Down the Bay

What Mount Allison is all about

2008-04-17T16:14:00.000-07:00

I just had the idea that I should write an entry in which I truly crystallize what Mount Allison is all about for you. Two problems, though.

1) This is not my last entry, and so I if actually did realize my goal, then any subsequent entry would appear anti-climactic.
2) It's exam time. ERGO, I want to spend as many moments as I can preparing for my exams, in order to pass.

So you know what we're going to talk about today instead? CHEMISTRY!! Yeah, the class you took in grade eleven and were delighted to know you never had to see it again? If you're that person, stop here. This blog is not for you. But if you like chemistry, read on, and read well.

The first chapter that we studied this semester was called "Gases." Well, Raymond Chang's textbook called in "Gases," at any rate. Our professor, Vicki Meli, had another idea. "Understanding physical properties from a microscopic description." I think that she got this title from the kinetic molecular theory of gases. Basically, a gas is composed of point masses that are very far away from each other, that move randomly and undergo completely inelastic collisions, and that do not attract or repel one another. Their average kinetic energy is proportional to their absolute temperature. There's your microscopic description. It's an approximation, of course, but it's useful. Now what about these physical properties?

Let's start with the gas laws. Pressure is proportional to the inverse of volume; volume is proportional to temperature and the number of moles. First, volume is not constant. This is because it doesn't depend on the size of the particles. The kinetic molecular theory lets us treat them as point masses. Rather, volume depends on the motion of the particles, which in turn is a qualitative term for their average kinetic energy. This link between volume and average kinetic energy explains the link between volume and temperature ; kinetic energy is related to temperature. It also explains the link between volume and number of moles. Kinetic energy depends on mass, which depends on number of moles. Hence, volume must be related to the number of moles present. The fact that particles move randomly and collide with each other helps to introduce pressure into the equation. More motion means more "hitting," and more pressure. This is why increasing the temperature of a gas at constant volume will increase its pressure.

Next chapter: "Thermochemistry," or "Energy Accounting 101." The whole chapter is summed up in the first law of thermodynamics. "Energy can be converted from one form to another, but cannot be created or destroyed." It has many forms: kinetic and potential, to name the two that are key to this chapter. In chemistry, we often just call it "chemical energy." In a chemical reaction, energy is transferred either by heat or by work. The change in energy of a system has to equal the sum of the heat given off or taken in by the system and the work done by the system to the surroundings or by the surroundings to the system. The total amount of energy in the universe can't change, so it always has to go somewhere. There are a lot of ways to apply this concept: calorimetry, enthalpy, Hess's Law (that enthalpy is a state function). Basically, you can do whatever you want with energy. You must have to know where it's going.

Speaking of enthalpy, you can't have enthalpy without entropy, and you can't have either one of these lovely quantities without Gibb's Free Energy. Chapter 18: "Entropy and Free Energy," aka "Why some reactions occur spontaneously and others don't." So why do some reactions occur spontaneously while others don't? Simple. "Delta G of the system equals delta H of the system minus T delta S of the system." In other words, the change in the system's free energy is equal to the difference between the change in enthalpy and the product of the temperature and the change in entropy. Whoah. Slow down. ENTROPY???? Don't worry about entropy -- it's just a fancy term for randomness. It's proportional to the natural logarithm of the number of microstates of a system. And entropy is important because in every spontaneous reaction, the entropy of the universe increases. And in every spontaneous reaction, a system either gives off energy or gets more random. So there you have it. Heat and microstates. The two reasons that spontaneous reactions occur.

There's one more chapter that we did with Dr. Meli this semester: "Solutions," or "The whole is not always the sum of its parts." Now why in the world would Dr. Meli have picked a title like that? Basically, in a solution, you take one boring substance, mix it with another boring substance, and you get something really really cool. For example, you take copper and zinc, and you melt them enough to they'll combine, and you get this shiny new substance called brass, which is good for making brass musical instruments and brass faucets. Or you mix carbon dioxide with water and you get soda, known as "pop" in some parts of the world. You can even dissolve hydrogen gas in palladium. I'm not really sure why anybody would want to do that, but if you know why, kindly enlighten me. And weird things happen to these solutions. Like, the volume of the solvent plus the volume of the solute does not equal the volume of the solution. And when you dissolve a solid in a liquid, it looks like the solid disappears. We call this kind of solution a homogeneous solution. You can also get freezing point depression. Ever wonder why we put calcium chloride on the roads in winter? Freezing point depression, that's why. For a definition of this term, consult Wikipedia. While you're at it, look up boiling point elevation. And osmotic pressure. In fact, look up "colligative properties of solutions." Crazy stuff. Then, type "French military victories" into Google and press "I'm feeling lucky." You won't be disappointed. I swear on chemistry.

This concludes the first half of the second semester of Introduction to Chemistry. Was it dull? Be brutal.

You know what they say about girls who like math ...

2008-04-05T18:12:00.000-07:00

Well okay ... I guess they don't say anything in particular. It's just that it seems like there are a lot more girls who study bio with an arts minor than mathematics. But I like math. And I've decided that I either want to do an honours in math or study music. The other day I had a religious studies brainstorm ... and I suppose I could do a degree in religious studies ... but I think for now I want to stick to the math. I just registered for my courses for next year. In the fall, I'm studying:

PHYS 2801: Data Acquisition and Analysis
PHYS 2251: Classical Waves
COMP 1631: Intro to Computer Science
MATH 2111: Multivariable Calculus
MATH 2211: Discrete Structures

And in the winter:

PHYS 3811: Modern Physics
COMP 1731: Programming Techniques and Algorithms
MATH 2221: Linear Algebra
MATH 2121: Elementary Differential Equations

Now, this schedule involves only four courses second semester. I haven't yet chosen my fifth course for winter term, and I'm not even sure if the courses I'm registered for are the ones I'm going to take. I also need to take stats, but I might take the first half of it by correspondance over the summer, and then take the second half second semester. Or I might just wait until second semester for the first half. Or, if I didn't take data acquisition, I could fit stats into my first semester. I don't really know what I'm doing. And I don't know if I want to do any of the physics; I might just stick to math. We'll see. I also might switch to music, but I haven't found out yet if I'm accepted into the program.

Reader, what I'm showing you right now is a little snippet of the process of registration.

It involves some screens that look like this:

And some that look like this:

It also contains a bunch of error messages, but I was lucky enough not to get any this time. Basically, registration is a bit of a pain, and you'll all have to deal with it this summer once you've gotten your package from Mount A explaining what you need to do before you come in the fall. But don't worry. Once it's done, it's done, and you have a beautiful looking set of courses to take. And be sure to make contact with your first-year advisors. They're quite helpful. Or email a blogger who has some of the same interests you do. We're all friendly and willing to help. Polka dots and moonbeams. You can do it. I believe in you.

Le but d'une éducation

2008-03-29T18:04:00.000-07:00

À l'âge de seize ans, j'ai posé une question à mon oncle au sujet de l'éducation universitaire. Sa réponse ? "The purpose of a university education is to figure out who you are." J'ai dix-neuf ans maintenant et je n'ai pas encore réalisé ce but. "Who are you?" Je n'ai aucune idée. Néanmoins, cette année a fait partie de mon éducation. Alors, qu'est-ce que j'ai appris ?

***

Je suis heureuse d'être venue au Nouveau Brunswick afin d'étudier. Pour ceux qui ne me connaissent pas, je m'appelle Mary Blake Bonn, je viens des États-Unis ; j'ai expatrié parce que mon chum est Canadien. On m'a dit qu'il ne fallait pas déménager à cause d'un amoureux. Ils avaient probablement raison. Néanmoins, je suis contente et d'ailleurs, je ne regrette rien. J'aime le Canada ... j'aime le Nouveau Brunswick ... j'adore l'Acadie. Tout le monde pensait que je me changerais d'avis et que j'irais à Boston. Ils avaient tort.

***

Je suis heureuse d'avoir étudié les sciences cette année. J'ai suivi deux cours de chimie, deux cours de physique, et deux cours de mathématiques. C'est étrange parce que l'année passée, j'étais sûr que j'étudierais l'anglais à l'université. J'ai pourtant aimé mes cours de sciences et je ferai peut-être mon bac en mathématiques. Ou peut-être en musique. Je déteste les décisions.

****

Je suis heureuse d'avoir rencontré de nouveaux amis. Vivian ... Sarah ... Jessie-Anne ... Katelyn ... Lindsay ... Lucy et. al ... Sam ... David de Bigelow ... David de Thornton ... Alla ...Talisa ... Alicia ... Christina ... Susan ... Hannah ... Hannah ... il y a beaucoup de Hannahs ... Maxime ... Charles ... Alexander ... Ariane ... Lucas ... Luc ... François ... JP ... Mélanie ... Mélanie ... il y a aussi beaucoup de Mélanies ... et ça continue. Autrefois, je ne pensais pas de pouvoir m'intégrer. J'avais tort.

***

Si j'écrivais maintenant une composition formelle, force serait de m'achever ici parce que je viendrais d'écrire quatre paragraphes, comprenant une introduction et un développement. Comment conclure, donc ? Si vous êtes à l'école secondaire maintenant, je vous conseille de respirer. Vous serez autre part l'année prochaine. Si vous êtes un de mes parents, vous êtes probablement ma mère. Te amo, Thust. Si vous vous appelez Emily, il vaut mieux que vous vous appeliez Vivian. Vivian rocke mes socks. Et si vous voulez que je me taise, souriez.

CRUNCH TIME

2008-03-23T11:03:00.000-07:00

A friend and fellow-blogger of mine Matthew Cudmore concluded his most recent blog entry with the words "crunch time," and thus mine begins. "Crunch time" is a time of year frequently discussed in university-student cirles. Arts students have 1-2 papers per course to turn in, science students have lab reports to submit, final presetations to make, or full days of cramming to make up for semesters of doing nothing. I don't really know what fine arts students do, but I know they must need to do a lot of it at this time of year. Music students have juries to prepare for, and that dreaded history final. Commerce students. Well ... commerce students are busy, I assume.

And then there's me.

At this particular time of year in this particular year, I am feeling the effects of crunch time. Papers? No. Lab reports? Well, no. Music to practice? Not really, no. Cramming? Well, I'm sure a healthy bit of that wouldn't hurt. But honestly, I'm not that nervous about my academics. I'm going to put in whatever work I'm going to put in, and my success will probably be proportional to the amount of effort I can force out of myself. So basically, I just need to make sure I don't slack off for these last few weeks, and I should be okay.

So what do I mean by "crunch time"?

Well, reader, it's time I shared a bit of news with you. I'm not sure if I'm coming back to Mt. A next year. Trust me -- it's nothing against Mt. A. I love Mt. A, but I'm just not sure if it's what I want. I might end up at l'Université de Moncton next year doing it all in French.

So a big question is, "where do I want to go to school?"

Another big question is what I'm going to study. I've been trying to narrow down my choices a bit. Some possible options: violin performance, instrumental education (violin), physics, math, major in math with a minor in music, sociology. So I've been trying to cross things off the list. I crossed off sociology because I don't really see myself completing an arts degree without going insane. I freak out about papers. A LOT. I also crossed off honouring in physics or math because all I'd really want to do with an honours degree would be to go on and get my M.Sc, and then my Ph.D, and then I guess I'd be a professor. I'd like to write textbooks, but one has to be quite the respected professor to write textbooks, and I don't think I'd really like doing all the research that academics do. The thing about research is that I can do it, and I like it, but I don't LOVE it. And I think it's the kind of thing you have to love. And I've crossed off violin performance because I think that performing is the same as research ... you have to LOVE it. And I don't LOVE it.

So what does that leave?

Well ... music education, I guess. Studying to be a violin teacher. And I might minor in math or physics. I don't know. I have to make this decision, and I have to make it soon because it's crunch time. And I need to decide where I want to do it. Mt. A? Moncton?

I DON'T KNOW!!

"How does this blog entry relate to me?" you ask inquisitively. Frankly, it probably doesn't, and I'm sorry I just made you read it. But at least now you know the state of life. Utter chaos. Because I have more than one decision to make and I don't know how to make them. I hate that.

I JUST AUDITIONED!!!

2008-03-15T14:05:00.000-07:00

Well, I suppose the title explains itself, doesn't it? I just auditioned. "For what?" you may I ask. Well here's for what. To enter the Bachelor of Music program at Mount Allison University.

***

When I finished high school, I knew for sure that I was going to do an arts degree. You know .. history .. english .. sociology .. maybe a little French thrown in for spice. I knew I wanted to study something that would involve a lot of writing, and my favorite kind of homework to do was reading, so I naturally assumed that arts was the choice for me.

***

Fast-forward three months, and it's August. I have two weeks until I leave for New Brunswick, and I still haven't registered for my courses. BAHH!! Fortunately, registration is easy, and all I have to do is go online, find some courses I would like to take, click on them, and my schedule is done. Well, okay, the process took me three hours, but that's just because I panicked a little bit. But no matter. At the end of the three hours, I was staring a beautiful schedule in the face, and it was telling me what I would be studying next year:

ENGL 1201 -- Principles of Literary Analysis
SOCI 1001 -- Introduction to Sociology
CHEM 1001 -- Introduction to Chemistry

WHOAH NELLIE!!! I thought I was doing an arts degree. How did I manage to register myself in Introduction to Chemistry? Well, no matter. Read on -- let's see what else I'm taking.

MATH 1111 -- Introduction to Calculus
PHYS 1051 -- Introduction to Physics

So ... yeah ... my arts degree so far consisted of three science courses. It was at that point that I decided maybe I was more of a science person. But we're not done yet. I took one more course first semester. And no, it wasn't anthro. You know what it was?

MUSC 1629F -- Chamber Orchestra

***

I'm well into the second semester of my "arts" degree now, and it seems I've taken yet another unexpected turn. I've auditioned to enter the bachelor of music program because, well, I just might decide to enter the bachelor of music program. I know. I'm an accident waiting to happen.

***

We're going to make another flashback here. I know, I've been jumping around a lot in time, but hear me out. We're going to return to last April, when I was deciding where to go for university. Do you want to know who convinced me to come to Mount Allison? Gary Tucker. When I came for a campus tour of Mount Allison, I had a meeting set up with Dr. Gary Tucker, head of the music department. He described Mount Allison to me, and he described it as "a place full of 'yes' people." Now, at the time, I really hadn't a clue what he meant, but for some reason I identified with these "yes" people of whom he spoke. It followed naturally that I should complete my undergrad degree with them.

Let me tell you now of my experience with "yes" people. Basically, these "yes" people make it possible to do anything at Mount A. Within reason, of course. But at Mount A, if you want to .. I don't know .. double major in economics and computer science and minor in Canadian studies, somebody will help you make that dream a reality. Let's look at my case. I'm thinking now I might want to do a bachelor of music in violin and a bachelor of science in math. It would be hard, and it would take me five years, but it might be worth it. And so far, nobody has told me "no." They just want to help me. And hey -- where there's a will there's a way. I just might do it. Or I just might change my mind again. I've changed my mind quite a few times already. But hear me now. If you're the kind of person who's going to want to change your mind a lot, please come join me at Mount Allison. I promise you'll feel right at home.

Nineteen years

2008-03-02T04:47:00.000-08:00

I'm nineteen today. Nineteen, and I have a physics assignment to do. BUT, I also have a blog to do, and blogging is more fun. Ergo, blogging it is. I just woke up to see snow falling, the same snow that fell in Toronto two days ago, and fell last night on Moncton, and still falls. I just flew back from Baltimore after a few days home for reading week. My bag didn't leave Baltimore because the flight was overloaded -- weather issues in Toronto. Then, weather issues in Moncton almost prevented our plane from landing here. They thought we would have to take a detour and land in Montreal, but it wasn't so. We made it to Moncton, and gave a resounding round of applause as the plane touched down. And then some kind stranger named Gale gave me a cab ride back to Sackville. It took over an hour because we had to drive so slowly, but we got here. Saints be praised, we got here. And now I'm lucky enough to wake up on my birthday and know that I am in my room in Edwards, and not in some friend of a friend's house in Toronto, and not in some hotel room in Montreal. Except for a few pieces of luggage that may or may not have left Baltimore yet, I'm here, and I'm safe.

I'm not going to church today. I'm not trying to make some kind of statement against faith, but it's pissing down snow outside and I'm not going to be the one to walk all the way around campus and down to the Anglican church across from the swan pond. Besides, I have a lot of work to do today because I have class tomorrow, and I've just had a very busy reading week. And by "busy," I mean (of course) busy with everything but school. I spent the first few days visiting Jonathan, and I helped him study for a math test. He took the test on Thursday, and he said he thought it went okay. I certainly hope it did; he knows what he's doing when it comes to integrating by parts and improper integrals. I also went on a campus tour of U de M for something to do. It was very odd. I don't think the admissions staff had ever had an American come for a tour before, because they seemed not to have any idea what to do with me. The vice-dean of their science faculty did talk at length about biochemistry, though. For some reason when I told him I wanted to be a math major, he interpreted that as "I like biochem." Tuesday was a travel day .. home to Baltimore, of course. Wednesday was an errands day. Thursday was a performing day; I had a pro bono gig at a local nursing home. Friday somehow managed to be another errands day. And then Saturday was a travel day, as described above. Now it is Sunday, the last day of march break, and I sit in my room, and I look at the snow fall, and I hear the snow plow, and I wonder why I'm not getting dressed and walking down to church, and I realize I actually am nineteen.

Now, in the states, nineteen is as uneventful as a birthday can be. See, when you're eighteen, you get to smoke, buy porn, register for the draft, qualify for sweepstakes you see on TV, and vote in statewide and national elections. When you're twenty, you suddenly realize you're no longer a teenager, and you feel very old. When you're twenty-one, you can drink. Enough said. But nineteen? I actually can't think of a single cool thing that happens when you turn nineteen in the states. But in Canada? Good lord. They really bring out the big guns for the grand one nine, eh? And now it's my turn to turn nineteen. And that's exactly what I'm doing right now. This day isn't at all like the day my mother had me. That day, it was sunny and warm, and my parents were coaching high school girls' cross-country together when my mom started going into labor. Today, it is snowing, and I'm sitting in my dorm room and thinking about the physics assignment I need to do. For some reason I just thought of our physics lab instructor. Oh .. Cathy Pettipas :) Good woman, that Cathy Pettipas.

So now I can smoke. And now I can drink. And now I can get into Uncle Larry's. Ideally, I'd be a little more excited than this. But, well, just last night I swore I wouldn't drink. Jonathan and I decided we're mature enough that we don't need to. And smoking ... well ... I could legally buy cigarettes in the US on this date last year, so it's not really a novelty. So I guess all that one can really expect to get out of a nineteenth birthday is one more year to tick off on the totem pole. But I guess this nineteenth year has been noteworthy. I mean, I did graduate from high school. And I did get into Williams, Wesleyan, Brandeis, Mt. A, and the Brown waitlist, and chose to come to Mount A. I also graduated from high school, and I made a wonderful friend over the summer, Bunny Finney, who lives at the nursing home where I played my violin. I celebrated my first anniversary dating Jonathan, and then we started a whole new life for ourselves in southeastern New Brunswick. I got through my first semester of university. I'm now well into my second, and things are going well for me. So you know what? I'm going to close with a quotation that my fellow blogger Emily Shepphard despises, and if you want to understand the reference fully, kindly consult her blog.

"Pinch me. I must be dreaming."

Holding the Bully's Coat

2008-02-24T16:31:00.000-08:00

My name is Mary Blake Bonn, and I am an American.

On Wednesday night, I attended a lecture on campus by noted author and journalist Linda McQuaig. To give you an idea of the kind of lecture it was, I'll tell you that the title of her most recent book is Holding the Bully's Coat: Canada and the US Empire. Basically, in her talk, Linda asserted that the Canadian government needs to stop ceding to the American government on issues such as the war in Afghanistan.

I remind you: I'm an American.

So how was Linda's talk? Well, I'll tell you this much -- I thought it was excellent. I didn't agree with her on every point, but I found her speech articulate and thought-provoking, and she handled her questions with aplomb. But lectures are what they are, and that wasn't the fun part of the evening. The fun part of the evening was having a glass of fine red wine at the president's house.

Again, I'm American, in case you forgot.

So yeah, about that glass of wine, President Campbell had invited members of Edwards (my residence) to come to his house after the lecture for a reception and a discussion with Linda. Imagine how fun it was for me to be the only American in Dr. Campbell's living room surrounded by intelligent Canadian people and Linda McQuaig.

Still American.

And speaking of the fact that I'm American, I didn't support George Bush when we elected him, and I still don't. I also don't support that the US didn't sign the Kyoto treaty, or that we waged a Cold War against Communism with a capital C so that Russia wouldn't have more power than we did. In fact, I agree with Canadians on nearly all points pertaining to the US.

But I am American.

And the fact that I'm American made it really hard for me to tell Linda why I think people like her can have a desructive influence on the world. The general thrust behind her speech was that America is wrong, and I agree. But I don't believe that the political right will ever listen to the left if all we ever do is to tell them that they're wrong. It only leads to disagreement and partisan politics. I believe that the biggest problem with the US and with Canada is a lack of centrism.

But as I said, I'm American.

So somehow, my contribution to the wine-and-cheese discussion ended up being skewed into the typical American response, which involves saying that Canada is wrong. And I hate that, because that's not what I believe.

So here's the take-home message. On Wednesday night, I participated in a discussion, I tried to make a point, and I was misunderstood. Thank you for listening.

2008-02-11T16:22:00.000-08:00

Monday may be the day before everything else, but it's the day after Sunday.

That sentence ran through my mind as I was outside, well, preparing myself for my calculus midterm. I think said midterm went okay. It's done, at any rate; I finished it about twenty minutes ago. Now I'm sitting at my desk eating crackers because I could hardly bring myself to eat anything at supper when I had a midterm to write at 7 o'clock, and I'm trying to put the midterm behind me as I ease into the rest of the week.

"Ease into." What a silly thing for me to say. You see, as far as Monday goes (It's 8:30 pm on Monday, by the way), I'm never an "ease into" person. When I drag myself out of bed on Monday morning, getting up truly is the worst thing that could be happening to me. I proceed then to trek to meal hall, drink WAYYYY too much coffee, sit anxiously in my 8:30 calc class and 9:30 French class trying desperately to decide whether I'm sleepy or jittery, then dash off after French because I have two hours free and SOOOO much to accomplish.

I never think I'm going to get it all done on Monday. I mean, there's always the physics assignment, unless there's a physics midterm. And the chem quiz, unless there's a chem midterm. And in this particular week, I have the pleasure of calculus midterm, French midterm, other French midterm for other French class, AND French composition that I was supposed to start last week, but did not. Oh, and I have a chem midterm next week, and I don't understand anything we're doing. WHAT THE FRIG IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A DELTA H WITHOUT A LITTLE DEGREE SIGN AND A DELTA H WITH A LITTLE DEGREE SIGN????? TELL ME THIS VICKI MELI!!!!!!!!

But I digress. The point is that I, like every other university student on the face of the earth, have a lot of work to do, and for some reason I am convinced that I can't do it. But see, I think that I can't do it every Monday. Hence the title of this entry. Monday is the day before everything else. In other words, Monday is the day when everything is before you and nothing is checked off the list yet. (Well, okay, I guess my calc midterm is checked off. But I only just checked it off)
Anyway, Monday is the day after Sunday. Now, Sunday is a weird day in general. For some, Sunday involves brunch in the dining hall. For others, studying or reading. Some prefer golf. Others still are partial to football on TV. My Sunday involves church and Bible study; wasn't always that way, but it is now. The point is, though, for a lot of people, Sunday is a slower day. It's more reflective. You see things other than the pile of work looming in front of you. It's like you see the OTHER real world.
And before you know it, bam, it's Monday, and it's back to the grindstone, and all you can see is the list of tasks for the week lying ahead. But maybe it doesn't have to be that way. Maybe Monday doesn't JUST have to be the day before everything else, the day when you'll never get it all done, the all work and no play forever day. Maybe Monday can be a productive working day, while still maintaining a bit of Sunday's relaxation and charm. Maybe Monday really can be the day after Sunday.

2008-02-03T11:30:00.000-08:00

Hi my name is Jonathan, I'm Mary Blake's boyfriend, the nicest guy you'll ever meet. Well, okay, I'm not always nice to her, but I try. You'll have to excuse my inferior anglais because I'm a student at Université de Moncton, the best school in the world, my honest biased opinion of course. You may be reading this because you are thinking about going to Mount Allison next year, bad choice. Come see me at Université de Moncton and you'll understand why!

KIDDING... here's the best girl in the world, Mary Blake Bonn :)

So ... yeah ... Jonathan just hacked my blog. I'm staying at his place for the weekend because his res room is gargantuan. For some reason he has a kitchen. We got up this morning, made eggs for breakfast, went to church, came back, made chicken for Sunday dinner, then turned on the Canadiens game, and now we've settled down for a brief afternoon of productivity. I just helped him with his calculus homework, and he claims I'm the reason he's going to pass math this semester. Don't I feel accomplished? We're heading over to John and Arlene's house for supper and Bible study now in a bit. Typical university students' life, eh?

Okay, so I'm kind of domesticated sometimes. But don't get me wrong, I love university life. And I love living in residence, especially my residence, EDWARDS!! PS, I grew up on a boarding school campus because my parents were teaching there, so I'm quite seasoned in the dining hall routine, and trust me, the Mount A dining hall is top of the line.

So now that I've summarized life in Edwards house on the weekdays and life in Médard-Collette on a Sunday afternoon for you, I'd like to tell you about another aspect of my life that I love. Education. And no, I don't mean my courses. I mean the WORLD. And by meaning the world, I mean that on Thursday night, I went to see a presentation by John Nsabimana, a survivor or the genocide in Rwanda. When else do you get an opportunity like that? There's something sacred about being eighteen and having the whole world at your hands.

Believe it or not, reader, I can hear your thoughts right now. You are asking yourself, 'What is the point of this blog entry?' Well .. in all honesty, I don't know. What do you expect from an entry that begins when my boyfriend leans over my shoulder because I'm stealing his computer and proceeds to type in my stead. And don't listen him. Mount A beasts U de M anyday. VIVE L'ANGLAIS, and long live the traditional liberal arts education.

To close, I would like to show you a picture that my good friends Katelyn Viner and Jessie-Anne Peace took of me while I had an 'official SAC ballot' stamp on my forehead. The stamp, unfortunately, hardly shows up in the picture. More's the pity. I'll tell Katelyn to work on her photography skills. In the meantime, enjoy my humiliation.

TELUS Mobility

2008-01-30T10:53:00.000-08:00

Reader, I just paid January's phone bill. It was $159.03. Needless to say, that was a kick in the pants, but I suppose it's only money in the end. And now I finally understand roaming. If a US phone is picked up by Canadian towers or a Canadian phone is picked up by US towers, roaming charges apply. And that's all there is to it. I also learned that you can change your plan au fur et a mesure (sorry .. there's no English expression that means what I'm trying to say). I knew I'd sent more than 100 texts in January, but I thought I would have to wait until February to get unlimited texting. Now I know I could have ordered unlimited texting at any point in January, and it would have been effective immediately. So now I'm slightly more knowlegeable than I had been previously. I guess I regret that I just paid four times what I ordinarily do for my monthly payments on a three-year contract I didn't particularly want to sign in the first place, but at least now I'm a slightly more educated and worldly person. Besides, I don't want to let TELUS Mobility discourage me in my day-to-day life; a number of other things have happened to me in the past few days, of which I'm certainly considerably more happy.
First, my boyfriend and I went to the opera on Saturday night. Now, before I proceed, I really must extend my sincerest apologies to said boyfriend because I've made him sound dreadful on this blog. He's actually not. If he were, would he have taken his girlfriend to see Cosi Fan Tutte at the Capitol Theatre in Moncton? I guess I need to forgive him for convincing me to buy that blasted phone. After all, it's not his fault I'm irresponsible.
Oh, and I just made hot chocolate. First time I'd ever made hot chocolate in my room. Drinking it is not the most pleasant experience ever because I don't even like hot chocolate, but everything is worth doing at least once. Now I know that making hot chocolate is probably something I won't do again. Just like paying $90.95 on roaming charges. Actually, I probably will make hot chocolate again because I tend to forget that I don't like it. I don't like mocha either. If you're ever at Starbucks with me and I try to order mocha, kindly restrain me. Thank you much.
Hey, did I mention that David from my physics class used to go to architecture school? Well, his real name's Adam, but we'll call him David for the time being. He, Alla, Tatum, and I were sitting together, and Alla needed a pencil, so she borrowed one of David's. And the lead popped out in a really weird way, so he explained to us that after high school, he'd gone to a college in Ottawa for architecture and civil engineering. The pencil was a special kind of pencil used by architects and civil engineers. I don't know why this piece of David's past seemed so earth-shatteringly important to me at the time, but I guess it goes to show how much there is to learn about people. We all have a story to tell.
"Write about the fudge." That's what my friend Aaron from U de M said to me when I asked him what I should do in my next blog entry. It took me a while to figure out what he was talking about. Turns out he was referring to Sassy's Convenience Store and Slushie Shop, where he and some friends had gone one mid-to-late-July afternoon when extra-curricular involvement had brought them to Sackville, New Brunswick. I guess Sassy's sells fudge? I couldn't tell you; I've never been. In fact, there's a lot I still haven't done in Sackville. I suppose that's a good thing, seeing as I've only been here since September. And I daresay I'll have a chance to try that fudge at some point. I might drag my boyfriend with me since he knows Aaron better than I do anyway. And I'll probably also have a chance to grill David with questions about architecture school because apparently I found it really interesting when he brought it up the other day. Then I can make hot chocolate again and get another stomach ache. There's so much I have yet to do in this lifetime. The future's waiting, I suppose. So you want to know why I don't even care about that phone bill anymore? Because I have my whole life ahead of me, that's why. And you thought you had the power to ruin my life, TELUS Mobility. No such luck, TELUS Mobility. No such luck.

Sacrification

2008-01-20T19:09:00.000-08:00

I learned a new word today, and I believe it was "Sacrification." If only I could remember for sure. I learned it at Bible study, this word that I believe was"Sacrification," but that I only partially remember. So much has happened today. Indeed, so much has happened this week, since I last addressed you. I'm not the person I was when I last wrote to you, reader. Read on.

I went to church this morning. I had been to church two Sundays ago; it was in DCA Reagan National Airport, but it was church nonetheless. Before, that, I had been to a Christmas eve service and to church on Christmas morning. Before that, it had been a long time.

"Sacrification." What does the word mean, anyway? I wish I knew. I just looked it up online, but I found no answers. I guess I shouldn't trust the internet with a question so large and so complex. But what is Sacrification?

"We have been crucified with Christ. Now we shall live forever." A favorite Easter hymn of mine once told me that. In church today, I learned that to be saved means not to be lost. Negative definition? Yes. But later in the evening, in Bible study, I learned that salvation is an active process. We are all riding along somewhere on the function f(x) = xsin(x) on our way to building our relationships with God.

But Sacrification. Sacrification is not salvation. It is something more. In fact, I think they told us what it is, but I've forgotten. So much has happened.

The last time I went to that church was in September. I felt judged, and refused to go back. In fact, I haven't a clue why I went back today. But I guess something pulled me along. I think it was going to church in that airport two weeks ago that gave me the push I needed.

You know, I've hardly ever heard talk of Sacrification. That's why I want to know more about it. I went to Sunday school when I was young. Where was the Sacrification then?

April McNeilly preached about a plane flying into the Everglades in Florida because the flight crew was busy trying to unscrew a lightbulb. She preached about Montreal Citadel, and how the Salvation Army sold it because they couldn't afford to keep it. She preached about the difference between a museum and a mission. She preached about how we can't always focus on the little things, like architecture or putting highlights in our hair.

She didn't preach about Sacrification. That's why I feel like I might have the wrong word. I've hardly ever heard of Sacrification. Did I make up that whole conversation?

She also preached about fear. Back in the day, "God-fearing" meant really being AFRAID of God. You know why you couldn't put highlights in your hair? BECAUSE GOD DIDN'T WANT YOU TO! And you know what happened when you did something God didn't want you to? YOU WENT TO HELL. Religion seemed simple in those days. The preacher preached about fire and brimstone. Christianity was a list of things you didn't do. And if you didn't do them, maybe, MAYBE, you were saved. Maybe.

I wonder what fire and brimstone have to do with Sacrification. Almost seems like they'd be related somehow, but I have no idea how.

Oh, and she preached about how these days, the church has shifted to the other end of the spectrum. Of course we don't preach about fire and brimstone. And of course you're not a sinner if you have highlights in your hair. April McNeilly has highlights in her hair, and some of them are red. No no, the problem with the church now is that we've gotten too lax. Nobody is a sinner. Everyone is saved. We let the ways of the world get in. We have premarital sex.

Sex. We had a long conversation about sex in Bible study tonight. And by Bible study, I mean a college-to-careers group, aimed at late teens and early twenties. Key age group for premarital sex. We're too old for Sunday school, but we sure ain't married yet. So sex? What of sex? And I tell you, it's a really good question. And that's about all I can tell you.

In fact, throughout this entry, I haven't told you a thing. Because in all honesty, I don't know a thing. All I know is I'm a God-fearing person who strayed six years ago and I've been lost ever since. But I've been seeing little fragments of answers lately. Just little ones. Like hearing the word Sacrification, or whatever it was. And today I think I found a slightly bigger fragment. So, reader, I'll keep you posted, but for now, I'll have to leave you with the English version of my favorite contemporary Spanish hymn, "Camina, Pueblo de Dios."

Walk on, O people of God;
Walk on, O people of God!
A new law, God's new alliance,
All creation is reborn.
Walk on, O people of God;
Walk on, O people of God!

Look on Calvary's summit;
On the rock there towers a cross;
Death that gives birth to new living,
A new people, a new light.
Christ has brought us salvation
With his death and rising again.
Everything comes to new birthing,
All creation is reborn.

Walk on, O people of God;
Walk on, O people of God!
A new law, God's new alliance,
All creation is reborn.
Walk on, O people of God;
Walk on, O people of God!

Christ takes into his body
All our sin, enslavement, and pain;
As he destroys them he brings us
Life's abundance, life's new joy.
Christ brings reconciliation
To all things and people with God.
Nature bursts into new flowering,
All creation is reborn.

Walk on, O people of God;
Walk on, O people of God!
A new law, God's new alliance,
All creation is reborn.
Walk on, O people of God;
Walk on, O people of God!

Heaven and earth are embracing,
And our souls find pardon at last.
Now heaven's gates are reopened
To the sinner, to us all.
Israel walks a journey;
Now we live, salvation's our song;
Christ's resurrection has freed us.
There are new worlds to explore.

Walk on, O people of God;
Walk on, O people of God!
A new law, God's new alliance,
All creation is reborn.
Walk on, O people of God;
Walk on, O people of God!

Happy New Year!!

2008-01-13T07:07:00.000-08:00

Reader, it's January. January is a time for starting over. January is a time for self-evaluation. January is a time to go to the gym every other morning and eat poached fish for supper every night. And January is also a time for me to take a look at my blog. I've noticed quite a few trends. I think the most striking one is that as the autumn progressed into winter, my entries started becoming more and more self-reflective. Now, I could talk about myself and my deepest thoughts all morning, and well into the afternoon, but, reader, I think you need a break. Therefore, I've decided it's time for me to give you a slightly more straightforward blog entry that focuses perhaps a bit more strongly on life at Mount Allison.
First, it's a new semester, and that means new classes. This term, I'm taking Physics 1551: General Physics II, Chemistry 1021: Introduction to Chemistry II, Math 1121: Introduction to Calculus II, French 2601: Initation à L'Analyse Littéraire, and French 3111: Le Français Écrit Avancé. I'm also playing in the Chamber Orchestra again this semester; I hope it will be as much of a joy as it was in the fall. I'm still working in the communications office, and having the time of my life. I guess that is one of the advantages of a small campus like this, that I can get a job like that in my first year.
In other news, my friends are all doing well. So far they seem to be enjoying their courses, and we still talk just as little at supper as we ever did. On our first day back from break, it seemed like we all talked a lot, but ever since then, we've been a bit more interested in eating than in conversation. We have plenty of time to talk when we're in the dorm, though. Just recently we all came together over a cherry cake I made; I was making one for my boyfriend, so I baked up a practice one for the girls. Have you ever had cherry cake? I think you should try it. Come visit my sometime. Bring cream cheese, margarine, and baking cherries; I have all the rest of the ingredients in my room. I'll whip you one up.
Speaking of sumptuous food, we're all making an effort to be more fit in the new year. I don't think we made official resolutions out of it; it's just what you do when turkey-and-cookies season is over and back-to-the-saltmines season rolls around. I think I'm going to start going to aerobics classes with Michaela and Lucy and whoever else goes, and I might go to yoga with Sarah and Meghan. I also want to try to get to the gym sometimes, even though I have no idea when that will be. It's always worth trying.
Back on the academic side of things, I'm still pondering what I might want for a possible major. By the end of this year, I'll have credit for intro to sociology, intro to english, a full year of chemistry, physics, calculus, and biology, a french lit course, a french writing course, and some undesignated history and french credits that I got from writing AP exams. I probably should be taking a social science in case I want to major in sociology, but it just won't fit into my schedule, so I guess that's not an option. So, in summation, I still have no idea what I'm doing. I'll let you know if I get that figured out, though.
I'm also on the lookout for extracurricular activities involving singing. I studied classical voice in highschool, and I have a three and a half octave range. I'd love to use it, but the choir meets on the same night as the chamber orchestra. I was going to sing in the Anglican church choir, but I like to visit my boyfriend on the weekends, so it's hard for me to be in Sackville on Sunday. If you hear of anything, let me know. Otherwise, be waiting for my next entry. I'm sure it will be a lot less informative than this one is. But for now, here is my schedule. Do with it what you may. Tape it to your fridge. Tattoo it to your body. Go around telling all your friends that Mary Blake Bonn has Cal II with Margaret Beattie every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at 8:30 AM. But don't tell me your life would have been different if you had ever seen my Winter term 2008 schedule. You've seen it now.

It's past noon and I'm in my pyjamas.

2007-12-30T09:06:00.000-08:00

You know you're on winter break when, right? But don't judge me. I haven't been lazy for the FULL two weeks that I've been off so far. Yes, I have taken to sleeping till nine, a breathtakingly late hour for me. And yes, I did contemplate sleeping on a bare mattress one night because my sheets were in the dryer and I didn't care to take them out. And, no, this is not the first time I've made it past midday without putting on real clothing. And yes, I have watched some Family Guy. And some Reba. And some Scrubs. Good bit of Scrubs. And Third Rock From the Sun DVDs. But I'm on vacation. I'm allowed. And besides, I love breaks because they give you the chance to be busy in a different way.
For example, I've been driving my brother to a lot of doctor's appointments and orthodontist appointments. It's not the most invigorating task ever, but it's something I haven't done since summer, so it's refreshing to get to do it now. And I've been doing dishes in a dishwasher. I had forgotten how magical dishwashers can seem. I also deep-cleaned my room and my bathroom and the hallway outside my room and the basement. It's a lot more work to clean part of a house than it is to clean a dorm room. I also made bread in my brother's bread machine. I mean it's just bread, but sometimes these things just seem special.
In addition to playing mom now and then, I have, of course, been shopping. I've reacquainted myself with Baltimore County's favorite four-storey mall, Towson Town Center, located not much more than a kilometer from my house, and I've often been down to Towson Place, a large cluster of big box stores, to frequent the likes of Target, DSW, and Bed Bath & Beyond. I also used up a $100 gift card at Whole Foods. LOVE THAT STORE. I have yet to head into one of the twenty-some-odd Starbuckses located quite close to my dwelling place, but I did try out Dunkin Donuts's new Milky Way hot chocolate. It was disgusting. So glad I bought into shameless advertising, though. We all have to be a consumer once in a while. And besides, I'm American. I'm supposed to be dumb.
I've also had the chance to do a lot of visiting. I went back to my old high school, middle school, and elementary school, The Bryn Mawr School for Girls. Yes, I went to the same all-girls school for thirteen years. And it was so refreshing to be back. I had a long chat with our Dean of Students; it was nice to be an alumna so she couldn't tell me I was out of uniform. I also talked to my old college counselor, the one who told me not to go to Mount Allison. You know what she told me when I came back to visit her? Not to go to Mount Allison. Go figure. I also got to see some of my old music teachers, and I spent a good deal of time in the English office. Then I interrupted AP physics because they weren't really doing much anyway. And then I went upstairs and talked to the other physics teacher, who'd never taught me in the first place. Good guy, though. In summation, I love being a young alumna.
In addition to visiting teachers, one must of course visit family and friends. My mother and I went to visit my grandmother in Pennsylvania, and we took her to lunch at Red Robin and did some serious catching up. Later, my mother, my father, my two tall brothers, and I all squeezed into our '07 Camry to drive to my mother's sister's house in another part of Pennsylvania for our annual Christmas party. My cousin Carol even brought her husband. We were all excited to have him there. I also went to a holiday party at my friend Annie's house. It was an intimate bunch: just a few friends. We watched the Simpson's Movie, ate Chinese food, played ping-pong, and just talked. A lot. It's amazing how every one of us is a at a different university, but in a weird way we're all having the same experience. Let's see .. we had one at Swarthmore, one at Hopkins, one at Davidson, one at Hamilton, one at Chicago, one at UVA, one at Duke, one at Dartmouth, one at WashU, one at Bucknell, one at Wellesley, and of course little old me at the University of Canada, as my fellow Marylanders like to think of Mount Allison. You know what we all kind of agreed on? That we love being home, but we're psyched about going back, too. I love that about vacations. I love both being happy to leave, and happy to return.

Towson MD, 21286

2007-12-19T12:52:00.000-08:00

Reader, I'm home. On August 18th, 2007, I left Maryland on a plane bound for Newfoundland, and now I'm home.
Do you know what's silly? Now that I have almost three weeks to myself, I can't help but keep thinking about Mount Allison. I almost wish the thoughts would leave my mind, but they don't really bother me, so I don't see why I shouldn't keep them there.
I keep thinking about all the things that have happened this semester. I keep thinking about Andrew's study-hall serenades in the first floor kitchen. I keep thinking about the pickle that Justin ate after Vivian and I put it on his lunch tray. I keep thinking about Sarah and Meghan's peculiar hypothesis that I wash my jeans in the toilet. Dorms.
I keep wondering about my courses. I keep wondering why I chose to take physics, chemistry, calculus, English, and sociology, of all the possible combinations. I keep wondering how I ever put up with how hot and aromatic the chemistry lab feels, and I keep wondering why I didn't try a little bit harder on the final lab write-up. I keep wondering why I thought Jane Eyre would be easier to read the second time around, and I keep wondering why the essay that Dr. Bamford read aloud to the class sounded so choppy. My writing's always been choppy, I guess.
I keep asking myself if I'm really doing what I want to be doing. I keep asking if I'd rather be studying music than liberal arts. I keep asking if I might be better off going to school somewhere where there's a violin professor. I keep asking whether I prefer to perform concertos or calculations, and I keep asking whether I actually like either. Maybe I don't like to do things. Maybe I just like to write about them.
I keep trying to remember the day I registered for my courses. I keep trying to remember what it was that made decide to do what I decided to do. I keep trying to remember the day I chose my program. I keep trying to remember why I chose arts, and then took science courses anyway. I keep trying to remember the day I visited the campus last year. I keep trying to remember the meeting I had with Gary Tucker of the music department, and I keep trying to remember which part of his "We don't have a string program at this university" I failed to understand. I keep trying to remember why I didn't listen when Douglass Campbell of the biology department said this place didn't have everything I wanted. I keep trying to remember why I didn't listen when my college counselor Patti Whalen said this place didn't have everything I wanted. I keep trying to remember why I didn't listen Chris Eccles, John Bonn, Christina Garvan, et al, to abbreviate, said they agreed with Patti Whalen.

I don't see how Moncton can call itself a city when it doesn't even have a symphony orchestra.

But then I think again of the physics parties in my room. I think again about the trudge to meal hall every morning. I think again about the conversations with Lindsay, Newfoundland Teddy, Emily-Jean, Moncton Teddy, Darren, and Tender Teddy, and I think about how kind it was of Jennifer to give me a ride to the bus stop when I was trying to walk there with all my luggage for my trip home. That's the thing about Atlantic Canada. The people are nice here, and for one of the first times in my life, I feel like I belong. And don't we all want to feel like we belong?

Dear Ms. Crane,

2007-12-11T07:39:00.000-08:00

I have another paper to write. This one's about Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Terry Pratchett's The Wee Free Men. I'm supposed to look at mother figures in the two novels.
The first kind of mother figure that comes to mind is the overindulgent one. The best example of this kind of mother in The Wee Free Men is the Queen of the Land of Winter. The Queen kidnaps the main character Tiffany's brother Wentworth, and sits him down in a bed of sweeties to feast for eternity. This kind of pampering proves not to be what Wentworth needs; he only becomes overwhelmed by the vast selection, and screams all day that he "Want a want a sweetie!" At the end of the novel, however, Tiffany gets Wentworth back, and she is firm with him; she corrects his diction, and she instructs him on how to do the chores on their farm. This kind of treatment helps Wentworth to say words other than "toy-lut" and "sweetie," and it teaches him responsibity. In The Wee Free Men, therefore, the overindulgent model of the mother fails.
The overindulgent mother also appears in Jane Eyre. Her first form is Mrs. Reed of Gateshead Hall. While Mrs. Reed is certainly neither welcoming nor generous to young Jane, she does treat her own three children to anything they could ever desire. Later in the novel, Jane finds that Mrs. Reed's son has committed suicide, and that her two daughters have become polar opposites: one far too lazy, one far too perpetually busied. Mrs. Reed, therefore, has failed as a mother. Another form of the indulgent mother is in the Dowager Lady Ingram, mother of Blanche Ingram. Blanche seems, for a time, to be Mr. Rochester's intended bride. In the words of Jane, however, "she [can] not charm him." Blanche proves to be vapid, uninteresting, and only after Mr. Rochester for his mother. She, her sister Mary, and their mother the Dowager are all depicted as generally odious characters. Once again, therefore, the overindulgent mother has failed.
Another striking similarity between the two novels is that each of the heroines has a sense of abandonment. For Jane, the source of this feeling is obvious: she is an orphan. For Tiffany, the abandonment is more subtle, but it is still there. Ever since Wentworth's birth, she has felt that her parents have given him too much attention, not leaving any for her. I think that this sense of abandonment inspires both of the heroines to go out into the world and find themselves. I mean, they're both on a quest. Jane is trying to make a living, and hoping to achieve independence one day. Tiffany is trying to get her brother back, but she's also trying to grow up to be a witch. Both of these young ladies have dreams for themselves, and they're both working and striving to achieve these dreams. I don't have any evidence yet to support my claim, but I think their sense of abandoment has inspired to go off into the world in search of themselves.
You know what else I've noticed about these two novels? It seems like the nurturning side of the traditional mother figure is diminished, even deemed unimportant. It seems like the most important women for the two heroines are their mentors. For Jane, the first mentor is Bessie. Bessie is kind to Jane, but also very firm; it is her job to teach Jane to be a proper dependent. Jane's next mentor is Miss Temple, and indeed, Miss Temple is a teacher. Therefore, it is part of her job to be a mentor. Tiffany's main mentor is Miss Tick, and then Mistress Weatherwax and Mrs. Ogg at the end. These women help Tiffany learn to be a witch, so they are her mentors. It seems that in these two books, the most important thing a woman can do for a girl is to teach her.
Eventually, Tiffany and Jane both come to act as mother figures. Jane first has this experience at Thornfield when she works as a governess for Adela Varens, and then again when she becomes Mr. Rochester's wife and caretaker, and then again at the end when she has a child of her own. Tiffany serves as a mother figure for Wentworth when she instructs him on proper speech and how to do the chores.
So, basically, I think what I can conclude about these two books is that they both depict mothers (good mothers, that is) more as teachers than as nurturers. I think I'm ready to write this paper now. Hey -- and you're my old English teacher's mother. Wicked.

Sincerely,
Mary Blake

PS: To any and all blog readers, I apologize for having addressed two consecutive entries to Ms. Crane. I realize that the subjects of my English and sociology papers are probably of considerably less importance to you than they are to me. But, in all honesty, it's exam time. I might as well be writing about papers on my blog, because it's not like there's anything else going on in my life.

Dear Ms. Crane,

2007-12-02T14:04:00.001-08:00

My name is Mary Blake Bonn, and I am a student at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada. In grade eleven and twelve, back in the day, your daughter taught me English. She told me that any time she had to write a paper, she started it as a letter to you. You're a history teacher, yes? I like history. But we're not talking about history right now because I'm not taking history. I am, however, taking sociology, and as you can probably guess, I have a paper to write.
First, though, I thought you might like to know that I'm in Mount Allison's chamber orchestra, and we had a concert on Friday night. The girls from my floor all came out to support me (Vivian included), and my boyfriend even came in from L'Universite de Moncton in Moncton. I'm getting myself all distracted now, though. It's not the time to be talking about chamber orchestra concerts and boyfriends in Moncton and softball players and Paul McCartney (sp?)'s "Golden Slumbers." Right now, I have a paper to write.
Ms. Crane, I have to draft a policy document about race-based hate crime. To start my research, I consulted the textbook. The two chapters I focused on were chapter 4 (Race and Ethnic Relations) and chapter 2 (Crime and Violence). I think that race-based hate crime is, at its core, the marriage of crime and racism. Therefore, I'm going to start my policy document by introducing crime and racism. Then, I'm going to take these two issues and show that they are, in fact social problems. A social problem, by definition, has both social causes and social consequences, so I'm going to demonstrate that crime and racism both have social causes and social consequences.
Next, I think I'm going to jump right into the meat of the document and tell the story of a Muslim girl at U of T who was followed into a bathroom stall and threatened on the basis of her religion. If I decide I need another story like hers, I know just where I can find one.
After I've presented this story of a hate crime, I'm going to quote some statistics that demonstrate that race-based hate crime does, in fact, happen. I wish that I had some good statistics to show that race-based hate crime actually causes harm. I also wish I had some comparative data; it would be ideal to be able to show a study from forty years ago and contrast it with a study from today.
So, anyway, I have some qualitative and quantitative evidence that race-based hate crimes do, in fact, happen, but I wish I had more evidence that they do, in fact, have both social causes and social consequences. I also wish I could demonstrate that they are growing to be even more of a problem in Canada now, if they even are. Are they.
You know what's frustrating about this paper? It's hard to do the research for it because you can't just google "race-based hate crime." This search yields interesting websites, but they all come from the United States. The paper I'm writing focuses on race-based hate crimes in CANADA, and Canada occupies considerably less space on the world wide web than do our neighbors to the south.
You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to try one more time to find some better qualitative and quantitative evidence that race-based hate crimes exist and are a social problem. But one Arna Margolis taught me a very useful skill back in grade ten, and that skill is how to write a Document Based Question, or DBQ. A DBQ is, at its core, a mini-term-paper. The creater of the question provides excerpts from a number of primary sources, along with an essay question. The student writing the exam must use the documents to respond to the question. Part of her response should be a mention of what other kinds of documents would be useful to have. Therefore, if I really can't find the evidence that I'm looking for, I'll just acknowledge that I don't have it, but mention that it would be useful.
So I think I've told you enough about the stellar research I wish I had done for this paper. Showing that race-based hate crime is a social problem is not all we have to do, though. We also have to propose solutions to the problem. To start, I'm going to summarize the arguments that some people make against taking action to fight race-based hate crimes. I have one document that will be very useful to me, and I think I can find more if I decide I need to. Basically, you can argue that race-based hate crime doesn't happen, you can argue that it's not a social problem, you can argue that it should be treated like any other crime on the judicial level, and you can argue that even if specific action should be taken against race-based hate crime, it's too hard to define which crimes are hate crimes and which crimes are just ordinary crimes.
To propose my solutions, I have to propose a solution on the level of the government, a solution on the level of a community, and on the individual level. Let's start with the goverment. I went online and found out about how New Zealand deals with race-based hate crimes. I'm going to summarize the law very simplistically, but here goes. Basically, there is no specific crime known as a race-based hate crime. There is, however, such a crime as being a racist. Because Canada has always been similar to the US in a number of ways, it follows that we tend toward guaranteeing our citizens the right to free speech. New Zealand, however, criminalizes hateful speech. This approach, therefore, targets the key cause of race-based hate crime: race-based hate.
In imitating New Zealand, Canada would be targeting one of the key causes of race-based hate crime. To solve social problems, though, we can't always go straight to the root causes. I think that we also need to use "bandaid solutions" to cover some of the immediate effects of harms produced in society. I think an effective bandaid solution to race-based hate crime would be to provide better services to the victims of these crimes; victims need support, and sometimes, government-funded agencies are the only option. Therefore, on the level of the government, Canada can counteract race-based hate crime by criminalizing racism and by providing more effective victim-support services.
To talk about fighting race-based hate crime on the community level, I'm going to focus on the university campus as a community. Whenever we're talking about a university, it's easy to propose "more education" as a solution. "More education," however, is not always the answer. Many criminals know exactly what a crime is and commit one anyway. I think that university campuses would be better served to take a cue from the American South and institute a system of public lynchings. I retract that statement. Lynchings are not at all what universities should do. Rather, universities should take disciplinary action whenever hate crimes are committed, and they should make public that this disciplinary action has been taken, and why. I am not proposing that universities release the names of anybody involved, merely that they make everybody on campus aware of the events that have occurred.
I also think that, just like the federal government, universities need to care for their victims. Universities need to put money into taking care of the victims of hate crimes; these individuals need to feel like they can still be members of the community. A diverse student body is better for everybody on campus, for reasons I'm not able to enumerate at the moment, but believe me, it is. Minority students need to feel like they're welcome.
Oh, you know what I forgot to mention? I have to talk about how race-based hate crime affects ALL members of society, not just the victims. Wow, I just ate a bag of cookies thinking about that one question. How DOES race-based hate crime affect ALL members of society? Well, obviously it marginalizes whole groups. When one individual is victimized in a race-based hate crime, so is the entire group to which this victim belongs. Also, a racist society is going to deter immigrants. Immigrants are an important part of the labor force. They do work a lot of native-born Canadians don't want to do. How else does race-based hate crime affect ALL members of society? I guess it generates a culture of fear in a society. Fear obsiously has negative psychological effects. OOOO .. wow .. I just thought of an obvious health consequence of racism and race-based hate crime. A lot of doctors are foreign. Canada already has a doctor shortage, so if our racism drives away the doctors we do have, who will treat us?
This paper's really hard, Ms. Crane. I know I sound like a baby, but I'm just FREAKING OUT ABOUT IT like it's nobody's business. I know that sounds stupid. I'm just worried I'll get to the point where I'm completely out of time and I still won't have all the information I need. But you know what? I can do this. I have to be able to do this. It's sociology. I love sociology. Two weeks ago I decided to be a soc major. Too bad now I'm thinking I want to transfer and do a violin degree. I'm really confused, Ms. Crane. But listen to me. I'm about to start confiding in my former English teacher's mother. That's just silly. You've listened to enough of me. I'll leave you to the pile of papers I'm sure you have waiting to be graded.

Sincerely,
Mary Blake

"Us"

2007-11-25T16:05:00.000-08:00

In grade eleven, I took a public speaking course to prepare for "convocation," a graduation requirement of my high school that has no importance whatsoever. Well, it's important, but not for this entry. All I'm going to tell you about convocation is that once upon a time in public speaking, I began a speech with the word "us," and in order to avoid an appearance before the judicial committee on charges of academic dishonesty, I'll tell you now that I'm recycling my favorite pronoun.
You know what made me think about the word "us"? Well, I looked back at last week's entry, and I realized that it was almost exclusively about me. So to you, reader, I give a new outlook on life. I give one that is collective.
My math lab is an "us." We walk into Avard-Dixon one hundred something-or-other every Monday at 4:00, and spend the next hour and a half working on a set of problems that none of us could possibly finish individually in the time alotted. Together, though, we can get it done, and we do.
Chamber orchestra is an "us." We all file into the Music Conservatory every Tuesday at a few minutes before seven, and there's always a special moment in rehearsal. This past week it was in the middle of "Greensleeves." I listened around the cirlce, and I realized we truly were playing as an ensemble. We were one.
The morning is an "us." At 7:50, five days a week, the girls on my floor who have 8:30 classes all band together and commence the trek to Jennings Dining Hall because going to breakfast in a pod is how we all make sure that we actually wake up and go to class. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Jessie-Anne and I have calculus and chemistry together at 8:30 and 9:30, respectively. This past Wednesday, for the first time all year, I missed class. I think a full day of locking myself in my room to write a chem lab reminded me that I actually like going to class. I like being surrounded by people a lot like me who have all assembled in the hope of learning something.
My physics class is an "us." We have assigned seating in that class; we sit in lab groups of three or four, and every few weeks, we switch groups. My current circle is quite probably the most unproductive one I've had yet. We're all quite capable of doing the work, but on Thursday, we discovered that it's more fun to ask Google how to convert from stone to slugs than to look at diffracted light from a sodium lamp.
My boyfriend and I are an "us." I'm sure if you read my last entry you've already formed an opinion of this particular "us," and I'd like to hear it some time if I ever get to meet you in person or elsewhere. I went to visit him at U de M on Friday, and we worked through a lot of what had been bothering us last week. I think he said it perfectly when he said, "I think we love each other a lot, and it's a shame we sometimes can't get along." Other girls on my floor have boyfriends from high school too. Continuing an old relationship into university isn't easy, but it never hurts to try. University in general is hard, but it's worthwhile not to give up in the first semester.

My residence is an "us." Edwards. We had a coffeehouse on Saturday night. I'm really not sure what the best part of it was, but I'll tell you you should have been there. And after the performances, you should have come upstairs to my room; a friend from math lab whom I call "The French" did a century in his room and didn't puke. Ever. The French are tough, it seems.
There's another "us" in my life, too. I guess you could call it me and my God, but I don't fully subscribe to the concept of a God. I didn't go to church today; I seldom do. I did, however, get as much out of this day as I do out of any Sunday. To me, spirituality is not about worship because I don't worship. I'm not saying I never have, and I'm not saying I never will. I'm only saying I know enough about myself to know what is right for me at this stage. I have a mind, and I must engage it, and so I reflect. I examine my life. I examine who I am. And I think about what I'm going to tell you.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-18T10:06:00.001-08:00

It's nearly American Thanksgiving. So almost exactly a year ago, I was sitting at the dining room table across from my uncle Marty eating turkey and pie. I asked if he would agree or disagree with a statement for me, and he consented. I said, "College is a continuation of childhood." He responded by saying that the purpose of a university education is to figure out who you are. Now that I'm here at Mount Allison, I think it's time to ask myself a question. Who am I?

I am ...

A violinist. I played background music at the international market on Friday night, and the town of Sackville's strolling poets applauded after Vivaldi's Winter.

I am ...

A sap. I cried after Titanic, little bit. I came back from the international market, and Jessie-Anne and Katelyn were watching a movie, so I partook. And said movie was a thing of beauty.

I am ...

Four and a half years old. Because after Titanic, my boyfriend called me, and I yelled at him because he never comes to visit me, and then I cried into the phone. A lot. My whole section of the hallway could hear me.

I am ...

A fan of Manitoba. Yesterday I talked to Leah at brunch, and she told me she's from Winnipeg, and I got really excited.

I am ...

Also a fan of Tom Petty. I actually succeeded in doing schoolwork for almost five and a half hours straight yesterday, and I was listening to Tom Petty for most of the time.

I am ...

In possession of a strong ethical sense in bed, or so the fortune cookie I had after supper told me.

I am ...

A sociology major. Because a bunch of the girls were in my room last night, and we all took out the academic calendar in order to map our degrees. I chose sociology.

I am ...

A modern languages major. Because right after I decided that I had a passion for sociology and wanted to pursue it as my primary field of study, I changed my mind.

I am ...

A drinker. Because I finished Lindsay's beer last night, and then I had another, and I raised my bottle high and toasted the faculty of arts.

I am ...

Single. Or at least, I was for a moment when the girls were in my room and we were drinking and my boyfriend called.

I am ...

In a relationship. Because he changed his mind right after he broke up with me.

I am ...

A bit of a hypocrite, because I used to parade around saying I opposed alcohol, but now I realize I don't really condemn it in any big way.

I am ...

Bad at making my bed apparently. Because a bunch of us were sitting on it last night, and all the sheets slid off of it so it was naked and bare.

I am ...

The master of lengthy phone conversations. I sat on that naked bed for lord knows how many hours with the boyfriend on the other end, trying to fix things, or just finish them for good.

I am ...

Not fat. Or so Michaela told me when she came into my room after the English department wine and cheese party, which I'm told I should have attended.

I am ...

The best the world has to offer in a girl. Or so he tells me.

I am ...

Better than that. Or so they tell me.

I am ...

A little violent, apparently. I threw a phone against the wall last night, and it broke. Badly. I woke up our RA. Sorry, Sam.

I am ...

A smoker. At least when it's past 2:30 and I'm out on the stoop with Hannah and Lindsay, and I've once again been broken up with, and they've been cleaning up puke all night.

I am ...

Too easily influenced by my boyfriend.

I am ...

Too easily influenced by my friends.

I am ...

Too flighty.

I am ...

Too capricious.

I am ...

No longer in a relationship on facebook.

I am ...

Now in a relationship on facebook.

I am ...

No longer in possession of a landline.

I am ...

Not really sure who I am anymore, not that I ever was.

I am ...

Wishing the whole world would just stop for a few days so I could sort my mind out and try to decipher what it's telling me and not telling me. All I ever hear from my boyfriend is that I'm too easily influenced by my friends, and all I ever hear from my friends is that he's too controlling. Is it over? And if "it's" over, what is "it" anyway? Being somebody's girlfriend? Being a bona fide member of Edwards house? Being a science student? Being a reasonable human being? If the purpose of a university education is to figure out who you are, then I guess I have a bit of work to do. I mean -- today -- I popped popcorn, and then I threw it out because I didn't want popcorn. What was the point?

My "clear" solution turned purple

2007-11-15T15:08:00.000-08:00

I just spent Remembrance Day weekend on an island. Little Cranberry Island, to be specific. You remember Vivian from that entry back in September? The one who's really named Emily? Well, Emily lives on Little Cranberry Island, also known as Islesford. It's off the coast of Maine, near where Bar Harbor is, and it has a population of about 85. She invited me to come home with her over the weekend, and I have to say -- that island really is a special place. I know I could never live there -- Sackville's already a bit contained for me. But for the three days I spent on Little Cranberry, I felt more relaxed than I have all autumn. It's a way of life.
Lucas just came by my door. He asked if I'd done physics. We get an assignment every week in Physics 1051. It's due every Thursday night when the building locks. And you know what? I actually didn't do physics. Well, I did, but not completely. I chickened out on a multiple-battery question and wrote, "I understand the concept behind Kirchhoff's laws, but I am not yet comfortable using them. I will try my best to learn how to use them before the final exam." And I wasn't even being lazy with that physics assignment. I just had to turn it in as it was because I needed to be done with it so I could get to my other work. We're reading Jane Eyre right now in my English class, and I'm 300 pages behind.
Curiously, I got a good deal of reading done when I went home with Emily. I found I actually like reading. And her house has a wood-burning stove. You can't know how peaceful it feels to curl up with a Charlotte Bronte novel by a wood-burning stove until you've experienced Islesford yourself. If, by chance, one Emily Thomas ever invites you to come home with her for a long weekend, do yourself a favor and say yes. I promise you won't regret it.
But I digress from reality. I'm back at school now, and my final sociology paper is due two weeks from earlier this afternoon. I also have an English paper due in the next few weeks, and I have a chem formal lab to write by Wednesday. I also need to pick up my socks and start getting ready for finals in all of my classes. I don't have any midterms left -- only some papers and five finals. I need to get myself together. I need to focus. I need to work harder than I ever thought possible. Did I mention I took a job in the communications office? It's about 10 hours a week; I help the media relations co-ordinator with filing and organizational work, along with assisting in writing the weekly External Awareness Report. Perhaps the beginning of the final stretch toward the end of the semester is not an ideal time to be taking a job, but I can handle it. I loved going home with Emily for the weekend and having some time to relax, but I'm glad to be back in the swing of things. I can't wait to start the research for my sociology paper. I need to make sure I start it soon, or I'll run out of time. I also need to get moving on the additional research I'm going to have to do for my chem lab report. For some reason, my "clear" solution turned purple, and that's about all I can tell you right now until I figure out what actually happened to it. And I should read Jane Eyre; I've already told you how many hundred pages I am behind. And I need to learn VESPR because I don't understand it. At all. And I need to learn how to solve multiple-battery problems because I promised whichever TA marked my last physics assignment that I really would try my best. And I need to practice my violin because my chamber orchestra concert is two weeks from tomorrow night. And I'm pretty sure I'm not going to eat, sleep, or sit down any time before Christmas, but truth be told, I wouldn't have it any other way. I believe it was Andrew Marvell who said, "Thus, though we cannot make our sun stand still, yet we will make him run." I had my fun and relaxation over the long weekend, and now I'm back to running after Andrew Marvell's sun, and I couldn't be happier. If only I had one more thing to keep me out of trouble.

I don't like parties.

2007-10-28T08:24:00.000-07:00

I'll amend my title right now. I have no idea whether I like parties because I haven't been to one yet. But I don't think I like them, and here's why. I don't like drunkenness, and I don't like drunk people, and I don't like the aroma of alcoholic beverages, or regurgitated alcoholic beverages, and I CERTAINLY don't like to consume alcoholic beverages myself, and I don't like to dance, and I don't like telling every guy who tries to dance with me and kiss my cheek that I have to take the math placement test tomorrow, and I don't like the way my face feels with makeup on it when I'm hot and I'm in a big group of people and it's late and I want to go to bed but I can't leave before my friends do, and I don't like how dry my eyes begin to feel at precisely 11 pm when my contacts suddenly begin to lash out at me violently and I just want to take them out and give myself some peace but I can't because I'm at a party. And I'm sure there are other things I don't like that I've neglected to disclose.
That said, I do like Sunday night yoga. And I do like having everyone in my residence who takes physics crowded into my room on Wednesday night to work on our weekly assignment, due every Thursday when maintenance locks the Sir James Dunn building. And I do like coffeehouses. I don't like being kicked off of the stage at Society of All Nations coffeehouses, but so far this fate has only befallen me once, and it wasn't anything crying in my room couldn't fix. The next day was Open House, so we had over 400 visitors on campus, and all the food in the dining hall was extra special to impress the prefrosh. I had chocolate chip pancakes and fresh fruit salad for breakfast, a veggie calzone and a fresh-baked roll for lunch, and pasta marinara with curly fries for supper. Food cures everything. A bunch of us went to McDonald's later that night. I guess I had four highly satisfying meals that day. Open House also gave me the opportunity to show numerous tour groups the inside of my dorm room here in Edwards. They seemed to like it, especially the periodic table of sex.
You know what else I like? Pumpkin carving. Yes, Edwards house got together to carve pumpkins on Friday night. What else would we have done to pass our time the weekend before Halloween, realistically speaking? And then the secretary-treasurer from neighboring Thornton house came in, and said he wanted the pumpkins. So our president said he'd fork them over once he'd finished judging the contest. (Of course it was a contest. Who carves pumpkins without the prospect of winning as an incentive?) Oh you wanted to know why we were being solicited for pumpkins? THAT I can tell you. Thornton had a halloween party last night. Thalloween, to be specific. But if you read the beginning of this entry, you'll know I didn't attend. So that was my weekend. Everything from Friday noon until 9 o'clock on Saturday led up to not going to Thalloween. And now it's Sunday, and all I hear as soon as I leave my room is a battery of stories from last night. And I really don't care to listen. I guess that's what university is about. Everything's out there, but you just pick and choose what you like. Take walking to Silver Lake with everyone from your floor for tag and a pizza picnic, for example. I'm going to do that tonight. And I know I'll like it. And what about being a calculus tutor? That's something I like. And I like playing the violin. And I like my iTunes. And I like Lucas's iTunes. And I like the pictures of me and my boyfriend on my windowsill. And I like my 2008 calendar: a different polar bear for each month. And I like sweeping, and dusting, and washing my sheets. Reproductive behavior, as we call it in sociology. And I like purple pens. I like purple in general. I'm wearing a purple shirt. And I like curly hair. And teddy bears. And I talk to my teddy bears. Maybe you should talk to yours, too.

Salicylaldehyde and Will Smith

2007-10-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday morning, and I'm pretty sure I'm the only one awake in sleepy little Edwards house right now. And so I blog about the day before. Two things happened yesterday: weekend research and movie night. From 9 am to 12 pm, I assisted my lab partner Martin in synthesizing a compound that we wish to combine with a metal and send to Dupont to test for use as a safe antifungal for agricultural crops, and from 9 pm to 12 am, I sat curled up on Katelyn's bed with Emily and Ariane watching Hitch. I assume there was a day in between, filled with study and grocery shopping and one weird-time-of-day shower that I needed to wash away "Social Problems: A Canadian Perspective," my textbook for intro sociology. But if I had to tell you that anything important happened yesterday, I would say research and a movie.
First, I'll tell you about my morning. I woke up bright and early, had a little cereal with some soymilk, Natura because it's the only brand I can find here, and then I headed over to Barclay, the chemistry building. It's quite a place to be on Saturday morning; while the rest of campus sleeps, a few tiny collections of eager young chemistry studens gather in the labs of a choice group of enthusiastic professors. This weekend, for the first time, I decided that I wanted to be one of these students.
When I first got over to Barclay, I was greeted by Steve Westcott, the professor who runs "Wild Toads." And it turns out we're both from Baltimore. So now I'll tell you a story Steve told me. When he was doing his undergrad degree, he had no idea what he wanted to major in, or what he wanted to do with his life, and his classes weren't helping him at all. I think he said he started as a physics major, switched to anthropology two weeks later, became intent on dropping out as swiftly as humanly possible, and soon developed a passionate but fleeting interest in English literature. He didn't find anything that inspired him until he got into the lab and tried his hand at some actual research. Unfortunately, though, not a lot of undergraduates get this chance. So here's Steve's solution. He has third and fourth year students who help him out in his lab. Then, on Saturday mornings, these research assistants turn into teaching assistants, and they work with first-year students like me who have never done any research, but who would like to try. Basically, Steve gives students of all ages an opportunity to experience what chemistry is really about.
I said I'd tell you about movie night, didn't I? Well, we all watched a movie. And actually, it was my second movie night this weekend; Friday night was a movie night too. That's one of the things I love about living in residence. I love when we can all just get together and be lazy and eat Hershey's kissables and sit in anticipation as yet another love story unfolds via Katelyn's DVD player. And you know what I was thinking while we were watching the movie? Well, okay, you know what I wasn't thinking? "I have to go read my sociology textbook." And, while I know that some people don't routinely consider the social problems of Canada on a Saturday night anyway, I am apparently not most people. When I have sociology reading to do, and I invariably do have sociology reading to do, I have a tendency to think of sociology and only of sociology. And I deny myself fun in order to sit at my desk, purple pen in hand, and fill my mind with the flaws of Canadian society through the perspectives of structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism, with social constructionism thrown in for good measure. But you know what the funny thing about movies is? They're fun to watch. And sociology can wait. And THAT, my friends, is everything I've learned in University up to this point.

MATH 1111: Exam Done

2007-10-15T20:46:00.000-07:00

I think the title speaks for itself. And when Sarah who lives across the hall from me came into my room asking if I wanted to have "the conversation" (you know, the "I got that the limit for number three is negative infinity" conversation?), I just said "no." Enough of mathematics for tonight, and I've physics in the morrow. Steamboat.

MATH 1111: Part Two

2007-10-15T11:24:00.000-07:00

Well, my last entry promised to become the ultimate paragraph answer, everything we had done up until this point in MATH 1111. I realized, though, that such an entry would have been exceedingly long. Therefore, I achevated after chapter 1 of the textbook. And, no, "achevate" is not a real word. And, no, we did not learn about limits on September 18th. It was September 17th; I wrote the wrong date in my notes. But in any event, I can't just halt the learning process after one chapter; the midterm tonight covers TWO chapters. So without any further ado, here's the backend.
Professor Irwin mentioned earlier that one of the essential problems of calculus is to compute the slope of a curve that is not straight. We can now use limits to compute this slope. And in fact, we call the value of the slope of the line tangent to a curve at a given point the derivative at that point. You know what else is cool, though? We don't just have to compute the derivative at one point. We can find the derivative of the whole curve. And instead of being just a number, the derivative is actually a function.
Now, computing the derivative of a function using limits is quite exciting because it allows us to see exactly what it is that we are doing to the function. This technique takes quite a bit of time, though. Therefore, mathematicians have come up with proofs for some convenient shortcuts for differentiating (taking the derivative of) a function. These shortcuts include the power rule, the product rule, the chain rule, and the quotient rule. In addition, we have formulas for computing the derivatives of exponential and logarithmic functions. Speaking of logarithmic functions, sometimes we can't differentiate a function until we take the natural log of both sides of it. This technique is called logarithmic differentiation. Logarithmic differentiation leads us to what we call implicit differentiation. Implicit differentiation is necessary when we cannot solve the original function explicitly for y. It is useful in solving related rates problems. These are a type of word problem in which we must deal with the rate of change of multiple quantities at the same time.
And now I've given you a brief overview of everything that I've learned in MATH 1111 thus far. I realize, though, that many of you will find my summaries to be cursory. I made them this way intentionally; to give you every detail of MATH 1111 would be to write you many, many, MANY paragraph answers, and would have taken far too many minutes. I leave you now by referring you to one Ms. Jessie-Anne Marquita Peace. She can field any questions you might have regarding MATH 1111; we collaborate in class to take comical notes. What follows is an example.

MATH 1111: Part One

2007-10-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

Hey, remember Vivian from my last entry? Well I'll tell you her real name now. It's Emily. And Emily enjoys making fun of me. She likes to focus on such aspects of my character as that I've been limping for the last three weeks because I sprained my ankle falling up the stairs at Universite (I can't figure out how to make an accute accent on this word-processing tool) de Moncton and that I refer to any drinkable liquid that isn't dihydrogen monoxide as a "beverage." I think her favorite one of my little querks, though, is that on our first assignment for Physics 1051, I neglected to include any calculations in my solution to the first problem, and opted instead to write a paragraph answer. And you know what? I have a calc midterm tonight at 7:00 pm. So instead of studying by working problems like I really ought to, I'm treating you all to the ULTIMATE paragraph answer. And here is everything I've learned in math since September 5th.
"The worst bad habit you can fall into is to assume you already know everything." Profesor Beattie issued this warning on the first day of class. Truer words ne'er were spoke, I'd say. If I already knew everything, I wouldn't really need to be taking this course, would I? Fortunately, though, I'm learning. We're all learning.
The first actual topic that we covered in MATH 1111 was the definition of a function. Basically, in a function, every value of x maps out to a value of y, where no one x value can have two y values associated with it. You put a number in the machine, and you get another number out. Some examples of functions are the linear function, the quadratic function, the cubic function, and the rational function. If you want to shift your function up or down, you add or subtract a constant to or from the whole function. If you want to shift if left or right, you add or subtract a constant from the x term. If you want to make a crazy-looking function, define it in a piecewise manner; it'll be a hoot to draw. If you're the verbal type, try a composite function, where you first have to apply one function (say, f) to x, and then apply another function (say, g). It's fun because you can write it as f o g (x). It's like fog x. Hehe.
Next, we talked a little bit about exponential and logarithmic functions. The two key things to remember are that an exponential function is not the same as a polynomial function (so 2 to the x is not x squared), and a logarithmic function is the inverse of an exponential function. I took notes in red, white, and blue that day. I guess I was feeling a little bit patriotic. The next day, we discussed what an inverse function actually is, and how to find the inverse of a function algebraically. It's easy. You just take the original function, switch the Xs and the Ys, and then solve the new function explicitly for y if you can. You can tell if a relation is a function by applying the vertical line test. Therefore, you can tell if the inverse of a function is a function (i.e. if the function is one to one) by applying the horizontal line test. You can also perform this test algebraically by finding the equation of the inverse function and performing a little bit of subtraction.
On September 18th, I wrote the date in purple because I sensed that something special was bound to happen. Sure enough, I walked into class and Professor Irwin (I had switched classes for scheduling reasons) announced one of the essential problems of calculus: "to find the slope of a line that is not straight." To execute this task, we use a tool called taking the limit. The limit allows us to solve algebraic expressions that we would not have been able to deal with before. Using this ability, we can take the slope of the line that intercepts a function at a single point. This line is called the tangent line. You can also use limits to figure out whether a function is continuous. In other words, you can use limits to determine whether a function is defined for all values on a given interval. Other applications of the limit include taking limits at infinity and using the intermediate value theorem. The intermediate value theorem says that in an interval where a function is continous, a y value exists for every x value. This concludes Chapter 1 of "Essential Calculus," by James Stewart, the accepted text for MATH 1111.

The First Month

2007-10-01T09:48:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s October first. But I’m not ready for October yet. So since we still have a week until Thanksgiving, I think I’ll tell you about the defining moment of the month of September. And here’s how it goes.
Let’s start with a girl. We’ll name her Vivian, so we don’t have to keep calling her “the girl.” She lives down the hall from me in Edwards house, and she does, in fact, have a real first name. I’ll save this name for another story, though. For now, she’ll be Vivian. And Vivian plays softball. One of the fun parts of going to Mount A is that we have a lot of intramural sports teams, so anyone who wants to can participate in a low-key, relaxed environment. An example of such a person would be Vivian.
I mentioned that Vivian lives in my residence. It follows that she plays for my residence’s softball team, the name of which escapes me at the moment. So we’ll call the team Edwards. And I should tell you right now that Vivian had little to no softball experience before signing up for the team. She just signed up spontaneously. I love people like that. People who aren’t afraid to try something new just because they can. I’ve met a bunch of those people here at Mount Allison.
Our second weekend on campus, the big day came: Edwards’s first intramural softball game, against the campus radio station, CHMA. Everyone who lives in my section of the hallway came out that Sunday afternoon to see our little Vivian play and cheer her on. Even our residence don's dogs came out to cheer. Vivian was in right field. She had specifically requested this position because she didn’t think any balls would come to her. And none did. She couldn’t hide forever, though, because eventually, she had to bat. And you know what? Vivian got on base. This girl whose only sport in high school had been ultimate Frisbee, and who had only signed up for softball because she loved her house and her university that much, had just scored a single.
Vivian’s base hit was the defining moment of September for me because I’ve always found September to be a month of beginnings. When I stepped into my first physics course at 8:30 in the morning on Tuesday, September 4th, it seemed to me that anything could happen. As I watched Vivian’s foot touch first base on that Sunday a few days after, I realized that anything can.

Here I am

2007-09-27T12:14:00.000-07:00

My name’s Mary Blake, and everyone calls me Mary Blake. Two words, one name. I’m a first-year student here at Mt. A, and I come from Baltimore, Maryland, in the states. I read about this university in Maclean’s, and one campus tour later, I knew I had to be a Mountie.
The thing I really like about Mt. A is the flexibility of the curriculum. I’m a science student, but I’m not sure what my major is going to be, so I’m taking physics, chemistry, and calculus, and adding biology next semester. This school encourages students to take a wide variety of courses in our first year, so in addition to my sciences, I’m taking English and sociology. I chose English because it’s something that I know I like, and I chose sociology because it’s something that I know nothing about. I think Mount Allison has the right environment for me to discover who I am as a student.
As for extracurricular activities, my favorite one is music. I’ve played the violin for twelve years, and I’m involved in the chamber orchestra here at Mt. A. I’m also going to be singing with the choir at St. Paul’s, an Anglican church here in Sackville. I like that even though I’m not a music major, I have the chance to be a part of musical ensembles and keep pursuing my interests in this way.
I mentioned earlier that I come from Maryland, but right now, that little boot-shaped state on the Chesapeake Bay sounds like another world to me. I’ve only been at Mt. A for three weeks, but already, I feel like my home is right here in Sackville, in Edwards house. I live in one of the smaller residences on campus, tucked over on the south side by the football field. We have a reputation for being the quiet house, and it’s said that we’re quite studious, but believe me when I tell you we made noise last Wednesday at Spirit Night. The thing I like best about residence life is that it reminds me that we’re never alone. I have a single room, so if I want some privacy to get my work done, all I have to do is close the door, and if I want company, all I have to do is open it.
The last thing I’ll mention about Mount Allison right now is that it’s full of surprises. I, like many happy young five-year-olds, have a favorite animal, and it is the polar bear. Just the other day, as I was leaving the Barclay Building after my chemistry lab, I looked at the wall and I saw a poster. It was a picture of two polar bears sparring, their paws intertwined and their noses touching. I only paused for an instant, but in that instant, I was airborne.