Stuff from October, 2008
This is the archive of tumbledry happenings that occurred on October, 2008.
This is the archive of tumbledry happenings that occurred on October, 2008.
Back in 2003, during the final months of my high school career, I clipped a picture from the newspaper and placed it under the smoked glass that sits atop my Dad’s Infinity Column II speakers. This wasn’t a time that I really had anything straight in my life, but something in me wanted to save that piece of history. The picture is an AP photo of Fred Rogers, arms resting on model trolley tracks, on the set of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.
Dixie the Tiny Dog, by Peter Himmelman
And in the middle of the day I sit in the sun and I hear young children call me a wiener dog, perhaps that’s what I am
The Germanic term is dachshund, and I like that
I’m thin and I’m proud and no one can make fun of me
I can slip through the bars of a prison if I were ever incarcerated, but I don’t know what I would do wrong
My body yields no evil inclination, I’m a pure weiner dogMy name is Dixie, and I go dancing ‘cross the floor in the evening of the Johnsons when everyone is sleeping
Sometimes I look for a morsel of food, but they’re so clean they’re almost anal-retentive in their cleanliness habits and there’s nothing for me
But I don’t despair
Thinking of going to school dressed up as an M.D. for Halloween… which would be funny with my dental school scrubs.
Can I borrow anyone’s *cough* Caley *cough* stethoscope?
The Secret to Raising Smart Kids in Scientific American:
Several years later I developed a broader theory of what separates the two general classes of learners—helpless versus mastery-oriented. I realized that these different types of students not only explain their failures differently, but they also hold different “theories” of intelligence. The helpless ones believe that intelligence is a fixed trait: you have only a certain amount, and that’s that. I call this a “fixed mind-set.” Mistakes crack their self-confidence because they attribute errors to a lack of ability, which they feel powerless to change. They avoid challenges because challenges make mistakes more likely and looking smart less so. Like Jonathan, such children shun effort in the belief that having to work hard means they are dumb.
The mastery-oriented children, on the other hand, think intelligence is malleable and can be developed through education and hard work. They want to learn above all else. After all, if you believe that you can expand your intellectual skills, you want to do just that. Because slipups stem from a lack of effort, not ability, they can be remedied by more effort. Challenges are energizing rather than intimidating; they offer opportunities to learn. Students with such a growth mind-set, we predicted, were destined for greater academic success and were quite likely to outperform their counterparts.
Dentistry — hoo boy, they make you earn it to work in this occupation. It was a long long day, and my left eye seems to be twitching for some reason. (Note to left eye: please stop! Ok, thanks, bye!) I did make it outside to sit and eat a spot of lunch with Mykala as she was coming back from Marriage and Family Therapy related classes. Such a (literal, figurative, actual, metaphorical, etc., et al.) ray of sunshine in the middle of the day.
If I had the time to record an album of music, I’d want it to sound like Peter Bradley Adams’ Leavetaking. Try out the track Los Angeles. This guy is the real deal. Hole. Ee. Crap. That’s some good music.
Today was fail. Tomorrow we try again. Tonight, we prepare for tomorrow. This weekend… well, I haven’t thought that far ahead. Also: this text brought to you by a first-person plural personal pronoun used in the archaic (for English) T-V distinction.
Studying for a biochemistry exam tomorrow is like undergraduate déjà vu. Like that old Garfield and Friends episode:
Déjà vu… the feeling you are doing something you have done before…
Déjà vu… the feeling you are doing something you have done before…
This has been the longest shortest week I can remember — that is to say, the days have been very long, to the point that I can scarcely differentiate Monday from Tuesday from Wednesday and so on. The days just blur from one to the next… I can feel my mind, like a muscle in training, becoming better and better at learning (which is helpful) but I feel my body become more and more tired. And so… I’m off to the library in a minute to see how long I can study there.
Jimmy Eat World - Electable (Give It Up)
I came up like everyone
They taught us all the same
I said what they told me to say
And then from that they grade
Give up repeating the facts
Fact can be arranged
Here I am, I’ll take my chance
Now play the record straight.Now give it up!
Oh oh oh oh oh oh
Give it up!
Oh oh oh oh oh ohTalking points from talking heads
With automated smiles
There’s no higher ground to stand
Than bottom of the pile Give up acting unaware
You can’t ignore the crime
The enemy is you as well
The enemy is I
Twelve hour dental school days aren’t even long anymore. They’re just typical. At the end of them, you come back home (starving, if you didn’t pack a dinner) and just settle in and try to concentrate on more work until bedtime. Thankfully, nothing is hard per se… it’s just a gigantic pile of things to memorize.
Every year at some point before Halloween, I imagine myself going to a large, fabulous party somewhere in celebration. That worked out last year, though I managed to sabotage a potentially good time. So this year, we keep expectations low. In celebration of Halloween, I will: