I’m FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
This fucking semester, man.
I’ve always felt stupid, but I’ve never felt so hopelessly stupid as I have this semester.
And the fact that the depression hit practically right as the semester started REALLY didn’t help things at all. It just exacerbated the crappiness.
But now it’s over. Now all I have to do is wait for grades and hope I didn’t totally botch things.
And then summer school starts.
NO REST FOR THE WEARY, NO INDEED.
Everyone’s cranky today.
I think Christmas Carnage is probably one of the most underrated Rage Quits Michael’s done.
Anyway.
I’ve got my last two finals of the year tomorrow: calc II at 7 AM and then computer science at 7 PM. I honestly don’t know which one I’m more worried about. If this semester screws over my GPA I’m going to be pissed. I already screwed it over with Linear Algebra in 2009, though, so I don’t know what I’m complaining about.
Juuuuuuuuuuuust complaining.
Bye.
Graaaaaaaaaaaades
So I think my calculus II test scores are the first few terms of an infinite alternating series that converges to 95.
Those of you who remember your tests grades: did yours ever follow a particular pattern? Depending on how many tests are scheduled for a class in a semester, I get the following patterns:
Two tests:
Test 1: High A
Test 2: High A
Three tests:
Test 1: Moderate A
Test 2: Low A
Test 3: High A
Four tests:
Test 1: Moderate A
Test 2: High A
Test 3: Low A
Test 4: High A
(and if there’s a fifth test as a final, then I usually do okay on that one)
Linear Algebra was the exception to this…I just had all Bs in place of the As and that’s why that’s been the ONE CLASS in which I haven’t gotten an A.
It’s the world “algebra,” man. We still don’t get along.
END!
SCHEDULE!
Shedulescheduleschedulescheduleschedule!
Check out that Tuesday/Thursday, eh? Depending on when I end up teaching, I may just have band on those days.
But I do want to add something else somewhere…not sure where…but somewhere. I don’t like this 12/13 credit thing.
IT’S HARD.
Maybe I’ll shove an art class in there if I can. Or another stats class. Though I’m not sure if anything that I haven’t taken/aren’t already taking is being offered.
SCHWING!
Will Will will Will’s will to Will?
Today I present The Stages of Claudia’s Reaction to a Math Test
Right before the test: I freaking love calculus! I totally know this stuff.
Looking over the problems: LET’S DO THIS!
Doing the problems: What’s a plus sign?
Right after handing it in: Crap. That went badly.
10 minutes after handing it in: I suck I suck I suck I suck I suck
Rest of the day: WHY AM I SO BAD AT EVERYTHING I LOVE?
Next day: I’ve disappointed myself.
Following day: I’ve disappointed the gods of calculus.
Following day: I’ve disappointed everyone.
All next week: I am a worthless soul who can’t do anything right. Why do I even bother, it’s not like I’m smart enough for any of this. [insert obnoxious amount of pointless angst]
Getting the test back: Oh, an A. Okay.
This has seriously happened three times this semester. Still trying to shake that damn math test anxiety that’s been following me since high school.
The math part of my brain (that ITTY BITTY LITTLE TROOPER) is internalizing some substantial portion of this awesome stuff. Why can’t the rest of my brain figure that out?
I never have this problem with stats. More proof that at least for me, stats and math are quite different things.
The Fisher-Yates Shuffle is not a dance
So I’ve been screeching for like the past five minutes because THE FALL CLASS SCHEDULE IS UP ZOMG!
The bad:
Agh, the ONE CLASS I really, really, really wanted to take (History of Math) is not offered.
[frustrationfrustrationfrustrationfrustration]
The good:
Well hell, everything else looks good, though. Regardless of which section(s) I end up teaching of STAT 251, none of them will conflict with the other classes I want to take.
Tentative schedule:
(MWF)
STAT 451: Probability Theory (8:30 – 9:20)
ENGL 492: Advanced Fiction Writing (12:30 – 1:20)
MATH 432: Numerical Linear Algebra (1:30 – 2:20)
MATH 215: Intro to Advanced Mathematics (2:30 – 3:20)
(TH)
MUSA 321: Concert Band (4:30 – 5:20)
I also really want to take HIST 404: History of Science until 1800, but I can’t find the prerequisites anywhere (it’s a special topics class, so who knows) and it also conflicts with Advanced Fiction.
ANYWAY.
Throw one (or two?) sections of STAT 251 in there and we’re good.
But DAMMIT I wanted History of Math.
Euclidean Porn
It’s one of those “12 hours on campus every day” weeks.
Which means it’s also one of those “have repeated panic attacks in my office” weeks.
Come on, brain. Now’s not the time for your BS. Wait until after finals, alrighty? I’ll let you concentrate on nothing but naughty Leibniz thoughts* if you wait until after finals to spaz yourself into a quagmire of busted synapses.
In other news: I need this shirt.
*You do that anyway, but whatevs.
TITLE ENTERED! IS THE NEXT STEP NACHOS?
HI FOOLS!
So I’ve got good news and bad news.
Bad news: due to scheduling conflicts, I had to drop my “for fun” class, Engineering Physics, this semester. Perhaps I’ll be able to fit it in next fall.
Good news: room has opened up in Intermediate Non-Fiction, the next class for me in the Non-Fiction track. So I added that today as my “fun class” at the last minute (literally 11:59 PM).
And in the long-term (’cause I’m all about the long-term), this is probably a better class to take right now anyway. It actually pertains to either a Writing minor or an English major depending on which I decide to pull. And I’ve been itching for another writing class. I love being “forced” to write for homework and I love to read other peoples’ writing.
So…yay?
Why taking freshman classes is fun/scary/hilarious/depressing/exciting/disturbing/wow
I am 24 years old. Even though nationally the average number of years it takes to graduate with a bachelors degree is trending towards 6 years and thus more and more people are my current age when they graduate, most freshman are still 18, 19, maybe 20.
And currently, I am taking mainly freshman classes.
Why it’s fun: I love the broad scope of 100-level classes. I like how (most) 100-level classes are graded quite easily and thus kind of allow you to mentally gloss over the parts that don’t hold your interest but delve into the parts that do. That’s kind of the purpose of 100-level classes anyway, isn’t it? To help you figure out if what you’re studying actually interests you?
Why it’s scary: There’s always the chance for failure. If I can’t handle things at the 100-level, I’m pretty much in trouble. So there’s that.
Why it’s hilarious: Oh my god. Freshmen.
Why it’s depressing: I’m 24 and still in the “beginning” classes as if I have yet to do anything (academic-wise) with my life. It makes me wish that I’d known what I wanted to do way back when I first started in 2006 (or even before that).
Why it’s exciting: There’s something about starting at the “beginning” of a new field of study, man. The possibilities! The chance for finding future obsessions!
Why it’s disturbing: The number of people who are in college but show absolutely no interest in what they’re studying is the most depressing thing ever. Why waste your time, money, energy, and the prime years of your life doing something you hate? [says the girl who spent two miserable years in the hellhole of Vancouver just for a Masters, but ignore that for now]
Why it’s “wow”: Dude. I just love school, okay? I bitch about it a lot, but I love it.
I’m also really jazzed up today for some reason.
END!
It’s tiiiiiiiiiiime…
YES. SCHOOL.
Review:
MATH 176 (Discrete Math): I still dig that we’re going to talk about the pigeonhole principle. Totally excited about the material in this class.
PHYS 211 (Engineering Physics): There are like five of us in there who aren’t physics or engineering majors. This’ll be a lot of work, I think, but it sounds like it’ll be really fun as well. And my prof is awesome.
CS 120 (Computer Science I): Programming in stuff other than R and SAS! I see myself getting really obsessive about this class.
AND my class, which is super late in the day, especially for a stats class (3:30). I’ve got about half the students I did last semester due to the time, but hey…at least I’m not teaching the 8 AM section. I hope my students will like the class (and me).
WOO!
Nerves
Total distance walked thus far in 2013: 30 miles.
I need a car. And people need to shovel their damn sidewalks. The top of the hill on 3rd is an icy death trap.
Got my books today. I’m taking engineering physics because I want to take engineering physics and the book is GIANT. It looks like it’ll be a really interesting class.
I’m also taking discrete math. The first page I randomly turned to in the book had a discussion of the pigeonhole principle (a This Week’s Science Blog topic awhile back), so I have automatic love for that class. The professor is the same dude I had for linear algebra back in the stone age, so at least I’ll be familiar with his teaching style.
I think I’m actually more nervous about teaching this semester than last semester, mainly because now that I’ve done a class I feel like I have no excuse for any mistakes.
I need to chill. But I suck at chilling.
BAH.
Note: I’m having some issues regarding approving/responding to comments. Just letting you know that I’m not ignoring them (I love your comments, guys!), I’ll get to them as soon as WordPress stops throwing a hissy fit every time I try to type a response to one.
Yayz!
HA.
4.0.
I still got it.
And yes, it matters to me. I’ll probably be going to grad school again (as much as I’m hesitant about it), so grades are important.
I give myself a banana sticker.
I am Golfer, hear me Fore
I pwned that calc final. Thank you, Leibniz (and Newton)!
Have some sillies in celebration.
Are all Culligan men Aquarians?
Now this is a schedule.
I’m going to drop either applied regression (STAT 516) or discrete math (MATH 176) because even with my insane credit-taking, I’m not sure if I can pull 19 credits while teaching. Plus, I’ve heard that calc II is the bear of the calc trio.
But WOO! I love making schedules.
I teach MWF 3:30 – 4:20, by the way. So if you know anybody that still needs to take STAT 251…
Brink, you scary.
Proof:
I don’t know what disability having one leg and a wheel qualifies as, but it looks pretty bad.
I was thirsty and wanted some water. Then I saw this and changed my mind. It looks a lot creepier without a camera’s flash lighting it up.
In a brief interlude between artistic endeavors, M.C. Escher took a year off to dabble in architecture. During this time he designed Brink Hall.
This is in one of the bathrooms. The washer was running. I wonder if the cleaning crew does their rags in those washers?
Claudia’s Post-Secondary Education: Round 2. Er, 3. 4 ½? Ah, who even knows anymore.
I’m baaaaaaaaaack…
SCHOOL TIME!
EXTREME EXCITEMENT!
Because of teaching (which will begin TOMORROW!) I cut my credits down substantially, which I think was a good thing even though it’s hard for me to take less than 20 credits. Or so I’m assuming. I’ve never done it before.
Anyway.
Today’s classes were:
- CALCULUS!! Freaking Leibniz party, man! I’m excited.
- Beginning Nonfiction!! I was going to take Advanced Fiction as well, but it’s right after my stats class (ha! MY stats class) and I figured that wouldn’t be ideal, especially since I’ll have 137 students and I think that at least some will have questions after class every once and awhile.
- And I’m taking the itty bitty one-credit trig class (MATH 144) because I never took trig in high school and I’d like to know what that’s all about.
So WOO!
More to come tomorrow. I’mma go run around the house a few times.
If two hotels from the same company sleep together, is it considered inncest?
I’m at work right now writing this. Decided to take a short break for my sanity’s sake. This damn PDF I’m working on keeps crashing Adobe Acrobat so I’ve had to read this 50-page chapter on bowel movements like ten times.
Anyway, after screwing around with my schedule a bit this last week, I’ve finally got next semester all in place. Behold!
I’m beyond excited. I’ve missed school so much.
That is all.
Sun Tans: They Don’t Happen Overnight
Here is some fun data. Or disturbing data. Depending on how you see things.
Points of interest:
- Pima Community College, where I currently work, has the third-highestgraduation numbers of all the community colleges in the US. Which doesn’t surprise me; it has like eight campuses across Tucson.
- Idaho’s higher education stats…they really blow.
Those two bars below Idaho are Alaska and Washington, D.C.
The national average percentage of students graduating in four years or less is 31.3%?
The national average percentage of students graduating in six years or less is 56.0%??
Good lord.
Of course, this is to be considered.
A year ago…
I defended my Master’s thesis.
That’s all I feel like saying today.
Happy birthday, grandpa, we miss you!
DUDES UI FALL SCHEDULE TIME!
Here’s what I’d take. Clicky clicky.
Purely hypothetical, of course…or IS it?!
DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN!
In the beginning, Al Gore created http://
As everyone who knows even the slightest bit about me is aware, I am obsessive about school and would like to return ASAP. The magical thing about Tucson is that it’s home to the University of Arizona. The magical thing about the University of Arizona is that it’s not the U of I it’s got a lot of really cool majors and appears to be a very good school overall.
One particularly interesting-sounding major I came across this evening arises from the engineering department: systems engineering. On the U of A engineering department’s website, systems engineering is defined as a field “…concerned with the design, modeling, and analysis of technological systems that employ people and machines, software and hardware, material and energy for such diverse purposes as communication, health care, transportation or manufacturing…if complex systems are to do what is intended, without unwanted side effects, they must be designed not only with imagination and technical skill, but with rigorous attention to the design process itself and to the interactions among the system components and with other systems and society.”
And, “…the curriculum provides students with design viewpoints and methodologies that emphasize system integration, and with subject matter and tools for modeling and analysis especially appropriate for large complex systems, e.g., probability and statistics, system theory, decision analysis, and simulation.”
So…it’s basically like statistics with an engineering bend, or so that’s what I gather.
HOW COOL?
Also, they explicitly list Raytheon as one of the major employers of system engineers, and Raytheon has a special polar exploration sector that I’d totally love to worm my way into someday. Antarctica, I’m coming for you soon, I swear.
I must conduct further research on this field…
Eight Days Left, Half Way There
Hey, I formally graduate with my MA tomorrow. Snazzy.
That is all. It’s been a crappy day.
Some Days I Miss My Sanity. Other Days I’m Just a Toaster.
So my first week of Grad School: Take II has passed. I’m taking three classes and TA-ing an undergrad course. REVIEWS!
PHIL 9276: Philosophical Foundations of Modern Physics
Word for word on the syllabus: “Week 2: Newton vs. Leibniz.”
HELL.
YES.
PHIL 9606: Hume and Reid on Mental Representation
Next to the veritable demigod that is Leibniz, Hume is my favorite philosopher. I really like the way he tackled he idea of causality and how simply observing a “cause” action and then an “effect” action doesn’t necessarily guarantee that the cause actually CAUSED the effect.
Anyway, this class will involve reading a metric crap ton of Hume plus many of his critics, including Reid.
PHIL 9889: Environmental Philosophy
This is going to be a near exact repeat of my philosophy senior seminar at UI. Which I’m okay with, ’cause it was interesting stuff.
PHIL 2020: Basic Logic (TA)
Yay, logic! This is an undergrad class full of non-philosophy majors and is taught by a PhD student. Once we get to PhD level we’re allowed to actually teach classes; at the MA level we’re just graders/office-hour-holders. I’m hoping that since I’m TA-ing logic for both semesters now that I’ll be able to ask them to actually let me teach it next year, ‘cause I think it would probably be one of the better classes for me to teach given my background.
Cool, huh?
I love this school already
I don’t know how many of you guys follow Piled Higher and Deeper, a comic by Jorge Cham that is the most accurate portrayal of graduate life I’ve ever seen*, but they’re making a live-action movie of it and it’s screening here at UWO on the 23rd.
How freaking cool is that?!
Also, I’m TA-ing PHIL 2020, Basic Logic, class this semester, which is pretty snazzy considering we have to pass a logic competencey exam in our first year of PhD and this will do for a good refresher. Shout-out to Dr. O’Rourke for being an amazing teacher and making logic accessible to me, someone who had no intuitive grasp of proofs prior to the course.
Yay!
*examples from UBC: trying to teach correlation to undergrads, explaining what you’re studying, emailing, and “this might as well have been a screenshot of my compy”
Eigenblogger 