August 2014

Randy "Pitches" in the Minors

I took three trips up to Everett this month. It's exactly 30 miles from Randy's apartment to our house in Bellevue. On August 11th, Randy threw ought the first pitch at the Everett AquaSox game. Nathanael, Don, and I got free tickets to join him at the game, but the all-you-can-eat barbeque beforehand for $12 each did not live up to the hype. Hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, and pop was nothing special.

What was special was the chance to get on the field behind home plate and capture "the throw" — a ball, but he got it to the plate. The stadium rules said, "no professional cameras," so I left my big lens home. The 55-200mm one I used worked fine because the sun was still out.

In the bottom of the 9th, with no outs and one man on first, with the game tied 2-2, the game was halted due to an approaching lightning storm. We headed for the cars and drove to Randy's apartment in a downpour and lightning.

Randy has reported more than four break-ins of his apartment and truck. On the 23rd, I drove up there to help him secure his windows. I fixed his four sliding windows so they couldn't be opened from the outside. But while I was there I searched through his drawers, boxes, and pockets and found a number of items which he had reported as missing. The main items he reported taken in the last event, were his apartment keys and car keys. At least these are still missing.

In light of his troubles and his anxiety, Randy has decided to move by the end of September. Nathanael and I drove up there again on Saturday the 30th. My week of house cleaning (see below) meant that we had many good empty boxes to take to him for packing. And we also went with him to check on a possible new apartment.

Randy is clearly becoming forgetful since he could not remember which of his valuables are now being stored at our house. We have a growing collection of Randy's things. And his siblings have a growing concern for him.

August Means Renaissance Faire Time

In my summer cleaning, I came across pictures of me in the revolutionary costume mom sewed for me to wear at scout camp in 1975. Nathanael wore it this summer to the "Ren Faire" in Bonney Lake. This one had a Pirate theme.

Q: How much did the pirate pay for his peg leg and hook?

A: An arm and a leg!

Q: Why is pirating addictive?
A: They say once ye lose yer first hand, ye get hooked.

Q: Why did the pirate go on vacation?
A: He needed some AARRRRGGH and AARRRRGGH!

Tom & Laurie have a New Home, Sorta

Laurie and Tom have been in town for much of August, staying first with Adam and Katherine, and then at Don and Judy's while they have been up at their lake cabin. Laurie showed me pictures of their foundation being prepared, but her first shots were of this hole in the ground. Their new home is scheduled to be finished (hopefully) in late December. It will have a full basement.

With their first grandson on the way from Katherine, (still living in Seattle), and the wedding of Patrick and Rachel in Maryland next August, Laurie and Tom will be very busy. We expect them back in town in October and again in December. I suspect we'll have a Sleight family Husky football party at Don's house that will double as a baby shower.

	Getting Used to My New Office I get to work 20 to 30 minutes earlier than in recent years. Having an east facing window puts the sun in my eyes but I feel energized by
my bright, bushy view. The plantings hide my office from the pedestrian path about eight feet in front of my window. But it does not hide me from the humming birds that like to zoom by. Nice!
A Different Kind of Summer Vacation I took off the last week of the month with the plan to put my basement office back in service. With the Labor Day holiday, that's a 10 day break. But after only five days of cleaning, I got "my" room back. As I near 60, I know it's time to cull much of the debris of my history.
Nancy at 59 While shopping at Home Depot, Nancy suddenly announced that she wanted a garden fork for her birthday. I already had this beret for her. ACL Surgery Number Two on August 25th Jean knows the drill and is rehabbing her right leg now. She should be good to go when school starts. By the 29th she was sleeping upstairs instead of on the sofa. She has a machine which we fill with ice and water to cool her knee, and another one to give it exercise.

Surprises from the Basement Laurie and Tom were in town and Laurie came by to go through photos from Mom and Dad and to pick up a box of her school papers. We came upon a small envelope with the words, "to Mary E. Pickard Personal Very Personal." It was a hand-written letter from my mom to her mom, dated a month and a half before our birth. (Or is it "births?") It passed on the news that apparently grandma Mary had correctly predicted that Jean was carrying twins. And it was clear that Jean was not about to tell our father Dick about the pending surprise! A scan of the letter is attached. Among the many pictures, we came across these from Laurie's wedding. My girlfriend Carol (center)and sister-in-law Judy were serving cake to my future mother-in-law Ginger. And my future bride was serving coffee. It didn't seem as awkward at the time as it sounds now. But I suspect my relatives were more likely picturing Carol as a future "Sleight" instead of Nancy Rutherford. I recall that I caught the garter.

Bits and Pieces

♦ Andrea (right), Jean's roommate since her first quarter at SPU, is staying with us for the two months before they move back to SPU. She is from San Diego but has an internship with the Army Corps of Engineers in south Seattle. Before Jean's surgery, these two took a one-day trip over and back to see Grand Coulee Dam. Andrea is an Engineering student interested in hydrology.

♦ On April 25th, my dean submitted our latest accreditation mainenance report. I was not brought in on this project until very late. We'll know in late October if we are still in good standing with AACSB.

♦ Nathanael starts work back at Newport Heights Elementary School. He finally admitted to me that he loves his work so much he'd be happy to do it for many years. It's certainly his call — and perhaps his calling. He is also running with the BCS Cross Country team again this season.

♦ I'm happy (and relieved) to report that my blind student dropped BUS 1700 and may take it at a later time. I suggested she do it as an independent study class so I can work with her one-on-one.

♦ Bible teaching at Emerald Heights ended on August 7th at Matthew 24:31. Some members of the group invided Nancy and I to lunch. An honorarium of $675 was a nice gesture. If and when I do more Bible teaching, I certainly won't be doing it for the money, but because I feel called to it.

My Quote from August

Our Father in Heaven —

We love You. But too often we grow weary in well doing —

forgetting Your power, and love, and grace, and gifts that sustain us.
We want to love our neighbors — but those perennial attractions of Vanity Faire distract us.
Thank You for today’s reminder that all we need to do is follow while You lead.

You are our Teacher, our Father, and our Leader.
Help us be Your better students, children and followers.

For Jesus’ sake. ― Amen

From my lesson this month at the conclusion of Matthew 23:1-12.

BUS 1700 Spreadsheets

When I go online and read my quarterly student evaluations for BUS 1700, I often get depressed. When I've put in so much effort grading papers and preparing lessons, assignments, and exams, I expect the quality to show. My ratings seven years ago were uniformly high. But it seems the students today (not all of them) have different expectations. They expect 1-credit courses to require little effort. On a 5 point scale, my three identical courses had these weighted median overall instructor ratings: 4.67, 3.75, 2.67

A 4.67 says I was excellent. A 2.67 says I was awful. It's discouraging, but these results were from less than a quarter of the students. The others did not choose to even complete an evaluation.

But then, when I was feeling down about the one class that qualifies me to be a faculty member, I got some surprising encouragement.

On the 18th, Tim Healy, Director of the A.C.E. (Associates in Cultural Exchange) Language Institute at Seattle Pacific University stopped by my new office to chat. A few years ago I had developed a complete grade reporting system for his organization. A.C.E. is only loosely tied to SPU and does not have access to our online grading system. I had not heard how the system had worked for them. I developed it completely from scratch while meeting dozens of their design requirements. I expected him to say that they had not actually implemented it. Instead, he went on and on about how it had streamlined their whole grading and student tracking process and how it helped give students timely feedback. He said it was a better system than a new one from an outside vendor that they might have to move to. (Everything seems to be moving to "the cloud.") It was great to hear that something extensive I had created, pro bono, had been such a success.

The weekend before this, I had gotten this email from a spring BUS 1700 student. It restored my faith in what I do as a teacher at SPU.

Hello Dr. Sleight, 

I just wanted to send a quick note to thank you for teaching my spreadsheets class last quarter - and especially for structuring the class like you did. 

I'm employed at B/E Aerospace in Paine Field this summer as a paid product support intern in one of their business departments. My daily duties involve spreadsheets nearly 99% of the time, and my boss has been continually expressing her appreciation for the quality of work I produce and my capabilities - she's even offered me continued employment after the internship concludes as a private contractor for the company, and very possible employment for next summer as well.

I couldn't have done any of this without the knowledge I gained from your spreadsheets class this quarter. A few days ago, for example, I created a Milestones chart for the department that indicates whether a project is on-time, late, or ahead of schedule based on various formulas, period of time that the task should take, etc. It was simple to make, knowing what I now know, but my boss was absolutely blown away. :) It will really help to keep the department organized, on track, and even exceeding their milestones/goals.

Another project I've been working on is the organization and compilation of a lengthy list of parts that international and domestic airlines ought to buy from us, as well as pricing, various formulas for various outputs, etc. - this requires efficiency and considerable mastery of Excel, and it has been a great exercise in retaining the information we learned in class this spring. We also use V-lookup, pivot tables, referencing, etc.

I'm so glad I took the spreadsheets class from you last quarter, because I truly believe my internship experience would have been very difficult without knowing the ins and outs of Excel. People who have worked there for years have started asking me how to use Excel, and I find some sort of sick satisfaction in using Excel in my personal business affairs, too! ;)  For example, I'm mapping out which hotels and destinations are best for my upcoming trip to DC, and also calculating a 100-mile workout challenge that predicts how many miles I should run each day to stay on-track for my goal.

Life is so much more organized now! It may seem like a small, insignificant program, but Excel has made the difference in my career success and personal organization already.

THANK YOU for teaching Spreadsheets and for making it rigorous but understandable. 

Students might not realize how much you're contributing to their success until 10 or even 20 years down the road, but trust me, what you're doing does make a difference and I really appreciate it!

I hope you're having a wonderful summer, one of healing & restoration, and I look forward to seeing you around campus in the fall.

Thank you, 

Sarah Martin

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