Day 276

You know what I tell myself every day?  "I'm going to go to bed early tonight."  You know what I rarely do?  Yeah, you can probably guess.


Well, I went to work this morning and did some grading.  It takes so long... I got around half of it done before life con.  Then during class we went over the practice exam.  Most of it, anyways.  I realized that a couple equations I had been using only worked under certain assumptions.  So I was glad that I got that cleared up.


After class I had a quick lunch and then went up to the computer lab.  I did some grading, did some studying, with David and Matt, talked with Wendy.  It was a decent time.


So here's an interesting story.  While I was in the computer lab I sent an email to an insurance company based in Van Wert, Ohio.  I figured I'd get the same sort of canned response I'd gotten from every other place, but it was worth a shot.  But that's not what happened.  20 minutes later I had a phone call from a lady asking if she could call me later that afternoon about options for the summer.  So I was pretty amazed and excited by all of this.


When I got home I cleaned up a little, then tried to get ready for this sort-of interview.  Or whatever it was.  I pretty much treated it as a phone interview.  Sheryl explained to me that they don't normally hire interns but that she would bring it up to see if it was a possibility for the summer.  So she just asked me questions about my resume, my education, what I did in school, what grades I got in my classes (that was difficult to remember).  She asked me about my experience in teaching and why I switched from teaching to actuarial science.  I told her that there were a lot of educational politics with which I did not agree. She asked what I meant by "politics," so I explained: 'in my experiences in schools and in talking with teachers, I noticed a trend that the government was pushing for teachers to "teach to the test," instead of teaching for understanding.  Not only is this more stressful for teachers, but it's hurting the educational system.  I am a strong believer in teaching for understanding instead of simply to pass some tests, so I left.  I didn't want to be part of something with which I did not agree.'  At the end of the call she said that she was going to talk with the necessary people and call me back in a couple days.  When she asked if I had any questions, I asked her if there was not an opportunity to be an intern, might there at least be the chance to shadow an actuary or something. She said that would bring that up as well.  She did mention that they are looking to hire an actuary (I explained that I graduate next May) but hopefully we can talk more about everything when she calls back.  She didn't make it seem like they had many people looking for work there, so maybe I'll have a chance?  That would be amazing...


After that I started making dinner.  I called Amber to see if she knew what "coarsely ground potatoes" were.  She did not.  So I decided to call someone I knew would have an answer: mama (Amber confirmed that this was a good idea).  So I called her and she gave me her best guess.  Then she caught me up on life over in Primrose.  It seems like they are enjoying themselves, so that's good.


So I finished making dinner, which was called "hamburger stuff."  Basically what I did was cut up 3 large potatoes into tiny little piece, mix that with some ground turkey, cut up onion, salt, pepper, and 2 cups of water.  Then I put that in a cake pan for 45 minutes.  It was actually pretty good.  I didn't think that it would be, but I was pleased.


After dinner I helped Dustin with the investment assignment that's due tomorrow.  Then I played some TF2 with Miles.  Helped Tim out with a couple questions, played more TF2.  I feel pretty confident about my test tomorrow, so I'm going to go to bed!  Night!