Trying to Bee a photographer

Today I've spent taking photos.  This is a photo of a bee that I took this afternoon in the plant that is outside the front.  Not bad for my first day taking pictures.  I am certainly glad that I bought the camera when I get shots like this.  Now I've just got to try and make them clearer.

Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)

Happy Snapping

I am now the  proud owner of a Nikon D80.  I finally made my decision with the help of Stewart and several camera shops in Brisbane.  I actually bought it through the internet and picked it up from their Brisbane office the next day.  It's all very exciting, now I've just got to figure out how to use it.

Buying a Digital SLR Camera

At the moment I am looking at buying my first digital SLR camera.  I've been looking at a few and there are two major contenders.  The first is the Nikon D80 while the second is the Canon 40D.  They are both excellent cameras with many excellent features.  At the moment I'm still trying to choose between them.  I want a digital SLR so that I can take more varied photographs including macro.  I went and had a look at both cameras today.  The Nikon is easier to use but the Canon has a better lens choice.  Now I've seen them I will cogitate and hopefully come to a decision.

Passing First Semester

Today I received my results back from my first semester of university.  I wasn't confident on how I went but thought I would at least pass.  I wasn't really in a rush to check them and forgot about them until mid morning. Hoping for a pass mark I logged on to SOLAR.   I shouldn't have been so worried.

Course

Title

Program

Official Grade

COR109	Communication and Thought	BSc(Env H)	Credit
SCI103	Cell Biology	BSc(Env H)	High Distinction
SCI105	Chemistry	BSc(Env H)	Distinction

Not bad.  I am now looking forward to looking over my exam to see which questions I got wrong, but, I don't they let you do that.  Never mind.  I'm happy with the results.

End of Exams

Today was my final exam from my first semester at uni.  It was for cell biology and to tell the truth I don’t really know how I did.  I actually finished about 15 minutes early and didn’t really have a good look over to see what I’d forgotten or if I could answer any questions better.  I just packed up and left.  That was kind of how it was.  When I’d finished reading through the paper during the perusal I knew what it would be like.  I didn’t seem to know anything on the exam.  Genetics, cell communication, cell cycle or plasma membrane.  I couldn’t remember anything.  I baffled my way through and by the end I just didn’t have a good feeling.  I was speaking to a friend after the exam he was saying what he put for some of the answers and I reckon that the blood must have been draining from my face.  I have to wait until the 5th of July to find out how it went and whether I passed or not.

A testing time

Last Friday I sat my chemistry exam.  I know I wasn't ready for it and that was proven to me in the short answer section of the exam.  I didn't get the bit on finding the pH value or even how to balance an equation.  I know that now, but there's nothing I can do.  Anyway, it's all academic now (in more ways than one).  Hopefully I managed to scrape in with a pass but chemistry was pretty hard.  

Another hard exam that I have coming up on Tuesday will be my cell biology one.  This is one that I want to do really well in but I haven't been able to study really for the past couple of days as I've been not feeling my best.  Today though, I seem to be improving and am going to go outside in a minute to continue with my study whilst sitting in the sun.  I'll be revising metabolism and the cell membrane and structure today.  Wish me luck!

Love is in the Air

Laura gave me a ring yesterday morning to say that she is now engaged to her boyfriend (now fiancé), Paul Wilson.  It's pretty exciting news.  They seem to go really well together and I'm sure they'll be happy.  He proposed when they went out for dinner on their anniversary.  The wedding is being scheduled for some time in June next year.

Laura and Paul

Ponderings on a Sunday morning

The sky was dark when I awoke from my slumber.  The wind howled outside, shaking the trees and screaching through the buildings.  It was quite loud.  A continuous groan, coming with peaks and troughs, but always there.  I lay in snug in my bed this morning looking out the window at the trees thrashing about.  It was like winter had come to us overnight.  The sky at that time was a dull grey but over the past hour and a half has turned to its usual deep blue.  As I've watched it change, it's got me wondering.  More of sitting here in wonder I guess, just thinking about the world and how it is able to support life such as ours.  I was thinking about what I new and what there was still to know.  I wondered about...

1. Wind.  How gusts can flow across the land.  If wind is caused by pressure then are the gusts caused by pressure on a much smaller scale?
2. The colour of the sky.  The shorter blue wavelengths are absorbed by the atmosphere and then radiated across the sky while the longer wave lengths such as the reds, yellows and oranges are not affected by the air.  The colours of sunset however are caused by the change in refraction of the light as it bends across the atmosphere.  The light takes a longer route through the atmosphere and less of the light reaches you.  Shorter wavelengths are scattered out leaving only the longer wavelengths.  Is the grey that is seen in the mornings due to the blue wavelengths refracting around but due to the position that they are hitting the earth causing even the blue, at that stage, to be refracted out.
3. Colour vision.  What would the world be like if humans didn't have colour vision?

I'll have to find out the answers to these questions.  Of course, there's always questions, it's just getting the answers that the hard part.

Buffer Practical Write Up

A buffer solution, or so Wikipedia tells me, is a solution "that resists change in hydronium ion and the hydroxide ion concentration (and consequently pH) upon addition of small amounts of acid or base".  I read that and immediately thought "WHAT?"  Now, three weeks after being told about them and learning all I could I am slowly getting it.  At the moment I am having to write up a lab report on an experiment we did with buffer solution and testing the buffering capacity of the local lake water (sodium carbonate solution).  I have one day to do it and so the race is on.  Well, actually it isn't as I'm instead writing this addition to my blog as head through procrastination valley all the way to panicsville.  I'm sure I'll arrive there later on tonight as these reports take about 10 hours (non stop - yes I've timed it) to write up.  They are only worth 3% and with all the other things that are due at the moment are quite a low priority.  This morning for instance I handed in an assignment for Cell Biology that was worth 20%.  I'm actually sitting here nibbling on a few almonds and a few raisins (I probably shouldn't mention that they are incased in a chocolate bar) and planning the report.  I'm confident that I'll finish it by tomorrow afternoon (it's due at 2 pm) so I guess that is the reason I'm not yet worrying.  I've just got to make sure I get off before Fail City.  Now where's that map?

Sleepless Nights

The clock has just ticked over 3:25 am and I am still sitting here, wide awake.  I just can't seem to get to sleep lately.  Of course, when I finally do I don't like to get up early either.  Usually I get up about 9 or even 10.  So why can't I get to sleep at night.  I'm not worrying over anything that I know of.  I don't know what it is but I do wish that I could get to sleep.  These nights aren't the best.  Lying awake in the darkness, waiting for sleep to overtake you.  I read the other day that sleep has been described as the dove that will only land when you pay no attention to it.  I like that analogy.  It's kind of true.  You can' t make yourself fall asleep, you just do.  Odd that.  

When you can't get to sleep you mind becomes more active.  In the darkness your mind becomes more alert, throwing up questions, situation and scenarios at you that you don't think about in your everyday life.  It is sort of like dreaming, only without the refreshing sleep part.  Take tonight for instance.  In the 4 or so hours that I've been trying to get to sleep my mind has covered things like:

1.  my movie collection and why I like the movies I buy
2. my uni work and which subjects I may choose next semester
3. my housemates party on the weekend and whether I should go
4. how I can get past the stage I am in playing GTA 4

5. that I really need to tidy my room and do my washing tomorrow

These are weird things.  What's more you don't just think about the subject, you go in to depth. What time I should do my washing and which coloured sheets I should put on my bed while these ones are getting washed.  Why people leave odd socks in the dryer and why is it always socks that you loose.  Then I went on to contemplate my odd sock collection and why I keep them even though their partner probably won't be found.  Then I wonder whether I should just wear them anyway.  After all, if you are wearing trousers then who really sees your socks.

These thoughts just went on and on.  Maybe that's what keeping me awake.  Worrying about my odd socks.