Break It

This past weekend was my academic "make it-or-break it" weekend. School has been a lot more demanding than I had anticipated, and I have been a lot more lazy than I had anticipated, so I have already become grossly behind in all of my courses. I was supposed to spend my weekend at school, writing lab reports, reading primary research papers, reading chapters and chapters from texts. That did not happen. Not only did I sleep in on both Saturday and Sunday, I did not once change out of my jimjams, nor did I make it to school. What's more, I failed to crack open my backpack until Saturday night, by which time I quickly stowed all my books away to watch My Beloved Oilers lose again. Thus, I broke it. Is this a sign of what's to come during the remainder of the semester? Will I be perpetually behind? Will I fail all my courses?

Currently, I am working on a calculation-heavy lab report for an experiment where we isolated lymphocytes from rabbit blood. Not only did it take me a needlessly large amount of time to actually figure out how to calculate the values required of me, but in order to calculate such values I had to use values from my previous experiment in which I determined the concentration of lymphocytes in rabbit blood. This meant that I had to go over my last lab report, and to my horror, I discovered numerous MAJOR errors. Not only did I screw up some calculations (very dumb mistakes, such as not converting a number to its correct scientific notation), I completely forgot to include a whole table, copying and pasting another, unrelated table in its stead. Since this report was handed in nigh a week ago, there is basically nothing I can do, and I will thus suffer a low mark that need not be low had I spent two extra minutes to properly proofread. I hate when I make this kind of mistake. It makes me feel completely inept, and I get all worried that whoever is grading my paper will think I am just dumb. The first paper of the year is the opportunity to make a good first impression, and I have made one that depicts me as a dummy that can't use a calculator nor copy and paste correctly.

So yeah. Woe is me. School is dominating my life, whether I am actually tackling everything it throws at me, or avoiding it at all costs.

New Camera Test Photos

Stitch feature photo of my living room, including my sisters feet and our godawful furniture (temporary only).

A dime, using the digital macro feature. I have a certain affinity for macro photography, and I am delighted that this camera takes such nice macro photos.

My extraordinarily messy desk, featuring my laptop, hairdryer, and an empty mug; taken with the colour accent feature. The camera also has a colour swapping feature with which I have yet to take a good photo.Another digital macro example of my poor glasses. This was the second time they were repaired with Krazy Glue and flames. This was taken on Thursday night and they broke yet again on Friday morning. Boo.

I know they are not the best photos, and I know that I have yet to explore all of the features, but I was very excited to share my new camera excitement.

Bullet'd (Ow! My skin!)

This is my new blogging style. It saves me from forming proper paragraphs and, occasionally, proper sentences.

• School started up again on Monday. It is my goal to repeat the 4.0, though I think it will be considerably harder to do so this semester. While my courses are all thoroughly interesting and I am sure I am going to enjoy them, I know there is going to be a lot more work involved. I am already behind, and while you may not believe it (and I certainly can't believe it), it's true. I have chapters to read, papers to read, lab reports to write, calculations to finish, etc.. I don't think I have ever had a faster start to a semester. I might get around to reviewing each of my classes as my blogging tradition dictates, but we'll see.
• I saw Children of Men on Monday. It's excellent. Great. Interesting. Sobering. Disgusting. Heartbreaking. Frightening. It's just wonderful. I plan to see it again before it enters theatre-to-DVD limbo. I highly recommend seeing it.
• My new camera was delivered yesterday!!!!! It's beautiful. I didn't get around to naming my old camera, but I am certain that this new camera is more worthy of a name anyway. A good name. Any suggestions? I'll take and post some test pictures soon-ish.
  
• My glasses, which snapped in two right between the eyes about two months ago after I was struck in the face with a soccer ball, broke in two again. After the first incident, I krazy-glued them back together, and they were practically as good as new. I tried to do the same after the second incident, but quickly learned that my efforts were fruitless. So, I had to buy new glasses. It took me a while to decide on a pair (I didn't know that many frames existed), but I settled on a pair of Pumas (I didn't know Puma made optical frames). I shall have them some time next week.
• My Beloved Oilers are on a bit of an upswing [knock on wood]. Huzzah!
  
• This Saturday is the ultimate sports Saturday. Three EPL games in the morning followed by three hockey games on Hockey Day in Canada.
• I started my resolutions post, and then deleted it as I had already failed to comply with more than one of my resolutions. So I've basically settled for one easy, simple, no-hassle resolution: be better.

I will now return to a forgotten blogging sign-off.
Music: "Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows" - The Beatles (from the newest release Love)

Potpourri

Like the category on Jeopardy!, this post is a collection of odds and ends, a medley, if you will.

• I am working on my resolutions post. I resolve to finish it by year's end.
• Neil is re-blogging. That is, he once blogged, and then didn't, and now he's blogging once more. He has a way with words that is clever and funny and very enjoyable. Read it.
• The Oilers LOST AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!! And again. And again. BAH! I want to cry. I am at a loss for words. It's ridiculous, almost. I have a feeling that a trade is going to happen soon-ish, one or more of our forwards (+draft picks,+prospects) for a defenseman. And HOW ABOUT THAT MISPLAY on Thursday night???? Dang. That eased the frustration, momentarily. Even if you don't follow hockey, watch that clip. You'll appreciate its hilarity. Patrik Stefan - remember that name.
• My new camera is on its way. Hip hip!
  
• My soccer game on Thursday night (at 10:15 - ludicrous) was a total bust. I am so out of shape. It's beyond laughable; it's just sad.
  
• The new and theoretically FINAL semester begins on Monday. According to my calculations, that is soon. I really really REALLY do not want to go back.
  

End transmission.