Gakked from puppetmaker40. Slightly modified.
Leave me a one-word comment about your day that starts with the third letter of your LJ USERNAME. Only one word please. Repost if you wish, so I can leave a word for you.
(My word to her was “inconsequential.”)
Just a brief update regarding chemistry et al. Of late, I have felt less worried about the curriculum and my coverage of it (or maybe just less overwhelmed) and have actually been quite excited of late.
Last week my students got to do a lab on colorimetry, which was great. Today one of the classes analyzed their results and they all had excellent data. It was the first time most of them had done volumetric pipetting and several of them proved to be adept at it. Some even liked it. 🙂 I, personally, love getting to play with volumetric equipment like pipettes, volumetric flasks, and burettes. You feel like a REAL chemist with that kind of glassware. 😉
I just started a chemistry class through Illinois State University (I’m getting a collection of out of state universities for my education) that’s tied in with Flinn Scientific’s video demonstration series. It’s on atomic and molecular structure. I think that will prove to be very beneficial for the course I’m teaching now. (London forces? I haven’t taught those in YEARS.)
Physics and Advanced Problems are doing pretty well as well (though I’ve just realized both classes are doing research projects at the moment – now I feel sorry for the kids in both classes!)
So, yay for science!
Hey, I had Christmas almost 2 weeks late – can’t I be late with my 2011 Book Review? Heh.
2011 was one of my worst years on record for reading books. I’ve been keeping track of my books read since 2001, and from 2006 on, I’ve managed to read over 50 books in a year. 2008 was my highest with 65. This year, I only finished 51. World of Warcrack was mostly to blame, because in April & May, I only finished 1 book and instead was heavily into the game. I can also blame A Song of Ice and Fire for being such long books…
The Neo went on sale at just the right time, so I ordered it, put in the request for the 4-book set from my library (they didn’t have individual eBooks, alas). And after the BeBook arrived, I was in love. I loaded it full of free eBooks and bought a couple of eBooks and checked out books from the library. There’s just something nifty about sitting at home in your comfy chair and ordering a book from the library – and reading it minutes later!
I managed to get the first two books read before the time ran out, so I got myself on the waiting list again, only to be too impatient and buy the 4-book set online. Heh. A Dance with Dragons, OTOH, I’ve only eborrowed from the library. (When it’s cheaper, I’ll get it.)
Thanks to recommendations from gregmce, I bought a few eBooks from a small press publisher, Small Beer Press. And discovered the Armitage family (down, judiang!) in The Serial Garden by Joan Aiken. I found her stories about this somewhat magical family delightful. Many were funny, some were quite sad, all were entertaining. I also bought a couple of eBooks from A Book Apart, which focuses on short books about web development. Here’s hoping I can support more small book publishers in 2012.
This was the year when Ben Aaronovitch got his first two non-Doctor Who books published (Midnight Riot/Rivers of London and Moon over Soho), and I enjoyed them. Looking forward to book 3 (and beyond). There were some new Pratchett books this year and some new books by my favorite webcomic artists. I even finally read the Albert Campion novels I never got around to reading. (Just have the ones by Allingham’s husband to read. And probably rereading the short story collections in case I missed any of those.)
So, although it wasn’t my best reading year by far, I’d say it was a success. Many more hits than misses, which is always a good thing. Discovered a few new (to me) authors which I’ll revisit in the future. And this year is already off to a good start with 4 books read already (though two were VERY short books). Arriving tomorrow should be 2 new children’s books (well, they’re 40+ years old, but new to me) along with CDs of Sylvester McCoy reading them. Plus I received quite a few books for Christmas. So the future is bright when it comes to books!
Almost 2 weeks after Christmas and we finally got to have it. Yay!
Although Amy and Rachel couldn’t fly in to celebrate Christmas with us this year, we were finally able to have Skype Christmas this morning. The gifts to the girls had arrived on Tuesday, but the gifts to us from the girls arrived yesterday. (They sent them on Tuesday.) So I spent the night with the folks last night, and this morning we all sat on the sofa, with mom’s laptop across from us, and had Skype Christmas with the girls.
We had a fun time opening presents and showing off our gifts to the girls (sometimes with dad doing hand motions to indicate what smaller things looked like). It wasn’t as nice as having the girls with us, but it was probably the next best thing. 🙂
Amy is doing well and even getting a break from blood tests this weekend, which is a good sign. She was quite chipper this morning and looked well. So we’re very pleased with her recovery.
Anyhoo, I got lots of nice pressies today, and once we were done with Christmas, I opened the birthday presents from my sis & Rachel too. Let’s just say that thanks to family (and friends – elsaf, judiang and hergrace all rock!) I have received many nice things this season! Yay for family and friends and presents! 🙂
Happy New Year! Hope y’all have a great start to 2012 (and also a great finish, but that’s almost a year from now).
I turned 41 just a bit ago, too. And so far, it doesn’t seem any different to the last several turnings. Not sure what the fuss is about. 🙂
So, thanks mom, for putting up with my delivery from 5am on the 31st until 16 minutes after midnight on the 1st. Apparently it only cost them $350 with 6 days in the hospital. Cheap at twice the price, the parental units say. 🙂 (And although they missed out on a $750 deduction, the prizes they got for my being born 1st on the day totaled over $1200, dad figures. And that’s 1971 money!)