Tag: Mississippi State University

Why Do People Come Here?

That anyone, other than my dad, looks at this site, always astounds me. Lots of what I do, I do for my own gratification and satisfaction. It was fun setting up this blogging software, and some of the other more esoteric parts of the website, like weather graphing, computer models and tides.

I have learned enough about Linux servers to be dangerous. But, I don’t exactly write about Earth shattering topics.

I know some people (and it really is a small number, in the low hundreds daily) get here through searches. I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s got to be a really unusual search, just the right combination of words, to bring someone here. Being a 3 on Google’s 1-10 scale, I don’t get any hits from ‘common’ searches.

Tonight, I was looking at my logs, seeing how people got here, and discovered a bunch of hits from http://www.moskalyuk.com/. If you look in his right hand columns, I am listed in a group of 17 “people.” I am last in the list. One entry is in Cyrillic characters. Much of the site is in Russian.

As it turns out, the site seems to be in Spokane and is on a server with 3 other domains (two running and one displaying an unfinished software installation).

I have no idea how I got on his page. Does he find my writing interesting? Did he see me posted somewhere, like on Slashdot, and mistake me for someone with “Geek Chic?” I don’t know. But, I’m glad he’s linking to me.

As far as search engines are concerned, “hurricane photo” tops the list for October (and considering the competition in this term, I’d like to thank the Academy for this award) and Scotty Crowe, who is John Mayer’s road manager and a semi-celeb in his own right, comes in second.

Here are some unexpected search terms. I don’t know why they brought someone to this site, but they did:

edumacation

record deer

fixing driving record

new business opens in rogers ark september 2003

liza minelli david gest split

how tall is jesse jackson?

las vegas cheap prime rib harrahs

mississippi state university meteorology test answers

information on exercises that will helo me lose my butt (my favorite)

School – and Hard Knocks

My ‘career’ as a student at Mississippi State University continues. This semester I’m taking courses in Severe Weather and Statistical Climatology.

Last night was not my finest educational hour.

The way it works is, each week you are supposed to watch a lecture, read some text, do homework and take a quiz. Then, every three weeks you take a test based on your homework answers. Finally, there is a midterm and final.

Except for some ridiculous ‘cake’ courses, I watch the lecture (at double speed if it’s on DVD, as most are) but seldom read the textbook or do the homework. I have found that I can skim the book when I need it and do the homework questions I need during the allotted time of the test.

That was until last night!

I had waited until the last minute and had one lecture, two quizzes and two tests to complete before I went to bed. I watched the Severe Weather lecture and then took its quiz and test first. No problem. It was thought provoking, but in the end, I got 100% on both.

The Statistical Climatology test was different. I immediately realized I had sorely underestimated the time it would take to do the problems. The math is simple, but there were a number of problems that demanded multiple calculations on 31 separate numbers.

My heartbeat quickened and I started to sweat.

I rushed through and actually got just about all the math right… but not doing as well as I might.

When I looked at the test result this morning, I had an 80. I know that’s not bad, but my goal has been to maintain a straight “A” average… to somehow make up for my first, ill fated, poorly executed, youthful, college experience. An 80 is awful. All is not lost, but I’m sure I’ll really be scared the next time.

One interesting thing was, two questions, one on the test and one on the quiz, had answers graded that didn’t match what I thought I had entered. That’s troubling. I have written the instructor, but more as a cautionary note should they hear this from others, than a plea for leniency.

I realized, after the test, that I could go about 50 times faster and more accurate with a statistical calculator. We have one very fancy TI model that Steffie uses and an older TI model that would probably do the job, except we no longer have the manual and TI doesn’t have it posted on its web site.

So, this afternoon, I stopped at Office Max and picked up a new calculator. It is a wiz at standard deviation, mean and other statistical calculations I’ll need to do. The amazing part is, it was $7.95.

So, now I’m wondering how do they do that? How did Casio get someone to write the software and design the circuitry, print the instructions (one giant piece of paper folded a bunch of ways like a road map), produce the calculator, package it, ship it from China, and sell it at Office Max with profit being made every step of the way. It’s only $7.95. There aren’t too many ways to split that.

My Life in Edumacation

I have just begun my second year at Mississippi State University (These are the Bulldogs, it’s not Ole Miss), studying meteorology.

You might ask, why would someone who has performed the job of meteorologist for the past 20 some odd years now go to school for it… and isn’t the commute to Starkville going to kill me?

It started at my last contract negotiation. Though my boss has a slightly different memory of it that I, the facts are pretty much the same. Our collective boss (The Big WASP Kahuna) thought it would be better, and more promotable if I had the American Meteorological Society Broadcasting Seal of Approval (aka the seal).

At one time, the AMS handed these out like candy on Halloween. That ended about 20 minutes after I entered the weather field when the seal program became the Meteorologists Full Employment Act of 1983. In order to get a seal you would need a core meteorological college level curriculum and then pass a screening.

The station’s offer was, if you invest the time to take the courses (3 years, 17 courses), we will pay your way. So, I’m on a LIN Television scholarship. Interestingly, I will have the seal a few months after the expiration of my current contract.

Mississippi State University developed this distance learning course (what used to be called “correspondence school” ) to scratch an itch. I have recently seen estimates that nearly 30% of all TV meteorologists went through the MSU program.

The lectures are on DVD and videocassette. The textbooks are standard, overpriced, and professor written. Tests and quizzes are given online and are all multiple choice. I guess this opens the program up to cheating, though I have never heard a hint of it.

So far, I’m a straight “A” student. I only mention that because my previous college career (which began in 1968 and is on my permanent record at Mississippi State – and is the reason for the name of this weblog) was a disaster.

I was to college as Gigli was to movies.

This semester my courses are Statistical Climatology and Severe Weather. I actually have enjoyed most of the courses I’ve taken so far, though it is obvious that not every course has the right amount of material for exactly one semester, and not every professor has a flair for lecturing on DVD (It was like chalk on a blackboard to hear one lecturer mispronounce Greenwich, England).

It has been interesting to watch Mississippi State operate. I get lots of emails that are written for students on campus. I found out that cowbells were banned from football games. Who knew? I was invited to seminars to grill perspective administrator candidates.

MSU’s computer system, which is my link to the school, seems rickety. It is constantly down for varying lengths of time. A few semesters ago, during finals, it ran out of space and lost a load of final exams (though not mine). There was no backed up data!

I just went to get an MSU logo to put with this entry… it’s down right now.

A while ago my wife asked, “Have you learned anything?”

The answer is yes.

“But,” she continued, “how important could it be if you haven’t needed it in the last 20 years?”

Good point.