Today was a good day. My brain is really tired.. but it was a good day.
This morning in finance we talked about amortization scheduling and how all that works. It was really interesting. Then we started to learn how to determine how much each payment should be to repay a loan over a certain number of years and also how to determine how much of each payment each year goes to interest and how much goes to repaying the loan. It was pretty interesting. I felt like I understood it really well. Finally.
Between classes we all went to our table at the Atrium. Dustin and I talked about the sort of things that scare us in movies and stories and such. And how we get an adrenaline rush from scary movies and such. We're scared... but the rush is addicting. It's a weird feeling.
Life contingencies was pretty good. We talked about more annuities. I don't even remember what kinds we talked about today. There have been so many. After class I went to go teach 125. That went ok. We had to talk about variance today. It just takes so long and I'm sure that most of them didn't understand. But there wasn't much I could do aside from keep on going. There just wasn't enough time for everything.
After class I went to my office and had lunch. One of the other guys with whom I share an office was there. I can't think of his name right now. Anyhow, he's in my stats class. He was telling me about Bangladesh (his home country) and how his experience has been. I feel really bad for him. Apparently after he graduates he has 3 months to find a job here, otherwise he has to go back home. And working at his job there he would make about 1/20 of what he would make here as a statistician. And his parents are near the age of retirement (which is a specific age if you work for the government) and so it will be up to him to support his family once they retire. Additionally, he had to go through so much to come here. He had to take a lot of tests to show that he could assimilate into our culture. The application fees were also really expensive. He was saying that most grad schools charge a $100 application fee. But in Bangladesh, $100 could take care of your general living expenses (except for housing) for about a month and a half. So... it took a lot to get over here. And on top of that, most companies aren't going to hire someone from another country. And he knows that. He also knows that his spoken English is going to hurt him when he's looking for a job. He's definitely understandable, but he has a moderate accent and sometimes it takes him a few seconds to get his thoughts together. I can tell that he's trying really hard, but it's just difficult to try to be fluent in another language, especially when the people who taught English in Bangladesh probably were not native English speakers. It's just a bad situation all around. But I really liked talking with him. Saha. His name is Saha.
After my office hours I went to go study life contingencies with Tim in his office. It was wonderful. We started at the beginning of chapter 5 and took every equation, thought about what it means and why it means that. That was incredibly helpful. So we did that for about two hours. Afterwards my brain was done. But I felt really good about that material.
When I got back I was hungry. But I didn't eat. Instead I played Just Cause for a little bit. I wasn't ready to do school yet. I had soup for dinner. It wasn't soup day. It threw me off a bit. But I managed. After dinner I called airwaves again. My internet was slow. Again. I talked with one lady for about half an hour. Then we got disconnected. And everything was fine. So... I don't know what was going on. But that's ok.
Then I called mom and caught her up on my life. Talked with dad for a little bit. Then I did some homework. Cleaned up the kitchen. Made a mess of my bed. Played Team Fortress with James. Discussed homework with Dustin. And now it's bed time. Good night all!
10.06.2011
Day 137
Today started really well. I woke up before my alarm went off so I got some reading done for finance that I hadn't intended on doing. That was nice. We went through chapter 4 very quickly (less than 3 days, instead of about 2 weeks). So I've been trying to get caught up on that... I know that it's not super important material (the book even says so), but really want to make sure I can do the problems.
I went to my office around 9:20 and did some grading. I hadn't planned on coming back to my apartment, but I had forgotten my portfolio folder which I needed for my interview. I really don't need it, but it's part of my outfit, so I figured it would be worth going to get it.
When I got back I started reading finance. Then I called Airwaves because we've been having a lot of issues with the internet connection. Over the past week the download rate dropped to about a tenth of what it was when I moved in. I was not ok with that. Everything was super slow. So I called and after being on hold for a while (maybe 15 minutes, which really isn't that bad) I talked with someone who said that they would be sending a technician out to look into it. About an hour later I got another call saying that they had done some looking into the issue and it wasn't just my apartment, so someone would be going to work on the entire apartment complex this afternoon. Excellent. In the mean time I kept reading finance. Around 2 I was feeling really tired so I decided to take a short nap. My interview wasn't until 4, so I figured that sleeping until 3 would be great.
Yeah.
My alarm didn't go off. I woke up (praise Jesus) at 3:35. I had been deep asleep. I was so disoriented when I woke up.... I knew that I was supposed to be awake at 3 and that I had something very important at 4... but I had no idea what it was. It was very confusing. I had no idea what day it was or why I needed to be up, but I was certain that whatever it was, it was terribly important and I needed to hurry to get there. Finally as I looked around and noticed that I was wearing my suit it hit me that I had an interview at 4. And I had exactly 23 minutes to drive to campus and walk to Lucina hall (which is obviously not near any of the commuter lots). Still incredibly disoriented, I grabbed my backpack (I had class after my interview) and portfolio and ran out the door. By the time I got to the commuter lot closest to Lucina it was 3:55. So I ran from my car to Lucina and made it there right at 4. Last night I did some research on Oneamerica, but today I hadn't had time to collect my thoughts and get into interview mode.
Basically it went terribly. My mind was still very cloudy from my nap. They asked me questions and I just could not bring my thoughts together to form good, concise, and understandable answers. So I found myself saying things that really weren't relevant and made no sense. More than once the lady from HR had a puzzled look on her face, like she really didn't know what I was saying. It was also difficult because there were two people, and I didn't know whether I should talk with the actuary or the lady from HR. So I tried to just go back and forth between them, unless I had a question or statement for one of them specifically. But I just couldn't bring my thoughts together. I honestly considered just leaving during the interview. I considered just standing up and saying "I'm really sorry for wasting your time, I just am not prepared for this interview. Good luck finding a candidate." But I didn't. I figured there's infinitesimal sliver of hope that they won't completely reject me. They asked me why I wanted to work for Oneamerica. I hate that question. It's unnecessary. They want you to give them some line about how their company is better than all the others and all that other garbage. But the reality is that I'll take whatever internship I am offered. That's the truth. And that's what I told them. I said "If I can be honest, I applied for a lot of internships. And you were one of the companies that was interested in an interview with me. I don't want to sound brash, but I'm going to take any internship that is offered to me." I used a similar line during my Jackson interview, but she and I had been joking the entire time and the mood was much lighter. So the lady from Jackson understood my point, but didn't take offense to it. She understood that we had all been looking for whatever internship we could get. The ladies from Oneamerica did not take it the same way. Yeah. Um... I'm glad that's over. It was incredibly awkward.
So then I went to class. I drove to the other end of campus and parked in the other commuter lot. I was going to wait for the shuttle, but after waiting for 10 minutes I just got tired of waiting. I didn't see the shuttle at all on my walk to class, which is odd. But I got to class and tried to make sense of what was going on. It didn't go well.
After class I felt like eating a hamburger. So as Tim, Erica, Jordan and I walked back to our cars I asked if any of them wanted to join me. Only Erica accepted, so we went to Steak and Shake. And it was tasty. I got the guacamole burger. So much goodness. Grandpa called me. Pat is out of the hospital (she had pneumonia recently) but he won't be able to meet up with Jessie and me during his current visit to Indiana. She has a doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon. So prayers are appreciated for her.
When I got back I talked with Clifton about my excellent interview. I was about to start planning for my lesson tomorrow when Jessie called and asked if I wanted to go get ice cream. I accepted. I hadn't seen them this week, so that was nice. I told them about my awesome interview.
When we returned from ice cream I worked on my lesson plan. Talked with Derrick on Facebook about the recent death of Steve Jobs. Talked with Chelsea about the trials of being a GA instructor and all the work and stress of grad school. Finished my lesson plan. And now... It's time for bed. Good night all.
I went to my office around 9:20 and did some grading. I hadn't planned on coming back to my apartment, but I had forgotten my portfolio folder which I needed for my interview. I really don't need it, but it's part of my outfit, so I figured it would be worth going to get it.
When I got back I started reading finance. Then I called Airwaves because we've been having a lot of issues with the internet connection. Over the past week the download rate dropped to about a tenth of what it was when I moved in. I was not ok with that. Everything was super slow. So I called and after being on hold for a while (maybe 15 minutes, which really isn't that bad) I talked with someone who said that they would be sending a technician out to look into it. About an hour later I got another call saying that they had done some looking into the issue and it wasn't just my apartment, so someone would be going to work on the entire apartment complex this afternoon. Excellent. In the mean time I kept reading finance. Around 2 I was feeling really tired so I decided to take a short nap. My interview wasn't until 4, so I figured that sleeping until 3 would be great.
Yeah.
My alarm didn't go off. I woke up (praise Jesus) at 3:35. I had been deep asleep. I was so disoriented when I woke up.... I knew that I was supposed to be awake at 3 and that I had something very important at 4... but I had no idea what it was. It was very confusing. I had no idea what day it was or why I needed to be up, but I was certain that whatever it was, it was terribly important and I needed to hurry to get there. Finally as I looked around and noticed that I was wearing my suit it hit me that I had an interview at 4. And I had exactly 23 minutes to drive to campus and walk to Lucina hall (which is obviously not near any of the commuter lots). Still incredibly disoriented, I grabbed my backpack (I had class after my interview) and portfolio and ran out the door. By the time I got to the commuter lot closest to Lucina it was 3:55. So I ran from my car to Lucina and made it there right at 4. Last night I did some research on Oneamerica, but today I hadn't had time to collect my thoughts and get into interview mode.
Basically it went terribly. My mind was still very cloudy from my nap. They asked me questions and I just could not bring my thoughts together to form good, concise, and understandable answers. So I found myself saying things that really weren't relevant and made no sense. More than once the lady from HR had a puzzled look on her face, like she really didn't know what I was saying. It was also difficult because there were two people, and I didn't know whether I should talk with the actuary or the lady from HR. So I tried to just go back and forth between them, unless I had a question or statement for one of them specifically. But I just couldn't bring my thoughts together. I honestly considered just leaving during the interview. I considered just standing up and saying "I'm really sorry for wasting your time, I just am not prepared for this interview. Good luck finding a candidate." But I didn't. I figured there's infinitesimal sliver of hope that they won't completely reject me. They asked me why I wanted to work for Oneamerica. I hate that question. It's unnecessary. They want you to give them some line about how their company is better than all the others and all that other garbage. But the reality is that I'll take whatever internship I am offered. That's the truth. And that's what I told them. I said "If I can be honest, I applied for a lot of internships. And you were one of the companies that was interested in an interview with me. I don't want to sound brash, but I'm going to take any internship that is offered to me." I used a similar line during my Jackson interview, but she and I had been joking the entire time and the mood was much lighter. So the lady from Jackson understood my point, but didn't take offense to it. She understood that we had all been looking for whatever internship we could get. The ladies from Oneamerica did not take it the same way. Yeah. Um... I'm glad that's over. It was incredibly awkward.
So then I went to class. I drove to the other end of campus and parked in the other commuter lot. I was going to wait for the shuttle, but after waiting for 10 minutes I just got tired of waiting. I didn't see the shuttle at all on my walk to class, which is odd. But I got to class and tried to make sense of what was going on. It didn't go well.
After class I felt like eating a hamburger. So as Tim, Erica, Jordan and I walked back to our cars I asked if any of them wanted to join me. Only Erica accepted, so we went to Steak and Shake. And it was tasty. I got the guacamole burger. So much goodness. Grandpa called me. Pat is out of the hospital (she had pneumonia recently) but he won't be able to meet up with Jessie and me during his current visit to Indiana. She has a doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon. So prayers are appreciated for her.
When I got back I talked with Clifton about my excellent interview. I was about to start planning for my lesson tomorrow when Jessie called and asked if I wanted to go get ice cream. I accepted. I hadn't seen them this week, so that was nice. I told them about my awesome interview.
When we returned from ice cream I worked on my lesson plan. Talked with Derrick on Facebook about the recent death of Steve Jobs. Talked with Chelsea about the trials of being a GA instructor and all the work and stress of grad school. Finished my lesson plan. And now... It's time for bed. Good night all.
10.04.2011
Day 136
I've noticed that when I look back over the course of the day... it feels so much longer than one day. It usually feels like about three days. This is possibly one of the weirdest feelings ever.
So this morning I had finance. It was so long ago, I can't even remember what we did. I need to look at that tomorrow. In between classes I printed off my stuff for the class I teach, then went to the Atrium to sit with friends and do some work. I need to remember to bring my headphones... I can't concentrate when people are all talking.
I really liked life contingencies today. Today we did math. No formal proofs or anything. No, today we simply took equations and tried to intuitively write them in different ways. We didn't check to see if they were exact. We just wanted to see if we could think of different ways to write them. I really liked it.
Then I taught. Nothing too much to say about it. This chapter is getting into statistics... it's pretty boring. Oh well. After class I had lunch and started reading some of the extra credit papers that I assigned. They were... ok. I think I was expecting more from Freshmen. Then I came home and read life contingencies for a little bit. I took Erica to the Toyota dealership today so she could get her car worked on. Then I went to an informational session for the GA instructors. It was kind of helpful. Mainly we asked a few questions then talked things out with some of the people in charge. I just got incredibly tired. I hate when this happens. Anyhow, we asked questions, they answered.... it was alright. They want to do this sort of thing on a regular basis in the spring so we gave them some advice.
When I got back I tried to make chicken curry using a recipe in my cook book. I didn't have the ingredients for the recipe Mama gave me, so I'll have to try that some other time. This stuff tastes really good but isn't spicy at all. I think that using ketchup instead of tomato paste was a poor choice. I also didn't have real onion... just dried minced onion. Oh well. It was pretty good.
After dinner I cleaned up. I talked with grandpa on the phone. Pat has pneumonia, so she is in the hospital. So prayers would be appreciated. He seemed to be doing as well as possible.
After I got off the phone with grandpa I picked Kathryn up and we went to small group. Since it was the Tuesday of the month we played games. Well, that was the plan. A group of us spent the first half hour talking about movies. Specifically Pixar movies and how much we love Wall-e. And how Andrew and I cried at the beginning of UP. And how I cried during Castaway. And how fast Kathryn needs to watch more Disney movies... and The Princess Bride. That needs to happen super fast. Eventually we did in fact start playing a game. I think it was... Family Feud? Yeah. It was fun. Except that the answers often all seemed very similar. Like for the "mystical creatures" prompt, the abominable snowman and the yeti were two different answers. We were confused.
Then... I came back home and started researching Oneamerica for my interview tomorrow. And now... I'm tired. So I'm going to bed. Night!
So this morning I had finance. It was so long ago, I can't even remember what we did. I need to look at that tomorrow. In between classes I printed off my stuff for the class I teach, then went to the Atrium to sit with friends and do some work. I need to remember to bring my headphones... I can't concentrate when people are all talking.
I really liked life contingencies today. Today we did math. No formal proofs or anything. No, today we simply took equations and tried to intuitively write them in different ways. We didn't check to see if they were exact. We just wanted to see if we could think of different ways to write them. I really liked it.
Then I taught. Nothing too much to say about it. This chapter is getting into statistics... it's pretty boring. Oh well. After class I had lunch and started reading some of the extra credit papers that I assigned. They were... ok. I think I was expecting more from Freshmen. Then I came home and read life contingencies for a little bit. I took Erica to the Toyota dealership today so she could get her car worked on. Then I went to an informational session for the GA instructors. It was kind of helpful. Mainly we asked a few questions then talked things out with some of the people in charge. I just got incredibly tired. I hate when this happens. Anyhow, we asked questions, they answered.... it was alright. They want to do this sort of thing on a regular basis in the spring so we gave them some advice.
When I got back I tried to make chicken curry using a recipe in my cook book. I didn't have the ingredients for the recipe Mama gave me, so I'll have to try that some other time. This stuff tastes really good but isn't spicy at all. I think that using ketchup instead of tomato paste was a poor choice. I also didn't have real onion... just dried minced onion. Oh well. It was pretty good.
After dinner I cleaned up. I talked with grandpa on the phone. Pat has pneumonia, so she is in the hospital. So prayers would be appreciated. He seemed to be doing as well as possible.
After I got off the phone with grandpa I picked Kathryn up and we went to small group. Since it was the Tuesday of the month we played games. Well, that was the plan. A group of us spent the first half hour talking about movies. Specifically Pixar movies and how much we love Wall-e. And how Andrew and I cried at the beginning of UP. And how I cried during Castaway. And how fast Kathryn needs to watch more Disney movies... and The Princess Bride. That needs to happen super fast. Eventually we did in fact start playing a game. I think it was... Family Feud? Yeah. It was fun. Except that the answers often all seemed very similar. Like for the "mystical creatures" prompt, the abominable snowman and the yeti were two different answers. We were confused.
Then... I came back home and started researching Oneamerica for my interview tomorrow. And now... I'm tired. So I'm going to bed. Night!
10.03.2011
Day 135
It's late, so here's a quick update (perhaps).
We had class this morning. It's really difficult to concentrate on finance for so long at 8am. It's just a lot of information for so early in the morning. I remember once at Mount Vernon that Dr. Noonan used to say that he thought we were just lazy for not liking 8am classes. But then he started having 8am meetings and he realized how difficult it is to stay focused that early. It really is. I do my best to following along and take notes, but it's just very difficult. I might need to start making coffee and taking it with me. We'll see.
Life contingencies was a bit better. We spent a lot of time deriving some formulas. I'm not sure how I feel about that method of teaching. It works for life contingencies. But it doesn't work for every class (in my humble opinion).
After class I had a meeting with Dr. Begum about the class she observed. She thought I did well overall. Mainly she just wanted to suggest that I write more things down when I go through examples. She also wanted to make me aware that some students are on their laptops and not paying attention. I told her that I am aware and that I've addressed it a couple times. But I may start being more strict. We'll see. I figure that they're probably not going to pay attention either way, but at least they might try harder without that distraction.
Um. I had lunch. Then I worked on stats homework in the library. Apparently there was a class meeting for a library tour because a lot of people I didn't know started sitting around me. I was confused. Then I figured out what was going on. After a while I met Erica, Jordan, and Jacob in the Atrium to do homework. That went, I suppose. Class also went. It's so hard to concentrate in that class.
After class I had dinner. Spaghetti and homemade meatballs. Then I did some work, planned my lesson, talked with some people on Facebook. I talked with Kirby. I lived with him my Junior year. We compared notes on grad school. We're both quite ready to be done.
Yeah. Anyhow. Bed time. Night!
We had class this morning. It's really difficult to concentrate on finance for so long at 8am. It's just a lot of information for so early in the morning. I remember once at Mount Vernon that Dr. Noonan used to say that he thought we were just lazy for not liking 8am classes. But then he started having 8am meetings and he realized how difficult it is to stay focused that early. It really is. I do my best to following along and take notes, but it's just very difficult. I might need to start making coffee and taking it with me. We'll see.
Life contingencies was a bit better. We spent a lot of time deriving some formulas. I'm not sure how I feel about that method of teaching. It works for life contingencies. But it doesn't work for every class (in my humble opinion).
After class I had a meeting with Dr. Begum about the class she observed. She thought I did well overall. Mainly she just wanted to suggest that I write more things down when I go through examples. She also wanted to make me aware that some students are on their laptops and not paying attention. I told her that I am aware and that I've addressed it a couple times. But I may start being more strict. We'll see. I figure that they're probably not going to pay attention either way, but at least they might try harder without that distraction.
Um. I had lunch. Then I worked on stats homework in the library. Apparently there was a class meeting for a library tour because a lot of people I didn't know started sitting around me. I was confused. Then I figured out what was going on. After a while I met Erica, Jordan, and Jacob in the Atrium to do homework. That went, I suppose. Class also went. It's so hard to concentrate in that class.
After class I had dinner. Spaghetti and homemade meatballs. Then I did some work, planned my lesson, talked with some people on Facebook. I talked with Kirby. I lived with him my Junior year. We compared notes on grad school. We're both quite ready to be done.
Yeah. Anyhow. Bed time. Night!
10.02.2011
Day 134
Well today was race day. We left way too early (6:30) and it was freezing. Not really. It was about 40 degrees. But it was pretty chilly. I made sure I was properly dressed. I think this was the first time I've worn warm up pants in....a really long time. A few years. Kimmy didn't know I owned any. Anyhow, we got there, talked with people we knew, then I started warming up since I was running the first leg. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. The cold weather kept my body from over heating and the wonderful people along the way gave us water and food. They had Gummy Bears! It was awesome. I was so very happy. When my leg was over I actually felt like I could have kept going. But I was a team player and decided to hand off the time chip to Jessie. There was a shuttle waiting for all the relay runners to take us back to the lodge. I was the last one... but that's ok. They didn't hold it against me. Our driver got lost on the way to the lodge, but we didn't hold that against her either. So it was all good.
When we got back, we just sat around until everyone else finished. Kimmy took a nap. Jesse and I just played around on our phones while everyone else did...whatever they did. We all stood at the finish line and cheered Amber through the finish. We also decided it would be a wonderful idea for her to finish with Lily...so Amber was thrilled to run the last 50 yards with 20 extra pounds. Clearly. Overall we got a time of 4 hours and 8 minutes. Obviously I helped our average time a lot.
After we got back to the house, I showered, packed, and ate lunch. Then we all headed back to our respective cities. I slept for the first hour of the car ride. Then I tried to read through my life contingency notes. That was just a wonderful time. It was really hard to read in the car though. There was just too much happening. And the equations are all so similar.
When I got back I went grocery shopping. Then I ate the rest of my meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner. Timbo came over a little after 6 to help me with stats homework. It made a bit more sense after he explained it. My main problem is just understanding what the homework is asking. It's either really wordy or uses symbols that I don't fully understand. But it's starting to make more sense now. I'm going to finish the homework tomorrow afternoon.
After he left I just did some cleaning. I made my lunch for tomorrow. This week I made my chicken with garlic salt and chili seasoning. We'll see how that tastes.
And now... I'm tired. So I'm going to bed. Night!
When we got back, we just sat around until everyone else finished. Kimmy took a nap. Jesse and I just played around on our phones while everyone else did...whatever they did. We all stood at the finish line and cheered Amber through the finish. We also decided it would be a wonderful idea for her to finish with Lily...so Amber was thrilled to run the last 50 yards with 20 extra pounds. Clearly. Overall we got a time of 4 hours and 8 minutes. Obviously I helped our average time a lot.
After we got back to the house, I showered, packed, and ate lunch. Then we all headed back to our respective cities. I slept for the first hour of the car ride. Then I tried to read through my life contingency notes. That was just a wonderful time. It was really hard to read in the car though. There was just too much happening. And the equations are all so similar.
When I got back I went grocery shopping. Then I ate the rest of my meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner. Timbo came over a little after 6 to help me with stats homework. It made a bit more sense after he explained it. My main problem is just understanding what the homework is asking. It's either really wordy or uses symbols that I don't fully understand. But it's starting to make more sense now. I'm going to finish the homework tomorrow afternoon.
After he left I just did some cleaning. I made my lunch for tomorrow. This week I made my chicken with garlic salt and chili seasoning. We'll see how that tastes.
And now... I'm tired. So I'm going to bed. Night!
10.01.2011
Day 133
I woke up early this morning. Early for Saturday, anyhow. 8:30 is pretty late for any other day of the week. I had a couple mini-bagels with peanut butter. I really that was breakfast. After breakfast I did some work for life contingencies. I think I need to spend some time on the way home tomorrow just looking over equations. I didn't feel like I knew the equations at all while I was doing the problems. It's very difficult because all of the equations are incredibly similar. I won't try to describe the equations... there are too many subscripts and superscripts. And weird non-standard symbols. Here is the wikipedia article on actuarial notation. You can get a feel for the symbols that we use. It takes some getting used to, but it's getting better.
So yeah. Did that for a little bit. Then we went over to see the grandparents for a little bit before they went to lunch. After that Jessie and Richard went up to watch dad's game. Kimmy and I stayed home. I worked on stats homework all afternoon. I got most of it done. I still have a few problems left, but Timbo and I are going to have a serious study party tomorrow evening so we're going to work on stuff then. Mostly finance and stats though.
Jesse and Amber came in the early afternoon but then went off to get lunch and visit the grandparents. Kimmy and I stayed at home and did more homework. This grad school thing is a killer. Eventually everyone came back around 4:30. I was tired of doing homework by that point. So I started helping get dinner ready. Mom had made lasagna last night. I was in charge of making salads. It was super tricky. Not really.
After dinner we cleaned up and went to go see the grandparents again! Yay! So we were over there for a couple hours, just talking and things. I got a recipe for curry chicken and pear chutney. I would like to make that soon. Friday, after I get paid. I think that next weekend I'm going to bake some cookies. Yes... I would like to do that.
Yeah. Tomorrow morning I'm going to die in the race. So... this might be my last update. If I somehow manage to survive the race and cold weather I will continue keeping everyone up to date on my goings on. But tomorrow morning will tell!
So yeah. Did that for a little bit. Then we went over to see the grandparents for a little bit before they went to lunch. After that Jessie and Richard went up to watch dad's game. Kimmy and I stayed home. I worked on stats homework all afternoon. I got most of it done. I still have a few problems left, but Timbo and I are going to have a serious study party tomorrow evening so we're going to work on stuff then. Mostly finance and stats though.
Jesse and Amber came in the early afternoon but then went off to get lunch and visit the grandparents. Kimmy and I stayed at home and did more homework. This grad school thing is a killer. Eventually everyone came back around 4:30. I was tired of doing homework by that point. So I started helping get dinner ready. Mom had made lasagna last night. I was in charge of making salads. It was super tricky. Not really.
After dinner we cleaned up and went to go see the grandparents again! Yay! So we were over there for a couple hours, just talking and things. I got a recipe for curry chicken and pear chutney. I would like to make that soon. Friday, after I get paid. I think that next weekend I'm going to bake some cookies. Yes... I would like to do that.
Yeah. Tomorrow morning I'm going to die in the race. So... this might be my last update. If I somehow manage to survive the race and cold weather I will continue keeping everyone up to date on my goings on. But tomorrow morning will tell!
Day 132
Long but good day today.
It started off with... waking up. Yes, it appears that may day started in that fashion. It began fairly normally, except for one tiny deviation. Around 7:15 Erica called me. She wanted fashion advice. This is a new occurrence for me. I know less about fashion than I do about Middle Eastern geography. And my knowledge of Middle Eastern geography is embarrassingly elementary. So the fact that someone would call me asking for fashion advice was quite amusing at the time. Actually it still is. I believe it was based on a time before the job fair when I was helping people dress professionally. That I can do. I know how suits and business attire is supposed to look. But actually daily fashion? Not my area. Anyhow, I gave it my best shot. I told her that it's not too early to wear knee high boots. I hope I was right...
I'm realizing something about class on Fridays. You actually have to pay attention during Friday classes at grad school. During undergrad I never really did. Friday was always that day when no one wanted to be there... it was a lighter day. But not in grad school. No, it's just as intense as every other day. So I'm trying to adapt to that. I also got my finance test back and did better than I thought I had. So that was exciting.
In between classes I had a meeting with the other math GA instructors and Dr. Fischer. I was in charge of leading the group discussion. Apparently I don't know how to lead discussion. I'm good at presenting... but leading discussion is not my strong suit. But Dr. Fisher was helpful. I talked about how I make a good teaching environment and cultivate a student-teacher relationship. So I explained how I try to find a place between being their friend (because they don't need another friend... they have plenty) and being a cold administrative figure (they have plenty of those as well). So I've tried to find a common ground as a student, but also prove myself as an authority figure who can handle the classroom and is in control. So far it's gone really well. I think my students respect and trust me, but I like to think it's because I first respected and trusted them. The second day of class I took 15 minutes discussing how I could best teach. And then again after the test I did the same thing. And I think that it shows my students that I do care about them as students. It just creates a very open and trusting dynamic, one that I found to work very well.
After life contingencies I went to the barber and got a hair cut. He had the sweetest set of clippers. It had a vacuum tube attached so it automatically sucked the hair right after it was clipped. So cool.
Then I came home and hid some left over Chinese for lunch. I avoided homework successfully for quite some time. I played some Team Fortress, cleaned my room, did some dishes, texted some people, sat in my chair and listened to music. Very productive things, for sure.
I tried to pay my bill online today. Apparently the office closed at noon today (instead of at 6). But I guess there is a $15 convenience fee for paying online. So I went down to the office and dropped a check in the deposit box.
Jessie and Richard came to pick me up around 5:30. We stopped at Arby's then it was off to Findlay. It was a pretty uneventful trip. I read some life contingencies. Talked with Jessie about her job. Read some more. We got to Findlay around...8:30? We had to take a small detour because of a closed road. I found out that the navigation feature on my phone includes a small "do not enter sign" where a road is closed. That's pretty neat.
We got home a little before mom and dad. But when they got here we just sound around and talked. And ate angel food cake. It was tasty. Then Kimmy and I went bowling with friends Becky and James and some of their friends and things. It was alright. I don't like bowling so much and it was way way expensive. But we had fun.
And now I'm super tired. So I'm going to bed! Night!
It started off with... waking up. Yes, it appears that may day started in that fashion. It began fairly normally, except for one tiny deviation. Around 7:15 Erica called me. She wanted fashion advice. This is a new occurrence for me. I know less about fashion than I do about Middle Eastern geography. And my knowledge of Middle Eastern geography is embarrassingly elementary. So the fact that someone would call me asking for fashion advice was quite amusing at the time. Actually it still is. I believe it was based on a time before the job fair when I was helping people dress professionally. That I can do. I know how suits and business attire is supposed to look. But actually daily fashion? Not my area. Anyhow, I gave it my best shot. I told her that it's not too early to wear knee high boots. I hope I was right...
I'm realizing something about class on Fridays. You actually have to pay attention during Friday classes at grad school. During undergrad I never really did. Friday was always that day when no one wanted to be there... it was a lighter day. But not in grad school. No, it's just as intense as every other day. So I'm trying to adapt to that. I also got my finance test back and did better than I thought I had. So that was exciting.
In between classes I had a meeting with the other math GA instructors and Dr. Fischer. I was in charge of leading the group discussion. Apparently I don't know how to lead discussion. I'm good at presenting... but leading discussion is not my strong suit. But Dr. Fisher was helpful. I talked about how I make a good teaching environment and cultivate a student-teacher relationship. So I explained how I try to find a place between being their friend (because they don't need another friend... they have plenty) and being a cold administrative figure (they have plenty of those as well). So I've tried to find a common ground as a student, but also prove myself as an authority figure who can handle the classroom and is in control. So far it's gone really well. I think my students respect and trust me, but I like to think it's because I first respected and trusted them. The second day of class I took 15 minutes discussing how I could best teach. And then again after the test I did the same thing. And I think that it shows my students that I do care about them as students. It just creates a very open and trusting dynamic, one that I found to work very well.
After life contingencies I went to the barber and got a hair cut. He had the sweetest set of clippers. It had a vacuum tube attached so it automatically sucked the hair right after it was clipped. So cool.
Then I came home and hid some left over Chinese for lunch. I avoided homework successfully for quite some time. I played some Team Fortress, cleaned my room, did some dishes, texted some people, sat in my chair and listened to music. Very productive things, for sure.
I tried to pay my bill online today. Apparently the office closed at noon today (instead of at 6). But I guess there is a $15 convenience fee for paying online. So I went down to the office and dropped a check in the deposit box.
Jessie and Richard came to pick me up around 5:30. We stopped at Arby's then it was off to Findlay. It was a pretty uneventful trip. I read some life contingencies. Talked with Jessie about her job. Read some more. We got to Findlay around...8:30? We had to take a small detour because of a closed road. I found out that the navigation feature on my phone includes a small "do not enter sign" where a road is closed. That's pretty neat.
We got home a little before mom and dad. But when they got here we just sound around and talked. And ate angel food cake. It was tasty. Then Kimmy and I went bowling with friends Becky and James and some of their friends and things. It was alright. I don't like bowling so much and it was way way expensive. But we had fun.
And now I'm super tired. So I'm going to bed! Night!
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