happydalek (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
happydalek) wrote2012-01-23 09:46 pm
happydalek) wrote2012-01-23 09:46 pm
Today I got to flint knap. My life is perilously close to being complete.
Ahh, another semester of grad school. How I missed it.
Yes, really. I wanna get things DONE. Also, I am having a blast. Although I was promptly reminded that this is dreaded Thesis Pickin' Tiem. The time in my coursework in which I pick a thesis topic and hope it doesn't turn out to be a huge debacle of some sort or other. But I'm not worried. I have an idea. I just need to flesh it out. I did some research over the break. I'll work it out. And I'm feeling good about my assistantship work, especially since the poster-submission deadline to the one conference is actually a month later than I thought it was. Yay.
And yes, I finally got to knap flint. Not properly, not exactly. I was given a massive chunk of rock and another rock, and told to beat the one rock with the other rock til it broke, so I did. It was a little class demo for my prehistoric artifacts analysis class, and the professor was trying to prove a point about material types, I think. The woman is brilliant, but she doesn't plan ahead and she is a terrible lecturer. TERRIBLE. Which is such a crying shame because she obviously knows her stuff. Dammit woman, why can't you communicate better?? Ugh, she could be marvelous if she wasn't so inept. I got enough of a hang of it to start roughing out an oversized perforator, so that was kind of exciting. And I didn't smash or lacerate any of my appendages in the process, so whoo for that. I'm quite pleased, actually. Hands-on activities like that are just the thing I was hoping to get out of this class to offset the poor planning and poor instruction I figured I'd receive, and so far everything is unfolding just like I planned.
Also, I spent the weekend in Philly with some old buddies from undergrad, which was delightful, but I am absolutely knackered today. So great to have all my grad school buddies back, and so great to be back in my apartment after ten days of sleeping on the floor. I spent a week at my parents' place where all I set up was a makeshift bedroll since I was trying to do some cleaning, then the aforementioned trip to Philly happened, which involved a sleeping back on a floor and then sharing an air mattress. So I am beyond excited to be back in my own bed. Which might end up with a new mattress in the next week, if I can decide whether to try and arrange transportation for cheap, or delivery for not-as-cheap, but arguably more reliable.
And that's life right now. How are you?
Yes, really. I wanna get things DONE. Also, I am having a blast. Although I was promptly reminded that this is dreaded Thesis Pickin' Tiem. The time in my coursework in which I pick a thesis topic and hope it doesn't turn out to be a huge debacle of some sort or other. But I'm not worried. I have an idea. I just need to flesh it out. I did some research over the break. I'll work it out. And I'm feeling good about my assistantship work, especially since the poster-submission deadline to the one conference is actually a month later than I thought it was. Yay.
And yes, I finally got to knap flint. Not properly, not exactly. I was given a massive chunk of rock and another rock, and told to beat the one rock with the other rock til it broke, so I did. It was a little class demo for my prehistoric artifacts analysis class, and the professor was trying to prove a point about material types, I think. The woman is brilliant, but she doesn't plan ahead and she is a terrible lecturer. TERRIBLE. Which is such a crying shame because she obviously knows her stuff. Dammit woman, why can't you communicate better?? Ugh, she could be marvelous if she wasn't so inept. I got enough of a hang of it to start roughing out an oversized perforator, so that was kind of exciting. And I didn't smash or lacerate any of my appendages in the process, so whoo for that. I'm quite pleased, actually. Hands-on activities like that are just the thing I was hoping to get out of this class to offset the poor planning and poor instruction I figured I'd receive, and so far everything is unfolding just like I planned.
Also, I spent the weekend in Philly with some old buddies from undergrad, which was delightful, but I am absolutely knackered today. So great to have all my grad school buddies back, and so great to be back in my apartment after ten days of sleeping on the floor. I spent a week at my parents' place where all I set up was a makeshift bedroll since I was trying to do some cleaning, then the aforementioned trip to Philly happened, which involved a sleeping back on a floor and then sharing an air mattress. So I am beyond excited to be back in my own bed. Which might end up with a new mattress in the next week, if I can decide whether to try and arrange transportation for cheap, or delivery for not-as-cheap, but arguably more reliable.
And that's life right now. How are you?
no subject
DED OF HOMEWORK. Also getting back involved in politics (somewhat) because SAVE THE INTERNET.
Also I just pulled out a hall carpet and threw it away because it was gross. Also DED OF HOMEWORK 'KAY and I really ought to be in bed. But flint knapping is cool! I knew a guy who did a final paper on that once! And I am glad you're having fun! :-) I'm having fun too, really. (Did you hear I went back to geology? I HAS A GEOLOGY.)
no subject
Not so YAY for DED OF HOMEWORK.
But idle hands do the devil's work or however that saying goes, so at least you've not got to worry about that? My class might touch lightly on some geology because it's all about prehistoric artifacts are just about all made of rock, which will be a hoot because I remember the last time I had to identify rocks and materials for a class and I failed that part of it HARDCORE, lol.
no subject
no subject
In general, it gives me a sad that so few doctoral programs offer/require candidates to take courses on how to teach. People seem to think that just because they've been so good at being a student means they can just switch to teaching and be okay. Teaching well isn't like having magical Jedi powers. Some people need taught how to teach. This woman is great with hands-on activities. She seems to have an idea about what works, and I think she realizes that she sucks at explaining things, so she tries to teach through example, but that doesn't work for everything.
I was going to link to some flint knapping stuff, but I got lazy, lol.