Dateline 10/21/2007

This has been a long week. Monday, I gave my first research presentation, and it went very well. I seem to be one of the only people in my class who understands how to use PowerPoint animations. On Tuesday I had a big pathology test. I beat the average by eight points, although I thought it would be better. On Wednesday I managed to blow out the rear driver's-side shock on my car but I did do a lot of tutoring this week. Unfortunately to other people who I was assigned to tutor, both for the SAT II's, decided to drop me as a tutor. As far as actually working long-term with people assigned to me, I'm only running about 50%. I'm not sure if this is usual or if I am not good at this, as I have had little guidance from the people who run the tutoring service. Also this week has been discouraging for my work at Drexel. I had several students complain vigorously about my grading as a bioethics TA. Also when I asked the class, none of the 20 students in my section had looked at the new website that I made for the biochem course. I suppose that if no one uses the site, I get paid for doing little work, but I'd really hoped that the site would make a difference in helping people study and so far it clearly has not. I have had very little academic work to do after the test which has left me with a lot of spare time on my hands, so I will probably end up going in to work in the office next week.
On a bright spot on Thursday, I've decided to finally find some sunglasses which I have been meeting for months. My insurance won't cover them in Philadelphia and I really need an eye exam because I can tell that my prescription is getting outdated. The first place I went to had cheap glasses and cheap eye exams, but after signing up for the eye exam I realized that this place had no sunglasses that I would want. I went to another place on Walnut Street, and it turns out that they will make custom polarized lens clip ons for the Silhouette glasses but I currently have now for only $100. This was great news because now I can sunglasses that are cheap and fast and without bothering to do the eye exam. Hopefully I'll get these clip on lenses on Monday.
As for something to look forward to, hopefully I will be going to Vermont with my girlfriend to see some of her friends the first week in November, which also happens to be my birthday. This should be a pretty sweet trip and I am looking forward to it.