Being in my final quarter of teaching (well, besides summer), I feel a little sentimental. I teach two lab sections of a non-major’s course on atomic physics and light and one course of non-major general physics. My atomic physics is okay. The biggest problem I have (or rather, they) is they are not good at [...]

One of the undergrads in my lab and I were talking yesterday about succeeding in life. B had a cool thought that’s applicable to anything (I may have written this). He pointed out that once you survive a certain level of physics, you already proved that you know something, as did the rest of your [...]

One of my experiments is up and running, thank goodness. I have been running it for almost a week, and we are still waiting patiently to see data. I might let it run over the weekend; there is some concern that the fluid will float to the top and not show diffusion. I’m doubtful that’ll [...]

I began looking at my calendar of what I’m taking, workshop-wise, in the near future. Chicago is lucky to have so much Middle Eastern dance. Over the course of April and May, I plan on attending: Mohammed Shahin, teaching raqs sharqi and assaya (cane) Fan veil and the second part of Sonya’s choreography workshop at [...]

Last week I went to a workshop about improvisation dance. My first dalliance with improv was in NZ, when we had 5 minutes of “play time”, where the teacher would put on music for the last 5 minutes of class to let us jam. It was so difficult. My mind would freeze, and I would [...]

Today was my first stint being in charge. I like some parts of it, but I think I’m expected to check up on the labs (I stopped in twice for each one). That, coupled with teaching on Thursday afternoons, kills any kind of activity. My boss is busy, so I run the lab setups for [...]

For me, at least. I’ve been incredibly busy. On Monday, my boss told me that she wanted me in charge of the general physics group. There are no real benefits except resume fodder and being able to make things work for others. I’m glad that I get to be the sort of boss. I think [...]