:MBPIC:20050409-Colleges:IMG_7047.jpg:picLeft: :MBPIC:20050409-Colleges:IMG_7022.jpg:picRight:

My son is growing up and it is getting to be time to go off to college. Part of this ritual is visiting colleges and getting the vib of the campus -- one doesn't want to spend a year living somewhere one hates.

      <p>
          So, this weekend, we travelled to New York and
          visited
          <a href="http://www.rit.edu/">Rochester Institute of Technology</a>
          ("RIT")
          and
          <a href="http://www.rpi.edu/">Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute</a>
          ("RPI").
          You can tell my son is into engineering.
      </p>

Check out the pictures and commentary of the colleges.

:MBPIC:20050400-Misc:IMG_6970.jpg:picLeft: :MBPIC:20050400-Misc:IMG_6994.jpg:picRight:

I haven't been making any blog entries because work has been driving me crazy and I have been travelling a bunch recently. Monday through Wednesday of this week, I was in Palo Alto, California. Deep in Silicon Valley. As proof, I present the picture at left which shows that, along with the chips and candy bars, the hotel vending machine included flash memory and blanks CDs.

The rest of the week, I'm flying to the east coast to accompany my son on visits to universities. He is a high school senior and next year he (and piles of my money) leave the nest. I'll post some updates as we travel.

:MBPIC:20050306-Cherry:IMG_6529.jpg:picLeft: :MBPIC:20050306-Cherry:IMG_6523.jpg:picRight:

The cherry blossoms are breaking out this first week of March. Here in Portland Oregon, we have been having drier than normal weather -- I heard somewhere that Las Vegas got more rain than we did this winter.

This Sunday, in the first week of March, the sky is blue, the sun is shining and it's 70 degrees. There sounds in the air are those of mowers running and people working in their gardens. All this a month or two early.

So, we are enjoying our little bit of global warming. And we'll need to enjoy it before we have our long hot summer with drought.

:MBPIC:20050200-Misc:IMG_6492.jpg:picLeft:

I know that some people are still living with snow, but here in the Willamette Valley Oregon it's spring. 65 degrees and blue sky. And it's still February.

:MBPIC:20050200-Misc:IMG_6362.jpg:picLeft:

My commute to work includes being stopped by ramp access lights. For you folks in less highway-ized parts of the world, in order to spread out cars entering a crowded freeway, there are stop lights that turn green to let single cars onto the freeway. Cars trying to get into the freeway usually get into two lines and lights on each side alternately turn green letting one car from each lane onto the freeway spread out with 10 or 15 seconds between.

The problem as a driver entering one of these ramps is to choose which of these two lanes to get into. Since the cars are alternating, you want to get into the shortest line. I had developed quick counting skills to count the cars in each of the waiting lanes and decide the one for me.

But, a few weeks ago I realized that I must not be the only one counting. Since it is in everyone's advantage to always choose the shortest line, I would presume the person ahead of me counted and made the correct decision. All I have to do is choose the opposite of the person just ahead of me.

Well, one week of data gathering and, for the last week, the person ahead of me chose wrong EVERY TIME!!!! I find this really hard to believe, but there you have it. Any conclusions are left to the reader.