Even in Kyoto

Here's a lesson I learned yesterday, as articulated by kihle: Don't ask a question if you aren't prepared to hear all of the possible answers. That's what makes a question like, "Do I look fat in this?" so terrible. Just don't even ask it and you'll save yourself and the person answering the question a lot of grief. If you really need to ask, at least be ready to hear something that you might not want to hear, and don't take the answer personally.

I guess that's why it's a good thing that many of the conversations that I have with other people are held entirely in my own head. Right now, it's a bit noisy in there.

I'm a nut.

'Nuff said.

Yesterday was a strange day--I spent most of it helping my minions get their projects together. I *did* come up with a bit of a genius idea in the process, though--I created a worksheet for statistical analysis purposes. These students haven't done much research before, so they have to learn what's involved in analyzing data. Part of the process is developing a set of questions that you would like to answer with the data, and the worksheets helped the students organize the whole data analysis process. So that was rewarding.

I also proctored an exam, during which I had to accompany a student out of the room so she could throw up (she'd been sick all morning, she told me). That was a potent reminder of how unhealthy college can be. I felt really bad that she felt compelled to come to the exam when she was so obviously sick. I guess that's just another problem with mass-manufactured education.

I was pretty tired by the end of the day, so I almost skipped out on climbing. So of course I ended up having a pretty good climbing night.

Blah. Time to go to school.