P-Chem Throwback

So, I've been pretty bad about this whole blogging thing, and I want to get back to it. I've taken a whole ton of pictures from my first year of dental school, mostly pertaining to the things we have been up to in our restorative dentistry class. I hope to get those things up in the next couple of weeks. Also, I've got a few scanned items that I want to put up, hence this post, which I am dedicating to my senior year of college. Being a chemistry major was pretty demanding, especially the last two semesters. Even though I had spaced out my generals, I still had a ton of upper division chemistry classes to take. Physical chemistry almost did me in. I was a bit rusty on my calculus, since I had taken Calc 3 in my first semester of sophomore year. All things considered, I made it though P-chem. However, I ended up having to take biophysical chem in place of the second half of P-chem. The class was relatively small (no more than 25) and apart from two other chem majors, was entirely populated by Bioengineering hooligans. There was no TA, the lectures were exceptionally dull, and although the professor was quite brilliant he was very much interested in making the class as hard as he remembered it. Our homework assignments were all doozies, and I remember being at or slightly below average on all of them.

This is why this scan of the first page of one of those assignments is such a gem. You might look at the score, shrug, and think it's not that great. But, when I found this paper in a hidden pocket of my backpack last semester, I was quite pleased to recall how proud of this score I was at the time it was handed back.

So, here's to all of those science majors, who struggled through some tough classes in the pursuit of their educations. Being a chemistry major really prepared me to continue my education in dental school. I'm glad to be a part of the next generation of health care professionals.

Things I've Learned in Four Years of College

This list is by no means comprehensive, and I hope to keep adding to it. I hope you find it enlightening!

1. Googling your professors can sometimes yield scary results.

2. Construction on the Marriott Library will never, ever be finished.

3. The second class of the day is always the easiest one to fall asleep in.

4. Three slices of the Mountain of Meat pizza from The Pi will make you sick. There is just no getting around it...

5. The best time to get a spot in the stadium parking lot is at 9:32 am.

6. You can paint a wall with a hammer, but it will take you a long time, and it will look like crap.

7. Always park close to a light post so you can easily find your car. (When this fails, keyless entry can be of help, but you have to walk up and down the lanes. If that doesn't work, start smacking the panic button for all you are worth.)

8. Physical chemistry is of the devil, and Schrödinger was possessed.

9. Boogers are a fact of life.

10. A textbook will always be required if the professor wrote it.

11. If your professor wrote your textbook, get on amazon and buy a different one.

12. Carbon only makes four bonds, but a Texas Carbon is special and can make five...

13. If at all possible, don't use any of the restrooms in any of the physics buildings, as it must be department policy to never flush.

14. Math is easy when there are more letters than numbers. When there are more Greek letters than Roman letters it starts not being so much fun. You can completely ignore anything that comes past delta, except maybe pie.

15. To keep the universe balanced, any professors that you enjoy during class lecture time you will hate outside of class when doing homework and during exams.

Back to Business

My original intention for this blog was a place to showcase some of my photos. I haven't really done as much of that as I'd have liked to... but today's a new day, and I'm going to post a couple of photos.

This semester I'm taking a digital photography class so I can fulfill the fine art general education requirement, otherwise I wouldn't be able to graduate this May. Our first assignment was due on wednesday, and we'll have a critique on everyones' photos tomorrow. I'm really excited for this, and I'm not exactly sure why. I definitely got out of my comfort zone for this project. We were supposed to use depth of field to help portray the emotions of disdain, distrust, and resistance. Emotions are hard to portray, whether you do it abstractly, or have your friends come over and make faces for you to take pictures of. Usually, I take photos of things that are pretty, don't move around a whole lot, and most assuredly don't express emotion. (Not to say that you can't use an object to illicit an emotion from someone.) Nevertheless, I think my photos turned out pretty well. Please post a comment and tell me your favorite one, and why.

Summer, where hast thou gone?

Well, here I am, nearly done with my first week of classes. It's always hard to get back into the swing of things. That said, I feel as if I should reflect on my accomplishments of the summer.

Right after finishing up spring semester I drove to Albuquerque with my Dad. My sister was competing in the Intel International Science Fair. She did quite well, placing 3rd in the Biochemistry category. The major reason I wanted to go to New Mexico was because I wanted to visit White Sands National Monument to take some photos. I took a day trip down to White Sands, and took some excellent pictures. Later, I was disappointed to find that I had inadvertently left my camera's ISO setting at 400, which resulted in some excessively noisy photos. I originally planned to watch the sun set from White Sands, but I decided to head back earlier and save that for a later date. Really, though, it's an incredible place:


As soon as I got back from New Mexico I immediately downloaded the Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta, and proceeded own n00bs. I felt that the beta build played really well, and took a little bit more skill than Halo 2. The new weapons and gadgets made for new and exciting gameplay situations, where ingenuity frequently ousted the standard run 'n' gun feel of the Halo franchise. I also found myself so thankful to spawn with an Assult Rifle, as compared to the traditional starting weapons of Halo 2, the SMG and Battle Rifle (underpowered and overpowered, respectively). My only gripe in the Beta was that the respawn system seemed to have a few kinks: the guy you just owned spawned about 30 feet from where you killed him, and is chasing you down before your shields have finished recharging. Spanking the same guy over and over again gets a little boring after a while... ;-) In any case, I throughly enjoyed the Beta, achieving the rank of Major.


While I played Halo by night (my personal motto is Carpe Noctem), I went to class during during the afternoon. After having the most wretched experience imaginable while taking a lab class during the summer of '06, I swore I would never do it again. Unfortunately, I realized that I should take a couple of classes to make my senior year at the University of Utah a bit easier. I ended up taking a ceramics class as well as intermediate writing. I rocked them both. Ceramics was incredibly fun. For the final project we needed to make a three dimensional object out of slabs of clay. Everyone in my class made a box or cube, that is, everyone except me. I made a dodecahedron. I think my classmates hated me, however they had the last laugh: I spent about three times the amount of time in the studio.

The rest of my academic time was usually spent sitting in front of my laptop plunking away at the keyboard or perusing sources I was using to write my papers. The theme of my writing class was Wealth and Poverty. I had just finished the book Bono: In Conversation, in which Bono spends a great deal of time talking about African debt and poverty. Following his lead, I chose to reseach, report, and argue on this topic. I couldn't have picked anything better to learn about. I did struggle with the large amounts of information, much of which was highly politicized, and the depth of the issues on the African continent. My final paper focused on the current debt of African nations. I was pleased to receive a perfect score on this paper. Thanks to my friend Megan for helping me with the editing (sorry, Megan, but I didn't take out all of the passive voice you underlined).

I was also able to take off on a few trips this summer. Most importantly, I was able to hang out with my friend Thomas, whom I met in Zion National Park. Along with Tommy's dad, Brian, we hiked the narrows, 16 miles down the canyon about half of that in the Virgin river. As if that wasn't enough physical activity for the weekend, the next day we went water skiing at Lake Powell, and then spent the night at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was an incredible three days. In addition, I went to Montana and Washington. Good times.

I've already touched on this, but I wanted to go back and talk a little bit more about my experiences a a photographer during the past couple of months. This summer, I have really been able to come to terms with my camera, especially with my macro lens (100mm f/2.8 for those of you who care). My familiarity with my equipment has allowed me to get some great captures in situations that previously would only have resulted in a poor photo. In addition, my skills in using Photoshop are constantly getting more refined. Last year I told myself that I wouldn't get another lens until I had built up a significant gallery of photos that I was truly proud of. While I never actually defined what "significant" was, I have definitely made progress toward that goal this summer.

This post is much longer than I anticipated, however, I've barely scraped the surface. The best parts of summer have been the little things: weekly lunches with friends, unlocking xbox achievements, halo parties, going to concerts, hanging out with friends until 3 am, slurpee runs to 7-11, and most importantly sleeping in until noon. It was an awesome summer!