![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 397 to 421 of 495. Go back in thread:
Posted by alexandra_k on January 4, 2015, at 22:42:01
In reply to Re: uh oh?, posted by alexandra_k on January 4, 2015, at 22:20:20
hmm... i guess it's a stocktake.
the people who wanted to see me... they were the regional office that put through my application for disability in the first place. i started out saying that i did in fact want to study full time. i enrolled in 2 summer school classes (more than full time) and i started out enrolled full time in Bio-Medical science degree, too...
then i cut back to part time... and i was scared that the student loans people would be upset... but that was cool...
so now the work and income people want to see me... so i guess i point out to them that nobody questioned my ability to study full time when they approved disability. i made it clear in my application that i intended to study full time. at the time of application i was working full time on my thesis, even... i was honest about that...
i took a year because of the whole 'general chemistry' thing... so... i think... if i do well... at medicine or law... it'll be okay. they might just be having a cow that i suck at physics :( just wanting to check that i don't intend on sticking with physics until i become a theoretical physicist or something... which i may have threatened at some point, hur... maybe they just feel like arguing with me since i did well in law... maybe they think i'm morally dubious now...
Posted by alexandra_k on January 5, 2015, at 2:42:12
In reply to Re: uh oh?, posted by alexandra_k on January 4, 2015, at 22:42:01
oh, i know what it is. they helped me pay for accommodation and i said i'd pay them back. so now... they are calling me on it.
and i can pay them back... a little bit later. because i spent the money on textbooks, already. and on molecular model kits. i kept most of the receipts... they might be more impressed if i take the pile for demonstration...
when my textbook money comes through (2 weeks before classes start at the earliest) then it will be too late for the textbooks to be particularly useful. i mean... i've got good mileage out of them already and still another couple months to go...
but they can have their money back then. will still be 'early next year' (first third of it) like i said...
if i give the money back to them then, then i wonder if they will help me buy compression gear? i really need more of it...
Posted by alexandra_k on January 5, 2015, at 20:59:00
In reply to Re: uh oh?, posted by alexandra_k on January 5, 2015, at 2:42:12
i didn't spend the money, i realise. it's still there, sitting in my rent account.
i did the right thing, physics for summer school. it will make more sense going through things a second time...
and i've met the lecturers for the course, and i like them well, enough.
and i much prefer to focus on just one class at a time...
and it gives me something to do.
i did a spin class today, and it was good. i might get into a routine of class and then gym class and then homework / working through problems. i feel like i have a much better grip of what we are supposed to be up to, now. following through worked examples so i can replicate them. getting the right answer out of a few homework problems. that's the idea. and just keep up with things as best i can...
i think... i'm going to have to stop posting, hey. i wonder how long it will take for me to vanish into the archives?
?
:(
Posted by alexandra_k on January 7, 2015, at 19:20:29
In reply to Re: uh oh?, posted by alexandra_k on January 5, 2015, at 20:59:00
so things got hard, already. after only 2 days. he went a bit easier on us today... but test next week. summer school is only a few weeks long, really. we do mechanics in like, 6 lectures.
i really didn't follow the calculus stuff that went up before the class started... but in class he did geometric derivations of 5 mechanics equations. i found the geometric derivations much easier to follow. not that i'm confident in my following... but parts made sense, which is more than i could say for the calculus...
anyway... i sort of have a head-ache. get to the point where my head hurts and my brain feels full. went for a big walk yesterday then had trouble sleeping and woke up achy and cranky and tired. a few people looked tired... the heat is pretty bad, too.
apart from the icky humid heat... this time of year is the very best time of year. only graduate students and professors around... and students enrolled in summer school. and, as our lecturer pointed out, we are the smart motivated ones who would rather do summer school than go to the beach. and... we are. people are dispersing... i don't see any clumping. and everyone is smart... and very anxious about being stupid. he said something about how we are smart and we all looked really scared...
get something right and you feel like god, honestly. get something wrong and you feel dumber than a rock. over and over. i think everyone goes through the same thing. everyone is their own worst critic. it makes it hard, though. egos are so very fragile. including my own. anyway... onward ho...
i think i learned how to rearrange for time...
Posted by alexandra_k on January 8, 2015, at 17:21:53
In reply to Re: uh oh?, posted by alexandra_k on January 7, 2015, at 19:20:29
i know why... it is because either you get it, or you don't. either it's obvious, or it's incomprehensible. when you get it you can't imagine how people can possibly miss it. and when you don't get it... and you see how it is so very f*ck*ng obvious to everyone else... you feel really rather stupid, indeed.
like when you grasp the cogito. in it's obviousness. and kant on how suicide can't be rationally willed.
though the obviousness (even the truth) of the latter two come and go...
and people have written rather a lot on how obviousness might not be truth tracking...
Posted by alexandra_k on January 16, 2015, at 23:33:33
In reply to Re: uh oh?, posted by alexandra_k on January 8, 2015, at 17:21:53
I got a B+ for my physics test :)
of course, that was the easiest part of the course... but, still, i got a B+ for a physics test WOO HOO!!!
Posted by ClearSkies on January 17, 2015, at 11:15:49
In reply to Re: uh oh?, posted by alexandra_k on January 16, 2015, at 23:33:33
Woo hoo indeed!
Posted by alexandra_k on January 24, 2015, at 17:24:11
In reply to Re: uh oh?, posted by ClearSkies on January 17, 2015, at 11:15:49
thanks.
i think i'm starting to understand some of the basic math stuff that everything else is built on.
unit conversions... the idea of an inversely proportional relationship... as one increases by a factor the other decreases by one over the factor... which makes it smaller... a decimal... less than one... whereas dividing a number by 1 is just that same number...
and inverse square laws...
and area... and about how half base times height isn't specifically about (half base) times heigher... it is syntactically equivalent to (base times height) divided by 2 (same as times 1/2 or .5) just reading things...
2 pi r... looks odd, too... it isn't (2 times pi) times radius... it is more that it is 2 x the radius (because we really want the diameter) times pi (which is just the number you get when you divide circumference by diameter and hence the number you multiply diameter by in order to get the circumference).
anyway...
i'm also starting to see how having the equation is one thing... but the equations aren't 'in their most general form' (I think that is the problem). so... it is problematic to figure out which equation you need... because you need to know about the constraints or assumptions of the equation. for instance... it might take a mg value... or it might not... you might need to normalize mg by taking the... uh... sin of the angle and use that value in the mg place in the equation...
of course... if you really understand the relationship between the physical quantities... equations are.... easily remembered. or made up. or something. sigh.
i have learned so very much this year.
Posted by alexandra_k on January 24, 2015, at 17:36:32
In reply to Re: uh oh?, posted by alexandra_k on January 24, 2015, at 17:24:11
and yet, strangely, the physics people give us a pull out page of equations (though often not in their most useful form...)
the chemistry people make you remember your equations, but they give you a periodic table (with mass values etc)...
Posted by ClearSkies on January 25, 2015, at 14:56:23
In reply to Re: uh oh?, posted by alexandra_k on January 24, 2015, at 17:36:32
My mind is boggling just reading about it, and I get to relive my high school anxiety. I tried so hard in every subject, but struggled so much in math and chemistry. I loved physics, though, in every way. Biology was way cool.
But it was the kind of school where (I sensed) you were encouraged to excel as much as you could wherever you could.
So, fine art. Theatre. Music, dance. Keeper of memoirs. That's how I went through school.
Posted by alexandra_k on January 25, 2015, at 20:45:18
In reply to Re: uh oh?, posted by ClearSkies on January 25, 2015, at 14:56:23
ah.
drugs and alcohol and inappropriate relations with one of my teachers.
that's how i got through secondary school... and my first year at university, i guess.
Posted by alexandra_k on January 25, 2015, at 20:46:38
In reply to Re: uh oh?, posted by alexandra_k on January 25, 2015, at 20:45:18
of course that strategy also got me into hospital... and nearly got me killed... a number of times... meh... ancient history.
Posted by ClearSkies on January 26, 2015, at 13:15:35
In reply to Re: uh oh?, posted by alexandra_k on January 25, 2015, at 20:46:38
May our ancient history ossify as it should.
Posted by alexandra_k on January 27, 2015, at 20:34:52
In reply to Re: uh oh?, posted by ClearSkies on January 26, 2015, at 13:15:35
tee hee I had to look 'ossify' up... i needed to be reminded of it's general meaning after learning about bony fishes...
i learned i came first in class for law! yay me! so happy! i mean... most of the serious law kids did it the semester before, but who knows, i might have kicked their *ss*s too... i guess we'll never know... unless i do some more law...
feeling happy about physics these days. i'm starting to get a general sense of... the physics curriculum that relies on algebra. starting to feel... comfortable with it. like it is reminders. i mean, not entirely... but parts of it. getting the sense of it being a finite amount of material that seems realistic...
how... in later years you would look back on it with fondness. at its ease and simplicity. like how i look back on (well written) first year philosophy of... well... anything, really. perhaps especially descartes... or religion... or mind...
getting little glimmers of how if i could differentiate i could figure out this and that... or whatever...
i remember a great philosopher... once said that what he aimed for in his talks was a 'rule of thirds'. the idea was that 1/3 of the talk should be comprehensible to a general educated audience. 2/3 of the talk should be comprehensible to philosophy grads / professors. and that last third... was for the specialists. people who worked in his area. philosophy of mind or... perhaps... a more specific aspect of the philosophy of mind.
i liked that.
i'm getting a sense of the physics lectures as being something like that.. where expecting me to master 1/3 is realistic. that middle third is work - but do-able. that last third... parts of it... i'd really need to give a bit more of a crap. to learn how to differentiate etc... and... i won't. so... i won't be getting any kind of an A... which seems completely fair, to me... but i hope to get a good B+... and come out with some good basic understanding of physics. yeah.
and chemical bonds are like springs, yeah. masses on strings... dammit. they bloody well would be haha. seriously, though, i'm liking it. yeah. it is... conceptually really f*ck*ng cool. and hard... but once you get it so freaking simple. rearranging equations is like... doing forwards and backwards flips... i still don't entirely have it... but i'm getting there. for reals. and the soh cah toa thing... i finally get that. i mean... i get why it is helpful. i didn't know what the hell it was supposed to be good for before... and square roots... i'm starting to feel a little happier about those...
we're doing waves now.. then we do maybe sound... but a bunch of stuff with prisms. i still don't get all the stuff with the eye so... looking forward to that... i f*ck*d up most of optics last time round but i don't understand why because i thought i was the boss of those damned drawings...
:(
i get a dyscalculia screening test tomorrow.
Posted by ClearSkies on January 30, 2015, at 12:45:55
In reply to Re: uh oh?, posted by alexandra_k on January 27, 2015, at 20:34:52
Congratulations on the law grade and your general kick *ss status.
Posted by alexandra_k on February 1, 2015, at 15:26:29
In reply to Re: uh oh?, posted by ClearSkies on January 30, 2015, at 12:45:55
thanks, pc :)
it helps to feel that i have some kind of a backup... that should lead to some kind of a job... i mean... law jobs are fairly hard to find these days, but if i do well...
anyway... it means something to have that there, on my transcript. whenever people deal with first year students the first thing they want is your student ID so they can check you out... because there are so very many first year students... and it is fair to say that at least half of them are just pissing about... having a first recorded in anything means something. most especially since i don't have some rich private school recorded as last secondary school attended (which probably has similar effect on how respectful people are to your queries once they've looked you up)... and law is competitive... so... that is very nice indeed. very nice.
i mostly feel relieved, honestly.
clawing my way up... eventually...
i really don't know if medicine will want me :(
but then... they do bitch and moan about how much paper work needs to be done these days... which is part of why they are offering this pathway of people who are good at paper work. heh. it will really matter rather a lot how well i do for organic chemistry... especially the math-sy second half. and the dreaded UMAT. and population health... stats stats stats all these messy measures of... whatever you want to find, really. i think maybe that is the take-home?
Posted by alexandra_k on February 6, 2015, at 21:28:58
In reply to Re: uh oh?, posted by alexandra_k on February 1, 2015, at 15:26:29
i'm having a hard time with physics... the lecturer changed, and i don't like the new one. i... don't think he enjoys his teaching, particularly. and he doesn't really work through problems with us... mostly gives us text blah de blah that we could get from the book... shows us derivations that we won't have to do... doesn't really work examples for us so we can follow the number magic along the way...
anyway... it has killed my motivation. just like how the kinetics lady killed the later part of chemistry. and the thermodynamics guy killed the later part of the last physics class. Partly... i guess the stuff just does get harder later. partly... i think they poop out (even though they are just starting)... i think part of it is just putting the crappy people at the end...
so... i did say that it wasn't so helpful to have been given a big list of exercises all in a clump... instead of 2 or 3 each night... and without worked solutions / numeric answers we couldn't even see which ones of them we could do... and he defended himself (of course he did) and then... after other people hit him up (i guess) he gave out numeric answers... but i, uh, don't want to work for him. have no motivation whatsoever. not after that.
which is bad, huh. i didn't know i was like this... i'm not entirely sure what it is about... it is faintly concerning...
the learning disability people have been terrific to me. i had a dyscalculia screening and i got, like, 97%. so... i don't have dyscalculia... not even a teeny tiny bit. i can go on the same way from the patterns etc... it is just that my number fact knowledge is crap etc.
apparently it is standard (from autistic spectrum dx) to get a examination room of less than 20 people and 10 minutes extra time per hour of exam. she said it would help my UMAT application if there were precedent... so we put in an application... and they have got back to me about the accommodations being approved for my physics exam, already. wow. the extra time will help me with the maths-y bits for chemistry... and population health (where we don't get a calculator and need to do basic statistics) etc. yay. and the UMAT, of course. since half the battle with it is about 1,000 people all cramped into a warehouse... and it takes them over 2 hours to seat everyone before you get close to starting...
physics test on monday... exam in a little over a week after that. then one week and a half until classes start. for reals. wow. this is it. wow.
Posted by alexandra_k on February 12, 2015, at 23:07:13
In reply to Re: uh oh?, posted by alexandra_k on February 6, 2015, at 21:28:58
So I finally registered for the UMAT... And they have done little youtube videos working through the answers for some of the problems! I haven't looked at them, yet. I... Want to try and do them myself, first. I don't know what the quality will be like, etc. But I feel... Excited about it. I have been feeling... Despair... About the UMAT. But the Khan Academy website... No matter how low into despair you feel about physics or chemistry or whatever... You can always watch a little youtube video. Of course you can. And you are getting into your work, before you know it :)
I hunted out a medical journal for this country, too. A few articles on the selection process and stuff... One on people's reflections on their first year (later year pharmacy and medical students). So... I feel like in reading that... I have some quality advice. Reliable. Stuff on the selection process... And I can read between the lines a bit, too. They DID do me a favor in not letting me into Otago. I WOULD have bombed out on their first year curriculum (as I would have bombed out here if I had have done this years work last year...) Most other students do, you see. The ones they let in on the pathway I applied to... The ones without the chemistry / physics background... The main interviewer... One of the paper authors... So... I accept that now. I mean... I would be delusional to think it was written for me... But things feel like they make sense.
Also... Discretion, yeah. For diversity. I think that is a good thing. It is something they... Down-play... I guess because they think the public won't understand. I think... Science communication rah rah we under-estimate the public, sometimes... I think there is still a little of the old school 'we need to believe they are the best of the best of the best!'... And a little of the... Incomprehending (honestly, some of the articles people seem barely literate the standard of writing is appalling!)... Times are changing... Something about... Giving people an out, too. The interview. It helping the community feel involved (interview panel) and it helping give people an out. As... I guess... I guess I took with the last interview. In saying what I did. In giving them the opportunity to give me an out for (it turns out) probably the reason that they did.
This time... Well... I decided I wanted it enough to take the preparatory year... And pay for the UMAT... And purchase the prep books (as 1/2 of the interviewed people who were accepted said they did)... And so on... I really do think... It is going to be okay. Yeah.
:)
Posted by alexandra_k on February 13, 2015, at 16:12:27
In reply to Re: uh oh?, posted by alexandra_k on February 12, 2015, at 23:07:13
Dr-Bob?
Where are you?
Posted by alexandra_k on February 13, 2015, at 16:12:40
In reply to Helloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, posted by alexandra_k on February 13, 2015, at 16:12:27
Dr-Bob?
Where are you?
Posted by alexandra_k on February 13, 2015, at 16:12:53
In reply to Re: Helloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, posted by alexandra_k on February 13, 2015, at 16:12:40
Dr-Bob?
Where are you?
Posted by alexandra_k on February 13, 2015, at 16:13:08
In reply to Re: Helloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, posted by alexandra_k on February 13, 2015, at 16:12:53
Dr-Bob?
Where are you?
Posted by alexandra_k on February 13, 2015, at 16:13:21
In reply to Re: Helloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, posted by alexandra_k on February 13, 2015, at 16:13:08
Dr-Bob?
Where are you?
Posted by alexandra_k on February 13, 2015, at 16:13:34
In reply to Re: Helloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, posted by alexandra_k on February 13, 2015, at 16:13:21
Dr-Bob?
Where are you?
Posted by alexandra_k on February 13, 2015, at 16:13:48
In reply to Re: Helloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, posted by alexandra_k on February 13, 2015, at 16:13:34
Dr-Bob?
Where are you?
Go forward in thread:
Psycho-Babble Social | Extras | FAQ
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.org
Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.