Monday, September 17, 2012

What I've Learned This Semester

Once a semester I like to share my wealth of knowledge with you all, so that you can save yourselves a bundle by not having to attend college like I am.  You're very welcome!

1.  Math

A bookstore had 80 copies of a magazine.  Yesterday, it sold 1/5 of them.  Today, it sold 3/8 of the remaining magazines.  How many are left?

40 copies
2.  Music

Stalactites in caves may have been used as musical instruments in ancient times, hitting them to produce different sounds.

3.  Biology

At the cellular level of biological organization, atoms can be joined together to form ____, which make up organelles and then cells.

4.  Criminal Justice

Plato's best known contribution to philosophy was his Theory of Forms.

5.  Art

Perspective:  The creation of the illusion of depth in a two-dimensional image by using mathematical principles.

*Ugh!  Why does everything have to be about math???
6.  Biology Lab

Hypertonic:  A solution with the higher solute concentration
Hypotonic:  A solution with the lower solute concentration
Isotonic:  When the osmotic concentrations of the solutions are equal.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Back To School Wordless Wednesday

My boys say I've neglected them for far too long on this blog and that if I can't be bothered to get a new camera battery for new pictures of them, the least I could do is to show off their fancy new back-to-school backpack!  Chico keeps packing and unpacking it full of stuffies and treats, trying to figure out how to get the most in there that he can.  I told him he needed to make sure there was enough room for school supplies, but he wasn't having any of that.  Shiver thinks everything belongs to him, but he's been surprisingly generous in letting Chico play with it.  Thanks to Sarge for doing such a great job of putting this together for them.  My boys will be stylin' and stuffs in class today!

And now back to our regularly scheduled program - Wordless Wednesday!

Monday, September 10, 2012

Monday Meme

Took this from here.

1.  If you were drafted from the military but could pick your branch, which would you choose?  Explain why.

I had briefly contemplated joining the military after high school, but decided I wasn't really ready to move away from home yet.  If I were to ever join, I'd probably go with the Air Force, because that's the branch my dad went into.

2.  What was the last thing you made from scratch in the kitchen?  

A mess, lol!  I don't do much cooking because I live by myself and it's just easier to microwave meals or make a sandwich or something.  With school and work, I'm busy and don't really have the time to make elaborate meals.  Plus I'm not much of a cook. I don't want to take the time, so if something says to heat the butter (or whatever) slowly, I turn the burner up so I'm not waiting on it any longer than necessary.  Or if I don't have a proper ingredient, I'll substitute something else which never seems to work out the way it should.   If I were cooking for someone else on a regular basis, I think I'd put more effort into it.

3.  Why did your parents give you your first name?

My father heard it somewhere or another and thought it was pretty.  I, on the other hand, think it's absolutely hideous!!!  I've used a nickname since 8 or 9th grade.

It reminds me of the squirrels that I like to feed on campus.  They hang out year round and I always have peanuts for them.  For some reason,I haven't seen very many this semester.  

Friday, September 7, 2012

Half Full Friday!


~I'm happy because...  
I had a three day weekend last weekend!

I went to the zoo on Labor Day!

I saw the butterfly exhibit at the zoo!

I'm going to Arts in the Park this weekend!

I got an 87% on my first bio quiz!  I have another one to do this weekend, keeping my fingers crossed I do just as well, if not better!

I seem to be doing a lot better in math so far this semester!
I did a Monday Meme recently and was supposed to talk about this picture.  I knew it was a marsupial, but nothing else beyond that.  Well, I went to the zoo this past weekend and now I know what it's called - it's a wallaby!  The zoo allowed us to walk up close to them, although we weren't allowed to touch or feed them.  They were eating when I went through, so they weren't all that interesting to watch.    

Monday, September 3, 2012

First Impressions

Last week was the first week of school.  Most of my classes are 2 days a week, and one is only one day but two hours long.  For the most part, it's not been too bad!

The first class on Monday was math.  I took a lower division class and failed it both times the last 2 semesters, so I decided to start over with the very lowest one and maybe learn the foundations first.  The computer program requires you to take an assessment before beginning.  Most of the questions were ones I knew I'd gone over the two previous semesters, but had absolutely no idea of how to solve them.  The class is a lot easier so far, but I know it's not going to stay that way.
The professor seems nice.  She's deaf in one ear, and uses a guide dog.  The class is filled with students taking different math classes (an upper and lower), so that may get to be a little confusing down the road.  One thing I *do not* like is that she doesn't allow us to use calculators.

Next up was biology.  I always have one nightmare class per semester, and this is it for this go around! I don't know anything about or even care about biology, but it's a required class so I can't get around it.  It seems like this class is going to have an ungodly amount of homework, which I'm not pleased about.  At the end of the week, we have an online quiz we can take at home, which means we can use our books and notes.  I did two outlines of the chapter (accidentally deleted the first one!) and did the practice quiz - neither of which helped out in the least!  I got an 87% on the first quiz, which I'm quite pleased about!  I depended on notes, the book and google way more than I would have liked though.  I need to see about finding a tutor for this class, I think.  The professor goes waaaaaaaay too fast in class to get very effective notes.

I needed a fill-in class, so criminal justice was it!  I like the professor, but can't figure out why he got hired to teach this class.  He has virtually no experience in the real world.  After law school, he lived overseas and taught English to people in some other country (can't remember where he said).  When he came back to the States, he became a college professor.  He's funny though and lets us out of class early.

Art has been interesting.  I wasn't sure what to expect, as I'd been told it was a difficult class.  The only hard part so far has been that the professor goes through her slides too quickly, but she's going to post them online for us, which will help.  She asks lots of practice questions, some of which will be on the exam.

I was a little nervous about music, because I don't play any instruments and I don't know how to read music.  The professor is very young, very good looking and very engaging.  He seems to really know his stuff and has played in several symphonies.  I'll have to attend 3 musical events and do a write up on them.  I think it'll be a fun class!
And finally, I have a bio lab!  This is basically a whole other class, only with less credits.  It's required in conjunction with the biology class and is two hours long, once a week.  The professor seems knowledgeable, but he also seemed really nervous.  He told us he's going to be assigning a lot of homework, more than what's listed on the syllabus.  As if I didn't already have enough!  We'll also have an in-class quiz every week.

So that's basically what my semester will be like!  Not that you care, but I told ya anyways!

Happy Labor Day!  I apprerciate three day weekends so much more now that I'm back in school.
