Raw

The way i remember the story, on the way home from the beach, my father spotted some fishermen in a small boat, hauling a shark onto shore. He stopped the car, walked over to them, and, not speaking the language, bargained with them for the shark's jaws.

I doubt that's a 100% accurate rendition.



We've had those jaws in our family ever since that time in Somalia, some 30 years ago, and they remind me of the rawness of overseas living. I now have them at home, and i now also carry a permanent reminder of that rawness.



This weekend also marks the end of my Stats class. I took 80 minutes (out of 240 allowed) to get an 89% on the final exam. I think i finished the class with a low A.

I set out with two criteria for this class: watch none of the dvd lectures (it's an online class - all lectures are provided on a set of 6 dvds), and no use of the special features of the fancy calculator that was marked as a requirement for each homework, quiz and test. I even managed to go the first couple weeks without using any calculator, after which i grew tired of long division (not to mention square roots) and started using perl for nothing more complex than sqrt().

Now that i'm done with the class, i plan on watching the dvd lectures; maybe the material will start to make sense.



Taking closeups of one's own arm (these 3 are full frame) is a little tedious and best not done in a hurry; pardon the imperfections.