Walking the Borderline: The Psychology Patient

Looking for a great read?  Look no further!  I finally finished edits on my book and published over the weekend!

You have your choice between a kindle version and a printed version.  Both are super affordable.  Both are a product of my heart.  You can’t lose no matter which you choose!

 

Walking the Borderline
Walking the Borderline: The Psychology Patient Paperback $19.99

 
 

Walking the Borderline
Walking the Borderline: The Psychology Patient for Kindle $3.99

One of Hers

I work in an office building with a few dozen professors and a dean.  Only two of these people have anything to do with math.  I’m surrounded by different department heads and it makes for an interesting atmosphere.  It’s been established, in fact, that life in that office in no way represents real life.  Also, yes your professor may be brilliant in their field, but that doesn’t always translate to other things.

Case in point:

I was asked today to do some research on how I could make a poster in PowerPoint. *blink blink*
A 5 minute conversation later I did confirm it doesn’t actually have to be made in PowerPoint, she’s going to print it anyway, and why yes I can build it for her on my laptop that has Photoshop.
The woman is brilliant in math but lord help me she’s lucky she has me for the rest.

So anyway.

I’m surrounded by many professors for many fields of study.  And quite a few of these professors are jealous of my boss because she has me, and no one else really has a me.  (They could apply for a me, but apparently they never really considered that option.)

So the other day my boss, Dr. L, went to a meeting and in this meeting another professor made a silly/snide comment about how she has a work-study and no one else does.  She let it go, and the meeting continued.

A few days later they were in a conversation, the two of them, when she reflected back on what he said.

“Wait a minute.  Wait a minute!  We’ll get back to the topic on hand but I need to crush you first.  Not only do I have a work-study, but she’s one of yours!”

“… One of mine?…”

“Yes, one of yours.”

“Applied Psychology?”

“Yep!”

“But… But… Mine don’t usually even like math!”

“Well this one does!”

“She could be doing research!”

“You’re right, and she might!” (Implying I might be doing research in the field of mathematics.)

“That’s not even fair!”

Bwahahahaha

*cough*

Ha!

I love my job.  I love my boss.  And then I finish my BSs (plural) and continue on to my MS, I might switch and work for the Applied Psychology guy.

But for now, I’m content making posters (not in PowerPoint though) for Dr. L.

Bette Davis Eyes

I am buying myself a present as a congratulations for getting a new job.  It’ll have it sometime in the next couple months, though it’ll be a multi-step process.

I am buying myself a 10 gallon aquarium to sit on my desk at home.  I’m going to fill it with a dozen or so live plants.  This will be my first planted aquarium and I’m super excited!  I’ll also have a nice hunk of driftwood in there so it’s going to be all natural looking.

Living in this aquarium will be the bestest betta fish I can find, and I shall name her Betta Davis.

Then, since it will be sitting near a window for natural light to help the plants, there will also be an algae problem, so I’m buying a clown pleco, which won’t get too big and can safely live with a betta.  I will name him Kenneth Mars.

Now since this reference is a bit more obscure…

  • First, the last name.
  • He was a comedian (clown pleco)
  • He starred opposite Bette Davis in a made-for-tv movie called Hello Mother, Goodbye!
  • It’ll start conversations which is always a plus

I’m super excited!

 

Closed For Business

So I’ve decided I’m going to try to apply for ssi to help with income.  I know I’m maybe about to get a job, but even at 12$ an hour I’ll still be working so few hours and it comes out to less than $1000 a month.  That’s the cut off, by-the-way of what you’re allowed to earn and still be eligible for disability.  Plus, it’s technically part of my financial aid, so I think it works a bit different.  Don’t quote me on that part though.

So here’s the scene.  The real reason I’m writing about this.

It’s 1:33 at night and the house is quit.  I have the presence of mind needed to sit down and fill out the extensive application.  So I bring up the site, and find this.

Closed

Apparently this particular government website has opening and closing hours.  A website.  That is basically nothing but a form that gets filled out.  Has opening and closing hours.  Now, I’d understand like a customer service help line, sure.  But the entire website has opening and closing hours?

I’ve seen a lot of thing in my 20 years of using the internet, but I have to say, this is a first.

And if this doesn’t sum up our government, I don’t know what does.

 

(Disclaimer: I’m not dumb.  I realize this is probably to cut off possible cyber attacks while there is only a skeleton crew of programs and server guys manning the office in the dead of night.  I get that.  But the logic behind the reality is a lot less funny than the reality itself.)

Astounding

So in the past 2 weeks, I’ve taken 2 major tests.  One for stats and one for algebra.

In stats, I managed a 97% that I’m very happy with.  My score for the class thus far is 98.26%.  I don’t see that shifting much.  I mean, it might go down a few points maybe, but in general, I understand the material well enough.  So it’ll be stupid mistakes on tests that catch me up if anything.

In algebra, I managed a 115/115.  Here is how that breaks down: 107 from the test, 2 points bonus (there was a bonus question on the test for extra credit) and 6 points “extra”.  So I had a feeling, but I emailed my professor about those 6 points, to see where they came from.  Well they, and I quote “came from [me]. Just say thanks and take a nap.”  Heh.  This professor and I have an interesting relationship.  She knows I’m openly trying really really hard and I am exhausted with the workload of 2 math classes.  She knows I’m being bullied by a classmate and used by the rest.  She herself is being bullied by the same bully.  She knows the bully is also cheating, but she can’t prove it.  I’m helping her there.  She knows I’m going to have to work my ass off to keep an A.  I was at 90.17% before the test, but now I’m up to 94.90%.  Honestly, I think she wanted to give me a perfect score because the entire class, in a not so friendly tone, was assuming I was getting it anyway.  I couldn’t be happier about that 100% if I had earned it the old-fashioned way.  Even so, it wasn’t handed over for nothing.  I did earn it.  Just not in a more obvious way.

I really could use that nap.  I only have half the homework load this week, thanks to the stats test being an in-class test.  But I want to spend some time going over old material just to be sure I’ve really got it.  I’m not as confident as I’d like to be.  I did technically miss 8 points, after all.

It’s a Metaphor

Have you ever just known you were solving a math problem wrong but you were so far in you just had to see where it took you just incase, but 10 minutes later you’ve confirmed it had to have been wrong all along? Oh, and you’re not sure when exactly it went wrong?  Sometimes you have all the skills but you just don’t know when or how to use them.  Sometimes you had the skills but that was like a decade ago, and best of luck with that.  Sometimes you never had the math skills, the individual how-tos and you’re just plain stuck.  Sometimes even with all the skills math still throws radicals, insane fractions, and irrationals your way.  It’s all mathematically correct, but it makes zero sense and is just a mess.

Also: this can all be a metaphor for life and suddenly you can relate to my math struggles.

Ah well. I’m going to try isolating the other radical and see what happens.