Learn to be humble

I had my first lesson in learning to be humble: my very first C++ lab. I was kind of lost, not knowing what I am doing, trying to figure it out, and not paying enough attention to the instruction that mention time limit to upload my work... uploading the unfinished file on top of the finished correct one (that means I lost the good one).
Anyhow, it was a good first lesson that taught me to be humble. Here I am like any other undergraduate, realizing that in my class I have colleagues who know programing, know what they are doing.

I am confident I do the good thing by being a student again. So now I understand my own EPFR515 students' struggle when I ask them to use the Blackboard discussion board and design their own first blog. Some did not hear ever before this "blog" word and have no clue what is all about. More than that some have a generic e-mail account (1-2 not even an e-mail account) that they don't use too often. When I tell them that setting up a blog account is like setting up an e-mail account, and posting is like writing e-mail.... but if they do not use the e-mail...
Now I can feel and understand their frustration.

I had to install on my PC the program that will allow me to complete my C++ assignments. I had no clue what .iso files are and how should one burn a CD from .iso files. Thank Google I found the instructions, and managed myself to have all done (OK, in two days!). Friday the internet at my house was down because my provider had some system problems for 24 hours. I did not know I am so dependent on the internet, without it I am "dead." I cannot imagine life without internet... isn't that interesting? In Romania I did not have e-mail, I did not even see too many computers, and was using one for the first time when I was in college in mid '90s.

I enjoy learning C++. I also know that having a Ph. D. does not make me any different from my undergraduate colleagues in CS 140! Some of those guys can be my teachers.
This is a lesson to learn being humble.

Fall semester 2006

From Summer school into Fall semester with a 24 hour vacation :-)

Sarah my friend from New York, she is a faculty at Hunter college, arrived last Friday and I drove her up to Springfield to visit her Mom (Sarah grew up in Springfield). Saturday morning we visited Lincoln Museum, the old State Capitol, and the historic street with Lincoln's house.

Monday August 21st, 2006 Fall semester started with full power.
This semester I teach Cognition to graduate students. I modified the syllabus and it seems pretty dense, but is more flexible and dynamic. Group discussions, article critique, blackboard postings, workshops, flyer, and final project. In all tasks my students can choose the topic. So, there is no more assigned topic, is all choice based. Technology is still a big part and I still use the blog posting as a mean of final project presentation. If nothing else they will have one more skill to use (or forget about!). I know I scared them, but if they work hard they will do good.

I am myself a student taking CS140- Computing I, and I will learn C++. It seems much harder than my EPFR515 class. I'll see how I manage and complete all my assignments: 3 courses to teach, 1 course to take, 3 current projects to work at, and service in AAUW, member in Program Evaluation, added department and core meetings, along with publishing.
Hey I have a full life, 24/7!

I know I can do it! I even take care of my sanity and take Taylor to agility classes and myself one hour per week to riding classes :-)
Life is full.
Life is good!

No more procrastination

One more week till Fall semester starts on August 21st, 2006.
I will teach three evening courses: Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday (this is off campus- in Belleville, IL).
I did not have vacation this summer. Teaching all summer long was not a good idea at all. Not worth it....



I am behind projects: academic, research, and personal.
I posted for myself timelines, deadlines, tasks, projects, and all schedules. I still hope I am realistic. And if I can manage them all and keep my sanity that means I am cured of procrastination. There is not time in my calendar for procrastination. I will have a VERY heavy loaded schedule this Fall semester. I just want to survive it till December, till Christmas break. I might crash at that point but hey, who cares if I ace all my targets! :-)

Now it comes the time when I apply all that I learned in my Psychology courses and from many books I read on procrastination, time management, goal setting, coping with stress, and positive thinking.

God help me!

the fear behind the story...

I am revising an article and usually I like to have background noise, so I just clicked on the TV remote till something not too noisy came on "Pretty woman" with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere.

Mostly listening fragments of the movie I remembered this picture on that web page I presented earlier this year Lost puppy liar. It is a guy in Canada designing these interesting pictures. Now, I don't like as much the picture as the message, and I think the guy intended to send a message, as the movie's message behind the scenes, in the real world.

Why do I remember this particular picture listening in the background to the movie? I think when I first saw "Pretty woman" I was looking too intense to the actors and what they are doing, what is happening, and I was mesmerized by the Happy End - I did not think about the real story behind... Today I try hard to fix this article, going over and over again and changing, fixing, and remodeling words; I feel frustration, pain, and fear that I will miss something essential. So, this time around I somehow could hear (from the fragments I paid attention to) what is the message behind the actors' words. She is a prostitute, even if we are mesmerized by Julia Robers, she does play a prostitute... and we all know the reality is far from being such a happy ending as is in this movie.

I think it is much pain, frustration, and fear (yes, fear - this is why I remembered this picture).
Those girls are sex objects, they are not loved, not one of the men cares about how those girls feel, what they like, what they dream about. They are looked at like objects whith what one can play with and then trash, they are only the puppets... I believe in reality those girls carry lots of fear.

Too hot! Gone fishing :-)