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Distinguished Member of the ACM
I am honored to share that this year I am one of 56 people to be named a distinguished member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). I have been a member of the ACM since I was in college and encouraged students to become members as a professor. āEach year we look forward to selecting a new class of ACM Distinguished Members from among our worldwide association of 110,000 colleagues,ā explained ACM President Yannis Ioannidis. āACMās motto is āadvancing computing as a science and profession.ā
The citation for my membership reads: “For contributions to the development of recommender systems for eCommerce and interactive textbooks for computer science and mathematics.” As a Professor Emeritus of Luther College I’m especially proud of this honor, if you look at the other 55 people named this year they are from Google, Microsoft, and lots of prestigious research universities.
You can read more about the announcement On the ACM Website.
Under Par!
A hole in one gets a lot of kudos and admittedly I’ve never had one. But today feels even better to me because over the course of four hours I played well, not just one lucky shot. So yes, I’m bragging because I shot my first ever 18 hole round under par. A score of 71. Par is 72.
Three birdies, two bogies and the rest pars. My partner, Yaz, also had an amazing round of 78. We ended up winning Today’s Men’s club event, and I won a skin for a birdie on hole 12, a hole that I almost never even par! It was a tap in after I hit my heaven wood to about 10 inches from the pin.
But maybe even more important than the score was that I played with three other guys who were so nice, and gracious! It was really a great day all around. Thanks Yaz, Art, and Vic!! Yaz was a great partner who covered every mistake. And Art and Vic are just great people.
Is this what appeasement looks like in 2025?
Friday night was happy hour followed by game night at the clubhouse. At happy hour I noticed that Pedro our longtime server was no longer wearing a name tag that read “Pedro” but instead read “Bruce” It immediately caught my attention as both our daughter and daughter-in-law had commented on our family message stream earlier in the day that they had had meetings about their rights if ICE were to raid their workplace!!! Ā Both said something like “I never thought I’d live in a world like this.” Neither did I!
When I asked Pedro about it, he looked a bit sheepish, thanked me, and said something like, “this name is probably better now.” Ā The reactions of people I thought were my friends were just to shrug their shoulders as if “too bad for him.” or “I guess that is his choice.”Ā A couple were incensed, but not in a way that made me feel like they really understood the underlying issue! Ā It really took all I had to even stay for games after that. Ā I slammed my fist on the table and explained why I thought this was so wrong but I got no response, blank stares, as if I was worried about nothing!!!
This is not nothing! this is appeasement in the 21st century! This is what prime minister Chamberlain did in the prelude to World War II. We cannot appease Trump, or we will all lose our rights!!
In case you do not get it, the point of my post is this: We have millions of people in this country who pick our vegetables, serve our food, take care of our yards, and do hundreds of other jobs that “regular” Americans will not do. Yet, we rely on their work. Let’s not demonize them but rather understand them! Appreciate them!
Please write your congressperson or governor or senator and let them know how you feel!! I know the majority of us want justice but we need to make our voices heard!
Please note that I have changed the names, of servers and others to protect them!
Brad
Gratitude
In the era that started this week, I just want to say that I think it is especially important to express gratitude and to appreciate the people who help us out in our day to day life.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Although there is a lot I am worried about in this post-election season, Iām focusing on the good today. Iām here in the beautiful Coachella Valley for the winter, playing golf in the morning, playing games and having Thanksgiving dinner with friends. Working it all off with some pickleball in the evening.
We have an amazing daughter and son, who married other amazing people. They are all making the world a better place in their own way. We have two grandchildren who are precocious, loving, and thoughtful, yet they are only 2 and 4 years old.
I have a wonderful wife who has somehow loved me for more than 66.66% of my life! Iāve had more than my share of successful careers, and now I get to work on a project that I love, that helps students who need it most, (Runestone Academy) and I get to do it on my own schedule, when Iām not too busy doing other things I love (see above). In short, I have a lot to be thankful for!
Grand Staircase Escalante and Bryce Canyon
We awoke in the dark, to the sound of rain dripping outside our door. Falling back did not result in a lot of extra sleep. When it was light enough to see outside we saw that it was snowing. No rush to leave as the long hike we were planning was suddenly not going to be an option. So we took our time, and enjoyed the scenic drive and lots of scenic overlooks from Capital Reef to Bryce, with a little side trip down the Burr Trail.
Our first little hike was to the singing canyon.
Then we stopped at this amazing overlook about 17 miles down the Burr Trail. The trail goes for 74 miles before turning into a dirt road, and somehow connecting to a Lake Powell ferry. The overlook was far enough for us.
Here is a view looking back down the trail.
After a delicious lunch at the Burr Trail Burger joint, we drove through Escalante and enjoyed some great views.
We finished up the day with a great late afternoon hike in Bryce Canyon. It was cold and snowy when we checked in to the lodge. But we decided to head over to the rim anyway to check out the views. As we got there the sun started to peek out. We hiked from the Sunset Viewpoint to the Sunrise Viewpoint. About 3 miles, with a solid climb to get out of course. It was great to get down in the canyon out of the wind. The longer we were down there the sunnier it got and the views just got better with every step.
Tomorrow will be a long day in the car, driving from Bryce to Indio. Maybe through Zion depending on road conditions in the morning.
Capital Reef
We love to use the drive to California each Fall to visit some of the national parks. But it is tricky to find a national park to visit this time of year. Most things are shutting down, and in many parks the scenic drives are closing, and the risk of snow increases every day. Our original plan had been to visit Great Basin, but park officials closed the scenic drive two weeks ago. So we rerouted to Capital Reef. We are glad we did. The drive in was spectacular, going past Goblin Valley state park. As you approach from the North, its not hard to imagine you are seeing a goblin sleeping on its back.
What was so great about this time of year is the contrast of the yellow leaves on the Cottonwoods and Aspens, both as you approach the park, and as you drive through.
There are many interesting hikes in the park. For our schedule we chose do do the Hickman Bridge, which is about two miles and fairly easy. The views are great.
Or in some cases spectacular!
We also did a much shorter hike to Sunset Point, This was fantastic because we were the ONLY people on the trail, so we had the point all to ourselves to enjoy 360 degrees of viewing.
Today the plan is to make our way down to Bryce Canyon. Its cold and raining so we might not see as much as we had hoped, then Monday we will hop on the freeway and make our way to Indio! Can’t wait to reconnect with all our friends, and get back on the golf course and pickleball court.
Runestone Origins
Had fun visiting friends in Alexandria the last two days. I even got to revisit the site of the Runestone.
Check out Runestone Origins on the Runestone Academy blog.
An Extra Day in Reykjavik
We were just ready to walk out the door to drive to the airport when this happened.
The Delta app said our flight was on time, but our incoming plane was late from Detroit. Flight Aware said our incoming plane was four hours late from Minneapolis. Flighty Pro showed our incoming plane as still sitting on the ground in Minneapolis. Sometimes you get a sense that things are going wrong, and this was one of those times.
Delta rebooked us for the same flight one day later. Thanks Delta. Iām sure there were other options to get us back sooner. I know there were seats on an Iceland air flight this afternoon, but those are gone now. Maybe not gone, but the price adjustment systems didnāt take long to make them go from marginally affordable to completely unaffordable for a group of 8!
We cannot get through to Hertz, so we are just going to keep the van. We found a new AirBnB for tonight, and weāll take advantage of our extra day as best we can. Looks like a trip to the Perlan museum and maybe a short hike, otherwise more hanging around downtown.
A Day in Reykjavik
A Day in Reykjavik
We left our beautiful seaside house and headed to Reykjavik for a day of city touring. We were very lucky in that our AirBnB host had our apartment ready for us by 11:30 so we had a base for the day as well as a place for the kids to crash and rest during the afternoon.
Our first stop after dropping our stuff was for an icelandic hotdog at BƦjarins. Its just a hot dog stand, but they are worth the walk and the wait. There were at least 25 people in line when we arrived. The line moves quickly. As there is not a lot to think about. The hot dogs come with fresh diced onions, some cruncy onions fried in the air frier, Icelandic Remolade, ketchup, and pylsusinnep ( sweet brown mustard). As we were standing in line we struck up a conversation with the lady in front of us who was a tour guide. I think she was really just charmed by Maren. She warned us that we really needed to try the regular hot dog. When Bill Clinton visited, she told us, he only had mustard, and we’ve never forgiven him!
After the hot dogs we all went our own way to explore for the afternoon. We saw the Viking ship sculpture and the big Lutheran church.
We also checked out Rainbow Road, and lots of shops and a few bars.
Dinner was at Bastard Brew and Food, just down from our apartment. Delicious delicious stake sandwiches, in a quirky atmosphere.
