I suppose it is indicative of the relative unimportance of grades in grad school that I never talked about the grades I got during the first semester of my PhD program. (I don't know that I ever mentioned my grades at My Master U. either but those grades were boring.)
So (cue suspenseful music): last semester I got a 3.93. A's in all my seminars except one, in which I got an A-. (If that math seems confusing, it's because all our department seminars are 7-week, 2 hour courses, and it's one of those I got an A- in. But seminars in other departments are typically full semester, 3 hour courses.)
In any event, I am satisfied, my department is satisfied (I do have a minimum GPA I have to maintain), all is well.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
The Presentation Hump
Did my second of three presentation this morning and it went well.
Yesterday when I was working on the presentation, it occurred to me that I don't have a laptop at school so I would need to put the PPT on a jump drive and borrow someone else's laptop in class. One malware attack and about 90 minutes later, I had a loaner laptop in my office. (Bizarrely, it is the same model as the laptop I got from My Masters University.) Well, OK, that takes care of that, I guess.
So now I just have one presentation (and paper) on Friday.
I enjoyed this from a Harvard Business Review article about sustainability:
"Patagonia turned to Walmart, known for market strength but not necessarily sustainability, to help get the ball rolling on a VCI [value chain index that lets people compare environmental impacts of different products in an industry]. The two code-named their partnership David and Goliath. Together, they had the credibility and power required to get their sector's attention.
In the fall of 2009 they sent out invitations to 12 CEOs of companies carefully vetted for their sustainability bona fides. One recipient later said, 'When you get a letter from Mike Duke and Yvon Chouinard, with the logos for Walmart and Patagonia side by side, it's so bizarre that you have to read it.'"
Yesterday when I was working on the presentation, it occurred to me that I don't have a laptop at school so I would need to put the PPT on a jump drive and borrow someone else's laptop in class. One malware attack and about 90 minutes later, I had a loaner laptop in my office. (Bizarrely, it is the same model as the laptop I got from My Masters University.) Well, OK, that takes care of that, I guess.
So now I just have one presentation (and paper) on Friday.
I enjoyed this from a Harvard Business Review article about sustainability:
"Patagonia turned to Walmart, known for market strength but not necessarily sustainability, to help get the ball rolling on a VCI [value chain index that lets people compare environmental impacts of different products in an industry]. The two code-named their partnership David and Goliath. Together, they had the credibility and power required to get their sector's attention.
In the fall of 2009 they sent out invitations to 12 CEOs of companies carefully vetted for their sustainability bona fides. One recipient later said, 'When you get a letter from Mike Duke and Yvon Chouinard, with the logos for Walmart and Patagonia side by side, it's so bizarre that you have to read it.'"
Monday, March 5, 2012
Presentation Week
One down, two left to go this week.
Robert purchased me a crazy-ass looking but shockingly decent tasting type of brown rice spaghetti this week - it's a kosher rice pasta from Canada that is "Pasta Joy Ready" (tm). But perhaps the strangest thing about it is its logo of two cartoon rabbits wearing overalls and holding up a grain of rice that is almost as big as they are, topped by the phrase "Not Mushy!" (Is the rice in this universe gigantic or are those micro-tiny bunnies?) I can't get a good photo of this from the package, but I can refer you to the site where the logo appears in action twice (telling us also "We bring rice-smiles!") about halfway down the page.
I think they must use language like "Our entire factory premise and all machines" and "formed to gourmet class" on the package to make us believe that this is an authentic Asian product with language translated from the Chinese. I also like the idea that it is "an ultimate in the enjoyment of pasta" (my emphasis).
Robert purchased me a crazy-ass looking but shockingly decent tasting type of brown rice spaghetti this week - it's a kosher rice pasta from Canada that is "Pasta Joy Ready" (tm). But perhaps the strangest thing about it is its logo of two cartoon rabbits wearing overalls and holding up a grain of rice that is almost as big as they are, topped by the phrase "Not Mushy!" (Is the rice in this universe gigantic or are those micro-tiny bunnies?) I can't get a good photo of this from the package, but I can refer you to the site where the logo appears in action twice (telling us also "We bring rice-smiles!") about halfway down the page.
I think they must use language like "Our entire factory premise and all machines" and "formed to gourmet class" on the package to make us believe that this is an authentic Asian product with language translated from the Chinese. I also like the idea that it is "an ultimate in the enjoyment of pasta" (my emphasis).
Monday, February 20, 2012
A New Saturday Ritual
Last Saturday, I was in the mood for an iced tea (as always on Saturday) but didn't feel like going out for lunch or driving to one of our usual haunts out in the suburbs, so I put Robert on the task of finding a good, fresh-brewed iced tea near where we live. You have to understand: the Midwest is not iced tea country. We stopped at a Kentucky Fried Chicken for iced tea once and they did not serve it, not even the crappy Lipton out of the fountain. I mean, seriously? KFC does not serve iced tea up here?
But Robert came through. There is a coffee house 2 blocks from here that serves a very nice iced tea - a blend of Earl Grey and English Breakfast tea. They sell it in 3 sizes. I got the largest one. Robert got an utterly decadent and delicious mocha frappe. There were lots of empty tables, mostly with people quietly working on their laptops but I situated us near a table with 2 kind of loud old guys trying to figure out their laptops where I didn't think we'd bother anybody by talking. (We talked mostly about adjunct professor pay, inspired by Robert, an ex-adjunct, reading this post on the topic.) I didn't know how the refills would work and thought they might charge the full price each time (like happens often in bars). But instead the refills were 55 cents, so that was cool. I think after-lunch iced tea at the coffee shop down the street is going to be our new Saturday ritual. (They also sell some food, including a crazy-good looking fruit yogurt parfait and dark chocolate covered espresso beans, both of which are Sally-compatible but that I doubt I'll get any time soon.)
But Robert came through. There is a coffee house 2 blocks from here that serves a very nice iced tea - a blend of Earl Grey and English Breakfast tea. They sell it in 3 sizes. I got the largest one. Robert got an utterly decadent and delicious mocha frappe. There were lots of empty tables, mostly with people quietly working on their laptops but I situated us near a table with 2 kind of loud old guys trying to figure out their laptops where I didn't think we'd bother anybody by talking. (We talked mostly about adjunct professor pay, inspired by Robert, an ex-adjunct, reading this post on the topic.) I didn't know how the refills would work and thought they might charge the full price each time (like happens often in bars). But instead the refills were 55 cents, so that was cool. I think after-lunch iced tea at the coffee shop down the street is going to be our new Saturday ritual. (They also sell some food, including a crazy-good looking fruit yogurt parfait and dark chocolate covered espresso beans, both of which are Sally-compatible but that I doubt I'll get any time soon.)
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Oops, I Guess I Should Edit This To Add a Title...
I think January's two posts represents an all-time low here at EQ, and the first half of February flew by without any posts at all. [Disapprove]
This semester I am taking two seminars that are half-semester courses (after spring break, I'll be taking two different half-semester seminars in their place) and clearly each professor thinks that the topic is important enough to devote an entire semester to and are unwilling to reduce the coverage of their favorite subject to 50%. Instead, each one seems to cover about 80% of the material/assignments that you would get in a full semester course. (This might be a slight exaggeration, but it's definitely a larger work load this semester than last semester, when only one of my seminars worked this way. It appears that the seminars in my department are all half-semester seminars but the ones in the psychology department are full-semester seminars.)
Other than feeling kind of crazily busy (and hence the weeks are passing so quickly I cannot fathom it), I think things are going pretty well. The winter weather is being kind to us, at least.
This morning I kind of didn't want to go to my psych seminar at 9:00, but I was looking forward to walking to school in the relatively warm and very sunny weather. (Relatively warm = my face does not feel cold while I'm walking to school; this happens at about 25 degrees F or so.) I like walking over to the other side of campus because I can take a route that goes all the way along the river then meets up with the campus from the backside such that I never have to stop at a traffic light. It was a pleasant walk (although as has been the case most days this winter, the bird life was virtually non-existent; today I heard a few chickadees singing and that was it. Not even a crow!) and I was in a better mood when I got to class.
And when I got to class, I was on in that way that sometimes happens. I'm usual a pretty good contributor to the discussion but I was especially good today. Even adjusting for the fact that my professor tends to give positive feedback to people's comments, I felt very pleased when he responded to one of my questions/criticisms about a hugely important classic paper that we read with, "Were you one of the reviewers on this paper?" Apparently I had immediately tapped into an issue that people in the area spent years grappling with. So, I'm getting really good at evaluating other people's research. It still remains to be seen if I can get any of my own ideas to work out.
This semester I am taking two seminars that are half-semester courses (after spring break, I'll be taking two different half-semester seminars in their place) and clearly each professor thinks that the topic is important enough to devote an entire semester to and are unwilling to reduce the coverage of their favorite subject to 50%. Instead, each one seems to cover about 80% of the material/assignments that you would get in a full semester course. (This might be a slight exaggeration, but it's definitely a larger work load this semester than last semester, when only one of my seminars worked this way. It appears that the seminars in my department are all half-semester seminars but the ones in the psychology department are full-semester seminars.)
Other than feeling kind of crazily busy (and hence the weeks are passing so quickly I cannot fathom it), I think things are going pretty well. The winter weather is being kind to us, at least.
This morning I kind of didn't want to go to my psych seminar at 9:00, but I was looking forward to walking to school in the relatively warm and very sunny weather. (Relatively warm = my face does not feel cold while I'm walking to school; this happens at about 25 degrees F or so.) I like walking over to the other side of campus because I can take a route that goes all the way along the river then meets up with the campus from the backside such that I never have to stop at a traffic light. It was a pleasant walk (although as has been the case most days this winter, the bird life was virtually non-existent; today I heard a few chickadees singing and that was it. Not even a crow!) and I was in a better mood when I got to class.
And when I got to class, I was on in that way that sometimes happens. I'm usual a pretty good contributor to the discussion but I was especially good today. Even adjusting for the fact that my professor tends to give positive feedback to people's comments, I felt very pleased when he responded to one of my questions/criticisms about a hugely important classic paper that we read with, "Were you one of the reviewers on this paper?" Apparently I had immediately tapped into an issue that people in the area spent years grappling with. So, I'm getting really good at evaluating other people's research. It still remains to be seen if I can get any of my own ideas to work out.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
A Few Likes and Dislikes
While Tam looks with increasing disfavor on people's habit of rating everything they experience, I find the rampant Facebook "liking" and "disliking"* of consumer products distasteful. There are very few products I would want to announce to everyone I know, or basically the world, as having some kind of significant attitude toward. I don't believe this is any principled belief; it just feels cheap and tawdry somehow (esp. because I think a lot of the impetus for doing so is in response to marketers' promotions -- e.g., "like us on FB to enter our contest for a free XYZ!" (Why yes, I am a marketing student.)). And really, my FB page is already overfilled with annoying, meaningless garbage without finding out that the guy who sat behind me in 8th grade math class "likes" Tombstone pizza.
*After posting this, I thought, Wait - is there even a dislike option on FB? I don't actually remember, but I'm thinking no. OK, I checked - you can "like" but not "dislike" things on FB. This makes my disdain all the stronger. All the rabbits in the world and I disapprove.
This being said, I am happy to share my thoughts on a couple of recently-bought products/experiences in this setting. (My marketing strategy professor's favorite way to end any given sentence, whether it really makes sense or not, is with the words "in this setting." Another guy in our department ends sentences characteristically with "from that standpoint." A psychology professor is partial to "in this space," though he uses it less frequently and mixes things up by stating it in other positions in the sentence.)
LIKES:
Lands End Weatherfield Shoes: These are my perfect "walk over 2.5 miles to school on wet, slushy, icy, or snowy (below about 2") ground in comfort and wear them indoors all day, admiring the subtly contrasting colors and pleasant shape below where my jean hems scrunch up" shoes. I have the brown ones, and because they are currently on sale, have ordered the black and violet, too. Because we contend with snowy conditions through Easter, I thought the violet ones would be nice for that time of year when 95% of the rest of Americans are wearing spring clothing. I really, really wish they would make them in dark grey and in red or green or pretty much any other interesting color (perhaps not yellow or pink).
Kashi Dark Mocha Almond granola bars: I gave these up for a couple weeks when I was being really strict about eating zero wheat, but I am now back to eating about 5 of these per week (with no negative effects; I have added back wheat only in the very small quantities in these granola bars and my mom's meatloaf recipe, which is mostly oat-based but has about half a tablespoon of wheat germ per serving, too). I tried a bunch of strictly oat-based granola bars and they all (1) were not very filling for the calories, (2) tempted me even when I wasn't hungry and (3) left me wanting to eat another one right away even though (4) some of them didn't even taste all that good. The Kashi mocha ones are filling (for only 130 calories), satisfyingly toothy, have a chocolate-y flavor without any gooeyness, are not very sweet, and taste quite good, but I never crave them when I'm not hungry or feel left wanting more. I really appreciate foods that have a high ratio of liking to wanting (to hijack the terminology of neurologist Kent Berridge, who has done a lot of interesting, great work demonstrating that finding something pleasurable - liking it - and finding something motivating - wanting it - are regulated by different brain circuits). This combination - enjoyable to eat without making me really want it - is especially hard to find in long-term shelf-stable snack foods in convenient form factors and calorie amounts that I can carry around in my backpack, stash in my office, etc. So it's the bomb, basically.
DISLIKES:
Pei Wei restaurant in my nearby suburb: Today was it. Robert and I have been eating lunch at this place most Saturdays since we moved here, but this was the last time I'm going there. I have really liked the place because (1) Pei Wei's chai iced tea is delicious, (2) it's easy to eat wheat and corn free, and (3) you don't have a server waiting on you so you don't have to feel bad about using up a table for a couple hours when they're not busy, which they typically aren't. However, I would say that fully half the times we go, the awesome, wonderful chai iced tea is brewed so pathetically weakly that it is like having sex on a boat in a silty river - i.e., fucking close to dirty water. We always complain, and they always brew a new batch. Today, this process took, seriously, over 45 minutes. This ridiculous delay, in combination with an especially too-loud stereo system and an egregiously loud and chatty set of 4 women at the table next to us (who Robert noticed after they left had gotten disposable to-go cups instead of the normal plastic cups yet left them on the table because, what, they enjoy being wasteful), has finally turned me against them. (Coming home and finding out that the lunch was 200 calories more than I remembered it being, and hence not as filling/enjoyable for the calories as I thought, just capped it.)
*After posting this, I thought, Wait - is there even a dislike option on FB? I don't actually remember, but I'm thinking no. OK, I checked - you can "like" but not "dislike" things on FB. This makes my disdain all the stronger. All the rabbits in the world and I disapprove.
This being said, I am happy to share my thoughts on a couple of recently-bought products/experiences in this setting. (My marketing strategy professor's favorite way to end any given sentence, whether it really makes sense or not, is with the words "in this setting." Another guy in our department ends sentences characteristically with "from that standpoint." A psychology professor is partial to "in this space," though he uses it less frequently and mixes things up by stating it in other positions in the sentence.)
LIKES:
Lands End Weatherfield Shoes: These are my perfect "walk over 2.5 miles to school on wet, slushy, icy, or snowy (below about 2") ground in comfort and wear them indoors all day, admiring the subtly contrasting colors and pleasant shape below where my jean hems scrunch up" shoes. I have the brown ones, and because they are currently on sale, have ordered the black and violet, too. Because we contend with snowy conditions through Easter, I thought the violet ones would be nice for that time of year when 95% of the rest of Americans are wearing spring clothing. I really, really wish they would make them in dark grey and in red or green or pretty much any other interesting color (perhaps not yellow or pink).
Kashi Dark Mocha Almond granola bars: I gave these up for a couple weeks when I was being really strict about eating zero wheat, but I am now back to eating about 5 of these per week (with no negative effects; I have added back wheat only in the very small quantities in these granola bars and my mom's meatloaf recipe, which is mostly oat-based but has about half a tablespoon of wheat germ per serving, too). I tried a bunch of strictly oat-based granola bars and they all (1) were not very filling for the calories, (2) tempted me even when I wasn't hungry and (3) left me wanting to eat another one right away even though (4) some of them didn't even taste all that good. The Kashi mocha ones are filling (for only 130 calories), satisfyingly toothy, have a chocolate-y flavor without any gooeyness, are not very sweet, and taste quite good, but I never crave them when I'm not hungry or feel left wanting more. I really appreciate foods that have a high ratio of liking to wanting (to hijack the terminology of neurologist Kent Berridge, who has done a lot of interesting, great work demonstrating that finding something pleasurable - liking it - and finding something motivating - wanting it - are regulated by different brain circuits). This combination - enjoyable to eat without making me really want it - is especially hard to find in long-term shelf-stable snack foods in convenient form factors and calorie amounts that I can carry around in my backpack, stash in my office, etc. So it's the bomb, basically.
DISLIKES:
Pei Wei restaurant in my nearby suburb: Today was it. Robert and I have been eating lunch at this place most Saturdays since we moved here, but this was the last time I'm going there. I have really liked the place because (1) Pei Wei's chai iced tea is delicious, (2) it's easy to eat wheat and corn free, and (3) you don't have a server waiting on you so you don't have to feel bad about using up a table for a couple hours when they're not busy, which they typically aren't. However, I would say that fully half the times we go, the awesome, wonderful chai iced tea is brewed so pathetically weakly that it is like having sex on a boat in a silty river - i.e., fucking close to dirty water. We always complain, and they always brew a new batch. Today, this process took, seriously, over 45 minutes. This ridiculous delay, in combination with an especially too-loud stereo system and an egregiously loud and chatty set of 4 women at the table next to us (who Robert noticed after they left had gotten disposable to-go cups instead of the normal plastic cups yet left them on the table because, what, they enjoy being wasteful), has finally turned me against them. (Coming home and finding out that the lunch was 200 calories more than I remembered it being, and hence not as filling/enjoyable for the calories as I thought, just capped it.)
Monday, January 9, 2012
475 Birds
Yesterday Robert and I went to the airport in search of a snowy owl that had previously been seen, but with no luck. (We talked to a woman there who had been out every day last week looking for it with no success.) I think snowy owl has officially taken over as my nemesis bird. It was sort of amazing how many partly melted then re-frozen clumps of snow in the general shape of an owl there were out there, though. I also saw some surprisingly bird-like light fixtures and security cameras.
We also went to a park with a lake in the area and took a walk through a grassland-turning-to-marshland that was almost completely bereft of birds. Seeing a few chickadees, cardinals, and house finches was the excitement of this walk. The path ended at a lake but we had to turn back when we hit a marshy area that we couldn't cross.
So we approached the lake from a different place, this time immediately happening to meet up with a big guy dressed in camo and carrying a spotting scope and a camera with a gigantic lens. He showed us two gull species that are usually found in the arctic but that for whatever reason decided to spend some time here. I'm not usually very thrilled by looking at gulls, but it was interesting to see these birds (which were clearly different looking once you knew what you were looking for). It made me think about how Robert's grandmother had a birding friend (appropriately named Martin) who lived on a lake and frequently phoned her to come out and see a 3rd year hybrid whatever gull that he had found - she wasn't into gulls either and so had to gauge how often she had to show up to look at his gulls to ensure that he kept calling her when he saw an exciting non-gull bird.
This experience has not transformed me into a gull lover, but it was with great satisfaction that I added to my life list:
Glaucous gull
Thayer's gull
We also went to a park with a lake in the area and took a walk through a grassland-turning-to-marshland that was almost completely bereft of birds. Seeing a few chickadees, cardinals, and house finches was the excitement of this walk. The path ended at a lake but we had to turn back when we hit a marshy area that we couldn't cross.
So we approached the lake from a different place, this time immediately happening to meet up with a big guy dressed in camo and carrying a spotting scope and a camera with a gigantic lens. He showed us two gull species that are usually found in the arctic but that for whatever reason decided to spend some time here. I'm not usually very thrilled by looking at gulls, but it was interesting to see these birds (which were clearly different looking once you knew what you were looking for). It made me think about how Robert's grandmother had a birding friend (appropriately named Martin) who lived on a lake and frequently phoned her to come out and see a 3rd year hybrid whatever gull that he had found - she wasn't into gulls either and so had to gauge how often she had to show up to look at his gulls to ensure that he kept calling her when he saw an exciting non-gull bird.
This experience has not transformed me into a gull lover, but it was with great satisfaction that I added to my life list:
Glaucous gull
Thayer's gull
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