finals are over. but, sadly, I am dumb.

[jinian]

Monday night: The math final was awful. I had trouble remembering how to substitute to reduce the Bernoulli equations to first-order, and some of the early problems I just couldn't get a handle on. Worse, the problems I did know all about were so long that I only had a little time to go back and fill in. It isn't that I didn't know how to do the problems, it's that they were especially hard in non-diffy-q-specific ways. The "how the hell do I integrate that?" kind of problem was the main one. I did put down an answer to I think every problem but one, but there was no time to recheck so I have no confidence in any of them. And after I came home and looked all through my notes, I was even more frustrated, because we didn't have any problems like that during the class either. I feel like there's no reasonable way I could have prepared for the test, and that still makes annoyance bubble in my chest. Eventually I figured out worst-case scenarios, and I think I'll still get a pretty good grade in the class, but argh.

Tuesday night: The biology final was no problem. Well, maybe a little problem. The bus was late, so I came in five minutes late and got our previous test handed back to me just as the final was being passed out. The first question on the final was a reprise of a poorly phrased question from the test I'd just gotten back, a question I had guessed on. I got a couple of points over 100% on the previous test (finally! I did as well as I thought I did!) so I knew I'd probably guessed right the previous time -- but I couldn't remember what I'd guessed. I guessed again, and checked after the test what I'd put before: they matched. I knew pretty much all the other questions, too. Rereading most of the book was a good idea. With just a little luck, I will get an A in that class.

Wednesday afternoon: The o-chem final was easier than anticipated. The in-class assignment over the stereochemistry chapter had been handed in the previous Thursday, which means we hadn't had class to get them back corrected before the final. When I got the answer key, I thought I'd completely misunderstood something about cis/trans bromonium-ion addition, because I thought the alkene that would make the products shown was the cis one and the key said trans. So I played with gumdrops and toothpicks to try to make it come out as trans, and it wouldn't, the compounds produced by the trans alkene were just not those. I pretty much decided the key had to be wrong, but I was in doubt and went in to class early to check with the teacher. Yep, the key was wrong! And he said, "If you got that, you really have it down," which is a pretty great thing to say to someone just before a test. I zipped through the test, checked answers, and left to see cheesepuppet that afternoon, which was lots of fun.

However, my memory betrayed me / I am a giant idiot. The UW spring application deadline was yesterday. As I discovered this yesterday after business hours, it's summer for me. Please try not to poke me in my mortification.

The Jo-Ann in Ballard is hiring.

Comments

[mittelbar.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you're doing quite well.

Poor sweetie on the app deadline, though! I know just how that can happen. Auuuugh.

[eub.livejournal.com]

After business hours, pfui, ain't that the way.

Please have a nifty word: petrichor.

A pleasant, distinctive smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather in certain regions; in quot. 1975, applied to an oily substance obtained from the ground in which this smell was concentrated.

1964 Bear & Thomas in Nature 7 Mar. 993/2
The diverse nature of the host materials has led us to propose the name ‘petrichor’ for this apparently unique odour which can be regarded as an ‘ichor’ or ‘tenuous essence’ derived from rock or stone. This name, unlike the general term ‘argillaceous odour’, avoids the unwarranted implication that the phenomenon is restricted to clays or argillaceous materials; it does not imply that petrichor is necessarily a fixed chemical entity but rather it denotes an integral odour.

1971 Listener 4 Nov. 612/3
No matter what kind of rock or earth was used, the oily essence always possessed the aroma of petrichor—the smell of rain falling on dry ground.

1975 Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 2 Nov. 32/2
CSIROs Melbourne mineral chemistry division discovered that it was not fungi or dead vegetation which produced the smell, but small yellowish-gold oily globules. The globules, nicknamed ‘petrichor’ or ‘essence of rock’ by the researchers, contained at least 50 different compounds, not unlike a perfume and were absorbed into the ground from the air.

(OED2)

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

...and little tapirs love you :)

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

My sympathies on missing the application deadline. *hug* Glad you're doing generally well in the finals though.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

yay finals done! yay!

sad for small memory error.

*hug*

Re: finals are over. but, sadly, I am dumb.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

*hurrah* for finals coming out pretty darn well. *sympathy* for memory betrayal (i know it well).

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

however.

might some free time due to not having school and classes and studying plus a job so some money equal a more mobile jinian?

[jinian.livejournal.com]

You know, I've been so focused on how nice it will be to do things like go grocery shopping with my own money that I haven't really thought about that. It's possible. I'll have to see what kind of work I can find. There's not a huge amount of high-paying temp stuff out there.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

yay yay yay yay!

because i am making plans about how to have a guest bed, you see. and the dogs would looooooooove you.