Brain Dead
Sooo brain dead. I actually woke up on time this morning to prepare a presentation for a class this afternoon. It was a big deal because it was the only chance for the professor to see my work, independent from the group I'm in. And to my dread, as I read the journal article I picked out to review, I realized that it wasn't very good, and had almost nothing to do with what we were studying!!! I flipped out - my heart rate went through the roof. I drank too much coffee and just went nuts trying to figure out what to do. Finally, I found another article by the same authors that was essentially part two of the paper, and was much more relevant. I wrote an outline of both articles and sent the second article out to the whole class explaining that I'd go over it, but didn't expect to have it read by class.
Then I ran to class to give my presentation. To my surprise, it went really well. But it was exhausting. It was practically a PhD qualifier. The professor asked me to explain Center of Pressure using a free body diagram, to which I did my best, but then we got in a long discussion/debate about where the force vector can go. Later, he asked me to apply this big nasty vector-calculus equation for Optic flow to an actual matrix of pixels. Does anybody really remember how to find the gradient of a matrix element???? I don't think so. But I got through it with a bit of help. I think my TA experience this past semester was a huge help. I was comfortable in front of the chalk board. And the end result was really facinating, because it showed that the equation actually works. I ended by showing videos, and everyone loves videos. I even snuck one in of The Colbert Report. That was great.
Then I had to rebuild a Lego Robot for my group. But while doing that, I remebered that I was suposed to be helping my lab mates paint a new room. So off I ran to pitch in. It was kinda fun, but utterly physically exhausting.
THEN, I got asked to give a tour of the lab to a high school class. I was completely dead by that point, but I couldn't say no. I really believe in these outreach programs, and I don't get many opportunities to help out. I don't know how much of a rolemodel I could have been; I was wearing Nicole's painting shirt, a girl-cut Rugrats Tshirt. I think I sounded enthusiastic, but more of a drunk enthusiastic. I relied heavily on my lab mates to help out with parts of the tour. It was still fun.
And here I am, still in the lab. Should I keep on working? All I really want is a beer, a couch, maybe silly light conversation.
Then I ran to class to give my presentation. To my surprise, it went really well. But it was exhausting. It was practically a PhD qualifier. The professor asked me to explain Center of Pressure using a free body diagram, to which I did my best, but then we got in a long discussion/debate about where the force vector can go. Later, he asked me to apply this big nasty vector-calculus equation for Optic flow to an actual matrix of pixels. Does anybody really remember how to find the gradient of a matrix element???? I don't think so. But I got through it with a bit of help. I think my TA experience this past semester was a huge help. I was comfortable in front of the chalk board. And the end result was really facinating, because it showed that the equation actually works. I ended by showing videos, and everyone loves videos. I even snuck one in of The Colbert Report. That was great.
Then I had to rebuild a Lego Robot for my group. But while doing that, I remebered that I was suposed to be helping my lab mates paint a new room. So off I ran to pitch in. It was kinda fun, but utterly physically exhausting.
THEN, I got asked to give a tour of the lab to a high school class. I was completely dead by that point, but I couldn't say no. I really believe in these outreach programs, and I don't get many opportunities to help out. I don't know how much of a rolemodel I could have been; I was wearing Nicole's painting shirt, a girl-cut Rugrats Tshirt. I think I sounded enthusiastic, but more of a drunk enthusiastic. I relied heavily on my lab mates to help out with parts of the tour. It was still fun.
And here I am, still in the lab. Should I keep on working? All I really want is a beer, a couch, maybe silly light conversation.