Whole Lotta Shaking Going On...

Many of you will appreciate the title of this post, as most of you either were alive in the 60s or have heard this song before. You may not believe this, but in my Chemistry Lab class, there was actually a musical component! No, we weren't learning the Chemistry of music or sound; we were shakin' to the music as we were doing our experiment! Now, you might ask, "Why that particular song?!" The answer to that would be the following: the experiment involved shaking mixtures...

In this particular experiment, we were mixing two different solutions together which produced a bright golden precipitate. (In the chemical sense, a precipitate is anything that falls out of solution as a solid; in this case, the precipitate was lead iodide.) To get the reaction to completion, we were required to shake the mixtures in test tubes for approximately 15 minutes, which can get very tiring! My instructor came to the conclusion years ago that experiments like this need music, since when one is shaking to the music, one forgets how tired his or her arm is getting. This was very true, as I observed. She brought in a little boom box and a few collections of "oldies," most of which were appropriate enough for a shaking experiment. There was "The Twist," and "A Whole Lotta Shaking Going On," but also some favorites like "Rockin' Robin" and "Tequila!". Actually, a lot of these songs reminded me of the music used during my grandfather's aerobics classes! So, needless to say, this experiment was a very fun one, and I actually got very good data according to my instructor.

Besides the shakin' lab, I had a very long week. As many of you know, my birthday was on Wednesday, and it was a fairly uneventful day. I did however get several cards and packages in the mail, which did brighten my day a lot. Just to mention the special things I got in the mail: a Snood t-shirt and a giant bag of peanut butter M&Ms! Besides the material things I received for my birthday, there were also surprises in store in my classes. Although I didn't receive these "gifts," they really did make my day. The "gifts" in this sense were my grades on two very big tests: Chemistry and Philosophy. I got a 95% and a 94%, respectively! I was so happy, and that REALLY made me feel good on my day! Other than that, my day just went about as usual, but I later got a call from my parents and talked to some friends also. All in all, a pretty good day.

At the end of the week, Friday to be exact, I met with my Academic Advisor to discuss classes for next semester. I had looked over the schedule of classes and all my choices, but there were a few blanks that needed to be filled. After consulting with her, I came up with a list of classes to take: Organic Chemistry I and Lab, General Botany and Lab, English Composition, Elements of Calculus I, and Introduction to Sociology. We have mapped out all the times, but as Registration isn't until the end of the month, nothing is set in stone. Not to mention the fact that my Registration day is second to last, so I don't even know if my classes will be there when I get my turn. But hopefully everything will work out as it did this semester, and the only changes to be made will be the times.

Other than what I've already mentioned, the only other event this week worth mentioning would be my two trips to the Kenwood mall. I think I may have mentioned this before, but my friend Aaron works at American Eagle back home, and he signed me up for their store value card and credit card. I'm really not into shopping at those kinds of stores very much because they are fairly expensive, but on my birthday I get 20% off everything when using the credit card and the savings card. You can't really beat that! So on Tuesday I picked out a pair of blue shorts and a pair of tropical green board shorts (formerly known as swim trunks). Then earlier today I went back and picked out two t-shirts to "complete the ensemble." (HAHAHA) And since everything I bought was already on sale, I probably saved around 30-35% in total! What a deal! I just hope that sometime in the very near future it will get back into the 60s and 70s and I can actually wear everything I bought...

Well that's really all that my week has amounted to so far. Now it's time for dinner and relaxation! So, until next time, enjoy your weekend, and I'll be posting sometime tomorrow about the week ahead.