Sam’s Blog

I think the last month would be best conveyed in list form:

• CHEMISTRY IS OVER.  I am pleased.  I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do with the chemistry minor I just finished, but mostly I’m just happy that I’m done.  Quant’s dying gasp produced a B, which is satisfactory to me at this time, considering.  This is my second B.
• I’m staying in Cate to work as an RA next year.  This also pleases me, since I really like the Cate staff and my center bosses.  I hope to be back in Honors (which is a part of Cate), but I’m resolved to be happy in whatever situation in which I am placed.  We should find out exact floor / house assignments this summer.
• Speaking of this summer, I’ll be staying in Norman to work as a summer RA.  I’m going to take a May intersession class that I can’t fit into my fall ‘08 class schedule due to conflicts.  I’ll also be working on a research project called a review article.  Undergraduates normally don’t get the chance to do these (it’s a pretty daunting task) so I need to take the opportunity that I have.  It’ll be a LOT of work, but should be worth it.  Maybe I’ll get published, maybe not… but either way it’ll be great experience.
• I didn’t draw for 3 months in an attempt to make myself focus.  I let myself pick up my tablet pen this Thursday afternoon and have been drawing like a woman obsessed since then.  Here’s a 40% zoom of the painting I’ve been working on for a while. Maybe someday I’ll have a poster of this, if it turns out well.  The original file is big enough for a decent sized print.
• Did I mention I’ll be staying in Norman this summer?  Yay human contact!  (Relatives aside… Though I love my family I do not have conversations with anyone in Muldrow that interest me for more than a couple of minutes)

So, yes.

Sometimes I forget that, in spite of thousands of years of domestication, housecats are perfectly capable predators when given the chance.  I was rather impressed that the feral cat had managed to catch a squirrel (they’re fast little buggers).  The group of girls sitting on the lawn was apparently not impressed, judging by their screams of terror.

Good grief, people.  It’s just a cat with his dinner…

Perhaps I should rethink my general policy of not buying new shoes until the soles of my previous pair start to fall off. My current pair (which I’ve worn almost every single day since I bought them around 2 years ago) is still in good shape as far as stitching goes, but the soles are missing about a centimeter in thickness from the heel and they’ve acquired an …interesting odor from me wearing them to the gym and spilling fishtank water on my feet at least once a week.

I’ve learned over my years that it’s rather silly for me to own more than one pair of sneakers at a time. I wear one pair of shoes almost exclusively, even though I own others (except for occasional forays into the world of flip flops* and [very] occasionally dress shoes). It’s not really a conscious decision; I just always reach for the same pair of favorite shoes. Knowing this, it’d simply be more efficient (and cheaper) to only buy one pair of shoes at a time.

Maybe I’ll go to a shoe store soon and look for the next One True Pair.

_{*I’ve had the same pair of black Reef flip flops for 4 years. Those things are really durable and comfy.}

I am now the very pleased owner of this ring from James Avery in OKC.  Yay.  :)

Thank God that period of frantic activity is over.  More will come, but perhaps I can rest between now and the next.

1 more week until Spring Break, then the GRE March 22nd.

Making a list out of the next 10 days so I don’t forget anything:

In no particular order:
• Make sign for FIR event Friday
• Prep for Physiology lab Thursday
• Hang 14 or so fliers for FIR event Friday (remember to print them somewhere)
• Chalk for Bowling event before it gets dark and cold(er) today. 3pm?
• Office hours 4-7pm. Work on homework or else
• Mandatory not-fun today 7-8pm
• Condense several hundred / thousand or so data points into 6 graphs and interpret
• Do calculations for Wednesday’s lab
• Go over all lab sheets from Physiology to turn one in on Thursday
• Half page descriptive paragraph about a relative in Spanish
• Read journal article for Dr. Schlupp
• Remember food logs
• Start on Quant homeworks and study frantically for test March 6th (may be rescheduled, don’t know yet)
• Don’t forget to finish Stats homework for next Tuesday — Test 2 March 11th
• Make menu sign for Bowling event - Due by Friday
• FEED THE FISH  <– Daily event
• Water changes for fish…Sometime. Friday?
• Top rounds Saturday night
• Refill prescription
• Birthday Thursday. Do Spanish before Thursday night so you can relax after lab gets out at 9:30pm
• Meet with Maryann about March bulletin board decorations (today 3:30pm)
• Decorate 4 bulletin boards with Making Choices theme before March 5th at 4:30pm
• Turn in report on antacid titration Monday March 3rd

Will update with more as it comes up and cross out things that are done.

It’s taken a while to get a schedule for this semester properly cemented. But here you go

Odd moods lately, but it’s getting better. Those of you who have been weirded out by my hyperactive mood swings lately will be happy to know that I’ve been switched to the non-caffeinated drink exercise group. That’s the short story, anyway.  More info here.

I begin to see upper body definition where there was none before. This pleases me. It also pleases me to report that I can lug a water bottle 24-pack from my truck and up the stairs with much less effort than it took pre-exercise study. I think that overall this study is a good thing for me. I’ve lost about 3lbs in 2 weeks.

Winter rain is cold and (obviously) wet, but I like the way everything smells afterwards.

So the people who are supposed to protect you cannot or will not for some reason?  Too bad, so sad, time to move on and put that big brain of yours to work and protect yourself.

Pray for calm and wisdom and then get to work.

Today in quantitative analysis lab I learned a better way to transfer concentrated hydrochloric acid from a small beaker into a larger beaker containing water and unknown iron sample.  While holding a watch glass almost completely over the mouth of the larger beaker, pour the acid very VERY slowly for a couple of seconds, then gently swirl the larger beaker.  Make sure the watch glass is completely over the mouth of the larger beaker, and keep an eye on the little beaker full of acid in your other hand.  Foregoing the watchglass and stirring with a stirring rod instead of swirling results in the HCl vapor escaping and going up your nose (that burns) and condensing on your arms (that also burns).
I am not exactly sure which variety of acid tried to eat my shirt.  Fortunately I was not very fond of that shirt.

I really need to do laundry.

I found a lovely sunbeam in the Physical Science stairwell last week (remember this?).  It was there again this week, so I think that place will be my thinking spot while I wait for lab.  The hallway outside lab smells terrible because the organic chemistry labs are doing an experiment that involves boiling lots and lots of tea bags in very little water for hours.