back to school.

i started summer school again today.
i'm taking two more pharmacy pre-requisites: microeconomics and public speaking. easy peasy. :]
public speaking will hopefully be somewhat fun, and i'm hoping i might learn a couple techniques to help reduce my anxiety and physical signs of nervousness when speaking. i never freak out too badly, but i definitely get nervous before speeches. i got a lot better at it thanks to biochemistry and all the presentations required for thesis, but like i said... i still get nervous. i tend to talk faster and fidget a bit, so getting these habits under control would be good.
econ seems like it will be ok. the main thing that is going to get on my nerves about the course is how simplified everything becomes when economists try to make models. my class will focus on domestic economics, and i'm just not sure how relevant that is considering the amount of world trade that occurs today. we also don't take into account the government's role in the economy, which is obviously a huge factor. still, i'm going to try to take what i can from the course. i've never taken an econ class, so i'm sure there will be something to take away.

i also finally registered for the pcat last friday. so i have about 6 weeks to get myself ready. i have a 2 hour break between my two summer classes, so i'll be spending that time in the library either doing homework or studying for the pcat.

i think my biggest challenge on the pcat will be the chemistry portion. i've never been exceptionally good at chemistry, and it's not something i've really retained over the years... especially organic chem. i think that it's the most important component of the test to pharmacy schools, so i want to make sure i do well on it. i also need to review math. the pcat covers math through calculus, which will probably be the easiest of the math for me since it's the most recent material i've learned. still it was over four years ago. most of the math i haven't looked at since high school, so i need to definitely review and make sure i can do the problems quickly to make the best use of time. i think the biology portion will be fine for me. biology is my favorite of the sciences, and i tend to remember a lot of it. the only challenge will be the anatomy and physiology portion, since i've not taken that course yet in college. i'll need to prepare myself for that. otherwise, i'm not too worried about the verbal, reading comprehension, or writing portions. hopefully i will keep my test anxiety to a minimum and be able to do ok on it when the day arrives. :]

now onto more fun things. :]

i took a photo of the front cover of my art journal...
you can sort of see the strings there on the left side. i'm still searching for the perfect beads to add. and hopefully i'll stumble on some other fun ephemera to add to the cover.

i also finally finished this older layout the other night.

i made it at work a looooong time ago when i still worked at the scrapbook store. it's really a pretty simple layout. i really wanted to use that bag from the gift shop at the zoo... it turned out to take up more room than i anticipated, so i ended up with a rare two page layout. i intended to add some more embellishments or details or something to jazz the layout up a bit more, but i finally decided to just be done with it. it's been sitting unfinished for so long now, waiting for a few more photos and some journaling. i realized after i'd written in the journaling how lame it sounds. ha. that's something i need to get better about, but i always feel kind of funny writing about events. i guess the main problem is that i don't have an audience, so i'm never sure how to structure my writing and it ends up sounding sort of... i don't know... generic? oh well. at least this one is done now. :]

ok. well. i'm going to try to get some reading done for class tomorrow.

goodnight!