the bad news. i still have to take physical chemistry. i understand the usefulness of conceptual thinking w/r/t enthalpy and work and such, but do i really have to know how to do partial derivitives in my sleep. and here i was, thinking that grad school was all about critical thinking and applying methods. nope, it's back to the basics. we're talking chalkboard, lots of variables, ideal systems that have particles with no mass. and, according to my TA, math rules that apparently only apply when you're doing chemistry (he later rescinded this bold statement). my advisor tried to convince me that he had a grander perspective about info that, in the long term, would be more useful to me. this is fine except a) he's only talked to me twice (today being the second) and b) he was originally trained as a geneticist, probably never took p chem, and seems to be doing just fine.

the good news. my worms are obeying. my rotation project is shaping up quite nicely, although i haven't gotten to play hackysack with my other temporary labmates. apparently, this is a daily activity, along with staring at the crawfish tank.

the (not too terrible bad) news. gramps (one of the lab crawfish) died today. we've got her sitting in a glass beaker, to see if we can recover any of the eggs (the other crawfish need a gramps replacement).