Summer School

I’m legit now! I have my very own wireless internet connection. And I’m paying for it too! It is worth it, though, to know it’s really mine, and I don’t have to worry about feeling like a dirty little thief anymore.

School is strange right now. I am taking a pseudo psychology class that denounces credulity. It’s the class I go to right after the basic psychology class I have to have. In that class, I’m being asked to be credulous.

That’s right folks. Professors from the very same department of the very same university are sending me mixed messages! Be skeptical and think for yourself! No! I do this for a living! Trust me!

Obviously the basic stats teacher doesn’t know me well enough to know how reactionary I am. So, I am most likely going to research the topic and give him a term paper that isn’t assigned.

It is going to be about how significance values are set by the researcher who determines whether a type I error or type II error is more acceptable. He says that EVERYONE uses .05. It’s been agreed on by EVERYONE who does statistics and research! It’s in ALL of the books!

It’s also going to cover what the null hypothesis is. He is teaching us that it always has to say that the thing you are researching isn’t happening. I could be wrong, but I understood that the null hypothesis is a statement that is based on what is already known, or believed. (i.e., if you want to test your friends coin that just came up heads 5 times in a row, your null has to be that it is fair, because you know how a fair coin behaves – an unfair coin is unknown)

Anyway, having to come up with the opposite of what you are trying to prove for the null, and then determining what the type I and type II errors are from that is horribly confusing. “I do this for a living! Trust me!” is the worst way to teach something. If you can’t explain it in a way that makes sense, maybe you don’t know it well enough to do it for a living.

I don’t know if I feel any better after venting that. I just hope the statistics nightmares come to an end soon.

I know for sure that driving is getting old. I am driving four hours a day, four days a week. For heaven’s sake! And I still have to do it for four (±3) more days! What is it all for? FORE! (sorry, had to do it)

I am currently doing research of my own. I am trying to find out who makes the best bacon cheeseburger in town! If I don’t figure it out soon, I’m going to need to find out who makes the best fat jeans in town! So far, I’m kind of likin’ that texas burger at burger king.

Zach’s counselor came by today. Wanted to make sure I gave him his propers for counseling me to go back to school. So I did. If grudgingly.

Well, it’s decided. Zach and I are off to do research! Later!