Today was... interesting. And very long. Guess who did 7+ hours of math today?
Ayep. I didn't get as far as I'd liked on my test last night, so I worked on it this morning until I had to go to English class. We read Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech and filled out lots of information (Finding the claim, finding reasons to support the claim, finding grounds to support the reason, etc.)
Remember when I said yesterday that the weather had been really nice? Well... I didn't wear my coat today. Not the greatest idea. It was a little windy and cold, and even drizzling a bit. Oh well. I should get in the habit of checking out my window before I leave my apartment. You'd think the worms would have been a bit of a tip-off.
After English, what did I do? Went to the Emma Eccles Jones building and did more math, of course! Jeff met up with me after a little while, though he hadn't gotten as far as I had. We worked through some of the problems as best as we could. The TA was sitting at a small table nearby. I approached her because Jeff and I had gotten stuck on a question, and I wanted clarification on whether the formula we were using (specifically the part involving the population parameter) was correct for this particular question. Even though she seemed busy working on something, I thought this would be okay since it seemed it would be quick, and she was right there, so I thought she may have heard our discussion (though I realized only when I got too close to veer away that she was wearing earbuds).
Anyway, she said she wasn't going to help me because she was offering help later on today. Y'know, at 5:30 to 7:00. Right during the time that I have Institute (Why do all the tutors keep scheduling their times when I have class? Multiple tutors, all the time). Then she called me out (not by name, at least) in the lab with a warning for us not to approach her outside of her hours. It was... a bit discouraging.
Before we went into the lab, though, Jeff and I combined forces with some fellow stats students we found. We weren't able to talk to them for too long because we had to get to the lab, but what information they did give us was pretty helpful. Someone brought up the question, "Would you rather spend two hours in class taking this test and be done, or have to do the take-home test for hour after hour?" The consensus was, the take-home test is the better option because it's open-note, whereas notes would likely be forbidden in class. Also, one girl told me that what she'd had to print off SPSS turned out to be 22 pages! Yikes!
The frustrating thing about the lab is, we move through things pretty quickly. It would be kind of nice to have the Thursday lab, which is after stats class, because I had to spend today in lab learning about things for the UNIT 4 test, when the UNIT 3 test is due tomorrow, and my time to finish it was limited.
I worked for another hour or so after lab, trying to do what I could before my career class. We talked about ethics and about the ethics homework assignment we'd just finished. Not thrilling, but has to be done, I suppose.
Guess what I did after that? MORE math! Yep, still chugging along through that test, all by myself. We talked about different styles of Victorian architecture in interior design. Again, not necessarily FUN because it isn't my passion, and my teacher has a knack for making things less interesting than they could be, but I survived it.
It was raining when I left. Ah, foolish me, wearing short sleeves and no coat. While I normally stay on campus all day on Wednesday and eat lunch in the Marketplace, I decided to ride the bus home, eat there, and grab my coat and better shoes in the process. I pulled out a tortilla and shredded cheese, and ate while I (surprise) continued to comb through my teacher's PowerPoints, my own notes, and work on that math test.
By this time, of course, time was running out. I still had some ways to go on the second problem. Although I was growing more confident, I still didn't have anyone to talk things through with as I worked. I hadn't even started on the three SPSS assignments, which require a computer that has SPSS on them. I couldn't access SPSS from my apartment. And when did the computer lab close again?
So... I made a decision.
I skipped out on going to Institute in favor of attending tutoring hours with the TA. I've never skipped out on seminary, Institute, or, well, any class on purpose in my life, except in the case of doctor's appointments or something like that. I figure that I can make up for it by being faithful to the Church for life. At least, I didn't skip Institute to play around. I skipped it to get help and progress in my education so that I can one day graduate and provide for my family if necessary. I made sure to read scriptures during waiting periods when I had already put my test and things away. If things work out, I can even swing by the Institute tomorrow and listen in on another class.
My plan was to have her look over my work, talk me through how to do anything I'd messed up on, then go to Institute and come back to do SPSS tonight. I relayed the first bit of this plan to Jeff when he texted me (to ask if we were planning to meet in the morning), and he said that he would come too.
Boy, I was quite surprised when I got to the center and found it CRAWLING with stats students. There had to be at least three dozen. Jeff was there, and of course plenty of other students, so I sat down and began working things through with them. One of the other tutors who had set his hours during this time was there as well, and we were able to approach him and the class TA with questions when we stumbled across them. It's funny, how time flies when you're doing math and getting up regularly for water or questions, but seems to drag while sitting in Institute in a small desk the entire time.
It took me, Jeff, and a girl named Jane until after 8:00, but we did it! Conquered the whooole test! My SPSS data turned out to only be three pages long, as opposed to twenty-two, which might be because I took screenshots of my output data and rearranged them in Google Docs instead of printing them straight off. Also, I read the instructions and was aware of what things not to print.
And, the TA graded them right there. AND since she was technically "tutoring", she pointed out my mistakes and let me fix them (They were small mistakes- she said I shouldn't have used the phrase "my data is meaningful" and instead needed to use "the difference between these results is meaningful", because all the data is meaningful from a scientific standpoint). She only needed me to correct two or three little errors, though, and I scored 50/50! 100%! That was a satisfying end to a very long day.
And, the TA graded them right there. AND since she was technically "tutoring", she pointed out my mistakes and let me fix them (They were small mistakes- she said I shouldn't have used the phrase "my data is meaningful" and instead needed to use "the difference between these results is meaningful", because all the data is meaningful from a scientific standpoint). She only needed me to correct two or three little errors, though, and I scored 50/50! 100%! That was a satisfying end to a very long day.
The weather was warm, so I walked home. What do you think I did when I got there? Well, first I had some mint ice cream. Demetria got this pack of cookies from Lee's the other day as a thank you for placing five online orders with them. Of course, they're made with flour and she can't eat them. I warmed up two and added them to my ice cream.
I can think of someone else in the apartment who is due to receive some
of these soon. Unless they were just getting rid of them before they expired.
Warm cookies, cold ice cream
And what do you think I did after that? Did I kick up my feet? ... Oddly enough, I felt sort of... energized after hearing the good news of the 100, like I was still awake enough to focus and didn't deserve to rest yet when I could still work. Since I apparently thrive on pain, I threw in my laundry and did math homework tonight. At least I had ice cream to eat in the process, so it wasn't so bad. I'm not done with the math and it's due tomorrow, but at least I have until midnight. I'll get there.
All washing machines and dryers were available when I first went in there, but I went to move my clothes into the dryer later, and I was pretty irked to see that someone had taken my clothes and underwear out of the two washing machines I'd been using and tossed them aside on the counter. None of the other washing machines were running, but the dryers were all full now (except for the one on the end that looks as though it's functional, but always makes you regret using it because it seems to spin clothes around without drying them).
Out of spite, I dumped my clothes back into the washing machine. I didn't really want my underwear and stuff out there for everyone to see, but I wasn't about to haul wet clothes back to my room. After another forty-five minutes or so, I checked back. Whoever had been in there had taken their clothes out of the dryers before they were done. That meant the times left on them - I think 37 minutes on one and just one minute on the other - were still there, and couldn't be cleared away. I tried putting my clothes in the dryer that had one minute left, but after waiting around a few minutes, it because obvious that nothing was happening. Fortunately, there was still one blank dryer left. I moved my clothes in there, and was eventually able to take them out for folding.
So... that was my long Wednesday. Thursday and Friday are going to be catch-up days where I finish all the homework I pushed off to study for my abnormal psych test and work on this math one. I'm looking forward to a lighter weekend!
