Recap: Why look...

...it's a Monday. We bow down to the power of the deans.

15 days, 5 finals, and a lot of cleaning and packing to do, least of all includes laundry and figuring out when I should do it because if I have to have the things packed by Thursday and I have two finals on Wednesday and I have to go to work on Tuesday....

Erf. This. This is why we have agendas, helpful or as unhelpful as they may be, they are now a deeply ingrained habit (for better or for worse).

On the other note, I feel like parts of my brain should be diseased. Very specific parts. Broca's aphasia, to be exact, and I'm blaming you, Annie.
Insanity may be contagious, but I prefer the low-level radiation over a long period of time as opposed to the sudden over-the-head whack approach.

Recap: A most exciting week

So today's Tuesday, and tomorrow it shall be Monday, all hail the might of the college deans.

We got a brief talk about exhibit this Sunday, which will be from 5-7pm, but which will involve us preparing, starting at 2pm. It will also involve certain amounts of dressing up since apparently the director of the IS program as well as the dean of the letters and sciences are invited. We'll have to curate our own show. We'll have to drag the tables around. We'll get graded on our displays all of which, I feel, will not help with the increasingly obsessive-compulsive behaviors of my fellow ISers.

At least the weather's nice.

Some unexpected workload showing up, but the phrase "Murphy's law" is really, really popular.

Recap: The return of the mass, and what befell

There were so few people at the DC last night that the management was taking bets to see how many people would come. The person who guessed the closest would get to get food from the Junction (the equivalanet of an university-operated 7-11 right next door).

We had, I think, about 300 people last night. The entire night. On a Sunday. Compared to the usual over the thousand mark. Not so today, I'm afraid, which is why I'm glad I'm not working tonight. The shift the night when people come back is always the longest.

So this week will bring... Lab final, IS banquet (which I haven't decided on attending yet), the IS class final exhibition, and the usual combinations of chem, chem, and why-is-the-teacher-letting -grad-students-with-no-apparent-organization- skills-lecture-us-instead-of- teaching-us-himself bio. I don't understand it. The finals are approaching and we get video clips of catfish and a girl who's overly reliant on the words "fascinating" and "amazing".

Not much else, I would say. It's starting to become that period in time where you count down the days, taking them one at a time and saying "Okay, I can do this--there's a light at the end of the tunnel and it's NOT an oncoming train."

17 days, 5 finals, and a whole lot of cleaning & packing left.

Recap: Another way to wake up

Possibly one of the most stupid and at the same time most amusing thing I've done this week...

Basically, while eating breakfast in my room (Molly still gone), I was looking for a file I have saved on the backup data CD from last year, and I came across the Kate Stories and thought, well it's still early (well it WAS), so why not?

Do not ever, EVER, attempt to read those thing while eating. (Yes, this is the stupid part, for obvious reasons.) Choking extremely unpleasant.

It is also alarming stuff like that can be written without involving any sort of questionable substances. And the geekiness. The book references. The geekiness. The order to tell Marvin the robot to go break a leg (literally) and then remembering somewhere in the series his leg DOES get taken away and wondering whether or not I did that on purpose (and not remembering).

But the most important point is, ladies and gentlemen, that your larynx is not the same thing as your esophagus, though they may cross paths. Gah.

Recap: Hymenoptera

I'm very proud of myself, as that I've memorized the entire bug phylum already, which means half of the memorization's done (at least in the naming section). My parents came over about...45 minutes ago and have wandered over to Farmer's Market, so I can finish memorizing my stuff. They brought food. Parents bring food. It's an evolutionary relationship that few juvenile organisms will ever forget: parents=food. (Unless you're from one of the species where you eat your parents, in which case the equation takes on a much more literal meaning. Or if you're from a species where the parent eats the offspring, and then the approaching of parents will involve a lot of fleeing. Oh. Wait. Ha. Ha. Yes.)

Parents will come back later and take me out to lunch, which even beats the ice cream because there will be Chinese food that actually taste like Chinese food. I can live without Chinese food, but a life without it generally give me the vague impression that some major form of deprivation is taking place.

If I don't finally solve the credit card issues by July I'm liable to start hating Bank of America. That covers that section.

The weather's nice. Not as many people went home for the long weekend as I would've thought (though a significant portion did go home) since it's been a fairly hardcore week which will be followed by even more mind-numbing processions, and the people in my building at least have opted compromises. Now...if this holiday-weekend had come in the beginning of the quarter....

I probably wouldn't be here, either.

[edit 4:23]
Have memorized all the names. Mother bought me one of those strawberries from Farmer's Market that's DRENCHED in chocolate...and it's actually really good. I like it.

But naming done! Yay!

Random: Chemistry

This is how the professor, Dr. Andrea Toupadakis, introduced the three basic laws of thermodynamics to us in a nutshell.

1. You can't win. (All energy is conserved.)
2. You can't break even. (Heat always flows downhill.)
3. You'll never get there. (Absolute Zero can't be reached.)

Someone ought to make a shirt on this. I'd wear it.

Recap: Counting down the hours

The full results of last week's test is back...and I'm thinking positive. Three out of four whilst sick is pretty good. I have hopes for curves, I still got a stab at the final (though the word 'cumulative' is lurking in a highly sinister fashion in the back of my mind), and with luck I won't do anything TOO stupid this time. Such as reading a problem wrong.

Meanwhile, life continues. There is no chem lab next week but there IS an unfortunate lab practical next Thursday for which I have to memorize many long Latin names covering three different phylums, more if I've forgotten anything. If I can get all the names and spelling down by Sunday I'm treating myself to ice cream. Which reminds me to note that I've been steadily uping my sugar intake which, as usual, is a sure sign that the finals period is approaching.

Brief conversation with Amara assures me that everyone's suffering in a similar fashion, though you wouldn't exactly call this "assuring".

Molly doing something with sorority this weekend. Parents coming Saturday. Need to straighten out my agenda and possibly my desk as well, as that the reading material have accumulated to a truly hazardous height.

Out.

Recap: Condemned

You know that you and your partner have been doing too many titration labs when she starts refering to the buffer as "cute". Chemistry, much like economy, has a way of slowly infiltrating your brain until all the non-chem people start doubting your sanity. Unless they're already doubting your sanity, in which case you're probably just insane.

But yes, apparently we had very cute stock solution buffers. Then we're suppose to mix our own buffer to a certain assigned pH which involved backwards calculation to find out how many mL of this to use to dissolve how many grams of that. My buffer turned out to be only .03 off from my assigned pH when we ran through the first pH meter readings. I was very proud of myself.

The feeling of which is somewhat ruined by the amount of to-read materials piled on my desk. As that I'm up early anyway, I should probably dig in.

Starfish day in bio!

Recap: Scaling

Found out last night that my shift's changed again, so now I'm working from 5:30-9:30 on Tuesdays and from 6:00-9:30 on Sundays. I'm as puzzled as you are by this change but, having been switched from dish to front house, I've concluded that if I do not gain any muscle by the end of this quarter then I have no chance to develope any noticeable muscle at all. Apples can be heavy.

Lots of highschoolers here these days. Or I presume they're highschoolers.

Otherwise...to think that I was actually caught up on my readings for one glorious day (Monday). My classes are forcing me to abandon any sort of potentially interesting social events. Such as the Davis urban legend thing we have going on during when I have my lab, or the capella night at Thompson the other week, also during my bio lab. I wonder if the urban legend will include things such as werecows.

Cannot believe I have just typed that. Werecows. Cows. Werecreatures. Werecows.

Recap: Baggin's End

Our class is invited to work over at the Domes today (or Baggin's End, as its formal name goes). It's very nice, loads of plants and odd dome houses. Got introduced to the concept of permaculture, which I'm fascinated by, as I was by the concept behind the diversity conservation discussion last night for biology. There was a wild kitty there (very friendly, purred when I petted it) that shortly after our arrival caught a mouse and ate it, tail and all, leaving only the liver. Claudia (student there) tried to coax it to eat the liver by telling the cat that the liver is good for you (and also, if the kitty ate it there'd be less to clean up) but I don't believe the kitty bought the argument.

It's co-op housing. Very eco friendly. Two of the students there gave us a tour and a segment of it went something rather like this:

Tatiyana (student there): So here's the other chicken coop...and these are more gardens...those are the squash.

Dimitri: Is that an escaped chicken?

Tatiyana: Oh yes, that little one always gets out somehow. [Goes after the rebel chicken.]

So yes, we had free-range chicken during our class. And a free range kitty which, apparently, got along with the chickens.
The place had a feel of 70s utopia experiment and it does not feel like it was on campus, at all.

Recap: Asteroidea

Annd another Monday...followed by the realization that I have one more chem lab after this week, and this week's the last bio lab before the school year's over.

Eek.

On the other hand, my lab pratical for bio is scheduled with no conflicts, on June 1st at 7pm. I am, I think, still 1 chapter behind in biology readings (soon to be 2, if I don't hurry), ditto for o-chem, but otherwise everything's--more or less--back to the usual. (Note, I avoided using the term 'normal'.)

"Turn around three times before you go to bed and tomorrow, when you wake up, you shall see what you shall see."

[edit 10:57]
On another note (because I don't think I've mentioned PE in a while), our self-defense class is simulating increasingly desperate situations. The last lessons we're learning (i.e. now) is how to defend ourselves when there's someone pinning us down to the ground, on our backs or on our stomach. The cool thing is I know I can throw off someone who's bigger than me. I'm not as strong as our instructor, obviously, who's also five feet exactly and has thrown off two hundred pound police officers in the simulation but the only real problem I've encountered so far is realizing that strikes to the face isn't going to work because the person sitting on me is big enough so that his/her face is further away than my arms can reach. It calls for a different tactic and a sharp ram to the abdomen.

And yes, we did actually do simulations with people pinning us down. It was very, very strange and there were lots of awkward giggles. For instance, when (I think her name is) Rachel threw me off she almost lost her balance and fell on me. The pair next to us did loose their balance and tumbled over each other. Giggling. Lots of giggling.

[edit 13:25]
It's A. C. Doyle's birthday! And Holmes de la calle Baker is born.

Random: Calculus?

Remember this earlier post, waaay back in October, that went something like this? --


"So you hated society and decided to take math?"

"No, I just don't give a damn about anything more arbitrary than solid numbers."

"But aren't variables 'arbitrary'? I mean, that's why they're called variables, right? They vary? Especially in stuff like implicit differentiation?"

"No, I know that, but--"

"And you know math's a human thing, right? Humanity? Society? Ants don't do math--at least not that I know of, and--"


And then Lusine commented this--


Also, I got a mental image of tiny ants with thick glasses solving differential equations. That was funnier than I thought it'd be.


I was going through biology just now and came across this:

Foraging trips of ants and bees often wind and loop about in a circuitous route, but once a forager has found food, the return trip is relatively direct. One investigator suggests that the continuous series of calculations necessary to figure the angles, directions, distance, and speed of the trip and convert it into direct returns could involve a stopwatch, compass, and integral vector calculus. How an insect does this is unknown.


...the ants...they are smarter than we know....
Insects dominate the world. Oh yes.

Recap: Crispix

After sleeping for about ten hours last night (Molly has left to do something involving sorority rush) I feel half way decent again.

It is really too bad that I must ruin this feeling with my chem stuff, followed immediately by the bio stuff.

Yesterday was sort of fun. Most of us, being IS students, were semi-dead from sleep deprivation and a week full of midterms, but it was still sort of fun. Due to a lack of coherent planning and bad over-the-phone instructions, we spent far too long wandering up and down JFK Dr. (or was it Rd.? I can't remember) and looking for the first museum, de Young, was not even the problem. We knew where the museum was, having found it, we know where one of the parking garage is, having found that, but the teacher insisted that we should meet her car at the same parking lot...which was on the other side of the park. Which involved a lot of upside-down-and-backwards direction until the five of us in that car (Melissa, Subhere (no idea with the spelling), Vanessa, Max, and I) reached a consensus that we're just going to park in the garage we found and meet the others in front of the museum.

It worked much better that way.

De Young had some truly amazing stuff. The crowd that came later ruined the experience a little, and I have something against the tour guides but, on the other hand, I saw some Chihuly glass sculptures that are very pretty. (The photo, of course, does not give full justice to the work.) Kraitz's ceramic apples were there too (and that picture's from de Young, yes) and it's very whimsical to look at...the giant apples scattered on the grass.

There is another gallery behind the downtown shopping mall place that starts with "Metr" and makes me think of "Metatron" and I went with Kate last year on her birthday and five years ago with City Year. Fire trucks wheezes by. I counted three. San Francisco does seem to be the exciting sort of city.

Discovered an iced tea with lemonade drink at Starbucks which I liked, that I've forgotten the name to the econ concept of "game theory", which I didn't, and that the relationship between politics and art lies within propaganda which art essentially can be considered a varied form of, since they are a product of the thought, which is neither here nor there but I felt like sticking it in somewhere in this post.

To chemistry then--up, up, and away.
(or sideways, downward, and away, depending on where you're standing.)

...

More artists' names that I've recorded, linked to a sample work, for the records.

Vallien
Mace & Kirkpatrick (yes it's all glass)
Demuth
Dickinson
Shreve & Co
Moran
Sargent
Church
Foncelle
Doughty
Cole
Keane
Pope (looks like a photo but isn't!)
McCloskey (this is a painting)
Derges
Kenna

Recap: Untitled

Antropod labs yesterday. I've petted a tarantula, held a Madagascar hissing cockroach, and played with a walking stick. (And no you didn't have to do any of those, only if you want to). There was a scorpion too, and apparently their shell glows bright blue-green under UV light, which is cool, but no one knows why they do that.

People found it weird that I have more things against moths and butterflies than I do of spiders and cockroachs. I can see where they are coming from and, to be honest, I don't know why that is myself. I'm actually okay with scorpions (not that I want to be stun by one or anything), I'm wary of centipedes and spiders. Of course I don't actually want any of the live insects unexpectedly on me, but really, for some reason I'm disgusted by live butterflies and found moths both horrifying and revolting. Something to do with their head, I think, and their feathery antennae.

It's not even a trama thing. I remember stopping my bike ride just because there was a large moth perched in the middle of the road, and I was five/six years old at the time.

I can reason myself out of my instinctive reaction though. Which I should probably do something about, as that plants and insects have co-evolved for millions of years and I will deal with plants and therefore, by default, insects.

Meanwhile, last midterm! Of this school year, come to think of it. But even if it is the last midterm of my first year of college I hold no sentimental feelings towards it and just wish that I can get it over with as soon as possible, thank heavens.

As for geekiness...will you design one for me, Lucy? The ID, I mean. I'll stick it in my wallet alongside my driver's license.

Recap: Untitled

A little sleep deprived right now, and therefore with a headache. However, it's a general state to be in, at this time of the year, so I really should not complain.

San Francisco trip's this Saturday (for my IS class), and since all of us are the sort of students who don't exactly have any extra time, the schedule is changed so that we would be doing a one day marathon instead of a two day trip that involved staying over night. Which, consequently, means that I have to meet at where the bus leaves at 7:30am on a Saturday with a picnic lunch ready as that we were forewarned that the museums has over-expensive lunchs that are actually quite nasty-tasting.

So the plan to spend sometimes lying quietly and attempt to recover my mind will have to be pushed back another day. Meanwhile, I am 1 chapter behind in bio, chem, ochem, labs, and possibly a three hour phone call to commit myself to (problem with credit card, again. It's the same card. It's blocked. Somehow people still managed to make purchases with it online. I've called once about it already but apparently the solution wasn't enough of a solution to prevent this time.).

Definitely am loosing patience, but at this point, the good thing is, by the time my patience is gone, I probably won't have enough energy to do anything either.

[edit 12:06]
Accomplishment of the day--figuring out how to program stuff on my graphing calculator (thanks to chem) and successfully inputing a program that actually works.

Random: Like a bat out of hell...

I did mention this is sort of a hellish week for me, yes?

I recieved this email today, from the Student Housing Officie:

Segundo North residents,

Over the last week, we've received a report of a bat within two Miller Hall rooms. Maintenance staff have assessed all possible interior and exterior entry points and found only one small area which was repaired. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that a couple of rooms did not have their window screen in place. Please note that this is a violation of Housing policy and is also a great entry point for bats which are probably in nearby trees. If you currently do not have your screen in place, please reinstall it immediately. If you need assistance, please submit a repair request online.

If you or someone you know has made any direct or indirect contact with a bat, the University is strongly recommending that you go to the Cowell Student Health Center immediately to be assessed for possible rabies exposure. No cases have been reported but precautions should be taken.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Student Housing



And yes, I do live in Miller, but my window screen is on and I have not (yet) encountered any bats.

Recap: Gadgets and devices, dear Anathema

They've got cheaper versions of this (cheap as in similar in idea, but less nifty in terms of technology), but still, isn't it neat?




Hitch Your Wagon to the Stars...On the Ceiling

Homestar_1 Ever gone camping in the boonies or looked out an airplane window and wondered, Hey, what are all those glowing dots in the sky? If you live in a city, even a small one, it’s likely that you’ve experienced the adverse effects of sky glow—that mildly unpleasant nighttime orangeness that keeps us from seeing even some of the brightest stars in the night sky.

Well, now you can circumvent this problem with the HomeStar Home Planetarium, a Japan-only toy brought to you by the folks at Sega. Forget the whole “nature” thing—just set up the $229 HomeStar on your bedside table, douse the lights, and bathe in the glow of its 10,000 LED-projected stars. You can even program it to switch itself off after you’ve been lulled into a deep astral sleep. Try getting the Milky Way to do that next time you’ve pitched your tent in the supposedly “great” outdoors. —John Mahoney

Link [via Gizmodo]

-taken from the Popular Science blog (yep, as in from the magazine, which now has a blog)

Recap: Mostly for Lucy

At our bio midterm, the clock started counting down at 6:10pm. At our bio midterm, we are only allowed to get our tests from the TAs at the front of the room at 6:10pm. Consequently, there was a line in the front of the room housing the T-Z part of the class at 6:10pm.

I found myself standing behind a very tall guy, slightly annoyed because he was blocking the blackboard and I couldn't see what was on it, and it was too crowded for me to try to peer around.

A few minutes later, he looked to the side, I realized that I was standing behind the Nick-look-alike from bio.

It was very hard not to stare.

Not that he would've noticed, even if I'd been staring for the reasons that: 1) I was behind him, 2) I'm considerably shorter than he is, and 3) I was wearing a baseball cap. To give Lucy credit though, he does look cute when he smiles, which he doesn't do as often as I imagine Nick would do. Then again, Nick is...what was the term? --hopelessly optimistic.

Also, his surname apparently start in the T-V range.

There, happy Tuesday, Lucy.

...


O chem today. O the joy. O the excitement. O the sarcasm.

[edit 12:50]
Kate, a few of my IS classmates present their compliments to your taste in music. If you happen to read this.

Recap: What?

Why are there so many elementary schoolers on campus? Where do they all come from? What are they doing here?

Midterm today, tomorrow, and Friday. Quiz Thursday. Lab session Wednesday and Thursday. Lab report due Wed (though I've had the foresight to complete it ahead of time this weekend, thank goodness). Registration appointment today. Art project due tomorrow (still need to write statement, such bs as there ever was).

May not be online as long this week. I think I have a good excuse. Or rather, several.
Am recovering from the cold very nicely though. I'm very happy about that.

Recap: A perplexing experience with tea

It's a well-known fact that the human taste bud can only recognize four tastes: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. All the other more delicate flavors come, in fact, from our sense of smell. It is an equally well know fact that therefore, when your nose's all blocked up from a cold, you can't taste things very well. Nevertheless, the entire experimence never ceases to baffle me.

For instance, I was drinking tea earlier. I know what the tea should taste like. It has a distinctive taste. It's honey-lemon green tea that Molly has bought me from when she was in Hawaii. I've had it before. I liked it. I couldn't taste it.

Or, to be more accurate, it tasted like hot water. Which I suppose it mostly is, but still, just hot water, no tea taste. It looks like tea, I know it's tea, I can't taste the tea. It's unnerving. I left the tea bag in, and sipped it like that, and continued to taste nothing as the flavor (even as the bitter part of the tea escapes from its little paper bag and gets diluted in water) intensity, so to speak, increased over time.

Those of you who know how slowly I can drink something, that was about the speed at which I was drinking it. With the tea bag in. My flavorless tea.

Then, half way through, my nose cleared up partially either from the vapor from the tea or the fact my body temperature'd gone up or the fact I'm getting well, or possibly some combination of the three. Suddenly I can TASTE the tea. Very well. And all the extra minutes I've left the tea bag in too.

Tea is not meant to be steeped for that long, but I can REALLY taste the tea now. Heh.

So that was my adventure with tea, while embarking on the ch17 chem review problems.

Recap: Fruit breeze

Eventually managed to get through the chem post lab with no further mishaps last night before trailing off to sleep. Jennifer came over this morning and we spent two hours studying for the bio midterm in which, unfortunately for me, spelling would count. Half a bag of coughdrops later, and post lunch, I've discovered that I'm loosing my voice so perhaps I ought to wear the silent solidarity shirt. Joke-wise. Ha? Desktop consisting of chem and ochem stuff, with tisue and coughdrops and pens scattered randomly all around my laptop.

Did get up at sevenish this morning and got the laundry done though, and did get quite far in terms of studying. Note to self to drink more water.

[edit 17:55]
I think I've consumed about 350 Cal in the form of cough drops now, having practically finished the entire bag.
A college student generally experience a wide range of diet during the school year.

Recap: Paper and glass

The good news is--it's a Friday. The bad news is--it's this Friday. I am very much not looking forward to next week but since that it will come and there is nothing I can do about it, I can only hope that it will pass as soon as possible.

They say time passes faster when you're busy, do they not? Well then, here's an experimental trial to honor that particular hypothesis.

The 3rd clue to a too-heavily-nitrogenated soil, first two being a lush growth of plants followed by an equally lush growth of aphids: when mushrooms pop up when given the barest first opportunities.
I just noticed them yesterday. I'd like to consider myself relatively observant, but I didn't see them until yesterday. To excuse myself, they were partially under the soil and I didn't really seen anything that resembled a mushroom until I was poking around and then--voila--I have mushrooms. I can only hope that they're the symbiotic sort.

In response to Lucy's comment: I can just imagine Nick patting you on the head now. Oui, c'est ma petite soeur. (The 'oe' is one of those combined alphabet thigns that I don't know how to type in plain text, so excuse me.)

[edit 13:21]
We had one of these in bio yesterday. I felt bad about poking it, but the TA didn't mind, and pried it off, and it turns out there's a good reason why it's called the Spanish Dancer Nudibrance. If you've ever seen those female Spanish dancer in those very frilly skirts dance, with their skirts twirled in a wing-like fashion--that's how this organism swims. I'm serious. It looks very awesome.

Also, have sorted out schedule somewhat. Will not be TA next year as only grad students can be TAs, but will be "student assistant" instead which means I get payed less wages (yay less than min. wage b/c UC salary system) and won't have to grade things. And if registration goes correctly... ...
Well, one can hope.

[edit 17:41]
Apparently sometime within the past 24 hours I've caught something, as that my allergy had suddenly developed cold symptoms and show all signs of continuing to become a cold. This is getting better and better.
Well, away from ochem soon and into biology!

Recap: Perplexed

Oh the things we don't know...


Leaving the Wild, and Rather Liking the Change

Taken from NY Times
Article Tools Sponsored By
By JUAN FORERO
Published: May 11, 2006

SAN JOSÉ DEL GUAVIARE, Colombia — Since time immemorial the Nukak-Makú have lived a Stone Age life, roaming across hundreds of miles of isolated and pristine Amazon jungle, killing monkeys with blowguns and scouring the forest floor for berries.

But recently, and rather mysteriously, a group of nearly 80 wandered out of the wilderness, half-naked, a gaggle of children and pet monkeys in tow, and declared themselves ready to join the modern world.

"We do not want to go back," explained one man, who uses the sole name Ma-be, and who arrived with the others at this outpost in southern Colombia in March. "We want to stay near town. We can plant our own food. In the meantime the town can help us."

While it is not known for sure why they left the jungle, what is abundantly clear is that the Nukak's experience as nomads and hunter-gatherers has left them wholly unprepared for the world they have just entered.

The Nukak have no concept of money, of property, of the role of government, or even of the existence of a country called Colombia. They ask whether the planes that fly overhead are moving on some sort of invisible road.

...

Recap: Furry

Meet Timmy, the rabbit who was fondly referred by his owner as his "big furry termite". It was astonishingly appropriate consider the job Timmy did on the bottom corners of an 150 year old walnut desk.

Also, on a short note, next week promises to be hell. This is my chance to find out how good I really am with time management and under stress because--watch out--massive lists of things to process.

OH yes, and happy birthday to Nicolus Lucille. I believe he is turning 19 this year. And a brief online search gives me this for his horoscope:

It seems that the next few months will have you broadening your horizons. This could be a literal shift that sees you visiting different foreign places, or this could apply to things closer to home as you take on new responsibilities in an effort to learn more because you will be on a quest for understanding the world around you! Something, or someone, will inspire you, most likely a good friend, and then you will be unstoppable! It will also be a good year for romance as it is likely that you will meet someone with whom you share a common interest! Just make sure that in all the excitement you balance the different key areas of your life!

Bon anniversaire, Nick. And I feel so odd typing this.

Recap: Geekiness

O-chem geekiness. Menthene is the stuff in mint (my plant that is still somehow struggling on. If it recovers then I'll have a virus-resistant plant, which would be cool, if it doesn't I'll have a dead plant, which wouldn't be cool but would definitely but something that is likely to happen in life my that was a long tangent) and now, while doing practice problems for o-chem, I encounter the following question:

3.46
Menthene, a hydrocarbon found in mint plants, has the IUPAC name 1-isopropyl-4-methylcyclohexene. What is the structure of methene?

So of course, I drew out menthene, checked online since the book doesn't supply the answers (click here for answer if you're curious), got it right, and then realized what I just did.

First reaction: Awesome.
Second reaction: Oh my god.
Third reaction: Oh the geekiness.

On the other hand, I think I'm beginning to grasp the fundamentals of o-chem.

[edit 21:04]
Apparently limonene (yep, the oil in citrus that makes it smell nice) is only one double bound and one chemical rotation away from menthene. I'm not obsessed. Honest.

Recap: Silent Solidarity

I feel I should dedicate an entire post to this one event, just as a way to continue its effects, so to speak. And yes, I can talk now. Our 'vigil" ended at 4:42 (don't ask me why they chose that time, but they did).

First of all, it's an on-campus student-housing-committee hosted event, meaning that the people are usually either RAs or dorm people. Second of all, it WAS thought-provoking, as anything that involved random people who in all appearances are complete, unrelated strangers, wandering around on campus wearing the same-logoed shirt and a yellow card. What I remained depressed about was that why people was curious, they were not curious ENOUGH. Most of the response I've heard, unbeknownest to the speakers, were along the lines of oh-I-wonder-what-that's-all-about and very few people actually asked about it.

Another reflection on how hard this actually is, even for me. You don't realize the little things you say each day instinctively, such as "excuse me", "thanks", "bless you" and when people walk into you or you walk into things--"ow." It actually took quite a bit of self control for me, catching myself before the first syllable pops out of my mouth. Have discovered my apparent talent in taking part in short conversations without talking but of course, that depended mostly on who's at the other end of the conversation.

Unlike some of the other people who were in this (we had a recap-meeting a few minutes after the event ended), I don't usually speak up, in any sense of the term "speaking up". Unlike them, I don't babbel or converse or correct people, but I realized (maybe it's just this year, or maybe I've been doing it always and have just now realized) that I comment fairly often as a way of responding to events, and I question...well...nearly everything. When my chem lab partner griped and made a snide remark about being partnered with 'Hellen Keller' (which I really don't blame her for, per se, because I can imagine how annoying it must be for her at the other end when your chem partner can't speak) it was incredibly tempting to make a sarcastic remark back. I didn't, of course, and found out that I can probably, in fact, keep silence.

What I've also never fully appreciated is the impact a smile can make. I mean yes, I prefer it when people smile at me rather than scowl or glare at me and yes, I do smile myself, frequently randomly. Most of that, though, is just a process that I don't think about--I smile when I think/see something funny/nice. I seldom consciously think about smiling (which is probably a good thing, considering the unfortunate effect conscious thought seems to have on my physical performance of any sort). Today though, coming out of a lab that lasted longer than necessary, I met another girl who's doing silent solidarity. We don't know each other. Our eyes met. She smiled at me and I smiled back, and I feel immediately better. It is really quite something.

On the other note in this seemingly inane ramble, I know that when I do speak up, really speak up, people listen, and to some degree I've always taken this for granted. There are times to keep quiet yes, but speaking up occasionally does have its purposes, especially if you're doing it for others who can't.

Random: Art project

Right now we're still doing the one art-project a week deal which is, in an understatement, a bit of a press on time. But the teacher doesn't have that high of an expectation in quality either, which is good. Each week's project is a response to something, this week I'm doing a response on visualizing sound.

This is what the song "We Will Become Silhouttes" by the Postal Service looks like.

I thought it's pretty neat.
Mail me if you want the song. Or mail Kate, since she's the one who send me the song, but don't mail her before Thursday for obvious reasons.

Recap: Untitled

Three things of note:

1. I have signed up for the silence solidarity event tomorrow and no, it's not pro-life. You can pick who you're giving up your voice for a day for, and the list ranges from bulimic to agnostic to Jews to people with anxiety disorders. I'll be representing the homeless folks. Before you point out that it'll be no big sacrifice for me, since I don't speak up much anyway, I'd like to mention that I have a three hour chem lab tomorrow. Not to mention PE where the teacher generally expects us to yell when we do a strike. So, it should be interesting.

2. I am going to be somewhat miserable next Fall quarter, I'm afraid. In order to take any other classes that I need for plant biology, I'll first need to take the intro to plant bio class, which is only offered, it seems, from 6-7pm during the fall quarter. It will get dark, it will get rainy, and it will be quite an experience, I daresay. But--not much of an option there so--come what may?

3. Checked. This morning. As in now:
For Fall Quarter 2006 your appointment times are:
Pass 1: Mon. May. 15 , 2006 at 02:00pm
Pass 2: Mon. Aug. 28 , 2006 at 11:30am
Well, so much for May 19th. But at least I get priority registration?

Alas, alas, c'est la vie.


On a random note: Lucy, I have no idea.

Recap: Why hello

Have concluded that my favorite weather at Davis is 74F, sunny, with humidity at 37% and wind, according to the weather display, at 6mph. The flowers are nice, but they are optional.

Conversation as known to the 9am self-defense class:
"Do you want to choke me first, or would you like me to choke you first?"

Yesterday I was called in the middle of my bio-craming to inquire whether or not I would be able to cover for Lisa for her shift, because she was not feeling well. I understand that when people don't show up, the ones of us with the least amount of hours scheduled per week are usually the first ones to get asked, and I understand that there're a few people who're working only one shift per week because they don't like working. However, I am neither, which was why I had to submit the availability (shedule) form twice but, that's bureaucracy for you.

Met Iwen during lunch while she's taking her break and in an invigorating discussion that followed, concluded that what with all the added 'nutrients' (i.e. minerals, fibers, you name it) in the cereal, having cereal three times a day might be, in a way, the healthiest diet a college student can have.

Dissecting worm and squid in lab this week. Dissections. What fun.

Just saw annoucement that my registration for fall quarter classes starts on May 19th, which made me go "asdf; wha-?!" because, you know, summer session registration's on the 9th (i.e. tomorrow) so I thought that LOGICALLY, the other one's going to be later. As in June.

Well fine, fry logic, I'm going to go and look up my next quarter's classes.

Recap: d

Forgot to mention the other day, when my bio professor pretended to be a chiton for a few moments to demonstrate to us why the chiton's self-defense reaction isn't particularly effective and therefore why they should stay "stuck on rocks." It was entertaining.

Yesterday I was waylaid during lunch and asked to help out with the lunch shift, despite my complete lack of uniform and all, because a lot of people didn't show up for that shift for some reason. I felt bad and so worked for about an hour doing the tables, meaning it's back to the mysterious world of upside-down saltshakers again. There was, indeed, some people missing since I appeared to be the only person covering all the tables in the DC and I was under the general impression that we usually had two people for that, but I was lucky and it was near the end of the shift, so two of the areas are sectioned off already, therefore significantly reducing the amount of area I had to cover. I almost earned back my lunch money. Heh. And I was EXTREMELY lucky in the fact that there were no tour groups yesterday. Come to think of it, it's our DC that's lucky. Had there been tourgroups, I might've not even gone in for lunch.

The calendar is telling me to visit Bolshoi in Moscow. It calls it a 'cultural institution' and describes it like it's a theatre. Am I getting the right impression?

Recap: Untitled

Note to self 1: Aphids are not only evil because they suck out the sap of your plants, thereby killing them, but they are also evil because they also serve as a vector for transmitting plant viruses, which kills off the parts of plants that the aphids haven't managed to kill yet.

Note to self 2: Nitrogen-rich soil encourage aphids. Must remember to mix potting soil given at school with soil from at home and debug both before planting.

My mint is dying. It looks so depressing considering I still remember what it started out being. I managed to get two cuttings before the main wilting started, so we'll see if I manage to propagate them successfully.

Did you know that there're a special species of aphids called "mint aphids"? It's a first for me.

I ought to write a paper on it:
Horizontal Transfer of Viruses In Mentha piperita cv As Studied By First Year Plant Biology Student Whilst Procrastinating From Chemistry.

Recaps: Octopi's gardens

It is, thank goodness, Friday again. The weather has cooled just slightly so the weather is VERY nice which means that it will be harder than usual to study what I'm suppose to be studying--all the pity, since the next round of midterm's arriving.

Have room cleaned already. Currently have no motivation to do anything except lie down somewhere and stare into space. Think will read bio, as will accomplish that lying down and one out of two isn't too bad.

Was going to mention something else too, but cannot remember right now which means I've probably forgotten it completely. Ah well. Meanwhile, here's a picture that I don't believe I've posted it yet, taken with Annie's camera the day mine died as a result of battery problems (why does my camera always have battery problems?). For some reason my mother really, really liked it and wanted me to share it with the world.

Here's my photo to the world, salutations to Ms. Dickinson, whose poetry collection I'm missing, being at home and far away from the literature deprive atmosphere of my dorm room.



I thought the cloud's reflection in the glass was very neat, which was why I took a photo with such an odd subject-matter.

Recap: Untitled

A brief check told me that yes, I did in fact leave id tags for myself in the layout which now leaves me to wonder whether or not it actually works:

Meanwhile, on its Web site, the trade journal Editor & Publisher posted more than a dozen letters from readers under a headline that reflected the broad range of electronic opinion: "Colbert Offensive, Colbert Mediocre, Colbert a Hero, Colbert Vicious, Colbert Brave." Mr. Colbert's employer, Comedy Central, said it had received nearly 2,000 e-mail messages by Monday morning — a response, it said, rivaled only by the contentious appearance nearly two years ago of Jon Stewart, Mr. Colbert's comedy patron, on the now-defunct CNN shout-fest "Crossfire."

Taken from NY Times who was forced to, after the stir Mr.Colbert caused on the internet, address the speech instead of how funny Mr. President may or may not be with his 'twin'.

This is what they get for making a type of media that is actually in contact with people. P D N T S P A--see? I learned something last year. Must be interesting though, to have a media that's not 100% under governmental control.

We covered Markovnikov's rule in o-chem recently and I kept thinking of Raskolnikov though the idea of Rodya as a chemist is very, very strange. Still, watch me. I may accidentally put down Raskolnikov instead of Markovnikov on the test and the TA would wonder whether or not I've gone mad.

I hear that I will have to dissect a worm soon. O the thrills.

Recap: Untitled

First of all, I'd like to wish all the AP test takers good luck, even though they're probably not reading this at this point because of those tests. I understand that English's tomorrow and econ's a week from tomorrow so--GOOD LUCK!

We learned how to get out of chokes in PE today, and I reflected how odd that must've looked, since the martial arts room has windows on two sides of its wall that opens into the corridors. A group of students randomly going around and strangling each other but--oh, there's a teacher there, so it MUST be alright.
Also, given a choice, I think I'd actually rather be choked by a guy than a girl because girl=long nails=gah. Which is utter nonsense, of course (that I'm writing). On the other hand, no bruises or anything for me, so I must've done it correctly.

Kate send me songs to burn onto a CD to play in the DC (CD, DC?)which I left with the DC yesterday, so that they may play it randomly some days. They played it last night when I brought it, actually, but it was during the rush so I didn't get to hear most of it but--I have the files on my computer so, no complaints there. I probably won't be hearing much of anything in the following weeks though, since I checked yesterday and they've switched me to the dishroom. However, that means that my shift starts later (4:45pm instead of 4:00) so at least I won't have to skip the last few minutes of my o-chem lecture to get to work on time. And I would need that few minutes, even given that I didn't actually fail, per se, the test, because my grade could definitely be raised.

Busy day rest of today. Over and out.

Recap: Zs

How lightly I sleep, as Molly has discovered, varies. It depends a great deal on where I am and how tired I am. For instance, while at the dorms I found that I sometimes have to be able to get up in the middle of the night at the sound of a doorknock, in which cases I generally wake up easily, which means that I wake up everytime someone in my area slams a door which can be, to put it mildly, annoying.

At the other end of the spectrum, I have the time when I went home right after the finals and slept through a thunderstorm and my mother's coming in to add more blankets on top of me without knowing a thing. By the general rules I sleep lightly when I'm in some place unfamiliar (as we all tend to do, to varying degrees). My trend here at college is mostly waking-up more by default but if things happen and I get too tired I'm liable to sleep through the entire night, therefore possibly forcing Molly to spend the night somewhere else had she forgotten her key.

I'm trying to figure out if I have a way of tuning to a specific frequency when I'm asleep. It's theoretically possible, but I have no idea how to train myself to do it.

Recap: Quiet

It's Immigrant's Day. My PE teacher's going to quit going to her day job after she's done teacher our class, because she's an immigrant. We learned how to get out of bear hugs today.

I'm avoiding the DC today because I have an idea of what's going on there and I don't want to actually see it, as that it will only make me depressed. On the plus side, my parents got me loads of food yesterday, so that's not even a problem.

New way to insult someone today, as discovered by bio: You can insult someone by calling someone Cestodae (animals of class Cestoda)which, basically, means they're a gutless parasidic worm (flat worm, to be exact, phylum Platyhelminthes). And they suck, because they have invertible (or eversible, if you want the fancy term) pharyxns and suckers.
Ha. Right.