Roommate Contract

USC housing has this cute little roommate contract thing to help prevent conflicts. I feel like overall it's a pretty decent thing for freshmen but at this point it's a little silly. So we were silly back. Please keep in mind that the answers are supposed to be our agreements on various issues so later in the year we can go back to this useless piece of paper and say, but look you said you were going to keep your clothes off the floor.

Academic success:


You should probably study.
Youtube does not equal studying.
4 am = not a good time for a dance party

Guest visitation:


All male visitors must be screened for worthiness. Only handsome, intelligent, funny, charming, and wealthy princes are acceptable. Others may be admitted on a case by case basis.

Sustainability:


Room temperature - we don't have control over this (this section was sort of outlined for us)
Recycling - w/e
Overall - Not important. Duh.

Bathroom Use:


Showering is recommended. Toilet paper is required. No floods please.

Cleaning Standards:


A zero-tolerance policy on all bugs of any kind will be strictly enforced. Mold is a bad sign. Spiderwebs are a worse sign. (Cuz that would be violating the zero-tolerance policy).

Behavior:


1.) No snorting pixie sticks in the apartment. (Not a euphemism). 
2.) No drunken tea parties with any "mad hatters" after 3 in the afternoon. (Totally a euphemism.)
3.) Telling freshmen our apartment is the secret portal to Hogwarts will be heavily frowned upon.

Bullwinkle's Rules:


(This isn't a real section. They wanted us to talk about personal property boundaries, but that's just not funny. At the top of the page they had asked for a "head of household" so we elected Bullwinkle J. Moose)


#1: No antler jokes.
#2: The Moose Institute of Toe-dancing is a perfectly respectable source of education and should be treated as such.
#3: Frostbite Falls, MN is an excellent place for a vacation. Not really a rule, just a fact.

Miscellaneous:


No getting sick.
No failing out of school.
Coupons are free-range.


If everyone took their roommate contracts this seriously, the world be a better place.

Thoughts

I couldn't think of anything original to entitle this post so I went with the blatantly obvious.

Today was...interesting. I did not go to work today. I had planned on it, but it just didn't happen. This morning Keri and I went to the Ernest F. Hollings Special Collections Library Dedication. I know, sounds excruciatingly boring right? Well, I'm not what you would call apt to attend library dedications. However, 47th Vice President of the United States of America Joe Biden was attending and if it's important enough for him to show up then it must be sort of a big deal. Fritz Hollings is South Carolina career politician who after being SC Governor went on to spend like his entire life in the US Senate. Now that he's retired, having nothing better to do, he secured $14 million of federal funds for us to put a big addition on our library. Yay! And apparently he and Biden are best buds. Whatever. So Keri and I went, and I wore my yellow dress with my super cute striped heels. Was it painful? Of course but I looked amazing. That whole deal took forever. We showed up super early so that security wouldn't have a line which was a good choice. It didn't end until like 2 and we were starved so we decided to skip the tour. It's not like we don't live here or anything. Lunch = five guys = happy place. At that point research was not going to happen for either of us.

Then we went to Keri's apartment and watched a Scooby Doo movie followed by a couple episodes of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Oh. My. Gosh. Go find an episode online because they are freaking hilarious. For those who don't know, Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose started in 1959 and moved to a weekly Sunday show on NBC in 1961 which ran until 1965. A few thoughts: I am in love with Bullwinkle. For real. Cutest character ever. And it is so educational. After a bit of the main adventure, we go to story time, followed by some poetry from Bullwinkle and a history lesson courtesy of Peabody, and then we add on a little more adventure. Perfect. And can we talk about the anti-Russian propaganda? Thank you Cold War. Holy Cow. How did any of these kids grow up not hating russians? And I swear there are several Hitler references. Frankly, I'm surprised my parents don't have some crazy paranoia about east europeans. I mean, really. Wow.

I Disagree with the Judges

If you don't watch "America's Got Talent", I apologize for the rant that is to follow. 

I want to reach into the television and shake the three judges and say, 

WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU THINKING??????????????????/

Where do you get off supporting a 70-year-old hand-whistler?? What makes you think this a Las Vegas act? She's not doing anything. She stands on the stage, by herself, with nothing but a microphone and whistles boring songs. And you just keep repeating how "unique" and "interesting" she is. I'm sorry, but at this point in the competition I need more than an "interesting" old woman with a unique "talent". It's got to be entertaining. She's not that entertaining. And I'm really not that interested in the dirty details of her life. Frankly, if it was a choice between staying home and watching my mother quilt and going to see a hand-whistling act, I'd stay home. It'd probably be more interesting (especially knowing my mother) and it'd be free. 

And, judges (specifically Howie), what's up with your extreme bias towards her? You demand that every other act on the show take their act to the next level. Dancing groups, singers, variety acts, you dismiss them all if they are anything short of step above where they were when you last saw them. That's fine, but when are you going to ask the hand-whistler to step it up? Many acts didn't even make it to Hollywood because you thought they couldn't scale it up. How is one old lady along with a microphone ever going to scale up to a big exciting Las Vegas show? 

Which leads me to my next point, THIS IS NOT EXCITING. You rag on a guy juggling and jumping through hoops of fire as not being "enough" but you enjoy hand-whistling? I'd rather watch my dog sleep. She calls herself a musical act, which I see nothing wrong with, but you need to start comparing her to the other musical acts. There are much better singers, bands, etc that should go through instead of her. I'd rather watch the little kid who dresses like mozart and plays the piano. He is at least cute. And more interesting to watch.

ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MINDS???????? How did she get this far and why is she still here? Send her home! The only thing that gives me comfort at this point is that it's out of your hands. America gets to vote and I hope the public has more common sense than you. No one in their right minds would pay money, in Las Vegas, to see hand-whistling. 

New Favorite Commercial

I hate Geico commercials in general, but this is just too funny:

18 Continuous minutes

Tonight I have a treat for you my friends. Ok not really. This is actually quite likely to be my most boring blog to date, but my wacky inner child is insisting I try it. For the nexy 18 minutes (until 11 o'clock) I will blog continuously. My thoughts laid bare for you for the next 18 minutes. Should be a fairly short post, haha.

GO GAMECOCKS! The game is on (SEVEN. NOTHING.) so expect some GO COCKS randomly interjected. Super awesome game. UCLA is getting creamed tonight.

I am not interested in seeing Night and Day. I just don't want to see another spy couple movie. It's just getting old. Mr. and Mrs. Smith, that movie that just came out with Catherine Heigle or however she spells it...about a thousand other movies/tv shows. It's just not original. I'd like to see the superhero movie fad die out too.

Another hit! Aw look at the cute kids in their gamecock jerseys! All children should wear cute little jerseys at games. It should be a requirement. Oh I love how they have to point out that Clemson and Carolina hate each other. I mean everyone at that game knew that. That dumb little blond interviewer they have was like "And you're here with your big rival, University of South Carolina, how does that make you feel?" over and over again with the clemson coach. Man she is dumb.

That's right change pitchers. Do whatever you think you need to do. We are so gonna win.

I'm not a big baseball fan. It just doesn't move fast enough for me and I don't understand all the rules. I know the basics. I can follow along well enough. I just don't get the umpires' calls most of the time. Aaand we've got our guy on third. I didn't know that we only have 1 NCAA championship. Kind of embarrassing really. Especially since UCLA has like 126 or something. Crazy. I'm not a fan of the the socks pulled up over the pants. I've seen two pitchers do that. I haven't noticed if our pitcher does it or not. What advantage does that give you? I can't really see you having a big problem with loose pants when you're pitching. Plus they're not really that loose either.

"Sharks have a week dedicated to him". I love that line. Too funny.

Oh! OMG. They're making a movie about that short story. Ok. Sorry. The short story is about this dude who ends up on this island owned by this rich dude who hunts a lot. The rich dude is really nice to him and is like showing him all his hunting trophies and stuff and then he (our protagonist) realizes that the dude brings in slaves to the island and hunts them. In opposition to hunting with him, the protagonist ends up being the rich dude's opponent in a kill or be killed hunt. Protagonist kills rich dude, happy ending. So there's going to be this movie with a dude who takes these people on a hunting trip and then they become the "game". Yes. Ok.

Blake Cooper...does not pull his socks up. Hm. You know I think everyone on UCLA's team does the sock thing. Must be a style choice. Not one I agree with. Not flattering. Although I don't like our gray uniforms. I wish we had garnet ones instead. With black pants. Yes. That would look a lot better. These just look dingy. But at least we don't pull our socks up over our pants.

Oh come on. Get them out. I don't want them to score. I want a shut out. Oh and now we're talking to the pitcher. Will he stay or get switched? Stay apparently. Come on. Pitch him strikes. Just strike him out. Yes. See he must be able to hear me through the tv afterall. Crap. Bases loaded. We need to get our act together and not run into each other so much. And Cooper's going in. Well he did a good job but I think it's time to put in a closer. Listen to me. A closer. Like I know what I'm talking about. I have officially watched way to much ESPN.


I have actually gone over by 8 minutes. Bonus!

The Jackie Cantwell Swimwear Laws

I went to HI two weeks ago and I spent the past weekend at Myrtle Beach and my ability to control my comments about other people's bathing suit choices is now gone. So here are the new rules, and I expect everyone to follow them, for the general public benefit:

1.) Just because you can physically fit into a particular bathing suit does not mean it fits you properly. You should only wear bathing suits that actually fit.

2.) Bathing suits should be age appropriate. Just because they sell bikinis in the store that you shop in does not make them automatically appropriate for you. If you don't have the body for a bikini, you are not allowed to wear one. I don't care if you are "forty and fabulous" you have passed the time in your life when a bikini was appropriate.

3.) You are not allowed to wear a bikini if you're pregnant. I'm sorry, it's just wrong.

4.) For both men and women, your bottom should cover your bottom. If I can see butt crack, it's too low.

5.) Speedos are totally illegal. Not manly and not attractive.

6.) If you're going to wear a string bikini you need to double knot the strings. And that's all I'm going to say on that one.

7.) General rule of thumb, if you would not want to see someone else of your age and body type wearing that bathing suit, you shouldn't either.

10 TV Jobs I'd LOVE to Have

#10: Sideline Sports Reporter. Simply because I'd do a waaaay better job than any of the bimbos that somehow get paid to go, "So, like, Brett, as the uh team captain, how do you think you're going to, um, play after halftime? Do you think you'll like play differently?"

#9: Judge on pretty much any of the major competition shows (Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, America's Got Talent). Because I'd be awesome.

#8: Camera girl for ESPN College. For the sole purpose of forcing the camera to show the band instead of the cheerleaders every once in a while. I mean, come on, if we switched uniforms, I think the band would be FAR more popular than the cheerleaders. Think about it.

#7: Taste tester for the Ace of Cakes. I know this job doesn't exist, but it totally should. It would be so delicious.

#6: I wouldn't mind taste testing for Alton Brown either.

#5: I want to design a challenge for and be a guest judge on Project Runway. Do you have any idea how epic that would be??

#4: Whatever level of Producer/Channel owner is required to control what commercials come on. I don't mind commercials if they're funny, but all those "ask your doctor about"'s have got to go.

#3: Camera man for "Planet Earth". SUPER EPIC.

For the record, the next two were super close.

#2: Show host for the travel channel. Travel the world, all expenses paid, as your job? Hell yeah I'd do that!

#1: Mythbuster. I would LOVE to be a mythbuster. Science, crazy myths, and explosives, oh my!

Super Good Day

1.) Successfully adjusted to Atlanta time.

2.) I got to cuddle with my dog.

3.) Got a free coca cola at the gas station. Apparently they are very appreciative of their customers.

4.) Drove to Columbia, no problems.

5.) Went to work for a little while and was semi-productive. (inventory).

6.) Grocery: lots of yummy food, including Stouffers for dinner. Plus more dinosaur chicken nuggets.

7.) I did not get rained on during my walk back from parking Fred.

8.) I got my first paycheck as a lab assistant. That's right. I am awesome.

9.) Enjoyed america's got talent.

10.) I ordered the online textbook I have to buy for next semester and the grand total was a whopping $26. Be impressed.

Big Day in the Lab

Well the boss had been gone the last two weeks (visiting researcher in Japan) and today he came back. Now I would like to remind my readers (all three of you) that we are, generally speaking, fairly productive. The problem with chemistry, science, and research in general, is that it's a lot of hurry up and wait. Emphasis on the wait. If you get too far ahead of yourself, you risk wasting time, energy, and resources (never good). So there's always a limit to how "productive" you can be in any given amount of time because you need to have some kind of results before you can move on.

So there we all are looking at our lab books and our crystals (or not, as the case may be) and trying to decide how best to make it sound like there's more than there really is. Or rather, how to show our efforts to their best advantage. Anyway. So we're all also kind of drifting around the various parts of the lab. No one wants to run into him first. But you can only be vaguely evasive for so long. The boss decides to set up individual meeting times with each of us, to discuss "where you're at" (aka what the hell you've been doing for two unsupervised weeks) and "what your next steps should be" (aka what you ideally should have already done). Guess who got to go today? Yep, yours truly.

Apparently, I'm on track. Do I now have enough to keep me busy for the next 2 years? Of course. But I managed to escape with what a grade school would call "Satisfactory". Score one for Jackie! The other side to this is that meeting with the boss is like meeting with a tidal wave. He just overflows with ideas of what you could do.

Goodbye Narnia, Hello Middle-earth

I have finished the Chronicles of Narnia! Anyone who has read them knows this really isn't much of an accomplishment, but all the same I can now say I have read the whole series. And I definitely have my favorites.

First, a little background: The books were originally published in the order The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; Prince Caspian; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; The Silver Chair; The Horse and His Boy; The Magician's Nephew; and last The Last Battle. Now there are all kinds of scholars who argue the merits of reading them in their original publishing order. Lots of junk about how The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was clearly meant to be read first and that chronological order is really not that necessary. However, an old letter from Professor Lewis to his son mentioned a preference for the chronological order (he also said it didn't think it mattered what order they were read in). I personally like the chronological order because it makes it easier to follow some of the leaps in Narnian time.

At any rate, my favorite is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Followed by The Horse and His Boy. The Last Battle gets third because although I like some of the beautiful imagery in the end, I'm not big on "end of the world" stories. They scare me too much and I don't have a dog to cuddle with. Prince Caspian ties with The Silver Chair. I will admit that Prince Caspian is a much better character in Dawn Treader; he's really dense in his first book, but then again so are Eustace and Jill. Magician's Nephew comes next because again the imagery is beautiful. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe comes dead last. I just don't like that one, which I hate to admit because most people like that one the best. *sigh*

Well, anyway, now I'm going to go back to Middle-earth. Parts 2 and 3 of Lord of the Rings are beckoning.

Adventures

It was a cloudy day outside the GSRC. The researchers were researching. The reactions were reacting. The sonicators were sonicating. All was normal. Until something disturbed the quiet halls of academia. That something was a fire alarm. 

Now the great and sage professor had told his pupils on countless occasions, "We don't do fire drills. If you hear a siren, it's real. Just get out!" So it was with great haste that the young student made her way down the winding path of the stairwell, followed closely by her confused foreign comrade, who had never heard the formidable call of the fire alarm. 

With great patience the little community of scholars gathered outside their ivory tower and waited for clarification. A fire truck and a small delegation of the local police arrived, only to foster the growing curiosity of the group. Finally an agent of the Health and Safety Department was found and the scientists were enlightened. They finally learned as they filed back to their respective places of study the cause of all the commotion. 

Apparently if there's too much water flow in a particular tube in the mechanics room it automatically sets off the fire alarm. Fantastic. 

Summer Projects

Well here I am. On campus in the summer. Another adventure is underway. I have two summer projects that I'm working on.

Summer Project 1: Reading

I've always got an incredibly long reading list, but this summer I particularly want to read the Chronicles of Narnia Series and parts 2 and 3 of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I'm taking a class next fall about Lewis, Tolkien, and Williams, and I've got a bad feeling that I'll be the only person in the class who is not fluent in Elvish. I have seen both the "regular" and the extended editions of all three movies and read the Fellowship. So I'm probably about on par with a normal person's understanding of LOTR. And trust me, that's accomplishment because last fall I didn't even know who Legolas was or how to spell Gandalf. Sad but true. Right now though I'm working on Narnia because I'm borrowing the series from my sister. I had previously read the first two but that was a long time ago, so I just reread those and today I finished book 3, the Horse and His Boy. I really don't want or need all the other people in the class shunning me as the loser who hasn't even read the Narnia series or heaven forbid be the person who hasn't read Lord of the Rings. So this is definitely getting priority on the reading list.

Summer Project 2: Don't Starve

The situation: No more meal plan. Also no freezer and limited fridge space.
The conflict: I like eating.
The solution: Microwaveable easy mac.
Haha I'm just kidding. I eat more than easy mac. I went to the grocery and got myself some bread and sandwich stuffs. And poptarts (I Looooooove poptarts). Also got a fruit bowl thing with pineapple, strawberries and kiwis. Cuz you know I've got to at least try to eat healthy. I do of course have the cosco bulk box of easy mac. Yum. I had soups but I finished those last night, so no more until I get back to the grocery. The major purchase was Jimmy Dean fully cooked sausage patties. I was leary but Mere eats the bacon all the time (she doesn't even microwave which I think is gross). As it turns out they're not bad. Yesterdays breakfast was two sausages cut up on a bagel with some cheese. Delicious. So I'm not starving yet. Dinner is still a work in progress and tonight I think I may treat myself to some Which Wich.

The Calbert Report

Now go back and reread the title as "the calbear repour" if you didn't the first time.

Thank you.

First on the agenda: Where in the world is Jackie San Diego? Aka Jackie still wants to kick some people in the housing office. Stupid lazy overly complicated bureaucracy. grr. Yes I am still in my room on the 5th floor of the honors dorm and will be there until an undetermined time on one of two semi-determined dates. Becky and Casey (the suitemate) both left today so its fairly empty and frighteningly quiet. Plus the tv's gone.

Tomorrow looks to be a combination of Hectic and Tiring, with chances of Research in the afternoon. Be sure to bring along your Problem Solving Skills folks because we could get some pretty befuddling Packing storms throughout the day.

News of the weird: It seems my brain only cares to remember random factoids about specific randomly selected people. If you're not one of those randomly selected people, I seem to be capable of holding entire conversations with you without knowing your name or even how it is you know mine. A rather severe drought of name-memory was ended today when I finally stalked around facebook until I identified the poor boy.

Word of the day: vamoose. v. to depart quickly.

And now for The Bright Side, brought to you by Purex 3-in-1 Laundry Sheets! The curtains had very strange and inexplicable stains on them, in addition to looking like Kansas during the Dust Bowl. So into the wash went and now they look nice and fresh and clean.

And to end off our night, I saw a puppy going for a walk today. Good night America!

NRJ

The one awesome thing to come from this stupid "let's take business french it'll be so useful" idea of mine: NRJ.com. For our last project for the class we had to pick a french company and do a presentation on it. You know, powerpoint, 10-ish minutes, not that hard. Not a lot of guidance either, but that's a different topic. I did mine on Lacoste (the little crocodile shirts). The two guys who went the same day as me made me look great cuz they didn't know about the powerpoint requirement. haha. yep.

So Friday's presentations were much more like mine and this one guy (who's name I cannot remember for the life of me) did his on this french radio company, NRJ. It started as an acronym but it's not anymore. Pronounce it like "energy" with a french accent and you'll be good to go. So get this: they have online webradio stations. NRJ Pop, NRJ Rock, NRJ Reggae, etc etc etc. Now prepare yourself for: NRJ French. Yes. A free webradio station that plays round the clock non stop music exclusively in french. Can you say AWESOME? I can.

Curse you, beautiful sunshiny day

How am I supposed to get anything done on a pretty day? Worse than the internet trying to trick me into procrastination, the warm sunshine is just begging for me to nap on the horseshoe. Which I one hundred percent shouldn't do; there are far too many things that really really really ought to get done for me to go laying about and daydreaming. Humph. Maybe if I wish really hard and cross all my fingers my homework will do itself and my laundry will magically be clean and folded neatly in its drawers.

Oh I know, but a girl can dream right?

Holy Cow

I decided that I was going to head off my itchy eyes right from the get-go this year and bought allergy medicine today. Now I'm a bit, uh, reluctant to spend money so I went for the cheap CVS brand allergy tablets. You got 48 tablets for the same price as the 24 tablet box of name brand whatevers. And it clearly says "For allergy relief: sneezing, runny nose, itchy watery eyes, itchy throat". Great! That pretty much covers my basic anti-allergy medicine needs right?

WRONG.

When the back of the box says "marked drowsiness may occur" they are not kidding. I have been practically asleep on my feet all day. Oops. Really glad I only took 1 instead of the recommended 2. Geez. Moral of the story: don't mess around with allergy medicine. Always put down the money for the non-drowsy kind.

Science Quotes

Statistics: The only science that enables different experts using the same figures to draw different conclusions.
Evan Esar 

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny ...'

Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992)

There are no such things as applied sciences, only applications of science.
Louis Pasteur (1822 - 1895)

hehehe. 

Bummer

The real problem with spring break is that it ends. Going to class again is such a bummer. I don't really mind sitting through class so much, or even the learning thing. It's the whole homework thing that has to go. Oh and the getting up part. If I could stay in my nice warm bed and learn from there, it would be much better for sure.

In other news I'm reading Fellowship of the Ring and enjoying it.

Google Trends

This kind of stuff always peaks my interest.

Harry Potter reaps 5.2 times the number of searches as Lord of the Rings.

People search for "free movie" 17 times more often than "buy tickets".

Paris Hilton is 12.5 times more popular than Nicole Richie.

Katrina still gets 1.5 times more searches than Haiti.

3 times as many people searched for "physics help" than "biology help" and 1.36 times as many needed help with  chemistry than with physics.

Peace Corps is most often searched for in Washington DC, followed by Madison WI and Portland OR.

Sound Familiar?

You might work in lab if you're more afraid of what's on your hands before you go to the bathroom than after.

You might be a science major if your notes include the words "various math steps later".

You might be science kid if you have ever considered ditching class to go to a seminar.

You might be a chemist if your experiment would be illegal in your parents' garage.

You might be a physicist if you have ever been disappointed that your intro physics book didn't include the quantum mechanics appendix.

You might be a biologist if you have ever grown something that could wipe out an entire third world country.

You might be a science major if you think Schrodinger would be an epic name for a cat.

Or Earl and Meyer for a set of dogs.

Funny Story

     

Ages ago in Pchem (ok like two weeks ago) I turned to my dear friend Lindsey and I said, "Dearest friend Lindsey, I have procured an apartment for us for the upcoming academic year in a most favorable location, near a park". (Now you know me better than to think I would actually say it like that but just go along with it, ok?)

So she responded, "Oh really? Do tell!"

and I said, "Oh yes. We are to have 306, of Legare."










And do you know that she very specifically neglected to tell me until just today that the apartment I had procured with so little thought happens to be the very apartment which she inhabits at this very time? I cannot even begin to tell you my surprise!

Wait...what?

So my roommate considered going to the baseball game today. Then we realized that neither of us knew how to get tickets for sporting events. Because we're band kids. How sad is that?

For the forecast, I am now hoping it rains soon so I can wear my adorable plaid rain boots. Unfortunately today is far too bright and sunny to get away with wearing them.

In current events, I have a fairly busy weekend ahead of me. Volunteering as a returnee at the Study Abroad Pre-departure Q&A session today, tomorrow I'll be at a bball game in the afternoon (men's), carolina scholar weekend dorm tour at 5, immediately followed by bowling with the research group. Oh and sometime this weekend I need to do 3 lab reports. Hehehe.

Now back to the olympics...

Yay for me!

Ok excuse me while I do just a little bragging: A on my first physical chemistry exam, A on my first physical chemistry lab report. Boo-yah! K so out of my class of 46 persons, I was one of 17 to get an A. Now before you all go saying, but Jackie, I thought you said this was a weed-out class. Trust me it is. Another 16 people failed the test. It seems to have been one of things where if you got it, you really got it, but if you didn't, you REALLY didn't. I've been reserving judgement as to whether or not I like pchem until this first exam, because it's all well and good to say a class isn't that bad, but until you've taken the first test, you don't really know. So I give myself official license to like pchem.

Also in the good news category, I feel rather validated in my career choice (research chemist) in that pretty much everyday I feel like I'd rather just go to research all day. You have no idea how much more productive I could be if I didn't have to go to class and do homework. Sigh. Oh and I got to watch Kristina use the UV-vis spectrometer which was pretty cool, except it was having issues. It's kind of grumpy and only likes certain people. Apparently Kristina is not one of them.

Oh and as my final good thing of the day I had hot chocolate from Starbucks and it was yummy. Thank you and good night.

Just another typical day

TGIF. I'm so ready for the weekend. And check this: no lab reports this weekend, and no basketball games. I need the break. Today was a good day overall, except for the continuous downpour of rain. In business french we've moved on to marketing, which I find rather more useful than the types of french businesses and how to start a business in France. Trust me, I have no intention of ever trying to start my own business, let alone in France. Physics is still retarded. This woman just can't teach. I'm sure she knows her stuff, but her ability to teach is non-existent. However, today was cool because I made friends with this guy who sits next to me.

Research is going well. Can't really know if what I'm doing is working because I can't identify it based on XRD alone. Not being able to identify is generally a good thing, because it significantly increasing your chances of having found something new. However, this also means you have to give your samples to Mark (the crystallographer who can pretty much identify anything), which means you won't really know what they are for a few weeks at the earliest. This can make it hard to move forward. So right now it's kind of a waiting game. I also have 4 more samples that I'm in the process of cleaning in the sonicator. And by monday that will go up to 6, because I just put in 2 more reactions today.

Oh and success of the day: there's a mac in the main room that nobody uses, that is never on and I wasn't even sure could turn on. But I get tired of going to the mac in the XRD room to check email or whatever (plus I feel bad using that one cuz everyone needs it). So today I tried turning it on and was able to get it up and running, and hooked up to the internet. And I found an extra mouse for it. Score one for Jackie.

King Google

Ok I might need to just invest in Google stock. I use:

• Gmail
• Blogger (owned by Google)
• Google Earth
• Google Analytics
• Google Wave
• Google Chrome
• and of course Google the search engine

Seriously if Google decided to just stop, my life would be basically over.

Nerd Jealousy

This is terribly nerdy. One of my friends changed her profile picture to a picture of her wearing her lab goggles and I was like OMG! I have to have a picture of me in goggles! So this is what I got:

 Ta-da! Think of me what you will, but I don't hate this picture. Even if my glasses are a little crooked (which is kind of their normal state really).

Rainy Yucky Day

Problems I have with today:

1.) It is disgusting outside. Rainy, windy, cold. Not acceptable.

2.) I'm spending most of it being uncharacteristically productive, but not in an enjoyable way. I'm doing a pchem lab report which is making me want to run into walls.

3.) I probably won't finish the lab report today and will have to spend tomorrow working on it as well.

4.) I had a peanut butter and jelly bagel sandwich for lunch that has decided to pick a fit with my stomach. My stomach is incredibly disappointed in my lunch choice and has decided to be incredibly uncooperative and distracting.

5.) I still haven't gotten my nap.


So I vote for a do-over. Today would be much better if I could erase my to-do list, change the weather, and add a happy soundtrack.

Interview Oopsies

K, so I went to the Career Center and picked up (and took home) a copy of "Job Choices 2010: For Science Engineering & Technology Students" (published by www.jobweb.com) from their lobby. This morning I was perusing the obligatory article on interviewing. Every career success magazine has one and they all say the same thing. Be on time; dress to impress, but be conservative; answer questions honestly but positively, etc. What made them unusual was their inclusion of a half page section entitled "What were they thinking?" They are simply too funny so I felt I had to share. Real employers told jobweb.com that real job seekers:

• came a day late for their interview
• asked the interviewer for a date
• talked on their cell phone in the middle of the interview
• wore a prom dress to the interview
• wore a sequined suit with a gold cowboy hat 
• brought their lunch and ate it during the interview
• told the interviewer that they were only there "for practice"

And this one's a jewel:

• told the interviewer: "Times being what they are, I can't be too particular, so I'm interviewing with you." 

Please don't be one of these people! 

Again, I didn't come up with these, so check out www.jobweb.com for more. 

Normalized

Another cartoon based off Pchem notes. Enjoy.

My handwriting is chicken scratch at best, so the dialogue is as follows:

Teacher: Class, this is our new student, Psi.
Sine: He looks like a nerd!
Teacher: He's not a nerd! He's been normalized. Sine, you're normalizeable; you could get normalized too if you'd just learn your calculus!
Sine: Oh yeah? Well maybe I don't wanna be an acceptable wavefunction of a system!
Etothex: Can I be an acceptable wavefunction?
Group: NO!

Degenerate Eigenfunction

If you don't get the joke, please don't ask. It was based off the notes we took in PChem today and it's mostly only funny if you have taken PChem. Ok, it's probably not that funny at all. But I think it's hilarious and in the end, that's what matters. This is what happens when you take a really boring class (aka stats) immediately following an interesting one (aka pchem). More to come.

Levels of Accent Confusion

I realized today that most people don't really think of having an american professor as a luxury. Most people sort of expect it, especially considering USC is an american college. I however take A LOT of mathy, sciency type classes. Mathy sciency classes tend to, but are not limited to, be taught by people from a foreign country. This often comes with a ridiculously confusing accent. So here's my handy-dandy Richter Scale of Accents:

0- No accent at all! Maybe a slight hint of southern under there but really the only thing that could confuse you is the material he's teaching.

1- Accent is so slight that you may not notice at first that they're not american. Maybe a random word here or there could throw you off.

2- Accent is definitely foreign but he/she has obviously been either taking a lot of english classes or has been here FOREVER. Shouldn't give you too much trouble but keep an eye on their grammar.

3- Accent is thick enough for you to easily identify their homeland. This one may require you to pay much closer attention to what they're saying but you should be ok.

4- Accent is thick enough to make understanding difficult. You aren't going to get every word but if you can get the gist of things you'll at least know what to study.

5- They're straight up speaking a foreign language. Good luck.

New Classes!

Yippee! Oh come on now you knew this post was coming... If you're not ready, and/or not willing to put up with the following level of nerdiness, feel free to find a "cooler" blog to read. For those of you who have already joined the dark side and received your complementary cookie(s), please read on.

So there was really no point in posting yesterday on the true first day of the semester b/c I only actually had 2 classes yesterday. Mondays are a good day for me. I don't do much. I had business french for the first time yesterday morning. Should be an interesting class; we're going to be doing a wide variety of assignments, eventually including writing up our resumes french style and searching for and writing a cover letter for a real life internship that we might be interested in. Wonderfully practical and there's only 6 of us.

Physics is still not phun, but it will be less ohmygoshwhatthecrapamIsupposedtodo than last semester. I now fully know the tortures of using a clicker and CAPA. Yucky but I'll live.

I also got to stop in the research lab yesterday and now I'm all set on when I'm going in this semester.

Pchem. In chemistry major lingo, pchem is physical chemistry. It is organic's bigger, badder, older brother who likes to eat undergrads for breakfast on top of its Wheaties. The ACS (American Chemical Society) sells bumper stickers that say Honk if You Passed PChem, and assuming I survive Pchem I and II, I want one. Really though it should be ok. The professor seems really nice, doesn't have a foreign accent, and counts attendance for 5% of our grade. All desirable qualities.

Stats is a joke. This should not be a class. For real. I can't believe I'm getting 3 credit hours for this. Today he went over the syllabus and then briefly explained what a mean is, and how stem and leaf plots can help you visualize data. Which he defined for us. The only downside is that he has a REALLY thick chinese/japanese/asian accent. So I don't really know what he's saying, but according to the syllabus I've already learned everything he's going to teach.

I have chem lab for the first time tomorrow (just a recitation) and phys lab on thursday. Yippee!

Too True

Nobody will ever win the Battle of the Sexes. There's just too much fraternizing with the enemy.

~Henry Kissinger

Oh Steve...

"a sad, sad effort" is a bit of an understatement, don't you think? The band showed up. We were so cold we could barely play. The cheerleaders showed up. They were at least in the sun, but they only had jumpsuits to keep them warm. We at least had layers. 30,000 fans showed up. We gave them more than a homefield advantage. Everyone came but the football team.

They had four days of practice out there. They were in great hotel right by the stadium. They had heaters on the field to stand by if they got too cold. They had all the equipment they were used to. In short, they had every possible advantage. But, once again, our team is just not capable of winning a bowl game.

Next year they'd better do well and take us to the Chick-fil-A bowl so at least when they epically fail, the fans will be warm and dry!