Another Week

Wow, it has been over a week since I wrote something.  That is crazy.  I am entering a super busy time.

Typically, in December people in my community go to a gigantic conference.  This is almost always during finals, which is next week.  So, as I am trying to finish up class, by making a final, grading all of the stuff that I should have graded a week ago, and holding students hands; I am trying to help all of the people who work for me to finish their posters and talks and stuff.  Oh yeah, I have one proposal that is absolutely due next week, and one that I hoped I could turn in (not going to happen).  And, since I am going to be gone for a full week, I would like to spend some more time with the family (ain't gonna happen either).  Today I got to work at 8 AM and left at 7:40 PM.  I came home, ate some cereal and went back at it.  I can't really work anymore, since my brain is fried.  But, I finished my final exam - two versions!

I have yet to actually work on my two talks that I have next week.  The really bad thing is that I have done very little on one of my talks, which is early in the week.  This means that I am screwed.  The other talk is easy to put together and I could do it in an hour or so.  But, that one is Friday.  I really wished that they were reversed.

Crab Mama says that I should go to my first talk, and when they call me, I should just say "pass!" and they can move on to the next person.  If only.

One of the other things that makes life a little crazy right now is that all of the students projects are finishing up.  So, I today I had to go to an almost 2 hour design review for one project, and tomorrow I have to go to another 2 hour review.  That review is after we meet with students to go over their presentations and time them and such.  Then, to add insult to injury, there is a faculty meeting at 3:30 tomorrow.  They can have fun without me.  Finally, tomorrow I have to give version 1 of the final exam from 5-6.  After that, I can go home and start working on my talks.  And do laundry.  And pack.  And see the kids.

Sh*t.

Five Minutes

Ok, even though my last post said that I have entered a state of strange calmness, it doesn't mean that I am actually less busy.  I should put that right out there.  It is very difficult for me to even find five minutes for me to do anything like read blogs, let alone post.  I haven't read any blogs in almost a week.

One of the issues is that on the homeschooling front, I am starting to do more with the kids.  I don't really want to - but this is an argument that has been had over and over again.  So, I have been spending a lot of time helping Crab Girl with math.  She is learning how to do some pre-algebra stuff.  For example, simplify the expression 3(6y-4x)-2(5x-2y).  She is having to learn how to multiply by negative numbers and group like terms, etc.  It is interesting to see how minds work to process this.  She has to have a little table:
++ = +
+- = -
-+ = -
-- = +
to do the multiplication.  These are little things that you don't even think about anymore, but are a small hill for her to get over.  It is both frustrating and exciting to see her understanding grow at the same time.  BTW, the answer is 22(y-x).

I have to have a talk with my Post Doc about vacation time and international trips.  This last summer, I sent him on an international trip to a conference that I was interested in attending.  He extended this trip and took a 4 week vacation.  He is going back to his home this month for another 2 weeks.  Then he asked me if he could attend another international trip in March (to his home country again).  This is the part of the plan where I have to put my foot down and say that 6 weeks of vacation is more than enough for someone in one year.  I don't get 6 weeks of vacation in a year.  Post Docs shouldn't really either.  Conversely, the question could be raised - if you are accomplishing all of the goals that are set out for you, should you be allowed to take as much vacation time as you want?  For me, if I accomplish all of my goals, I think to myself that I set my expectations too low, so I make more goals. (Hence the reason I don't have five minutes.)

I have to go so I can teach class in a few minutes.  Students are starting to come into class.

Super Lame

I have been paying a lot more attention to my other blog, which is focused on taking a picture every day for  year.  It is, I must say, insane.

While I was in Europe, the students in my class took a test.  There are 118 students in my class (no drops at all this semester!)  There were 7 seven students that didn't show up for the test.  A few of them e-mailed the morning of the test that they couldn't make it.  Swine Flu.  What are we to do.  A couple more missed the exam because they forgot.  WTF?  This is insanity!

It seems like work has reached some strange metaphysical equilibrium.  I seem to be much more calm at work and I don't seem to worry as much as I used to.  I don't really know why.  It is possible that I have completely given up on accomplishing anything.  I now am going to live vicariously through my students and post docs.  I have admitted it.  In fact, I took a 3/4th finished study and gave it to my post doc.  It is mostly written up, but I just don't have time to finish it.  She will hopefully finish it off and publish it. Serenity.

In Euro

Crab Girl and I are in Europe right now.  I decided a while ago that I would like to take the kids with me every once in a while on a trip, and so this is her turn.  We have been here for 5 days now, and it has been pretty nice.  There have been food issues, but those were expected.

A friend of mine who comes to this particular city a lot gave us a map with all sorts of things indicated on it, that we were supposed to find and take pictures of.  That kept us pretty entertained for a long time.  Before my meeting started on two of the mornings, we wandered around looking for things.  Today we took the whole day and wandered around.  The hotel has some motorized (assisted) bikes that we could use.  It was a lot of fun to go back and forth through the city.

We ended up at the History Museum, which is different than the Natural History Museum, which is what we thought we were going to.  It was basically a lot of war stuff.  There were other displays, but it seemed like there was a lot of violence taking place in Europe years ago.  We then found the Natural History Museum and got to see lots and lots and lots of stuffed birds and other animals.  It was quite impressive, although there were no dinosaurs, which may have been disappointing for the younger crowd.

After that we found some statues and paid a couple of bucks to ride an elevator up from the river, just to do it, then walk the 180 steps back down to get our bikes.

We almost got killed about 20 times today because of the traffic and our lack of maneuvering ability on our bikes.  Left!  We want to go left!  Oh crap, now we have to figure out how to turn around and not get hit by the giant busses while we do.

Tomorrow morning at 6:30 AM we start our 19 hour voyage home (walk to the train station, 1.5 hours on train, wait for flight, fly for 1.5 hours, wait for flight, fly 10.5 hours, sit in line at passport control, wait for luggage, drive home).  We have books, movies, games, a math book, and knitting.  That should pass the time!

Anger

I have to say that today I am relatively pissed off.  There are a few reasons for this:

1. We live on a road in which there are only 10 houses.  Therefore, we have to pay to have our road graded, plowed and maintained.  Many of the people in our neighborhood chose to build their houses right on the road, even though they have 3-10 acres of land to choose from.  So, to them, dust control is very important.  I don't care about dust control because I live in the woods, where no dust settles.  We have to pay for three dust control applications every year.  The people also want to regrade the road twice a year, even though it only serves 10 houses.  I find this ludicrous.  Further, for weeks after the grading, the road is covered with loose gravel that is impossible to bike on.  I bike.  I also have kids that love to bike.  It basically makes the road unusable for biking for a few weeks.  Yesterday they graded the road, after only 5 people voiced that they wanted the road graded (with one adamant NO - me).  So, that really pissed me off.  And it will continue to piss me off for a month.

2. Maine struck down their gay marriage law.  So now about 31 states in the good old US of A have explicit laws banning gay marriage or explicitly have countered laws that have made it legal.  It is just a travesty.  Aren't we the land of the free?  What does "free" mean?  You are welcome to do whatever you want as long as it doesn't counter my beliefs.  Even if it has absolutely no affect on me what-so-ever.  If I believe something and you believe something else - screw you.  The sad thing is that over half of the people in all of these states voted to do this.  We, as a society, believe in discrimination.  We believe in taking rights away from people because of who and what they are.  It is unbelievable to me how hypocritical people are in this country.

3. I am obviously PMSing, even though I don't have the right junk.  No amount of Mt. Dew will help.

Global Warming

Today, on the way home today I heard an argument about global warming that I had never really heard, but similar to other arguments.  The guy stated that we are human beings, and therefore animals, just like all other animals on the planet.  We have altered our environment, like other species have.  It is a completely natural thing to do, and so we should not worry about it.

While talking to Crab Mama about this, we came to the conclusion that this is completely natural.  What happens is that the top of the food chain ends up over-indulging and the food chain completely collapses.  Once this happens, the population completely collapses and reduces to something like 10% of the original population.

So, what will happen, if we continue along the path that we are traveling, is that we will completely destroy our food chain and our population will be decimated.  Luckily, we in the United States of America won't suffer nearly as much as the rest of the world, because we will continue to buy land to grow cattle and corn over the whole globe while the rest of the world starves to death.  Well, the strong survive, which is also completely natural.

It is pretty clear that people will just come into a new equilibrium with nature (the similar argument), but there is an extremely good chance that this will be with a significantly reduced population.  Which is completely natural.  Which is sad.

The glory of daylight savings time

Well, ok.  Not really.

But, at least on Sunday, when noon came around (according to my grandfather clock) and I still hadn't gotten dressed, I could justify it because it was actually 11 AM according to my computer.

Tonight it feels like DST has been completely squandered.  It is 10 PM and we are not in bed yet.  We vowed that this year we would take DST to go to bed early and get up early!  Alas, it lasted less than one day.  Such is the way of things in our house.  Vows are like Halloween candy - here one day, gone the next.