Thinkin’ ‘bout the Inkin’
So it’s almost been a year since I almost died from an influx of anxiety attacks I defended my MA thesis. Way back in undergrad I promised myself a tattoo if I were to successfully get a Masters. Now that my diploma’s been sitting at the bottom of my drawer for almost 12 months now (okay, technically like six ‘cause I didn’t get it in the mail ‘till December), I have to get serious about this.
IDEAS!
This drawing. ‘Cause it’s colors + infinity.
This drawing. Because it looks like a tattoo, you know? Also snakes.
If I were confident that people would still know what the hell R was by 2050, I’d totally get the R logo tattooed somewhere on me. Because come on, we manipulate and frustrate each other, yet we’re very close. We’re practically married.
A bell curve? The problem with that is it’d be hard to get the best design of it. I’d like a simple bell curve, but just a random arching curve might look weird no matter where I put it.
I’d still like to get “LEIBNIZ” scrolled across some part of my body, too, ‘cause dear god I love that man.
If I had any modicum of intelligence whatsoever, I’d be able to smoothly and beautifully combine stats, Leibniz, and color into one badass tattoo. But I don’t, so I can’t.
Bah. Suggestions?
P-p-p-post!
Hi ladies and gents!
So good news (or bad news…depending on if you miss me, haha): I’m coming back for a visit!
There’s actually a reason for my coming back this time, it’s not just me being a slacker/loser/regressive pittance of a human being, but it’s private.
Anyway.
I’ll be back for a week (!), from May 19th until the 26th. We need to naked party. My dad’ll be gone or a few nights, so LOUDNESS IS ACCEPTABLE AND ENCOURAGED!
INTERNET SHOUTING!
Okay bye.
You say tomato, I say existential crisis
Hello for the 2,178th time! Wow, that’s a lot of blogs.
Anyway.
Due to reasons that are still up in the air in terms of whether or not they’ll actually be reasons, I might—might—be coming back to Moscow in the fall.
Yeah, yeah, I know, “make up your damn mind already.” I would if I could, man. This “up in the air” stuff isn’t good for a planning, goal-oriented, future-focused person like myself.
But anyway.
If I come back, I’d like to go back to school (while working, of course) if at all possible. So in order to be able to implement that plan should it become a feasible option in the future, I reapplied for admission and subsequently signed up for just a few credits in the fall.
Better safe than sorry, no?
And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy making a schedule that might actually happen.
101 in 1,001? Haha, maybe some day…
Happy birthday, Sean!
I had my older 101 in 1,001 list on here quite awhile back, but it’s changed/grown (ever so slightly) and I’d like to put it up somewhere other than the 101 in 1,001 site just in case it goes down for a long while again. 101 in 1,001 is a challenge prompting people to come up with 101 goals they wish to acheive within the span of 1,001 days. I created my (still lacking) list on December 5, 2010, and therefore must have it complete within the next 570 days. That’s why none of my goals are very “long term.”
Crossed-out items are ones I’ve completed, obviously.
- Answer the “50 Questions that will Free Your Mind” survey
- Attend burning man
- Become more familiar with proof theory
Blog every day in 2010Blog every day in 2011- Blog every day in 2012
- Buy a car
Change my hairstyle(sawed about a foot of it off at the beginning of last year)- Complete my 200-book reading list
Complete NaNoWriMo 2011- Complete the “5,000 Question Survey”
- Contribute substantially to a Wikipedia article
- Create a website for myself
- Don’t use the internet for a week
- Donate blood
- Donate bone marrow
Download a new song every day in 2010Download a new song every day in 2011- Download a new song every day in 2012
- Get a piercing
- Get a tattoo
Get my MA in psychologyGo on a cruise(went to Alaska with my dad last July)- Go on a spontaneous vacation
- Go sailing
Go see an opera(saw Mozart’s The Magic Flute in Vancouver)Go skydiving- Go to a concert
- Go without dairy for a week
- Learn how to play chess
- Learn to write with my left hand
- Leave a letter in a library book
- Obtain a patent
- Participate in a bike race
- Publish a novel
- Read Newton’s Principia
- Ride in a hot air balloon
Run a 10k race(Vancouver Sun Run 2011)- Run a 5k race for a charity organization
- Run a half marathon
Sell/give away superfluous posessions- Start and maintain a cooking blog
- Start and maintain a statistics blog
- Take a class in a subject way over my head
- Take a class in Metaphysics
- Throw pottery
- Visit Antarctica
Visit Mount Rushmore- Visit the Basque country
- Visit the Grand Canyon
- Volunteer somewhere
- Walk 2,500 miles in 2012
Walk the equivalent length of Romania in 2011Walk to every mall in Vancouver- Write my will
Does the Powerball Qualify as a “Lotto” Money?
Today I drove a car for the first time since summer 2010.
Also, since today was Friday the 13th, my mom and I went to Safeway to buy lotto tickets, as neither of us was feeling particularly unlucky and hey—slight possibility for big bucks. On the way home, we theorized what we’d do with $66 million (that’s what the Powerball is up to as of tonight, I think).
Here’s what I’d do with $66 million:
- Pay my parents back for all their monetary help over the past year (moving to/back from London, plus various other expenses).
- Provide each of my good friends with a substantial sum of money with which they can do what they wish.
- Go back to school! Forever! I’d get all the undergraduate degrees I could, then write about them in a book I’d call Degrees of Freedom. Because I’m awesome like that.
- Donate to The Humane Society. Or adopt a metric crap ton of cats and just live on a giant cat farm.
- Give my mom a large enough amount of money so that she could retire.
- Start a foundation/program to help with homelessness, as described in this blog.
- Get a car. Preferably of this variety.
- Acquire tons of clay, tons of clay tools, a pottery wheel, a kiln, and a bunch of glaze. Sculpt to my heart’s content.
- Get a new iPod, haha.
- Get a ticket to Burning Man.
- Donate to the Vandal Marching Band.
- Donate to the Moscow High School Band.
Probably a bunch of other stuff, too. $66 million is a LOT of money.
What would you do with it?
High Resolution
So I suppose it’s that time of the year for reviewing old New Year’s Resolutions and defining new ones.
So let’s get to it!
OUT WITH THE OLD:
- FAILED: Contribute substantially to a Wikipedia article. I actually have quite a bit I can say to add to Wiki’s already existing page on the CFI, but I’ve never actually added anything to a Wiki page (just corrected typos/grammatical errors), so the prospect of doing anything more makes me nervous.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Blog daily. Haha, we all knew this one’d keep.
- FAILED: Come up with a new recipe weekly. Haha. Yeah.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Go skydiving. This was AWEOSME and I totally want to do it again.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Get my MA degree. YAY.
- FAILED: Learn conversational German. Haha, yeah right.
- SORT OF ACCOMPLISHED: Complete the 5,000 question survey. I’m getting there. It’s not like I haven’t been inundating you all with the 100-question segments all year.
- FAILED: Answer the “50 questions that will free your mind” survey question thingy. Totally forgot to do this.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Malls are both fascinating and scary; therefore I shall see Vancouver via walking by walking to a new mall every weekend. Search “Canadian Mall” and ye shall find what I’ve reviewed.
- FAILED: Go a week without electricity. Couldn’t do it in Van ‘cause it was thesis crunch time, didn’t do it in London ‘cause I was busy spazzing, and by the time I got back to Moscow it was getting dark too early in the day and Claudia + candles = imminent disaster.
- FAILED: Go a week without consuming any dairy products. I kept wanting to do this, but then kept automatically adding feta to my pasta/dairy product-containing dressing to my salad.
- SORT OF ACCOMPLISHED: Do something with Prime. In progress.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Go back to St. Mary’s once. Saw the new band room. It kicks ass.
- FAILED: Read Newton’s Principia (and hope Leibniz’ ghost doesn’t kill me in my sleep). I suck.
- FAILED: Actually pay attention to how much money I spend. HAHA.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Win NaNoWriMo 2011. Though I’m not proud of this year’s story.
- ACCOMPLISHED: Get better with R. You don’t have 100+ plots in your thesis and NOT get better with R.
Conclusion: I suck.
IN WITH THE NEW:
- Fix the “issues.”
- Get a job.
- Return to acquiring knowledge in a formal setting.
- Start and maintain a stats blog.
- Improve with R.
- Go without dairy for a week.
- Go without electricity for a week.
Walk 1,200 milesPfft, screw that mediocrity. Walk 2,500 miles.- Continue my 365 Days of Music project.
- Blog daily.
- Win NaNoWriMo 2012.
- Continue “doing something” with Prime.
- Complete the 5,000 question survey.
- Probably other stuff I’m forgetting at the moment.
Wee!
Are disruptive anti-religious protestors weapons of mass destruction?
Holy crapatoli it doesn’t seem like Christmas Eve. My mom and I bought a tiny fake plastic tree and stuck our presents under it, but that’s about all we’ve done as far as decorating.
Thank the stars 2011 is almost over. The last few days of the year are always “let’s review stuff that happened during the year” days, so I’d better get moving on that. ALSO, we’re moving next week, so that’ll be exciting. And annoying. I am SO. SICK. OF. MOVING.
Crap on tap (ha, that rhymes) for the rest of the year:
- the big ol’ music review
- starting a stats blog (more to come on this tomorrow)
- allocation of new data for said stats blog
- figuring out what the heck a “pre major” is and whether I can even get accepted into the U of A as a transfer student
- figuring out why my magically increasing cash stash in my Canadian bank account is magically increasing
- figuring out the job situation
- BDSM! Haha, only kidding. Just making sure you’re paying attention.
- moving to Tucson proper
- review of how I totally failed at my New Year’s Resolutions this year
- statistics on my walking mileage
Plus bunches more, I just can’t think of them right now.
Oh, and this. It was fun and the results are super colorful. This shows my results (right) and the average for females from the United States who are 19+ years of age. Click for enlargement (teehee).
Vroom.
Until we meet again, Idaho
Okay, so barring anymore interference from Mother Nature, TODAY is my last day in Moscow.
Sorry for not scheduling a hang-out time with more of you sillies; things have been semi chaotic since I got back from London and I pretty much had to unpack my stuff rapidly and then just as rapidly repack it.
Also my brain has been alsfajfoijgavhaioewr for the past few months and I’ve been having weird and random panic attack thingies. Would rather not subject my awesome friends to that.
ANYWAY.
Moscow and I are pretty much opposite magnetic poles; I will be returning at some point. I’m actually not sure how long I’ll need to be in AZ anyway.
PEACE OUT, I’m going to go watch Boston Legal until I have to drive to Lewiston in a few hours.
Defining the next four years of my life
CRAP I hate applying for funding. For the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, we basically have to write a proposal detailing our research focus for the next four years (PhD). The problem is, we’re not even supposed to pick an area of emphasis until this coming April. But it’s a good thing, I think. It’s forcing me to actually think about exactly what I want to do with my philosophy degree.
What I’m really interested in, thanks to my thesis work, are the philosophical ramifications of assessing model fit, particularly in structural equation modeling (‘cause it’s what I’m most familiar with now), but also in things like factor analysis and regression. What are the best methods to determine appropriate model fit? Should a fit index show better fit for a model with two factors when the factors are nearly orthogonal but the observable variables are all somewhat equally correlated, or should a fit index show better fit for a model with two factors that are more closely correlated but whose observable variables are more correlationally (is that a word?) separated between the two factors? What components of a model should weigh most heavily when determining model fit? Is there an “ideal” index in that sense?
It might sound weird or obscure or pedantic or whatever, but it’s interesting to me. And I think it’s very important that we start looking at the philosophical side of statistics now that we’ve got the software to run mega simulations and Monte Carlos and number orgies and sexy graphs and…
Sorry.
I’m excited.
Excuses, excuses! (or, “why Claudia sucks”)
Those of you who have been following my blog insanity for several years may remember this post, in which I analyzed pi to determine relative frequencies in the first million digits. I promised to analyze e in the same manner, but I haven’t done it yet. Know why? ‘Cause as much as I love R, R does not love large datasets. Obviously, 1 million individual digits is quite a large dataset.
Once I find a computer with SAS (that’s what I used for pi), I’ll do e. I promise.
Also, have some fun with logic.
Namin’ Babies
I will never have kids. The world needs Claudia spawn about as much as it needs a George W. Bush cloning machine running 24/7 all year ‘round*. But because I’m me, I’ve often thought about what I would name said spawn should he/she/they ever exist.
I usually limit my naming fantasies to male names, because I think I’d produce a male if I were to ever, by some miracle of divine intervention, produce a child.
So because I rediscovered the Name Voyager and all its pretty slopes and lines, I shall present you with my 10 favorite baby (boy) names.
10. Amory
I dig this name probably because it is the name of the main character in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, This Side of Paradise. I love Fitzgerald. He rocks. Anyway. It’s got a nice “old fashioned” feel to it, and according to the Baby Name Voyager, it hasn’t been one of the top 1,000 names in the US anytime between 1880 and now.
9. Eddy
I don’t really know why I like this name. I know my mom likes it, too. Possibly I picked it up from her? Haha, or maybe ‘cause I used to watch a
LOT of Ed, Edd, n’ Eddy when I was younger. I freaking love that show.
8. Charles
Another cool old-fashioned name. It has to be Charles, though. I’m not a big fan of Charlie or Chuck.
7. Simon
Unfortunately, if you say the name Simon to people, probably 70% or so of them will immediately think of either Simon Cowell or Simon the chipmunk. Or that game “Simon Says.” Nevertheless, I really like this name. It’s smooth and simple.
6. Meriwether
This is why I can’t have kids. Because society is dumb, I think any young man labeled Meriwether would probably get teased to death because of it. Nevermind Meriwether Lewis of freaking LEWIS AND CLARK was a badass.
5. Eugene
An old name you don’t hear much anymore. I like names with lots of vowels in them.
4. Adam
Such a nice, simple name. I also have this weird thing for Biblical names. Though if I were to have a little dude and keep my last name, I couldn’t name him Adam ‘cause then his name would be all smooshed together—“Adammahler”—and that would be obnoxious.
3. Jules
Tribute to Jules Verne, the greatest science fiction writer ever! I like French names/French versions of other names. I would read this child 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for their bedtime story. Or maybe Around the World in Eighty Days, it’s a bit lighter.
2. Nick
Yes, Nick, I like your name. Nicholas reminds me of Santa Clause, so that’s out, but Nick has always been a pretty snazzy name in my opinion. Also this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGYpsNpg1bw&feature=related
1. Scott
Another “tribute” name, this one in honor of Sir Robert Falcon Scott, an Englishman who led several expeditions to Antarctica back when it was still Terra Incognita to most and who, in a race with Roald Amundsen to be the first to reach the Pole, died on the ice. Haha, that sounds so depressing, eh? You all know how I love Antarctica, though. And you really don’t ever hear the name Scott anymore, do you?
The end!
*Tell me that’s not the most terrifying concept ever.
Oh hey look, I forgot I had a future
I can’t freaking wait for Western Ontario, dudes. The fact that there’s a whole class on the philosophy of probability is amaaaaaaazing.
Other things I’m excited about:
– getting back into a music class/program/band/something.
– moving back into a dorm. I know that sounds dorky, but I’ll have wireless back and not have an hour-long commute to campus.
– not being in Vancouver.
– not having a soul-crushing depression hanging over every second of my existence. Hopefully.
– getting away from the West Coast.
– cheaper EVERYTHING.
– getting paid to talk about/think about/write about/dink around with the philosophy of science.
– reading through the Philosophy of Science Comprehensive Exam study guide, which includes Kuhn, Popper, Curd & Cover’s anthology, and like 50 other sexy texts.
– possibly owning a car.
YAY.
Adding New Post
So one of my goals on my “101 in 1,001” list (which is actually like a “45 in 1,001” or something like that) is to go without dairy for a week. This may or may not seem like a difficult thing to do for you, but I like cheese and milk and have either one or the other (or both) every day.
This also means no M&Ms. I don’t know what that will do to me.
But yeah. Starting Monday, no dairy until the 9th.
Another goal on the list is to go without electricity for a week, but that’ll have to wait until I’m done with the thesis. Assuming I live that long.
Woo!
A Red Sea and its Better Half are Soon Parted
So I’ve made my decisions.
Thesis defense will, if everything works out, occur sometime in May (the earlier in the month, the better).
I will then be done with my program here and have decided to move east to London, Ontario to pursue a PhD in philosophy (particularly the philosophy of science, more particularly the philosophy of statistics) at the University of Western Ontario.
Yup. Finally getting off the west coast.
The fantastic road trip across the continental US will occur sometime in August, for which my mom and I shall rent a van and drive the suggested Google Earth route, which involves passing through as many states as possible:
It will be wicked.
Here are some fun facts about London, Ontario:
– It sits on the Thames River. Not kidding.
– Population of approximately 350,000 people.
– Halfway between Toronto and Detroit.
– More southern than Boise.
– Affected by thunderstorms more than any other city in Canada (AWESOME).
– Home to the most technologically advanced Kellogg’s plant in Canada.
– Not Vancouver, and therefore not a rainy hellhole.
And a few fun facts about the University of Western Ontario:
– 20,500 undergrads, 4,500 grads.
– Ranked 164th university in the world (UBC is 44th).
– The philosophy of science program is ranked as a second tier program according to Philosophical Gourmet.
– Second largest philosophy department in Canada (largest is University of Toronto).
Yayzorz.
UI schedule fun
So I should have been born in like 1991, because the U of I has had some really great classes these past two years. Here are the 25 credits I would like to take this semester, if I were there (click on image to bring to full size):
These plus MATH 452: Mathematical Statistics, which is a video course.
Nice, eh?
Unadulterated Blather
Okay, so my older list sucked because I wrote it in a hurry and didn’t really give it much thought. So here’s my ACTUAL list of resolutions/goals/miscellaneous crap. I know nobody really cares, but it’s fun to pretend.
- Contribute substantially to a Wikipedia article
- Blog daily
- Come up with a new recipe weekly
- Go skydiving
- Get my MA degree
- Learn conversational German
- Complete the 5,000 question survey
- Answer the “50 questions that will free your mind” survey question thingy
- Malls are both fascinating and scary; therefore I shall see Vancouver via walking by walking to a new mall every weekend. Reviews will happen, ‘cause that’s just how I am
- Go a week without electricity
- Go a week without consuming any dairy products
- Do something with Prime
- Go back to St. Mary’s church once
- Read Newton’s Principia (and hope Leibniz’ ghost doesn’t kill me in my sleep)
- Actually pay attention to how much money I spend
- Win NaNoWriMo 2011
- Get better with R
WOO!
Well, here we go again…
Dear 2011,
Let’s be kind to each other, shall we? 2010 was average enough, but we don’t need another 2009.
So let’s make a deal.
You will provide me with 365 days, each day approximately 24 hours in length. These days will be blank slates with each an opportunity to get things right.
In turn, I will provide you with 365 attempts at not sucking at life. This includes but is not limited to:
- keeping my mind focused on whatever task is at hand, regardless of how alluring drawing/writing/StumbleUpon/Wordpress/screwing around on the internet in general is.
- trying not to lose my shit when it comes to anxiety-provoking social interactions.
- mastering the art of self-deprivation to promote self-betterment.
- attempts to dispel anger in more constructive ways.
- trying to be kinder to everyone, even people who can’t seem to walk down a sidewalk properly.
- appreciating the fact that I have control over my life (note: this does not exempt me from bitching about stuff).
So yeah. Take that, fate, I’m going to kick your ass.
Anyway, life is never complete without a year-end survey. Onward!
Name: Claudia
Screen name: LadyLeibniz. Or AntarcticaFreak, but that one’s ancient.
Current location: Vancouver
Birth date: February 2
Sign: Aquarius/Dragon
2010 In The Beginning……
Where did you ring in the New Year? On my butt in the snow outside my house after falling down the deck stairs. 2009 just couldn’t let go without giving me one more jab.
Who were you with? Myself.
Did you kiss anyone at midnight? Nope.
Did you make any resolutions? Quoted from last year: “Figure out what the hell I want, find a boyfriend, get better with R, etc., etc.”
If so did you keep them? The first and third ones, yeah.
2010 Your Love Life….
Single/Taken? Single
How many relationships did you have? Actual relationships? Zero.
How many break ups? None
How many people did you kiss? One
2010 Friends and Enemies……
Did you meet any new friends this year? I made at least one new friend every time I came back to Moscow, haha.
Did any of your friendships end? Nah.
Did you dislike anyone? Nope.
Did you get into any fights? No one to fight with.
Did you make any new enemies? I hope not.
Did you resolve any fights? I try to stay out of it.
Who was your closest friend? Didn’t really have one.
2010….The Holidays!
Did you have a Valentine? PFFT.
Did the Easter bunny visit you? He gave me a four day weekend.
Did you watch fireworks on the 4th of July? Yes!
Did you dress up for Halloween? No.
What did you do for Thanksgiving? Canadian Thanksgiving blows, so nothing.
Did you receive what you wanted? Partially.
Were you good this holiday season? I always try to be good.
2010 Your BIRTHDAY!!!
How old did you turn? 22
Did you have a cake? No
What did you do for your birthday? Went to class. Not much else.
Did you have a party? Nope.
Did you get any presents? A few
2010……The Memories and Accomplishments!
Funniest Memory? Driving around Moscow with my friends, blasting the Numa Numa song and waving our arms around like a bunch of idiots. And not realizing the back hatch on the car was open.
Saddest Memory? The time we all sat in my car late at night and bitched about how much our lives sucked.
Most Embarrassing Memory? Existing
Best Accomplishment? Presenting my poster in Boston.
2010…..FAVORITES!
Favorite TV shows? I’m still digging Futurama. And METALOCALYPSE.
Favorite songs? See yesterday’s blog.
Favorite bands? Muse rules.
Favorite food? Freaking broccoli, man.
Favorite stores? There aren’t really any stores I frequent up here.
Favorite restaurants? Shari’s is still the best place ever. And Cougar Country, man!
Favorite piece of clothing? I love my Alex Colman pants. SO LOUD.
2010…..All about YOU….
Did you change at all this year? Meh. In some ways, yes, but they’re subtle.
Did you dye your hair? I tried to put some blue in the tips, but you can’t really see it.
Did you get your hair cut? I got it evened out in the summer.
Did you change your style? NEVER!
Were you in school? Blah, yes.
Did you have a job? I was a TA.
Did you drive? Yup.
Did you own a car? Don’t need one up here.
Did you lose anyone this year? No.
Did anyone close to you give birth? No.
Did you move at all? Hahaha, yes.
Did you go on any vacations? I went back to Moscow for the summer.
Did you leave the country at all? Indeed.
Would you change anything about yourself now? Peh.
The Resolutions
Because it’s getting to be that time and the last blog of the year is reserved:
- Try not to suck at life
- Blog daily, as per usual
- Edit the stuff I need to edit (a.k.a. Prime)
- Go skydiving
- THE THESIS, GET IT DONE
- Get better at R
- Analyze the living hell out of every data set I come across
- Have at least one more sexy basement party
- Finish a substantial number of my “101 in 1001” goals (assuming the website ever comes back up, haha)
There are many more, but it’s late and I need music.
Also this:
Today’s song: 10,000 Miles by Mary Chapin Carpenter (this made me bawl)
Qualia!
I’ve decided that I want to donate some bone marrow.
For various reasons I am unable to donate blood, but there don’t appear to be any reasons why I can’t donate marrow. So that’s what I shall do. I figure I’ll never be able to donate blood anyway…anemia, low blood volume, low plasma levels, whatever…so why not try to extract some other part of my body for someone else?
Yay.
Today’s song: Strobe (Radio Edit) by Deadmau5
People Get Poisoned. Distributions Get Poissoned.
I’ve been thinking about tattoo designs lately. I definitely want to do the Leibniz thing, but I don’t really have a good design for it yet. So I’ve been looking at all my old scribbles, and I think this
would be a pretty awesome tattoo. Just get it on my back, across my shoulder blades. Big and expensive as hell, but it’s rainbow and can be seen as either an infinity symbol or a mobius band of some sort (or both), so I dig it.
Using one of my own doodles also avoids the issue of my passions not being readily tattooable.
What do you think?
Today’s song: Alison by Jeremy Fisher
Every Time You Misinterpret a Confidence Interval, God Kills a Statistician
HI AGAIN!
So I’m liking WordPress. I’m liking it enough that I’ve started an entirely new blog dedicated to R. It’s right here. It, unlike this one, will actually kind of look professional and will not consist of my daily ramblings. Rather, it will contain info on using R as well as little tricks, ’cause we all know R can be a pain sometimes.
OH YEAH, I also found an old high school project of mine that revolved around quite a nice little dataset. My “statistics” back then were horrendous, so I’m thinking I might re-do the whole thing and post it up here. Plus my graphs were made in Excel and look terrible. That has to be remedied.
WOO SHORT BLOGS! School starts tomorrow, I’m stressed, deal with it.
Claudia vs. Her Educational Path (round 147)
Sigh.
Okay.
Here we go again.
Last week I met with Victoria and she told me that due to my grad academic standing/undergrad GPA/publications, I’m 90% guaranteed to get funding for the PhD program up here (which is apparently pretty rockin’ odds). Still though, there’s a chance I won’t get funding, especially if the amount of total funding for the department continues to decrease. So it’s common for advisors to encourage their students to apply to other PhD programs, just in case.
Herein lies yet another “oh crap, I have to make an academic decision, whatever should I do?” moment. So common in my life, eh?
www.philosophicalgourmet.com has UBC ranked for their Philosophy of Science PhD program, which is something I’m really into. I’m pretty sure I could get into it, as GRE scores are not required and I think I have all the classes required to skip the MA. The only problem I foresee is that of the three philosophy professors I feel that could write me recommendation letters, only one is still at the U of I. And as sexy as Dr. O’Rourke is, I don’t know if they’d allow one sexy professor’s letter to count for three.
I could totally get a Census job with an MA in quant, and I’d love to teach philosophy if the opportunity were to arise, so…
So.
Who knows.
Blah, ignore this. Why must my two passions be so incompatible?
Today’s song: Throwing Fire by Ronald Jenkees
If night falls in a forest and a tree is still standing, does it cast a shadow?
Oh goodness, Thackeray’s Vanity Fair is hilarious. It’s putting me in the mood for NaNo, which is both good and bad, ‘cause right now I have far too much calculus to do to have any free time to write, which is bad, but it’s also making me think of new ideas, which is good.
Yeah.
Anyway.
So here is a list of things we need to do while I’m back in Moscow:
- Rock Band party
- Drunken party of insane fun (you all know what I’m talking about) in my basement. This time you’ll all need to stay the night, ‘cause I want to drink, too. This could be combined with Rock Band party easily.
- Go on a mini road trip. Because mini road trips are great.
- Screw around in the park.
- Screw around in Shari’s.
- Get naked (could be combined with any/all of the above).
- Drag show (I’m assuming I’ll be there for Pride).
Sound fun? I think so. I miss you weirdos.
Today’s song: Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood by Santa Esmeralda
Let me find the regression line that best fits our love
I want to make a lot of money. I want to do something good with it.
One of the main things I’d like to do is set up some sort of program/shelter for homeless people who really want to get back into the workforce and get things back on track again. I would bet that there’s a fairly large proportion of people out there who honestly would just like to get working and earning money, but are unable to due to various circumstances (being homeless and thus not having a permanent address, not having the resources to acquire appropriate clothing for a job interview, not having a resume or not being able to construct one, stuff like that).
I would like to open up some sort of clinic thing that would provide services to homeless people who want to get working again and eventually have a place of their own. It would provide a permanent address (required for a lot of jobs), “work appropriate clothing” (at least for awhile), and any other useful services, like counseling (emotional, financial, etc.), and possible medical assistance.
Of course, there would have to be a lot of checks in place to make sure things weren’t being abused, but something like this has been something I’ve wanted to do for quite some time. And obviously something like this would be ridiculously expensive (unless I could acquire donations and/or other support), but if I ever have enough money, I’m totally doing it.
Anyway.
Just felt like putting that out there, ‘cause I think the only person I’ve ever told about this was Matt when he was up here.
Today’s song: Telephone by Lady Gaga (damn, she is addictive)
Dear Universe: Please Cut it Out
I swear to god.
So apparently—contrary to what I was told when I first got here—if I want to get a MS in statistics alongside my PhD in quant psych, I’ll have to essentially take double the stats classes. That’s right: the stats classes I take to fulfill my quant degree DON’T double count to fill a stats degree.
What the fuck. Really? Is that how we’re going to play it up here?
Oh, and add on to that the fact that I’ll have to pay double tuition. Yeah.
Thanks, universe! I’ve always wanted a big steaming pile of Karmic shit for Christmas!
Fuck this noise.
Eigenblogger 
