My lab instructor is a scary man, and all those unfortunate enough to have to take physical chemistry laboratory are very, very sad to have to spend their weekends doing error propagation and discussing results and data and errors for 10+ pages. Despite my moaning and groaning and mediocrity in his class, said lab instructor likes me. He’s my faculty advisor, and I don’t think he knows that I would like to kick him in the head sometimes. If only I made the rules…

Speaking of, if I made the rules, or if I ran the General Physics I course, it would be quite different. The students would make better use of their class time and solve problems, instead of drawing a million free-body diagrams out of context of any such work that they will have to do on the exams. This might be easily rectified if they had a better textbook. Everyone minus Sam, the instructor, thinks the textbook sucks.

And if I made the rules, the 8th graders would actually try to speak Spanish in their Spanish class, instead of just color in rainbows that have each band labeled with the corresponding color in Spanish. I would also be less passive, as my current role is really to observe, but what I really want to do is encourage the kids to try to do their work – and actually have my opinion matter. Aside from my tutoring responsibilities, I think I’m supposed to interfere as little as possible.

On that note, it’s about time that students are held accountable for their irresponsibility and laziness. For the first time in three years, I have been held accountable for my mediocre writing. My senior year of high school, I slacked off immensely and got A’s in English anyway. The Writing Program here “taught” poor writing strategies. Finally, my art history professors are trying to teach us to write effectively. For me, it’s only been three years. For the seniors, I guess it’s been more than that. Maybe it’s even been forever.

And after all of this academic nonsense, my friends and I go ambulance-chasing and Dollar Tree shopping and TV watching. Dan came to visit, and as a wonderful host, I had him follow us to do laundry and help me do pchem homework. We watched A Very Potter Musical on YouTube, and that’s about it in his short-lived visit. And now I am eagerly awaiting the World Series, hoping that the Phillies can do it two years in a row! Dan Bear’s got his shirt on, and he would really like another.

So kids, it’s about time I interacted will all of you again. How has life been treating you? Do you have any scary, insane teachers? Would you like to turn the way your classes are run on its head? Has anyone ever actually tried to get you to write better, instead of accepting the mindless jabbering you created at the last minute?

Three weeks until move-in. I printed out my early arrival pass yesterday, and I have everything I need except for my twenty-pound bag of rice. It’s so hard to believe that summer is already almost over. I thought three and a half months would be a long time, but I feel like I didn’t even do half of what I wanted to do this summer. Dan’s leaving in less than two weeks, and we really didn’t spend as much time together as we probably would have liked. How does time pass by so quickly? I remember when a year was forever, but as each one passes, they all go by faster. I’m going to be twenty soon. Sometimes I think I’m still sixteen. I wouldn’t mind being sixteen again. Life was simpler.

Wow. I just got an email from my CHE 347 professor about lab. Am I ready for three-hour lab periods again? Not really. As much as I like chemistry, I’m not so into the practical applications of it; I’d rather just learn about theory. I’m going to have some readings to do before classes even meet. There’s one thing that doesn’t excite me: homework. I am not looking forward to having homework again. Oh man. Hopefully, however, the fun outweighs all of the work. I know I had a great time last year with all my new friends, so I imagine the college life will only be more fun since I already have friends. Don’t get me wrong—I’m excited to see everyone again, but seeing the work and stress just makes lazing around like a summer bum so much more appealing.

Anyway, I’ve spent a good part of the past couple weeks working on this new theme. The design is newer (I was originally going for a chocolate brown and pink but didn’t like it), but what was consuming my time as the sidebar. I’ve been meaning to use a dynamic sidebar for ages since the in-page navigation on some of my pages is kind of annoying and impractical (particularly on some of my visitor articles), but I was too lazy to put in the work. I have lots of pages to cover! Now it’s done, so I’m on the prowl for any errors. Some of the pages need editing because their sidebars now contain navigational information, but I’ll get on that. Being redundant is not my first concern. If you see anything that seems funky, please let me know.

There is less than one month until I have to return to Syracuse for my second year of college. Where have these weeks gone? I haven’t read all these books or cooked all these meals or spent enough time with Dan. Soon I’ll have to start spending money on books that are too expensive and food for my roommate Nicole and I to eat. Hopefully, I will get the same job I had last semester. I must track down the Physics 211 instructor and inform him of my interest. If I don’t get this job, I’ll have to find another one that I probably won’t like as much and will likely require me to work more hours. Otherwise, I’ll just be draining my bank account with no income to replenish it.

I have so much stuff that I have to take up to school with me. It’s kind of ridiculous. I’m really wondering how I’m going to get everything to fit into my dad’s van. You need a lot to live in an apartment. Thank goodness for roommates! I couldn’t imagine buying and bringing all of this stuff by myself. Nicole’s got the other half of our necessities. I should take a picture of all this stuff. It’s a lot. It occupies about a third of my bedroom, if not more.

Since I mentioned Dan earlier, this Wednesday marks our second anniversary. That’s right; we’ve been together for two years. Time goes by fast. Last week, we went out for dinner at our favorite local Italian restaurant. It’s like “our place.” We always go there. The waitresses ought to know us by now. Our original plans were to go to the Max Brenner chocolate restaurant in Philadelphia, but I didn’t feel like taking the time to get there. We were going to take the train because it’s easier than driving into the city, but that would create a lot of travel time. I just wanted something simple. Something “us.”

ETA: Jim Johnson, defensive coordinator of the Philadelphia Eagles, died today, July 28th, at the age of 68 after a battle with melanoma that had spread to his spine. I grew up in a house of Eagles fans, and I became an avid fan myself in 2002. All my memories of American football have Jim Johnson in them. He was an excellent coach and really gave our team a solid defense. Honestly, he was a genius. He seemed to have been a wonderful, sincere man, and he will be very sorely missed. It’s been a tough year for Philadelphia sports… with the passing of Harry Kalas, Gary Papa, and now Jim Johnson. Rest in peace, Jim. ♥

Going to the art museum yesterday made me realize how much I’ve forgotten since my last art history course, which was nearly three years ago. Since I am going to be taking three art history courses in the fall, I thought it would be a good idea to visit the museum again and view the art from the time periods I will be studying. Dan and I spent most of our time viewing European art from 1500-1850, which is what I wanted, since one of the courses I will be taking is called “Baroque Art/Northern Europe,” and the Baroque period was during that time frame. Despite how much I feel like I’ve forgotten (mainly about individual artists, which is forgivable), I think a lot of the important things I probably ought to know for my classes is still intact.

Today is finally a nice day in terms of weather. It looks promising out there, and the dashboard on my Macbook shows me a picture of a sun for today’s forecast. This makes me very happy, since the majority of my summer thus far has been cloudy and rainy, as if typical Syracuse weather followed me home. Dan and I are planning to go down the shore today to hang out on the boardwalk. We are probably just going to chill and play mini-golf and eat funnel cake until the early evening. It should be fun and relaxing.

The postcards I mentioned in my last blog came in the mail today. I have to introduce myself on these postcards to six incoming freshmen science education students, all of whom will be my advisees for next year. I hope they’re a good bunch. We don’t need any more bad apples teaching science in our schools. There are already enough kids needlessly hating chemistry because their teacher sucked. I aim to be just one more person to change that.

Anyway, my busy week is over, and my dashboard countdown is saying 6 days and 17 hours until Spring Break starts. This is incredible. Despite how quickly this semester has gone by, I am in desperate need of a break. I need to slow down for a bit, get some more rest, and enjoy myself with those I love most: Dan and my family. It seems like everyone is so much busier this semester, and with everyone stressed out all the time, I think we all need to chill out and relax for a week. I know I’m excited to relax at home. I have a lot of things planned already, mainly because we’re celebrating my birthday while I’m home, since it’s the week after break ends. Dan wants to do something special for me, but I’d really rather go out to dinner with everyone at once – him and my family. Surprisingly, my parents still haven’t tried the restaurant that Dan and I always go to, so I want them to come. With only a week of break, it’s hard to plan too much, but there is so much I want to do! I guess that’s what the summer is for. Only about… six weeks after break ends until this semester ends. Then I’ll be done with my first year of college! It’s crazy!

In other news, I am officially pledging for Alpha Chi Sigma (ΑΧΣ), the professional chemistry fraternity. It’s kind of a lot of work (well, not really, but there’s like… planning with others involved, and I am not much of a planner) in order to become a brother of the fraternity, but I’m having a lot of fun. I’ve met some really cool people, and I know that I’ll have a lot of fun in the future if I become part of the organization. Plus, my favorite professor is the faculty advisor for ΑΧΣ, which is awesome because he is so awesome. He’s like the nicest man ever, and he’s an awkward chemistry nerd, haha! What could be better than making connections with people with common interests and passions? I’m really excited about all the activities I have to do as a pledge, because I’m having a lot of fun. Have you joined an organization or started doing an activity that really changed your life or experience at school?

I would also like to thank everyone who responded to my survey about blogging. Your responses really helped me write my paper, and you shared some really great thoughts. Thank you for your enthusiastic participation! I really appreciate it.

Recent site updates include 1 new poem in the 2008-09 Writing section, a downloadable WordPress theme, and one article to the Miscellaneous Stuff section.