Got the fish exam back. After the prof threw out questions and gave bonus points and generally waved his magic wand, he gave me a 100. Counting myself rather lucky as after all those manipulations, half the class still flunked -- including Jackie, one of my study partners. I couldn't even be happy for my good grade because I was so upset that she and several others with whom I studied did so badly.
My grandfather passed away on 21 November after years of heart trouble. I took all my energy and poured it into one of my papers, thus finishing my physiology paper three days before it was due. Paul has been in and out of the hospital several times since my last entry. He originally went in to a Wichita hospital on 11 November with pneumonia, got out the 15th, went to Mom and Dad's because he was still having breathing issues and didn't want to be alone for hours, went in to the McPherson hospital on the 17th with a severe asthma attack, got out the 22nd, went back in to Mac via an ambulance because he stopped breathing, was transferred to Hutchinson Hospital, and he is still there. I don't think they've quite figured out what's going on, but he is doing better because he sat up in his chair for at least six hours today without much breathing trouble -- a marked improvement over the 15 or 20 minutes of a couple of days ago.
Had a nice visit with my friend Amy on the 16th, despite my slide on the city bus on my way to the Quarter when the bus driver didn't tie down my w.c., slammed on the brakes, and made me slide into a woman and sprain my left ankle. Fun fun. Amy's back in town this Wednesday until the following Tuesday.
Have my presentations on Tuesday (conservation bio seminar) and Friday (physiology). Barney has arranged for Chad's and my Biology of Fishes class to come hear our presentations. Fun fun.
Finals are a week away, and I haven't typed any of my notes yet or done any reading, nor have I started studying the fish bones. Fun fun.
Saturday, November 27, 2004
Friday, November 19, 2004
The Fish exam is over . . .
. . . and to say it sucked a-- is being very kind indeed. If I pulled a C on it, I was freaking lucky. So, all the hours of studying and lack of sleep the last two weeks were basically for naught.
I'm going to go play Bejeweled.
I'm going to go play Bejeweled.
Saturday, November 13, 2004
OK, let's see if I can catch you up
::Dawn peeks out from behind a jar holding a specimen of Sphyrna tiburo and another holding a bunch of Notropis longirostris::
What's been going on in NO?
Voted on the second -- didn't do a darned bit of good, but I can safely count myself among the 49% who can say "I didn't vote for him" as we become more and more alienated from the world community and our environmental and social standards fall further and further back into the Dark Ages. ::sigh::
My stint as an undergraduate research advisor has been interesting to say the least. One group of my four has completed its experiments (I think) and needs to do some data analysis -- time to brush off that ol' biostats book I asked my mom to mail me! A second group had a *minor* (is your sarcasm meter going off?) setback when all but 30 of their 150 madtoms (relative of the catfish) died within a day of being captured. No, they hadn't done an experiment. A third group can't keep its artificial milk-crate reef together in Lake Ponchartrain. We've had a lot of wind the last week or so. Lots of wind = lots of waves = plastic milk crates washing up on shore and/or busting all to pieces. Haven't heard anything from the fourth group.
As to my own classes -- I've been putting in an average of 10-12 hour days on campus for about a week now (although I managed to stay home all day today -- yee-haw). I have two papers with presentations to finish in a week and a half (physiology) to two weeks (seminar). The physiology presentation is no longer during a class session but at some as-yet-undetermined time outside of class. ::sigh:: Like I have time for that. I have 121 species of fish to learn to identify on sight by this Friday, and all I have to say about that is "damn minnows." Actually, they were upgraded to a more colorful expletive last week, but I don't want to hurt some folks' delicate sensibilities. Oh yeah, and fish bones. Let's not forget dem bones, dem bones.
My bro is in the hospital with pneumonia. He's doing well and should be out Monday.
My pal Amy is in town the first part of this week, so we're going to hang together in the Quarter Tuesday night. She may also be back in town Dec. 2-6, so I may get to see her again then. Will be a nice break before my finals on the 7th and the 10th. My advisor Barney invited me to go with him and his family to the Hammond RenFaire next weekend. Need to see if I can afford to rent a van -- I'd sure love to go since I haven't had my Fall Faire fix.
Will head home on Dec. 17th, and will stay until Jan. 7th.
::Dawn heads back under her piles of articles and behind her jars of fish::
What's been going on in NO?
Voted on the second -- didn't do a darned bit of good, but I can safely count myself among the 49% who can say "I didn't vote for him" as we become more and more alienated from the world community and our environmental and social standards fall further and further back into the Dark Ages. ::sigh::
My stint as an undergraduate research advisor has been interesting to say the least. One group of my four has completed its experiments (I think) and needs to do some data analysis -- time to brush off that ol' biostats book I asked my mom to mail me! A second group had a *minor* (is your sarcasm meter going off?) setback when all but 30 of their 150 madtoms (relative of the catfish) died within a day of being captured. No, they hadn't done an experiment. A third group can't keep its artificial milk-crate reef together in Lake Ponchartrain. We've had a lot of wind the last week or so. Lots of wind = lots of waves = plastic milk crates washing up on shore and/or busting all to pieces. Haven't heard anything from the fourth group.
As to my own classes -- I've been putting in an average of 10-12 hour days on campus for about a week now (although I managed to stay home all day today -- yee-haw). I have two papers with presentations to finish in a week and a half (physiology) to two weeks (seminar). The physiology presentation is no longer during a class session but at some as-yet-undetermined time outside of class. ::sigh:: Like I have time for that. I have 121 species of fish to learn to identify on sight by this Friday, and all I have to say about that is "damn minnows." Actually, they were upgraded to a more colorful expletive last week, but I don't want to hurt some folks' delicate sensibilities. Oh yeah, and fish bones. Let's not forget dem bones, dem bones.
My bro is in the hospital with pneumonia. He's doing well and should be out Monday.
My pal Amy is in town the first part of this week, so we're going to hang together in the Quarter Tuesday night. She may also be back in town Dec. 2-6, so I may get to see her again then. Will be a nice break before my finals on the 7th and the 10th. My advisor Barney invited me to go with him and his family to the Hammond RenFaire next weekend. Need to see if I can afford to rent a van -- I'd sure love to go since I haven't had my Fall Faire fix.
Will head home on Dec. 17th, and will stay until Jan. 7th.
::Dawn heads back under her piles of articles and behind her jars of fish::
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Thursday, November 04, 2004
No time, no time, I need Thanksgiving to catch up
And that's about all the time I can afford to put in to an entry. Wouldn't even do that right now except some count on this for updates.