Son of Timatollah

If you're in the Daytona Beach area, there's a National Coming Out Day event tonight (Saturday, 11 October 2008) at Embry-Riddle. We have pilots from the National Gay Pilots Association and engineers from Raytheon (one of whom was the NOGLSTP GLBT Engineer of the Year last year) as part of a panel about being out in the workplace.

6:30 p.m. at the College of Aviation Atrium.

Labels: erau, gay, national coming out day, ncod, ngpa, noglstp

Hi, all. Just got back tonight from a couple of nights in and around the District of Columbia, our nation's seat of government. Was up there representing NOGLSTP on the Engineers Week Diversity Council at a meeting with Obama's staffer for education (Senate, not presidential campaign).

The randomness:

• First time I was in one of the legislative office buildings. Got a good look at the Capitol, but didn't arrange time for a tour. Looking forward to going back.
  
• Backgrounding on matters of assessment in engineering education. How do we ensure that we turn out quality engineers from our degree programs? There's a sense that traditional methods need scruitiny, and the ABET accreditation processes we all go through is designed to make sure that the engineers we graduate are succeeding in the workplace, but what can we do different to assess in a very short term that students are learning what we want them to without starting over from scratch? Or am I over-estimating the downside to starting over from scratch?
  
• Still working on Alaska pics. Three or so more days to go: Barrow, Anchorage, and last day.
  
• Trying to figure out how to get more involved in the Vote No on Amendment 2 activities. The number of straight people who don't get it—that our (gay people's) lives are just as full of love, are just as valid, as theirs; that discrimination is not in their best interest; that one day they're negatively impacting their own children or grandchildren—is frustrating. May be going to "speaker training" this weekend. (SEND MONEY TO THESE PEOPLE, PLEASE!)
  
• The Washington trip is very interesting. I mean, it's fun to be involved in setting the direction—or at least being valued in what that direction is—for an enterprise. Imagine when that enterprise is the USA!
  
• Some say that civilization as we know it is headed down the tubes, but I present three examples that say those folks are wrong: (1) A young man waiting for a plane a few weeks ago was reading Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl, a book I can recommend without reservation; (2) young man on the plane next to me the other day was reading The True Believer by Eric Hoffer, an author I can recommend without reservation (even if he did turn into a crank in his dotterage); (3) young (Israeli—kid was no older than fourteen) man on the plane next to me today had a CD of King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King. Have confidence in the next generation. We are in good hands.
  
• I supposedly have a sabbatical coming up a year from now. What to do? What? To? Do?
  

Labels: abet, amendment 2, assessment, council, dc, district of columbia, diversity, education, engineering, eweek, fairness, families, noglstp, obama, randomness, washington

Still looking for somewhere to send some of that voluminous excess wealth you've generated over this past year using creative financing in the hot hot hot real-estate market? I've got a few suggestions:

• NOGLSTP, the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientific and Technical Professionals, works in the interests of LGBT science, technical, engineering, and math professionals and students. Among its current projects are its partnership with MentorNet and its being a founding member of the National Engineers Week Foundation's Diversity Council. I hope NOGLSTP will have a scholarship for LGBT undergraduate students in the near future. (Disclaimer: I'm on the NOGLSTP board, and I'm the representative to the Diversity Council.)


• Ars Hermeneutica is devoted to increasing scientific literacy in the general populace. Its current big project is the Sun Truck, a semi-trailer mounted solar observatory that can be taken around to schools, mall parking lots, and the like.


• The Bob Moog Foundation is trying to preserve Bob Moog's papers for posterity.

My personal goal is to get us to classical tithing levels: 10% of income to not-for-profit causes. We're nowhere near that, but with the credit cards paid off and a traditional 30-year fixed-rate mortgage that we can afford, we have been able to contribute more this year than previously.

Labels: ars, deductible, foundation, giving, hermeneutica, moog, noglstp, tax