First Test in Chem report...
Good news: I did really well, or so I think. :)
Bad news: I did not even get to the last question on the test. :(
Good news: I can still get an A on the test even if I didn't do the last question on it. :)
Bad news: I have to get virtually the entire rest of the test right to get an A. :(

Grades will be in next week some time. Oh, the waiting...

In the mean time, I know this will amuse more than a few of you, particularly you lawyer-types out there; click the link and search on "Space 1999".

Yes, you read that right. It has become immortalized in US case law. The sentence it appears in is cited in other later decisions, too (probably gratuitously in many cases but hey, a judge has to have some fun in life). I found out about it by reading this Wiki entry. But of even more interest is some of the other Wiki entries it links to-- did you know the designer of the costumes for this show invented, among other things, the thong bikini? Or that the F/X man who did most of the camera magic also worked on "Alien" and "The Empire Strikes Back", taking Academy Awards for them?

Wiki just plain rocks for trivia.

This dude is right on the money.

*ping*, just letting you all know I am still posting to my blog-- just that I don't have much new to mention except in that my first chem test is coming up so between that and calculus I have been doing a lot of sanity-challenging math/science problems. My first lab was this past Thurs. and it was fun (though writing up the report wasn't).

These lab reports will drive me to the brink, I know it-- like writing documentation for a computer program. Ugh, the very definition of DULL, and this is coming from a guy with a great deal of ass-fleisch for stuff like this! But really, it's not that bad, just annoying wee details always around to keep after. I guess this is an important skill to cultivate though if I am going to be writing Rxs one day! >)

Yo, big shout out to Todd and Sandy for dinner last night, and thanks for being such faithful blog-checkers. Knowing there are souls out there reading it makes it easier to keep posting stuff to it. I enjoyed watching Hide and Seek with you. It was good and creepy. I am worried though about that Dakota Fanning child. I mean, does she really need to be playing a deeply disturbed child in movies AND live in Hollywood at the same time? It can't be a good combination.

I'm back in Rochacha, without airborne incident. I hate airplanes. I just don't like them. Me and Mr. T are definitely on the same page with this topic.

Thanks to my friend Sue for linking to my blog from hers. Speaking of which, hers is here. It's much prettier and more interesting than mine, so go see it!

***From the suburbs of DC***

Settlement is done on the sale of (what used to be) my house in Alexandria, as of yesterday. So, it's all finally over... *sigh*...

But I'll keep adding blog entries to keep those concerned up to date on my renewed life as an undergraduate. Speaking of which, I have my first exam in chemistry in a couple weeks. An exam... an actual "exam"... ie, a test or something. It all seems so strange. :-)

Henrietta 911 on 9-11:

I am sitting here at my computer looking out my front window.

2:52 PM: There's a cop car and a small firetruck just appeared in front of my house. Two sheriff's deputies just went 'round back of the house.

2:53 PM: OK, shirtless guy circled 'round and into his garage as cops look on. Now they're talking to the guy.

2:54 PM: Cops conferring with each other as guy from small firetruck (cop or fireman?) wanders around.

2:55 PM: Smoke arising from behind house. Weenie roast going on here?

[This could have all been mine. I could have stayed with police training all those years ago and I too would have gotten to deal with stuff like this!]

2:56 PM: Cops wander back down driveway and head back to their car. Firetruck guy stays around some.

3:00 PM: Cops finally drive off after chatting with some other cops that just pulled up for whatever reasons. Looks like the firetruck is gone, too.

This is excitement here in suburbia. It works for me. :)

I just saw my neice and nephew since returning to Rochester, just tonight. My nephew is now taller than me and three years away from college. My neice is almost my height and looks not much younger than the kids I saw in Chem class the other day. She is 11 years old.

And I thought my generation somehow managed to get extra tall!

All this really bad news re Katrina and New Orleans has me retreating into the pre-adolescent stage. As evidence, check out my Barbara Bain fan site.

Yes, I put that up there. Yes, it's kind fo lame. I don't care. It was fun. And it doesn't have anything on it about hurricanes, death or anything like the current reality. All in all, much better than resorting to drug use or delusions of some kind.

Just had my first class: Chemistry. Well it is more like four classes, really. There's a main lecture, a lab lecture, a recitation section, and a lab. Four exams, starting at 7:30 AM no less. Final is Dec. 22. You know, I think I would not have been able to deal with this kind of schedule for even one class when I was going here as an undergrad, just due to sheer impatience. I remember when sitting still for 50 mins. straight was torture. Now it's nothing; I can sit still for hours on end.

All around me child-like-faced people twitched and whispered in this large auditorium while I sat and stared quietly at the screen the professor used. Just when, by the way, did 12-year-olds start attending college?? I caught some of them from time to time, particularly the girls, looking at me nervously. One young fellow I stood next to in line to buy lab supplies after class even had trouble walking in front of me through the line, hesitating for a second and glancing tenuously my way with a hurried "Umm, excuse me..."

I have reached the point in life where I make teen-agers/college students nervous just by my very presence. My God, that is depressing.

To make matters worse, the prof announced at the start of class that he had all the e-mail addresses for all the students except one. He said he needed "Mr. Campbell's email address". He said this without the usual note of bemusement that enters into the voice of an elder who refers to a younger person by a more formal title, and this man is gray-haired (Thank God. I am not sure I could have stood it if he had been some 20-something Ph.D like my microeconomics prof. of 1988 was).

At some point I became "Mr. Campbell". Just how the Hell did this happen?