Friday, May 29, 2009

Strange Reminders of the Past

I was in contact with three people today I haven't spoken to in a long time: a friend from Junior Achievement and two former students. Weird how it happened all in one day. It was a little strange to talk to the former students since they are in post-secondary school just like me. They are the age of my peers and older than some of my friends from school.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Nonsensical

"Two batsmen scored centuries yesterday"

That's just crazy talk.

Friday, May 15, 2009

A Good Economic Example to Follow

Thriving Norway Provides an Economics Lesson - LANDON THOMAS Jr., NY Times Online, May 14, 2009
Instead of spending its oil riches, Norway saved, and it is now growing in the midst of the global recession.

Ugh, gross

Food Companies Are Placing the Onus for Safety on Consumers
- MICHAEL MOSS, NY Times Online, May 15, 2009
Makers of processed foods have increased their efforts to eliminate pathogens, but with uneven results.

Increasingly, the corporations that supply Americans with processed foods are unable to guarantee the safety of their ingredients. In this case, ConAgra could not pinpoint which of the more than 25 ingredients in its pies was carrying salmonella. Other companies do not even know who is supplying their ingredients, let alone if those suppliers are screening the items for microbes and other potential dangers, interviews and documents show.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Well, three out of four ain't bad

Wow, wow, wow. When US sports pundits admit they think the Stanley Cup Playoffs are more exciting than the NBA playoffs, you know something special is going on.

I'd like to think that my poor predictions have more to do with 15 of the 16 teams had an honest chance of winning. To be truthful, the only second round prediction I got wrong was thinking Boston would beat Carolina. Boston lost to Carolina in overtime of game 7 so it wasn't a bad pick. Anyway, here is my revised predictions based more on what I'd like to happen more than anything:

Overheard

Lady 1: "How are you doing?"
Lady 2: "I've been having problems with electronics and nickels."

An Example of Funded Research

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Too Upset to Sleep

As my boss is away, I receive the questions and comments for the math website then appropriately distribute. Tonight someone sent a complaint about a question posted over 9 years ago. It is true that the response needs to be rewritten for clarity but I wish didn't I have to read it. Not that I'm all rainbows and kittens but that kind of negativity makes my tummy hurt.

Did I not get the memo?

Is there no Thursday this week? Woo hoo! Four day work week!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Ok, maybe things will be alright

Even though I will not get full time hours as promised, I have found a bit more work for the summer. My boss from the math education website has a ton of funding so even though he hired someone for the summer, he says he still could find some work for me. The prof who I am doing research for found work for me working on a website for a private elementary school. I also decided to take a class this summer since I have the time.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Now my tummy is starting to get nervous

I found out about a week ago that my summer job will not be full time as promised. Last summer when I was hired the plan was to job share with another student who had one year of school left. They hired me because they wanted someone with several years left in their degree so that I could continue the same research summer to summer. The plan for this year was the work to be full time (as told to me first when I got the job last year and reiterated up until last month). I had a class with the professor this semester who promised me the full time work and he told me as I was handing in my final exam. He said he wanted to give some work to the student who was graduating and I could just ask the math department for part time work like I did last year. WHAATTT! I was offered 3 jobs over the course of this last semester that I would have loved to have. I turned them down because I had already committed to working for this professor. There was another job that I would have loved to have that I could have applied for. The start date for all of these is tomorrow and they've all been filled. I have no idea what I am going to do.