OMGAH

Wow, 4 full months and not one blog.  Thats….messed up.  BUT!  I have an excuse, my plucky canadian friend Megan Tompkins does not!

So, lets start with….school!

This semester was a little rougher than usual.  I was taking 4 classes:

Geology 340 – Stratigraphy: Well it goes without saying that anything that has to do with sedimentary rocks I hate, and this class was no exception.  True, the prof was EXTREMELY nice and knowledgable and it was a complete turn around from my Sed prof, but I just can’t get into it, nor can I find the time to care.  The lab was a series of projects, which started well (95%) and ended poorish (75%).  Over, a lovely 80% in the 30% lab.  Not too bad.  The midterm was stupid, because he gave us true and false, and if it was false we had to correct it.  These types of questions are not my strong point, so I biffed it hard ending in a 70% midterm.  I wrote the final, and it went very well.  I found out that if I get an 80 on the final I get an 80 in the class.  I’m hoping!

Chemistry 330 – Inorganic II (study of transition metals): This class was an awesome class! I learned lots, had a fun time, the assignments were going ok, until BAM! 56% on the midterm.  I was just so tired from that week, and I had a midterm the day before, that I just wasn’t in the zone, and was being retarded.  Then, the labs were not going very well either since Henry Yee is a big giant asshole.  So, I went into the final with about a 60, and if I want a 70 in the class I need 70 on the final.  Well thats a whole other story, that involves me metamorphically taking 4 bats in the butt dry.  The questions were tough, I have no clue if I did them right or not, and am just stressed.  I may have to anticipate lower than a 70, which is really dissapointing because I really do understand the concepts in that class, its just the questions were a little more complex than what I could get from them.  *Sigh*

Geology 471 – Geochemistry: HAHAHAHAHA!  Easy as pie.   I averaged 92 on the labs, a 81 on the midterm with only one hour of studying.  Everyone else was running around all stressed and I think they’re all a silly bunch of morons.  But, then the lab final came, and there wasn’t a single question from our labs actually on it.  His explanation?  He wanted to see if we UNDERSTOOD the equations we were using.  Ugh, suck it Chi!  Then, we had to write papers and do a presentation.  Well I decided to do something he has an entire lab dedicated to, and got a new asshole torn out of me.  So then I write him an email and pretty much say sorry for making a shitty presentation, and he tells me “I thoroughly enjoyed it.”  FUCK YOU BUDDY! If you did, then why did you HUMILIATE me infront of the entire class?  Most of which I am smarter than I might add, and actually picked a topic that solves a geological problem (me and the masters student were the only two people to actually do this).  *Sigh*.  Well then the final came, and I aced it hardcore.  It was so simple, so easy, everything I knew and studied were on there.  Yay!

Geology 315 – Metamorphic Petrology: Well I can’t complain too much about this class, accept that it was kind of a gong show at times.  The department is really cracking down on cheating, and the main advocate of this was our proffessor.  So, she caught people cheating on the midterm (through an answer key she gave out last year, which kind of makes it her fault) and so she adjusted marks and stuff based on that.  That brought me to an 80 on the midterm, the 3rd highest mark in the class.  I could have done better, but my multiple choice were god awful.  I just suck at it sooo bad.  I rocked short answer, which is where I came up with most of my marks, and then did really well on the description of the rock.  I missed a few things, but she said overall I am one of her more promising students.  The labs went fairly well aswell, as when I compared them with the rest of the class they seemed to be doing a lot poorer than I was.  BUT!  There was this lab final.  It was done in pairs, and was more of a lab project final.  The person I got stuck with?  Tracy Putz, a girl who failed every single lab this semester.  So, I did all the work and she wrote things down, and I think we did just fine.  We still haven’t gotten lab marks back yet, but I asked her the other day and she said I was doing just fine.  I haven’t written this final yet, but I am very confident in the material, so I will do just fine.

Apart from all this, I haven’t really done too much, just shit tons of projects and homework.  I’m still teaching dance, and that is always a good time.  Provincials are coming up, so all the teachers and dancers are stressing really bad, and I’m starting to feel it too.

But, on a good note, I GOT A SUMMER JOB!  With the geological survey of Saskatchewan, doing office stuff.  I’m stoked! I was so worried I wouldn’t have a job for the summer, but now I do!

And I would love to talk more, but I’m all blogged out.

Cya!

Oh god ><

 So, like a month later, HI!

Well, judging from my last post I have a lot to fill you in on.  Let the story telling begin!

Finals were all around pretty good, accept for sedimentology.  That one stuck a butt plug in my ear and didn’t stop thrusting for the full 2 hours I spent in there.  However, I apparently did just fine.  Let me recap the final marks, and the marks I got on my finals:

Paleontology: 81 overall, 66 on the final.  Yeah, she definitly put me in the WRONG headspace when she said it was a piece of cake.  I didn’t explain anything in depth and that was my only problem.

Statistics: 92 overall, 95 on the final.  Yeah, not sure what else to say!  I could have had a higher mark if I handed in my last two assignments and done better on the second midterm.

Igneous Petrology: 74 overall, 76 on the final.  Well, this wasn’t a bad mark considering I barely studied and I was getting crappy marks the whole semester.  I did pull out the highest lab final and lab mark in the class though, which was nice.

Sedimentology: 71 overall, 73 on the final.  OMFG! I jumped for JOY when I saw this mark.  From what I hear, its the highest mark in the class.  I don’t want to go around and ask everyone their marks, but I mean it was a sweet mark, and its nice to finally be ontop of something for once.

So for this semester, my average went up one percent.  I’m now at a 73, and hoping that it climbs even higher this semester.  I really think I can pull out top notch marks if I try hard enough.  The only thing that might stop me is me being tired all the time ><

So then christmas came!  I also will not prepare a long list, but I did get pretty much everything I wanted (INCLUDING A WIIIIIII!), so I was very happy.  The one thing I was kind of hoping for was a backpack, because I like the back backpack style, but the one I have is falling apart.  I’ve had it for like 8 years though, so that might be why.  I’m also looking for more of a hiking style one since if I ever do field work I will need one of those.  So, I am trying to save up for one.  Lets see how that plays out!

Phils family also came down…and that was interesting.  I think they sort of drove my mother nuts a little bit, since phils brother apparently doesn’t eat anything accept for kraft dinner and is allergic to our cats, a fact they perhaps should have alerted us to before hand.   But, they did buy me some new ram for my computer, and now it is all spiffy and fast.

Then they left, and I sat on my ass for a week doing nothing but teaching private lessons and playing world of warcraft until 4 in the morning.  God, it was sooo nice. 

And now I’m back to school.  The class line up this semester IS:

Metamorphic petrology – the proffessor has one tone of voice, and its killing me.  Its absolutley killing me.  I sleep every single time.  The nice thing is is that she takes a break half way through, which gives me ample time to run to tim hortons and pump myself full of caffiene.

Geochemistry – as a chemistry major, the introduction to chemistry chapter had me banging my head against a desk.  The only lovely thing is is that when we did the assignment, all the loser geologists confused the hell out of me by trying to do all these weird things, which I then did for some reason, then was told my way of doing it was correct.  The only annoying thing about this class is that I have to dumb down my explanations of things, because they proffessor and the lab TA are both chinese, and don’t understand my lingo.  *sigh*

Stratigraphy – today, I drew a kung fu kirby on my page for 10 minutes.  Enough said.

Inorganic II – if theres a proffessor who can hold my attention, its Dr. M.  He’s amazing, and I am really enjoying this class. I just can’t wait to get into the transition metal coordination stuff, we’re still on introduction.  Yay!

So far everything is going ok.  I am not really remembering anything I am learning though, so thats sort of problematic.  Oh well.

Anywho, I have a lab to start typing up.  I’ll catch up with you guys later!

-Ryan

Ya BURNT!

Yes, recently I was burnt

I was innocently making a pot of soup when I stupidly thought that if I held the bowl such that my thum was in there, it wouldn’t reach my thumb.  Oh yeah, it did.  I was in sooo much pain all afternoon, and it NEVER subsided once.  Even worse, the skin under my finger nail was burned so even if the skin exposed was ok, the skin underneath would still throb like a son-of-a-gun.  Finally Phil came home with some solarcaine, and it instantly made it feel better.  Theres no blister left, but I think my thumb is gearing up to peel, it does look that way.

So, I am right smack dab in the middle of lab finals.  Well, more towards the end actually.  I have written Sedimentology and Igenous so far.  In sedimentology, I got the highest mark out of the whole class!  And I also got the highest mark overall.  Lord I am smart!  Weird news is that the mark was a 75, which isn’t the greatest, but heck I’ll take it.  Igneous went extremely well I think, accept now I am starting to doubt my answer for the first norite gabbro we looked at.  Whatever, I know that I atleast got a 75, and that is what my labs are sitting at right now.  I’m not doing the greatest in the class, so I’m hoping for an upper 70 in this class.  I write paleontology tomorrow afternoon.  I was supposed to study last night, but the strangest thing happened…..

I went to bed at 7 o’clock.  Yeah, you heard me right.

I don’t know what happened!  I came home, played on my computer, had some supper, watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (I almost cried when Cedric died.  I’ve seen it like 8 times, and for some reason it wanted to make me cry this time), and then I went to go lay down.  Well, I woke up and it was 2 in the morning, and all my clothes (save my underpants, MEGAN!) were off.  I really haven’t the slightest clue as to what happened, but now I am running on a comfortable 12 hours of sleep.  Wait, no, 13.  I think it was because I was starting to get sick, as strep throat has been running around the school like wild fire, and my body was starting to feel weak.  So atleast I fought it off with a nice long sleep.

So, as I was saying, paleo is thursday.  I’m not worried, because apparently there is just one of each fossil, with basic labelling and she only wants phyllum/class, and order if applicable.  So easy!  But, just to be sure, I’m studying for a good 6 hours strait today with Carlee while she studies her structural lab.

And then….I’M FREE! Not.  Sadly, I have 2 finals on monday and tuesday coming up fast, so friday/saturday/sunday are alternating study days between paleontology and sedimentology (recall sedimentology had only 8 people pass the midterm).  After that its a nice few easy days of stats studying (we’ve finished our course material like 2 weeks ago, so he pulled some old finals and we’re going through those!  SQUEE!) and then 3 more days until igneous.  Then I’m done!  And somewhat excited for the holidays. 

I’m also going in for my PLC this saturday, and I’m hoping to get it before the end of december.  FIngers crossed!

Anywho, its school time.  Toodles!

-Ryan