Bye Bye Blog
The blog I Can Conquer All is saying goodbye to its avid readers.
I've grown tired of updating my Blogger blog. I don't have a digital camera to upload for everybody to see in Multiply.
Maybe I'll switch to Opera.
I Can Conquer All will still be available but there would be no more updates.
Thanks.
The Day Started Right
My right hand smells like baking soda. And for a good reason at that.
Let me narrate what happened today.
Analytical chem lecture was a toss between boring and exciting. I got a perfect score in a short quiz, but a flat zero on the next to balance it. What followed after was another boring lecture of complex equilibria.
Today was the day to return glasswares for organic chem lab. OLES (Office of Laboratory Equipment and Supplies) would not accept any glassware with stains or any dirt. I noticed one big nasty stain on the bottom of a test tube. I went to the reagent table to get some acid to rinse it off. I took the pipet in the bottle containing the concentrated sulfuric acid, dropped a few drops to the stained tube, and shook it. I threw the acid contents down the sink together with running water when I noted a long brown line in my hand.
As I stared at it, it started to fizzle and burn.
Somebody dropped some drops of
CONCENTRATED sulfuric acid on my hand!!! Jumping from the pain, I rushed to the sink and irrigated it with running water. When I placed my hand on the running water, it fizzed as some fumes were seen evolving. That's what you call a
concentrated acid burn. As I washed it with water, the line became white and looked embossed; that's when I knew it: this is serious. It hurt like hell.
I approached the instructor's table. Sir B was there.
"Sir,
natapunan po ng sulfuric acid." I showed him the wound and he got this worried look in his face as he told me, "
Maghugas ka ng kamay."
I washed my hand again but it still hurt, so I asked for a neutralizer.
Sir B told me to wash my hands with soap as he went to the mixing room. When he got back, he was holding a beaker of white colloidal substance suspended in water. Sodium bicarbonate. We approached the sink and he carefully poured the neutralizer in my hand. It was still hurting.
"
Mahapdi?"
Sure it was.
Then he told me to come with him to the mixing room, this time irrigated it full time with sodium bicarbonate thrice. Sir B told me to hit the health center immediately.
It took almost hours before the pain subsided. Now, there's a long line in my hand that indicates that nasty second-degree burn.
What was more funny was when I went to the health center and told the nurses that I got sulfuric acid in my hand, they gasped and immediately sent me in the center's ER. Hydrochloric acid won't do a thing to you, nitric acid would stain your hands yellow and the skin would peel off in a few days, but sulfuric acid would burn your hand. Trust me.
Fatigue
For the first time in my life, I grew sick of seeing a chemistry book.
I love organic and analytical chemistry, but due to the weight of the 'bibles' and course requirements haunting me, I just wanted to lie down and sleep the day off. Even chemistry seemed tiring. A while ago, we were reviewing stoichiometric calculations (my favorite) and my brain wasn't really working due to stress.
I'm thankful that there was no experiment performed during organic lab. I'd faint.
The only rejuvenating thing (or not..a little) was that the professor met up with nine other individuals, including me, and announced that we were joining the Royal Australian Chemistry Quiz. We were opposing her choices (who would want to join a quiz with the hectic schedule) but she said that it was Dean Sevilla who picked the names. Oooo...I felt flattered and knew that we can't oppose his decision.
After a break and a light lunch, I felt okay. But then, I almost dozed off in calculus and English class.
And curse the Amendment of the Constitution for our College tomorrow. I will miss my organic chem lecture class, analytical chem lab, and physics. Damn it. I would bring my laptop to UST to finish our damn physics paper. Drat life it is, and life sucks more if professors are cold-blooded.
Screw them.
Sophomore Sickness
It's the second day of the first week of class.
Case in point: it's not yet start of the regular classes but I'm feeling so sleepy every time I go back home. Aside from being elected as class president (both an honor and horror for me) and running back and forth because some classrooms are not available, the challenges of the sophomore year are biting at me now.
I've got high-grade professors now, best in their profession, not just in academics but also in their own respective fields as researchers and chemists. My organic chemistry prof may look intimidating but he's the type of professor that perfectly molds his students without them knowing. Basta, he's the one of the most challenging professors in the College of Science.
Quotes from him:
"If you cheat you face the eternal flames of damnation."
"There is no room in this class for being poor or being shy."
"This textbook is required. If you're poor or lazy to buy, then drop the course."
"Within the year you are to eat organic chemistry, drink organic chemistry, dream organic chemistry...and when you wake up in the morning, your first words should be organic chemistry."
"Within the year your souls are mine..." (with the creepy voice)
There's something changing within the block. I'm not concluding yet; it's too early to tell.
From today I bid my social life goodbye. Here's to the life of organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, physics, calculus...yay, calculus. ü
Practical or Cold-Blooded?
I agree: sometimes I'm really manhid with all humanly feelings. My close friends know that I'm usually kind, moody, serious, frank, and very practical. Every teeny weeny bit of me is all from the experience I have acquired through the years.
So I was pondering this question: am I cold-blooded or practical?
Here's what transpired: my friend and I were talking about the shifters who ended up not shifting due to unknown causes. When she knew that some of them were going to stay in our block, she expressed happiness over this, while I expressed disappointment.
She said that she was happy because the number of students in our block is still going to be the same. Add to that, she texted me that "it's malungkot to know that marami sa atin lilipat." Then when I broke to her the "good" news, she texted back: "Wow, good news yun!" I felt otherwise.
Here's what I really think. If you're not cut enough for one thing, it's best you leave it and give it to others. But if you think you're capable of doing it, then go ahead. Well, I do not have the stand to say whether these shifters are stupid or smart, but in one year of observing them, they're not really cut for this.
I do not express pity over those who failed the easiest subjects. For me maybe, they are the easiest. If they think it's hard for them, then pour out double, triple, quadruple efforts. Slacking off and just giving up is the first thing they ever think about. What happens? They're branded as stupid, lazy creatures. Not point-blank branded of course.
I know what some people in my block are capable of. Nasty controversies and tampuhan. To say that I don't care is easy, but what they do is drag everybody in the class down the suck fest they're in.
Am I being cold-blooded? Cold-blooded because hindi ako naaawa sa kanila? Cold-blooded because I don't want to see them in the block anymore due to their ugly personalities?
Or just plain practical? They still show up but knowing that they're not cut for the job.
I do not know what my friend has in her brain by saying she's happy that we're still thirty-something in the classroom. Marami raw ang nalungkot kasi madaming nawala nung second sem. I do not understand why. Or maybe Filipinos are just plain TOO passionate. Too dumb to realize. Ayan tuloy, naloloko.
Summary
I know I've become a blogging machine, but I'm savoring the moments before I get to the first level of the killer years of my course. Even though I don't have readers, it's enjoying to just pour out some crap in the net.
First of all, I went to TriNoma with my aunt and uncles a while ago. The mall's improved somehow; with cooler air-conditioning but still with a weird smell, no DMX at Timezone, and still no Starbucks. Some stores are placed in blind corners and it makes the customers hard to locate. Definitely not a mall I want to go even though it's high class. I'm sticking to MoA and SM malls.
Weee...I'm now a 2Chem student. I wonder what controversy's in store of my controversial blockmates. Some blockmates of mine have confirmed that there are already rumors flying. Of course again, I am not concerned.
Wishlist
For the upcoming school year, I have prepared a checklist to monitor while I take on the sophomore year challenge.
1. Stay away from the bad influences.
2. Stop being TOO frank and being TOO sarcastic.
3. Show some of my true colors when it's red alert.
4. Stay diligent. Studies first before tutor sessions. (And think about charging them when they're going over the board.)
5. Focus on my aim: the LIST.
6. Sometimes, it's better to be alone than be with a bunch of phony people.
7. Attack the library if it's needed! You're paying for their services!
8. Focus on getting good grades. Settle for second best once in a while. Hehehehe... >:)
9. Of course, use thy Acer Aspire 5573AWXMi into good use. You did not spend 50k on it just for nothing.
10. Enjoy college life. Kahit madaming asungot sa tabi tabi, huwag kang magpa-apekto.
