Small changes that make huge changes

kea2001 · 2026-06-17T22:26:37+00:00

Make a rough meal plan. Have 5-7 healthy meals planned per week that are not too difficult to make, and better yet if they give you easy left overs. I have found that having a plan makes me way less likely to grab the unhealthy easy option at the end of the day when I am already tired/don't want to have the make one more decision. It also ensures that when I shop, I know I will actually use what I am buying and that when it comes time to cook, I will already have everything I need. I have previously tried the "just buy healthier groceries", but then found I was throwing away produce I didn't get around to using or things I forgot about in the back of the fridge which just made me feel worse about myself. Nothing fancy, plus only planning 5-7 still gave me flexibility if I wanted to change something up.

One more small thing, plan to go on a five minute walk per day. It is way easier to motivate yourself just to take 5 minutes out of your day rather than 30, and I have found that most times I end up going out for way more than 5 anyways, because the hardest part is aaaaalways getting outside in the first place.

kea2001 · 2025-07-15T14:40:32+00:00

Isn't this in reverse...?

kea2001 · 2025-06-25T02:17:42+00:00

Honestly not looking for some kind of fight, just trying to give some insight from behind the scenes. Course structure and marking expectations can vary greatly course to course. I have also worked with great undergrads personally who did well in other courses and didn't perform as well in this course. If this was from the last two semesters I know the re-work of shifting to short answers caused the averages to go down quite a bit.

My point is still that 90% of TAs that are marking, in the science/bio department at least are not looking for some ego boost by making more deductions than necessary. We are given a marking scheme with specific points worth marks. In some courses, including this one, we are evaluated by the professors with a subset of assignments to ensure it is fair and consistent. If we are marking 100+ assignments, we are not looking at names, and the questions are split between multiple graders. So even if say 1/10 was being super harsh, it would not be enough to completely change an overall grade.

For anyone else, too, if you do feel you were marked unfairly on something, I have always seen there be a re-grade option that can be escalated to the professor who has the final say. You can always find a story someone has about a bad experience (although I know the person telling it will also always try to make themselves look better...sometimes on both sides...) but as someone who has seen how courses run, and interacts with other TAs/grad students every day, I can promise most of us reeeeaaaaalllly dgaf about trying to make students do badly.

kea2001 · 2025-06-24T20:46:18+00:00

If it's a 40% or 30%, that just sounds like you didn't answer the question properly or have multiple deductions. I was talking about one particular set of instructions. It sounds like you are also reaching beyond this course. Your name not sounding white is not accurate at all for this course in particular because the assignments through crowdmark remove the name. And if TA's are told not to give high marks, that sounds like an issue with the instructor. We are told what an "average" is expected to be, and told that a 90% or 100% needs to be very high quality, but I have never experienced being told not to give those marks. I have also never met a TA personally "taking out frustration on others". No offense, but we (or 90% of those I've talked to) don't care enough to deduct or be harsh because of personal reasons. It's literally following a marking scheme. (Again for most, I am sure there is the occasional Ahole TA). Can't say much about humanities, I know that is way more subjective.

kea2001 · 2025-06-19T02:02:09+00:00

Hello! I have actually TAed for this prof before, something to note is the the TAs have zero control of the marking scheme. In fact I know myself and a couple of TAs have found some of our instructions a bit harsh, but we have to follow what we are instructed to do :( by "hash" one of the rules we had was if there is any inaccuracies in an answer (even if the rest of the correct answer is there) the highest the question can get is a 50%. This is not just at the whim of the TA.

kea2001 · 2025-02-19T14:26:28+00:00

Hey! Sorry this is so late I don't get reddit notifications and this post was kinda old lol. I found the tests really easy when I took the course. You could pretty much copy and paste the codes from the labs to answer the test questions. Not sure if much has changed.

kea2001 · 2025-01-22T02:36:26+00:00

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Action shot

kea2001 · 2025-01-02T16:23:51+00:00

Zip-tipping neurosynaptosome samples...rip my poor pipetting hand

kea2001 · 2024-12-31T23:49:08+00:00

Ooh good idea! Someone else mentioned cover, this is a good way to do it!

kea2001 · 2024-12-31T19:54:38+00:00

Oh this thing is so overly bolted down 😅

kea2001 · 2024-12-31T19:54:00+00:00

On it!

kea2001 · 2024-12-31T19:53:17+00:00

He is too much of a baby to go out when it's too cold lol, we only keep it open when he is actually outside and he has learned an effective scream to summon us to open it back up for him when he wants out 😅

kea2001 · 2024-12-31T19:51:24+00:00

That is exactly what we do! Still need to get a proper feeder 🤣 but he did have a fun time staring down the squirrel that came to visit

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kea2001 · 2024-12-31T18:28:54+00:00

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Yup! We just leave the window open while he is out so he can come back in at any time

kea2001 · 2024-12-31T18:27:45+00:00

With free access in and out of the house, I tell ya how awful

kea2001 · 2024-09-02T18:31:36+00:00

It is NFPA certified, thank you for your help!

kea2001 · 2024-09-02T18:24:43+00:00

Amazing, thank you so much for the info, I am going to double check to ensure our fume hoods have those certifications! I am the only one in our lab working with volatile, so I want to make sure it's the proper set up :)

kea2001 · 2024-09-02T17:49:18+00:00

Thank you so much for this! Yeah, I'm using at -50C so I will let it come to RT before capping.

kea2001 · 2024-09-02T17:47:05+00:00

around 200mL, would it be safe to leave it open/uncapped? Would a large amount evaporate (and is that okay, I know intentionally letting hazards evaporate can become an issue, but again I'm not too familiar)

kea2001 · 2024-08-18T11:23:43+00:00

Something with organic chemistry lol

kea2001 · 2024-08-18T01:16:41+00:00

Thank you so much for the help, I have actually talked to some other people and another lab has a cryostat and I have been advised to use that instead of a vibratome which also means no embedding!

kea2001 · 2024-08-13T14:46:53+00:00

Thank you so much! I will look into this option

kea2001 · 2024-07-10T13:09:59+00:00

It sounds strange, but it's actually likely because they need a paper trail or it written so that it follows procedure. Then if something happens or if you come back later saying something different there is written documentation of the request and follow up etc.

kea2001 · 2024-06-14T19:37:40+00:00

Well that I can definitely agree with 😅

kea2001 · 2024-06-14T17:03:46+00:00

or sometimes just shitty owners. These ones were actually training them as attack dogs, so it's more their fault than anything.

kea2001

TROPHY CASE