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!

Quote Day!

How can one conceive of a one party system in a country that has over 200 varieties of cheese?

Charles de Gaulle

French general & politician (1890 - 1970)

Manatees!!

"Barbara Manatee, manatee, manatee, You are the one for me, one for me, one for me, Sent from up above, up above, up above, You are the one I love, one I love, Oh Barbara!" ~Silly Songs with Larry, Veggie Tales

Sometimes referred to as sea cows, manatees are infinitely amusing water mammals, but that's pretty much all I knew by myself. Oh and they live in marshes, which is bad for them because boats come through the shallow waters and hurt the manatees. Well, my interest in manatees was recently renewed when a friend of mine posted some manatee pictures from a recent dive.

Here I bring you the knowledge gleaned from my questions to Caleb, marine science major, and manatee semi-expert:

He doesn't know what's up with the eyes, but the nose plugs keep poor Barbara Manatee from breathing in water. He also tells us that manatees are fairly friendly, if a little slow. They tend to be curious or indifferent to the presence of people, and enjoy having their bellies scratched.

Our outside research (aka Wikipedia) adds that they are grazing herbivores and are endangered. They have no natural predators but as I mentioned before they get hurt by boat propellors.

Save the Manatees!

Machu Picchu

Well, it wouldn't really be my blog if I didn't provide you with random and only marginally interesting information.  Today's topic? Machu Picchu. And no it is not a pokemon.

It's a place, as you can now see, and my current desktop background is a picture of it from NatGeo. The NG photo also includes a llama :).  Anyway, Machu Picchu (pronounced matchu peektchu) is an Incan site in Peru, and is often considered to be the "Lost City of the Incas". It's situated 8000 ft above sea level.

It was mostly-ish constructed in the mid 1400s but it was completely abandoned within a century. The natives were likely wiped out by smallpox from spanish conquistadors, although historians are pretty sure the spanish knew nothing about the city.

It lay utterly abandoned for centuries. There are some indications that in the mid 1800s the site was visited by and plundered by various europeans. There are also many claims for discovery of the site at the turn of the century, but it wasn't until American historian Hiram Bingham found it in 1911. He wrote numerous books and articles on Machu Picchu through out is life. National Geographic devoted their entire April 1913 issue to the site. Although more than one theory exists about the role of Machu Picchu in the Incan Empire, the generally accepted one names it as an estate of the emperor Pachacuti.

Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site but they are likely to add it to the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger because of heavy tourism.

A New Direction

So, I haven't exactly posted in a while. Ok a really long time. Stopped for a while cuz I didn't really have much to say after France, then I kinda picked up a little with school, but once again ran out of things to say. So here we are way later with the most recent post as like two months ago. Oops.

I needed a new theme, and the blog needed a face-lift for sure. My mother always refers to me as her "Scarlett" for my occasional inability to recognize that parades do occasionally get rained on. Minor side story: My senior year, in the midst of the marching band rehearsals, crazy ridiculous volunteering for clubs and such, and the academic, um, "thrill" of 4 AP classes, I somehow became in charge of organizing the Homecoming Parade, which is kind of a big deal at my high school. It was crazy and ridiculous and I'm still not sure how I pulled it off, but throughout the process whenever my mom asked what would happen if it rained, my immediate answer was, "It won't." It didn't.

Anyway, I don't always have such a lovely Life Will Be Perfect rose-colored sunglasses outlook, but I try. I gripe and whine like everybody else from day to day, but at the end of the day, tomorrow is still another day. Except of course if your math homework is due tomorrow. But I don't have math anymore so that's no longer a problem.

I'm also an EXTREMELY left brained person. It has its ups and downs. My idea of creative is clean lines with funky colors, and a slight chemistry theme. Yup. There you have it: Jackie's blog, take two.

Joy to the World!

I did something in lab today!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got to learn how to cut off a piece of silver tubing, use pliers to crimp one end shut, melt the edges closed, fill it with reagents, and seal it. And then we put it in the furnace! Yay!

I also know what I'm doing now. I'm synthesizing new ruthanates and gallanates for basic research. In Calbert-terms, I'm making new stuff for the sake of making new stuff. Yippee!

Oh and my math professor gave the whole class a 1-day extension on the homework so now I have time to fix those draining tank problems. Woot!

AND as if my day wasn't good enough, I got my guard rail today! Now I don't have to worry about falling out of my loft anymore.

Could we just all have a round of applause for God for delivering such a well-rounded, wonderful day?

Physics in not Phun

...but it is funny. Today I had my double dose: lecture and lab. All the normal people are sitting there cringing on my behalf and my mom's thinking to herself, "Lucky!"

I am not lucky. Physics class is awful. I like my teacher, and I have a great TA. I know another sophomore in the lecture class with me, and overall the class doesn't seem too hard. The lab is going to be downright easy. No the problem I have with my physics class (and more specifically the lab) is what my problem usually is: There are just too many stupid people in the world.

Now I realize that I have an unusually low tolerance for people who ask dumb questions, but there was this girl in my lab today (who I'm assuming is a freshman and will hither to be known as 'Emily') who really just shocked me. I just didn't think it was possible.

'Emily' was that girl. The one that the is in books, and tv shows, and movies, and who is in all sorts of hypothetical examples, but who you didn't think actually existed. Like I really didn't think anyone ever actually asked the teacher if he was going to give them the answers. My teachers always say things such as, "Well, I'm never going to just give you the answer, but I'll help you work through the problem." So our TA goes and says something along these lines and she follows this up with, "But after that, you'll, like, tell us, the right answer, right?"

It was like that the whole class. And all we did was go over the syllabus.

It's going to be a long year.