i thought new orleans was a "chocolate city"...
The other thing we did on Friday besides the Festive Showgirl Kickaplaooza was to attend the New York Chocolate Show. If you think there is no limit to the amount of free gourmet dark chocolate you could eat, think again. The samples are so tiny! There are so many flavors! Why thank you, don't mind if I do! After about the 30th booth you feel like you have a fucking 85% cacao BRICK in your stomach.
We won't even get into what it did to the children.
Monday, November 13
here's some advice for you... 'take your PIN and go away'...
Registration starts this week kiddies, and you know what that means... three days booked solid with "advising" appointments. It's kind of a misnomer, since very few of my advisees ever need "advice". Most of them are freshman and sophomores who haven't picked a major yet. I look at their sheets (those of them who have filled them out... usually about half) and make sure they aren't registering for a schedule of 21 credits of intensive writing classes, I give them their registration PIN and send them on their way. Only about 3 or 4 of them will have questions or issues I can deal with... which usually involves knowing the name of the person to send them to talk to instead of me.
Anyway, the real issue is what it does to MY schedule, which is to cuff me to my desk for three days straight. It makes it hard to get any work done. And it falls during a particularly bad week this year... I have 4 meetings in 3 days. My iCal schedule is hemorrhaging. (Red = meeting)
At least I got the Astro midterms graded this weekend. Finally. With a few exceptions, the grades were ok. I instituted a fairly generous curve, though. There were 210 points on the exam. The highest grade missed 14 points, the lowest 125. (!!) This would have given a range of something like 40% - 96%. But instead of calculating the percentage score by using (210 - L)/210 (where "L" is the number of points you lost)... I used (210 - .8L)/200... which gave a range more like 55% - 98%. It bumped a few clear B papers up to A-, so I'm not totally satisfied with the equation, but I think it gives a pretty good distribution of A's, B's, and C's.
I'm finding it pretty hard to get excited about this astronomy class lately. It's a standard college astro progression... sky, planets, stars, galaxies, big bang... which is ok stuff, but there is no compelling organizational "theme", so the whole class just seems to wander from one topic to the next. I'm considering switching it the year after next to a "Life in the Universe" class. I could still talk about a lot of the same stuff, just with a different focus. For example, instead of just cataloguing galaxy types, I could talk about galactic structure as it pertains to the "zone of habitability" for life-friendly planetary systems. And I could bring the bio prof and the chem prof in to give guest lectures. And I got a really nice free copy of an "Astrobiology" textbook from Addison Wesley a few weeks ago that would make a great text. And we could watch UFO documentaries and mock them. I wonder if you can get the old "In Search Of..." series on DVD?
A few of my other courses are changing for the better too. I think I mentioned that I'm splitting my Modern Physics course (which covers a little relativity and a little QM) into two NEW courses... an introductory "QM for Poets" class and an upper-level Einstein class. This change happens next fall, and I'm really looking forward to it. It will give me a chance to do some more lab stuff in the QM class, and to get deeper into the math in the Einstein.
One place where I'm NOT happy about the situation is my new History and Philosophy of Science class. That course has been going SO well this year, that I was looking forward to it becoming a staple in our department for science majors. I designed the course to fill a clear hole in the curriculum, since the philosophy department had never really offered a philosophy of science course appropriate to our students. Well, guess what? Yeah. Now that I have this amazing course, the Philosophy Department has put forward their OWN philosophy of science course, that covers about 50% of the same material. So now I have to make nice and email the prof and the dept chair and ask to see a copy of the syllabus so we can compare notes and make sure we aren't covering material that is too similar, blah, blah, blah. It probably means that next time I teach it I will have to do less philosopy and more history, which is fine I guess. (I have a great history of science textbook, and it will give me an excuse to finally learn about "phlogiston" theory.) It just angers me that it may have been done kind of on purpose. Oh well. At least the guy who teaches it is a part timer, so I can pull rank a little.
Lastly, the head of the architecture department (which is in another division of the university) wants to sit down with my department chair and I and talk about the physics requirement for architecture majors. It turns out the architecture students have to take physics (many grad schools require it for admission) so the department has been sending students to our sister-instituion to take a physics class THERE, and the class they have been taking is one of these "Light and Color" classes for non-scientists that has NOTHING to do with the kinds of things an architect should really probably know about physics. So the question(s) will be, is MY introductory physics class a better fit, can I make changes to the class to make it an EVEN BETTER fit... and do I want it clogged up with architecture majors every semester? (A: Yes, I'd rather not, and HELL NO!)
Ok. That's enough going on-and-on about my classes. I think some nap-time is in order before the train rolls in.
Registration starts this week kiddies, and you know what that means... three days booked solid with "advising" appointments. It's kind of a misnomer, since very few of my advisees ever need "advice". Most of them are freshman and sophomores who haven't picked a major yet. I look at their sheets (those of them who have filled them out... usually about half) and make sure they aren't registering for a schedule of 21 credits of intensive writing classes, I give them their registration PIN and send them on their way. Only about 3 or 4 of them will have questions or issues I can deal with... which usually involves knowing the name of the person to send them to talk to instead of me.
Anyway, the real issue is what it does to MY schedule, which is to cuff me to my desk for three days straight. It makes it hard to get any work done. And it falls during a particularly bad week this year... I have 4 meetings in 3 days. My iCal schedule is hemorrhaging. (Red = meeting)
At least I got the Astro midterms graded this weekend. Finally. With a few exceptions, the grades were ok. I instituted a fairly generous curve, though. There were 210 points on the exam. The highest grade missed 14 points, the lowest 125. (!!) This would have given a range of something like 40% - 96%. But instead of calculating the percentage score by using (210 - L)/210 (where "L" is the number of points you lost)... I used (210 - .8L)/200... which gave a range more like 55% - 98%. It bumped a few clear B papers up to A-, so I'm not totally satisfied with the equation, but I think it gives a pretty good distribution of A's, B's, and C's.
I'm finding it pretty hard to get excited about this astronomy class lately. It's a standard college astro progression... sky, planets, stars, galaxies, big bang... which is ok stuff, but there is no compelling organizational "theme", so the whole class just seems to wander from one topic to the next. I'm considering switching it the year after next to a "Life in the Universe" class. I could still talk about a lot of the same stuff, just with a different focus. For example, instead of just cataloguing galaxy types, I could talk about galactic structure as it pertains to the "zone of habitability" for life-friendly planetary systems. And I could bring the bio prof and the chem prof in to give guest lectures. And I got a really nice free copy of an "Astrobiology" textbook from Addison Wesley a few weeks ago that would make a great text. And we could watch UFO documentaries and mock them. I wonder if you can get the old "In Search Of..." series on DVD?
A few of my other courses are changing for the better too. I think I mentioned that I'm splitting my Modern Physics course (which covers a little relativity and a little QM) into two NEW courses... an introductory "QM for Poets" class and an upper-level Einstein class. This change happens next fall, and I'm really looking forward to it. It will give me a chance to do some more lab stuff in the QM class, and to get deeper into the math in the Einstein.
One place where I'm NOT happy about the situation is my new History and Philosophy of Science class. That course has been going SO well this year, that I was looking forward to it becoming a staple in our department for science majors. I designed the course to fill a clear hole in the curriculum, since the philosophy department had never really offered a philosophy of science course appropriate to our students. Well, guess what? Yeah. Now that I have this amazing course, the Philosophy Department has put forward their OWN philosophy of science course, that covers about 50% of the same material. So now I have to make nice and email the prof and the dept chair and ask to see a copy of the syllabus so we can compare notes and make sure we aren't covering material that is too similar, blah, blah, blah. It probably means that next time I teach it I will have to do less philosopy and more history, which is fine I guess. (I have a great history of science textbook, and it will give me an excuse to finally learn about "phlogiston" theory.) It just angers me that it may have been done kind of on purpose. Oh well. At least the guy who teaches it is a part timer, so I can pull rank a little.
Lastly, the head of the architecture department (which is in another division of the university) wants to sit down with my department chair and I and talk about the physics requirement for architecture majors. It turns out the architecture students have to take physics (many grad schools require it for admission) so the department has been sending students to our sister-instituion to take a physics class THERE, and the class they have been taking is one of these "Light and Color" classes for non-scientists that has NOTHING to do with the kinds of things an architect should really probably know about physics. So the question(s) will be, is MY introductory physics class a better fit, can I make changes to the class to make it an EVEN BETTER fit... and do I want it clogged up with architecture majors every semester? (A: Yes, I'd rather not, and HELL NO!)
Ok. That's enough going on-and-on about my classes. I think some nap-time is in order before the train rolls in.
Sunday, November 12
Thursday, November 9
cough, cough...
I have a leeeeeetle sore throat... just a spot... just on one side... just a little sore. That's how it always starts.
Gee, I hope I don't come down with the flu so that I'm too sick tomorrow to go with the family to the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes Slutty-Yet-Wholesome High-Kicking "What Do Showgirls Have To Do With Christmas Again" CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR!!
Because nothing teaches your kid the meaning of Christmas like two dozen 5'11" blondes in naughty-Santa's-helper outfits.
Ho-ho-ho!
(PS> This marks the first Dr. Dave Grinch/Humbug post of the Xmas season! Deck the halls, motherfuckers!)
I have a leeeeeetle sore throat... just a spot... just on one side... just a little sore. That's how it always starts.
Gee, I hope I don't come down with the flu so that I'm too sick tomorrow to go with the family to the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes Slutty-Yet-Wholesome High-Kicking "What Do Showgirls Have To Do With Christmas Again" CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR!!
Because nothing teaches your kid the meaning of Christmas like two dozen 5'11" blondes in naughty-Santa's-helper outfits.
Ho-ho-ho!
(PS> This marks the first Dr. Dave Grinch/Humbug post of the Xmas season! Deck the halls, motherfuckers!)
Wednesday, November 8
fucking hell, people...
This train sounds like a god damned Chuck E. Cheese's... there are TWO people playing video games (one PSP, one cellphone) out loud with no fucking headphones, and another guy listening to music on his laptop so loud that he might was well NOT be using headphones. It's 8:00 in the morning, assholes... keep it the fuck down.
Also... "boink! boink! boink!" What the fuck are you playing? Q-bert??
This train sounds like a god damned Chuck E. Cheese's... there are TWO people playing video games (one PSP, one cellphone) out loud with no fucking headphones, and another guy listening to music on his laptop so loud that he might was well NOT be using headphones. It's 8:00 in the morning, assholes... keep it the fuck down.
Also... "boink! boink! boink!" What the fuck are you playing? Q-bert??
paperwork...
I've put aside my exam grading once again (go ahead kids, give me bad evaluations because of it, I dare you!) to focus on a piece of Administrivia that needs to get done today. When I came back to this job, I took over the maintenance of the Student Handbook for science majors. Because before that, there really WAS no Student Handbook for science majors. What there was instead was a list of about a dozen documents... course lists, graduation check-off sheets, senior project guidelines... each with who-knows-how-many different versions, and each located on a different hard drive/web page/email/stack of papers on somebody's desk. It was a mess. So two years ago I gathered up every pertinent file and organized them into a single document with one page style and the same damned font and an honest-to-goodness table of contents. This file stays on MY hard drive, it has a version numbering system, and if anybody wants to make changes to it, they submit them to me on paper. The only electronic version that gets distributed is a non-editable .pdf file. My master version is an Apple Pages file which means that it looks gorgeous, and that nobody else can edit it even if they try, cuz I'm the only guy with this program. Sounds like a good setup, right?
Huge mistake on my part.
Because this means every semester, I have to make a whole bunch of changes and compare 3 paper versions of the thing to the electronic version and make sure the changes all make sense, and certain people in the department who were used to being in charge of these documents and changing them whenever they wanted, loooooooove to make changes and tinker with stuff and add stuff that really doesn't need to be added, and I think this person just really wants control of these documents back and is going to keep making their changes more and more complicated until I give up and say, "OK! HERE'S THE FILE!! YOU DO IT!"
Anyway. That's what I'm doing this morning. Or SHOULD be, rather.
I've put aside my exam grading once again (go ahead kids, give me bad evaluations because of it, I dare you!) to focus on a piece of Administrivia that needs to get done today. When I came back to this job, I took over the maintenance of the Student Handbook for science majors. Because before that, there really WAS no Student Handbook for science majors. What there was instead was a list of about a dozen documents... course lists, graduation check-off sheets, senior project guidelines... each with who-knows-how-many different versions, and each located on a different hard drive/web page/email/stack of papers on somebody's desk. It was a mess. So two years ago I gathered up every pertinent file and organized them into a single document with one page style and the same damned font and an honest-to-goodness table of contents. This file stays on MY hard drive, it has a version numbering system, and if anybody wants to make changes to it, they submit them to me on paper. The only electronic version that gets distributed is a non-editable .pdf file. My master version is an Apple Pages file which means that it looks gorgeous, and that nobody else can edit it even if they try, cuz I'm the only guy with this program. Sounds like a good setup, right?
Huge mistake on my part.
Because this means every semester, I have to make a whole bunch of changes and compare 3 paper versions of the thing to the electronic version and make sure the changes all make sense, and certain people in the department who were used to being in charge of these documents and changing them whenever they wanted, loooooooove to make changes and tinker with stuff and add stuff that really doesn't need to be added, and I think this person just really wants control of these documents back and is going to keep making their changes more and more complicated until I give up and say, "OK! HERE'S THE FILE!! YOU DO IT!"
Anyway. That's what I'm doing this morning. Or SHOULD be, rather.
dave's election wrap up...
1) Thank god for the House. Even if the Senate doesn't come around when the counting is done, at least we'll have something that looks like an actual government for the next two years, instead of the current Post-Palpatine Imperial Senate sham legislature.
2) I would really love to see a national election go by without hearing the words "too close to call". When the decision between Democrat and Republican comes down with the same statistical properties as a coin toss, it indicates to me that there is something fundamentally wrong. Ok, if it happens now and then, fine... laws of probability and all. But when it happens ALL THE TIME, it suggests that people are essentially just picking one side or the other completely at random. That doesn't seem right.
3) The fucking Green Party needs to pack up and go home and stop it. Now. Seriously. Stop sucking off 1% of the vote from the Democrats just so you can make your whackjob "point" that the Democrats are too conservative. It's not about making a point anymore. The vote is split too evenly to allow your making a point to hand senate races and electoral college votes to the Republicans. Suck it up and vote for the LESSER of two evils, just like the fucking rest of us. If Webb loses in Virginia, and that seat makes the difference between Democratic Senate and Republican Senate, you assholes have fucked us over yet again. Stop it.
4) I'm happy to see my home state of Maryland move back to a Democratic governor. I don't know what the hell happened while I was gone... MD used to be as reliably Democratic as anywhere. Keep it up Maryland. Don't make me come down there.
5) I hadn't really made much of the fact that the majority of Governor's races went Democratic as well, until somebody on the radio this morning brought up the fact that having a Governor act as a spokesperson for candidates can really help in the Presidential election, and this is especially important in close states like Ohio, which went with the Democratic candidate for Governor last night. So... if this fact is true and not just anecdotal... yay for that.
6) I'm trying to figure out where I can go to watch Bush's press conference at 1:00. I'm not sure why I feel the need to watch it. Just to make sure he doesn't declare the election invalid, dissolve the congress, and declare martial law, I guess.
(AFTERNOON PS> Rumsfeld? Really? Well, THAT'S about a week too late, dumbass!)
1) Thank god for the House. Even if the Senate doesn't come around when the counting is done, at least we'll have something that looks like an actual government for the next two years, instead of the current Post-Palpatine Imperial Senate sham legislature.
2) I would really love to see a national election go by without hearing the words "too close to call". When the decision between Democrat and Republican comes down with the same statistical properties as a coin toss, it indicates to me that there is something fundamentally wrong. Ok, if it happens now and then, fine... laws of probability and all. But when it happens ALL THE TIME, it suggests that people are essentially just picking one side or the other completely at random. That doesn't seem right.
3) The fucking Green Party needs to pack up and go home and stop it. Now. Seriously. Stop sucking off 1% of the vote from the Democrats just so you can make your whackjob "point" that the Democrats are too conservative. It's not about making a point anymore. The vote is split too evenly to allow your making a point to hand senate races and electoral college votes to the Republicans. Suck it up and vote for the LESSER of two evils, just like the fucking rest of us. If Webb loses in Virginia, and that seat makes the difference between Democratic Senate and Republican Senate, you assholes have fucked us over yet again. Stop it.
4) I'm happy to see my home state of Maryland move back to a Democratic governor. I don't know what the hell happened while I was gone... MD used to be as reliably Democratic as anywhere. Keep it up Maryland. Don't make me come down there.
5) I hadn't really made much of the fact that the majority of Governor's races went Democratic as well, until somebody on the radio this morning brought up the fact that having a Governor act as a spokesperson for candidates can really help in the Presidential election, and this is especially important in close states like Ohio, which went with the Democratic candidate for Governor last night. So... if this fact is true and not just anecdotal... yay for that.
6) I'm trying to figure out where I can go to watch Bush's press conference at 1:00. I'm not sure why I feel the need to watch it. Just to make sure he doesn't declare the election invalid, dissolve the congress, and declare martial law, I guess.
(AFTERNOON PS> Rumsfeld? Really? Well, THAT'S about a week too late, dumbass!)
Tuesday, November 7
grading mechanics...
Today I was discussing the advantages and disadvantages of the 12345, 12345, 12345 method of grading versus the 11111... 22222... 33333 method. In other words, when faced with a big stack of exams, do you grade each exam through start to finish, one at a time, or do you grade everyone's page one, then everyone's page two... etc? I think the advantages of each method are fairly clear. The 11111... 22222... method leads to greater consistency. You are more likely to give the same grade to questions that are similarly fucked-up, because you see all the # 3's right in a row, and are more likely to remember the mistakes made by different students on the same problem and treat them accordingly.
I do not do this.
I grade everyone's exam start to finish, because I need to see that pile of FINISHED papers growing and growing over time. It's about accomplishment! And also, I think it gives me a clearer picture of how each student is doing on the exam overall. Most of my classes are somewhat small, also... and I think that makes a difference. I can feel my consistency drifting slightly from the beginning of the stack to the end, but I don't think it ever amounts to any sort of major unfairness.
But today I decided to go through the astro exams with the 11111... 22222... method. Hate it! And I find it impossible to resist the temptation to peek onto the next page of everybody's exam and start making marks there. Then I finish the whole stack and instead of being done, it's like... "Ok, well.. I have to do that FIVE MORE TIMES!!" I think I'll be returning to my old method.
Anyway. Just thinking about that today. There are no conclusions to be drawn.
Riding the train home. Tired, tired, tired. Gotta vote. Then home. Feed/bathe kids. Put to bed. Have paperwork to do. Not much TV to watch except for election returns. Should go to bed at a decent hour. Or else...? Tired, tired, tired again tomorrow.
Today I was discussing the advantages and disadvantages of the 12345, 12345, 12345 method of grading versus the 11111... 22222... 33333 method. In other words, when faced with a big stack of exams, do you grade each exam through start to finish, one at a time, or do you grade everyone's page one, then everyone's page two... etc? I think the advantages of each method are fairly clear. The 11111... 22222... method leads to greater consistency. You are more likely to give the same grade to questions that are similarly fucked-up, because you see all the # 3's right in a row, and are more likely to remember the mistakes made by different students on the same problem and treat them accordingly.
I do not do this.
I grade everyone's exam start to finish, because I need to see that pile of FINISHED papers growing and growing over time. It's about accomplishment! And also, I think it gives me a clearer picture of how each student is doing on the exam overall. Most of my classes are somewhat small, also... and I think that makes a difference. I can feel my consistency drifting slightly from the beginning of the stack to the end, but I don't think it ever amounts to any sort of major unfairness.
But today I decided to go through the astro exams with the 11111... 22222... method. Hate it! And I find it impossible to resist the temptation to peek onto the next page of everybody's exam and start making marks there. Then I finish the whole stack and instead of being done, it's like... "Ok, well.. I have to do that FIVE MORE TIMES!!" I think I'll be returning to my old method.
Anyway. Just thinking about that today. There are no conclusions to be drawn.
Riding the train home. Tired, tired, tired. Gotta vote. Then home. Feed/bathe kids. Put to bed. Have paperwork to do. Not much TV to watch except for election returns. Should go to bed at a decent hour. Or else...? Tired, tired, tired again tomorrow.
dave rocks the vote...
Last night I finally got around to visiting the web page of my county board of elections to figure out where my polling place is. (Last year there were nothing but local races up, and I didn't feel the need as a new resident to bother with them.) I couldn't find the hours, though. I guess I'll just stop by on the way home from work.
I also went online to find the polling place of a lazy red-state friend who was thinking about not voting. I figure that is like an extra vote for me. And it makes more sense for me to get that extra vote in a red state, since here in NY, Hillary is up like 72% to 15%. I don't think the Dems in NY really need my help.
Anyway, despite my "no-hopes-up" stance, I fully expect to be glued to some kind of media outlet tonight with a printed-out Senate map checking off seats.
Last night I finally got around to visiting the web page of my county board of elections to figure out where my polling place is. (Last year there were nothing but local races up, and I didn't feel the need as a new resident to bother with them.) I couldn't find the hours, though. I guess I'll just stop by on the way home from work.
I also went online to find the polling place of a lazy red-state friend who was thinking about not voting. I figure that is like an extra vote for me. And it makes more sense for me to get that extra vote in a red state, since here in NY, Hillary is up like 72% to 15%. I don't think the Dems in NY really need my help.
Anyway, despite my "no-hopes-up" stance, I fully expect to be glued to some kind of media outlet tonight with a printed-out Senate map checking off seats.
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