Jan Coffey wrote:
>
> --- Julia Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Jan Coffey wrote:
> > >
> > > --- Julia Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> > I'm not sure that Dan's was, but he totally nailed a couple of the
> > tests. Can't remember the name of the prof, but then again, I'm not the
> > one who aced the class.
>
> It had to be Hall
I'm sure you're right, then. Dan liked the guy.
You know, anyone who read _G�del, Escher, Bach_ by Hofstadter and
understood the whole darn thing could do very well in that class. But
the prof had never heard of it, much less read it. Dan had read it the
semester before he took the class. (He took it over the summer, and
could pretty much just concentrate on that; he was also doing a research
project, but that was pretty much it for that summer for him.)
> > > ... or was that the phylosophy 313k? No matter they were both about the
> > same.
> >
> > I thought 313K was Bonevac and they were using a textbook he'd written.
> > Or at least, they were using Bonevac's text and he was a UT prof or
> > something like that. (We still have the Bonevac text, and Dan guards it
> > jealously.)
>
> Dito, and yes that was his name. Briliant Teacher.
I heard good things about him. Now you're making me want to go through
the textbook. :) It's in the special collection of books Dan may want
to refer to, though, and prying those away from him isn't easy, and I'm
not going to have the brainshare to do much of anything with it for
quite awhile, starting shortly.
> > > The only "CS" (or related) class that I really "strugled" with was one I
> > took
> > > from the AI prof, and that was just becouse he gave so many papers and
> > graded
> > > off for spelling errors.
> >
> > Porter?
>
> GRGRGRG And to think I had finaly got the name out of my head!
Whoops, sorry! Didn't mean to cause you distress.
> No, really hw was a nice fellow most of the time, just really into knowledge
> bases, really, really into knowledge bases.
Yeah. Dan did a research project with him (see above). He ended up
getting paid to work on it the following spring semester, that's how he
earned the money for the engagement ring he gave me. (Not terribly
large or anything, but attractive in an understated way. I guess like
me.)
> The other AI guy was greate through. Took Inteligent Agents. Man what an
> experience! That and Theorom Proving with Boyer in the same symester. I wish
> I could be chalanged like that again!
Oh, man, Boyer was great.
I started out in Plan II and my first semester, I had one of those
special Plan II classes, this one required for freshmen, where you chose
which topic you were interested. The one most appealing to me was
taught by Boyer; he taught it one evening a week, starting at 7:30 or
so, in a room in the Tower. (I'd walk back to the dorm with one of the
guys in the class; there was at least one guy on my floor taking the
class, maybe 2, I just remember one of them very vividly.) He'd bring a
cooler full of cans of soda for everyone to drink during the break
(there's no way you can last for 150 minutes without a break!), and it
usually included root beer, which was my favorite. He was a little
geeky, but nice, and it seemed that he liked us and you could tell he
enjoyed teaching the class. One night near the end of the semester we
met at his house, and had stuff he'd grilled in the backyard before we
did the actual class thing. He was certainly my favorite instructor
that first semester, or at least that class was my favorite.
Dan never had Boyer. I think that's a loss for him.
> > Dan took an AI class from Porter, and his big deal was that he didn't
> > want you falling asleep. Of course, the class was taught in one of the
> > notorious rooms in Taylor that just *invited* sleep, and it was T-Th
> > afternoon class. Dan would get up and pace in the back of the room to
> > stay alert, Porter didn't mind, and he did reasonably well in that
> > class. (He can spell, though.)
>
> Yea, I didn't fail the class or anything, and I never had trouble staying
> awake in the class. It was writting the essay tests. Those memories give me
> the creeps. I also did enjoy his discussions of Soccer and the way "The Whole
> In the Wall" ~use~ to be on fridays. (don't think I am misspelling "Whole",
> am I)
"Hole in the Wall". There was something awhile back about it closing,
or threatening to close. I can't quite remember. What I *can* tell you
about that area is, if you remember where there was a Conan's on the
Drag, now there's a Kerbey Lane. And that Kerbey Lane has better
service than the Northwest one or the original one. And I ate lunch at
Texadelphia the weekend Dan was at his grandfather's funeral, which was
in April of 2000, so that was still there *then*, anyway.
Porter had a bad incident at Conan's once, and never ate there again.
We used to eat there all the time. I don't think I ever went to Hole in
the Wall for lunch. I loved that Conan's, and if it were anything but a
Kerbey Lane there, I'd be seriously annoyed by the replacement
restaurant.
> > Dan's best stories about curve-breaking involved the graphics
> > professor. I once knew his name, but I've forgotten it now....
>
> Fussell. I actualy took 2 classes with Fussell and then ended up working for
> him as well.
Yeah, Fussell. One day when he was handing back tests, he explained how
the class had done overall, and that he must have made the test too
easy, because one sonofab---- had actually aced it, so that would affect
the curve (or maybe because of it he wouldn't grade on a curve). Right
about this point in telling the class about the grades, he slapped Dan's
paper down in front of him; Dan saw the 100 and then flipped to the
second page in a *big* hurry. He was rather vague about how he'd done
when someone asked him after class....
The second thing was, on the final, Fussell said that if you knew the
material, the test should take you 15 minutes, and if you didn't know
it, the full 3 hours wouldn't help you any. Dan took most of the 3
hours, because this one question had a lot of cases that needed
consideration. Turned out, Dan was the first person to actually
carefully *read* the question since Fussell had come up with it a few
years earlier and respond to *all* possibilities.
And Dan's first job out of college was working for a company that did
computer graphics software. (He's only on his second job out of college
now, doing graphics programming for another company.)
> > > *sigh* I miss Austin.
> >
> > So do I. Last time I was there was Tuesday of last week to go to Whole
> > Foods, and I'm likely stuck here in Hutto/Pflugerville/Round Rock until
> > at least a week after I have the babies, UNLESS I get desperate over the
> > weekend and make Dan take me to Chuy's.
>
> Chuy's?!?!?!? Remember when it first opened on the lake and they had Hawaian
> tex-Mex Dem Sum? Chuy's green sauce! The best Margaritas ever! argargarg!!!
I haven't had a Chuy's margarita, but a few years ago, Dan and some
co-workers would go to Chuy's once or twice a month on Fridays and the
folks who liked margaritas would order them. And they went to Chuy's
rather than On the Border (the next nearest Tex-Mex place to the office)
*because* of the margaritas. (Now there's an El Arroyo up near there,
but I have no idea how the margaritas compare to Chuy's.)
Oh, and it was at the Chuy's on Barton Springs Road that the Bush
sisters got busted for underage drinking stuff. I ate lunch there one
day last December, and the food was pretty good, anyway.
> > (Apparently that worked to
> > trigger labor in someone else pregnant with twins who just wanted it
> > OVER, what do I have to lose?) :) But I don't miss it as badly as you
> > do, I'm sure. Get back for a visit or something sometime.
>
> Yea, Chuy's was none to triger a lot. You have to figure if it can start that
> way that it could end that way. :)
It's the green sauce, specifically, that's been recommended. :)
> > p.s. never asked -- which foreign language? Dan took German and it
> > almost had him for lunch, but he got to take the 3rd & 4th semesters
> > (when he started, they only had the BA program, but he switched to BS as
> > soon as he could) at UT Arlington, which was a lot easier; I took French
> > for my Math BS.
>
> Ok. sit down.
>
> Are you seated?
Yes.
> Chinese
>
> Yes that's right Chinese.
>
> I tried French couldn't make it past the first symester. Tried German
> Couldn't get past the second symester.
>
> Turns out that I lived with a girl who spoke Cantonese and I just sort of
> picked up things here and there untill I was learning chinese every day. Then
> I learned that I really did have to take Forign Language, so I took Mandarin.
> Got a B. So I waited a year watched lost of chinese movies and spoke as much
> at home as I could and took the second symester. Got a C. A year later I took
> the thierd and final symester required...A D will let you graduate.
>
> One thing about the head of the Chinese dept. there though, she changed the
> curiculum from the time she took over (middle of my second symester) to be
> much faster paced and to require that you learn all forms of writting. This
> gave a significant disadvantage to anyone who didn't already speak the
> language. I was lucky. I was also the only non-chinese the year after, and
> the year after that I understand the curiculum was so harsh that only people
> who had grown up in a chinese speaking country were taking it. Sad really.
>
> Like I said, I was lucky. That, and I had someone at home to help me. And for
> that I was especialy lucky. Still am.
Wow. Glad you found something that worked for you!
I'm not too bad at the first part of learning a foreign language, and
while I didn't take any French before college, my sister did, and I'd
gotten used to pronunciation stuff. And my mom was in Paris for a week
here, a couple of weeks there, etc. when she was studying in Germany, so
she could help with pronunciation when my sister was taking French. So
I developed an ear for how it *should* sound, and the teacher I had my
first semester was fairly impressed with that, especially compared to a
couple of classmates with thick East Texas accents who couldn't quite
lose them. :)
I'd probably do horribly if you just dumped me in Paris, though, whereas
from what you've said above, I'm guessing you wouldn't do *too* badly if
you were dumped in China.
Julia
_______________________________________________
http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
