Greetings...

First of all, I want to thank all of you who have faved my work over these past months. I'm afraid I haven't had the time to thank everyone personally, but I am extremely grateful for your support. It means a lot to me and is a source of encouragement to let me know that I'm getting better.

Ok, so for those who care to read, I'll give you an update on what's been happening since my last journal. Well, it was intense that's for sure. I completed the Organic Chemistry year long sequence and took the standardized O-Chem test that covered the full year's information. I studied like crazy but it paid off. I scored in the 97th percentile in the nation, so I guess I did pretty well. I also received a scholarship through the chem department and was awarded Outstanding Organic Chemistry Student of the Year. I didn't know that I had earned the top score in each of my 4 O-chem classes. WOW! Thank you Lord! I couldn't have done it on my own, that's for sure. He has blessed the work of my hands. I still don't know where I'll end up, but I believe that Chemistry is what I supposed to be studying, so I'll take the next step and see where it leads me.

Also this past quarter, I completed the final physics class, electricity and magnetism. Wow, talk about complex! It's crazy, but so interesting. We only studied direct current, not the Alternating current that is used in your house, but still, I learned a lot. It's so cool! Like the basics of how a dam works! Ok, I want to explain it. So first, you need to understand that electric current is the flow of elections. Usually we think of a battery as the simplest way to create a flow of electrons. We think of a battery as being the cause of the current because electrons flow from one end of the battery to the other via a connecting wire. Electrons flow between terminals of a battery connected by a wire because of chemical oxidation/reduction reactions in the battery--the electrons flow once you connect a wire between terminals because there is a shortage of electrons on one terminal and an excess on the other. Pretty cool. Anyway, that's how you get basic current. A dam however needs to produce its own power--no batteries. So here's the amazing thing. There's something else that can create current in a closed wire loop: a changing magnetic field. Take a loop of wire and move a magnet away from or towards the loop and you will get current to flow in the wire loop. Crazy! You could also keep the magnet stationary and rotate the loop and you get the same affect. The key is a changing magnetic flux through the loop. So, basically, what a dam does, is the water coming through moves magnets which create a changing magnetic flux through a closed loop of wire which creates an electric current: that's electricity. It's more complicated than that, but that is the basic idea--not too complex really and very cool in my opinion. I'm typing really fast now because I need to go to work, so if that didn't make sense I'll check back tomorrow and revise a bit.

Yup, so I'm working full time at an agenda production place from 4 pm to 2:30 am Monday to Friday, so I've been pretty busy. I'm out of town a lot of weekends, taking photography trips and hanging out with friends. My most recent trip was last weekend. I went down the Washington and Oregon coastline, something I've wanted to do for a while. It wasn't sunny which was disappointing, but it was still beautiful. I posted several pictures yesterday and will post more when I get a chance.

Anyway, I gotta run, but I hope everyone is doing well. Drop me a line and give me an update. Talk to you soon.

Hannah


Friends:






Family:




Clubs: