Progress (with help) in coding for teaching

I am not a natural coder. I don’t think my brain is systematic enough. At university they tried in vain to teach me C, and were a bit more successful with Turbopascal. I have since had to dabble in things like GMT for plotting maps, SED and AWK for data processing (can't find a blogpost about that), R for purposes of Bacon (Bayesian age modelling software) and Matlab for multivariate statistics. And in the end I always get there (sometimes with some help), but it’s never smooth. 

I now have to teach freshers R, in Welsh. And I had decided I should use that software myself. I am too stuck in my old-fashioned ways. I can do quite a lot of things in Excel, but that is not efficient. And I doubt it is the best skill to give the students. Will their future employers want that? Well actually, I suppose they do, but they will want them to be able to code as well. And then I need to be able to do it too. So now that I had to work with it for the Welsh teaching anyway, I figured I should learn it properly. And I had already stuck my nose in for the project of my master student.

Every year I take the students of my Ice and Oceans module into the field, and make them measure the directions of striations. They have to then brought these up. And so do I. And as you will have guessed, I have been doing this in Excel so far. But I wanted to learn how to do it in R. So I tried.

Rose diagram made in Excel

Initially, I didn't get anywhere at all! You can use RStudio as a desktop app, or use it online. The problem was a bit that it seemed that my desktop app needed updates it didn't want to do, and couldn't run the commands I wondered without that update. And when I am working online I don't know where my home directory is. So I don't know how to get files in or out, and that complicates things. Especially if the packages you want to download don't seem to work. Do they end up in the wrong place? Difficult to find out if you don't know where anything goes.

At some point I asked my colleague Marianna if she could help. She was happy to. And typical enough, everything just worked when she was sitting next to me. Of course it did! So I could run the command I needed for a rose diagram. And when that was sorted, everything else was not difficult any more. I had to customise the plots, as the command assumed you are talking about wind speeds and directions, and I'm not, but I did manage to make it work for my purposes. Most of that using RStudio documentation, but also AI. I quickly found out AI doesn't know which command works with which class of object. It could still help with other things, but for combining several plots you need text written by humans! 

I am not entirely there yet! I still haven't really worked out how to import and export if I am working online. I have in the meantime managed to run the same command on the desktop app, but for some reason it sometimes still refuses. Computers are supposed to be logical and consistent. I haven't worked this out yet. But I can make the whole batch of rose diagrams in one go now. That will do for now!

Rose diagram made in RStudio

With this done I can move on to the plotting I do for other modules! I think that will be less complicated. Let's hope I'm right…

Thursday night hill training in Talysarn

I did say I shouldn't blog about every single Thursday night training, but this one was worth mentioning as well! We would be going to Talysarn, and run through the quarry. I love that. I have done it on my own as well.

It could have got quite sociable! I had suggested to my colleague Chris we should car share, but he had pulled a muscle and bailed out. And as well; my friend and colleague Martyn lives in Talysarn, and he said I could pop over for a cup of tea afterwards. That sounded lovely! But on the actual day, their child was ill and it didn't seem to be a good opportunity. But I could still go running!

The weather forecast wasn't very good, so I brought my hat and my adjusted expectations. And drove to the meeting place. In spite of the weather there was quite a big group! And after a while we set off.

Fairly soon we were in the quarry. I recognised the path along the big pit. But then we went out of the quarry, and into the agricultural land around it. That was beautiful too! And very dreamy, in the fog. At some point I wasn't quite sure where I was. But the people leading the run still did.

On an old tramway (I suppose) just above the village 

Through the ruin-strewn fields

There was a bit more hostile vegetation there than I had hopen

Going for a look at a Virgin Mary I had encountered before during an archeological walk

Waiting for the stragglers 

We did quite a run! It was 12 km in the end. And I was running a bit out of steam by then. I get that sometimes with these evening runs. I'm not too worried about it.

It had been damp the whole way, but it had been a good run! I can't wait for the next episode!

Eye test

I've had glasses since I was 16, and my prescription hasn't changed much since. Over the years, however, I have had the feeling that my right eye has been deteriorating significantly. So far, eye tests never corroborated that. Fortunately, I suppose! Maybe I am just being a drama queen. After all; I still use my prescription sunglasses that I bought in 2008 without problems.

My normal glasses are a bit more recent, although I can't really remember when I bought these. I already lived in Wales, but that doesn't narrow it down very much. I don't wear them much, though. In the unlikely case I go to the cinema or theatre I will bring them, and I like wearing them when I drive in the dark. I also often pop them on if I drive somewhere new, and I want help with reading street name signs and suchlike.

My most recent purchase in this area was a pair of reading glasses I bought four years ago. I'm glad I bought them; sometimes want to see things up close and then I need them. If I have a splinter in my finger, for instance. Looking at these from a distance doesn't do much good. But I can't look at that sort of thing anymore without help.

My glasses in chronological order 

As it is now summer and it is easier to fit things in, I booked an eye test. And it turned out that my right eye had indeed deteriorated a bit. Not by much! It had gone from -1.25 to -1.75. Still not particularly bad. And it's actually quite good at close-ups. And my left eye still hasn't changed much in the last 30 years. It is now considerably better at the distance than the right eye, but can't keep up close by. I have one shortsighted and one farsighted eye! In a way, that is a blessing. I can still see everything; just not with both eyes at the same time. And that feels a bit asymmetric at times. But I suppose there are worse things in the world.

Apart from the deterioration of my right eye, the optician confirmed that otherwise, all is well. No signs of any health problems in either of my eyes. Good! And given that I rarely wear glasses I will keep the ones I have now. Yes, I would have sharper vision with a new pair, but I don't think it's worth it yet. But I'm glad I've been keeping an eye on things. Pun intended!

Reviewing a book proposal

In between the other things I have been doing I did something I had never done before: I reviewed a book proposal. I had reviewed a book before, but never a book that didn't exist yet. A scientific publisher contacted me with the question whether I was willing to review a proposal some bloke sent them, for a book about ecology within the context of oceanography. I think they had seen my staff webpage where I indicate I teach ocean sciences undergraduates about all sorts. They figured I might be a good candidate.

I'm not an ecologist and neither am I an oceanographer, but I suppose I have to know about all these things to a certain level in order to do my job properly. So I said yes. And I thought it might be interesting.

The documentation was an extensive proposal about the book, with a synopsis of every chapter, and some background information about what size it would be and who they had in mind as the audience. And then some samples of the author’s writing.

The one thing that I found most unusual about this book was that it had an extensive section on the history of human exploration of the seas. You don't normally get that! You might very well get a bit about how people found out about plate tectonics, because without plate tectonics you can't understand the oceans, and maybe something about the earliest sediment cores and the stable isotopic records that came from them, which have explained so much about our climate system. But this guy went further! It even had information about boat design. And navigation.

An octant; to be covered in this book. 

I thought it was quite a comprehensive proposal; there was only one topic of which I thought they weren't giving enough information by far. But I was wondering a little bit about the balance of the three sections the book comprised of. I thought it would be better with four, but if you split the one I didn't see as a unit, you ended up with two rather short sections and two rather long ones. I am not going to go into detail; I consider the material of the book confidential until it is published. But I think the things I say in this post are general enough.

I don't know if this book will ever end up written, but I must say I hope so. But I hope they manage to address the things I thought were suboptimal. I will see! I would expect them to contact me if it does hit the market; given that they know I teach in that field, I'm sure they'd want me to ask the library to buy some. So I'd find out.

I get paid in books. They'll have to ship from the USA, so it could take a while, but I look forward to getting some new knowledge in exchange for my applied knowledge!

Pwllheli fun run 10k: first gold!

I suppose the title of this blog post is a bit of a spoiler alert! But so be it. I had mentioned I saw a race advertised on the Facebook page of the running club, and that I hadn't managed to resist registering. So after work I drove down south to Pwllheli. I had actually never been! I found a parking spot not too far from registration and start, then got my race number. I also knew the start and the finish were not in the same location, so I didn't want to bring my bag to the start. I ate a last sandwich and drank some last water, and then went to the seafront, where the start would be. My club mate Gilly was there too, with a friend.

When the start time got close I made sure to stand close to the front. We were starting on the pavement, and it wasn't very wide. Further in the back I expected a bit of congestion, and I don't like that. I also wanted to see if I could get me another medal, and then you can do without being stuck in a crowd. That meant leaving Gilly behind. But I would see her again at the finish.

When the starting gun sounded I was off, and noticed I was the first woman. I set off quite fast on purpose, but tried not to overdo it, as I had 10 km to go. I had no idea where; I had not found a route map. For now I was just following a bunch of blokes. And I found out that Pwllheli has a complicated seafront. 

Looking determined at the start

After a mile or so I was overtaken by a woman in black. I wasn't surprised! I told her to go for it, and she slowly went ahead of me. Quite soon I think she was about 100 m ahead. But I could still see her on the straight bits.

When we left the seafront we headed straight through town. We had to be vigilant; there were no road closures. There were, however, marshals who would help you cross the road that was necessary. I also spotted some youngsters handing out plastic cups with water by a hotel. I took one! I didn't slow down. I did manage to drink some of it, but quite a lot of it went straight over my face and my shirt. That's OK! And I could store the cup in my belt. I did not want to go littering the place.

The lady in black by the people offering cups of water

We ran out of the village on the other side, and I was slowly coming closer to the la
dy in black again. At the start, the organiser had said it was a there-and-back run, so I kept waiting for the moment we would turn around a retrace our steps. It didn't come! Not any time soon, anyway. At the end of the village we were ushered onto a little path. A bit of trail! I didn't expect that. But it was okay. And then we went through a kissing gate, where I was really close to the lady in black, and we were back in the village. Now we had to make our way from the suburbs back to the seafront.

The route

Not too far from the kissing gate, at ~4 miles, I was level with the lady again. I told her I figured the race might be between her and me! I had seen no sign of any women behind us. But I think she had got a bit tired, and I overtook her. And then I was running pretty much on my own on a little country road that lead me back to a road we had done on the way out. It got back to the seafront. When I came around the corner I was hit in the face by a strong wind! I think my speed dropped, but I think everyone's speed did that. I just plodded my way to the end of the seafront road, and then made the necessary U-turn. Before I could turn off the road I met the lady in black coming the other way, who was cheering me on. I like the spirit of racing, when you are a cheerleader for your rivals!

Feeling good 

I was pretty close to the finish, but the marshal sent me off in the opposite direction. I could see on my watch that there indeed was still a little bit of distance to cover. There was one marshal I had to actively attract the attention of, as she was absorbed in her phone, and I didn't know where to go. But she snapped out of it on time to point me in the right direction. And with a bit of a crazy loop I came back to the junction where I had been sent the opposite way, and this time I was allowed to actually head straight for the finish. And I had seen that there was someone behind me, but it was a man, so it wasn't crucial if he overtook me. When I realised, though, that in the last tens of metres he tried to, do just that, I wasn't having any of that, and accelerated away. I knew I had gold when I finished! That was a good feeling.

I waited for the lady in black, and we hugged. And then I went to get some water. There were toilets in the leisure centre at the finish, and I still had my plastic cup. Other runners were a bit disappointed there was no official water station at the finish. But I think people were sharing containers. I shared with Gilly. 

I let the usual suspects know I had won gold, and then I had a chat with another Eryri Harrier. I had seen him at earlier runs. It is nice to be part of the community! But after a while I thought I should go back to my car and get more clothes, as I was still in my club singlet, which was still quite damp after my water adventures, and there was a stiff breeze. I was getting chilly! And I picked up my bag, which allowed me also have my last sandwich.

After a while I went to the football club building, as that was where the prize ceremony would be. Soon Gilly and her friend joined me. But the organisation was still waiting for some people to finish; I think the third woman over 70 wasn't in yet. And when she would be in they could start. Gilly had to go home though, and couldn't wait for that. Pity! But I found the other Harrier, Michael, and asked him if he would perhaps be willing to take some pictures at the ceremony. And he was happy to. Or rather; he delegated to his daughter as she had a better camera. Fine with me!

Then it started. I was glad to be called forward! My first ever gold. And to my surprise, I was called up twice; I also got a trophy for being the fastest woman over 40. That got a bit dull; all first three women were in the ‘over 40’ category. Go us oldies! The three fastest men were all juniors.

Trophy pic by Michael’s daughter 

There was also one bloke over 80, who had obviously won in his category, but how! He had run it in 49:35, and that is fast. For comparison: I had done it in 43:40. But I knew that in my younger years, a flat(ish) road race like this had taken me longer than 49:35, like in 2011 and in 2014. I hope I'll age like this bloke!

I also thought it was sweet that one of the winners in the women over 70 category was super enthusiastic, and spontaneously gave the bloke who handed out the trophies a kiss. When he then handed the trophy to the fastest man over 70, he asked for one from him as well. And got it! 

When all trophies were handed out I went up and said I could take Gilly’s prize; I could just bring it to a club run and give it to her. In the meantime, the building emptied itself. Everyone wanted to go home. And then I did too. I still had 45 minutes of driving to do! But I was glad I had come…

Britain on fire

It’s a scary time! The news is full of right wing mobs who are attacking mosques and hotels, and arbitrary businesses run by muslims. It is clear the mobs only needed an excuse.

I suppose everyone knows what's going on, but for that exception who doesn't know what I'm talking about: on July 29th, there was an event in Southport where little kids (mostly girls) were dancing to music by Taylor Swift. For unknown reasons, a 17-year-old boy walked in with a knife and randomly started killing children. He also stabbed any adults who tried to stop him. Three girls are dead; one is, at the time of writing, still in hospital; and quite a number are recovering at home.

It seems that rumours started circulating quickly that this was a Muslim small boat refugee. It totally wasn't! This boy was Born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents, and doesn't seem to be a Muslim at all, as most Rwandans aren't. But that didn't stop the hooligans who quickly started riots on the streets. And we are a week later now, and these riots are still going on. And everybody knows what the situation is by now, and that this was just one British-born individual doing awful things, but the hooligans don’t seem to care. They are still targeting non-white people and refugees and Muslims, and probably preferably people who are all that at the same time.

Imagine having fled war and persecution, and then ending up in some Holiday Inn or something like that, with a 700 strong mob outside who are smashing the windows, setting the building on fire, et cetera! Miraculously, it seems that in that incident, nobody in the building got hurt. But imagine the terror.

Violent racism must have been so close to the surface! This country is in a deplorable state. I suppose the Tories have spent well over a decade kicking a lot of people in the teeth. And the electorate has started to peacefully kick back, but one election doesn't undo many years of austerity and mismanagement. And now there are mobs out there looking for scapegoats.

There was a lady on the radio who couldn't get a dentist appointment, and who was frustrated that there were asylum seekers housed in hotels. She wanted public services for the likes of herself before she would be happy with money being spent on people she identified as strangers. So she didn’t condone that violent towards the asylum seekers, but she understood why people were angry. I suppose that's easier than being angry at politicians who have let the backlog build up so much that anyone seeking asylum here has to wait years for an outcome. And while you wait you can't work, and when you can't work you can't sort out your own accommodation. And most countries do manage to sort out sufficient dentistry for their population. Why can't the Brits? 

I'm not saying no one is thinking about the little girls anymore, and their families, but it is clear that there are scarily large numbers of people who indeed don't. And just want to create more pain.

The genie is well out of the bottle now. I think the Tories are quite smug about it. Let the Labour Government sort out the mess! Let them become unpopular due to disturbances of public order, while the seeds were sown by the previous governments. And I'm sure the genie will be put back, how much damage will be done by the time that happens? Time will tell…

Wild swimming with Kate - again

Kate would be in the country again. She gave a shout that she was going to come to Wales with a friend so she could introduce her to wild swimming. Maybe I wanted to join some of that? And it sounded good, but it was also at the same time as my cousin being here, so I was not going to join all of it. Especially not as the first day they would go into Llyn Padarn, and I'm not a great fan of that lake. Even though I had been in it that same Thursday. But that was more because it was right there. If you actually travel somewhere in order to go swimming, there are better places.

The second day they would either do the Watkin pools (along the Watkin Path), or Llyn Dinas. I was hoping for the former, even though that would mean getting up quite early. Parking at the start of any of the routes up yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) fills up really quickly in summer. Especially in the weekends.

On Saturday evening I got a message. It would be Watkin pools! And we organised the transport. We would both drive to Capel Curig, and car share from there. And after the swim we would go to Beddgelert and meet Kate (the other one). 

I made sure I had a lot of hot water in my bag, and coffee powder, and cake, and some emergencies sandwiches, and, of course, a towel and sandals. And I found a parking space in Capel Curig. Kate picked me up, and introduced me to her friend L’chelle. When we drove past Plas y Brenin we saw that the Snowman Triathlon was underway. Oops! That parking space must have been a small miracle.

When we got to parking at the start of the Watkin Path there also was still space. So soon we were walking up the hill. We didn't have to go far! We even overshot our goal a bit. We got to the wide bridge near Gladstone Rock, but that is further upstream than the pools. So we went down a bit again. And settled in a pool just underneath some big mining ruins. I suppose these are not the official ball, but we didn't care. We got out of our hiking clothes and/or into our swimming outfits.

As far north as we went

Downhill view from our swimming spot 

Uphill view of our swimming spot; notice the well-camouflaged mine building 

It was a bit cold, but nothing drastic! I was happy to have a little swim and take some pictures. We all three had a good time. And then we got out and got back into our hiking gear. I suppose the actual swimming had only been a few minutes! But that was fine with me.

Watery fun

We decided to have some coffee and cake on a nearby rock, and then we went back to the car. We parked a bit outside Beddgelert and walked in. We just wanted to head into the souvenir shop (Kate and L’chelle wanted to buy a birthday present for a mutual friend) when Kate appeared. And when the present has been bought we decided we would walk in the direction of Pont Aberglaslyn. 

The path to Pont Aberglaslyn; pic by Kate

Happy walkers

We just walked the same way back, and then wanted to have lunch in the village. Kate and Kate suggested the venue. I'm not sure if that was the best choice! It took absolutely forever to order, and the food was unspectacular. Oh well. After that we just went for ice cream. Beddgelert is very good for that! The parlour did not disappoint.

Then we said goodbye to Kate, got back to the car, got back to Capel Curig, and there I said goodbye to other Kate and L’chelle. I think the next time we will meet will be in Yorkshire, where Kate lives nowadays. The idea is that later this year, Kate and I will go up to visit her there. I think that would be good!