Having crossed the border from Montana into Wyoming, I think
it is high time to write a blog post. In fact, much of this passage has been
filled with another literary pursuit; knocking out 230 pages of Tolkien’s The Hobbit, a worthy story about
traveling which can only inspire the most bedraggled journeymen.
As I closed the book on Bilbo’s tale, I remembered that I
have my own story to continue. Though I do not have stories of running into a
rogue band of goblins or exchanging riddles with a mighty dragon, the first
half of Hilary Term 2013 has certainly been full of adventures.
Yes, the MCR and dancesport have certainly had their
moments, but first I will begin in the research world. After my October
Transfer of Status, I set about trying to find instrumentation with which to
build a force-recording shoe. Immediately finding that each force sensor was
going to cost over 3000 GBP (and I needed 3-6 sensors. ouch!), I abandoned the
shoe in hopes of understanding the human energy costs of walking. This led into
a detailed study of human motion, which in turn led us to realize that
understanding the energy costs alone would not be sufficiently useful for
developing a model (among other issues). Thus, with renewed hope, we contacted
the instrumentation company about giving us a discount for the force sensors in
order to proceed with the shoes. That took us to Christmas, where a
representative told us he would be happy to meet to talk about our project. On
the day my parents, Tyler and Rachael returned to the States, I received an
email saying essentially, “We thought about your project and think it’s
hopeless.” Great. So back to the drawing board, we returned to the energy
model.
Despair.
After a week (after three months) of fruitless labor,
suddenly things started to click. My supervisors and I chose a new plan. I
would return to the gait lab and collect some data of my own. I will also
modify an existing lab-scale bridge that we have in Engineering and conduct
some supplemental tests (of which I won’t share the details here… because this
is the internet).
(Aside: Now I’m in Utah.)
The best part of this new set up is that I have finally, after a year and a half, had
the chance to do some ‘real’ engineering. Mind you, it is only learning about
the electronics of strain gauges and some basic beam theory, but it is
wonderfully refreshing to return to my proper field. Biomechanics gets
wearisome after a while!
Anyway, the reason I’m in Utah is because I’m flying to Los
Angeles to present my Transfer of Status research at a conference on
engineering dynamics. Aside from the 30 minutes of presentation terror, I
imagine this will be a fantastic trip… but that’s for the next blog.
So what else has been going on? The term has already been
notable for several big happenings in MCR life. In the second week back from
the break, we put on the long-anticipated Keble Alumni Panel Discussion. An
idea that originated back in August, we asked three prominent Keble Alumni come
to talk about their experiences regarding a theme: international conflict
resolution. The three panelists were the director of the Centre for the Study
of Political Violence and Terrorism (an expert on Northern Ireland), a former
UK ambassador to Sudan and Consul General to Jerusalem, and a former British
Governor of Hong Kong. Each talked about their experiences for 10 minutes
before fielding questions from the 100-member audience. With the whole college
engaged in the event (the Warden – a former permanent secretary in Northern
Ireland – moderated the panel), the evening was a huge success. It was
academic, interesting, engaging, and most importantly, it provided a new link
between students and alumni.
By the way – the new director of the BBC is a Keble College
Alumnus. Hopefully we can bring him in sometime!
Hey mom and dad – remember when we drove around Utah in a
week in the summer of ‘94? It looks pretty desolate (albeit mountainous and
snowy) out there. What were we thinking!? Bilbo Baggins would be proud though.
Another interesting MCR-related event has been the
presidential privilege of attending the Keble Association Dinner. The KA is a
granting organization made up of primarily alumni. Every January, they have a
black-tie dinner at a fancy gentlemen’s club in London. The JCR and MCR
presidents both attend, but they take turns giving a speech. Naturally, this
year was my turn. I should mention however, that the first person I met at the
dinner happened to be a civil engineer and a former JCR president. Apparently at
the time (in the 50s or 60s), there was a tiny line item in the JCR
constitution about having to give a speech. No one else mentioned it to him,
but he threw together a couple notes at the last minute. Good thing he did,
because when he showed up, they put him on the spot! Thankfully, I had much
better warning and my speech was all written out days ahead of time. What does
one say to a mystery audience? Well naturally, I talked about Oxford Moments…
and also the many accolades Keble
students have achieved in the past year. It was a fine evening with the Warden,
the KA president, and the many alumni. I’m quite happy I went… in spite of the
nerve-wracking speech!
Otherwise life in the MCR plods along as usual. The standard
weekly assortment of social events (poker night, port & cheese, movie
marathon, super bowl party) is broken up by meetings and academic events (such
as the Graduate Discussion Evening, when one 2nd year discussed
advancements in brick-dating. Fascinating!) and the standard onslaught of emails
(“Dear MCR President: Will you advertise to your common room that we are
conducting a study on the emotional effects of X on Y? We need volunteers.
Regards, Joe Schmoe.” Ugh).
Crossing the Utah border into Nevada now, just north of
Arizona. I think I missed views of the Grand Canyon. Crap! Should be able to
see Las Vegas though…
So dancesport has also been an adventure of late. We came
back from the holiday with only a couple weeks to prepare for Sheffield, which
was last weekend. Frantically, we more or less pulled together our routines and
off we went to the competition. On surface level, it was a good competition.
Oxford did quite well and we made it to semis in waltz, quarterfinals in
quickstep (both at novice level), and to the second round of the intermediate
3-dance combination (cha/rumba/jive), not bad considering the latin standard
was really hard this weekend. On the
other hand, I found out that for a couple of DPhil reasons, Emma is likely having to
drop out of dancesport for the rest of the year. Hm.
THE HOOVER DAM!!! Too bad I’m on the
wrong side of the plane for Las Vegas... but I would rather see the dam than the
city anyway. Success! … anyway…
So with only one month until Blackpool, of which I am
missing 10 days, I find myself with a new dance partner who is going to try to
pick up all 5 routines in my absence. Her name is Denny, and I wish her luck!
When I return, we will have 11 days to get our act together; we have planned a
rigorous 20-hour practice schedule to get everything working. On top of that,
the MCR is hosting a bop during the one intervening weekend and the MCR
black-tie dinner is the day before we travel to Blackpool.
On March 4, I plan to sleep. A lot.
Just like that, we’ve crossed the border into California.
There’s a dead-looking valley below, so the time has come to fasten my tales,
stow my stories, and return my journey to its full and upright position. Thanks
for the inspiration, Mr. Baggins.