out of courtesy, guilt, or civic duty?
I realize that I have been MIA for a few days but that is what happens when I study for an exam, then recuperate after taking the exam.
I studied my ass off for my Lasers exam. I scoured the text, then read my lecture notes and supplemented them with notes from the text, then worked problems. I actually felt prepared to take this exam. I never feel prepared for exams. I never score well on exams. This time, I felt like I understood the theory enough to be able to answer any question the prof was able to throw at me. It helped that the exam was open book, open notes. So I worked hard all of last week prepping for the Friday afternoon exam.
After taking the exam, I couldn't tell you if I had done well or bombed it. I felt very middle of the road about. It was two questions long. Who, in their right mind, can effectively test 150 pages of text (in four chapters that has taken a month to lecture) in two questions?
After expending so much mental energy for the entire week, I crashed Friday night. I was in bed so early that I missed the blockparty in the culdesac in front of my apartment.
Over the weekend, the weather was gorgeous. I love Florida. Both Saturday and Sunday mornings, I sat on my back porch in a tank top and shorts getting sun while reading and drinking coffee.
I did go to work on Sunday only to discover that my labmates have been getting lazy about cleaning the supplies that they have used. I anticipated working for five to seven hours because there were a few projects that I neglected last week and needed to be conquered before the start of this week. Upon arriving in the lab and trying to set up a supply tray with everything I needed to work, I noticed that all of the glassware that I needed was currently being used or dirty. The same goes for the utensils and cleaning agents that we use on our supplies. The more things that I discovered amiss, the angrier I became. Our major prof is a big stickler for cleanliness. I always make sure that everything I use is clean before I leave the lab for the day, I expect the same courtesy in return. So I fumed for a bit and got what little work done that I could do and left. I should cut the boys a little slack, I know that they have been sick for the last week, and they had the same exam to study for that I had... but really, I still expect things to be neat and clean in the lab. You might be asking yourselves why I didn't just clean the supplies I wanted to use, I would have, but I am not allowed. When supplies or equipment are being used by one of the labmates, you do not disturb his work. It has to do with safety issues, you are never exactly sure of what elements everyone else is using. You are only sure of your work.
So that brings me to today...
After sitting through a Quantum class where the professor effectively copied the book, line by line for fifty minutes. I went upstairs to the lab. Matt must have come in last night because things were in better shape then when I left them last night. I brewed some coffee and generally ignored everyone. My day did perk up a bit when I was sitting in my office hours this morning and Luke showed up. He was one of my favorite guys ever in the physics department. He graduated a couple of years ago and is currently working for the Department of Defense in Panama City. He was on his way to give a talk to some big wig corporation and decided to stop by and see who stuck around the university. He is still a down-home-country boy at heart who gives the best bear hugs. On to the second class of the day, Lasers. Exams are handed back. 9 out of 20 possible points. 2 points for the first question which I worked out very wrong so I was thankful for the two pity points that the prof gave me. 7 points for the second question. The only thing he marked wrong on the whole page was that I mistakenly used 10^6 instead of the given 10^(-6). Such a mistake knocked my answer off by many orders of magnitude but I believe the rest of the work is correct, the method should be correct. I realize that not remembering the negative sign is a rookie mistake, but damn, three whole points... I am going to re-solve the problem tomorrow, if that is really the only mistake in the whole damn thing, then I am going to go fight for a few more points. I know its only a few points and it won't move my position in class standing any... By the way, after the exam, I scored the average for the class and higher than 7 other students (out of 13). I worked hard for that exam, I should have performed better than mediocre. Oh well. I sulked (very mature, I know) through my final class before attending a meeting, then I thought my day was finally over and I could go home.
I called my Mom on my way home, she suggested I stop by the grocery store to pick up a few things to make myself a nice dinner. A block away from the grocery store, sitting in stop and go 5 o'clock rush-hour traffic, I witnessed a car accident that happened one car length away from me. When traffic moved a few seconds later, I moved with it until I felt a twinge of guilt, pulled into a parking lot, and decided to be the witness for the accident. I never thought that hearing about car accidents every night at the dinner table while growing up would motivate me to be a witness and thereby do my 'civic duty'. I just know that I would want a good witness on my side if I were to ever need one. An ambulance was traveling by the scene stopped to make sure everyone was okay, other than being a little shaken, everyone was okay. Then we waited. I called my Mom periodically through the 90 minutes that I waited to give my information to an officer. She coached me through what I would need to do at the time and what I should expect in the future. I also had my journal with me at the time, so I was able to kill some of the time by making notes in my journal about what I saw. When it started to get dark, I introduced myself to the driver who was not at fault, gave her my contact information and went on my way. I checked on them about thirty minutes later, a tow truck had arrived but not the police. I am still a little shocked by the tardiness of the police, they must have had more pressing matters on their agenda for the moment.
I made a healthy dinner and finished Kate Remembered. I even got to speak with Amy (who is very sick, again), we wished each other Happy Valentine's Day even though we don't celebrate the holiday or even like it, and now, I am off to read Emerson...
I studied my ass off for my Lasers exam. I scoured the text, then read my lecture notes and supplemented them with notes from the text, then worked problems. I actually felt prepared to take this exam. I never feel prepared for exams. I never score well on exams. This time, I felt like I understood the theory enough to be able to answer any question the prof was able to throw at me. It helped that the exam was open book, open notes. So I worked hard all of last week prepping for the Friday afternoon exam.
After taking the exam, I couldn't tell you if I had done well or bombed it. I felt very middle of the road about. It was two questions long. Who, in their right mind, can effectively test 150 pages of text (in four chapters that has taken a month to lecture) in two questions?
After expending so much mental energy for the entire week, I crashed Friday night. I was in bed so early that I missed the blockparty in the culdesac in front of my apartment.
Over the weekend, the weather was gorgeous. I love Florida. Both Saturday and Sunday mornings, I sat on my back porch in a tank top and shorts getting sun while reading and drinking coffee.
I did go to work on Sunday only to discover that my labmates have been getting lazy about cleaning the supplies that they have used. I anticipated working for five to seven hours because there were a few projects that I neglected last week and needed to be conquered before the start of this week. Upon arriving in the lab and trying to set up a supply tray with everything I needed to work, I noticed that all of the glassware that I needed was currently being used or dirty. The same goes for the utensils and cleaning agents that we use on our supplies. The more things that I discovered amiss, the angrier I became. Our major prof is a big stickler for cleanliness. I always make sure that everything I use is clean before I leave the lab for the day, I expect the same courtesy in return. So I fumed for a bit and got what little work done that I could do and left. I should cut the boys a little slack, I know that they have been sick for the last week, and they had the same exam to study for that I had... but really, I still expect things to be neat and clean in the lab. You might be asking yourselves why I didn't just clean the supplies I wanted to use, I would have, but I am not allowed. When supplies or equipment are being used by one of the labmates, you do not disturb his work. It has to do with safety issues, you are never exactly sure of what elements everyone else is using. You are only sure of your work.
So that brings me to today...
After sitting through a Quantum class where the professor effectively copied the book, line by line for fifty minutes. I went upstairs to the lab. Matt must have come in last night because things were in better shape then when I left them last night. I brewed some coffee and generally ignored everyone. My day did perk up a bit when I was sitting in my office hours this morning and Luke showed up. He was one of my favorite guys ever in the physics department. He graduated a couple of years ago and is currently working for the Department of Defense in Panama City. He was on his way to give a talk to some big wig corporation and decided to stop by and see who stuck around the university. He is still a down-home-country boy at heart who gives the best bear hugs. On to the second class of the day, Lasers. Exams are handed back. 9 out of 20 possible points. 2 points for the first question which I worked out very wrong so I was thankful for the two pity points that the prof gave me. 7 points for the second question. The only thing he marked wrong on the whole page was that I mistakenly used 10^6 instead of the given 10^(-6). Such a mistake knocked my answer off by many orders of magnitude but I believe the rest of the work is correct, the method should be correct. I realize that not remembering the negative sign is a rookie mistake, but damn, three whole points... I am going to re-solve the problem tomorrow, if that is really the only mistake in the whole damn thing, then I am going to go fight for a few more points. I know its only a few points and it won't move my position in class standing any... By the way, after the exam, I scored the average for the class and higher than 7 other students (out of 13). I worked hard for that exam, I should have performed better than mediocre. Oh well. I sulked (very mature, I know) through my final class before attending a meeting, then I thought my day was finally over and I could go home.
I called my Mom on my way home, she suggested I stop by the grocery store to pick up a few things to make myself a nice dinner. A block away from the grocery store, sitting in stop and go 5 o'clock rush-hour traffic, I witnessed a car accident that happened one car length away from me. When traffic moved a few seconds later, I moved with it until I felt a twinge of guilt, pulled into a parking lot, and decided to be the witness for the accident. I never thought that hearing about car accidents every night at the dinner table while growing up would motivate me to be a witness and thereby do my 'civic duty'. I just know that I would want a good witness on my side if I were to ever need one. An ambulance was traveling by the scene stopped to make sure everyone was okay, other than being a little shaken, everyone was okay. Then we waited. I called my Mom periodically through the 90 minutes that I waited to give my information to an officer. She coached me through what I would need to do at the time and what I should expect in the future. I also had my journal with me at the time, so I was able to kill some of the time by making notes in my journal about what I saw. When it started to get dark, I introduced myself to the driver who was not at fault, gave her my contact information and went on my way. I checked on them about thirty minutes later, a tow truck had arrived but not the police. I am still a little shocked by the tardiness of the police, they must have had more pressing matters on their agenda for the moment.
I made a healthy dinner and finished Kate Remembered. I even got to speak with Amy (who is very sick, again), we wished each other Happy Valentine's Day even though we don't celebrate the holiday or even like it, and now, I am off to read Emerson...
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home