So we’ve gotten a lot of snow in a short amount of time. This isn’t unusual for my area, but since the local government is so broke, they can’t afford to plow like they usually do. This means that my university was closed most of yesterday and all day today.
This is finals week and students who had exams yesterday or today can choose to accept their current grade in the class or take the final at the beginning of next semester. I would really like the first option for my plant ecology class and the second for my statistics class. Unfortunately, all of my finals are Wednesday and Thursday, when the university will almost certainly be open.
Normally at the end of the week, I post a bunch of interesting articles. (You’d better not tell me you think they’re boring.) This week I’m too busy for that. By about this time next week I will have taken two (terrifyingly hard) tests, outlined a review paper, written a research prospectus, alternately beaten and cajoled my model until it gives me results, presented at lab group (yeah, I still find this scary), made a poster, and packed and prepared for a conference (I’ve never been to a conference with required reading before).
My university doesn’t have a fall break. In addition to generally being a cruel policy, it ensures that by this point in the semester I absolutely hate all of my classes. This semester would be more manageable than some, but I’m going to a conference in November. I’m really excited about the conference, but missing a week of classes (and not doing any hw for a week) isn’t going to make the following weeks pretty.
Classes started yesterday. I’m always so excited to start each semester. The amount of time I stay excited after they start, however, decreases every year - it’s just the second day of classes and I’m only a little excited.
I’m taking a plant ecology class and a “math stats” course that looks at the theory behind statistics. The plant ecology class has more reading than I know what to do with. I’ve heard math stats is difficult, but I haven’t been yet, so we’ll see.
Last year I got enough scholarship and grant money that I didn’t have to take out any loans. This year has gone even better, despite not getting the Udall. In addition to having enough to pay for school, rent, and all my bills through August 2010, I’ll be able to get new glasses (which I desperately need), pay off my E.R. bill from 2006 and a small student loan from the university I briefly attended in NC, AND get a cheap couch off of Craigslist. I’m pretty excited about not having to sit on the floor if I want to hang out in my living room.
Even more exciting is the prospect of getting rid of all of my medical debt. Since my financial aid has been so much better the last couple of years, I’ve been able to put a lot of my paychecks toward the $5000 of medical debt I accrued between 2003 & 2006. With the amount I’m getting this year, I’ll have all my old medical bills paid off by next August as long as I can control my shoe problem.
Once my ER bill and my other medical debt are gone, I’ll just have student loan debt - about $24,000. $24,000 isn’t that bad considering I’ll have been in school at least part time 5 1/2 years by the time I graduate and 2 of those years I was paying out of state tuition. I’m also lucky that my loans are all subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford, not the nasty Sallie Mae kind. I’m hoping that I’ll have all of those paid off before I finish grad school.
Unfortunately, I still can’t afford health insurance… Hopefully wherever I go for grad school will have decent benefits.
I’d apologize for the lack of blogging, but I’m pretty sure most of my readers have either experienced the end of a semester or heard me whine enough to understand exactly why I’ve disappeared the last few weeks. I don’t actually have any finals this semester, but I do have large papers and projects to turn in. Ultimately, these end up being a lot more work than a big test, but I prefer them. Most exams just require you to vomit up some large percentage of the information presented in class that semester, but a term paper or project forces me to think about what I’ve learned in different contexts, apply it, and synthesize it. Much more useful and interesting than regurgitating Ohm’s law in all its permutations for plant physiology (Dr. Isis is right about everything in physiology boiling down to Ohm’s law) or listing the advantages of a hierarchical Bayesian modeling approach.
I turn in my modeling project at 7:30 AM tomorrow and my plant physiology mock grant proposal on Thursday morning. Then I’m going to reward myself by replacing the cheap, falling apart plastic plants some of plants live in and sit on my balcony in the sunshine playing in the dirt for a few hours.
And then you might hear from me again.
Outside it is snowing very hard and is very very cold. Last night the wind blew the ice into the windows so hard I couldn’t sleep. I am glad to be inside and wrapped up in my coziest sweats and am enjoying my work. If the deadlines weren’t so soon, I’d be enjoying it more. I’m working on a term paper about something I find very exciting. My mentor wants to use my paper as the basis for a grant proposal, which gives me the warm fuzzies. Hopefully she won’t change her mind once she actually sees the paper.
Later on today I’m going to put together a presentation for a modeling class I’m in. I’m the only undergrad in the class, and even though I know what I’m doing, I’m still pretty intimidated. Cross your fingers for me!
Usually on Tuesday or Wednesday, I give you an update on my migraines. I’m not going to be doing that anymore. Keeping track of my migraines is far too depressing.
A couple of months ago I found out about a $4000 scholarship with very narrow eligibility requirements that I fit. Unfortunately, I found out about it the day before the deadline. I emailed the scholarship contact and they said, yes, turn it in late. The scholarship required 3 recommendations. My two research mentors normally write me recommendations and another professor writes for me when I need a third letter. All of them were wonderful when I asked for the recommendation on such short notice. Then my third recommender dropped off the face of the earth.
So, I missed the late deadline. And probably missed out on $4000. I know that professors are incredibly busy, but I wish my third recommender had told me he was too busy instead of agreeing to write the letter and then ignoring me. It’s been 3 weeks and he still hasn’t gotten back to me – even after I politely emailed him and let him know that I’d missed the deadline and no longer needed a letter.
The Girl in the Red Beret by Lina Mounzer.
Cocorosie redoes Akon’s “I Wanna Love You.” It’s an incredible juxtaposition – same music, same setting, very different perspectives.
Sex toy recycling program. They even give you a gift certificate when you send in old toys!
Teen girls on Chris Brown’s abuse of Rhianna. People ask why women don’t leave their abusers more often and this is why: they think it’s their fault. And so do many of the people around them.
And why don’t more women report that they’ve been raped? This is why:
But still, the police did not believe the victim. Worse, they didn’t just laugh at her, as many other victims report happening to them. They didn’t ask her if she really deserved it for X reason, or if she had sex with the gunman consensually and then just regretted it later. They didn’t ask her if she really wanted to press charges, because hey, this could ruin this man’s life, you know! All of these are outcomes far more than bad enough, and which still happen far too often, but didn’t happen here.
Instead, they accused her of a false report and put her in jail.
Majikthise has two good posts up on the economic crisis and the bailout.
Where I’d be applying to grad school if I were a physicist.
An eleven year old killed himself because of constant bullying and taunting for being gay. This isn’t an isolated case. Many children kill themselves or are killed by their peers for being queer or being perceived as queer. The schools aren’t dealing with it.
Another school failure: a teenage girl was suspended for taking birth control at school.
A case where justice is very unlikely to be found.
Tags: akon, birth control, cocorosie, domestic violence, environmentalism, homophobia, justice, lina mounzer, music, patriarchy, police brutality, rape, school, sex toys, sexism, shell, that's queer |
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I’ve been very very busy lately and will continue to be very very busy for the next month. I’m a little worried about how absent minded I’m becoming. The other day I wanted to plug the toaster in. Instead, I tried to plug a banana in – twice. Then yesterday I wanted to add something to my grocery list. I tried to write it down with a fork. Hopefully I’ll make it through this month without setting the house on fire or hurting myself. Last time I was like this I tried to take something out of the oven with my bare hands.
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