|
f1v3p3t4ls
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: f1v3p3t4ls
Country: United States
Interests: games. games. books. survival horror. wildlife. fantasy. RPGs. football/soccer. shopping. anime. manga. tigers. greek mythology. paper + pencil art. gamelan. david hayter's voice. climbing things.
Expertise: wasting time. wasting time even when exams are imminent. looking like i have time to waste. enumerating things that i can do to waste time. turning beds into bookshelves.
Message: message me
Member Since:
4/28/2004
|
|
| So summer has turned out to be way busier than I'd previously expected.
I emerged, thankfully unscathed, from a harrowing quarter of a difficult core course, and was expecting a relaxed but busy lab-bound summer ... then suddenly, within a four-day notice, I found myself standing in front of 17 students as the TA of an animal genetics lab.
I've always enjoyed teaching. I wanted to be a teacher when I was a kid. When I was younger, I acquired a whiteboard and invented classroom lessons for my cousins. I thoroughly enjoyed explaining chemistry in colorful terms to my high school classmates. Whenever I come across a very good teacher or professor, I find myself subconsciously taking mental notes. Especially now, most of all, I am always delighted to help anyone in genetics and biology.
But I wasn't exactly thrilled to take up the Teaching Assistant position initially. Semi-excited, yes, but slightly freaking out also, and definitely not thrilled. Because I was thinking: what if I totally suck at explaining things to people in complete English? I realized that although I spoke English fluently, I'd never really taught anyone that didn't speak Malay, and that I'd always used my most comfortable mode of verbal communication: Malay + English mix. Also, I generally suck at public speaking, so I was so afraid of getting tongue-tied in the middle of class and spontaneously imploding.
But all is good so far :). Thankfully, I was only nervous during my first pre-lab lecture (and apparently, the two observant students sitting right in front noticed lol); now, I am perfectly able to crack stupid jokes and be myself in front of class. Obviously, TAing is a drag and takes up so much time, but it's really not that bad. Most of all, I'm just thankful that my students are a nice bunch. And I'm super thankful that the instructor is very helpful and encouraging.
My duties as a TA for this class include:
- Giving a pre-lab lecture, explaining what they would be doing in that particular day's lab. This is the most instructor-like part, because it involves me standing in front of a whiteboard, waving a black marker around and, when the opportunity arises, cracking stupid jokes. To a small extent, it is also fun because I get to draw pretty diagrams and figures on the board :D.
- Giving out a pre-lab quiz. Just a one-question quiz to make sure they read their lab protocols beforehand, but I spend a considerable amount of time agonizing over them because I want to make sure I don't ask questions that make me a douchebag TA (and of course, also to make sure I ask good and useful questions).
- Walking around the lab or sitting at my special TA bench for 3.5 hours -- answering questions, repeating myself, preventing disaster. Sometimes funny things come up (see below).
- Setting up prior to each class and cleaning up after. This one sucks ass, and is never fun.
Sometimes, funny things come up. Which adds a little cheer to the draggy lab classes. For example, today, a student was given a pair of new vinyl gloves because she always got mysterious holes in the regular nitrile gloves provided. The vinyl gloves were thin with a yellowish tinge and a crinkly texture. This conversation took place:
Me: So how do you like your new gloves?
Student: They're ok so far. I find them a little weird. They kinda remind me of condoms in some way ... like, even the cuff ...
*giggles from around*
Me: Oh my God! You're right. That's why I thought they were kinda familiar.
*more giggles*
Me: I mean, not familiar familiar, but you know ...
*more giggles*
Me: O-kay, I should just stop talking ... *promptly walks away*
Hahaha.
Anyhoo, I'm hoping everything would continue going well. After tomorrow, I would be officially halfway through the class :D. When I'm actually done, perhaps I'll even feel nostalgic. Maybe I should take a pic with the class, and be like "OMG my first TA class!" but they'll probably think that's stupid lol.
| | |
| Many of you may know that I like to pick favorites for various categories.
Some of you may even know what my favorites are for certain categories. For example, if you visited this blog often enough, you would know that my favorite amphibian is the salamander.
I think I have a favorite livestock animal now. And it is the goat!
Why the goat? -- you may wonder. Well, I just find them irresistibly adorable just because they are super friendly. Such darlings!
Why the sudden rush of love for goats? -- you may be asking. Well, last week I visited the goat barn to look at some of our goats.
This is 10-year-old Artemis (coincidentally named after my favorite Greek goddess!). Came walking up to us from the far side of her pen just to greet us. Such a darling!! She gets a lot of attention -- because she's pretty damn special -- and she enjoys it.
The main reason I made the trip to the barn: baby goats!!! Super adorable baby goats!!!
Look at them all excited to see me. How can I not absolutely love them??
Notice how the different breeds have different ears? Hee hee. There was a kid that had floppy doggy ears but I didn't get a picture of it. Sooooooooooooooooooo cute. So, so, so cute.
I think I'm gonna make nice with the lady who works there, so that I can stop by whenever I want to say hi to the goats. They would make a nice, relaxing distraction, which could be good to relieve stress from labwork, in case when I get it. Also, there is a cute, old doggy over at the barn. She was such a darling, too.
And also, the goat barn is right next to the Raptor Center. Ho-ho. Which would be a welcome additional distraction.
What is better than being able to see my favorite livestock animals and my favorite birds? :)
| | |
| I wrote this post for the UC Davis MASA's blog, but I would like to share it with the visitors to my blog as well.
http://davisrojak.blogspot.com/2009/05/malaysian-species-among-10-strange.html
Basically, there is an article, 10 Strange Species Discovered Last Year, which describes the top 10 species found and described in 2008, according to The International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University. Two of the species are Malaysian species. :)
I wrote in detail about both of them, so please read if you are interested!
| | |
| Today I helped a male friend shop for clothes! :D Hee hee.
It was so fun, obviously. Prancing around among men's clothing and shoving nice clothes, one after another, into my friend's arms, and he would then obediently try on every single one. Holding garments up next to his face to see if the color(s) fit him. Making him try on colors that he usually doesn't wear, just because I think he should. Making him walk back and forth, turn this way and that, at the fitting room.
And it was a success. We basically found everything that he needed to find. So there was that gratifying feeling at the end. :D
And it made me happy. I'm always happy when I see people make nice purchases!
(Reminds me of the time when I helped my friends choose the prettiest hookah -- it was black and silver, and it came with a smart black and silver casing. I was way more pleased with it than the actual owners were.)
I don't do this as often as I would enjoy to XD. The first time I've ever done this was helping a friend buy a suit with a few other girlfriends. I still remember the salesperson's quip to my friend: "They're obviously having more fun than you are." It made us dissolve into more giggles before we continued asking him to pose this way and that.
The other time I've helped a male friend shop was actually a little more interesting: I was the one trying on clothes. He was looking for something to buy for his then girlfriend (now wife), and since I was the closest in size, I was the model. Hahahaha! It was so much fun trying on clothes that was more expensive than I would usually buy for myself ... and yes, posing this way and that.
Yes, I would happily oblige if you asked me to be a shopping buddy. I clearly love shopping for other people as much as I love shopping for myself. Hm ... wait, no, I take that back. I like shopping for myself a little bit more (as I should), but yes, I like shopping for other people, too. Bottomline: I enjoy shopping.
Which reminds me: Nick Chhan, I owe you a shopping trip. Sorry for waking up sick with a fever the morning I was supposed to go with you last summer. Remind me when I get home! :)
| | |
| Now, like most of my friends, my entire lab already knows how I usually approach examinations.
Last month, at lab meeting, they were asking about my final exam that was due at 5 pm on that same day:
PI: So, when is your final?
Me: 5 pm today.
PI: 5 pm on a Friday! They should make that illegal!
Labmate 1: Well, it's due at 5 pm. It's a take-home final.
Labmate 2: So technically, she could've been done with it, like, weeks ago.
PI: So what are you aiming for? 4.59 pm?
Me: Yup XD. Not on purpose, but that's how it usually turns out ... =_=
Today, I was asked about my take-home exam that was assigned last week (and due this coming Monday).
Labmate 1: So, how's your take-home exam going?
Me: *giggles sheepishly* Hehehehehe.
Labmate 1: *grins*
Labmate 2: [makes a guess] She hasn't started.
Me: *continues giggling sheepishly* Hehehehehe.
Although I am being light-hearted about it, in reality, I am super freaking out about this exam. I have never been this freaked out. It shows, because there is a significant improvement to my studying habits -- as in, I've actually started reading early on (albeit extremely slowly), and I am actually reading assigned readings now (because for this particular one, it is really read-or-die).
So technically, I am not really approaching this exam in the typical Adilla way. But since it's actually better than the typical Adilla way, I hope to keep it up and that eventually this way will become the typical Adilla way.
Without the freaking out. It's really brain-draining.
Because I am looking at the 2-inch-thick stack of material for this exam, and I am freaking out.
I am freaking out, but I am still writing this entry.
Ok, point is, I won't be updating for the next 2 weeks, I think (not that I always update anyway, lately).
Glossary:
PI = Principal Investigator, i.e. my lab professor
| | |
|
