Too Square to Cube
filed on Wednesday, September 27, 2006 at 2:05:49 AM CST

Okay, so it's been a good while since I've written to this blog.  Nearly three months, to be exact.  Which is funny, since the power of three seems to be one of my problems.  More on that later though.

So, my new resolve is much like some of my older resolves.  To enter something into this site at least once a day.  Maybe a blurb, maybe a thought, maybe a wrap-up.  Something.  Anything.  I'm really into writing mode, mostly because my brain is really into thinking mode, and I'm getting psyched up about a great many things.

For those of you who don't know, and/or are wondering where I've been hiding out, I've started college.  I decided back in early August that if I didn't get off of my butt and do it, I probably never would.  It had already been over four years since I'd decided I was going to do something about it, and I just decided I'd put it off long enough.  So I enrolled in 19 credit hours of classes at the College of DuPage (COD).  If you're keeping score, that's 19 credit hours of class on top of a full-time job.  Yes, my days are running together.

On the plus side, I'm really enjoying it, and am doing pretty well too.  I'm taking English Composition I (my English teacher has instructed me to take Honors English Composition II next semester so I'll be challenged), Japanese Civilization and Culture (I'm planning on taking the language next fall), Fundamentals of Computational Chemistry (because I've taken no Chemistry ever, unless you could middle school science), Foundations of College Math I (because I'm rusty on Algebra), Intro to Computer Sciences (stop laughing... I took it so I'd get used to taking classes and notes again, and besides, why not pad the GPA a little?), and HTML & CSS (which might seem funny since I've been a webmaster for eight years, but honestly, I've been learning quite a bit from the class and am glad I took it... knowing HTML, I'm picking up a lot of stuff I might otherwise have missed).

Well, I'm in the A-B zone in all my classes, closer to the A line in most, if not all of them.  Yeah, it's early in the semester, but I'm shooting for that 4.0.  We'll see what happens.

Of course, I'll have to, you know, learn how to cube things.  I was going over my algebra test we got back today (I got a 90 on it), and I was staring at a problem, going over and over and over it, wondering why I'd gotten it wrong.

And then I realized that 3³ does NOT equal 9.  That is a result saved exclusively for 3².  Just because 3•3=9 doesn't mean that 3³=9.  In fact, 3³=27 (or 3•3•3).  I asked my wonderful teacher, Tracy, if she could "teach me to read."

"I'm bad at English, that's why I teach math," she answered with a laugh, and then asked me what I'd done.

"I was trying to figure out what I did wrong, and then I finally figured it out.  Duh, it's three CUBED, you idiot!"

She laughed, and told me not to worry too much about it.  I'd done rather well.

Well, that's it... more tomorrow!!!

A Diamond in the Rough
filed on Wednesday, September 27, 2006 at 10:19:54 PM CST

There is no denying that the tragedy that befell Diamond Brownridge and her family is horrible.  No parent should have the misfortune of outliving their child, and no child going in for a routine dental visit should end up in a coma, eventually dying from the sedative used to put her under.  My deepest sympathies are with this darling girl's family.

If the dentist who performed this was cautious and this truly was an accident, my sympathies are with him as well.  I don't expect her family to be forgiving of him whether he was negligent or not, and certainly, if it was negligence that took Diamond's life, he has no sympathy from me either.  But I tend to look to the good in humanity, and so I will hope it really was just a fluke accident.

What really bothers me is that before anyone has the whole story about what happened, going only hearsay, there are people who are threatening Dr. Hicham Riba's life, calling his office, making death threats.

Okay, again, this was a horrible tragedy.  But, I will have to say that, based on what I've heard of the dentist's side of the story, people should at least give this all time to play out.  Yeah, if he was negligent, Riba should pay, and pay well.  Let's put down the guns until after he's found to be guilty though, yes?