Incliment Weather

Today class was canceled after 3:30 pm, precisely when my social psych class was supposed to begin! I was at the campus since 11 am. I had recitation, then at around 12, I made my way to the Johnson student center to study.

I wrote some extra credit for my bug class, and read a chapter and a half of my mushroom book. Then I fell asleep. I kept having to use the bathroom though. I wonder if it was because of the cold. By the time I woke up, I decided I wanted milk and cookies...but Seattle Coffee was closed. In my haze, I looked around and saw the announcement that the student center was closing at 3:30 because of the weather. Sucky! Subways still had a line, so I decided to go there. On my way, I saw these cute lunch bags...but they were only cute in the picture! Oh well. I had already ordered a kids meal by then.

After I got my food, I ended up catching Tom's Creek A. I'm glad I decided to take the stop near the duck pond! There was hardly anyone on the bus. By the time the bus got to Torg, there was a mass of people waiting to board. It was cramped and crowded, but at least I got a seat!

Hump Day

Today I met most of my teachers. All that is left is the TA for my vector geometry recitation later today. This semester should be interesting. I'll definitely make it a point to come to my Fungi class. I'm really excited about this one. I can't wait to grow my own. I've been reading about koji, a starter that uses a mold to process items, like soy beans or rice, to help in the fermentation process to make foods like soy sauce or miso. (I really want to make my own!)

I was doing pretty well during the beginning of the day, but I was pretty tired after my last class. I had a head ache coming home, and the weather has been fairly cold and wet. I hope the rain lets up tomorrow.

I wanted to finish reading the first chapter of linear algebra before I went to bed, but I will probably get around to that after the recitation. I want to get my quizzes in both math classes done before Friday.

There are some notes I should transcribe, but I'll do that later.

Oh! And I definitely need to check my bug class. For now, sleep!

Orientation

Tom's Creek A was being really strange today...so I ended up coming late. If it weren't for the fact that I can't seem to escape having to use the empo, I might have panicked a bit. Orientation wasn't hard. I bumped into Julian on my way here. He was done by the time I got to the empo. Since I was shaking, I decided to eat before starting my "orientation quiz." I always seem to miss at least one question.

After quiz 0, I tried practice quiz 1. 3/6 isn't bad considering I have no idea what they mean by elementary operations, or how to do a Gauss-Jordan elimination on an augmented matrix... I think the last time I did anything with matrices was in Algebra II with Mr. Balew which was about 10 years ago! (Time flies!)

Tonight I'm going to study elementary operations for linear systems, and refresh my memory on matrices. Afterwards I'm going to take quiz 1 at home.

Julian told me that there were some people who finish this course in 3 weeks. (The entire course gets posted within the next two weeks.) It would be nice to finish this course early so that I can concentrate on mushrooms!

pre-study

Today I read "Research Methods, A Tool for Life" (printed in 2004). There's a new edition out, but I really don't want to buy the new book. The changes to new edition aren't compelling enough for me to buy. The content was restructured to make the book more comprehensive. The material is just about the same, so I'm just going to borrow the library's copy for a while.

I read the first chapter. I'll review it tomorrow, then start chapter 2. I hope to have at least three chapters done before the end of this week.

I also went through the first lecture of my bug class!

Learning Objectives

• State at least 7 reasons why insects are important and give specific examples of each
• Name some insect-transmitted diseases.
• List several insect-related phrases in literature and explain their historical context.
• List the major categories of insect pests and give examples of each.
• List some diseases that insects can transmit each to humans, plants, and animals.
• State several examples of how insects adversely affect the environment. State several examples of how they positively affect the environment.
• Explain how silk was discovered and its influence on trade between Eastern and Western societies.
• List some products that are derived from insects.
• List examples of how insects are used in biological and engineering research.

Study Questions

1. Why is studying insects important?
2. What agency regulates insect parts in our food supply and why do we have legal tolerances for insect parts and other contaminants?
3. What are some types of insects found in our food products?
4. What insect transmits heartworm to cats and dogs?
5. Are most species of insects a pest?
6. Give some examples of how insects can affect our lives.

I'll get around to answering these questions later...now it's time for bed!

Spring Schedule

Right now I'm taking 16 credit hours.

Course	Instructor	Schedule	Location
Insects and Human Society	J VOSHELL	N/A
Elementary Linear Algebra	J ENGLAND	T 1:00 PM	EMPOR 100
Vector Geometry	W GREENBERG	R 11:00 AM	DURHM 261
Vector Geometry	W GREENBERG	W 2:30 PM	TORG 2150
Mysterious Mushrooms & Molds	D SCHMALE	MWF 12:20 PM	HOLD AUD
Social Psychology	D AXSOM	TR 3:30 PM	WMS 120
Prin Psych Res	M LAW	MWF 11:15 AM	WMS 120

Also, I'm trying one distance learning course (the course without a schedule). I'm not a big fan DL, but the class seems interesting enough. I'll get to keep some bugs!

New Semester

Tomorrow, a new semester starts. Hopefully, my mobile uploads will start working. Last semester I was pretty successful with taking notes via cell cam, so I hope to use this blog to keep better track of my notes.

My goal is to at least keep up with this blog for one semester. I've started other blogs before, but I never got more than two posts in...