Sitting outside of Victoria's Secret watching the World go by

We were in Las Vegas for a day and a half, to celebrate our 1st anniversary; we got back tonight.

I was in Las Vegas 6 1/2 years ago, on my drive from Michigan to the Bay Area. I was there for one night, and remember thinking it was weird, and I just didn't get the appeal of the city. The way people talk about Vegas, I thought I missed out on something; I didn't. I still think it's weird and I still don't get the appeal of the city.

This picture helps illustrate the weirdness of Vegas...


This guy was sitting outside of Victoria's Secret, for what seemed like an eternity, waiting for his wife. A number of things happened while I was watching this guy, including a guy who had his picture taken, while posing with one of the mannequins. Why? I have no idea. Like I said, it's weird and I don't get the appeal of the city.

BTW, his wife eventually came out of the store....

No Movie for Old Men

I saw No Country for Old Men yesterday. I liked it a lot. I used to see a lot more movies over winter break than I do in recent years. There's something about sitting in a good movie that I really like.

I liked this movie a lot, but I could see how people wouldn't like it. The ending doesn't wrap things up the way a lot of movies do and I really like that. There were some moans when the movie ended, because some audience members wanted things to be wrapped up nicely. I heard a couple people on the way out of the theater say that this was the weirdest movie they've ever seen - they should see What the #$*! Do We (K)now!?

During the movie, there was an older man sitting behind me. Early on (about 20-30 minutes into the film) he said - quite loudly- to his wife, 'what the hell is this?', his way of complaining about a violent scene.

For the rest of the movie, every 15-20 minutes he would turn to his wife, and say things like 'do you want to sit through this?' or 'do you want to leave'; she didn't want to.

About 15 minutes before the movie ended, he told her he was leaving, and would wait for her outside the theater. She was cool with that.

I guess No Country for Old Men is no movie for old men.

Race in my classes

I recently saw a report that listed the break-down, by race, of De Anza College students. Here's what it said:

Asian, Filipino, and Pacific Islander - 41%
Caucasian - 25%
Hispanic - 14%
African American - 5%
Other - 19%

Note that the totals add up to 104% - I have no explanation for that.

While giving my last final on Friday, the report on the desk, I looked at my class of 35 calculus students. Here is the break-down, by race, of my class. This was based on my observation, so I might be off:

Asian, Filipino, and Pacific Islander - 94.3% (33 out of 35 students)
Caucasian - 2.9% (1 student)
Hispanic - 0%
African American - 0%
Other - 2.9% (1 student)

After seeing the statistics, and seeing how off they were for my calculus class, I am going to pay more attention to who is enrolled in my classes. I'm sure my intermediate algebra class next quarter, will not look anything like my calculus class did.

Part of the time working on my master's degree was spent looking at the problems of getting underrepresented minorities into calculus, the gateway class for college students. Looking at my calculus class, I realize I'm not doing a very good job at helping fix those problems.

Short Break

So I have a small break over the next few days, sort of. After grading two exams, writing two finals, taking a final, and grading two assignments and quizzes, I'm done with work I have to do, until Wednesday, when I start grading finals.

With all this work going on, I have done no planning for next quarter. I usually start planning Winter Quarter over Thanksgiving weekend, but that didn't happen. I'll spend the next few days (my 'break'), planning for next quarter. I mainly need to put my calendars and syllabi together.

Last night we went up to North Beach, with the help of GiGi (the name we have given our new GPS navigator). There were moments when Lauren was second-guessing the navigator, which led to having the feeling of having two back-seat drivers, but GiGi seems to work alright.

I don't really know what else to say. Without soccer and MBA classes to talk about, I feel like I have nothing to say...

The week to come

I should be working on my Marketing final right now. I've written an outline for the big essay we're supposed to write, but need to fill it in with more detail. The outline is almost 3 pages. Our professor said he thought the essay would be about 3 pages. Hmmm....I'm probably going to need to cut some stuff out.

I had an 7.5-hour marketing class yesterday (8:30-4:00). I guess it was more like 6.5 hours, because we got an hour break in the middle of the day.

This week is going to be crazy! In addition to finishing up the Marketing final, I'm giving two precalculus exams tomorrow, a calculus exam on Tuesday, and assignments are coming in from my classes this week. That's about 120 exams and 120 assignments to grade! I want to be able to hand back all the exams by the end of the week, because the following week is finals. It's going to be rough, but I pride myself in my abilities as a very fast grader.

When I was a TA in grad school, I didn't like when we had group grading sessions, because I would always finish my portion first, and then have to help the other TA's, which meant I would grade more than anyone else.

What sucks about grading now is that my wrist/hand is still not right. I fell about a month ago (chasing Geordi) and used my hand to break my fall. I don't get why I have the pain still lingering. Lauren things I did something to my tendons. I've had a similar problem about a hear ago, when I had a collision with a goalie, but I don't remember it taking this long to heal.

I guess that's all I have to say. Back to Marketing.