the c word

This morning I broke down and stole some of fjm  's chocolate eggs out of Rhiannon's basket.   Broke my resolve of laying off the chocolate.  Saturdays and Sundays are university days.  Steve's working, and I'll fend off the kids while alternating between the books and the indoor bike.  I'll bribe myself with a movie while I'm on the bike--guarantees me the 90 minutes' worth of endorphins needed to keep me from going over to the Dark Side.

Today I've stacks of chemistry to do, but what's got me nervous is my very first foray into differentiation.

I ran screaming from all this when I was 15.  Two of my older siblings are super, super-smart at academic stuff.  Smart in a way that makes everyone else look a little bit weak.  My brother works in image processing doing things he's not allowed to talk about for reasons of national security (and which nobody could understand anyway if he did).  He's the math dude in our family.  I was in the honours stream for math, but it was hard and I couldn't really see the point of straining myself when I could be watching MTV instead, so I flaked out and dropped it.

That left me with a kind of awe for Calculus, the pinnacle of high-school math and the road not taken.  And now I'm going to be creeping towards the golden C in my first OU course.  It's ony a 100-level course so it will be pretty basic.  Still  Differentiation!  Ooh, it gives me chills.