Refraction

My analytical chem lab frustrates me.

We get marks for accuracy and precision, and despite my best efforts, I have FAILED this criterion in more than half of my labs. Each time with a 9/20. It’s some kind of curse, I swear. I’m always accurate–always–but my precision could use a little work. It’s getting to the point where it’s a bit ridiculous, really. In this last lab, I had a 99.42% correlation between my data and the best fit line. That was worth a big, fat zero. (My K_a value earned me a 9.)

My accuracy and precision grades are worth 12% of my lab mark, which is ultimately 3% of my overall mark in the course, but keep in mind: I have to pass the lab to pass the course. =_=

I mean, in one lab my prof couldn’t even TELL me what went wrong. v_v And the other one didn’t count, and I overshot my first titration, so I really didn’t care. ARRGH. I have two labs left to make this up, and … yeah.

I’m NOT a bad chemist otherwise in that lab; it’s not like the rest of my accuracy/precision grades are marginal pass marks. The other ones (if I remember correctly) are something like 16, 19, and 17.5. I mean… if my marks were consistently low there would be a problem, but since they’re not, I just really can’t understand what’s going on.

Well, scratch analytical chemistry off my specializations list. :tongue:

Happy belated to Michael. 😀

I had intended this post to have some actual content, but I think I’ll work on Chem labs instead and fret a little bit more over my looming midterms instead of actually studying for them. It’s going to be a long night.

I take back many of the bad things I said about economics. It seems it has its uses after all.

I spent an hour or two on the weekend reading Freakonomics. Definitely a fun read and there’s absolutely nothing about economics in there, which is the fun part. Okay, well, to be honest I would know nothing about anything in there that’s even kind of linked to economics. They say ignorance is bliss. :biggrin:

That saying, of course, is completely invalid when it comes to midterms. I got my inorganic chem midterm back this morning, and well… let’s just say I haven’t seen this much scaling since first-year physics. No, I take that back. I haven’t seen this much scaling since Math HL. My mark went up by nearly thirty percent. (To let you have an idea of how bad it was, the raw average was a whopping 42%. Go us.) It was so bad they had to scale us twice – first by making the midterm out of eight fewer marks, and then when that still wasn’t enough, by boosting everyone’s scores by another ten percent. And this got the class average up to about 60.

So lately I’ve been having second thoughts about choosing a Chemistry major. Or Honours. Whatever. In any case, it’s once again the time of year that I consider running to Arts. (Read: was completely pwned in the lab.)

Ultimately, I spend waaay too much time on French. I spent several hours on my first composition, and several more on les travaux pratiques that we had to do; in fact, that one was turning around in my head so much, I dreamt about finding a passive verb :blush: (Which wasn’t there in the end. My dreams never work out.)

And for Chem I cram two days in advance.

Don’t get me wrong. Chemistry is fascinating. Absolutely fascinating. I have wonderful professors who are geniunely interested in the subject. I have TAs who, by and large, do their best to help muddled students. Everything is going in my favour, in short.

Except me.

I procrastinate writing my Chem labs until the night before. I don’t review material daily as I should if I want to keep up and maintain an A average. I get so worked up in labs that I somehow make stupid mistakes. In short: school is becoming somewhat of a chore.

And the only thing that’s keeping me going is French.

Anyway, this insipid post inspired by one of those quick online quizzes:

You Should Get a MD (Doctor of Medicine)

You’re both compassionate and brilliant – a rare combination. You were born to be a doctor.

Now, to be very honest, I’ve never wanted to be a doctor. Ever. And I wouldn’t make a very good doctor. Even when I wanted to be a psychologist, it was always in some kind of research capacity. I didn’t like the idea of being a therapist or a counsellor. Now, the impersonal face of research? That seemed fun. (Although ultimately not as much fun as blowing things up. Seriously.)

Stupid online quizzes.

Le français me fait rire. :cheerful: Même s’il est difficile de temps en temps, il m’intéresse suffisamment pour que je ne sois jamais frustrée.

Mon prof est un peu bizarre… “les grammeriens veulent être chics alors ils disent ‘substantif’ au lieu de ‘nom'” … “Ca donne un peu plus de punch, hein!” … “ah, ouais, c’est pas aussi blah-blah-blah que ça” … “ce livre est idiot” … “alors c’est pas un big deal”

En plus, il y a tellement de sites super-chics! XD Celui-ci est superbe ! Le français de Texas est assez intéressant. XD Ecoutez Joe-Bob !

I think I just failed my Bio midterm 🙁 I didn’t finish my essay (BLAH!) and I forgot to answer a question. Oh, and I got different answers from my friend. 🙁 Bio isn’t supposed to be hard like this >_> !

Et maintenant je me mets à …. le matrix algebra :P!

//edit: J’ai menti. 😛

Oh, by the way, science now has evidence that East Asians are cheap drunks! 😛

Acetaldehyde may be the main culprit behind hangovers, according to new research from Japan.

Alcohol consumption is an integral part of many cultures, but many East Asians suffer the mother of all hangovers every time they drink because they have a mutant of the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase-2 (ALDH2). The mutant cannot metabolise acetaldhyde and so this toxic compound hangs around cause the worst morning after the night before for many East Asians almost every time.

//edit 2: My French prof lives a block away from me. >_O I almost forgot that she earned a passing mention in one of my entries. Okay, so really, it’s not enough that I used to have Socials and Art teachers living within a few blocks? Now I get a French prof too?

I haven’t been seeing her this term, though. 😛 Except in class, of course.

I have a very bad panic problem. Most of the time, this is due to insecurity and an overactive imagination on my part, but it strikes me that whereas other people kind of resign themselves in the face of a week of midterms and labs, I just get increasingly agitated. In a way, I wonder if it isn’t the same tactic people use when fishing for compliments–except that it’s not compliments I want, just reassurance.

I don’t think anyone is really interested in the details of all my midterms, so here’s a sampling of the more interesting tidbits from each one:

Analytical Chemistry: The prof had SIX VERSIONS of the midterm. (Technically only three; he just rearranged questions on some of them.) The best part? The average on the all three versions individually was 65%. Gee, now that’s what I call a fair test.

Matrix Algebra: Question 5: (0 marks) What really happened in Roswell New Mexico in 1947?

Organic Chemistry: I wrote this one twenty-hour hours ago. I already have it back. In fact, I’ve had it back for a couple of hours now. Tell me, when was the last time YOU had a midterm marked this quickly?

And some fun stuff from the labs:

Analytical chem: I feel so sorry for our TA. He’s always the last one to leave. We must all be very bad chemists. XD We pepper him with questions incessantly. Sometimes I think he’s sick of us. XD

Organic chem: I had “beautiful” crystals of salicylic acid *_* And they were very pretty indeed. I got about 90% yield for that lab, so it makes me happy :cheerful:

Coordination chem: OMG WHAT’S THIS A FEMALE CHEM TA? Actually, they’re not that rare, I’ve just never had one. She’s very nice and encouraging. The other TA seems a bit snarkier, so I’m glad I have this one. Apparently I make pretty crystals of cobalt coordination complexes too *_*

The courseload is seriously getting to me. Six courses, three labs, two of which are every week…. I get to school at 8 every single day, regardless of whether I have a class or not. I can’t afford to let myself sleep in on Tuesdays and Thursdays–it’d become a bad habit. I am living from midterm to midterm, basically. Cram one, write it, move on and cram for the next. Arrrgh.

If it weren’t for Bio and French, I’d be totally insane right now. >_<

One of my co-workers has just been terminated. Why? The managers aren’t allowed to talk about it. So what are we going to do besides speculate?

1) Insubordination. A legitimate reason for termination. I can’t imagine that she’s be this stupid though; she might have been unsatisfied with the way things were, but she was always willing to help out. She was far from brainless, and a hard worker.

2) Theft. Also unlikely, because she really wasn’t that kind of person. Plus, it’d be all too easy for her to steal things unnoticed (I kid you not; she always closed.)

3) Disregarding till procedure. We’re only supposed to have x amount of money in the till at any one time. The theory goes that she had too much when the head honcho was visiting and was terminated on the spot. Before you laugh, let me point out that I was quizzed on said procedural standards today. So was my (other) co-worker. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to learn that it has something to do with this. Then again, it is a fairly large amount of money, and since we’re not supposed to be keep any 20s in the till, I don’t see how this could have been violated…

I’m really going to miss her though 🙁 Like I said, she was a hard worker, always ready to help or give you a push in the right direction, and nearly always cheerful, even when work was hard. Since she wasn’t a manager, she didn’t feel compelled to nag, but I think she really did have the best interests of the store at heart.

And no, I don’t think she just up and walked away from the store. She was in the middle of moving. Besides, it said “terminated” on her timesheet.

I wish she were still here, because (quite sadly) this means that I am slowly becoming one of the more senior members on staff >_< Which means I'll probably be given more responsibilities. Which means more stress. x_X

Has anyone besides me noticed that Sailormoon stole Wonder Woman’s boots? Really! They’re exactly the same! Red knee-high boots with a slight heel and white trim. Except, of course, Sailormoon wears moons on hers. Sailormercury actually has the same ones too, except they’re blue.

In other random news, I am now the proud owner of a pair of pink bunny slippers. But not just ANY pink bunny slippers! Pink It’s Happy Bunny slippers. They are awesome and perfect for sinking into after a long day at work. And they keep my feet warm. Yay 😀

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m working 16 hours this weekend and I could really use the time to study for my organic chem midterm on Wednesday. If anybody has any hints they will be much appreciated. Come to think of it, I also have two labs to write up by the end of the week. Yay.

I need to:
– do math homework
– prep for a Chem lab
– and watch House

Therefore, I have time only for this really cute quiz!
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