October 4, 2014

The screaming kid next door eventually went to sleep but I do know he was at least up by six o'clock in the morning because that is when my alarm went off and I could hear him. I did actually sleep all too well last night, waking up several times throughout the night. That was less than desirable. I wasn't in the mood to go over for my complimentary breakfast so I just ate some of the food I brought with me. The biscuit I got last time at the restaurant was good, and I was kind of tempted to try the cheese omelet, but in the end I decided against it. Maybe next time, if I decide to risk the hotel again.

I ended up checking out of the hotel and getting across town super early so I drove around for awhile. There are some pretty cool old houses near campus. And a lot of brick roads. My kidneys aren't a fan of brick roads. I don't think it would matter if they were yellow or not.

The entire day was filled with the group interviews of the researchers in different fields. Yesterday we were broken up into groups (different from the group project group) and assigned to one of our professor's friends. Each is from a different field and they conduct research. Each group took turns sitting up at the front of the room and interviews their selected person while the rest of the class stayed back in their seats and watched on the projector. The fields included English, Physical Anthropology, Philosophy, and two from History. I think that was everyone. The goal was to see how research differs and is the same across the different fields. It was actually pretty interesting. My group went second and we had the physical anthropologist. Her project at the moment involves working with the bones of Native Americans. Originally she was interested in Neanderthals but those are kind of hard to come by in North America. My group was the only one organized enough to decide on just going around the table and take turns asking questions. Other groups tried to make it more casual I guess and didn't have a set order for who's turn it was. That lead to a lot of awkward silences. The only real awkwardness for our group was one girl who, on two occasions, basically asked the question I had already asked. We were just going down the line of questions and on my turns I would start by tying things back into what the anthropologist had already said and then ask the question. I don't know what was up with this girl but both times she managed to find the question I had just asked (completely out of order) and then ask it again. It was acknowledged that I wasn't just imagining this because both times another girl in the group just turned and looked at me. The whole thing was strange. But the interview went well.

The funniest thing was from the interview with the philosopher. The whole interview was pretty good but at one point I think we were talking about the peer review process and he said “Your hypothesis may have a grain of truth but it needs a lot more baking in the thought oven before it can be sold in the bakery store window.” I thought that was pretty good.

I went across the street to Subway again for lunch and it was good but that doesn't really take any time at all and we had an hour for lunch. Maybe next time I'll branch out.

After the interviews we talked as a class about the various interviews, filled out our evaluation, and then were dismissed a little bit early. I spoke with my group after because I had come up with a couple more ideas for research. Tomorrow or the next day I'll need to do some preliminary database hunting to see what I can find. I also spoke with my partner from my group project in my other class as we walked out to the parking lot. I kind of took the lead with things, saying by the end of this week we should decide on a solution so we can start writing our newspaper articles. I said we needed to just pick a solution, one based on enough evidence that we could defend it, even if maybe it isn't necessarily the one we would pick in a real life situation. I also said I would come up with the formatting for the newspaper if she wanted to put together the slideshow. So I think that is going places.

On the way home I stopped by Spangles, because that is what I do. Instead of actually going in and having dinner, I just went through the drive-thru and got fries and an orange juice slush because I wasn't in the mood for a grilled cheese sandwich.

When I got home I ate dinner and then came over to the old house. I took a break from library stuff and looked at other random things on the internet while watching YouTube videos. I also had a long conversation with my friend down south. We talked about all the things. Including his college plans, which at the moment isn't really there. He is taking this semester off and then at least a few of the classes he needs to graduate aren't going to be offered until 2016, so that's not good. He is looking into getting a job as an inspector/engineer with the Department of Transportation because he wants a change and a decent paycheck. Hopefully that will only be until he can finally finish up his degree.

Tomorrow I need to write my interview paper because that is due on Monday. I also need to go over to my grandma's house and get any last things I want because the auctioneer is supposed to walk through on Monday. My goal is to try and not sleep in too late tomorrow and see if I can get my paper knocked out by lunch. Or soon after. That will give me time over at my grandma's house, which will potentially take forever if my dad and sister are there because we tend to lose track of time. So we'll see how that works out.