Tomorrow is the first exam for our students. We'll see how that goes. 9 multiple choice questions and one short answer question. I went low on the number of questions because I'm not sure how fast they can read. If they finish in 10 minutes the next test will be longer. I'm really hoping it is a very short test. If they take the whole time I don't know what I'll do.
A week from tomorrow we leave for Durban via Johannesburg via Paris. It takes us about 24 hours to get to Durban at which point we will register for the conference and hopefully meet up with people we know. The conference will run from March 14-16 and we go on a Safari on March 17. The 18th we'll find something to do and then we leave on the 19th. A quick trip but we're looking forward to it.
I've condensed my thesis to a submittable length. I'm thinking of trying an American Optometric Journal first and see what they have to say. If they like it (after I work on it for the next few days) it should be published within the year. (It takes like 4 months for the peer review and then they try their hardest to publish it within six months from final acceptance). If they outright reject me due to the topic I have some other places I can send it to. We'll see. I just need to get Swell to read it over and make sure it makes sense and maybe one or two other people. I should have done this months ago but I'm lazy.
My next professional goal is to get what's called a Fellowship. It's basically just a way to show that you've continued your studies. You collect points by submitting case reports to the oversight body, or by publishing things, or by getting another degree, etc. Once you collect a certain number of points you have an oral exam and then if you pass you are a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry. It doesn't mean much outside of academic circles. You don't get to charge more for your exams, patients have no idea what it is but its something to do. (It's either that or law school)The only problem - you need a current fellow to be your "proposer" (whatever that is). The problem is that I don't know any fellows. I wrote and asked one of my old profs but he isn't a fellow. He gave me the names of some others so I need to write them and ask if they'll "propose" me (sorry Swell).
We've also written an organization called the World Congress of Optometry to see if what we are doing here will qualify us for a Fellow of the World Congress of Optometry. I wrote them a fair number of weeks ago but they're ignoring me. I guess it's time to write again.
Well that was boring. No gunshots or mayhem to tell you about. That is basically our lives here though. A lot of boredom interrupted by short periods of fear.
An ending note though I can't believe they killed Mrs. Laningham at the end of the second season of the West Wing! Yes, we're watching the entire West Wing series to combat boredom. I never got into it when it was on TV even though when I did watch I really liked it. We're through season 2 and will start the third season soon. We've already polished off Freaks and Geeks and the first two seasons of Veronica Mars since we've left Atlanta. That's a lot of TV!
This sign just struck me as funny. Apparently they are expecting that aliens are going to want to know where the bathroom is in Jaffa.
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4 comments:
law school? Did you find out who "Bert" is? Let us know how the exams went.
Love Mum
Hope the test goes well for you students, for your sake and theirs, too.
If you run out of tv to watch I hear "24" is pretty addictive. I won't watch if for that reason. I'm already hooked on Lost and Heroes.
No, we don't know who Bert is since Bert never said who he/she was.
First test went fine...it was only a 1 credit class and it was an easy test.
We did watch all the 24s except for the very first season. It is very good. You should get it on DVD. It's amazing how much better series are when you can just watch them back to back! I LOVE LOST! We bought both seasons on DVD and watch them before we came so we didn't bring them. I actually watch the first season twice already. Heroes we have from someone (he somehow burned it for us), at least the first few but we haven't watched it yet. We're working on getting thru West Wing. It's really good actually; I didn't think I'd like it.
Swell
I know a few Fellows if your search turns up nothing :) Keep me posted!
You shouldn't have too hard of a time qualifying for Fellowship points. You get 30, I think, for your residency and then 10 each for submitted papers. I'd think with your MPH it'd be cake for ya. Good luck!
Since I didn't do a residency it'd be hard for me to do.
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