what's important.

so, the real world has taught me what's important. no, really.

like friends. and being honest with yourself. and responsibility. and having fun. taking deep breaths. laughing. reading. cleaning up your messes before your apartment gets attacked by fruit flies. paying attention to your pets. indulging in your hobbies. putting your whole heart into what you do. standing up for yourself. you know, the important stuff.

and apparently adding .001 grams and .004 grams of two different compounds to my copper solution counts as that.

what's that, you say? nerdy, I know. but I am amazed to find out that on a scale that registers a minimum of .004 grams, it's an integral part of the solution. this scale is next to a hood, which if you don't know, pulls a vacuum. when I tared the flask on the scale (and yes, I was supposed to measure it in the erlenmeyer even though it was many orders of magnitude heavier) it kept going negative to -.002 or -.004 grams. I had to wait for it to balance out properly to weigh these miniscule but important substances.

and then I added two other powders and some water. and then I was supposed to add 5N NaOH until the pH reached 12.5. And after all this careful weighing I measured the pH with strips. It may not mean much to you, but I think it's absurd. It's like, I dunno...driving a $50,000 car that you just bought with a pair of sunglasses on that block out 90% of your vision. Or measuring insulin with teaspoons instead of a syringe. Completely non-exact. A good approximation, but still.

anyway. it bugged me.

i need an ipod. i really like my new job, but it's tedious at times, and music can make your day much better. i'll be getting one soon, I think. that's what birthdays and being old enough to get yourself a present are for. :)