Statistics on the Theme of a Christmas song

I had an interesting experience at a certain nursing home yesterday. Seeing as I am considering entering the field of geriatric research (read: I'm mucking around on an Alzheimer's project my mentor was kind enough to let me join in on), I figured I should probably get over my aversion to the elderly. Hence the nursing home excursion in the first place. But I digress. While we were there visiting with a real peppy lady, a group of young adults came in to sing Christmas hymns. Mind you, they were stressing the hymn part pretty strongly; they were not there to carol. At least, this was the sentiment expressed by the spokesman. I found his attitude rather amusing, and apparently so did this lady, because when asked what hymn she would like them to sing, she went with "Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!" The leader fellow was obviously a little put out, but the rest of his troop promptly burst into such an energetic intro that our recipient had to turn down her hearing aid. Having finished, this fellow again asked if there was a hymn she'd like to hear. Her response: "Over the river and through the woods." Again, the poor fellow was disappointed, but the group was evidently tired of the same 5 hymns in every room and so again obliged. However, as the song progressed, more and more dropped out. By the end, it was my roommate and I who triumphantly brought in the end of the song. Needless to say, we only did one verse of that one.

Which brings me to my point. I was really surprised that people didn't know this little gem of a song. It's pretty short (especially if you only do one verse) and it's pretty simple. Admittedly, it is a little antiquated and, according to Wikipedia, was originally written as a Thanksgiving song, which explains why it isn't often sung. But I was still taken aback to find such a small percentage who knew it. So, being the inquiring scientific mind that I am, I deigned to design a study (read: I asked the people I interacted with today whether they knew the song). The results: no one, apart from my roommate in the original instance, could actually sing the song through one verse.

[Note to the reader: the next paragraph is dripping with sarcasm and hyperbole.]
Although I know you will agree that this study embodies the essence of good science, some caveats do exist (my statistics professor ought to be so proud). I will admit that my sample size is dismally small (n=a dozen and a half or so - I know, real precise) and was selected in a rather biased manner, i.e. only my roommates and academic friends were considered. Nevertheless, I must conclude that I am one of the few left in the population in possession of this knowledge, granted I could only sing one verse with confidence. Thus, I thought I would take it upon myself to disseminate this valuable piece of Americana and enrich your holiday season. I have fond memories of listening to this on a Disney sing-along cassette tape during my childhood and would be miserly of me if I didn't let you in on the creation of your own fond memories.

For those of you unfamiliar with this relic.
♫Hurrah for old techno toys!♪

Tell me this doesn't make you smile?

In other news, despite my above animation, I am looking forward to the termination of my statistics course with great anticipation. Only one more hurdle - the final, which, fortunately but unfortunately, has been divided into 3 parts. Wish me luck!

Now let's see your war face!

Sometimes I'm an attacker. And when this happens, sometimes my face gets dragged along the turf.

That's right, we're hard core in my self defense class. Check out my battle scars...ok, so it's not that impressive, but at least this made you smile, right?

An Embarrasing Lesson

A few weeks ago I lost my wallet. Never a good thing. The timing of this occurrence was particularly aggravating because I was just on my way to the post office to turn in my passport application, which of course I'd been putting off until the last reasonable moment. After scouring my entire apartment 3 times as well as my car, I deemed it officially missing. The next logical step to procuring a missing belonging is not, contrary to popular belief, to panic and worry; this will only result in the accelerated release of cortisol, unnecessarily raising stress levels, which we all know does not have any desirable or uplifting effects. Rather, it is to rationally analyze your past traversing to ascertain other possible whereabouts. Therefore, I knew that I had had it between the time I copied my driver's license (for the application) and the time I realized it was gone, in between which time I had been in class. I retraced my steps in the parking lot and around the classroom without success. So I went to the Lost and Found to see if they had seen any sign of it. They hadn't yet. It had only been 2 hours though, so it was highly possible that it would turn up later. It was, however, Friday afternoon, so that meant I'd have to wait until Monday to check back again. No problem...ok, a little inconvenient but I still didn't see a reason to worry. I kept an eye on my bank accounts, got frustrated about my foiled plans, and bunkered down to wait. BYU is a great place to lose something that important, if it has to be lost at all, so I had every confidence that it would turn up one way or another.

Well, Monday morning rolled around and during my 11 o'clock break I checked in with the Lost and Found. Contrary to my dream the previous night, they still had not seen it. I was starting to get a little anxious and irked that I was going to have to call the bank and go through all that hassle plus figure out how to get a new driver's license (which shouldn't have been a big deal, it expires this year anyway, and not that I really liked the picture on my old one - it's actually pretty hideous - but I thought it would be cool to have my first driver's license for sentimental reasons). Then I checked my phone and saw that I'd missed a call. It ended up being from my finance professor saying that he had my wallet! He was going to bring it to class so I could get it from him then. Elated, I went about the rest of my tasks, satisfied that my cool-headed handling of the situation was well founded.

When I got to the class, I wasn't really sure how to breach the situation, because I'm pretty sure that he doesn't know who I am. So after some deliberation, I bashfully made my way to the front and asked/told him that he had my wallet. He was very gracious about it, and a little apologetic. A student had apparently approached him with it after class on Friday and he meant to contact me about it then, but had gone to his office and forgotten. So I could have fretted a little less about how I was going to cover myself on that date I went on on Saturday (I asked him so I wasn't sure if he was going to pay for me or not - don't worry, he did. :)), but that was probably a small price to pay.

Now, this situation is fraught with irony. Friday's class was actually a lecture about being financially responsible. Next thing I know I have committed the most financially irresponsible act of carelessly leaving my wallet in a public place. In the very class that discussed it. And I get my wallet back from the man who was telling us to be responsible in the first place. Classic. Needless to say, I am now very conscientious about where I put it. Lesson learned.

King of the Lab!

Not to boast, but this week on this screen:



(That's the screen at the testing center that posts your scores - dreaded by some and ignored by others...though I can't imagine why) I saw 3 scores of 100%. Never has that happened to me before. I hope it continues. :)

Updates

Okay, for all of you who have been complaining that I have disappeared from off of the blogging planet and have left you hanging, wondering what has become of me and the unfinished stories of dilemma and woe... okay, maybe that is no one, but I realize it's been a while so I thought I would take today to catch the record up to speed with my current life situation. So let's see, where did we leave off...

My car was successfully repaired and we have had no more incident on that account, for which we are grateful. As we were reunited, I have finally come up with a name for her: Louise, or Lou as she will most commonly be referred to. I think it is very fitting; it means 'warrior' and is the feminine form of the French Louis, and as she is yellow it reminds me of Louis XIV, the 'Roi du Soleil,' or 'Sun King' for you non-frenchies. It's been a long time coming, but better late than never.

I have been promoted to a student lead position at work, which is kind of exciting. It's always nice to know that my hard work ethic is appreciated and recognized and that I can be put in a position to teach this to others. This means that I am in charge of about 4 workers in my area, I get a whole $1 raise, I have to work about 6 hours per shift (as opposed to the 3 I was working previously), and attend work meetings every other Thursday with all the other student leads and managers. So far it has been really fun - training new employees, coordinating and supervising prep tasks, and just having the opportunity to have my voice heard and help improve things. I really love my prep workers, they are really good. Usually there are a few good workers interspersed with a lot more mediocre workers, but mine are all really assiduous. They learn quickly, are extremely punctual, and have a general cheerful attitude and willingness to help out. I can't rave about them enough!

Yet another semester has dawned at BYU and I think it promises to be a good one. I'm very excited about my classes, so here's how the schedule looks:

Humanities 101: Introduction to Humanities - I absolutely adore this class! Humanities is basically the study of the arts: painting, sculpture, dance, literature, music, drama, that kind of thing. The professor is so wonderful - she loves her subject, she's excited to teach it and discuss it and share her knowledge with her students, and she isn't particularly concerned about whether we make mistakes or don't understand initially so she is extremely approachable. Even though it's at 8 in the morning, it is not one I anticipate skipping for the sake of sleep. Sis. Haddock is so engaging and makes the class fly by so fast. She tells stories about the great Renaissance artists and we look at art and learn how to judge and analyze it and before I know it the bell is ringing. It's going to be a great class!

Astronomy - This is just a fun whimmy class that I decided to take #1: because I knew it's taught in the planetarium and the seats in there are so comfortable! and #2: I really like star gazing and have always wanted to learn the constellations better. The professor is J Ward Moody, which I think is just hysterical. Luckily he's a lot like Sis. Haddock and appreciates the humor of his name; he made 3 references to Harry Potter on the first day alone and they have been scattered here and there over the subsequent lessons. (I learned that Rowling was really brilliant in using astronomy in her books, but that's another post.) He's very nice and tries to be engaging so we don't fall asleep in those lovely soft reclining seats. It's really amazing to look at pictures of the stuff out in space and realize the beauty and complexity and sheer magnitude of Heavenly Father's creations and then learn a little better how they work.

Chemistry 111H: Honors Principles of Chemistry - This is the most intensely involved class I think I have ever taken! I am beginning to question just what I was thinking when I signed up for it, but it is a challenge I am determined to conquer. I think my thought process was something along the lines of "I don't know what I'm doing anymore. Maybe I want to major in science. I should explore that a little. Hey, chemistry! I've never taken that before, I think I'll try it. But I already know about atoms and molecules and that stuff, I should take Honors. They learn about thermodynamics. That sounds cool, I want to know what that is. Okay, I'm signing up for the super-intense-every-day-move-through-stuff-really-quickly chemistry class!" Yeah, that may have been a little ambitious. It takes me hours to read the book and finish my homework, but so far I think I am comprehending, so I'm going to stick it out. Hoping I can find the time to excel. Cross your fingers.

French 361: French Civilization until 1715 - I really love history and I still want to take French classes even if I don't major in it, so this was the choice. After the first week, I was a little nervous, because the graduate student who is going to observe our class in preparation for his first time teaching it next semester was in charge while the actual professor was giving a presentation on the cathedral of Ghent, Belgium in front of said cathedral. He is the leading expert on it, and so I was worried that it was going to be intimidating and he was going to expect a lot. But he is the funniest french professor and he has no problem having discussions in either French or English, depending of course on the language of the primary text, and he doesn't really worry about your grammar. That is really nice, especially because we are talking about complicated issues relating to culture so you can just concentrate on formulating the concepts instead of the sentences.

New Testament - That class is going to be just terrific. Sis Burgon is the sweetest person and she just loves the Lord. She has given us some really fascinating insights into the background of the New Testament, with all the wars and conquests of Israel and Jerusalem and how all of it was really important in preparing the people in that area to receive the gospel. She's also talked a lot about knowing Christ, not just in the sense of knowing facts about Him and His ministry, but to really know Him as He is. She spent all of the last class period talking about how in order to truly come to know Him, we have to know not only who He was on Earth, but also how He was before He came to Earth and the nature of His Godhood. She really knows how to bring the Spirit in and I've already had some major revelational breakthroughs. I just really like religion classes and I've been very lucky as far as professors go. My testimony is definitely going to grow and be strengthened!


I'm thinking of starting another blog and cataloging all the amazing stuff I learn about. If you'd read it, let me know and it will get done faster! :)

The only other update is that I've got some new roommates who are just awesome! Samantha moved in with me and we've been having a blast! Okay, that's it 'til next week! :)