Here are the signs of another school year starting: increase of population in Davis, bikes going wrong-of-way, and random people stopping you to ask for the directions. The most common destination I've given directions to, as far as I've kept track of, is the Silo where students can go and, for five bucks, get the sort of fastfood you'd expect to find located near gas stations on interstate highways.
The runner up is the arboretum, but then, this is Davis. The Silo directions are more often asked anywhere on campus and the arboretum directions are only asked if you are near the southern part of campus, but the arboretum directions are harder because it's a larger place and the people who are inquiring about it usually can't tell you which part of it they wanted to visit (Is it the headquarters? The Redwoods Grove? Putah Creek Lodge?).
Here are the signs of another school year starting: backpack checkouts outside of the bookstore instead of tiny backpack lockers in the bookstore, freshmen traveling in packs (who said that civilization's removed our evolutionary instincts?), and fraternity/sorority flyers everywhere. The clubs and the religious groups have their own solicitors, of course, and I plead guilty to designing the flyers for Botany Club. On the long run, however, the clubs and religious groups are mauled down and forgotten behind housing ads and last-minute "roommate wanted" signs, while fresh frat/sorority flyers appear miraculously appear on top of the bulletin build up every other day. Their sort of dedication borders the fanatical, but those who had to deal with the drunk members - well, we already knew that anyway.
Here are the signs of another school year starting: the last minute construction designed to finish just the day before school started, on the spot peer-to-peer training at all stations from the library check out desks onwards. There are the few roller backpacks before the students find out that roller backpacks are not the way to go in Davis. There are the cranky students, me included, complaining about the cost of textbooks.
And here it is: just one more day before instruction begins.
20070925
20070921
The Monday of all Fridays
Davis, after arriving here from Santa Clara, was cold, wet, and a bit dismal. The odd thing is that supposedly the weather was fine a few days before yesterday, so I suppose it was just my luck. School starts next week, so the next few days (until the day instruction begins, naturally), will be the all-out hectic of getting ready for my classes. Kate has already gotten most of her books and her book budget makes me envious. Science textbooks, with very few exceptions, are always hard-covered and generally sells anywhere from 70 to 150 dollars each.
But then again, according to Kate, my books (or at least the cell biology one) can be used as a murder weapon, so I guess the extra dollars are accounted for by this extra use which, considering we're undergrads, doesn't seem all that useful unless, of course, it is right before the finals and those of us who feels the pressure too keenly start developing suicidal tendencies.
The run-on sentence. It lives!
I'm also waiting for Simba. Hippo has found another "home", and I'm not sure if this meant that he got adopted or that he'd found another foster home that really wanted to keep him (and the latter sometimes do lead to the former). Either way I wish him the best and wonders if shedding season's over yet, as that Simba's an orange medium-hair and orange shows up against everything.
Well, almost everything. He blends in well with our dining table.
And now it's off to errants...if anything else really interesting comes up I'll add to this post later. Meanwhile, try not to get too freaked out by the layout.
But then again, according to Kate, my books (or at least the cell biology one) can be used as a murder weapon, so I guess the extra dollars are accounted for by this extra use which, considering we're undergrads, doesn't seem all that useful unless, of course, it is right before the finals and those of us who feels the pressure too keenly start developing suicidal tendencies.
The run-on sentence. It lives!
I'm also waiting for Simba. Hippo has found another "home", and I'm not sure if this meant that he got adopted or that he'd found another foster home that really wanted to keep him (and the latter sometimes do lead to the former). Either way I wish him the best and wonders if shedding season's over yet, as that Simba's an orange medium-hair and orange shows up against everything.
Well, almost everything. He blends in well with our dining table.
And now it's off to errants...if anything else really interesting comes up I'll add to this post later. Meanwhile, try not to get too freaked out by the layout.
20070919
20070916
It's not logic
I think I should be posting more here, except there isn't a whole lot going on right now (books, books, computers, books, packing, books, repeat), so it hardly seems worth the effort to go and type up what I did each day since what I did each day is not much different from what I did the day before (and the day before that, and the day before that). There is a definite rhythm to life if you are a student, but I have to wonder what happens when you get, as the book GOOD OMENS had put it, "Game over, insert coin."
My guess is that you either hope that you have more tokens for this game or you move on to a different game, but I think I'm over doing the analogy now, just a little.
I'm currently trying to decide what plants to bring back to Davis, and whether or not I should bring plants with me at all now that I've taken plant physio, know about bromate poisoning, and understand why potted plants tend to die rather quickly in Davis. It doesn't seem fair to condemn a plant to what is surely a slow and torturous death. Maybe I should consider bringing just one plant and water it with DI water. Maybe I should get one of those plants that has a high metal ion tolerance, such as the ones they use to clean up the industrial areas. One thing's for sure though: all the seedlings that started dying in Davis are now flourishing in my backyard. Santa Clara, as it appears, has very good water. There is a plot in the student farm in Davis where I can, technically, grow things without the ions building up, but the plot needs a fence around it because everything that tried to grow there so far has been mowed down by the local wildlife within weeks of germination. Except the weeds, of course. The weeds will always remain in the end, cackling over the demise (there usually isn't any, since getting eaten usually takes care of things like that) of its fellow plant lives.
It suddenly makes sense why the farm coordinator guy hates Bermuda grass so much.
There was a piece of jello cake the other day which I dissected. It was the weirdest thing I've seen in a while and jiggle far more than its surroundings warranted. I didn't really want to eat it, but it had all these colored jello cubes embedded in a white gelatinous...matrix type thing, and my mom pointed out that I do eat the colored jello cubes and I pointed out that I don't eat the weird white stuff that surrounds it and so I ended up carefully trimming out all the colored cubes with a utility knife. It turned out to be an utter waste of time since all the colored cubes tasted exactly the same, that is to say, they all tasted like the white stuff. It was good knife-finger coordination practice though. And out of tune music will probably cause Nick pain.
My guess is that you either hope that you have more tokens for this game or you move on to a different game, but I think I'm over doing the analogy now, just a little.
I'm currently trying to decide what plants to bring back to Davis, and whether or not I should bring plants with me at all now that I've taken plant physio, know about bromate poisoning, and understand why potted plants tend to die rather quickly in Davis. It doesn't seem fair to condemn a plant to what is surely a slow and torturous death. Maybe I should consider bringing just one plant and water it with DI water. Maybe I should get one of those plants that has a high metal ion tolerance, such as the ones they use to clean up the industrial areas. One thing's for sure though: all the seedlings that started dying in Davis are now flourishing in my backyard. Santa Clara, as it appears, has very good water. There is a plot in the student farm in Davis where I can, technically, grow things without the ions building up, but the plot needs a fence around it because everything that tried to grow there so far has been mowed down by the local wildlife within weeks of germination. Except the weeds, of course. The weeds will always remain in the end, cackling over the demise (there usually isn't any, since getting eaten usually takes care of things like that) of its fellow plant lives.
It suddenly makes sense why the farm coordinator guy hates Bermuda grass so much.
There was a piece of jello cake the other day which I dissected. It was the weirdest thing I've seen in a while and jiggle far more than its surroundings warranted. I didn't really want to eat it, but it had all these colored jello cubes embedded in a white gelatinous...matrix type thing, and my mom pointed out that I do eat the colored jello cubes and I pointed out that I don't eat the weird white stuff that surrounds it and so I ended up carefully trimming out all the colored cubes with a utility knife. It turned out to be an utter waste of time since all the colored cubes tasted exactly the same, that is to say, they all tasted like the white stuff. It was good knife-finger coordination practice though. And out of tune music will probably cause Nick pain.
20070914
末
下周四该回DAVIS了.
看哈, 这几天有什么事发生来着....
周二妈过生日, 我们中午到外头去吃自助餐. 那应该算是一家韩国餐馆吧...但是它里面也有些日式, 美式的东西. 我在那吃了果冻 - 或, 不如说, 我在那玩了果冻, 捅了果冻, 琢磨了一下果冻的光线反射点数. 我的家长化验出我是个没救了的书呆子, 但这他们早已经知道了, 所以我不知道他们还有什么好惊讶的.
我和爸在大华给她买了蛋糕. 她晚上胃不舒服, 但是好像不是因为蛋糕.
还照相了, 但不知道什么时候去冲胶卷.
复习继续, 带着点无可奈何的味.
这周末打算拆烤面包机, 必须取绿卡, 护照, 和还图书馆的书. 后院里豆子发芽了, 我和爸扔掉无数只蜗牛, 蚂蚁好像在准备进攻进一楼.
夏天也就大概是这样了.
看哈, 这几天有什么事发生来着....
周二妈过生日, 我们中午到外头去吃自助餐. 那应该算是一家韩国餐馆吧...但是它里面也有些日式, 美式的东西. 我在那吃了果冻 - 或, 不如说, 我在那玩了果冻, 捅了果冻, 琢磨了一下果冻的光线反射点数. 我的家长化验出我是个没救了的书呆子, 但这他们早已经知道了, 所以我不知道他们还有什么好惊讶的.
我和爸在大华给她买了蛋糕. 她晚上胃不舒服, 但是好像不是因为蛋糕.
还照相了, 但不知道什么时候去冲胶卷.
复习继续, 带着点无可奈何的味.
这周末打算拆烤面包机, 必须取绿卡, 护照, 和还图书馆的书. 后院里豆子发芽了, 我和爸扔掉无数只蜗牛, 蚂蚁好像在准备进攻进一楼.
夏天也就大概是这样了.
20070906
Untitled
We went out to dinner the other night, since it was my dad's birthday, to a restaurant that is named after a city in southern China. For some reason the English name said Northern China, which confused me no end until my parents told me to stop worrying about it.
There was the customary pot of tea with three white china tea cups. I got a glass of water set in front of me, with a pink straw, and wondered if I should feel insulted.
Well meaning people can be entertaining.
Spent quite some time wading through the ATT website today, attempting to find out how to renew the internet service. The website has too many links and java applets but not enough site map / organization logic. Not to mention every time I want to browse the offers they had me enter the phone number and then a message would pop up that informed me that, they're sorry, but I've either placed an order already or am already signed up for service - which I know, of course - our current contract expires in September - but would I please call such and such number to inquire about -
And so I spent some time waiting in the automated message system, with mechanical voices which kept asking me if I knew ATT has a website that is VERY VERY HELPFUL (after a few minutes I was wondering if going deaf is too drastic a measure to take against this type of auditory assault - and why haven't the legislation banned THIS yet as a cruel and unusual punishment?) before I was answered by a man who - what was the description they used in the Hitchhiker's trailer? - Sounded like he was about eight feet tall and had been smoking cigarettes since he was ten?
The phone reception was terrible though, and neither he nor I could make out half of the things the other person was saying, so I had to hang up and try again using a land phone. I've decided, the second time around, to keep browsing the site with the vague hope that something useful would show up and then I would be done with the messaging system and well-meaning people who insistently mispronounced my name.
I am done, but I still haven't found anything useful yet and my, it's September already, isn't it?
There was the customary pot of tea with three white china tea cups. I got a glass of water set in front of me, with a pink straw, and wondered if I should feel insulted.
Well meaning people can be entertaining.
Spent quite some time wading through the ATT website today, attempting to find out how to renew the internet service. The website has too many links and java applets but not enough site map / organization logic. Not to mention every time I want to browse the offers they had me enter the phone number and then a message would pop up that informed me that, they're sorry, but I've either placed an order already or am already signed up for service - which I know, of course - our current contract expires in September - but would I please call such and such number to inquire about -
And so I spent some time waiting in the automated message system, with mechanical voices which kept asking me if I knew ATT has a website that is VERY VERY HELPFUL (after a few minutes I was wondering if going deaf is too drastic a measure to take against this type of auditory assault - and why haven't the legislation banned THIS yet as a cruel and unusual punishment?) before I was answered by a man who - what was the description they used in the Hitchhiker's trailer? - Sounded like he was about eight feet tall and had been smoking cigarettes since he was ten?
The phone reception was terrible though, and neither he nor I could make out half of the things the other person was saying, so I had to hang up and try again using a land phone. I've decided, the second time around, to keep browsing the site with the vague hope that something useful would show up and then I would be done with the messaging system and well-meaning people who insistently mispronounced my name.
I am done, but I still haven't found anything useful yet and my, it's September already, isn't it?
20070904
从见天日
情况还在好转.前两天我再次到外头去折腾后院. 玉米丰收完了, 后面的杂草基本上清了一遍. 薄荷之类的修剪了一下,还补种了些豆角什么的. 秋季正式到达后我有可能会买些球茎
今天已经付了电话帐单, 申请了新的信用卡 (因为美国银行的什么计划和什么公司合并了, 所以我有了一个新的信用卡帐户但没有新的卡) (原因看来在于帐户信息里把我的地址敲错了, 所以上次他们寄的卡被退了回来, 然后之后他们就在也没有是第二次) (新的卡应该这周末来), 把两个帐户号从妈的网上银行帐户显示上删掉. 帮妈从新录了我们家的布局(十月分她会带回北京), 把爸的生日礼物包装好, 然后审查了后院.
的确, 刚过完长周末的第一天是繁忙的.
这周末有可能跟同学去看电影去.
今天已经付了电话帐单, 申请了新的信用卡 (因为美国银行的什么计划和什么公司合并了, 所以我有了一个新的信用卡帐户但没有新的卡) (原因看来在于帐户信息里把我的地址敲错了, 所以上次他们寄的卡被退了回来, 然后之后他们就在也没有是第二次) (新的卡应该这周末来), 把两个帐户号从妈的网上银行帐户显示上删掉. 帮妈从新录了我们家的布局(十月分她会带回北京), 把爸的生日礼物包装好, 然后审查了后院.
的确, 刚过完长周末的第一天是繁忙的.
这周末有可能跟同学去看电影去.
20070830
关禁闭
世上, 我发现, 没有神医, 只有统计学.
过敏症状查完只后, 发现我好像对什么都过敏, 从花粉到大豆. 而医生最多能做的是给我开些药, 减轻症状, 而不是把问题 - 病 - 给治好. 但当然, 我这么说也不太公平. 过敏本来就是没治的. 起码, 不管怎么说他让我手上的泡逐渐下去了, 所以我该为此感到...什么? 感激吗? 有点. 不能用手的那几天我懊恼的想发疯, 几乎什么比较起来都比那几天要好. 高兴? 有点. 原因跟刚才一样. 幸运吗? 差远了去了. 我好像很久没有这么不幸的假期了.
考试准备比我想象的要难, 主要因为当你全身都在搔痒时你通常没什么心思去关心一个老掉牙的名词的反意词是什么. 通常你的精力会集中在幻想如果你可以放开狂抓那么五, 六分钟后全身会感到多么痛快. 所以, 进展并不是非常理想, 但是我也尽力了.
假期也就大概在每天这种忙忙叨叨的生活中过去了. 这么折腾后, 也没什么心思去玩了. 如果下次的药能使全身止痒的话那这个, 我想, 将回是我这个假期最大的快乐.
过敏症状查完只后, 发现我好像对什么都过敏, 从花粉到大豆. 而医生最多能做的是给我开些药, 减轻症状, 而不是把问题 - 病 - 给治好. 但当然, 我这么说也不太公平. 过敏本来就是没治的. 起码, 不管怎么说他让我手上的泡逐渐下去了, 所以我该为此感到...什么? 感激吗? 有点. 不能用手的那几天我懊恼的想发疯, 几乎什么比较起来都比那几天要好. 高兴? 有点. 原因跟刚才一样. 幸运吗? 差远了去了. 我好像很久没有这么不幸的假期了.
考试准备比我想象的要难, 主要因为当你全身都在搔痒时你通常没什么心思去关心一个老掉牙的名词的反意词是什么. 通常你的精力会集中在幻想如果你可以放开狂抓那么五, 六分钟后全身会感到多么痛快. 所以, 进展并不是非常理想, 但是我也尽力了.
假期也就大概在每天这种忙忙叨叨的生活中过去了. 这么折腾后, 也没什么心思去玩了. 如果下次的药能使全身止痒的话那这个, 我想, 将回是我这个假期最大的快乐.
20070828
Doll making frenzy
Yep, popped back online today because Lusine introduced me to digital dollmaking and we made dolls of the guys from the Lunatics story. Between the two of us there are 12 pictures, 4 versions of each guy, which I'm going to post here:
Mike: .gif)    |
Nick:     |
Zach: .gif)    |
As for who made which versions (each of us made 2 versions each) that's for us to know and you to guess.
20070817
In which more playing around ensues
There are getting to be a lot of bugs in the backyard. Twice already I've come in from yard work, sat down with a book, and had a bug crawl off of me. It reminds me of when I'd go out into the fields at Davis, where the general rule of thumb is if you stayed out there for more than an hour, the first thing you do after you get home is shower. With lots of scrubbing and soap. Though in defense of field botany you seldom get things worse than mites or a spider or two.
An ant just crawled off. Huh.
So yes, occasionally I guess you get ants as well.
Ubuntu trial's failed for no clear reasons that I could detect. A check with hash values told me that the iso file has downloaded correctly, but for some reason I can't check the CD itself after it's been burned. I can get around crc error by resetting the boot sequence and the logic block 0 error seem to bypass itself, but once Ubuntu hits the local boot sequence it starts cycling and the computer is effectively dead. I've requested a Ubuntu CD, on the hunch that there's something wrong with the CD despite of my careful rechecking with the directions. The helpful banner at the website informed me that the CD should be arriving in 4 to 6 weeks. Meanwhile dad gave me a Linspire CD and I've been playing with that instead. (Loads up like a charm, the network setup, internet and LAN, as well as user settings, are all set up within an hour - and you get a direct console - that's like the command prompt in Windows except better - built in, which is way cool.) From how well THAT particular OS's been running I think I can safely say that the problem with booting Ubuntu's not because of the hard drive.
Such a shame. And I had such high hopes for it too - I've looked up the content before downloading and Ubuntu came with most of my favorite open source programs (Audacity, anyone?).
Speaking of computers (and geeking out over them), mom's decided that I should know something about how memory works, so I've been assigned a bit of short reading. It is, in retrospect, a lot like a short lecture in biophysics, if I were to consider the computer as something that is alive. There's the prerequisite knowledge of circuits that needs to be applied to a frightening amount of models and acronyms. I despise acronyms, and the computer industry is just as bad as any other field of science I've ever encountered (there's DRAM, SRAM, and then you get SDRAM...). There must be a rule somewhere, way back when they were inventing each field, that informed people that no one would ever take them seriously unless they have a plethora of acronyms for every single worthwhile object/ idea that they encounter. Still, I should be fair. At least as far as nicknames are concerned, they're still heaps more regular than what English, as a language, came up with.
An ant just crawled off. Huh.
So yes, occasionally I guess you get ants as well.
Ubuntu trial's failed for no clear reasons that I could detect. A check with hash values told me that the iso file has downloaded correctly, but for some reason I can't check the CD itself after it's been burned. I can get around crc error by resetting the boot sequence and the logic block 0 error seem to bypass itself, but once Ubuntu hits the local boot sequence it starts cycling and the computer is effectively dead. I've requested a Ubuntu CD, on the hunch that there's something wrong with the CD despite of my careful rechecking with the directions. The helpful banner at the website informed me that the CD should be arriving in 4 to 6 weeks. Meanwhile dad gave me a Linspire CD and I've been playing with that instead. (Loads up like a charm, the network setup, internet and LAN, as well as user settings, are all set up within an hour - and you get a direct console - that's like the command prompt in Windows except better - built in, which is way cool.) From how well THAT particular OS's been running I think I can safely say that the problem with booting Ubuntu's not because of the hard drive.
Such a shame. And I had such high hopes for it too - I've looked up the content before downloading and Ubuntu came with most of my favorite open source programs (Audacity, anyone?).
Speaking of computers (and geeking out over them), mom's decided that I should know something about how memory works, so I've been assigned a bit of short reading. It is, in retrospect, a lot like a short lecture in biophysics, if I were to consider the computer as something that is alive. There's the prerequisite knowledge of circuits that needs to be applied to a frightening amount of models and acronyms. I despise acronyms, and the computer industry is just as bad as any other field of science I've ever encountered (there's DRAM, SRAM, and then you get SDRAM...). There must be a rule somewhere, way back when they were inventing each field, that informed people that no one would ever take them seriously unless they have a plethora of acronyms for every single worthwhile object/ idea that they encounter. Still, I should be fair. At least as far as nicknames are concerned, they're still heaps more regular than what English, as a language, came up with.
20070815
是草中虫
早上到后院去补种了些萝卜和豆角, 修剪修剪花草, 结果被草里的什么虫子咬了三个包, 算是挂彩了. 又拔了两根玉米. 萝卜籽放的时间够长的, 我想可以扔了.
下面接着叙述这几天, 也就是近来这段时间会有的事:
昨天面试顺利通过, 下一步是等待通知, 然后去参加宣誓典礼. 之后, 算为美国公民后, 便要去改我学生 (和其它东西的) 身份文件. 多余的备份文件和通知书现在和绿卡之类的先战时放在我这儿. 我想它们会在周六去银行的时候 (KATE的房租费寄来了)被放回保险柜 (但是备份大概还是我留着).
UBUNTU 最后试验失败. 开始是有CRC错误, 换了BOOT顺序后, 这个错误虽然消失了, 但却被LOGIC BLOCK 0 ERROR 给代替. 每次BOOT到开始LOCAL BOOT SEQUENCE时便出现错误, 导致程序一遍, 一遍的重复它自己. 已经用HASH查过, 文件 (是个ISO类型的) 下载是没问题的. 烧盘我是按着说明一步一步做的, 但是它不许我查盘烧的怎么样, 所以这也没法确定. 目前爸给了我LINSPIRE的盘, 所以我先装上了这个玩一玩. 安装算满顺利的, 速度还挺快. 现在正在打算设定LAN之类的, 以便我可以在用LINUX的情况下也可以照旧做文件备份 (从LAPTOP上把文件通过LAN传过去).
发现周五跟医生预约的条忘了交给门前的护士, 所以急急忙忙的得打电话. 终于算是加上了个两点四十五的预约. 保险的事还是得折腾. 我得向医生要文件寄给保险公司.
开始复习GRE考试. 我想生物的得在十月份考 (因为专科考试一年只有三次, 所以我也没什么选择). 在这之前我想我应该有时间考基础GRE. 如果能在十一月份之前把这些事全都弄完最好.
SF活动取消, 因为只有两个人能在开学前我们所选的这几日里腾出时间.
下面接着叙述这几天, 也就是近来这段时间会有的事:
昨天面试顺利通过, 下一步是等待通知, 然后去参加宣誓典礼. 之后, 算为美国公民后, 便要去改我学生 (和其它东西的) 身份文件. 多余的备份文件和通知书现在和绿卡之类的先战时放在我这儿. 我想它们会在周六去银行的时候 (KATE的房租费寄来了)被放回保险柜 (但是备份大概还是我留着).
UBUNTU 最后试验失败. 开始是有CRC错误, 换了BOOT顺序后, 这个错误虽然消失了, 但却被LOGIC BLOCK 0 ERROR 给代替. 每次BOOT到开始LOCAL BOOT SEQUENCE时便出现错误, 导致程序一遍, 一遍的重复它自己. 已经用HASH查过, 文件 (是个ISO类型的) 下载是没问题的. 烧盘我是按着说明一步一步做的, 但是它不许我查盘烧的怎么样, 所以这也没法确定. 目前爸给了我LINSPIRE的盘, 所以我先装上了这个玩一玩. 安装算满顺利的, 速度还挺快. 现在正在打算设定LAN之类的, 以便我可以在用LINUX的情况下也可以照旧做文件备份 (从LAPTOP上把文件通过LAN传过去).
发现周五跟医生预约的条忘了交给门前的护士, 所以急急忙忙的得打电话. 终于算是加上了个两点四十五的预约. 保险的事还是得折腾. 我得向医生要文件寄给保险公司.
开始复习GRE考试. 我想生物的得在十月份考 (因为专科考试一年只有三次, 所以我也没什么选择). 在这之前我想我应该有时间考基础GRE. 如果能在十一月份之前把这些事全都弄完最好.
SF活动取消, 因为只有两个人能在开学前我们所选的这几日里腾出时间.
20070814
Sound off
I went, as most of you probably know by now, to watch Stardust, which was both better and worst than expected in the sense only a favorite author's work, modified so that it's missing some crucial information but yet still managed to make sense and fluffiness afterwards, can inspire.
Isn't it reassuring to know that, regardless of the years and my (questionable) changes in writing style, run-on sentences will never be out of fashion? Yep folks, it goes on and on and on and on, just like either the energizer bunny or, if you know who the Arrogant Worms are, their song about Celine Dion.
The yard had evolved while I was in Davis, and now the mint's flowering and there're bees everywhere, busy pollinating and generally getting in the way. The neighbor's fruit tree snuck in under the fence and began to invade our yard, strangling the calla lilies but, for most part, stayed at the area where the alyssums, being the opportunistic sort of plant they are, invaded right back. So it's all worked out or at least, until I trim the garden over there. I guess I'll just have to be more careful about maintaining the delicate ecological balance in my backyard.
The dill experiment with the dill seeds (which Annie had brought from home and which had died because of a general lack of sun and high bromate concentration in water) has, more or less, produced two flourishing dill plants and lots of dill seeds which I've harvested. I've also learned that dill does not repel aphids, but the aphids will eventually leave after the seed pods are done growing and have dried out. The snails are still eating everything in sight including, but not limited to, the radishes, the marigolds, the sunflowers (I managed to save two seedlings from total oblivion). The garlic (from that time when Kate got more garlic when I'd already got some garlic and we ended up with garlic sprouting in our fridge) is the sole plant to escape mass extinction by the sole virtues of being garlic and, therefore, stinky. I thinned the garlic yesterday and dad put the ones I thinned out in the supper meat dish and it was very good.
Harvested corn. Puzzled over corn cross-pollination. Puzzled over pollen dispersal until mom suggested I number all the corn I picked to keep track, so I started doing that yesterday. (The plant from row 2, column 1 yields corn with pure red kernels.)
On top of that, my INS interview's today and I started playing with Ubuntu yesterday, meaning that I've been attempting to install it on my old desktop. I've uninstalled the original harddrive (safety reasons) and swapped it for the 2.5Gb one that I originally had as backup and tried to boot from the CD, but it turned out too slow. Dad gave me a 3 Gb one which is slightly better, but considering my RAM's only 128 there's...not much difference to be expected. Dad did offer to give me another strip of RAM, which'd double the memory to 256, but I told him that I should wait until I'm done experimenting before I involve anything that might still be potentially useful in the future. I'm serious: my desktop is scrambled together by my dad and contains parts that have been either taken off of broken computers or used to be broken, but have been fixed by him. The harddrive date at around '98 and is actually hold enough and decrepit enough for me to play around with. (I would not DARE to experiment on laptops, if only because I can't keep track of the screws - in laptops everything has to be bolted down so it's harder to swap parts if you just want to see how much you can improve performance just for the heck of it.)
I've currently got screws and computer bits littering my room. Along with lots of pens and pencils and an unholy number of books (mostly from SC library).
Needless to say, I'm, in my own way, enjoying myself.
Isn't it reassuring to know that, regardless of the years and my (questionable) changes in writing style, run-on sentences will never be out of fashion? Yep folks, it goes on and on and on and on, just like either the energizer bunny or, if you know who the Arrogant Worms are, their song about Celine Dion.
The yard had evolved while I was in Davis, and now the mint's flowering and there're bees everywhere, busy pollinating and generally getting in the way. The neighbor's fruit tree snuck in under the fence and began to invade our yard, strangling the calla lilies but, for most part, stayed at the area where the alyssums, being the opportunistic sort of plant they are, invaded right back. So it's all worked out or at least, until I trim the garden over there. I guess I'll just have to be more careful about maintaining the delicate ecological balance in my backyard.
The dill experiment with the dill seeds (which Annie had brought from home and which had died because of a general lack of sun and high bromate concentration in water) has, more or less, produced two flourishing dill plants and lots of dill seeds which I've harvested. I've also learned that dill does not repel aphids, but the aphids will eventually leave after the seed pods are done growing and have dried out. The snails are still eating everything in sight including, but not limited to, the radishes, the marigolds, the sunflowers (I managed to save two seedlings from total oblivion). The garlic (from that time when Kate got more garlic when I'd already got some garlic and we ended up with garlic sprouting in our fridge) is the sole plant to escape mass extinction by the sole virtues of being garlic and, therefore, stinky. I thinned the garlic yesterday and dad put the ones I thinned out in the supper meat dish and it was very good.
Harvested corn. Puzzled over corn cross-pollination. Puzzled over pollen dispersal until mom suggested I number all the corn I picked to keep track, so I started doing that yesterday. (The plant from row 2, column 1 yields corn with pure red kernels.)
On top of that, my INS interview's today and I started playing with Ubuntu yesterday, meaning that I've been attempting to install it on my old desktop. I've uninstalled the original harddrive (safety reasons) and swapped it for the 2.5Gb one that I originally had as backup and tried to boot from the CD, but it turned out too slow. Dad gave me a 3 Gb one which is slightly better, but considering my RAM's only 128 there's...not much difference to be expected. Dad did offer to give me another strip of RAM, which'd double the memory to 256, but I told him that I should wait until I'm done experimenting before I involve anything that might still be potentially useful in the future. I'm serious: my desktop is scrambled together by my dad and contains parts that have been either taken off of broken computers or used to be broken, but have been fixed by him. The harddrive date at around '98 and is actually hold enough and decrepit enough for me to play around with. (I would not DARE to experiment on laptops, if only because I can't keep track of the screws - in laptops everything has to be bolted down so it's harder to swap parts if you just want to see how much you can improve performance just for the heck of it.)
I've currently got screws and computer bits littering my room. Along with lots of pens and pencils and an unholy number of books (mostly from SC library).
Needless to say, I'm, in my own way, enjoying myself.
20070813
继续汇报
虽然过敏原还没有查出来, 吃了三天药之后, 起码过敏症状好了许多. 前几天曾经跟朋友去玩过宝林球, 看过电影 - 总之过的挺开心的. 考试成绩在周六终于出来了, 所以也松了口气. 这周四有可能跟同学一块去SF, 但是目前还在等同学的EMAIL, 不知道谁来谁不来. 如果人太少的话我们有可能会把这整个事给取消了, 因为如果招呼半天才有两个人能来的话那也就没什么太大的意义了.
所以: 还在等EMAIL.
昨天把GRE考试书算是买全了. 看来下几天, 一但有空, 就有得开始复习东西了. 不管怎么说, 总是会有事的. 比如: 我明天有美国公民入级面试, 所以今天多少得把面试的题再看一遍. 面试的地点得上网去查, 面试的时间得三番五次, 神经兮兮的去确定, 面试的文件得做复印件, 面试的衣服, 我想, 如果不合适的话到时候会很快的被妈给指出来的. 又举例: 今天把妈的存钱盒给打开了, 已便她好看看里边的那三个硬币上是否有FLORIDA的两毛五.
此时此刻我正在一边敲这个, 一边企图装LINUX的UBUNTU. 目前看来需要把两个操作系统 (加上WINDOWS) 装在两个不同的硬盘上 - 问题不大, 我有个多余的, 平时当储藏文件的硬盘. 问题是该怎么清理它, 然后让电脑从CD上BOOT, 直接读到它上. BOOT 可以在SETUP BIOS 底下设定, 硬盘吗...我现在在纳闷IDE 到底是个什么东西.
祝我好运.
所以: 还在等EMAIL.
昨天把GRE考试书算是买全了. 看来下几天, 一但有空, 就有得开始复习东西了. 不管怎么说, 总是会有事的. 比如: 我明天有美国公民入级面试, 所以今天多少得把面试的题再看一遍. 面试的地点得上网去查, 面试的时间得三番五次, 神经兮兮的去确定, 面试的文件得做复印件, 面试的衣服, 我想, 如果不合适的话到时候会很快的被妈给指出来的. 又举例: 今天把妈的存钱盒给打开了, 已便她好看看里边的那三个硬币上是否有FLORIDA的两毛五.
此时此刻我正在一边敲这个, 一边企图装LINUX的UBUNTU. 目前看来需要把两个操作系统 (加上WINDOWS) 装在两个不同的硬盘上 - 问题不大, 我有个多余的, 平时当储藏文件的硬盘. 问题是该怎么清理它, 然后让电脑从CD上BOOT, 直接读到它上. BOOT 可以在SETUP BIOS 底下设定, 硬盘吗...我现在在纳闷IDE 到底是个什么东西.
祝我好运.
20070808
Netherlands
The recovery time from school, I've discovered, is directly proportional to the number of classes taken, the type of classes taken, and the amount of time lapse before the final grades are posted. As such, I am not fully recovered yet since I'm still waiting for my final grade from cell bio, which, according to the teacher, should've been posted but I have yet to figure out where it is, lost in the vast landscape of cyberspace as it is.
I did upload the candle-cake picture to my laptop though, so I can post that picture now:
My parents remembered that I like berries, so that, folks, was about a pound of blueberries stashed on top of a rather belabored looking cake. It was great.
In terms of more recent events Anna, Victoria, Kateryna and I went bowling last night at Valco's new bowling alley. The style of the place appears to be targeted more toward teenagers than adults, given the too loud music and really, really um...geometrical decor. (Large brightly colored round dots, that's what they look like.) Kateryna, as the only one of us who actually had some experience at the game, tried to give us pointers such as "aim it at the dots" (which are painted on the ground on each aisle). The rest of us, however, are more concerned with just trying to get the darn thing to go in a straight line which, given the number of gutter balls, IS a sufficiently difficult challenge. I'm quite awful at it, of course, but it was fun and we get different animations on the display screen after we lugged each ball haphazardly toward the pins at the far end.
Anna gravitated toward the arcade games afterwards, where there was giant Spongebobs in the robot-claw-in-a-plastic-box thing. All the games are astonishingly expensive, though, so we left to wander around the mall and goggled at the "power smoothie" that's sold at the stands, which served as a good example of where advertisement has way too much information. How many people wanted to know that there're algae and wheat grass in their smoothies and, what's more, that they're rich in chlorophyll and apparently aid in respiration and sperm DNA repair? Too much information people, WAY too much. And why would anyone name a smoothie "Bee sting"? (Or was that "Bee Stinger?")
Victoria's still fixated on hooded things and we're still going to try the Thanksgiving-Valleyfair trip, despite of the crowd. Some things don't change.
I did upload the candle-cake picture to my laptop though, so I can post that picture now:
My parents remembered that I like berries, so that, folks, was about a pound of blueberries stashed on top of a rather belabored looking cake. It was great.
In terms of more recent events Anna, Victoria, Kateryna and I went bowling last night at Valco's new bowling alley. The style of the place appears to be targeted more toward teenagers than adults, given the too loud music and really, really um...geometrical decor. (Large brightly colored round dots, that's what they look like.) Kateryna, as the only one of us who actually had some experience at the game, tried to give us pointers such as "aim it at the dots" (which are painted on the ground on each aisle). The rest of us, however, are more concerned with just trying to get the darn thing to go in a straight line which, given the number of gutter balls, IS a sufficiently difficult challenge. I'm quite awful at it, of course, but it was fun and we get different animations on the display screen after we lugged each ball haphazardly toward the pins at the far end.
Anna gravitated toward the arcade games afterwards, where there was giant Spongebobs in the robot-claw-in-a-plastic-box thing. All the games are astonishingly expensive, though, so we left to wander around the mall and goggled at the "power smoothie" that's sold at the stands, which served as a good example of where advertisement has way too much information. How many people wanted to know that there're algae and wheat grass in their smoothies and, what's more, that they're rich in chlorophyll and apparently aid in respiration and sperm DNA repair? Too much information people, WAY too much. And why would anyone name a smoothie "Bee sting"? (Or was that "Bee Stinger?")
Victoria's still fixated on hooded things and we're still going to try the Thanksgiving-Valleyfair trip, despite of the crowd. Some things don't change.
20070806
在
回家三天了. 后院的玉米已经长的差不多的, 我现在大概每天掰一个玉米棒子. 不知为什么, 我上次种的花出来的很少, 只有零零落落的几棵 (我看着都可怜). 原因得另一天调查.
明天晚上和ANNA和VICTORIA出去玩去 - 多少开始有点假期的感觉了.
还在等考试成绩.
明天晚上和ANNA和VICTORIA出去玩去 - 多少开始有点假期的感觉了.
还在等考试成绩.
20070729
Acronyms are unhealthy
Still studying. Did I ever mention how much I despise cumulative finals? Especially the ones that are worth up to 75% of your grade? Six weeks, unfortunately, seems to be just the right length for me to forget enough details to need to review every single sheet of note I've ever taken. At least for one class. But then, since this IS the norm for finals, I don't know what I'm complaining about.
Maybe it's because it's summer, and the fact that it IS summer is finally penetrating my (as some people pointed out) remarkably hard head. There is a physics review session at, I think, 6 in the evening today so I should probably go through all the notes for that first so I can either a) pick out the really useful information during the session or b) fail to find any new and useful information and work on study questions on my own. The point is that I have to be able to distinguish the information by 5pm. Cheers.
Oh yes. It is my birthday, happy birthday to me. I thought that instead of promising to do something I'd actually start doing it, as a gift to everyone, and so I started doing it early so there'd actually be something there to see by today. So here -I've finally updated my deviant art account - with the 100 prompt thing that people doing fanart are very familiar with, except I'm doing it for the Lunatic guys.
And if I were completely honest, I'd admit that it's really not that selfless a gift because I would've done it anyway, just because I need lots of practice drawing cartoon people. I just wouldn't have uploaded them online, that's all.
Ah well, maybe next year.
My parents came over yesterday and we did the actual celebrating part then. There're flowers and cake and everything. Especially flowers. Mom remembered that I preferred potted flowers to cut ones, so she bought me a pot of those mini-roses, but she didn't think they "count", so she got me cut flowers anyway. There weren't any cake-candles so we made do with tea-light-candles that I dug up, and 20 of them just about goes around the perimeter of the cake (and so I estimated that the cake should be about 8 inches across and checked the box this morning and I got my math right, yay). I took a picture of that, with the flowers, which I will upload and post as soon as all this excitement with the finals dies down.
I completed the celebratory events yesterday by snagging a copy of Neverwhere from online and reading it in one setting and it was so, so satisfying even though I probably can't afford the time to do that. But oh well, five and a half hours can be my present to myself.
Charleen's finding a place to move the kitties, before Thursday.
Maybe it's because it's summer, and the fact that it IS summer is finally penetrating my (as some people pointed out) remarkably hard head. There is a physics review session at, I think, 6 in the evening today so I should probably go through all the notes for that first so I can either a) pick out the really useful information during the session or b) fail to find any new and useful information and work on study questions on my own. The point is that I have to be able to distinguish the information by 5pm. Cheers.
Oh yes. It is my birthday, happy birthday to me. I thought that instead of promising to do something I'd actually start doing it, as a gift to everyone, and so I started doing it early so there'd actually be something there to see by today. So here -I've finally updated my deviant art account - with the 100 prompt thing that people doing fanart are very familiar with, except I'm doing it for the Lunatic guys.
And if I were completely honest, I'd admit that it's really not that selfless a gift because I would've done it anyway, just because I need lots of practice drawing cartoon people. I just wouldn't have uploaded them online, that's all.
Ah well, maybe next year.
My parents came over yesterday and we did the actual celebrating part then. There're flowers and cake and everything. Especially flowers. Mom remembered that I preferred potted flowers to cut ones, so she bought me a pot of those mini-roses, but she didn't think they "count", so she got me cut flowers anyway. There weren't any cake-candles so we made do with tea-light-candles that I dug up, and 20 of them just about goes around the perimeter of the cake (and so I estimated that the cake should be about 8 inches across and checked the box this morning and I got my math right, yay). I took a picture of that, with the flowers, which I will upload and post as soon as all this excitement with the finals dies down.
I completed the celebratory events yesterday by snagging a copy of Neverwhere from online and reading it in one setting and it was so, so satisfying even though I probably can't afford the time to do that. But oh well, five and a half hours can be my present to myself.
Charleen's finding a place to move the kitties, before Thursday.
20070727
还差...
我的屋里有两只猫. 我的屋里有两只瘫痪在地上的猫. 照顾一年猫之后, 我发现它们每天最安静的时候也就大概是下午 3:30 左右了. 所以, 如果需要折腾猫的话, 这会儿也就是最好的时间了. (但是有时候, 看着它四仰八岔的懒在地上, 也真不好心打挠它.)
还有一礼拜! 坚持到底?
除了学习好像没什么别的事.
还有一礼拜! 坚持到底?
除了学习好像没什么别的事.
20070724
Advanced geekery
It's not very often that what I'm learning from different classes can fit together this well, and the fact that they do fit so well is really neat. For instance, we covered charged particles in physics while plant physio went through lectures on the transport of charged particles through membrane using transport proteins (with calculations using Nerst equation, no less) and cell bio was going over voltage-gated ion channels and transmembrane proteins.
However, all the teachers are, more or less, realizing that the final week of class is approaching and that they, more or less, are running a bit low on time now. Today we covered quantum physics in 42 minutes, which gave the term "crash course" an entirely different meaning (especially what with the final on next Tuesday). It went something like this: Light! Particles! Waves! Particle-Wave Model! Quantized things! Planck's constant! Don't forget these on Thursday's quiz! End lecture.
On the other hand, I have to give the professors points for creativity, as far as their practice problems are concerned.
Physics people are already familiar with. Here's what we get this week:
1) Timmy and Tina created the following atom. In the following questions you will describe the
characteristics of this imaginary atom.
a) This atom emits two photons and one photon has twice the energy of the other. Both
photons are emitted from transitions from an excited state to the ground state. Draw an energy level diagram for this imaginary atom. Label your energy levels E1, E2, E3
(And yes our questions are usually multiple parts. As for the hypothetical situation...well...it IS science and it IS physics.)
Then my plant physio professor surprised me with his problem:
At the end of a hard day of science, a geologist searching for natural gas deposits and a plant physiologist studying plant response to CO2 find themselves on adjacent bar stools. Watching the bubbles rise in his nth beer, the geologist proclaims, "Ah, carbon dioxide! The more we put in the atmosphere, the better plants will grow!" Trying to impress his companion further, he explains how plants will benefit from more CO2. Write an appropriate monologue.
There is indeed, dear Hamlet, a method to his madness. I'm impressed.
My regrade came through and the teacher gave me back 2.9 points, making me feel very pleased throughout the entire three hours of physics this afternoon. I don't mean to be picking at every point, though I've heard of the phrase "a point is a point is a point" a few times already. But you have to admit, when the entire thing is graded on a scale of 10 points, 2.9 points does matter a rather lot.
On the other side of the academics? I have two finals for plant physio, one of them is take home and will be given to us this Thursday (last day of class this week). It will probably involve something along the lines of "explain the structural difference between the chloroplasts of C3 and C4 plants" and will require copious amount of writing.
At least I know what I'm doing this weekend.
However, all the teachers are, more or less, realizing that the final week of class is approaching and that they, more or less, are running a bit low on time now. Today we covered quantum physics in 42 minutes, which gave the term "crash course" an entirely different meaning (especially what with the final on next Tuesday). It went something like this: Light! Particles! Waves! Particle-Wave Model! Quantized things! Planck's constant! Don't forget these on Thursday's quiz! End lecture.
On the other hand, I have to give the professors points for creativity, as far as their practice problems are concerned.
Physics people are already familiar with. Here's what we get this week:
1) Timmy and Tina created the following atom. In the following questions you will describe the
characteristics of this imaginary atom.
a) This atom emits two photons and one photon has twice the energy of the other. Both
photons are emitted from transitions from an excited state to the ground state. Draw an energy level diagram for this imaginary atom. Label your energy levels E1, E2, E3
Then my plant physio professor surprised me with his problem:
At the end of a hard day of science, a geologist searching for natural gas deposits and a plant physiologist studying plant response to CO2 find themselves on adjacent bar stools. Watching the bubbles rise in his nth beer, the geologist proclaims, "Ah, carbon dioxide! The more we put in the atmosphere, the better plants will grow!" Trying to impress his companion further, he explains how plants will benefit from more CO2. Write an appropriate monologue.
My regrade came through and the teacher gave me back 2.9 points, making me feel very pleased throughout the entire three hours of physics this afternoon. I don't mean to be picking at every point, though I've heard of the phrase "a point is a point is a point" a few times already. But you have to admit, when the entire thing is graded on a scale of 10 points, 2.9 points does matter a rather lot.
On the other side of the academics? I have two finals for plant physio, one of them is take home and will be given to us this Thursday (last day of class this week). It will probably involve something along the lines of "explain the structural difference between the chloroplasts of C3 and C4 plants" and will require copious amount of writing.
At least I know what I'm doing this weekend.
20070723
倒记时
三门考试和一个周末之后, 我们回到正常生活.
第一门生物课的成绩已经下来了, 考了不得 40/50, 所以看来期末得努把力. 还在等另一门生物和物理的成绩, 我想应该在明, 后天知道（心里卫冕有点发嘀咕）． 周五ＡＮＮＩＥ， ＫＡＴＥ， 和 ＡＮＮＡ 陆续来到了ＤＡＶＩＳ． 我跟她们在外头待到十二点， 但是因第二天早上要去送猫不得不回家睡觉． 因此（大概也因为我是为一一个不买ＨＰ书的人）我想起码ＫＡＴＥ认为我比较扫兴 （但是，你得承认， ＨＰ 有一大部分还是一时兴火， 对我来讲， 并不值得买）． （而且， 虽然情况是这样， 我在她们快三点， 回家之前， 并没能睡着．） 第二天送猫， 买菜， 给大家做了午餐 （因为除了ＡＮＮＡ之外， 另外两位一人一屋， 关着门专心看书）． 晚上和大家一块出去吃饭， 之后在外头转了一会儿． ＫＡＴＥ 和ＡＮＮＡ 周日走的． ＡＮＮＩＥ 今天上午才走 （而且一走将会是很长时间， 因为在她去ＩＴＡＬＹ之前我们大概不会在有见面的机会了）． 我在中午一， 两点时有些犯困， 但好像大部分已经恢复过来了．
这周末我就该二十岁了．
下周期末考试！．
第一门生物课的成绩已经下来了, 考了不得 40/50, 所以看来期末得努把力. 还在等另一门生物和物理的成绩, 我想应该在明, 后天知道（心里卫冕有点发嘀咕）． 周五ＡＮＮＩＥ， ＫＡＴＥ， 和 ＡＮＮＡ 陆续来到了ＤＡＶＩＳ． 我跟她们在外头待到十二点， 但是因第二天早上要去送猫不得不回家睡觉． 因此（大概也因为我是为一一个不买ＨＰ书的人）我想起码ＫＡＴＥ认为我比较扫兴 （但是，你得承认， ＨＰ 有一大部分还是一时兴火， 对我来讲， 并不值得买）． （而且， 虽然情况是这样， 我在她们快三点， 回家之前， 并没能睡着．） 第二天送猫， 买菜， 给大家做了午餐 （因为除了ＡＮＮＡ之外， 另外两位一人一屋， 关着门专心看书）． 晚上和大家一块出去吃饭， 之后在外头转了一会儿． ＫＡＴＥ 和ＡＮＮＡ 周日走的． ＡＮＮＩＥ 今天上午才走 （而且一走将会是很长时间， 因为在她去ＩＴＡＬＹ之前我们大概不会在有见面的机会了）． 我在中午一， 两点时有些犯困， 但好像大部分已经恢复过来了．
这周末我就该二十岁了．
下周期末考试！．
20070717
Scribit, scribit...
Before I type anything else, first let me point you toward Annie's growing collection of bad Latin jokes. You don't have to know Latin to understand some of them, I promise. You just have to know some basic grammar stuff, such as declension is to noun and adjectives what conjugations is to verbs. Geekiness is not required, but the jokes would be funnier if you do have some of it lying around.
Also, warning: gripe included in this post.
Last day of work went well. Half of the tables have been emptied of plants by now and we put away some of our 5000 flower pots. They also white-washed our green house, which was nice since most of the sunlight's reflected away now so the inside can actually be cooler than the outside. Also, the greenhouse adjacent to ours got rid of their population of bell peppers and gained a table of what looked like small welwitschia and staghorn ferns (and yes, there are some really cool plants out there) that were propagating. Jennifer forgot to bring a fork to eat her pasta with and wondered if she'd have to make do with pens and I was promised the results of the experiment if I email them after the data analysis is done.
Showed Mike and Jen Mike's avocado. Mike was amused.
[Here be gripe.]
It balanced out against my physics quiz, for which I lost 4 out of 10 points for being careless and writing "no pressure" instead of "no change in pressure". The rubric code turned out to translate to "explanation clearly showed student's lack of understanding" (yes that's what it actually says on the rubric sheet) and I felt like an idiot. On the bright side, I did get the answer right - it was only my explanation that wasn't up to par. The TA was encouraging me to ask for a regrade and I think I might give it a try, despite of the somewhat threatening warning printed on the regrade form that "a regrade might result in a lower rubric."
First regrade and first office hour all within one year. Wow, is that setting some kind of record?
Must cram for tests now. And learn how to explain problems better, apparently. Oh well.
Also, warning: gripe included in this post.
Last day of work went well. Half of the tables have been emptied of plants by now and we put away some of our 5000 flower pots. They also white-washed our green house, which was nice since most of the sunlight's reflected away now so the inside can actually be cooler than the outside. Also, the greenhouse adjacent to ours got rid of their population of bell peppers and gained a table of what looked like small welwitschia and staghorn ferns (and yes, there are some really cool plants out there) that were propagating. Jennifer forgot to bring a fork to eat her pasta with and wondered if she'd have to make do with pens and I was promised the results of the experiment if I email them after the data analysis is done.
Showed Mike and Jen Mike's avocado. Mike was amused.
[Here be gripe.]
It balanced out against my physics quiz, for which I lost 4 out of 10 points for being careless and writing "no pressure" instead of "no change in pressure". The rubric code turned out to translate to "explanation clearly showed student's lack of understanding" (yes that's what it actually says on the rubric sheet) and I felt like an idiot. On the bright side, I did get the answer right - it was only my explanation that wasn't up to par. The TA was encouraging me to ask for a regrade and I think I might give it a try, despite of the somewhat threatening warning printed on the regrade form that "a regrade might result in a lower rubric."
First regrade and first office hour all within one year. Wow, is that setting some kind of record?
Must cram for tests now. And learn how to explain problems better, apparently. Oh well.
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