anfin’s Blog

Well we had the 50-meter swim for the Iron Man Competition yesterday. I came in dead last for the girls, but I still got points being that there were only five participating. Yay Participation Points! More importantly, I still made my goal (which clearly had nothing to do with how well I did against the other swimmers): I swam in the (mostly) correct fashion the whole way. The “mostly” refers to the fact that I didn’t do one of the fancy turns where you gracefully flip over at the end of the pool and push off. That will never happen. So where is the accomplishment you ask? One word: Improvement. Last year I went a grand total of about 10 feet before I got water up my nose trying to turn my head to breath. I had to turn over on my back to swim the rest of the way. In comparison, this year I practically crossed the English Channel.

Anyway, after the swim, my lab team (WaKM) had a volleyball game. For those of you who don’t know, the name WaKM (pronouced Whack ‘em) is a combination of our two lab group Wagenknecht and KM. Anyway, during the game, a bird later identified as a wild cockatoo flew into our midst. This was weird enough to grant a blog mention, but then he proceeded to land daintily on the arm of biggest guy on our team. He didn’t seem to want to get off of his new friend’s arm, which would probably not be too helpful in our team’s quest for victory, but after some work we were able to perch him upon the bike rack. As evidenced by his fondness of people, the thing was obviously a pet, so we were all worried about its survival. We planned to take it to the biology department as soon as we finished our game, but it flew to another guy on our team. He decided to leave the game at that point and hopefully carry the bird to the safety of the biology department. Unfortunately, no one was there at that point so he ended up taking it to PetCo. While all that was happening, we proceeded to win our match. The End.

So we had the one-mile run yesterday for the Iron Man Competition, and I came in dead last. This was not much of a surprise though (Crazy people who run 5-something-minute miles), and even if I didn’t get any points, at least I can say that I tried. Anyway, at some point late in the day yesterday KM mentioned that I’d probably be sore today. I said probably not since it was only a mile and all, but in fact I am fairly sore today. However, I do not believe that it’s from the running. Yesterday evening I rode my bike and all its squeeky goodness for a little over an hour around the mall at Furman. I had also done the same the night before only not for as lengthy a time. Anyway, doing so brings me back to my old favorite pasttime–when I would ride for hours around and around our house and just think about whatever. I certainly don’t have to waste anytime thinking about my route when I’m going in a circle, and it’s not overly strenuous if I don’t particularly want it to be. What I’m basically doing is being lazy while still getting some exercise into my routine. Hey, it’s better than watching TV.

In a related note, a FUPO car almost ran over me two nights ago. Seriously, if I had not slammed on my one working break (Consequently, with all the pressure on it alone, it’s not working as well as it used to), then I would have been knocked to the pavement. What happened was I was just minding my own business riding around the circle up next to the PAC, and just as I was passing in front of the turnoff that leads to Timmons, the FUPO car came up from behind me and turned off directly in front of me. Seriously, he was less than a foot away. Now, I was clearly in the bike lane, and normally I would think that I had the right of way since I was going straight and he was turning. Of course, now I’m not so sure particularly since it was a FUPO car. So you tell me. Did I have the right of way or would Mr. FUPO Officer have gotten away with smacking me into the pavement? Regardless, I will be looking over my shoulder from now on.

Today has been an unusually eventful day, and in fact the same can be said for this entire week. For one, I’ve synthesized at least three different products in high yields and am working on a couple more. Sad thing is (or is it?), one of the best of the products was not even one I was trying to make. I accidentally used the wrong reagent for a prep and ended up with a fantastic yield of ridiculously pure product. It’s not what I was going for, but it’s still a useful compound for our lab to have so I’m not feeling too bad about it. What I am feeling bad about is the fact that my computer has decided to go on strike until I finally yield to the demands it has been making since last winter term concerning replacing its faulty fan. This makes for a sad lack of internet unless I trudge to the library or rely upon the kindness of roommates. Sad day… In happier news, we had the 100 meter run for the Iron Man Competition this morning, and I came in fourth for the girls. This is a joyous thing, but it is now time to give you fine folks some explanation of the title of this entry. Imagine to yourselves that you are in downtown Greenville and see a mass of people all walking down the sidewalk and that each person in this multitude is carrying a loaf of Sara Lee Soft and Smooth Whole Grain White Bread. I personally would find myself rather confused. At any rate, this unusual phenomenon did in fact occur today after the Greenville Drive game attended by the Chemistry Department. It seems that the generous people at Sara Lee decided to give one such loaf to everyone at the game. Maybe it doesn’t sound so impressive to you, but all of us college students were pretty excited. I mean, it’s free bread! We’re not going to complain.

You may ask, “What is this cryptic message that you have given us in the title of your blog post? Is it some sort of secret code to solving some complex riddle?” Well, the answer is that, no, it is not. These numbers are in fact my bowling scores in the order I bowled them tonight at the first official Iron Man event of the summer: ten-pin bowling. Clearly, I did not start out strong, and I certainly didn’t hold any hope for scoring points for this event, but at least at the time I had to leave, I was in a strong third place. Expect further Iron Man updates in the future, and for those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, check here. I would be more detailed right now but my space key isn’t working properly (as a side note, if anyone has a spare keyboard that they would like to graciously donate, I would be very appreciative). The End.