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To be sleeping would be nice.
Today was a day of rough edges. Not sure why, but I could feel them in a strange way. Naturally I worked to avoid them, but I’m sitting here pondering what to say to the silent world of blog readers and I’m reflecting on my day. Self-reference is one way we associate memories to events…something like that. Discussion session tonight for “Search and Retrieval” was a fast paced sprint through the woods. Maybe it was just me.
My wife and one cat have already gone to bed and are likely to have fluttery brain signals at this moment. The other cat is sitting on my desk wondering when I’ll head to bed so he can go to sleep. Cats are weird but nice to have around seeing how they can be curious companions.
Seeing how this blog is about my experience as a graduate student, what is up with that? Well, I attended the discussion session for one class this evening and don’t have another class until Friday. All my other classes are on Friday which is usually a lot of rushing around campus to be places on time. Last week the lectures were very thought provoking. My brain was twitching a bit. Between now and Friday I have to read 3 chapters in a text book on Cognitive Psychology and it’s implications. There are some other readings and a final review of the two assignments due on Friday.
I just received an email from my test database server telling me that it’s restore failed. That needs to be done by tomorrow morning for testing and such so I have to go attend to that then I want to go to sleep.
~spike out~
In the grip of learning
Starting the fourth week of classes and I definately feel the squeeze. My brain is wriggling under the pressure to absorb these seemingly obscure concepts. Economics has always been a difficult subject for me. Extracting preference and probabilities from real world situations into math problems has always seemed like wizardry while at the same time having a certain intuitive sense. Whatever it is, I’m having a hard time understanding economics and human behavior. Not a big surprise to me, but I’ll work through it.
So I have to finish this up, work out then go to work. In the background I’m trying to organize my growing mountain of data. Sorting, organizing, copying, deleting.
Early to rise
I woke up early this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. Nagged by these challenging homework problems, thoughts of work, projects etc. … might as well just get up, I said to myself.
So I did. I configured a blog for my brother. We’ll see if he uses it.
I’ll be heading into work in about an hour and a half. I have 503 section tonight from 7-8 PM. Could be a long one. Time to hit the crosstrainer.
Added later: As it turns out…my place of business is without power and people were being sent home.
Freezing rain and homework
This is Angell Hall on the edge of central campus at the University of Michigan. I’m on my way to Friday lecture of SI 502 in Auditorium D. A year or two ago I did some research and spent $100 on a very small 1.3 Megapixel pocket-sized digital camera. All in all, this has been a great camera. Very small and it takes decent pictures. DK and I met for coffee and tea across the street from Angell Hall before lecture on Friday.
This other image is West Hall. This is where most of the classes and the admin offices for the School of Information are located. Took this picture on my way to discussion for Choice and Learning.
I reviewed my class assignments a little bit yesterday but not enough. Having today off work is a blessing as it gives me a chance to try and catch up. Lots to read yet and new assignments for each class due on Friday. There are a number of bonus problems that are due today…if I decide to do them. Sunny’s paper on the L game was solid. Mine wasn’t as nicely done. I might need those bonus points.
Freezing rain is interesting. This is a bird feeder hanging off our deck. Not a bird feeder so much as a birdcage.
Thursday morning post
I should be reading chapters for class tomorrow but I’m sipping a cup of coffee, foraging circumstances. I have one night that I can work on class assignments before lectures tomorrow. There is time in the morning, but not a lot if I’m to meet with DK to talk about blogging and whatever. Work is interesting as always. Full of opportunity and rife with matters dealing of people, information, and technology.
The Wife returned from New York late last night having been to the headquarters of the business division where we both work. She is still sleeping, and I should be reading the next chapter in “Microeconomics and Behavior” or generating some activity on my class blog experiment. “Attention”, as one professor asserts, is and has always been the scarce resourse. A blog is interesting when you stumble upon them, but is there more value when there is evidence of attention? I’ve vested about 15 minutes of attention into writing this entry. And now ~10 seconds of your attention.
One way that I can gauge attention, assuming of course that some of this is “noise”, is to compare this with this and this. How long will they get attention? Are these numbers sufficient to recognize a behavior pattern? A changing graph would be better, but this is a start.
I’ve been thinking about (get this…my step mother that I’ve never met) out west with my oldest brother and father. We have exchanged a couple emails. Here’s to you CB.