Taigraness

SYTYCD Season 5

So, the winner has been revealed, and although I think his journey on the show was possibly one of the most inspiring, my vote would have been for Katee Shean.  As stated previously by one of the judges, there hasn't been one dance, in which she's performed, that was not worth watching (although I admit that the Broadway number with Katee and Courtney in the finale done by Tyce wasn't his best).

Twitch and Joshua were both fun to watch and had more entertaining solos, but Katee was still the BEST DANCER for me.  I think her solos will only get better as she continues to dance.  Most contemporary dancers don't have the best solos though.  Last season, Danny was so great b/c his solos were spectacular, and he is clearly a phenomenal dancer.

Anyway, just want to give Katie a shoutout b/c she made this season really worth watching for me.  I also think Chelsie deserved a spot in the final four instead of Courtney, but for me Katee was still my favorite.

...Katee's Best Dances...

Hip-hop with Joshua (Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown - "No Air")

Samba with Joshua (Angela Via - "Baila Baila")

Contemporary with Joshua (Adele - "Hometown Glory")

Viennese Waltz with Joshua (Goo Goo Dolls - "Iris")

Bollywood with Joshua (Om Shanti Om soundtrack - "Dhoom Taana")

Pas de deux with Will (Dave Archuletta - "Imagine")

Lyrical with Joshua (John Mayer - "Slow Dancing in A Burning Room")

Contemporary with Joshua (Celine Dion - "All By Myself")

Contemporary with Twitch (Duffy - "Mercy")

Girls and Boys in Sciences & Engineering

So, a recent publication in the Science journal seems to have caused many media outlets to declare that girls are no longer underperforming boys in math, now that the number of girls taking advanced math classes has increased.  One such example is this NY Times article entitled "Math Scores Show No Gap for Girls, Study Finds".

Of course, the prejudice that boys are better at math still seems to prevail in our societies.

When I was taking Computer Science at University of Michigan from 1999 to 2003, I think there was clearly a highly warped male:female ratio that favored the males.  In my current Masters in Germany, the ratio is a little more evened out.

However my main comment regarding this "news" is that I don't think the issue is girls being better or worse at math.  I think we are just as capable as guys at learning advanced math.  The problem, in my opinion, is more the teaching.

Oftentimes, teachers and classmates in science & engineering programs are not the most socially adept.  It makes for a non-welcoming learning environment, and presents an early warning of what their future workplace might be like.  I started in Computer Science with 3 other girlfriends of mine, and one-by-one, they all dropped out.  Actually, I did like several of my professors at Umich, but in general, I can definitely attest to the amazing ability for some to bore you during lectures and then overload you with assignments and tests or teaching assistants who could not explain things in an understandable or audible way.

Take programming, for instance.  No one ever sat us down and took us through the process of programming anything during my educational experiences.  They simply give you a tutorial or some lecture slides or links to resources online and then have you complete assignments.  Although I'm not against self-learning, I think this is a wasted opportunity for educators to work together with students and pass on their own experience and knowledge when it comes to programming.  Presenting slides on theoretical structures is not really directly useful to most students...those are the first things to go out the window.  Students just try to achieve the final deliverable, whether or not their method or code is correct.

Going back to the girl and boy aspect...I think that girls are generally more sociable and interested in working in areas where they have regular and non-awkward interactions with other people.  Boys tend to be more closed off and content working on their own.  These are at least my views based on my 27 years of observations.  So, it's not a surprise to me that more girls would be turned off by the often antisocial awkward learning process in most science & enginerring programs and opt for a different career.

I'll probably get a lot of flack/flak for my own male/female stereotypes, but whatever.  Everyone has a right to their own opinion. :)  Also, I should mention that I did have a few great experiences in group projects and with certain professors, but I had to stick it out through lesser experiences first.  And the girls that I knew who had dropped out of the CS program didn't want to stick around.

Litte People

Little people - otherwise known as toddlers - have to be some of the most interesting creatures on Earth.  They inadvertently teach you about who you are and they help you rediscover the simplest joys in life.  Disclaimer: they are also quite needy and prone to tantrums at the most inconvenient times. :) 

After two weeks back in the US, I've gotten to know one little person, my newly-1-year-old niece, and her antics somewhat well.  Perhaps because I'm not yet in the motherly phase, I actually find her antics highly amusing.  Like when she starts crying and fussing right before mealtime because she's hungry but her meal is still being prepared...and then immediately changes to a calm, focused eating machine when the food "magically" appears before her.  Or when she went with her parents to Toys R' Us for her special birthday gifts, a birthday crown and a helium balloon, and well, she doesn't like things placed on her head and she was scared of the balloon. :)

Like my niece, many children are given room to express their fears and take their own time and path towards overcoming them and acquiring new knowledge and skills.  It's usually between childhood and adulthood that we become more inhibited and less forgiving of ourselves.  Spending time with my niece and being in the position of an aunt and a role model for her is a great self reflection opportunity, in which I find myself questioning my own beliefs (on how to raise a child) and what kind of behaviors to pass on to her.

Oh, yeah...back to simple joys in life.  It brings me great joy to see my little person's face light up with a smile or wide-open grin or a tickled-silly laugh.  Her greatest joys at this time are:

1) Peekaboo (or simply hiding/revealing yourself behind any object while keeping eye contact with her)
2) Ahhh-chooo  (the sound itself or sometimes actual sneezing)
3) Chasing people or discovering people (around corners or in new rooms) during assisted walking/running (while holding on to a set of adult hands)
4) Lively conversation (seemingly when someone else has smiled or laughed)
5) Looking at pictures (of people we know) in a slideshow
6) Placing objects (like stuffed animals) on top of your head and then tipping your head so that they drop to the floor (sometimes placing the object on top of your head is by itself funny enough)
7) Dogs (especially when they're barking but not when they come up and lick her)
8) Lively music (she's quite the dancer)
9) Those Hard Rock Cafe bears that I collected over the years
10) She is also quite happy to see her mommy, her daddy, her grandma and, depending on her mood, me.  Grandpa was only here for 1 week, but she warmed up to playing with him after the first day or two of stranger anxiety.

I may link some photos to this blog at a later time, but as of yet, I haven't flickr-posted the pics that I have in mind.

Why Smokers Suck

Apologies first of all to the few smoker friends that I have...

...this is not meant to be a personal attack, but in general, I fully believe that smokers are less considerate people than non-smokers, and today is a perfect example of why.

Today, I came to my favorite coffee spot in Bonn, Germany to do some work.  It's my favorite place because there's free WLAN, and I usually need it.  Since it was raining today, I figured there would be more smokers sitting inside than usual.  So, I was very happy to find a spot in the non-smoking section.  It's the non-smoking section, because it's away from the main areas of the coffee shop, and there are signs on the tables that read "At these tables, please do not smoke".  These signs are in German.

After a short while, three girls arrived and sat down across from me.  Unfortunately, I noticed that one girl had brought an ashtray with her drinks and food.  Sure enough, after a few sips of their coffee and bites of their food, two of the girls lit up.  They also began conversing in German.  Some of the staff walked by and didn't do anything.

You know, they have the whole entire other parts of the cafe to smoke in...and they walk into the non-smoking section...ignore the signs...and light up in the small non-smoking section.  Awesome!!!!!  And the staff patronizes them by doing nothing about it.  How lovely that the burden of enforcing the non-smoking rules falls on a non-smoker who's just trying to get some work done.

So, I play over the scenario in my head...what would be some possible reactions if I mentioned to the girls that this area is non-smoking...even though they've demonstrated that they're capable of understanding German and presumably reading simple German text.  But really, given their blatant act of inconsiderateness, what are the chances that they would actually respond politely to such a comment.

Instead, I move myself over to a seat by the doorway, where the cold but fresh air supplies temporary relief from the smoking masses.  Really, now.  If smoke-laced coffee and smoke-flavored pastries tasted good, coffee shops would be selling those flavors in a heartbeat.

So my conclusion is that smokers smell bad and are less considerate than non-smokers...simply because they presume that everyone will enjoy breathing their second-hand smoke...and they assume that just because they want to increase their chances of developing cancer, that everyone around them also wants to do so.

Blech!  Yuck!  I absolutely cannot wait until it becomes illegal to smoke in coffee shops in Germany.

Stuff

It's not hard to understand the consequences that they present at this website.  We often see scifi movies where other species invade Earth to trash and destroy it or to consume it, and usually, they are painted as the "bad guys", but if we take a good luck at the effect that human civilization has had on the planet Earth, we are doing exactly the same thing.  We may not be doing it in the course of 1 day, and we may not be able to imagine the day when all our planet's resources are used up; however, that is no excuse for our wasteful, environmentally-negligent behavior.  Recycling, as this website explains, is only a small step (and I still know people who don't recycle).  Our mindset has to change and so do our habits.  Otherwise, our legacy will become the species that plundered planet Earth.