Fighting Cracker

This coming weekend is going to be strange. It's not strange that I'll be driving 8 hours to go to a small college town in middle-of-nowhere Arkansas. It's not weird that I'll be playing ultimate frisbee in 40 degree weather with 30 mph winds. It's not even strange that I look forward to the idea of being sleep-deprived and completely exhausted before making the trip back to Knoxville. It is strange, that for the first time in about 4 years I will be taking the Frisbee field as a member of a team other than Harding Apocalypse. Apparently, due to the lack of our captain sending in a team name, we are currently named Gratuitous in honor of Whit Jordan. I don't mind the name so much...I think it's kinda funny. It brings back memories of Frisbee highlight videos with Whit jumping, kicking his legs up even higher, and landing 5 feet on either side of a guy that had fallen down in front of him. To many of you, that won't mean a thing. But it makes me laugh.

Luke did remind me, however, of my very humble beginnings in the world of frisbee. Rewind 4 years to my sophomore year at Harding. I'd probably played frisbee for about a semester or so after Paul had told me I should go give it a try. I couldn't really throw the disc, I had no idea what a flick was, I didn't know how to force home/away, and I certainly had no clue what a stack was. Before one of the SA ultimate tournaments I got a call or something from Luke, or maybe Will, or maybe someone else about a team called the Fighting Crackers. I figured, why not, I don't really know who I would play with, and it should be fun regardless. Little did I know.

I don't quite know what they saw in me as a Frisbee player at that point, since about the only thing that I had going for me then was that I was still in good shape, meaning I could run and sprint with about anyone. Other than that, the finer skills of frisbee were certainly not something I had mastered. I think that instead of throwing a flick I would rather risk throwing a left-handed backhand pass. I despised playing a man defense and always wanted to play a zone, regardless of the weather or wind. My concept of good movement on the field had not yet gotten away from that of soccer. I recall playing against teams consisting of people like Stephen Lamb, David Jones and Adam Kirkland. I remember losing to that team. But despite all of that, I had a blast playing, and got to learn quite a bit playing in those tournaments.

I mention this because, due to my being on a team with Luke this weekend that is not Apocalypse, he had the brilliant idea that since our team color is blue we should bring out the Fighting Cracker jerseys for one last go-around. It'll be fun to do so, but strange at the same time. I guess you can't stay on a college team forever, but at the same time, those were some of the best guys I could ever hope to play with, and it will be strange playing against the team that I was lucky enough to be on during the formative years. Maybe one of these days all of us "Former Apocalypse Members" can form up again as a team and go play somewhere just for the fun of it. I can't think of a better group of guys to do it with.

As an addition to yesterday's post, if you're looking to know what all the songs are, please go here. And as for gongs at camp (see the comments), I think that they should certainly have a couple at least. And then, instead of the whistle, they can let a couple lucky kids take a good whack at them to get everyone to come in to the ark or wherever else they're needed. Or perhaps, during the 15th song-sing-a-long-posing-for-a-talent skit, someone can just go hit it repeatedly to drown out the...talent?.

The Evolution Of Dance

I figure Paul could do this as his next big act in the camp talent show if they would let him. He's already got the lawnmower down.

Beginning of the End

I've noticed that it's been a while since I've written anything of note in here. The past couple weeks have been crazy hectic, but it's been good. Thanksgiving week was awesome, with Mandi being back at home for most of the week, my brother coming in for the last half of the week, and getting to hang out with the family and have one really excellent meal on Thursday. We also got up some Christmas lights and bought ourselves our tree for the year. It was kinda strange doing it so early, but it worked out nicely. My brother and I also re-ignited our yearly battle of Blitz on the Nintendo 64 with our younger cousins who are aged 15 and 12. And who thought anyone still played that system, huh? My brother and I hold a 2 games to 1 lead over them going in to the Christmas season. We'll have to wait and see who comes out on top in our best of 7 series. With an average scoring rate of 65 ppg for both of our teams, it's certainly not down to any defensive play...although my brother and I did manage a goal line stop when they started on the 8 yard line (those of you familiar with Blitz know that 8 yards is nothing).

THE END IS COMING!!!! Ok, not really, but Armageddon is in fact coming this weekend. I shall be traveling to Nashville, meeting up with Whit and possibly Jonathan Lindsey, and heading for Searcy, AR with about 10 guys that I don't know. This will be my first tournament not playing with the Harding Apocalypse, but it should be fun as I will be on a team with the aforementioned Whit and Luke Dockery. I'm looking forward to it. We'll also be busting out the Fighting Cracker jerseys of yore. It's been a while, but it'll be fun to put those things on for a day of ultimate. The forecast for the weekend? Highs maybe reaching 45 and and winds forecast for 30 mph. Sounds like the usual frisbee weather.

The school semester is quickly coming to a close. There is 1 week of classes left, with finals coming up over the following week. It's been a disappointing semester to say the least. I don't feel like I've learned anything in either of my classes for the entirety of the semester. I'm not sure whether that's due to my lack of effort, or the teachers inability to get ideas across, but I figure that when I'm unable to do a single homework problem after attending every class and reading relevant chapters, then something is missing in terms of the whole learning experience. At least it will be over soon. The bright side was that I have started a research project, so that will help in moving forward. Also, this time next week, I will have turned in my LAST homework assignment for quite a while (at least to my knowledge). That doesn't include the thesis paper and everything, but I won't have weekly assignments to worry about anymore. It's a nice feeling, really.

There you have it. The beginning of the end. Over the course of the next month thoughts of the past year will surface frequently, new beginnings will be looked for, New Year's Resolutions will become part of everyone's vocabulary (at least for a week), and it will feel like a clean slate for the coming year. Things just go by so quickly. And now a surefire sign that Christmas is coming quickly - Charlie Brown's Christmas is showing on TV. Gotta love it.

Holiday

So it's finally here. Thanksgiving break. It's different, not being at Harding where you go for 3 months straight and get a week off. UT gives smaller breaks at more frequent intervals, so we get Thursday and Friday off. As such, we supposedly have classes during the first half of this week. Not that I really went to anything. I went to one of my two classes because I wanted to hang out with Mandi and not stay on UT campus until 5:30 in the afternoon. As such, I've spent today grading lab finals. A lot of people actually did surprisingly well this semester as compared to others. I had people making 100's on the test for the first time ever. So either I taught it better (possible, but not likely), the test was easier (not possible, since it was the same test), or the students were smarter (given last year's class, this is the most likely option). It's nice to have that stuff out of the way, since it will free up my Monday and Wednesday mornings.

We lost our championship soccer game for the Knoxville Rec league. It didn't help that there were only 9 of us without a goalkeeper. We ended up losing 3-1. So not bad, given our lack of personnel. We just need to get some more trusty people that will play with us next year. Or at least a real goalkeeper each week.

At any rate, I'm on my way to the parents house for the next few days while Dustin is home. I'm looking forward to a few days of relaxation, good food, and hanging out with the family. Enjoy the break everyone.

Name Game

You know, it's really kinda funny how many people can have the same name as you. I think I saw something on Josh's page or somewhere that had a website that would list the number of people that had your same name. However, in it's database, I didn't find anyone with the same last name as me. I know that this is not a fact, since if I do a Facebook search to see how many people have the name Travaglini, I get a fair number of matches. Of course, the only one that I know is my brother, and all the rest seem to live in places that are nowhere near here that I didn't know we even had any relatives at.

After doing this at some point, I also decided to do a Google search to see what would turn up, just for the fun of it. Now that I've got this blog thing, it's actually the first link that comes up when I search for my name. Next, I actually just learned that I got my name on a journal article published in the Journal of Electron Microscopy on the 29th of March this year. That comes as quite a surprise. I should probably read it at some point and see why I got my name on that. Then there are some articles from the Oak Ridger (local town paper) regarding either piano or soccer stuff. It's kinda funny to go back and read some of the articles about the soccer games that I played in during my high school years. I actually scored a few goals during that time which I certainly don't remember. It's also interesting to see the articles on the piano concerts to see what other people thought about them. It seems like so long ago reading those things...

Speaking of high school soccer, one of my favorite memories probably isn't even something that would really seem like it was all that memorable. It was what would turn out to be the last competitive soccer I would play in my career. We were playing Bearden High School in the region semi-finals. I had been injured rather frequently throughout the season with various pulled muscles and ankle problems and had been having trouble maintaining my starting position since by the time I had made my way back in, I would get hurt and fall back down the line again. It was rather disappointing since during this year my brother was starting as our team sweeper as a freshman. By the time this last game had come along I had made my way back in to the starting line-up, and I got to play a meaningful game on the same team as my brother. During the season, I had been hurt for a number of the big games and so the ones that I had been healthy for weren't as important. This one, however, was to be able to go on to the state tournament. We came back from being down 2-0 in the second half to take a 3-2 lead with what we thought were only minutes remaining. Unfortunately, the gay referee managed to somehow add on 10 minutes of extra time, during which Bearden scored to tie the game and take it to extra time.

As soon as extra time started, they broke down the field. I chased my man and my brother made a hard tackle on him to get the ball out. The guy jumps up off the ground and squares up to my brother, and starts spouting off some expletives seeing as how he just got owned by a freshman. He was about 5 inches taller than me, and I was about 4 inches taller than my brother at the time. Now, Dustin is no push-over, and he stared the guy down. I stepped up next to Dustin and we both just looked at him until he quit ranting and walked away. It was a good feeling, being able to stand up to someone with Dustin next to me. Then again, that's what brother's are for, isn't it? Standing up to the enemy and making them rant and rave and in the end realize there is nothing they can do but walk away.

So who has your name? Is it just your family? Is it your friends at school and work? Is it people from church? Is it the nameless person that always gets picked on? Who is willing to step up next to you when the enemy is staring you down and take a stand next to you? More importantly, who are you willing to stand up for?

Face

So we went 4-3 in the tournament this weekend. Given that we only had 12 people (9 by the time it ended) I think that it went pretty well. Of course, of sad note is the fact that Jake Beveridge had his face busted by a huck arm's elbow. Afterwards, he had blood flowing from his nose, and an eye that he couldn't see out of. He went to the hospital and now him, Stone, and Jake's gf are staying here in Knoxville through Thursday because they didn't want him to drive back so that they could monitor his eye all week. Obviously Becca won't be staying here, we've got her a place down the block a little bit, but they'll be hanging out here during the day. unfortunately, it's a busy week for me, so I don't know how long I'll be able to hang out with them, but I think it'll be fun having them around for a while.

This is going to be one busy week though. Project is due Thursday (still haven't started it), I give my lab finals this week, the usual homework is due (7 problems for Tuesday, haven't started it), and probably some other stuff I haven't thought of. At any rate, it seems like it'll be another tiring week. At least Thanksgiving break is around the corner. It'll be cool to have that since Dustin (brother) will be home for that weekend, and we'll get to see some of the family and I'll get to hang out with Mandi for a while.

At any rate, it's been a long couple of days. I think that I need to start researching some for this presentation that I've got to give. And we need to get Becca to where she's staying for the night. Perhaps there will be more interesting stuff to talk about throughout the week.

Mouse Trap

Do you remember that game from way back when? I sure do. It was a classic in my opinion. I don't really remember ever playing the game, I'd just set up the thing and then make it go trap the mouse. It was a lot of fun, seeing all those random things come together just to make a simple trap fall down on the mouse. So when I found these on Ebaum's world the other day, it made me quite happy. Of course, someone has way to much time on their hands to be setting them up (and of course it's from some asian tv show I think), but they are pretty fun to watch nevertheless.

The Harding Apocalypse and Abattoir teams are currently driving in to Knoxville to take part in the tournament being held here this weekend. I don't really know what it's called, but I know that we're playing tomorrow morning at Victor Ashe Park (or at least the guys are). I'm looking forward to it, as these tournaments are always fun, but I think we're going to be missing a few of the guys. I'm particularly saddened by the absence of Bland. Apparently there were only 9 people from Harding making the trip, so hopefully there are some random people meeting us here? I don't know...but I'm guessing I might be really tired by the time Sunday afternoon rolls around.

Outside of that, it's been a hectic week, in case you haven't noticed from all my posts on things ending and realizing God's in control and everything. By this time next Friday, a lot will have happened. A 200 point project will be completed, I will be mostly set up at the lab and hopefully moving forward instead of still getting signed in for everything I need, Mandi will be home for Thanksgiving week, I won't be teaching anymore labs as they are having the final next week...in general I won't be stressed. It'll be some good stuff. But as far as things go, I guess it's really not all that bad. A highlight for today though is that I borrowed Roxio Easy Media Creator 7 from someone at the lab. Which means I might be able to make a decent DVD disc of things that I record off the TV. That would be quite exciting. And perhaps that might mean that Paul wouldn't have to watch all of his House and Whose Line episodes at the computer if there is another dvd player available. Don't get your hopes up yet though. I figure I've got a few minutes before the guys get here, so I'll fool around with it.

By this time tomorrow night, I won't know what's going on. But it's a frisbee tournament weekend, how else would you really want it?

No End At All

In case you haven't been able to tell by now, I'm a big fan of music. I've been playing/listening to music since a very early age (at least age 4 for playing, listening was surely before), and it's something that really gets me through a lot of days to keep me from going crazy. I'm one of those people that needs some kind of noise to get work done. For my noise, I prefer to have some music going, whether that be some classical orchestration, hard rock, or some quiet acoustic stuff. People that have lived with me, or been around me for any appreciable length of time, can attest to that.

It's funny how there are times when a song can really speak to an individual, and it's amazing how many times people can relate to a song when they are going through a hard time or needing something to say the words that they can't say themselves, or simply going through their day. Of course, the music doesn't even need to have words to make an impact. I can still remember a song that I had playing when I was reading The Hobbit what seems like forever ago when I was still in middle school. The "New World Symphony" by Antonin Dvorak was playing while I was reading a section of that novel, and now whenever I re-read that book or see something that reminds of it, I can think of that song playing while I was reading it. They've essentially merged in my mind. It's the soundtrack to that part of my life.

There have been many other instances for me personally. Matchbox Twenty's "Mad Season" was the first album that I bought with my own money. Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony 3rd Movement is perhaps some of the most gorgeous music ever composed, and most heart-breaking if you listen to it under sad circumstances. My favorite piece of all time to play for an audience is the Mephisto Waltz by Franz Liszt. The favorite piece to play for myself is something much slower, the Barcarolle by Frederic Chopin. I woke up to a song affectionately called "The Butterfly Song" by one Josh Murphy for an entire semester my sophomore year. When I make a CD mix I like to start it with a rocker, and end with a slow, introspective song. My first impression of a movie is usually based on the soundtrack. If I'm needing to create a slide-show or some other presentation that can use music, I probably spend more time picking what I deem to be the perfect song than I do putting the show together. I guess it's just how I'm wired.

So all that build up to get to the point of saying that I recently got a new album (for $5 actually) by a Christian group called Disciple. One of the really cool things that they do, is in the liner notes where they put the lyrics for their songs, they place scripture references for each of their songs that show where they got the inspiration for the message of that song. For this particular song (the title of this post), they referenced Romans 8:38-39 that says "38)For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39)neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." The lyrics for the chorus go like this:

Feel this grace shining in, There's nowhere that you've not
Walked with me on, carried me on
There is nowhere I can go,
Even in the depths of the sea, You're not too far away
When I wake, when I sleep, You are capturing me
With a love that knows no end at all.

It's a good reminder in times when it's easy to forget. Everything of this world is short-lived. It only lasts for an instant. God's love, however, will last forever. In times when things feel like they're never going to end, just remember that everything in this world will end. What matters is what doesn't.

Construction

So this week there has been much rejoicing in the area of downtown Knoxville, specifically between mile markers 379 and 383 as the road construction that has been going on forever, at least for the time, has been finished. That's right, we now have 5 lanes of traffic flowing in those four miles through one of the most congested areas in East Tennessee. It's really quite amazing. I managed to go from my apartment to Oak Ridge this afternoon at 2:45 and I didn't even have to slow down. Before now, it would have been a mile long stand-still and would have taken about45 minutes to get through. Today, 10 minutes, and no complete stops. Amazing. So it's all well and good, until they start finishing the exit interchanges and probably closing stuff again. But at least for now we can enjoy free-flowing traffic.

I made my 3rd trip out to the lab today. At the moment, it's all reading and learning about how the machines work and some of the theory on why things go as they do. I don't really get everything that I've been reading, but it makes sense while I'm looking at the book, at least to some extent. Essentially, the superconductor is placed in a magnetic field, and then it is cooled in order to become superconducting. Once it is cold enough to be superconducting (lower than 77 K), the magnetic field is turned off. This change in flux induces an electric field within the superconductor, which can then carry on forever, since the resistance, the force that would dissipate a current, is zero. So you've essentially got a machine that can run forever on an initial set of conditions. It's really quite interesting. Of course, the materials are currently made in rather small portions, and it's difficult to get things super-cooled in an environment other than a lab with specific equipment to maintain these temperatures. In the next couple weeks, once I get through the reading and start to know how to work the machinery I should be able to start taking some of my own data. Exciting stuff. That Masters degree is getting closer by the day.

Just to top it off, if you haven't seen this video then check it out. I think it fits nicely with my need to push up my glasses after that last paragraph.

Craziness

So it's been a whirlwind couple of days. Mandi actually ended up coming back in to town for a job interview, so I got to spend the weekend for her. Of course, that meant putting off pretty much everything else, which is perfectly fine with me. It does however, make for a crazy couple of days when I have to play catch-up with school and stuff. We did have quite a good time over the weekend however. Mandi became addicted to Sudoku, we went to a corn maze and had some fun, my team won the semis of our soccer tournament to get in to the final, and I got to hang out with Mandi for an extra weekend.

The soccer game was pretty exciting. We played the team that had won the league for however long it's been around (like 10 years or so) and dominated them. Unfortunately, that domination didn't show in the score as it was 0-0 at the end of regulation meaning PK's. We certainly should have scored before then. I had an excellent shot from about 25 yards out barely tipped over the bar, and I had one taken away from me (by my own teammate) when all I had to do was pass it forward in to the open goal. They ended up swinging wildly with their weak foot and kicking it out for a throw in. Man was I mad. Oh well. Penalties are never fun, and I hadn't taken one in about 6 years. I hadn't taken one that actually mattered for probably closer to 10. As such, mine was saved, even though it was a good kick. Keeper just did well to get it. We ended up winning the shoot-out 6-5 in 8 rounds. So it's on to the final in two weeks, since they've conveniently canceled the games for the frisbee tournament that I'm playing in with HU Apocalypse this coming weekend. All sorts of fun to be had.


Since Mandi left yesterday afternoon, things haven't been as fun. I've been doing homework frantically attempting to get things finished before they're due, and now I'm getting started on finding information for the 15 min talk that I have to give in a week. Along with whatever usual homework there is, as well as going to the lab. I missed yesterday, so hopefully that won't matter too much. Next week is the astronomy lab final for my students that I have to make and give to them. Having taught the same lab sections last year, I simply get to use basically the same one again, which makes it easier. I do the Elrod challenge, as I believe it is called, on a smaller scale, since I give them about 15-20 T/F questions and say that if they answer them all wrong and tell me they're doing it they get to double their points for that section. I'm pretty sure that Dr. Elrod at Harding does that, although since I never had him, I might be remembering the wrong name. Oh well. It's always fun to see the students faces after I tell them that, because most of them just don't get it and I have to take about 5 minutes attempting to get them to understand what I mean. Here is a usual exchange after I tell them this:

Student 1: Does this mean we can miss everything on the test and get double credit?
Me: No.
Student 2: But if I miss them all, doesn't that mean that they're wrong?
Me: No. It means that they're right, and you get double credit if you tell me you meant to do
this.
Student 1: So we do get double credit if we miss everything on the test.
Me: No.
Student 3: I don't understand what you mean by miss them all.
Me: I mean, you get them all wrong, and you will get 30 points instead of 15 for that section.
Student 2: So on the T/F section, if we tell you that we're going to get them all wrong, we get
double credit for this section if we miss every question.
Me: Yes!!!
Students: We don't get it.
Me (doing my best Will Ferrell impersonating Alex Trebek impersonation from SNL):
Please someone, take me now.

To me this doesn't seem like a very difficult concept, but sometimes I'm surprised how hard it is for them to grasp this. Last year, out of the 6 people that attempted this, nobody got it. It's only 15 points of the test, and I would think that everyone would go for it. I mean, you can effectively get your grade to go up a letter grade without much difficulty. Oh well, we'll see if someone can correctly navigate through all the wrong answers next week. And speaking of Trebek impersonations, it's been a while since I've watched those old celebrity jeopardy clips...

At any rate, I guess even through all the insane busy-ness that I feel like I'm experiencing right now, I need to realize that it's all going to be ok. There's this song by Jeremy Camp off his new album entitled "Beyond Measure" (which also happens to be the album title) that I think says this better than I can. The chorus line goes like this:

I know that I've been given more than beyond measure.
I come alive when I see beyond my fears.
I know that I've been given more than earthly treasure.
I come alive when I've broken down and given You control.

He's right. If I trust in God and let him have control, everything else falls in to place. What I need to realize is that it's OK not to know everything that's going to happen and be alright with things feeling pressing. God is there for me to help me get through it if I just turn to look at Him. I just need the humility to know that I can't do it all myself.

Cecilia

So, for a random post. Those of you that know me know that I love listening to music. I was sitting here grading all my students lab reports for the astronomy labs and I had my computer music player running. One of the songs that popped on while I was grading was the song "Cecilia" by Simon and Garfunkel. This song is one of my enduring memories from Harding. I was in the dorm with the music going (as usual), and this song comes on. Suddenly, the door bursts open, Paul comes running in to the room screaming, and tells me that this is the song. The song? Yes, the song that he had in fact been looking for for a number of years since he'd heard it on the radio and that he hadn't ever been able to find it or figure out what song it was. Probably one of the strangest joyful moments I've ever seen Paul experience.

In other news, I've finally started my work out at Oak Ridge National Lab. I'm going to be in a group that is studying superconductors, and how well they work in the presence of a magnetic field. The idea is to move the superconductor to different orientations in order to see how it maximizes the superconductive abilities. The cool thing about superconductors, other than the fact that they are all extremely cold in order to be superconducting, is that they can carry a current, in effect, forever. Current superconductors have gone for months without having a noticeable drop in the current flowing through them. And there are some pretty cool applications that could use these superconductors once they get working. Check out this site if you're interested in some more info: http://www.superconductors.org

It's been a long day...off to relax for a while.