"Academic Purposes"

Frequency histogram.
Double-blind experiment.
Chebychev's Theory.
Pareto chart.
Stratified sampling techniques.
Relative and cumulative frequencies.
Ogive.
Hawthorne effect.
Placebo.
Randomized block design.
Qualitative data.

Shhh. I'm in the library and my computer time is supposed to be dedicated to "academic purposes." I've been studying for Tuesday's statistics test for the past 3 1/2 hours and my brain is finally starting to recognize and attach meaning to the flurry of definitions I've been bombarded with. It's exciting and I'm discovering a strange new love of math. Bizarre. I swore I would hate math until the day I died. But slowly, unconsciously, I think I'm falling for this dizzying dance of numbers and data and graphs and charts. It's addicting. Who knew?

On test day, my teacher is allowing us to bring one sheet of paper with whatever notes we'd like to refer to. Yay!! I have a gorgeous sheet now with beautiful mathematical scrawls all over it, color coded, of course. When I get home I'll try to take a picture of it so you can see. *beams* It's a statistical work of art. How nerdy.

Well, I should get off before one of the room monitors squelches my creative writing juices. Hmph. Writing is "academic" too... Oh well. I'm off to finish homework. Pick Sara up from her Algebra class in 45 minutes. Take her and Blanca to the gym. Head of to work where I close the shop again. Get home around 10:20ish and work on a 5-page essay. Photography homework will have to wait 'till tomorrow (shutter-speed experimentation and panning on the agenda. Whoo-hoo!). It's an exciting time; being a student. It's meant well-past-midnight homework sessions, dragging myself out of bed at 5:45am so I could get to school on time, living off of protein bars, bottled water, baby carrots and ice-cream, and making nerdy math and poli-sci flashcards...but I love it.