I hate snow

Yep, I'm definitely not a fan of snow. Especially today. I woke up at 6am to the beeping sounds of my cell phone to the IU alert system that said IU would open at noon. Then at 10am, I had another IU alert system message that said IU would remain closed for the entire day. So I was stuck in the bird lab with all of my work in my office in the Psych building. Did I do anything useful today? No. I washed all of my dirty clothes which is equivalent to writing a paper...and I made all my meals. Thats about it. Oh and Drew and I had a little fun in the snow.

Around 4pm, Drew asked me to drive down the driveway (its long-not sure how long) to the end of the road to make sure I could make it ok. Well the first problem was that I couldn't even get out of the spot I was parked in because of all the snow. So after backing out almost into a tree, I started to drive down the driveway. I made it all the way down the driveway and went down the side street and turned around ok. On the way back up the driveway, I got stuck and couldn't do a darn thing about it. So after trying multiple things I got out of the car, then fell into the snow which was about a foot deep and then walked back up the driveway to get Drew. Drew saw me in the distance with no car and started hysterically laughing. He tried to rescue me from the snow and decided that he should go get his car to pat the snow down and then I could drive up the driveway. After going up and down the driveway multiple times with his car, I finally made it up the driveway and barely made it back to my parking spot. Needless to say, I didn't get out today and I really hate the snow. I'm hoping tomorrow I can get out.

And finally Linear Models

Well nothing excited happened in this class today besides me telling the professor that I thought a week to do the homework was too short. Needless to say, I got a look. But seriously when you have to prove that VIF=1/1-R(^2) and X*(^t)X*=correlation matrix. Really? That just might take awhile...I need more time in a day!

Consulting class

If you haven't noticed yet, I have to take three stat courses this semester. The good news is the stats department has a wicked sense of humor...

In consulting class today, the professor handed out a sheet titled "some extremes in client types, their characteristics, and the expected role of the statistical consultant"

Some of my favorites...

Observed client type: dempsey dumpster
Characteristics: wants to dump the whole problem into consultant's lap
Expected consultant: slave

Observed client type: innocent abroad
Characteristics: does not understand t-test but wants factor analysis on 20 cases with 50 variables (hehe)
Expected consultant: magician

Observed client type: tom thumb
Characteristics: everything has gone wrong in experiment but data are still 'valid and valuable'
Expected consultant: incurable optimist

Observed client type: encyclopedia statistician
Characteristics: just wants 5 minutes to answer simple question, can be handled over phone
Expected consultant: gullible george

Observed client type: Dr. Northcote
Characteristics: will take all available - and unavailable - time (*sigh)
Expected consultant: Dr. Parkinson

and my personal favorite...

Observed client type: unhappy wanderer
Characteristics: has vague feeling of needing statistics for valuable data set. wants statistician to define the question as well as the answer and write it up. will consider making statistician fifth author on important paper
Expected consultant: psychiatrist

If you want more, let me know. The whole class had a good laugh today...maybe its just me.

Statistical Theory Class

Quotes from the new Assistant Professor in Statistical Theory

"First we have to make it look bad to make it look pretty. Kinda like plastic surgery. Oh you know my wife is a plastic surgeon and man you don't want to know what they do with those nose jobs"

"Yea..just like there are 7 ways to skin a cat. Well, I've never tried one on my cat, but you know"

"I just have to go through computing the moment generating function proof for you just in case you are stuck in the middle of nowhere and need to build a really nice surfboard...or in case you are on survivor"

Economic Crisis Part II

Economic Crisis

The paper

I think my only "resolution" is that I finish this networking paper by the end of this week. I *need* to send it to the other author by the end of this week. No exceptions. I really do. Updates later on the paper. Its almost done anyways...what the hell am I waiting for?

2009

Well its here, 2009. Break was fun and of course there were some funny moments captured.

1. Traveling to Ithaca. I spent more time in the airports both going to and returning from Ithaca than I would have on the road driving from TN to NY. I chatted with a bunch of friendly folks...like the drunk guy on the return flight who thought we were going to crash because we were flying through the clouds. And the other drunk guy who told me that "I sucked" because I got on the flight to Syracuse and he didn't (he later retracted his offer to buy me a drink once he found out that I got the flight). And the grandmother who told me all about her 40 grandchildren- while listening to the ipod. And finally Ira, who was not a stranger, but decided to keep me company while I waiting in Syracuse to go home and he unfortunately made the mistake of asking me about my research. Lucky for him, I had the computer handy as well as all the presentations, a hour later, I see him start to look around and notice that I have been talking nonstop about birds and babies. But after that we went to see Marley & Me-I think he was ready for me to be quiet for two seconds (along with my computer bag, my big coat, purse, gloves, hat, scarf...needless to say I was ready for blizzard 09).

2. Gestures. Have you ever played gestures with my family? We are crazy. If you haven't, you need to experience this once. All I can say is that you might get hurt while playing. I actually got a rug burn from falling down as I was running across the carpet. Apparently my parents have softer carpet than I am use to at the farm.

3. Cornell. Love going to Cornell. I learned how to chop wood this time! How cool is that? It was so much fun. I also got a lot of coding done and Mike urged me to write a draft of my proposal which I am so thankful for especially with the semester coming up tomorrow. It was definitely a fun trip.

That's all I can think about right now. And on this 11th day of January, I have no resolutions....well maybe except to read more fun books but gets me into trouble and sometimes I stay up half the night reading. The semester starts tomorrow and I have three more classes to take to get the masters. And then I am finally done with classes.