Popular Posts

When I look at my stated reason for writing this blog, and then look at the most read posts, I wonder about my choice of subject matter. My two most popular posts are; Confessions of a Closet Environmentalist and Car vs Bus. These two posts are found in searches by people who are, apparently, not interested in anything else that I have to say. I certainly do not mind having those two posts read. I just find it a bit odd that they are so popular. Perhaps it is a sign of the times.

Mid Term Results

I've gotten the results of two of my mid terms. One A and one B that just missed being an A by one mark. Under the circumstances, I am okay with that. I finished in the top third or so in each of those two classes. I should do well in French so that leaves one course that I really don't know how I did, yet. I am hoping for an A in that course since I have done very well in the assignments and in the quizzes. More important than the mark I get is that I am really enjoying that course. It is one that I have wanted to take for many years.

Time Out

I've needed some time out to recover from the effects of the last few weeks. My sleep deficit has caught up with me and demanded repayment. On top of that, two medications that I had been taking interacted in a bad way. I also seem to have gotten a sore throat. No doubt from not getting enough rest and from being run down.

I wrote mid term #3 on Thursday. I'm not sure how that one went either. I was not feeling very well and wrote it in a bit of a daze. The first third was easy enough, multiple choice, but the next two thirds demanded a bit more. We had to match concepts to, quite tricky, examples of those concepts. The third part required us to define concepts, their relevance to our studies and to give examples. We only had to do six of nine, so it was a bit easier than it might, otherwise, have been.

The last of my mid terms is on Tuesday evening. I don't know if that is worse than Saturday morning or not. At least I am more alert in the morning. After that, I have the second of two term tests in Stats. It is less than three weeks away. Counting the final at Christmas, that makes one term test or exam about every four weeks in Stats. I'm glad that it is only a half course.

Well, that is the extent of my complaining today. It is Monday tomorrow and I have some reading, an assignment, and some French studying to do before bedtime. I needed the sleep but it sure interfered with my school work!

Changes Over The Years

I've noticed quite a few changes since I last attended university almost four decades ago. The most noticeable one is smoking. Very few people smoke now compared to the majority who did then. I don't see many people reading newspapers either. It was quite common for students to read newspapers before class and, sometimes, even during class. Water bottles are everywhere now. We never used a water bottle outside of a camping trip. Coffee is also ubiquitous. We drank a lot of coffee, but, usually, sat down somewhere other than in class to drink it. I don't think that most profs let us have food or anything to drink in class. I'm not sure on that though. Of course, there are two things that really stand out; one is the changes brought about by new technology. A very large proportion of the student body of today is wired for sound and carries a cell phone. Laptops are common, although those who use one in class are still in the minority. The other very noticeable difference is drug use. I don't see a lot of evidence of drug use compared to my last time at university, when coming to class stoned was quite normal for some students. Those were the days of Timothy Leary and his mantra, "Turn on, tune in, drop out." Then again, maybe I just hang around with a different crowd these days.

Older Prof

I found out, today, that I do have, at least, one prof who is older than I am. That fact came out today during class. There is not much difference in our ages, only one year, but I am still younger.

I write another mid term tomorrow. This one is most likely to be the hardest of them all, so I am getting back to my study notes. Maybe I'll listen to some Mose Scarlett tonight while I study. I love his guitar playing and his voice. It is very mellow and relaxing.

My Musical (In)Ability

For many years I have been telling people that I cannot sing and that I cannot readily identify well known pieces of music. I have been told that it is only a matter of finding myself a good music teacher and then I would blossom musically. Rubbish. I have the proof in the form of an online test that I took today.

Apparently, I placed lower than 99.84% of the 61,036 people who took the test. The test measures the subject`s pitch discrimination and musical memory by having them determine whether or not two musical phrases were identical. According to the designer of the test, being tone deaf does not impair musical memory. My score in the test was 44.4%, which is worse than chance. A subject with normal pitch discrimination should score above 70%. For those stats people out there, the scores are normally distributed but skewed to the left. The mean is 73.9% and the standard deviation is 9.99.

Since many or, perhaps, all of the subjects were self selected, I would expect more tone deaf people to have taken the test. The graph does show this. I cannot reproduce it, but if you take the test, you will get your results indicated on a graph of all of the results to date. It only takes about five or six minutes to do the test.

I probably would have gotten a higher score if I had done the test with better speakers, but I doubt that the results would have been much different.

I do have great difficulty in recognizing music, but that does not stop me from enjoying it. I know what I like and I will keep on listening to those old favourites of mine that I can`t name.

Dreams

I met a young woman who has many dreams. She is already being encouraged to forget about some of them. I told her of my dream of returning to university and how it finally came to fruition after almost four decades. We all need our dreams. Sometimes they keep us going through the hard times. I encouraged her to pursue her dreams and remember that she does not have to follow them all today. Maybe she will remember our conversation, someday, maybe four decades from now.

My Euoropean Tour

I just spent a very fascinating evening visiting my neighbours. They are an older couple who have never used a computer. I brought my laptop over and showed them some of the neat things that are on the web, but the hits of the evening were Google Earth and email. I got my neighbour to email my partner, who is out of town. She was impressed by the speed and simplicity of emailing someone. It is too bad that my partner was not on the computer to respond. That would have been something. They really gave Google Earth a workout. My wireless connection worked flawlessly and everything else worked the the way that it should. They searched through their home village in Europe and found her sister's house. It was overwhelming for my neighbour at that point. She said that she probably would not see her sister again. They relived some of their wartime experiences, good and bad. They searched out the villages of friends and relatives and reminisced. We drank wine and looked up recipes and looked at pictures. The evening was one of those special moments that come once in a very long time. It was great to see things through their eyes.

Mid Term #2

Well, one more mid term out of the way. This one was just about as easy as the one that I wrote last Saturday, which is good because I thought that it might have been harder. There is a lot more subject matter to learn in this course. I`ll have to wait and see how well I did. Sometimes I am good at estimating how well I`ve done on a test, at other times I am not at all sure. I have two more to go, one next week and one the week after that. I like having exams spread out. I talked to a classmate of mine who said that she liked to write all of her exams in one week so that they would be over with and she could get back to her normal life. She is a good student and can handle four or five exams and the studying for them over a short period of time.

I try to keep up with the course work and not spend a lot of time studying at the last minute. I find that it is too stressful to be cramming the night before. I am always surprised at the number of students who study right up to the moments just before they go in to write.

We had a minor debate on some of the major concepts of our coursework this morning. One guy did not know a few things and asked for help with a couple of concepts. One woman and I, who are both taking stats, were trying to convince a few people there, of the correct formula for standard deviation. We were outvoted vocally. Well, what can you do? Why he wanted to learn that formula, I'm not sure. We just had to be able to calculate the mean and range, determine the mode and median and then answer a very easy question using the values for those measures. There were a few other questions about correlation and the like but they were easy too. Of course, hindsight is... Maybe if I had not been taking stats, I would have found the very basic stats presented in this course intimidating. I think that I'll stay out of the next last minute discussion in the hall.

The Last Roses

Fall is definitely here, but there are two, almost perfect, flowers on one of my Queen Elizabeth rose bushes. I don't have a digital camera, so here is a link to a website that has some pictures of Queen Elizabeth roses.

I'm busy studying for mid terms and looking out at those roses was a nice break from the books. I need to go for some groceries and do some other things that I've been putting off. It's the little things that are always there and need attending to that keep me busy. The rest of you too, I imagine.

I went to a jam session last night. It was different than anything that I've been to, very informal and relaxed. There was a small crowd of people who mostly knew each other or knew someone who was playing. I met some more people from university and got to know a few a bit better. It was great to get out, despite having studying to do.

Life goes on.

Deception

I just took part in a psychology experiment, during which I was deceived. I am not surprised that I was deceived, in fact, I had suspected it based on some observations that I made while I was taking part in the experiment. I almost commented on it during the last phase of the experiment, but did not do so.

What really surprised me, is the strength of the sense of betrayal that I felt afterward. I know that it was only an experiment and that no one was hurt by it, especially not me, but I really am surprised at how betrayed I felt. Perhaps this betrayal only triggered the release of some of the emotions that still linger as a result of recent events.

Lost and Found

Things that I have found;

A cell phone. Coincidentally owned by someone named Rob.
A calculator. A cheap basic one.
Someone's ID.
Another calculator. A more advanced, but still, relatively, inexpensive calculator.


Things that I have lost;

A jacket. Someone turned it in to the TA who contacted me.
My student ID. No luck yet on getting it back. I guess I'll just have to get a new one.
I'm getting to know the lost and found people too well.

Retaining My Anonymity

I find it difficult to write about some situations and events without doing one, or both, of two things; one is retaining my anonymity at the university that I attend, the other is, in some way, betraying others by writing about them.

I read a blog, writing as jo(e), that solves that problem in an interesting way. The author makes up names for the people in her life and writes about them using those names. I quite like her blog and the way she weaves the personal stories into her blog without compromising the privacy of the people she knows. It is apparent that others know that she writes a blog and that she may write about them. Most people that I know do not know that I am writing this blog. I have only told some of my family members and a couple of my friends. I am not sure that her solution is the way that I will solve my problem, but it is an option worth considering.

I would like to retain my anonymity, as much as I can, given that several people know that I am writing this blog. I believe that it gives me an opportunity to write about my experiences without being self-conscious about how others may react. I will not betray confidences and I will write in a way that respects the privacy of those that I write about. I just will not be able to write about some of the interesting stuff that happens.

Hey! Who am I kidding? Not enough people read this blog for me to worry abut my being known as a blogger. Not yet, anyway.

Mid Terms

It is a beautiful fall day, perfect for going outside and getting some exercise.

But, as you may have guessed, by the title of this post, it is mid term season and I was inside writing my first one this morning. It went well. I was apprehensive because I am just getting over my cold, or whatever laid me low for the last couple of days. Yesterday, my eyes and nose were still running and the tissues were piling up all over the house. I loaded up on decongestant and brought a huge hand full of tissues with me, just in case. As it turned out, I did not need them. The decongestants held back the tides.

The exam went well too. It was Stats. Actually, one of my favourite subjects. The tension outside the room was palpable. I went off to one end of the hall, away from most of the others who were waiting for ten o'clock. I ran into a guy who is in my section. We talked a bit and introduced ourselves; he seems like a nice guy. I am not sure how long we will have to wait before we get our marks back, but I'm not worried about the results. I was ready for the test.

So, now what? It is still a nice fall day out there, but I have another mid term next Saturday and that one is going to be harder than the one this morning. Study, maybe? Later, maybe?

Feeling Guilty About Driving

Occasionally, I drive my car to the university. When I do, I usually feel somewhat guilty about doing so. I made an issue of taking the bus for environmental reasons and I feel hypocritical when I drive.

Today was one of those days. I was not feeling very well and had decided to skip classes and just get my homework from my first class and hand in my assignment that was due today in my second class. Instead, I began to feel somewhat better and stayed on for my second class.

I'm glad I did. First of all, three of us read each others assignments and gave our feedback on them. It was too late to change anything in my assignment, but the feedback was positive about two things. The two classmates who read my assignment, liked my approach of splitting off part of the data, that we were given, and assigning it to a new category. We had that option given to us in the assignment, so I was not being particularly daring by doing so. Secondly, they liked my analysis and the way that I presented it. I was also reassured by the fact that they came to somewhat the same conclusions that I did. I also got back the quiz that we wrote last week. I did very well on it, so now I am ahead slightly (just two marks in four quizzes that are marked out of ten) in the friendly rivalry that a classmate and I are engaging in.

By the time the class ended, I felt lousy again, so I skipped my last class. I was happy to have the car available and drove home guilt free.

Thanksgiving

Although it is Thanksgiving Day today and I do have a lot to be thankful for, even more than usual, it is also a very sad day for me. My partner was discharged from the hospital today, but she is going to stay with relatives who live about a seven hour drive from here. I visited her almost every day since September 13, when she was admitted to the hospital, until yesterday. We will not be able to see each other very much for some time. As part of her recovery process, we have talked about her spending an extended period of time with family and friends that she has not seen much of during the last few years. There is talk of her spending Christmas with her daughter on the coast. It would be a great visit for both of them. She does need to be away, but it is still very hard for us.

Miles Davis and I are spending the evening together. I find his music is what I need to listen to on days like this.

Going Slowly

I was thinking about the pace of our lives and how we push ourselves to the limit and schedule every free moment.

Are we nuts?

That is a question that someone asked me a few weeks ago as we talked about their family schedule. It was typical of many families with both parents working and with a couple of kids in hockey, dance and other activities, in other words, very busy. I readily answered in the affirmative, half jokingly, but half, not joking.

What ever happened to unscheduled time for children? Why do children have their days full of planned activities? I don't have any answers, but I do think that we need to ask those questions.

Expanding My Horizons

One of the objectives that I have for myself, at university, is to meet people who have different points of view and different perspectives on life. In some small way I am fulfilling that objective. I am open to meeting people and will talk to almost anyone I meet, which has lead me to some interesting conversations with students of varying backgrounds, ages, areas of interest etc. The one thing that I do find odd is that most of the people, that I get to know or talk to for more than a couple of sentences, are women. I do get along better with women and most of my best friends have been women, but I do find it odd that most of the people who approach me and strike up a conversation are women. It leaves me wondering. Why?

Long Weekend

It is Friday afternoon, the beginning of the first long weekend of the school year. One of my profs teaches a morning section as well as the the late afternoon session I normally attend. I went to the one this morning, so I am off until Tuesday at 09:30. That is great! I don't even have a lot of work to do, but I must get started studying for my first mid-term that is coming up in just over a week.

It is a very nice fall day, the leaves are changing, and it is sunny and warm. I think that I will do some laundry and hang it out to dry. I love the smell of fresh clean sheets.

Tomatoes

I was just reading a poem about growing tomatoes in the summer, sharing them with friends, and then eating the preserved fruit in the winter.

I found the poem especially evocative of feelings associated with summer and warmth and the warmth of friendship and shared memories and shared abundance. I always find that when we eat something that we grew and preserved especially rewarding. Perhaps, it is a feeling of caring for each other and providing for each other. I think that I used more words describing some of the feelings that were evoked by the poem as there are in the poem. Good poetry does that though. It captures and expresses a mood in a few, well chosen, words.

A Bit Out Of the Ordinary

I had a very busy, but satisfying day today. It was an early start to a long day that saw me arrive at university just after eight this morning. I got lucky with the bus ride. It was just about 35 minutes which is as about as short as it gets.

I spent most of the morning studying and getting caught up on my reading. I had gone early for a specific reason, but the event was canceled and I had nothing scheduled until just before lunch. I met with someone who is also a mature student and we talked about our experiences at university. She had some suggestions that she thought would help me succeed at university. I think that her advice was helpful and will certainly follow it.

I need to make another decision about my class schedule. I am in an intermediate French class and am finding it hard to keep up because it has been so long since I studied French. I have forgotten so much. I have been thinking of switching to the basic French class. I talked to someone in the French Department and he agreed that it is probably the best choice for me. He gave me a couple of days to think about it.

A few of us got together late this afternoon for a bit of socializing at a popular on-campus spot. It is frequented by older students and quite a few of the profs, so I felt a lot more comfortable there. Not a teenager in sight for about two hours. Teenagers are okay, but they are so young.

I went to a poetry group meeting after school and participated in a workshop. It was interesting and I quite enjoyed it. I did not bring any of my work, but I will in the future. That was the first poetry workshop that I have attended. I plan on going to the next one.

I did not get back home until after nine but I really enjoyed doing something a little bit out of the ordinary.

September Flew By

It is hard to believe that October is already here. The time has flown by. Mid-terms start in about three weeks. I have exams in three of my four courses. It is time to get some serious studying done. I am doing very well in three of my four courses and struggling in the fourth.

I have noticed that the ranks are beginning to thin out somewhat. One of my classes has about three hundred students registered but there are far fewer than that in class on any given day. The lecture last week was very dry and technical (boring) which led several students to walk out part way through. One student remarked that "this class sucks the life right out of me". There are still quite a few classes before April arrives. He may be a shriveled up vestige of himself by then.