As mentioned the other day in Struggling with College , I expressed a concern about this term at SNHU. Monday night, I was determined to take a break with my game, Achaea which turned out to be a disaster. All of a sudden it was Tuesday, so I started on college work again. Pre-calculus pissed me off, so I went to bed. When I woke up, I dived into history determined to get something solidified for my history essay due at the end of the term. Progress, perhaps?

I am determined to give myself at least one day of ‘personal time’ designated on Mondays. So I logged into Achaea , a text-character game I play to ‘escape reality’. After I logged in getting caught up in events transpired in the last week, I found it was a ‘waning crescent moon’ which brought to mind a honours quest I could complete. Honours quests are long quests with various steps involved to gain an honours line, in this case: He/She renewed the chieftess of Aran’riod. Heck, I had eight hours to waste. Why not? According to my information, the quest items have to be retrieved during a waning crescent moon so a ritual can be preformed at the midnight of a new moon. It ended up taking me three hours to gain the items, all the time checking the moon phase to ensure I didn’t miss the new moon, so I turned them all in waiting for the right time help with the ritual. I waited . . . and waited. . . and waited . . . and waited. In the end, it was a complete disaster as I was way off on my calculations of the new moon. I won’t get into any more specifics because this post isn’t about the game. By the time I was done it was 6am. So I switched gears.

I spent another six hours studying precalculus to prepare for a discussion question due on Tuesday. Here is why:

We’ll be analyzing the surface area of a round cylinder – in other words the amount of material needed to “make a can”. A cylinder (round can) has a circular base and a circular top with vertical sides in between. Let r be the radius of the top of the can and let h be the height. The surface area of the cylinder, A, is A=2πr2+2πrh (it’s two circles for the top and bottom plus a rolled up rectangle for the side). Part a: Assume that the height of your cylinder is 6 inches. Consider A as a function of r, so we can write that as A(r)=2πr2+12πr. What is the domain of A(r)? In other words, for which values of r is A(r) defined? Part b: Continue to assume that the height of your cylinder is 6 inches. Write the radius r as a function of A. This is the inverse function to A(r), i.e to turn A as a function of r into. r as a function of A. Part c: If the surface area is 300 square inches, then what is the rardius r? In other words, evaluate r(300). Round your answer to 2 decimal places.

I have the answer! So, I attempted to post it. It comes out all wrong. It has to do with how I input parenthesis and such in the Brightspace interface. This online learning environment is not ideal when it comes to math. After taking break after break to calm myself down, I just gave up. I know I have the right answers because when I press “How did I do”, the final answer is right. I just can’t put Step B in properly. Then it occurs to me: Why would someone want the inverse function of the surface area of a cylinder? I was so tempted to contact the instructor to ask, but I didn’t. I ended up throwing my notepad across the room declaring, “I’m done”. I haven’t touched it sense because I just went to bed to take a nap.

P.S. Did you notice ‘radius’ is misspelled at the bottom and no one has caught it? (I get a chuckle out of it)

Taking a break for math, I decided to dive into history, since I really didn’t have a strong topic nor proper research questions for my essay due at the end of term. My concentration has changed to the Cold War, in particular: How did the Cold War effect American society in the 1940’s and 1950’s? I’ve spent the last six hours reading as much as I can about various opinions attempting to find primary and secondary sources to compliment my research. First, I knew society was terrified of the possibility of nuclear threat from Russia. Second, I knew the United States was concerned about the spread of communism in Europe. As attempted further research I found many interesting things needing more research. It’s beginning to get interesting. Did you know that Lucille Ball registered with the Communist Party in 1936? This is leading to research about The Hollywood Ten:

Hollywood Ten, in U.S. history, 10 motion-picture producers, directors, and screenwriters who appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee in October 1947, refused to answer questions regarding their possible communist affiliations, and, after spending time in prison for contempt of Congress, were mostly blacklisted by the Hollywood studios.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Hollywood Ten”. Encyclopedia Britannica, Invalid Date, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hollywood-Ten. Accessed 10 March 2021.

Now it’s getting interesting for me. I just have to condense my notes and get focused…

Progress, perhaps?