OK I'm not so ready to jump into the commitment aspect of the GEE-tar like Bonetti is with her 'bone, but I feel that if maybe I log MY practices in here, I might be more inclined to keep it up. SO. My vow, posted here a few days ago, was to practice 15 minutes/day, 3 days a week for now. So, since my strings are new, they pretty much need to be tuned every day. I found an internet tuner which is just aces; it playes the note on a guitar string, and repeats it until you get it right. I bookmarked it, natch. I know I shouldn't be surprised, given my family history, but I was surprised at how quickly I adapted to beats and measures. I know I was taught that at some point in my life, but it's kind of neat to comprehend that stuff right off the bat. It's like learning a foreign language. So the reasons for the 15 minute practice, as opposed to a longer amount of time are:

• I don't want to overwhelm myself; those notes and staffs and clefs and such tend to intimidate me, and if I try to do too much I'll get frustrated and stop.
  
• I want to give myself time to learn each string (I'm using the Mel Bay book, which starts out string by string)
• I have lots of other real homework that needs attending to, that generates grades and eventually a diploma
  
• If, after 15 minutes, I have not had enough, I will have something to look forward to on my next session. If I get really excited, I think I can up the NUMBER of practices and keep to the 15 minutes. After last night, 15 minutes allowed me to play 2 pages of "music" and learn 2 strings.
• Until I actually learn some chords and stuff, I don't think that more than 15 minutes would be too productive.
  

GOAL FOR NEXT PRACTICE: review my 2 little strings and learn string number 3 and 4, if time permits.
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OK so back to normal life. I found out in Monday's class that the parts of my precalculus text that Steve glossed over and said we didn't really need to focus on, are actually pretty important. That is rational functions, asymptotes, and the graphing of the same. Actually Steve didn't focus much on graphing at all. I couldn't understand when my math teacher friend focused so much on graphs when she was helping me; now I do. Graphing is a very important part of calculus. So I am a little bummed that I have to spend all this time reviewing, but at least I've touched on enough of it that catching up is not a HUGE deal. Just time consuming. I think I'm going to need to go into the tutoring center this weekend though because there are a couple of aspects of the graph that I'm just not getting.

"In the case of one variable, x, a rational function is a function of the form

such as, like, as in example:

where P and Q are polynomial functions in x and Q is not the zero polynomial. The domain of "f" is the set of all points "x" for which the denominator Q(x) is not zero." SO I've figured out how to find the vertical asymptotes, which are just zeros of Q(x), and the y-intercept, which is what you get when you set x = 0, but I am having problems determining how to finish the graph and plot the points in between. And that is that. Dilemmas.

In other news, my Deutsch Klasse is going sehr Gud. Angelika (read "Ahn-ghell-ee-kuh) is a hoot, and she is VERY opinionated and makes no bones about where she stands on any issue, and I just LOVE her. I love her syntax, because she speaks english with german syntax, and slips in and out of german. The lessons are fast paced but pretty easy; well, they're challenging but not overly so; and she uses a lot of props and keeps us engaged. Last week we played bingo and got to throw a koosh ball around when we spoke. We get to practice with each other, and last night I was picked by Patrick, a floppy haired boy with a big hickey on his neck, to be partners. :) He is actually pretty good at his pronunciation, so we practiced back and forth and had a good time. Next to me sits 2 sisters from Poland (ihr seid aus Poland), I think they are twins. We have a very shy 15 year old boy from Turkey who sits in front and answers so quietly that nobody can hear what he says and Angelika has to lean over to hear him. There is a bottle-blond guy probably in his early 20's who looks like he should be on a TV show on Channel 11 like Gossip Girl or Privileged or something. There's a loud, brash, brassy girl who just looks full of life and has the best laugh, long brown hair, and wears funky shoes. There is Anna, my study buddy, who is blond and curvy, has a neat tattoo and is a total art chick, who said that some guy told her once that she looks like Betty Boop. She's very sweet and when I told her my last German class was in 1987, she said "I was one year old then." I managed NOT to do her bodily harm. There is an extremely tattooed girl with unnatural red hair (like, almost plum) who seems pretty nice, and a very giggly opera singer who laughs loudly at EVERYTHING and makes me go "WTF????" to myself. All in all, I am learning some neat people and having a great time and learning to speak German and it just makes me happy. And that is my long, rambly, "I feel better so I can blog again" Wednesday report. Happy October, meine freunde!!!