chemistry-and-cupcakes

Latest Posts by chemistry-and-cupcakes

24/10/22

My fourth and final year is in full swing! To get started on big documents like literature reviews for my thesis, I find it easier to just start writing. Pen to paper, because I’m an old-fashioned girl (and Word is annoying when you need sub- and superscripts and words you don’t find in a dictionary, as does a chemist). I was then able to overcome the paralysis and start typing the actual thing.

(This was a brain dump — what do I know and where did I get the information from? What do I need to look up that should go into the review?)

Sorry for the absence lol

Rant of the day: science communication within academia is far more pretentious than it is effective. Within the first sentence of a 42 page article, I have counted *14* prepositions. What’s more, not a single comma (or any other punctuation, actually) is present to break up 7 lines of text. That sentence is more like a paragraph in itself.

I don’t care about esoteric buzzwords thrown in to show what big bollocks your brain cells have, I care about the content. But if I have to wade through dense thickets of unpunctuated text, I will stop caring pretty quickly. I don’t have time to decipher the product of your falsely inflated ego!

TL;DR if you want people to read and understand your shit, make it readable and understandable!

~fin~

Damn 😳

Sometimes you're just an introverted loser who sits alone in your room with a cup of tea and a book, has fantasies about morally grey fictional characters, is severely touch starved with a completely fucked up sleep schedule and slowly declining mental health.

We have this twisted idea that we have to achieve everything and then plateau before middle age hits. In reality, all the years you have on this planet are worthwhile and full of growth, not just the first half that are painted with this glorified ideal of “youth”

People starting new hobbies later in life are awesome. Like after all of these years, they’re still going out there and exploring new things instead of remaining stagnant.

carpe diem didn’t turn out too well for neil perry:(

i would love to carpe diem but i also have anxiety

Second year is over - I managed to reach my goal of straight firsts and I’m super proud of myself!

Now, I have a guitar that has sat neglected for the best part of a semester that needs some attention…

16/06/2021

Today was fun! I had a reasonable time doing some electrochemistry in the lab this morning. I then did some painting as a means of procrastinating doing post-lab work this afternoon

I finally have a usable desk lmao

I have three days’ worth of labs to do and I’m super excited for them! One of them is recycling PET water bottles - I’m planning my procedure before I do it on Friday:)

Thanks for the tag, @a-maze-h :)

Three facts about me:

- My favourite film is Dead Poets Society (and I will ship Neil and Todd until the day I die). There aren’t many films that make me emotional, but with this one I cry every time.

- While I was in primary school, I was adamant that I wanted to be a cryptanalyst when I grew up. I spent my days solving various puzzles and ciphers, and today I can solve a “hard” sudoku in a couple of minutes!

- My maternal grandparents were both Ukrainian and I spent every day of my childhood around them, so I could have been raised truly bilingual. But my family all thought I would get confused with English. So, they instead refused to speak a word in their mother tongue around me. There is therefore a cruel irony in my love of languages - I speak 2 others aside from English proficiently, but not a word of Ukrainian! (Yes I regret this, and will one day rectify it)

I’m tagging @allo-hello-hola @lastnxvember @univers-of-biology @himynameisirina @caffelattestudies @studydiaryofanhistorian - absolutely no pressure!

three facts tag game

thank you so much for the tag @sleepy-night-child!

rules: post three random facts about yourself (or your book/ocs) and tag the seven last blogs in your notifications.

1. i’m finishing school this friday! that’s not a particularly interesting fact, just something i’m both excited and terrified about.

2. seventh sunfall is my oldest wip (at least, that i’m still working on). i started it at the start of high school, when i was about 11/12, and it’s still going, even if it’s barely recognisable as the story it was to begin with!

3. the first language i tried to learn was greek, when i was about five (emphasis on tried). it was a complete failure, but i’m still holding out hope that i might pick it back up some day.

i’m tagging (no pressure! feel free to ignore this if you don’t do tag games, or if you just don’t want to) @writing-with-l @lend-your-lungs-to-me @generalblizzarddreamer @magnoliaash @writing-is-a-martial-art @47crayons @wannabeauthorzofija

The worst part about exams is the waiting. I finished my last exam of second year today, and now comes the agonising period where I fight as hard as I can against the will to overanalyse every little error I may have made. To save my sanity, my mantra is now: if it’s out of my hands, it’s out of my head :)

reblog this if you’re a university level studyblr

most of the ones i follow are high school level and i need more people my own age/education level!

1/5/2021 When art and science collide...

This week, I learned about organometallic catalysts for propene polymerisation. I found it an interesting topic, though frustrating: despite understanding the process, I can’t visualise the process to rationalise which catalyst gives which product. That’s kind of the whole point of the catalysts, and I was annoyed that I was fighting (and losing) an uphill battle. But that’s okay, because I found a way around my problem.

I wanted to make a 3D animation of the process since I couldn’t find any, though that would actually require my learning how to model molecules and animate them - that’s a little beyond my skill set right now. Learning to animate molecular processes is long-term goal I have set myself as a little side project, but for now I’ll have to settle for more traditional means. So, I drew the process out and made a graphic for my reference instead.

Software: Autodesk Sketchbook for iPad

22/04/2021 Uni’s back!

Guitar cases make great makeshift desks when you don’t have an actual desk lol

ft physical chemistry notes on dispersions and interfaces

Easter break has arrived!

Uni has worked me very hard this week, but the highlight was definitely being introduced to organometallics. These are some notes on bonding models of pi-acceptor ligands!

Coming up next week: revision for summer exams begins! My aim is to beat my Christmas exam marks - let’s do this!

I got exam results back for the January exam season... above 80% in every module, with an average of 85%! Though I’m not so pleased with my performance on some individual questions, I am trying to be kind to myself. I thought I’d completely flunked all of my exams because I was in an unideal environment and so anxious about them, so to get a solid first class mark on every single one was such a surprise!

I’m well on my way to achieving my goal of a first in every module - let’s hope the summer exams go well!

Notes —> Revision

I love whiteboards. They make me feel smart!

This was an intro to inorganic solid state synthesis and was essentially just a bunch of information that was handed to us. It’s rare that this type of thing happens in a chem degree... we are normally far more problem-solving than that. This reminds me more of GCSE or A level where we had to know a bunch of advantages and disadvantages for different processes and describe how they work. Hated it then, hate it now!

2/2/21 Thermodynamics

They call it physical chemistry because it makes people who study it cry physical tears haha 😭

It does give me an excuse to use my favourite colour pen on my whiteboard though

(The green highlighter shows equations that only hold under constant volume; the pink shows those under constant pressure; the yellow is for other key equations)

I would like to get above 70% in all my modules this year! (That’s a first class mark here in the UK.)

What is something you wanna achieve in 2021?

Upgrades, people, upgrades!

Happy 2021! (It’s finally snowing where I live - yay!)

I managed to condense 11 weeks of phys chem into 2 sides of A4 (plus a separate list of equations) in preparation for open book exams.

I’m not sure I like open-book exams. On the one hand, it takes a lot of memorisation pressure off; on the other hand, I have a tendency to over-rely on notes and almost cheat myself out of actually internalising the material. What do you think?

I have learnt from my mistakes in the past and decided to make prompt sheets from memory based on past papers. I then combed over my notes and filled in the gaps, writing down anything important that I couldn’t recall.

I used to think scientists were mortal gods; that I should never be clever enough to be one of them. Even now I am astounded every day by the minds that solved some of nature’s most incredible problems. Maybe that’s why I took no interest in science until I was 14.

Or maybe it was because of all I have been told over the years. I was told I was hopeless with maths - my secondary school maths teacher admitted that I was only in the top set because my confidence was already on the floor and would not allow them to move me down.

I was told that if I needed to be medicated for depression and anxiety, I would have no hope in the “real world”.

I was told that given my socioeconomic status (my single-parent family is among the poorest 10% in the U.K. based on income) and postcode, all the predictions pointed to my failing school. I don’t suppose the truancy due to constant bullying helped my case. If I didn’t even have a desk to work at, how could I ever expect pass any of my exams? (Look carefully at the picture and you’ll see carpet. It’s 23:56 on a Sunday and I am reunited with the only study space I have in my family home - the top of the stairs!)

And yet here I am, despite all the odds. I did not fail in school: I was top in my year, twice. I am striving for a first in my chemistry degree at a Russell Group university. I taught myself an A level in maths and got a top grade. I am now so totally in love with my degree and with learning that it hurts.

I did all that from the top of the stairs.

[Sorry for the rambles, and I hope that the wall of text doesn’t look like bragging. It’s just that lately, I’ve been so overwhelmed with how far I have yet to go, and I’ve only just realised how far I’ve come.]

30/09/2020 Year 2 commences!

Rant incoming! I’m so tired. It’s been half a week and I’ve had so much work thrown at me. I’ve just moved into my second year house and am still finding my feet; I’ve got work from 5 modules on the go at the same time; there’s Zoom calls left, right and centre; and a ton of short deadlines. I’m trying to keep my chin up because the content is actually very interesting - it’s just very intense!

Anyway, have some proton NMR notes and remember to drink some water :)

Wow, my feed is getting awfully specific 😳

Maths is beautiful. Have a great day :)

Trigonometry.

My motivation is also saying 📈📉📈📉 at this point!

28|07|2020

Day 16 of My Summer Studying Challenge

✨ 28th July ✨ How do you stay motivated to study during the summer?

my motivation is quite up and down at the moment actually but i’ve just been trying to break down the tasks as much as possible and set achievable goals. but as well as this i’ve been trying to take time to relax. there’s also been some tasks that just generally i’ve wanted to do more so i’ve been way more motivated to do those than ones that just seem a bit boring 

I love using yellow in my notes. It’s one of my favourite colours but it’s so underrated 💛

— 6:08 PM —

hi guys !! im gonna be honest when i say that ive been way more active on my instagram than i am here :< im sorry about that haha ig is like my main go-to all the time.

anyway i read some of your guys’ comments about me reaching a hundred (we’re at 200 thats crazy thank you💗) and yall are so sweet 😞😞

i’ll post more often i promise, have a good day/night everyone !! ❤️❤️

“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”          – Confucius 

Elemental Tag!

Thank you @littledonkeystudies and @teaandanightowl for the tag! :)

Rules: bold the statements that apply to you, italicise your aspirations, then tag other people

air

i have small hands / i love the night sky / i watch small animals and birds when i pass them by / i drink herbal tea / i wake to see dawn / the smell of dust is comforting / i’m valued for being wise / i prefer books to music / i meditate / i find joy in learning new truths from the world around me

fire

i don’t have straight hair / i like to wear ripped jeans and overalls / i play an organized sport / i love dogs / i am not afraid of adventure / i love to talk to strangers / i always try new foods / i enjoy road trips / summer is my favorite season / my radio is always playing

water

i wear bracelets on my wrists / i love the bustle of the city / i have more than one set of piercings / i read poetry / i love the sound of a thunderstorm / i want to travel the world / i sleep past midday most days / i love dimly lit diners and fluorescent signs / i rewatch kids’ shows out of nostalgia / i see emotions in colors not words

earth

i wear glasses or contacts / i enjoy doing the laundry / i am a vegetarian or vegan / i have an excellent sense of time / my humor is very cheerful / i am a valued advisor to my friends / i believe in true love / i love the chill of mountain air / i’m always listening to music / i am highly trusted by the people in my life

aether

i go without makeup /  i make my own artwork / i keep on track of my tasks and time (most of the time) / i always know true north / i see beauty in everything / i can always smell flowers / i smile at everyone i pass by / i always fear history repeating itself / i have recovered from a mental disorder / i can love unconditionally

Tagging (for those that want to/haven’t done it already) : @problematicprocrastinator @waldenlustcafe @goodtea-studies

I am already excited for fall~ 

the cafe picture is not mine but it sure is beautiful!

remind yourself that you are a person. not an object. not a thing. not an it. it doesn’t matter who threw you away or let you down. it doesn’t matter how you were treated in the past. you are worthy and capable of achieving anything. 

28/06/2020

My exam results were released yesterday - I averaged 91.1% and I’m honestly elated with that! Taking a very low-key year to focus on being kind to myself was the best thing I ever did and I’m in a much better place for next year.

I’ve been flitting between this and that today - a bit of reading, a bit of work and some digital sketching. What you see is the mess that my brain is today haha

Stay safe my dudes :)