That's it!

I have decided that I absolutely positively hate grad school. I want it over... now.


I am only about half way done with a paper that is due tomorrow.... and I haven't even started the presentation that I have tomorrow... at least they are both on the same topic.


And my professor wrote a journal article on my topic... so now I have to be accurate too!

Life is CRAZY!

Life has been pretty crazy around here. I will try to give you some of the updates.

I am still working at TCCW 20 hrs a week. I am basically done with my internship, although I still have an assignment that I could work on, but frankly, I don't have the time. I am now working with United Way for my training class. I am on a team with 3 other people to develop 3 trainings for them. I also am working at a place called MAHLE (pronouced Molly) for six sigma... they make car stuffs.

Last Friday a group of us went to a corn maze (maize maze) near Murfreesboro. It was fun, it was nice to really see the stars again. We managed to conquer it.

This is a picture of a picture of the corn maze, we got lost in those letters at the top for a while.Jayson and me, he doesn't always dress in a sweater vest and scarf and glasses... just for special occasions.

Here's the whole group. From left to right, Andrew, Jaclyn, me, Jayson, Scott, and Daniel.

On Monday I went to that "Get Motivated" seminar, which most of you already heard about through email. That seminar pretty much put me at exhausted with lots of work to get done yet that night. I had a selection test the next day and a six sigma assignment due. I tried as hard as I could, but I didn't make it past 1:30 before I was forced to go to sleep. I didn't have six sigma done, and I had barely studied. I got up at 6:30 and started on six sigma, I quickly realized that this assignment was going to take much more time than anticipated. So I had to choose between studying for selection and doing six sigma. I chose selection. I ended up submitting homework for six sig that was all guesses without doing any of the actual analyses required. I got to class still very distraught on handing in something that was all guesses because I don't think I have ever done that before in my life. Then the teacher announced that because many students couldn't get the required software to work on their computers we would get a couple extra days on the assignment. I WIN! I couldn't believe how lucky I was. He gave us until 11pm tonight... and guess what time I submitted it... 10:50pm. I am a great procrastinator. I also submitted the homework for next tuesday though, so maybe I'm not that bad.

One reason for my delay in doing six sigma is my nap turned to 15 hours of sleep that I got last night. So I was wiped out after a long day of work, which came after the long day of test studying, test taking, and six sigma freaking outing, and that came after the start at 5 am day..... so I was tired. I watched the Grey's Anatomy that I had missed online and then decided to take an hour long nap before starting six sigma. Well I fell asleep around 6pm, woke up around 8:45pm when my phone rang, talked/mumbled on the phone for 15 minutes and then decided just to go back to sleep. I didn't set an alarm because surely I would wake up early, right? Not so much, I fell asleep and next thing I knew it was 9:15am. So I got about 15 hours of sleep.

Thats about all I can think of right now.....

Snow Day!

So the end of this last week was pretty interesting. On Wednesday evening we received this email from "MTSU Alerts":

"On Wednesday, October 8, 2008, several campus e-mail clients received general but threatening e-mails. The author of the threat indicated that the unspecific action would take place on October 9. An Investigation is being conducted to locate the sender. Please report any suspicious activity to Campus Police.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact the MTSU Police Department at 615-898-2424 or Crimestoppers at 615-893-7867."

Not really too big of deal. We get emails like this for everything. If someone gets looked at wrong, you can expect you to receive an email like this, therefore, I didn't think much of it.

Then on Thursday we got this email from the President of MTSU:

"A credible threat to our campus has been made. As a result, as of noon today, classes will be cancelled for the remainder of the week. Campus Police, in cooperation with local and state law enforcement officials, are actively investigating the situation, which involves a series of threatening emails and suspicious fires.

During this time, campus security will be increased. University offices will maintain normal business hours and other campus events will go on as scheduled. Following our regularly scheduled fall break, classes will resume on Wednesday, October 15. Employees are encouraged to report any unusual or suspicious activity to Campus Police. More information will be provided on the MTSU home page as details become available."

Apparently the "suspicious fires" consisted of all the burners of a stove in the dorms being turned on and a paper towel thrown on them, a towel on fire was thrown into a stairwell, and the third was just a pulled fire alarm. (this is all things that I just heard from other people so I am not completely sure of the accuracy)

What this email meant for me: My selection class that starts at 1pm was canceled, this meant that my validation project that was due on next Thursday is now postponed probably until the following Tuesday. This was very good for me since I haven't started on the project and it is a bunch of statistical goodness that I will need some time to figure out. It also meant that the practicum presentations that were scheduled for that evening had to be postponed, so it opened up my evening. This also meant that our fall break was extended. We don't have classes on Monday or Tuesday for fall break so it added to that.

So it was a pretty good situation for me, and it felt just like a snow day.

Thursday evening we received this email:

"Middle Tennessee State University Campus Police and Murfreesboro Fire Department have placed MTSU student Justin J. Davis under arrest in connection with threatening e-mails and dorm fires.

Davis, 19, was brought to the MTSU Police Department as a possible witness Thursday afternoon. He was later developed as a suspect after speaking with investigators. Investigators are working with Davis to establish a motive for the e-mails and fires. At this time, investigators believe Davis, a freshman majoring in the university’s pre-professional dental hygiene program, was working alone.

MTSU and MFD have filed multiple charges against Davis, including one count of terrorism and three counts of arson.

University officials expressed relief that no students, faculty or staff were injured as a result of this security incident. They also thanked local, state and federal law enforcement agencies for their excellent teamwork in the case.

Classes will still be cancelled tomorrow, Friday, Oct. 10, and students will be expected to return to class on Wednesday, Oct. 15, after the scheduled fall break. University offices will maintain normal business hours Friday and for the duration of fall break.

Employees and students are encouraged to report any unusual or suspicious activity to Campus Police."

So he pretty much ruined his life. But hey, I got out of school for it!

This MN girl has hit her max.

I am done with the hot... I need some nice cool fall days now. Not the really cold stuff, but I cannot deal with this high 80's low 90's and always at least 70% humidity anymore! I have not been conditioned for this! It is the middle of September! Start acting like it!

Update on My Life

Well I am back in classes... for like 3 weeks now. Things are already psycho, but I guess I should have seen that coming since I had 4 chapters that were supposed to be read for the first day of class (notice I said "supposed to be" I am still trying to catch up from that laziness). I am in three classes which is equivalent to 9 credits. They are Training, Selection, and Six Sigma. They all require quite a bit of work, so I am struggling to stay afloat already. The good thing is I really enjoy all of my classes, it is great to actually want to go to a class, and I learn a lot too. I feel a bit more confident now about the idea of getting a real job in less than a year.

I have another thesis. I am trying to work on that too, but with everything else it has been hard to fit it into my schedule. I am working with the professor that I should have worked with in the first place and actually the person that I indicated that I would like to work with in my statement of interest for grad school applications. He is probably the best researcher this school has, so I am pretty excited to work with him. Anyone that could get me back on track at this point would be him. He was also my research methods teacher so he has already seen me cry, so at least he is used to it if it happens again.

I am still working 20 hours at TCCW. I am really enjoying that job now because I am getting my own projects and developing my own curricula. This job is really giving me great experiences.

I am also still working for BT&A. Unfortunately due to the fact that days are still only 24 hours long, I haven't been able to focus as much attention on this job as I would want. I am still getting stuff done, but it just takes me a bit longer than it probably should.

Other than that I live in a great new place with a great new roommate and I have great new friends.... so essentially everything is great.

For Sale:

As I have been unpacking I have found some items I no longer want.

- One Brett Favre Number 4 Green Jersey
- One Brett Favre Number 4 Pink Jersey
- "Brett Favre Passing Through the Years" picture with pictures from childhood, high school, college, Falcons, and Packers
- Bear in recognition of the '98 Packers with Favre and 4 stitched on the back
- "Favre" book written by Brett and Bonita Favre (Brett's mom)
- 10 year super bowl anniversary poster with Brett Favre pictured twice
- Ticket stub for December 21, 2006 game versus the Minnesota Vikings. Section 118, Row 57, Seat 10. Picture of Brett Favre on ticket
- Yellow towel given out at the December 21st game reading "4 the Love of the Game"
- Number 4 beer bottle koozie that looks like a mini jersey
- The Marshfield News-Herald Sports section from Friday, March 11, 2005 with an article about Favre entitled, "Hallelujah! Brett's coming back" Includes a large color picture of Favre.
- Prilosec OTC ad featuring Brett Favre indicating he is on day 7 of his prilosec treatment
- Picture of Brett Favre eating cheese


Ahhhh nevermind, all that stuff would probably make a pretty fire.

Homeful

I have a home again! Today is move in day and we just got back from setting up water and electric and getting our keys. And it is only 9:30, can you believe it! Hopefully I can get all my stuff moved in so I can work on settling in.

Homeless

Well I have moved everything out, I have cleaned everything, and I have checked out. I am officially homeless. I am so happy to get out of there, I hated that place. I can't wait to get into my new place next week. Until then I am staying at Laura's (my new roommate) current apartment. I realized last night that I have never lived with just one other person before. Obviously growing up there was always at least two people living in the same house with me, and then since I have started college the least amount of roommates I have had is two. I am excited to have more freezer space. Laura's current roommate, Kate, will be staying with us until she moves to Chicago come September, so that will be a nice buffer to get used to living with only one other person.

This post is mostly for Heidi

Back in the fall, shortly after my first semester of grad school started, Heidi sent me an awesome care package with cookies and bread and other goodies. Well I ate almost all of the cookies except for about 3 and then they fell between my bed and the wall, and I thought, "oh i will get those later." Well I have finally moved by bed away from the wall and so I have rescued the cookies. I decided not to eat them and instead just threw them away. But at least I finally got around to getting them!

Moving...

I am in the middle of my 8th move in 5 years. I am out of my apartment at the end of this week and I don't get into my new apartment until August 7th. I am moving a lot of my stuff into a storage unit that my friend rented and is letting me use the extra space. I am staying with my new roommate in her current place until we can move into our new place. What a mess... I can't wait to be settled again.

I have done a lot of packing/moving, but I still have a ways to go. I have so much clothes all over the place and pretty much none of it is folded... I just want to throw it in a box and say good enough, but I know I will regret that later. I am not sure how I am going to get my minifridge and TV out of here and down the 3 flights of stairs. I think I am strong enough for the TV, but the fridge might be a bit too big... it will be an adventure.

These guys are pretty excited about moving.

Back in TN

Well I made it back to TN safely. I left Mankato around 5 pm on Saturday, and got back just after 7 this morning. Now I have to face the reality of going back to work, and packing up all my stuff so I can move... yuk.

I cried in class tonight...

I have come to the conclusion that I chose the wrong masters program. The professors here are worthless. I have had an incredible amount of issues with my thesis and it is very frustrating. I will summarize quickly: My first thesis topic fell through bc it was supposed to be done with the support of an organization and since they decided they only wanted to do one study they had to choose from 3 students who wanted to work with them. Obviously they didn't choose mine. So after I had started research on that and started to gather articles for a lit review it was scrapped. Then I move on and found a new adviser. I should have known from the start that this was not gonna be good because she didn't ever seem to remember things we talked about between meetings. One meeting we would discuss one topic, the next week I would have a new topic. So eventually I settled on one (kinda). I was in a lit review class at the time and since we had assignments due I had to do a very quick (and crappy) lit review for this new topic. I gave the things i was working on to my adviser the whole time, but never received any feedback on anything. So basically it turned in to me trying to do it on my own. I have emailed her a few times this summer with questions getting a few word replies, or a "i'll get back to you on that" which has been less than helpful. So it was up to me trying to figure out how my analyses will work and how it will all come together. I find out tonight that the way I am trying to do it probably won't work, and I don't understand how it is supposed to work. And changing it now will change a lot of stuff. So basically I am sitting in class, my whole thesis is a mess, and I have no clue what is going on. And this is when I find out (from my peers who don't even have her as their adviser) that my "adviser" is on a leave of absence for the next year. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?! Don't you think this might be something you tell a student that you are responsible for helping. And that is when I lost it and started crying. What's that you say, not a big deal? Oh I forgot to mention, my research methods plan is due on Thursday. (and I am driving to MN on Wednesday night, and I haven't packed anything yet, and I slept all of 3 hours last night sind i stayed up working on what I have learned is complete crap, so I guess I would kinda like to sleep before I drive 16 hours). I am going to get my first B in grad school and it is going to be due greatly to incompetent faculty.

The faculty are absolute crap here. When I was trying to find an adviser (the first and second time) everybody tried their best to dodge it as though it would be the worst thing in the world to advise a student on a thesis. Seriously, they should probably all teach undergraduates so they don't have to deal with such things as thesis and practicum. We have 7 faculty members here, and I can honestly say, that one professor in MSU's I/O program is leaps and bounds better than all 7 of them here.

So I might be a tad on the angry side, but after having to find my own practicum and now doing my thesis on my own, I am not too thrilled. This program doesn't deserve the reputation that it has.

I win for sure!

Yesterday I got an email from FedEx to track my battery.

Today my battery was dropped off at my door and waited for me until I got home from work.

Now my computer has a new battery.

I win!

I win!

The battery for my computer has been having issues since the beginning of spring semester. At that time the battery would just drain really quickly, but would recharge when I plugged it back in. Well last week it told me that the battery had irreparable damage and it needed to be replaced. I said "Boo I don't have money to spend on a new battery." But now the battery drains remarkably fast, and then doesn't recharge. So I started searching for a new one, I found some on ebay f0r around $60, but then I was gonna check on ibm.com to see what their prices were. Instead I found a page that checks if your battery is eligible for a replacement. Apparently mine has the right problems so I filled out the form and I get a free replacement!!! WIN!!! Unfortunately, I am pretty sure there is a short in my AC adapter too, so the power supply breaks in and out. So I will probably end up having to buy a new one of those, but at least I don't have to buy a battery.

Brown Recluse Spiders

A few weeks ago at TCCW the IT guy, John, and the Supplies lady, Kris, managed to catch a brown spider with a small body and long legs. Turns out it is a brown recluse spider (a spider that exists as far north as Iowa, and as far south as Texas). If you get bit by one of these guys..... well just google image it.... its nasty. Apparently if it turns black then you know you have been bitten by a brown recluse, otherwise there is no way to tell. TCCW is on floors 2 and 3 of the Bank of America building and the Bank of America (floor 1) was having issues with termites so they called the terminix people. The sprayed to take care of the termites, but that spray wasn't powerful enough to take care of the spiders, instead it just sent them packing to higher floors. So now the terminix people have set up traps in TCCW, and when I left work yesterday, I heard the count was up to 14 spiders. (13 on floor 2 and 1 on floor 3) I saw a trap that had 4, thankfully that one wasn't in my office, that trap has zero. I guess the terminix people are coming in at night and trying to take care of the problem, but if they can't fix it soon they are going to fumigate the whole building.

Yesterday I saw a brown recluse crawling around in the stairwell when was leaving. I thought about stepping on it, but then I figured my graceful self would miss and it would bite me, so I did the honorable thing and ran out the door.

Gotta love the south and their crazy bugs. BUT I haven't seen a mosquito yet. (except for those ginormous ones, but they don't bite, so they don't count)

Other than that I am just trying to keep my head above water with work, work, and class.

Employed.

As part of our Master's program we have to get a practicum (internship) which is usually done during the first summer. So after receiving little to no help from the practicum supervisor around here, I decided to do it by myself. So I went on google and typed in some I/O related jargon and found a site that had a list of HR consulting firms in the Nashville area. I found one that is a compensation consulting firm and since I am interested in consulting and compensation, it seemed like a pretty interesting company.

So I just decided to call. I called and left a message saying how I was wondering if he would like an intern, and then I emailed with my resume and a cover letter. I sent it all off hoping to hear back, but thinking that it probably wouldn't work out. But I did hear back (I probably wouldn't be writing about it if I hadn't... duh). He emailed me back and said that he was willing to think about it and see what he could put together. Here is a breakdown on the timeframe: I started searching at about 1pm, called at 1:30, emailed at 2:00 and got an email back from him at 3:00. So basically in 2 hours I was able to do more than the professor in charge of internships could do in 6 months.

Basically, everything has worked out and so now I am an intern for Burris Thompson and Associates. I am working for the Thompson part. It is basically just him working out of his home, so I can work from home as well, which will be great to help save on gas and whatnot.

I am happy that I found it on my own and that it is something that actually interests me.

Note to self: Do not kick boat

We went to the lake on Saturday to enjoy the sunny weather (although it did rain again as we were leaving). We were just floating and swimming and hanging out. We also had Daniel and Jaci's dogs along. and Lilly was floating on a life jacket chilling in the water and I was in by her to make sure she didn't fall off. When I was pulling her away from the boat a little bit I managed to kick the boat. I either hit the ladder or the motor... either way I felt lots of pain. I looked at it and it had a nice cut on it, but it didn't start bleeding right away, so I thought that maybe it wasn't too bad. But then it did start bleeding and it bled a lot. We didn't have a first aid kit, so I wrapped it up in wet naps and we headed to the marina. The marina didn't really have anything for sale, but the lady gave me a few bandaids she had. I knew that wasn't going to be enough and some people at the marina had gauze and tape so I managed to get it all wrapped up.

All wrapped up. It doesn't need to be wrapped that much anymore since it isn't bleeding like it had been. Hopefully soon it will just need a bandaid.

Hopefully this isn't too gross for anyone. Its hard to take a good picture of a cut on a toe I learned, but you get the idea.

I am surprised that it doesn't really hurt that much, only when I bump it. Hopefully I can pull off wearing flip flops for a few days.

Wakeboarding pics

Here are some pictures from the lake last week when I went wakeboarding. We did go to the lake on Memorial Day, but I didn't get to go wakeboarding.

Jaci and me when it was still sunny!

We couldn't handle all the paparazzi trying to take our pictures and the people asking for our autographs so we covered up our faces. That or it got really windy and was about to dump buckets on us, I can't remember which one for sure.

This is when I first got up.

And there's another one.

Wakeboarding

Guess what I did today! If you really don't know, go back and read the title of this blog. Yup thats right I went wakeboarding! It was awesome! It was my first time ever and I managed to get up and do a pretty decent job. My muscles are incredibly sore now, but it was definitely worth it. It was the perfect day to learn. There were barely any boats out since it had poured down rain for a bit and everybody packed up and went home, and the water was really calm, just a tad cold.

We are going to go again on Memorial day hopefully, so I will get to try it out again. I am super excited!

Jaci took pictures and as soon as she puts them on facebook, I will post them on here.

Quite the Day

Today was a bit more interesting than the past week. It started with me bringing my car into the shop for its appointment to get some work done. Last week I brought it in for them to diagnose the problem. I had been hearing a loud rumbling noise for a while, and then I have had issues with it shifting, or I guess the lack of shifting would be more accurate. During the test drive the guy said that one of the rear bearings needed to be replaced (the cause of the noise) and just like I expected, the car didn't have a problem with shifting for the guy (and it just had when I was driving it over). So we decided that the best thing to do would be to replace the bearing and then do something or other just with the transmission tray since it would have been unwise to flush the whole transmission since my car is old and it has never had its transmission flushed before a flush would have caused more problems than it would have solved. And then I threw on an oil change for good measure... that and it needed an oil change.

Jaci picked me up from the car place and brought me to work. It was my boss's birthday so I got to go out to lunch for that. It was a good time. When I was done with work Jaci came and picked me up again and we headed back to the car place. We went in and the guy said that he drove it around and still didn't have a problem with the shifting and another guy drove it around with no problem, but a third guy drove it around and reported it to be "sluggish" and said the same thing that I complained of, So I was happy bc that means I am not crazy! Unfortunately I was also told that the car will likely not last that much longer. I asked if it would get me through the next year, and the guy said "it should" and I said that is all I need. Just enough to give me a chance to earn a paycheck that gets me above the poverty level. I was also recommended not to drive it up to MN again. He also said that they have great connections with some car rental places, so if I do want to drive up I should give them a call (except for I am only 23 and so the extra fees that are added on might not make a difference even if they get me a deal). Meanwhile, another person is driving my car, they return, no problem shifting. We go over the bill. It all comes out to a grand total of $393.04. Awesome. If the shifting issue gets worse or more consistent I am supposed to bring it back, but as for now I have had no problems. Last month I put 4 new tires on my car for $300 some dollars, so I have put approx $700 into that beast.

After the car place Jaci and I went to a bridal shop to look for Bride's maids dresses. We found one that we both liked a lot. The lady there was great too, she includes alterations with your dress purchase and adds on extra length at cost (which is $8) and she gave Jaci swatches for free. So the dress is $190, but I at least won't have to worry about paying to get it altered.

Then I went home. I got there and went up to my apt to find that my key didn't unlock the door. There were some maintenance guys sitting in the parking lot and they yelled up "we just changed the locks" and my thought was, "why am I getting evicted?" Turns out one of my roommates moved out (yeah we are not to close, I didn't even notice) and they changed the locks. This was about 5:30 and the office closes at 6, I would have been livid if I got home and I couldn't get in my apartment bc the office was closed, and they changed my locks without warning. Lucky for them, I didn't have to get livid. So I got my new key and went inside.

I changed out of work clothes to running clothes. I left and headed to the greenway to go for a run. I must say it was the best run ever! The humidity has finally gone away for the time being and so I was able to breathe, and so I just kept running and running, it was great.

I drove back home, and on my way there I realized that I never switched the key on my keychain to my new apt key. "Srsly Amanda?" I got home and tried my key even though I knew it was the wrong one. And then I started pounding on the door. I knew my one roommate was home since her car was in the parking lot, but since she works nights, I think she was sleeping. I pounded and pounded, and then gave up and called Jaci. We had plans to watch the Bachelor tonight and so I just went by early and without showering. Luckily she didn't shower after working out today either, so we were both smelly :) I had shoved a note through the door that told Rumiko (thats not her real name but thats what she has us call her... yeah that is part of the reason I have to move out of here!) to leave the door unlocked when she left. So when Jaci and I were done watching TV I went home and prayed that the door was open. And then.... it was! Yay!

I hope that someday I will learn and not lock myself out of things.

And finally, despite using almost all the aloe in the world, I cannot get this sunburn to go away. And I hope that I learn to use more sunscreen someday too.

The End.

Happy Mother's Day!

In the order of Motherhood:

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Happy Mother's Day Joy!

Happy Mother's Day Marrianne!

Happy Mother's Day Denice!

Happy Mother's Day Heidi!

DONE!!!

I am officially done with my first year of grad school! Yay! I pulled my last all-nighter of the semester last night starting/finishing my Performance Appraisal exam. I proctored a test for my GA, entered the grades, and now I have nothing to do! Its a really really bizarre feeling. But no worries, I got an email from Job analysis/performance appraisal teacher saying I have to summarize our JA report for TCCW before our meeting with them on the 18th since I was the group leader. I have plenty of time, but if is still another thing to do.

Class starts again on the 12th. I just have one class, research methods which is sure to be a bore. And I need to get a practicum for the summer sometime too. We will see how that works out.

Diet Pepsi Max...

... is going to get me through grad school.

New Goal!

So last night I went to Nashville with Jaclyn because some of her friends were in town. They came to run the marathon yesterday and so we talked a lot about that. So now Jaci and I have been inspired to run a half marathon. Its a pretty crazy goal, but I have always wanted to run a marathon, and I really want to get back in shape, so I am very excited. Our goal is to run in the 2nd Annual Music City Half Marathon in Nashville on October 4th. The girls that ran yesterday had been training since December, (and one of them did the full 26 miles) so we think it will be enough time. We also want to run in 5K's over the summer to help us get a little experience with the race scene. It will be fun to train with a specific goal, the running just to run thing isn't something that I ever stick to, but a 13 mile run staring me in the face will probably be decent motivation. So I am telling everyone I know so that I can't back down :)

Brrrrr....

It is only 64 degrees right now and the high for the day is only 70.... brrrr... :)

(yesterday was in the 80's)

Stats News

I know all this school crap is pretty boring news... but its all I got.

So I turned in my homework and took Stats test 4. I am friends with the person that grades our homework, so I weaseled my grade out of him. I got a perfect on that, which although it is technically out of 75 points, I got 78 points since the homework ended up with a few extra. Then I took the test. It was surprisingly easy, which made me more worried. I got a 139/150, which wasn't as good as I expected... but whatever, when you add up all the points I got I was about 3 points shy of an A.... no worries. Remember that test that was so long and hard the class average was a 50%.. yeah because of that mess, our class was an entire letter grade lower than years of the past and so she was going to curve our grades. She sent an email out that said the curve would be 20. That was fine for me bc it was going to put me into the A range without doing the last homework or the final. Some of my classmates were bummed though bc she had said we would get approx 50 points, so they were thinking that they would have to do the final and last hmwk. Well she sent out another email and said that she underestimated the curve. Turns out she is giving us 90 points. That is great for everyone else, but I don't really care since I already had the A. The thing that bothers me though, is I feel like she is just handing out A's, I could have gotten way worse grades on everything and still pulled off an A. At least I know that I understand stats and that I don't need an obscene 90 point curve to get an A. And in fact, I wouldn't have needed a curve at all, I would have just taken the final to ensure my A. And yes, I know school isn't all about grades, I do know that I am here to learn, and that is what I am doing. It just so happens that learning is attached to grades.

So I got an A.... its just a little bittersweet.

I can have my phone or my keys, but not simultaneously

So last night at about 6:15 pm I went with a friend for a quick shopping trip. Right as I stepped out of my bedroom, I realized that I had just locked my keys in my room. My apartment's office closes at 6pm, so I just missed them. If I wanted to get someone to get me a spare key at this point, it would have cost me a hefty fine. So I just went shopping and decided to try to figure it out later. When I got dropped off again the door to my apartment was locked too. So I knocked for a while, but I didn't see any of my roommates' cars in the parking lot so I concluded that none of them were there. My classmate Andrew had texted me earlier to say that him and Jacob (a 2nd year in my program) were going to Mellow Mushroom (a pizza place) and so I decided to call him. Jacob came and picked me up (my car keys were locked in my room too) and I hung out with them at Mellow Mushroom (I just wanted to add more parenthesis in this area). While at Mellow Mushroom I managed to spill a full glass of water all over Andrew... I felt bad, but it sure was funny. Despite this, Andrew let me stay at his place. I was forced to take the night off from homework since it was all locked in my room. So I got a crappy nights sleep on Andrew's couch which is way too short for me. And I got Andrew to drive me back to my apartment in the morning when the office was open. Luckily, they are really nice about giving you the spare without any grief. So I got back in and showered and headed off to work. I had to stop by school to drop off tests that I graded for my GA. Somewhere between school and work I lost my phone. I didn't know if it fell out when I opened my door at school or if it fell in my car somewhere. I couldn't find it anywhere, and I didn't have time to look for it when I got to work so I just went in, figuring I was going to be buying a new phone. At the end of the day I took Andrew's phone (he works at TCCW too) and I went out to my car to call myself. I found my phone way underneath the drivers seat, I have NO idea how it got under there, but at least I found it. So it has been a fairly eventful last 24 hours... and now I have to catch up on all the work that I couldn't do last night...

Sunglasses

What is it about me and sunglasses that does not get along? I lost yet another pair of sunglasses today. I think I left them in the classroom that I did a course evaluation for. Maybe the teacher will notice that I left them and put them in my box or something. At least they weren't expensive, in fact for me they were free since I used the gift card I got from Mom and Dad for Christmas to buy them. The thing is, is that I haven't even had them 2 weeks. The pair before these that I bought in MN I broke (literally snapped; there is no chance at repair) both ear pieces off. The ones before that I believe I lost in a river. I have melted a pair in my car, left a pair in a car rental, sat on some, left a pair in a bathroom stall at the state fair... the list goes on and on.

The worst part is.... it is CRAZY bright outside!

I know who I want to work for...

SIOP was amazing. I met lots of great people and learned a lot too. I also knew more people than I expected to, which is mostly because a lot of people came who are either currently at MSU or were there at one point. The thing is that the I/O world, while it is quite large, is really small one, so knowing the small group that I did before the conference helped immensely. I went to the Master's Consortium on Wednesday and attended a talk by a former MSU student who got his Bachelors at MSU and then went on to a different school for his MA. He works as an external consultant for Kenexa, which is one of the most amazing companies ever. It is the number two I/O employer (Bank of America is number one) and there are firms around the globe. It is an organization that provides companies with hiring and retention solutions. I could go on and on about it, but that would probably bore you, just know that I think this company is amazing! The question of the weekend was Ph.D vs MA. I got lots of advice and switched my mind about 30 times a day. I still haven't decided, but at least I know now what each option means and what I could expect from each. At least I have time to decide, and right now I am too busy to think about it anyway.
Another reason SIOP was great, was that for four days I didn't have to explain what I/O is to anyone! It was great. Also, the focus of the conference was obviously on I/O which is refreshing since I feel like my Master's program is primarily focused on HR, which is quite disappointing. I am still happy with the program I am in, I just wish I would have known how strong of a HR focus that it has.... I do not want to do HR.
Unfortunately, after that sample of freedom at SIOP, now I have to somehow get through the rest of the semester. It is going to be rough. I am basically done with all my classes. Since all we have is projects and tests left my teachers let us cancel the rest of our classes (except for pre-prac, lame!). Here is a quick list of what I need to get done (in the order which they need to be accomplished):
1) Stats assignement 4
2) Review peers' lit reviews
3) Stats test 4
4) Pre-practicum article presentation
5) Stats assignement 5*
6) Final version of Lit review (and 1-page case for why my study is worth it; due weeks ago)
7) Compensation project
8) Compensation final
9) Pre-practicum self-assessment paper
10) Job Analysis report
11) Job Analysis take home final
12) Stats take home final due*
13) Breathe
*Depending on my grades for assignment and test 4, I might not have to do these (cross your fingers)
It doesn't seem so bad just looking at the list, but each of those things take up a lot of time. This week alone my group and I have worked about 10 hours on our Compensation system. Pair that with going to class and 20 hours of work, and there is not much time left. But thats what I signed up for right? I plan to get a large chunk of my stats assignment done tomorrow... we'll see how that goes, stats always takes much longer than planned.
Then we have the I/O spring social on Saturday... which is great and all, but who really has time for that... oh right all the 2nd years and professors... great. We will all get together and grill out and eat and socialize, but I foresee most of the 1st years ducking out early for the reasons stated above.

Off to San Fran!

I am going to San Francisco tomorrow. My flight leaves at 6am, we are leaving Murfreesboro at 4:30. Ew. I am flying with Frontier and I have a layover in Denver. Hopefully I have better luck than last time we were in this scenario. I still have to pack but instead of doing that before class I decided to sit on the internet for a while. The nice thing about being lazy is that I still haven't put away my suitcase (or completely unpacked it for that matter) from spring break, so that is one less step that I have to do now! The ironic thing about going to California is that the weather in Murfreesboro is going to be better than San Francisco while I am gone. Speaking of weather, it is amazing here. The trees are getting leaves and flowers, and they are mowing the lawn right now. Its nice for now, but come July when it is 105 I might be complaining.
I am two classes from being done for the week, yay!

Presentation without References

I am giving a presentation tomorrow on "Work Performance and Review" apparently its a performance appraisal system. I actually don't know a whole lot about it, and neither does anyone in this world apparently. There is one book on it in existence, and our library doesn't have that book. One of the faculty here has the book, but he was gone with his wife (who is also faculty) for her dad's funeral, so I couldn't get the book. My teacher gave me the powerpoint printout from the slides that the group made last year and gave them to me and told me to go off of that. I was thinking great I have no idea what this PA is about and now I have to present on it going off these bullet points. So I was a little worried, but not worried enough to work ahead. So I went to wage and salary, I went to stats, I went to our SHRM meeting, and then I stuck around for a 2nd year's practicum presentation. Afterward a friend of mine said "Let's go out to get food and drinks" and I said "I can't I have to do this presentation on work performance and review and I don't know anything about it and I don't have the book for it." He gave me a funny look and said, "Wait I think I presented on that last year." I showed him the ppt slides and he said "Yup, that's mine" So I ended up going to Applebees and he explained the process to me and I have managed to develop a decent presentation on it without even having any real resources. Crazy how some things work out.

I have been considering going to a Ph.D program after Master's. I might be insane. Tonight I am leaning towards yes (the three other people I was with at Applebees are all going Ph.D), tomorrow might be no (tomorrow has been dedicated to thesis). I am hoping SIOP will help me decide. I am going to a Master's Consortium that hopefully will get me more familiar with my options as an Master's level I/O practitioner and help me figure it out.

I think I am allergic to my deodorant, but I don't have time to go to a store, so I just keep using it. But last night I had a dream that I bought 3 new tubes, but when I got home I realized that I bought the same kinda that I am allergic to. Weird.

"You're fly paper for freaks."

My classmate Andrew said that to me after I told him about my latest encounter with a Tennessee resident. It has become a common occurrence for me to have incredibly weird interactions, with equally weird people. I will give you three examples:

1) Back in February, one of my roommates had a friend over who was perming her hair or something. I was in my room doing homework, but went to the kitchen to get some food. This lady was sitting on the couch talking on the phone. Once she got off the phone, she started talking to me. She seemed seminormal at first; until she found out I that am a psych major.... I even told her I/O psych and she was said, "Oh is that kinda like HR?" I said yes. I was surprised she actually knew what I/O psych was so I thought, good I won't have to explain that I am not clinical. Well apparently she disregarded this and proceeded to tell me all about her psychological problems and how she has to see shrinks, and how she doesn't like that all they do is give drugs. I agreed with her on this, I don't think that it is right just to drug people right off the bat without really counseling, but all this did was extend the conversation. My roommate came out about now and distracted her, so I was able to sneak off into my bedroom. Turns out, I'm not so sneaky. Five minutes later there was a knock at my door, and I said to myself "are you kidding me?" so I got up and went to the door and there she was ready to talk some more about her psychological personality disorders. She went on to tell me that she has been diagnosed with bipolar II, but she thinks she might be more of an antisocial or borderline.... and on and on. She described all her symptoms and things she has done in the past, which was WAY too much information to be telling a person she just met. Thankfully, I took an abnormal psych class so I did know what she was talking about and could respond to some of the things she was asking, but I tried to mention that I am not that kind of psychologist, but she didn't really get it or she didn’t care. She obviously just wanted to talk to someone, but did she really have to pick me? Well, after 15 minutes or so she decided she was done talking and said, “Well thanks for talking to me,” and left. It was weird.

2) The next one happened last week. It was Tuesday night and I was going to have to facilitate class discussion the next morning for my Job Analysis class. In order to do this I needed to read the chapter in the book really well and develop questions and such. I had a bunch of other things that I needed to get done before I could start working on this (mostly thesis stuff for the 2^nd and 3^rd topics which turned out not to work out anyway). So I finally started reading the book at about 2 in the morning. Well one of my roommates (a different one than the one in the previous weird person instance) had a friend over that was spending the night on our couch until they took off the next morning. I don’t really know what was all going on with that but I know he was staying the night and they were leaving in the morning. I met him earlier in the night, chit-chatted a bit about grad school and he learned that I don’t have much time to breathe. So anyway I was working on homework all night and I went to the kitchen at about 3 in the morning to get a snack to help me stay awake. He was sleeping on the couch in the living room, but he must have heard me because once I got back to my room it was 15 seconds before there was a knock at my door. He had come to my room earlier in the night looking to borrow a tweezers, so I figured it was something like that again, so I just said, “Come in.” Big mistake. He came in and was like, “Hey what’s going on?” I was like “Uhhhhh I’m doing homework…” Seriously, it had already come up earlier in the night all the stuff that I had to do, and why would I be up at 3 in the morning if I didn’t have to be, especially with class at 8 the next morning. Well he came on in my room and sat on the floor since my room is a sty and there would have been nowhere else for him to sit, but it’s not like I really wanted him to sit anywhere anyway. He tried to make conversation which I was not interested in, all I wanted to do was read the rest of my chapter and go to bed. At one point he saw the cross I have hanging on my wall that I got from Uncle Earl for college graduation and he said, “oh you’re a fan or Jesus?” I said “Yeah,” in a really annoyed voice, and he said, “oh that’s cool,” he said that as if he was ok with the fact that I had some weird disease or something. It seems he just wanted someone to talk to too, and talked for quite a while about his “career” as a kick boxer and how he thought he could be a model if the kick boxing thing didn’t work out… no he couldn’t. Needless to say, this kid made me really not happy and eventually he must have gotten the hint, because he finally left. And that’s when I got up and locked my bedroom door. Basically, what I learned from this experience was that I desperately need to grow a spine and tell people to get away from me!

3) This one happened this past Thursday night after a long day/night in the library. The library was closing and so I was on my way out, still with a list of things that I needed to get done. It was about 11:55 when I left my carrel. As I was going through the doors leaving the library, I heard this guy behind me say something like “It’s a beautiful night out tonight.” I looked and realized he was talking to me and I said, “Sure is.” I kept walking, but he kept talking and said “Yeah I ran 7 miles today.” This guy was in his 60s and overweight, so this kinda caught me off guard. But I just said, “Oh yeah, cool.” And kept walking. Well, he still wasn’t done talking, now he started walking towards me and started talking about how he is training for a half marathon. He asked me if I had ever ran a half marathon and I said no, and he was like, oh really you should. Really buddy you have no idea who I am, and somehow you know me well enough to tell me to run a marathon? Right. Well he went into this big thing about training and how he is some sports guy for MTSU. I honestly couldn’t tell you exactly what he was talking about. He was kinda hard to understand and he spoke a million miles a minute and couldn’t seem to focus on one topic (schizophrenic? maybe). He went on and on about how this one guy thinks weight lifting is pointless for runners and this guy has come up with some way to train without using weights, and the crazy guy talking to me totally disagreed and wanted me to tell this other guy that he is wrong. He told me about a million things that I should google, and one was that guys name, and I am supposed to email him or something to tell him that weight training is good. Oh and then I am supposed to call this crazy guy and tell him how it went (he gave me his number which I “saved” in my phone). So the situation is that I am standing outside the library, its well past midnight now, and this seriously crazy guy is talking to me. I kinda made a move to leave, but he kept following me. So I chose to stay there in the well lit area and not lead him to my car. So that’s why I didn’t just leave. And I didn’t have a chance to excuse myself because this guy seriously did not shut his mouth the second it opened. So I was stuck. Finally, he said, “I will leave you with this…” which he said about 4 or 5 times already, so I didn’t get too excited that I was going to get to leave. But after rambling about something or other for a while he said “Ok well you find (whatever the anti-weight lifting guys name was) and you let me know how it goes.” I said, “Ok.” And then I turned and got outta there. It was about 12:30 when I got to my car. This crazy guy talked to me nonstop for 30 minutes! I wish I could better depict this experience, but there aren’t words to describe it.

I don’t know what it is about me, but the crazy people can’t stay away.

Ears are expensive.

I guess I started a blog...


Today in my wage class I learned that values have been assigned to limbs and such so that if you lose one on the job they know how much to pay you in workers comp. An ear costs $32,800. I guess that is why Jesus healed the servant's ear after Peter cut it off, that is expensive stuff.

I am currently researching my fourth thesis topic. I really hope this one sticks, I think it will. The rest of my class have gotten their lit reviews turned in, I got an extension due to my circumstances. Unfortunately, I have to do all the research, come up with hypotheses, and write half a lit review, on a topic that I decided on yesterday morning, and hopefully have it done by Saturday.

I got a stats test back today that I took on Tuesday. I got a 93%, thats better than the 50% I got last time (seriously 50%). The whole class had done that pathetic though so we got to retake it as a take home test and she averaged our scores, so yippee I brought my grade up to a 73%... not much better. Today she said that she was going to curve our final grades since they are an entire letter grade lower than years of the past, so that is a very good thing.

I am going to SIOP in two weeks, it's in San Fransisco, so it should be fun. It better be, it has cost me a ton already. I will get to see my old MSU professors and classmates and attend a ton of fun-filled I/O conferences so it will be worth it.