No, not in the way you're thinking.
More like I'm just less busy now and am going to blog the last month or so of my life in reverse chronological order. It'll be kind of like watching Citizen Kane, except that I've never seen it so I don't know if that holds.
Anyway, enjoy!
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Jews are awesome
Well, I could really leave this one right here and get the basic message across. Jews are, in fact, awesome. But some people keep asking for more cowbell details about my life, so here we go.
Last Wednesday, I went to get a free bagel at the Alumni Center. Just one of the many perks of being a student. Every week, they have free bagels and some student group is there handing out their recruitment propaganda. Last week, the student group was Hillel, the umbrella organization for Jewish student groups on campus.
So, being a wannajew, I stopped to talk to them. They were really nice. They gave me a fridge magnet that says "גו בלו", which is "Go Blue!" transliterated (not translated) into Hebrew. It's kinda fun. I turned down several Silly Bands (apparently something the kids are doing these days) shaped like Stars of David and letters in the Hebrew alphabet. But the best thing they gave me was the number of the Jewish Penicillin Hotline. This is a group of students who will bring any sick student matzo ball soup for free. Just to help out their fellow man.
You see, it says in the Talmud that "a sick person should know that he or she isn't left to suffer alone." And simple as that, the students want to make sure that any sick person knows that they have a friend. Jew or Gentile, they just want to do that kind of service for anybody who is suffering. And that's why Jews are awesome.
Last Wednesday, I went to get a free bagel at the Alumni Center. Just one of the many perks of being a student. Every week, they have free bagels and some student group is there handing out their recruitment propaganda. Last week, the student group was Hillel, the umbrella organization for Jewish student groups on campus.
So, being a wannajew, I stopped to talk to them. They were really nice. They gave me a fridge magnet that says "גו בלו", which is "Go Blue!" transliterated (not translated) into Hebrew. It's kinda fun. I turned down several Silly Bands (apparently something the kids are doing these days) shaped like Stars of David and letters in the Hebrew alphabet. But the best thing they gave me was the number of the Jewish Penicillin Hotline. This is a group of students who will bring any sick student matzo ball soup for free. Just to help out their fellow man.
You see, it says in the Talmud that "a sick person should know that he or she isn't left to suffer alone." And simple as that, the students want to make sure that any sick person knows that they have a friend. Jew or Gentile, they just want to do that kind of service for anybody who is suffering. And that's why Jews are awesome.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Politics
Does anybody enjoy political talk TV? My roomie is watching Keith Olberman right now and I realized something: I hate them all. Beck, Olberman, even Jon Stewart who I used to really like. They're all insufferable tool bags. The shows involve a lot of really smug bragging about everything that the other party does wrong, lots of complaining about things that don't go their way, and videos and sound bytes that make the other guy look dumb. So annoying.
I'm not going anywhere with this. I'm just sayin, is all.
I'm not going anywhere with this. I'm just sayin, is all.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
The other thing about Cell Biology
My faithful readers will remember last week when I posted about my cell biology class. Everyone else can scroll down to last week and pretend to be a faithful reader if they want. No judgment here.
Well, it seems that I am not the only one complaining about the class. Yesterday, the professor (the "head professor", so the one who wrote this last test we took) came to class and said that she's been getting lots of negative feedback. She then explained that we were all dumb and need to work harder. She told us that this class is a graduate level class, and is all about critical thinking not just regurgitation like we are used to, and that can cause some students to struggle. But the solution is for us, the students, to buck up and work harder.
This made me think about two things. First, when you argue, there are the buzzwords you use and there is your actual argument. These two do not have to be related. You may notice that my criticism of her class was "in grad school we should be thinking critically not regurgitating, therefore you are a bad teacher," and that her defense was "in grad school, you should be thinking critically not regurgitating, therefore you are all lazy and dumb." We both think that those particular words- critical thinking and all that- back up our particular position. Of course, I am right.
The second thing is something that really bothers me. That is that the problem is always someone else's fault. I would have been happy with a compromise of "hey, guys, I could have worded my questions better, but you still need to put more time into this class. I'll try to be clearer about what I want if you will try to do better work." Some sort of shared blame. But there was no sharing. She said "You are complaining about my test, therefore you are all dumb." Nothing wrong with the test.
Anyway, I thought I should follow up on that previous post. I just have to make it through another few weeks of the class, and then I'll get to complain about something else.
Well, it seems that I am not the only one complaining about the class. Yesterday, the professor (the "head professor", so the one who wrote this last test we took) came to class and said that she's been getting lots of negative feedback. She then explained that we were all dumb and need to work harder. She told us that this class is a graduate level class, and is all about critical thinking not just regurgitation like we are used to, and that can cause some students to struggle. But the solution is for us, the students, to buck up and work harder.
This made me think about two things. First, when you argue, there are the buzzwords you use and there is your actual argument. These two do not have to be related. You may notice that my criticism of her class was "in grad school we should be thinking critically not regurgitating, therefore you are a bad teacher," and that her defense was "in grad school, you should be thinking critically not regurgitating, therefore you are all lazy and dumb." We both think that those particular words- critical thinking and all that- back up our particular position. Of course, I am right.
The second thing is something that really bothers me. That is that the problem is always someone else's fault. I would have been happy with a compromise of "hey, guys, I could have worded my questions better, but you still need to put more time into this class. I'll try to be clearer about what I want if you will try to do better work." Some sort of shared blame. But there was no sharing. She said "You are complaining about my test, therefore you are all dumb." Nothing wrong with the test.
Anyway, I thought I should follow up on that previous post. I just have to make it through another few weeks of the class, and then I'll get to complain about something else.
Lenny
Well, friends, after years of homeopathic medicine, I had to take Lenny to a real doctor yesterday. It seems he had a leaky gasket that I would have really enjoyed fixing myself, but I just don't have the time these days. I think it would have made for some good experience but it would have probably taken me 2 or 3 weeks. And grad school is a busy time. Plus, it's cold outside.
So, I went to a mechanic that I think I'm going to like. The place is right up the block from my house (by the bus stop I used to use, so it's an easy walk) and very quick. I took Lenny to him on Monday morning before work, and by Monday evening he was done.
I'm hoping that this is the end of Lenny's problems. He's a good car, he just breaks down a lot. It's not his fault.
So, I went to a mechanic that I think I'm going to like. The place is right up the block from my house (by the bus stop I used to use, so it's an easy walk) and very quick. I took Lenny to him on Monday morning before work, and by Monday evening he was done.
I'm hoping that this is the end of Lenny's problems. He's a good car, he just breaks down a lot. It's not his fault.
Friday, October 29, 2010
What bothers me about Cell Biology
Well, friends, I said I'd keep in better touch and do a better job of updating my blog. And one easy way to write a post is to complain about something. So, here I go!
Right now, I am in a cell biology class. As a graduate student, most of my time is dedicated to research, but I have to take 3 or 4 classes. That's OK, because graduate school classes aren't like undergrad classes- they're more about critical thinking and learning than they are about regurgitation and mind reading. Or at least, they should be.
Enter cell bio. This class feels like they took an undergraduate cell biology class and said "how can we make this harder, so it's a graduate level class, but not change our lectures at all?" Some of the ideas they came up with were kind of remarkable.
One way they make the class harder is to have it team-taught. That means that we have a new professor every couple of weeks. So, if there is a problem with the course, we can go to the professor who is currently teaching who will say "look, I've only got a lecture or two left, let's just tough it out," or the previous one who will say "I'm not involved in that course any more, sorry!" or the head professor who will say "you know, I only supervise and don't have any real power over problem X. You should talk to someone else." I've heard each of those, either directly from the professor or from another student who tried to get help. So, that's frustrating.
Another way they make my life difficult is by asking terrible questions. This is one of my big pet peeves, and I work hard to ask good questions when I teach. The bad questions come in two types: The Fish and The Detail Guess.
The Fish is where you ask a very vague question with a very specific answer in mind. Like "What makes Hitler a bad person?" "No, it's not what he did to Poland. No, I don't mean killing the Jews. No, not abuse of power and manipulating people. That's right, I was looking for 'Killing Gypsies.' Hitler was bad because he killed Gypsies."
The Detail Guess is where you ask a broad question, and want a very specific amount of detail. "What do you do when company comes over?" You can answer this question saying "I would vacuum my living room." Then, if they want more detail, they say "Where did you get the vacuum? Do you use electricity to vacuum? Do you move the furnature or just vacuum around it?" But if they want less detail they say "all I wanted was "clean up the house." The key elements of the information guess are one, they penalise you for giving the wrong level of detail (either too much or too little) and two, they make no attempt at telling you how much detail they wanted.
Anyway, I'm frustrated with the class, as you can tell. Will I survive? Yes. Will I be sending any of the TA's a Christmas card? Probably not.
Right now, I am in a cell biology class. As a graduate student, most of my time is dedicated to research, but I have to take 3 or 4 classes. That's OK, because graduate school classes aren't like undergrad classes- they're more about critical thinking and learning than they are about regurgitation and mind reading. Or at least, they should be.
Enter cell bio. This class feels like they took an undergraduate cell biology class and said "how can we make this harder, so it's a graduate level class, but not change our lectures at all?" Some of the ideas they came up with were kind of remarkable.
One way they make the class harder is to have it team-taught. That means that we have a new professor every couple of weeks. So, if there is a problem with the course, we can go to the professor who is currently teaching who will say "look, I've only got a lecture or two left, let's just tough it out," or the previous one who will say "I'm not involved in that course any more, sorry!" or the head professor who will say "you know, I only supervise and don't have any real power over problem X. You should talk to someone else." I've heard each of those, either directly from the professor or from another student who tried to get help. So, that's frustrating.
Another way they make my life difficult is by asking terrible questions. This is one of my big pet peeves, and I work hard to ask good questions when I teach. The bad questions come in two types: The Fish and The Detail Guess.
The Fish is where you ask a very vague question with a very specific answer in mind. Like "What makes Hitler a bad person?" "No, it's not what he did to Poland. No, I don't mean killing the Jews. No, not abuse of power and manipulating people. That's right, I was looking for 'Killing Gypsies.' Hitler was bad because he killed Gypsies."
The Detail Guess is where you ask a broad question, and want a very specific amount of detail. "What do you do when company comes over?" You can answer this question saying "I would vacuum my living room." Then, if they want more detail, they say "Where did you get the vacuum? Do you use electricity to vacuum? Do you move the furnature or just vacuum around it?" But if they want less detail they say "all I wanted was "clean up the house." The key elements of the information guess are one, they penalise you for giving the wrong level of detail (either too much or too little) and two, they make no attempt at telling you how much detail they wanted.
Anyway, I'm frustrated with the class, as you can tell. Will I survive? Yes. Will I be sending any of the TA's a Christmas card? Probably not.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Bored
So, here I am, sitting in the Maddock lab at UM, avoiding the grant proposal I should be writing. I've checked a couple blogs, I've read the news, and I just can't make myself write the last essay I have to write. I'm out of blogs and other fun things to do.
And if you give a mouse a blog, he'll remember that he hasn't updated his own in a while. Or something like that.
I'm not sure what in my life is exciting enough to update you on. My science is being...less than successful at the moment. I'm writing a big proposal to the NSF to get them to fund me (3 years of solid funding plus a raise...it would be very nice). Kate is doing most of the fun wedding-planny stuff.
Anyway, that's probably enough rambling for now. But for my fans out there, I am still alive. Just been busy. I'll try not to neglect you so much in the future.
And if you give a mouse a blog, he'll remember that he hasn't updated his own in a while. Or something like that.
I'm not sure what in my life is exciting enough to update you on. My science is being...less than successful at the moment. I'm writing a big proposal to the NSF to get them to fund me (3 years of solid funding plus a raise...it would be very nice). Kate is doing most of the fun wedding-planny stuff.
Anyway, that's probably enough rambling for now. But for my fans out there, I am still alive. Just been busy. I'll try not to neglect you so much in the future.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
