Refraction

(That’s a programming NOT operator for those of you who, like me, are programming-illiterate.)

Anyway, cover letters suck. Especially when you’re responding to a job posting that tells you nothing about what you’re actually doing besides “implementing experiments” and “preparing test materials.” Um, that’s great, Ms. HR director… now run that by me again?

The other requirements are equally banal. “Must have attention to detail and good record-keeping skills.” “Must be able to follow instructions.” Who ISN’T able to follow instructions? Seriously!

On the other hand, French class was cancelled today and I spent some time discussing my academic future with one of my Chemistry classmates, who tried to convince me that third year is the hardest one (I have to admit, I think he’s right–I won’t be taking quantum OR physical in fourth) and that sticking in Honours might not be such a bad idea.

Oh well. At worst, if I’m unlucky, the decision won’t be in my hands at all.

So I surf over to RateMyProfs.ca to see how bad my physical chem prof REALLY is–and I am greeted by a page of 1 ratings. For everything. And a bunch of sad blue faces. And people saying that the only way they passed was by using another prof’s notes.

I am going to die in this class.

[/giggles]

My lamentations about being a Chem major honours student seem to be starting earlier than usual this year. Oh well. I should hopefully be embarking on a good non-school work term soon–inasmuch as one can actually get away from “school” when one is embarking on a chemistry co-op work term…. but I hate hate hate hate cover letters.

WordPress hates me, though. I couldn’t properly import the database–it choked every time Asian characters showed up. In the end, I gave up, so if you poke through some of the older posts, you’ll see some odd gibberish (and if you don’t, that’s because I spent a long, long time fixing it.)

Oh yes, I have moved hosts, so I’m on a pay-as-you-go hosting plan. It’s an interesting idea, but it does mean that I will try not to host bandwidth-intensive sites here. Well, unless I move to another host, anyway.

I like this Chinese drama, Yummy Yummy. It is not the cake one that several of you are familiar with. Rather, it’s about a Singaporean boy who goes to Hong Kong to chase his (former?) girlfriend Jane. Yes, that’s right. JANE. Does this ring any bells for anyone out there? Anyway, I like it despite this because this Singaporean boy speaks an odd mélange of Cantonese, Mandarin, and English. (No, his name is not Jason. It’s Terry.)

Speaking of Ja(y)ne–I love Firefly. Watching episodes with commentary is even more fun!

Disclaimer: I am not clever. In fact, one of my favourite songs from Ping Pung’s CD, Love&Hate, which I now own legally (:D) is a song whose title I like to translate as “Not Clever.”

We’re all sufficiently removed from exams that it’s okay to point out the funny parts, eh?

French Lit: Nothing that funny, or weird. We were waiting for exam time to roll around, when two prof-looking guys approach the glass doors. “Oh, there’s our prof,” says one of the girls. “Which one is he?” “The bald one,” I say bluntly. For some reason, this causes them to dissolve in giggles. I don’t get it. :confused:

Nothing else of note happened in exams until we hit organic chem. Well, people’s cell phones kept going off during the French exam, and one girl had a very obnoxious ringtune. Her half-hearted attempts to stifle it were met by a “Could you turn that thing off?” from the invigilator and a brusque “use both hands” from the course coordinator.

Prof: “We haven’t put out enough exams yet. If you can’t find a paper, come to the front and we’ll make this row into an exam row.”
[shuffling ensues]
Prof: “There should be one extra paper somewhere. I know how many we put out, and I know how to count. [nervous twittering from students] Unless we’ve got an extra person in here.”
[pause, students file into the extra row]
Prof: “This is CHEM 204, not CHEM 123, that’s on the other side of the building.”
[The sound of a chair being pushed back. Some hapless first-year has stumbled into the wrong exam. We all applaud him for… I’m not sure what we applaud him for, but we do it anyway.]

Oh man, those crazy first-year students. XD You have to wonder: Didn’t he realize everyone else was studying something different? Didn’t he realize something was weird when he didn’t recognize a single person there?

How many ways can you spell “owned by another organic chem midterm”?

I’ve got my list here:

1. owned by another organic chem midterm
2. pwned by another organic chem midterm
3. 0wned by another organic chem midterm
4. |owned by another organic chem midterm
5. poned (Ed note: Hey, some people say it that way) by an organic chem midterm
6. pwn3d by another organic chem midterm
7. own3d by another organic chem midterm
8. pwnd by another organic chem midterm
9. |ownd by another organic chem midterm
10. PWNED!!!!! by another organic chem midterm

Yeah, I think that’s enough for now.

I can’t seem to write coherently these days. My French lit prof pointed out that my essay seemed to be lacking some logical connections between ideas, which is true. I just didn’t have enough words to stuff everything I wanted to say in there (Only 1200, and my rushed draft was close to 1400…. gah). Next time, I’ll narrow down my topic a little more. I guess I’m a bit out of practice.

My apathy’s sinking in again. At least I don’t have another midterm for 3 weeks.

My friend also burned that Chinese serial I got into halfway through 2 years ago for me. IT IS HILARIOUS. I love that one. The male lead is forced to don a dolphin mascot suit for a good deal of the first episode. Hilarity ensues. I’m not saying the plot’s believable, or that the acting’s good, or that there’s any artistic merit to this show; but it’s escapism, that’s all.

Now, for those of you who are interested, give w-inds.’s cover of Clay Aiken’s “Perfect Day” a try. I don’t like it as much as the original, but I don’t expect much else from covers.

I hope you all had a good New Year’s. :biggrin:

Okay, a couple of new things about this mostly painless upgrade to WP 2.0:

• You can now edit your comments within thirty minutes of posting it. Give it a try; once your comment has been posted, you’ll see a little “e” link there, next to the date and time. Click that to enter editing mode.
• I now have two anti-spam plugins working for me. By my reckoning, I’ve had about 17000 spam comments attack my blog over the time that it’s been up. That’s kind of scary, since there are only about 500 real comments.
• Haha, I lied, there really is only the one new thing, the editing comments part.

The new interface is quite shiny, but alas! It takes a little longer to load on my memory-starved computer.

Classes so far this term, in emoticons:

Physical Chemistry: 😯
Organic Chemistry: :notsure:
French Grammar: :dorkygrin:
French Literature: :nosey:

And for those of you who prefer words….
Read the rest of this entry »

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.

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.

ARRGH !

J’ai une présentation la semaine prochaine. Le sujet?—“Le français parlé et familier” 😥 Heureusement j’aurai passé tous mes examens de mi-semestre (bien qu’il soit déjà presque la fin de semestre :mad:). Il ne reste que deux rapports de labo (eh, comment dit-on ‘lab report’ en français ?), l’un de la physique, l’autre de la chimie.

Bien súr, c’est la présentation dont je m’inquiète le plus. Qu’est-ce que je sais au sujet de l’argot français ? Et quels livres puis-je trouver ? C’est bien l’argot, pas le registre formel. Je ne connais que le verlan, mais je trouve que son vocabulaire est souvent trop vulgaire pour une présentation à l’école …

Désolée, j’aurais voulu écrire plus, mais je dois étudier la physique , j’ai un examen demain :depressed: