Lessons in Heat Transfer

I decided to bake cookies tonight. I haven't used my oven for much more than frozen pizza and broiling toast and I wanted to see how well it worked. I also wanted to try out my new baking sheets, which I got for free from some friends who had extras.

I learned some interesting things, which are evident in the following picture:

First off my oven does not bake evenly, some came out really dark while others were still doughy in the middle. This is fascinating, I wonder why it does this. I kind of want to get a thermocouple and check my oven to learn where the hot spots.... Second thing I learned, natural variation in the amount of chips vs. dough is quite large! most cookies had similar amounts of chips, but one cookie had few chips and a lot of dough - the cookie with the large spread and light color in the middle of the towel. Third thing I realized, cookies can still be delicious, despite sub-par kitchen equipment (ie. no cooling rack, I am still using a towel) and a poor oven.