Cracks on the Sidewalk

Are neat.

The unique nature of water to expand when it freezes whereas everything else contracts gives water various interesting properties and effects.

For example. Cracks on the sidewalk are enlarged every year (well, at least in places with snow ... and sidewalks) due to water and ice. When the snow melts, it invades the tiny holes in the sidewalk, and when it freezes, it pushes out on the cement. Over time, massive cracks are noticeable along the cement.

That's crazy. Why? Well. I guess we don't usually think of things melting as a form of expansion, letting along creating cracks along something as rigid as cement. It's amazing how a tiny chip in the sidewalk can, over time, form into a huge scar along its surface.

Another property of different substances is the change in their melting / boiling points due to pressure (You know, the whole PV=nRT Ideal Gas Law...I think? Whatever, I don't need references here). Anyways, when skating, we focus all of our weight on the blades of our skates. All of this weight means a lot of pressure on the ice, turning it into water. It's this unique reaction (I say reaction, but not in the chemical sense...in a way) that allows us to glide along the icy surface.

Yay science.

Now, let's segue that into a rant.

Segue time.

Not sure when it happened, or how it started, but a crack in my... confidence (maybe? could be something else) has propagated through the rest of my mind by means of my university courses.

It's the same 5 course load from previous semesters, but somehow this semester just seems immensely.. heavier than before (does that count as a pun? Load? Heavier? Yeah. I don't know). The sheer amount of new knowledge is ridiculous. Let's put this in list format for easy browsing:

-Bcem / Chem labs are already full reports

-Bcem: memorize 20 amino acids (name, structure, and as of today, properties), a bunch of disaccharides (what they're made of, how they're linked, length, presence of branches and where they're located with what types of bonds)

-Zool: Lot's to read. Lot's to remember. Shall we take a cursory glance at a small portion of the lab manual's terminology? Rostrum, rostral keel, nasal capsule, antorbital process, rostral fenestra, accessory labial cartilage, dorsal labial cartilage, ventral labial cartilage, mandibular cartilage, adductor mandibulae... That's half the terms on a single diagram of the ventral view of the splanchnocranium of Squalus. I also need to know what goes where. Multiply this by another two organisms, several systems, and you get the point.

-Cmmb: Also a lot of random terms. Still trying to understand what's going on... except the professor moves at a blazing pace through everything.

-Funny thing my Zool prof said. Paraphrasing: "I've listed what pages need to be read for each week, and if you average it out, it's only about 5 or so pages a night, so it's not too bad". Couple that with 4 other courses, that's 20 pages (I'm excluding Nans, there's no textbook, yay). Except not really, because cmmb has 20 pages or whatever per lecture to browse through. All encrypted in some sort of archaic English for added spite.

... a short list of things. Couple with lack of sleep, random commitments like Safewalk, a Biomimicry Challenge, martial arts, the need to exercise, the lack of sleep (wait, that's not a commitment.... although I'm quite sure some may argue that I commit to sleeping less on purpose).

Insight! If I'm crumbling at stuff like this now... how am I possibly going to survive med school? I won't. Hmm. That's a depressing thought. I need an injection of liquid confidence. It might help. Maybe.


Enough rant.


In other news...


Olympic Torch came by the U of C the other day. Many people. Much cheering. Free bottle of Coca Cola (on a Pepsi campus no less). Good to see all that spirit and happiness despite all the earthquakeness in Haiti. Also, I can't perform under pressure with the constant stream of people walking pass the squash courts. Although a little kid staring in is kind of cute.


Two quick replies by professors. Another meeting tomorrow. The guy today... I'm not sure if he's someone I want to work with all summer. He's a nice enough guy and not angry at all... but just the way he speaks. It lacks.. confidence... and strength. It's all rather soft with way too many 'ums'. It would be horrible to have him as a prof, I'd fall asleep.


Random 3 hour nap today as soon as I got home. Fail. Didn't get much accomplished today either. Then all the work compounds! Unlike money in the bank compounding, this is bad. Bad bad. Bad. Bad.


Ultimate starts this week! Yay. There's no grass to slide / dive / roll / fall on though. Scrapes to be expected. It's all in the name of ... something. Scoring? Maybe.


Budget cuts everywhere are ridiculous. Zool lab. "Don't use too many paper towels. You see that stack? That's all we get for the semester". That is ridiculous. I also have to buy my own sterile gloves. Also ridiculous. And my own safety goggle. Well, if I ever want to cosplay a scientist... I've got all the tools.


Interview for the exchange is now possible. I'll have to figure out a time to go. Sort of scary and daunting. Hope I don't get rejected.


I wonder how people writing novels or making games come up with the games puzzles. Where do all their ideas come from? How do they come up with a code for their hidden messages? How do they maintain a balance for difficulty? One of my favorites series to read back in the day was Redwall. How did Brian Jacques come up with all those riddles? They rhyme too. That's hardcore.

Actually.. thinking about Redwall brings about a myriad of contradictions... but I'll save that for another post.