I’ll be honest. This post is incredibly boring, I’d bet, to anyone but me.

by honeybee Posted on July 5, 2013

The chemistry 161 students I mentored for all of summer session I, are going to take their final exam in about 9 hours. I wish the entire class luck, regardless of whether or not they attended PLUS sessions.

On Monday, July 8th, I start summer school. This will be my first on-campus class at Kapiolani Community College. I took an online class, and adult continuing education class (taiko), and interned at the Customer Care Center doing IT for faculty and staff in the early 2000s. I didn’t realize that taking the Math 140 class at KCC would mean buying another math textbook… but I discovered KCC uses a different book from LCC’s math department for Math 135 and 140. After reading through some of the KCC text, I realized I officially hated the LCC math text I was forced to use last semester. The text I like that we’re using at KCC, is: ”Precalculus”; by M.Dugopolski, 5th ed. or custom for Kapiolani Community College: Isbn 978-1256-109310. It’s just written so much better, and with a much more scientific slant. The Professor, Kadala, emailed us today on the 4th of July with the class syllabus. I was stoked since this is a good sign to me that he’s organized and caring. Oh man. This is making me want to switch my calculus I back to KCC instead of LCC…

I logged into the MyMathLab site, but have yet to try anything out. I started reading the book, and plan to read the sections we’re scheduled to cover on Monday, Tuesday, and maybe Wednesday if I can get to it.

With a feeling of slight guilt, I submitted my new availability to my part time minimum wage paying retail job. I had to write it on a note and leave it for the manager that does scheduling. I think she might have a cow, but hope not. I asked for Wednesdays off… thinking I’d have exams on Thursdays. It’s looking like that won’t be the case. On the syllabus, along with the most exclamation points I’ve ever seen on a syllabus before, is a tentative exam schedule that has all unit exams landing on a Wednesday. I also asked not to work beyond 8 PM on Sundays, 6 PM on Saturdays, and 10 PM on Mondays… I said I could close on Thursdays and Fridays. I also made some earlier hours available to them. When the fall semester starts I have to decide what to do. I should probably do that sooner than later.

I debate just going seasonal and not working the part time gig during the semester, but then a part of me thinks it might be good if they’d let me work one shift a week so I don’t get rusty. My paychecks will be like, $40 a week, lol! But, I suppose that’s still food / gas, etc.

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Things I will miss that made summer 2013 one of the best of my life.

by honeybee Posted on July 3, 2013

"I had the best intentions" (166/365)
A random picture just cause I feel long posts require pictures.

Today, was my last PLUS session with the Chem 161 students. There were 6 of them today. Their final is on Friday, following the 4th of July holiday. I was happy to see them. I was also sad at the end when I realized I wouldn’t see them anymore. Maybe I’ll see one or two of them around on campus next fall, but I won’t get to see them on a weekly basis anymore. I wished them luck on the final. They had a hard semester from what I can tell.

Today, I went over their lab which included Lewis dot, drawing 3D molecules / electron and molecular geometry, hybridization, determining polarity / non polarity, and bond angles. I really wish I’d remembered to show them how to draw resonance structures, negatively charged molecules, and just a more complex Lewis dot than what was on their lab. But, I got side-tracked and sort of went with the lab since that’s what they were working on.

I shoulda done O3 or NO2- or something. Darnit. I didn’t show formal charges since their instructor didn’t cover it with the class today, and this was their final lecture. I sat in on the final class to see where they were at before this last session.

I wrote them a process for determining how to draw Lewis dot that I found in another text book, which I thought was an easy way to explain drawing them. I wrote it on the board and a lot of them took pics of it. I showed them how I count how many things are hanging off the central atom to do hybridization… I hope it was helpful to them!

I loved the opportunity I had this summer to help the class with their problem-solving. I can only hope it benefited those who came and made some kind of difference. I feel like I learned a lot, and definitely feel more confident about my major and goal to become an instructor of Chemistry one day. :)

I probably won’t be on campus much for the rest of the summer. I will be at KCC taking Math during summer session II, and working at B&N, but my heart loves LCC. I’ll miss it while I’m away. Hopefully I see some of the students on campus in the fall. They were so nice and I’d be excited to hear how they did overall.

I have to thank the students who came. They really were nice to me. They also were motivated to learn, and tried their best. It’s always nice to see people working hard. I admire them for taking Chemistry in the summer, and wish them all the best in their studies and future goals. I think I’ll always remember them since they’re the first students I ever had an experience like this with. And I liked seeing them discuss problems and try to figure stuff out. I feel lucky to have had this opportunity. I can see immediately how I could have improved sessions as soon as I start walking away from the building. I hope to improve with time. I hope they think I did a good job. That’s the most important part– that it was useful to them.

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Friday 5 for June 28: Austerity

by honeybee Posted on July 1, 2013

The questions

  1. When you have to cut back on spending for a time, what are the niceties you’re least likely to give up even though you could (or should)?
  2. In leaner times, what are your go-to “famine foods?”
  3. How do you keep yourself amused or entertained in times requiring great frugality?
  4. When was the last time you had to go into austerity mode?
  5. What’s a necessary expenditure others might consider an extravagance?

The answers:

  1. Netflix and Hulu Plus subscriptions, candy or snacks, iPhone and $100+ monthly phone bill.
  2. Protein powders, protein bars, fruit, water, peanutbutter, laughing cow light swiss cheese wedges
  3. The Internet is always cool, or just random cruising to nowhere in particular with friends
  4. Currently in austerity mode…
  5. Gym membership, shoes, anything school related (extra molecule kit, extra textbook to replace current one falling apart, additional texts), Broadband Internet connectivity

Check out the Friday 5

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Retail Bookstore Employee Chronicles #1: 50 Shades of My Little Pony

by honeybee Posted on June 27, 2013

I picked up the phone last night, and what sounded like a middle-aged woman was at the other end. She asked me to look up two books. I asked for the title or author of the first. She replied, “Anything My Little Pony. It’s for my… niece.” I checked the system and told her I saw a graphic novel, and could grab it on the shelf to verify we had it. Then she said the second book she was interested in, was “50 Shades of Gray” by E.L. James. I knew we had a bunch of those. They’re current best-sellers in the trade paperback version. I asked if I should grab these items and put them on hold for her. She said, No… But could I read to her passages from them? I kinda felt something was off with this whole call. I put her on hold and quickly assisted two other customers before grabbing her book and bringing it back to the phone. I kinda knew she didn’t care about the My Little Pony.

I told her I had 50 Shades of Gray in stock. “Should I put it on hold for you?” To which she replied, she wasn’t sure. Could I read some of it to her? I asked her if she wanted me to read her the synopsis on the back? She said it had to be something inside the book so she could see how it was written, because how would she know if it was good? Then she asked me if I’d read it and liked it? (I haven’t, and said I read lots of non-fiction). Then she asked me AGAIN to read a page from it. She said…. “Um, someone told me page 106 is… a good one.” Her voice was kinda weird. I was getting oodgied out. I remained polite as a testament to my patience and good customer service. I found the whole thing mildly amusing and semi-disgusting at the same time.

I knew this was either a prank, or some lady about to get her rocks off on listening to some bookstore employee read passages from 50 Shades of Gray. I told her I was the only one working customer service and had a bunch of customers waiting so, I could put it on hold but didn’t have time to read it. (There really was no one else working customer service). She then asked again, “But how am I supposed to know whether or not it’s good?” To which I replied, “Well, it’s currently a best-seller, and according to the cover, over 70 million copies have been sold internationally…” She finally relented. She didn’t want me to put it on hold, and she didn’t even ask about the My Little Pony book.

My first weird bookstore-employee-customer interaction! But, eww. No wayz am I reading erotica to customers. Yowza. I suppose it would have been even weirder if she was super insistent I read from the My Little Pony book immediately afterwards. That would have also been a “no” from me.

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12/2016

by honeybee Posted on June 22, 2013

Today, I bought a 3-pack of durex condoms (on sale!) and wondered if I’d be able to make use of them before the expiration date.

A Day in the Life (171/365)
I miss smoking in general.

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Having Fun with Chemistry

by honeybee Posted on June 19, 2013

Do you miss the sky? (170/365)
Photo of the sky today on campus

This summer I’ve been really happy to have the opportunity to peer mentor Chemistry 161 students taking summer school at Leeward Community College. I run two problem-solving sessions a week– on Mondays and Wednesdays, for any students who wish to attend and get some additional help with their Chemistry. There’s also a tutor available to them on Fridays.

Friday will be their second exam of the summer. They have three exams and one final in six weeks. I don’t envy them! I didn’t get to work with them much before the first exam but this time the instructor gave me a copy of the practice exam / study guide in advance so I could work through some of those problems with them.

So far, I love it. I present problems on the board and field any questions they have. Friday’s exam covers Balancing chemical equations, Gas reactions and stoichiometry, Solution stoichiometry, and some heat / energy reaction problems. The instructor sat in on today’s session, which was good. I didn’t mind when he corrected me or added his take on things while I was up at the board. I found it valuable to get feedback, and hope it reinforced the fact I am just a peer in the minds of the students attending. I am by no means a TA, tutor, or instructor. I’m just someone who took Chem 161 in the spring semester and got an A. Oh, and I had to be part of an underrepresented minority group as well. That was a requirement since this program is funded by a grant via the IOA-LSAMP (Islands of Opportunity Alliance – Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Programs. I qualify since I’m part Native Hawaiian.

I know I have a long way to go as far as learning to teach effectively, and my overall Chemistry knowledge, but I think this is what I want to do with the rest of my life. I like the Community college environment and students. I truly care about the students who are taking the class. I find myself almost feeling protective of them.. and wanting to see them succeed.

My general understanding of Chemistry is really improving since I have to read and do the problems all over again. I also sit-in on lectures some days, and it’s cool to hear another instructor’s take on the same material. This has been an invaluable experience so far.

Happy happy happy. :)

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Welcome to the World of Minimum Wage Retail, Babe.

by honeybee Posted on June 13, 2013

Orion: Beer from Okinawa (155/365)
Working nights in retail makes me wanna drink a beer. Here’s to not becoming an alcoholic!

I had my first real-ish kinda day working in retail at one of the last booksellers left in the state of Hawaii. I’ll leave it at that since I’ve yet to really peruse their Internet policy. I think I’m allowed to write whatever, but, yeah.

Last night was 2 hours on the cash register, or “cash wrap” and then 2 hours at customer info. I liked both enough, but customer info is more my speed. I like helping people. I hate being on the registers in a sense, because my customer interaction is so limited. Also, the horror scenarios of old exes, psycho women who got mad at me as a result of said exes, or parents of exes may have to be rung up by yours truly. ((Oh the humanity))!! The price we pay for choosing unwisely in life, ay? Of course, all experiences are good since lessons are always learned, but I digress.

I personally can’t make myself feel any stress at this job. Mainly, because I can only do what I can, and if something gets heated, the managers will surely get called to the scene. Ah. The pleasure of no longer being the last-line of defense. I feel so much more stress mentoring the Chem students since, even though I disclaim I am just a student, I don’t want to throw off their studies if I make any mistakes. Also, working in IT as the systems admin, and db admin, I was the official last word on a bunch of stuff. That kind of pressure deserves the salary I left behind.

But, welcome to the world of minimum wage retail, baby! No stress. I love customer service. Interacting with people is fun. Every customer I assisted in-store and on the phone was nice to me last night. In all honesty, they were nicer to me than some of my coworkers. I couldn’t help but beam all night along as I tried to help people find the Business profiles section, travel, amplified Bible, the book Lean In, and a new Psychology hardcover (tradecloth) novel, but I forget by whom. I’m sure there will be other nights where that is not the case, but yeah. I can’t say I love this job. And, it ain’t Tower Records– that’s for sure. Man. It’s SO CORPORATE by comparison.

Last night, a woman told me I was beautiful ( a couple of times) at cash wrap as I did a return for her. A young man asked me to speak to his father on his personal cell about amplified bibles, and some other customers asked me random, polite questions. It was a neat night. I do like customer service. I like helping people.

I work tonight, tomorrow, Saturday afternoon, Sunday afternoon, then have Mon and Tue off. I kinda hate working 5 days a week, but I need the money. One less day would be nice. Not sure if I’ll ask for it or not, however.

All in all, I like it enough. It’s gonna help pay the bills. I’m thankful to have this part time job, and hope to get some great experiences out of it.

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Peer Mentoring so far..

by honeybee Posted on June 5, 2013

I started peer mentoring for CHEM 161 during summer session I. I’ve had two sessions with the class so far. The first time, there were about 9 people, I think. This time, they didn’t know I was coming. My bad. I probably was supposed to tell them I would be there, but I didn’t The instructor, also didn’t tell them. They were surprised when I showed up, and four of them were there today. Nice group. I was feeling pretty damned good until I realized (a couple hours after leaving campus) that I had told them something wrong.

I seriously felt like… here’s how I described it: “I feel like curling up into the fetal position and hooking myself up to an IV drip of ethanol.” I literally wanted to curl into a ball and disappear… for a split second I could feel my body fighting the instinct to go fetal. lol! That would not have looked too cool on the floor of Fisher office supply warehouse. Yup. I’m a weirdo.

I was at Fisher Hawaii, looking at stuff just because I was bored and didn’t feel like going directly home, and then it struck out of the blue… No! I’d made a mistake in one answer to Kaleo… I think it was Kaleo who asked during class. Four people were there. I’m slowly learning names. One dude asks questions, but never comes to sessions. They’re all pretty cool so far. I’m happy.

So I actually drove back to campus. No one was there, of course. I decided to go back tomorrow, and tell them the right answer since their first midterm is happening on Friday. If they ask me to help them, maybe I will stick around and lend a hand.

I also have to go to Barnes & Noble to sign papers in the afternoon. Then, I assume they will tell me when orientation is, and start putting me on the schedule. I hope to enjoy working there.

But yeah. I enjoy the experience of teaching so far. It is so nerve-wracking at times, but I really hope its helping out the people who attend. Time will tell, I suppose. I’ve been keeping in touch with the math mentor, and he said he’s glad he signed on as well. What’s kind of funny, is he decided he definitely does not want to teach, and I’m really enjoying it. Despite the stress, I really love it so far. If I don’t end up teaching at community college, maybe high school would be fine. I don’t know. Have to see how my finances and stuff pan out in the next few years.

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On My Computer

by honeybee Posted on May 16, 2013

I ended up needing the Periodic Table of Elements so much, I used one as the wallpaper on my macbook pro.

Current Desktop

I can’t seem to find the original link to this wallpaper – took me a while to find one I liked. Here’s a link to a page with a periodic table of elements in either black or white; they look pretty functional. There were so many designs missing the amu. I needed that.

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Spring 2013: Report Card

by honeybee Posted on May 16, 2013
BIOL 171 Intro to Biology I B
BIOL 171L WI-Intro to Biology Lab I B
CHEM 161B General Chemistry I A
MATH 135 Pre-Calculus: Elementary Functions A

Spring 2013 was my first semester back to school. I loved all my classes this semester (even Biology) and can’t complain about any of my professors/instructors. Mahalo to them and to the students, and LCC for making it a fun semester. My current g.p.a. for the semester is a 3.63. Chemistry was 4.0 credits, and so was BIOL171 / 171L combined. How the hell did I get a B in Biology? I have no idea, but YES!!!

After Math (66/365)
Math was a night class that let out at 7:15PM. This is what the parking lot looked like when class was over. I’ll miss that class.

Chlorophyll: Red, Green, and Brown Algae
Chlorophyll extracts from red, green and brown algae – Biology 171L (WI)

Chemistry Lab
Chemistry lab – popping a single kernel of popcorn in an erlenmeyer flask

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