What on Earth?

Well, I'm back from spring break, and giving my sister a surprise 16th birthday party and am now back to school. So I thought that maybe I should get back to blogging as well. I had lab today, a typical Monday, but today we didn't work with lab partners which meant that while I did have to do all the work and didn't have to be stress that my lab partner would spill acid on my new jeans or set something dangerous on fire. It was a very relaxing titration lab. Basically it went like this, mix some stuff up, add it to something else and repeat for different colors (pH values). It was very fun.

Since we have moved into town we have started to get more catalogs in the mail my favorite so far is called "What on Earth" and it has the best items (Not that I would actually buy, but very funny) I thought I would share my favorites with you. These are printed on numerous different kinds of items and are always good for a laugh.

1. In pig years I would be a football.
2. Humpty Dumpty was pushed
3. Mission Statement: We the willing, led by the unknowing are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much for so long with so little. We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
4. If I'm on time call the Vatican and report a miracle
5. Unsupervised children will be given sugar and a free puppy.
6. I did not escape they gave me a day pass.
7. My significant other goes "Meow"
8. Many have eaten here, few have died.
9. Many people have eaten my cooking and gone on to lead perfectly normal lives.
10. Don't make me poison your dinner.
11. May your dreams come true and your dragons be few.
12. Ladies: don't forget the rummage sale it's a chance to get rid of all those things not worth keeping around the house, don't forget to bring your husbands.
13. I did the math and I'm still confused.
14. I didn't imply you were old, I just asked if you ever met Lincoln.
15. Yes. It is always about me.
16. Life is too short to cook for you people.
17. Please don't interrupt me when I'm talking to myself.
18. Instant human just add coffee.
19. I CAN"T HEAR YOU. old age has some benefits.
20. Here I am. now what are your other two wishes?

Cheers!

Your Literary Junkophile.

Amendment 1: 21. Sarcasm. Just one more service I offer.

Amendment 2: I am now hooked on English Country Dancing. I'll let you know if I meet Dr. Darcy.

Amendment 3: For those of you that don't know, English country dancing is the dancing from movies like Pride and Prejudice, and Emma. But boy is it fun.

Amendment 4: Even with all the sayings I have given you today. Never tickle a sleep dragon is still my favorite.

Closets and Calories

Well, today is Tuesday the second official day of my spring break vacation. I am already feeling more relaxed then last week. I hope that by the end of this week I will be up to the final two months of school. Complete with exams and a final decision about where I will be attending college next year. But right now my biggest decisions is whether or not I should eat my chocolate bunny or egg first. And boy is that a hard decision.

Because I am on break I will not tell you an interesting chem/math/psych fact. Because I'm sure you will all miss so much.


I live in one of those houses where there is always some kind of noise going on. My sister playing the flute, my dad talking to his computer, my mom doing the washing, someone listening to music or other day to day noises. If fact some times I feel over powered by the noise. You feel like going out of your room and saying very loudly in a voice that is really only adding to the noise level "BE QUIET, please" But of course that wouldn't endear myself to my family in a very family friendly manner. So when I feel the need for peace and quiet I retreat to my closet. It is a very nice closet, big with lots of space and is in the most marvelous place in the house. For some reason my closet blocks out most noise. My person feeling is that the builders messed up and accidentally sound proofed it, but for what ever reason my closet is the quietest place in the house. I can sit in there and read a book completely oblivious to the sounds of life happening around me. (This would not be advantageous if the house was being broken into or general public/natural disaster was happening. But really what are the chances that the few minutes a day I spend in my closet are the minutes where the house would be broken into or a public/natural disaster happened.) The other reason I enjoy being in my closet is that it is extremely messy. And there is something strangely appealing about being surrounded my one's own mess.


Cheers!

Your Literary Junkophile.

Amendment 1: I wonder if today is Thursday? I could never get the hang of Thursdays. - Arthur from The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Amendment 2: Check out freerice.com

Amendment 3: Does eating chocolate while standing over the sink cancel out the calories from the chocolate? And does it matter if they are food calories or chemical calories? These are the deep questions the calorie philosophers try to understand.

Resurrection, and house keeping subjects

Well, Happy Resurrection Day or for the rest of the world Happy Easter, either way He is risen indeed!

Now that I have covered the particulars of the day, back to life. On Friday I took by second chemistry exam of the semester. I felt like it went well. I can only hope that I did as well as last time. After that I spend a furious few hours running around with my mom trying to find a new outfit for Easter. I failed nearly completely. So today I had to wear a mix match of clothes that a. didn't belong to me or b. I haven't worn in a long while. After all the shopping woes, I had to be at church early for the Good Friday service because I was singing and then stayed late for worship team practice. The end result of my evening was I left the house at 6:15 and got home at 10:30 exhausted and with a much lower level of hearing than before. I love worship team practice though I do believe I could live without the inevitable hearing loss.

Saturday was spend at a friend's house eating more than was good for me, and seeing people that I really didn't feel a need to see. Funny how Saturdays can go like that.

Today of course is Easter which meant my church has two services instead of one, which translated for the people on the worship team to: get up at 6:30 on an completely non-Easter weathered morning, and be at church at 7:45. Praise God that the church leadership didn't chose to do a Sunrise Service. I do believe we would still be waiting for the sun to rise and the service to start. I really do love Easter; it is one of the best holidays and certainly the most important to the christian church. Has anyone besides me ever heard the customary Easter greeting that goes "He is Risen" to which the other person responds "He is risen indeed"? None of my friends at church had heard it. I very much like that greeting.

I am now on spring break so I should have some time this week to see friends and finish my very enjoyable Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.

Cheers!

Your Literary Junkophile.


Amendment 1: Oh by the way, thanks for riding on the train of life with me. I just thought I would throw that out there.

Amendment 2: The correct answer to my chemistry question was 7.14%. Which I can see that one person figured out. So at least my mom remembers her chemistry.

Amendment 3: He is Risen.

Amendment 4: I will be waiting for your customary responses.

Studying, Selections and Special Songs

Well, despite my dire post yesterday, I am here once again typing away. I spent most the day studying, big surprise there as I have my calc. exam tomorrow and chem. on Friday. Chemistry class today was one of those days where I came into class completely sure of my understanding of something , in this case entropy, and left confussed and scratching my head. (Yes, I meant confussed). Between studying I was practicing a song that I am sing at my church's Good Friday Service on, you guessed it, Friday. I only got the song yesterday; it is this hymn that I haven't ever heard.

I have spring break next week! I have already planned out my reading selections. I don't have much time for reading during school, so on breaks I try to get through as many books as possible. I have chosen the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy series for this vacation. Now, I'm sure that you are all thinking "don't those books have atheistic overtones?" (or something to that effect). You may be right. Douglas Adams was a self professed atheist, but I am fascinated by atheist books. Authors like that have a very different way of looking at the world and that can make for a very interesting read. Don't worry, I'm not about to give up my faith just because I read one book that looks at things from a different perspective. If I was easily persuaded I would have long ago given up a Christian worldview from all the stuff my chemistry professor says every week. So I will let you know how the books are and whether or not they warrant your time in reading them. The movie however, is definitely worth seeing. It is really funny and really well done. And it really isn't all that anti-christian, not as much as some supposedly family-films.


Cheers!

Your Literary Junkophile.

Amendment 1: When I get a chance I will dispel the common christian myth that the theory of evolution violates the 2nd Law of Thermo.

Amendment 2: Enthalpy is energy that you can use to do work. Entropy not so much. In fact the definition of entropy is energy that is unavailable to do work.

Amendment 3: Has anyone tickled a sleeping dragon recently, (though if you had you wouldn't be reading this, now would you).

Amendment 4: Here is one more reason why I like Stargate Atlantis. http://gateworld.net/video/fanvideos/1205774453.shtml

dragons and hurried blogs

Well, I have twenty minutes until I need to start homework so I need to type fast, and without pause. If that is even possible for me. Usually these things take me about 35 minutes to write, edit and post so I need to set a record today. I have been really busy with homework and will continue to be for the next three days so it is very likely that I won't get around to posting again until after my chem exam on Friday. So if you check this and I haven't posted again, feel content that you have a whole lot more free time than I do right now.

Here are some interesting things that I have noticed/found in the last few days.

1: Check out "Will it Blend?" on youtube. Just type that in and watch to your heart's content.

2: Algebra 1 absolute value questions are ambiguous.

3: Why use one calc. 2 Taylor series when you can use two, for only three times the work.

4: I really need to read some fiction, my brain is starting to think of everything in biblical terms (I mean old testament culture stuff).

5: It is best to practice your stuff for voice lessons before 9:00 pm on the night before.

6: Lab is much better with a lab partner that doesn't need babysitting.

7: Never tickle a sleeping dragon, because you are crunchy and good with ketchup. (Well I didn't just learn that, but it is very true).


Cheers!

Your Literary Junkophile.


Amendment 1: I really need to go do some chem homework, and calc. I need to do that as well.

Amendment 2: Beware of tomes that are addicting and distracting.

Amendment 3: And never tickle a sleeping dragon because...

Spectro...? and nothing worth mentioning

Well, once again I had another fun exciting event filled Sunday. My day started off with getting up at 7:45 (I know that is way too early on a Sunday) and then getting all dressed up for church. Going to church for a 9:00 practice that didn't end until the congregation sat down at which point the practice ended and the real music began. You have to love those hour and half practices. To make my day even busier I was part of the choir that sang as well (as if playing the keyboard wasn't enough for me each week). After all that music, I went out to lunch with my family and then home for some homework, that I was able to finish in record time because my math professor gives odd directions. That was basically my day in a nut shell. (Well, really it isn't a nut shell because I write so much about it. I real nut shell would be: get up, go to church, sing and play the piano, eat lunch, and homework)

My family has decided that April 16th should be a national holiday. National Tax Day is Done Day. If you came from a family whose dad is a tax accountant you would understand. Most people think that tax season has really only just started. For your information, tax season starts the day after Christmas. My family often jokes that my dad's office should install camp beds so their accountants can save time and gas money by sleeping there. The other thing about tax season that drives my mom, sister and I off the walls is how stressed my dad gets, and he has interesting ways of venting that stress. For about the last 3 weeks of tax season he just becomes unbearable to be around because he does nothing but tease us and joke around. I'm not sure how a large amount of stress can cause someone to become so horribly "funny" but apparently that is what it does to my father.

Right now my life is very boring at least if you don't find chemistry, calculus 2, and psychology interesting (Though I do happen to find all three of those subjects interesting so I am having a marvelous time). I am just plugging away at the semester awaiting my acceptance letter to the last college I applied to. You will have to excuse me now I am going to go finish my GV fish and Chips from lunch.


Cheers!

Your Exceedingly Boring Literary Junkophile.

Amendment 1: I am all set for tomorrow's chem lab. Spectrophotometric Determination of a Formation Constant. Sounds like fun!

Amendment 2: Don't worry if you don't know what that means, I'm not sure I do either.

Amendment 3: I absolutely love my purple sticky-note pad; I use it every day.

Stories of Pies and Pi

Happy Pi Day!

Well, I thought I would start off with my much anticipated look back at what pi has done for us. (Not to be confused with pie, that has really only improved our moods and increased weight gain).

1. Pi allows us to calculate the circumference of a circle. 2pir. In non-math terms this tells you how long the edge of your pie is.
2. Pi allows us to calculate the area of a circle. pir^2. In non-math terms this tells you how much pie you get in one pie dish.
3. Pi is also very helpful in trig. So if trigonometry is in your future learn to love pi now. (it also wouldn't hurt to remember that Sin(pi) equals 0.)

Now for some things you never knew about pi (but wished you did).

1. The first 22 digits of pi are 3.141592653897932846264.
2. Pi is an unending number. So you could calculate it and calculate it until you died and still not know what the last digit is.
3. The 10,000th digit of pi is 8. (don't worry I didn't do this myself; my math professor did it on a computer, not that you would be able to check if I'm right, at least not for a very long time).

Now that I have finished up the math side of pi, maybe you would like to hear some thing about pies.

I am the official pie crust maker in my family. When ever I go up to my grandparent's house for holidays I am the one that makes the pie crust. I learned from my grandmother before she went completely nuts and still remembered what a pie crust is and how to make one. When making a pie crust there are a few simple things you need to remember. Always know what the humidity is for that day, if effects how much water you add to the pie crust. If you feel like you have added enough water you have already added to much. It should feel too dry. Always use ice cold water, never warm and never room temperature water. The amount of water that is listed in the cook book is a suggestion, always feel free to add more or less as needed. For me, because it rains so much, I almost never use the full 8 tablespoons as listed for a two crust pie, usually more like 6 and 1/2, but never 8. As a famous pirate once said the "code (recipe) is more what you would call a guideline".

Now I need to go do some homework so I have lots of time tonight to bake a wonderful cherry pie, in my pi dish.


Cheers! and Happy Pi Day!

Your Literary Junkophile.

Amendment 1: I was looking over the last poll question, the one about the doxies, and I was wondering who said that they are kissed by a doxie every day? I know who three of the voters are, but not the fourth. So fess up!

Amendment 2: I see that only one person has attempted my chemistry question. And we can all see how my sister's guess turned out.

Amendment 3: And Yes, I will give you the answer for the chemistry question in a week.

pi, pie, and more pi

Well, I just added my killer chemistry poll question. We will see how many of you (if any) get it correct. I will give you a hint, the equation PV=nRT will be very helpful. I am enjoying my week of exam free class periods. But next week I have a calc. exam on thursday and then a chem. exam on friday. I should have an interesting week. My only happy thought will be "next week is spring break, next week is spring break". I hope that it will get me through my crazy and harrowing exams.

On a lighter note. I spent the afternoon in bed. Not in the way you are thinking, I was doing homework, but lying in your own bed doing calc. series, I could think of worse ways to spend a very rainy afternoon. I was completely soaked coming back from class today so nothing felt better than to curl up with a calculus text book and some hot tea. Yes, I know that a calculus text book may not be your choice of reading material, but I find it very enjoyable (sorry, I know I'm a math geek) (and what I'm about to tell you isn't going to make it any better).

Tomorrow, as I'm sure you know, is March 14th. But few of you may realize that march 14th is in fact Pi day, not the eating kind, the math kind. 3.14 is, of course, the first three digits of pi. Now in honor of this very special day I am going to bake a pie for my family. So now maybe you wish that you too had a pie baking math geek in the family. I'm am going to make it in my pi dish that I got for christmas. My pi dish is decorated with the famous numbers and the honor deserving symbol itself, I get the giggles when ever I see it. (OK, so maybe that is a little concerning, but love me love my math).



Cheers!

Your Literary Math Happy Junkophile.

Amendment 1: No chemistry fact today. Try to figure out the chem question.

Amendment 2: Tomorrow, a look at what pi has done for us, and maybe some pie details as well.

Amendment 3: Love me, love my pi (pie)!

Limits and Arcs

Well, last night I watched the Ark of Truth with my mom and sister. For those of you that don't know, the Ark of Truth (for some reason I keep wanting to type Acre of Truth instead of Ark of Truth), is the first direct to DVD SG1 movie, and yes that means this was a Stargate Movie. It finished up the plot lines that had been left hanging last spring when SG1 finished its impressive 10 year run on TV. I can't wait until my new stargate buddy reaches the end of the series and can watch the movie with me. So Mariah, keep watching.

Last night I also had my first 4x4 meeting. (This is something my church does, four ladies each host one meeting over a four month period, hence the term 4x4) My group is very spread out in age. There is a woman that is old enough to be my grandmother, a woman my mom's age, and another college students. But that is really what makes it fun. Most people don't (well, at least I don't) get to spend time with people of different age ranges and this is one of the few opportunities I have.

Have any of you ever spent time looking out a window that looks out on the street? I do it a lot. It is really very interesting. Some people drive by at a speed that is much to fast for a busy neighborhood that has lots of small children. Other people go so slowly that you are sure that either they are lost, very old, just out for a joy-ride or scoping out your house to burglarize it. But when they come driving back a few minutes later you realize that they were indeed lost. I still look out every time I see someone drive past, trying to figure out who they are, and what they are doing on our street. Old habits die hard I suppose.


Cheers!

Your Literary Junkophile.


Amendment 1: No chemistry fact today. I'm writing a really good poll question for tomorrow.

Amendment 2: However, for you learning maniacs, here is a calc. formula.

This is the limit comparison test to tell you if something diverges or converges. If An is greater than zero and Bn is greater than zero and the limit n goes to infinity An/Bn equals L, where zero is less than L and L is less than infinity then the Sum of An and the Sume of Bn converge or diverge together.

Amendment 3: I love the limit comparison test!

life and future blog promises

Well, life goes on. Right now it feels like I have hit that point in the semester where everything runs together. I'm not sure what I did yesterday (wait I didn't even have school yesterday) and what I did today. My life is one big homework session, with a few notable exceptions.

1) Like I said I didn't have school yesterday.
2) I'm tutoring an algebra 1 student on tuesdays. Thought I suppose you could call this school, but algebra 1 was so long ago that it really doesn't seem hard or even much like school.
3) I'm working on planning my sister's 16th birthday. I won't tell you what is happening since she reads this, but it's going to be exciting.
4) I'm also singing in my church Easter Choir. That should be interesting.
5) I'm writing a near daily blog (that counts for something).
6) I am as big a Sci-Fi nut as ever.

So you see, I really do have a life outside of school. Even if that life is small and sad it is a life. No seriously, sometimes it does feel like all I do is school, but that's when I realize that I have lots of other activities that I can find some relaxing time from. This blogging is one of those.

Well, I better go do some homework!

I almost forgot a chemistry fact. PV=nRT, that is used for gases. P is the pressure. V is the volume. n is the number of moles (not the hairy kind, the chemistry kind). R is the gas constant. T is the temperature. You can use this equation to find any of the variables provided you can measure the others. So this turns out to be vary useful in chemistry.


Cheers!

Your Literary Junkophile.


Amendment 1: If you are reading this, be sure to vote on my doxie question.

Amendment 2: You all do realize what a doxie is, right?

Amendment 3: I hope you all remember the chemistry facts, because my next poll will be a chemistry quiz.

Cell phones and analogies

Imagine going through life talking on a cell phone. Only your cell phone carrier isn’t Verizon. You don’t get service everywhere, and sometimes your service cuts out right in the middle of an important sentence. You have trouble with the phone itself; you can’t turn up the volume properly so when ever you are in a noisy room the cell phone noise and the room noise get mixed together. You wish you could just talk to the person face to face then you could get clues about their meaning by their body language and face expressions but you can’t. Even worse some times you miss someone’s call because you were talking to someone else. They think you are ignoring them when really you were just involved in listening to someone else. You would get tired easily because you expend so much energy trying to listen to your cell phone. And occasionally there is a loud noise on the other end of the phone line that really isn’t that loud, but is so surprising that it scares and shocks you. Your phone, for some unknown reason, amplifies high pitched noises so you hear them better than all the other types of sound. There are nights when even though you aren’t talking to someone at the time, the static of your phone is so loud that it keeps you up.

I know that I try to stay off of meaningful subjects, but I just thought it would be interesting for you to see what I go through everyday because of my auditory processing disorder. When I really stop to think about it, it really does cause me some odd-ball effects, which most people don’t even realize I deal with. So take a moment and be thankful that you don’t have a “cell phone” forever attached to your head.


Cheers!

Your Literary Junkophile.


Amendment 1: I'm not trying to depress you or make you feel sorry for me, I just want you to know that I'm not ignoring you or not listening to you, I'm just being me.

Amendment 2: I'm feeling much better today, and I got a lot of homework done today.

Amendment 3: Don't forget about those clocks tonight!

skipping and springing

Well, I skipped school today. I'm sure that everyone just let out a abnormally large gasp, but I did. And I feel that I have a good reasong. You see, today I was a very bad student and a very good big sister. My sister has a concert tonight, and I knew that I would never be up for that extremely long adventure if I spent the morning at school.So as much as I hate to miss classes and as much as I want to stay home and watch the season final of Stargate Atlantis, I slept in this morning. I do have some homework that I should complete today, so I don't have to much to do this weekend.

Oh by the way, Sunday is springing forward day (daylight saving time), so remember to set your clocks forward one hour. I hate the spring portion of daylight saving time. You lose a whole hour of sleep on the day that I get up the earliest (Sunday). So normally I am a little cranky on Sunday mornings but this sunday is going to be a little bit more fascinating if you were a fly on my wall, especially since I am already sick. The other interesting thing about the spring daylight saving time is the inevitable person on the worship band being late. I believe I have my money on a college student (hopefully not me).

Because I'm not feeling well, this will be the end of this post.


Cheers!

Your Ill Literary Junkophile.


Amendment 1: For the first time I can't think of any amendments.

Amendment 2: Of course once you have a 1 you have to have a 2. I wouldn't want to be accused of bad grammer.

Sore Throats and chemistry honors

Well, apparently my prediction that I was getting a cold was spot on. I have a sore throat, stuffed up nose, general blah feeling and lots of homework. Though, thankfully today is thursday so really the only thing I have to do today is calc. and a little chemistry.

Today I completed my first round of exams. I had chemistry and calc. last week and I finished up today with a 67 multiple-choice question psych exam. It went very well, considering I was using a bubble sheet (scantron). I am the type of person that almost failed the SATs by not knowing how to correctly fill in my name on those sheets, so any test that uses one is not a good test for me. However, I finished with plenty of time only to have to sit there for another 10 minutes because I had stupidly chosen a seat in the middle of a row and was completely boxed in on both sides. Everyone needs to remind me next time I have a psych exam to sit on the end of a row. But now I am done until the week before spring break which really is only two weeks away, but I am choosing to enjoy those two weeks that are exam free to my highest ability. (There is something wrong with that last sentence, but I seem to have lost the ability to think gramatically, at least when I am sick).

I have been a bit lazy today about homework. I haven't done any yet. But I do have two very good excuses. 1: I am sick (I find this almost always takes care of most insignificant things that I am responsible for) and 2: the people who own my little valley are doing construction and clean-up down there. They are being very distracting, and entertaining for me. Either they are working on their basketball area or they are cleaning up the mess the flooding made. But all of it beats homework. (I guess I could just close my blinds, but where is the fun in that?).

In honor of completing my last exam (for two weeks) I will forgo the chemistry fact of the day. However, since I didn't write one yesterday I will make up for that in today's post. But remember that this is for yesterday not today.

For fun I will give you one of the problems on my chemistry exam last week. See if you chemistry buffs (ok, so maybe I am the only one here) can tell me what the answer is.

A 25mL sample of 0.1996 M V2+ solution requires 48.97mL of 0.3000 M Ce4+ to titrate to equivalence. The Ce4+ is converted to Ce3+ in the reaction; what is the oxidation number of the vanadium ion at equivalence?


Cheers!

Your Literary Junkophile.

Amendment 1: I really need to figure out my grammatical problems when I am sick.

Amendment 2: My mom finally mowed out lawn.

Amendment 3: As I'm sure you guessed the oxidation number on vanadium is +5.

Amendment 4: Remember that chemistry fact counted for yesterday not today. Today is: honor the end of exams (for two weeks) day.

Amendment 5: I actually posted this without a title but I went back and added one. Forgetful me. (but I am sick, remember)

psych and silliness

Well, once again, nothing important happened today. I went through my daily routine of getting up, rushing madly around my house in a sleepy daze trying not to forget anything, driving to school, where I didn't really understand the calc. 2 lesson, only to realize that I had been thinking about it all wrong the whole class period (see, I'm not impervious to math trouble), then working on one problem in chemistry to find out I had done it wrong, but that one I did understand why. After all of that I came home watched the rest of a very sad and depressing movie, and spent the rest of the afternoon studying for my psych exam tomorrow.

I did however, have one, shall we say, blonde moment. I got an email from my psych prof. saying that I should bring a "scantron" to class tomorrow. So the first thing I did was google what a "scantron" actually was. Apparently, it is the thing that you fill the bubbles in for a test. I guess that the school is to cheap to give them to us, we have to bring them. But I did feel very silly for not knowing what one is, I'm sure that is something that if I was living in the dorms would have become all too clear.

The other thing I realized today, other then finding out what a scantron is, was that psychology isn't very good for me. I already have the tendancies to analyze people and actually knowing something about psychology is just making that come out more. So after this semester, no more psych for me.

Cheers!

Your Literary Junkophile.

Amendment 1: Sorry this was short tonight.

Amendment 2: I thinking I'm getting a cold and I really need to get to bed.

Amendment 3: I have to get up early to get a scantron at the bookstore.

blogs and warnings

Well, about yesterday, I forgot to blog. I was working on my lab report (and yes, I finished it with out having to redo it twice like last week) and then my sister came in and asked me if I was planning on watching Jon and Kate Plus 8, and of course the answer was yes. So I ran off and watched that and by the time I finished hanging out with my family it was after 11 and sleep is something I have found I need to get every night for at least 8 hours. But I am back now and ready for blogging.

Before I say anything else I sould mention that my sister didn't sleep in my room on Sunday night. She slept with mom. Apparently, I'm not as safe as my mom, or maybe she just knows that if an alien did attack, I wouldn't hesitate to throw her at it and run screaming out of my room. I'm such a loving older sister. And my little sister is so brave.

I actually had a very good Monday. Usually mondays are horrible and torturous, but not yesterday, though that could have something to do with the fact that I got my chemistry test back with the highest grade in the class (that always improves the day). Right now I'm waiting for my tutoring student to arrive so I really have to go, but I will finish this later.

Later, (for me not for you). I just spent almost 2 hours tutoring an algebra 1 student. But I did make 12 bucks. But now I'm back to finish this blog.

Right now I am listening to the sound track from Oklahoma. I'm singing a song from it in my voice lessons so I made my dad burn me a copy of his CD.

I got to hold a human brain in psych today. That was extremely exciting. It is perserved and doesn't smell very good, but it was very cool to actually hold a brain. I came home all excited to tell my mom and sister about it, but of course they were all grossed out by it. I just don't understand how you can think something like that is gross, I mean you have a brain, I have a brain, we all have brains it seem like it wouldn't really gross us out. But I digress. And I'm sorry if you are one of those people that are grossed out by human brains, you should have skipped this paragraph I suppose. Maybe I should start adding warnings at the beginning of my posts saying that there is graphic subjects being discussed. I mean first crack and now human brains, what is this blog coming to.


Cheers!

Your Literary Junkophile.

Amendment 1: Don't worry I washed my hands after I touched the brain and I was wearing gloves.

Amendment 2: Temperature is an intensive property, but heat is an extensive property.

Amendment 3: That basically says that it hurts more if a burning log is pressed against you than a twig, even though their temperatures are the same.

Aliens, crack, and consequences

Well, I just finished watching the movie "Aliens" with my mom and sister. This is a rather scary movie, and is not for the feint- hearted alien movie connoisseur (But really, how can you be a true alien movie connoiseur and be feint hearted at the same time?). The other big problem with this movie is the fondness of certain characters for words not to be uttered by a gentleman. However, the writers of the movie did do one kind thing when they wrote the movie. All of the really bad words are spoken by one character, so basically when ever he comes on screen you can mute it, and be relatively safe from said words. I don't want to give away the ending but lets just say that the language problem isn't a problem for the whole movie.

This was the first time my sister has seen the movie and of course after it was over she immediately professed a need to sleep in my bed tonight. It is hard to believe that she will be 16 in less than two months. Now I couldn't let this moment go to waste so as soon as I had the chance I jumped out and gave her a big fright. Unfortunately for me, this most likely means that she will be sleeping with me tonight. Maybe I should rethink my scare tactics.

Now for the chemistry fact of the day, I have decided to combine chemistry with psych. (Sorry this is going to be a little bit of a strange subject for me, I'm not really the druggy type). Cocaine in the form that people used many many years ago (think snuff boxes) was cocaine hydrochoride so basically it wasn't as strong. Crack cocaine however, has been seperated from the hydrochloride and so us much stronger and more concentrated. So now you know why all of the Victorian era types weren't drug addicts in the way people are now. Like I said this really isn't my thing, but how could I resist a chance to combine two of my subjects in one post.


Cheers!

Your Literary Junkophile.

Amendment 1: Aliens is a very scary movie.

Amendment 2: I think I will sleep with my light on tonight.

Amendment 3: Anyone know how to keep your 15 year old sister from wanting to sleep in your room?

dates, brownie work, and weather reports

Yesterday was February 29th. I didn't really think about it until after I had posted or I would have mentioned it yesterday. Wouldn't it be really odd to be born on the 29th of February? Really your birthday would not come every year, but every four years. It would be strange to have to celebrate your birthday on a day that really isn't your birthday. So I ask you, would you rather celebrate your birthday on March 1st or February 28th (if you birthday was actually the 29th)? Just something to think about.

Today, despite my chemistry professor's prediction, has turned into a beautiful day. However, I have been inside for most of it doing homework. Chemistry pre-labs have turned into a down right Saturday nightmare. Then of course it hasn't helped that I have put off a lot of little things because of my chemistry and calculus exams last week, so basically I have all these time consuming little things that I have to attend to this weekend. My only happy thought, I have three weeks until my next chemistry exam. Some how that makes all the little things seem a bit less like pure torture and only complete agony. (In case you don't know the list goes: torture, agony, suffering, annoyance, mindlessly boring, boring. There is a pleasure list as well that goes (from best of worst): Heaven, bliss, adulation, fascinating, enjoyable, interesting, mildly boring, boring.)

I believe I have recovered enough from my exam to give you another interesting (though perhaps I should say fascinating) chemistry fact. Expansion work equals the negative pressure times the the change in volume. So now if your want to calculate how much expansion work was done on your freshly baked brownies you can.


Cheers! and Happy Saturday!

Your Literary Junkophile.


Amendment 1: Never take weather advice from a chemist.

Amendment 2: Or the weather channel.

Amendment 3: Remember that expansion work is not the only kind of work, so be careful when you calculate your brownie work.