Science Monkey

I was at work late last night, proctoring the first biochemistry exam. It wasn’t too bad, although I apparently had the best room. One of the four TAs didn’t show up (and has apparently quit the TA-ship, if not grad school in general, but neglected to tell the professor in charge of the class) so one TA had to run between two rooms. Meanwhile, in the big auditorium room we were about 50 exams short! Poor Dr. Allison had to keep running to the copier to make more exams. There were 506 people scheduled to take the exam last night and he ordered 540 copies of the exam, so we should have had plenty, but somehow we ended up *way* short. I’m wondering if the 5 and 4 didn’t get transposed, so we actually got 450 copies instead.

Otherwise, it really wasn’t too bad. There were a few typos that people caught along the way and there were a few silly questions — “What does he mean by ’size’? Weight?” “Um…I think he means size.” — but nothing truly ridiculous. The first person done in my room finished after about a half hour (the exam was scheduled for 2 hours) and I suspect that she did well. She was the first one in the room when I opened it up, sat down front, was well-organized with her pencils and calculators…she had the facade of a diligent student, at the very least.

And now that this exam is done, my TA responsibilities are essentially over. This exam had a lot of acid/base questions — yay, math! — so traditionally people come to the office hours for help with those. The next few exams are glycolysis and the TCA cycle and things that you just have to memorize, essentially. As a TA, there’s not much I can do to help you learn those pathways, so I suspect my office hours will be held in the lab, with a sign on the library door saying where to find me if needed. Not bad for $600, eh? Plus, I get to say the word “proctor” a lot, which always makes me giggle inside. Proctor.

So I’ve got a bit of a problem with WoW. It’s not that I feel compelled to play at work (although I do, but I can control that urge, at least for the most part). The problem is that there are so freaking many websites and databases with WoW information! I can spend the entire day sitting at my laptop, flipping between WOWWiki and Thottbot and Wowhead and the Armory and completely nerding out over gear. Do I want +int or +spirit? +Stamina, sure, but at what cost? And what weapon should I be rolling around with? More than one? I’m actually running around with four right now, which I recognize is totally excessive, but I’ve got: 1) my dagger that I’ve been using for the past 12 levels, decent for melee; 2) my casting staff, with its +int and +spirit; 3) a healing staff; and 4) a nice one-hand mace, because I’m trying to get my proficiency up. I don’t (yet) have multiple sets of gear for different circumstances, but I’m starting to think about it. Probably the multiple kits will be useful when I actually get into raiding, so I’m not in so much of a hurry. Yesterday I mentioned running ZF this past weekend which was nice for the experience and quests, but the real reason I wanted to run it was for a kilt that Sezz’izzzzz (whatever) drops and a staff that Zum’rah drops. And let’s not talk about the crafting sites…

What a nerd I’ve become. Well, what a nerd I’ve let loose. I’ve always been nerdy but I try to keep that side under control. Oh well. I’m having a hell of a lot of fun, but probably should try to moderate it a bit, so I can actually finish my degree. ABD = bad. PhD = good.

And my last posts were how short? Uff da!

Life has been pretty good here in Heggestad/Caplan-land. We’re enjoying the company of our newest resident, Tiger the chinchilla, who is un-fucking-believably cute. I put some pictures up on my Flickr page and will get some more up probably later tonight. She’s so so cute I just can’t stand it sometimes. The cats have been remarkably tolerant, too, which has been nice. Although…I am a little worried that they’ve been *too* accepting and am starting to question their observational powers. Maybe they don’t care because their lives are not too significantly disrupted. The only resource that Tiger competes for is our attention, and, well, they’re cats. As long as they have food and comfortable places to sleep, they’re pretty much okay.

I’ve been playing a little less WoW than previously, but I’m still progressing nicely. Waradwen’s up to 51, so woo-hoo! I ran Zul’Farrak this weekend with some guildies and the lovely and talented hunter Linada which was totally a blast. I sort-of screwed up the timing of the run, though, because I missed the season premieres of The Simpsons and Family Guy. Sigh. Family Guy sounds like it was great enough to go look for online. Hmm…anyway. No real progression in my tradeskills recently. I’m at 300 herbalism and 295 alchemy and can’t go higher until I get to Outland, which isn’t for a little while. I know I could buy a port there, or beg my guild friends, but I’m not in a hurry. Then again, it’d be nice to progress in the skills…I’ve been lax in my Monday Morning Screenshots of late because there hasn’t been a whole lot of change. I took a picture yesterday afternoon with my new hat and it’s at the bottom of this post. Do you like my hat?

Work has been okay the past few weeks. Nothing terribly exciting. No significant data or anything. I’ve got a committee meeting a week from Friday and am freaking out to a minor degree given my recent dearth of data. Maybe…maybe it’ll have to get rescheduled for some unknown reason. That’d just be tragic, wouldn’t it? Maybe we can push it back to…like…November? I should have some data by then. Oh, probably not.

Enough rambling for now. More work, less goofing off. Yeah, right.

Tiger-Schmutz Feller Heggestad Caplan

A family portrait from our Orlando wife:

I’m working today! Really!

After missing a week, we’re back with today’s Monday Morning Screenshot. Waradwen’s been hanging around in the Hinterlands the past few days and got a groovy new fishing pole and leveled twice this weekend. I’m hoping to hit 49 later this week and want to do a little PvP before pushing forwards.

I don’t think I’m fond of the new tabard. The kitten’s cute and all, but the green isn’t my favorite. Orange and blue with a gator, anybody? Heh.

Look what’s we just dropped off at the frame shop! Framing is remarkably expensive. It’ll look great when it’s done, though. Woo!

If you haven’t seen this project, I’d highly recommend it. There’s a fascinating backstory, too. Yay Apelad’s great grandfather! And, amazingly enough, his family saved them so you can buy the originals, too! Hurray!

I have a bunch that I want to write about but don’t want to think about enough to write coherently, so real content posts are going to be a bit limited for the time being. As if the past month hasn’t been obvious.

Emma helped me start reorganizing my office yesterday. We swapped the weight bench from my office for the futon in the “guest” room. This should result in a better use of space.

My office before the move:

My office afterwards:

Still need to clean a bunch, but we made good progress. Better, right?

I am such a wuss. I can’t tell you how unpleasant this was. I don’t regret it and am glad I have it, but am not getting another one for a long while.