Cynthia's Adventures

whirlwind

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:40:00 +0000

The last six or so months have felt like a total whirlwind. In one semester, I collected my dissertation data, analyzed my dissertation data, wrote up the results for my dissertation data, worked on a completely different project during half of each week, presented at three different conferences, applied for and got a post-doc position, graduated, drove to LA twice, said goodbye to all of my friends in Arizona, and drove (with my Dad and Laika) to Madison, Wisconsin to start my new job. *Whew* No wonder I'm so tired.
Mostly because of the move, I have decided to try this whole blogging thing again, since I will have lots of new adventures in this totally new place (and area of the country!). Yesterday I braved my first real tornado warning. It was actually kind of scary, even though my colleagues assured me that they never have tornadoes actually touch down here. We'll see.
My Dad and I took lots of pictures during the 3.5 day road trip to get here. Hopefully I will have another post soon with those pictures and a more detailed log of our journey. In a nutshell, we saw lots and lots of corn, Laika was an incredibly good dog during the trip, and we totally lucked out with weather and avoided any kinds of auto problems. Good job us!
In other news, I have been in Madison for a week and I still don't have my stuff - the movers will hopefully get it here sometime next week - so I've been kind of camping in my new house. When everything gets here and I unpack I will take pictures of the place for you all to see.

Books I'm currently reading (in my temporarily adequate free time): House of Leaves (by Mark Danielewski), Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself (by David Lipsy, about David Foster Wallace), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (by Stieg Larsson), and the Stuff of Thought (by Steven Pinker).

dissertation in progress

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:38:00 +0000

I made some significant progress in my dissertation this week by actually working on my proposal. Crazy, I know. I had a really good meeting with one of my committee members yesterday and talked to my advisor a bunch and I finally today feel like I have a manageable plan that will actually happen sometime in the near future. The IRB fun stuff is up first, since that needs to get approved and takes a while. Then I will finish the actual proposal in the next couple of weeks and get that approved in hopefully early November. The rest of the semester will be spent planning and refining the materials for an implementation in January/early February. This will give me enough time to analyze the data and write so I can finish in May. phew. It's going to be here before I know it.
In other career-related news, my NARST proposal got accepted to present at the conference in March (so I also need to have data analyzed to talk about then). AND, I got accepted as a NSF CADRE fellow for the upcoming PI meeting in Washington, DC next month. That should be a great learning and networking experience. I can't wait!
In non-career-related news, Laika is still the greatest dog ever, it is going to be 100 degrees here tomorrow (yuck), and I finished reading Infinite Jest (I finished it last month, but I still think it's best book I've ever read).

cool clouds

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 07:07:00 +0000

there were some awesome clouds today right around the time I got home. there was a summer storm just west of here which is why it was all weird. here are a bunch of pictures (click on album to see more):

cool clouds

Academic English and Orwell

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:29:00 +0000

with regard to Academic English, from the text and a footnote of David Foster Wallace's "Authority and American Usage" found in *Consider the Lobster*:
"... in support of this total contempt and intolerance I cite no less an authority than Mr. G. Orwell, who 50 years ago had AE [Academic English] pegged as a 'mixture of vagueness and sheer incompetence' in which 'it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning.'" -->footnote: "This was in his 1946 'Politics and the English Language,' an essay that despite its date (and the basic redundancy of its title) remains the definitive SNOOT statement on Academese. Orwell's famous AE translation of the gorgeous 'I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift' part of Ecclesiastes as 'Objective consideration of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account' should be tattooed on the left wrist of every grad student in the anglophone world." (p. 114-115)

point noted.

back from the dead

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 06:52:00 +0000

My blog is back from the dead. (Not me - I'm not a zombie. duh.) After a semester of neglect, I have decided to continue with the blog even though twitter will still be a much more immediate and consistently updated venue for my thoughts.

The last few months (i.e., the spring semester) was crazy and I have only recently begun to feel like things are back to "normal". I was taking two classes, teaching a class, and doing research. Oh, and working on my comprehensive exam and presenting at two conferences. All that stress is finally behind me and now I can concentrate on making my dissertation proposal (which I hope to have approved by the end of the summer) as awesome as possible. My research is still really interesting and is going pretty well. I just keep having minor panic attacks that the game/technology won't be ready in time and that it won't work and that the kids aren't going to like it and I won't be able to get any decent data and my data won't say anything interesting. So, no big deal, really.

Plans for the summer include: finally reading David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest (with the Infinite Summer groups here on the intertubes), going camping a bunch, going to a conference in Michigan, going to a big research group meeting in Minnesota (I think), possibly going to my aunt and uncle's cabin on the Twin Lakes in California, and of course, working working working on my research.

I have also decided to start capitalizing sentences here. I'm not sure why.

2008 year in review

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:49:00 +0000

well, 2008 is almost over. thank goodness. what a year. even though, being a poor grad student and all, I did not lose a house or a large sum of money in the stock market or my job (being the equivalent of slave labor there is no way they will get rid of grad students) and Obama won the election, it was still an exhausting year.

the first half of the year was reviewed in a previous post.

July: the summer was spent mostly doing work, but I had a couple nice breaks. at the end of June I went to Disneyland with my brother and some friends (pictures). over 4th of July weekend I went to San Francisco to see my step-family. the weather was heavenly and we had a lot of fun.

August: August was a whirlwind. I went camping and almost got eaten by a wild donkey (pictures), went to a research group meeting at Berkeley, went sightseeing and to a wedding in Seattle (pictures), and over Labor Day weekend went to Carpinteria beach as always to hang out with my family.

Fall semester: it all blends together here. basically I was at school upwards of 40 hours a week, plus working at home more than that. I was taking three classes, plus doing 20 hours of research, plus co-teaching a class (elementary science methods for pre-service teachers). good things: I bought an iPhone (it's still awesome), my classes went really well and were interesting, I missed teaching and it was great to have students again, I ran two 5K races and walked one (with Laika), and finally went to the Arizona state fair (pictures).

December: the end of the semester was crazy. I got sick right before finals (of course). also, I had to take the GRE again because I'm applying to Vanderbilt to transfer for next fall. my advisor got a position there so I am considering transferring there. it would mean that grad school will take a little bit longer (like an extra year probably), but it is a really good school and a great opportunity for me. so, start planning your trips to Nashville to come visit me. I promise we won't listen to any country music. :)

New Years resolutions: I have been doing pretty well this year with the watching TV less and reading books more. I also bought another camera over the summer and I have been playing with that. I have also been cooking a lot more and trying new things. all these things will continue. along with cooking more I will be cooking less meat. I stopped eating beef last year for my new years resolution and that went so well (yes, the In-n-out grilled cheese is just as good as the cheeseburger) I will try to eat as little meat as possible. although it will be hard to say no to some tasty bacon.

and, you can follow me on twitter. this blog will be updated only occasionally and twitter will carry some of the things that used to be posted here.

Hope you all have a wonderful 2009!

it's almost Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 07:30:00 +0000

I have other things to do. like, work on a lesson plan for the class I'm teaching. also, sleeping. sleeping would be nice. but what I am doing instead? checking http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/ obsessively every so often, looking through my RSS news feeds, and updating my facebook status. why isn't it Tuesday yet? I can't take this anymore! I spent about three hours making phone calls on Saturday, reminding people to vote and helping them locate their polling place. that helped a bit. I felt useful. I'm going to try to go again tomorrow when I get back from school. I definitely feel encouraged by the people I talk to (and of course, the above mentioned aggregated polling site), but even the staunch optimist in me is not allowing me to be happy or even less stressed. if anything, I have been more concerned and worried in the last week than I was at any other point. I probably didn't help the situation by re-reading some of the reports about voter fraud in Ohio in 2004 and recalling my own brush with voter disenfranchisement in 2004 (which I am still mad about - and that old blog post doesn't mention that I later found out that this had happened to many many people, not just me). I'm trying to relax and thing happy thoughts about Tuesday night and a big celebration! GOOO OBAMA!

in other news, things are moving forward with me possibly moving to Nashville next year. also, The Big Bang Theory is still awesome. and What is the What was an amazing book. everyone should read it.

from the dog park

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:31:00 +0000

I'm blogging from the dog park! How cool is that? I bought an iPhone two weeks ago and it is amazing. Every time the phone rings I get excited.
School is going alright. I am super busy trying to finish writing this papaer that we need to submit for publication in a couple weeks. it is really interesting and it's going well, but we just got some more data yesterday that I now need to analyze and fold into the existing paper. Oh well.

In other news, I am now on twitter. Check out my tweets at http://www.twitter.com/dapostrophe

second week of school = over

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 04:32:00 +0000

tomorrow begins week three of the semester from hell. luckily it doesn't seem that bad so far. I have a manageable amount of work right now and I awesomely scheduled everything so I have Fridays to sit at home and do work (reading, writing, internet surfing, catching up on TV, etc.). so maybe it won't be hell per say, but just some form of punishment (for what, I don't know).

speaking of hell, last weekend as I was driving to California for a Labor Day Weekend of sitting on the beach with my family I had a blowout on the freeway. the good news was that I was able to get over to the side of the road quickly and safely and I wasn't far from my house (only about ten miles) and therefore close to the Toyota place and not in the middle of nowhere, Arizona. the bad news was that I couldn't get the stupid tire off by myself and had to call a tow truck which took forever to get there and then I had to wait three hours at the Toyota place while they put on new tires (oh, and a drive belt that I also needed). needless to say, it was a very expensive and frustrating five hour detour to the beach. after that, I got to California just fine (and thanks to my new tires, with excellent gas mileage) and had a lovely weekend laying on the beach and hanging out with my brother and cousins. the hardest part of the weekend was resisting the urge to try and talk some sense into my mostly Republican family. oh well.

new semester

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:41:00 +0000

so the first week of the new semester is almost over and I have already had way more coffee than I was expecting. oh well. I have now officially been in Arizona for four years and it's starting to sink in just how long that is. although parts of it have gone quickly, others have dragged on and on. hopefully I will have only two (maybe three) more years, so my goal of finishing before I turn 30 might actually happen (keep your fingers crossed).
this semester I am taking four classes. that's right, four. I know it's a horrible idea, but it just has to be this way. one of them is actually not a class so much as teaching experience, but it still gets factored into my already packed schedule. I am also still doing 20 hours of research each week and our new project is super exciting. we are developing a fun video game to teach students introductory physics concepts (mostly force and motion ideas). hopefully we can get some programmers soon so I can start collecting data by next semester (again, keep your fingers crossed).

in non-school news, I went to Seattle last weekend. nominally, the trip was for Steve and Keely's wedding, but I also got a lot of sightseeing in (it was my first time to Seattle) and also visited Dustin (grad student up there) and Gregg (happened to be there for a conference). Amy, Meschelle and I did a little bit of hiking at Snoqualmie Falls (this awesome waterfall just outside the city). the wedding was absolutely beautiful and fun. and lucked out with the weather since it rained like crazy the following day (the wedding was outside). so yeah, great time in Seattle, definitely want to visit again. here are some pictures from the weekend:

Seattle

this weekend, I am going to Carpinteria (near Santa Barbara) for the annual family beach weekend. cannot wait. I miss the beach so much (and my family too). not having a beach nearby is the worst part about living here in Arizona.

in other news, our pub quiz team The Evil League of Evil has triumphed again. hooray!

attack of the deranged mutant killer monster donkey

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 03:16:00 +0000

last night, Katie, Rosa, Mike P, Laika, and I went for a short camping trip to Lake Pleasant Regional Park to watch the Perseid meteor shower. little did we know that it would turn into the adventure that it was.
it began simply enough, driving an hour or so out of Phoenix to the park and finding a perfect and scenic campsite on the lake (it was great because almost no one else was there). it was still hot, but not too bad as we quickly put up our tents before sunset. we cooked up some soup for dinner and Laika chased some lizards and spiders and a mouse we found in the fire pit. everything was going smoothly until around 11:30pm when we wanted to take a little nap (the meteor shower was supposed to peak around 4am). we were all in our tents and trying to stay cool when we were heard some weird noises and Laika started barking her head off. we turned on our flashlights to try and see what it was, but we couldn't tell. at first it sounded like a donkey, but that was such a weird idea that we then thought maybe it was a goose. but then we heard galloping. and it was really close. it was definitely a donkey. a wild, crazy, possibly mutant donkey that lived in the lake and came out at night to feast on human flesh. or something. we kind of freaked out a little bit and ran to the car for protection. then after a few minutes we couldn't hear anything anymore so we went back. but 10-15 minutes later it happened again. Katie had had some previous experiences with wild donkeys on an island in Georgia so we knew it was best to be cautious. we built a big fire to scare it away and keep shining our flashlights over in the area where we heard it. later we heard another one on the other side of the lake and eventually were able to see the one (well, actually two) that were over by our campsite. we were so happy that Laika was there because we knew she was listening and would alert us if it came near again (which, of course, it did) so we could get a little bit of sleep.
the whole thing was simultaneously hilarious and a little bit scary and made for a camping trip not soon to be forgotten. the meteor shower itself was pretty good; there were some really bright and long ones with great vapor trails, but there also weren't as many as we were expecting and half of the sky was cloudy.
when we got home this morning, our brave guard dog Laika passed out on the floor and slept all day. :)
here are some pictures of the beautiful lake (click to see the album on Picasa):

Lake Pleasant

from one extreme to the other

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:07:00 +0000

okay, so it's really hot in Phoenix right now. like 110 degrees hot. so when I found out I would be going to UC Berkeley for a research meeting for a week in August, I was super excited. little did I know that when I got here, it would be really cold. like, freezing almost. and it's not just me who is perhaps maladjusted. the people who live here are also cold. so it's unusual and it's cold and I'm wearing a sweater and drinking hot tea and I'm still cold.
only good thing: we were able to do a little hiking today in the late afternoon and it was beautiful out. couldn't do that in Phoenix right now.
oh, I guess other good thing: I am learning a lot and networking with cool people and getting good feedback about my research. and I had some good Thai food. two days in a row.

July went fast

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 06:50:00 +0000

for reals. how is already August? that is insane.

this is what happened in July: went to San Fran for 4th of July (hung out with the step-family), did a lot of work at school, tried to stay cool in the air conditioning of my apartment and office, played with Laika (best dog ever), drank a lot of coffee (yay cold-brewed iced coffee), read a couple books and a lot of magazines, watched a crap load of movies (thanks Netflix!), started the whole online dating thing (jury is still out), hung out with my aunt and twin cousins, cooking yummy food, and I got addicted to Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (super awesome). all in all, not a bad month. just a fast one.

August is going to be a blur, I can already tell. here's the plan so far: work meeting at Berkeley all next week (hello 75 degrees), two house-warming parties, possible camping trip, trip to Seattle for a wedding (soo excited!), fall semester begins, and Labor Day weekend trip to Santa Barbara (as always - family reunion).

Orange-Angeles adventures

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:40:00 +0000

last weekend was a blast. (ok, technically since it's Monday now, it was the weekend before last. but whatever.) it was a lot of driving, but it was totally worth it. it started on Friday with the Phoenix to LA-ish drive (or Orange-Angeles as Tom used to refer to the Orange County/Los Angeles County area). only this time I wasn't by myself. Jonah, Sarah, and Beth came along because we were all going to Disneyland! so I dropped them off in Anaheim and then went up to LA to see the family. bright and early the next morning, I picked up Anthony (the best brother in the world) and drove us both down to Disneyland. you see, Anthony now has this kick-ass job at ABC and can get me (and a couple other people) into D-land and California Adventure for free. so that's awesome. super awesome.
Saturday was also Beth's birthday so she was super excited and Jonah had something special planned for Sarah as well. the five of us got to the park just after the 8am opening and proceeded straight to the new-ish Finding Nemo ride that none of us had been on yet. however, we noticed there was no line for Star Tours and so we stopped there first. although that line is usually short (nowadays anyway), I have never actually walked onto the ride like I did that morning. after a short battle against Imperial star destroyers, we walked over to Space Mountain to get a fast pass. however, that line was also ridiculously short (about 10 minutes) so we decided to just go on it as well. crazy good luck! up next was Finding Nemo, which was about a 45 minute wait. but still, we couldn't believe our luck with the short lines. later in the day we realized it was at least partially due to the fact that it was ridiculously hot and humid all weekend. but it was worth it. the lines were shorter than I have ever seen them on a weekend during the summer. so that was nice. other highlights from the weekend at Disneyland: waiting in line at Pirates of the Caribbean (congratulations Jonah and Sarah!), Beth taking pictures of Pooh (a la Amelie and the gnome) constantly, dinner at the Blue Bayou, the kids doing the Jedi training academy, the backside of water (as always), Anthony getting sunburned, the super fun new Toy Story ride, and pineapple floats at the Enchanted Tiki Room. here are some pictures:

Disneyland June 08

after the eventful weekend at Disneyland, I spent a few more days in LA visiting family and friends from college and driving all over the place. I don't think I could have packed in any more fun.

in other news, I am officially mad at DirecTV because they are stupid. I tried to go watch the UEFA Euro 2008 Final yesterday at a pub with some people from my soccer team, but for some reason DirecTV screwed up and nobody could get it. anywhere. argh! (and yes, I was recording it at home, but I wasn't at home and now I don't want to watch it because I already know what happened.)

hello summer

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 01:46:00 +0000

so I know it's been a while since I've updated this blog, but I've been busy. busy doing what, you might ask. well, here's a recap of the last few months with links to appropriate photo albums:

February: in February I celebrated my birthday with more Star Wars legos (super awesome) and lots of beer at Four Peaks, got a new hard drive for my computer (not by choice, see previous post), went skiing up in Flagstaff, and tried to not get buried in school work.

Birthday 2008

March: first there was the spring break trip to San Francisco to see Tom (and also Tara and Navneet). we hung out at Golden Gate Park, had some really good brunch, visited the pirate store, and ate some delicious cupcakes. later in the month was the two conference trip to New York City and then Baltimore. lots of work, not much sleep, but totally worth it. while in New York, I saw two Broadway shows (Spring Awakening and A Chorus Line), drank some flavored vodka with Fred S-H, walked around Central Park in the cold, and spent an entire day at the Met. in Baltimore, I went to the Science Museum, ate a giant crab cake, hung out with Brian F, and did lots more work-related stuff. in all, the conferences were great; our presentations were well received, I went to lots of interesting talks, met some cool people, met some important people, and generally had a good time.

San Francisco

nyc and baltimore

April: more school work. recovered from all the traveling. and I got a dog! she's awesome. I named her Laika, after the Russian space dog that was the first earthling to orbit the Earth. she's a two (?) year-old Australian cattle dog mix that I got from the Arizona Animal Welfare League (the biggest and oldest no-kill shelter in the state). she was already house trained and knows some commands (but chooses not to follow them occasionally). she likes chasing birds, eating ice cubes, being friendly and adorable, and barking at invisible people outside our apartment.

Laika

May: lots more work. finished up the semester (glad that's over with). I have approximately four more classes left to take before I can take my comps (next spring). the dissertation research might start in the fall, depending on some funding issues and a few other things. so far, so good.

June: well, now it's June and summer is officially here. it was 107 today. which is officially hot. last weekend, some of us went cliff jumping at a swimming hole near Gisela (up near Payson). it was super fun. there was a collision of physics and soccer people there, which was an interesting mixture of personalities. everyone had a good time (although not everyone jumped off the 25 foot cliff. wusses).

Cliff jumping

rest of the summer: I'm doing research all summer. but I have lots of other things planned. I'm going to LA in a week or so. my brother has a kick ass job at ABC, so he can get me into Disneyland for free (woo hoo!). I'm also going to San Francisco for the 4th of July to hang out with my step-sisters and that side of the family. later in July I may or may not be going to a conference in Edmonton. in August I may or may not be going to Berkeley for a research meeting (NSF site meeting, to be more exact) and hopefully going to Seattle for Steve and Keely's wedding.
in the meantime, I will be reading lots of books and watching lots of movies and hanging out with all my awesome friends (except Angel, who will be in China for the summer and is going to the U.S. v Netherlands men's soccer game at the Olympics and is therefore no longer my friend, unless he brings me back something cool).

some words of advice

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:20:00 +0000

back up your computer. do it today. don't wait until next week. just do it.
so my hard drive crashed on Sunday. I think I jinxed it because I had a discussion with Wendy the night before about how silly it is that some people don't back up their computers. so silly. well, when I came home from soccer on Sunday, my screensaver was frozen and I couldn't wake up the computer. when I tried to restart, I got the dreaded flashing file folder with the question mark. could not find operating system. so sad. I reset the PRAM and everything, but to no avail.
last night I took my macbook into the Apple store and they confirmed that it was indeed dead and were able to replace it right then and there (thank goodness for that! yay for applecare). the first thing the guy asked me was, 'did I back up?'. I replied, 'yes, a couple weeks ago. I didn't lose anything super important.' 'ok, good, you aren't going to cry on me. almost no one backs up.' basically I've lost a couple unimportant documents and a handful of pictures from hiking a couple weeks ago. no big deal. the major problem is that now I have to reinstall everything. it's like starting over with a new computer. so that's really annoying and is going to take a while to get back to "normal".
so yeah, people. back your stuff up! all hard drives are going to fail eventually. it is a certainty. I'm serious. external hard drives are cheap nowadays. buy one.

good news: didn't lose the pictures from my birthday because I hadn't downloaded them to my computer yet. hopefully I will post them later this week.

a new semester

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 07:49:00 +0000

so the first week of the new semester has ended. although it really seems like it's been two weeks since I was back at work the week before (and getting up at 5:30am no less for it. ugh). I am taking three classes again this semester: discourse analysis (which should be time consuming but really interesting and useful), collaboration and argumentation in science ed (which should be interesting and hopefully lead to a dissertation topic), and multiple regression (yay more stats!). I only have classes two days a week which is kind of nice, and that opens up the rest of the week for getting lots of work done and going to various schools in the area to collect data for our project.
this week I also finally submitted a paper to be included in a encyclopedia-type book for classroom teachers. and I'm first author! so exciting!

the reason I was getting up so early last week was because we were running our project at a school 40 minutes away from me and I had to get there at like 7am. we were working in a 9th grade physical science class and almost all of the students were minority students and on free or reduced lunch. the five days I was there were a real eye-opening experience to the day-to-day issues that teachers face at these kinds of schools. it is really important to get the kids to respect you, otherwise it's impossible to have any discipline in the class and get any work done. we had to battle with it the whole time we were there (for example, one of the periods had some kids in it that had been in jail already and just didn't see the point in listening to us). plus, most of the kids weren't too excited about learning about thermodynamics so that didn't help. the good news is that by the end, many of them found the program interesting and liked being able to use the computers to have discussions with the other students. and some of them actually learned something. woo hoo! but it also made me think a lot about how to motivate these kids. I mean, seriously, I don't blame them for not wanting to pay attention in class or learn about thermal conductivity. it is so removed from what they think is important in their lives at this point and many of the problems they perceive in society probably stem from institutions such as schools that don't necessarily treat them well.

in other news, Legos are awesome.

goodbye 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 05:56:00 +0000

I know I haven't posted in a while. it's because I've been busy being a grad student. I'm even working during winter break. how fun. the end of the semester was crazy. in November and December we submitted a couple proposals for grants and conferences and finished most of the data analysis. plus, I had finals to deal with for three classes, plus an extra book chapter I volunteered to write. (plus soccer and all of the usual stuff.)

so now I'm saying goodbye to 2007 and hello 2008. it's going to be another crazy semester, but it's all going well. I have a few conferences to look forward to this year. one in New York City, another in Edmonton, Canada, and possibly some others in Baltimore and maybe even the Netherlands (here's hoping). plus, a couple papers will be submitted for publication as we're almost done with the current grant. the new project starts next week, so that should be exciting as well.

with the new year I hope to read more books (like the eight I got for Christmas to start with), take more pictures, and do more cooking at home. also, I want to do some more hiking, like maybe every weekend, and try to organize an overnight trip down in the Grand Canyon.

hope you all have a wonderful new year! Cheers!

Halloween 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 05:52:00 +0000

so we all celebrated Halloween last weekend, on Friday, with a big party at Steve and Keely's house. there were lots of good costumes and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves (maybe a few people a little too much). all I can say is that I had an awesome time and I can't believe we all stayed up that late.

I dressed as a member of team Zissou from the Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (a great movie by Wes Anderson). I knitted the red cap and added all the trim to some clothes I got at Goodwill. I even embroidered a little Zissou patch for the shirt. it turned out great!

I posted some pictures from the party here:

Halloween 2007

Saturday, Gregg was in town because his brother is insane and ran a 100-mile race. yes, I did type that correctly. it took him about 29 hours. that is crazy. (and people think I'm crazy for wanting to do the half marathon again in January. seriously.) Gregg and I hung out and had a good time. but it was a continuation of a week of not enough sleep. I need more sleep!

school + fun = not enough sleep

the end

weekend exploits

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 06:26:00 +0000

ok, an update finally. I've been meaning to update more frequently, but I've been busy! and here's what I've been doing:

last weekend was awesome. I got some work done, but mostly I decided that I needed (and deserved) to have some fun. Friday night centered around two monthly events here in Phoenix. first we (me, Katie, amazon Natalie, Bruce, and Mike P - Angel and Brian met up with us later) went to Adults Night Out at the AZ Science Center. they had some free snacks, a cash bar, and the museum was free! it was lots of fun playing with the ferrofluids and fog machine and other cool things they had there. afterwards, we drove over to the First Friday Art Walk and perused some galleries. then, we headed to a cool bar and had a nice local beer and went home.
Saturday morning Katie and I woke up relatively early (for a Saturday), had a nice brunch and did some thrift store shopping. I found everything I needed for my Halloween costume so that was exciting. Katie also bought an awesome gold belt, among some other things. then we made a nice lunch, had some chocolate cake and watched tv. Sunday, we biked over to the Oktoberfest at the Tempe town beach park and volunteered for a few hours, selling beer to a few cute guys in lederhosen and lots of old drunk guys (to generalize). we got some free bratwurst, a t-shirt, and a beer, so it was totally worth it. plus it was a beautiful day (low 80s!). at the end of the weekend, I was pretty exhausted, but it was tons of fun.

this weekend was much more low-key. I needed to catch up on some sleep and get some reading done. check and check. but I did go to a concert last night, which was awesome. it was a Jazz in AZ 30th anniversary celebration concert and it was great. first there was a nice quartet with James Moody as a special guest. they did a lot of standard-type jazz. the headliners were the reason we went: Medeski, Martin, and Wood. we saw them a year or so ago, but I think they were even better this time. they are truly geniuses and I was amazed at the set they played. there are no words that fully express how good it was. lots of variety and unusual sounds, as usual. it was great.

school is going well. we finished working on a report for our grant, so I feel good that is done (and that we had interesting things to say). we started looking at the third country in our data set and that has proved interesting.

I posted some more pictures on flickr from my SLR that I got developed a few weeks ago. they are from things over the summer.

and the new Radiohead album is here! it's great and I'm so glad we didn't have to wait until next year for it. (and yes, I did pay for it. I wanted them to know that I appreciate their work.)

lots o' school and stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 04:22:00 +0000

so I survived another week of this semester from no-sleep hell. well, ok, yes, I have been sleeping a little bit. but not nearly as much as I need to. normally the weekend is a good time to catch up on it, but I've been busy most weekends. which is good. I like being busy and hanging out with people and having fun. but sometimes I just want to push pause and take a little break.
anyway, school is going well. I like my classes. I like them even though I have about 200-300 pages of reading to do for them every week. the reading is interesting. and I like reading. so there. and my adviser is still great and my research is still really interesting. I made lots of data tables this week. it was great!
last weekend, Jeremy came to visit. his sister was getting married here, so we hung out with his family, went to the wedding, ate some in-n-out, drank lots of beer and wine, and took a lot of naps. lots of fun.

things I'm looking forward to: more reading. a couple concerts that I bought tickets for today: Medeski, Martin, & Wood (Oct 13) and the Polyphonic Spree and Rooney (Nov 3). yay! and maybe Rilo Kiley in a couple weeks. we'll see. also, the weather is cooling down: I actually opened my bedroom window this week. hooray!

school has started again

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 01:04:00 +0000

so, my fourth year of grad school has begun. you would think I've gotten smarter over all this time, but apparently I have not. this is because I've decided it would be hilarious if I took four classes this semester. I only have to take three, but apparently I hate free time. I guess it's not too late to drop one of them, but then I will have to take it in the spring and for some reason that sounds like a bad idea. so here's what's on my plate: seminar (required and possibly boring, not sure yet), cognition in science learning (should be interesting, lots of reading), science education research (reading the current handbook, craploads of reading - the book is 1300 pages), and multiple regression stats (possibly not a lot of work, maybe not too hard). on top of that, I am doing 20 hours of research each week and sort-of TA-ing a class (but I'm mostly doing stuff with the class website so it's not too bad).

the research I'm working on is still really interesting and we are getting some unexpected results, so that's great.

I also got a new (old) bike. it kicks ass. wayy better than the old bike (which is also cursed).

I am currently in LA and going to Carpinteria beach (up near Santa Barbara) tomorrow for the weekend to see my extended family. I will be laying on the beach doing as little as possible until Monday. :) ooh, I also saw Wicked last night with Marla. it was great! (but totally different than the book.)

pictures from the weekend trip to Ridgecrest to see James are posted here along with some older pictures from a camping/rock climbing trip we took like two years ago.

physics and stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 06:36:00 +0000

so I spent all last week in Greensboro, North Carolina for the AAPT summer meeting/conference (that's the American Association of Physics Teachers). all in all it was a good week. very tiring (as always), but there were lots of interesting talks and posters and people and coffee breaks to keep the brain switched on. whomever's bright idea it was to schedule things from 8am to 10:30pm should be hit with something heavy.

we got off to a bad start on Sunday when my second flight (out of Dallas) got delayed about three and a half hours because of some rain storms. I should point out that we spent the better part of that three and a half hours cooped up on the plane on the runway. ugh. anyway, we finally got there and checked into the dorms at UNC-G which were actually pretty craptastic. having the bathroom down the hall was not such a big deal, but the mattresses were ridiculous awful (which made the six hours of precious sleep time we did have not as productive as they could have been). also, there was some dumb thing where you couldn't access the wireless internet in your rooms, but had to go downstairs. dumb.

one thing that made everything better on monday was the plenary by Neil deGrasse Tyson. because he's so awesome. he talked for almost two hours (instead of the one he was schedule for) because he was so awesome and no one wanted him to leave. seriously.

things progressed well the rest of the week. I got to hang out with Brian and all of the wonderful people I only see once a year at this thing. I presented a poster on the research I did for my masters thesis and everyone seemed to like it and think it was interesting. especially one professor in particular and his opinion means a lot. so that's cool.

I also got some free magnets. which is always nice. they make a cool noise when you toss them at each other. and on the way back home (as if to make up for the delay on the way there) I was able to catch two earlier flights back so I got back home at 6pm instead of 10pm. sweet. I was also able to read an entire non-school book this week (entirely on the planes and in the airports): Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. it was amazing. that's all I'm going to say about it.

in other news, we have two weeks until the semester starts. I got one of my "textbooks" in the mail today (it's the new handbook of research on science education) and it's huge. seriously. I will be reading nonstop all semester.

surfing and stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 04:05:00 +0000

ok, finally an update! here's what's been going on with me for the past few weeks:

-Katie's birthday. it was tons of fun (link to pictures proving that we had lots of fun). we started at her house and then walked over to Casey Moore's, had some drinks, walked back, and passed out. a good time was had by all, especially Katie. :)

-4th o' July. a last minute barbecue was organized at Robert's apartment (which was perfect - the pool was in the shade so we could actually be outside during the day). we cooked lots of good food, watched part the Project Runway marathon, and played with Kobe, Robert's dog. later we journeyed over to the physics building and climbed up on the roof to get a good view of the fireworks at Tempe Town Lake. (here are some more pictures of that.)

-school! I've been getting lots of work done lately so that's great. I have a conference in North Carolina in a few weeks, so I wrote a paper for that (it's amazing how hard it is to turn a 50+ page paper into a 4 page paper) and still need to get a poster together. should be good.

-San Diego. last weekend, Katie, Hwi, Katie's friend E-Chiao, and me took a little road trip to sunny San Diego. we basically wanted to escape the heat of Phoenix (it's been around 115 lately) and Katie really wanted to go surfing. so we did. :) I took them to La Jolla Shores and we spent most of Saturday there taking turns with the two boards we rented. the weather was absolutely perfect (80 and sunny), and the ocean sort-of cooperated (there was a pretty strong rip current which kind of sucked). afterwards we had awesome burgers at Jeff's Burgers and then headed back to Hillcrest where we were staying with Chad, a friend of E-Chiao's. Chad was awesome. Saturday night we went to an art walk type thing, had some yummy pizza, and then went to a swing dance event in Balboa Park. all in all, it was a great day. the next morning we slept in a bit, went to the nearby farmer's market for some yummy food, then had a great brunch at the Cafe on Park. then it was a long trip back for us. but it was a great weekend. here are some pictures (click on the one below to see the whole album):

San Diego July 2007

-harry potter and the deathly hallows. I'm so so excited. I cannot wait for Friday night. however, I am getting paranoid about finding out spoilers before then (or anytime before I finish the book later in the weekend). my plan as of now is to basically go into seclusion once I get the book; i.e., no computer, phone, etc. but apparently the book got leaked on the internet today. so that sucks. I just hope I don't have to hide myself before Friday.

Vegas, baby, Vegas!

noreply@blogger.com (Cynthia) — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 23:50:00 +0000

last weekend I drove to Las Vegas and met Marla (one of my roommates from college) there, along with a couple of her friends (Clare and Monica). we stayed at the Luxor, which was pretty nice. Saturday night, we headed out to the Wynn. unfortunately, it took *one hour* to get there because there was so much traffic. in fact Las Vegas Blvd was more like a parking lot than a street. it sucked. but, we finally got there and it was so nice, we forgot about the drive. Clare and Monica wanted to go to the club Tryst, so we left them in the line for that and headed down to Parasol Down, which is a fancy little bar there. we had to wait a while to get seated on the patio, but it was worth it. the bar overlooks this lake and they have a "show" every 15 minutes. they're usually a little weird/absurd which was totally amusing, but the best one is when this giant frog comes up and sings a song. Marla had hoped we could hear it do Low Rider, but we got What a Wonderful World instead, which was still pretty great. after that, Marla and I walked over to the Venetian to check that out. I should mention that the last time I was in Vegas was sometime in high school. so it's been a while and much has changed since then. the Venetian was really cool, but as it was 2am a lot of things were closed.
Sunday we slept in and then hung out at the pool for a while. it was nice to be outside in the sun during the day with it not being ridiculously hot (like, today, for example when it hit 111 degrees. ick). later in the afternoon Marla and I went exploring to the Paris hotel and the Bellagio. both were very impressive, especially the famed water show at the latter. that night, the two of us had tickets for the Cirque du Soleil show, LOVE, which features music from the Beatles. Marla and I both love the Beatles and Marla is also a huge Cirque fan. I would say we both had pretty high expectations for the show, but it was even more amazing than I could have hoped for. I don't even know how to describe it, except to say that it amazing. you really have to see it.
after the show, Marla and I got some yummy gelato at the Venetian (good, but not as good as the gelato I had in Venice, of course) and met up with Clare and Monica where they were hanging out at Caesar's Palace. they had initially gone to Pure, but apparently it sucked, so they left early (like 1:30am). so they were stationed at some random lounge area (the Seahorse lounge, I believe), near some poker tables. they were most of the way through a pitcher of cocktails (just to mention how crap this lounge was is that they couldn't get individual drinks, only a pitcher) when Marla and I showed up. Marla and I were tired and planning on leaving soon, but we got into an interesting conversation about our random celebrity sightings and how they mostly sucked. I related the time Jonathan Taylor Thomas came to our high school dance and seeing Luke Perry in his car on my way to soccer practice once (this happens occasionally in LA). Monica, who was more celebrity-inclined than the rest of us, had tried many times to go to places in LA where there were supposed to be celebrities, but she never saw any there. anyway, shortly after this conversation, the bartender came over to our table and informed us that someone at the bar just announced that they were going to buy everyone there a drink. since we were planning on leaving soon (it was around 3am by this time and I had to drive us back to the hotel), Marla and I declined, but Clare and Monica got a drink. about five minutes later, Marla and Clare both looked over at the bar and remarked that there was a guy there that looked really familiar. kind of like...well, no, it couldn't be him. so we all looked over and sure enough, it was Vince Vaughn. he was there with a little posse of some friends. he was actually pretty tall and looked good. we purposely left him alone, but I think Clare managed to get a blurry picture. he stayed for almost an hour, until some skanky drunk girls showed up and made a big deal. one of the security guards came over, and his bodyguard escorted him somewhere else. as he left, he walked by our table and smiled at us. it was exciting.
after that, we stayed around talking, no longer tired, and met some more interesting people who were still awake. and made friends with one of the security guards who told us they were shooting a movie out in front of the hotel. it's some comic book thing, called Iron Man. they mostly had a bunch of extras around. we saw one actress, but none of us could remember who she was. eventually we got back to the hotel and collapsed. Monday was spent sleeping in, at the pool again, and then a long drive back for me. I'm still trying to catch up on the sleep. but it was a great trip. :)

I posted some pictures up on Picasa. click on the picture for the album:

Vegas!