MIA

Sorry I have not posted in some time.  I really enjoy posting but simply have run out of time in the day.  In the grand scheme of things, bogging is actually pretty low on the priority list so it has fallen off the wagon.  Perhaps I will be able to resume at some point but will sign off for the time being.

Youtube Tuesday- Dancing with the Binh

Sorry it has been so long… again.  Last week I had to learn about “translating” a ship on land.  To explain, clearly we must start building ships on dry land but once they are between 70 and 75% complete we must float them to continue.  This is primarily so the major sea water systems (A/C, fire pumps, radar cooling skids) and propulsion systems can be tested similar to the way they will be operated.  A 75% complete ship looks close to a completed ship on the outside and weighs about 6700 long tons.  I will try to post some pics of this later in the week with some float off pictures.  In short, we translate (or roll) the ship on rails using about 75 little cars onto a sinking dock.  Then we incrementally sink the dock to float the ship.  As you can imagine there are many steps to this process and this is my first rodeo so I am learning a great deal. 

Char and the kids were watching Dancing with the Stars for the first time while I was gone to DC and found out that Binh really loves the show.  So tonight I tried to get a little video of him watching a routine.  From what I understand he was not as in to it as he was in previous weeks but you can get the picture.  BTW:  the fall at the end looks worse than it was.  

Where’s Binh?

I was in DC the first part of the week getting “connected.”  Most naval engineering concepts and solutions come out of Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington.  It was eye opening to see where all those folks worked and hear about the issues they deal with.  Contrary what one might think, there are a great deal of very talented people working very hard there.

Just before heading to DC, the family met up with some close friends and hit the outlet malls.  Our friends have a daughter close in age to our kids.  Usually the dads would watch the kids while moms hit the girly stores and vice versa.  Well, we were in Old Navy and it was my time to watch the kids and my heart sank!  Were did Binh go?  I started to go into search and rescue mode, performing an expanding square but initially did not see him.  However, I did see a group of kids near the changing room so I moved in that direction…  Ahh… Not only was I happy to see Binh but I was happy to see what he was doing…  hangin with the ladies!

 At the end of the day we all had good fun.  Did manage to get some good video so I will post a Youtube Tuesday next week.

Let the Appeasement begin

Oh, how history repeats itself.  I just read an article that stated President Obama suggested a deal to eliminate the proposed missile shield deployment in the Czech republic and Poland for help with Iran’s nuclear program.  WHAT!  Why would one do such a thing?  Actually, I think I know why but that is not the point.  The key here is judgement.

So the new administration has decided to make a deal with the devil… I mean the former Soviet Socialist Republic.  As we know, the best indication of future behavior is past behavior, so what can we expect?  Well the last time we had a significant relationship with this government was prior to the second Iraq war.  Remember the whole “Oil for Food” program scandal?  That’s the one where both Russia and France set up intricate webs of companies and individuals stretching from Europe to Asia in order get money from Saddam.  Going back a little in history, one might recall the fact that we spent a significant part of the twentith century in a nuclear standoff with this communist nation.  From the 60s through the early 80s, Americans were inclined to build bomb shelters because of this new “partner”.   During the cold war, the missile shield was the one thing that got a reaction out of the Soviet regime.  Have they changed?  They still sell lethal weapons to many of our enemies as well as nuclear secrets to Iran.  Russia has had a nuclear cooperation agreement with Iran since mid to late 2002, allegedly for a civilian reactor.  Do you trust either of these two parties?

Let’s look at Iran for a moment.  A country who’s government absolutely hates the U.S. and would seize any opportunity to get the upper hand on Israel.  Now that the U.S. is making deals with Iran through Russia to reduce our influence in Europe.  Such a deal proposed by the Obama administration would be perfect!  Isolate Israel, reduce influence in Europe, and reduce influence in the Middle East.   

One field of engineering involves controls and control networks.  We seek to design systems that require single degrees of control or Single Input Single Output (SISO) control networks to reduce the complexity of the control network.  One thing you always try to avoid are control problems with two or more degrees of freedom that cannot be decoupled.  A U.S. deal with Russia to control Iran is exactly that, an impossible control problem.  Decoupling a relationship between Iran and Russia when money and nuclear materials are involved sounds nearly impossible to me.  Additionally, like the appeasement  deals of the past between the free world and Stalin, a single deal with a regime like the current one in Russia or Iran alone is ill advised.  With two degrees of America hating, we are guaranteed to loose!

A Child’s Honesty and Comedy

Ava has developed a pretty good command of the English language and can articulate what she means most of the time.  At the same time, she also has started to make judgements about her environment.  This combination has resulted in what I might call “absolute honesty.”  I learned in a comical way that child-like honesty can be a two edged sword. 

Ava said that she needed to potty so she and I made the trip to the kid’s bathroom (“the monkey bathroom” ).  I popped her up on the potty and began to wait with her.  She began to push on my nose and rather hard.  It felt like she was trying to push it back into my face.  Finally I said, “Ava, what are you doing?”  She got a serious look and said “I want you to be pretty!”  But hey, at least I honestly know how she feels about dad’s honker.

Last night Ava made us laugh again.  Just before leaving work I checked my favorite web page and noticed that the Dow had dropped another 250 points or so.  I came home and Char had dinner ready so the family was all seated at the table.  Just after we started eating I mentioned the fact that the Dow had dropped again.  And Ava responded “drop it like its hot daddy!”  I’m not sure if she meant it was time to drop our mutual funds like they were hot or if she simply was making a joke.  Those that know us well know that she is familiar with a Snoop Dogg song by a similar name.  Does the fact that my daughter knows a song by Snoop make me a bad father?  Regardless, I still need a nose job.

Busy Week

The military requires anyone who rides a motorcycle to attend a rider safety course.  I have been riding off and on for about 20 years, progressing from moped to crotch rocket.  The military has had a problem with soldiers and sailors coming back from deployments to Iraq and Afganistan with extra cash, buying “high adrenalin” toys, and getting hurt.  A link to the required courses can be found here.  Needless to say, I had to attend and did not expect to get much out of it.  It was actually very good.  The instructor was a guy who lived and breathed motorcycles.  He owned nine bikes and could speak intelligently about off-road, street and sport bike riding.  While doing tight figure eights in a parking lot may not be the best indicator of how well one will do on the road, I don’t think a person could pass this course if they could not ride.  It was fairly aggressive.

Another more pleasant part of the week was the arrival of my in-laws.  I have had a great relationship with my in-laws from day one, with the exception of the day I asked Char’s dad for his permission to marry Char… He actually initially said NO!  That is a funny story for another time.  We celebrated Jan’s birthday and had a good time hanging out.  Charles and I played wii baseball for a couple of hours.  Charlie learned how to throw the fancy pitches and got his timing down.  What a slugger.  It was sad to see them go but we will be back down their way in a couple of months.

The last big thing was that one of the ships at the yard passed a major milestone, the ability for the new crew to operate main engines and generators.  Northrop Grumman Ship Systems and TRUXTUN’s crew had equal parts in the achievement.  The company crafted the material condition of the engineering spaces to meet the needs of the crew and the crew operated the ship systems safely and in accordance with Navy procedure.  Not an easy task when one considers that both teams essentially started from scratch.

Southern Living

Char and I are from the South so you wouldn’t think there would be much that takes us by surprise.  However, there are a couple of things that still make me go, “hmm?”  I take the back roads to and from work so I get a chance to see what’s off the beaten path.  First question, why is the single wide mobile home still so popular?  If you have ever been in a single wide, you know that it would be a unique living.  Especially when you add a couple of dogs and kids.  I might have figured it out coming home one day when I saw a good ole boy pulling one behind an F350.  It’s all about doing it yourself I guess.

The second thing that is interesting is the decor of the garage (this is clearly for those who have moved up from the manufactured home).  Every southern garage has a theme, whether it be NASCAR, college football, or professional football.  You know who the man roots for if you have seen his garage.  Nearly every garage has both a refrigerator and deep freeze.  The refer is usually for the beer (Miller Lite for some reason) and the deep freeze is for the deer meat. 

The last thing that is in the garage but usually not noticed until it’s on the road are the fake testicles hanging from the rear bumper or trailer hitch or rear differential of many 4X4 pickups.  I might see 10 – 12 sets of truck testicles on my way to and from work.  Some are larger than others and made with a variety of materials.  My favorite are the stainless steal balls hanging from the differential.  I mean that guy had to try hard to get those things up there and when he hits a bump they spark a little.

GREAT DEPRESSION

The news regarding the proposed stimulus plan is depressing.  The president has said: 

” failure to act on an economic recovery package could plunge the nation into a long-lasting recession… if we don’t move swiftly to put this plan in motion, our economic crisis could become a national catastrophe.  Millions of Americans will lose their jobs, their homes, and their health care.  Millions more will have to put their dreams on hold.. [it would be] inexcusable and irresponsible to delay this economic recovery legislation..  The bill before Congress isn’t perfect, but it is absolutely necessary…”

So let me see if I got this right, The federal government is choosing to spend my children’s money on pork to solve a perceived problem.  The money has to be spent now!  We don’t have time to debate the fundamentals of what the money is to be spent on or how it will be spent or look at long term effects.  We are told a select group of government hired economist have shown, using models allegedly adapted to our current situation, that we are headed for a great depression if we don’t act and act big.     

Does anyone besides me see the massive problems with this string of underlying assumptions?  Lets look at the first assumption in this chain.  They have assumed that they are the only ones capable of solving this problem.  The current package is the equivalent of giving just shy of $3000 to everyone in the country.  Why not do that?  At this point I would rather give$3000 to some not paying taxes in stead having a group of politicians come up with a nonpartisan spending package.  A package that includes giving $1B to CDBG,which would directly flow to ACORN.  Or give $4B to Rezko like slum lords for renovations.  After the President’s failed experience in Chicago, I am surprised to see stuff like this in this stimulus package.  I don’t understand why no one has a problem with this unfocused redistribution of wealth.  Just give us our money back!  So what if we pay off credit cards with it, half of us will become more comfortable buying that new car or HDTV.  The other half will actually pump it back into the economy.  It looks to me like the President wants to use this crisis to pump money back to all those that helped him get elected.

The second assumption is that we don’t have time to debate the fundamentals.  I hear Obama stomp his feet and imply that because he won the election he has an referendum to do as he pleases when he pleases.  I guess this includes picking and choosing who he listens to.  Have you noticed that the actual group of “sky is falling” economist are never named.  The model they are using is never mentioned nor the assumptions for their predictions.  I had a great visiting professor in a Sloan course named Dr. Ralph Katz .  He said and I have always found it to be true, “If there is one thing you know absolutely for sure, its that a prediction or estimate will be wrong.  How wrong is a function of the knowledge and competence of the estimator.”  Well I have a great deal of uncertainty given that it appears to me that the administration has failed show “transparency” here.  It also does not help that the bailout funds, yeah remember those, have been absurdly mismanaged.  The government doesn’t know what nearly half that money is being used for.  It also does not help that the congressional budgeting office (CBO) has said that a such an unfocused stimulus (spending)  package will actually hurt the economy .  Why are we in such a rush.  I feel like someone is trying to sell me a $800B+ used car.  What’s an extra two weeks to sort things out?  Any bells going off out there?

The third and perhaps most important assumption and error with President Obama’s rhetoric regarding the stimulus package is that he thinks “…a stimulus bill, is a spending bill.  What do you think a stimulus is?”  What an ignorant statement!  You don’t stimulate the economy by moving money around, which is essentially what this bill does.  Stimulus implies that by spending, or better yet investing, a higher economic output is achieved.  I know of no example of this but imagine that government money could be used as a catalyst to foster private investment and thus inspiring higher economic output.

We are having a horrible bill RAMMED down our throats by a bunch of political rookies.  If you don’t know what is in this stimulus plan then you are not fulfilling your patriotic duty to stay educated.  In the first three weeks all I have seen from the administration is disarray.  They call press briefings and are late, they nominate tax cheats and lobbyist for cabinet positions and recant campaign promises of transparency.  Well America you asked for change, now you got it.  Open wide and get ready to eat whatever Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the administration are serving.  Oh yea, and keep a journal so you can explain to your children why they must endure the same experience.  Wouldn’t this be considered taxation without representation… that’s another post.  The only way I can stay sane is to think that if enough people get up off their mental couches and look at this, we can assist our rookie politicians.  Or are there just that many stupid, brainwashed, lazy, or subsidized people out there.

Binh’s Growth

As we approach the point Binh has been with us longer than he was in Vietnam, I have been thinking about his development.  Binh’s first doctor visit in the US revealed he was below the 3rd percentile for vietnamese children.  This was obviously very alarming.  Our pediatrician in Boston referred us to the international adoption pediatrician Dr. Lori Miller at Tufts international adoption clinic.  She explained the importance of getting him back on track and some suggestions how.  As a small kid in grade school, Binh’s growth is something I have been watching.  We don’t really have much data about Binh until he was about 6 months of age, but beyond that we have monthly data points.  I decided to see how Binh was tracking with respect to other South East Asian Boys.  I found he most relevant height and weight data for Vietnamese children here.  I used the height data in the chart below.  The weight data actually lags the height data, which makes sence considering you usually grow in height before you add mass.  Using the growth charts located at the link above, I made an excel spreadsheet to plot the 3rd percentile and 50th percentile lines.  Then I simply added Binh’s line to the chart and the results are heart warming and encouraging.  The horizontal axis (X) represents time in months and the vertical axis (Y) represents height in inches.  A polynomial data fit was used to smooth the line so that it would be more representative of his actual growth.  The cool thing is that you can probably guess when we adopted him.  Just in case there is any question, we adopted him just days before his first birthday.  It appears that he began to grow just before the 12 month point but that is actually a function of the polynomial fit.  In reality his growth start just about the day we got him.  There are many opinions about why many adopted kids make the big leap shortly after adoption.  I found this really cool handout by Dr. Julian Davies and the center for adoption at the University of Washington.  It talks about the immediate post adoption growth spurt as well and most of the other big pre and post adoption issues.  Regardless, I like to think that it’s half better nutrition and half love!  I think the second little bump in the chart at the 21 month point is where we started giving him Pediasure daily.

He has become such a joy in our lives.  I could not imagine our family without him.

So mad I could laugh

A couple of days cago Char was gone with a friend so it was just the kids and I.  We were back in Binh’s room playing on the floor having a good time.  Then all the sudden… Wham!!!  Something hit me in the head so hard I didn’t know where I was for a minute.  The only thing that cued me in to what happened was the fact that the toy that struck me was a battery powered Curious George and was laughing.  Well, I had been playing with Binh so I turned an grabbed Ava by the arms and said No! you don’t throw toys!  That hurts people, blah, blah, blah.  Well the whole time she was making faces similar to the one in the picture below.  She would methodically go from the “Oh” face to the “who0s” to the “Eek.”  As I really tried to drive home the point that you should never throw things at people I realized that she was just being silly.  It became harder and harder to keep a straight face.  Finally, I gave up and just laughed.  Wow, that hurt.  I can appreciate her skill for getting out of trouble.