Christmas 2006, Tucson –

Here are some pictures of Lynette and I spending our Christmas in Tucson with her parents. Lynette got a camera, clothes and a bunch of gift cards. She also got a ring from me. I got a sleeping bag, an AZ Highways subscription, much needed jeans, and other camping gear. One of our favorite gifts was a pillow made by my sister Jill. On one side it had a bunch of pictures of me with my scout troop and on the other side it had a bunch of pictures of Lynette at the Boys and Girls Club.

Christmas Eve, we built a fire in a fire pit and made popcorn over the fire. It tasted good, and it was lots of fun looking at the constellations, and stars through their telescope. I think this is probably the best Christmas we have had since we’ve been married. Lynette has had time to take pictures, and spend time with her mom.

We didn’t watch a lot a lot of TV (which is good), but we played games, put a puzzle together, ate good food (thanks to Lynette’s dad), visited with Lynette’s grandparents, watched a couple of movies, went shopping, read and relaxed.

This morning, it snowed, big snow flakes. Lynette wanted to take pictures up on Mt. Lemon, but didn’t get to because the roads are closed.

I’m going off to a campout this weekend with my scout troop. I hope it doesn’t rain, but I know I will be warm in my new sleeping bag.

Happy New Year!

Scott

This pic and the one above are some of the pictures Lynette took on this trip

Tucson Snow

Powder Keg –

Lynette and I went to Tucson this year for Christmas and loved it. This is the third year in a row that we’ve been able to spend time with Lynette’s family for Christmas.

We have been having a great time pretty much doing nothing. I read a good book called Powder Keg—about the little known conflict between Utah and the United States in the years preceding the civil war. It was a novel, but set in that time frame and gave some insight into the conflict and asserted that the decisions of Brigham Young and bravery of Orin Porter Rockwell may have indirectly saved the North from loosing the Civil War.

Under faulty intelligence, President James Buchanan, (President of the U.S. before Abraham Lincoln) dispatched a large portion of the US army to Utah to take care of the ‘Utah Rebellion’. Apparently he had heard false reports that the Mormons had burned a US courthouse and established a government separate from that of the United States (all were later found to be untrue). The War Secretary, John Floyd, sent a Southern General Albert Sidney Johnston to ‘take care of the Mormons’. No one was concerned with finding out if the rumors were true. Johnston and Floyd may have conspired with each other hoping to have the best of the Northern Army out west so when the succession occurs the North will not be able to defend itself.

An actual letter sent from an Ambassador of England to his Prime Minister (roughly) sums up conflict known as the ‘Utah War’:

"How ironic that these stubborn citizens of Utah Territory should have successfully challenged the government of the United States, humiliated its military forces, destroyed the reputation of the war secretary, severely and irrevocably damaged the presidency of James Buchanan, and contributed significantly to the demise of any hopes for a confederacy in the West, and the postponement of secession for at least two years, by my calculations. Perhaps, they have altered the course of history."

Lord Edmund Lyons

Since I first learned of the Utah War I have been fascinated with it, and desired to learn more. My freshman year in college I wrote a report on the conflict for a US History class. Many of the facts I read in this novel back up the research that I found for my report.

If you have a chance, and are interested, you should check out Powder Keg, it’s good.

Scott

FURI –

Above is a picture I found while looking something up for work on the City of Tempe Engineering website. Immediately, I realized that this was an old picture because the building I work in is not shown...but then I saw also there was a Lockness Monster in the water--scary. I guess our town has its own mythical creature...Apparently someone had too much time on his hands over at the City of Tempe (it even has a shadow).

Anyway, I found out this week that I got accepted into the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative (FURI) at ASU. I’ve been told that this is a pretty competitive program so I’m happy I got in.

Basically, next semester, I’m going to be doing some research with my transportation engineering professor to obtain necessary data to build a framework to design an emergency evacuation plan for the Phoenix Metro Area. I will not design the plan this semester, but research some essential data to be able to do so. If I go to graduate school I’d probably work the evacuation plan into my thesis.

I’m doing this to be able to decide whether or not I want go to graduate school. Not only will I see if I like this type of work, but I will also learn important skills that will be useful to me if I pursue more education. Additionally, this will help set me apart from the other applicants and hopefully enable me to get into the school of my choice.

The research will count as a tech elective towards my graduation, and I will be paid to do it. So, like I said, I’m happy to have been accepted into the program. It should be fun.

I’m pasting my proposal at the bottom of this post.

Scott

Development of an Emergency Response Planning Framework Based on Space-Time Profiles of Human Activity and Travel Patterns

Due to recent events, the world is recognizing the increasing need of preparing for unexpected and extreme scenarios that can cause frustration, harm, or even death. Various government agencies, regional committees and groups of concerned citizens are working together to help prepare for natural disasters or other unanticipated catastrophes.

Locally, Maricopa County is one of the fastest growing areas in the country and accounts for about one-half of the population in the state of Arizona. Generally, the Maricopa region is perceived as a low risk area for natural disasters as compared to other American cities. However, many doomsday scenarios could be conceived ranging from drought and floods to terrorist activities. Accidents may occur at any of the dams along the Salt River which could potentially flood much of the Valley of the Sun. Additionally there are a multitude of other unknown disasters that unfortunately cannot be foreseen.

There is a need, therefore, to formulate region-wide emergency response strategies for the area that falls within the jurisdiction of MAG (Maricopa Association of Governments). These strategies include: evacuation, shipping of essential supplies where they are needed most, and perhaps most important, protecting vital links in the transportation network that facilitate the movement of people and goods in and out of the region. The development of such strategies requires an in-depth understanding of the distributions of locations and activities of residents in the MAG region at various times of the day.

This research will involve the development of space-time profiles of human activity patterns in the MAG region using the MAG 2001 Household Travel Survey data. This survey includes information on activities and trips for approximately 10,000 people living in the Maricopa region. The data from this survey provides socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the survey respondents as well as detailed information about all the trips they make in a typical day. Time and location information associated with trip origins and destinations can be used to construct time-space profiles of human activity patterns over the course of a typical day.

Using ArcGIS (geographic information system software), graphical space-time profiles will be constructed to identify: critical links in the transportation network, high intensity activity locations, and the movement of people through the region throughout a typical day. These profiles and the GIS-based analysis results will provide an excellent basis to develop extreme event response and evacuation strategies for the MAG region. The research results and a framework for emergency response planning in the MAG region developed based on the research findings will be presented in the UG Student Research Symposium scheduled to be held on April 20, 2007.

Henry Fords Secret -

Yeah!!!! The day has finally arrived. Lynette graduated from ASU. It is such a relief, especially because this last week has been very stressful on Lynette.

I just have to say that anyone who works full time, and goes to school full time is either amazing or crazy. I think Lynette is both. The late nights staying in the studio and going to Kinko’s at 3 am are now behind us. Hopefully now when we go out late at night it will be to get some ice cream or something.

Lets see, since Lynette and I have been married (3+ years) Lynette probably has had…well…7 jobs, and I can’t think of a time when she had less than two jobs. On top of that her classes require a major time commitment (probably more so than does engineering). She aced her Art History classes without problem, and spent most of her time working on studio classes. Classes like: Drawing, Painting, Jewelry, Metals, 3D, Woodworking, Photography, Digital Arts, and Fibers.

Apparently the School of Art suggests you only take two studio classes per semester (anything more than that will be too stressful). Most of the time, Lynette did four. And, she took extra art classes this semester that weren't required for graduation, just because she wanted too.

Like I said, she is either amazing or crazy…but I say both.

Many times I thought to myself that Lynette was biting off more than she could chew, and that it would finally catch up with her so she’d learn her lesson. But it never happened. Lynette has this amazing ability to make everything work. Determination, will power, hard work, combined with her artistic skills and attention to detail always produced beautiful work in every class.

I found this quote several months ago, and think it describes Lynette. Originally, it was found tucked away in a book in Henry Ford’s estate several years after his death. It was written in his wife’s handwriting:

Bite off more than you can chew—and chew it.
Dare to do more than you can do—and do it.
Hitch your wagon to a star,
Keep your seat—and there you are.

Looking back, I’m glad Lynette bit of more than she could chew, because she chewed it. Lynette never dropped a class, or took the easy way, she always dared to do more than she was capable and somehow did it.

I think I’ve hitched my wagon to a star and I’m looking forward to keeping my seat to see where she takes us.

Congratulations Lynette! I hope you never lose your determination and hard work.

Love
Scott

Her mom was so proud

Lynette and cousin Brian:

Celebration Dinner at Macaroni Grill

To my Mother-

Since the 15th is my Mom’s birthday I thought I’d write a little about her. My mom is a wonderful loving woman who always has something nice to say. I recently heard my Dad boast that in the 48 years that they had been married, he had never heard her say anything negative about another person. When I heard that I thought he was exaggerating so I tried to think of something negative that Mom had said. I couldn’t think of a single thing. Dad is telling the truth, at least I can vouch for the last 25 years.

Anyway, it’s not just her amazing attitude that I love about her. She is hard working too. From kindergarten to 12^th grade she made my lunch every school day. It probably got old too, I always had to have a peanut butter sandwich with a banana and a Little Debbie Swiss Cake Role (I was spoiled, wasn’t I?). Now that I have to make my lunches for myself I realize that it is not very fun. Even though I’m going to eat the food I’m not motivated to do it. But my Mom was motivated, and never let me go hungry. The only thing I can think of strong enough to motivate someone to make a peanut butter sandwich everyday for 12 years is love.

I heard a quote on TV the other day that pretty much sums up my feelings for my mom. I hope someday I will be able to write something this good. It describes my feelings perfectly:

“What I meant to say was, how can I possibly say goodbye to the person who was first to hold me, the first to feed me, and the first to make me feel loved. From a distance I watch you move about doing the mundane tasks that to everyone else seems so routine but for me, the tasks you lovingly completed year after year built and reinforced the foundation and structure that made my world a safe and comfortable place to grow. All that I am and all that I can be can be traced back to, is you. Whatever accomplishments I have made along the way, would not have occurred without first believing in myself. And you, you were the person who always believed in me.”

Michael Murphy (as quoted by Dr. Wayne Dyer on a PBS program--Michael was leaving his moms house for Thanksgiving and was making small talk with his mom. He told her thanks for dinner, but he later wrote these words.)

So, Mom, I love you. As I get older, and look back at how I was raised I get deep feeling of gratitude for the values you taught me, the responsibility you gave me and the freedom you let me have to live my own life. Thank you for teaching me and letting me make my own decisions about who I wanted to become. I hope I did not let you down.

I love you.

Scott

Finals II –

Lynette and I are still in finals mode. Lynette graduates on Thursday. Yeah!!!!!!!! She still is working hard to get A’s in all her classes (she’s graduating Magna Cum Laude). This is a pic of her working on one of her projects for her fibers class. She made a ‘security blanket’. Basically she sewed a bunch of credit cards onto a blanket surrounding 50 stars. The piece reflects the common (modern) American belief that credit cards act as a safety net. It also subtly, addresses the problem that many American’s face: household debt.

Anyway, I took this picture because it shows how we are during this week. I probably took this at around 11:30 pm. (Note the Dr. Pepper, popcorn, pudding and the blow pop wrappers). Lynette is incredibly busy but still says she is having fun, and is happy. All I can do is believe her.

One night, she stayed at the metals studio until 5:30 am. She arrived home and when she laid down to go to sleep my alarm clock went off. That was funny/sad/ironic/annoying all at the same time. She rested for 2 hours and got up and did the same thing all over again the next day.

Last night, I took a break from my studying to go to a family Christmas party. My sister put together a nice program where my nieces and nephews acted out the nativity scene. The purpose of the program was to display the birth of Christ, and to try to get us to think about why we remember Him at this time. I thought it was very good.

Here are some pictures of the program:

Mackenzie as Mary:

Toby as Joseph:

Since my Grandma was there my sister decided to get a picture of 5 generations of from our family: Morgan, Alice, Teena, Eva and Cami

Scott

Finals-

Tomorrow I have my first of four final exams. Land Surveying. I finished up a project (above) in that class this morning. The project took me about 30 hours to complete. We surveyed a plot of land on ASU’s main campus (a retention basin) and then had to draw it up as if a building would be designed and built there later. We could choose between manual drafting or use a CAD program. I chose to draw this using AutoCAD.

Lots of civil engineering students find the class really interesting, but I found it a little boring. I think the subject is very interesting, but would rather learn it outside on the job instead of in a class room. We did have a couple of labs on Saturday mornings where we actually used the equipment, but since the groups were so big I didn’t get a lot out of it.

I’m not too worried about my grade in this class. I got a 100% or better on every assignment, quiz and exam so far in the class. Still, the project and final exam largely contribute to the final grade, so I can’t let up now. Hopefully, I’ll get an A+ in that class.

So my exams are: Surveying, Geotechnical Engineering, Environmental Engineering and Transportation Systems Engineering. I’m doing fairly well (low A’s) in all my classes except one—Geotech. I'm planning on bringing my grade up to something respectable.

This semester has flown by, and I was pleasantly surprised to find it not as demanding or stressful as a typical semester. Hopefully, my grades reflect that.

Scott