For the last few weeks, I have been working on the contents of a NOC design paper with Dr. Bret Swan, who teaches at in BYU's School of Technology.  It has been an unusual partnership for me: it's the first time I didn't actually do all the actual writing.

Bret took copious notes as we talked, jotting down every bit of information I was willing to share, even down to the little pet phrases an other ideas that I've acquired through years of NOC design and maintenance.  He has a very interesting way of putting a paper together: he puts everything into outline format, one sentence per outline item.  Then, once he has the outline filled out and feels that all the material is there, he just removes the outlining, making the top and second level items his section titles and paragraphs.  It produces a very information-dense, well-organized paper.  I never would have thought to write like that, so I'll be playing with the idea over the next few weeks and months to see if something like that works for me.

The paper still needs a little polishing, but I really like how the first draft turned out.  I think that the LISA folks will like it--at least, I hope so, because it would be great to be able to present it.  There really is very little out there on NOC design, especially from a usability perspective.

I didn't get to go to the IEEE NOMS conference in Maui myself, but Chia-Chi Teng went for me, presenting a poster of my thesis work.

I recently found that my high school French teacher is retiring after 38 years at that school.  I have 3 or 4 teachers from my high school years who profoundly touched my thinking and my life.  Most of them have retired or otherwise moved on, and, I'm afraid to say, I have not properly thanked them for their work with me.  Nevertheless, I wanted to take the opportunity to share some of those feelings with one of my favorite teachers of that time.  Here is the message I sent to her via the school's web mail system.  

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Madame Beckwith,

You will not remember me among the thousands of students you've had, but I took your French 1 and 2 classes in 1983-4 and 1984-5.  I have very fond memories of the prefab that you shared with Ms. Dodson (one of my other favorite teachers) at the old high school.

I loved those classes, and wanted to let you know that your teaching had a profound effect on my life,giving me a love of language that I likely would not have had otherwise.

When I graduated from BA, I took 2 semesters of German at Missouri Southern, then served an LDS mission to Japan for 2 years.  When I returned from Japan, I finished a BA in Japanese.

Professionally, I am a mid-career IT guy, working on computers every day, rather than oral or written translations, but my love of languages and foreign ways of thinking has shaped what I do here as well.  I have become something of a programming language polyglot, programming in any of 6 or 10 different languages on a fairly regular basis.   My interest in human languages has generated a linguistic interest in man-made languages.

My father always said that some subjects help you make a living, while others help you make a life.  The language interest that your French classes helped instill in me have not  become a career for me, but have enriched not only my career, but my life as well.

Thank you for your dedication, your insights into French language and culture, and your support to the thousands of us who took your classes over the years.  The effects of your efforts are still felt by many, if not most of us.

-Russel Havens
Class of 1985
russelhavens.org