Almost there!

This week was actually a bit slower! I had a hard time believing I was so on top of things! I probably could've done a better job of trying to work ahead; looking at everything I need to get done before Friday gives me a miniature panic attack. That being said, it was nice to be able to have breathing room this week.

This week I read from chapter 15 on "Chemical Equilibrium" on rate of chemical reaction, activation energy, LeChatelier's principle, and (surprise!) chemical equilibrium. This chapter was pretty straightforward; it made sense right away that increasing concentration, temperature, or pressure would increase the rate of reaction. LeChatelier's principle made a heck of a lot more sense in the book than in ALEKS; I think ALEKS tends to throw more complicated stuff at you right away rather than easing you in. The discussion board on equilibrium really showed me just how important equilibrium is in our everyday lives. Without equilibrium we wouldn't be able to function; in fact, I think our body systems would shut down pretty quickly. The world would be a very unstable place.

This week I read chapter 7, " Chemical Recreations," in Uncle Tungsten. Sacks starts off fairly generally, talking about the fun he had making crystals and "chemical gardens." After a bit he starts talking about acids and bases, and describes the experiments his uncle showed him. I particularly enjoyed the very end of the chapter where Sacks talks about how he collected bus tickets that had a chemical symbol with the corresponding atomic weight on them. I've saved the tickets for almost all of the movies, shows, and operas I've seen, so it sounds like something I would do. I was also struck by how Sacks said he had a new respect for salt after watching the violent reactions that produced it. Salt is such a basic ingredient in the cupboard that I've always taken it for granted; I think I have a bit more respect for it now too.

This week also showed me that there are acids and bases all around me every day. We have a lemon tree outside, so we have plenty of access to acidic lemon juice. We use vinegar on a fairly regular basis, and that's also an acid. I wash my hands every day using soap, and I wash my hair with shampoo; both of those are basic. It seems like acids are a good choice when you need to break down substances (for example, we use vinegar to help get rid of calcium deposits on dishes); on the other hand, drain cleaner is strongly basic, and that also dissolves things like hair and grease in clogged drains. When you're cleaning you'll probably want to reach for an acid-based cleaner to clean metals, and if you're dealing with other, more organic substances, you'll probably need something that's basic.

The videos this week were pretty straightforward overall. The redox playlist gave me some good tips; I liked how the math was set up in "Oxidation States - Ions" and "Oxidation States - Compounds." "Activity Series Application 2" was a helpful companion to the material in the book. I also appreciated the help with "Calculating pH of hydronium concentration" and "Calculating pH." One thing that has been tripping me up is identifying whether acids and bases are strong or weak, so I was happy to see the video on that. I'm still a little unclear about how exactly it works; I think I may have missed where we talked about monoprotic and diotic and comparing it to the oxygen. I also couldn't remember where the piece was on strong bases. I got an idea of how it worked from the video but I'm going to have to study it a bit more.

Thinking back over the last 7 weeks, overall I have been pretty happy with how this class has been. It definitely started out overwhelming. I wish there was some way for the setup to be a bit more condensed; I got the hang of it after a couple of weeks, but for the new student it was kind of like "Whaaaaa??? Where do I go for this? How about this? Oh... these are in here... then where am I supposed to upload this?" I also was not expecting to spend quite so much time on it each day. I thought I would be working 3-4 hours a day total (max!), so when I was spending closer to 5 or 6 depending on what was going on I got a bit frazzled. I'm glad we were warned in advance that this class would take a lot of work; I think it might be worth it to really emphasize that in the future and tell students that they can expect to spend an average of anywhere from x to y hours per day on class-related work (not just homework). I'm torn about the idea of students' critiquing each others' lab reports. I've worked as a tutor before and I have done plenty of paper grading and critiquing, so it wasn't difficult for me. However, it did take up a fair bit of time and was another thing I had to remember to do on top of everything else. On the other hand, I did appreciate the critiques; people picked up on typos or showed me where I needed to be clearer. I think perhaps this might be a good idea for a semester-based class where things are a bit more spread out. I have really enjoyed the discussion board assignments. I think the topics have been good ones and I like that they all have related to chemistry in everyday life. It's easy to forget that chemistry is fundamental to our existence and start seeing it as a bunch of symbols and numbers and mathematical formulas. The discussion boards bring it back to earth and show how diverse it is. They also are a way to help me get to know the other students at some level. I always have fun going and reading everyone else's posts and seeing what examples they've come up with. I think some of the "response questions" have kind of been cop outs... for example, "Isn't it fascinating that such-and-such that you just clearly showed has such an effect?" (I've had a couple of those myself, so I'm not pointing a finger at anyone.) However, a lot of the questions have really sparked some interesting responses, so that aspect of it is a bit of a mixed bag. The labs have been pretty enjoyable as a whole. I appreciate that they require (for the most part) such basic ingredients. It goes to show that you don't need a fancy shmancy lab with high tech equipment to demonstrate the principles of chemistry. Also, even though the oral report was a bit of a pain to put together, I think it is a good requirement. It was fun seeing how everyone approached assembling their videos and adapting the experiment so it would work well on camera. I've noticed that many of the aspects of this class have made me more familiar with basic computer programs like Google Docs, Blogger, and YouTube. It's a nice bonus to have some experience with these programs under my belt.

I'm a bit nervous about the final exam. I need to take it a day early because the testing center isn't open on Fridays, so that only really leaves me Wednesday to study. I've done it before (flashbacks to my up-til-2-AM-night-before-final experiences), so I'll cram it all in. Any final is nervewracking though, and since I'm really trying to keep my grade in the range it's in right now I need to do well!

Lab this week was another one of this unexpected surprises. The first part of experiment 12, where I dissolved the aspirin tablets, went off without a hitch. I ran into some snags in part two. The cabbage pH indicator fluid I'd made wasn't even close to being strong enough, so the paper strips were not changing color. At all. Of course I didn't have any more cabbage, so after some "What do I do???" texts to the instructor she suggested I make blueberry pH liquid. I had never thought of such a thing, and I had to laugh as I was prepping the strips: "Well, I can check stirring paper strips in a bowl of warm blueberry liquid off my bucket list." But lo and behold, it worked! I think I'll be using blueberry pH liquid instead of cabbage in my next experiment because the results were so much better. Experiment 13 went a little smoother. I was a bit surprised by the results with the glowstick; why did it get so much dimmer in a glass of ice water than in a freezer when a freezer is at 0 degrees and the water's in the low 30s? I kept the glow stick in the freezer as long as I could but it wasn't for 24 hours, so maybe that was a part of it. The iodine and calcium C part of the experiment was fun; the color change is pretty spectacular.

A follow up from last week: I made rock candy. Or rather, I attempted to make rock candy. I've had a wooden skewer (which, I was told, was a perfectly acceptable substitute for string) in sugar water for about 6 days now and nary a crystal in sight. The weather has still been fairly humid until recently, and thinking about it I believe the extra moisture in the air could have been keeping the sugar more saturated. The only other thing I can think of is I added a splash of vanilla (which I was also told should work just fine, according to the recipe I used)... maybe the alcohol affected it somehow? Anyway, here's what 4 cups of sugar got me. (I'm trying not to think about how many brownies I could've made with 4 cups of sugar.) I had moistened the stick and rolled it in sugar before putting it in the sugar water solution (again, something that was supposed to guarantee bigger crystals), so that's the sugar you'll see towards the top.

I can't believe I just have one more blog entry left after this! Less than a week left!

Fountains, Oobleck and Gak-Slime

 Two weeks left in Chemistry, and I'm starting to burn out. I'm enjoying the material, but there is just so much to do every day! I'm just barely keeping up with the deadlines, which is not like me; I like to have stuff done in advance so there's no rushing at the last minute. I'll also be moving to Wyoming next month, so I think there are a lot of things on my mind and it's harder to focus. But there are only 2 weeks left, so the finish line is in sight!

Well, this week I read from chapters 11, 12 and 13 on "Gases," "Liquids, Solids, and Intermolecular Forces" and "Solutions," respectively. It was all pretty straightforward (except for intermolecular forces, which make sense but are hard to keep track of); I enjoy this part of chemistry, especially the different states of matter. I think I also enjoy it because these are very tangible subjects for me. We see examples of gases, liquids and solids every day, and it's cool to see how these different substances are held together. What I've been discovering is, while the concepts are pretty easy, the homework in ALEKS can be very tricksy. I'll get an explanation for a problem, think "OK, that makes sense," go to start a new problem... and then they throw a whole new twist in it and I get stuck. Even if I have the concept right there will be one little conversion error somewhere that throws the whole thing off. Chemistry is definitely a precise science, and for good reason... it's just not so fun for the student on hour 3 of homework when you find you were off by one decimal place.

 I was going to try making rock candy but it's been so humid the last few days that I gave it up as a lost cause. I'm going to give it a shot this week; my little brothers will love it. I do understand something about how it works; when the sugar liquid is heated it's able to hold more sugar than it would at room temperature. (I saw this demonstrated in an experiment earlier in the course.) As it cools, however, the solution becomes super saturated and the sugar begins to precipitate out. Put a string in and voila! If all goes the way it should, you have rock candy, courtesy of the principles of saturation that we learned about this week. I love it when chemistry relates to food. We used to subscribe to the magazine Cook's Illustrated and they often talked about the science they would use in their recipe development; almost all of it was chemistry-related.

Speaking of food, when I started thinking about it, I realized that most of the food we eat is in solution (maybe all, but I don't quite see how a hamburger is in solution... would that count as a solid solution?). Certainly nearly all the fluids we drink are solutions (except water, that's usually the solvent in the solution we drink). Even something like cold cereal is a solution; it's a solid in a liquid. I just had a glass of pear hard cider as I worked on my homework this afternoon, and that was an example of a gas solute in a liquid solvent. Solutions are everywhere in our food options!

The videos I found most helpful this week were in the solutions playlist. The first few were pretty commonsense material for me ( the two "Mass Percent" videos and "Molarity"). Given how tough the ALEKS homework can get, though, I was very appreciative to see basic straightforward examples in the "Dilution" video and the "Solution Chemistry" videos. Solution chemistry has been giving me a rough time in ALEKS so it's nice to have the videos as a reminder that the basic concepts are basic. It's just a matter of trying to break everything down and see where the missing links are.

I did two labs this week: the "Fountains, Oobleck and Gak-Slime" experiment and the experiment with vinegar and Alka-Seltzer. I had so much fun with the first experiment. I love mixing things together that turn into substances with absolutely no resemblance to their components. I think my favorite moment was trying to get my little brothers to play with the Oobleck. My youngest brother absolutely refused to touch it for quite awhile, but when he did I was ready with a camera. His face was pretty priceless.

"What IS this stuff? Eeeewwww!!!"

The Alka-Seltzer experiment proved to be an unexpected headache. First off, I didn't realize until AFTER the experiment that the store-brand Alka-Seltzer we had used was primarily for cold medicine. It seemed to work just fine until it came time to do the calculations. I was getting absolutely bizzare numbers and had to go back and re-do and adjust everything before I could do all the math for the final results. Then I started overthinking things and spent about an hour trying to figure out how to calculate the final mass of carbon dioxide, using these fancy conversions and calculations. Eventually, with my brain turning to gel, I realized "Oh. Subtract the final mass of the cup from the initial mass. DUH." At least I think I understand the principles behind the results, even if said results were funky.

And that was my week in chemistry! Crazy as always (I'm starting to resign myself to that) but interesting. Let's see what this next week will bring!

History and chemistry

 I think the tagline for my experience with this class should be "If it's not one thing it's another." I finally started to get into a rhythm this week, and then I got sick! Thank goodness for assignment extensions, but I've had some catching up to do the last few days. I think I'm at a pretty good place as I start the week, but we'll see if anything else pops up unexpectedly.

Well, last week I read from chapters 6, 8, and 11 in the textbook, which covered "Chemical Composition," "Quantities in Chemical Reactions" and "Gases," respectively. Chapter 6 was pretty straightforward; mass percent is really easy, and I've never had much trouble with empirical or molecular formulas. Chapter 8 was a bit trickier. Mole-mole and mass-mass conversions weren't too hard, but limiting reactants took some work. Overall, though, I think I understood everything. Chapter 11 covered kinetic molecular theory, pressure, and Boyle's and Charles's Laws. Other than remembering the conversion factors for pressure units I don't think I'll have much trouble with the material that was covered.

The videos this week were short and sweet, just how I like them. I copied all the example problems for "moles-atoms," "atoms-moles," "grams-moles," grams-atoms," "molecules-grams," "mole-mole," "grams-grams," and "mass percent composition" into my notebook for easy reference. I also found that the limiting reactants video was really helpful. I'd gotten through the homework on that topic on ALEKS, but it didn't give any tricks for easily identifying the limiting reactant. I liked that the video showed that you can look for the smallest number and go back to the original formula in that "sequence," and that will be the limiting reactant.

I got to read more of Uncle Tungsten this week; this time I read about "Chemical Language." Sacks essentially covered the development of chemistry as a science. He begins with the investigations of Boyle, who showed that air was a material substance and not some "ethereal, all-pervading medium" (p. 104). He then moves to Lavoisier, who debunked the prevalent theory of phlogiston, and showed that combustion was a chemical process. He also defined elements, demonstrated conservation of mass and "rewrote" the language of chemistry to make it more uniform and scientific. One of my favorite parts had to be footnote number 2, which listed Lavoisier's many accomplishements. Talk about an overachiever! And then to be guillotined in the French Revolution. Wow. I was curious about what happened, so I went to Wikipedia to look it up. According to their article about him, "Lavoisier was convicted with summary justice of having plundered the people and the treasury of France, of having adulterated the nation's tobacco with water, and of having supplied the enemies of France with huge sums of money from the national treasury. Lavoisier, along with 27 of his former colleagues, was guillotined on the same day." It reminded me in some ways of the brilliant young scientists who were killed in WWI; I think it can be easy to overlook the fact that war and revolution have destroyed some of the most brilliant thinkers in the world. This chapter actually related a lot to my life because I had studied Boyle and Lavoisier my sophomore year at college; we read their original works and discussed the exact progression of chemistry as laid out by Sacks. I don't remember many of the particulars, but I do remember reading a copy of an original text by Lavoisier. This was from the day when they printed their "s"'s to look like "f"s. Unfortunately Lavoisier used the word "suck" pretty regularly ("I used such-and-such apparatus to suck the air out of the chamber") so it was quite a scandalous read. I just remember sitting in the dining area with my friends, reading our Lavoisier assignments, and everyone with a "I wish my mind wouldn't go there" look on their faces.

For experiment 8 this week I created "airbags" out of plastic baggies, vinegar and baking soda. I really enjoyed this experiment; it was fun to mix everything in the bag and then throw it a respectable distance away and watch the bag expand. I kind of hoped I'd see a bag explode, but no such luck. Experiment 9 looked really easy, but, of course, turned out to be more of a hassle than I expected. First I thought "Oh, the size of the bottle won't matter, as long as it's close-ish." Wrong. I tried using a Del Taco enchilada sauce packet, a mustard packet, a soy sauce packet, and a ketchup packet with that darn 20-oz bottle, with absolutely no results. After ransacking our "recycle" bottle bags, our plastics drawer and our cupboards, we found a 16 oz vanilla bottle that was commandeered to serve in the name of science. Luckily the ketchup pack worked with the new bottle size. Then I tore the art supplies shelf apart for silly putty. No silly putty. My mom tore the shelf apart ("I KNOW we had some!"). No silly putty. So I googled homemade playdough and mixed up 2 cups of the stuff so I could have a little wad for the experiment. I added playdough to the pencap, subtracted it, stuffed it in the opening, stuck it on the pointed end, wrapped it around the barrel... nope. No matter what I did the pen cap stuck stubbornly to the side of the bottle or sank to the bottom. Eventually I gave up. Luckily part 2 of the experiment went beautifully; I think it was to make up for all the fuss in part 1. I had to use Google Draw again to help demonstrate the results. When it comes to Google Draw I have absolutely no pride. As long as you can sort of tell what's going on, that's all I ask of myself.

I thought it was funny that I used champagne as an example for the sections on gas we read this week, especially Boyle's Law and Charles's Law. You see, we hardly ever have the stuff in the house, but a friend brought a bottle of peach almond champagne for us on the 4th, and we finally broke into it last night. As my dad was opening it I was thinking "The volume of a gas and its pressure are inversely proportional" and "The volume of a gas and its Kelvin temperature are directly proportional." (Introductory Chemistry.)  "The bottle's been in the fridge so according to Charles's Law the volume should be lower... it's going to pop, it's going to pop... *POP* Boyle's law at work!"

I was thinking more about what I wanted to do for my "free space" in this post, and my mind went back to the opening of the Uncle Tungsten reading this week. I also related to the opening of this chapter, where Sacks talked about his love of history and his desire to see chemistry through its historical lens. I too love history; I think the most dry, boring subects (for the record, in my book chemistry doesn't fall in that category!) can come alive if you're able to see the historical side and gain some insight into the people involved. Maybe that's why I love History Channel programming and the live-reenactments that are popular on TV these days, such as the "Killing Lincoln" show I saw recently. It makes all the difference to SEE what happened, rather than just reading about it. It sounds like Lavoisier's life would make a great movie or TV film; he sounded like such a dynamic character. I've been getting to see my family history lately... my sister and I are working on digitizing all of my late grandma's photos and letters. Of course I'd heard about my great-grandparents (her parents), but finding my great-grandmother's photo scrapbooks and my great-grandfather's WWI scrapbook brought them to life in a whole new way. My great-grandfather started the Bloedorn Lumber Company, so it was fascinating seeing the old photos of my grandma in her baby buggy in front of the original "Torrington Lumber Company" when he was just starting out in the early 1920s.

 From a trip to Wyoming a couple of years ago.

We found out that my grandmother had been engaged to a paratrooper who was killed in the Battle of the Bulge. We also discovered the letters my grandparents sent each other when they first met and started dating. I had never heard much about that time of their lives, so it was fascinating seeing how their relationship developed. I also learned from those letters that under my grandpa's quiet, laid-back exterior beat the heart of a true romantic. Some of the things we find raise new questions too; my grandpa was sent to the Pacific Theater during WWII, but he never told us anything about any of his experiences. However, we found a box of WWII ribbons and decorations hidden away in a closet. We researched them and at least a couple looked like they were Japanese. I would give a lot now to be able to ask him how he came across those and to learn more about what he went through. To anyone who thinks history or chemistry is boring, I'd say follow Sacks' example and "understand how these early chemists thought... imagine myself into their worlds." Whether it's your grandparents or Lavoisier, it makes the past come alive.

It's a juggling act

 Well, this week marked the halfway point in my summer chemistry class, and it was another hectic one. We left Northern California on Tuesday so I had to get all the assignments due that day in on Monday. Then Wednesday I was playing catchup with ALEKS (thank goodness I was able to turn my DB assignments the next day), and Thursday was the 4th of July so other than the DB assignments I didn't do any further work. That meant Friday I was playing catchup with ALEKS again and rushing to get the lab sheet in. Maybe... just maybe... next week will be better?

 Miss Daisy Celebrating Independence Day

This week I read from chapters 5 ("Molecules and Compounds"), 18 ("Organic Chemistry"), 7 ("Chemical Reactions"), and 6 ("Chemical Composition"). For the most part chapter 5 didn't cause any problems, though naming acids could prove to be a bit tricky. Chapter 6 was a lot of math but not too bad. I understood all the concepts in chapter 7, but it's a lot to keep track of, so that's probably going to be my main obstacle there.

Chapter 18... oh my goodness, chapter 18. Again, I think I understood the concepts, but so much to remember! I feel like a lot of the material this week is stuff I would do great with if I could have a chart in front of me for reference... but unfortunately that's not quite how it works. Plus it's such detailed material. When I was doing the homework in ALEKS I would follow the more basic examples without much trouble, but then they'd throw a tricky problem at me. Even though I remembered the rules the particular structure or formula would throw me for a loop, so I'd apply them as best I could. Usually I was off somewhere so I'd be marked wrong and have to start all over again. Overall the nomenclature has been very challenging, not so much in theory, but definitely in practice.

I realize that most or all of the concepts I study in the readings have some relation to me and my daily life, but at times that's hard to see. The "Everyday Chemistry" sections in the chapters have been very helpful in that regard. For example, in chapter 5 I learned about how polyatomic ions are in everything from bleach to baked goods to Tums (p. 140). I only read one math-related section in chapter 6, so nothing jumped out at me there. Chapter 7, on the other hand, talked about evidence of chemical reactions. I see examples of that every day (color change, formation of a solid, formation fo a gas, emission of light, and the emission or absorption of heat), so that was easier to relate to me personally. Chapter 18 talked about scents and smells, which are obviously a huge part of everyday life. In fact, as I was studying earlier I noticed one of my favorite smells coming through the window, the smell of woodsmoke.

One of the discussion board assignments this week was on carbon. We had to read a work entitled (surprisingly) "Carbon" by Primo Levi and, using Google Draw, sketch the travels of the carbon atom. The reading itself was challenging but interesting. I'm not going to be super excited about a block on the periodic table with a "C" on it, but this reading made carbon come to life. It showed that atoms would have amazing stories to tell if they were able to communicate. Parts of the reading were fascinating... other parts were just confusing. Levi had a tendency to use "high-falutin'," flowery language, which was fun when it was understandable but some places were next to incomprehensible. The drawing was... well, it was an adventure. I'd never used Google Draw in my life but I have used online drawing programs once or twice. Let's just say I'd never been thrilled with my results. I'm no artist, but I can produce a reasonably good pencil sketch when I need to. Oh boy, did Google Draw take my pride down a few notches. It took me forever to figure out how to use the different features, and I never did successfully create an arc. Not where I wanted it to go, anyway; I was able to produce arcs everywhere but where they were supposed to be. Eventually I started relying on the "Scribble" feature and used it to draw most of what I ended up using. My falcon was either obese or had just eaten a huge dinner, but at least it was recognizable as a bird.

The other discussion board assignment, where we posted photos of examples of chemical change, ties into the question of how this course is relating to my daily life. Again, when I'm doing the homework problems I'm usually wondering what on earth this has to do with anything practical in my everyday life. But when I saw all the examples that everyone posted it drove home to me again just how much chemistry is a part of our everyday experiences. Everything from BBQ to the weather, from our pets to our kitchens, from our travels to our celebrations... chemistry pops up in all of them. I was honestly surprised at how many examples I was able to come up with, even though I jumped in later in the discussion and I was trying not to repeat what anyone else had done.

Lab this week was challenging. Between the trip home, unpacking, and the holiday (we have an ice cream social every 4th to watch the fireworks from our back porch... 70 people showed up this year) I hadn't been able to study as much as I would've liked. I felt like the material wasn't that hard, but I didn't fully understand it yet so I got quite a few answers wrong. I had to laugh at myself the next day. I popped awake in the morning and thought "Oh shoot. I just wrote NR. I bet you anything I was supposed to write out the full formula and then write NR afterwards." And sure enough, I was right. Why couldn't that insight have come to me while I was doing the assignment? I think I understand the material better now, but I may print the sheet up again and try to solve everything again before I take the exam.

There were a lot of videos this week. A lot. But since I usually find they make things easier for me to understand I didn't mind. The first few videos were pretty much review; for example, "Law of Constant Composition," "Chemical Formula Terminology," and "Binary Compounds - Fixed Charge Metals." The videos on naming acids ("Naming binary acids" and "Naming oxy acids") were very helpful. I like that the videos break everything down to individual topics so I'm not worrying about keeping which acid is what straight when I'm first learning about them. Nope, I learn just about the binary acids in the first video. Then it's clear to me that naming oxy acids will have a different set of rules. It also helps me keep the endings straight (I swear all those different variations on the endings will be the death of me). Given how much trouble I had with the organic chemistry section the videos on naming and the structures of alkenes, alkynes and alkanes were very welcome. I was especially grateful for the video on complex structured alkanes.

All in all, I feel like I understand nomenclature better. However I'm not at all confident that I'll be able to remember all the names and rules and "meths," "eths," "enes," "anes," "ynes," "ics," "ates," etc. Like I said earlier, I feel like I'd get along just fine if I was able to reference charts or lists, or if I had more time before the exam to really memorize it all. I think I'll be spending most of my time before this next exam trying to cram it all in. It's not necessarily that hard once you understand it, there's just a lot of it and it all sounds very similar so it's easy to get tripped up. I'm not sure I'll feel ready for the exam, but I'll certainly do what I can! That's what worries me most about the rest of the course as the concepts get harder, trying to get all the homework and assignments done and having the time to really understand what's going on. When I started out this class I think I predicted I'd do somewhere in the range of 4 hours a day of homework. What I had in my head was 4 hours a day of chemistry, period. I'm discovering that this is almost full-time work, between the different requirements, and if I miss one day then heaven help me the next day! And of course, I start thinking "Holy cow, I've been just managing to keep up so far and it's been the easy stuff! What's going to happen once we get to the tough stuff?" I have to keep reminding myself that this is an accelerated class, so we're already halfway through and we're already into the tough stuff. Hopefully now that I'm home I'll be able to organize my time better. I really do feel like, with enough time and studying, I'll be able to fully understand all the different concepts that will come up.

On to the over-halfway-mark this week! Until next time!