Posted by alexandra_k on October 3, 2014, at 16:25:02
In reply to Re: tick tock, posted by alexandra_k on September 27, 2014, at 18:55:46
I found... These youtube videos of a guy giving a whole semesters worth... possibly even two semesters worth... of organic chemistry. from the textbook we use. at just the right level for me. :-O I watched two and a bit lectures already and... I really do like Organic Chemistry. Which is, uh, really rather lucky, since it is notoriously horrible for some people. I just... I get the logic. And when I get the logic... Just see... It makes me really very happy. Like when the physics tutors get a problem from the 150 students (first year course for majors) and they manage to figure out how to do it... Happy like that.
I do have to revisit little bits from general... The little bits I should have learned, but are still a bit sketchy. Acidity constants... I was just so happy to find 'the same and a little bit more' as I have learned it is supposed to be... But finally... 'the same'. For *me*. Building on *my knowledge*. I actually have a little bit of knowledge. Feeling... Calm and competent. Following along. It makes me feel happy. I'm sort of terrified that he'll take them down or something... Most of the chemists I know are all fort knox-y about things like that... I also feel good about it because I like him... He doesn't piss me off the way some lecturers do... And because the students ask questions... Which help me feel less stupid... Especially when they don't get something that I don't get either... Or sometimes when they don't get something that I do... And he works through heaps of problems... I love the internet.
I think I will have enough to get both the anatomy and physiology and organic textbook when I get my grading pay on Wednesday. that will make me very happy, indeed :) It seems that there is this other embryology textbook that the biology lady uses for a big chunk of that... I might get that book, too... later... when my book money comes through... I never really thought about it but of course embryology is really important... To understand the body in that way / from that perspective. Developmental things... Understanding how things are linked that way... The process of unfolding... Genetic contributors etc etc etc.
I suppose I"m procrastinating because I should be listening to lectures on optics. Which is interesting, actually. But everything is all jumbled up in my mind because there is a lot... concave mirrors and convex mirrors and plane mirrors and lenses... refractions and reflections and calculating angles and magnitudes. I really think I really will do the physics course for summer school. I think... It is possible that... I will find it delightful, really. The same and a little bit more... For me... It will make me happy. And be more manageable. I really do think that this year has been a lot of overwhelm... And me... Learning to work again. I do think that there has been more than a little bit of that... And partly first year courses are designed to be 'fun' and a bit broader etc. Which is, uh, actually harder for me. Harder for my way of thinking. Organic chemistry really does make me happy... I can't wait for my molymod kit to arrive... to be able to build the structures... and now i know what the paddle upgrades are for... resonance structures... learning about regions... soon it will get all military analogy, huh, with blah blah blah about where to attack and move about... i wonder... the military / chess thing... is that because once upon a time guys were organic chemists... or is there something specially fitting about seeing things in that way...
?
i guess i will see...
onto thermodynamics for the next 3 weeks of physics. i'm hoping it will be the same and a little bit more from what i've done on thermodynamics in chemistry. it will still be hard, because i didn't do particularly well / understand very much of the thermodynamics stuff that we did in chemistry... but it will be interesting to revisit those equations now and see what i can do with them this time around... and i think we do stuff on phase changes too... specific heat capacities and the like... and conversions between C and K temperature scales... optics is... ALL new. as was waves. as was electricity. i, uh, don't think i remember a single thing about magnetism except that when you chop up a magnet the poles recurr... all the way down to a single electron... and there is no magnetic monopole... and to say that magnetism and electricity have been united doesn't mean that it is easier now because you only need to know about one to understand about the other... it means that not only do you have all the stuff about magnetism and all the stuff about electricity but you also have all the stuff about how they are related - about how you get magnetic out of moving electric... and of course i spent a lot of that free-associating about the mind-body relationship... and then virtual images in optics... and the eye being a lens... but what's the image for? the little man in the brain looking at the back of the retina??
Sigh.
Just a little more chemistry... Then optics it is... Focus alex.. focus...
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1058481
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20140828/msgs/1071796.html