Physics seems interesting. I had my first class meeting for the lecture this morning, my recitation and lab meet on Wednesday, since I figured I would schedule them both on the same day and knock them out in one shot. The expectations don't seem unreasonable, there are 8 multi-part exams (multiple choice and problem-based where you have the problem and have to run through, show your work to the solutions). 2/8 of the exams will be dropped. That doesn't seem so bad but I swear my first time in undergrad it was rare for a professor to drop exam grades or even let you make it up. I still stand by my assertion that today's students are pretty coddled, or maybe professors are just more accommodating to students' needs now more than they were "back in the day."
The physics professors is a hoot. Yes, I said hoot. After we got through the administrivia of the class, and he broke out the powerpoint slides for chapter 1, the first slide said "What is physics?" at the top, and he said he didn't know. So he looked it up on Wikipedia (nice joke) before hitting enter and letting the next bit of the slide materialize. We didn't get that far since most of the first 50-minute session was spent going over the syllabus and expectations, along with a stern admonition not to be Twittering during class (tweeting?).
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Sunday Long Run, August 30, 2009
Today I ran 16 miles in a little over 137 minutes, which... carry the 1... is a little over 8 min 30 second miles. The marathon itself is 26.2(ish) miles, and I've run two now. I am progressively getting faster, which is cool, and easily explainable. The first year I ran the Marine Corps Marathon, I was a little under-trained. I had done a fair amount of long runs, but never longer than 18 miles, but no speedwork and no tempo runs. I think my sheer stubbornness, despite the cramps, got me to the finish. In my experience, stubbornness can be a huge asset or a huge problem. On one hand, I think stubbornness can spring out of self-confidence and persistence, but on the other hand it can spring out of ignorance, i.e. you don't know what you're getting yourself into but keep on going anyway, despite conflicting evidence. I think the first year I ran it, it was more of the latter, and last year, it was the former. It's such a cliché, but experience really is the best teacher. Last year, I was a little better trained, and the stubbornness plus better (or smarter) training got me to the finish on a roughly similar course layout 25 minutes faster.
Realistically, I am looking at at least another 25 minute drop this year, but possibly DOUBLE that. Last year I ran a 4:56, but I am taking the training more seriously this year and also eating much much better. When I ate like crap the first two years, I felt pretty bad the days after my long runs, which was confusing at first. I wondered why I was sore when I wasn't shocking my system with much much longer runs than I had previously done. I had progressively and gradually increased my mileage, but my running economy had not improved much due to the lack of speedwork and tempo runs. During my long runs I had done a good job (I thought) of staying hydrated with water and getting some calories on-the-run, I tried pretzels for the salt at first. Have you ever tried to eat pretzels while you are running? Let me just say that I could easily understand that President Bush pretzel fiasco if he had been doing laps around the Oval Office. They were too dry. I switched to kid's fruit snacks - the theme ones like Scooby Doo, Spider-Man, Batman, etc., and eventually gels. Now I use jelly beans on long runs, and they're awesome.
The long runs I have done getting ready for this year's Marine Corps Marathon, which is on October 25th, have been faster than I have previously run and I feel fine the next day.
I'll let you know how I feel tomorrow!
Realistically, I am looking at at least another 25 minute drop this year, but possibly DOUBLE that. Last year I ran a 4:56, but I am taking the training more seriously this year and also eating much much better. When I ate like crap the first two years, I felt pretty bad the days after my long runs, which was confusing at first. I wondered why I was sore when I wasn't shocking my system with much much longer runs than I had previously done. I had progressively and gradually increased my mileage, but my running economy had not improved much due to the lack of speedwork and tempo runs. During my long runs I had done a good job (I thought) of staying hydrated with water and getting some calories on-the-run, I tried pretzels for the salt at first. Have you ever tried to eat pretzels while you are running? Let me just say that I could easily understand that President Bush pretzel fiasco if he had been doing laps around the Oval Office. They were too dry. I switched to kid's fruit snacks - the theme ones like Scooby Doo, Spider-Man, Batman, etc., and eventually gels. Now I use jelly beans on long runs, and they're awesome.
The long runs I have done getting ready for this year's Marine Corps Marathon, which is on October 25th, have been faster than I have previously run and I feel fine the next day.
I'll let you know how I feel tomorrow!
Friday, August 28, 2009
Time Flies
If anyone is actually reading this, I apologize for the lack of updates! The fall semester is about to begin, I'm taking just two classes - Organic Chemistry and Physics, for a grand total of 9 hours. Everyone tells me Organic Chemistry is a weed out class, i.e. it's difficult, takes a lot of time... and so on. The physics I'm taking is an algebra-based physics, since I haven't had calculus in quite a while and that class seems more oriented towards the engineer-types.
You make the time in your life for whatever you think is important. I think it's important for me to do well in organic, so I will take the time and study and do practice problems for it so that I can keep up with it every day. I read ratings of my school's professors on RateMyProfessors, and from reading some of the ratings it's almost like you can tell what people don't want to take personal responsibility for their performance in a class and want to blame a professor that teaches a difficult subject, such as organic chemistry. Now I know that some professors make themselves more available to students, love to teach, and have an easier time connecting with students and making the subject matter interesting and relevant, while others would rather avoid students and be doing research. When the ratings vary so dramatically on certain professors though, it's almost comical to read the reviews and I also wonder just how big of a problem grade inflation poses, especially to me as a non-traditional student. It seems like today's college students want to earn all A's but they don't want to work for it.
Newsflash: "C" is average. If you are an average student, you'll get a C. B's and A's are reserved for good and excellent students.
The real world doesn't just hand you things because you think you deserve them. The sooner you learn that lesson, that you learn you have to work for what you want, work to accomplish your goals, the better off you will be in the future. Take it from me, I was not the world's greatest student my first trip through undergrad and I have the record to prove it. There aren't any shortcuts to success (aside from being well-connected or a trust-fund baby). Most of us that reach success or will reach it is through the sweat on our brow and our hard work towards what we find important. Keep your head down and let your work speak for you.
You make the time in your life for whatever you think is important. I think it's important for me to do well in organic, so I will take the time and study and do practice problems for it so that I can keep up with it every day. I read ratings of my school's professors on RateMyProfessors, and from reading some of the ratings it's almost like you can tell what people don't want to take personal responsibility for their performance in a class and want to blame a professor that teaches a difficult subject, such as organic chemistry. Now I know that some professors make themselves more available to students, love to teach, and have an easier time connecting with students and making the subject matter interesting and relevant, while others would rather avoid students and be doing research. When the ratings vary so dramatically on certain professors though, it's almost comical to read the reviews and I also wonder just how big of a problem grade inflation poses, especially to me as a non-traditional student. It seems like today's college students want to earn all A's but they don't want to work for it.
Newsflash: "C" is average. If you are an average student, you'll get a C. B's and A's are reserved for good and excellent students.
The real world doesn't just hand you things because you think you deserve them. The sooner you learn that lesson, that you learn you have to work for what you want, work to accomplish your goals, the better off you will be in the future. Take it from me, I was not the world's greatest student my first trip through undergrad and I have the record to prove it. There aren't any shortcuts to success (aside from being well-connected or a trust-fund baby). Most of us that reach success or will reach it is through the sweat on our brow and our hard work towards what we find important. Keep your head down and let your work speak for you.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Two Years Later
Two years ago, on March 17, 2007, my mom died. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999, and after a harsh round of chemotherapy, she was in remission for a year until 2001, when the cancer metastasized to her liver, lungs, and bones. She lived with a serious enough cancer that has a five-year survival rate of 5% for eight years, so she beat the odds just living into 2007. Knowing what I know now, about "the science" and the immune and lymphatic systems, the human body, anatomy, and physiology, granted that I have only had two semesters of it, does not make the loss any less significant.
The first year was pretty easy. I was mostly numb but realized there was a gaping hole in my life. If you knew my mom, she was the person that was always putting others before herself, finding any excuse to send a greeting card to someone, whether they were celebrating a birthday, an anniversary, some other happy occasion, or a get-better-soon card to aid someone in their convalescence from serious illness or surgery, etc. She was the person to take up the cause of people who needed help, including others with cancer, or survivors, and offer support and encouragement, or just share her story and try to comfort others. I wonder if the fact that she was a chronic worrier and probably stressed a lot about things she couldn't control contributed to her cancer and the fact it came back. I wonder if the surgeon didn't get a clear margin in the original biopsy or lumpectomy, didn't biopsy the right lymph nodes, or if he just didn't do the best possible job he could have done. I'm not stressed or worried about the past, while I am my mother's son and I have many of her attributes, I am definitely not a chronic worrier or stress out about things with which I can have no meaningful impact.
This second year without my mom has been more difficult. I have kept busy, but the numbness wore off, and I can't pinpoint the day, but it was as if a sudden realization washed over me that I would never get to talk to her again, to laugh with her, to share my tears and triumphs, to share my life with her. I could always be myself with my mom, completely open, vulnerable, and not worry about being judged. That isn't to say I'm not myself with other people, but you know as well as I do, that we're all a little more guarded when we're around people who aren't either A) close family or B) tight-knit friends. The shields come up when we're in mixed company, and it seems like it has to be that way, not because we are afraid of offending someone but because it's expected. I'm rambling. I was, and continue to be, a good son.
My dad remarried this past summer, to a wonderful woman. I am the youngest of three kids, with two older sisters, and we realized that it would be good for Dad to have a new woman in his life, and that if left to his own devices, his health would probably suffer, considering he is diabetic. My Dad is home now, and two years ago, he lost the love of his life. Dad, my sisters and I went to Mom's grave this evening to visit, along with one sister's husband and two young sons (3 years old and almost 4 months old). Dad admitted that he's thought a lot about Mom over the past year especially, and while he didn't say it outright, the sentiment was clearly there that he really misses her, even though they didn't have the perfect Ozzie and Harriet marriage. But honestly, who does?
The funny thing is my youngest nephew, the nearly-four-month-old, was laying in his car seat by Mom's grave marker, and I told him, "I'm sorry you didn't get to meet your Grandma, she would have loved you so much."
He smiled at me, and somewhere, I think Mom was smiling back.
The first year was pretty easy. I was mostly numb but realized there was a gaping hole in my life. If you knew my mom, she was the person that was always putting others before herself, finding any excuse to send a greeting card to someone, whether they were celebrating a birthday, an anniversary, some other happy occasion, or a get-better-soon card to aid someone in their convalescence from serious illness or surgery, etc. She was the person to take up the cause of people who needed help, including others with cancer, or survivors, and offer support and encouragement, or just share her story and try to comfort others. I wonder if the fact that she was a chronic worrier and probably stressed a lot about things she couldn't control contributed to her cancer and the fact it came back. I wonder if the surgeon didn't get a clear margin in the original biopsy or lumpectomy, didn't biopsy the right lymph nodes, or if he just didn't do the best possible job he could have done. I'm not stressed or worried about the past, while I am my mother's son and I have many of her attributes, I am definitely not a chronic worrier or stress out about things with which I can have no meaningful impact.
This second year without my mom has been more difficult. I have kept busy, but the numbness wore off, and I can't pinpoint the day, but it was as if a sudden realization washed over me that I would never get to talk to her again, to laugh with her, to share my tears and triumphs, to share my life with her. I could always be myself with my mom, completely open, vulnerable, and not worry about being judged. That isn't to say I'm not myself with other people, but you know as well as I do, that we're all a little more guarded when we're around people who aren't either A) close family or B) tight-knit friends. The shields come up when we're in mixed company, and it seems like it has to be that way, not because we are afraid of offending someone but because it's expected. I'm rambling. I was, and continue to be, a good son.
My dad remarried this past summer, to a wonderful woman. I am the youngest of three kids, with two older sisters, and we realized that it would be good for Dad to have a new woman in his life, and that if left to his own devices, his health would probably suffer, considering he is diabetic. My Dad is home now, and two years ago, he lost the love of his life. Dad, my sisters and I went to Mom's grave this evening to visit, along with one sister's husband and two young sons (3 years old and almost 4 months old). Dad admitted that he's thought a lot about Mom over the past year especially, and while he didn't say it outright, the sentiment was clearly there that he really misses her, even though they didn't have the perfect Ozzie and Harriet marriage. But honestly, who does?
The funny thing is my youngest nephew, the nearly-four-month-old, was laying in his car seat by Mom's grave marker, and I told him, "I'm sorry you didn't get to meet your Grandma, she would have loved you so much."
He smiled at me, and somewhere, I think Mom was smiling back.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Eastbound & Down
I just watched the series premiere of Eastbound & Down, a new series on HBO starring Danny McBride, who was in Tropic Thunder, where he played Cody, the demolitions/pyro guy on the set, and Pineapple Express, where he played Red (and had that sweet sweet fight scene with Seth Rogen and James Franco), and the awesome Foot Fist Way.
McBride plays a down and out pitcher, who broke into the bigs with Atlanta, and the montage had him end up a journeyman in Seattle, and he lost a lot of pop, or velocity, off his fastball when he was off steroids (high 80s off steroids versus "101" on steroids in the stock radar gun shot). So the show opens with him back in his hometown (not sure where, but apparently they filmed in Wilmington, NC... I've been there, lovely town), and he has to have a job so he can have his wages garnished, so he takes a job as a substitute teacher at a middle school where an ex-girlfriend teaches (and is engaged to the yoga practitioner, nice guy principal), and is living at his older brother's house with his brother, brother's wife, and brother's kids (and his jetski). The premiere sets up a lot of nice tension and opportunities for conflict, and it seems like a pretty ripe setting for comedy, and I can't wait for more episodes. I love his catch-phrase, I guess he closed out a World Series-winning game as a rookie, and after striking out the final batter with a full count and the bases loaded, he yells "You're fucking out!" and throws up two middle finger salutes, and later in the montage in his career, at first the crowd yells with him when he accomplishes great things pitching, and finally they turn on him, yelling it against him at his final appearance pitching for Seattle.
I pitched in middle school and high school, along with playing pretty much every other position other than C & 1B. I can only imagine the reaction I would have gotten in 7th grade, after striking out a batter and yelling "You're fucking out!" at him. If I have a son, maybe I can get him to do it? Just kidding. One thing I loved about pitching is the game is literally in your hands. I'm not a control freak, but I liked being able to dictate the pace of the game, and I was a pretty accurate pitcher with decent velocity. I realized pretty quickly though that I didn't have what it takes to make it past maybe Div II ball in college so I focused my time and energy elsewhere.
Getting back to the show, I liked it a lot. I'm not one of the people that think the Apatow gang or Will Ferrell can do no wrong, and that includes Danny McBride, but I've yet to see him in something where he didn't give a great performance (other than he has bad mechanics for being a major league pitcher in Eastbound & Down). He looks like more of a slinger than a talented pitcher as far as his mechanics look. I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I liked it a lot.
McBride plays a down and out pitcher, who broke into the bigs with Atlanta, and the montage had him end up a journeyman in Seattle, and he lost a lot of pop, or velocity, off his fastball when he was off steroids (high 80s off steroids versus "101" on steroids in the stock radar gun shot). So the show opens with him back in his hometown (not sure where, but apparently they filmed in Wilmington, NC... I've been there, lovely town), and he has to have a job so he can have his wages garnished, so he takes a job as a substitute teacher at a middle school where an ex-girlfriend teaches (and is engaged to the yoga practitioner, nice guy principal), and is living at his older brother's house with his brother, brother's wife, and brother's kids (and his jetski). The premiere sets up a lot of nice tension and opportunities for conflict, and it seems like a pretty ripe setting for comedy, and I can't wait for more episodes. I love his catch-phrase, I guess he closed out a World Series-winning game as a rookie, and after striking out the final batter with a full count and the bases loaded, he yells "You're fucking out!" and throws up two middle finger salutes, and later in the montage in his career, at first the crowd yells with him when he accomplishes great things pitching, and finally they turn on him, yelling it against him at his final appearance pitching for Seattle.
I pitched in middle school and high school, along with playing pretty much every other position other than C & 1B. I can only imagine the reaction I would have gotten in 7th grade, after striking out a batter and yelling "You're fucking out!" at him. If I have a son, maybe I can get him to do it? Just kidding. One thing I loved about pitching is the game is literally in your hands. I'm not a control freak, but I liked being able to dictate the pace of the game, and I was a pretty accurate pitcher with decent velocity. I realized pretty quickly though that I didn't have what it takes to make it past maybe Div II ball in college so I focused my time and energy elsewhere.
Getting back to the show, I liked it a lot. I'm not one of the people that think the Apatow gang or Will Ferrell can do no wrong, and that includes Danny McBride, but I've yet to see him in something where he didn't give a great performance (other than he has bad mechanics for being a major league pitcher in Eastbound & Down). He looks like more of a slinger than a talented pitcher as far as his mechanics look. I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I liked it a lot.
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