Smart Boyfriends

Smart boyfriends. They're really quite the commodity when you're going to school! I have been struggling with stupid transformations of functions, because the equation of the function seemed counter intuitive to what was really happening in the graph, and of course the homework problems in no way related to the examples in the book. So I finally broke down and asked the OMA, and he got out a piece of paper down there in L.A. and went through it with me step by step by baby step and VOILA!!! I got it!!! I was so excited and happy. And now I can do this process, and if I get stuck I can go back to my little notes and figure out how to break it down into something solvable. Still, why do these mathematical texts leave these basic steps out? I guess they figure you learned it in precalc, but when I got back to my precalc book, it had the same damned examples that the calculus book had, and not the problem I was working, nor did it say, as the OMA did that f(2x) means that 2x is an independent variable, and if you break it down and say 2x = k, you can get f(x(k)) and then it makes MUCH more sense. Sheesh. Anyway. Limits and transformations. They're not so hard when someone takes the time to actually explain them in a way that makes some freakin sense and doesn't leave the basics out!

In other news, I forgot my keys at home today. So I get to my building, and there is NO ONE HERE. No one in my department; no faculty, no staff, nothing; no-one in CPHN, no-one in the lab, no one in the suite of offices down the hall! I couldn't even find the janitress!!! So I got to hang out in the hallway; I went and visited the ladies in the Scandinavian Studies department til they got tired of me, then I wandered upstairs and downstairs like Wee Willie Winkie (only not in my nightgown). I was just getting ready to hang it up. I texted the boss-lady to tell her what was up (she's off today) and was getting ready to mosey on over to the bus stop when our fiscal tech FINALLY showed up. And so now here I am at my desk, listening to some Sheryl Crow, having a pleasant day, and thinking about venturing out into the big bad world to do some banking before the lines get too long, and then come back to work and get a few chores out of the way before I go play squash with Maryam.

German was, as usual, a hoot last night. Angelika was all perky and fun. There were only 3 of us in tutoring; CW11 Tucker, Kari-not-Carey and I. I logged into my NSCC account so that we could do the Horen und Sprachen exercise, and then we all just kind of visited more than studied. Angelika was grading papers, and we just chitter-chatted and did a little practice and then off to class. We did a lot of exercises in class, and then made arrangements to watch a movie called "Run Lola Run" which a few students had seen and are all excited for; this is going to be on Tuesday because Angelika can't make it.

And that's the story of my life. :)