Here comes this weather that is very foreign to me!

A good day was had talking with the president of a big conglomerate corporation and tons of cheese. Tim Ferriss totally has it down with talking to big CEOs, they are like the hot chicks of the business and job world – i.e. everyone is afraid to talk to them straight and never does, therefore they love to have some informal talk with you and wil remember you always. Also, free beer on campus is cool (hooray private schools without state school regulations)!

Which reminds me, I used to have this statement written in a marker right above my bed when I would wake up in the morning: “Your intention creates your reality.” And I have it on my fridge now. Same idea. It’s true, eh.

Two years ago I quit my job to follow my dream, and each day it gets better and better. It’s amazing what the human mind can do with the help of God. This is exactly what I wanted and there is so much more good to come.

An excellent time was had here as well with my mom visiting Worcester for a week:

And Katie came to visit for a different week as well. We all had a blast here with deliciously cheap happy-hour seafood, bone-chilling temperatures, bland Dominican food in Massachusetts, nuns racing through the park, endless drives along the cliffy coast, and just plain being together. It had been a few months since I saw Katie, and it made it that much better. Many good times were had and many more million to come.

15 days ’til I return to the big Texas. I really miss the people, but not so much the place.

I guess Texas is the home of my heart and Massachusetts is the home of my brain. The two can coexist in harmony you know:

Everyone enjoys the stories from police logs, ranging from loose chickens in some towns to even sillier things in others. Sure, crime is serious, but thanks to making police logs public, much humor is to be found. Here are a few of my favorites fom the WPI campus police log.

Saturday, November 8, 2:04 am: Male on Boynton St. who appears to be intoxicated. (Hmm, checks timestamp, yep, got ‘em!)

Saturday, November 8, 3:17 pm: Officer speaks to young kids skateboarding in the East Hall parking garage, advising them to move along. (Classic, need I say more?)

Sunday, November 8, 12:02 am: Caller reports group of students playing with fire in a can in West St. parking lot. Officer dispatched, individuals advised. (Advised of what? The joys of playing with fire?! It wasn’t me I swear!)

Sunday, November 9, 1:00 am: Pumpkin thrown at SNAP van from balcony on West St. Officers check, find smashed pumpkin, no people on balcony. (Pumpkin taken into custody.)

Sunday, November 9, 1:53 am: Caller reports female playing music and singing out of her window in Founders. Female is very loud and keeping students awake. Officer dispatched, locates student; singer advised to be mindful of other students. (Ahh, I was hoping he would join in! We need more public singing!)

Sunday, November 9, 3:27 pm: Feces found on floor of Morgan Hall restroom. Custodian en route. (It is the only room with a drain.)

Tuesday, November 11, 2:10 am: Caller reports having vomited in Stoddard A. (What a nice guy; classy. Would love to hear the call.)

And there you have a window into my world at WPI. Leaping pumpkins, public singers, and bodily fluids fill the police log. Now laugh along with me, lest you be advised to move along, you damn kids!

Earlier today, the professor for my Combustion class mentioned that for our final project, we will be working on a problem that currently has no solution. This intrigued me of course, as I wondered if our final grades would have no solution as well. After he explained, it made all the more sense and reminded me why my love and passion is in the field of fire protection engineering, the school I go to, and the people I work with: they all heavily align with my values and principles of sharing knowledge and making information available to everyone, everywhere.

[From NASA]

So, let me explain his model simply by example:

The professor said that when he first started this class 2 years ago, the students were working on a different problem with no solution… at the time. The class worked together and in the end the results were so significant that a couple of students took the initiative to publish the results in a scientific journal. The same happened when the class was taught last year – project done, paper published.

So what does this mean and why do you care? Well, all too often in the academic world, people can get caught up in working on projects and sort of work themselves into a dark corner where nobody gets to benefit from the results… and this is done in real life as well, not just academics. This is where the ridiculous amount of collaborative technology available to us comes in to play. Want to gather up notes on the Smagorinsky constant and publish them for anyone to find who is searching for them in the next 1000 years? Easy: 5 minutes. Want to publish your results in the most useful way? Easy: work on an open source project in your area along with your research – or make your own.

…Or you could write a paper, finish your thesis work, wrap up the loose ends in a few years and show a flashy poster of your work 5 years after anybody cares about it anymore or thinks it to be useful.

I digress. I just wanted to stress this new method of collaboration that is among us, and how it’s going to change the way that we work together and grow together in fire protection engineering and fire science.

[From Rowan University College of Engineering]

Why not make use of motivated students and brainpower when they come together? Here is me welcoming this new phase of community and collaboration in a field that directly impacts life safety and makes safer buildings around the world. So when we work on that final project in a few weeks, it’s not really at all about a grade anymore – it’s about a new way of doing science – together.

Update: This is exactly the kind of stuff that I’m talking about here, posted today on the SFPE National blog that I set up a year ago – collaboration: Foundation Funded Research underway at WPI