Archive for March, 2006
Thursday, March 30th, 2006
Spring
It reached a high of 65 degrees here in Central New York today, a true sign of Spring. The average high for March 30th is 49 degrees, and we’ve been a lot lower than normal lately. So, as soon as we got home from work, we took the E-man outside and we played on a blanket. He wasn’t too crazy about the grass, maybe because the ground is still a little cold or because it’s such a new sensation for him. Here are some pictures from our evening outside. As you’ll see in the very last picture, it was a pretty strenuous time too!
Comments Off - Posted in The E-man by blaine_5
Monday, March 27th, 2006
Sleep, Beautiful Sleep
Last Friday night, the E-man slept through the night, from his bedtime at 6:30 until about 5:00 (our normal wake-up time). He’d only done this once, way back in October, so needless to say, we were pretty thrilled! Unbelievably, he’s been sleeping through the night every night since. It’s been really great. And there’s nothing like going into the nursery in the morning and seeing him be so excited to see us, as if he missed us during the night just as much as we missed him. (It would be nearly impossible for us if we didn’t have the Angel Care Monitor, which has given us so much piece of mind).
I think there are two main factors in his ability to sleep through the night. The first is that last week we moved his crib from our bedroom into his nursery. The second is that we’ve greatly increased the amount of solid food we’ve been giving him. Every evening when we get home from work we all sit down to dinner and he eats solid foods in his high chair. It’s a great way to end the day!
So if you see me, and I look a little rested, now you know why!
1 Comment » - Posted in The E-man by blaine_5
Sunday, March 26th, 2006
Sunday Morning
It’s a quiet and chilly Sunday morning. Outside a little fog blurs the border between the ground and the gray sky. But neither the E-man or my wife is here to enjoy it with me. They left yesterday morning to visit a new baby in the family, and because I came down with a pretty bad cold on Thursday I didn’t go with them. It’s so quiet around here. I noticed yesterday that as I was watching a movie I instinctively worried about the noise level, as if the E-man was upstairs sleeping. Then I’d worry because I couldn’t hear the monitor. I sure do miss them.
1 Comment » - Posted in Uncategorized by blaine_5
Friday, March 24th, 2006
How Many People Have Ever Lived?
According to some estimates, approximately 106.7 billion people have been born since Homo sapiens first walked the Earth about 52,000 years ago. The current world population is estimated to be about 6.505 billion, meaning that of all the “human beings” (i.e. Homo sapiens sapiens) ever born, 6.09% are alive today. That’s actually a pretty significant number!
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Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006
New Online Resource for Genealogists
On Monday, the Eastman Online Genealogy Newsletter made an announcement regarding America’s GenealogyBank, a major new online genealogical resource that will soon be launched by Newsbank.com. The database will contain millions of images of documents ranging from genealogy books to obituaries, local histories, and many other types of records. The records will be totally searchable, and amazingly, 99% of these records have never been available electronically and 50% have never been available on microfilm! It sounds as though this might be one of the biggest boons that Genealogy has seen since digitized censuses. Unfortunately, although this service is set to be formally announced this week, it is not scheduled to be available to the public until very late this year or perhaps early next year.
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Tuesday, March 21st, 2006
Playpen
Monday morning, The E-man was playing in the nursery and decided to crawl into the clothes basket and have fun. Notice the large rack of toys being ignored:
Tonight I discovered that if I say “Yayyyy” and clap my hands, he’ll clap his hands! And they’re real claps, making a real clapping noise. He thinks it’s hilarious!
Here’s a quick panorama of tonight’s sunset:
1 Comment » - Posted in Uncategorized by blaine_5
Friday, March 17th, 2006
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!!
My 16% Irish heritage wishes you a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day!
So guess who’s ahead in the department NCAA pool? That’s right, yours truly! I messed up 3 of the 16 games yesterday, putting me in the lead (damn Syracuse). I was working at my bench, blissfully unaware, when the head of the department comes in looking for me. He congratulates me and asks me about one of my picks (Montana over Nevada, a 12 seed beats a 5 seed almost every year, I got lucky). The funny thing about it is that I rarely see him, and two years ago when I published a review in a high impact journal, he didn’t come down to my bench to congratulate me then! He’s a huge sports guy though, so I understand where he’s coming from.
1 Comment » - Posted in Uncategorized by blaine_5
Monday, March 13th, 2006
Law School Decisions
The title is a little deceiving, I suppose. I’m a little bit closer to the finish line, but I still have a ways to go. I received news of another acceptance last week to the University of Akron School of Law. I had received an offer to apply a few months ago, and thought I should give it a try since the application was free. In addition to my acceptance, I was awarded a full tuition scholarship worth more than $60,000 over the course of three years. Since financing law school has become a huge concern (it’s so damn expensive!!), this was a huge deal to me. The only offer even close to it was from Syracuse University, who offered me an 85% tuition scholarship (worth a little over $82,000 over the 3 years).
So now I have three schools in the running: Franklin Pierce Law Center, Syracuse University School of Law, and University of Akron School of Law. Luckily, I suppose, the schools will force me to make a decision in the next few weeks, because the seat deposits are due in early April:
- Franklin Pierce Law - $200 Deposit due by April 17th
- Syracuse University - $400 deposit due by April 15th
- University of Akron - $350 deposit due by April 3rd
One of the great things about Akron is that it has a Center for Intellectual Property Law and Technology, one of only about 17 IP law centers in the country. The school also offers offers an LL.M. (Master of Laws) in Intellectual Property, one of only 24 law schools in the United States to do so. And Akron has an excellent bar pass rate, typically 8% above the average from 1997 - 2004 for all takers from the nine Ohio law schools.
Unfortunately, although Syracuse University is ranked marginally higher than Akron, it does not have an IP program, a huge deterrent for me. And finally, although Franklin Pierce itself is a 3rd tier law school, the IP program is very highly regarded. Due to financial reasons, however, I doubt I’ll be able to attend the school. Truthfully, I think the decision has come down to Syracuse and Akron and I think I’ll probably go with the school that has the IP Center.
1 Comment » - Posted in Uncategorized by blaine_5
Friday, March 10th, 2006
PersonalDNA
PersonalDNA is a cool personality test. The method of polling is unique though, and of all the personality tests I’ve taken I felt that this one allowed for the most accurate answers.
My Results: I am a Free-Wheeling Leader, whatever that means!.
2 Comments » - Posted in Law School by blaine_5
Sunday, March 5th, 2006
A Little Genealogy
As I’ve mentioned in a few previous posts, I’m an avid genealogist. I’ve been doing it since a project in middle school, and I try to work on it a little bit here or there whenever I can. Not too long ago I posted about DNA testing my wife and I had a few years ago in the very early days of Genetic Genealogy. This weekend I worked on a little project I’ve been thinking about. I went through my genealogy database and approximated (to the very best of my ability) the “cultural” or “ethnic” origins of my great-great-great grandparents and distilled that down to my own rough genetic makeup.
For instance, if my grandmother was 100% Swedish and there was no other Swedish contribution to my ancestry, that would make me 25% Swedish (it gets cut in half with every generation - if there’s no other source of that specific makeup). But if my grandmother was 100% Swedish, and my other grandmother was 60% Swedish, that would make me 40% Swedish (25% from one, 15% from the other). Now, in real life genetics our DNA is scrambled with every single generation, meaning that there is a remote possibility that I would not inherit a single Swedish gene from either grandmother, making my DNA 0% Swedish. That still would not change, however, the fact that 60% of my ancestors came from Sweden. Does that make sense?
So the following information is entirely based upon the sources of my ancestry and does not reflect my genotype (a scientific word for my exact genetic makeup). I must also make the disclaimer that this information is only as good as my scientific approximations and the information I have in my genealogical database. Here goes:
Here’s the summary of my ancestry (rounded off to make the numbers look nicer):
- 61% English
- 16% Irish
- 13% French Canadian
- 6% Honduran (Spanish/Native American)
- 4% German
Here’s the summary of my wife’s ancestry (rounded again):
- 73% English
- 20% Irish
- 3% Dutch
- 3% Scottish
- 1% German
And thus, here is the E-man’s summary:
- 67% English
- 18% Irish
- 6% French Canadian
- 3% Honduran
- 3% German
- 1.5% Dutch
- 1.5% Scottish
What can I conclude from this experiment? That 86.5% of the E-man’s ancestors come from a few islands off the European mainland, and that the remaining 13.5% are a mixture of various sources. I had fun doing it, and maybe in a few decades when I’ve added a lot more information and individuals to my database I can give it another try and see how the results compare.
And finally, for that cousin of mine who is always wondering about his Irish heritage, I will tell you that you and I inherit 6.25% Irish heritage from our mothers, leaving us with about 3%. It’s probable that you have more Irish ancestors in your father’s side.
3 Comments » - Posted in Uncategorized, Genealogy by blaine_5
Friday, March 3rd, 2006
The Big 3-0
So I just turned 30. Goodbye 20’s, hello 30’s. In the months leading up to the big day, I can’t say that I was looking forward to it at all. I even had a module on my Google homepage counting down the days. But as the last few days approached, the concern faded away in either acceptance or the realization that it doesn’t really mean anything. Going from 29 to 30 is a big change in numbers, but going from the day before my birthday to the day after my birthday isn’t really a change at all. I’m still getting up, going to work, all the same old stuff. I don’t feel any older. I just seem older on paper! (Now I’m going to have to check a different box on questionnaires, however. No more 20-29 box for me!)
I also noticed something else about turning 30 - the comments I received from other people. I can instantly predict the age of a person based on their views on turning 30. Anyone who says to you that 30 isn’t or can’t be that bad is definitely over the age of 30. Anyone who feels bad for you is still in their 20’s. You can try this out, it’s a sureproof acid test!
Yesterday I withdrew from 14 law schools, leaving just Syracuse University, Franklin Pierce, William&Mary, University of Washington, and Chicago-Kent. It was really difficult withdrawing from all the other places considering the time and money spent trying to get accepted, but that’s all part of the process. I wish I could go to all of them, or that I could have applied to just the one place I liked the most, but that’s just not how it works. Based on scholarship awards, location, and a million other factors, I had to cut out those 14 places. But now I can concentrate on the five law schools I’ve kept. I’ll be sure to keep you updated!
