Thursday morning things

* I still have a couple things I finished over break to photograph and post, I just haven't take the time, I guess.

* I've had something odd happen in my sleep pattern recently: I'll go to bed at a reasonable (for me) hour, go to sleep, and then very early in the night have....I guess "oppressive" is the best descriptor? dreams. Dreams full of random imagery, sometimes things that are worrisome (e.g. one from last night: riding in a car with someone, coming up on a railroad crossing as the arms are just starting to go down, they decide to try to "beat it" as the train approaches). I suppose it's another one of those "brain sorting its recycling" things but I also have the weird sensation of waking up and thinking, "Wow, it must nearly be time to get up" and then looking at the clock and seeing that it's only 1 am or so. (And it's hard to get back to sleep).

* I went ahead and ordered the appropriate USB cable (USB on one end, the little box-shaped thing that I think is called a "B attachment" on the other) so I COULD plug my printer directly into my computer if it ever loses its connection to the router again (like: in a power outage). Because I don't trust that I set it up right, and I also don't trust that I'd remember how to do it again. And I kind of hate feeling that way but at least the cable will prevent me from worrying "what if I need to print something some Saturday evening and the printer won't talk to the computer through the router?" The cable was about $8, which is cheap for my peace of mind. (Also I could still print even if my home internet is out but the electricity is still on....that happens rarely, but it can happen)

* I'm gonna try to run to Pruett's on the way home this afternoon (complication factor: they're next to a school, so if it's "pick up time," it's very hard to get into their parking lot). I need to just cook a piece of meat - gonna see what their chicken looks like, or, failing that, if there's any decent cut of beef. I've done too many 'quick pick-up' meals lately and I need to start thinking about cooking again.

I'm also going to get a couple of "quick meal" things - there's a kind of frozen macaroni and cheese that is not too bad and is also not too high in sodium, and sometimes you just want an EASY bowl of mac and cheese.

I find I am in a cooking rut. I don't think of what I *could* cook. I probably need to look at my cookbooks again. I get sort of in a rut of "heat up a couple different kinds of vegetables" (which makes me sad after too many meals) or "zap some Applegate Farms chicken nuggets" (I am not eight), or, if I'm really ambitious and have the stuff on hand, I either make those cabbage pancakes or black-bean burgers and both of those are good and are nutritious, but I run the risk of totally burning out on them by making them too often.

Also my Seabear salmon packets came, so I suppose once in a while I could quickly make a salmon burger with one and a few breadcrumbs and some onion and an egg, or I could open a packet and use part of it in an omelette (especially the smoked salmon) and then put the rest in the fridge for a snack the next day (I *think* they will keep a day or two if you refrigerate them after opening)

I also have to make sure I have sufficient stuff on hand, at least for a day or two: hard to tell how bad the "winter weather" is going to be (at first they were saying "Ice, then snow," now they are saying "maybe a dusting of snow" but it doesn't build confidence in me when the weather forecaster says "this is the 'most correct' model" when the weather has not yet occurred).

* I have Martin Luther King, Jr. day off. Yes, once again my campus is promoting "go out and do volunteer work" with the day but....I dunno. I already do a lot through my church (and last week did Meals on Wheels), so maybe that counts? It would be just nice to have another day at home to sleep in and to do what I wanted - maybe finish sewing together that quilt top. I do feel vaguely guilty but I also tell myself that just as some people go all-out on days like Mother's Day when they treat their mother badly the rest of the year, maybe the Volunteer Day is for the people who never do it. Maybe? The other thing is, the big volunteering days often get a glut of people....so if I'm willing to, say, go out some random week in the summer and deliver meals to people through Meals on Wheels, maybe that's more effective than showing up to paint a fence or something when fifty other people are?

Yes, I am trying to justify taking the day off to myself and still feeling slightly guilty.

* My "advanced biostats" student met with me. It turns out she has not much background in stats at all (and *probably* should have been counseled into a regular stats class this past fall to make up that deficiency). On the other hand: this buys me time to catch up. I handed her my spare copy of Molutsky's "Intuitive Biostatistics" and told her to read the section on hypothesis testing, and then to come in next week to discuss. My plan is to try to find short published papers (in wildlife science; that is her interest) using the various tests and have her read them to see how they're used with 'real world' data, and then also a couple times a month go into the computer lab with her to show her the techniques on SPSS.

Like I said on Twitter: maybe God really does watch out for fools and drunkards. (I am not the second but I will cop to being the first for this situation - I said "yeah, yeah, sure" to teaching advanced biostats, because I was under the impression it was for the *coming fall* and I could use part of my summer to refresh myself on stuff. And then I panicked when I found out it was for this spring, and I had the idea of someone coming and going "Yeah, I had up through basic linear regression but I really need to know ANCOVA, so teach me" and I'd be like "uh...buh...I have a book that *defines* ANCOVA...")

Still, that's one of my summer plans: refresh myself on those techniques and also learn how to do them in SPSS. (Heh: I don't need to get my "s" together for this, I need to get my SPSS together)

* I also found out that the student I was slightly taken aback by last fall when they asked, point blank, one day "so how did you get your job?" and I interpreted it as slightly-hostile in the sense of "are you really qualified for this" IS ACTUALLY just a little awkward and abrupt because I have them again in another class this spring, and when I did the activity (which I joked "that I know all of y'all hate, but I'm gonna do it anyway") of asking them to introduce themselves to the class and also maybe talk a little bit about what their "dream" job would be, the person said it was "I want to teach college....like [Dr. fillyjonk] does" so I guess actually it's sort of a compliment.

It's kind of nice feeling like maybe you're a role model for someone, but also it reminds me to stay on my toes with being prepared for class and ready to answer questions and all of that.

* And I am slowly circling around to thinking about writing up last fall's research for a paper - I need to e-mail my student to see how she's progressing on her part, but at least I can find papers for the introduction and start working on what I think it should be, and then we can mash-up her paper and mine.

* I also had a student (who I suspect is an athlete based on his schedule and what else he's taking) come up after class to introduce himself (he came a moment late and also wanted to apologize for that) and he shook my hand. That's a nice thing. Even if it's something his coach may have told him to do, it's still a nice thing. I am happy to see it when students have good manners.