Once Again I am Happy it is the Weekend

February 12th, 2010 Thomasso

I am tired and sore from all the classroom time I have logged in the past week. On top of work, reading over 300 pages of high intents text about statistics is enough to drive anyone into a state of craziness. Between all of my classes I have to deal with work too as we have taken on new contracts that are extremely demanding. But my classes are my biggest chunk of the daily pie chart of time, and the search for sleep is getting out of hand as that part of the pie chart is getting nibbled away. Yes, I complain about this a lot—I know that. What can I say, I’m a whiner when I’m tired.

Statistics is a really weird subject because all most everyone in the class is suffering from denial, or they shutter like it was the new AIDS epidemic, or they complain about it like they are about to be tortured by the rack when they have to show up to class. The language of statistics too is really wired because you are using common words in the most unique way. For example, “mean” is something like average, or “regression” is really predicting the future. The formulas are really algebra on steroids. And worse yet, there are multiple version of the same standard used by the various profs who teach it, just ask about the “X-bar.”

I found myself daydreaming at work too from lack of sleep. It was the weirdest sensation as I was reading my email, and found myself drifting off thinking about taking a trip over to Europe. I snapped out of it when I thought I could taste the salty air off the coast of Italy. Then I starting surfing the net looking for cheap flights right after that. That was bad I tell you—never go on a holiday searching spree surfing the net while at work. Surfing the web while at work is not good if you are back logged with numerous tasks. Though I did find some sweat deals. But I need sleep, and a better schedule to maintain my mental health with.

I got another job offer in the mail today. Last September I attended a trades-fair at the University, and I have being getting a steady stream of replies ever since. This company is located in New York State and seems really eager to take on graduates from anywhere around the world in the field of Criminology, though not in Forensics, but in Psychology which is right up my alley. I think I would have an issue with leaving Canadian soil though, but there was a listing from a European company too that looked very interesting. The European one was looking for researchers/crime experts… gulp…, more Stats, but hey it’s closer to Italy than Vancouver is. I really don’t think finding work is going to be a problem when I graduate.

Well, another Friday night is upon us, so I’m going to read for a few hours then call it a day. I need to get up fairly early tomorrow to do some on-line work with one of my classes—those pesky lab assignments for French. Then later on I have a video-conference with my classmates on Chicago—topic, International Crime between Canada and the USA, which will probably be dominated by the “War On Drugs” that everyone is talking about here in British Columbia.

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Living in the Null Hypothesis World

January 23rd, 2010 Thomasso

It is 8:23am on a sunny Saturday morning here on campus in Surrey, (BC – not go get mixed up with my British friends who live in the original city of Surrey) and the birds are up, and probably there is a Bee buzzing around somewhere too as you would think it is April or May around here. I am here because I have no choice. If I want to pass my exam coming up this Wednesday in my Statistics class, I have to be here. It boils down to software and textbooks, or the lack there of.

Here is my rant:

There is a big battle among many institutions and their students and faculty members on what is, or should be, the accepted tool/product for statics. Right now in my class it is SPSS, which is a wonderful tool for spitting out any statistical information you need from your hard earned data, but it is not cheap, and as I found out, it is not the only game in town. To buy the licences for SPSS, with all of its modules and updates, it is a whopping $800.00 to get it working for one year. On the other side of the coin, there is “R,” which does exactly the same thing, and many have argued that it is less buggy that SPSS. R, is free under the GNU/ Open Source agreement, so there is no real intensive for the creators to push their ware, other than the textbooks. SPSS textbooks are about the same price as the ones for R, but SPSS seems to go through more revision than R, so their textbook list are always updating. I can hear the cash registrar ringing louder and louder as I type this out.

I am very familiar with R as I have worked with it for several years now. SPSS is a challenge because it is very different to use and operate, and its look and feel is like ridding a Volkswagen with no shocks when compared to R, the Ferrari, as I see it. Part of the problem is Micro$oft, since 80 percent of the computers on campus have it installed, there is a natural tendency for the Window$ salesmen to push the statistical Micro$oft product along with it. And when you are limited to running homogeneous software for that O.S., you will get the hook, line, and sinker with an $800.00 gorilla attached to it.

In the free world, the standard is set higher with R as I see more and more people running it for their research needs. R seems to be, in my world, the standard. But I am puzzled why I read that places like MIT, in the U.S., R is the software to use in research, while in my humble little University, SPSS is the benchmark. Oddly enough from the two comparisons I did, R and SPSS give you are same answers, and you still have to use a third-party software because each still has a lousy graph creation tools. The problem is that data sets are non compatible between R and SPSS.

I am on campus because I cannot run SPSS at home because I do not have the $800.00 to use it. Sure there are lots of illegal copies of SPSS floating around, but I am past that stage in my life. I have R, but it is totally useless to my prof if she can’t open my data up to mark it. I am also behind because I could not initially afford all of the textbooks at the beginning of the semester. For the first half of January I managed to live on $82.55 because the rest of my budget went to getting 3/4 of the needed textbooks. On my last pay day, on week three of the semester,  I finally got the last textbook, the SPSS book at a cost of $170.00. Now you know why I am so behind on my studying—it is very tough to do without textbooks when you can’t study for the assignments and exams.

I’m not going to use the world scam here because I know University is really only for those who can afford it. I do have the option of dropping the course and waiting for another instructor who would hopefully use another piece of software, with cheaper textbooks, but we are not getting any younger here—right. But I can make one guarantee, I will not be using SPSS in the real world, it is R for me all the way baby!

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If I Told You What Time it is, Would You Believe Me?

January 14th, 2010 Thomasso

In my own little stunned world I walk aimlessly around bumping into things as I think about all the stuff I need to memorize for next week’s quiz/exam/test. One person asked me what time it was, and I answered with what I read from a broken watch I was wearing. Now I would not even believe myself if I looked at it and was late for a class. Among other things besides the broken watch, I have a schedule that does not allow for any error or delay. My work and classes are so tightly pack together that one train, traffic jam, vehicle breakdown would throw the timetable into chaos. The distance I travel from one town to the other to meet the deadlines is ridiculous in my opinion, but so many others do it to, so I cannot be that stupid.

I wrote in my French assignment, “Quelle heure est-il?” but I could not pronounce the phrase out loud, so my instructor asked me to focus on saying each word aloud several times on my own. This is the problem I have with French. Phonetics is my weak point becuase I have no way of pronouncing each work correctly other than the world wide web for guidance and some poorly laid out dictionaries. The instructor asked me in my last class in French, “What time is it?” And I spewed out something like, “il est deux heures dix.” Even though I should have said something that sounded like, “eel ay duh ur dees,” (it it 2:10hr) it came out something like, “el a hu hur dess.” He was very kind and patient, and accepted the answer, but quickly moved onto the next student.

My next big adventure is advance statistics, or my fourth class of Stats. Now, I have a choice on whether or not I should have this course. This is considered one of the five evils in university on the Liberal Arts side of academia. I’m taking the challenge becuase this course will allow me to move past my four year degree and into any program beyond, like an honours degree. To have this with a BA is a very good mark of achievement, and it will open up a lot of doors. But it is one of the five evils, and it carries with it a very high attrition rate among third and fourth year students. There are two main reason for taking this course now in my overall course load: An Olympic size break, and the prof who is teaching it this term. The university is shut down for almost four weeks in February for the Olympics. Bonus! And the prof who is teaching it this term has a very good reputation for teaching Stats–she  is almost a legend on campus and becuase of this her classes are always packed.

[Tom Whining Alert - Ignore this line] This term’s textbook list is a hit to the wallet! I have to wait until tomorrow to buy the rest of them becuase the bill is about $500.00.

So Stats is going to be action packed reading once I get my books for it as I have a quiz and lab for next week, and over 70 pages of the first two chapters should have being read already. On top of that, 70 more pages of text have to be read and understood by next Thursday for that quiz. The lab I have to do on campus, and the average amount of time to do it is roughly four hours! Could you imagine someone pulling off five courses like this per term–you would never sleep.

In my own little world I walk around aimlessly bumping into things trying to memorise everything… .

Posted in Diatribe, General, Homework and deadlines, University classes | 2 Comments »

Overcoming Fear and Seeing the True Universe for the Very the First Time.

December 18th, 2009 Thomasso

It was sixteen weeks ago that I took up the challenge of doing a hard-based third year science course, the last of my science requirement in my degree program, and back then I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I embarked on Astro Physics. The fourteen week long course took me on some very wild rides as I fumbled with my scientific calculator, and gawked at the streams of formulas with enough Greek letters to make a bowl of soup with, and it made me ponder the true extent of our universe.

Last night I wrote my final for that class. At the end of the 3 hour exam, which I managed to complete before the required time period was up, I got my list of overall marks from the professor. I was elated with joy when she said that my final mark may hinged between a B or an A, depending on the outcome of my final exam. (I was happy that it was not the difference between a C or a B.) I remembered how hard the mid-term was. I squeaked in a borderline B+/A- in the mid-term, after putting a lot of hours repetitiously memorising the 150 pages of texts for that exam. The big blow to the chest was that the final exam was accumulative, meaning that it covered everything from day one till the final moment of the last class. I had to work harder for it!

I remember sitting in the class, dumbfounded, when we were given our Math labs. Physics has a dual whammy with it, in that it deals with theory and Math all in one, and they are inter twined. You can not happily wonder through the course with just the theory and not take in any of the Math components–you would never be able to answer any of the questions, or get full marks for them. So seeing numbers, huge numbers, written in scientific notation like this, scared the pants off me. But once I figured out to enter them into the calculator, and properly understand them, then the wheels started to turn for me.

I was hard on myself. I only saw the people in the class that were getting all of the questions. I did not see that the class mean was only 67 percent, or that a quarter of the class was very close to fail mark of 60 percent, depending on what benchmark you use from what degree program you are in. I made sure that I allowed myself several hours per week going over the notes, textbook and labs.  Disappointment came from the labs becuase of the level of Math that was involved. One lab, I got 7 out of 30 marks becuase of not moving the decimal point far enough to the right when converting measurements when calculating Mass into Solar Units. In another lab I was given only fifty percent becuase my line on the graph was “sketched in” as opposed to a nice thin line drawn in. My graph making skills lacked in the Physics department. On top of that, I saw one student hand in a computer generated graph, and the prof accepted it–”hey I could have done that!”

Oh, I guess I should explain what the four numbers mean eh? Well, the first two are part of the world of Physics known as Physical Constants, the first is the speed of light measured in metres per second, and the next one is the mass, in kilograms, of a electron. The next two are are Astronomical Constants, AU, or Astronomical Unit which equals the distance form the Earth to the Sun in kilometres, and last one is the mass of the Earth in kilograms.

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Wow, I’ve been Gone This Long?

December 10th, 2009 Thomasso

Not exactly been keeping up with the blog, but I can sure tell you that I have being keeping busy. A little recap might be in order here.

Two weeks ago I started into the last stretch of the semester. One of my classes dealt directly with the Olympics. In fact, it was that class that I spent most of my time on. One of the problems that I had with it, along with most of the other students, was having the majority of the assignments so close to the end of it. The biggest assignment was the research paper. Gathering data for that was a huge undertaking, and added to it, becuase this was considered a non-published paper, we sort of had to treat it as if it was going to be published, meaning that it had to passed an ethic board. The joke is, not one University in the world would ever allow one of its students to officially criticize any part of the Olympics if was part of being a host for any of the Games.  Being so close to Vancouver and the 2010 Games, you could imaging how a paper that compares criminalizing the poor while hosting the Games–ya, it would fly like a lead balloon by an ethics board who wanted to keep its funding!

The research paper got completed on time. I was able to find huge amounts of data to support my thesis, but I completed it right to the wire.

Also added to that class was a poster, again it had to deal with any number of social problems with the Olympics, and one media review and a public debate summery.

Today is officially the last class for the Fall 2009 semester. All I have after today is a Physics exam on the 17th, and that is it. I’m free until January 10, or thing like that? These fourteen weeks felt like fourteen years. I am feeling pain from all these night sitting in this chair. You think I need glasses before, well, I think I have this monitor’s image burnt into the back of my eyes. I wonder if LCD monitors give off lethal radiation like the old tub ones?

Work is going. Actually it is going very smooth. Everyone around me is acting strange and getting all excited and blowing fuses. Maybe it is me, I am the one who is “weird” or something, and everyone around me is going through their normal cycles? Maybe that is the secret to work now in these day, try not to care? Somewhere in there is another Psychology research paper?

Julia, I will call this weekend when I get some time. It will be in the afternoon, so hopefully you are not working or on night shift. Everyone else, I will get to you very soon.

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Need to Write a Post Before the Month is Finished: Neglecting the Blog.

November 30th, 2009 Thomasso

I really shouldn’t be doing, but I need to-the need to write something. This is the big week where everything comes to a head for my fall courses, and time is in short supply. There is just so much to do, big projects, research papers, presentations, and then of course the finals.

The last week has being a blur. I actually thought today was Tuesday and was planning my day around that notion. Yeah, I felt stupid when I finally realized that it was only Monday and that I still had four more days left in this week. My brain is in overload right now, so dealing with the bigger things is just not happening in right order.

My friends in my classes are feeling it too. I can see the difference in attitude from all of them. I now know why academics can be so anal all the time – this is where it comes from. You are pushed so hard, and the need to preform with perfection is so great that somewhere along the lines you loose your humanity. This is a dangerous time for students who are around those they care about because at any time they can snap and fly off the handle, or do or say something really stupid.

I think the worse thing that can happen to someone in this situation are those who come to the conclusion that they just don’t care any more.

Well, I have spent enough time here. I have cleared my head enough to continue writing on with my current paper that meeds to be handed in next week. At least I got the final post in for November, before the month is finished. It is these little accomplishments that count too, and I have to learn to recognise them.

Posted in Bitching about work, Diatribe, General, Homework and deadlines, University classes | 1 Comment »

Tom’s Two Rants and a Vent Post, Really I am Happy

September 11th, 2009 Thomasso

I guess time sort of got away on me there. I was going to finish my post, the second part to the “One Box to Many,” that I wrote three weeks ago, but I got tied up with the start of the fall semester and a unexpected serge at work.

I have a couple of vents I want to get off my chest. The first has to do with federal politics. I am not a big fan of the Liberals, nor the Conservatives. In fact, I see any right wing government as a social detriment to everyone. Hey, this is my opinion, and I am sorry if you do not agree, but I just do not trust them. My vent comes from the ads that are popping up on the airwaves. I do not care if there is another election, I just do not want to suffer through more right wing mud slinging and political propaganda.  Damn it, the vehicle ads are enough to wreck a good show on the TV anyway, we do not need added distractions. Please stop it.

People think Fort Langley is turning into a police state. No, that is not true. The criminals who are getting caught are because neighbours are starting to take a vested interest in their own community now. From the guy who passed out on the bench only metres from the pub, to the young woman who threw a beer bottle that smashed on the road on Glover, are probably wondering why they were confronted with a COP (constable on patrol) in mere seconds. Simple, folks phoned and complained about you. So rather having police patrolling 24/7, people are taking up the cause. I say “good for you” for doing that. How else are crimes like vandalism and drunkenness going to be nipped in the butt if everyone turns a blind eye? Go get them Fort Langley!

The School Boards and the bad old BC Government. I cannot say there was not any warning on this one. Yes, we are in a economic crunch, and everyone is suffering. But we like our roads, schools and courts to run. Someone has to pay for that. With so many unemployed, and other revenue lost due to extreme cutbacks by the consumers, the deficit was predictably going to hit records numbers. Even a government that was facing an election could not hide that one. Sure they “low balled” the numbers, but all of us should have known that know one could have really said they did not see that coming. The money must flow, so if you do not have it, well, at least there are still some support system still in place to help you out. But I like the guy in Langley City who will not fork out the $25.00 for his Son’s school gym swag. That is one way of dealing with it. I must keep an eye on that story as it progresses; it could be big.

There, venting all done now. I feel great. Summer almost done—must enjoy!

The photo was done with POV-Ray and Kpov Modeler (KDE), and edited with the GIMP.

Posted in Diatribe, General, Homework and deadlines, Humour, Photographs, Social Justice, Social economics | 1 Comment »

Asphyxiated with Bibliophile Tendencies

July 7th, 2009 Thomasso

Is it me, or did summer just end? It is cold outside now.

I actually have the heat on, and it’s July?

I just went through a period of two huge homework assignments.  The glum weather has even made my ambitiousness to aggressively research texts weak as all I want to do is sleep. The amount of reading I have done in the last three days is almost 450 pages from about 25 sources. Now, I have about a week to get this data into presentation format and then write two papers on these topics by the 15th of this month.

Fortunately, I have already started my drafts on the papers, and the presentation is a group one, so we will be gathering this weekend to delegate and organize. Based on experience our five member group should be able to have a finished format by then, and then another meeting to do a dress rehearsal before curtain time. This presentation will be a total of 25 percent of the overall course for each of us: half personal performance, and half group effort. (I’m bragging now…).

This is the part about my degree program that I dread most, these group presentations. I am so happy that I will need only three more courses that are upper level fourth year, and these are fairly light compared to the ones that I have just completed. I sort of saved the best for last; so to speak, not that these courses are easy, but only just in terms of extra curricular activities such as group work. I want my very last semester to be a mellow one.

I’ll be burning the candle at both ends this week.

Posted in Bitching about weather, Diatribe, General, Homework and deadlines | 8 Comments »

I need more time…, At Least 24 More Hours!

May 31st, 2009 Thomasso

OK, the paper writing did not go as well as I planed, even though I got a lot done, there is still just so much more to do. I’ve fully completed one of my assignments, and started the other, but I can see that I’m going to need every night until next Thursday to get it finished, and here’s hoping that work doesn’t turn me into a zombie with the summer heat and possible explosion of new duties that are expected. I’m sure it will all get done—I’ve done it before—working under pressure like this—late nights going into classes half asleep.

I finally got to talk to my sister J.M. who lives on Vancouver Island. Today is her and husband’s twelfth year anniversary.  I am so happy for them. She told me that they are staying home and her husband is doing all the cooking. They have a son and daughter too who will be their helping with the celebrations, so they will be one big happy family.

J.M. Told me that her going back to college and getting her licence to become a care worker, (I know I’m using the wrong terminology) was the best thing she has ever done, and she is already getting lots of job offers. She might be the breadwinner in the home for the next while as the rescission rumbles onward. Her husband, who is in construction, has been since laid off. Sounds a lot like everyone I know around here in the Lower mainland, and Fraser Valley area. Everyone is moving very slowly, and not spending any of their hard earned money. Hang in there J.M. and family!

Well, that’s all for now. I’m going to try and add some more words to my last paper. Next week is going to hot and miserable with all these class assignments due!

Just adding this becuae I got destracted while looking out my window.

What a sunset! I just had to get a shot of it. Tobad, by the time I got my camera set up and outside, I missed the best part of it. It was incredable. Of course, I’m a sucker for a good sunset anyways.

Posted in Bitching about weather, Bitching about work, General, Homework and deadlines, Photographs | No Comments »

Let the Day Begin: I’m Writing, You’re Getting Time Off.

May 30th, 2009 Thomasso

It is about 8:00am and I’m getting ready for the day. Actually I’m planning for the next two days as I have three assignment that need to be ready for first thing next week. Each assignment is a paper that will either critically review, prepare an analysis or follow a research format. One paper, the critical review I estimate will take about twenty hours to complete, and is due for Monday. The other two papers should only require about four to five hours each based of past experience.

So, for those of you who were expecting to come over for a visit or need help of some sort, I please ask that you hold off until this is over.  I know that there were some who I promised to help, but I’m afraid that I will have to back down from those commitments because of my class assignments. Everyone who knows me well enough should know by now that these sorts of conflicting issues happens form time to time and I have little control over them.

While you are all out enjoying the super nice weekend, I will be pounding away on my keyboard fixated on my monitor trying to defeat writer’s block. But don’t worry, in the future it will all pay off.

Posted in Diatribe, General, Homework and deadlines | 4 Comments »