Les Infrasonics et les examens

I've been spending all my time researching infrasound instead of studying for finals. Just kidding...sort of... I only have Chemistry left to go, and well...between you and me, I'm not worried.

Infrasound pretty much follows the concept of infrared light, or light at wavelengths that are just below our visible spectrum. The sound waves are at frequencies that are just below our hearing window.

Infrasonic frequencies create this feeling of unease in us because evolutionarily, we've grown to avoid the sources that create them -- big animals, earthquakes, approaching storms, etc.

Another interesting fact: in big buildings such as warehouses, the air circulation systems can create a big standing wave, resulting in that eerie feeling, and the building being labeled as "haunted." The human eye resonates at around 18Hz, right around the levels of infrasound, resulting in visual disturbances! So, if you think you see a ghost, turn off your air conditioning and check again ;)

I'm currently sitting in my little dorm room, with all of its weird posters and decorations, and looking out my window onto campus, watching cars drive by in the dark. The Christmas lights I put up around the window are hard to beat, and so is the classic holiday compilation that I stupidly bought on iTunes.

I hate pumpkin pie.

I'm getting ready for finals, and I have all my business together, including a job opportunity over the break. I'm pretending that people read this.

Christmas break will be nice, as I won't have any work to do, but I'm really only happy when I'm busy, and it's almost 4 weeks long, which is a long time to spend with my family and without Martin. You get spoiled, being able to live completely on your own schedule; I'm not used to eating, sleeping, and working exactly when three other people do. I think I'll leave my full computer here, and just take my netbook home, then I can completely detox of school and technology...worried that I'll regret that, but we'll see.

Conseils du premier semestre

The first semester of my freshman year is coming to a close. The days are long, but the months are short. Here is what I've learned; hopefully you will at least laugh. :)

1. Don't skip class. You'll realize how useless giant lecture courses are, and you'll never go back. There are all sorts of bonus points and test hints to be had, and you're missing out, even if you don't learn anything that you couldn't have found in the book or published Powerpoints.
   
   
2. Download everything you ever MIGHT need on eLC. The day you need it will be the day that it's broken, or you don't have internet access.
   
   
3. The buses can't stop. Don't walk/drive in front of them; it's embarrassing when they honk at people(you). And no, you don't get free tuition if you get hit.
   
   
4. Don't go to Snelling and stuff your face every night. You'll get fat, promise, and you should be sleeping anyway.
   
   
5. Choose one weekend and get drunk to oblivion. If you do it right, you won't want to do it again, and you'll save yourself a lot of trouble. Remember to account for recovery time.
   
   
6. Add everyone you meet on Facebook, and make friends in your classes. It'll be less awkward to ask when you need something for class, or have a question. eLC has rosters for all your classes, so asking for last names doesn't even need to be awkward.
   
   
7. Don't take chemistry unless you have to. They're dirty tricky bastards in that building. You start out learning what an atom is, with ridiculously simple material, but don't underestimate their power to thoroughly screw your GPA. After the second test, your class will be half its original size, and shit will get real, so be ready.
   
   
8. On that note, if you're failing CHEM 1211, you're doing it wrong. There are TAs in the CLC every single day doing homework help. They desperately want you to pass, as it makes them look bad when 2/3rds of the kids drop the course. And yes, the lab is curved, so don't freak out.
   
   
9. Go to sleep. It's all you ever wanted in high school. Revel in the fact that you can work all day, play, and then get enough sleep too. Don't take that from yourself.
   
   
10. Take all AP credit that is awarded to you. AP standards are much higher than colleges' are, and if you retake your exempted classes to get easy As, you'll end up working with tedious B+s.
    
    
11. You are smarter than you think you are, but that doesn't make you invincible shit. You get a head start, at best.

Le Bonheur

I really don't deserve all of the good things that happened to me this week. I was not supposed to pass my calculus exam, let alone get a B, and I wasn't supposed to get a 95 on my chemistry exam, either. None the less, I am pleased.

I'm really looking forward to next semester. Hopefully my classes will be a little less vacuous, and hopefully the physics section I want will open up. I'll be taking CHEM 1212, CHEM 1212L, FREN 3010, CBIO 3800 (neurobiology), and then hopefully PHYS 1112 and PHYS 1112L, if it opens up. If not, I'll think of something else, I guess. It'll be 14 credit hours, but 18 real hours...yay science.

I'm working on the Anatomy and Physiology test for BSO. I think it will go well. I'm a hair nervous, but I'm sure everyone is, and it'll work out.

Ma vie vit

So far, in college, I have:

Celebrated my two year anniversary with Martin

Done poorly on a test I thought I would ace

Aced a test I thought I would fail

Had the worst hangover I've ever experienced

Felt on top of the world

Cried

Laughed

Bought my own groceries

Tripped the circuit breaker on my hall

Made friends

Lost friends

Bought a broken microscope and fixed it

Woke up and asked myself, "What the hell just happened?"

It seems like a success so far. I am really happy.

Also, I used my microscope to see real live sperm. Nothing has made me feel more human. It was such a tangible representation of the wonders of our life. I took a poor-quality video of what I saw with my iphone so that I can remember what it was like.

I hope that things keep working out.

Crème brûlée

Graduating takes a lot of time and effort, none of which having anything to do with academics. But, it's over now, and I never have to do it again, as college graduation is much different I hear. I did well on my AP exams, though not as well as I would have liked in French. C'est la vie.

On the 4th of July, my parents were cooking a nice dinner for us, with steak and caramelized onions, but we didn't have a dessert planned yet. My favorite dessert, possibly of all time, is crème brûlée, but I'd never tried to make it before. Thus, an epic quest began.

They look mighty pretty here in the oven, but there were some crazy adventures to get them to this point. I would have taken pictures, but it's hard to photograph saucepans of boiling hot cream and lemon zest overflowing onto the stove. For future reference, cream boils hard, and fast.

My favorite part is torching them at the end. I use a butane torch and nuke a bit of granulated sugar that I put on top. The crème brûlées have to cool completely before you do this though, and it's a long wait.

I think they look nice (and taste great!) with cute fruits on the top.

La Dissection

In my biology lab the other day, we dissected cow eyes, and I got really into it. It was much more interesting than when we did the sheep eyes. I guess it just depends on your mood. Here is a photo-by-photo account of what I did. (The descriptions go below the photos).

Here you can see the retina just covering the bluish tapetum lucidium, which is what you see when your cat looks at you in the dark, and her eyes are glowing. It helps them see in the dark.

The jelly like thing is the vitreous humor, which is the "eye juice" and what keeps the volume of the eye. You can see the big creamy lens under the humor, and the black ciliary body surrounding it.

Here, the vitreous humor, or jelly-like stuff, is removed, more or less. The retina is pulled back to reveal the tapetum lucidium, or choroid coat.

The lens is removed here to reveal the full ciliary body and pupil. The ciliary body relaxes and contracts to change the shape of the lens to focus the image on the retina. To me, it kind of looks like the gills under a mushroom :)

Here, I just removed the cornea, and am holding it back with forceps to reveal the pupil underneath. Between the cornea and the protective membranes of the iris and pupil, the aqueous humor is contained.

Here is the ciliary body will the lens and most of the surrounding humor removed. I just stuck this in because it's my favorite, and wanted to show it in detail.

Here I am pulling the choroid layer back from the sclera to see the differences between the sheets of tissue. The white fluffy looking stuff on the outside of the eye is excess fat and fascia that I didn't have time to remove completely from the sclera.

L'économie

I have an economics test tomorrow, so naturally, instead of studying, I'm reading about Daphnia, my new favorite crustaceans.

That's a daphnia, also known as a water flea. Their "skins" are almost transparent, so they're perfect for exploration under a microscope; you can even see their little hearts beating. Apparently they also respond well to stimulants and depressants, making for some cool experiments with alcohol and amphetamines.

They also make great fish food, so I'm wondering if I can get some at Petco and play with them under the school microscopes surreptitiously. They look like they would make fun pets either way; I used to love sea monkeys when I was little (brine shrimp).

At the Science Olympiad Regional Tournament last weekend, (which we won, by the way) I got to use the nicest microscope I had ever seen. All of the knobs were intuitive; I reached under the stage and they were exactly where I expected them to be. Instead of trying to scoot the slide around manually, there was a metal mechanism that moved it smoothly with the turn of a knob. It could also magnify to a much higher degree than I had ever personally seen, so I had fun playing with the slide of various muscle tissue they gave me.

I wonder why I can never sleep. I'm exhausted all day, and then when sleep becomes the normal thing to do, at a reasonable time, everything else suddenly becomes much more important.

So it goes.

La Belle Vie

The Quiet World

BY JEFFREY MCDANIEL

In an effort to get people to look

into each other’s eyes more,

and also to appease the mutes,

the government has decided

to allot each person exactly one hundred

and sixty-seven words, per day.

When the phone rings, I put it to my ear

without saying hello. In the restaurant

I point at chicken noodle soup.

I am adjusting well to the new way.

Late at night, I call my long distance lover,

proudly say I only used fifty-nine today.

I saved the rest for you.

When she doesn’t respond,

I know she’s used up all her words,

so I slowly whisper I love you

thirty-two and a third times.

After that, we just sit on the line

and listen to each other breathe.

This is the most beautiful poem that I have read of late, and I'd like to talk about it with you...or to you. I'm a secret hopeless romantic, and when I can apply something directly to my life, it takes on new breadth and meaning. I do not, of course, have a limit on speech, but rather find myself struggling to find words that can express the beauty of my love for a certain someone.

Actually, I have nothing to say that will carry any weight with anyone. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.