Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Programming

One of the classes I took in my first semester was C programming.  The class was held in the huge lecture hall in the Class of 1950 building.  The class looked to me to have a decent mix of guys and gals, but then we were divided into sections for our lab homework.  While I had a female Teaching Assistant, I was one of only three female students in the lab.  The rest were all guys.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Astronauts at Purdue

This weekend was very hectic.  Worried about storms, trying to write, catching "8" on YouTube (not live).  

I'm working on the Annual Budget Drive at my church, and we're doing testimonials each Sunday.  The people we were trying to reach for yesterday's service weren't going to be ready in time, so I gave my testimonial.  Writing a 1-minute speech about what my church means to me and why I contribute to it... was difficult.  That sort of "from-the-heart" discussion is one that I usually prefer to improvise, since that seems to work for me.  But I need to provide the transcripts for the newsletter, and I can't do that with an improvised speech.  So I had to write it.

Anyway.  I promised to tell the story of performing for Neil Armstrong.  One of our first performances in the marching band happened on a Thursday afternoon, when we would normally be at rehearsal.  Purdue had just finished a capital campaign, called Vision 21.  The co-chairs of that effort were Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan, the first and last men to have walked on the moon.  Both were supposed to be at this outdoor event on campus.  Later that evening / weekend there would be a big fancy dinner with the jazz band, but the $75 tickets were well beyond my student means.