We survived the trip to California, not much worse for the wear. We didn't get to visit everyone and everywhere that we wanted but overall the trip was a success (and too short, but isn't it always?). We made it back home with our apartment intact, our plants still (mostly) living. I inadvertently killed our basil... apparently you're supposed to pinch off the flowers? The stems transitioned from herbaceous to woody for the most part. Our mint still lives but I think we're just going to start over and have each herb in it's own pot instead of the windowsill box.
George's sister did us the favor of going to the venue's meal tasting for us, as they were unable to accomodate one for us while we were in the area over the holidays. She sent us her notes and our menu is done! Etiquette says that I need to wait until the 3 month mark to send out invitations (just under 4 months now!) and I'm getting impatient. I've had these invitations since July. Patience is a virtue and I have limited quantities of it. Just ask George. I gave him his Christmas present before Thanksgiving because I was too excited about it. He opened his birthday/anniversary present 4/13 days before the actual occasions.
Dress is done with alterations, though I haven't had the chance to do my final fitting before taking it into my possession. George ordered his wedding band. A close friend is going to premarital counseling as mandated by the church that's doing the service. After hearing that, I thought "Should we be doing that? Why didn't I think to do it in the first place? What if we don't match up on paper? Ohgodohgodohgod." Thankfully we were able to go through pseudo premarital counseling by asking ourselves these questions (which went very well! We're very excited about the future.) I'm starting to get to the stage of planning where I'm getting sick of planning and I just want the damn thing over with.
Our five year anniversary was last week! It was a very low key day, but it was wonderful :) Our last dating anniversary! This next year is going to be awesome.
We've been dealing with new neighbors since we came back from break. All of them have the neighborly consideration of a frat house. I've had to knock on each of their doors several times because I can not only hear what they're watching on TV but the bass is so loud that the pictures on our walls shake, and my feet vibrate. I HATE SHARING WALLS WITH PEOPLE. I cannot WAIT to move. Honestly?! Who does that? Why would you have your volume and bass up that loud when you share walls with three different apartments??
I'm applying for several scholarships, one of which is very distinguished within NOAA and the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. It would fund the remainder of my graduate career and would make life OH SO MUCH EASIER. I came in with a two year scholarship from College Station, and after dealing with the bureaucracy of being a TA in Galveston but taking College Station hours and figuring out who pays for what, I just want to be self sufficient. Fortunately the huge grant I'm applying for sounds like it was written for me, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed. I'm also STILL WAITING to hear back from the Office of Graduate Studies on my change of degree from Master's to PhD. Even though they've had the paperwork in hand for weeks. The sooner they process it, the sooner I can submit my grant application and not worry about confusion for technically being a Master's student when I applied, when actually I'm PhD.
I'm teaching Marine Botany lab this semester and already I can tell that it's going to be interesting. Their first assignment was to pick one of the five scientific articles that we posted to the class website and write a 250 word summary. Now keep in mind that they have access to the rubric that we're using to grade their assignments. THEY KNOW WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR. And still people submitted incomplete assignments. Two of my students very blatantly plagiarized. One of the two submitted a summary with not a single original sentence. Everything, and I do mean everything, was copy-pasted. This same student submitted a nearly perfect paper this past week with everything cited, which sent off red alerts in my head. Something fishy is going on with this student, but I have no proof of anything.
A couple of my students can't write proper English to save their lives. One of the papers they were given to summarize (which the majority chose) was an article about how whale fecal matter in the upper water column contributes to the nutrients available for phytoplankton to utilize in photosynthesis. The following is an excerpt from a summary submitted by a college senior:
The authors use wishy-washy math and have "conservative" answers eluding their uncertainty. Poop, while grim; this was an interesting take on how it enhances life.
Take a minute to read and let that soak in.
Still don't understand what he's trying to say? Neither do I. Here's a short list of the few problems I have with this excerpt:
- Since when is math "wishy-washy?"
- Why are you using the phrase "wishy-washy" when writing a scientific article summary?
- Do you know what the word "eluding" means?
- Why did you say "poop" when writing a scientific article summary? The article clearly references "poop" as "fecal matter."
- "Poop, while grim" is not an independent clause, therefore there should not be a semicolon after it.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How do these kids get into college? How have they gotten this far? Why are they trying to make my life miserable? WHY???
(I have the feeling that I'll be asking the question "WHY?????" a lot this semester.)
The "poop" student also submitted his next report with a picture of his grading rubric instead of the document. He could have just copy-pasted the rubric into his report, but instead he took a picture of a printed rubric and inserted the picture into his report.
WHY????????
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