Laissez les bons temps rouler
Next week, during Spring Break, I'll resume my Twilight reading. And hopefully go see Slumdog Millionaire. I'm still worn out from having been sick, and am on my 7th bottle of cough syrup. Whenever I get sick in winter, the cough is the last thing to go, so the "Robotrip"--which has seemed to become an annual event for me in recent years--continues, but hopefully not for long. As you can see, though, I'm much better and my appetite is back!
My statistics class is overwhelming me this semester. This is my 5th and final one and it's...advanced. Can someone remind me why I have to take Structural Equation Modeling? I really feel like I'm swimming in that class, and am scared of drowning. It's not that statistics is so bad in itself, but remember how last year, I had that one advanced regressions class where the midterm took 30 hours for me to complete, and my final exam clocked in at 20 hours? It's the same professor. He's a sweet and courteous man, and smart, but a little intimidating and somewhat cryptic as a teacher. It makes advanced statistics more like a code that has to be cracked. And perhaps I'm not cut out to crack that code.
He also has a distinct Chinese accent, so instead of saying "This is the regression coefficient and these are the latent variables in your equation", he pronounces everything starting with a "th" as though it starts with a soft "z", and it sort of sounds like he has marbles in his mouth: "Zis is zhe regrezhion coefficient and zhese are zhe latent variables in your equayzhion". Whatever. I don't really have trouble understanding him, but sometimes my mind wanders and I start to focus in on his accent instead of what he's actually teaching. Please think positive thoughts for me so I pass the class. Which isn't too much to ask (passing the class). Right?
Today I must continue my paper revisions and work on filling out a research ethics protocol. It basically states that I will not/did not harm or manipulate human subjects while doing my social science research. The ethics stuff seems like a no-brainer, but I guess sometimes social science research conjures up images of things like the Stanford Prison Experiment, or giving electric shocks to study participants.
*PS: Can I just say? Yay Kate Winslet! She seems down-to-earth, and just maybe...she gives me hope that I'm not a cow just because a (dress) size 4 is the new 6 or a 6 is the new 8 or whatever. Why are there women who seem otherwise intelligent (outside of Hollywood) who treat any size above a 4 or a 6 like it's a size 14? I'm not one to usually go on and on about this topic but really, why? Even one wonderful, wonderful woman who is very close to me recently commented that she thought a six was big. Ugh!
