Woo Sunday!
I woke up before my alarm went off. I'm really not a big fan of this. It's just silly if you ask me. But either way I woke up, had a shower, ate some breakfast, then went grocery shopping. I didn't need much so I was hoping to make it under $20, but it didn't quite happen. Mostly because I had to buy a razor. I was going to just get new cartridges for the razor I have, but I just don't want to spend that kind of money anymore. So I got a new razor which was way cheaper than getting new cartridges. I'm looking into getting a safety razor, but don't have the money at the moment. I'm trying to save some extra money so I can buy the extra gas to go to Mount Vernon on Friday so I can drive up with Kimmy. So that's my plan and it's going decently so far.
After grocery shopping I came back, did some life contingencies. Then I went to church with Jessie and Richard. The pastor talked about sin and how destructive it is. And how important it is to recognize that only Jesus can fix all the things. It was pretty good. I'm not sure what triggered it, but at some point I started thinking about a conversation he and I had the other day. He grew up Catholic and he was telling me that their teachings, people from Protestant denominations weren't going to heaven. And I told him that it was peculiar because in Protestant churches they are taught the exact opposite.
After church we went to Pita Pit for lunch. It was very tasty. Basically Subway on a pita. Very tasty. Then we went back to Jessie's apartment for apple pie! So there was even more tasty.
Eventually I had to do work, so I came back and worked some more on life contingencies. I called a few different people about it and verified answers. Then I did some grading for a while. I'm going to try to get the extra credit papers back this week. We'll see!
I think that I need to start taking more dedicated time off. I'm finding that I just start zoning out throughout the weekend and am probably less productive than if I would just take some time off. Or maybe just do work in the morning and afternoon and take evenings off. That should work. I'll give that a try soon.
Alright. I was staying up so that I could try to sign up for another interview because I got an email saying that I was an alternate.. but I guess that means that I just need to check back periodically in case someone cancels. Not that there would be an opening at midnight. Oh well. So yeah. Night!
10.10.2011
10.08.2011
Day 140
So I woke up a little early this morning. For a Saturday, anyways. I guess 8:30 isn't really that early. But yeah. I woke up. And I ate breakfast. I spent a while balancing my checking account, then figuring out how to spend/save my paycheck. That all took a majority of my morning because I'm realizing that I can't just accept the fact that I get paid the same amount every two weeks and can just use the same way of allotting that money every week. For some reason I feel the need to recalculate all of my spending and saving every paycheck. Even though I usually figured it almost the exact same way every time. I'm silly like that. I also made myself a really big omlette for breakfast. It was ok. I didn't have any cheese to put in it and the only meat I had was leftover meatballs. Pro-tip: meatballs don't really taste that good in eggs. I also think I put too much Italian seasoning in my meatballs. Or something. They're a bit too potent. I also think that I need to change up my meats from just chicken and ground turkey. I believe that those are the only meats I have bought since moving here... and I don't have much I can do with the ground turkey. Something needs to change, that's for certain.
The rest of the day just kind of went. Some of my friends and I went to the BSU football game since it was the homecoming game. We left near the end of the third quarter and BSU was losing 28 - 0.... yuck. I don't know much about football... but they played horribly. Unless the idea of the game is to drop most of your passes and never get a first down. In which case BSU was winning more than any team in history.
I had a really hard time getting motivated today. I got some non-school related stuff done. Like... I did some laundry. And I thought about straightening my room. And I thought about cleaning my bathroom. And I had soup for dinner. I don't think I'll be getting that kind again. It wasn't very good. It was some sort of sirloin burger stew or something. Meh. Not a big fan.
I did end up getting some of my stats homework done. That class is really frustrating for me because I've never learned well from math books and I class can be hard to follow. So most of the time I feel like I'm flying blind when I do the homework. On the plus side, since I've been spending so much time on life contingencies recently I feel pretty good about it. I'm going to finish the last problem tomorrow. It shouldn't be too bad. I also talked with Tim about one of the problems. He gave me a really good tip that will be really helpful in the future. We're finding that very often integrals with a term of x*e^(a*x), which involves the use of integration by parts to solve. Though it's fairly straight forward, it takes time that I won't have on the actuarial exams. So I'm going to work on memorizing the general form of the equation so that I don't have to use integration by parts every time. That should make things easier.
Yeah. Umm... I'm going to go to bed now. I remember earlier that I had something I wanted to right about... but I can't remember it now. Except that there's a concert for Wolfgang Gartner in Chicago that Derrick and I want to go to at the end of the month. But I need to see if that's doable. But for now, I'm going to bed. Night!
The rest of the day just kind of went. Some of my friends and I went to the BSU football game since it was the homecoming game. We left near the end of the third quarter and BSU was losing 28 - 0.... yuck. I don't know much about football... but they played horribly. Unless the idea of the game is to drop most of your passes and never get a first down. In which case BSU was winning more than any team in history.
I had a really hard time getting motivated today. I got some non-school related stuff done. Like... I did some laundry. And I thought about straightening my room. And I thought about cleaning my bathroom. And I had soup for dinner. I don't think I'll be getting that kind again. It wasn't very good. It was some sort of sirloin burger stew or something. Meh. Not a big fan.
I did end up getting some of my stats homework done. That class is really frustrating for me because I've never learned well from math books and I class can be hard to follow. So most of the time I feel like I'm flying blind when I do the homework. On the plus side, since I've been spending so much time on life contingencies recently I feel pretty good about it. I'm going to finish the last problem tomorrow. It shouldn't be too bad. I also talked with Tim about one of the problems. He gave me a really good tip that will be really helpful in the future. We're finding that very often integrals with a term of x*e^(a*x), which involves the use of integration by parts to solve. Though it's fairly straight forward, it takes time that I won't have on the actuarial exams. So I'm going to work on memorizing the general form of the equation so that I don't have to use integration by parts every time. That should make things easier.
Yeah. Umm... I'm going to go to bed now. I remember earlier that I had something I wanted to right about... but I can't remember it now. Except that there's a concert for Wolfgang Gartner in Chicago that Derrick and I want to go to at the end of the month. But I need to see if that's doable. But for now, I'm going to bed. Night!
Day 139
It appears that I forgot to update last night. So quick update for yesterday.
Yesterday I had class. We talked more about amortization schedules in finance, but this time we focused on non-level, irregular payments. It makes a lot of sense, so I have a feeling that it's going to suddenly get really difficult. So, you know. Yay.
Between classes we went to the Atrium. Dustin and I worked on and discussed our life contingencies homework. We all talked about...something. I really can't recall what. But it was a good talk, I'm sure. Except when people started singing Friday by Rebecca Black. Then it got less enjoyable.
In life contingencies we worked through a few problems. I had already done most of them, but I had some practice in working through them faster. So that was really good. I'm learning that basically we shouldn't think of formulas. We have to just see the problem and start putting it in terms that are usable (generally life values from a life table). Which, clearly, the equations don't do. So it's... tricky.
After class I came back and played Team Fortress for a little bit. Timbo came over. He and I did some homework and grading and such. I didn't feel like doing a lot of homework, so I just graded and read some more extra credit papers. Some of them are pretty good. Others... they mean well.
Then last night I watched part of the Boise State game with Dustin and Liz. Timbo was going to meet up with us after his date, but I guess it wasn't over when he thought it was going to be. But that's ok. We had fun anyway. And then I came home and went to bed! The end.
Yesterday I had class. We talked more about amortization schedules in finance, but this time we focused on non-level, irregular payments. It makes a lot of sense, so I have a feeling that it's going to suddenly get really difficult. So, you know. Yay.
Between classes we went to the Atrium. Dustin and I worked on and discussed our life contingencies homework. We all talked about...something. I really can't recall what. But it was a good talk, I'm sure. Except when people started singing Friday by Rebecca Black. Then it got less enjoyable.
In life contingencies we worked through a few problems. I had already done most of them, but I had some practice in working through them faster. So that was really good. I'm learning that basically we shouldn't think of formulas. We have to just see the problem and start putting it in terms that are usable (generally life values from a life table). Which, clearly, the equations don't do. So it's... tricky.
After class I came back and played Team Fortress for a little bit. Timbo came over. He and I did some homework and grading and such. I didn't feel like doing a lot of homework, so I just graded and read some more extra credit papers. Some of them are pretty good. Others... they mean well.
Then last night I watched part of the Boise State game with Dustin and Liz. Timbo was going to meet up with us after his date, but I guess it wasn't over when he thought it was going to be. But that's ok. We had fun anyway. And then I came home and went to bed! The end.
10.06.2011
Day 138
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!
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!
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!
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