My opinions, updates on my life, all sorts of "randomness"...

So my morning could seriously have been straight out of a sitcom. One of those shows where too many bad slash 'funny to everyone else' things happen in too short a time period leaving the audience saying, 'no way, not realistic.'

So I walked out my front gate just in time to see my bus heading up the street. Not wanting to miss it, I did the normal city thing and started running towards the bus stop. Then, in typical Shosh fashion, I tripped over absolutely nothing and went flying towards the ground, computer bag and all. A combination of laughter and obscenities slipped out of my mouth, sat there for a moment, then realized my bus was stopped at a red light next to the stop. So I picked myself up off the ground, and forced myself to run (again) towards the bus, waving like a moron towards the bus driver who wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to me. He finally saw me, stopped the bus, and I got on. Pretty flustered at this point, and the pain from my fall starting to set in, I fumbled for my CTA card, and then tried unsuccessfully to put my card in the coin slot for a few minutes. When I realized what I was doing, I tried the next slot over, and with a woosh, my card was gone. Stood there for a second, not realizing what had happened and where my card had gone, until I noticed the picture under the slot. Of a dollar bill. So on top of the fact that I had just lost my card with $18 on it, Mr. Insensitive Bus Driver made me pay another $2 fare!! And now my leg is all sore...

sigh...

So Shabbas dinner was possible the most random thing ever. Huge mix of people, some of whom I knew, some of whom I didn't. Still fun, of course, just random.

Saturday night I joined Yael for this JCUA fundraiser thing, Chocolate For Change. I get super overwhelmed at events like that, too many people that i feel like I'm supposed to somehow know and yet I don't...It's not like just being out at some bar or something where you'll never see the people again, so you can't just blend in... That make any sense to anyone besides me? Well, at any rate, despite the overwhelmingness, I had a good time. And of course delicious food. Mmmm, cheesecake... Then went to a party at Henry, Mark & Aaron's place. Brad & Shaina were there, sooo fun to see pregnant Shaina. They have this blog with these crazy 3D pictures of the baby. Kinda odd, kinda cool...Check it out for yourself.

Went to this wonderful little veggie place for brunch yesterday, Victory's Banner. Such great food, but tiny so be ready for a long wait...

Four days 'till Michigan... Pretty sure this'll be my last time in town for awhile, with camp coming up so soon. A little crazy...

Happy Birthday Josh!!
can't believe my baby bro's 19....

Don't you love how a simple phone call can just totally brighten up your day? :)

So in one of my sessions at the AJCP conference today, Marty Levine handed out a sheet with this great story on it. Found a link to it online. Enjoy!

There are many correct ways to answer a test question

R.L. Loeffelbein A physics teacher at Washington University in St. Louis was about to give a student a zero for the student's answer to an examination problem. The student claimed he should receive a perfect score, if the system were not so set up against the student. Instructor and student agreed to submit to an impartial arbiter, Dr. Alexander Calandra, who tells the story.

The examination problem was: "Show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer."

The student's answer was, "Take the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, and lower the barometer to the ground. Then, bring it back up, measuring the length of the rope and barometer. The lengths of the two together is the height of the building."

I, as arbiter, pointed out that the student really had a strong case for full credit since he had answered the problem completely and correctly. On the other hand, of course, full credit would contribute to a high grade for the student in his physics course, and a high grade is supposed to certify that the student knows some physics, a fact that his answer had not confirmed. So it was suggested that the student have another try at answering the problem.

He was given six minutes to answer it, with the warning this time that the answer should indicate some knowledge of physics. At the end of five minutes, he had not written anything. Asked if he wished to give up, he said no, that he had several answers and he was just trying to think which would be the best. In the next minute he dashed off this answer. "Take the barometer to the top of the building. Lean over the edge of the roof, drop the barometer, timing its fall with a stopwatch. Then, using the formula S=½at2, calculate the height of the building. At this point, I asked my colleague if he gave up and he conceded. The student got nearly full credit.

Recalling that the student had said he had other answers, I asked him what they were. "Well," he said, "you could take the barometer out on a sunny day and measure the height of the barometer, the length of its shadow, and length of the building's shadow, then use simple proportion to determine the height of the building. And there is a very basic measurement method you might like. You take the barometer and begin to walk up the stairs. As you climb, you mark off lengths of the barometer along the wall. You then count the number of marks to get the height of the building in barometer units.

"Of course, if you want a more sophisticated method, you can tie the barometer to the end of a string, swing it as a pendulum, and determine the value of 'g.' The height of the building can, in principle, be calculated from this.

"And," he concluded, "if you don't limit me to physics solutions, you can take the barometer to the basement and knock on the superintendent's door. When he answers, you say, 'Mr. Superintendent, I have here a fine barometer. If you will tell me the height of this building, I will give you this barometer.'"

Finally, he admitted that he even knew the correct textbook answer -- measuring the air pressure at the bottom and top of the building and applying the appropriate formula illustrating that pressure reduces as height increases -- but that he was so fed up with college instructors trying to teach him how to think instead of showing the structure of the subject matter, that he had decided to rebel.

For my part, I seriously considered changing my grade to unequivocal full credit.

Friday night, after services at Anshe Shalom, I went to Temple Shalom for "Beatbox Shabbat" featuring Yuri Lane. I've seen him a few times when we brought him for Young Judaea events, but those were all performing for kids. So it was great to see that adults respond just as positively and are just as impressed by him. Besides the obvious slight shul overdose, it was a good night. Well, mostly... Remind me never to go to one of those things alone again, without anyone to "save" me from sketchy men who feel like it's acceptable to hit on me...one guy literally pulled out a Joey Tribiani-syle "How you doin'?" Oy...

Yael & I are going to Michigan for the weekend in 2 weeks...Shabbas in West Bloomfield with Baby Ari (and Kimmie, Bryan, & Shira, of course), then Saturday night in A2. So if any of you will be around...

And finally there is snow... So what that it's already March, it still makes me happy. :)

I was doing laundry yesterday and discovered a large pile of my clothes in the laundry room. Seeing as the last time I did laundry was about a month ago, my clothes have been sitting there for a long time. Now, getting over the embarrassment factor of fully forgetting about an entire load of laundry, amazing that my clothes were still there, just waiting for me to come claim them.

Today is one of those days when it's hard to concentrate, hard to be productive. My mind feels cluttered and I'm slightly on edge, although I'm not really sure why. I love my new job, just had a fun weekend with Shabbat dinner at my place & chilling with friends, and it's even snowing! Yet I can't shake this feeling...slightly disorienting, not sure why I'm feeling off... But it'll be fine, I'm sure I'll get over it...