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.