Success!

I just finished my presentation for my Human Animal class--the powerpoint, the presentation, the paper, the blog, everything.
The guy who went before me had the same topic that I did. He did an excellent job, and he was obviously pro-vegetarianism. He defended the position that humans are actually herbivores and opportunistically omnivorous. I'm not sure I totally agree with that; I'm more along the line of thinking that we're slightly omnivorous, that we're well-suited to a vegetarian diet but that we can definitely eat some meat if we desire. I personally have never been comfortable with the idea of eating animals.
My presentation explained that we've evolved to be omnivores, but we should ultimately choose the diet that best suits us as individuals. For example, I eat about twice the recommended amount of sodium and my blood pressure is STILL through the floor. Yes, through the floor. I've even hit the floor on several occasions because I've blacked out and collapsed from orthostatic hypotension. Most people would be on blood pressure medication if they ate what I have to. I'm also perfectly happy and healthy as a vegetarian, but my presentation highlighted the Inuits as a group that simply couldn't be.
The presentation went very well. I got a little nervous at the very beginning, mostly just when I was walking up to the computer and starting with the introduction. As usual, however, my tension melted away as I got going. I did stumble over a few things, particularly when I couldn't differentiate my left from my right while discussing pictures on the screen and flat-out stating that herbivores are adapted to eat meat, but it's all good. I simply reoriented my thinking for the former and corrected my rather obvious stumble for the latter. I honestly don't mind public speaking after I'm settled and going with my presentation. I also didn't pick up on too many nervous things--no plucking today--except that I shifted my weight every once in a while and I said "um" a few times. I wonder if anyone saw how I knew the URL of my blog. I walked up to the computer desk, opened Firefox, and yanked my sleeve up to reveal the address to my blog written in gigantic letters along the inside of my forearm. My habits are so amusing.
Chemistry went pretty well today. We did a practice test for the ACS final, round two. Mike also gave us our quiz scores from Wednesday. I got a B, which was very exciting. I never thought I'd reach a point where I'd be getting satisfactory grades in chemistry, but I did it. The best thing of all, though, is that Mike complimented the lab project that we designed last week and are supposed to conduct today. Last Friday, he wasn't so sure that it was a good idea, but he later told our group that it was an amazing project, something he would even consider graduate-level. We all actually planned something together that's worthy of his praise, and we haven't even done it yet. Wow.
Mike is keeping me in check, though. I also went to see him for some help on a lab last Friday. When he looked at my lab sheet, he said, "Oh, wow, you actually almost got that one right." I wanted to laugh out loud because I thought what he said was really funny, but I didn't.
He's so brutally honest. I love it. Sometimes I go to his office hours and leave feeling pretty accomplished, like the day I finally mastered stoichiometry. Sometimes I leave and feel terribly stupid, and not even in the "haha-that-was-a-silly-mistake" way. I guess it all balances out, though. I've made lots of progress in chemistry since the beginning of last semester, but I'm never going to be truly good at it, nor will I ever be able to say that I love it. Ergo...not pursuing chemistry any further :)
I really don't go to office hours for any of my other professors, with the exception of my computer science professor. Sometimes I can't figure out how to upload images (I never would've figured that one out by myself.), or Javascript is being wonky, or invisible typos and logic errors undermine my entire beautiful program and I just need a little push in the right direction. Stephen's a really nice person, though, and I can't imagine leaving his office feeling like an idiot. I often leave having been reminded that I'm perfectly capable of making very silly mistakes, but it's always a positive kind of thing.
I need to go to office hours with Dr. Houghtalin in the very near future. I have meter issues. She claims that it's fun, so I guess I'll wait and see how it goes. She's really nice, and I really, really would like to finally learn how to scan poetry. How bad could it be?
I dunno, but I'm hungry.
Meh, I have lots more to talk about, but I'll do it later.