MY THREE BUGBEARS (Final Revision 4-16-04By Ed Lachman.
DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND COMPUTER SCIENCE is the sign on room 343 of the building named after Dean Ernest G. Muntz whose stentorian tones delivered with such gusto in his lectures on American History really held me spellbound as a foreign student forty years ago on main campus. Now as a U.C. retiree, who is eligible for tuition-free courses, I found all roads leading to Raymond Walters College where I can tackle my three bugbears that I had relegated to the backburner for over forty years.
My first one-stop was Muntz 343. So as not to bite off more than I can chew, I registered for Introduction to the Internet. Thanks to computer instructor Rick Kimbrell who taught me how to create my own Web Page: www.uc.edu/lachmaem and how to sign up for my Bearcat e-mail address:
Prior to this course I could not take courses administered through “Blackboard,” since I did not know how to turn on the computer. With Rick’s indefatigable, painstaking know-how to teach a dummy like me, I can now act globally as I think locally: I can now send e-mail all over the world with attachments of: my homilies, (sermons), I preach in Nursing Homes and at Campus Crusades; copies of letters to editors of newspapers, magazines, etc. Moreover, I now attach my masterpieces of paintings in Oil, Acrylic, Water color and Computer Graphic Design at RWC.
Having overcome the fear of my first bugbear, I accepted Rick’s challenge to take his courses in physics. I took the bull by both horns, i.e., Physics I and II. Suffice it to say that I acquitted myself creditably with two straight As.
Almost an octogenarian now, I reluctantly moved up to the last of my bugbears. Rick convinced me that Mathematics is the queen of the sciences (and not Theology as I thought). Moreover, his oft-repeated dictum is: “If it can’t be measured, it ain’t physics or a science; mathematics is the measuring tool.”
With these “big three” under my belt, I waxed more ambitious to prove that I’m not over the hill. The Dean of the College of Engineering had told me that in addition to the B.S. I have in Biological Sciences, I’ll have to get the B.S. in Civil Engineering also before I can take courses in Surveying (now called Geomatics Engineering). Convinced that I had proved my mettle in Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science, the professor of surveying allowed me to audit the course in Surveying. After the mid-term exam, he advised me to switch from audit to credit since I am passing the course.
My retirement mottoo is: STICK WITH RICK. I was delighted to learn that he has masters degrees not only in Mathematics and Physics but also in Philosophy. As an Old Catholic Priest and a retired phlebotomist, I intend to continue bleeding him as we meet once a month in our omnium gatherum which is a “gathering” of the intelligentsia, and other retirees, to hobnob and indulge in “a little nonsense now and then which is relished by the wisest men.”