Winter Olympics Suck

Okay I'm sick of it. I have held my tongue about the utter silliness of this competition until now. I'm not one who is against sports competition but I am against all the blathering on about how the Olympics gathers the world together. In truth, the winter Olympics only gathers the rich. That's right the extremely wealthy. Sure there are guys who compete who don't personally have the money but that is because their government fronted all their training costs. For example there are only 9 athletes from Africa competing. NINE. Currently only 26 countries have medaled none of which are developing countries. And today the breaking point for my curiosity about the Winter Olympics, is the description provided by the http://www.torino2006.org website for skeleton.

with its rewards for those guided by courage and the most advanced aerodynamic materials.

So ptttwwwy on you Winter Olympics. You might have some artistic sports where starving young girls can let their lives be dominated only to impress all those wealthy spectators, and it might be neat to see some idiot race down a moutain at incredibly fast speeds risking death for just a few oohs and awes. But fundamentally, you are just wealthy people showing off how your money can make you look to be better than the common man.

And yes of course there are exceptions to this rant, so please disregard it for those athletes who are a bit more pure than the others. I mostly am ranting at our society.

Two undeniable facts

Writing code has a sweet spot, it happens in the hours between 10pm and 6am.

Writing analysis proofs also has a sweet spot between 10am and 3pm.

Alas I am destined for no sleep.

Levels of busyness

So I have come to the realization that there are really three levels to my busyness here in graduate school.

• Level 1: I have too much to do but it might be possible to get done.
  
• Level 2: I have too much to do, with no end in sight but I am still motivated to work.
  
• Level 3: I have so much to do and there is no end in sight so why even bother doing it at all.
  

Today is a level 3 day. Hence I am posting on my blog.

Hurrah for the Doctors

Okay so I haven't blogged in a while, mostly because I have been too busy. But I would like to take a moment to say hurrah for the Doctors in California. After ruling that a anesthesiologist needs to be present to make sure there is no pain for the state's lethal injection victim, they came out with this statement:

"The use of a physician's clinical skill and judgment for purposes other than promoting an individual's health and welfare undermines a basic ethical foundation of medicine -- first do no harm," she said. "Requiring physicians to be involved in executions violates their oath to protect lives."

You can read the article here

Now only to replace that same mentality from executions to abortions.

Teaching the Underserved

I no longer believe that America cares about teaching the underserved. In fact I was the most idealistic among anyone I knew on this fact prior to this year. Here I am a person with two technical BS degrees, and pretty soon a MS, trying to put my graduate career, which could lead to a very nice six figure income, on hold to help the underserved. But what do I hit, opposition because I don't have a degree in education.

Research studies have repeatedly shown that students of teachers who know their subject do better than any other. This combined with the fact that most math or science teachers do not have degrees in either, made me believe that I would be an excellent candidate for teaching. Two programs disagree, and the state has so many barriers to me teaching that I am not even going to attempt it. So when our government asks "Why do we not have capable math/science teachers?" My response is "You run them off."

In fact when I was an undergraduate, I thought of trying to get the educational classes to become a teacher. I hit barriers that just didn't make sense. In order to teach physics, I would need to basically major as in education and take a few physics courses. Which basically leads me to ask why would I not spend more time learning physics if I am suppose to teach it. Furthermore, if I am interested in learning physics and math why should I spend an extra two years to go through an apparently failing education program when I could move on and at least make money.

With that said, I believe our country that claims to care for our working poor is once again blowing smoke. Our government, liberals and conservatives, are interested in one thing: Staying in power. The working poor doesn't have the money to keep them in power, so the government will only pretend to help them.

(By the way I am just really p.o.'d because I was contacted by a principal for an interview. The interview turned into a phone conversation of 3 questions while she was driving somewhere. Then she told me I didn't have enough teaching experience. Why would you contact me then?)