Recent Thoughts and Things

Chemistry

"...they decided to shake the poop out of the milk." ~ prof. It grossed me out a little.

"Woods are pretty bad places for humans not just because of the vicious raccoons but there are dangerous chemicals in the air." I'm sorry but are you kidding me??!! I always thought the woods were good for you but if the air is worse in the woods than in the city then my whole life has been a lie.

I truly wonder how many times my chem. prof. has almost died. He's told so many stories...it's unbelievable he's made it this far.

For biology lab I had to collect a sample of dirt and bring it to the lab. Well I forgot and had to get it on the way to lab. I happened to have a plastic bag in my backpack. So I put the dirt in the bag and put the bag in my pocket. For some reason while I was sitting in chemistry with the bag of dirt in my pocket I found the situation hilarious. That was a bad story. I'm sorry.

This week we had a guest lecturer in chemistry. We were each given a sheet and asked to evaluate her presentation. Let me just say that debate has destroyed my ability to evaluate presentation givers. I've become way too critical. Everyone around me was giving her 5s (high rating), but I was giving her tons of feedback and rating her a bit lower than everyone else. Now that I think about it however, that might not be from attending all those debate meets but could just be my critical personality...

Math

"Don't worry. These are going to get trickier." ~instructor Andrew about trig problems. I was so worried.

"We're multiplying 3 things to get zero! Either 2 is zero...unlikely..." ~Andrew

Have you ever wanted to turn to someone and say "Dude, you're obnoxious"? I have.

I like the word "compose."

Biology

The word "parasite" gives me the shivers.

The word "fungus" is weird.

How did people figure out which mushrooms were okay to eat? Just trial and error? I hope not.

Did you know there is a thing called "mushroom prospecting"? It's true.

Me: "It's like, a peanut."
Friend: "That was deep."

Other

"Yay for fat girls!" ~ Davielle Taken out of context that sounds way worse than it actually was.

Recent Decisions

I've decided that because I should write a song of the day. After I start my rock 'n' roll career.

I've decided that I have really good problem solving skills and that's why I do so well in math. So, I'm going to start applying those skills to chemistry and thinking about the whole class the same way I do math class. If I change the way I view the class maybe it'll change how ell I do in the class. Perhaps this way I'll do better.

This isn't really a decision, but more of a person observation. I tend to forget the 'e' at the end of "change" and I tend to add and 'e' to the end of "both." Isn't that weird?

This Week's Quotables

Quote of the day: "I can basically kill one bird with two stones...I'm bad at aiming." ~Jacquie

"I'm getting off on a bit of a tangent." ~Math prof. We were talking about sine, cosine, and...

"but nobody does long division anymore! We've got calculators!" ~ Math prof.

"This is just saying 'Hi I'm theta - pi/2. What's my x-coordinate?'" ~Math prof.

Note to teachers: Don't try to be tricky on tests and exams. Unless the trickiness was discussed in class it's just not cool.

Chem Prof: "You usually have a lot of solutes. So my breath has-"
Student: "Ew."
Prof: "I understand that."

"Dog comes by and licks it [antifreeze] he'll be dead. Cat comes by...that's all right. We'll forget about that." ~Chem. Prof.

"The senility in old folks, kinda like what you're seeing in me, is not natural. It's from lead." ~Chem. Prof.

"I have so many stupid stories I wish we could have a class on stupid chemistry stories." ~Chem. Prof.

"All I can do is apologize and laugh when you miss it on a test!" ~Chem. Prof.

I think it's interesting that whenever my professor says the word "alcohol" in lecture at least two guys laugh.

It bugs me that my chemistry professor says "all-gebra" instead of algebra and "molecliar" instead of molecular. It bugs me a lot.

During biology lecture my professor was talking about autosomes and I started thinking about autobots. Nerd.

There's no such thing as a stupid question unless you're the kid who sits a few seats down from me in biology. And boy can he come up with 'um.

"They're largely small...no that doesn't make sense..." ~Bio Prof.

My teacher said tertiary during lecture and I thought of Seven of Nine (Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero-One'). Nerd. Again. I'm sorry. It just happens.

Me: "I'm definitely a hybrid. I'm in flannel jammies so there's the inner redneck...I'm wearing two hemp bracelets so there's the inner wanna be surfer...I'm wearing black nail polish so there's the wanna be rock chick...I've got my chemistry book open in front of me so there's the inner nerd...and I've got my cross on so there's my inner church girl...I think I'm just confused."
Mom: "I'd say so."

First Set of Winter Quotations

My math teacher has been great so far for good quotes.

"This is the meat of the set notation sandwich, you just need to put the buns on there right?"

"What's another way to say born? Birds aren't born..."

"Does the wingspan go on forever? I hope not, that would be like a scary Alfred Hitchcock movie."

"IT'S LIKE MAGIC! Math magic..."

"Wait a second...that can't be right...I must have plugged something into my calculator wrong...ohhhhh that's embarrassing..."

"Oh boy! Look at all of these solutions!"

"This is kind of a guess-what's-in-my-head kind of question."

This guy get so enthusiastic about what he's teaching us. One time it was so bad I said (to myself and the people near me) "My. God. This is blowing my mind." I got a couple chuckles.

My chemistry professor isn't nearly as funny as last term, but he has some really good stories that he likes to share. I managed to get a couple of quotes.
Prof.:"There are three phases (i.e. liquid, sold, gas)...well actually four but we won't talk about that."
Me:"WHAT?! Everything I ever learned about science is wrong!"

"Gotta be careful about putting yourself in a a vacuum."

He also tends to say "all-gebra" instead of algebra, and molecliar instead of molecular. It bugs me.

There have been quite a few good quotes in my biology class but I'm always too shocked to write them down. They're not from the professor, they're from this obnoxious kid that like to ask the most bazaar questions. Not only are the questions odd, but he takes forever to actually get to the question. That too bugs me. Here is the only question I managed to write down.

Kid: "Do you think reptiles will ever fly again?" (There was a picture of a turtle on the overhead. That's the only connection I could find.)
Prof.: "I doubt it."

I'll try to write them down from now on. They're crazy.

The Mathematical Properties of LOST

Josh will appreciate this. While I was taking my math final about 20 minutes ago I was shocked at the mathematical complexities of LOST. I believe it was problem #4...it went something like this:

Jack asks Kate and Hurley to go fishing. Kate catches 65% of the fish, but 15% of them are inedible. Hurley catches 35% percent of the fish, but 20% of them are inedible. If Jack reaches into the bucket and pulls out an inedible fish, what is the probability that it was caught by Hurley?

At first I didn't see the connection and just started to solve the problem (rather easy). Then I started to vividly picture Jack reaching into the bucket and then I pictured Kate and Hurley fishing. In my head I said "DUDE!" I almost started laughing then realized other people around my might not think it's so funny...so I wrote "I LOVE LOST" on the bottom of the page...maybe I'll get some extra credit!

Ciao Cristiano!

It's official folks! My TA for math recitation is Italian!!!!! Last week I wasn't sure if he was going to be from another country or not, but he is! He didn't actually say he was from Italy, but his name is Cristiano Garibotti, and you can't get much more Italiano than that! I wanted to speak to him in Italian so badly, but I'm too big of a chicken. I can't even use some Spanish, which I know a lot more of, to my Hispanic customers at Big 5 because I'm scared they'll be insulted. That whole thought is silly, really (what a poet), but I can't help it.

Cristiano was passing out a quiz to us and usually I say "thank you" to the person (whatever class it may be) who is passing something out, and this time I was so tempted to say "grazie mille" or simply "grazie" but I held back. When I was leaving I wanted to say "ciao" or "arrivederci," but I held back again. Why do I do this? Deep inside I really doubt that the person would be insulted to hear someone speaking their native language. They might even be delighted or excited. This is a work in progress. I still have 8 more weeks with the guy, so maybe we'll see some improvement on my part.

Another interesting thing is that Christina probably hates having a foreign TA as much as I love it. Even though she likes Italy and what not, she would probably find it a hindrance to her learning and distracting, where as I find it a way to be culturally exposed. Fascinating, isn't it?!

Please don't make fun of me for saying thank you when a teacher passes out a quiz. I know, I'm a nerd.

Math: The Universal Language

I love the diversity on campus. It is especially evident in math recitation classes. Apparently people from other countries are much better at math than people from the US. This year 2 out of 3 of my TAs for math have been foreign. I like it. It is sometimes hard to understand what they are saying if their English is not so good, but I love hearing people from other countries speak. It's lovely. My favorite word to hear is "subtraction" pronounced "substraction" (notice the added 's'). It makes my ears smile.

The man in my class today was foreign with out a doubt, but alas he was only a substitute for my actual TA. I still have hope though because he said the name of the real TA and it sounded perfectly foreign. So, it's not quite 2 out of 3 yet but there are some definite possibilities!