Operation Chain Rule: Learn it, Live it

Back in the day at NMT I used to rack up lots of hours working as a grader for the math department. To the right for shear hilarity I found a picture of Dr. Kerr, my favorite math professor from NMT (this must have been taken in the 80’s – damn that’s great). Nation wide, policy states that full time college students working on campus are not allowed to work more than 20 hours a week. For a while though I was working close to 40 hours a week while only reporting the legal 20 hours. The secretary of the Math department was real good about keeping logs of the extra time I put in and during times like spring/summer/winter break she would back pay me for the extra time… ahh NMT Math department corruption at its finest. Actually that was really cool of her and I don’t mean to come off like I’m complaining about it cause it totally rocked.

One night Dan and I went out for a late night Denney’s session. I brought along a large stack of Calc 2 homework that needed grading; Dan was also grading at the time likely for either an EE or CS class. Coincidentally when we got there Corey and Jason were also there –both of them were grading stacks of homework. Across the way there was another guy grading something else – it was an all out grade fest! Most ironically of it all was that Corey was in the Calc 2 class that I was grading for, Jason was grading a class that I was in, Dan was grading a class that the other guy across the way was in and He was grading a class that Dan was in. Wow, did you get all that?

I’m bringing all of this up because this semester I got a job grading papers again, this time for the Mechanical Engineering department here at NMSU. I’m grading Statics and Machine Component Design. This is exciting because it means I don’t have to take a job working in a kitchen and it’ll give me more free time during the weekends and on school holidays to spend with people I love (ahem, Chelsie). Furthermore it’s a pay raise! Finally, in addition to the grading I may pick up a job as a research assistant working for Dr. Donaldson with the Sandia Forest Fire Burn Research project. Shibby!