Day 2

So. First day of several other new lectures. It's a bit disappointing, actually, but not bad.

Inorganic - I had high expectations for this one, which got somewhat dashed. Today was a sort-of review of the various electronegativities: Pauling, Allred-Rochow, and Mulliken. (No Allen, sad.) The stuff about Mulliken electronegativity was pretty interesting, but other than that, eh. The professor also tends to um, meander a bit. Not necessarily off-topic, just somewhat out-of-sequence for no apparent reason. I died a little on the inside when the professor invoked things like "half-full valence shells" (nooooo don't do it!).

Quantum Information Processing - This is something of an interdisciplinary course; theoretical quantum computing/physics, sort of. So far, I am just sitting in lectures rather than taking the course officially (the forms will be processed a few weeks later, sad to say). This is a challenging course, I tell you. It's the first class today, and already I don't understand most of it. The handwavy "proof"/rationale for the Strong Church-Turing Thesis is particularly, well. Handwavy. I don't get it. The first assignment's out; I will have to look at it soon. (Oh, and there's a final project for this course, too.)

Nanostructural Materials* - The professor seems quite knowledgeable and nice, but unfortunately, he has a somewhat heavy accent. For example, when he says "sol-gel", it sounds like "soldier". Can't have one's mind wandering in this course, that's for sure. Intimidatingly enough, the mark for the course is determined completely by two things: a final project, and a final exam. Eep. (I see a potential to fall behind right there.) The room for this course is interesting, though; it's a video-conference room. In fact, the previous class in the room has no actual professor present in the room, just a camera aimed at the students (for the professor to look at, I guess), powerpoint slides, and a voice!

TA-ing - TA-ing started today; it's the sort of job where multiple TAs wander around answering questions while students complete their assigned tasks. Due to a well-prepared professor and a simple task, it's pretty relaxing to TA so far. Of course, I still have to mark all those reports resulting from the tasks...

Marking - Technically marking begins near the end of next week, but I've received the assignment yesterday, and since the professor seems to be suggesting that he might not have the solution set for me in time, well, I have to do the problems. Pretty scary, as a first assignment. Made me realize that I forgot everything. Sigh.

More reminders to self: Find time to put everything together, and talk to research supervisor (still). Talk to NSERC. Send a snail-mail letter off (just need to find a mailbox...). Submit administrivia forms (there's always more). Organic prep. Print out reams of paper. Make an "answer key". Mark stuff. Make a list of all deadlines, known midterms, etc. Think about assignments. It'd be nice if I have time to review inorganic as well, along with gas laws and things, but so far I think I am ok.

Inorganic lab check-in is tomorrow, orchestra open rehearsal is on Thursday, and computational lab check-in is on Friday. *Bounce, bounce*

This is starting to look like an intensely edifying term. Assuming I survive.

*By the way. Swollen liquid crystals are really cool! The example shown in lecture was a mixture of surfactant-containing water of some known ionic strength, cyclohexane, and a simple aliphatic alcohol. Basically, it's an emulsion, but an emulsion with a well-defined, repeating structure (it's apparently not isotropic though). And you can react stuff in it to give the product, well, structure. And it's easy to decompose the structure after you are done with it. Pretty interesting.

[Edited]
Inorganic lab has the shortest check-in talk I've ever been in. Seriously, it took only about 15 - 20 minutes. Eh. *Shrugs*