Today's temperature was mostly under 21 degrees Celsius (under 70 F). It felt rather cold. Weather Underground forecasts that we will not reach a temperature above 24.5 degrees Celsius (76 F) this week, with lows in the 8 - 11 degree Celsius range (47 - 52 F).
*In case you did not notice earlier, I have begun to go metric (a.k.a., to use the units of the Système International d'Unités). I am currently teaching my brain to recognize the meaning of values given in grams and degrees Celsius.
Monday, September 21, 2015
An Original Joke of Rather Terrible Quality
Joke:
Person 1 (reading a book of poetry): Aargh, I can't stand all the footnotes in these poems!
Person 2 (innocent bystander): How come?
Person 1: They just make the poems so hard to read - they're so subversive.
End Joke
What may be funnier than the joke itself is that I thought it up while reading my organic chemistry textbook, not a poetry book. I have absolutely no clue what made me think of it.
You will have to let me know whether or not you find it to be funny.
Cheers,
Silvie
Edit: By the way, I remembered why I thought of it. The part of the chemistry book I was reading contained a footnote.
Person 1 (reading a book of poetry): Aargh, I can't stand all the footnotes in these poems!
Person 2 (innocent bystander): How come?
Person 1: They just make the poems so hard to read - they're so subversive.
End Joke
What may be funnier than the joke itself is that I thought it up while reading my organic chemistry textbook, not a poetry book. I have absolutely no clue what made me think of it.
You will have to let me know whether or not you find it to be funny.
Cheers,
Silvie
Edit: By the way, I remembered why I thought of it. The part of the chemistry book I was reading contained a footnote.
Friday, September 18, 2015
Time and School
Did you know that 18.75% of the semester has already passed? 3/10 of the lab sessions have also already been held. Sometimes if I think about just making it from one week to the next without letting things really get out of hand it seems much more like the semester won't be a disaster, especially considering that there aren't so many weeks to go by (16 for a whole semester). Our experience of time is so subjective, isn't it? Speaking of time, I have not started my papers yet and they are due in about 11 days, not all of which are days that I can use to do school work. Somebody needs to quickly learn to be efficient and not procrastinate too much.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
9/16/2015
I am not feeling so well today. I have been feeling like I might be getting sick for about two weeks now, but today I felt pretty generally awful.
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Recap of Week 2 (and other stuff)
My first solo lab procedure last Thursday went okay - I did take much longer than everyone to clean up, but I'll probably get better at that. I did not break or spill anything, so that was a plus. A few of us in the lab actually worked together some, asking each other questions and checking on things. I will not receive my huge assignment for this lab until next time (Thursday) since this lab is two weeks long. After that we have our first lab for a full lab report (also a two week lab).
For JS 101 I have two 4-page papers due when we have class again on September 30th. About two weeks are left for that (aaaugh!), which means I need to get started and work on that while still keeping up on my chemistry.
Today we had our first Orgo quiz. I think that it went pretty well except for at least three small mistakes I know that I made in one part. I will get that back on Thursday, too. I am starting to get a better idea of what I should concentrate on in the textbook. I will be making lots of review/guide sheets summarizing everything. Maybe I will take pictures of some stuff to share.
Two Saturdays ago we came home to find what seemed to be a lithobates sylvaticus metamorph sitting on our screen door. It was very adorable. On Friday I went for a short walk and stepped on my first acorn of the season. I also found five baby snapping turtles on the road; sadly, only one was alive. We took pictures of it and then I brought it to the stream. The other four presumably were run over while trying to cross the road to reach the stream. I love frogs and turtles. The turtle's nostrils looked like a miniature version of a puppy-dog nose. It was also cute and very strong, though very clumsy when walking over fallen leaves. It would put its legs up onto a leaf and accidentally flip upside-down, ambling laboriously to the water like a newborn kitten. On Sunday, I think, when I went for a walk I saw a black snake, about 3 cm wide and a meter long.
I got up only six minutes after sunrise today (6:30). Pretty soon I will be getting up while it is still dark outside. It was rather cold this morning but the height of the day reached about 27 degrees C.
I have lots of work to do and am very tired, but I am hopeful that I will gain more balance soon.
Best wishes,
Silvie
For JS 101 I have two 4-page papers due when we have class again on September 30th. About two weeks are left for that (aaaugh!), which means I need to get started and work on that while still keeping up on my chemistry.
Today we had our first Orgo quiz. I think that it went pretty well except for at least three small mistakes I know that I made in one part. I will get that back on Thursday, too. I am starting to get a better idea of what I should concentrate on in the textbook. I will be making lots of review/guide sheets summarizing everything. Maybe I will take pictures of some stuff to share.
Two Saturdays ago we came home to find what seemed to be a lithobates sylvaticus metamorph sitting on our screen door. It was very adorable. On Friday I went for a short walk and stepped on my first acorn of the season. I also found five baby snapping turtles on the road; sadly, only one was alive. We took pictures of it and then I brought it to the stream. The other four presumably were run over while trying to cross the road to reach the stream. I love frogs and turtles. The turtle's nostrils looked like a miniature version of a puppy-dog nose. It was also cute and very strong, though very clumsy when walking over fallen leaves. It would put its legs up onto a leaf and accidentally flip upside-down, ambling laboriously to the water like a newborn kitten. On Sunday, I think, when I went for a walk I saw a black snake, about 3 cm wide and a meter long.
I got up only six minutes after sunrise today (6:30). Pretty soon I will be getting up while it is still dark outside. It was rather cold this morning but the height of the day reached about 27 degrees C.
I have lots of work to do and am very tired, but I am hopeful that I will gain more balance soon.
Best wishes,
Silvie
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
9/8/2015
The first full lab has not happened yet, but things are staring to feel a little more like they are actually happening. Today I had my first office-hour help session, which was very helpful all around. I have some friends in my class and lab sections from last year.
I will stick with string ensemble at least until the show concert on October 14th, the same week that I expect work at the gymnastic club will start (assuming that it will start). Symphonic chorus begins tonight.
I picked more peaches today and when I went in the backyard I saw that the maple leaves had begun to fall.
I will stick with string ensemble at least until the show concert on October 14th, the same week that I expect work at the gymnastic club will start (assuming that it will start). Symphonic chorus begins tonight.
I picked more peaches today and when I went in the backyard I saw that the maple leaves had begun to fall.
Sunday, September 6, 2015
Second Lab Coming Up
I just found the info for the second lab on Moodle2 and there is plenty of background reading, so that answers that question. Doing a whole experiment by myself will be a very new experience.
First Week of School
So, I have had an entire week of school now.
When I opened the email with my organic chemistry syllabus in it on August 30th before I went to bed, it felt a little like someone had dropped a bomb on me. Class material has started pretty slow and I anticipate it picking up speed very soon. I have three chapters (very long chapters) of background material and concepts we are supposed to know which I need to work on while also working on our current class chapter. I also had to read quite a bit in preparation for the first lab on September 3rd - I don't know if I will always have as much prep reading to do for lab. For the first lab we did not have an actual experiment, but we have a large assignment for analyzing IR and GC/MS data which also made me feel overwhelmed and which I will need help with. For organic chemistry we have to write pre-labs in our special duplicate paged notebooks which include an abstract, information about any chemicals to be used, and a clear outline of the procedure and any special arrangements of equipment (for the first lab we did not need to do this, so I do not yet know how hard that might be). The pre-lab is considered in our lab grade along with notes taken throughout the experiment, technique, safety, and post-lab assignment. We also do not have lab partners anymore. I have permission from the Learning Commons to access tutoring, so I applied for a "one-on-one" tutor since drop-in tutoring (which I have gone to in the past) happens during symphonic chorus and I will see if that works out.
Intro to Jewish Studies will probably be less labor intensive than the Holocaust class.
I do not know if I will be able to keep playing in String Ensemble; I will hopefully make it until the show concert on October 14th. Gymnastics and chorus have not started yet. I expect to eventually acclimate, but I will not know how much time or effort everything will take for a while as my routine settles.
When I opened the email with my organic chemistry syllabus in it on August 30th before I went to bed, it felt a little like someone had dropped a bomb on me. Class material has started pretty slow and I anticipate it picking up speed very soon. I have three chapters (very long chapters) of background material and concepts we are supposed to know which I need to work on while also working on our current class chapter. I also had to read quite a bit in preparation for the first lab on September 3rd - I don't know if I will always have as much prep reading to do for lab. For the first lab we did not have an actual experiment, but we have a large assignment for analyzing IR and GC/MS data which also made me feel overwhelmed and which I will need help with. For organic chemistry we have to write pre-labs in our special duplicate paged notebooks which include an abstract, information about any chemicals to be used, and a clear outline of the procedure and any special arrangements of equipment (for the first lab we did not need to do this, so I do not yet know how hard that might be). The pre-lab is considered in our lab grade along with notes taken throughout the experiment, technique, safety, and post-lab assignment. We also do not have lab partners anymore. I have permission from the Learning Commons to access tutoring, so I applied for a "one-on-one" tutor since drop-in tutoring (which I have gone to in the past) happens during symphonic chorus and I will see if that works out.
Intro to Jewish Studies will probably be less labor intensive than the Holocaust class.
I do not know if I will be able to keep playing in String Ensemble; I will hopefully make it until the show concert on October 14th. Gymnastics and chorus have not started yet. I expect to eventually acclimate, but I will not know how much time or effort everything will take for a while as my routine settles.
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