Bane of My Existence

My life is back in the work/school/work/school continuum. This is sort of good for me, since there's some comfort in my routine. But it makes for some seriously boring blogging. Hence the mini-hiatus.

In fact, the highlight of last night was when I figured out what it was that was overloading the circuit that my microwave was plugged into. I never knew a thing about circuits and overloading before I moved into this house. Now? I knew there was something that kept killing the microwave mid-cook. The good news is that I only ruined one bag of microwave popcorn. The bad news is that after two hours of physics (plus), I wasn't exactly very rational or calm while trying to figure the mystery out. In fact, if my house wasn't so small, I would STILL be trying to figure out what the heck was going on. (It was the dog's space heater in the basement, btw. This particular circuit was only the fridge, the microwave, and the light and space heater in the basement. Which means I never saw anything else go off when the microwave died. Which was no small part in why I was going insane.)

So, see? With a life like this, what's to blog about. Oh wait, I know! Let's do a little quiz. How many of you guys recognize this?


(Just out of curiousity, did any of you involuntarily throw up in their mouth a little when you saw that? No? Just me?)

Okay. So then how many of you remember how to solve for above headache? (zlionsfan, you are not included in this quiz.) No? Have you blocked that out too? Let me remind you.



I hate that equation. Hate it. And I'm not even lacking in math skillz. I mean, I'm no MENSA member, but I can hold my own. I was good enough at math in high school that I remember being shocked that my SAT verbal was higher than my SAT math. Math is logical. Black and white. No shades of grey. I'm sure you're all shocked that it makes sense in my brain.

But I loathe this equation. It's become my nemesis. If this equation is involved, you can guarantee that I will have to work the problem at least twice, and that there will be much swearing, cursing, throwing of pillows and random name-calling. I may even use the Lord's name in vain a few times. (sorry mom.) When I'm working a problem involving the quadratic equation, the dogs hunker down next to me with their ears back and just lick my hands in sympathy when I finally ask them beseechingly if THEY know how to work the problem.

This issue may or may not have come to a head because my professor prefers to use the quadratic equation instead of using any other logical problem solving strategies that, you know, don't involve the bane of my existence. And so I've been working this problem and working this problem and working this problem....to no avail.

Although this post has helped some. I don't think I remembered to make "b" negative. I'm off to try again. Pray for me.