Civil 3D Essentials for the Unborn Boy

So you know I could never approach a project as big as motherhood without my normal amount of research and hysteria, right? While pregnant with Panorama, I played endless Mozart and researched baby sign language. I made sure I had a well stocked toybox full of engineeringly appropriate baby toys such as blocks, gears, stackers and more.

This time, I stumbled upon an interesting book called While You're Expecting: Creating Your Own Prenatal Classroom. This book discusses methods for communicating with your blessed unborn as well as research and interesting anecdotes about exposing children to things while in utero.

The story that stood out the most was one about a cellist who was working on perfecting a certain piece throughout her pregnancy. She played the tune just about every day for several hours. When the child grew up and became a musician himself, he always had a particular and seemingly unnatural connection to that certain piece and never could understand why.

Other studies show that babies who hear a certain piece of music, or hear a certain poem read seem to recognize, if not prefer, hearing those sounds as newborns and babies.

So....

Since April 15th or so, I have been talking out loud just about every single day about Civil 3D. I've lead an AUGI CAD Matinee, many CAD seminars, custom trainings and about 20 days worth of Essentials training. The Essentials training is the worst because I must speak quite loudly and I repeat myself over and over again for each class.

Does that mean Prospector will come out wanting to hear me read the AOTC? Will I be pacing the hallway at 3AM with a screaming baby only to find out that repeating "General>Toolspace" and "Pick, Right Click, Select Corridor Properties" is the only way to soothe him???

Another book I am reading is called Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know about the Emerging Science of Sex Differences.

For Christmas, my Dad gave me The Female Brain which truly opened my eyes to the fact that despite my distaste for being called "Mrs. Probert", my BSCE and the lack of skirts in my closet, that my brain does indeed work differently from the male brains around me.

When Prospector turned out to be a boy, I wondered if I knew enough about boys... I mean... If there really is something to this Nature over Nuture idea, maybe I'd better study up.

So Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know about the Emerging Science of Sex Differences talks about hard science- real studies of boys and girls, men and women. One thing that struck me is that little boys tend to think, act, draw and be motivated by "verbs"; where little girls tend to lean towards "nouns". For example, a little boy will draw a picture of a rocket flying and crashing into the moon, while a little girl might draw her friends and her on the moon with some trees and a kitten.

This explains why though my daughter does enjoy playing with her Cabella's hunting sets...


She tends to act out little stories with them, while her male pals and cousins tend to zoom them off of cliffs and have the hunter actually hunt things.

So I decided that though I will still buy Prospector his own kitchen set and a doll or two, I must embrace boyness to a higher level.

I can teach him how to change oil, train a retriever, and build a fire, but I am woefully lacking in my understanding of tying knots, building tree forts, setting trip wires and skipping stones.

(My husband, being Canadian and all, can teach him about hockey, tapping maples and making snow angels.)

I began to panic... then I found this book that contained all of the answers.

The Dangerous Book for Boys is 300 pages of everything a boy should know (or at least in the author's opinion). In addition to knots, treeforts and stones, it also covers pirates, important battles, invisible ink, essential grammar, coin tricks and more.

My copy arrived today, and since I have finished Harry Potter, I am hunkering down to read it and practice up my coin tricks. I have 43 days or less until Prospector arrives, and according to this book every boy needs to know 50 essential Latin phrases. Dang it. I should have ordered it last week so I only had to memorize one per day. Well, at least I already know Ad Hoc and Carpe Diem.

Land Desktop Users at the Cadapult CAD Clinic

It was nice to see the Land Desktop users make the trip to the CADapult CAD Clinic at the Atlantic City Aquarium yesterday morning. I managed to catch one with my phone camera during the break.

Something Better For Your Health Than Learning Part Builder

I have spent the past 8 or so days trying to build one part in Part Builder. I have decided that there are probably better things that a person can do for their overall body health and mental sanity.

This includes Eating Deep Fried Twinkies

and if you don't like those, they also had deep fried Oreos or Snickers Bars.

Civil 3D Rocks Book List and Stuff

I used to keep a booklist, but I didn't have time to make it pretty. I found this neat way to make one on amazon, so I did. I'll continue to add more fun stuff to this list- including this year's summer reading assignments for all of you Civil 3D Rocks Book Clubbers out there. (Ok, for me at least).

Civil 3D Rocks Recommended Reads and Good Stuff

Five Stages of Civil3Disillusion

This week I was working on some GIS data for a friend and a potential client. I had my google earth image, my google earth surface, a FEMA floodmap, soils information and land cover datasets all beautifully in place in Delaware State Plane coordinates.

I went to import the Sussex County Parcel boundaries and they came in somewhere in Ohio, which reminded me of the Five Stages of Civil3Disillusion. While the example here is Map related data, the same stages apply for any Civil 3D task you can think of.

Denial : "This dataset must be crap"

You instantly get on the Delaware Geospatial Data Committee newslist and compose an email proclaiming that while the website says that these parcels are referenced to DE83, they are obviously lying. You tried stripping out the .prj file and assigning several other coordinate systems (DE83F, UTM83-18N, etc, etc) and none of them work. You received about 10 responses from very intellegent people that all said they tried the dataset in various software packages from ESRI through Map 3D 2007 and they all worked. On to the next step...

Anger : "The Freaking Program must be crap"

Obviously, it must be Civil 3D's problem. You never really get past this stage in all honesty. Though you may progress and eventually reach the acceptance stage, the mean and scathing direct emails sent to Autodesk QA will always stick with you as the real reason for the problem.

Bargaining : "If I tell you what you want to hear, will you just get me close so I can finish the project?"

Sweet talking Civil 3D works on occasion. Pat it, stroke it. Add more ram, update your video card, play into its vices. Swear you will always follow the Parcel Rules, that your profiles will always be as long as your alignments and you will never complain about the lack of tags for general line labels. You remove the explode command from your CUI all together.

Depression : "I'm way too stupid to learn this program. I give up."

You follow the rules. You work with the toolspace. You watch the webcasts. You still can't find the place to set the code set style to an assembly or figure out how to use otrack to draw an arc in deed recreation. You post a few cries for help on the Autodesk Discussion Groups and are told to RTFM. Autodesk Support tells you it is a known issue and to just get over it. You take out the DVD and try to break it over your knee but realize you are so weak from spending all of these months in front of your computer that you can't break it in half. You try to uninstall it, but it won't let you. In a last ditch moment of desperation, you post to the Swamp. Someone reaches out of the mire to remind you that you are not alone. Thank heaven for the Swamp.

Acceptance : "The problem is between the seat and the keyboard."

After a few days, you take another stab at a fresh project. Your corridor builds like a dream and you save the client some money by moving the road around a high spot that you may not have noticed if you were using Land Desktop. Though your GIS data is still hopelessly lost in space, you realize that this minor setback is a drop in the bucket compared to what you have gained.

After a few days, you reenter the cycle by making a dynamic block that includes annotative objects and building it into a parcel label style.

Happy Bloomsday?

I'm trying to get smart... catching up on the classics, you know- Dickens, Tolstoy, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Shakespeare, etc.

One of the books on the list is Ulysses. OK, it isn't just on the list. It's been on my shelf for about 5 years now just waiting for me to crack it open.

I guess tomorrow is the day I should start according to this article written by a guy I went to grade school with.

Sevenfold Path to the True Meaning of Bloomsday

Intersection Design

http://xkcd.com/c277.html

If you are looking for some information about how to model and intersection in Civil 3D, check out this link:

http://www.civil3d.com/2006/11/another-intersection-sample-drawing/

and this one, too.

http://www.civil3d.com/2006/10/sample-drawing-for-intersections-and-culdesacs/

Sites and Snakes

On my way in to teach at Cadapult this AM, I saw a big ol' black snake in the parking lot. Kevin, the architecture AE and my hero, threw his shoe at it. The snake reacted by slithering under Kevin's car, which made Kevin very happy.

Still Alive

Though rumors have been flying and the occasional shrine erected, I have not fallen off the face of the earth.

Just got in today from Bel Air, MD (on the "other" side of the Chesapeake) and in the past six weeks I've been to Chicago, Ramsey, NJ, Lancaster, PA, and all points down I-95 and Route 1 in Delaware. I'm beat. Mix in wrapping up the last edits and tweaks of our book, throw in a moderate amount of gestation and the occasional nap, and that makes for a very unbloggerific mood. I'll be back soon...

Just a note that June 3rd marked the one year anniversary of the blog post that changed my life. Ha.

It's a Prospector!

I have been incredibly slammed the past few months so it is hard to believe I am more than halfway through my pregnancy. Sometime around Labor Day, we'll be meeting Panorama's little... BROTHER. Found out today. Very exciting news.

Though boys names are easy to come by in the Civil 3D world, we've decided on Prospector. It was a tough call though between Cannon, Corridor, and Label Toggle Pin.

I wish I could sit here and wax poetic on the similarities between a 3D ultrasound and a corridor rendering, but I must get back to work. I'm off to North Jersey tonight, then a busy month with the AUGI CAD Matinee, client visits and a trip to Chicago.

What I Learned at Tech Camp

Those of you who know me, know I carry around a little brown notebook that contains just about every thought and scribble I have ever had.

This week, I filled up the section called "To Blog" with all kinds of great Civil 3D and AutoCAD ideas. Those ideas will be written about on www.civil3d.com later next week once I get caught up on some work here in my home office.

So here I will recap what I learned after I closed that little notebook and FOR ONCE I did not take it along with me to dinner and beyond. I find it hard to believe myself.

1. ADDENDA TO TECH CAMP SURVIVAL GUIDE
I apparently forgotten a few things in my guide. First of all, the snacks out on the afternoon break of the first day are always the best- full sized candy bars, fruit, and other stashables. The TechCamp souvenir bag that you received when you checked in was actually given to you so that you could fill it up with snacks for the week. Don't forget the pony bottles of Perrier and Coke for filling the hotel room fridge.

2. YOU KNOW YOU ARE A NERD WHEN...
You pack a 19" LCD for a trip to Disney World. I could have SWORN it was on the required list right after "Have 337 installed" and "Do your Prework".

3. TECH CAMP VS. THE PEACE CORPS
I finally had a chance to meet some of the newer bloggers, and I especially enjoyed my poolside chat with Louisa from "Civil 3D for Beginners". If you ever considered leaving your career in CAD for a stint with the Peace Corps, make sure you check out Lou's Comparison before trading in your Red or Blue Army polo shirt for a pair of birks.

4. AUTODESK SUPPORT ROCKS
I haven't called or submitted a support request since last year when my login somehow got yanked during a database migration, so I hadn't had a chance to talk to the great new people in Civil Software Support in Manchester. Luckily, Autodesk had the good sense to bring a bunch of them along. They are happy, concerned, super smart and forgiving people who can shake a tail feather to any 80's song you throw their way. Did you know their manager was the 1987 regional breakdance champion?

5. GNOMES
If you leave your laptop unattended, little Canadian Corridor Gnomes will come along and write a special message on your desktop wallpaper. Occasionally, you will also find that your mouse is now controlling your neighbor's cursor. Those silly little elves.

6. LESSONS IN ELECTRONIC AQUATICS
A Pocket PC dropped in the Hot Tub will come back to life after 36 hours of drip dry, however a Palm Treo requires a blessing from Jeebus himself, or at least a call to the insurance company.

7. SONGS WITH FUNK
There are at least forty 70's and 80's hit tunes with the word "Funk" or "Funky" in them, and no shortage of wordplay that can be done with the word "Funk". If your last name was Funk, you might think that was cool.

8. FUN CAN STILL BE HAD...
Apparently being a pregnant workaholic doesn't mean that a gal can't have some small amount of fun. I mean, there is NOTHING more fun that Civil 3D, but when your eyes go blurry and there is not another Harry Potter to read until July, sometimes a few hours pretending desani is a a corona and pretending you have some rhythm isn't such a bad thing.

9. IS THERE LIFE AFTER AG?
The knowledge base doesn't have a workaround for a missing AG, but the general concensus was that though we were desperately short of tall italian guys, that yes, it is possible to smile again. We always poured an extra drink for him just in case, but alas, it appears he was really not going to show up.

I am looking forward to seeing you all again at Autodesk University, because as we all found out....there is still so much dancing to be done.

And with that- back to the Salt Mines!

Read what Dana Reads

I read a lot of blogs. AutoCAD blogs, Civil 3D blogs, just about every kind of blog that has anything to do with anything. I have had one request for the list of blogs from my feedreader. Therefore, I figure there must be at least 100,000 more of you out there DYING read what I read.

So, if you are too lazy to go to Angel's blog and find the feeds for everything on his list, you can download my XML file here and import it into your favorite feed reader- such as Google Reader, Bloglines or others.

Save this XML file and follow the directions in your feedreader for import. (I did strip out the lamer blogs, such as my brother's myspace rants and the like.)

http://www.civil3d.com/Downloads/whatdanareads.xml

For information about reading blogs using a feed reader:
http://civil3drocks.blogspot.com/2006/06/bloglines-keep-up-with-your-favorite.html

http://www.civil3d.com/index.php/2006/08/make-reading-blogs-easier-aka-what-is-that-weird-orange-square/

http://www.civil3d.com/index.php/2006/11/get-civil-3dcom-in-your-email/

The $3000 Cell Phone Charger

I'll admit it. I have had an email addiction since I was 18. During my first week at Georgia Tech, I was assigned a seven digit alphanumeric code that would be my login, my email address and a fixture of my self expression. For the following four years, I would answer to "gt1912a" almost more often than I would answer to "Dana".

In the days before laptops and pdas, gt1912a would walk from Unix terminal to Unix terminal around campus on her way to class, lunch and swim practice and compulsively check her email and read the gt.discussion groups. We came up with elaborate telnet schemes so that we could login to the school servers over holidays and when off campus. (Can you imagine life before webmail? God, it was awful.)

As gt1912a grew up a little more, she became dlbreig@, then soon became dbprobert@, but she never lost that addiction to email. Hotmail made things easier, then exchange servers with web interfaces, then laptops with wireless... but not until this November when I obtained my first pocketpc/cell phone did I truly know what life could be.

I used to run into the house and turn on my computer before anything else. Still wrapped up in winter clothes or muddy boots or after six hours in the car with 3 cups of coffee and no rest stops, I would press send/receive just to see what I missed.

Now, I never miss a message.

The thing about the Brick is that the battery doesn't last too long, so if I forget to plug it in when I get home, it isn't ready for me next time I want to leave. So I am pretty diligent about plugging it in.

Well, the other night, I must have unplugged it. When I went to leave in the morning, the battery was hopelessly dead. To quote one of my favorite children's books "Oh doom and disaster what absense of mind...!"

Desparate for a solution, I dug into the tech bucket of stuff only to find no compatible car chargers. Our only AC outlet type inverter was in Mr. Probert's truck fueling his laptop, minifridge and electric razor so that wasn't possible....

Then a brilliant idea. I have an inverter that came with my laptop.... and a USB cord for the Brick... So I took this pile of wires and equipment out to the car. I plugged the laptop into the lighter and the Brick into the laptop. And I exhaled slowly with intense relief knowing that I wouldn't miss TenLinks that day.

AUGI CAD Matinee May 17 in Philadelphia

I posted this already over on www.civil3d.com but on the off chance you land here on Civil 3D Rocks, I want to make sure you know about the AUGI CAD Matinee that is coming to town!

CAD Matinees are similar in style to Autodesk University Classes- 70 minute lecture style classes with detailed handouts and a chance to ask questions and learn new things.

To register and for more information visit the AUGI website, or this link: http://www.cadmatinee.com/philadelphia/default.asp

Here are the agendas for the classes I am teaching:

AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2008
(S1-4) Using Civil 3D 2008 for Stormwater Management Tasks
Instructor: Dana Breig Probert, E.I.T.
This class will show you how to harness the power of Civil 3D 2008 to assist in designing and performing a TR-55 or Rational Method Stormwater Management Analysis, as well as designing a pipe network for storm drainage. Though the case study used in this class is a drainage design, anyone interested in learning more about surfaces and pipe networks, and creating tables and expressions for any application are encouraged to attend. We’ll take you from building a surface from aerial topo data to complete surface analysis for pipe tables and schedules.

AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2008
(S2-4) Building a Subdivision from Boundary to Plat with Civil 3D 2008
Instructor: Dana Breig Probert, E.I.T.
This class will focus on the parcel creation and analysis tools in Civil 3D 2008. We will leverage free GIS data such as FEMA floodlines, wetlands inventory and adjacent parcel boundaries as well as topography and image information from Google Earth to assist us in our initial design. Then we will go through Parcel creation best practices and create a labeled site plan. Finally, we’ll cover simple visualization ideas for effective public hearings and presentations

Come to the Possibilities Tour in Washington DC

I'm planning on attending the "Experience the Possibilities" Tour in Washington D.C. next Thursday, April 12.

There is an industry session in the morning and an AutoCAD Tips and Tricks session in the afternoon.

If you haven't seen Civil 3D in action yet, this would be a good chance to see it, plus a chance to interact with the local resellers and talk to people like me who are in the trenches.

Unless I run into some sort of family logistics issue (which tends to happen quite a bit when you have 2 dogs, a 3 year old and a husband who works for the DOT), I should be there for breakfast.

Here is the link to the FREE Registration:

http://experience.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/?view=civil&i=1113

TechCamp Survival Guide

It's that time of year again, Reseller AEs! We have been called to the mothership for our annual pilgrammage to someplace-warmer-than-Anchorage for TechCamp (the Event Formerly Known as Bootcamp). This will be my fifth time attending TechCamp, so I figured I would share some highlights from Camps of Yore as well as some Tips for the First Timer.

February 2004- Regional Bootcamp Baltimore
I was about 20 days from delivering Panorama and I had the flu. People looked at me with a combination fear (timebomb) and digust (germ machine). Sheet sets were new and in about 2 years I would actually understand them. The Civil software (LDT) wasn't ready or something so I was dismissed early the second day.

October 2004- Civil 3D Mid Year Release in Chicago
This odd little bootcamp was over a weekend. I left PHL at 6AM and arrived just in time for the start of the first class. I would have been ontime if the cab I found actually took Visa like he had said he did at the airport and I didn't have to pace the hotel looking for an ATM. At lunch that day, I wound up sitting with Nick Zeeben, which is how we met and in about 2 years I would remember his name, despite meeting him at every AU and TechCamp in between. I still don't understand him.

April 2005-Civil 3D 2006 Release in Orlando
This is the camp where I learned: 1) Civil 3D changed my life 2) A burger in downtown Disney costs $40 3)There is an amazing salon at the Buena Vista Palace

April 2006- Civil 3D 2007 Release in Dallas
My first (and only) Bootcamp with Beth as my roommate. I learned it is less fun rooming with a technical person because you aren't interrupted at 3AM by someone coming in giggling, and you have no one to make fun of at breakfast the next day because they are currently sleeping through the alarm. I learned Civil 3D Rocks, and _almost_ remembered Nick's name this time. I didn't meet Jason at this Bootcamp, but he learned about snagit (thebest $40 ever spent) at this Bootcamp and a few weeks later he told me about it. So that is important. Also at this Bootcamp I had my first conversation with James Wedding.
"Hi, James, I'm Dana Probert"
"Dana, nice to meet you. I have to go troubleshoot a Vault install.

April 2007- Civil 3D 2008 Release (Prediction)
While the Tech sessions at Bootcamp could barely qualify as business causual, having sales folks around meant that there was a little bit of pressure to match their typically sharper duds, perfume, white teeth and good hair. So I predict that people show up for class this year in frayed jeans, stained sweatshirts and $0.99 flip flops.

There will also be decidely fewer women around, so the male AEs will probably leave with some money left in their expense accounts. It just isn't as much fun to buy six rounds of Bud Lite for a bunch of guys. This kind of plays into the fashion thing too... and I imagine we'll see some three day beards by Thursday.

Now for those of you that are new to the glam world of being an AE, you might need some pointers. Most of us Civil AEs came from engineer firms that didn't do work outside of a 10 mile radius of the office, so the idea of flying to an exotic location may be intimidating at first. Fear not. Here is your guide:

Don't bother installing the latest build before you get to Florida. When they say you should have it installed, it is just like they said when ICE had the pre-req of having installed XP from scratch.

They just have to say something.

In fact, don't bother to install software during the software loading party, either. It would be such a buzzkill to babysit "Install Express Tools? Yes" while you could be loading up on munchies and gossiping about how much weight Dana has gained since AU ("Dude, it's like she's pregnant*** or something!") and shedding a tear or two about how much you will miss AG's animated classes. ("I don't think anyone can take a swig of water midsentence like him, sniff")

Besides, there would be nothing to do during the first half hour of the first class if you had your install ready to go, because you know nobody else will.

As soon as you enter the hotel, before you even check in, sign up for the wireless service. Don't cheap out and try to piggy back on a free connection, after all, the company is paying for this! You need to make sure you can stay in constant communication with the home office, the sales staff, your mom, your gtalk contacts and the Swamp. Troubleshoot any VPNs, exchange server connections, POP accounts, etc. You won't be able to enjoy a second of the Florida Sunshine if you are worried about your wireless.

Choose your chair before you go in to fight the crowd for breakfast. Pick a row towards the back and a seat on the end. Arrange all of your stuff. Then remove at least one chair from your row and line it up with the extras in the back of the room. Go back to your seat and spread out a little. This will prevent anyone from sitting too close to you and will leave room on the table for the manga you brought with you to read during the lecture. If you can't stomach breakfast, go down in your pajamas with some of your gear then go back to your room and sleep until the very last minute. This seat you pick on this first morning is yours FOREVER. Unless of course you want to move seats tomorrow. Then the person whose seat you are taking needs to get over it.

Always leave at empty seat at your table at Lunch in case Lynn Allen wants to sit there. I even set an empty seat at my dinner table at home just in case... But last year, she actually did sit down with us. We, of course, were star struck and embarassed and silent. Althought I did say something that scared her away after she finished her meal. She may not be at tech camp this year since they separated it from the Sales Camp, but you never know.

Spend some time before you go reading the Civil 3D and LDT discussion groups and Blogs and familiarize yourself with peoples REAL NAMES. Don't make the mistake of picking on BlackDog7 when his real name is Johann Smith from CADtastic in Tulsa and actually sitting across the table from you.

It is also rude to address people by their blog name. At AU, I actually called Matt Castelli "Tapping into Civil 3D". How embarassing. You will probably need a guide for this. Latch on to some wizened old AE who knows everyone and have them point them out. Or better yet, we all wear name tags, sharpen up your reading skills.

On the flip side, it is handy to help people figure out who you are if you say something like "I'm Sandy Satchel, from LippiCAD in Memphis. I write The Civil 3D Files blog", but don't be surprised if it doesn't have the same ring as "I'm Anderson Cooper from CNN"

If a man from Florida wearing shorts and suspenders and a camoflague hat tells you to bring your pet potbellied pig to his pig reserve- DON'T DO IT. I'll let him tell the story, he does a much better job.

And this one is serious...

Do all of the prework and attend all of the sessions. I am planning on it- even though I helped write some of the material. Why? Because you can always learn something. The folks that are teaching the classes have a different spin on things than we do, the people sitting next to us also have different experiences to share. I know there are things I know nothing about (new features of AutoCAD, plan production, survey, etc) and things that though I may have banged on it a lot, I am still missing a lot of pieces (pipe rules). Though the material is designed to appeal to a broad cross section of AEs- from beginner to experienced- it will be easy for many of us who have been down this road before to say "There is nothing for me to learn here". But I personally know that I will learn a whole lot. I always do.

Now if I could just remember the name of that nice Canadian boy with the nice shoes who has a way with Part Builder.....

***Yes, I am.

As if it could get any worse...

Never Put Your Heart in the Bracket

The first round is over, and my soul is heavy after facing the UNLV full court press and watching the Blue Devil turn pale as the blood drained from his face during the last minute of play... It was enough to make me cheer against Virginia Tech, despite the fact that I picked them, because my other "Tech"s were done and it just wouldn't be fair if they got to go on.

Two-thirds of the EE Civil Team is out- James with his Texas Tech squad, me with the Yellow Jackets- but Scacco is still alive since Purdue won.

I put my slippers on the wrong Cinderellas!

I had such hope that Penn could make this year the year that they got out of the first round and that between them and 'Nova there would be a Big 5 Final Four (as The BSAider said to me today- "I'm a sucker for the Palestra")

This is what happens when you fill out your bracket with your heart and not your head...

There are some shining moments though- Pitt is still alive (with some help from Canada), Winthrop could be the new Gonzaga and there is still plenty of ACC at the dance.

Good thing I am through with Harry Potter, cause I got a lot of ball to watch this weekend.



All I can say is... C'MON VANDERBILT!!

More on Wet Ankles and Parking Lots

You've heard me complain about it before.... But today I am sitting here with wet ankles again, and I feel it is my duty to make sure all of you parking lot designers out there realize that the rear passenger side door is NOT a good place for a flowline.

I should have had one of the other parent's take the movie and so you could see me in my sweatpants and crocs getting soaked, but I decided to spare you. Perhaps when I pick up Panorama this afternoon I will take a ruler.

My Camtasia skills are right up there with my Revit skills, so forgive me for my weird callouts and lack of silence in the last few seconds.

The Bracket

It's that time of year again... Where we can pretend we have been following College Basketball all year long, when really we just went to ncaasports.com this morning and printed the bracket.

(Click below to download Dana's Bracket )




I've always though March Madness was a good bit of fun ever since high school, but now I think it reminds me of all the fun we had going to games when I was in college. As if somehow, by filling out my bracket, I would magically turn 20 again.

I'd wake up standing in the dorm wearing my roommate's jeans and frayed GT logo sweatshirt... with my hair carefully arranged under a ballcap to have the appearance of causual neglect... with nothing but a $20 and some chapstick in my pocket... heading off to watch Stephon Marbury, Matt Harpring and the gang take on the ACC every other Saturday in the coliseum that was affectionately nicknamed after a part of the female upper torso.

It doesn't quite work that way, but I still enjoy filling out my bracket and getting up to speed on probably one of my most favorite spectator sports. I dig the College game immensely... it involves more thinking and finesse than the pro version. You can actually see defensive strategy and passing as opposed to the steady dunk and dirty foul fest that follows the pro game.

Here are Dana's Rules for filling out your bracket (note that none of these have anything to do with who is the better basketball team):

1) If Georgia Tech make it to the big dance- you always make sure they go all the way. No matter what.

2) Temple, Villanova, St. Joe's, Penn and any other greater Philadelphia area colleges should be picked to win at least their first two rounds, unless they come up against Georgia Tech as above.

3) ACC schools that were "nice" to me when I was in school are next (Meaning their swim clubs agreeed to host a meet, they were polite at away games or they have nice school colors). This includes Duke, Wake Forest and UNC. ACC schools that weren't nice to me (or have bad school colors) lose right away. Clemson, NC State, etc.

4) If Georgia (UGA) made the dance, they are OUT first round.

5) Any school that rejected my application for enrollment is eliminated in the first round. (Rice, Stanford)

6) Pick some school that either sounds really cool, you've never heard of or is located someplace really neat and take them pretty far until they run into something as above. (Weber St, Winthrop)

7) Pick Engineering Schools, 'cause you know that the nerds attending those schools need a break from studying and the only way they will take one is when their school keeps moving forward. I would say- to support the engineer/athlete, but I know the GT squad only had an engineering major once ever 5 years or something. But still, we pasty faced tech dorks can pretend it has something to do with us...(Purdue, Texas Tech, Virginia Tech)

That should just about do it. Your bracket should be about 75% filled in after that, so now you just randomly fill in teams in the spaces.

DANA's FINAL FOUR

Georgia Tech
Villanova
Vanderbilt
Penn