If the web is traditional retail's worst nightmare, then this must be web retailers' worst nightmare.

I must have gained 10 pounds yesterday. I was doing the family thing from 9:00 AM until 10:30 PM. Wow, all that carrying on and stuff! And I'm just talking about the drive over! :)

I hope you all had a nice Christmas week-end. Class(es) resume for me in mid-January (plural optional at this point - I dunno if I will be taking one or two this next semester). In the mean time, there's cats to be fed and plenty of people to catch up with. And on-line humor 'zines to catch up on as well. Speaking of which, this one from The Onion had me in stitches.

Grades are in... I did better than I thought I would. I guess I must have done well on the finals. I will not set a precedent by announcing my grades here. Suffice it to say, I am feeling a lot better than I thought I would at his time a week ago.

You know I have realized, this blog has taken the form of so many other blogs mainatains by dr.-wannabes. Obsessive posts about tests and grades, etc. Is there anything more DULL than reading about someone's insecurity-laden rants about grades on a freaking transcript??

So I will resolve to stop babbling endlessly here about things like tests and grades. That is my new year's resolution, beginning now. Instead when I am short on things to discuss, perhaps I'll foray into something more entertaining... rantings about politics or perhaps some fiction or other commentary on life. My God, this blog really is getting so bloody typical already isn't it? :)

Well if I don't post again before Christmas arrives, have a merry one, all!

Holy crow... I am wholloped. I just finished my 3-hr. chem final and felt not unlike someone who has been sparring a better fighter for oh, about 30 minutes. I have the same feeling in my head minus the minor facial injuries and pulled muscles.

I have no idea how well I did. I mean, I got to the last question and began to answer it but then time was called. But at least I got that far. I'd say about 3/4 of the class was gone by the end of the test period. But you can't know what that means; in the science/engineering classes, sometimes people just plain walk away from the test once they realize there's no hope for them, or once they think they can't answer a given question just skip it and later just leave rather than stay to take pot-shots at it.

Hell is a chem final that never ends.

My calc final came and went this afternoon like a tornado, or perhaps a Cat 5 hurricane, leaving nothing but misery and pain in its wake. I watched slack-jawed, and only hours later could I begin to put words to it... the horror.... the horror...

OK, enough of that. It was a three-hour long, 16-page test for which I used each precious minute. The good news is I pretty much knew what I was doing except for a few bizarre things here and there, such as this one weird implicit differentiation and the dreaded "related rates question". Otherwise though I feel I at least beat the mean. Well, I don't want to jinx myself here, so I will await the actual results before counting any chickens. My chem test is on Monday so I will be spending the week-end wrestling that particular dragon.

Monday evening you will get to see me on national news. The subject will be the arrest and detention of a crazed, half-naked part-time U of R student who climbed in the dead of winter up the side of Rush-Rhees Library and made it as far as the carillon chimes before being dragged inside by irate firefighters and police, all the while shouting, "It's over, it's over, great God in heaven it's OVER! Yessss!!" :)

But alas 'tis not over. I will get about three weeks off and then it starts again. And then it will start again. And again... and again...

Finals closing in... cough, cough... well it'll all be over soon, this first semester thing. Next semester I have decided to take just one class, the second general chem class. Hopefully having less on my plate will allow me to do better. I guess we shall see!

It's Dec. 6 and I have nothing bought for Xmas prezzies, too. *sigh*... time flies like an arrow!