End of the year

It is the second last day of the year. With 2010 ending, it is a time for reflection.

This year has flown by. There were many things I had hoped for this year that didn't happen, but it was still an okay year. Neil and I did a lot of travelling, some for pleasure (our trip to Phoenix), most for work-related things (conferences, summer school). I did a lot of work (getting 1 and almost 2 preprints finished) and a lot of teaching. Luck didn't really shine on my family this year, but everyone survived.

Here's hoping that 2011 brings peace, happiness and progress for my family.

Lessons never learned...

I have been fighting a head cold all week. It has been frustrating because I don't really have the time to be sick.

As I sometimes do when I am sick, I take cold medication before bed. I had finished the bottle of pills that I had been taking, so I took something different...without carefully looking at the label. Now it is 4:43 in the morning and I am regretting it. The reason is that certain medications, instead of making me sleepy, just make me loopy and awake. I know the particular drug that does this, and I usually remember to avoid it, but not tonight. Wow...it sucks.

Now, in addition to being behind in my work because I am sick, my sleep schedule is also really messed up.

Well, I am going to try to make the best of a bad situation. I will try to do some work that does not require any heavy mental lifting.

Thesis...uggghhhh

Did you ever had so much to do that you didn't know where to start? Or just so much that you didn't even feel like starting? That is how I feel. I have so much work on my thesis and job applications that I don't even know what on my huge to do list to tackle first.

I probably don't have time to blog.

My plan of attack will be to do the work that makes me least feel like throwing up.

More mice

Neil and I heard mouse noises last night, and Neil set up traps. Cameron found one dead in a trap this morning, but, alas, further mouse noises have led us to believe that they are not done with us yet.

I hate mice. Is there a part of the world that does not have household pests?

Harry Potter

I am going to see a special screening of the new Harry Potter movie tonight. Although I enjoy Harry Potter, I am not a die-hard fan, given that I have not read all the books and I can't even remember what the name of this new movie is.

I'm sure I'll enjoy the movie tonight though...since I get to eat popcorn...I am easy to please.

Yoga fail

Since I am going to be in Halifax this Christmas, I was planning on getting lots of work and going to lots of yoga classes. Unfortunately, I have been let down by assuming yoga was a non-christian type of thing. This is the schedule over Christmas at the place I like to go:

http://theshala.ca/index.php/news/holiday_schedule/

There basically are no yoga classes for the entirety of Christmas. Oh well. I'll have to do yoga at home.

M.I.A.

The lack of blog posts recently have been due to the epic amount of work I have to do. Aside from the obvious thesis work I have job application stuff, finishing a paper from my masters stuff, TA stuff, then add to all of this, the usual dealing with family and cleaning and feeding myself....this makes for a busy Rebecca.

Just writing it makes me stressed out... I am going to try to get some of this work done...

Wish me luck :D

Rainfall warning

Halifax is to receive 25mm of rain overnight and 25mm of rain tomorrow. That's a lot of rain.

Ace of Base

Recently I was able to get my hands on an Ace of Base CD that I then put on my computer. Right now I am listening to their greatest hits. Although definitely dated, the music brings me back to grade 6. Carefree days when, of course, I thought I had the weight of the world on my shoulders (this is a trend that appears to have followed me since I was in grade 4).

Anyway, listening to music from one's childhood can be soothing. I recommend that you listen to something right now, perhaps not Ace of Base unless you liked them in grade 6.

Airporter wait: Live Blogging

8:39pm: I am live blogging my airporter wait. Hopefully it will be a short lived live blog.

What appears to be a large number of child violin players just came through US customs, from Boston, it would seem.

8:41pm: Up until now, there has only been me sitting next to the airporter loading zone. I haven't seem much activity except for a bunch of people just within the last minute. Perhaps the shuttle won't be as empty as it would first appear.

8:43pm: Several Air Canada flights just landed and the baggage area is quite busy. Follow along with the arrivals with me!

http://www.hiaa.ca/schedules/arrivals_ns.html

8:44pm: This live blogging thing is not nearly as exciting as Cameron makes it seem.

8:46pm: I am going to pack up my computer and get ready for the shuttle. I want to get a good seat the live blogging is not really that entertaining. The people watching is entertaining though. I wish the airport was closer so that I could people watch more often. I guess I could people watch at the mall, but the people here are more exciting. Like all the kids with the violin cases.

8:47pm: Going offline.

Conclusions: from now on, I'll leave the live blogging to Cameron and Montifax.

CV and research blurbs

Right now I am starting the job hunt process. This will be long and hard and frustrating. But to even start I have to have a CV and a write up about past, current and proposed future research. Yikers. The research blurb is the hardest for me. There are all sorts of directions that I see this can go. Trying to focus that, write sensibly and somehow attract employers seems like an impossible task.

Fingers crossed that I will have some sort of research blurb epiphany and I'll write something magical.

Unpopular Opinions

I often have the unpopular opinion on particular issues. Generally I keep them to myself, but the benefit of a blog is to mouth off.

Many of the people that I went to high school (and even university with) are school teachers. Most of those who choose to do math have jobs, but most of those that did other things like English and History do not have jobs. They get by on substituting and tutoring. What bothers me is the amount of complaining (mostly on Facebook) about the lack of available substituting and other issues surrounding not being able to get enough work. The reason that this bothers me is THIS IS WHAT THEY SIGN ON FOR!!!!! Everyone knew, when we were starting university, that unless you did math or a science or french as a teachable, there were not any jobs. It was common knowledge 10 years ago. So what did these people think?

When I decided to pursue my degree and this whole academia thing, I knew this meant that I would probably have to live and work somewhere for a few years before getting a position I really want. I knew this, and so I am not upset about it.

Anyway, that is my unpopular opinion for today: substitute teachers should suck it up.

Stay tuned for other unpopular opinions in the future...I am full of them

Work Fail

So today, I got up early, made a lunch and headed into my office to get a full day's work. I was so pleased that I managed to get on the go relatively early. I walked in, got there in just over 20 mins, then discovered that I couldn't get into the building. The security system was malfunctioning. Frustrated, I turned around and came back home. On my way home, I recalled an email about a planned power outage today, which was probably the reason for the system fail.

Anyway, all my plans were then turned around. Thus, I haven't gotten nearly as much done as I wanted and needed to get done.

Now to try to make this a better day!

Yoga update

I am continuing to go to yoga, and I am getting better with a lot of poses, but one pose of the sun salutation eludes me: chaturanga
Other students do not seem to have trouble with it, but I do. I think my lack of any arm strength is the problem. I am going to try to improve this, but in the meantime, it is frustrating that, for a beginner, I can do a lot of the poses, but this starting one I have so much trouble with.

Trip to Arizona

I just returned to Halifax after a trip to Arizona. The reason for the trip was a family wedding in Phoenix, but we also fit in some sight-seeing. We went to the Grand Canyon which was amazing (pictures to come!). We also went to the Desert Botanical Gardens, where the wedding was held. Also, lots of other touring around Phoenix.

It was a great trip. I really liked how sunny and warm it was in Arizona. I liked all the cacti and other desert plants. One thing that I wasn't prepared for was how spread out Phoenix and metro area was. There was no walking anywhere. Everything was also big box stores. That was a little disappointing.

Pictures and more about my trip later...

Phoenix

I am heading to Phoenix tomorrow and have been carefully watching the weather. Apparently, there has been a lot of rain and the weather has gotten cold, but last week, it was 41 degrees. It is hard to pack for such weather.

Fingers crossed I won't freeze or melt.

Hair Cut

On Friday, after my tutorials and after my meeting, I quickly went and got my hair cut. The girl cut a little more off than I thought, although I definitely wanted it short. It is a bizarre feeling to go and get 8 to 10 inches cut off my hair.

I think in the future, I might try and get my hair cut more than once a year. Maybe I'll up it to twice a year.

Cable

Oh, boy, do I like cable! Last week we got TV and it is fantastic.

The reason I finally got to have TV is that there was a special that made it cheaper to get TV than to not get the TV.

Awesome!

TV Shows that I like

Comedy/dramas: Grey's Anatomy, Castle, House,...

Crime dramas: CSI, Bones, Criminal Minds, The Closer,...

Oldies but goodies: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel,...

Reality tv: The Apprentice, Survivor, The Amazing Race, anything on Slice,...

I am sure there are others. After writing them, I realize that I basically like all TV shows. The good aspect of this is that.... we are getting TV tomorrow! No more watching stuff on the internet! A good way to unwind! Yay for TV!

I know that this is not a popular opinion to have, especially for someone my age and education. But I really enjoy TV and find it a great way to unwind and relax, because I don't think about work when I am watching TV.

KevJumba

My new favourite YouTube star KevJumba. He even has a wiki! I came across him after watching the season premiere of "The Amazing Race" where KevJumba and his Dad are competing to win a million dollars. He also has a charity YouTube channel, JumbaFund, where for each view, money goes to charity.

Have a look at his videos and then watch "The Amazing Race" to see how he does!

Difficulty sleeping

I have never been a good sleeper. I don't sleep very solidly, I have trouble falling asleep, I have trouble staying asleep and I don't often feel rested after I sleep.

I know, I know, there are things that can help: getting exercise, not drinking caffeine, etc, etc. I have been trying to get exercise and not drink caffeine close to bedtime, and this has made it so I generally have less trouble falling asleep, but I still have tons of trouble staying asleep. Last night's bad sleep was due to heat (it was way too warm) and our uncomfortable bed. This bed is probably causing most of my sleep problems. I should get rid of it. But, since I am desperately trying to finish my thesis, I don't really have time to go bed shopping and I will be hopefully leaving Halifax soon.

Anyway, fingers crossed for a better night's sleep tonight. Good sleeping to everyone else!!

Using blogs to feed my Empire Avenuing

So some of the recent blog activity on my behalf has purely been to get more money on Empire Avenue.

That is truly sad. :(

Not enough hours in the day...

It doesn't really feel like there are enough hours in the day. What would it be like if there were more hours? Would that change anything? I guess it would only change things if I was the only one getting more hours.

For now I'll settle with using caffeine to make my days longer by sleeping less. Obviously, this is a very short term solution. I'll sleep once I finish my thesis.

Meetings

Tomorrow I am meeting with my supervisor. As with all my meetings, I am not prepared. For the past two weeks, I have not gotten as much done as I wanted/needed to get done. Basically, for lots of different reasons, I have only made progress for the past 4 days. Unfortunately, my supervisor expects that I have done A LOT more. He will be disappointed and will make that known, and will then warn me about the fact I was hoping to eventually finish and I will feel horrible.

But, despite the horribleness that awaits me tomorrow, I am trying to not let it bother me too much. My supervisor will forever be disappointed and I refuse to keep letting that drag me down. I will get so much work done this week, that maybe he will be a little less disappointed in me next time we have a meeting.

New Delhi

It seems like the athletes from around the world have started arriving in India for the Commonwealth Games, despite all the problems with the infrastructure.

Apparently today, the newest reports are about a bed collapsing

Sounds like the whole thing is a bit of a shit show. In order to get something like the Commonwealth games in your country, aren't you supposed to show that you can have all the infrastructure done in plenty of time?

It doesn't sound like it will be a successful games.

Short Posts

The problem with spending all one's time doing work is that it leads to very little material on which to write blog posts.

A week and a half til Phoenix..

In a week and a half, Neil and I head to Phoenix for his cousin's wedding. I am very much looking forward to it. Although, in this week and a half, I have to get a significant chunk of my thesis done. It will be a busy week.

One exciting part of what we have planned for our visit, is a short trip to the Grand Canyon. I have never seen this American wonder. It will be a good time.

Better head back to work...

When you are feeling down...

Whenever I am feeling down, Maru's blog cheers me up. Maru is a scottish fold cat in Japan whose owner has has created quite a prolific blog detailing Maru's life for the past few years. Maru has books and dvds.

He is cute and has quite the personality (for a cat).

Enjoy! I hope he cheers you up as much as he cheers me up.

Tutorial angst

This semester, for the first time in a while, I am hired as a Teaching Assistant. So I am doing tutorials for first year calculus. It has been a long time since I have done tutorials, but since I have been teaching classes, I was not concerned and, if anything, I was excited because I knew I could do a really good job. What I was not prepared for was the hassle involved OUTSIDE the classroom. Between the learning centre coordinator, TA coordinator, instructors, instructor coordinator, random emails and crazy online systems, I am ready to quit and the first week isn't over! It just seems like no one is in charge and no one is taking responsibility for anything. I want to tear my hair out.

Despite my usual tendency to try to fix things and to organize things, I am backing off and sticking my head in the sand. I will do only the tutorials and the marking I am supposed to do and not bother with the other garbage.

It is unfortunate that politics and coordination ruin my enjoyment to teaching students.

Thought for the day...

Who creates the random math equations that fill chalk boards, etc in movies, commercials and other ads? Do mathematicians get hired for stuff like that?

This was prompted by seeing a Telus ad that had a dolphin looking at all sorts of math/finance equations.

Maybe this is the type of job for me!

Movies

Last night, Neil and I saw "The Town", directed by Ben Affleck starring Ben Affleck.

It was a great movie. I always enjoy a good heist/robbery movie.

I highly recommend it.

Hurricane Igor

Although Hurricane Igor didn't hit Halifax, it did hit Newfoundland. My family is okay, but there was a lot of destruction. My father's car got a broken window, there are lots of trees down, power lines down, etc. Lots of people lost power and still haven't gotten it back.

For some cRaZy pictures, see the following links:

http://www.colinpeddle.com/featured/hurricane-igor/?ref=nf

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2010/09/22/igor-aftermath.html

Sleep watcher strikes again

Yesterday, in light of all the swarmings lately, I made an off-hand comment about the sleep watcher not being so scary. I guess I shouldn't have said anything, because he struck again later night.

This is frightening, as a female living in the South End of Halifax. There have been many incidents like this, I assume by the same guy, of the past year and a half or so.

Here's hoping that living with Neil and Cameron has some benefit and the sleep watcher leaves me along :P

Mice-capades

Last night, just after turning off the lights and settling into bed, a bunch of mouse traps went off in the kitchen. Neil bravely got up to deal with it and I stayed in bed, because I did not want to see a dead or maimed mouse. From the noises, it appeared that the mouse was not dead. After what seemed forever, Neil came to give me an update. Apparently, Mr Mouse had gotten part of himself caught in a trap, then was trying to hide under a shelf. Neil was at a loss as to what we should do. But then, Mr Mouse tried to escape from under the shelf, and made a break for it (even though he was still attached to a trap) and then set off three other traps, two of which hung onto him. That finished him off, according to Neil.

The mice action late at night and early in the morning is frustrating. I find them distracting at any time, but interfering with my sleep...that's annoying.

Yoga convert

Yesterday I went to another yoga class with Jeannette. This one was an introductory class. It was hard. I was sweating buckets, so much, that by the end, my hands were slipping off the mat.

But it was good and I plan to go back on Tuesday for some more pain and sweat and relaxation.

Personality tests

So a few weeks ago, Jeannette at Chinafax wrote about personality tests. Since there I have done a few online (free) personality tests.

Needless to say, these free ones didn't exactly all agree but the general consenus is: ISFJ (where S and F were about 50-50, with certain tests giving INFJ and ISTJ).

I think the fact I am an introvert is not surprising. Reading "portraits" of ISFJs it becomes clear that this describes me well:

http://www.personalitypage.com/ISFJ.html

http://typelogic.com/isfj.html

Some days are just not productive

Unfortunately, as a grad student, some days are just not productive. Even when you need them to be. This was one of those days. In fact, it has been one of those weeks. Fingers crossed that I'll either get a bunch of work done tonight or done tomorrow morning.

You might be thinking, "why aren't you working instead of blogging?". Well, for me to get work done (and maybe not just me but many grad students), conditions must be perfect. Right now, I am hungry and about to eat, so there is little point in starting something.

Anyway, wish me luck in my work. :D

World University Rankings

Although you may have already seen the rankings, here is a link to them again.

Not surprisingly, Harvard is the number one ranked university in the world (according to THE). I was surprised to see Cambridge and Oxford tied for 6th, I expected higher scores. Also, another surprise, Dalhousie is on the list! Coming in at 193rd, it is one of the top Canadian schools. Other Canadian schools that made the Top 200 are: University of Toronto, UBC, McGill, McMaster, University of Alberta, UVic, University of Montreal (UdM?) and just sneaking in there at 199th, SFU. Notably missing are Waterloo, UofC and Queen's (which according to another article I read were on the list last year).

Wow, at least Dal has succeeded at something.

Yoga for starters

Today for I went to my first yoga class at Ashtanga yoga. It was great! There were not many people there, the woman running the show was nice and helpful and it made me feel fantastic.

I am already feeling sore, so I am guessing I'll be in rough shape tomorrow, but I am still hoping to go back soon.

Yoga (for beginners)

Tomorrow for the first time I will be going to a yoga class at Halifax Ashtanga Yoga Shala. Jeannette has been kind enough to come along with me and show me the ropes. I am generally leery of doing new things, so I need the extra moral support.

God willing I will not embarrass myself. This will be the first exercise class of any kind that I have gone to and generally I avoid any public place where exercise is being done. But it is time to try something new and time to try some sort of exercise, so ....here it goes!

Wish me luck!

Mice Update #2

This evening Neil found a small hole in the wall where the pipes for the hot water heaters go from one apartment to another. It appears that someone in the past had tried to patch it up to prevent mice coming into the apartment, but it was done poorly. Brave and manly Neil shoved lots more steel wool in. In addition he has created a line of traps. Hopefully that will be the end of the mice.

Although....I was almost getting used to them. :)

Twitter

I have started to use twitter. Not sure if I like it or if I am using it right or even what the use of it is, but you can follow me or whatever else people do there:

http://twitter.com/rebsmckay

TA Days - Part Deux

Today as day 2 of TA days , which I mentioned yesterday. The highlight for me today was a talk on "Building your Teaching Dossier". A teaching dossier is a document that increasingly being requested for job applications in academia. Since I am starting the job hunt progress, this talk was particularly timely.

Although I learned a lot about teaching dossiers at this talk, it is one of the aspects of the job hunt that I am least worried about. The only thing in which I am confident is my teaching experience.

To learn more about teaching dossiers, see the Dalhousie's learning and teaching website.

Mice Update

Since my previous post about Halifax's mouse problem/my mouse phobia, the mice sightings and problems have escalated. Fingers crossed tonight I won't be woken up by the sound of springing mouse traps.

For a more thorough update, see Cameron's blog post Pet Invasion.

TA Days

Today and tomorrow mark "TA Days" at Dalhousie.

"TA Days" consist of two afternoons of workshops of professional development for Teaching Assistants. Since I have attended this event at least two other years and I have been doing TA work for 9 years, some of the talks I have heard before or I am familiar with the topics. Even so, I appreciate that the Centre for Learning and Teaching on Dalhousie campus offer these workshops. Many TAs are given very little guidance at the beginning of their TA duties and thus many figure out what to do on their own. This can lead to TAs hating what they do and to TAs being really bad at what they do.

Hopefully tomorrow's talks will be as entertaining as today's were.

Destroying the Thesis Monster

I am getting sick of being a student. I feel like I have been in school forever...because I have been! So now I am forcing myself to do all I can do to get out of school, to finish my thesis.

I was watching an episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and I have decided to apply monster-killing type energy into killing the Thesis Monster.

Wish me luck!

Everyone blogs

So it appears that everyone has a blog, including my youngest brother. His blog Drunken Fit of Rage is mostly him raging about the world, but with an environmental slant. My favourite are his suggestions of ways to unnecessarily complicate your life.

Enjoy!

Mice

In the past few years, I have developed a mouse phobia, which according to Wikipedia, is called musophobia. Growing up, we always had cats and I never saw mice, other than maybe in the woods, so when I started to see them in Halifax, it really freaked me out. Now, it appears that there has been a boom in mice and rats populations. I have been seeing them on Dalhousie campus, including in and around my office, and in my apartment.

So now, my mild annoyance with mice has turned into full-blown fear of mice. I go into a panic when I see or hear mice. The thought of a mouse totally scares me. I know that this is completely irrational. A mouse is tiny and can't hurt me. This fear is not reasonable at all.

My hope is that this boom in the mouse population will end soon and I can go back to my mouse free existence.

Maybe it is time to get a cat...

De-stress

I need to find a way to de-stress. Between thesis work, supervisor meetings, job hunting, family stuff and a billion other things, I have been up to my eyeballs in stress.

Some things I have considered to relieve the stress are the following:

1. Yoga - one spot that interested me is Moksha Yoga. The reason I haven't done yoga is that it intimidates me. It seems like everyone knows how to do yoga and I don't want to be embarrassed.
2. join some sports teams - I hate competitive sports...of any kind...I think this would cause more stress than it would relieve.
3. Learn some new skill, like knitting - Besides the fact that something like this makes me feel old, this is a genuine possibility. What concerns me is that I don't necessarily need to pick up more time consuming things to add to my list of stuff to do.
4. Cut out the stressors - This is the most feasible option. I have to avoid doing things that stress me out. I always have trouble with this, because it requires saying "no" to people. I need more practice!
   

Anyway, I guess I have started to deal with this stuff so that is a good start on the path of a low stress life.

Who knew that grad school could be so stressful?!

Grad School

I have been in grad school for a long time now and I have found that it doesn't get much easier. Last year I came across "Some Thoughts on Grad School". The author gives a lot of solid advice on getting through grad school and making the most of it. I wish I had read this before starting out, but it has been useful nonetheless. More recently, in starting my job search, I read "What They Don't Teach You in Graduate School". Again, I wish I had read this years ago, especially the section on the meaning of a PhD.

Hopefully, someone closer to the start of their program will read and find useful these articles, because, let's face it, in grad school, you can use all the help you can get.

Some fun webpages

These are some fun webpages. It is hard to not laugh at the ridiculous people:

Lamebook

Failbooking

Texts from Last Night

FML

Be warned that many of the entries are quite crude.

Survived Hurricane Earl

Hurricane Earl (appearing as a tropical storm) hit Halifax this morning. He blew lots of leaves around, broke some trees and tore down power lines. We lost power for most of the day and went shopping in the Bayer's Lake shopping district to take advantage of lights and AC.

While out shopping, we witnessed an car accident, that at first seemed to involve 3 cars, but afterwards appears to have involved 6 or 7. Yikers. It scared me.

Tomorrow we will likely head to Point Pleasant to survey the damage there.

Hurricane Earl

In the past hour, the tropical storm that had been predicted hit Halifax. It is now very rainy and windy. It is still humid and warm.

The rain and wind are supposed to continue until this afternoon. I am crossing my fingers that the power doesn't go out.

If things get interesting, I'll post more later.

Introduction

A bit about myself...

I am a PhD student at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. My area is mathematics, specifically, differential equations. I am hoping to finish my thesis by April 2011, but progress has been slow. I have been happily married for 1 year and ...9 days. Other than working on my thesis, spending time with family and friends, I don't do much. I enjoy movies and tv and reading. I like reading history books but I don't have much time right now.

And...of course, I spend time on the internet, with my new phase being Empire Avenue. It is slightly addictive and is one of the reasons I haven't been getting much done this week.

First Post!

This is my first post. I'll do a more extensive post later...perhaps about the impending tropical storm.