evolution

i think i am going to enjoy my classes this year. i am continually taken aback by the general difference in attitudes toward graduate students from those toward undergrads. it’s sort of the same difference between high school and college – in high school your teachers did most of the work, in college most of the work is on you. in graduate school, all of the work is on you. the professors have ideas and experience, and it’s up to you to get them. i really like graduate school – i have absolutely no regrets about not getting into network administration. i would have hated it after a while.

today was the first day of class. i also managed to get my out-of-shape ass into the gym. i still have 24 more pounds to lose to make my goal. i have lost 21 pounds since i started working out in february. i weighed in at 264 pounds today.

i did in fact get the double. i am teaching three calc I recitations (problem sessions). i will be making about $400 per week, as opposed to about $250 per week last year. furthermore, all of the ta’s working on calc I are all experienced, so this should be a good class.

tomorrow i am going in to receive my teaching assignment. i hope i got the calc I sections i requested. also, i hope i get to teach a double. for those of you who don’t know what a “double” is (i.e., for the two people that read this site besides me), it’s an extra teaching assignment in exchange for a bigger paycheck. considering the gross mismanagement of the state budget by the graves administration, this is not likely, but who knows – only 11 new gta’s are coming on this semester – and who knows if all of them will be able to teach. they still have to pass their english exams (that was this morning) and go through the reviews of their practice lectures (going on right now – the people i saw shouldn’t have a problem). i was made to understand that this is not a “trivial exercise”, as mathematicians like to say. it’s a three-hour exam, and who knows whether even i would pass it. the foriegn students have much more to deal with in this week than the american born-and-raised students do.

today the new t.a. training program started, of which i am a part. it’s a lot of “hurry up and wait”. it could probably be compressed into two days, but then everyone would be running around in circles, and a lot of our overseas friends would be left behind. in the midst of this my friend tim and i were regaled with tales of our quasi-supervisor’s days of urinating on electric fences with her brothers (i say “quasi-” because in the graduate world, there is no supervisor without the word “professor” appearing somewhere – she is another grad student, one who forgot to bring a personality). i put some reading material directly in front of my face in the hope of sending a not-so-subtle hint, but tim, ever the polite gentleman (a credit to him as a person), feigned interest. i am not so good at faking it. so the training program is in full swing; the program director, dr. surowski, is with the students, but they won’t need us until 2:30. tim and i are killing time in the computer lab.

laying around on the couch is kind of fun.

after 12 solid hours of running errands with my family, we ended up at a “bed, bath, and beyond” store in shawnee. they may as well rename this store to “gay, useless crap”. we found a shower squeegie where the word “squeegie” appeared on the package translated into french, spanish, and german – that’s four different languages, folks. the only people who shopped here were trendy-looking MTV girl clones. oh, and annie and my dad, who were wearing bib overalls; and myself, wearing a ripped-to-shreds t-shirt and a pair of athletic shorts. this seems like the type of place where a girl would take her boyfriend, spend all his money, and then dump him in the parking lot. all in the name of remodeling the house, i guess. the house looks nice, i just couldn’t get over these thoughts while i was standing there. then my parents went to look at computer monitors and i felt better.