Grad School? What the #$@&?!

In my post back in June I noted that I had applied to grad school at the University of Michigan, and it's WAY past time to give an update:

Turns out I was accepted by the School of Information (SI for short) for Fall '08 admission, and I started classes back at the beginning of September.

Why change careers and why SI? Good questions! Been asking myself those at least twice a day for the last 6 months. As far as career change, this is something I've have thought about for maybe the last five years. I felt like I'd reached a plateau at work, and didn't want to stay on that same horizontal line for the next 20 years. Probably reaching the 20yr mark in my career, and reflecting back, caused me to consider if I wanted to do something different. Sort of the second phase of my mid-life crisis.

I started out by considering what other roles I could play at work. Then thought that I if I was really going to tear things up that I should consider if a completely new career would be attractive, which then led to going back to school for an advanced degree. Didn't really want to do another engineering degree. Thought about teaching K-12 for a little while. Then sat down and listed out what skills/interests I had from my current work, and started hunting around for a program that fit that. Since I'm not 18 any longer, I only looked at schools within commuting distance, and really focused on UofM for obvious reasons (alumni, legacy, location, reputation, etc.). After looking at several programs I hit on the School of Information.

So why SI? Several reasons, really.
- I want to use as much of the knowledge and skill I've acquired over the years, but in a non-engineering role.
- I think this degree will give me more flexibility in choice of employer, as well as location. As the auto industry and Michigan continue to decline this becomes more important.
- Although I'm still trying to resolve this, I have the opportunity to pursue a career that can be focused on the public interest rather than private industry.
- The school aims to have a diverse student body, and makes a point to include folks with backgrounds similar to mine.
- SI is right in my backyard. I can attend one of the finest schools in the country, and walk or ride my bike to class.

I chose to pursue the Archives & Records Management specialization as this seemed to align most closely with my what I could bring from my existing career. Plus, I've always had interests in history, genealogy, photography and some other areas that fall under the archives "umbrella".

So, that's a little of the how and why. Of course there's more. Anyone doing this is bound to be a a rolling psych experiment.

But now on to Fall '08!

- Brian

Shoe Update

So, just a few days after putting on the new tires Ann Arbor got a 7" snow fall.


Yes, that is a Mazda 3 under there somewhere. City was on top of the street plowing this time, at least in our neighborhood, and I was easily able to get out and around. Car now handles reasonably well in 3-4 inches of snow and slush, with very little wheel-spin. Tires are somewhat noisy on the freeway, but I'm willing to trade that for the improved traction.

- Brian

New Shoes

The Mazda got new shoes today. Two pair of Kuhmo Ecsta ASX all-season tires. Purchased through Tire Rack and installed by Ann Arbor Tire. Photo on the left is the old left front, the original Goodyear RS-A, with 37,800 miles on it. Basically, an F1 grooved dry tire. Photo on right is the new left front Kuhmo. Supposed to get some snow tonight and tomorrow, so they'll be put to the test right away. I could barely make it up Hill St. in the slush with the "race" tires.













Bye for now,

Brian

Weighty Matters

Since late last summer I've been trying to reverse more than a few years of bodily neglect. This has involved working with a personal trainer on a once-per-week basis, cycling, running, walking and to some extent watching my diet.
As part of this I've tracked my weight on a nearly daily basis, weighing myself in the morning before eating breakfast. I've then been entering the info into a spreadsheet and generating pretty graphs. You can take the engineer out of engineering, but you can't take the engineering out of the engineer. Or something like that.Graph shows weekly average weight plotted for each of the last 64 weeks. Average weight for week 1 was 187.2 lbs. and for week 64 (just completed) is 169.1 lbs., for a loss of 18.1 lbs. Also threw a trendline on the data which indicates I'm losing about 0.25 lbs. per week. Max to min loss over the 64 weeks is a higher than the average, working out to 24.5 lbs.

- Brian

A Bit About Dad

Before my Dad dedicated himself to model railroading and being a land baron, he was Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan School of Music. I found this page today that I thought was pretty cool and gives some insight into what GBW is all about: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/livingmusic/browse_interviews&mode=single&recordID=749321&nextMode=list

-Brian

Catching Up

It seems I have some catching up to do. I went and started this blog back in November and haven't posted anything since. And so, some of things that have happened in the meantime in roughly chronological order:

- Traveled to China on business for 10 days in December. Spent most the the time in and around Chongqing visiting suppliers, but also traveled to Wenzhou, Ruxian and Shanghai. Very interesting and exciting.
- My Dad developed prostate cancer and broke the news to us on Super Bowl Sunday back in January. He has since completed a course of radiation treatment, which appears to have been successful based on recent test results.
- Continued working out on pretty much weekly basis with Amy at Coach Me Fit.
- My father-in-law passed away in late February
- Ran in my first road race since 1981. The Shamrocks & Shenanigans 5K in March . Did a 27:12.
- Spent a week in Boston with the kids. Walked the Freedom Trail, climbed to the top of the Bunker Hill Monument, and visited Harvard Yard.
- Applied for fall admission to grad school at the University of Michigan.

Of course there's been all the usual day-to-day stuff like work, getting kids back and forth to school/soccer/cello/etc, taking out the trash, shoveling snow, and mowing the lawn.

That's all for now.

Brian

Joining The Blogosphere

Having read other blogs over the last couple of years I've decided to give it a try myself.

I'll make no guarantees with regard to the quantity, quality, usefulness, insightfulness, or any other -ity or -ness of the content.

Enjoy.