Proud Father, IX

elf
I haven't said anything about Jonathan marrying Shari on September 8 last year in Illinois, or David and Mary Ann being wed April 6 this year here in Atlanta. Or how pleased I am to have these two fine women in our family. If I haven't posted anything about them due to a (perhaps misplaced) sense of privacy, I cannot refrain from announcing the arrival of our first grandchild, Elizabeth Lee, born yesterday at 7:09 PM central daylight time to Shari and Johnny.

A friend of the family remarked to Becky today that she looks like me. My most deep-felt apologies, little one. You'll outgrow it. As I texted your dad today, "don't blink or twenty years will flash by."

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Proud Father, VIII

Jonathan had paper published in Nanotechnology, Volume 23, Number 21: "Nanometer-scale flow of molten polyethylene from a heated atomic force microscope tip". The article is currently free on the web.
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Proud Father, VII

Heated_AFM
Jonathan had another paper published in Applied Physics Letters, Volume 99, Number 19: "Temperature-dependence of ink transport during thermal dip-pen nanolithography". Unfortunately, the article is behind a paywall. Johnny wrote that he worked with a graphic designer to produce the artwork used on the cover. The picture is a heated atomic force microscope tip depositing nanostructures of mercaptohexadecanoic acid on a gold surface.
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She Also Said Yes!

she_also_said_yes
David and Mary Ann announced their engagement. I'm light on details at the moment. Hopefully they will be around during Thanksgiving (hint, hint)!
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She Said Yes

Way, way, behind on blogging. I can't believe it has been over a month since we drove to Illinois to see Johnny and Shari. On Friday, June 17, Becky, Rachel, and I headed for Urbana where Johnny is working on his PhD in Mechanical Engineering. We got to meet Shari, Johnny's friends Patrick and Kimberly, tour the University of Illinois, and eat some great food. Saturday night we went to Desthil, a micro brewery in Champaign. We had reservations for seven at 7:15. However, we weren't seated until around 9. Something about a bachelorette party that had paid their tab but kept sitting around. While some in our party had gotten really hungry, it was, after all, a brewery with excellent beer, and beer and conversation isn't a bad way to fill the time. But the staff wasn't happy so they comp'd us some appetizers. One of which was beer battered deep fried bacon. Heaven on earth. Between filling my mind at the university library and my stomach with the bacon, I could live a content man for, well, days maybe. That bacon would kill me.

We drove back on Monday.

She_Said_Yes
On July 4th, Johnny asked Shari to marry him. It may have been Shari's mom who observed that Johnny gave up his independence on July 4th. I prefer to look at it as the start of a new nation. Congratulations, you two.


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First Bible Test

My daughter received a 100% on her first Bible quiz at school this week. I persuaded her to let me take the test. I didn’t do as well. My excuse is that I couldn’t read what she scanned in -- the resolution was too low. In any case, she said the hardest question was #5:

The first sin was the eating of the forbidden fruit. Which of the following best describes the fundamental motive for Adam and Eve’s disobedience? Mark one.

  1. It was sort of an accident.
  2. The devil made them do it.
  3. They were both deceived by the devil.
  4. They weren’t exactly sure what God wanted.
  5. It looked like a good idea to them.

The right answer is “e”. Rachel said, “This question was the one most people in class missed (majority put C). He even told us before the quiz that the devil didn't make Eve do it.” Now, 2 Cor 11:3 says, “But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by its cunning...”. So Eve was deceived. But 1 Tim 2:14 says, “...Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived...” This rules out “c”. The professors admonition ruled out “b”.

Genesis 3:6 says, in part, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food...”. The interesting question is, “How did Eve know something was good before eating of the fruit which would give that knowledge?” A typical answer is that Eve determined that the fruit was edible, i.e., “good for food” and that this is somehow different from “morally good.” But this betrays a misunderstanding of the mental machinery by which we determine value.

I’ve asked Rachel to inquire of her teacher to see what he says about this.
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Offical PhD Candiate

Received a text from my middle son yesterday: “I passed my tests for official entrance into the PhD candidacy.”
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Proud Father, VI

My son is one of 150 students, out of over 3,200 applicants, who received a Department of Energy Science Graduate Fellowship.
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Proud Father, V

This is overdue, but I didn't want this to be up for just a few days and then have it go off the main page at the start of a new month.

My oldest son has started a new job with a major corporation. It's quite a step up for him.

My middle son had another paper published:
High-sensitivity nanometer-scale infrared spectroscopy using a contact mode microcantilever with an internal resonator paddle.

Daughter has chosen to attend
Bellhaven University.
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Proud Father, IV

Rachel received a call tonight from the admissions office at Belhaven University informing her that she had been accepted.
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Proud Father, III

Today, my son told me that this semester he earned his Master of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois. On to his PhD.
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Proud Father, II

My daughter received her first college acceptance letter today from Liberty University. She is waiting to hear from SCAD, and is contemplating applying to Belhaven College. View her portfolio.
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Proud Father

This is over a month overdue. My son had his first research paper published on October 5th. He wrote, "If you finish reading it and feel like it's missing something, well, it is. It's just the tip of the iceberg of a couple of projects that I have going on right now that I would like to see come together in the next couple of years."

The title is "
Mechanical design for tailoring the resonance harmonics of an atomic force microscope cantilever during tip-surface contact", published in the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 19 (2009). Unfortunately, the article is available only by subscription.

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