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It is approaching the end of the semester so on Tuesday I get out for the standard 50 kilometer (30 mile mountain bicycle ride) out to the old yacht club and back home with a few extra miles thrown in. I realize that I have left "Data Analaytics" off of a non-profit homepage, so I put these placeholders in the website and remind myself to get some good examples later. In my Tuesday atmospheric sciences class we take dirt specimens from various dirt samples and prepare slides for viewing under the microscope on Thursday. Before class I've run into my Khmer friend and I ask him, "Can I just sit here and read for my next class while you meet up with your friends?". Of course he agrees to this plan of action and, though I really appreciate the sincerity of the smile of my Khmer friend, I know he is too young for me and will not call me.
On Wednesday I am lazy but get out walking for 45 minutes and lift weights. As I'm walking I have a very good idea for pattern matching so I download some stock market data - what the heck, why not - and later in the day after class I continue working on this pattern matching idea with some promising results - though no results good enough to publicize or sell. I get to the LBCC campus a bit early and run into a student that I have smiled at a few times before. I wave for him to come over to my seat and we start talking. I start with the Khmer greeting of "sour sdey sbai" and he says, "Oh you speak Khmer!". But I tell him that I speak just a little Khmer and we have a nice discussion about his background, when his parents came to this country, and why he has not visited his homeland country yet. I give him my phone number and tell him we should hang out for lemonade and talk about Cambodia and life someday soon. During my human services class we meet up with our group and I remind them of our timetable to finish our project and though I am tired of doing most of the work, I realize that I have to do most of the work. The other team members have some good ideas from their past experiences as social workers and drug users and I am able to learn from thier experiences.
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are blah days. I do get to my last formal atmospheric sciences class where we're examining slides under microscopes and I help some other students with the use of the microscope and what they are seeing (though I haven't used a microscope for 30 years or so). On Friday I am feeling extra BLAH but I do manage to get on the mountain bicycle near noon and try to "ride out" the toxins and "BLAH" that has been present. It seems to help as I continue to work on the pattern matching idea as well as the final project for an LBCC class. It turns out, as usual, that nobody is doing the work so I have to do most of it. Granted my teammates come up with some good ideas, but I have to put together all of the reports and PowerPoint charts for Wednesday's last class and final presentation. Saturday is especially bad because I feel that I am doing class projects and business projects alone ("Oh I can't work on this business plan before we go meet with investors, so Ray has to do it")
On Saturday night into Sunday morning I wake up at 3am and cannot sleep. I finally get out of bed at 4am and go for almost an hour run/walk. It feels good to run again and neither calves give me any trouble. After a shower I watch an exciting MotoGP race and then finish up the "draft" PowerPoint charts for Wednesday's class. And then I work a bit on the business plan and take a break with some wine and other substances to watch a very exciting Moto3 race. It is now mid-afternoon and I've finished cooking vegetables for the week and I guess I have to go back to the business plan. As with one year ago, when I was told, "We have to get a model website working in a few weeks to demo" and nobody came to see the demo, I'm afraid that I'll put together the business plan and a week later everyone will say "Oh, I've been busy and haven't looked at it yet". I'm very frustrated right now and hope the wine can get me through this.
I start Monday with a good 48 mile ride. There are periods where I struggle against a headwind, but it is still a good ride! When i get home I wipe down the bicycle, trim the roses, and take a shower. I relax a bit before watching another exciting race from Mugelo, Italy in the Moto2 class. And later i add some comments to a neighborhood bulletin board where some idiot just keeps saying, "let's move the homeless somewhere else", rather than trying to solve the homeless situation. And I point out that the homeless are only criminals if they commit crime - it is not a crime to be homeless. I'm sure I will have to deal with the blowback from this position. It's a slow Monday afternoon before my Tuesday final examination in atmospheric sciences and the final presentation on Wednesday for a Human Services class (for which I have still not received any feedback from my group teammates).
I get up early on Tuesday and go for a long walk with a stop at the grocery store for supplies for the next few days. I then study for my atmospheric sciences exam a bit but then, realizing that I am ready for it, go back to the stock market matching algorithm. I work on this for a while and then go lift weights farily heavy before getting cleaned up. By 10 am I have not heard anything from my Human Services teammates on oru group project, so I email the professor the final presentation charts (though I am not the team leader) and I casually mention that I had received ZERO input from anybody over the last 48 hours. I ride the motorcycle to school and sit in the cafeteria and read through the atmospheric sciences class notes once more before relaxing and then taking the examination. I ride on home and mow the lawn and work on the stock market algorithm and also look at my notes and presentation charts for Wednesday's Human Services class.
On Wednesday I do not go out walking or running as I had planned. Instead I work on the stck market algorithm and then ride the motorcycle to class for the Human Services class. Just before our group's presentation the professor calls me aside in the hallway and wants to know if all of the team members have been participating and contributing. I let her know that I have filled out the group evaluation form honestly regarding who has contributed and who has not and that that should guide her grading (along with out documentation, examinations, and final presentation). We are group 6 - the lastgroup to go. I get us started, let each team member present material, and then I present some more material, and one other team member finishes the presentation off. It has gone well. When we are finished one team member asks the professor and the class, "Can I interject some personal opinion here?" To which the remaining three of my team members issue a resounding "NO!". We get our feedback and as class is ending, I notice that the "denied" student is first out the door and I'm not able to thank him for his participation and contribution. (This was the team member who went WAY off tangent at our first project and started talking religion when our case had nothing to do with religion.) After class I ride the motorcycle to the motocycle tuneup shop which has a new name but the same mechanics (i.e., technicians) and I introduce myself to the new service manager as "The old guy with the R1 with a million miles on it". He writes up my service order and checks the odometer and does a double-take as he sees more than 96,000 miles on the Yamaha YZF-R1. And he says we never every see those bikes with that many miles on them. I grab an Uber ride hoe and then de-weed the carnations and dig around the current carnations to plant more over the weekend.
On Thursday and Friday I have good workouts on the mountain bicycle and with the weights and then take care of things around the house and work on my stock market algorithms. On Friday I stay in bed until 6:45 am and then start sweeping the hardwood floors. After some algorithm work, I go lift weights and then get down on my hands and knees (with knee pads) and clean every inch of the hardwood floors. And then i continue on with the stock market algorithm work. It seems that I have an idea to try and I code it and make it work, then I have another idea and I either get to it that day or let it simmer over night and get to it the next day. For the last three days I've thoughts "Okay, I've gone as far as I can go", but then I think of some other things to add. So I just keep plugging away. I don't know what the enedgame is for this task, but it is fun! On Thursday I went searching for carnation plants (not seeds) to plant in a region of the yard that I just cleared, but my "go to" nursery has none. Maybe I have to order carnation plants over the Internet. I specifically want carnations that will bloom more than just March through May as my current carnations do.
For the last week it seems that some people from the past have crawled out of the wood work to re-establish friendships. Gina from UCLA, Alexis from CSULA, Jonathan from CSULA, and Lesley from LBCC have each emailed me or sent me text messages that have started discussions. Since I am free this summer, I look forward to spending time with each and everyone of them.