madnesshamster

Today I attended my last ever formal lecture as an undergraduate. For some reason, I feel this minor milestone ought to be commemorated and so it shall be immortalised through the wonders of LJ.

There.

Unfortunately graduation is still another 9 months (give or take) away, but everything else is research and publication until honours in August (which is even more research and publication!)

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Strange how every time I have a day where I think there is hope for humanity after all, someone goes and slaps me in the face.

Don't mind me, just passing through and thought I'd make a note of some of the awesomeness that is my life while I'm here.

- Interview with Samantha Murray on Tuesday. Squee! Wish I could kidnap her for the day and talk about stuff that isn't directly related to my assignment.

- Science Communication lecturer offering to write letters of recommendation if I'll enroll in some advanced media writing units

- Andy Barron offering an honours place to replicate facial attractiveness studies taking sexual preference into account

- Darrell waving shiny carrots of sex differentiation genetics studies if I'll stay with him for post-grad

It's been a good day.

Dear body,

I'm sorry about all this. I promise it'll be worth it in the end. Can you please stop hurting for just a little while?

From me.

http://www.theknife.net/tommorow-in-a-year-information.html

An opera about Darwin written by The Knife - such a brilliant combination that if it was dipped in chocolate and rolled in kittens it would implode with awesomeness!

What a difference only doing 3 units a semester is having! I have managed so far a 100% journal review (one of 5 in the class though), a 96% on a prac report (which I am flabbergasted over since I changed directions with my argument halfway through and was too lazy/unmotivated to go back and change it) both for biology, and a top mark in the anthropology mid-sem test (88% in a class average of 59%, despite not having gotten around to studying because I was too busy writing the 96% prac write up at the time).

Clearly my mutant power of pulling gold out of my backside is working again.

If only my mutant power was the ability to have clear and permanent goals. I am having a crisis of direction again. Why won't they let me teach units that I don't have a PhD in? I know more about physical anthropology than either of the tutors this year, but I can't teach it without a post-grad degree in some sub-group of anthropology which I don't really want and don't think is relevant. It's mostly science based anyway. That's why I'm dong well, and my sociologist tutor can't comprehend what I'm talking about when I try to explain to him that mutations and adaptations are not separate things - an adaptation is just a mutation that has been selected for. And genetic drift! Who knew it was such a complex concept? Not me.

Meh. And so I descend into ranting again. Why can't I just study the stuff that interests me and then be paid lots of money to teach it to other people?

Argh! The stupid! It burns!

P.S. I am not a people person. Unless by people person you mean, I would like to hit most people over the head with heavy things.

P.P.S. It is amazing how little patience you are left with when your husband can not stopped coughing in 8 days.

Bugger. First draft of this semester's exam timetable is up. I have two Saturday afternoon exams in a row (by which I mean one on the 21st and one on the 28th, both at 2pm which is the worst time of day for my brain to have to work).

I am very unhappy.

I'm not entirely sure if this is a send up, a cock up or a coindicence.

This whole Caster Semenya story makes me some many kinds of angry.

I can't even articulate all the things that are wrong with the situation. People are so incredibly ignorant and I feel completely powerless to make any kind of difference.