G@@Gle Glass

I had the chance to try out these at HMC earlier this week. It only took me about 5 minutes to realize that as someone who wears glasses because of a high level of myopia, these don't work particularly well. I think that if I really, really wanted a pair of these, I could make it work, but I also think that trying to focus so closely for any length of time might give me a headache. 

No chance of me being an early adopter of these.

The Marauder's Son - A New Ballet

On a lovely day-before-Easter, I decided to attend The Marauder's Son (based on Harry Potter and the  Sorcerer's Stone) at the Pendleton Dance Center at Pomona College. Emily Kleeman, a Pitzer senior, choreographed and put on this whole hour-long ballet, including fundraising for the event. The dance featured students from the 5Cs as well as a HMC professor (playing a Hogwarts professor). My favorite scene was the chess game. If you read this blog post today before evening, you still have a chance to see the free show at 7:00. Fun for the whole family!

Twice into LA in One Day

When we first moved to Claremont, we rarely went into downtown Los Angeles. The freeways intimidated us, we weren't exactly sure what we might want to see, and we didn't have much extra spending money at the time. All those things have slowly changed over the past 28 years, and now we think nothing of either hopping on the 10 or buying a Metrolink ticket.

Yesterday I went into downtown twice. First time was with the CUSD string students for our 5th annual field trip to the LA Phil for Minimalist Jukebox: Toyota Symphonies for Youth: Finding Patterns in Music. As usual, we had a great time with the students, although some of them wondered "when the real music will start" after listening to the first few minimalist pieces. You can read about last year's field trip here.

We arrived back in Claremont around 2:00, giving me a little breathing time before heading back downtown for an HMC event at the California Club. I had never been to the exclusive California Club before, and I made sure to follow the strict dress code so I wouldn't have to sit in the car during the dinner. Once in awhile I enjoy getting dressed up and going to a fancy place to eat good food in interesting company. 

Humans Vs Zombies

On Tuesday I saw these students walking toward Honnold Library, and their bandanas altered me to the fact that this semester's round of Humans Vs Zombies is underway at the Claremont Colleges. You can read the entire set of rules for the colleges here.  You can see a short youtube video from a game in 2011 here. According to the official website, this game of "moderated tag" started at Goucher College in 2005. There is a link at that site to a documentary about HvZ which I have not seen, but may watch during spring break next week.

H.R.H. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn

I could not find evidence of this visit on the HMC website, but Thailand's Royalty stopped by for a campus visit yesterday.

According to her website, the duties of H.R.H. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn have much to do with education. Thailand has the Royal Thai Scholar program which sends students to the US for higher education so that they may return home to Thailand to help develop their home country. HMC has had Royal Thai Scholars over the years, and HRH stopped by to tour the campus.

I did not get to meet her, but I heard that she enjoyed her visit. Here she is with HMC president Maria Klawe.

Sunnylands

We have arrived home, once again, from a weekend retreat with the HMC trustees in Palm Springs. Every year we have a choice of activities on Saturday afternoon when meetings are not in session, and this year we signed up to take a tour of Sunnylands in nearby Rancho Mirage. I must live in a cave, because I have never heard of this estate, the winter home of Walter and Leonore Annenberg. It turns out that the Annenbergs' grandson is an alum and trustee of HMC, and I'm sure he arranged our visit to the estate. One can get tickets to tour the house (beyond the Visitor Center and tour of the gardens), but they are extremely limited and hard to come by, although our guide gave us tips on how to best get them.

Sunnylands is known as the West Coast Camp David where world leaders have come to meet in this idyllic setting to communicate and come up with solutions to problems. I seem to remember that President Obama was out in Palm Springs this June, and this was actually where he met with China's President Xi. 

We saw many, many photographs of the dignitaries who have spent time at this place since it was built in the mid-1960s, from presidents, actors, and Queen Elizabeth. We were not allowed to photograph inside the house (you can look up photos online), but for its immense size, it also feels very comfortable.

Looking toward the house via one of the many man-made ponds

View from the Visitor Center with one of the lava rock walls

Entrance to the house

View of the mountains from the golf course

New Building Dedication

The R. Michael Shanahan Center for Teaching and Learning has been up and running since the semester's start, and this past Saturday the HMC community celebrated the dedication of the building. After the opening speeches and presentations, attendees wandered the structure finding goodies to eat in various places, listened to presentations, and enjoyed the new space which so clearly defines the campus center now. It hadn't occurred to me that there was no one central place on campus for the HMC community to gather (there had been several places, but not very centrally located). Now there is such a comprehensive place - smack in the middle of campus - with a variety of purposes. Besides classrooms, a recital hall, a small art gallery, you will also find a cafe (with Starbucks coffee), tutoring and writing center, the Math Department, Admissions and the President's Office and other places I have forgotten. 

President Klawe receiving the LEED award for the building

President Klawe receiving a certificate from Claremont's Mayor

A talk about how Pixar uses math in animation given by the parent of a current Mudder

Performance by the Psyko Taiko drummers - a 5C group

Performance by the Claremont Shades (a 5C a capella group)

One of the many plaques to be seen around the building

Desserts

Friday night we had some HMC students over for a little dessert party. In the past we have served a TJs cheesecake to students, but I wanted something different this time, so I checked out my cousin's pinterest site to come up with some ideas. I wanted finger desserts so I didn't need silverware, and these are the recipes I came up with. First I made Peanut Butter Cup Brownies which are even better than Costco Brownie Bites, and about the same size. I was happy to use the tiny muffin tins that I had purchased for my daughter's wedding shower just over a year ago. They turned out very well, and I was happy to discover that Nestle sells a bag with a mixture of chocolate and peanut butter chips.

I also made Cheesecake Yogurt Cups. It was supposed to be lemon, but I used raspberry yogurt instead of vanilla. They worked out just fine and I topped them with fresh raspberries. The third recipe will need a little changing if I am going to make them again. These Caramel Apple Grapes looked so darn cute, and they taste pretty good, too, but next time I will make sure to add some pre-crushed peanuts and set them apart from each other since after they harden, they like to stick together, if they are close to each other. 

Now that I have been in the kitchen recently, I probably won't come back to baking until the holidays.

Bernard Field Station Fire

Life in Claremont was pretty exciting for a few hours yesterday afternoon. I was home in the afternoon, and around 4:00 or so, I heard a low-flying aircraft that made the house shake. That happens occasionally, and I always wonder if I should somehow avoid an airplane crashing into my house, but am never sure what the best course of action should be. Then I heard another plane, then a helicopter, and I knew that something was going on. I grabbed my camera and went outside and snapped these shots from my front porch. I was hoping that they weren't chasing some gunman who would run on my street.

It occurred to me that the best way to get immediate news of what was going on was to check Facebook, and, sure enough, I found out that crews were fighting a fire at the Bernard Field Station, just four blocks north of my house, and right across the street from Harvey Mudd. I made a comment on Facebook that I knew where to get immediate information (usually I head there when I feel an earthquake), and my friend asked me if I hadn't gotten the emergency call yet. I hadn't, but around 4:30,  the phone rang with the automated warning.

By that time, the fire was nearly contained, although the traffic was a mess on Foothill and Mills for quite a while, I've heard. In the end, 17 acres burned, 115 firefighters worked to save the Botanical Garden and all homes in the area. No one was hurt, no structures were damaged. The fire was sparked by a metal saw being used by Golden State Water doing work along Foothill. Here is the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin report. The Courier also had a good article, but it's probably behind a paywall. 

Friends posted some pretty scary-looking photos of huge smoke plumes and high flames, but apparently the wind was blowing them away from my house, and I did not smell or see smoke.

The Teaching and Learning Building

The other night we wandered over to the new building at Harvey Mudd. The Teaching and Learning Building will be ready for new classes next month, and some of the new offices have already moved in and are setting up. The students are very excited about the building, and I know that everyone is very glad to have the construction walls removed. Although it looks different than the other buildings on campus, I think the architects did a great job of making it blend right in. 

Here are some shots that I took while wandering around.

These barrel cacti are on the roof.

Sunset from the roof.

Quakes

Every summer we make at least one (and usually one) pilgrimage to a Quakes game. Often we make a group outing with the chemistry summer research students. The stars aligned for these two last night. 

During the game I heard something about a Flickr page for the Quakes, so I looked it up this morning. You can see many fan photos here. 

Field Trip to the Getty Center

For the past X years, H has taken his students for a behind-the-scenes tour at the Getty Conservation Institute at the Getty Center. This year my schedule was clear, so I took up the invitation to join the students, as well as some alums on this private tour yesterday.

First we learned about some past projects that the Institute has been involved with, including ancient cave paintings in China, a recently re-revealed mural on Olvera Street, and mosaic on a cathedral in Prague (just three examples of hundreds).

Here are some pigments used in paintings

Then we toured some of the labs and learned about different scientific methods used in conservation research.

Here is a painting which imitates Jackson Pollack's work so they can see how the paint splatters, depending upon the method (dripping or flicking, for example).

This little experiment show different stages of what happens when sodium sulfate in limestone leads to the deterioration of the limestone. We watched a time-lapse video of the process, and it can all disintegrate within just 30 days.

Letters to Liesl

I thought it would be a good idea to start reading some of the books I own. The thing with library books is that you know you have to return them soon, so you read them in a timely manner.

I found Letters to Liesl by Charmian Carr and Jean Strauss on my shelf (autographed by both women) and started it one night. It didn't take long and was definitely a fun read.

I have not been shy to admit that my favorite movie is The Sound of Music. I saw it when it was rereleased in the early 1970s. A group of us girls went to the movie theater (someone's mom dropped us off) and I know I was entranced. I fell in love with the whole musical family, and I don't remember how many times I've seen the movie since.

This book is the sequel to Forever Liesl, Charmian's memoir of the making of The Sound of Music. (I still need to read that one.) In this one, Charmian answers some of the thousands and thousands of fan letters and we see how infinitely popular this movie has been - I am not the only huge fan (not by a long shot!).

The Claremont story behind this book is that Charmian used to date a Harvey Mudd College trustee, and that is how she met Jean Strauss, when Strauss' husband, Jon, was president of HMC. Jean told Charmian that her story must be told, and Jean made the book a reality. I even had a brief meeting with Charmian once at an HMC event, thanks to Jean.

So, good memories all around!

Annenberg Leadership and Management Speaker Series

In the past year or two, HMC has hosted a speaker series for leadership development. They bring in people who share insights into leadership in a technological world. Last week we went to hear Indra Nooyi, the COO of PepsiCo, and last night we heard an HMC alum who works for Microsoft and was instrumental in the development of their tablet, Surface.

Michael Angiulo '93 gave a very engaging talk about his path through Microsoft, from intern to Corporate VP and the things which motivate him to be creative and successful. He works on projects that are 1) hard 2) intrinsically interesting to him 3) supposedly impossible. If someone says to him, "It can't be done", he knows he's on the right track.

* * *

Day 10 - Clutter Cleanse: Donated a cardigan sweater that I no longer wear.

Little Free Library - Geek Style

Here are a few shots of the Harvey Mudd College Take-A-Book/Leave-a-Book Lending Library. I especially like the very geeky sign on the left which makes no sense to me, but I think I get the gist.

Paula Poundstone and Harvey Mudd and Donuts

Welcome to a meandering, feel-good post, dedicated to fun and laughs and lots of links.

Are you a fan of NPR's Wait, Wait . . . Don't Tell Me? I listen to the Saturday quiz show religiously either on radio or podcast, and one of my very, very favorite panelists is Paula Poundstone. She cracks me up. So, of course, when we found out that she was performing at the Haugh Performing Arts Center at Citrus College, we were there. Last night. Good times.

Paula's show involves some, I assume, scripted pieces ranging from gays in scouting to what our esteemed forefathers might have thought about the second amendment to her three children, 16 cats, 2 dogs and other assorted pets. However, Paula's comedic genius derives from her improvisatory conversations with audience members. She first spoke with a man who works in the dean of students office at UCLA and riffed throughout the evening about the tidbits he offered about students he dealt with who were cheating on tests. One man would not answer her questions, and when she asked his wife if he was going to talk, the wife said, "He says he's not going to bite." She has a great way of taking what someone says and totally misconstruing it, making me laugh so much that by the end of the 2 hours, my cheeks hurt.

This photo shows that we had fabulous seats - 3rd row.

Paula made some comment about a delicious strawberry donut she had been given backstage. She asked about this famous donut, and the audience tried to tell her where the store is located, and soon she was talking to a retired x-ray technician who had worked in a doctor's office where the Donut Man was a patient. Paula wanted to know if she could tell us about the inner workings of Donut Man and whether he had a hole in his body, etc. until soon she discovered that  Mr. Donut Man (Jim Nakano) was in the audience and she started to riff with him.

So, if you are still with me, here is the meandering part. I have not yet been to the Donut Man on Alosta in Glendora, but I have seen the Huell Houser interview, and this place is famous in the Harvey Mudd community because the Gonzo Unicycle Madness Club rides the 8.7 miles once a year from Claremont to Glendora just to eat these strawberry donuts. Watch a great little youtube video about this adventure here.

Jean Platt

The HMC community is saddened to learn of the passing of Jean Platt, its founding first lady. Jean is preceded in death by her husband, Joe, and is greatly missed. We knew both Jean and Joe not only through HMC, but also from their involvement in CUCC.

You can read a brief bio of Jean and her remarkable life at the HMC site here, but it does not mention a story that she told me. As a high school student in Massachusetts, Jean wanted to attend Stanford University, but her parents advised against it since she would not be able to see her family for the four years she would be in school. California was just too far away to have her come home. So, she went to college in Ohio at Miami University instead.

While a student, she did some computational work for a researcher who was interviewing housewives in Indiana. She had no idea about the content of the research at the time since she worked as a number-cruncher. You may have guessed it though, she had a part in the Kinsey Report.

A gracious, intelligent, kind and funny woman - we miss you, Jean.

Union on Yale

Not being one to hurry into a new food establishment (okay, I often try out a new place right away), we finally made it to Union on Yale last night. We had the opportunity to take out the HMC chemistry seminar speaker, so we thought we'd try this place. Since it was so cold and rainy out, no one was sitting outside, so the inside, while cozy, got pretty loud for carrying on a conversation. We'll go back sometime when we can sit outside.

Anyway, I had the salad with pecorino cheese and the soup of the day which was a corn chowder. Both were delicious, although pricey. The salad was $7, and you can see that it had some greens, a bit of cheese and some kind of dressing. I believe the soup was $8. H had the Bianca pizza which he consumed nearly all by himself, but it could also have been shared. I had one of the pieces, and it was also delicious. 

Annual Chemistry Study Break

The Claremont Colleges are on a late schedule this year, so it felt much colder walking to the annual Chemistry Dept. study break last night. Well, it really was colder than it has been in the past. As usual, the students enjoyed treats prepared by their profs and then commenced to decorate cookies to get prizes. 

Students working very hard. As usual.

All the entries on top of the piano.

This one won one of the prizes and was my favorite.

This one was pretty.

This was one of the ones with a chemistry theme.

Skyfall

It has been four years since the last James Bond movie (Quantum of Solace) came out. I blogged about seeing a private advance screening with the HMC community here. Skyfall, the newest Bond film starring Daniel Craig opens tomorrow, and yet we were able to see it at the Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City last night. A little more detail: Michael Wilson, one of the producers of the Bond franchise, is not only an HMC alum, but also a trustee, and he once again allowed HMC to preview the film. 

I have to say that I am not a Bond aficionado, but I actually really enjoyed this film. When I looked at Rotten Tomatoes this morning, the critics gave it a 93%. If you don't like action and violence at all, don't see it, but I enjoyed the Adele song, the cinematography, the theme, and the characters.

One of the appetizers included a mashed potato bar. Yum.

Walking toward the theater.

The theater