Awake.

I'm awake. I know, it's not even midnight, but in my new life as a "non-traditional student" I am usually asleep by now. I think most of the problem is that I can't breathe. I caught a cold on my trip to CA, which all in all turned out much better than I expected, despite my stuffysnifflitis. I had a great time with Nathan and Amy (and everyone else, too).

Today I spent 7 hours at a table in the library studying physics. Here is a little piece of advice: Never bother with your college-level textbooks, at least not until you're in upper division courses. Here I am in Physics 101. The text is ridiculously dense, and so convoluted it's hard to parse the sentences, let alone figure out how to set up the problems. Having spent 4 years as an Education major working in an academic library, one most valuable lesson from that time sticks with me: The Curriculum Library is Your Friend. Just remember that one principle. The curriculum library is a special, secret room in the library. If you're not in the school of education, you probably have no idea that this room exists. But this is a room full of two kinds of treasures:

1) Children's Literature. This will preserve your sanity. When you can't study physics any longer, find a corner and read Strawberry Girl or something sweet like that. It'll just take an hour or so.

2) Text books. I know, you don't think text books qualify as treasures. But these are textbooks written for every stage UP TO university level. What that means to you: Basic concepts, same information, none of the high-falutin language that makes college texts impossible to love. High School Physics is EXACTLY the same as Physics 101, except they don't try to confuse you.

So take my word for it: The Curriculum Library is Your Friend. Ditch your textbooks.

Oh, one more reason to use textbooks-for-kids: "A beetle is sitting at the top of a bicycle wheel with a diameter of 0.75 m. Assuming the wheel turns counterclockwise, what is the angular displacement of the beetle before it is squashed?"