wait...what class is this?

I just got out of my biology class and I feel like venting. 

First, why do I have to take bio100?  I've already taken, and done very well in, bio120 bio220, and inbio465.  What could I possibly learn in bio100 that wasn't covered in those other classes?  So far, nothing.

Second, why do they want us to write like we just came out of high school?  I realize this is a freshman class, but should that mean I should go back to the 5 sentence paragraphs and basic essay structure I learned in high school, ignoring what I've learned about writing in my technical writing class and from experience with the papers I've submitted for publication, which, before they are submitted, are checked by multiple professors, all of which have had papers published in some journal somewhere, which is certainly more than the ta grading my papers can say.  

Third, is there a reason why more points are given out for "proper" structure in papers than is given out for accurate biological information?  I thought I was in bio100, but it looks like I ended up in English 101, with a biological emphasis.

Fourth, since when is it normal for students in a freshman class to know more about the class topic than the professor?  I know my professor specializes in environmental biology, but shouldn't he know enough about genetics that he doesn't need to ask some random girl in the class, who did a report on genetics in high school, to explain the phenotypes of individuals born with an additional X chromosome?

Fifth, why is it ok for the professor to allow a conversation on genetics and inheritance of traits degenerate into a conversation of possible causes of body hair growth in humans and facial hair on women?

don't you know...about the bird?

So, my ta job has become suddenly boring.  The class I ta for is apparently one of the harder classes we have to take.  Something about building a proxy web server from scratch.  It's kept me busy most of the time, answering peoples questions, or crushing their hopes and dreams of finally being done by pointing out one or more bugs in their program, or just letting them know that it doesn't do at all what we told them it needs to do.  The class builds up the workload for the students fairly consistently throughout the semester, until right about now.  

Right around this time, they're done with the web server, except for a few slackers, who either will turn it in for 30% credit, or won't turn it in at all.  Either way, I'm likely to see them next semester.  From now until the semester is over, the majority of their assignments consist of working through a tutorial, then showing the results either to me or the professor.  Since most of these are done in class, I don't see many students.  The few that do come to me are done in less than a minute.  At least I can get my own homework done before I go home now.

Halloween in Salem

Yes, I know it's pretty far past my trip, but it's still worth posting about.

Massachusetts was pretty good.  The conference, at least most of it, was interesting.  There were a few speakers who stood out as particularly dull, and helped me catch up on some sleep.  I presented my research during the poster session, and had a few people come up to ask me questions.  The tried to feed us snacks every few hours, I guess to make sure we weren't getting bored and let us stand up and stretch, and they also fed us lunch.

One night, for dinner, we went to Legal Sea Food with a group from the conference.  That place was awesome.  Very fancy food.  We had crab cake appetizers, and calamari.  The calamari comes in four varieties, with different sauces or cooking methods, and all were pretty good.  I had swordfish for dinner.  That is one tasty fish.  I'm kind of making myself hungry now, so I'll move on.

For Halloween, someone at the airport recommended we go to Salem and see all the stuff that's going on.  Salem has the biggest Halloween party you've ever heard of.  People from all over the state come dressed up in the coolest costumes.  I think some of the people I was with got some pictures, but I'm not sure.  The party is so big, they block off the streets for most of downtown so there is more room for people.  We saw 4 stages for bands to play, not that I recognized any of them, but they were cool.  All the witch museums are open, and I think they sold tickets to spend the night in some witch's house, but it just looked like a really old house to me.  The streets are packed with people.  I saw a lot of Jokers while there.  I also saw a very well done beetlejuice.  It gets pretty crazy, so they've got cops pretty much everywhere, probably not a night most of them enjoy, but it's good to see them around.  Oh, they also get out some carnival rides and food stands for the event.

Since I went there with my professor, we didn't stay very late.  As we were leaving, cars were in standstill traffic all the way back to the highway, and probably farther back on the highway, though I have no idea where they thought they'd park.  People had already filled up any parking lots, most of the streets, and even some small fields.

On Saturday, we decided to go out and do some sight-seeing.  We saw the Old North Church, where the lanterns were hung to signal Paul Revere, the Bunker Hill memorial, and we toured the USS Constitution, the oldest warship in the navy.  It still floats and works.  They even take it out a few times each year, but I think just around the harbor.  

On Sunday, one of the others wasn't feeling well, so we didn't do a whole lot.  We went to church, where I ran into a friend who recently moved to Boston.  That was definitely awesome.  After church, we went to the airport, and I played psp until we got on the flight and finally went home.