The pedagogical value of group work in grad school...

To start let me just say that I love the word pedagogy. And pedagogical is just an extra special, happy variation of it. I don't love it because of what it means, but because I just love to say the word. I do want to talk about the value of group work in grad school...but I also just threw the word pedagogy in because it's probably the only chance I'll have on this blog to use the word.

I suffered through a lot of group work as an undergrad. My program, Business Administration, was based around the fact that as a successful future administrator you need to work in a group. I met a lot of interesting, fun people in my groups and generally had an OK time. There were a few times where I, or myself and one other group member, ended up picking up the slack for the rest of the group. There is always a leech - which I do think is a valuable lesson for the work force. I found no reason, as an undergrad, to question the value of all the group work (the value of the projects themselves...well, that's another question entirely).

In grad school, well, I've found that it's an entirely different thing. My course is a software engineering course. I understand quite well that most programming and engineering of software (or websites) does involve a team. Therefore, once again, I understand the theory behind it. The reality of it is quite another story. There are students (like myself) who take pride in our schoolwork and genuinely want to get another degree. But then there is another category - a very large group - of students who are only in grad school because they are being paid to do so (either in tuition or in bonuses). And those students (generalizing here) could usually care less about their grade. And about their project. Add to that the fact that we all have daytime jobs (most of the bunch have 40 hour week jobs) and you come up with an almost impossible dynamic.

One of my group members was originally assigned a very easy, beginning of the project model. He secretly emailed another group member (who then ratted him out) to ask that group member to do his part. Now we assigned him another part...a harder part. And I haven't heard anything from him about it for a week. I (and one of my better group members) have sent numerous email requests for an update. I'm imagining that my next few days will be totally consumed with making up for useless group members so that the project is something I'm willing to turn in. Sure, again, a lesson in leeching. But at this point, we've all already learned that. I don't want (or need) the lesson again.

And probably again and again before I graduate...

That's completely mental...

I've decided that if they cut the joke shop out of Order of the Phoenix I'm going to be angry and disappointed (or wait...is joke shop in Half-Blood Prince?).

And, I sincerely hope that the next movie is just as funny as Goblet of Fire.

Oh, and...I'm just a little confused and disgruntled that the Harry Potter series didn't make the Time 100 (maybe the fact that it is unfinished hinders it at this point). I know it's a bit of a stretch for some people and that book snobs would shudder in dismay at this idea. But Rowling is a fantastic writer. I won't go into detail on why she's fantastic because I'll just sound stupid (English is my worst subject). But I can't help but think that any book I can read over and over again, cry every time, laugh every time...well, that's some really delightful writing.

All I want is....

Today I am having one of those days. The kind of day where you just wake up wrong - unrefreshed and somewhat angry**. Where the day stretches before you like a vast tundra of unpleasantness. And everything that happens is some kind of insult to you (the man that cuts you off in the queue to walk down the L stairs, the coworker who doesn't ask if you want something from Dunkin Donuts, the smelly garbage truck blocking your walkway while emptying a smelly, dripping bar dumpster etc, etc). Any other day any of these things would be treated as nothing.

So today I'll just quick review Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. I really liked this book. Like all of my reviews I won't say anything highly intelligent here, since I tend to read books for entertainment only. All I can say is that it engaged me and I read it quickly. In a side note I'll say that while I read Day of the Locust quickly, I did not enjoy that one. I guess the difference is that I feel like there was a kernel of truth in Things Fall Apart. In Day of the Locust I sort of felt like it was just a story (and a slightly boring one at that). I would recommend Things Fall Apart to anyone that wants a good read, a real read (this is not a fluffy book).

The completion of the title sentence is "cottage cheese and a Harry Potter movie". I think I'll do both while staring blankly at my schoolwork.

**The reason I woke up angry is that my darling cat, Mona, decided she was annoyed or playful or something at 6:30 am. She complained and moaned (cat speak) for literally 10 minutes straight. I can't figure out if she was just pissed because Boku and I were both still in bed or if she was chatting with her toy. Either way, I ended up yelling at her. Which didn't work (she's a cat, she doesn't listen). I did end up scaring Boku out of bed though (she stared at me wearily for a minute or two and then jumped ship) which did shut Mona up. No hard feelings though - Mona is currently warming my lap.

You're having such a nice time...

On my walk home from my final tonight I drafted about 800 words worth of blog post. But then I got home and sat myself in front of the computer and pure exhaustion set in. I could try to recreate all the interesting (erm...that might be a stretch) ideas I had on the way home. But...well, I'm not going to.

I will say a few boring things here since I already feel like this is cheating the whole NaBloPoMo thing by just saying that my brain is empty. So let's bullet.

• I had one moment of excitement today when I found out that my local knitting store is offering a ton of great classes in December and January. I think my skill set will be complete soon...(hats, mittens, socks).
• My mind has been sort of full of school...but when I have a moment free, I've been thinking a lot about London. More on that later...
• One more class to go...

Sorry to be so so dull.

Totally school related and booooring...

In about 5 hours I will be entirely done with one of my classes. Ok, more like 3 hours. The final project is due at midnight...I'll probably turn it in, at the latest, at 10. One class down...(to satisfy your curiosity class called: Internet Application Development).

I finish the second class tomorrow with an in-class final. This final is causing one of my least favorite school related maladies: test poo. If you don't know what that is....I'm not going to explain. Me and test poo have a long and icky history where we meet approximately twice a quarter. Anyhoo, this is the most boring class ever and I will be glad to have it done with (curiosity killer: Fundamentals of Distributed Systems).

My last class will not be done until Wednesday of next week. I have a group project due the day before Thanksgiving. And I have a final exam due on Monday. Yuck. (Class: Object Oriented Modeling)

Revisiting an old sore spot...

Recently I've had occasion to revisit my rage about the "girl with cats = spinster" stereotype. I finished some chick lit a few weeks ago that enraged me beyond my usual rage of this issue. Why? Because the lead character, in a depression after a bad break-up, keeps threatening everyone she'll get a cat. Eventually her family has an intervention - so she won't get a cat. I'm continually perplexed about this stupid, stupid stereotype. I agree that there are cat ladies - but there are cat ladies who have husbands. Are they cat men?

The reason this seems so nonsensical to me is that I imagine that these people think the woman is "filling a void" or replacing a boyfriend with an animal. And I just want to shake my head...what? Anyone who has ever had an animal knows that while it is a wonderful, enriching experience...your cat is still just a pet. You don't "transfer" your love on to a pet or love a pet instead of a human. That's just silly. My cats don't fill the void** supposedly created by my lack of a partner. They fill a part of my heart meant specifically for them - the "pet" portion of my heart.

I admit that my pet portion is disproportionately big. That can probably be attributed to my crazy Grandma (who was a pretty cool Grandma to a little kid) and her two dogs: Misty (lab shepherd mutt) and Princess (german shepherd). Almost definitely they/she influenced my adoration for animals. And I don't regret that for a second.

It just makes me crazy that I am sort of a walking joke (not meant in the meanest way) because I am a single woman who loves my cats.

And personally, I think those women with the tiny dogs in sweaters that they carry around are far scarier than cat owners. Treating your dog like it's your baby clearly shows a disconnect - that IS truly no longer your pet.

**Note: I absolutely, 100% do NOT have a void in my life because I am single. I agree that there is an empty slot somewhere (just where...I'm not sure) where it would be great to have a partner. But it's not a void. It's more like...an empty car seat. It's nice to have a passenger, but if you don't it's not a gaping chasm in your car. It's just an empty seat - sure the passenger can change the feeling of the whole trip (in good ways and bad) but they aren't a necessity.

CTA makes my day...

Why am I absurdly excited about this? I have GOT to see that train. How have I not seen it before??? I've been here for two holiday seasons now...

What I am trying to tell myself...

The dreams last night....they were especially weird. One of them involved my being some sort of a demon (?) and my body repelling itself from water (ie: I tried to jump in a pond and my limbs and body flew every which way to avoid it - by the way Mom and sister, you were both there laughing at your demon relation. Nice of you). Here's my analysis of that one: um...I'm dry. Need to drink more water.

The second one involved the end of the world (or the end of my world) due to a war and an enemy aircraft. I managed to "escape" with two boys from my high school (one of whom was my friend a long time ago and one of whom is still a sort of acquaintance thingy). We escaped to a mall where we all went our separate ways to buy the thing we always wanted. I ended up in a puppy store. Not surprising (except it would have been a nice twist if I wanted to spend my last day on earth having hot sex or something...but no. Puppies instead). My analysis: I'm a sucker for animals and I somewhere deep down will always want a dog/puppy. I will have to get one some day....

Sorry about the dream post. My brain is so taken up with finals/website crap that it's useless for other stuff.

Toooot and a letter...

No I am not gaseous. Just tooting my own horn a little as my final project is pretty damn cool. I'm such a nerd. The whole process of creating a website just excites me. I have always been the type of person who likes to build things up from nothing and then just appreciate the end product. I still love Legos. Yes, I am a 25-year old woman that still loves Legos. I should be ashamed, but I'm not. I should qualify that most of the Legos I've loved recently have been of the Harry Potter variety. Lego has done some amazing crap with the Harry Potter series....all kinds of secret nooks and hidden doors. I would recommend HP Legos to any lover of the books or Lego nerd. Weirdly I feel a little apprehensive about putting my Lego love on the web. All you judgers out there - there's nothing wrong with a little joy in a simple thing (be it toy, book, knitting or website creation).

A letter:

Dear Food Network,

I love your challenges. I love your competitions. But I frequently find myself watching Iron Chef and thinking: what about the picky eaters? Or the vegetarians? Or the dietary restriction crowd? I would find it endlessly entertaining to see an Iron Chef or some kind of challenge for picky eaters...or just using the ingredient chicken. Or cheese, yes, cheese! Sure, the chefs can do great things with nice cuts of meat or fish. But what about making them compete vegetarian style? Let's see some thinking outside the box (you can do better than venison. You can do better than "superstars" Iron Chef...although this is compelling and I will probably tune in).

Katie

Testing 1, 2....

Earlier today I decided to move to "blogger beta." There are still some problems with it, so we'll see what happens. After I chose to "migrate" I got this message that it could take a while and I had quite a few moments of panic about whether or not it'd be done before midnight and I would keep my NaBloPoMo streak going.

I think panic is the theme for this weekend. Let's have a really boring post now about the ways I've panicked since yesterday:

1. Blogger migration.
2. Problems with my shopping cart (see last post). My code is word for word the same as the Professor's example and his works while mine doesn't. ANGER. FRUSTRATION. PANIC. Will be "starting over" later this afternoon. Since the databases are done and I understand how the code should look (after typing it 100+ times) starting over isn't really that scary. But I hate when problems are unexplainable/impossible to locate.
   
3. Boku (cat, in case you're new around here) has a very pink eye. And she's sort of "favoring" it, as in not keeping it completely open. The idea of going to the vet again causes untold pain and panic. Especially since I skipped her booster shot and am a terrible cat owner. Just what I want...panic over taking cat to the vet AND being scolded when at the vet. Will wait a few days and hope the pink eye goes away.

Other than that...having a fine time with the homework and weekend. I only have one in-class final on Thursday which I'll prepare for on Wednesday night/Thursday morning.

I'll try to think of something interesting to say for tomorrow. I'm not making any promises though.

Busy, busy, busy....

I've been busy for the last two hours coding a store for my buttons. Sounds exciting...except it's actually my final project for one of my classes and it won't technically be functional. Basically it will be an "honor system" site. It'll have a shopping cart, a checkout and my stock numbers will be decreased by every purchase. But I don't have any credit card functionality and it's hosted on my school's server. So...just a fun practice web site...nothing more. Right now I'm already about half-way done. I have everything put together on the site except the login and checkout pages and the shopping cart functionality. Sounds like a lot, but the background stuff took awhile (all databases have been created).

In other news I have read two Time 100 books since...what was it, last Friday? Yeah, I don't know how I did it either. Fast reads. I think I'll save those reviews for some really sad days where I can't think of anything else to say.

And back to the grind...a not-so-fun weekend ahead involving coding, design scenarios, a horrible group meeting and a design class diagram. Sounds nerdy, eh?

The way this blog leans...

Left.

And content-wise: personal.

I think I have to just embrace the fact that this is a personal blog and will never be anything else. I just really admire people who talk politics, feminism or even craft blogs. It feels like those blogs have such a bigger point (even the craft blogs - to help people craft!). Maybe in the future I'll start shoot-off blogs or just new blogs all together. But for now, this is just about me. And I guess I just need to accept that most of these posts will be self-centered. And so, lets truly embrace that now:

My boobs look awesome. The other day I mentioned the appointment with a "bra fit specialist". And my bra size was WAY off (way). Now I'm happy in my new bra. I can't believe how many attractive, fun bras they have for people with big boobs at the bra fit place. When I looked at the website before we went there I was like....oh no...they have like 5 bra styles. They're going to tell me my boobs are huge (which they did) and then I'm not going to be able to find any bras.

Not so.

I do think I have to return one of the bras I got (let's be honest....exchange. I feel serious yearning to go back to the store and go on a crazy bra buying spree. Totally addicting). Anyway, the bra makes my boobs look awesome, but after wearing it for a while, the seam was right across a sensitive area, and I was seriously overly sensitive. Too bad though...it's a cute bra.

I was going to throw a little contest - see who could guess my real bra size. But I thought better of that idea - that could be seriously damaging to the self-esteem - what if you think I'm a 38M or something? So yeah...no true bra sizes going up here. If you know me personally and can't stand the curiosity, email me and I'll tell you just how big these puppies are!

Paring down...

I have something like 7 ideas for how I want to blog today and I have no idea which is the right way to go. So first let me say that I finally think I am curious about politics and maybe, just maybe I'll be able to follow along with most of what's going down in DC. Maybe.

Moving on...I think that I may have reached the utopia point with my mixture of concerts. In the past month I've seen two concerts that I would not have gone to without a nudge in the right direction (read: free concert ticket). I saw James Taylor and Barbra Streisand. I probably know their music equally (not well). I went to both of these concerts with an open mind. I wound up a little bit bored at both, but bored in a good way. Bored in the "I wish I was right where I am with the addition of a book" way. I don't regret going to either and I feel like I gained something from both (putting what I gained into words is proving harder than my homework from this past weekend so...not gonna do it).

So my concert mixture now includes an overwhelming amount of DMB mixed with a dash of Barbra, Justin Timberlake, Paul McCartney, Keane, James Taylor, Death Cab and Puff Daddy (and many more <-- sing that like the birthday song). And the symphony. Can't get much more diverse (maybe if I had some country, jazz or...?)

Tuesday...

I keep coming up with totally inappropriate names for this post (most of them involving the word tit, which I ABHOR. It's like any other word that you have a weird aversion to...I have a friend who hates to hear the word panties. And another who hates to hear pubic hair. Not because they don't wear panties or don't have pubic hair....just because the word makes them feel weirdly icky). Either way, it has to be said that I'm going to a "bra fit specialist" later and I'm totally obsessed with the idea. Hence the tit.

And now, some bulletudes of crap:

• This morning, when I did my morning wake-up nose blowing, I was convinced for about 1.5 seconds that I had just blown a silverfish bug out of my nose. There was a grey bug like thing in my kleenex. For all of those 1.5 seconds I felt totally disgusted and wanted to burn the inside of my nose to ensure cleanliness. I realized at second number 2 that it was just a very strange shaped and weirdly colored bogey.
• There is a boy in one of my classes who is so hairy that every week I boggle at the extent of his ape-liness. His hair is DARK. And his hands...well, they are ape-like. I think he could braid the hair on his knuckles into the hair on the back of his hand. I am continually transfixed by it - not in a good way.
• Yesterday a man told me I was charming. I recommend to anyone: always push the "door open" button for people getting on elevators (especially if you're the only one in it). Why? Well...you'd want someone to do that for you. And it can lead to a friendly chat about that moment where you panic because you just can't find the door open button - even though you want to push it - where is it??? And then an old man will call you charming because he was so engrossed in your conversation about the door open button that he forgot to choose the floor he needed.

Sorry about my forgetting to post a button yesterday. I'm at work or I'd post them both now. And I have a late night ahead, so you might just get 3 buttons tomorrow. I wonder how many perverts will find this site because of my dirty language in paragraph one? Probably way too many.

Do you hear what I hear...

One of my "cube-mates" is already listening to Christmas music. There is a Chicago-land radio station (93.9 "The Lite") that broadcasts only Christmas music. As my cube-mate and I discussed, it usually starts 2 days before Thanksgiving. Not so anymore. I guess this year it started on November 1. She also said that they play Christmas music for a few days in July (Christmas in July). I clearly sit next to a Christmas music aficionado.

My sister and Mom are probably cackling with glee. Those two being the Christmas music lovers whereas I really could do without it. Maybe listening to Christmas music for two months straight will reform me. Or maybe it will drive me batty. Either way, whenever cube-mate is here...I'll be tuning in.