Linear Algebra is my favorite math subject. It’s a required course in our Computer Science program (and all others I’ve seen), but I often meet students and peers that do not want to take it, or feel that they don’t need to know how to “draw arrows” (vectors) to get by in their career. If you want to get into game development (which most students I talk to say they want to do), linear algebra is very important.
Time to stop hating math if you want to do the fun stuff, babes.
Jimmy and I lucked out with Hurricane Irene. We live on one of the higher points of town, and on an incline that causes water to zoom on past us. The one thing us Montclair folks always worry about in a storm, though, are trees falling. Big trees falling. A good friend of mine lost nearly everything (apartment and car) to a tree falling in a storm not too long ago, and we’ve experienced two tree-ripping microbursts in Montclair since moving here.
This was the most prepared we’ve ever been for a storm, probably because it was the biggest storm anticipated to hit the area in as long as I can remember. Tangential hurricane story: I remember living on campus as a freshman when the remnants of Hurricane Isabel hit. The day before, my best friend Michelle’s dorm, downstairs, had water flowing from the ceiling and my ex-boyfriend made an awful surprise visit. It was worse than the hurricane that followed.
This time around, I had more to lose, like anything that came in the path of the huge frightening tree that has taunted me from outside our window for over two years now. Jimmy did a great job of making sure we had everything we needed. And when I woke up to him telling my dad over the phone that we went completely unscathed, I was finally relieved of all the media-created stress. By 11am the sun was out, and we went out for a much-needed walk around town (much to the chagrin of our mayor, who would later issue a warning to stay inside regardless of the sun being out…oops).
Here are some photos from our forbidden walk. Continue reading
It has come to my attention that a hurricane is on its way, reaching New Jersey as early as tomorrow. Evacuations are being called, the NYC Subway system is scheduled to shut down tomorrow, and I can only imagine how my post-work trip to Whole Foods is going to be like today.
I’ve never been caught in a bad hurricane, from what I can remember, but I did work prep cook shifts at a steakhouse on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day about seven years ago. To make matters more hectic, my dad Jack was the boss.
Those two 4:30am shifts have blessed me with a dozen lifetimes worth of experience/Jack-isms when it comes to all hell breaking loose in New Jersey, so I’d like to impart some wisdom on you. Continue reading
Please excuse me dear Aunt Sally while I launch 3 projects and redesign pancake theorem before all hell breaks loose when the Fall semester starts.
I think this is my favorite of the ipsum-sites made so far:
<!-- start slipsum code --> <h1>No, motherfucker</h1> <p>Well, the way they make shows is, they make one show. That show's called a pilot. Then they show that show to the people who make shows, and on the strength of that one show they decide if they're going to make more shows. Some pilots get picked and become television programs. Some don't, become nothing. She starred in one of the ones that became nothing.</p> <!-- end slipsum code -->
I started a new full-time job at Montclair State University on July 1st. I had been a part-time adjunct and rest-of-the-time freelance web developer up until that point – now I’m full-time Department Administrator and rest-of-the-little-time freelance web developer. Full-time work is an adjustment for the freelancer, and I was initially afraid that accepting this job would be seen as a sign of failure. I mean, you hear about people leaving full-time work to work from home and everyone is always congratulating them (except worried or skeptical parents); it’s rarely the other way around.
Failure in others’ eyes or not, I needed a change this year – and a big one. I’ve grown disenchanted with building websites, mostly thanks to stupid buzzwords, phrases, and requests like “make it more Web 2.0,” “we need more SEO juice,” and dealing with malware infection after endless malware infection. The work that I thought I loved was really keeping me from doing what I truly loved: learning and building cool things. Google+ buttons are not cool. Upgrading OpenX after a malicious iframe injection is not cool. Playing around with ExpressionEngine for the first time, and making 8-bit art, however, is extremely cool.
Now that I have this job, I have more opportunities to work on cool things on my time, time that I spent doing the 24/7 freelance bit. Granted, I have less freedoms working out of home than I did while working at home, but these adjustments are well worth the change of pace that I so desperately needed at this point in my life. Here are some of those adjustments and some useful tips to making the change:
Sleep Schedule
One thing about working from home is that you have a little more control over when you can wake up in the morning. When I was teaching, it was normally a 7am class, so I was up at 5am two days a week. The rest of the week, though, there was no way I was subjecting myself to anything earlier than 9am. This weird sleep schedule wore me down, especially since I can never bring myself to go to sleep before midnight.
With a full-time job, now, I wake up regularly at around 6:45am. The sun is already up (unlike at 5am), and Jimmy is normally up by then. Since I get up regularly during the weekdays, I find myself slowly adjusting to getting up earlier on weekends without an alarm. I feel more refreshed and better about myself, now.
Food
When you work at home and things are slow or stressful (things are only slow or stressful, so I really mean “all the time), you’re more likely to eat everything in sight. When you don’t see food, you spend precious time searching for food, or making the 5 minute walk down to Whole Foods for a snack and a sippy*. Add that to sitting around all day, well, you’re not going to get any sexier, boys and girls!
When you work out in the “real world,” which is how most people refer to outside the home-office in my life, there isn’t much food to scavenge for. Our campus has a few spots to grab something to eat, but it’s so goddamn expensive that I bring in lunch everyday. Because I can’t just eat whenever, I make it a point to eat breakfast every morning (not an easy task for me). So now I’m eating the most important meal and eating a healthy lunch. Go me.
Hygiene
If you go from home to full-time elsewhere, get a travel toothbrush and floss. Trust me.
Social Interaction
When working at home, social interaction meant cursing off and chasing my cat off the laptop when I came back from one of those food scavenger hunts. One of the best things about my job, in my opinion, is working with a group of really smart and interesting people in my department, and meeting new students every day. Those who know me personally know that I thrive on great conversation, and I was just not getting that with the cat.
Wardrobe
Some of my work-at-home pals enjoy wearing their pajamas all day. I was more into getting dressed so that I didn’t feel like a total slob all day, though. It all goes back to that mantra, “dress for the job you want, not necessarily the job you have” or something along those lines. As much as I would love to be a pajama model, I felt more comfortable during phone and Skype meetings while wearing real clothes.
Of course, when you work in an office, your attire has to somehow fit in with the workplace. Luckily, the common attire here is not too far from what I’m used to, as I have taught here for a few years already. I just have to make sure that I do my laundry regularly, as old Sonic Youth t-shirts and ripped denim are not an option ’round these parts.
In Conclusion (how 8th grade standardized essay of me…)
I love this job, and the pros to me being here greatly outweigh the cons. Most of the things I loved about working from home were actually making me bored and lazy after a while, and ultimately lead to me trying to find something different. Going from home-office to work-office dramatically changes how you do normal everyday things, and usually for the better.
*Jenn’s Sippy: 1 part seltzer or sparkling mineral water, 1 part 100% juice. Jimmy will tell you a sippy is 1 part club soda and 1 part Pinot Grigio, but I think that’s just gross.
Here is a thought-provoking piece about grading. One of the most interesting things about grading at the college level is the lack of standardization. I think that if you have 50 teachers teaching the same course with the same students, the grades will still vary from course section to course section.
Is grade standardization possible?
Is it okay to reward A’s with leniency to be “nice” to students?
Have your college grades affected your job search/placement/salary?
Here’s a cool and simple bookmarklet that not only lets you inject jQuery into a web page, if it’s not there already, but also provides a prompt so you can enter more JavaScript. A useful tool for testing code out on a page before you actually fiddle with the source code.
Lost Crates is a monthly curated package subscription of various notebooks, pens, journals, stationery, etc. I signed up for it at the end of June, and I just got my first “crate” today! You can’t tell how beautifully packaged it was, because I could not wait to open it when I got home. Inside was a Joshua Davis-designed pen, a Moleskine notebook, Behance Action Cahier and Dot Grid books, a stunning pencil case, and the New Jersey edition of Field Notes’ “County Fair” edition.
If you’re a paper and pen fanatic like I am, it’s quite a magical service. It costs $38 a month, which includes shipping in the US, and they send you various items based on a personality test you take. If you sign up before the 15th of this month, you get your crate in the second week of September. I can’t wait for next month’s crate to arrive!
Love u, h8 u, just can’t quit u.
My name is Jenn. pancake theorem is my blog and it's full of stuff about web development, academia, industry, being a woman, blah blah blarg.
