i almost died!!! twice!!! in one day!!!

[A Snowflake in the Sea]

ok so today in chem class, i was doing this lab where we put hydrochloric acid (HCl) in a buret and slowly add it to a weak base with the indicator congo red in it so that with the results of how much HCl it took for the congo red to turn violet we can determine the pH of the weak base...
so we had the HCl in the buret and the congo red and the weak base in the flask underneath...and i opened the buret... the latch popped off and acid starting going everywhere...
and HCl spilled all over my hands and forearms...
it didn't burn, so i thought it maybe took a second...
i ran to the sink and started washing it off and stuff...

at that moment, my teacher goes, "has anyone gotten the solution to change color?"
and everyone was like "nope, not yet..."
my teacher was like "oh no!!!"
and everyone's like "what?!"
and she told how someone the class period before had a flask of a clear liquid and thought it was the HCl and so he put it back... but my teacher said that she had really been hoping that it hadn't been the weak base in the flask... but the kid said that he was sure it was HCl so it wasn't a problem...
anyways...
long story short (well, not really long... but...) he had added a flaskful of weak base to the HCl... definately neutralized the whole thing...
so no one's solutions were reacting and my hands weren't burning on account that what we thought was HCl now probably had a pH of about 7... (the pH of tap water)


PHEW!!

once we got the REAL HCl (my teacher had some more stored in the back), my lab partner and i got a buret that wasn't faulty... so it was all good...

just a little excitement.

i also saw a gila monster on the way back from Seminary today... i totally thought it was going to attack me... i jumped 3 feet in the air when i saw it... but as it turns out, it was dead. I took a picture...wanna see?

ahh... the compy that i'm on doesn't have a USB port... i can't upload the pic. i'll do it later. it's pretty amazing...

it was REAL big too... i've only seen a gila monster once before, and it was a good 5 inches shorter than this one. this one is probably about 1 and a quarter feet....

anyways.
i'll post it later... it's cool.

so i had 2 brushes with death today that actually turned out to be practically harmless... haha....

[→katie]

i'm glad you didn't die!

[A Snowflake in the Sea]

haha... thanks!
me too!!

oh, here's the pic of the gila monster:



isn't he cuuuute?

[→katie]

it's ok i guess....
i've never seen a gila monster before, not even a dead one

[Nicole]

what the hell is a gila monster? lmfao

[mango]

It's a lizard a BIG lizard...they can kill a human if there PO'd enough

[A Snowflake in the Sea]

it's a poisonous lizard, also called the Mexican Beaded Lizard... (in case you've heard of that)

well, no one's died from a gila monster bite since like the '40s... but, although it's not necessarily fatal, I've heard it hurts like none-other. the poison is very thick, and people who've been bitten say that they can feel it trickling through their veins and spreading, and that it feels as though your insides are bruised. Since it is very slow-moving poison, and a gila monster is most likely to bite a extremity (arm or leg), instead of your abdomen, it would take a while for the poison get to your heart... plenty of time to get to a doctor and get a remedy.

Gila monsters don't have sharp teeth, either. They're very blunt and thick teeth, with grooves in them to expel their poison... but because of the shape of their teeth, they can't inject the poison into you; the poison gets into your bloodstream by the gila monster chewing on you... so it takes a while for that, as well. I've read that gila monster's jaws rip out pretty easily, so if one's chewing on you, you're supposed to grab it's tail and pull in one short jab and the jaws will get torn out of it's head, therefore stopping the poison flow, and I'm assuming the act of ripping it's jaws outta it's head will kill it...

Hah, little tidbits of information you probably don't care about... I find reptiles really fascinating, though. Too bad I'm terrified of them, or else I'd probably pursue a career in it... ehh... I like chemistry too, maybe I'll just do that. Nothing too "I'm gonna chew off your arm" in that category!!

[→katie]

how big was the one you saw?
EDIT: never mind.
1 and a quarter feet is huge! that's creepy

[A Snowflake in the Sea]

yup. it was pretty cool though.

wow it took me like 5 minutes to type that last sentence because i was holding a piece of beef jerky in my right hand when i tried to type and i kept messing up haha.

[Nicole]

OMG i have like the creeps now....

speaking of creeps...

Yesterday me and my friends were walking around when these idiots come up to us and ask my friend Taylor to go up to a car those guys were talking to. We were all like what do they want? i hardly know the guys in the car but i go to school with them, except one. Then the guys in the car drive up to me and my other two friends and start like hitting on us its like wth?! so yea once we were done with that we just walked around town but the guys in the car just kept driving and they at least passed by us like 10 times. It's like they were stalking us! So my friends went to the school in our town and started to like swing on the swings when the first two guys we first saw came with the guys in the car and like a bunch of other retards in hockey sweatsuits and bikes. they're all like OH YEAH WERE GOING ON A EMO HUNT! meanwhile im like to myself wtf none of us are friggen "emo" then i saw the two guys and the bike boys had like eggs and one of them had a baseball bat. Taylor was trying to stop the guy with the bat while swinging but he nailed her in the legs, not very hard though. We got off the swings and left but they started following us calling me and my friends emo, i wasn't affected by it but Taylor was. the bike guys were making fun of her becasue she wore a shirt with a skull on it and calling her emo just because of that. Then one guy tried to throw an egg at her but she caught it and threw it back at them and hit one of the guys. So we left the school, i had to go home anyways but the car guys followed us again and started to talk to us like they were bloody super heroes. then they drove, we were scared as hell and we just walking very cautiously and whenever we saw a car on the way to my house, we would freak out like it was those half baked retards in the car. when i came home i was like scared shitless!

[A Snowflake in the Sea]

OMG! people suck!!!

ya know what happened when Cassy and I were taking a walk last sunday? it was after dark... like 8 pm or whatever, and some guy drove up to us and was like "you ladies need a ride?" and we're like "NO!!" and once he drove away we ran all the way back to Cassy's house!!

[Lets Get Nerdy!]

that was so so creepy!!!!

[A Snowflake in the Sea]

i know!!! people are SO WEIRD.

[Lets Get Nerdy!]

esspesally here in the ghetto

[A Snowflake in the Sea]

lol that's why i love your little town.
it's ghetto

like my high school.

hehe.