Weekly WeyrCat 27June-03July

School:

I started Biological Principals this Monday. The professor is a marine biologist who's been at FAU for 25 years. He's also hilarious, no-nonsense, and replies "no" when asked if he was in the military. He's specific about what he demands of a student: No tech in class, excluding dedicated audio recorders (which he recommends for those who feel the need to write everything down). He started the day off by calling security on a girl who refused to move closer to the podium (no sitting in the back five rows) because she wanted to be able to charge her laptop (not allowed in class anyway). He actually laughed at her. He asked nicely, then instructed her, then informed her he was calling security. He did. They came and escorted her out while she flipped him off and yelled "F* YOU!" Wow... just... wow. Pride man... Pride and entitlement. The body of the class seems like a bunch of material I've already learned, so as long as I stay on top of it I believe I will get a good grade.

The lab is going to be very fast paced: We did three labs the first day. Easy into labs, but the third required us to test a hypothesis and write a mock scientific article on it. I thought it was kind of neat, but I did my work alone (choosing an experiment I could do alone) so I could gauge which students were not worth grouping with. I despise students who just copy other students, and they tend to make themselves obvious. Noted one the second day; she asked about the mock article and said "But it's a group project, right?" People don't ask that unless they think they can get away with just putting their name on someone else's work. Fact.

Friday June 24, I was late to my calculus exam. I took the same train I always take, but instead of taking 30 minutes to get to the college train station (4 stops) it took 30 minutes to get to the first stop. I emailed the professor in route, but it didn't get me any extra time on the exam. We ade it to the train station, then I had to wait 20 minutes for the bus to arrive. I usually get to class 30 minutes early, I arrived 30 minutes late. I ran out of time and ended up just filling in a few bubbles at the end. Someone had made the professor angry the day before too, and I base this on an email he sent us the night before. For the first exam we were allowed to be a sheet with notes on it, this was forbidden us this time. This could just be him working us into thinking for ourselves, except there was also no curve this time. So, from note paper and generous curve to NO note paper and no curve... All in all I ended up with a 65%. Devastated. I took a quiz this last friday and got a 90%. I may have lost my shot at an A, but I can still get a respectable B. I'm going to still try for an A, who knows!

PT:

Been, not lazy, but busy and tired. Adjusting to a new schedule, and a stressful weekend (coworked showed up 40 minutes late without calling anyone *ME* to tell them he would be), so I don't think I've really done anything. I did some gatehouse PT at work last Sat, just squats and lunges.
On Friday I went to use the school fitness center, to run on the treadmill. I changed, found my bag wouldn't fit in the locker, and tried to bring it with me onto the floor. I found a treadmill up against the wall out of any flow of traffic and set my bag next to it. Some meathead bouncer actually tried to oust me from the gym! "I can't let you have that here." I tried to explain: First time trying to use the gym, I take the train and don't have anywhere to store it, it won't fit in a locker... No dice. I wen to the front desk with my plight and the little girl there was all "It won't fit in the day locker?" Note, the day lockers are the ONLY lockers in the lockerroom for students to use. She went to get the manager, who asked me how long I was planning to work out. At this point I was already really frustrated and said "One mile, twelve minutes, that's it!" He put my bag in the back office, and I went for a fast, angry, run. I retrieved my bag, changed, and wish I had tried to run longer. I was still mad. I thought about trying to get my activity fee back, seeing as how if I don't get really creative I won't get to use the gym! Since Shane got kicked out the day before for trying to lift while wearing jeans, we comiserated, angrily. So ridiculous.

1. Run, treadmill. 1.0 mi. 0:11:51 0.5inc. EndHr140.

Lie-barry:
(I despise when people call it that, same as "You're a good draw-er"... anyway...
1. Finished reading _Unlimited_ by Jillian Anderson.
(Official Review I posted on Goodreads.com) I really did love this book. I plan to buy a copy for myself! I took notes, wrote quotes, and the whole while really felt like I was building something. Cheesey, I know, but whatever uplifts you, right?

Highly recommend it, she talks like a real person through the whole thing.

2. Finished listening to _The God Delusion_ by Richard Dawkins.
I finished God Delusion today, and I almost started the book over just to read it again. There's only been one other book I enjoyed so much as to be tempted to do so, and it was a whole series, Dark Tower by Stephen King. I borrowed this audiobook from the library and will be purchasing a hardcopy of my own. I loved that the book was read by the author (Richard Dawkins) and his wife; while listening to audiobooks I sometimes wonder if the orator is doing justice to the book, emphasizing the right parts, etc. It made me smile to know that i this book the emphasis would be in, and on, the right ideas.

In short: I absolutely loved it. I wish everyone would read it. Evolutionists, Creationists, Athiests, Diests, Christians (and related faiths), Panthiests (and those of you who don't know yoh are Panthiests yet). If you are a fence-sitter you will no longer be. If you are a Christian (or other Theist) you should read this book, not to be pursueded NOT to be a Theist, but to see the other side, or if nothing else, to know thine enemy.

I can't, shouldn't say anything more. But read it.

3. Starting _God is Not Great and Religion Poisons Everything_ by Christopher Hitchens.

Other shtuff:

This one's only this long cause I'm trying out this new weekly format thing. :P

It's been raining like mad all week, good (since we're on water restrictions) and bad (because it can make commuting on foot and public trans kind of icky). It has caused a storm of mangos in the backyard. Some smash open when they fall and get pounced by bugs before they can be saved, but we've rescued some "splitters" which work well in my morning shake and his oatmeal. Some unripe ones have fallen, can't keep those splitters but the ones that don't split are hanging out in my fruit bowl. We're going to stop buying bananas for a week or two while we eat up this yummy harvest. Thinking of adapting my banana bread recipe to make mango bread this week! I'll have to hurry since he runs off to do his two weeks for Uncle Sam next Friday.

The rain has also been good for mushrooms around campus. I got some great photos of some dinner-plate sized ones, once my Android's camera stopped acting up. I'm close to fed up and thinking about taking it to the Verizon and having them swap it. What good is a 5mp camera that doesn't focus. I've looked it up and it seems to be a common problem with the Droid2. Grrrr. So, not as many cool photos as I would hope.

There have been a lot of really good science articles this week (what I read instead of the newspaper, along with blogs like "Oh She Glows" and a few more). I won't subject you to them in this week's entry since it's already SOOO LONG! By the way, that morning shake I'm having? I hijacked the idea from the Green Monster shake on "Oh She Glows".