nerdy chemistry not-so-fun

So I'm sure you're all on pins and needles wondering how I did on the o-chem test.

Well, I know I got one point, for sure (out of, I guess it was 100 points total, I can't remember) - the extra credit point. I am fairly certain I at least did better than single-digits. I think I got at least a 29.

But the best I could possibly have done is about a 40, assuming the TAs were very lenient in their grading. Especially since there were about three questions (out of 7 or 8) where I had to leave nearly the whole thing blank because I didn't have the first clue how to answer them.

Eh, well, grades should be posted by this afternoon, so I guess I'll know how I did soon enough.

In other news, briefly:

• The Thursday Screeners film tonight was Wittgenstein, and it was really good. I mean, weird, obviously, but interesting and off-beat - not so weird as to be inaccessible.


• It's almost playoffs time in the Lake Effect fantasy hockey league, already! I never even got around to posting about my team's roster (the original roster, or all the lineup changes I had to make over the course of the season), or my attempts to design a team logo, or the fact that I have led the league all season (not as impressive a feat as it sounds, since our league only has four teams and at least one of the team owners - Bean, I'm looking at you - has pretty much given up on the whole fantasy hockey thing).


• There's an anime mini-convention thing going on tomorrow (Saturday, 3/25) at the Palace Theater. It's $10 for an advance ticket - I don't know how much it'll be at the door. I'm still not sure I want to go, but it does look kind of fun. Are any of y'all going? (Cathy, if you're reading this - this question is most specifically directed at you.)


• Uhm... oh, there was more, but I'm really tired and I should have been in bed two hours ago.

'Night, y'all.

nerdy chemistry fun

That's right - I put the words "nerdy chemistry" and "fun" together. Here's why: the SU chemistry department is running a small contest, to fill their element wall. If you don't want to click on that link to see what the element wall looks like, picture a display case with small niches arranged in the shape of the periodic table of the elements (one niche per element). In each niche are - or will be, once they fill the thing - examples of things containing the element (a soda can in the Aluminum niche, for example).

The thing's been mostly-empty for at least as long as I've been taking chem classes at SU - possibly even longer - and it drives me nuts every time I walk by it. It shouldn't be so hard to fill it! It's a fun project, thinking up stuff you can cite as uses for various elements. It doesn't even have to be something that actually contains the element - just something that represents something that contains the element (for instance, in the Magnesium niche there's a tiny toy bicycle, representing the Mg used in racing bike frames). The objects just have to be small - no bigger, the contest guidelines point out, than a can of soda.

The fabulous prizes will be awarded by raffle, not by quality of the objects you bring in - so really, if you spin it just right, almost any old thing will do. Do you have a crappy painted ceramic candy dish you got stuck with in a Secret Santa thing one Christmas? Submit it for the Antimony niche, as an example of ceramic glazes! Did your nephew leave a bunch of tiny plastic mementos after his last visit? They'll fill the niche for Carbon, if nothing else! They list potential objects for elements here, tho' they don't mention that many of those niches are at least partially filled - like, someone's already brought in a travel-size bottle of Head & Shoulders for the Selenium niche.

I submitted some dried-up glow-in-the-dark paint I got for 80 cents on clearance at Jo-ann's for Radium. I'm planning to make a list of the things they need most (which I will post here, if anyone is interested), and try to fill as many of those as I can - even if I don't win a prize, just so I can have the obsessive-compulsive satisfaction of helping to fill the display. 'Cause really, the element wall is a neat idea, but right now it just looks kind of sad.

And now - I am off to the chem study session! Because we have a test on Thursday (!) and I can barely remember what an atom is.

what I should've done over spring break (but didn't)

I should have...

• cleaned the apartment


• done oodles of laundry


• adjusted my car insurance policy


• finished Adler's sweater


• maintained my dreads (waxing & palm-rolling)


• done a post-a-day series here


• caught up on my Japanese homework


• caught up on my chemistry homework


• worked ahead on my physics homework


• given Lucy a bath


• knit on something (anything!)


• updated my yarn stash spreadsheet


• synced my PDA to my laptop


• uploaded pix from my camera


• fixed all the broken bits in my blog template code


• just generally gotten my shit together

I didn't do any of those things, and the rest of my semester is going to be miserable because of that.

I did manage to:

• pay our bills (albeit somewhat late)


• write a few key e-mails (too few, but some is better than none, I guess)


• finally do some real geocaching with the GPS my wonderful in-laws got me for Christmas (I found 3 caches - yay!)


• spend some quality crafting time with Bean (more yay!)


• develop several large zits on my face that will not go away (not so yay!)


• clear off a section of the couch, only to clutter it right back up again (the antithesis of yay!)


• realize my Porter Hall, Tennessee CD is missing (the nadir to yay!'s zenith)


• futz around online a lot (neither all yay! nor all nay!)


• wax about a third of my dreads


• totally veg out - which I really did need to do - I just should have kept it to two days instead of five, y'know?

Anyway. I have to go to bed now, 'cause I have to get up for work tomorrow, and after that I have a super-fun review session for organic chem to attend, because we've got a test on Thursday (yeah, a big exam right after we get back from spring break - thanks, Prof. K!). Ooh, that's one more thing I did manage to do this week - study just a tiny bit for the upcoming organic exam! Not that it'll really do me a whole lot of good. But at least I can say I tried.

spring in Syracuse

You know it's spring in Syracuse when, yesterday, it was 67 degrees outside, and today, it's snowing.

Sheez.

(And what's up with Blogger lately? It's taken me like, 25 minutes just to post this one thing.)

2 years ago today...

This pic was taken by my friend Karen, who was one of my bridesmaids, shortly after Johnny and I were wed by Elvis. It just might be my absolute most favorite picture from our wedding day.

Hard to believe it's been two years already!

bunch of savages in this town

You can add egging to the long list of crap that's happened to my beloved baby Mini, Lucy, since we moved to Syracuse (and I swear, I oughta make that a "hall of fame" post, as often as I find myself referring to it. Maybe on the next template update).

Egging, seriously. Some dumbasses pelted her with eggs. I say dumbasses, because, aside from the obvious stupidity of wanton vandalism, they egged my car. What is this, 1959? I mean, I'm not complaining or anything, since egg is a lot easier to clean off than spray paint. But you get zero street cred for egging. Also, they're total dumbasses because right now, in the middle of snow season, she is so covered in salt and grime that I didn't even notice she'd been egged until I looked at the mirror surface of the driver's side door mirror. Egging someone's car when it's already filthy is just pointless. To cause maximum irritation, you have to do it right after the car has just been washed. And you have to hit the car with more than just two eggs.

But anyway, like I said - bunch of savages in this town.

A few quick updates: Finland Finland Finland did lose that hockey gold medal to Sweden, if you haven't heard already (alas!). I got a 41 on my organic chem test (which sounds bad until you realize the class average was a 43). And I have a poopload of other exciting, positive things to post about, but I can't do it right now, because I have to put down the knitting and shut the laptop and go to bed, dammit, because I have to go to class in the morning. Bleh.