Well, that's settled, then

[torquill]

The announcement was made this morning. Final deadline for my bio paper: May 10.

Maybe I can stop killing myself over it and go take care of a few other urgent things, hmm?

I had sort of been wondering when I came in and realized that the pots and peas were out again -- looks like we'll be doing another data set. That's welcome. The data I currently have to work with isn't stellar, though it would probably be good enough. Maybe this time the lab assistant won't have accidentally swapped the dwarf and tall seeds.

My lab teacher went over the elements of the paper again in pre-lab lecture -- she didn't get to works cited, so I'll have to ask her about that later... she did mention page numbers being needed, which gave me a nasty twinge. I may have to go back down to Ohlone -- nah, I'll see what DVC has first, I've got time. If necessary I can trash my previous refs and replace them with books from DVC, so that I don't have to either go to Fremont or make up page numbers.

(Although I wouldn't mind going to Fremont if knaveofhearts would like to spend an evening -- I could go down a little early to hit Ohlone, and that's just down Mission from Niles. What do you say, boyo?)

My teacher will also be going over the statistical analysis part on Thursday, hopefully to show us how to crunch the numbers. She would have today, except that her voice gave out after an hour. Maybe the fact that she has a cold made her more sympathetic to the fact that I was feeling crappy (I had my respirator on because just having the sheep hearts on the front table was too much formaldehyde for me today). She even mentioned near the end of lecture that I was having trouble and so she would wrap things up quickly. Then she didn't even look at me funny when I left immediately after she stopped talking. Maybe the discourtesy of week before last is not going to be the norm...

As for number crunching -- I did finally pick up what the hell Anova does (it's just the t-test for more than two sets; why didn't they mention that somewhere?) and yeah, it isn't terribly difficult. All you have to know to understand it is what the hell standard deviation is and how to do it... the rest is a very simple fraction you plug things into and look the resulting number up on a table. If that table says the sets are actually different, they are. Yay. My only question now is: exactly what numbers are we going to be crunching? Not raw plant height data, obviously... but are we doing daily means? Daily rates? I suspect daily rates, but finding the slopes is going to be a stone bitch, unless she knows some technique I don't. Most likely she just wants us to do some handwaving.

Sigh. I still hate this class, but my blood pressure is within acceptable levels right now. I need to catch up on circulatory stuff real soon; my plan is to go to one of the large Asian markets to pick up a cow (or even pig) heart so that I can take apart a non-preserved one at my leisure here at home. I can't get foetal pigs at the store, but mammal hearts aren't difficult. Sure, there won't be any pretty colors differentiating the arteries and veins, but I should still be able to figure it out... and it should give me a bit more confidence on the second lab practical.

So I'm doing okay today. A couple of Altoids dissipated most of the formaldehyde clench, though my eyes still aren't quite focussing right and my sinuses feel like they've been used for a hackey-sack. That'll fade. We have only about four more labs before we ditch anatomy and go off into ecology and environmental systems... I can handle a few more exposures, I think.

Comments

[knaveofhearts.livejournal.com]

As discussed elsewhere, I'm okay with that modulo scheduling foo. The house is just about clean enough that I'm not worried about a visitor.

[luna-torquill.livejournal.com]

Silly boy. You know that regardless of the cleanliness of the house, I'll probably end up cleaning something out of sheer habit... nor do I think anything of the initial state, having helped you clean before. Even if my house weren't worse at the moment...

You seem to have whatever magic it is that induces females to spontaneously clean your house -- I wouldn't suggest relying on it, but you might relax a little. *grin*

[kitabare.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'd say it's the bachelor aura, but in this case I'd have to chage it to Divorcee Aura..... Or maybe it's just a maternal instinct kicking in. :P

[knaveofhearts.livejournal.com]

In all seriousness, I've noticed that before, and it's vaguely disconcerting when seen in a potential sweetie. Tends to trigger a fight-or-flight response lately. Bah.

[knaveofhearts.livejournal.com]

See, that's the thing. If women clean when the place is dirty, what'll they do when the place is clean? *snicker*

[wendelina2.livejournal.com]

As our friend Dave said, he has a way of making women "take care of" him, or just generically "do things for him."

Causes no end of jealousy :)

If knaveofhearts ever figures out how he does it, I'm sure he could make a fortune marketing that to other men.

Wow, that's a scary thought. I think I'll stop this thought train right here.