At the end of day three
Aug. 19th, 2005 04:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ruYes! It's Friday! You know, despite it having only been a three-day week, it still feels like it's been a whole week.
So I've gotten to see what all of my classes are going to be like, save the screenwriting class, which apparently meets only on Tuesdays. So I'll see what that's like come Tuesday. I've decided that medicinal plants will most likely be my favorite class this semester. Not only is it fun and awesome to learn how to identify medicinal plants(apparently a basic guideline is that if you rub/damage a leaf and it does something back, like ooze goo or release a scent, it most likely has chemicals you'll be interested in), and what certain plants do, but I really like how the prof is planning to bring in something for us to look at each class period, so we get exposure to all these neat plants. He brought in Echinacea for us to look at on Wednesday, and today he gave us anise and orange mint to identify. Apparently indications that something's in the mint family are if it has a square stem, has leaves in an opposite arrangement, and if the leaves are aromatic.
But I'm getting off topic! I still suspect genetics will be the bane of my existence this semester. I'm already starting to get tangled up by some of the things we've been discussing, which isn't a good sign. On the up side though, I've decided that our TA for the review session looks like Luke Skywalker with glasses. I found this observation especially funny when I learned what his last name was, and I wish I could tell you people, because that's what totally makes the joke, but oh well. ^_^;
I'm trying to decide what I think about systematics. The material itself looks like it'll be interesting, and I look forward to keying plants, but it looks like it's going to be a strenuous class. One of the projects we have to do is apparently prepare herbarium samples of ten native plants. Making an herbarium sample seems like it's going to be tough, at least in terms of coordinating getting it prepared. After collecting the plant you have to put it in a press and get it in a dryer(not a laundry dryer) before you can mount it, and we'll have to get presses from the botany tech. Which means I'll have to coordinate getting the plant, pressing it, and then being able to get it to the press and into the dryer. Apparently plant samples can be kept in newspaper in the fridge for up to a week...so I suspect my roomie's gonna wonder why I've got copies of the school newspaper lying in there. ^^; The hardest part of the assignment, tho, is the time constraint. Proper herbarium samples have to have either a flower or a fruit present, and, well, fall's not too far away. In other words, I have to get my samples together like NOW. Meh. But the class still looks like it might be neat. We get to go to some of the local gardens later in the semester as field trips. ^_^
So I guess I'll see what screenwriting's like. Screenwriting's actually a backup class. What I had really been wanting to do is take a graduate level course in fiction writing, but the problem is, of course, that it's meant for grad students, so undergrads have to submit a writing sample and wait their turn, and if there are any extra open slots, then the prof will let undergrads in based on their samples. This is the second time I've tried to get into this class. When I spoke to the professor yesterday about it(since I hadn't received any word about whether or not undergrads had been let in), he said that he had not accepted mine, since he felt that it was a very strenuous class for undergrads, and he preferred to let those in whom he had worked with in the past. Which...I guess is a reasonable answer, but I can't help but wonder if maybe that was the standard form response. I dunno. I'm gonna try to not dwell on it. "Everything happens for a reason, and it's usually the best reason."
While I didn't get to attend the class, I still got some things done that I had been meaning to do. I dropped off some old papers with a prof who wanted to use them as example papers(the fact that he wanted to use them, especially after how hard I worked on them, gave me a warm fuzzy feeling), and I checked out the new lab addition that's just recently been completed for the zoology department. All I have to say is that DAMN I'm jealous. The building is officially the awesomest one on campus, despite the fact that it looks like they just took an addition and tacked it onto the old lab building(you can see the old outside wall and everything). I mean, the building sings to every biology nerve in me, between the awesome salamander tiles on the outside of the building, and the neat metal pictures on the floor of parameciums, dragonflies, DNA, nautiluses, etc, and the brittle star on the ceiling, and the fact that it looks like they're gonna put a little decorative pool in on the second floor. A DECORATIVE POOL. JEALOUS. Why can't the botany people get something awesome like that? ^_^;
So I've gotten to see what all of my classes are going to be like, save the screenwriting class, which apparently meets only on Tuesdays. So I'll see what that's like come Tuesday. I've decided that medicinal plants will most likely be my favorite class this semester. Not only is it fun and awesome to learn how to identify medicinal plants(apparently a basic guideline is that if you rub/damage a leaf and it does something back, like ooze goo or release a scent, it most likely has chemicals you'll be interested in), and what certain plants do, but I really like how the prof is planning to bring in something for us to look at each class period, so we get exposure to all these neat plants. He brought in Echinacea for us to look at on Wednesday, and today he gave us anise and orange mint to identify. Apparently indications that something's in the mint family are if it has a square stem, has leaves in an opposite arrangement, and if the leaves are aromatic.
But I'm getting off topic! I still suspect genetics will be the bane of my existence this semester. I'm already starting to get tangled up by some of the things we've been discussing, which isn't a good sign. On the up side though, I've decided that our TA for the review session looks like Luke Skywalker with glasses. I found this observation especially funny when I learned what his last name was, and I wish I could tell you people, because that's what totally makes the joke, but oh well. ^_^;
I'm trying to decide what I think about systematics. The material itself looks like it'll be interesting, and I look forward to keying plants, but it looks like it's going to be a strenuous class. One of the projects we have to do is apparently prepare herbarium samples of ten native plants. Making an herbarium sample seems like it's going to be tough, at least in terms of coordinating getting it prepared. After collecting the plant you have to put it in a press and get it in a dryer(not a laundry dryer) before you can mount it, and we'll have to get presses from the botany tech. Which means I'll have to coordinate getting the plant, pressing it, and then being able to get it to the press and into the dryer. Apparently plant samples can be kept in newspaper in the fridge for up to a week...so I suspect my roomie's gonna wonder why I've got copies of the school newspaper lying in there. ^^; The hardest part of the assignment, tho, is the time constraint. Proper herbarium samples have to have either a flower or a fruit present, and, well, fall's not too far away. In other words, I have to get my samples together like NOW. Meh. But the class still looks like it might be neat. We get to go to some of the local gardens later in the semester as field trips. ^_^
So I guess I'll see what screenwriting's like. Screenwriting's actually a backup class. What I had really been wanting to do is take a graduate level course in fiction writing, but the problem is, of course, that it's meant for grad students, so undergrads have to submit a writing sample and wait their turn, and if there are any extra open slots, then the prof will let undergrads in based on their samples. This is the second time I've tried to get into this class. When I spoke to the professor yesterday about it(since I hadn't received any word about whether or not undergrads had been let in), he said that he had not accepted mine, since he felt that it was a very strenuous class for undergrads, and he preferred to let those in whom he had worked with in the past. Which...I guess is a reasonable answer, but I can't help but wonder if maybe that was the standard form response. I dunno. I'm gonna try to not dwell on it. "Everything happens for a reason, and it's usually the best reason."
While I didn't get to attend the class, I still got some things done that I had been meaning to do. I dropped off some old papers with a prof who wanted to use them as example papers(the fact that he wanted to use them, especially after how hard I worked on them, gave me a warm fuzzy feeling), and I checked out the new lab addition that's just recently been completed for the zoology department. All I have to say is that DAMN I'm jealous. The building is officially the awesomest one on campus, despite the fact that it looks like they just took an addition and tacked it onto the old lab building(you can see the old outside wall and everything). I mean, the building sings to every biology nerve in me, between the awesome salamander tiles on the outside of the building, and the neat metal pictures on the floor of parameciums, dragonflies, DNA, nautiluses, etc, and the brittle star on the ceiling, and the fact that it looks like they're gonna put a little decorative pool in on the second floor. A DECORATIVE POOL. JEALOUS. Why can't the botany people get something awesome like that? ^_^;
(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-20 06:09 am (UTC)