I struggled in Fall 2022. It seems that many of my students forgot how to be students. One class in particular was rude and ralked a lot. I have never had to tell a class to stop talking. I attribute this to the fact that many of them started college during lock down. But now …
Author Archives: rickleinecker
Hurricane Ian
Another hurricane has passed through Orlando. Fortunately it weakened before it got here and the winds were about 70 miles per hours. Several houses in my neighborhood flooded, but my house had no damage. My electricity and internet blinked for a couple of seconds but held on. I am really lucky. Some of my students …
The Semester Started
Today was the second day of Fall semester 2022 at University of Central Florida. I am teaching a total of four classes. The enrollment for my classes are 297, 90, 232, and 158. That’s a lot of students for one semester. I do enjoy large classes, though, and I have enough TAs for it to …
Symphony of Birds
I lived in North Carolina many years. My days started with sitting of the porch, drinking coffee, thinking about the day, and listening to the birds. We lived on the edge of woods, so there were MANY birds singing in the morning. I called it the symphony of birds. It lasted for several hours. Now …
Thoughts For Today
I have sponsored a number of music projects for students. I teach a two-semester capstone sequence where students work in teams of 5 on a single project. The projects I have sponsored are Composition Today (CompositionToday.net), a tribute to John Cage, computer assisted EDM creation, color rendering of music, and BrainBeats system for generating music …
Times Gone By
I walk a lot. One of the places I like to walk is the Econ River Wilderness area. The corner of it is on North Tanner and McCulloch, less than a mile from UCF. Most of the trailers are through forests or shrubs. About 1.2 miles in, if you continue walking east, you come to …
Weather and Fitness
It is cold in Florida. January and February are usually the times we get cold weather. This morning it was 36 degrees Fahrenheit. I had wanted to go snorkeling in preparation for a scuba class. On Thursday and Friday it should warm up to the 70s in the afternoon, so I will put on a …
Funny Prank
One of the funniest pranks I ever pulled was when I was treasurer of the Dade Atari User’s Group (DAUG). Those were the days when Compute magazine had home-grown programs that were featured in the magazine that you could download. There was one named Astro-Panic that was pretty nice and well commented. Now let me …
Winter Break Perspective
Now that Fall 2021 semester has wound down, it’s time for some perspective. I allocated several days (including today) for doing nothing but thinking. I teach a class named Processes of Objected Oriented Software (COP 4331). I have been teaching this class for six years. When we went virtual I noticed a gradual downturn in …
Senior Design
I’m in my third year of teaching senior design. It’s been a lot of fun. Last week I met with all 26 of my senior design 1 teams for a status check. Most of them are doing very well. Some are exceptional. And unfortunately, there are a few weak groups. Next week I meet with …