Comps

I have an offical date for comps. I saw the schedule as it is posted in the Geography Dept. office this morning:

Friday, September 15
1pm


I'm the third one to go.

Two weeks to study. Hopefully I can have some time to eat and sleep during it.

Comps/Loan

So I heard a tentative date for my comprehensive exams. This isn't confirmed, but I heard it from another grad student who I have my MWF class with (and whose session will be right after mine). He said he saw me down for Friday, September 15th at 1pm. That gives me a time frame with which to work. About two and a half weeks. It works great because I get to have a feel as to the professors' general mood, while not having to dread it for too long. Plus now I have a finite timeframe with which to study and can guide my studies much better. That will be life between now and then.

Oh, and I got my loan check in the mail today. I won't go on blurting out how much it was for all to see (if you want to know, and know how to get in touch with me off the blog...just let me know). I fought getting the loan--to a fault, but when the University can't seem to figure how to pay it's graduate students for a month--long story, it was something I needed to go ahead and suck up. It was odd getting a check for that much in the mail, and it was particularly odd getting a check for that much with just a Pittney-Bowles type 37 cent stamp on it (apparently the actual cost to ship was 37 cents, not the standard 39...but whatever).

So I can get that in the bank tomorrow (I'll split it between checking and a fairly liquid investment fund) and can finally begin paying back those to whom I owe money before they break my legs as collateral (folks like my credit card companies, and mom).

Comps/First Day of class

Well, I talked with one of the professors who is on my board this afternoon about it (not my program advisor, mind you, I meet with him on Friday). Dr. Richetto answered some of my pressing questions about exam structure and such. Basically what he told me is that Dr. Weber (my program advisor and presumably my review board chairman) will sort of get me to talk about myself. Things like why I like Geography, why I chose to study it at Alabama, and some career goals. This, I suppose is to loosen me up a bit. Then each professor including Dr. Seth (Appiah-Opoku) will get a twenty minute session to ask me basically anything from any classes I've had with them, or any broad topics I should know as a geographer, specifically a second year master's student. For instance, Dr. Weber will ask me about GIS and Transport Geography, Dr. Seth about Africa, Environmental Management, and broad planning ideas, Dr. Richetto about some more specific (but still fairly broad) planning concepts on the public and private sectors, some broad human geography ideas (which will probably be encompassed in other planning sections), and since Dr. Jerry Webster isn't on my board, he will ask me some broad questions from GY500 (history, traditions, etc.). From that point, they each get a ten minute session with me to follow up on any questions they answered in their first round, or to get clarifications on what I meant, etc. Then I'll leave the room while they talk with eachother to get a concensus on whether or not I pass. This takes about ten minutes, at which point they'll call me back in and give me the 411 (pass/fail) and perhaps reasons why I failed (assuming such). I'm still nervous and apprehensive, to be sure, but now that I have some specific structure on what to expect I'm a little less worried (I've moved from a 10/10 to a 9/10 on the apprehension scale you might say).

I meet with Dr. Weber on Friday afternoon to discuss what I should study specifically for his section, then a more broad idea of what to expect on the exams, and how I should prepare. Things as serious as what to say if I don't know the answer to a question, to nominal such as what I should do in terms of dress for the day (the girl I work with who took it January was dressed up a bit more than usual the day she took them).

I should have a date by this time next week. Then my apprehension shoots back up to about 55/10.

On a related note, my first day of class this year went fine. Typical first day, to be sure. This class has only grad students. Except for GY500, this has been the only class that has had only grad students in it. GY540 had one undergrad, that was as close to no undergrads. I guess Dr. Richetto expects more from the class as a whole in this one.

websites

All my journal entries are now up. I have left a space for an epilogue of sorts in the future, but I'll tackle that at a later date. I may also attach a picture or to from the picture page to the journal entries in the future as well just for some visual aide.

http://www.krgilbert.net/ghana/

Also, Alabama Maps is pretty much back up and running again. I believe we've managed to recover all of our nearly 14,000 or so maps online and about 99.2% of our 5500 or so air photos. That 0.8% was the last few we did before the crash and hadn't had a chance to be backed up in any way, shape, or form. I'm thinking those will just be scrapped.

http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/

Yay

Just saw on the news (well, about thirty minutes ago, but whatever), that Kristen Trotter boarded a cruise ship over the weekend and is now out of Lebanon (presumably in Cyprus for now, eventually back in Alabama). So that's good news.

Also, I've gotten all my May journal entries up on my Ghana web page. I'll work on the June ones in the coming days. Enjoy!

http://www.krgilbert.net/ghana

(for the journal, click the "Journal" link at top).

Strange liquid

There's a strange liquid falling out of the sky right now. Someone, quick, remind me what it is. Is it this "rain" they've been saying we're so short on? I'm so dumbfounded!

Ghana Page

I'm working on getting some changes done to my Ghana page. Among the changes:

1. Journal entries (I finally got it back). These will take a while, but I've gotten about six of them done thus far--through May 25. I hope to have the rest done by month's end.

2. Picture descriptions. This is partially for my own memory. Again, I hope to have this done by month's end.

3. Spiffy new front page image. Simply an outline of Alabama with the Ghanaian flag contained in its boundaries. (Photoshop is a great thing!). I'll work on this some to make it fancier eventually, but I thought it looked good on the front page.

http://www.krgilbert.net/ghana/

So see some photo descriptions, read journal entries, marvel at the front page image, and enjoy the page! (And keep checking back every couple of days for changes and updates).

Apparently I know someone in Beirut, Lebanon right now. (If you happen to have seen it on the news, it's Senior UA Journalism Major Kristen Trotter). Apparently she's interning with Beirut's main newspaper. She's an RUFer, attends Riverwood, etc. I'm reasonably close to her, so as you can imagine I'm a bit concerned. I just thought I'd share that.

Almost Back

Well, it looks like Alabama Maps will be back up and running soon. Most of the historic maps are back up, but the aerial photographic collection is still down and may well be fore a while, but this is better than we were two weeks ago, indeed better than we were as of 11:45 on Friday morning (the point at which the new server came online and the new linking method was discovered).

It's not as glum as we thought previously. Yay! Please patronize us!
http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/

yay!

even still...Go Black Stars

Well, "my" Black Stars couldn't pull off the impossible in beating Brazil today. The final was 3-0.

However, said Brazil's coach: "It wasn't easy and we knew it wasn't going to be easy, 3-0 seems easy, but it wasn't."

Said Ghana's coach: "[Ghana] faced a great team, the world champions, they are the best in competition, defending champions. It is not a shame to lose to Brazil."

Go Black Stars!

Dancing in the streets of Accra (and Kumasi, Cape Coast, Takoradi, Axim, Sunyani...well, any city of any size in Ghana).

Final score:

Ghana 2
USA 1

Ghana advances to the second round with Italy.

Back in Alabama

I'm sure some of you are already aware, but I'm back in the states. Specifically in Alabama. More stories and pictures forthcoming, but here are two. The first is of me drinking a Heineken in Amsterdam...just so I could say I did it. The second is proof I'm a geography nerd. It's me with my feet in the other side of the Atlantic Ocean (The Gulf of Guinea at Axim, Ghana).

I'll post more later, and tell stories ad nauseum.

peppers!

As Kerry can attest, these are larger now, these pictures were taken just a few days after I got the plants. On the left, the bell pepper, on the right, cayenne. If you look closely in the right one, you can see the front of my car. Enjoy!

Riverwood goings on

Well, this happened earlier than I had expected. The congregation voted today about 90% in favor with one abstination (Melissa Lien I suspect) to give the green light to the session's recommendation that Tim Lien be the next senior pastor once Bryan leaves at the end of June. He had to have 80% since there is no BCO provision for an assistant pastor to become the senior pastor at the same chruch at which he was asssistant. This is allegedly to prevent any sort of assistant coming in and forcing the senior pastor out. Both Tim and Bryan were allegedly cornered at the last meeting of Warrior Presbytery and grilled about it. Now all that's left is for Warrior Presbytery to vote on the congregation's decision (it's just a 3/4ths vote there) then an installation on or around July 2nd.

Now what's left is finding an assistant/associate to serve in the position Tim has held the past two years (youth guy). We're at an odd position now since most seminaries have already graduated and already sent their graduates to their first calls. I think it's something the laypeople in the church are going to suck up for about a year until they can find someone qualified for the job.

That's what's happening. A last pre-Africa post forthcoming on Tuesday.

zing!

Final grades in for the semester...

Industrial Development & Location (GY-532)-->A
Research Methods & Traditions in Geography (GY-500)-->A
Transport Geography (GY-566)-->A

I haven't had a GPA this high since Jr. High (roughly a 3.83 now), and if I continue this, I'll end up with a GPA in the range of 3.93 by the time I graduate! I'm also off the "restriction" that I came in under because of the 900 I got on the GRE. (Had to keep 3.0 for the first 12 attempted hours). Hooray for me!

We got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout...

Again, the post title is a line from a song, relevant (somewhat) to the subject matter. The song is "Jackson", a duet featuring Johnny Cash and (at the time--they weren't yet married) June Carter, particularly I'm thinking about the version sung live at Folsom Prison in 1968.

Remember what I said a couple of days ago about my pepper plants being droopy? Well, when I put then back in the sun the next day, they had already exploded (particularly in terms of leaf size). They had grown about about an linear inch, then a couple of the leaves at the bottom of each plant (cayanne, and bell both) had about doubled in aeral size. They're still going on the fertilizer that was in the potting soil, and I've watered them probably just once because every couple of days--including about 6:30 this morning--we get a decent rain through and everytime I finger test the soil (stick finger in to see how moist the soil is), it doesn't feel like it needs watering and the plants never look droopy from a lack of moisture. They're even beginning to start sprouting (now if only I can attract some bees)! They should be putting out peppers in mid-July.

Celebration Day

In keeping with my policy of song titles in post titles as they're appropriate to the subject of the post (do you follow?) the title of this post is a Led Zeppelin song from their Led Zeppelin III album full of mainly acoustic and folksy stuff.

But anyway, I'm done with finals. Finito. Sayonara. Well, until comprehensive exams, then finals in December, then...well, you get the picture. Final analysis:

GY-566-->
Nailed it, got an A in the class. I felt confident about everything I answered, except for that one question's calculations. That really verified that I am a transportation geographer. I looked through the notes twice, maybe three times.

GY-532-->
Well, this remains to be seen. Ironically, the one class I struggled with the most was at an undergraduate level. It dealt with planning, but not transportation (though it did dabble into transportation issues...Infrastructure, networks, you get the picture). In stark contrast to GY-566, I read though these notes six or seven times, but didn't feel nearly as confident (again, consistent with how I felt throughout the semester).

GY-500-->(geeky moment, a la Kelly, forthcoming)
Turned it in 7 1/2 hours before it was due (i.e. at 2:00pm). Department secretary said that she thought I should get extra credit for that (I agree). I was the second person to put it in his box (which is not necessarily to say I was the second to turn it in as we had an e-mail option as well). Basically I rip into post modernism as it applies to the sciences:

1. Post modernism's criticisms of modernism, while superficially valid, do not hold any water. How can a post modernist, the very foundations of which emphasize the lack of absolutes, say that anything that arose out of modernism was bad? (The failure of the nation-state in Africa, for example).
2. If "Nothing exists out of the text" (according to deconstructionist and postmodernist Jacques Derriea) and everything is left up to the individual for interpretation, then who is a post modernist to say that what Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, or Saddam Hussein (among others) were wrong in how they killed thousands and millions? Where not they doing what they interpreted as right in eliminating subversive peoples?
3. Since science (geography specifically) and academia in general seek out universal truths, post modernism is a pox on the sciences--the arts are a different story.
4. Post modernism has led to the disunity in academia that exists today wherein people specialize in singular fields, rather than diversifying their knowledge. No one (generalized statement) knows about Mozart AND molecular biology AND American History anymore, which is bad according to E.O. Wilson and, after having looked at it some, myself.
   

That is the essence of what I said. I go on for five pages about that using notes, texts, handouts, and readings from class. I felt pretty decent about it, but I haven't a clue as to what to expect in a grade. If Dr. Webster is a post modernist, an A, if not, then who knows? (get it? haha!)

Now I get ready for Africa. Two weeks from now, I'll be hurdling across the Atlantic Ocean in a piece of metal at several hundred miles per hour.

My pepper plants are droopy. They were out in the rain and the wind today. Hopefully they'll perk up tomorrow, less I have to get stakes.

Exam Update 1

Had my transport geography final this morning. After having gotten my final project back in the class (9.5/10), I came home after the final and figured I could get something like a 79 on the test and still make something like a 90.01. A C gets me an outright A.

I didn't come close to getting a C (on the positive side, of course).

That was the most confident I've felt about an exam in quite a while (if not ever). I didn't know everything, but the ones I did know I felt like I nailed (we had choices on what to answer, 6 of 8 definitions, 4 of 5 analysis, 1 of 4 essays). I think I botched the calculation on one of the analysis questions (I calculated it three times and got something different each time). Dr. Weber isn't necessarily concerned with exact calculation, but rather conceptual understanding, which in spite of potentially erroneous calculations, I had the questions concept down.

Now I have to finish up the last assignment (presentation critiques) in my Industrial Development and Location class, then start on Dr. Webster's final exam which is due by 9:30pm on Wednesday. That is an optional take home/in class final. We can do it at home with everything in front of us and take as long as we want, or we can be in class with everything in front of us but only have the exam period. Two 4-5 page essays is what it amounts to, nothing too tough, especially considering I have everything in front of me. I hope to have it done by Wednesday afternoon (tomorrow afternoon would be MUCH better, that's what I'm actually aiming for).

So I'd better get back to the books for about two more days, then I'm freeeeeeee (sort of).

Ground Control to Major Tom

It's a song (by David Bowie), but it has nothing to do with this posting other than that I'm listening to it as I type, unlike my last movie reference.

This semester is steadily winding down. I talked with Dr. Weber today about the final project, the final exam, and his portion of the comprehensive exams. I'm supposed to get an outline of my Intro to GIS course (taken as an undergraduate) and my Transport Geography course (taking now) then go over it with him. He said he'll be here in June so he didn't seem to think there was a huge rush (particularly since I don't plan on studying until July) since I'm in the midst of dead week/finals. I have my Intro to GIS notes around somewhere, but I took that in Spring 2003, so I have no clue where they might be. Fortunately, a girl I work with took the class last semester and said she'd give me her notebook (both she and Dr. Weber said that the course didn't change much, and besides, it's likely he'll ask more recent stuff anyway), as well as the comprehensive outline she typed up. I'll do my own, but it's always good to have something else to help guide. She also gave me her GY500 notebook which helped IMMENSELY and probably helped me get an A on the mid-term (she took it last spring). As for Dr. Seth (Appiah-Opoku) and Dr. Richetto, I haven't talked with them yet about details, but I'll get to them by week's end.

So once I get through this paper on an ongoing transport project, I can start studying for finals. They are as follows:

GY-500-->Take-Home due by the end of the scheduled exam period (Wednesday night I believe), and available now --though I haven't yet picked it up. Two essays. One required, one a choice of two.

GY-532-->Wednesday 8:00-10:30

GY-566-->Monday 8:00-10:30.

So I'll be done by Wednesday afternoon at the latest (depending on when I finish my GY-500 exam). Then I can start focusing on Africa. Hooray!