Inverted-Axis in Numbers

Ok, so I've been working and sometimes computer programs are hard to work with and don't have good options or documentation. So I finally figured something that has bothered me for a while out about Apple's Numbers from the iWorks package.

Inverting the axis on a scatter chart is important in many applications. For instance for me, I wanted to plot values calculated versus depth. Moreover, I didn't want the label to be a negative number; instead I wanted the plot to begin with 0 at the top counting down with numbers increasing towards the bottom.

The way to do this, if you are given "depth" for instance (beneath the surface of the ground) is to do the following:

a) turn the depths to negative, so that they are actually the elevations beneath the surface (with an elevation of 0) or whatever values that you need to be invert similarly.

b) make the scatter plot in numbers as normal

c) in the inspector, edit the "format" for the Y-axis, for instance. Choose Custom... format.

d) create a new custom format. Push the + sign next to where you can input number formats. This will bring up another line where you can input conditions on the format.

e) Choose "If Less than 0" in the pull down menu. Now drag that icon that says "spaces" and looks like a - to in front of the integers icon under the conditional statement. Leave the line that says "If Conditions are not met" as just the integers. Now click out and your y-axis should be inverted as expected.

Hopefully this helps someone, it will at least enable me to remember this task in the future. I will also be doing similar things to make life easier for others (if they are unfortunate enough to google this page!) as I figure things out in Grad school and beyond!

Californication

Ok, so I haven't updated about my situation in a while for myself (who happens to be the main reason this get written and is only one that reads ha). Anyways, there was a big brooha, at least in my small world, about whether I would actually be able to attend UC Davis in the fall for my graduate studies.

Longish story short: I was supposed to go to UC Davis on a fellowship for my first year paid for by the great state of California. This would act as an interim funding source between now (saving) and next year, when I set up my own research funding through the professors (well hopefully through NSF, but that's a whole 'nother story). So the big deal is that I chose to go out there while not accepting better money situations at other schools. However, come July, all of the sudden the state of California begins issuing IOUs to vendors and contractors throughout the state. So I decide to call the Dean of Engineering so see what's going on, find out they are not sure. Blah blah, this goes on until last week.

FINALLY, I find out that my money is going to be there last year and I can at least breathe easy! At least until school starts again and I become crushed under the pressure of being a grad student in a new environment halfway across the world (practically) from where I have lived my entire life. Add to that hardship the fact that my undergraduate institute ran on semesters whereas Davis is on the quarter system and that will be a big transition for me I feel.. Basically, placing the amount of information normally covered in 15 weeks into 10 weeks.

So, there it is. I am going to Davis, California officially and definitely. I'll be there for at least a year, then who knows? Maybe continue to PhD. Maybe law school? Maybe work? It's going to definitely be interesting from here on out. So wish me luck.

Confused

So there is a pretty good chance that I'm just full of it and have no idea what I'm doing. But I've been thinking a bit recently about going into law school after getting my one year master's out in Cali. There are several reasons for this line of thought: probably all irrational and stupid. Maybe this is just a phase and will pass, but we'll see. Alas, I shall elaborate.

I did well in undergraduate engineering. That's fine. I know I can do engineering. I can be at least a decent geotechnical engineer. The problem is that I never really liked the design aspect, which in geotechnical engineering, is pretty much the end all be all of it. At least according to alot of people and is how I feel. I want to do research, but mainly I think I want to teach. This of course requires a PhD.

The turmoil arises with my experiences with research. I do find it interesting and intellectually stimulating I guess you could say. However, I don't know if I even really want to do that. The more I get exposed to different aspects of the business, I find myself a little disillusioned with all things engineering research: governmental and educational.

a) I am interested in the mathematical and computer modeling side of engineering. But, depending on who you ask (and in reality, there really is alot of thumb-waving that goes on that works perfectly fine, at least I feel like it is), there is not much in the modeling side of this section of engineering. Mainly for reasons that I don't really want to get into, if you want to discuss or contend, then send me an email (even though no one reads this haha).

b) Engineering research involves a lot of tweaking and not really alot of groundbreaking stuff. I mean, it seems somewhat exciting, but in other aspects, not so much. It's hard to put it in text, but I have somewhat began to feel it this summer. It's like I (we) am not really doing anything important, just some academic exercise to prove something useless (which is NOT what engineering and good engineers, should be about. Engineering is about helping advance society's well-being). Which is beginning to be my disillusion with it, although maybe this will change when I get out to California, but that is yet to be seen of course.

c) I want to teach. I feel like I really enjoy helping other people understand concepts that I feel like I have a good grasp of. Whether I am any good at it is another story, but whatever. However, I really didn't like teachers who were teaching with no real experience to add to their teaching repetoire. Sure one can do just fine research without industry experience, but I don't think that I would feel confident and satisfied teaching design engineering courses without actually having done this myself for a good enough time period to get an "expert" grasp of the topic. However, as I previously stated, I haven't really particularly enjoyed the idea of design/consulting work, but maybe that is part of it..

All these reasons have led me to begin to (perhaps preemptively and jokingly) consider going to law school. To be honest, when I was a child, I originally wanted to be an attorney but mainly backed out of that when I discovered I was decent at math and problem solving and was not good at public speaking, etc.

Furthermore, about 4 months ago or so, a grad student at state kind of put the bug in my mind of going to law school. The idea would be to go into patent law as a way to use my engineering background to help me prove, legally, one patent over another. At least that is the initial, niave impression that I have. It's probably nothing like that, but I'll find out after I've spent $150k on the schooling right?! :) But really I am open to just the general idea of going to law school and becoming a lawyer. I think I have the mind, work ethic, and desire to do it (maybe not the desire but right now I think I do).

Of course if I do that, that will probably entail taking out loans, which could be trouble, but if I get to find that it is really what I want to do, then it will be worth it and I am confident I would be as successful in that field as I have been thus far in engineering and would be no trouble getting a job to pay those off. Of course I am also an optimist, so there's that..

I suppose my path forward is to talk to a few lawyers and some trusted people to hear their opinions and see what they think. If I continue to think about this in the next few weeks, I may go ahead and start studying for the LSAT and try to take it before school starts in the fall.. Moreover, if I can't do well (I have high expectations of at least 170 to even bother with this whole business) on it, then I'll probably just put this out of my mind for good. But, if I do well on it... then I will have to do some deep thinking and discussing to figure this whole "what you want to do for the rest of your life" crap. Of course I could always do it and then pay off loans, then fall back on engineering. Wouldn't be a problem: I'm kind of a big deal.

California Dreamin'

Tomorrow (Tuesday), we head west to Oregon and California, I will try to do some updating along the way, or at least update at the end. We shall see. Wish me luck and see you later!

End of an Era

Well, tomorrow is graduation. Here it is: the end of an era. The end of my time as a student at Mississippi State University. In about 11 hours, I'll "receive" a Bachelor's of Science degree in Civil Engineering. It's been a pretty hard road, but four year: on time. Have I spent a little too much time studying? Maybe. Am I sad that I have done well? Absolutely not. But in reality I have had plenty of good times, so don't worry about that.

Regardless, I'm heading Cali. UC Davis is the destination for me. Going into the geotechnical engineering section with a view into a PhD. Right now I'm in the master's program, but I will hopefully be continuing on to the PhD. We will just have to see how it turns out after the first couple of quarters (they are on quarters out there, so school won't start until September).

I chose to go to Davis for a couple of main reasons. Although I had the chance to go to more high profile engineering schools (Texas, Virginia Tech) I don't want to simply do consulting/design, although maybe I would like to at some point. Right now, I see myself doing high end research work. I felt like I could best accomplish this at Davis. Davis seems to be more fundamental, "first law" type of place in geotechnical engineering. There is a dedicated modeling professor and several classes to this topic. Although I may come out with a PhD with less lab/practical experience, I think I will have a better feel for modelling and theory. Of course this is all subjective and I won't really ever know. My feeling is that it will be more about the research experience and my own innate abilities than anything. Regardless, we'll see, and hopefully I will get a feel soon and can report against about it.

Another reason I chose to go to Davis is that I have always wanted to live in California. Although it will be expensive and hard to keep up with expenses, I think the experience will be good for me to live somewhere completely different than what I have been used to. I will be going into a situation where I am completely uncomfortable and don't really know anything or anybody. I will have to learn how to be myself, and basically to find myself. And interesting road indeed. It gets no more different, social-politically, geographically, culturally, than switching from Mississippi to California. I am excited, and I am ready.

Plus I have 3 months to make some good money and be comfortable working in Vicksburg this summer before I make the big leap. Wish me luck!

Update

So, I haven't had much to say in a while. But maybe over a few minutes this afternoon on the first day of March I will have something on my mind, we'll see how this goes. I have three things I want to talk (probably to noone, lol) about today: 1) Lent, 2) Grad School, 3) the economy.

1) For lent, although I don't go to church and also I'm definitely not Catholic, I decided to give something up this year, starting after the amazing debauchery that was Mardi Gras on Ash Wednesday. I know what may be going through your mind. This guy is a sucker for pain, he just likes to give things up for no apparent reason. And you would be right. I don't know I just like to have something to think about and goals to strive for all the time it seems.

Regardless, this time I am actually giving up three things. Facebook, meat, and coffee.
Facebook is fun and it's a good way to keep in touch with your friends. But man is it a bad time waster, then again so is this.. Also, as time comes for me to get into grad school, I don't want anything that I wouldn't want people seeing to show up somewhere. In fact when I get back on Facebook (because all in all, I probably will, it IS useful in some capacity) I'm probably going to clean alot of pictures and things up for the future.
Yes, I gave up meat again. It will be harder this time since I went back to meat after the Cleanse, but I'm prepared. There will be alot more soy milk drinking and tuna fish eating and I'll probably get mercury poisoning but it's all good..
Coffee.. that was what I was going to originally give up.. all concentrated caffeine things. I mean it's not big deal but I do love coffee a couple of days a week.

2) Grad school. I have applied to six grad schools for a Master's in Civil Engineering (geotechnical): Virginia Tech, UT Austin, U of Missouri at Columbia, NC State, Texas A&M, and UC Davis. I'm not counting any schools completely out yet. However, suffice it to say that the consensus among some people that I know that I have talked to are that Virginia Tech, Texas, and Davis are among the best schools in the field. Thus far, I have been accepted to everywhere. However, I have only received hard offers from two schools, Virginia Tech and Texas. I won't go into details but I am waiting on everywhere to send me something before I may any decisions. I'm pretty happy with how it's looking so far and I haven't really come to any big decisions. I'll probably be waiting for a few more weeks (during which period I will be visiting at least those two schools and possibly a couple more) and will probably hold a press conference to announce my decision sometime in early April, no big deal. I'll keep update and announce to all my adoring fans when I figure something out.

3) The economy. Oh my. The economy has continued to go down the drain since my last dissertation on the subject. Since then, the recovery package has passed both houses and was signed into law by President Obama. Total pricetag: $787 bn. Hmm. What do I think about this?

I think there are alot of good things in this. Like I said before, I'm not sure that if the government doesn't at least put on a facade of doing something, the economy will come back. In fact, this is a very very bad economic cycle. It's not like anything before. Without government backing, alot of companies would have already fallen. Including the auto industry, but we'll get back to that later.. Some might say (thanks Noel Gallagher) that this could just be prolonging the death of the companies and the true collapse of the global economy. That's a possibility. It's also a possibility that we could actually see some rebound in the next year or so. I believe this will happen. How much of it was due to government intervention, I'm not sure. But I do believe that if we don't help the country, it will fall much faster.

However, there is alot of stuff that went through that I do not support, and I think is very wasteful. However, if certain red states don't want the money, don't take it. It's OK Haley Barber, let's let the schools deteriorate, and our roads pothole and bridges collapse. You were a Washington lobbyist originally anyways. Let's ignore the fact that our governor's old lobbying firm was the first or second most powerful in the nation and backed the tobacco industry in the 90's. No big deal.

So, what do I think will fix the economy? I'm not sure. I do know that letting the country fall after the big mistakes of the past 15 years of basically Laissez Faire is not the way to do it though. Some would argue, I invite them to.

We SHOULD however, let GM fall. Yes that would lose alot of jobs, but they are being propped up by the government right now. If they go down, maybe market space is opened for the competitors who could then fill that gap, but right now we are just throwing money in the fire by giving them these loans that will never be repayed.. a) they haven't been making money in several years of decent conditions. There is no effing way they are going to begin making the type of money needed to stay viable AND pay back the American people in an economy like this and gas prices eventually going back up, and their refusal to accept new transportation technologies. (see the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car").

AH, well that it for now. I'll post some more when I get more stuff to get off my chest. If you have any comments or questions, let them lose.

Economics.. Joe style

Why do people still say to let the economy fix itself? I mean, really? Largest downturn since the Great Depression, where 25% of American citizens were without work?

Let's think about this for a second. Even if you doubt whether FDR's New Deal got us out of the Great Depression, one has to admit that it did get people into jobs and America's spirit back up. Moreover, if one says that it wasn't government intervention that restarted the economy, then it was MOST DEFINITELY the American entrance into WWII, which got industry moving in a forward motion to support the war, and got American into "jobs" as soldiers.

Now, fast forward to today's economy. Argue or not, the past 8 (read: 20 tbh, including Clinton) years our nation's spending has skyrocketed due to "wars" and other assorted objects of desire for the administrations: so much for small government and spending on the Republicans' half. In addition to that, the people that control the money in American (bankers, the stock market, because they really do..) have gotten entirely too overconfident.

Some examples of how this overconfidence has gotten us into this quagmire..
1) Oil prices have (had until the economic downturn) soared on the backs of the market-based oil economy. i.e. investors put money into oil, forcing the prices to go up, thusly, these speculators make money as the oil prices rise and the average person suffers. That may not be entirely true, but that is some truth in it.
2) The housing collapse was based on similar principles. Banks were giving cheap (bad) mortgages to people who didn't need to be buying houses. They banked on the assumption that housing prices would continue to rise and people could use the inherent worth of their homes to continue borrowing money etc. Unfortunately, this scheme fell apart when enough people couldn't sell their homes. Thusly, we are in a home-owning crisis.
3) The boys on Wall Street, I really don't know what to say about that. All I know is people stopped borrowing from the banks, thusly the economy slowed. When that happens, the markets fall. Although these big corporations were not making money, they were still paying executives upwards of $500k for taking them into bankruptcy. When the markets fall, everyone else falls because investments (retirements) lose money and now noone can retire. Only there are less jobs to get because the companies aren't making money from the slow economy and noone is investing funds into their stock, therefore they aren't getting outside cash flow.

Now, on the stimulus package on in Congress.
Republicans argue that we need smaller government and less spending. FACT. This is completely true, as a country we are overspending and overreaching our bounds. Although I'm not sure why express concern, because we have been doing it for 50 years.

Democrats argue that the stimulus needs to happen now. FACT. Obviously, this is true, our economy is in a downward spiral (although one may argue that the markets have reached their bottoms, around 8000 in the Dow). Although I generally believe in the invisible hand, I don't think now is the time to rely on that hand. We need to at least do something to help it along. The economy won't correct itself for no reason. People aren't just going to go out and start changing their ways and spend in a BAD economy. It's contradictary! You save money when the money is tight, not spend it. It makes sense. Therefore, you have to have a STIMULUS to make people start spending, lending, and borrowing again. Thus, government intervention. It's not Socialism, it's called reason.

Although I do not believe that the current stimulus package is the best that it could be (it is not at all bipartisan on the House side), we need to get something in the barrell right now. This could, and it may could not, but we shall see, be what the economy needs right now.

On Obama, I like him. I have a theory that the President is really just a figurehead, he is a person to "lead" the nation, i.e. speak for it. He doesn't actually do much of a ruling of the country (except for instance executive orders like closing down GB). Therefore, there is no better person than a person who speaks well. And speaks well, at least some of the time, for the average person in America.

However, I do not particularly like the way he has started off his administration this year. 3 nominated candidates for White House positions have tax leins because they failed to pay their taxes? Why is this? Of course one of them, at least, may have just been confused (the lady who simply failed to pay a nanny tax of some sort), but still there is little excuse for this lack of foresite. Furthermore, I think the main problem that some people have in relation to the administration and the stimulus is that it is not at ALL bipartisan like Obama's campaigns somewhat promised. Of course there is plenty of blame to be placed all around on that fact. Republicans will not concede anything when it comes to spending it seems in Congress. Additionally, the Democrats (especially in the House) have given nothing to the Republicans yet. Of course they really don't have to since AMERICAN voted in Democratic leadership majorities in both houses.

Alas, we shall see what happens with the stimulus in the next few weeks, and then we shall see what happens with the economy in the next few months/year.