I feel random

As a lab aide, I learned:

• How to pour stuff without spilling
• How to set things on fire without Mrs. Jones noticing safely
• That iron filings are really cool in a glass plate on a magnetic stirrer
• That Mrs. Jones' sink can make a real big mess sometimes
• That acetone is flammable
• That it's not a good idea to be playing with a lighter while the other lab aide is using acetone to help scrape a label off of a bottle
• That bending an orange-hot glass stirring rod into the first letter of your first name is really cool
• To make sure that the cap on the bottle of conc. HCl is really tight before tilting it over to put in the acid cabinet
• That hydrogen effuses out of latex gloves overnight
• That filling up a latex glove with the gaseous product of a Zn and HCl reaction and lighting it can make the glove jump a few feet in the air
• That the plastic grating at the bottom of the sink is, in fact, plastic, and can therefore melt
• That pouring too much water into the lab sinks can make it leak into the classroom below
• That the zinc pyrotechnic demonstration looks totally awesome but is a mess to clean up
• That a screwdriver and a little knowledge can increase the flow rate tenfold of a bic lighter
• To never leave a latex glove filled with colored water near Chris Simpson
• Lots more that will come to me later.

What did you learn as a lab aide? Comment!

For the interested

Ever been annoyed at people who say "ATM machines," "PIN numbers," and "AC current"? You should probably check this out.

Brilliant Insight of the Day

"Mrs. Griffis takes off points for writing sin -6 instead of sin(-6) because she believes it can be misinterpreted as '6 subtracted from sin.'"

--Ruvin Jayasuriya
in his review of Mrs. Griffis

So true! It simultaneously pains me to think about and makes me laugh and laugh and laugh because that is all gone and that she was so(*@&A8&!@H2SV NO CARRIER

A glitch in the Matrix!

Apparently, Mrs. Jones has been receiving some rather poor ratings at the RateMyTeachers web site. If you qualify to vote and will do so honestly, give her the thumbs up!

Oh, and Mrs. Jones, if you're reading this, don't feel bad about the other students' comments. We still love you. (Note to Gilbert: An obligatory statement should add that "if you're not reading this, then you should feel bad, etc...)

Stupid class!

Time for a rant post!

Today's edition of Engineering 211 (Conservation Principles; basically Physics) was about typical and exemplifies the situation that's going on in there. It's a 2-hour class that's 2 days a week and is 3 credit hours.

Our professor began by announcing that he would extend the homework because he was unavailable for questions that afternoon. Then one of the students asked if Dr. Overglay* could work a problem from the previous homework. He admitted that he hadn't worked "that one" but said he would do it. Well, it was about 4:20. He started working. He drew it, wrote down some equations, and stared at it.

And he stared.

About an hour later, when most of the class had either left or solely been surfing on the internet, I decided that I had had enough. Because this was typical of him, I predicted, "He's going to keep working on it for most of the class, and then fail. He's then going to try to work some of this week's homework and before he finished, class will be over."

And then I left.

After I got back to my dorm, I IM'd someone in class to ask if he was still working on it. About 30 minutes after I had left, I received an affirmative response. A few minutes after that, after he had been working on the problem for an hour and a half, I was told that he gave up. There were only about 15 minutes left in the class for him to "teach." At this point, my contact in the class left, so I don't know what happened after that. I'm sure nothing did.

But anyway, this level of incompetence really shouldn't be acceptable. This is one of the professors who requires that one of the books a student gets for class is authored by him (the book does have two co-authors, I'll give him that). Pah! It's a good thing that some of this stuff is of tolerable difficulty (along the level of the most difficult Physics II problems, though some random, harder stuff).

I had once compared him to Mrs. Alkerway* in that he really didn't do much teaching but occasionally worked assignments. Well, I take that back. Mrs. Alkerway* knew what she was doing and had worked out every assignment that she had given us. She was also available to work out stuff with us in class. Although Dr. Overglay does have office hours, I have to admit that I've never asked him for help with problems (frankly because I don't think he would be able to do them). Perhaps I'm guilty for that. But whatever.

I still plan on skipping most of that class every day (though I do have to show up to turn homework in). Unless he teaches something.

*names "changed" to protect from Google

New poll. A really new poll.

I'm sorry to have to push down Felix's new entries (you should scroll down and read them), but it is time for a groundbreaking new poll!

Instead of asking a merely silly question, we are going to ask one that has some relevance! It is mainly geared towards the current students at the old High School (may it Rest In Peace, praise be) although we encourage former students to participate, too.

The question, as you can see, is about your least favorite (worst) class. Unfortunately, because we can't have a million billion meanies ... err ... options ... we've had to generalize the categories. But we love your input, so if you want to Specificize, as it were, please leave a comment (using the link under the poll) giving all the gory details! We don't care if you leave the teacher's name in, either! Ha ha!

Oh, and the last option, "other," should be followed by a comment post. Otherwise we won't know what the heck you're talking about. :-/

Here are the results from the old poll, if anyone cares (I'm sure you don't).

So, what'd ya think? Answers Votes Percent 1. Clever 2 9% 2. Witty 3 13% 3. Ingenious 5 22% 4. We Meanies only take NO for an answer! 13 57% Total Votes: 23

Today's Deep Thought

Has anyone ever eaten a Klondike bar without being messy?