In this blog: we all get excited about statistics
SPSS gets almost as wound up about factor analysis as I do:
Jeremy gets more excitable the closer we get to the midterm. “What happens if you run an analysis of x and x squared? You’ll get HUGE multicollinearity and the program will return a ton of red text! ‘Inflation factor of ONE BILLION! ABORT! ABORT! DO YOU WANT TO PROCEED?!?!’”
Yay.
Today’s song: Something Good ’09 (Radio Edit) by Utah Saints
I am 95% confident that the population parameter ‘love’ falls between you and me
(AND YES, I know that’s not the appropriate way to interpret confidence intervals…shut up, I thought it was cute)
Hahaha, oh the memories…I’ve helped save Sean from looming academic disaster literally six times now, and now, right this second as I’m typing this blog, I’m doing it again. Why am I like the only person who knows what’s going on with the U of I scheduling? Even still?
I designed the schedule that turned Aaron from Academic Probation Boy to Dean’s List member. At least, I designed the schedule that HELPED this transformation. I still hold the schedule had a big part in it…he hated his first semester classes, but really liked the ones I picked out. I know more about how the classes/schedules work than my advisor did.I know more about how the classes/schedules work than Sean’s advisor.I still have the goddamned U of I Catalog, EVEN THOUGH I DON’T GO THERE ANYMORE.I remember when in the semester drop dates without W’s are, drop dates with W’s are, and I know when the half-classes generally end/start.
Haha, I’m not complaining, I just think it’s funny. This was all spawned by Sean YET AGAIN NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO THE FACT THAT THE FUTURE WILL EXIST AT SOME POINT and relying on his luck and the fact that he knows I know the U of I catalog pretty much word-for-word. Usually that approach woks just fine for him, but who knows this time.
Anyway.
So if anyone wants academic advice/a schedule, just let me know. I’ve still got the book!
Also, Academic Probation Boy = best superhero sidekick name ever (or villain sidekick name. Dr. Procrastination needs a crony).
Today’s song: LoveGame by Lady GaGa
Mediocrity, Thy Name is Claudia
So YET AGAIN I’m having a dilemma about school. I really, really don’t have any idea what I do. If I stay, I’ll be miserable for approximately five years, but if I leave, I’ll regret quitting for the rest of my life. I can’t figure out which one would be worse as of right now.
Why am I having such a hard time with this? I think one of my biggest roadblocks in all of this has been my fear of what others will think. “She’s too stupid to get through grad school.” “All the other schools were right in rejecting her.” “She’s a quitter.” I know that sounds pathetic, but it’s something I worry about, especially if I want to get a job at the Census and/or get a Philosophy MA or PhD.
Anyway.
It got to the point tonight where the decision was so 50/50 that I realized the only way I was going to solve my dilemma was to utilize the old coin flip. I relied on an online coin flipper (because manual coin-flipping is biased slightly in several different ways—look it up, it’s interesting), with heads being “leave” and tails being “stay.”
This exercise proved three things to me. First, when the coin came up “tails” and I went on flipping it until it came up heads (three times, by the way), it proved that I really did have a preference.
Second, it proved that what I was actually looking for was an excuse—an excuse to get off this track I had so meticulously set for myself—and that I was so desperate for this excuse that I would count an online coin-flipper’s outcome as my ticket to freedom.
Third, it proved that I’m unlikely to do anything anytime soon about it, because that’s just the way I am. I like to finish what I start. If I don’t, I hate myself even more.
So here we sit.
And here I am.
I don’t even know what else to say.
Sorry, it’s been a bad day.
Today’s song: Glitter in the Air by P!nk
If Godot falls in the forest and no one is around, do we have to wait even longer?
You know you’ve officially stopped caring when, in the margins of your notes, you draw out elaborate scenes involving helicopters and kites.
Today’s song: Clair de Lune by Stephen Malinowski
Today I learned a valuable lesson
Dear Psychology Student Counsil people:
If you want undergrads to pay attention to presentations on the research being done in the different areas of the department, please don’t schedule the quantitative person, whose presentation was on the sensitivity of fit indices used in structural equation modeling, on the same day as the clinical person, whose presentation was on sex.
Seriously.
Me: “I graph fit index values as a function of increasing latent variable numbers and increasing omitted error covariance!”
Undergrads: “…”
Morag: “I shove infared sensors up women’s vaginas!”
Undergrads: “HOLY SHIT TELL US MORE!”
Vaginas give you an unfair advantage. At least schedule me on the same day as the neuroscience people so I at least have a chance.
Today’s song: Le by DJ Settler Project
January is too far from the end of the semester
Ugh, school. Here’s my schedule this semester:
9:30 – 11:00 M/W: Bayesian Inference
3:00 – 4:30 M/W: Statistical Computing (half course, starts in March)
9:30 – 11:00 T/H: Measurement
11:00 – 1:15 T/H: Regression
Fun times.
Today’s song: Fuzzy Blue Lights by Owl City
*farting noises with mouth*
Yay, everyone else is on break but me…
And when I start classes everyone will still be on break…
And none of my band friends will be in Moscow when I get home…
And I have to proctor a 3-hour final starting at 7 tonight…
The 10 Undergraduate Commandments
- Thou shalt read the syllabus.
- Thou shalt write legibly.
- Thou shalt stay within the designated page limit.
- Thou shalt not contest every point missed on an exam.
- Thou shalt not blame thine TA for thine crappy test grades.
- Thou shalt consult thine textbook before asking stupid questions.
- Thou shalt not have to consult thine TA regarding what constitutes an “introduction” paragraph.
- Thou shalt use proper spelling, capitalization, and grammar in thine emails if thou wishes a prompt response.
- Thou shalt staple thine stupid homework pages.
- Thou shalt not assume thine TA has nothing better to do than to grade thine test.
STATS MARATHON
Holy crap, I’ve never taken a 5 hour final before.
What’s even better is the fact that it was a 5 hour stats final.
Wow.
Sorry, I can no longer think straight.
Hahaha, what the hell, universe?
WOAH what a weird morning.
I woke up at like 4:30 this morning and felt like death, so I kinda aimlessly wandered around my apartment for half an hour or so before collapsing back into bed. I woke up for real at about 9:50, which I thought was okay, since stats doesn’t start until noon.
Until I realized that stats ACTUALLY starts at 11. Which gave me approximately an hour and 10 minutes to get dressed, walk (run) to the bus, get to campus, and hike up to the math building.
Well, let’s just say that the powers of the universe were on my side. Just as I sprinted to the bus stop, #7 showed up, and just as I got to my second stop, #480 showed up. So now I know that the absolute fastest I can get to campus is 25 minutes.
OH, and then I saw some calculus graffiti on a recycling bin. I’m not freaking kidding. It was an integral equation for 1/3 (or something like it, it was in black ink on a dark green bin). I wanted to take a picture, but there were too many people, and I didn’t have but my crappy camera phone.
I shall go back later and take it.
One’s education should never be a monogamous relationship
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, save monogamy for human relationships! Happiness comes from integration of knowledge from many sources. I have realized that I love statistics and I love philosophy (plus like twenty other things), and in order to be happy I must somehow have them both (all).
I often ponder just giving up on this whole one-track idea of undergrad/masters/PhD and just deciding to stay in undergrad for as long as possible to see how many degrees I can accrue.
One can dream, right?
“DURRRR WHAT’S A STAPLE”
Seriously, have any of these people ever seen a stapler? An obnoxious proportion of the 366 students fail to staple their assignments…it’s really freaking annoying. The whole “I’ll just fold my pages over” only works if you’re the only one doing it, so that when your crappy folding job falls apart, the TA will know that all the detestable pieces of free paper are yours.
Ergh.
OH GOD MY FUTURE IS IMMINENT
So as of today, I am officially a grad student. Yay. I also realized that my blogs have spanned my entire undergraduate career (with like a month of high school included, at no extra charge!). I shall continue such blogging until I graduate.
Whenever that will be.
A Brief History of My Time at the U of I
Alternate title: Claudia took too many goddamn classes and gave the U of I way too much money.
1. Biology 102: Biology and Society
2. CORE 116: The Sacred Journey
3. CORE 166: The Sacred Journey
4. English 101: Introduction to College Writing
5. English 102: College Writing and Rhetoric
6. English 175: Introduction to Literary Genres
7. English 208: Personal and Exploratory Writing
8. English 258: Literature of Western Civilization II
9. English 292: Creative Writing: Fiction
10. English 392: Intermediate Fiction Writing
11. Geography 100: Physical Geography
12. Geography 100L: Physical Geography Lab
13. History 111: Introduction to U.S. History I
14. History 112: Introduction to U.S. History II
15. Math 143: Pre-Calculus Algebra and Analytic Geometry
16. Math 160: Survey of Calculus
17. Math 330: Linear Algebra
18. Music 119: Marching Band
19. Music 121: Concert Band
20. Music 319: Marching Band
21. Music 319: Marching Band
22. Music 321: Concert Band
23. Music 321: Concert Band
24. Philosophy 103: Ethics
25. Philosophy 202: Introduction to Symbolic Logic
26. Philosophy 240: Belief and Reality
27. Philosophy 307: Buddhism
28. Philosophy 320: History of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
29. Philosophy 321: History of Modern Philosophy
30. Philosophy 351: Philosophy of Science
31. Philosophy 442: Philosophy of Mind
32. Philosophy 447: Theory of Knowledge
33. Philosophy 490: Senior Seminar
34. Psychology 101: Introduction to Psychology
35. Psychology 218: Intro to Research in the Behavioral Sciences
36. Psychology 305: Developmental Psychology
37. Psychology 310: Psychology of Personality
38. Psychology 311: Abnormal Psychology
39. Psychology 320: Social Psychology
40. Psychology 330: Human Sexuality
41. Psychology 390: Psychology of Learning
42. Psychology 421: Cognitive Development
43. Psychology 430: Tests and Measurements
44. Psychology 456: Psychology of Emotion
45. Psychology 499: Directed Study – Industrial/Organizational Research
46. Psychology 499: Directed Study – Industrial/Organizational Research
47. Psychology 499: Directed Study – Industrial/Organizational Research
48. Psychology 499: Directed Study – Stumbling on Happiness
49. Statistics 251: Statistical Methods
50. Statistics 401: Statistical Analysis
51. Statistics 422: Sample Survey Methods
52. Statistics 514: Nonparametric Statistics
53. Statistics 519: Multivariate Analysis
54. Theatre 100: Freshman Theatre Seminar
55. Theatre 105: Basics of Performance
WOOHOO NO BLOG POST IS COMPLETE WITHOUT A GRAPH LOL
Yes, it keeps going EVEN THOUGH I’M DONE WITH SCHOOL
Because I’m a loser and love to do these things, here is my college career in review. In BAR CHART FORM!!!! MUAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! Higher scores = the better that semester was in that aspect.
Damn you, Linear Algebra
SO CLOSE. I was SO CLOSE to getting another 4.0 this semester.
But no.
Because I’m stupid.
At least 3.98 is still above the summa cum laude cutoff.
What the last three years have taught me
The last three years of college have taught me that:
- the rubber from the Kibbie Dome field will stay embedded in your socks for eternity.
- they don’t call it “Wish You Were Dead Week” for nothing.
- the Dollar Store is a good place at which to lose money and gain worthless yet awesome crap with which to decorate the house/lawn/car.
- if you work your ass off, you can get a Bachelors in 2 ½ years.
- it doesn’t take much to ruin the movie 300 for your friends.
- marching band pretty much rocks.
- our upstairs neighbors are stupid.
- drag shows are awesome and lead to interesting stories.
- 1-800-BUTTSEX is a real number.
- Wallace sucks.
- the U of I in general sucks.
- no matter how many times you wash the floor, if you live in a room in Wallace, the sand from the sidewalks in winter will NEVER go away.
- the table in the Commons will keep you entertained. Forever.
- Kermit’s loins are soft and pants-shaped.
- Ren’s boobs are god.
- relationships are always better if they begin by making out in a random place.
- stereotypical philosophy teachers = sexy.
- I still can’t do algebra.
- the Enlightenment was the best time period ever.
- carving genetalia out of erasers actually does reduce the stress of a 25-credit semester.
- you shouldn’t take 25-credit semesters.
- GPA miracles DO happen.
- Dr. O’Rourke is badass.
- the Quote Book is law.
- weird things happen in multidimensional spaces (thanks, Dr. Lee).
- parties at Maggie’s are fun and often result in me wearing bras that don’t fit.
- Leibniz is the greatest person that has ever lived.
- Newton is a thief and a liar.
- we will never know if love is universal or not (long story).
- Rock Band is quite possibly the best thing ever.
- sometimes things just work out.
- Pink Pearls are valuable tools in keeping one’s sanity.
- leftover Flex Dollars will earn you friends as well as a huge bag of candy at the end of the semester.
- noodles with shredded cheese on them are the food of the gods.
- spaghetti is pretty awesome, too.
- college drama is even more ridiculous than high school drama.
- late night discussions with Sean over MSN Messenger are worth staying up until 4 AM, even when you have class at 8:30 the next morning.
- in heaven there is no beer. Thus explaining why we drink it here.
- Karmic debt can be repaid in worrying about how the universe will make you repay your karmic debt.
- I still suck at Flash.
- fall semesters are substantially worse for your morale than spring semesters.
- everybody needs an Orgy Couch.
- zeppelins are hilarious.
- midnight runs to Shari’s are made of win.
- Sean is not allowed to wear socks (another long story).
- clown music, funny as it may be, is not suitable for concert band.
- drawing naughty pictures is always an appropriate and productive activity, regardless of what you’re supposed to be doing at the time.
- the Clock Crew is my second family.
- finals = panic attacks.
- the progression from “box of random magnetic words” to “series of naughty phrases on the fridge” is a law of nature.
- Aaron is a robot killer.
- if you spend enough time there, the Ag Sci computer lab is like your home.
- there are few things funnier than Ballroom Blitz sung in a Scottish accent.
- Benny Lava requires a bun in order to be bitten.
- the Registrar is not to be trusted.
- apparently my dad is a good enough professor to warrant his own Facebook fan group.
- 1 + 1 = 1…in BOOOOOOOOLEAN ALGEBRA!!!!
- you should never underestimate the Papin brothers.
- mice families are hard to kill once they start to make babies in your microwave (again, a long story).
- milking he-brides is an appropriate concert band activity.
- so is doing the Macarana.
- working at the U of I is quite possibly the worst thing you can do to yourself.
- you are still forced to make collages in 300-level classes.
- you can make a “your mom” joke out of anything (e.g. “This milk is expired.” “So’s YOUR MOM!”).
- Soylent Glitter is people!
- math 143 can suck it.
- you can survive solely on instant mashed potatoes and M&Ms for at least 10 months.
- Symbolic Logic is scary as shit, but is totally worth it.
- islands sold on eBay make great conversation topics.
- Millard Fillmore = best president ever.
- I ON DA COLE TRAIN!!!!
The cylinder may have graduated, but the thermometer has many degrees
YAY GRADUATION! Again…
So today I woke up at 7:00 AM to go and graduate. And yes, they definitely make a bigger deal of it in the spring than in the fall.
They also forgot to put “summa cum laude” on my reader card (I had to write it on there) and they got my major wrong in the commencement book (they had last semester’s degree).
Let’s see, what else happened…
There was a major technical difficulty and the two front screens shorted out after about 15 minutes…Walt Minnick’s speech was the most depressing thing I’ve ever heard…people with air horns are stupid…
Also, even though there were six (I think) philosophy majors graduating, I was the only one who actually walked. This wasn’t awkward at all except for the college receptions after the main ceremony. CLASS was in the Memorial Gym, and when I went inside there were all these different signs for the different majors, under which the graduates were supposed to gather.
I was the only one under the “philosophy” sign. But it’s okay, ‘cause my mom got a picture of me giving a big thumbs up underneath the sign. And the department head came up to me—apparently I went to school with his son—and congratulated me on finishing in three years.
It was fun.
Long, but fun.
Oh, but what was really cool was that the last song I heard the band play as we were leaving the Kibbie Dome was “School’s Out for Summer.”
That’s the first song we played in band camp my first semester here.
Forget Everything You Ever Knew about Knowing!
Actually, don’t. It’s probably all still relevant anyway.
I had to write the rough draft of my Epistemology final during that week I was so sick, so the revision process was not so much a revision as it was a “let’s start from scratch” kind of thing. I’ve been working on it all day and I took like 400 shots of some energy spray thing last night just for fun (MENERGY!). Couldn’t sing in Rock Band ‘cause my voice was all shaky, but then I got a 100% on expert singing Livin’ on a Prayer and another on More Than a Feeling, so I guess shaky = good (or shaky = Bon Jovi, one of the two).
What was I doing?
Oh yeah.
So…since classes are done with and that essay is done with and I am in denial about the hell this week will be, I decided to take the night off and just dink around. During said dinking around, I decided to figure out how many pages of essays I’ve written since I started college.
Numbers are as follows:
FALL 2006
143
SPRING 2007
183
SUMMER 2007
48
FALL 2007
82
SPRING 2008
62
SUMMER 2008
52
FALL 2008
142
SPRING 2009
381
TOTAL:
1093
Let’s see…college started on August 21, 2006, which means that, counting today, I’ve been here too long 992 days. This equates to about 1.1 pages of written material a day.
It also means that about 35% of the total number of pages I’ve written in college have been written over the past 16 weeks. Scary stuff. Also, notice Spring 2008. Not too bad for a 25-credit semester, eh? Thank you, stats classes.
Bloggity McBlog
Check it:
“You have been awarded a 1-year UBC Graduate Entrance Scholarship (GES), valued at $17,500, in support of your graduate studies. These fellowships are only awarded to the top students, so you are to be congratulated on your academic success.”
Pretty cool, huh? Put the TA money on top of that, and I’m getting $27,500 for my first year at UBC.
Snazzy.
Go Go Gadget BLOG
Here are, again, a bunch of titles I give my school documents. Enjoy. Apparently titles deserve all-caps.
- “Jesus called, he wants his Hume paper back”
- “SO-SO-SO-SOCRATES!”
- “The ExistentialShamWow holds 20 times its own weight in angst”
- “DIONYSIUS, WHYYYYYYYYYYY?!?!?!”
- “PROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOF”
- “College is fun except for this Locke paper”
- “This SERIOUSLY is the intro…FINAL VERSION!!”
- “That’s no essay…it’s a space station.”
- “It’s distressing that I derive so much pleasure from titling my documents in a silly manner”
- “OHSHITOHSHITOHSHITOHSHITOHSHIT”
- “Where’s your gravity NOW, Newton?!”
- “OH GOD THE PAIN OF EPISTEMOLOGY”
- “My Vaio hates me”
- “WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”
- “Locke your doors!”
- “SYMBOLIC LOGIC OH GOD NO”
- “Pantsssssssss”
- “SHAZAAM! QUINE!”
- “Pseudo-intellectual ramblings regarding philosophy and other crap that’s important”
- “IGNORE THIS IT’S POINTLESS”
- “Nietzsche can suck it, I’ve got pasta”
Progress
Yay! My degree came in the mail today!
Pic:
Eigenblogger 