Three years ago today: Tuesday, January 13th, 2009. I walked into the CAEDM lab and sat down next to my friend Dan. He pointed across the table to a guy doing homework and said, "Kyra, this is my lab partner Kevin. Kevin Moon."
"Oh!" I said excitedly. "So you're the one with the lab kit that says Kevin Moon on it. I was wondering who the other K. Moon was."
"Your last name is Moon too?" he asked.
"Yup! You descended from Henry Moon?" I asked. (Henry Moon was one of those old Mormon pioneers born in 1819 who had three wives.)
"Yup. Henry Moon," he responded almost simultaneously.
And then I thought, "Well, that's one guy I'd never date."
Friday, January 13, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Babies and Balloons
I'm having a boy!!! Kevin and I went to the ultrasound, and besides impressing the technician with our vast array of knowledge from our one day of MRI class (using terminology such as "axial cut" and "frequency"), we got to see our little boy!
"Cheapskate," Kevin muttered.
And suddenly it became a lot more real. Oh, we've been having discussions about kids and how we'll raise them and whatnot (poor little guy . . . it's already been predetermined that whatever he wants to do in life, he'll have to major in engineering first), but now there's a . . . body to put with all those ideals and discussions.
Am I ready? Of course not. Will I ever be ready? Doubt it. But at least today, I learned that there's one aspect of motherhood/domesticity that I'm improving on -- looking for bargains.
After we found out, we went to Macey's to pick up a blue balloon. On the way in, we also remembered that we needed to pick up some mayonnaise. As we were coming through the doors I saw a little girl walking out with a pink balloon. Then I saw balloons tied to all the cash registers. Something clicked in my mind.
"Kevin," I said excitedly. "I bet if we asked, we could get a balloon for free."
"No, just go over to the back corner to buy a balloon," he responded.
"No, just go over to the back corner to buy a balloon," he responded.
"No, let's get the mayonnaise first and then go through the line and ask if we can have one of them."
He rolled his eyes but walked over to the condiments aisle. He continued to protest, saying things like, "How are you going to ask for one?" or "I'm pretty sure those are just for little kids," to which I responded, "There's a little little kid inside me, so that counts." We picked up the mayonnaise and then got in a line.
"What are these balloons up for?" I asked eagerly, noticing a little boy walking away with a blue balloon.
"Oh, just for fun. Do you want one?" the cashier asked (perhaps she had heard my conversation with Kevin at the front of the store). I nodded happily. After explaining that I wanted a blue balloon and not an orange balloon (and telling her why), we left with one small bottle of mayonnaise and one free blue balloon.
"Cheapskate," Kevin muttered.
"Brilliant," I corrected him.
So, despite all my fears and inadequacies, at least I know how to get free balloons.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Pregnant Ponderings
This break has been incredibly relaxing. I can't remember the last time I was so thoroughly useless (well, maybe last Christmas), and I can't foresee another time when I'll have the luxury of being so thoroughly useless (until I'm like 80).
While I was lounging about, I had some deep thoughts on life. Well, relatively deep. Here they are in no particular order.
1. When you get pregnant, there are some questions you come to expect such as, "How far along are you?" "How sick have you been?" or "How much weight have you gained/lost?" However, there's been one question that has been asked a lot (pretty much every time I've told someone the news in person): "Was this planned?" (or the similar "How long had you been trying?")
I don't know why, but that question sure surprised me. In some cases it even preceded the person's congratulations. I suppose it's a natural thing to be curious about, and I'd rather have people ask me to my face than not, but I sure wasn't expecting it.
2. Kevin likes chocolate more than I do. So does his whole family. They also like cheesecake a whole lot more than I do. This has raised interesting questions in my mind about nature/nurture and why people like the foods they do. I remember that I didn't really like cinnamon bears until my mom started eating a lot of them. Then I realized that if I wanted candy then I had to like cinnamon bears. I've liked them ever since. I think the same thing applies to Kevin and cheesecake.
(As a side note, I feel like whenever I visit either side of the family, I'm more prone to analyze behaviors and traditions a lot more than I used to [essentially taking notes on what works and what doesn't for our future family]. Considering how much I absolutely detest feeling analyzed, I feel kind of hypocritical in doing this. But this whole candy/dessert difference really has me fascinated so I can't help myself.)
3. Speaking of food, Christmas break has been good to me and I'm finally starting to show. I usually gain weight when I go home (you know, regular meals, not walking to campus anymore, etc.), and I lose it after a few days of normal life. It's weird putting myself in the mindset that I'm supposed to gain weight and not fit into my clothes anymore. Guess I've listened to the subliminal messages of society just like every other woman . . .
4. It's funny: You can be surrounded by people you love, have no real chores, have 3+ delicious meals a day, enjoy comfortable room temperatures, take longer showers, and be surrounded by every book or movie that you might want to read or watch, and yet you still prefer to be at your cold little apartment in your own bed than at your parents' house. Last year my mom told me she was impressed that we survived staying at my parents' house for a week without going crazy, and I didn't see what she was talking about. Now I sort of do, though I'm not sure why it is.
5. I got maternity pants, and I don't know that I'll ever want to go back.
6. I've started making the transition in my mind from a student to a mom, and with that transition has come a desire to be less nerdy. In some ways that's probably a lost cause because I will probably always prefer factoring numbers, reading, and talking to guys to decorating, crafting, and talking to girls (though I still really like Relief Society). However, there might be hope: I recently took this test http://www.innergeek.us/geek-test.html and only scored 14%. So I think I deserve a refund on those brownies I made sophomore year for racking up the most nerd points throughout the semester.
7. I had the chance to watch some TV shows over the break that I hadn't seen before, and I came to the conclusion that I prefer the 2 hour story to the 42 minute or 30 episode story. I don't know what it is about TV shows, but there was something about them that seemed a great deal hokier than movies. Perhaps it's because they don't spend as long developing each episode as movie writers do for movies, or maybe there's a different set of acting skills preferred for TV, but I felt like I haven't really been missing much by not owning a TV.
Well, now you've gotten a little peek into my mind. Soon it will be full of plenty of other stuff, don't worry.
While I was lounging about, I had some deep thoughts on life. Well, relatively deep. Here they are in no particular order.
1. When you get pregnant, there are some questions you come to expect such as, "How far along are you?" "How sick have you been?" or "How much weight have you gained/lost?" However, there's been one question that has been asked a lot (pretty much every time I've told someone the news in person): "Was this planned?" (or the similar "How long had you been trying?")
I don't know why, but that question sure surprised me. In some cases it even preceded the person's congratulations. I suppose it's a natural thing to be curious about, and I'd rather have people ask me to my face than not, but I sure wasn't expecting it.
2. Kevin likes chocolate more than I do. So does his whole family. They also like cheesecake a whole lot more than I do. This has raised interesting questions in my mind about nature/nurture and why people like the foods they do. I remember that I didn't really like cinnamon bears until my mom started eating a lot of them. Then I realized that if I wanted candy then I had to like cinnamon bears. I've liked them ever since. I think the same thing applies to Kevin and cheesecake.
(As a side note, I feel like whenever I visit either side of the family, I'm more prone to analyze behaviors and traditions a lot more than I used to [essentially taking notes on what works and what doesn't for our future family]. Considering how much I absolutely detest feeling analyzed, I feel kind of hypocritical in doing this. But this whole candy/dessert difference really has me fascinated so I can't help myself.)
3. Speaking of food, Christmas break has been good to me and I'm finally starting to show. I usually gain weight when I go home (you know, regular meals, not walking to campus anymore, etc.), and I lose it after a few days of normal life. It's weird putting myself in the mindset that I'm supposed to gain weight and not fit into my clothes anymore. Guess I've listened to the subliminal messages of society just like every other woman . . .
4. It's funny: You can be surrounded by people you love, have no real chores, have 3+ delicious meals a day, enjoy comfortable room temperatures, take longer showers, and be surrounded by every book or movie that you might want to read or watch, and yet you still prefer to be at your cold little apartment in your own bed than at your parents' house. Last year my mom told me she was impressed that we survived staying at my parents' house for a week without going crazy, and I didn't see what she was talking about. Now I sort of do, though I'm not sure why it is.
5. I got maternity pants, and I don't know that I'll ever want to go back.
6. I've started making the transition in my mind from a student to a mom, and with that transition has come a desire to be less nerdy. In some ways that's probably a lost cause because I will probably always prefer factoring numbers, reading, and talking to guys to decorating, crafting, and talking to girls (though I still really like Relief Society). However, there might be hope: I recently took this test http://www.innergeek.us/geek-test.html and only scored 14%. So I think I deserve a refund on those brownies I made sophomore year for racking up the most nerd points throughout the semester.
7. I had the chance to watch some TV shows over the break that I hadn't seen before, and I came to the conclusion that I prefer the 2 hour story to the 42 minute or 30 episode story. I don't know what it is about TV shows, but there was something about them that seemed a great deal hokier than movies. Perhaps it's because they don't spend as long developing each episode as movie writers do for movies, or maybe there's a different set of acting skills preferred for TV, but I felt like I haven't really been missing much by not owning a TV.
Well, now you've gotten a little peek into my mind. Soon it will be full of plenty of other stuff, don't worry.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Recent Adventures, Part 2
So in my last post, I talked about our most exciting adventure in the past little while, and then since that story got long, I decided to share more adventures later.
But here's the problem: I don't actually remember anything else interesting happening recently. And it doesn't help that I've done a lousy job keeping up in my journal lately.
Nevertheless, I feel somewhat obligated to share what we've been up to, as boring as it may actually be.
~School. Yeah. School kind of hijacked our lives. Thanksgiving break was spent doing projects and papers for most of Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. It was . . . kinda lame. To make matters worse, every day from the day we got back from Thanksgiving to the last day of classes, both Kevin and I either had a paper, presentation, revision, review, or other assignment due (often multiple assignments in one day). Then during finals week, Kevin had 3 grad school applications due. So, we've been busy. But it's all done, so we're happy.
~Ward choir. Kevin and I are ward choir directors, and this year we had the fun experience of being in charge of a Christmas program. And it really was fun. But it was a lot of work, too -- coming up with a theme that wasn't too cheesy but still managed to be somewhat cohesive, getting additional musical numbers, making the choir sing "angels" correctly (sing it like you say it, folks. Please!), and just overall coordination that sort of stressed me out. But it was wonderful! Not wonderful enough to ever do again, but fun to do once. (Incidentally, you know how everyone has their dreaded calling, like Nursery instructor or Gospel Doctrine teacher? Mine has been Ward Choir Director. But so far it hasn't been too bad. At the same time, I think my biggest fear is that I'll always get shunted into this calling since I always feel guilty if I don't confess that I can play piano.)
~Um . . . have we done anything else? Pregnancy has been fine. I mean, I threw up more after 13 weeks than before, but I might be moving past that finally. Finally. Right now we're thinking of naming the baby LaHerqan, boy or girl. LaHerqan Duchesne. I don't know why Kevin has a problem with it.
~Christmas break. It has consisted of approximately 4 things so far: reading, eating, sleeping, and watching movies/TV. I am quite impressed with how quickly my brain was able to atrophy.
Wow. This blog post turned out even more boring than I anticipated. Sorry. One of these days I'll write interesting stuff.
Oh, and you ought to take a look at our family Christmas letter. (Okay, so it's not our family, and I'm pretty sure I'm not having twins, but other than that it's totally accurate.)
But here's the problem: I don't actually remember anything else interesting happening recently. And it doesn't help that I've done a lousy job keeping up in my journal lately.
Nevertheless, I feel somewhat obligated to share what we've been up to, as boring as it may actually be.
~School. Yeah. School kind of hijacked our lives. Thanksgiving break was spent doing projects and papers for most of Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. It was . . . kinda lame. To make matters worse, every day from the day we got back from Thanksgiving to the last day of classes, both Kevin and I either had a paper, presentation, revision, review, or other assignment due (often multiple assignments in one day). Then during finals week, Kevin had 3 grad school applications due. So, we've been busy. But it's all done, so we're happy.
~Ward choir. Kevin and I are ward choir directors, and this year we had the fun experience of being in charge of a Christmas program. And it really was fun. But it was a lot of work, too -- coming up with a theme that wasn't too cheesy but still managed to be somewhat cohesive, getting additional musical numbers, making the choir sing "angels" correctly (sing it like you say it, folks. Please!), and just overall coordination that sort of stressed me out. But it was wonderful! Not wonderful enough to ever do again, but fun to do once. (Incidentally, you know how everyone has their dreaded calling, like Nursery instructor or Gospel Doctrine teacher? Mine has been Ward Choir Director. But so far it hasn't been too bad. At the same time, I think my biggest fear is that I'll always get shunted into this calling since I always feel guilty if I don't confess that I can play piano.)
~Um . . . have we done anything else? Pregnancy has been fine. I mean, I threw up more after 13 weeks than before, but I might be moving past that finally. Finally. Right now we're thinking of naming the baby LaHerqan, boy or girl. LaHerqan Duchesne. I don't know why Kevin has a problem with it.
~Christmas break. It has consisted of approximately 4 things so far: reading, eating, sleeping, and watching movies/TV. I am quite impressed with how quickly my brain was able to atrophy.
Wow. This blog post turned out even more boring than I anticipated. Sorry. One of these days I'll write interesting stuff.
Oh, and you ought to take a look at our family Christmas letter. (Okay, so it's not our family, and I'm pretty sure I'm not having twins, but other than that it's totally accurate.)
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Recent Adventures, Part 1: Don't Punch . . . Our Car
The past little while has been . . . crazy. Quite crazy. Let's recap what I've been up to since the last time I blogged.
~The car. Oh, the car. So here's the story. I was driving Kaylie to Mountain View on November 17th (a Thursday) so she could see Children of Eden for her voice class. Just like every other road I've driven on in the past few months, University Avenue is undergoing construction. I don't quite understand it, since I remember it was torn up 2 years ago. Anyway, the median is gone, lane shifts happen about once a minute, and it's just a nightmare, especially when it's dark. As I was maneuvering through all this junk, I saw some cars up ahead of me going slowly. As I got closer I realized they were stopped completely. So I did what any normal person would do and stopped too, hoping to change into the other lane. But before I got the chance,
Crunch! Jolt! I felt someone smash into us from behind.
I looked at Kaylie. "Did that just happen? What just happened?" Did I just get hit? I may have looked back but couldn't see the car that hit me (except for maybe its headlights, which I don't remember). "What do I do, Kaylie? What do I do?" By this point I was no longer in thinking mode. I was in following orders mode. "Um, turn your blinker on, and go to the shoulder, and then we'll talk to the other car there," she told me. So I put my blinker on, and when Kaylie told me that it was safe, I went over to the shoulder. And I waited for the car that had hit me to show up right behind me. But it was gone. Kaylie got out and looked at the damage and said, "It looks kind of bad." Then I got out and saw the complete left back side of the car completely crumpled and I just about lost it. I called Kevin and asked him to tell me what to do, and could we get neighbors to take Kaylie the rest of the way to Mountain View. And I think I started crying.
By this point, a construction worker or somebody had shown up for the other rear end incident (the one I had had to stop for) and so when it was safe I went back to that lane and went up to him and pointed at my car and said that when the police came with a report to not forget about me and my car which looked way worse than any of the other cars. Man, I probably seemed like a wild woman. It didn't help that I hadn't eaten much dinner. (There had been an IEEE meeting which I went to because it had free pizza, but since a bunch of other people went for the same reason, there wasn't enough to fill my pregnant stomach, making me even crankier. After that dinner, I wondered if my evening could get any worse. Yes, it could.) So I went back to the car and sobbed some and then Kevin showed up with a kind neighbor who took Kaylie the rest of the way to see the musical.
The policeman showed up and after talking to the other accident people for what seemed like forever, he came over and gave me a report and asked if I knew who had hit me. "I just assumed they would follow me right over to the shoulder," I said lamely. "That's what they're supposed to do," he said flatly. Then he mentioned that he had seen a white car way up ahead that was stopped. There was white paint all over the back of my car, so maybe it was the same one. But the car was gone, and he hadn't mentioned any damage (I'm still curious how they were able to drive their car after hitting us so hard, since it seems like its front would have been hammered), so there went that lead. I filled out the police report and then Kevin drove us back home.
Here is a picture we took the next morning:
That afternoon Kevin drove it to the repair shop and found out it was in such bad shape that he wasn't supposed to drive it home. Luckily he got a hold of his sister who picked him up. And that's the last we saw of the car until yesterday morning.
Well, I'd like to say this story had a happy ending and the person who hit us confessed and paid our deductible (which cost more than we were expecting thanks to a "depreciated muffler") and that we got the car back two days later because the replacement parts arrived so quickly and undamaged. I'd also like to say that they replaced the panel where some wonderful children decided to play tic-tac-toe with a rock two years ago (the car's been in the shop twice since then, and it's never been hit in the right spot to replace that. Alas).
But as it is, the ending isn't so bad. After 20 days in the shop, we finally got our car back! And it works! Complete with a brand new shiny exhaust pipe. (I think the people in Casa Dea right next to our parking lot probably think I'm crazy since I've been gushing about the shiny new exhaust pipe so much and so loudly.)
In those carless 20 days, we've had so much support from neighbors and family. There were neighbors who checked on us the minute they heard the news, neighbors who offered their cars while they were gone for Thanksgiving, family who also offered their cars, people who've offered rides, just a lot of stuff. And at least for the first few of those 20 days, it wasn't that cold, so I was able to walk to my doctor's office, El Gallo Giro, 5-buck pizza (hey, we were hungry and lazy those days, plus we had to eat at El Gallo Giro because we had run out of groceries and couldn't get to the store), and everywhere else I cared about. And since it got cold, we've still been able to get rides/borrow cars when necessary. (And Kevin did turn 25 in the midst of all this, so if we'd really needed to we could have rented a car.) Point is, even though this is definitely not how I expected the last 3 weeks to go, it's been a good reminder that we do have lots of wonderful friends and family.
And . . . I think this blog post is long enough as is, so I'll just save my other tidbits of life for another blog post.
~The car. Oh, the car. So here's the story. I was driving Kaylie to Mountain View on November 17th (a Thursday) so she could see Children of Eden for her voice class. Just like every other road I've driven on in the past few months, University Avenue is undergoing construction. I don't quite understand it, since I remember it was torn up 2 years ago. Anyway, the median is gone, lane shifts happen about once a minute, and it's just a nightmare, especially when it's dark. As I was maneuvering through all this junk, I saw some cars up ahead of me going slowly. As I got closer I realized they were stopped completely. So I did what any normal person would do and stopped too, hoping to change into the other lane. But before I got the chance,
Crunch! Jolt! I felt someone smash into us from behind.
I looked at Kaylie. "Did that just happen? What just happened?" Did I just get hit? I may have looked back but couldn't see the car that hit me (except for maybe its headlights, which I don't remember). "What do I do, Kaylie? What do I do?" By this point I was no longer in thinking mode. I was in following orders mode. "Um, turn your blinker on, and go to the shoulder, and then we'll talk to the other car there," she told me. So I put my blinker on, and when Kaylie told me that it was safe, I went over to the shoulder. And I waited for the car that had hit me to show up right behind me. But it was gone. Kaylie got out and looked at the damage and said, "It looks kind of bad." Then I got out and saw the complete left back side of the car completely crumpled and I just about lost it. I called Kevin and asked him to tell me what to do, and could we get neighbors to take Kaylie the rest of the way to Mountain View. And I think I started crying.
By this point, a construction worker or somebody had shown up for the other rear end incident (the one I had had to stop for) and so when it was safe I went back to that lane and went up to him and pointed at my car and said that when the police came with a report to not forget about me and my car which looked way worse than any of the other cars. Man, I probably seemed like a wild woman. It didn't help that I hadn't eaten much dinner. (There had been an IEEE meeting which I went to because it had free pizza, but since a bunch of other people went for the same reason, there wasn't enough to fill my pregnant stomach, making me even crankier. After that dinner, I wondered if my evening could get any worse. Yes, it could.) So I went back to the car and sobbed some and then Kevin showed up with a kind neighbor who took Kaylie the rest of the way to see the musical.
The policeman showed up and after talking to the other accident people for what seemed like forever, he came over and gave me a report and asked if I knew who had hit me. "I just assumed they would follow me right over to the shoulder," I said lamely. "That's what they're supposed to do," he said flatly. Then he mentioned that he had seen a white car way up ahead that was stopped. There was white paint all over the back of my car, so maybe it was the same one. But the car was gone, and he hadn't mentioned any damage (I'm still curious how they were able to drive their car after hitting us so hard, since it seems like its front would have been hammered), so there went that lead. I filled out the police report and then Kevin drove us back home.
Here is a picture we took the next morning:
 |
| Not shown in picture: damaged internal bumper, damaged exhaust system, damaged alignment, etc. |
That afternoon Kevin drove it to the repair shop and found out it was in such bad shape that he wasn't supposed to drive it home. Luckily he got a hold of his sister who picked him up. And that's the last we saw of the car until yesterday morning.
Well, I'd like to say this story had a happy ending and the person who hit us confessed and paid our deductible (which cost more than we were expecting thanks to a "depreciated muffler") and that we got the car back two days later because the replacement parts arrived so quickly and undamaged. I'd also like to say that they replaced the panel where some wonderful children decided to play tic-tac-toe with a rock two years ago (the car's been in the shop twice since then, and it's never been hit in the right spot to replace that. Alas).
But as it is, the ending isn't so bad. After 20 days in the shop, we finally got our car back! And it works! Complete with a brand new shiny exhaust pipe. (I think the people in Casa Dea right next to our parking lot probably think I'm crazy since I've been gushing about the shiny new exhaust pipe so much and so loudly.)
In those carless 20 days, we've had so much support from neighbors and family. There were neighbors who checked on us the minute they heard the news, neighbors who offered their cars while they were gone for Thanksgiving, family who also offered their cars, people who've offered rides, just a lot of stuff. And at least for the first few of those 20 days, it wasn't that cold, so I was able to walk to my doctor's office, El Gallo Giro, 5-buck pizza (hey, we were hungry and lazy those days, plus we had to eat at El Gallo Giro because we had run out of groceries and couldn't get to the store), and everywhere else I cared about. And since it got cold, we've still been able to get rides/borrow cars when necessary. (And Kevin did turn 25 in the midst of all this, so if we'd really needed to we could have rented a car.) Point is, even though this is definitely not how I expected the last 3 weeks to go, it's been a good reminder that we do have lots of wonderful friends and family.
And . . . I think this blog post is long enough as is, so I'll just save my other tidbits of life for another blog post.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
So . . . yeah
So, if you didn't bother reading my last post because it started out way too nerdily for you or stayed nerdy too long for you, then let me tell you the punch line.
I'm pregnant. Due May 25th.
How's it going? Well, other than the nausea, fatigue, headaches, cravings, and mood swings, I can hardly tell I'm pregnant! In all seriousness, I think I've been pretty lucky. I've only thrown up a few times, though I've almost done it lots and lots. And who's to say that I can blame the cravings and mood swings on being pregnant? I've always had those!
There is one thing though that I will blame on the pregnancy. I call it "doing math for two." On the off chance I make it to my 8:00 class on time, it's usually because of a quiz. (Being places at 8:00 just does not work very well for me these days . . . it's nothing personal, Dr. Mazzeo . . . in fact, I really enjoy your class.) I've thought these quizzes have been reasonably easy, and yet I keep missing points for stupid mistakes.
Well, I started looking at my mistakes, and I realized that on most every quiz, I was doubling or squaring an answer at least once. On this last quiz, I did it twice! I knew the answer was 'X,' yet in the last two seconds I put 'X^2'. Why, you might ask? Well, I think this little baby inside just wants to have his/her say, too, and so when I put my answer down, the baby does too. So when I mean to write 1, I instead write 2. When I mean to write X, I instead write X^2. Hence, doing math for two. (Too bad I don't think I can argue back points with my theory . . .)
For the most part, things are going well. It seems like I've made it blatantly obvious what with my awkward questions and my not-so-surreptitious snatches of corn flakes in Relief Society on Fast Sunday (yes, I saw you watching me) and my refusal to do anything fun after 9 pm (because that's about when I start falling asleep) and my decidedly unfunny blog posts . . . so, if you suspected it already, I'm not too surprised.
So, yeah. 12 weeks along, life is good, no clue if it's a boy or a girl, and Kevin and I are both ridiculously excited!
I'm pregnant. Due May 25th.
How's it going? Well, other than the nausea, fatigue, headaches, cravings, and mood swings, I can hardly tell I'm pregnant! In all seriousness, I think I've been pretty lucky. I've only thrown up a few times, though I've almost done it lots and lots. And who's to say that I can blame the cravings and mood swings on being pregnant? I've always had those!
There is one thing though that I will blame on the pregnancy. I call it "doing math for two." On the off chance I make it to my 8:00 class on time, it's usually because of a quiz. (Being places at 8:00 just does not work very well for me these days . . . it's nothing personal, Dr. Mazzeo . . . in fact, I really enjoy your class.) I've thought these quizzes have been reasonably easy, and yet I keep missing points for stupid mistakes.
Well, I started looking at my mistakes, and I realized that on most every quiz, I was doubling or squaring an answer at least once. On this last quiz, I did it twice! I knew the answer was 'X,' yet in the last two seconds I put 'X^2'. Why, you might ask? Well, I think this little baby inside just wants to have his/her say, too, and so when I put my answer down, the baby does too. So when I mean to write 1, I instead write 2. When I mean to write X, I instead write X^2. Hence, doing math for two. (Too bad I don't think I can argue back points with my theory . . .)
For the most part, things are going well. It seems like I've made it blatantly obvious what with my awkward questions and my not-so-surreptitious snatches of corn flakes in Relief Society on Fast Sunday (yes, I saw you watching me) and my refusal to do anything fun after 9 pm (because that's about when I start falling asleep) and my decidedly unfunny blog posts . . . so, if you suspected it already, I'm not too surprised.
So, yeah. 12 weeks along, life is good, no clue if it's a boy or a girl, and Kevin and I are both ridiculously excited!
Monday, November 7, 2011
Grad School
As you may know, Kevin and I are currently in a masters program at BYU in Electrical Engineering. I thought it would be fun to let you know some of the classes I've been taking.
670 (Stochastic Processes) This class is all about probability, especially for systems. When you put something into a system, what will you get out? If you only get what came out of the system, can you estimate what was put in? When can you ignore events that happened in the distant past? How good are statistical tests at indicating if something is present or not?
775 (Error Control Coding) This class talks about how to improve one aspect of digital communications. Whenever you use a cell phone or other wireless devices, the signal (like your voice) gets transmitted through the air to the receiver on the other end. But between you and the receiver there may be a lot of noise, which may corrupt the signal and cause errors. This class discusses how to "code" the signal so that on the other end you can fix the errors that were caused by the noise. So, it's basically a class on dealing with noise. And then some.
564 (Radar and Satellite Communications) Radar and satellite are all about detecting things. Is there a target there? Is it moving? Is what you saw a missile or the moon? How can you prevent false alarms?
671 (Mathematics of Signals and Systems) So this is basically a linear algebra class. Linear algebra is basically solving Ax = b, where A is a matrix (think of systems of equations from your algebra class in junior high). But from its humble beginnings, this class answers a lot of interesting questions. Like, what's the best way to solve the equation? If you have a bunch of data points, can you create a line or a curve which fits the data pretty well? How do you optimize things?
The cool thing is, even though all this stuff is pretty theoretical, it actually has a ton of applications. For example:
(670) Given that a test indicating the presence of hCG is positive, what is the probability that hCG is actually present?
(775) How do you deal with the noise caused by the construction across the street when certain limitations are set (such as not being able to use any of your preferred pain medicines for headaches)?
(670, well, all of them) How do you best filter out the noise to detect a signal with a rate of 150 beats per minute (particularly when that signal is buried under lots of junk and a louder signal with a rate of approximately 80 beats per minute)?
(671) How can you tell if something is an inner product space? What properties does it take on?
(564) Given that you wake up nauseous every morning, can you detect when you will actually throw up vs. when you will be fine (that is, the nausea is a false alarm)?
and of course,
(671) Given that a body increases its mass by approximately half a kilogram per week, what is the best-fitting apparel for the curves that will soon be appearing and will change from this
to this by the middle of May?
(thanks to Matthew and Stephanie for letting me borrow their high-tech future camera!)
I'd say grad school has been a great preparation for life.
(I guess I'm also taking a writing class. This post has been its application.)
(Kevin's in most of these classes with me. Except that instead of taking 775, Kevin's taking Real Analysis, which has been good for him in answering questions such as, "Is this really happening?" "When will this feel real?" "Do I dare analyze her mood?" "Am I really doing a 4th load of dishes in a row?")
Answers:
1) The probability is not 100%, since tests can give false positives. But not these types of tests, at least not very often.
2) Tylenol.
3) I dunno . . . the doctor used a nifty little radio/stethoscope thing that did it just fine.
4) In my case, something is an inner product space if it expands as the inner product expands.
5) Nope.
6) Whatever it is, I am going to have to buy it at some point.
...and not that any of you care . . . but I don't think I look as pregnant in real life as I appear in my first picture. I blame it on the shirt since I stretched it out by taking the second picture first. So you're not seeing a baby bump, I promise. Just poofy shirt and awkward angle and bad posture. And in my second one . . . well, hopefully the baby won't be as lumpy as it looks in this picture.
670 (Stochastic Processes) This class is all about probability, especially for systems. When you put something into a system, what will you get out? If you only get what came out of the system, can you estimate what was put in? When can you ignore events that happened in the distant past? How good are statistical tests at indicating if something is present or not?
564 (Radar and Satellite Communications) Radar and satellite are all about detecting things. Is there a target there? Is it moving? Is what you saw a missile or the moon? How can you prevent false alarms?
671 (Mathematics of Signals and Systems) So this is basically a linear algebra class. Linear algebra is basically solving Ax = b, where A is a matrix (think of systems of equations from your algebra class in junior high). But from its humble beginnings, this class answers a lot of interesting questions. Like, what's the best way to solve the equation? If you have a bunch of data points, can you create a line or a curve which fits the data pretty well? How do you optimize things?
The cool thing is, even though all this stuff is pretty theoretical, it actually has a ton of applications. For example:
(670) Given that a test indicating the presence of hCG is positive, what is the probability that hCG is actually present?
(775) How do you deal with the noise caused by the construction across the street when certain limitations are set (such as not being able to use any of your preferred pain medicines for headaches)?
(670, well, all of them) How do you best filter out the noise to detect a signal with a rate of 150 beats per minute (particularly when that signal is buried under lots of junk and a louder signal with a rate of approximately 80 beats per minute)?
(671) How can you tell if something is an inner product space? What properties does it take on?
(564) Given that you wake up nauseous every morning, can you detect when you will actually throw up vs. when you will be fine (that is, the nausea is a false alarm)?
and of course,
(671) Given that a body increases its mass by approximately half a kilogram per week, what is the best-fitting apparel for the curves that will soon be appearing and will change from this
to this by the middle of May?
(thanks to Matthew and Stephanie for letting me borrow their high-tech future camera!)
I'd say grad school has been a great preparation for life.
(I guess I'm also taking a writing class. This post has been its application.)
(Kevin's in most of these classes with me. Except that instead of taking 775, Kevin's taking Real Analysis, which has been good for him in answering questions such as, "Is this really happening?" "When will this feel real?" "Do I dare analyze her mood?" "Am I really doing a 4th load of dishes in a row?")
Answers:
1) The probability is not 100%, since tests can give false positives. But not these types of tests, at least not very often.
2) Tylenol.
3) I dunno . . . the doctor used a nifty little radio/stethoscope thing that did it just fine.
4) In my case, something is an inner product space if it expands as the inner product expands.
5) Nope.
6) Whatever it is, I am going to have to buy it at some point.
...and not that any of you care . . . but I don't think I look as pregnant in real life as I appear in my first picture. I blame it on the shirt since I stretched it out by taking the second picture first. So you're not seeing a baby bump, I promise. Just poofy shirt and awkward angle and bad posture. And in my second one . . . well, hopefully the baby won't be as lumpy as it looks in this picture.
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