also required her to pay an annual tax and acknowledge that Rome was the final authority in her land. Queen Teuta was later succeeded by Gentius.

Alfhild
Alfhild was a Viking princess protected by a lizard and a snake. Her father, the king, said that whoever can defeat the guards could have his daughter’s hand in marriage. After many failed attempts, leading to the death of many suitors, Prince Alf defeated the guards by covering himself in animal flesh for the animals to feast on, and using tongs and hot steel in one hand and a spear in the other to attack both serpents at once.

King Siward, however, would only accept a man for her daughter if she agreed to him, which was typical in Norse cultures. Alfhild did not want to marry Prince Alf, so her mother told her to run away. Alfhild proceeded to acquire a boat, an all-female crew, and became a successful pirate. So successful that the Danes sent multiple parties out to stop her.

Prince Alf lead one of these expeditions to stop the pirate, which he didn’t realize at the time, was his run-away princess. After boarding Alfhild’s ship during an attack, Alf knocked off Alfhild’s helmet and recognized her. Alf, again, professed his love for Alfhild and she ended her life of piracy to rule Denmark with Alf.

Grace O’Malley
Grace was daughter to chief of the O’Malley clan. Her first experiences at sea were accompanying her father on trade expeditions. She married Donal O’Flaherty to strengthen their alliance with a neighboring clan. They had 3 children together, Owen, Margaret, and Mourrough. Donal was somewhat of a war-mongerer and was killed in battle trying to take land from the Joyce clan. Grace avenged her husband’s death and took Cork’s castle back from them, no referred to as “Hen’s Castle.”

After Donal’s death, Grace returned to the sea to make her living. She rescued Hugh de Lacy his shipwrecked ship during a storm and nursed him back to health. He became her lover and was later killed by the MacMahon family. Grace took her revenge on the MacMahon clan by burning their ships, killing the family, and taking Doona Castle from them.

Grace next married her nephew, Richard “Iron Dick” Bourke, and had a son with him. After a year, according to the Brehon law of the day, a marriage could be dissolved, having lasted a trial period. Grace divorced Bourke, but kept Rockfleet Castle, giving her complete control of Clew Bay.

In 1593, Grace’s sons Tibbot Bourke and Murrough O’Flaherty, and her half-brother, Donal-naPiopa, were taken captive by the English governor of Connacht, Sir Richard Bingham, who had also killed her eldest son, Owen O’Flaherty. Grace sailed to England to petition Elizabeth I for their release. They agreed to a list of demands, including removing Richard Bingham from his position in Ireland and Grace agreed to stop supporting the Irish Lords’ rebellions. After returning home, Grace found that the agreement was only partially fulfilled. Cattle and land that Bingham stole from her was not returned and Bingham was removed from service, but only temporarily.

Upon Bingham’s return, Grace realized that the meeting with Elizabeth had been useless, and went back to supporting Irish rebellions.

Lady Mary Killigrew
Lady Mary Killigrew was married to Sir Henry Killigrew, a former pirate, who was later named Vice-Admiral by Queen Elizabeth I and tasked with suppressing piracy. Whenever her husband went to sea, Mary engaged in piracy using the staff of her castle (Arwenack Castle in Cornwall) as crew.

In 1570, Mary captured a German merchant ship off Falmouth and her crew sailed it to Ireland to sell. However, the owner of this ship was a friend of Queen Elizabeth who then had Lady Mary arrested and brought to trial.

According to sources, her family either bribed the jurors and was acquitted or Queen Elizabeth arranged a short jail sentence. After being freed, Mary gave up pirating and took up fencing stolen goods.

Anne Dieu-le-veut
Anne Dieu-le-veut was married to a pirate, Pierre Length, who was killed in a bar fight by Laurens de Graaf. Anne challenged Laurens to a duel, drawing a gun while he drew a sword. He then declared that he would not fight a woman and proposed marriage instead. Apparently, she accepted, but, since Laurens was already married, they had a common-law marriage.

In 1693, Laurens raided Jamaica and was awarded the title of Chevalier – the equivalent of knighting in French. A year later, Anne and her 2 daughters were taken prisoner by the English in retaliation and held hostage for 3 years.

A few years later, Anne and Laurens attacked a Spanish ship and Laurens was killed by a cannon ball. Anne took command, but her crew was outnumbered and was overtaken. They were imprisoned, but Anne’s fame was so great that, while in captivity, the French Marine Secretary of Pontchartrain heard of her capture and wrote to Louis XIV of France and asked him to make the king of Spain intervene. Anne was then freed as a special service between kings, and she was never heard of again.

Ingela Gathenhielm
Ingela Gathenhielm and her husband, Lars, were granted permission from King Charles XII to attack and plunder any enemy ships in the Baltic during the Great Northern War. As reward for protecting Sweden in the war, Lars and his brother were both knighted.

Ingela took over the pirating business after Lars passed away, but eventually ran out of ships to plunder when Denmark and Russia signed peace treaties with Sweden. After the war ended, Ingela married her lieutenant, Isak Browald.

Anne Bonny
Anne Bonny was the illegitimate child of her father and his servant. After her father was kicked out, he married the servant and moved to Charleston, SC. Her father was wealthy, a lawyer and then a plantation owner, who wanted her daughter to live an honorable life. Anne, however, rebelled and married James Bonny, a small-time pirate, and moved to the Bahamas.

In the Bahamas, Anne had an affair and left James for Calico Jack. James threatened to have Anne flogged for cheating on him and offered to allow Calico Jack to buy her off him to save her from the flogging. Anne refused the offer, saying she would not be bought and sold like cattle.

While on Calico Jack’s crew, Anne met “Mark Read,” who she later found out was Mary Read. There were rumors that Anne and Mary also had a relationship, but sources were inconsistent.

In October 1720, Rackam’s crew was captured by Jonathan Barnet, working for the governor of Jamaica. The crew was too drunk to fight back, but Anne, Mary, and an unidentified man held off Barnet’s troops briefly. They were eventually all captured and sentenced to death.

When Rackam was taken to be hanged, Anne said to him, “I’m sorry to see you here, Jack, but if you’d have fought like a man you needn’t hang like a dog.”

Anne and Mary were given a stay of execution because they both claimed to be pregnant. It’s unclear whether Mary actually was pregnant, but she died in April 1721 from a fever, which some sources said was related to childbirth. Anne Bonny was rumored to have been ransomed by her father and descendants of Anne indicate that she gave birth to Rackam’s second child in South Carolina.

Mary Read
Mary’s grandmother believed that Mary was illegitimate, so refused to support her. When her brother passed away, her mother raised her as her deceased brother in order to get financial support from her grandmother.

Mary joined the military to make her living until she met her husband and confessed to being a woman. They opened an Inn together, but he died young, so Mary rejoined the army. She soon quit because there were no opportunities for advancement in times of peace

Mary was on a ship to the West Indies, when it was taken by pirates – Calico Jack’s crew. Disguised as “Mark Read,” she joined Rackam’s crew. Anne Bonny took a liking to her, forcing Mary to reveal her true identity. There were rumors that Anne and Mary also had a relationship, but sources were inconsistent.

Mary fell in love with an artist on Rackam’s crew. He got himself into a duel, which he would have certainly lost, but Mary started a fight with the offending pirate and challenged him to a duel. During the duel, Mary revealed to the other pirate that she was a woman and he was so stunned, she gained the upper hand and was able to kill him.

In October 1720, Rackam’s crew was captured by Jonathan Barnet, working for the governor of Jamaica. The crew was too drunk to fight back, but Anne, Mary, and an unidentified man held off Barnet’s troops briefly. They were eventually all captured and sentenced to death.

Anne and Mary were given a stay of execution because they both claimed to be pregnant. It’s unclear whether Mary actually was pregnant, but she died in April 1721 from a fever, which some sources said was related to childbirth.

Ching Shih
Zheng Yi found Ching Shih at a brothel in Canton when she was a teenager. She agreed to marry him even though she didn’t particularly like him because it gave her the opportunity to leave the brothel.

Zheng Yi had a long family history of pirates and used his influence and family reputation to build an alliance between competing pirate fleets. Ching Shih took over command of the fleet when Zheng Yi was killed by a tsunami.

She continued to build the fleet by offering captive sailors the option to join them or be killed. The fleet grew to such a size that the Chinese Navy decided they must step in. However, this was a mostly unsuccessful attempt. The Admiral of the Chinese Navy, Kwo Lang, committed suicide when being faced with the prospect of being captured by her forces.

Ching Shih eventually accepted amnesty from Chinese government and retired from piracy. She and all her crew were permitted to keep all their pirated possessions and her crew was offered the opportunity to join the Navy.

Ching Shih later married her leuitenant and adopted son, Cheung Po Tsai, and spent the remainder of her life running a brothel/casino

Other Pirates
- Sayyida al Hurra controlled the western Mediterranean Sea.
- Jacquotte Delahaye was known as “Back from the Dead Red” because of her red hair and return to piracy after faking her own death and hiding dressed as a man for several years.
- Rachel Wall accused of robbery and confessed to being a pirate. She was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging.
- Johanna Hard was Sweden’s last pirate. She was arrested with her crew for boarding and murdering the crew of a Danish ship. Evidence was insufficient for Johanna, but the rest of her crew was imprisoned or sentenced to death. After her release, Johanna was never heard from again.
- Sadie the Goat was known for headbutting her victims before taking their money.
- Hon-cho Lo was known for attacking villages and fishing fleets, and selling women prisoners into slavery. Her fleet was intercepted by a Chinese warship, destroying 40 vessels. Lo Hon-cho escaped, but was turned in to authorities by her crew in exchange for clemency.
- Cheng Chui Ping smuggled thousands of Chinese immigrants to the U.S. and Europe. She was convicted in the U.S. and sentenced to 35 years in prison and is due for release in 2030.

Aside from the fact that I’m clearly not learning anything, I find this whole experience frustrating and demoralizing. I have until Monday to decide whether to drop without grade penalty, but I’m not sure what that means for tuition (if it doesn’t get refunded, I will certainly demand my money back for this waste of my life). This also means I will have to potentially wait until 2011 to take this course, further pushing off my roller derby career.

I guess I’ll see how I did on this exam. 1am and I’m not sure if I even understood the questions. I have 10 answers though, which I’m going to take as a good sign. If I understand this material so little that I don’t even know I’m answering the wrong questions, I think it’s definitely time for me to drop.

There are ten answers; each is worth ten points

Pretty straightforward, right?

But then I looked the exam over and the problems are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7.

Did you catch that? I didn’t the first time.

The problems are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7.

That’s 6 problems, numbered incorrectly 1 through 7. I’m very concerned about the 10 answers I need to submit next week…

I’ve spent the past 3 days complaining to anyone with email. I don’t know that that actually did anything, but I did help teach the TA about technology, i.e. turn off the built-in mic and speakers when using a headset.

This is the TA who has told us not to ask him questions about the course material, homework, or schedule. He is only here to help make sure the professor can offer the course online. Great, so clearly you’re doing worse at that than I am in this class… ;)

So I logged into my student account last week to check that I was registered for my class next semester. I was not… and I had a hold on my account which prevented me from registering.

It turns out I’m supposed to fill out an Academic Report every spring. So I have to do that before I can register. Ok, cool. Took ~5 mins, I send to my adviser, then he sends to the person in charge of these forms for the department.

But then it turns out my adviser isn’t officially my adviser. I can’t have him submit that until I have my Plan of Study. And I can’t submit my plan of study until I choose my adviser and 3 committee members. And I can’t choose adviser and committee members until I choose a thesis topic, so I know that the professors I choose are the right ones to support my thesis work.

So. To take a 3-credit class next semester, I need to pick a thesis topic. And soon.

It counts for credit and toward your degree. Apparently project courses don’t have grades. For everyone!

So… I think this is good for me! *phew*

Still a little confused as to why my prof didn’t know this ahead of time, but maybe it’s a new policy.

Now, I just need to figure out how to get reimbursed at work for a grade of “E”.

I think I’m going to cry. Why would anyone just take this for FUN??

I just went to check my semester grades and I have a few issues. It turns out the design course I was enrolled in was an equivalent credit course. I haven’t quite clarified what that means, but so far it looks like I don’t get a grade in this class, nor does it count as credits toward my degree. Not good.

On the other hand, it turns out that we got failing to mediocre grades on at least 6 assignments. So… maybe I don’t want this grade counted.

I really don’t know what to do about this … assuming there was anything I could possibly do about it at this point anyway.

And I know the whole “there’s no I in team,” etc. etc.. But I can’t be expected to do 3 people’s work, nor would I expect that of my classmates. This was intended to be a 6-person group, but having more than one dud kind of detracts from the quality. Especially when the rest of the group is working on areas that take their full attention already. Admittedly, the easy sections shouldn’t have slipped past us in as poor quality as they were. But for goodness sakes.

I’m pissed. About the grade, about the credits, about the people… I can’t believe I put myself in a position where my educational future was dependent on these people. I’m not coming off of probation. And my other class suffered for this, continuing to help me not be off of probation.

Sigh.

I want my semester back.

How honest should I be?

Some more gems from our design report:

“Next, all the modules were brought into Model Center via the analysis server, put in the order which you will want to integrate and linked to the input file and each other where applicable. ”

“What all of this means is we are taking the broad perspective where all the possibilities are looked at, and that the large design space is narrowed down to a set of non dominated designs, and from those non dominated designs a small subset is chosen to go forward with into Concept Development.”

“Min Op Damage Worse Damage Cases” [a figure title]

“The below tables and figures” [a "sentence"]

And then there was the 1-paragraph section I received at 4am today (3 days late):

“The OMOR for this design is .305, and while the desired OMOR is 0, this is not bad at all.”

“The good thing though is that even though the structural failures have the worst consequence risk, their probability of happening is not big, so, overall it doesn’t create that much of a risk.”

I’m glad he has a good handle on what is good and not so bad. But my real question — why did this take him 4 hours to write?

And then there was the guy who edited my sections… First, combining my 5 paragraphs into one. Not by removing repetitive sentences or consolidating text. No, no. He just removed all my line breaks. Then, he made a correction to my appendix title from RAOs [Response Amplitude Operators] to RAO’S. Because that possessive plural really needs to be capitalized too!

If you’re going to be dumb, go do it on your own time. Don’t make me have to re-paste in my own sections because you wanted to look like you were helping.

But, on the bright side, I am SO done.

And I’m done with group projects for school. I guess I’ve been lucky though. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a group before where there was anyone this unhelpful. Because it’s not just the unhelpfulness… it’s the undoing of the work other people have done. Or preventing other people from working on something because you “have it covered.”

Now I just hope that this was enough to pull me off of probation. I’m a little worried…

But the design spiral used in Concept Development is not as simple as the ideal design spiral, so instead of simply going from one step to another in a linear fashion; once a configuration is chosen for each of the steps one has to start working on several other steps that will in turn affect several other steps.

Until yesterday. When I received an email from an up-and-comer on the faculty asking me if I had time to meet with him to discuss my immediate plan of action.

Yikes.

I emailed back explaining that I’m a distance learning student, so I would be unable to conveniently meet with him in the short term, but I could definitely discuss over email or phone if that was acceptable to him. I further explained that it was just the one course that was below standard and it was not indicative of the other graduate coursework I had done up to this point, refraining from giving him my endless list of excuses for that class, from the awful TAs to my getting the flu for the first time ever.

He emailed back thanking me for the information and saying that if I was comfortable with my current plan, so is he. As in… he was sincerely concerned about my academic well-being and not just letting me know that he noticed my grades suck and I must not belong here.

I’m not sure why I thought he’d be a jerk about it… He started teaching in the department my last year at VT and, while I didn’t have any classes with him, he always seemed like a nice person. He was particularly helpful when we wanted to do some wind tunnel tests for the sub team.

That, and pretty much all the professors in my department were at least helpful as long as you demonstrated a little effort. Most were even nice!

So, all is well. As long as I earn at least a B+ in my 2 classes this semester, I’ll be set. And with both classes being graded on homework and projects, i.e. effort — with no exams — I think that’s a feasible goal.

I will not do your work for you just because you’re incompetent. Seriously.

I will, however, continue to point out your inadequacies until I lose patience and am forced to kick you in the face. It won’t be my fault though. You made me do it. You should apologize now.

Not really sure what else to say about today, so I’ll just leave it at that. Go do something nice for someone.

Went to see the SNAME student papers tonight. Entertaining, as always. I also discussed my grad plan with a friend of mine and he made a pretty convincing argument for me to do a thesis instead of waiting for classes to be offered over the next 4 years. I could be almost done with classes after next semester. It’s something to consider, at least. I had previously written off doing a thesis because I didn’t think I could … and because it would be too hard or time-consuming. But I think I’m getting better at this time management thing. And I think I could do it.

I even got a chance to chat briefly with my adviser about it. He says a distance learning thesis is a possibility… so we’ll discuss.

I think the technicality I need to face at this point is actually passing my class next semester so I have enough credits to officially be off provisional status and off probation. Right. Getting there.

e to the x, dx, dy, e to the x dx dy
cosine, secant, tangent sine, 3 point 14159
square root, cube root, log of pi
kick their axis TJ High!

Ah, the memories…

• Revolution Summer psp
  Shadowheart

Dead & Buried buy

Paper Soldiers video AVP: Alien vs. Predator movie Awake dvdrip

• The Creature Walks Among Us
  • Freedom Writers dvd

007 GoldenEye divx

I used fabric softener for the first time today. I stopped using the dryer a few months ago and my world has changed. I haven’t gotten shocked in my apartment all winter. My clothes continue to fit and have less wear and tear. And now, they come out of the washing machine soft. I’m so sleepy. My clothes are soft though.

Went to a former coworker’s place for a holiday happy hour tonight. She got a real tree for the first time and her apartment was so festive! Lights, garland, decorations… She even had boat ornaments all over the tree. They were so cool.

Looks like I’m going to be re-taking Advanced Aero/Hydro next fall. So, I’ll be studying up for the PE this spring, take the summer off, and be back with this same course. Uf. At least I understand much more of the material now.

Sleep.Gangs of New York movie Sherman’s Way divx

Red Doors

Double Dagger film

So. I’ve decided. I’m not going down without a fight. (That’s what she said.) I’ve decided I need to quit the internet. Cold turkey. This is it. I need to eat, breathe, and sleep aero/hydro for the next 2 weeks. It will consume my life and then I will be free. Pass or fail, I will at least have tried… which I haven’t been doing enough of this semester. And if my best isn’t good enough, I will manage. Either way, I would be taking this again next fall, so I may as well make the attempt to understand it now. It can’t hurt, right? I mean, it can hurt. But it won’t work against me in the future.

I have so many excuses for why I’m failing this course. But what it boils down to is that I was unmotivated to work on this because it was difficult. It was more challenging than I was prepared for and I made a decision, conscious or otherwise, to not put in the effort so I would have an excuse when I failed. I allowed myself to procrastinate, goof off, and just not try. I’ve been doing this a lot lately. It ends now.

I have a couple entries left to auto-post over the next couple days. And then I’ll be back on the 11th. Maybe.

The Future:
I was planning to take next semester off and focus completely on the PE exam. Earlier this week, I went to go check drop/add to drop the class for which I pre-registered. Fortunately, the course that I signed up for, Advanced Naval Architecture, was canceled. Unfortunately, the course that I originally wanted to sign up for, Advanced Ship Dynamics, got added. This wasn’t offered last spring, so I think it’s on a 2-year cycle. Like the Submarine Design class I took this summer.

I need a plan. Should I just expect to be working on this until 2011? Should I lower my expectations even more and accept that I’m really just taking these classes for “fun” and not worry about a schedule? I’m tired.

I think that just decided it for me. I missed out on a lot my last year of my undergrad because I was so burnt out. In light of this semester, I think I need to wait until I miss school again and then sign up for classes. Maybe 1 or 2 classes a year. At least one semester off a year, probably summer since there usually aren’t that many courses offered.

Six classes left… So, let’s say I’ll finish by 2015. Whoa. Um. I’ll be 34. Let’s say a goal of 2012. 31 doesn’t feel nearly as far away. And it’ll definitely be something exciting for my 30s. I’m all negative about old people, but I’m so looking forward to my 30s. Much past that, I’m not so sure, but I have such high expectations for the awesomeness of being 30.

The Road to El Dorado trailer

The trees on Mount St. Helens were knocked over when the volcano erupted, leaving a life-size vector field of the pyroclastic flow. Sure, this is almost 30 years old now, but it’s still cool.

• The Brothers Solomon full movie

Babes on BroadwayHaute tension movie

The Pagemaster hd

Wheres the Party Yaar? filmPokemon 3: The Movie trailer Humanitys End hd