Wow.

Well, the last chem test (not the last one I mentioned x_x) went really well. I left the room feeling pretty good about it, but I didn't expect a 99% on it! And the single point I lost was something stupid--I forgot to write the percent dissociation for HCl. That was brilliant. I have another one on Friday. Same kind of thing, but you have to do it three or four times for each problem. Hopefully my prof will be nice and not put four of the same kind of problem. I might die of boredom otherwise.

And now, some more interesting news. (Or not.) I seem to be at the center of some intra-familiar and inter-disciplinary conflict. When I filled out my college applications, I wrote "biology" as my intended major. And then I looked at the course requirements for the BS in bio (two semesters of general chemistry, two semesters of organic chemistry and a semester of physical chemistry). Turns out that's essentially a minor in chemistry (two semesters of gen chem plus lab and two semesters of o. chem plus lab) So I decided I was going to go for a BS in biology, a BA in environmental studies and a minor in chemistry. Until I took a bio class this semester. I was in it for a grand total of two weeks, because a) the university decided they were going to grant me credit for my AP grade after all, and b)I hated it. As much as I loved bio in high school, I can't seem to muster the same passion for it a year later, if that. Trouble is, that goes for basically anything. I don't have a strong enough interest in any of the humanities to do any more than dabble. I also don't know if I have a strong interest in any of the sciences to major in any of them. And this is where the parental units come in. Mum wants me to give bio another shot. She's really trying to push me away from the physical sciences. My dad, on the other hand, doesn't seem to care so much, though he was pushing me in the chemistry/biochemistry direction. It's sort of what I want to do, but I don't really know. And that means I have to work out what that means for the math requirements. I need to talk to someone, but I have no idea who. My adviser is the head of the English department, which is not good if I want to talk to HIM about something, science major that I (still) am, but he does know who I should go talk to. The other person who I think I could talk to is my chemistry professor, but he's probably sick of me, not to mention the fact that he has a class of 250 or so students to deal with as well. Now I just have to buck up enough courage to talk to SOMEONE...

Grr...

Why do I decide it's a good idea to blog when I have an inordinate quantity of work to do?! I have a 5-to-6-page essay for my seminar class to write for Monday (it was due either the 9th or the 19th--I didn't have it finished for the 9th because of midterms), another essay for anthropology for Wednesday, plus math, chem and lab stuff to do. Speaking of labs...I have no idea how much I have to make up for that. Two titrations for the aspirin analysis lab, printing the results for the iron compound lab, and solution 4 for the spectrography thing. Yuck. So, when is makeup week again? -_-''
On top of all that, I'm supposed to be leading the seminar discussion on Wednesday. I have to watch this movie in order to do so. Go figure, neither my laptop nor my home DVD player will play it. Guess I'll watch it when I get back. I have no idea when my discussion post for that is due. Probably Monday. I hate Mondays, and I hate that class. It's completely pointless. The whole program is pointless. (It was probably designed to get science/engineering students to take humanities classes. Or because someone decided that they couldn't write.)
I'm supposed to be heading back to Cleveland tomorrow. Today, actually. I still haven't completely packed. My anthro book is who-knows-where, I'm still using my laptop, there are various cords everywhere, my chem book is next to me on the floor, and my room is an almighty mess. On the other hand, I did manage to fit everything else I'm taking back up with me in my fencing bag. Amazing!
There is some good news in all this. My chem prof finally (okay, yes, I know he's on break too) got around to posting the exam scores. I got a 99 percent. Which is amazing, considering that I failed the one before that. I wonder what I lost that point on. I know that's insignificant, but I can still wonder. If it's only one point, then it's probably a rounding issue or something small.
I went to the LYS on Thursday. They were out of the Fiber Trends' Hedgehog pattern I wanted, but I treated myself to a (don't tell my mother!) $16 circular needle and 2 skeins of sock yarn. I then went to Michael's and bought myself 8 skeins of Paton's Classic Merino in chestnut brown. Why? I'm planning on knitting Mariah from Knitty. Hopefully my attention span will be kinder to me this time around, now that I've got cable-y goodness to keep my attention. The SWS toe-ups are about 60% done. One is finished and looks good, even if I did bind off a little tight. (I seem to have inherited my grandmother's problem in that.) I also sense another scrap yarn scarf in the future, to go along with my scrap-yarn blanket. And this time, it'll have wool and alpaca in it to go along with the synthetics. :)
Crap. Why is it 4 AM? I have to get up in 5 hours, pack, call my friend to see what the final plans are (he hasn't made them yet. Genius.), drive back to school, then finish the remaining 4/5 of my paper. *headdesk*

Bloody weather.

I'm an Ohioan, for all practical purposes. I should be used to strange weather. But I think this takes whatever baked item you would like. And eats it. Last week--6-12" of snow on Tuesday night-Thursday morning, on top of whatever was already there. (I stopped caring. It's white stuff). Right now? It's 48 degrees (F). What the heck? I like how my college sent out an e-mail telling us to be aware of falling icicles. You'd think that'd be obvious. But this is the same school that built a giant ugly building for its business school, and now has to close the sidewalks around it whenever it snows because snow and ice has a nasty tendency to fall off its hideously modern curving metal exterior. Yup.
Other than that, I'm supposed to be working on my prelab for chem tomorrow. Why did I register for the 8:30 lab? What was I thinking, exactly? Oh, and I have a chem test on Friday. Joy. I was up until 4 AM yesterday studying for my anthropology exam, which turned out to be something on the order of "explain the structure of DNA." 10 pt questions, pick 5 of 7. All of them were like that. :(
Knitting...I'm afraid I haven't done much of that lately. I'd post pics of my January Socktopia socks, except that a)I can't find the socks, and b)I don't have the connecting thingy for the camera here. The "Furry Fetchings" are about 55-60% done. I have one glove done save the thumb, and the cuff on the other mostly finished. Ribbing is getting really boring right now. (The cuffs are 2x1 ribbing, the body is 4x1, and there's another band of 2x1 above the thumb. ) And did I mention it's FUN FUR? And I need them done by Friday. Lucky me, I have 4 hours of classes tomorrow and I'm done by 12:30. Guess what I'll be doing?

Half-Price Books=Love

Drat. How did I get sick now? I haven't gone anywhere. =(

Hung out with Michelle today. We went to Steak n' Shake for dinner, which wasn't too bad, surprisingly. Anyhow, we were bored, and went to Borders. In a fit of nostalgia, I bought myself one of the installments of the Redwall series. I used to love those. It was my goal to own the entire set at one point, but somewhere along the line, I stopped reading them. I think it was after I finished Lord Brocktree for the second time. (Of course, this was probably back when I still had an attention span.) Or was it Triss? Anyway, I still have Rakkety Tam, Loamhedge, and High Rulain (or whatever) to read. The book I got was Rakkety Tam, and--get this--it's a SIGNED copy! Squee! And my day got better. We went to Half-Price Books, because Michelle wantedto see if she could find a copy of Howl's Moving Castle (the novel the movie is based on). Couldn't find it there, but she did get a copy of the next book in the series she's reading at the moment. I snagged a boxed set of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and a two-dollar CD (the Pocahontas soundtrack). I was aiming for the old covers from THG (before they made that movie), because my sister lost that version (and refuses to admit it :/) As for the Pocahontas soundtrack, we have it already, on cassette. (Somewhere. Anyone who wants to look for it can be my guest.) But I think it was pretty much the last good soundtrack Disney had. (Hunchback of Notre Dame had some good bits, as did Mulan, but overall, meh. Of course, Lion King had the BEST. It's Hans Zimmer. Of course it's amazing.)
We also watched The Illusionist at her house. I liked it, more than I thought I would. Andthe ending...I won't give it away, but--wow, I was not expecting that.
Anyway, I'm leaving either Saturday or Sunday. It's been nice being at home. A nice, long break from school and thinking. Not to mention--real food! However, yes, there have been times that it's been strained, made worse because of the fact that I didn't have access to my/the car. It's been a little irritating, getting used to doing things on my parents' terms rather than my own. That, and the fact that most of my friends left last week. (Tasha went back on New Year's Day, basically.) Michelle has January Term (Obies...), and is interning at the county environmental services thing. Last Friday, I just went and visited teachers (I had NOTHING better to do.) It was nice seeing them again, though. I often wonder whether they're actually genuinely happy to see old students. :P Thing is, I haven't been able to do as much stuff as I wanted over the break. I WANTED to go back to the salle and pester people there, read, knit...it would help if I had the car (at least for part of it), and that I hadn't spent who-knows-how-long on the computer. Yeah. I suppose it will be nice to see people again...maybe not my econ prof, but...

Projecty-ness and new books!

So I thought I'd get some knitting done over the break. Of course not. I don't know what I spent it doing.

Project breakdown as of 3 AM, January 8th 2007:
Gryffindor Scarf (SS/CoS-style): 16% done (3 and a bit of 19 stripes).
Irish Hiking Scarf: 75-80% done.
Fetching 2: 66% done.
Stockinette scarf: 45% done.
Toe-up socks: 40% done.

What happened to the hoodie? I think it died. It's not working. Any ideas as to what to do with 4/5 balls of Homespun (in a discontinued color)? :P

Things that need to be cast on:
Fetching 3 (Will be in Lion Brand Wool-Ease (worsted) in Blue Heather)
Fun Fur Fingerless Mitts (Fetching-based) (Patons' Decor in Black, Lion Brand Fun Fur in Copper)
Second toe-up sock (Patons' SWS in Natural Earth)
Socks for Socktopia.

Yes, I joined a knit-along. Unfortunately, I need to decide NOW what I'm doing so I can at least buy the yarn and/or needles. The themes for January are "Celebrate good times", "blue monday", and "snowflakes and starry skies". The "snowflakes" would be a perfect opportunity to learn Fair Isle, I think. Or I could do a plain pair of blue socks, maybe with some cable-y things. I don't have sock yarn in the stash in any color. I have a skein of off-white wool, and a dye-able skein of the same stuff in white, so I'm thinking white socks with snowflakes around the cuff. :)

In other news, I have some new books, both fencing-related. One is The Inner Game of Fencing: Excellence in Form, Technique, Strategy and Spirit by Nick Evangelista. It's an interesting read, if at least for some different perspective. (I was taught by a "trigger the light"-variety coach. The instructors at the salle (I miss them!) and Evangelista are technique-oriented.) (Not that I don't like my high school coach. He was great, just not necessarily as a sabre coach.) The other is By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions by Richard Cohen, a British(!) sabre fencer(!!). I've flipped through it, but I haven't had a chance to actually read it yet. Looks good, though.
I have a giant list of books I need to read:

• Silent Spring (Rachel Carson)
• Against the Grain (Richard Manning)
• Inkheart (Cornelia Funke)
• and now, these. (and whatever else I have lying around)

I'm not going to get a chance. I'm back in Cleveland in a week. I did get my biology textbook...

what did I expect, anyway?

I went back to my high school fencing club today, and was somewhat disappointed. Crappy footwork, minimal discipline, and people who are generally apathetic about the whole thing. Not to mention last year's sabre newbies...weren't there.

I don't know why I expected anything different, at least on the footwork and discipline. Hoch (the coach) isn't very big on form or footwork. He'll teach enough so that people sort of get the idea, and then moves on to bladework. (He's very much a "whatever gets you the point" type of fencer. And coach.) He left correcting up to the upperclassmen, most of whom had at least a year of fencing under their belt. And that leads to the discipline. Back in the day, we had some authority--5 seniors who knew what they were doing. We could look after ourselves and the rest of the sabre team. I can't speak for the foil squad, but at least we did work for most of the time. And people actually listened. This year, there are 3 seniors. Two of them know enough about fencing to lead at least footwork, but only one of them shows up, according to my sister. And they're all foil fencers. The sabre team would be okay if the people from last year showed up. I know they're busy, but I'm in college, have far more work than they do and I go to practice more often than they seem to! So that leaves a bunch of n00bs trying to teach themselves with minimal instruction from Hoch. (He was an epee fencer in college, so he works mainly with the foils.) It's UGLY.

On the bright side, there is one girl who's pretty good. Now Hoch just needs to get her a jacket and mask.

The Kool-Aid gods must hate me. :(

Or, how to get pink variegated yarn without trying.

I have been playing with Kool-aid over break, trying to dye myself some nice dark red. It's worked, except for the dark and the red. The first batch (1 skein Patons' Classic Merino in Aran, 2 packets Black Cherry, one packet sugar-free Cherry) turned out a salmon pink. Nice, except that I hate pink. And it's a subtly-variegated salmon pink, because a)I don't have a pot large enough, and b) I tied it too tightly. It was dyed at three AM, so maybe I have an excuse, but I suppose that it might have to turn into a Liesel for my sister. (She looks good in that color, anyway.)

The second batch (dyed in the hopes of a purple--most of one skein of the same yarn above, with 2 packets each sugarless Cherry and Grape) turned out mostly a dusty rose/washed-out wine color, lighter in some places (I used the same pot...) and with the same skein-tying issues. I have no idea what to do with it. I wouldn't wear it, and neither would anyone else I know. But knitting with it is out of the question at the moment--it's horribly tangled. I am vaguely reminded of intestines. I'm thinking of overdyeing it with black cherry or grape, but I don't know.

If I'm not intended to have either red or purple yarn, would the Kool-aid gods kindly tell me?
I'm going to buy several packets of black cherry tomorrow. Hopefully it'll go better next time...