Showing posts with label personal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label personal. Show all posts
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Pictures of Snowdonia
Here are some pictures I took from a trip to Snowdonia in north Wales last Spring. Click for larger images.
The view towards Mount Snowdon from Nant Peris.
Looking towards Snowdon.
The view between Y Garn and Elidir Fawr.
Y Garn to the left, Snowdon in the distance, Elidir Fawr to the right.
Looking northwest from Elidir Fawr.
Near the summit of Elidir Fawr.
Looking down 1200 feet from Elidir Fawr. We came down this way. Slowly.
Monday, 18 February 2008
Signs of Spring
I awoke suddenly this morning with a palpable sense of dread. I did not know the time, but I had the feeling that I was very late. I was supposed to be teaching at 9:30, and I felt I had already missed this. Why? Because there was sunlight in my room. The actual time was 7:40, and I was not late at all. But England is so freakin' depressingly dark in the winter that any hint of sunlight must mean it is nearly noon. A typical UK winter's day: dawn at 9, dusk at 3:30, and dim gray wetness inbetween. So waking up to sunlight must mean Spring is just about here! Thank you! My vitamin D reserves are most grateful!
Sunday, 3 February 2008
I'm Back!
Hello again! Sorry to be gone for so long. Life has been busy. There's the usual workload, and on top of that, I've had colds or the flu for about 75% of the time for the last five months. Seriously, my body is not made for England's cold and wet climate. In college in Georgia, I would almost never get sick, and never miss work/class because of it. But in the UK, I often have a cold for months in the winter. Some of my Australian friends here have had similar experiences. But I'm back now, and feeling better. I'll aim for at least one or two posts a week, but no promises just yet!
Monday, 1 October 2007
Update
Sorry to be a slack blogger - things have been picking up around here. A brief update of what has been going on:
Today was officially the first day of university classes, so there have been the usual rounds of meeting with convenors, professors, and other teaching assistants during the past week. I'm helping with the usual array of stats and psych classes, plus the stats helpdesk and I'm one of the MSc mentors. It's strange to walk around campus and see other people. And of course because 12,000 students have arrived here in the past week (the city is only 100,000 people), it means the Fresher's Flu is going around campus - I got it Saturday, but it's not too bad. Other people have been pretty busy too; I went into my office at 20:00 on Saturday, and found only 1 of the 5 people (self included) who share the office was not there working. Still, it's kind of fun to have so much stuff going on after the lull of summer.
The preparations for Green Society have been proceeding smoothly. We had a get-together of the committee members last week and made a banner and posters for the Fresher's Fair (which was Sunday.) 200 people signed up at the fair, and our first meeting will be tomorrow. Still much to do there - Green Week is in November, and we have about 20 events scheduled. This is the new Green Soc website - it's a modified blog because I didn't feel like coding raw HTML like I've done in the past - it's still pretty bare at the moment.
Our bunny Cocoa is being re-homed on Wednesday. He's a sweety, but the other bunnies bully him too much for his well-being.
Oh, and our new washing machine should arrive tomorrow. Our old one has been broken for more than a week. (!)
Today was officially the first day of university classes, so there have been the usual rounds of meeting with convenors, professors, and other teaching assistants during the past week. I'm helping with the usual array of stats and psych classes, plus the stats helpdesk and I'm one of the MSc mentors. It's strange to walk around campus and see other people. And of course because 12,000 students have arrived here in the past week (the city is only 100,000 people), it means the Fresher's Flu is going around campus - I got it Saturday, but it's not too bad. Other people have been pretty busy too; I went into my office at 20:00 on Saturday, and found only 1 of the 5 people (self included) who share the office was not there working. Still, it's kind of fun to have so much stuff going on after the lull of summer.
The preparations for Green Society have been proceeding smoothly. We had a get-together of the committee members last week and made a banner and posters for the Fresher's Fair (which was Sunday.) 200 people signed up at the fair, and our first meeting will be tomorrow. Still much to do there - Green Week is in November, and we have about 20 events scheduled. This is the new Green Soc website - it's a modified blog because I didn't feel like coding raw HTML like I've done in the past - it's still pretty bare at the moment.
Our bunny Cocoa is being re-homed on Wednesday. He's a sweety, but the other bunnies bully him too much for his well-being.Oh, and our new washing machine should arrive tomorrow. Our old one has been broken for more than a week. (!)
Wednesday, 12 September 2007
Update - and Cute Pictures
Sorry for the light posting; things are starting to pick up around here. The university term officially starts at the beginning of October, and that's when most of my teaching will begin. We still don't have our teaching schedules yet - and 19 days till term starts. (Less than that if you include the fresher's orientation/team building stuff in the week before.)
But in the meantime, I'm starting to teach at Maynard again this week (equivalent to high school Juniors). I'll be running the course twice this year, which will be nice. Most of the lessons are already prepared from last year, so it's not too much extra work. I quite enjoy it; they're always so keen.
And of course these next few weeks are the time to finalize preparations for the studies I want to conduct over the year. One is already churning through the ethics committee, and I'm writing up the ethics proposal for another one. And there is the constant background hum of reading journal articles, which is the literary form of chamomile tea, mildly good for you and pleasantly soporific.
The biggest event on the horizon is Green Week. Starting in early November, it is going to be a week (plus) of green related events culminating in the Green Fair on 9 Nov. We've got about 20 different events throughout the week, and about 20 different organizations slated for the Fair. Last year we had about 15 organizations, about 400 attenders, and not much budget. This year we have a 4-digit budget (six digits if you include the pence!), have been planning since Spring, and are hoping for a few thousand attenders. We've got a great team of planners working on it, but its a fair bit of work no matter how its sliced. I'll be very happy when it's done - both because it will be a great, fun event, and because I can stop thinking about planning for it for a little while!
I don't show much cute stuff on here, but why not shake things up a bit? Maybe these will brighten your day.
These baby mallard ducks were found abandoned in the ocean off of Devon in July before being rescued. And we think the ocean is big.
What do you get for a walrus on its birthday?
But in the meantime, I'm starting to teach at Maynard again this week (equivalent to high school Juniors). I'll be running the course twice this year, which will be nice. Most of the lessons are already prepared from last year, so it's not too much extra work. I quite enjoy it; they're always so keen.
And of course these next few weeks are the time to finalize preparations for the studies I want to conduct over the year. One is already churning through the ethics committee, and I'm writing up the ethics proposal for another one. And there is the constant background hum of reading journal articles, which is the literary form of chamomile tea, mildly good for you and pleasantly soporific.
The biggest event on the horizon is Green Week. Starting in early November, it is going to be a week (plus) of green related events culminating in the Green Fair on 9 Nov. We've got about 20 different events throughout the week, and about 20 different organizations slated for the Fair. Last year we had about 15 organizations, about 400 attenders, and not much budget. This year we have a 4-digit budget (six digits if you include the pence!), have been planning since Spring, and are hoping for a few thousand attenders. We've got a great team of planners working on it, but its a fair bit of work no matter how its sliced. I'll be very happy when it's done - both because it will be a great, fun event, and because I can stop thinking about planning for it for a little while!
I don't show much cute stuff on here, but why not shake things up a bit? Maybe these will brighten your day.
These baby hedgehogs were orphaned and are being raised in a shelter with the help of their surrogate "mom."
These baby mallard ducks were found abandoned in the ocean off of Devon in July before being rescued. And we think the ocean is big.
What do you get for a walrus on its birthday?
Sunday, 9 September 2007
Canterbury: Pictures and Video
I got back from Canterbury just before midnight on Saturday night. The conference was good, but not exceptional, which is what I was told it would be. A few talks stood out: Peter Hegarty rocked with his presentation about how bias creeps into research through the use of "typical" exemplars. Michelle Ryan had a great overview of the Glass Cliff findings, with a focus on people's reactions to it. There were plenty of other good ones too, and a few boring ones as would be expected. But it was a good medium-scale event for my first "real" conference. I'm looking forward to going (and hopefully presenting!) at a much bigger one in Croatia next June.
The University of Kent is subtly bizarre in ways that are difficult to explain. It seems like a good school, but something just felt a bit strange about it. The campus itself is beautiful. The room numbering system is Byzantine - I never did work it out completely. The en suite dorm bathrooms are like big showers with a toilet and sink inside them - and no barrier between the shower tile and the bedroom carpet, so water will seep into the bedroom if you turn the shower on all the way. But the upside: they gave us University of Kent branded soap and body wash (why doesn't Exeter do this?!) The University of Kent branded one-use disposable bath mat was a little weird. I think one thing that disoriented me is hearing so many American voices in a quintessentially English place. Parallel universes... slowly... colliding...
My favourite experience was at breakfast in the cafeteria. I asked one of the workers if she knew what food was vegan. Looking helpful, she said she would check with the cook and be right back. A few minutes later she returned. "The beans and tomatoes are vegan, of course. The vegetarian sausages are vegan as well. Unfortunately the potato wedges have onion in them though" she said sincerely.
"Oh, eh, well, thanks for checking."
The cooks also cut the crusts off of my vegan sandwiches (and none of the others.) Not sure what that was about. The complete non-comprehension of veganism was almost like being back in Georgia. The food was tasty though.
The conference ended on Friday afternoon, so I headed to Kipps Hostel for the evening. It wasn't bad, especially for £15 for the night. I headed to a pub to meet a friend/fellow-conference-goer to watch the rugby game. It was my first time watching rugby. All I can say is that I've never seen that much blood coming out of peoples' ears. During the day Saturday I wandered around the city of Canterbury. It's really the perfect size to see by foot in a day. There are plenty of things to see, many for free. Here are a few pictures:
The city walls were originally Roman, but have been rebuilt a few times through the millennia. Like most of the stonework in the city, they are made of cloven black flint river cobbles. Canterbury gave in to William the Conqueror without a fight, so they didn't see action then, but they did successfully fend off a number of Viking raids in the centuries before. Now a highway encircles the area where Vikings and Saxons fought and died for control of the city.
St. Mildred's church, near the castle ruins, was built by the Saxons before the Norman conquest.
St. Mildred's again. The flint cobbles were gorgeous. They are glassy black, almost like obsidian, and surprisingly sharp.
Greyfriars, the oldest Franciscan building in the UK, is perched upon the river Stour. It's small and humble, but the gardens were some of the best in the city.
I found most of my lunch in the Greyfriar gardens actually: hazelnuts, beech masts, blackberries, haw berries, apples, pears, and sprigs of rosemary and peppermint. This juicy pear was soon to be eaten.
This sycamore tree near Greyfriars had a trunk about the size of a small car, shaped like a mound. There was no sign to say there was anything special about the tree, but it looked to be one of the oldest in the city.
Just a few feet from the sycamore tree is the River Stour, down which you can see the massive Westgate Tower. You can see cars driving through the main archway between the towers.
Canterbury Cathedral was founded by St. Augustine at about 600 CE. As you probably know, it is the centre of the Anglican church. You probably didn't know you can buy the Archbishop's own special orange marmalade in the gift shop for £3.50.
The cathedral again. It was impressive, but not head and shoulders above other cathedrals I've seen. There are several shots of the inside in the video below.
The castle keep's ruins were desolate. I spent about 30 minutes there and did not see a single other person (on a Saturday in good weather.)
The castle again. There are more thorough views in the video.
I took this video of Canterbury with my regular digital camera (ie decent camera, but not meant for taking high quality videos). In order, it includes the city walls, Grayfriars, the Cathedral, the town centre, and the castle ruins. I did the editing in a hurry, so it is a bit of a rush-job. The music is from Sigur Rós' Taak.
The University of Kent is subtly bizarre in ways that are difficult to explain. It seems like a good school, but something just felt a bit strange about it. The campus itself is beautiful. The room numbering system is Byzantine - I never did work it out completely. The en suite dorm bathrooms are like big showers with a toilet and sink inside them - and no barrier between the shower tile and the bedroom carpet, so water will seep into the bedroom if you turn the shower on all the way. But the upside: they gave us University of Kent branded soap and body wash (why doesn't Exeter do this?!) The University of Kent branded one-use disposable bath mat was a little weird. I think one thing that disoriented me is hearing so many American voices in a quintessentially English place. Parallel universes... slowly... colliding...
My favourite experience was at breakfast in the cafeteria. I asked one of the workers if she knew what food was vegan. Looking helpful, she said she would check with the cook and be right back. A few minutes later she returned. "The beans and tomatoes are vegan, of course. The vegetarian sausages are vegan as well. Unfortunately the potato wedges have onion in them though" she said sincerely.
"Oh, eh, well, thanks for checking."
The cooks also cut the crusts off of my vegan sandwiches (and none of the others.) Not sure what that was about. The complete non-comprehension of veganism was almost like being back in Georgia. The food was tasty though.
The conference ended on Friday afternoon, so I headed to Kipps Hostel for the evening. It wasn't bad, especially for £15 for the night. I headed to a pub to meet a friend/fellow-conference-goer to watch the rugby game. It was my first time watching rugby. All I can say is that I've never seen that much blood coming out of peoples' ears. During the day Saturday I wandered around the city of Canterbury. It's really the perfect size to see by foot in a day. There are plenty of things to see, many for free. Here are a few pictures:
The domjohn behind the city walls is the mound that was the basis of the original Normal motte and bailey castle. It was originally a Roman burial mound. Now it is a public garden with a panoramic view of the city.
The city walls were originally Roman, but have been rebuilt a few times through the millennia. Like most of the stonework in the city, they are made of cloven black flint river cobbles. Canterbury gave in to William the Conqueror without a fight, so they didn't see action then, but they did successfully fend off a number of Viking raids in the centuries before. Now a highway encircles the area where Vikings and Saxons fought and died for control of the city.
St. Mildred's church, near the castle ruins, was built by the Saxons before the Norman conquest.
St. Mildred's again. The flint cobbles were gorgeous. They are glassy black, almost like obsidian, and surprisingly sharp.
Greyfriars, the oldest Franciscan building in the UK, is perched upon the river Stour. It's small and humble, but the gardens were some of the best in the city.
I found most of my lunch in the Greyfriar gardens actually: hazelnuts, beech masts, blackberries, haw berries, apples, pears, and sprigs of rosemary and peppermint. This juicy pear was soon to be eaten.
This sycamore tree near Greyfriars had a trunk about the size of a small car, shaped like a mound. There was no sign to say there was anything special about the tree, but it looked to be one of the oldest in the city.
Just a few feet from the sycamore tree is the River Stour, down which you can see the massive Westgate Tower. You can see cars driving through the main archway between the towers.
Canterbury Cathedral was founded by St. Augustine at about 600 CE. As you probably know, it is the centre of the Anglican church. You probably didn't know you can buy the Archbishop's own special orange marmalade in the gift shop for £3.50.
The cathedral again. It was impressive, but not head and shoulders above other cathedrals I've seen. There are several shots of the inside in the video below.
The castle keep's ruins were desolate. I spent about 30 minutes there and did not see a single other person (on a Saturday in good weather.)
The castle again. There are more thorough views in the video.
I took this video of Canterbury with my regular digital camera (ie decent camera, but not meant for taking high quality videos). In order, it includes the city walls, Grayfriars, the Cathedral, the town centre, and the castle ruins. I did the editing in a hurry, so it is a bit of a rush-job. The music is from Sigur Rós' Taak.
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
Off to Kent
I'll be leaving early tomorrow for Canterbury, Kent, for a British Psychological Society conference. It should be hella killa. You know what they say about us social psychologists - we put the social in social psychology!I'll be back on Saturday night - till then, blogging will be light. That's Canterbury Cathedral to the right. In a few days, I'll let you know if it actually looks like that, and I'll share any tales I pick up.
Friday, 17 August 2007
Update and Signs
It's been a while since I've posted much about what's going on in my life. So what's going on? Well, not a whole lot. I've got a few studies I'll be starting in October, so I've mostly been focused on getting the measures finalized, and getting approval from the ethics committee (a necessary formality - these are pretty tame experiments). But I'm looking forward to starting them. There's nothing quite like fresh data.
Other than that, I'm heading to Kent (Canterbury) in early September for a social psychology conference held by the British Psychological Society. I'm not presenting any research (thankfully!) but I'm looking forward to getting to see what interesting new research other people are working on, and getting to do some networking. I really don't know many social psychologists outside of Exeter, so it should be a great opportunity.
Well I don't know about you, but the previous two paragraphs were a bit too dull and work-oriented. Now, how about some unintentionally unfortunate signs from around the world? They've all got one thing in common...
Other than that, I'm heading to Kent (Canterbury) in early September for a social psychology conference held by the British Psychological Society. I'm not presenting any research (thankfully!) but I'm looking forward to getting to see what interesting new research other people are working on, and getting to do some networking. I really don't know many social psychologists outside of Exeter, so it should be a great opportunity.
Well I don't know about you, but the previous two paragraphs were a bit too dull and work-oriented. Now, how about some unintentionally unfortunate signs from around the world? They've all got one thing in common...
Umm... I hadn't planned on it, but thanks for the reminder!
Ehh... I guess it's safer to pull over and get out of the car when that happens.
Err... From a park in Germany... and you know what those are like.
Sunday, 22 July 2007
Maters!
It has been a good while since I've done a gardening post, so I figured it was about time. Since my tomatoes are starting to fruit, I thought I would cover them. Although I'm growing a few standard boring ol' regular varieties, the heirlooms are my pride.
Brandywine Tomato
Solanum lycopersicum
When Plato theorized his conceptions of the Forms - that is the blueprints of perfection which earthly particulars aspire to - surely he was thinking of the Brandywine Tomato as the perfect Form for all lesser tomatoes. Well, he would have if the Brandywine had been around then. Brandywines simply outperform every other tomato in terms of taste. The only bad thing about Brandywines is that once you try them, you may just find supermarket tomatoes too mealy and watery to be edible. I can't wait for this year's crop to be ready, they just go so well with my heirloom lettuces.
Yellow Perfection
Solanum lycopersicum
Ok, I've yet to taste any of these little yellow babies yet, but the plants look gorgeous so far, and other yellow varieties have been quite good. Don't those 'maters just look delectable? Yellow tomatoes have less acidity than red ones, which is either a good or a bad thing depending on your preferences. I think the yellow and red colour contrast is especially nice in salsas, sandwiches, and salads.
On Sunday, I'll write an additional gardening post about keeping your organic vegetables well fertilized. Veggies like tomatoes and corn can get quite hungry and need to be fertilized, but thankfully you can do this organically (and for free!) with household waste products. Look for a How To post on Sunday.
Brandywine TomatoSolanum lycopersicum
When Plato theorized his conceptions of the Forms - that is the blueprints of perfection which earthly particulars aspire to - surely he was thinking of the Brandywine Tomato as the perfect Form for all lesser tomatoes. Well, he would have if the Brandywine had been around then. Brandywines simply outperform every other tomato in terms of taste. The only bad thing about Brandywines is that once you try them, you may just find supermarket tomatoes too mealy and watery to be edible. I can't wait for this year's crop to be ready, they just go so well with my heirloom lettuces.
Yellow PerfectionSolanum lycopersicum
Ok, I've yet to taste any of these little yellow babies yet, but the plants look gorgeous so far, and other yellow varieties have been quite good. Don't those 'maters just look delectable? Yellow tomatoes have less acidity than red ones, which is either a good or a bad thing depending on your preferences. I think the yellow and red colour contrast is especially nice in salsas, sandwiches, and salads.
On Sunday, I'll write an additional gardening post about keeping your organic vegetables well fertilized. Veggies like tomatoes and corn can get quite hungry and need to be fertilized, but thankfully you can do this organically (and for free!) with household waste products. Look for a How To post on Sunday.
Thursday, 19 July 2007
Mercy.
Two days ago I received some very disturbing - and relieving - news. As you may know, I have two younger brothers who are three-year old twins. Rob is pictured here on the right.
My family had been spending the week at the beach in Florida. One day near the end of the trip, Rob had an accident. He was trapped in a phenomenon known as a spontaneous sand cave-in. An anomaly in the beach sand caused the surface of the beach to collapse when Rob stepped on it, with the surrounding sand filling in the collapsed area, burying Rob alive. Although not well known to the public, more people die this way at the beach than because of sharks. In Rob's case, no one saw the cave-in; my family - only a few feet away - just realized he was gone. He was buried for a full five minutes before anyone realized what had happened. By a miracle, he was found and dug out in time to save his life. Although incredibly traumatic for all involved, there were no injuries, and Rob is doing well.
It is rare to survive a spontaneous sand cave-in - and nearly unheard of to survive when nobody actually witnessed the cave-in. The phenomenon is becoming more well known, and the issue has just recently entered the mainstream media consciousness. Because of this recent interest, the story and a brief interview with my family will be appearing on CBS' The Early Show on Tuesday, July 24 at 7:30 am EST - the segment is about 4 minutes long and contains other people's stories/input as well.
I found out about the accident after it happened, and it was still traumatic for me just hearing about it, even knowing he was fine. So far this week, it's been difficult to focus on much else. I cannot imagine the unbelievable horrible experience for my family that was there. A full - and heartwrenching - account is on my step-mom's blog.
Yeah, my step-mom has a blog, and it's much more popular than mine, and it's about knitting. Want to make something of it?
My family had been spending the week at the beach in Florida. One day near the end of the trip, Rob had an accident. He was trapped in a phenomenon known as a spontaneous sand cave-in. An anomaly in the beach sand caused the surface of the beach to collapse when Rob stepped on it, with the surrounding sand filling in the collapsed area, burying Rob alive. Although not well known to the public, more people die this way at the beach than because of sharks. In Rob's case, no one saw the cave-in; my family - only a few feet away - just realized he was gone. He was buried for a full five minutes before anyone realized what had happened. By a miracle, he was found and dug out in time to save his life. Although incredibly traumatic for all involved, there were no injuries, and Rob is doing well.It is rare to survive a spontaneous sand cave-in - and nearly unheard of to survive when nobody actually witnessed the cave-in. The phenomenon is becoming more well known, and the issue has just recently entered the mainstream media consciousness. Because of this recent interest, the story and a brief interview with my family will be appearing on CBS' The Early Show on Tuesday, July 24 at 7:30 am EST - the segment is about 4 minutes long and contains other people's stories/input as well.
I found out about the accident after it happened, and it was still traumatic for me just hearing about it, even knowing he was fine. So far this week, it's been difficult to focus on much else. I cannot imagine the unbelievable horrible experience for my family that was there. A full - and heartwrenching - account is on my step-mom's blog.
Yeah, my step-mom has a blog, and it's much more popular than mine, and it's about knitting. Want to make something of it?
Thursday, 12 July 2007
Housekeeping and Update
You may notice a few new buttons on the right hand side of the screen. You can subscribe to Exeterra with a reader so that you can get new posts without having to check the site itself. You can also add Exeterra to your Technorati favourites, if you're into that kind of thing.
I've also added two buttons below that, one to The Hunger Site and one to The Rainforest Site. If you click on one of the buttons, a new window will open taking you to the respective site. You will see some advertisements for hunger/environmental things and a big button. Click on the big button in the middle, and the site will donate one cup of grain to the hungry or preserve 11 sq ft of rainforest. The money used to buy grain/preserve rainforest is paid for by the advertisements on their site. It takes about 5 seconds to do each one.
On to personal matters, you may recall a few weeks ago I was unable to type with my left hand because of a repetitive stress injury. Thankfully, that is just about fully recovered now. Silly as it sounds, I think I was not holding my wrists high enough as I typed (specifically when I pressed CTRL + C and CTRL + V a few thousand times in a row.) That's a lesson learned. It's a good thing too, as I've been typing more than usual this week.
I've also added two buttons below that, one to The Hunger Site and one to The Rainforest Site. If you click on one of the buttons, a new window will open taking you to the respective site. You will see some advertisements for hunger/environmental things and a big button. Click on the big button in the middle, and the site will donate one cup of grain to the hungry or preserve 11 sq ft of rainforest. The money used to buy grain/preserve rainforest is paid for by the advertisements on their site. It takes about 5 seconds to do each one.
On to personal matters, you may recall a few weeks ago I was unable to type with my left hand because of a repetitive stress injury. Thankfully, that is just about fully recovered now. Silly as it sounds, I think I was not holding my wrists high enough as I typed (specifically when I pressed CTRL + C and CTRL + V a few thousand times in a row.) That's a lesson learned. It's a good thing too, as I've been typing more than usual this week.
Sunday, 8 July 2007
Thoughts on Speed Reading
On Friday, I attended an all-day workshop on speed reading, sponsored by the university for all postgrad students. I'm not quite sure how I felt about it. I think some of the techniques we learned can be useful, certainly, but much of it tasted like little more than snake oil. The session was from 9 to 5, so I will only give a brief overview.
Basically, we were told that with a little practice, we should be reading at a rate of over 1000 words/minute - about 3 1/2 pages a minute, which is several lines of text every second - with near full comprehension. Now, presumably this would take a lot of practice, so I don't want to make any broad generalizations, but, what is the saying? Something like, 'if it sounds too good to be true...'
We were asked to bring unread academic material and a novel. I brought The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks. Banks' books are quite different from nearly any other book I've read. They are classed with science fiction, but this is not the neatest of fits. Without giving anything away, a common theme in the books is inverting the readers' sense of normalcy, in terms of time, space, and culture, and philosophy, all executed with incredible creativity. (The cover is purty too!) The instructor demonstrated the speed reading technique by reading from the first page of my book.
So you know, this is the first paragraph of the book:
She took my book and 'read' the first page in about 1 second. This was her analysis of the book: "This book is not about characters, it is all about the action! Right from the first page there is an explosion, it even says 'BANG!' and you can tell it is going to be a page-turner all the way through." Um... No.
Although I could write a much longer post on my thoughts of this session (and I've thought about it a lot), the instructor's analysis of my book really says it all. Woody Allen made a joke with the same point: "I took a speed reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia."
To be sure, there is a definite advantage in being able to read a little more quickly - and the session did help me in this - but I said a little more quickly, not impossibly more quickly. The issue that irked me the most was the attitude that super-fast reading was the only way to read, and that reading at slow (e.g., normal) rates is never appropriate - whether for pleasure reading or heavy academic material. I got the sense that the instructor was profoundly unaware of how one reads research articles - and that 'reading' several lines of methodology or statistical results every second is not desirable, at least not if you want to know what it means. The instructor normally teaches business managers (and was one previously - now she runs workshops and writes management books), and I'm not sure she appreciated how different the styles and needs are between aspiring academics pursuing original avenues of research and business managers who seek to maximize the speed at which everything is done. I think the value of the workshop would have been more appreciable if the approach had been more holistic, the needs of postgrad students were differentiated from CEOs, and the claims of speed reading benefits had been more research-based rather than like a hard sales pitch.
I found a few articles on Slate that confirm my thoughts on speed reading. One and two.
Basically, we were told that with a little practice, we should be reading at a rate of over 1000 words/minute - about 3 1/2 pages a minute, which is several lines of text every second - with near full comprehension. Now, presumably this would take a lot of practice, so I don't want to make any broad generalizations, but, what is the saying? Something like, 'if it sounds too good to be true...'
We were asked to bring unread academic material and a novel. I brought The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks. Banks' books are quite different from nearly any other book I've read. They are classed with science fiction, but this is not the neatest of fits. Without giving anything away, a common theme in the books is inverting the readers' sense of normalcy, in terms of time, space, and culture, and philosophy, all executed with incredible creativity. (The cover is purty too!) The instructor demonstrated the speed reading technique by reading from the first page of my book.So you know, this is the first paragraph of the book:
I have a story to tell you. It has many beginning, and perhaps one ending. Perhaps not. Beginning and endings are contingent things anyway; inventions, devices. Where does any story really begin? There is always context, always an encompassingly greater epic, always something before the described events, unless we are to start every story with, 'BANG! Expand! Sssss...' then itemise the whole subsequent history of the universe before settling down, at last, to the particular tale in question. Similarly, no ending is final, unless it is the ending of all things...
She took my book and 'read' the first page in about 1 second. This was her analysis of the book: "This book is not about characters, it is all about the action! Right from the first page there is an explosion, it even says 'BANG!' and you can tell it is going to be a page-turner all the way through." Um... No.
Although I could write a much longer post on my thoughts of this session (and I've thought about it a lot), the instructor's analysis of my book really says it all. Woody Allen made a joke with the same point: "I took a speed reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia."
To be sure, there is a definite advantage in being able to read a little more quickly - and the session did help me in this - but I said a little more quickly, not impossibly more quickly. The issue that irked me the most was the attitude that super-fast reading was the only way to read, and that reading at slow (e.g., normal) rates is never appropriate - whether for pleasure reading or heavy academic material. I got the sense that the instructor was profoundly unaware of how one reads research articles - and that 'reading' several lines of methodology or statistical results every second is not desirable, at least not if you want to know what it means. The instructor normally teaches business managers (and was one previously - now she runs workshops and writes management books), and I'm not sure she appreciated how different the styles and needs are between aspiring academics pursuing original avenues of research and business managers who seek to maximize the speed at which everything is done. I think the value of the workshop would have been more appreciable if the approach had been more holistic, the needs of postgrad students were differentiated from CEOs, and the claims of speed reading benefits had been more research-based rather than like a hard sales pitch.
I found a few articles on Slate that confirm my thoughts on speed reading. One and two.
Monday, 2 July 2007
Please Don't Spoof the Cat...
I have a family member who is dearly beloved, but has a little problem generating misnomers. At one visit at another family member's house, a skittish pet cat was scared out of the living room by (if I remember correctly) a barking dog. Our beloved family member said, "Oh, shoot, now that dog has gone and spoofed the cat." I chuckle fondly every time I think of it, and especially when I came across this picture of a dog quite literally spoofing a cat...Speaking of the word 'literally,' why is it that 80% of people, including Smart People on TV, have no idea what it means? Last night, an academic on the news said "terrorists are evolving before our eyes, both literally and figuratively." No, I think just figuratively, unless they are mutating a new set of gills, or something. And, unless you are referring to an amicable contortionist or acrobat, you should never have use to say "he literally bent over backwards to help me."
Saturday, 30 June 2007
I Won a Bike
This week, I won a new bike. It was the first prize in a contest held by Easy Green Exeter, an organization that tries to make green living a little bit easier for people in and around Exeter. The goal of the competition was to implement an idea to make your work or home more environmentally friendly. My idea was to put up signs with visual instructions on how to double print on the printers in my building. Basically, every printer is a different model, and has a different maze of menus to double print. So I took screen shots of as many as I had access to, printed them out with written directions, and attached the signs to the printers themselves. Our building goes through hundreds, maybe thousands of reams of paper every year, so this could be quite a lot of paper saved. Signs are up on the three main busiest printers so far, (the ones I have access to) and signs will be going up on the few remaining ancillary ones, as people with access to them send me screen shots of the menus.
It's often found in the conservation psychology research that no amount of persuasion or cajoling to conserve does as much good as simply removing simple physical barriers. Local governments that collect mixed recyclables will do better than those that spend on big persuasion campaigns yet require citizens to sort their recyclables. Even whether people are provided a free recycling box or asked to find one of their own has a huge effect on recycling rates. Likewise, simplifying a complicated printing menu can potentially save many more trees than expending greater efforts in persuasion and awareness raising but without demystifying how to actually navigate the menus.
I received the bike at a mini-awards-thingie on Thursday, presented by the head of recycling for Exeter Council. It will be very useful, as currently I am walking 5 miles a day to and from work (yeah, bus prices went up 57% in a year - the exercise is good though.) There should be a story about it in the next edition of the Exeter Citizen.
Here is a picture of me on my new bike:
Well, ok, but everything besides the picture is true.
It's often found in the conservation psychology research that no amount of persuasion or cajoling to conserve does as much good as simply removing simple physical barriers. Local governments that collect mixed recyclables will do better than those that spend on big persuasion campaigns yet require citizens to sort their recyclables. Even whether people are provided a free recycling box or asked to find one of their own has a huge effect on recycling rates. Likewise, simplifying a complicated printing menu can potentially save many more trees than expending greater efforts in persuasion and awareness raising but without demystifying how to actually navigate the menus.
I received the bike at a mini-awards-thingie on Thursday, presented by the head of recycling for Exeter Council. It will be very useful, as currently I am walking 5 miles a day to and from work (yeah, bus prices went up 57% in a year - the exercise is good though.) There should be a story about it in the next edition of the Exeter Citizen.
Here is a picture of me on my new bike:
Well, ok, but everything besides the picture is true.
Friday, 29 June 2007
Teaching Concluded for the Summer
Today was my last bit of teaching for the summer. I do enjoy teaching, probably even more than research, but it is really considered a kind of a supplement to my "real work," unfortunately. Anyway, this last module was at the Maynard School, for AS-level students (equivalent to Juniors in a US high school). Very keen and very bright students (brighter than many undergrads, to be honest.) It was a 3 week overview of psychology, which made it quite difficult to choose what to cover. How do you cover something as massive as psychology in 3 weeks? And by 3 weeks, I really mean 3 hours, because they were weekly 1 hour sessions. I chose to do 1 on Cognitive, 1 on Social, and 1 on Abnormal. Even then, it's only a small, small fraction of what genuinely deserves classroom attention. I definitely know how my dad feels about rushing through content that begs for a whole semester (at the least) when we can only ration an hour for it.
If you want to have a gander at the presentations, they are available online at my new online resources page: http://people.ex.ac.uk/ccd203 They may be missing something without all the supplementary videos, and explanations behind the bullet points, but if you are interested, there they are.
And now, for the first time since starting my PhD, I have 3 months with no work responsibilities other than my own research. I've already got a stack of journal articles in my backpack...
If you want to have a gander at the presentations, they are available online at my new online resources page: http://people.ex.ac.uk/ccd203 They may be missing something without all the supplementary videos, and explanations behind the bullet points, but if you are interested, there they are.
And now, for the first time since starting my PhD, I have 3 months with no work responsibilities other than my own research. I've already got a stack of journal articles in my backpack...
Tuesday, 26 June 2007
Small World...
So I was watching BBC News last night at about 2 am, with one eye reading a journal article, and one eye on the news, when all of a sudden, I recognize a face. It's one of my friends from high school... in a bar in Brooklyn... playing a Wii. Wuh? When I woke up this morning, I thought it might have been a dream (it sounds like it would be - seeing a high school friend on the BBC playing video games in Brooklyn). So I Googled it, and yep, sure enough, here is the supporting evidence. And congrats to you Albert, on being Runner Up!
Monday, 25 June 2007
New eProfile
The Graduate School at the University has been encouraging postgrads to create eProfiles for about a year now, and I finally got around to it. Mine is here, if you wanna take a gander, though it is pretty general CV/résumé stuff.
When the eProfiles were first introduced, there was some departmental discussion about their use. I particularly liked this input from someone in the school: "There are some strange people out there who, for example, may be 'attracted' to psychologists or may be 'interested' in researchers in animal behaviour. Furthermore, I would prefer any use of photographs to be an opt-in procedure as opposed to an opt-out procedure."
I'm guessing there is a story there?
When the eProfiles were first introduced, there was some departmental discussion about their use. I particularly liked this input from someone in the school: "There are some strange people out there who, for example, may be 'attracted' to psychologists or may be 'interested' in researchers in animal behaviour. Furthermore, I would prefer any use of photographs to be an opt-in procedure as opposed to an opt-out procedure."
I'm guessing there is a story there?
Sunday, 24 June 2007
Weekend Family Guy
Enjoy...
I have so much to share, but blogging may be light for a while. For almost a week now I've lost the ability to type with my left hand. I think it is from pressing CTRL+C and CTRL+V (literally) several thousand times for my last study. So now I have a repeptitive stress injury, but hopefully it will heal fairly soon. Typing with one hand is not nearly as much fun as it is rumoured to be. :/
I have so much to share, but blogging may be light for a while. For almost a week now I've lost the ability to type with my left hand. I think it is from pressing CTRL+C and CTRL+V (literally) several thousand times for my last study. So now I have a repeptitive stress injury, but hopefully it will heal fairly soon. Typing with one hand is not nearly as much fun as it is rumoured to be. :/
Thursday, 21 June 2007
Personal Update II, With Dramatic Ending
Sorry for the low posting, I've been a bit preoccupied with work, marking exams, creating lesson plans, playing with a new data set, preparing for next year's Green Soc and the like.
A word about the exams: I marked 60 and my fellow PhD student/officemate Iain marked 60. Without consulting on any specific answers, our final mean marks were within 3% of each other. Now that's statistical reliability, baby!
A word about the new data set: Getting new data to prepare for analysis is a little like getting a Christmas present with about 50 layers of packaging, all of varying difficulty to remove. Imagine receiving a package that takes 12 hours to unwrap, knowing the contents will determine the path of your next 3 years of work (and could possibly help cement the PhD or potential career), and if you try and unwrap it too quickly you could break it or worse alter its meaning without even realizing it, thus potentially leading months or years of work down a deadend. That's what it is like cleaning and integrating data in preparation for analysis.
Apologies if you have already seen this video floating around the intarnets, but if you haven't it will brighten your day. It is 5 seconds long, and you should watch it (volume up) whenever you read or hear something mildly surprising. It will never get old.
A word about the exams: I marked 60 and my fellow PhD student/officemate Iain marked 60. Without consulting on any specific answers, our final mean marks were within 3% of each other. Now that's statistical reliability, baby!
A word about the new data set: Getting new data to prepare for analysis is a little like getting a Christmas present with about 50 layers of packaging, all of varying difficulty to remove. Imagine receiving a package that takes 12 hours to unwrap, knowing the contents will determine the path of your next 3 years of work (and could possibly help cement the PhD or potential career), and if you try and unwrap it too quickly you could break it or worse alter its meaning without even realizing it, thus potentially leading months or years of work down a deadend. That's what it is like cleaning and integrating data in preparation for analysis.
Apologies if you have already seen this video floating around the intarnets, but if you haven't it will brighten your day. It is 5 seconds long, and you should watch it (volume up) whenever you read or hear something mildly surprising. It will never get old.
Wednesday, 13 June 2007
Personal Update
It's been a bit busy here, and posting has been lights, but I thought I would give you an update on how things are going with me.
Shillingford was fantastic. At 400 acres, it is quite large for a family farm, especially since much of the planting and harvesting is done by hand. The vegetables were simply the best I've ever had. The difference between live, fresh organic vegetables and supermarket vegetables is the same difference between freeze-dried camping rations and supermarket vegetables. Incredible. If you live in the Exeter area, they will deliver weekly for reasonable prices.
While I was there I ate an entire head of lettuce in two meals. Now, if you are only familiar with iceberg lettuce, this will of course sound disgusting, but this is real lettuce. Like in this post. I had one of my faviourite sandwiches: toasted bread with hummus, tomato puree, tahini, lots of crushed chili flakes, and about 20-30 layers of lettuce. The bread was organic spelt grown and baked on the farm. I can feel it scrubbing my insides whenever I eat it. Mmmm...
I'm pretty busy doing more marking. This time it is 60 stats exams (regression and factor analysis) I need to finish by Monday. It's going alright, but it is very mind-numbing to read 60 responses in a row to each question. After these, I should be done for the term though.
I'm still looking forward to teaching Intro to Psychology on Friday. It'll be my first time with a class younger than university-age, which for some reason is more intimidating than teaching masters students.
I just finished a longitudinal study with 150 participants completing all parts. Retention rate was +80%, which is fantastic. I'm really looking forward to analyzing the results, but that may have to wait for a week or two. I'll tell a bit more about the study and the results in the next few weeks.
I've been exploring all the fun that can be had with a pressure washer. No, I'm not speaking of colonic irrigation, I'm talking about using it on my back patio and finding out the concrete tiles are not actually gray as I always thought, but are instead a chessboard pattern of yellow and pink (WTF?) Yes, that's right. My back patio was an awful pink/yellow pattern the whole time concealed by decades of gray accumulation. The only possible explanation I can think of is that it was the 70s. If I lose enough pride I'll post pictures. I've also discovered that a pressure washer is great for cleaning interior bathrooms... just make sure the walls and ceiling are waterproof.
Yesterday I developed some kind of eye-infection. I got the exact same thing in the same eye at this time last year. I've got some antibiotics for it, so it should clear up soon. The antibiotic is chloramphenicol, which is in eye drop form. It's pretty freaky because it goes through human tissue like water through soil. When I put a drop in my eye, about one minute later I can taste the drop in my mouth as it trickles down through the inside of my head. Now that's pretty cool. I wouldn't want to teach my first high school class with freakin pink eye.
And what else? Oh, yes, our house nearly burned down yesterday. The toaster decided it would keep toasting indefinitely. I heard some, shall we say, colourful exclamations coming from Sita in the kitchen so I ran in and found 1 ft flames coming out of the toaster and so much smoke that I could not see the wall on the other side of the room. It could have been bad if no one had returned to the kitchen for a few minutes. Crisis averted though; however the house still smells of burnt toast.
Shillingford was fantastic. At 400 acres, it is quite large for a family farm, especially since much of the planting and harvesting is done by hand. The vegetables were simply the best I've ever had. The difference between live, fresh organic vegetables and supermarket vegetables is the same difference between freeze-dried camping rations and supermarket vegetables. Incredible. If you live in the Exeter area, they will deliver weekly for reasonable prices.
While I was there I ate an entire head of lettuce in two meals. Now, if you are only familiar with iceberg lettuce, this will of course sound disgusting, but this is real lettuce. Like in this post. I had one of my faviourite sandwiches: toasted bread with hummus, tomato puree, tahini, lots of crushed chili flakes, and about 20-30 layers of lettuce. The bread was organic spelt grown and baked on the farm. I can feel it scrubbing my insides whenever I eat it. Mmmm...
I'm pretty busy doing more marking. This time it is 60 stats exams (regression and factor analysis) I need to finish by Monday. It's going alright, but it is very mind-numbing to read 60 responses in a row to each question. After these, I should be done for the term though.
I'm still looking forward to teaching Intro to Psychology on Friday. It'll be my first time with a class younger than university-age, which for some reason is more intimidating than teaching masters students.
I just finished a longitudinal study with 150 participants completing all parts. Retention rate was +80%, which is fantastic. I'm really looking forward to analyzing the results, but that may have to wait for a week or two. I'll tell a bit more about the study and the results in the next few weeks.
I've been exploring all the fun that can be had with a pressure washer. No, I'm not speaking of colonic irrigation, I'm talking about using it on my back patio and finding out the concrete tiles are not actually gray as I always thought, but are instead a chessboard pattern of yellow and pink (WTF?) Yes, that's right. My back patio was an awful pink/yellow pattern the whole time concealed by decades of gray accumulation. The only possible explanation I can think of is that it was the 70s. If I lose enough pride I'll post pictures. I've also discovered that a pressure washer is great for cleaning interior bathrooms... just make sure the walls and ceiling are waterproof.
Yesterday I developed some kind of eye-infection. I got the exact same thing in the same eye at this time last year. I've got some antibiotics for it, so it should clear up soon. The antibiotic is chloramphenicol, which is in eye drop form. It's pretty freaky because it goes through human tissue like water through soil. When I put a drop in my eye, about one minute later I can taste the drop in my mouth as it trickles down through the inside of my head. Now that's pretty cool. I wouldn't want to teach my first high school class with freakin pink eye.
And what else? Oh, yes, our house nearly burned down yesterday. The toaster decided it would keep toasting indefinitely. I heard some, shall we say, colourful exclamations coming from Sita in the kitchen so I ran in and found 1 ft flames coming out of the toaster and so much smoke that I could not see the wall on the other side of the room. It could have been bad if no one had returned to the kitchen for a few minutes. Crisis averted though; however the house still smells of burnt toast.
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