The Happy Thread V

[Earniel]

Originally Posted by Tessar

NO TIME! IT'S CHRISTMAS, YO?!!?!?

Yes dear, but you're gonna need breath for the christmas carols, won't you?

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by Eärniel

Yes dear, but you're gonna need breath for the christmas carols, won't you?

You'd be surprised by the might of my breath support!

[GrayMouser]

Having spent the morning writing a Nativity play for kindergarten ESLers, I'm just full of the spirit of the season. Shepherds, angels, wise guys....

[Mari]

"How come wise men and wise guys are opposites?"

[Midge]

Originally Posted by Tessar

You'd be surprised by the might of my breath support!

He does sing opera. I believe him.

*terribly sings personal opera insults at the Rule (I'm not very good... I'm so not very good that I'm very bad)*

[Jonathan]

Had a great night out with some of my fellow med students, with Asian buffet, good chai tea and nice talks about the future.
It's only weeks left until we're no longer students and we'll spread all over the country...

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by Jonathan

Had a great night out with some of my fellow med students, with Asian buffet, good chai tea and nice talks about the future.
It's only weeks left until we're no longer students and we'll spread all over the country...

Huzzah! Excited about being done with school?

[Jonathan]

Excited, anxious, happy, jittery... Lotsa emotions. It'll be a big change, that's for sure

Heh, gotta capture these opportunities while you still can / still are a student. So yesterday I had another great night with some fellow students. This time with home-made sushi (yum!) and Miyazaki's anime Nausicaä.

[Nerdanel]

sounds like an exciting time for you, jon.. it's worth enjoying as much as possible!

last night, we rearranged our flat.. there's so much more space now! o.O it's so nice.. and a good friend defended his thesis on friday (and had a big party, of course), it was a lot of fun, and he really enjoyed the present we got him and the presentation we made.. it's a tradition to show all the embarrassing photos from the phd-students studying time and give a short, fun run-through of their life at the same time. it's a lot of fun.

[Tessar]

Well I'm up late finishing this paper, but I am enjoying writing it. I'll enjoy it more when it's done, but... eh. I like writing. Much better than being up late studying for a math final. -_-

[Pitchike12]

Originally Posted by Tessar

Well I'm up late finishing this paper, but I am enjoying writing it. I'll enjoy it more when it's done, but... eh. I like writing. Much better than being up late studying for a math final. -_-

Yeah, you're right.

[Tessar]

Just totally nailed my PowerPoint final. No more whining professor sending out group messages to complain about how horrible we all are.

I maintained an A through the entire semester... but apparently I'm just the worst student because I always took my exam on the second-to-last day I could, which is when everyone wants to take it (did I mention the exam rooms were never crowded when I went?... yeah apparently not "everyone" takes it then) and it was just the worst inconvenience to her psyche.... which is odd since she never had to actually teach, or monitor the classroom during tests. I sent the university a major complaint about her via the evaluation form.

I'M SO DONE WITH THAT CLASS!!!! Could not be happier right now!!

[Mari]

Gratz

I'm happy because my kids totally got me exhausted, but I learned so much.

[Rían]

That's great, Mari! I'm not a teacher, but I do tutoring, and it's very rewarding

Enjoy your final school days, Jon! I remember my final days very fondly And congrats, Tessar! That's such a great feeling!

I just love tutoring math - I'm doing it for pay now, so I'm even making some money! The student I'm tutoring is in advanced algebra/trig, and was below failing (as in quiz scores in the 40's), and he got an 81 and and 80 on his last two tests!!!! I really enjoy it - it's like a treasure hunt to find why they're having problems, then finding the best way to communicate the learning to them (he's a basketball player, so I try to do some physical learning), and I get them to GENERATE the equations they need to memorize, instead of just memorize them - it's a lot safer that way, and it makes you understand things more, too. (for example, if they can memorize the famous "SOH CAH TOA*" of trig and they know that a**2 + b**2 = c**2 for a right triangle, then they can GENERATE x = r cos theta and y = r sin theta instead of trying to memorize them.

And I saw the pain dr today and we're trying something different - he put me back on a long-acting underlying pain med to try to cut down on the shorter-acting meds, and so far, it's working! The pain is a lot less, and I'm taking less shorter-acting meds. The only possible bad thing is that a year ago, I had a small allergic reaction to the long-acting med (itching) so I'm staying on the Benedryl. Tomorrow is the 1 year anniversary of the shoulder surgery that started all of this, and the doctor says that most people that reacted how I reacted are better after a year and a half, so I'm two-thirds there ...



*sin = opposite over hypotenuse; cosine = adjacent over hypotenuse, tangent = opposite over adjacent

[Tessar]

That's fantastic. Good for you.... you're all up in their improvin' lives and SAVIN' GRADES, YO?

I had my first violin lesson today... he had to run off to an orchestra thing so it was a short lesson, but he taught me how to hold the bow and the violin, and general maintenance stuff. So when I got home I thought, "eh, might as well put the two together and try pulling the bow across the strings."

You guys. I am totally a violin prodigy. If I were 20 years younger, what I did would have been -very- impressive. I made some awesome noises on that thing. >.> Then I taught myself Mary Had A Little Lamb. Then May It Be.

Then I taught my mom, dad, and sister how to play the violin. Everyone had a great time... surprisingly my mom, typically the least musically inclined, actually did the best. She's also a late blooming child prodigy.

I think I'm really going to enjoy violin lessons!

[Rían]

wow! That's amazing - usually it takes a long time to sound like anything other than a cat in agony, from what I've heard!

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by RÃ*an

wow! That's amazing - usually it takes a long time to sound like anything other than a cat in agony, from what I've heard!

I know! I was really surprised. But I think it stems from two things.... one is knowing how to hold the bow, which he did a really great job of showing me and I (as a technical minded person) was able to replicate on my own very easily.

The second thing is something that most people don't seem to know, and I only learned because of some Alexander Technique work I've done, which is that you can move your arm most efficiently by working from the shoulder-blade instead of the shoulder, elbow, or wrist. It gives your entire arm strength, precision, and flexibility. It's how I play piano... you move from the shoulder-blade, and gain 'pivot' by letting your wrist be relaxed and 'swing' into position. Otherwise if you lead with your wrist you're "dragging" your arm along, if you move from your elbow you lose a lot of strength, and if you work from the shoulder you'll be clumsy... but working from the shoulder-blade allows you to smoothly use the entire length of your arm.

I suspect you probably do something really similar to play harp. Is that something Harpists do, Rian?

My dad kept making squeaking noises till I showed him how to work from his shoulder-blade, and then he started to get it... so I suspect that my voice training is actually doing me some good here.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

If I were 20 years younger, what I did would have been -very- impressive.

I'm impressed, twenty years too late.

My own anti-vent (the hearken back to the olde dayes): I've found an online community called the Gay Christian Network, and they're awesome! They even have a sub-community for people with own views on sexuality, with some great people there! Great broader-community + great sub-community = happy me.

[GrayMouser]

Originally Posted by RÃ*an

That's great, Mari! I'm not a teacher, but I do tutoring, and it's very rewarding

Enjoy your final school days, Jon! I remember my final days very fondly And congrats, Tessar! That's such a great feeling!

I just love tutoring math - I'm doing it for pay now, so I'm even making some money! The student I'm tutoring is in advanced algebra/trig, and was below failing (as in quiz scores in the 40's), and he got an 81 and and 80 on his last two tests!!!! I really enjoy it - it's like a treasure hunt to find why they're having problems, then finding the best way to communicate the learning to them (he's a basketball player, so I try to do some physical learning), and I get them to GENERATE the equations they need to memorize, instead of just memorize them - it's a lot safer that way, and it makes you understand things more, too. (for example, if they can memorize the famous "SOH CAH TOA*" of trig and they know that a**2 + b**2 = c**2 for a right triangle, then they can GENERATE x = r cos theta and y = r sin theta instead of trying to memorize them.

I sure could have used you about 40 years ago I loved the idea of math, but as for the actual stuff, we were not friends

And I saw the pain dr today and we're trying something different - he put me back on a long-acting underlying pain med to try to cut down on the shorter-acting meds, and so far, it's working! The pain is a lot less, and I'm taking less shorter-acting meds. The only possible bad thing is that a year ago, I had a small allergic reaction to the long-acting med (itching) so I'm staying on the Benedryl. Tomorrow is the 1 year anniversary of the shoulder surgery that started all of this, and the doctor says that most people that reacted how I reacted are better after a year and a half, so I'm two-thirds there ...

sympathy ouch! Hope it works out

[Pitchike12]

I feel great and happy today!