sciarra

This journal has been locked for a while now, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. I'm pretty liberal with the adds, though, so if you've seen me around elsewhere and would like to add, just leave a comment or shoot me a message. I know it's futile to think that something like f-lock (I like the idea of flocking our journals like flocking a christmas tree--an attempt to recreate snow that just doesn't really cut the cake) controls the dissemination of what I write here, but it makes me feel better about a lot of what I put out there for you to see. Just let me indulge in my little fantasy, ok?

I do talk about disability, my cats, digital humanities, and a variety of other scintillating topics. And, yes, I tend to write in round about sentences with parentheticals such as the above. My Ph.D. advisors hated it. I, on the other hand, rather love it.

ETA: Feb 2014. Name change to divorce this a bit further from RL name.

Rand Paul? (the actual Republican candidate for Senate) BAD BAD NEWS. Tea Party. Need I say more?

His opponent, Jack Conway? Proud to be endorsed by the NRA, proud to be against gay rights.

LJ plans to make us specify our gender: go here for a much more coherent synopsis of what's going on: http://synecdochic.dreamwidth.org/366609.html.

C has recently gotten into caving. I've been like, oh so you finally want to do wilderness-y stuff, and it's UNDERGROUND??? WTF? She had a great time at a caving trip in Georgia in early October, though, so I went with her last week to a conservation morning/caving afternoon at Horse Cave. We went about 200 yards into a tourist cave, still on the beaten path, and helped move about two tons of sediment that flowed over the walkway with all the rain this fall. The afternoon was a trip to a dome, but my hiking shoes, in protest of being broken out of storage and subjected to so much mud and muck, peeled away from their soles. So I did all that work for nothing! We went to the Zappo's outlet on the way home (everything was 50% off!) and I got $150 boots for $55 bucks.

This weekend we went to Dale Hollow for try #2. We meet up with the Bowling Green Grotto (what official caving groups are called, how cute is that?). All the folks who showed up Friday night were geology grad students and really fun, so that was good. It was butt ass cold, though. We should have brought C's dad's -20 bag and just been hot. Oh well. Then Saturday two profs showed up, but it was nothing like the relationships btw. grad students and profs in literature, even though this one woman is a world famous cave cartographer. We were going to be surveying this new cave. Cool, I thought. Wrong. I got put with the experienced, famous lady and we spent 4 hours surveying 75 yards of cave. I placed survey points and took tape measurements while this woman and another prof sketched and took angle measurements. I totally understand why I wasn't sketching as a total n00b, but it was cold and boring as we were in the part of the cave with a trickle of water spattering through it.

However, it was a pretty technical cave, and C said that she had to crawl and slither for a fair amount of her journey back to where her team was surveying--something that I'm not entirely adept at with my bad knees. She also said that compared to the caves in Georgia, not only was this one harder, but it was much less pretty in terms of formations, etc. I'm just not convinced this is something I want to do. Which is fine. I think C is also still evaluating, and there's nothing that says we both have to be cavers. I'd like to go back to spending outside time--OUTSIDE. Crazy, I know.

Despite babysitting the kitten over the weekend, it's really been a shitty couple of weeks. I'm thinking of going to percussivebunny's Halloween party in San Diego. I need a break from here, the crappy stuff w my mom, and my job (which I do like, even though it can be trying). We'll see how I feel about this scheme when it's not three in the morning, but right now it sounds pretty damn good.

A friend suggestion just popped up on Facebook. It was the boy I had the biggest crush on for all of high school. The boy I snuck out of my house to go riding on the back of his motorcycle with. The first time we went riding, I couldn't believe that I was expected to wrap my arms around him. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. We went the back way to Santa Fe, but if he had asked me to ride to Alaska, I wouldn't have said no. 

I went skiing with this boy, I learned to rock climb with him, I got drunk in his hot tub. The previous three activities were all group ones. It was the motorcycle that finally got me alone with him. Then he started dating one of my best friends. I had to wait another three years until we were in college and home for the summer to kiss him. It was a short-lived thing. But, god, was it electric.

Today the picture I saw bore no relation to the boy in my head. In high school, he had been beautiful--by any standard. I usually see echoes of the people we were in our now pictures, but this one was completely different. He's average enough looking, but I wish I could find an old photograph and see if I painted on the beauty because I was so smitten. I don't think so. 

I'm not normally so appearance driven, of course I want to be physically attracted to my partners, but this boy was (by my memory) Johnny Depp beautiful. He was so out of my league. And yet we did spend A LOT of time together. I think I was always a bit shocked that we were good friends. I was gangly and super thin--think Twiggy--without being comfortable in my own skin unless I was playing a sport. He was a gymnast. And funny. And a daredevil. Obviously, I am still in love with the idea of him. But, but, now he's some normal dude in his late 30s. How did this happen???

There were several students who aced the last test.

Dear several students,
Even if you ever found this post, it is not about you.

The majority, however, did not even receive Bs or Cs, but failed. Spectacularly. And while there is a percentage who are definitely struggling with concepts like -9 * -9= 81, most are just far too flippant with negative signs. They'll get -6 * 7 = -42 and miss -5 * 3 by answering 15. Add in a longer string of numbers where you really need to keep track of how many negative signs you've got going and they're just guessing about the outcome's sign. 

Add into the mix that we started solving for variables in the last chapter, and you have doubly spelled disaster. They can do 3x = 12, some can do 3x = -12, but you say that 3x + 1 = 7 and the multiple steps required to arrive at the answer KILLS them.

I'm sure I will come up with more tricks of the trade as I go, but for now, I am best one-on-one where I see exactly how they're tripping up. Some of you have already given me some great tips for teaching that a negative times a negative is a positive--and C's dad reminded me that these students would not have tested into developmental math (there is no college credit for the course; they have to pass it though to get to college algebra to get an A.A.) if they had learned any math from sixth grade on.

I did have two of my tutoring students ace their algebra tests. That was somewhat gratifying.

The lovely badgerbag  has a great post about changing the way we talk about wheelchair usage, at least on wikipedia (for starters): http://badgerbag.dreamwidth.org/320236.html.

Please have at it and "wheelchair-bound" and then hie on to strike down "wheelchair bound"!

It's my last full day in Victoria. It's a beautiful one too. So far I have packed half my stuff, vacuumed and mopped the place and cleaned out the cupboards. Exciting, no? But, wait for it, I used lemon-scented biodegradable cleaner. So there!

C arrives at 2, we have a dinner w/ folks planned at 8, and we're taking the ferry out of here tomorrow. By amazing coincidence the lovely jessicaeve will be awaiting us at our first stop in the States. Ok, back to discombobulating things. Recombobulating for the trip comes later.

Woke up this morning and my car had been egged. Welcome back to Canadia!