My first Con

During the holiday season, I am re-posting an article from my previous blog.  This post was originally published in August 2010.  However, Brian and I still did not attend GenCon in 2011.

Having geeky family and geeky friends in Indiana, I am all too aware that I missed GenCon this year. Unfortunately, the combination of finances from visiting my Mom and losing income in her final months, and the family schedule, made a trip to Indianapolis in early August unworkable this year. I hope to make it back next year.

STEM to STEAM

I've been seeing several articles in my TwitterStream about changing from promoting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) to promoting STEAM, with an A for Arts.  Here is a synopsis from the Rhode Island School of Design and the National Science Foundation.

I have several reasons for supporting this transition, for encouraging the Arts with STEM.  For just one example, I was one of the AIAA judges for the NASA Great Moonbuggy Race last spring.  We awarded the Best Design prize to an RISD team.  They had one SWEET rover, functional and beautiful at the same time.

But for me, support of the arts is much more personal.  The arts changed my life.  I could even go so far as to say that the arts saved my life.  This is me, at age 18.  The gentleman I'm with?  We've been married for 14 years.

I made him promise, while we were courting, that we would never give up music again.  I'm not sure how well I would say we kept that promise, we have had phases where we didn't play or sing, but we are both back in music again now, and loving every minute of it.

Glee, Television, and the A in STEAM

Two years ago in December, my son and I made an emergency "plane, bus, and automobile" trip north to visit my mother after another hospitalization in her battle with cancer.  To get out of town, my brother Sguth gave us a ride to the station.  He had a CD playing, and after a short listen I commented "That's not Journey."

"No, it's Glee."

9 reasons to join a Professional Organization

During the holiday season, I am re-posting an article from my previous blog.

Today I want to bring my blog back to STEM. Specifically, engineering professional organizations.

Why join a professional organization?