Test blog post.

In the dark

The past few days have been a little interesting. I have been doing well and feeling fine other than being extremely tired. I titled this post in the dark because I feel that way anymore. I am still not sure what I want to do with my life and where I wish to end up. There are so many possibilities that are out there its too hard to pick sometimes. Because I cannot see any one of them clearly its feels like the lights are off and I am bumping into things around the room. This has not had a wondrous effect on my work ethic as its hard to get up when you don't know what you are getting up for. Between that and some serious anxiety (no attacks just the feeling of it all the time) I end up very fatigued and cannot wake up in the morning. I feel good much of the day and I am able to relax sometimes but there are other times where I force myself to have a little fun and chill out. I am going to be working hard on meditating and focusing my mind the next few weeks to be able to cope with this. I need better strategies so I will be swimming again and trying to keep "office time" at the minimum that is reasonable. I need more tasks that take me elsewhere on campus to see a different landscape and help me free my soul. No one reading this worry, I am fine just trying to vent for myself and convince myself to do something about it.

A bunch of randomness

Well I need to start typing something so I guess I will start with anything that comes to mind. Right now I am upgrading 3 machines. My mac and two linux boxes. Sad thing is the new version of finkcommander on the mac isn't helping me. I upgraded Fink and tried compiling the newest versions of emacs and python but because of bad dependancies and my apathy of hacking the patches I have failed to install anything. I guess it doesn't make that much of a difference but its still kind of annoying. I did not realize that yesterday was the release date for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. I am upgrading wupatki to that OS now and given the UA internet connection I should be able to download the update in about 20 minutes (1.2 GB) but due to Canonical's servers being inundated its going to take most of the day. I would think that I would learn to not upgrade on release day but I guess I did wait ONE day. Last time it took 3 days to download the update. It looks pretty sweet from the screenshots I have seen.

Today I am going to help some students and finalize my first paper. I am soooooo proud of myself for this paper. I have done almost everything myself. Yes I have received guidance and help on my thinking but not any help doing. Its kind of nice to be able to say, "THIS IS MY WORK!" Its been a lot of crazy hours thinking and doing but now its finally getting to the point where I see the end. There are a lot of things I want to play with and finalize while the paper is in collaborators hands but none of this will affect the results just tighten up a few things to make ME more confident I did it right. Well I should probably work on it rather than blab on here. Wrapping up post for now. Hopefully I will be writing more and more in the coming months.

Well this is off to a slow start

I haven't been writing much on here but I plan to be better. Currently I am working on a letter of recommendation and my first paper itself. I find that I sit and stare at the screen a lot and then start clicking on other things that need my attention rather than working on things I should. I need to uninstall all web browsers to completely disconnect myself from the world some days. I do find it fascinating to be caught up in local, national, and world news at the moment. I like working at the computer some days but others its hard to want to look at the screen since my eyes got fraked up last semester. I need to learn to type better since I know where most of the keys are but I cannot seems to spell when I am not looking at the keyboard. I should probably learn the correct places to put my fingers as well and learn to type faster as well. Maybe that will be my goal after I start going to the gym again. So far so good since the coffee stopped. I think its was the root of many problems I have been suffering from .

I know the above post was pretty random but it was meant to literally be a start to writing and get the juices flowing without looking at the keys as I was typing. GOOD DAY MY FRIENDS :)

Things I learned today

I will be self affirmative in the morning and start the day off right.
I will DO rather than think.
I will make a list of strengths and weaknesses
I will be positive and feed the Wayne part of me.

Had a weird dream last night

So I was laying in bed and I couldn't sleep for the longest time. When I finally did fall asleep I dreamed my job in life was to remove stains from my clothes. I dreamed I used a Tide pen and then I used Shout. Every time I cleaned a spot I always found another. It was a little odd to be so domestic all night in my dream when I have enough problems making sure I do laundry before I run out of clothes.

How to solve a homework problem in NATS 102

Since I have so many students who cannot seem to solve a problem to save their necks I figured writing about ways to help them would be a good starting place for writing. I am not saying any of my students are not capable of solving problems but they certainly don't know how and even with help quickly revert to their "IDK" ways.


Example:

Q. In a paragraph, describe what is meant by a "main sequence” star. Be sure to include how such stars are arranged in the H-R Diagram and also describe the process all main sequence stars use to generate energy. 

The first thing I would do is read the entire question and ask myself what is it asking. This may seem incredibly basic but when you actually read all of the words its amazing how clear things can be. This will not solve all problems but 80% of them stem from not reading the entire question.

In the example, I would break the information down into this list of things:
1) I will be writing a paragraph, which means 4-6 sentences to explain my answer
2) Describe what it means to be a main sequence star, this means define it. I may have to lookup in my notes what this is. I can also use my online tutorials to help answer this question.
3) I know the instructor at minimum wants to see the following in my answer, where are main sequence stars on an HR Diagram, how do stars generate energy on the main sequence
4) There are new terms that the instructor told us to use, I would define them. An HR diagram is... Stars generate energy from fusion and on the main sequence it is specifically Hydrogen fusion.
5) I would talk about other things that are important about the main sequence and the HR diagram, How long are stars on the main sequence, how many stars are on the main sequence, what is so important about the main sequence, what relationships do stars on the main sequence have with their properties? I came up with these topics using the lecture notes and the information that is printed on the HR diagram given in the assignment. I see radius, mass, luminosity, temperature, spectral type, magnitude, etc written, so I must assume these are important.

The next step is to take the information you wrote to answer the bullets that you pulled out of the instructors question and mix it together to form a paragraph. Put similar things together. Introduce the whole problem beginning with what is an HR diagram and how are stars situated on it. Then describe where the main sequence is and what is important about it.

The last step is the following:
1) Did you write an answer that satisfies the instructors length requirement?
2) Did you write complete sentences?
3) Did you spell check and grammar check?
4) Did all of your sentences relate to the concepts asked about?
5) Could someone who is not taking this class understand what what you wrote and think its a clear answer?
6) Reread your answer and double check that it makes sense.

If you did all of that then you have a good chance of getting full credit on any assignment. If anything you are beginning to write completely and logically and will receive partial credit. Instructors want to know what you are thinking and you cannot explain what is in your head in a few partial phrases with poor spelling.