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| Did you know...
That the probability of getting a heads/tails when flipping a quarter is NOT 50/50? In fact, the probability that a quarter should land with tails face up is higher than heads simply because the heads side of a quarter is actually heavier than the tails side. Thus, because of gravity and such, the coin tends to land with the heavier side on the bottom, making the chances of getting tails greater than getting heads. I learned that in my Research Methods class the other day and thought that was interesting, I've gone through all my life thinking that the chances of getting heads/tails when you flip a coin is 50/50.
In other news, I can park now! Calvin took me driving again and he borrowed his friend's little car for me because he said he didn't want me to get too "spoiled" with the handling of a BMW that I won't know how to drive a normal car haha, and the BMW's an SUV - so he suspected that I might've been having problems with estimating distances and whatnot because of how big the car was. Result? I DID SO MUCH BETTER WITH THE LITTLE CAR. I'm not cut out to drive luxury cars or something lol, everything just seemed so much smoother and easier in the normal little car :)
I've baked and decorated over 100 halloween cookies the past two days. A quarter of it was for my kids at random schools that I work with, the other three-quarters of it was for the SASP bakesale today. We had to bring our baked goods in by 8:30 this morning, but Calvin had taken me to school late last night so I could leave my cookies in the lounge and sleep in this morning - so I didn't go to school until my shift at 12. But when I got there, ALL my cookies were gone! Apparently they sold really well because they were really cute haha. They better have sold well, I spent over 5 hours baking and decorating!
I also did really well (70% is a fail, so "really well" = REALLY REALLY WELL) on my Law midterm the other day. Yes, Law. As school psychologists we need to know the law inside and out, to keep ourselves out of trouble when practicing. I'm required to buy liability insurance even though I'm still a student. I can't imagine being a law student though, it was horrible trying to learn all that legislation mumble jumble, court cases, dates, etc. And I haven't been living in the States for so long that I had to relearn the constitution, admendments, way government runs, etc - I spent every spare moment of my weekend at deafblind camp studying.
Speaking of deafblind camp, it was the COLDEST, yet rewarding, camping experience EVER. All of our activities were outside and 2 out of 3 days we were there, it was raining. I was impressed with the kids - some were blind, deaf, handicapped, or with multiple disabilites, yet we still forged on doing activities that the average kid probably wouldn't normally do. We went canoeing, fishing, rockclimbing, archery, team building activities on bridges, etc. There was even a small zoo that provided theraputic services for the deaf and blind by using other senses such as touch. I thought that was kind of neat, I never knew of "animal therapy." I wish I had pictures to post, but as you all may have noticed, I haven't posted like any pictures since I've gotten here, because I'm required to sign confidentiality forms for most of my jobs/activities - and confidentiality is taken very seriously in this field. My classmate wrote an email to my professor the other day about one of her clients and she used the client's name in the email instead of a code name and she got yelled at. One of the upper years had gotten fired from one of her jobs because she mentioned something about her client with the client's real name and it got back to the company. Posting pictures on the internet with these kids/clients would probably result in something drastic :P
Anyway, I have to run to the Autism Clinic now, the weekend's almost here, yay! One of my classmate's birthday, Kristen, falls on Halloween, so we're going to go out this weekend for some fun :) I'm going to be a black kitty this weekend ;) And the I have another midterm on Monday :O - not sure how I'm going to pull all this off though haha, we'll see. | | |
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My classmate Holly finally gave birth to her baby boy, Carson Joshua Wood. She's the most attractive pregnant lady you'll ever meet - cute, petite, stylish - other than her pregnant belly, the rest of her body is still in proportion to that of a fit, unpregnant woman. Oh how she's the envy of all us girls :) She and her husband are both still in school - her husband's finishing undergrad and she just started graduate school. I cannot imagine myself doing that, and especially at such a young age. The fact that so many people around me are married or engaged still bewilders me, nevermind having a child! Nevertheless, much congratulations to her, a new life is something that deserves celebration!
Anyway, I had quite the eventful day yesterday. The house I'm in still has the old-fashioned heating system where hot water runs through pipes for the heater. So my landlord decided that it should be time to start up the heating system (even though the weather here still allows me to wear skirts and t-shirts all the time, can't say the same for you all back at home though!) and a couple of heater guys comes over to turn on the system. See, no one's used the heating system since my landlord bought this house, so no one knew that there were a couple loose screws - so, while I was cleaning my room, I see this steady trickle of water come out from the pipes in my room. Uh-oh. So as I'm about to go downstairs to tell the heater guys, my attention shifts to the empty room beside mine. There was literally a water fountain in that room. I kid you not, I bet the carpet in there will be wet for weeks. At this point, even though I should have been panicking, I was quite amused by it, because it looked like something out of a cartoon haha. Then, I hear my housemate yelling downstairs. All the water from the room with the fountain had seeped its way downstairs through the ceiling light in her bathroom haha. She also has an empty room next to her room, and water was seeping through the side cracks of the ceiling in that room. Of course, we go and run outside to tell the heater guys to turn off the water, and as we're doing that we pass our basement and see that it too, was getting flooded. In the end, all the loose screws were tightened except the water fountain room haha, so they still had to shut down the heating system until the landlord gets it fixed. I really think I should be more serious sometimes, I found this whole ordeal rather amusing. It reminded of the time I used the bathroom jacuzzi back at home - I had forgotten to check the bubble jets before I turned it on. They were all pointed upward, and needless to say, my bathroom had a water fountain too, a high pressure one!
So later in the evening, I was attempting to get some writing done, but I kept hearing this beeping noise. I had baked a bunch of halloween treats for kids and pizza for dinner, so I figured that I had just forgotten to shut off the timer. Being the lazy person that I am, I attempted to ignore the sound until I got so annoyed and distracted at it that I stomped my way downstairs to turn it off. When I got down there, I looked at my oven with a confused look because my oven was completely shut off, even the timer. And yet, this beeping sound still continued. So I started wandering around my house trying to locate where this incessant beeping was coming from, and I ended up following it outside to my neighbor's house. And lo and behold, in one of the upstairs room, the fire alarm had gone off and there was a flame flickering in the window. By this point, several people had gathered where I was, as they too, had been following the beeping noise. Apparently the house has had a history of fires, it's a student house and the people there seem to never learn their lesson. The flame in the window wasn't very big though, it looked like there may have a been a couple of candles, but we called 911 anyway just to be on the safe side. This was my first time calling 911 since my childhood days. For some reason, when I was little, I called 911 a couple times and when I did, I'd start singing random songs to them, like "Twinkle twinkle little star," "Old McDonald had a farm" etc, until they traced the calls back to me and told my parents about it. Don't ask, I have no idea why I did it. So anyway, the police came, put out the mini-fire, and that was that.
Oh, off topic, there's this person on eBay who keeps outbidding me! Grr-ness! Who in the world would go on eBay to look for an APA Manual other than me. The auction's still for like 3 days but it's already getting close to the regular price of a new one, and this one I'm bidding on is second-hand. I'm going to end up having to buy this book at the regular price somewhere else. Boo-urns. Leave my APA Manual alone I saw it first! :( | | |
| IASP 2005 Fall Conference
It's only 10, but I'm so tired and I really should be studying. But, it's been such a long day, I need to unwind a bit first. I just came back from Day 1 of the IASP (Indiana Association of School Psychologists) Conference at the Hilton in Indianapolis. I must say, I was impressed. Of course, this was my first time participating in a "big league" event so the freshness of it may be biasing my opinion. Nonetheless, the Hilton was absolutely gorgeous and we even had string quartets playing in the background while we ate. I was tempted to swipe out my camera and start taking pictures, but it was such a professional event that such a gesture would have been quite embarassing.
A couple of the 2nd/3rd year grad students in my department were chosen by IASP to speak at one of the workshops about their research on treatment methods for autistic children - some of those children are my clients, so that was quite exciting. Usually only a handful of people show up to workshops presented by student speakers, but the room was jam packed for their presentation. Seeing them up there made me quite proud of them :)
What else has happened lately, oh yeah, I CAN'T PARK! I am HORRID at parking! There's this guy that's been teaching me how to drive, he's a mechanical engineering professor at Rose Hulman - a private college that's been ranked no. 1 in the US for engineering for the past 7 years. When you hear "professor" you'd think "50 years old," but he's actually really young for a professor. And he's like, FBI-ish! One time he went back to HK to visit his family and the US wouldn't let him back in because of his "Eagle Mantis" status on his passport. Eagle Mantis is basically like a classification of how much "secret" information you know. He previously worked on research that dealt with certain aircrafts and because of that, the US didn't want him running around, so when he went back to HK they didn't want to let him back in to the States. I've been telling everyone this story because I think it's so cool, like you hear about this sort of stuff on tv shows but not in real life. I was telling Donna this story the other day, and I was telling her about how a level below "Eagle Mantis" was "Donkey Mantis" and she said something funny: "so if lower than an eagle is a donkey...what does that make us? cause a donkey's an ass. wow...that's sad...we're not even good enough to be asses." lol.
Anyway, I really need to study. I'm going to that DeafBlind Service Project all weekend and my first midterm is bright and early on the following day after.
Here, to forget everything there wouldn't let me forget.
Pardonnez-moi... | | |
| I need to rant.
I received a letter from OSAP stating that I owe them $800 in interest charges alone, not including any of the student loan I took out, from the date that I graduated until now - which should not be the case because if you continue your education after graduation no interest is placed on the previous sum borrowed until you've completely stopped schooling. I've already called OSAP a million and one times before I moved to confirm my pursuit of graduate studies and that interest will not be placed on my account. But did it log into their system? No. When does it ever?
So then, I was directed by OSAP to have a form filled and stamped by my institution as proof of my enrollment at ISU. Sounds simple enough right? Yes, if people weren't so hard-headed! I literally spent the ENTIRE morning arguing with different offices because they are so ridiculously stubborn!
Things to be noted before I continue:
1) The form must be completed by a school official and cannot be filled in by the student
2) The form must then be stamped with the institution's seal
Now this is the part that gets me mad, and gets confusing, so it will probably make no sense to people reading this, but I'm going to rant anyway. I went to a total of 6 offices. School Psychology Student Services sends me to the Department of Education, Department of Education sends me to Registrar's Office, Registrar's Office sends me to Controller's Office, Controller's Office sends me to Registrar's Office and I tell them I've already been there. Then proceeds to tell me to check with Office of Graduate Studies, Graduate Studies tells me to go to International Affairs, International Affairs tells me to go back to Registrar's Office, in essence, NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THEY'RE DOING AND THEY'RE SENDING ME ON A WILD GOOSE CHASE.
Since I found out the Registrar's Office is the only place that can give the institution stamp, I decide to target them and demand an answer. I basically argued my way from the secretary in that office all the way to the very top supervisor of the office and even the supervisor was as hard-headed as the secretary. In the end, they basically printed out my transcript and put the institution stamp on the transcript. THEY WOULDN'T STAMP MY OSAP FORM. And they couldn't even TRANSFER the information on the transcript onto my OSAP form because "we don't do that, that's your job" EVEN IF THE FORM SAYS, CANNOT BE FILLED OUT BY STUDENT MUST BE SIGNED BY OFFICIAL, hello?!
And my transcript has NOTHING on it. In fact, it shows that I'm only here at ISU for ONE semester because my department hasn't come up with all the courses that I need to take for the next 4 years yet. And instead of a Ph.D. student, I am a Master's student on the transcript, because of my lack of program of study, which I don't have yet because my department is taking their sweet time figuring things out! And it has none of the other information OSAP requires such as how much tuition fees are, etc.
When OSAP receives this information it'll basically look like:
A) I'm a Master's student instead of a Ph.D. student, which is what I originally told OSAP
B) I'm a Master's student who doesn't intend to finish schooling since I'm only there for one semester
C) I'm an incomptetent Master's student who can't follow simple instructions when it's the office people that are incompetent!
So I ask the supervisor if I could have the Controller's Office fill out how much tuition fees etc. costs since they know that answer and if I could have my department verify that I'm a Ph.D. student, and then bring back the form to the Registrar's Office to get stamped since all the people filling out my form are school officials anyway. The lady tells me, "No, because we didn't fill in that information therefore we can't stamp it. We only stamp things we personally fill out." BUT YOU JUST REFUSED TO TRANSFER INFORMATION FROM MY TRANSCRIPT TO MY OSAP FORM 2 MINUTES AGO!! In fact, all I needed to do was to log onto my school account and it'd have all the information they needed, all they would need to do is copy it onto the form and sign and stamp my form! And they wouldn't do that, IS MY REQUEST REALLY THAT DEMANDING!? SO STUBBORN! The lady was getting annoyed at me too. I was thinking, I'm the one that should be infuriated, not you! When I asked her what I should do then, she was basically like, I don't know, but that's all we can do for you. YOU DON'T KNOW?! WHY DO YOU HAVE THE INSTITUTION STAMP THEN WHEN YOU CAN'T PUT IT TO ANY USE! ARGH!
End rant.
 On to a more light-hearted topic, I got my ISU badge! I know it's not a big deal, but I've never had one of these name tag things before so I just think it's kind of neat. Yes, I'm a dork, no need to remind me. When I go into different schools to work I don't need to wear a neon yellow "visitor" sticker anymore. Now I'm "officially" a representative from ISU when I go into schools and attend conferences. I heard we're getting Indiana State University laptop bags and tote bags for our testing kits too. YAY for free stuff :P I'm also in the process of eliminating my English name Esther. Soon, only the people who know me will refer to me as Esther. To everyone and everything else, I will be Shin-Ruu. It's just too hard keeping up with two names.
Oh and another random thing, I was mentioned in the newspaper yesterday! I didn't even know until someone told me haha. Next weekend I'll be in Martinsville, IN for Indiana Deafblind Services Project. It's basically a weekend for families who have children who are deaf and blind at the same time. The parents will be attending workshops while people like me will be teaching and doing intervention with deafblind kids. I think it'll be a really interesting experience working with kids who are simultaneously deaf and blind, thank goodness we have training this week, because I really wouldn't know how to handle them! So yeah, the newspaper article was about this upcoming project and they mentioned my name as one of the workers, and they mentioned that I was from Hamilton, and that I was from McMaster University haha. YAY Hamilton and McMaster!
Okay. End dorkiness. | | |
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