So you go to the internet, the bastion of all things good and gracious in this wide world, in search of a tasty yellow cake recipe. The internet is tricksy, however. It has other plans for Ye Olde Google Searche. Instead of your goal, you get side-tracked looking in awe at this real recipe for Tufeen Hushani (Vulcan Wedding Cake). This blew my mind only slightly less than when I found out that Klingon and Elfish (from Lord of the Rings) both have complete and extensive linguistic rules, structures and alphabets.

I think I need to start updating this in the morning. In the evening, I’m too easily distracted by people or things. My brain has more momentum around 6 a.m. from morning chores than it does around 10 p.m. Speaking of chores, I still have to brush the cats.

I started on my math review project today. My major at TMCC is going to be Computer Science, which will require a good amount of math. Plus, I’m going to have to take an ACCUPLACER exam before school starts. The test is mandatory and is used to place students in math/English courses when they haven’t taken the SAT/ACT (or in my case, haven’t taken it in many moons.) I’m not sweating the English side of things at all. My math skills need work though. I’d like to place high so I have less math to take before transferring to UNR. So long story short, I’m starting back at Algebra to review what I used to know.

It’s amazing what your brain retains, especially at the mechanical level. So much information came back to me today which I thought I’d forgotten, and I felt oddly at peace doing my math problems – it was almost meditative. Since it was all review, I found myself doing my math problems back the way I used to when I was 14. Only when I started stressing about the placement exam did the process get sour. I am pleasantly surprised that my brain hasn’t completely gone south on me, and that there is still some processing power in it yet.

I think the secret to success for this whole project, and math in general, will be to embrace the subject, rather than avoiding it as I did for so long. I think that if I meet these challenges head-on, apply myself, and have confidence, I will have great success.

“A man has one hundred dollars and you leave him with two dollars. That’s subtraction.”
~Mae West