Toilet...

I have to share this story because right now all I can do is sit on my floor and chuckle, otherwise I would cry because I am so tired and exhausted.  So I got up this morning and my toilet wasn't working.  As in water won't go down the toilet and it is clogged.  Tried my plunger.  No dice.  But it is one of those 'new' school ones that I don't think work as well.  Went to the hardware store, and bought an old school plunger.  Still no dice.  At this point I call the property company.  Didn't hear back after a few hours, and I seriously needed to use the restroom, so I went to the laundromat and used theirs and then went back to the hardware store and rented a snake.  Still no dice.  In the meantime I cleaned my apartment because I knew they were going to send a plumber.  He gets here. After five minutes, the end of the snake breaks off in the toilet.  So after much work we get all the water emptied out of the toilet and he unbolts it from the floor and he carries it outside.  (At least it isn't snowing yet!!!!!)  He works on it some more hoping to get it fixed. The toilet breaks - you can see the crack on the tank.  (I had to take the picture because how funny is an upside down toilet in the grass?!?).  So now he is at the hardware store buying a new toilet.  And I am sitting on the floor in my living room waiting for him to get back.  I may be resilient, but can I please, please get a break from the chaos of life?  Like I said, what else can I do but chuckle!?!?!  :)

So I haven't gotten much done today except the toilet (which I guess still isn't done!) and I am beyond exhausted and ready to crawl into bed.  At least my apartment is straightened up for when I wake up tomorrow.  But here is the picture!

It is supposed to snow on Thursday?  Um.  Yikes!
Have some photos to post, hopefully in the next day or two from an engineering event I went to....

I am certain our bus driver used to drive demolition derby!  Today I had my eyes closed and was trying to rest on the way to campus, when he turned a corner and hit the curb.  Hard.  I was flung out of my seat, completely startled awake!  I was like at least I am awake to teach now!

I haven't been sleeping well at all for the past month, so I was just exhausted this morning, and I got to class and my students were just as wiped out.  But we persevered and learned a few things!  I have such an amazing group of students.  I am so proud of them!  They really work together and we have fostered a great learning environment.  And I am trying out a new idea this semester called cookie pts.  If they spot a mistake I made on the board or said, instead of waiting and wondering, if they ask right away they get a cookie point.  If they ask a good question or something else like that - cookie point.  We get to 30 points and I bring them cookies.  At first they were skeptical.  But now they are really into it.  One of them emailed me and wanted to know if a typo on a worksheet was a cookie point!  Goodness I love teaching so much!

I think winter is rapidly approaching here, or at least much earlier than last year.  :(

We have had much rain and hail the last few days, and this morning when I looked outside, there was snow on the tops of the mountains.....

I received high A's on my first few homework assignments.  The funny thing is, I am realizing, that no matter what the grade, I am not satisfied, although oddly, I tend to be happier with a few points off than a perfect score because a perfect score I think the professor missed something when grading my paper.  A few points off is irritating, but I like better I think.  I don't know.  Seems like I am a bit over the school thing.

It just got really windy here and I am watching the leaves blow across the ground and the pattern they make, the swirls and eddies.  Pretty interesting.....  Wonder about the math involved in that....

Had another student switch to my class today.  I didn't think they could, but she must have begged the registrar's office....

And now it is raining, watching the pattern on the window, which is an interesting scatterplot.  Watching the rain hit the ground, thinking about percentages of rain coverage, etc.  Interesting

Oh dear.  Now there is lightning too.  Maybe it will slop down in the next 20 minutes before I walk across campus to class.  But the wind is blowing the rain across the cement in amazing patterns.  It even looks like in some places the water goes airborne from the wind hitting the cement!

Working on topology homework.  Trying to decide what sets are open under the parameters we were given.  The professor was talking about this in class last week.  And while we were all massively confused and trying to decide if they were open, he walks over and starts swinging the door open and closed, open and closed, and I am thinking, what in the world????  And he says "I am not airing out the room because I farted, I am trying to give you a hint."  The class just busts out laughing.  Apparently, a set is not like a door.  A door is either open or closed.  In topology land sets can be neither open nor closed, both open and closed, and who knows what else.  So he was trying to tell us that a set in topology is NOT like a door.  So silly!

Though this does remind me of a song from grade school music class.  the words go something like "when is a door not a door", which repeats a bunch of times until you get to the punchline, which is "when it is ajar".  A Jar.  Ha!

I could smell fireplaces going last night when I walked home from the bus.  This morning I woke up to the smell of new rain on the air and a crispness and cold to the air.  I LOVE fall!  :)

Jammin' to "What Makes You Beautiful" in the library while waiting for the bus.  Discovered there is a place to nap on campus, so I got a good hour of rest, or at least time with my eyes closed.  Wishing I had a guitar.  I miss playing....

Got a good evaluation from my supervisor today.  Said I did an awesome job teaching!  :)

They're coming back!!!! Students vs zombies: two teams they play for a week solid with nerf guns, water guns, walkie talkies, camo clothing, the whole nine yards. They play day and night. The only time you are safe is when you are physically class. I don't know what they do if a human and a zombie are in the same class though! Interesting!!!!

Still adjusting to the weight loss.  I was looking at Good Will for clothes since most of mine don't fit, and I was looking in the plus sizes for awhile and then I was like oops...  I am not plus size any more, so I had to go back and find the regular sizes.  Sooner or later I will get used to it....

Today I watched two physics professors who were watching two college students.  The male college student was trying to teach a female college student how to long board (not terribly successfully).  The two professors were debating the relative physics and how they could perhaps give better pointers on successful longboarding merely by employing the principles of physics.  Pretty entertaining.

Westboro Baptists come to MSU

Westboro Baptists came to campus yesterday. Students had organized an equality rally, which was VERY well attended so Westboro didn't stay long before leaving. Pictures are of the rally, and 'green man' who was their mascot.

Contacts

Forgot to post this when I got contacts

I was so tired yesterday (i haven't been sleeping well), that I walked into a class room and stood there for several minutes looking at the instructor, who wasn't my instructor, although he was talking about something familiar, as if he was subbing for my professor.  And I looked around the room and the faces were familiar (they were other math grad students), but I was like, something isn't right here.  It doesn't seem like enough students.  And that isn't the right prof.  So I asked - Is this 511?  (The class I was looking for was 505, but I was tired, I couldn't even remember the right number!)  The prof was like nope - 547!  I said SORRY!  I am so lost and bolted from the room.  I found my classroom a few doors down.  I have no idea how I got so lost, except sheer tiredness.  But in retrospect, it was pretty funny!

Day 2 of School

So these are from Wednesday.  I was just too tired to try to type it up sooner.  It rained on Wednesday, and I wasn't paying attention and I cut my thumb open on my umbrella - and had to get it glued together so it would stop bleeding.  Don't ask.  I must be special to cut my thumb open that good on an umbrella.

More from my Topology prof...

Most of math is working hard to write the correct definition.  If you can define something properly, then everything else just works out fine.  So if there is an issue with your definition, just add or subtract things until it works the way you want.  (My mother would say that sounds an awful lot like cheating!)

Another gem:  "You will learn to do proofs by doing proofs."  Hm.  Or maybe you could teach us?

The prof told us that all of math can be boiled down to about 20 examples and they can work for everything.  When he started teaching, it would take him half a class period to cover an example.  Not he says he can do it in 5 minutes, but he isn't sure anyone understands it!
Cantor Set Example
So he puts this example on the board.  This is a Cantor Set.  You start with a bar of length equal to 1.  Then you remove the middle third (the piece between 1/3 and 2/3), so that you have one black bar, a white space, and another black bar.  In the third row, for each of the black bars, you again remove the middle third.  You continue this process, until as my professor proclaims, you get DUST (complete with sound effects!).  The 'mathematical definition' of dust:  all the remaining pieces are completely disconnected.  (See there is that definition thing again!)  He then goes on to say that we don't know what connected means, so saying it is disconnected is not meaningful in any way, but he is pretty sure we will get to covering that in about 5 weeks!
Another fun fact about this....  If you add up all the white bars, the pieces that were removed, it adds up to 1!  Which doesn't make any sense because you still have some 'dust' left at the end.  I see how it mathematically works out that way.  It has to do with as things go to infinity, but still, a bit hard to wrap your mind around!

What we are doing in this class is like the CDC, when they have the virus in a box and they use those thick gloves to work with it.  We have stuck topology in a box so you could work with it.  (Say what?)

The topologies, we abbreviate with the letter T (with some squiggleys in it).  However, he wrote them with J for half the class period, and then he was like, you know, something is not right about that.  He stares at his notes for the LONGEST time and he is like - I don't know what letter that should be, I don't have any idea what my notes say!

Last, but not least, he tells a story in class about countries where pubs are forbidden.  So he says you go to the grocery store, decide what size bottle of alcohol you want to purchase, and then you stand in the aisle with your hand in front of your chest holding up the number of fingers for the number of people you want to share it with.  So maybe 3 people.  One person stops and waits with you, so then you hold up 2 fingers.  Once you get your 3 people, the 4 of you proceed to the checkstand and purchase the alcohol.  Then you go outside and sit somewhere and enjoy it together.  He said it really ends up being a lot like a pub because you go there and drink with strangers anyway, so it isn't any different.  (I have no idea why he told this story, but it was pretty funny!)