Oi, my brain... that much exposure to biochem can't be good for you.
Quick hero update: Good news!!! Despite my absence (or perhaps because of it), Manlocks has recovered from his brutal retreat to the Rectal Shelves of Houston and is at this moment hopscotching his way from Islet of Langerhans to Islet of Langerhans in noble pursuit of... I dunno... a final goal of securing lingual lipase? For the uninitiated, that puts him all the way up at the pancreas. For the REALLY uninitiated, that's near your stomach. For the really REALLY uninitiated, if you stick your finger in your bellybutton and drag it up your tummy a little bit, around there.
For those of you REALLY confused about why there's a little dude with long flowing manlocks and bulging man-biceps running around someone's GI tract (with a sidetrack off to the glands), scroll back a few posts to the "Histology Relevance" post, which celebrates the last shreds of my sanity flying out the dorm window.
Speaking of dorms, I've been locked in mine since... uh... when was my last scheduled lecture for Tuesday? 3 PM? Yeah... I've been locked in the dorm since about 2 PM. Since I think the recorded times may be a bit jacked due to still being set to Pacific Time, or Eastern Time, or Greenwich standard or whatever, for reference... frickity frick frick, it's 3:30 in the morning.
Yeah yeah, I ditched Clinical Skills again... I have a 100 in that class, which I don't believe is difficult. I would feel bad, because I actually really like the instructor that was teaching today (since he's the one that let me off with an ace bandage rather than a big bulky cast when I sprained my ankle), but midterms be midterms. It's not like I walked out mid-class or anything.
I was going to work out tonight in the gym, and honestly ended up taking my study BREAKS by doing sit-ups and push-ups in my room. I'm officially a spiderweb tattoo and a gang allegiance away from prison. View's nicer though.
On the plus side, I now really have a full appreciation and understanding of acetyl-CoA carboxylase and fatty acid synthase, as well as the glandular GI system and the blood supply of the abdominal region.
On the minus side, there's warm goo leaking out my ears, and we haven't studied the head and neck in Anatomy or histo yet, so I can't determine which portion of my brain it is or whether it's important enough to cause probbbbbbblblblblblblbbbbbllbllbllb
Feb 28, 2007
Feb 26, 2007
You know midterms are coming when...
1. You do your most intense workout ever on the elliptical because you were so engrossed in your Netter anatomy atlas that you didn't notice how much you'd upped the intensity and the pain in your legs couldn't possibly overwhelm the pain in your head.
2. The guy on the elliptical next to you is too engrossed in his biochem notes to notice your Netter atlas.
3. The girl on the treadmill next to him is too engrossed in her anatomy lecture slides to notice his biochem notes or your Netter Atlas.
(Alas, as seen in the "Get your study on!" video, we have not stooped to playing ping pong while studying YET. I've heard that'll happen for finals. In 4th term, you actually have to study while sleeping. Subliminal tapes?)
4. For scheduled lectures on new material, the lecture hall contains one half of the people generally there, which means anatomy lectures now have approximately 150 people and histology lectures have approximately 10.
5. For lectures scheduled as "Midterm Review" or "Integrative", the lecture hall is so crammed with people, most of whom you've never seen before, that there's spillage into the street with scalpers outside selling front row tickets.
6. Announcements like "blood cells will not be on the practical" and "eye/ear won't be anywhere on the midterm" are met with the sort of roaring applause you'd usually find during a Dylan encore. Girls may or may not begin throwing panties toward the podium.
7. It is not uncommon to see people spontaneously burst out crying in the halls.
8. Bananas sits forlorn and empty, the beer growing warm and flat in waiting, the waitstaff unable to feed their families, the koi floating belly up in the pond from a lack of drunk students to feed them fish chow.
9. You come back from lecture to find your roommate fast asleep at her desk, still clutching her highlighter.
10. The grocery store at Spiceland Mall remains well-stocked throughout the week. Meanwhile, you watch students study as they eat their baked beans and plantain sandwiches.
11. The campus store has to hire extra security to keep crazed, desperate students from looting their supply of Red Bull at 3 in the morning.
12. A debate over whether a direct inguinal hernia occurs medially or laterally to the epigastric vessels nearly ends in a fist fight.
13. The only thing that gets you through each passing day is promising yourself a beer for every two hours you study. You figure at this rate, you'll be up to alcohol poisoning before the end of the week. Thinking about getting drunk makes you remember that both alcohol AND aldehyde dehydrogenases are the enzymes of ethanol metabolism, and the fact that you know that makes you want to hang yourself.
14. You assure your friends that you won't hang yourself until AFTER the results come back.
15. You yearn for the days when you can go to the beach on vacation... despite the fact that the beach is a ten minute bus ride from your front door.
Come on now, anyone can play!
2. The guy on the elliptical next to you is too engrossed in his biochem notes to notice your Netter atlas.
3. The girl on the treadmill next to him is too engrossed in her anatomy lecture slides to notice his biochem notes or your Netter Atlas.
(Alas, as seen in the "Get your study on!" video, we have not stooped to playing ping pong while studying YET. I've heard that'll happen for finals. In 4th term, you actually have to study while sleeping. Subliminal tapes?)
4. For scheduled lectures on new material, the lecture hall contains one half of the people generally there, which means anatomy lectures now have approximately 150 people and histology lectures have approximately 10.
5. For lectures scheduled as "Midterm Review" or "Integrative", the lecture hall is so crammed with people, most of whom you've never seen before, that there's spillage into the street with scalpers outside selling front row tickets.
6. Announcements like "blood cells will not be on the practical" and "eye/ear won't be anywhere on the midterm" are met with the sort of roaring applause you'd usually find during a Dylan encore. Girls may or may not begin throwing panties toward the podium.
7. It is not uncommon to see people spontaneously burst out crying in the halls.
8. Bananas sits forlorn and empty, the beer growing warm and flat in waiting, the waitstaff unable to feed their families, the koi floating belly up in the pond from a lack of drunk students to feed them fish chow.
9. You come back from lecture to find your roommate fast asleep at her desk, still clutching her highlighter.
10. The grocery store at Spiceland Mall remains well-stocked throughout the week. Meanwhile, you watch students study as they eat their baked beans and plantain sandwiches.
11. The campus store has to hire extra security to keep crazed, desperate students from looting their supply of Red Bull at 3 in the morning.
12. A debate over whether a direct inguinal hernia occurs medially or laterally to the epigastric vessels nearly ends in a fist fight.
13. The only thing that gets you through each passing day is promising yourself a beer for every two hours you study. You figure at this rate, you'll be up to alcohol poisoning before the end of the week. Thinking about getting drunk makes you remember that both alcohol AND aldehyde dehydrogenases are the enzymes of ethanol metabolism, and the fact that you know that makes you want to hang yourself.
14. You assure your friends that you won't hang yourself until AFTER the results come back.
15. You yearn for the days when you can go to the beach on vacation... despite the fact that the beach is a ten minute bus ride from your front door.
Come on now, anyone can play!
Feb 25, 2007
Get Your Study On!
So we're in the last week before midterms; the final countdown, and while I still feel woefully unprepared, at the same time, I've studied so much that I think my eyeballs are bleeding. I haven't gotten a chance to revisit Histo, so Manlocks is still on hiatus, though he does get new episodes at least more often than House, who is being CRUELLY pushed back again and again because Fox has decided to change its name to "All American Idol; All the Time". Frigging insipid show.
In biochem though, I'm finally cracking the mysteries of the Pentose Phosphate Pathway. Apparently, it's to produce NADPH for fatty acid synthesis. Couldn't have let you guys go your whole lives without knowing that, right? Hooray. But at least the burden of knowing NOTHING about it is off my shoulders. Now ask me about the enzymes in the pathway... uh oh! Back to studying.
So... this video has been circulating around campus, and though we don't have the bitchin' ice rink, it's a pretty accurate representation of first year medical school. You're just lucky I posted this instead of the House and Wilson clips synthed to the theme song from Pinky and the Brain. That's next week.
And yes, I'm a Netter slaaaaave.
In biochem though, I'm finally cracking the mysteries of the Pentose Phosphate Pathway. Apparently, it's to produce NADPH for fatty acid synthesis. Couldn't have let you guys go your whole lives without knowing that, right? Hooray. But at least the burden of knowing NOTHING about it is off my shoulders. Now ask me about the enzymes in the pathway... uh oh! Back to studying.
So... this video has been circulating around campus, and though we don't have the bitchin' ice rink, it's a pretty accurate representation of first year medical school. You're just lucky I posted this instead of the House and Wilson clips synthed to the theme song from Pinky and the Brain. That's next week.
And yes, I'm a Netter slaaaaave.
Feb 24, 2007
Now Playing...
At SGU, student access to television is rather limited if one doesn't want to go to great hassle to bring one/buy one, attempt to get Cable/Wireless to hook one up, and get your roommate to consent to this.
Some people have tv tuners on their laptops. I don't know if mine has one. I'm not sure I *want* to know if mine has one. I have a bit of an addictive personality.
So my television is filtered through either youtube, with mundo thanks going to Google for screwing that up (though I can still get Red Dwarf; Hooray!!), peekvid (Shhh), iTunes, and trying to secure one of the TVs at Glover's.
This sounds like a lot of access. It isn't.
So I'm not sure if the dissection videos on the Macdaddy honestly are must see tv, the third best medical show since House and Scrubs (sorry Grey's people, but I just can't like it), or if I'm simply in so much television withdrawal that ANY form of continuous media seems absolutely awesome, but it's working for me.
I'm also a big fan of passive studying because hey, I'm lazy, but this passive studying is honestly working!!
I was searching for gross structures by hunting through Rohen's and Netter, which works, but takes a long time. Half hour watching Dr. No-gloves (ewwwwwww) mangle the mediastinum and I was spotting structures like a pro.
Also, upon suggestion in Nina's blog, I took to eating mysterious midnight BBQ while watching said dissection videos. I'm hardcore, beotches.
Which brings me to the tentative regeneration of the "I got beef" dance. Apparently I *can* eat beef when prepared mystery-meat style in a midnight BBQ outside the dorm and suffer no ill effects. I simply cannot buy extremely healthy (not juicy, good coloration, no odor) looking meat from the supermarket, cook it myself, and refrain from spending the night worshipping the porcelain idol. Be advised. If you're gonna eat meat, buy it from people who have no credentials who throw it into fire. Now, if you're gonna eat mayonnaise, buy it sealed at the supermarket and keep it in a passworded refrigerated safe. I haven't done mayo poisoning yet because I've heard too many stories, thus I don't eat it when I go elsewhere.
I was supposed to do a mock practical today, but there was no announcement, no schedule posted or whathaveyou, so I don't know if they did it and I missed it or I had the wrong day, but damn. Ah well, I've done anatomy lab practicals before. One hopes it's the same here. How many ways can you tag the azygos vein? That was a Browning poem, right?
Later on, it's biochem for Ishie. It's the last midterm of exam week on Friday, but I take no chances. I wouldn't know a pentose phosphate metabolic pathway if I were metabolizing one. Which I probably am. See how much trouble I'm in?
And histo. Ah, histo. Do they pick these slides by throwing darts at modernist paintings, because that's the only conclusion I can come to. I like scanning electron micrographs though, not because I can identify any of the structures or anything, but because they look cool and I'm a dork. I hate transmission micrographs though. They are to histo what body cross sections are to anatomy. Everything just looks like a hole or a not-a-hole. I don't even know how to begin identification beyond that. Since exams are multiple guess, I'm hoping that "Hole" and "Not-A-Hole" are listed options.
But I think I just lost a big part of my audience. So... gerbil in rectum!
Oh, and another "hi!" to Sej's sister. She says you're totally down with the Crypts of Lieberkuhn. And she's studying her ass off with a brief hiatus to also engage in midnight BBQ.
Some people have tv tuners on their laptops. I don't know if mine has one. I'm not sure I *want* to know if mine has one. I have a bit of an addictive personality.
So my television is filtered through either youtube, with mundo thanks going to Google for screwing that up (though I can still get Red Dwarf; Hooray!!), peekvid (Shhh), iTunes, and trying to secure one of the TVs at Glover's.
This sounds like a lot of access. It isn't.
So I'm not sure if the dissection videos on the Macdaddy honestly are must see tv, the third best medical show since House and Scrubs (sorry Grey's people, but I just can't like it), or if I'm simply in so much television withdrawal that ANY form of continuous media seems absolutely awesome, but it's working for me.
I'm also a big fan of passive studying because hey, I'm lazy, but this passive studying is honestly working!!
I was searching for gross structures by hunting through Rohen's and Netter, which works, but takes a long time. Half hour watching Dr. No-gloves (ewwwwwww) mangle the mediastinum and I was spotting structures like a pro.
Also, upon suggestion in Nina's blog, I took to eating mysterious midnight BBQ while watching said dissection videos. I'm hardcore, beotches.
Which brings me to the tentative regeneration of the "I got beef" dance. Apparently I *can* eat beef when prepared mystery-meat style in a midnight BBQ outside the dorm and suffer no ill effects. I simply cannot buy extremely healthy (not juicy, good coloration, no odor) looking meat from the supermarket, cook it myself, and refrain from spending the night worshipping the porcelain idol. Be advised. If you're gonna eat meat, buy it from people who have no credentials who throw it into fire. Now, if you're gonna eat mayonnaise, buy it sealed at the supermarket and keep it in a passworded refrigerated safe. I haven't done mayo poisoning yet because I've heard too many stories, thus I don't eat it when I go elsewhere.
I was supposed to do a mock practical today, but there was no announcement, no schedule posted or whathaveyou, so I don't know if they did it and I missed it or I had the wrong day, but damn. Ah well, I've done anatomy lab practicals before. One hopes it's the same here. How many ways can you tag the azygos vein? That was a Browning poem, right?
Later on, it's biochem for Ishie. It's the last midterm of exam week on Friday, but I take no chances. I wouldn't know a pentose phosphate metabolic pathway if I were metabolizing one. Which I probably am. See how much trouble I'm in?
And histo. Ah, histo. Do they pick these slides by throwing darts at modernist paintings, because that's the only conclusion I can come to. I like scanning electron micrographs though, not because I can identify any of the structures or anything, but because they look cool and I'm a dork. I hate transmission micrographs though. They are to histo what body cross sections are to anatomy. Everything just looks like a hole or a not-a-hole. I don't even know how to begin identification beyond that. Since exams are multiple guess, I'm hoping that "Hole" and "Not-A-Hole" are listed options.
But I think I just lost a big part of my audience. So... gerbil in rectum!
Oh, and another "hi!" to Sej's sister. She says you're totally down with the Crypts of Lieberkuhn. And she's studying her ass off with a brief hiatus to also engage in midnight BBQ.
Feb 23, 2007
Yo estudio mucho
Thus Ishie continues her mangling of the Spanish language, since I believe, for New Year's, I wished people a New Ass because I couldn't find a tilda. D'oh.
Our hero, Manlocks, whose exploits have been chronicled in the last couple of entries, I'm afraid to report, has ended up going the wrong way in his journey, so much the wrong way that he ended up at Rectal Shelves of Houston. Tough blow, Manlocks. I've been to Texas, and I think you were safer in the Crypts of Lieberkuhn. Ah well. Since histology is much kinder in contributing to Manlocks' journey, once I finish cramming in anatomy (so to speak), I'm sure he'll be back on track once again.
Soooooo... I've actually been really productive these last couple days. I am almost caught up in histology, embryology, and anatomy (though I'd like to review the old material I've gone over), so I'm going to go ahead and feel good, ignoring that suspiciously biochem-shaped tsunami shadow looming over me. Beta oxidation of fatty acid says "wha?"...
On the additional productive side, I engaged in a little self experiment in beta oxidation of fatty acids by spending an hour at the gym yesterday, because I FINALLY got there early enough in the morning to reserve a precor (like an elliptical) for the evening, thus had a 'gym appointment' if you will. So yesterday was good for body and mind. Today? Well, it's Friday. I'm hoping body and mind haven't checked out entirely due to being slathered in health. Blech.
I'm also going to end up owing half my remaining loan check to iTunes (and the other half to the dive shop, if I ever get time to dive again) since I've discovered that they create entire suggested playlists like "nondistracting jazz to study by". Though as it turns out, Mozart's Requiem makes an awesome study aid. Pleasant but you can't 'sing along' to it except for one portion that sounds inexplicably like "I'm only 40!! I'm only 60!". Listen to it and tell me I'm wrong.
I've also discovered that Stephen Lynch's "The Craig Machine" is completely awful to study to, which sucks, because I love it so... "I like to watch Fox News and then go club some baby sealsssss...." Awesome. Grab it if you can. It doesn't hurt that Stephen Lynch also makes for compelling eye candy, which is incidentally, how I ended up listening to his music because I was going to watch his Comedy Central special with the sound off until discovering he was the one singing comedian (in history) that doesn't suck!
Well, off to class.
Our hero, Manlocks, whose exploits have been chronicled in the last couple of entries, I'm afraid to report, has ended up going the wrong way in his journey, so much the wrong way that he ended up at Rectal Shelves of Houston. Tough blow, Manlocks. I've been to Texas, and I think you were safer in the Crypts of Lieberkuhn. Ah well. Since histology is much kinder in contributing to Manlocks' journey, once I finish cramming in anatomy (so to speak), I'm sure he'll be back on track once again.
Soooooo... I've actually been really productive these last couple days. I am almost caught up in histology, embryology, and anatomy (though I'd like to review the old material I've gone over), so I'm going to go ahead and feel good, ignoring that suspiciously biochem-shaped tsunami shadow looming over me. Beta oxidation of fatty acid says "wha?"...
On the additional productive side, I engaged in a little self experiment in beta oxidation of fatty acids by spending an hour at the gym yesterday, because I FINALLY got there early enough in the morning to reserve a precor (like an elliptical) for the evening, thus had a 'gym appointment' if you will. So yesterday was good for body and mind. Today? Well, it's Friday. I'm hoping body and mind haven't checked out entirely due to being slathered in health. Blech.
I'm also going to end up owing half my remaining loan check to iTunes (and the other half to the dive shop, if I ever get time to dive again) since I've discovered that they create entire suggested playlists like "nondistracting jazz to study by". Though as it turns out, Mozart's Requiem makes an awesome study aid. Pleasant but you can't 'sing along' to it except for one portion that sounds inexplicably like "I'm only 40!! I'm only 60!". Listen to it and tell me I'm wrong.
I've also discovered that Stephen Lynch's "The Craig Machine" is completely awful to study to, which sucks, because I love it so... "I like to watch Fox News and then go club some baby sealsssss...." Awesome. Grab it if you can. It doesn't hurt that Stephen Lynch also makes for compelling eye candy, which is incidentally, how I ended up listening to his music because I was going to watch his Comedy Central special with the sound off until discovering he was the one singing comedian (in history) that doesn't suck!
Well, off to class.
Feb 21, 2007
Poor Vamps
Apparently, there is poor vascularization in the Crypts of Lieberkuhn. Translation? Not much blood for the vampires. No wonder the hero was able to vanquish them so easily! He's off to the Valves of Kerckring now. We wish him godspeed.
In other vampire news, the vampires in St. Louis apparently got me, because according to my Living Anatomy clinical tutor, I don't have a brachial or radial pulse. D'oh.
In NON-vampire related news (how novel?), our new biochem professor throws candy at us, and introduced himself with study tips in the guise of pictures of animals doing cute human things. This came as such a sharp slap in the opposite direction of our previous biochem professor that I swear, an airbag deployed from the seat in front of me. Where has this guy been all my life???
Combined with the fact that Paparo took back over for histology again, because apparently the department likes screwing with my emotions, this may be the first time since the first week of school that I have actually attended all four hours of lecture on a given day. Perish the thought!
Oh, I slept! I slept I slept I slept I slept! Wahoo!!!!!!! I am going to worship at the altar of Unisom for all I'm worth, and the first thing I did after biochem small group (which inexplicably *wasn't* a waste of an hour of my life) was run to the pharmacy to secure a supply. Oh sweet slumber, how I've missed thee!!! Though I dreamed that I was diving and ran out of air with twenty minutes of deco left. Weird.
In other vampire news, the vampires in St. Louis apparently got me, because according to my Living Anatomy clinical tutor, I don't have a brachial or radial pulse. D'oh.
In NON-vampire related news (how novel?), our new biochem professor throws candy at us, and introduced himself with study tips in the guise of pictures of animals doing cute human things. This came as such a sharp slap in the opposite direction of our previous biochem professor that I swear, an airbag deployed from the seat in front of me. Where has this guy been all my life???
Combined with the fact that Paparo took back over for histology again, because apparently the department likes screwing with my emotions, this may be the first time since the first week of school that I have actually attended all four hours of lecture on a given day. Perish the thought!
Oh, I slept! I slept I slept I slept I slept! Wahoo!!!!!!! I am going to worship at the altar of Unisom for all I'm worth, and the first thing I did after biochem small group (which inexplicably *wasn't* a waste of an hour of my life) was run to the pharmacy to secure a supply. Oh sweet slumber, how I've missed thee!!! Though I dreamed that I was diving and ran out of air with twenty minutes of deco left. Weird.
Feb 20, 2007
Can't Sleep; Clowns will Eat Me...
I'm having this weird little bit where I can't sleep, even when I'm tired, and then when I try to nap later, I sleep even less. I think I passed the point of "I'm so tired I can't study" and resolved into a sort of functional "Ah well, I'll do it anyway" that's been odd, because it feels almost like well-restedness.
Meanwhile, I'm ignoring those studies they did on rats where they deprived the creatures of sleep and they eventually dropped dead.
So thanks to a new friend of mine, friend to slightly older MPH friend of mine who we adopted to the Stuart's party, I am possession of little blue droplets of wonderment and magic known to some as "Unisom".
But remember kids; drugs are bad, mmkay?
So I've taken my first one for the night and am hoping it kicks in soon, at least before I get too deeply into the embryonic heart.
The school hilariously sent us an *invitation* to a mandatory financial aid seminar at 4 this afternoon. I like invitations to mandatory things. It makes them seem so non-mandatory.
I was debating on whether or not to go to this 'mandatory' session, since as they said in Animal Farm, some animals are more mandatory than others, or something like that, but decided to go lest they pull some drug seminar monkey crap where you have to fill out at three question survey.
The lecture hall had a good number of students in it, as well as vet students who had somehow managed to secure seating for a change, and were quite vocal when referenced, though apparently they have an exam tomorrow as someone tossed off while leaving with an 'unlike these MEDICAL students..." Bwa ha. Enjoy learning the anatomy of anything that started development with a notochord, suckers. We're enjoying our exhaustive coverage of one species. I kid... I kid.
But as soon as the awaiting masses realized that this financial aid seminar was going to be the same crap we suffered through in college about the importance of having a budget, living like the Amish, and the wild confusing world that is "understanding the concept that INTEREST makes short term items more expensive" (yawn), combined with a broken power point presentation, a mass exodus was spawned. Seriously, like half the class, and then more and more of it in the first 15 minutes until the previously full hall had become sparser than a Chadwell late-term biochem lecture. Ooooooh.
I stuck around because in brilliant forethought, I had brought along my notebook and a handout on the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, allowing me to feign politeness while actually getting something productive done. Basically, by that point, I didn't leave because I felt bad for the speaker. It sucks when you're trying to present something no one wants to hear and everyone just flat up walks out on you...
Unless you're giving a sermon about how I should vote regarding drug laws. Then, you can go straight to Hell.
Anyway, she said that due to our vigilance ("Huh?" we asked in unison, looking up from our anatomy slides, biochem notes, and histo outlines?), we should put our names on a list to turn in and for all the people that stuck around, she would grant us "a favor". We'd also be treated to free pizza, though I think anyone could get in on that, but since she's a red tape chick, we can actually invoke her name, ala the Sandman comics, to call upon her for a boon. Awesome. Next time my loan status pends until the next continental shift, I'm totally hitting her up on that. Though my current financial aid counselor kicked much ass at that. Ah well.
Naturally, after signing, a bunch more people walked out. Heh. I stuck around as she went through some cliche and in some cases, flagrantly untrue information.
First of all... Credit reporting is most *certainly* regulated by federal law. The thing is that no one KNOWS that or any of the codes surrounding it, but there is a fortune in undiscovered lawsuits for any lawyer that would bother with it. Even banking officials don't know this crap, but it's there. She was essentially positing that if you aren't careful, anyone can stick anything on there (true), but that you were essentially powerless, so you'd best keep your nose clean.
Ha! So I said "Uhhh... the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the FDCPA are federally regulated stipulations on credit reporting." I know this, because thanks to creditboards, I bumped my credit scores up A HUNDRED FRIGGING POINTS on all three scores.
She said something about how that didn't mean you could do anything, which wasn't even the original point, and I said, if they fail to comply, you can sue them for a lot of money, at which point she was all "well, no one has TIME to do that in medical school, do they?" and made the class laugh at me.
Woman, punk me when I'm only sitting in this hell to be polite??????
For the record, if you remained to the end, she's still wrong. I got nearly everything off my credit reports with nothing more than certified mail and a few complaints to the Better Business Bureau and the state Attorney General concerning a couple stubbornites that didn't like obeying the laws. I neither filed a lawsuit nor talked to a lawyer, and while *educating* myself on the process took a buttload of time, the actually process invested in writing was not ALL that substantial. Hmph.
So don't believe everything you hear. Best plan is keep control of your credit, NATURALLY, but come on.
The other thing she put into the powerpoint (when she finally got it working), was I suppose a point on delayed gratification versus instant gratification (yeah, we're all becoming DOCTORS at a quarter million dollar expense because we likey the instant), but she attempted to make it by asking whether we'd rather have a jeep now or a Lexus later.
Uhh... given those options??? Jeep now. Why must she assume I'd be more into rampant consumerism as a doctor than I am now?
Sigh. But still not a waste of time like the drug seminar was a waste of time, and while certainly annoying in places, not half as infuriating or hypocritical.
So back to studying... Midterm in two weeks!!!!! AIIIEEEEE!!!!!!!
Meanwhile, I'm ignoring those studies they did on rats where they deprived the creatures of sleep and they eventually dropped dead.
So thanks to a new friend of mine, friend to slightly older MPH friend of mine who we adopted to the Stuart's party, I am possession of little blue droplets of wonderment and magic known to some as "Unisom".
But remember kids; drugs are bad, mmkay?
So I've taken my first one for the night and am hoping it kicks in soon, at least before I get too deeply into the embryonic heart.
The school hilariously sent us an *invitation* to a mandatory financial aid seminar at 4 this afternoon. I like invitations to mandatory things. It makes them seem so non-mandatory.
I was debating on whether or not to go to this 'mandatory' session, since as they said in Animal Farm, some animals are more mandatory than others, or something like that, but decided to go lest they pull some drug seminar monkey crap where you have to fill out at three question survey.
The lecture hall had a good number of students in it, as well as vet students who had somehow managed to secure seating for a change, and were quite vocal when referenced, though apparently they have an exam tomorrow as someone tossed off while leaving with an 'unlike these MEDICAL students..." Bwa ha. Enjoy learning the anatomy of anything that started development with a notochord, suckers. We're enjoying our exhaustive coverage of one species. I kid... I kid.
But as soon as the awaiting masses realized that this financial aid seminar was going to be the same crap we suffered through in college about the importance of having a budget, living like the Amish, and the wild confusing world that is "understanding the concept that INTEREST makes short term items more expensive" (yawn), combined with a broken power point presentation, a mass exodus was spawned. Seriously, like half the class, and then more and more of it in the first 15 minutes until the previously full hall had become sparser than a Chadwell late-term biochem lecture. Ooooooh.
I stuck around because in brilliant forethought, I had brought along my notebook and a handout on the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, allowing me to feign politeness while actually getting something productive done. Basically, by that point, I didn't leave because I felt bad for the speaker. It sucks when you're trying to present something no one wants to hear and everyone just flat up walks out on you...
Unless you're giving a sermon about how I should vote regarding drug laws. Then, you can go straight to Hell.
Anyway, she said that due to our vigilance ("Huh?" we asked in unison, looking up from our anatomy slides, biochem notes, and histo outlines?), we should put our names on a list to turn in and for all the people that stuck around, she would grant us "a favor". We'd also be treated to free pizza, though I think anyone could get in on that, but since she's a red tape chick, we can actually invoke her name, ala the Sandman comics, to call upon her for a boon. Awesome. Next time my loan status pends until the next continental shift, I'm totally hitting her up on that. Though my current financial aid counselor kicked much ass at that. Ah well.
Naturally, after signing, a bunch more people walked out. Heh. I stuck around as she went through some cliche and in some cases, flagrantly untrue information.
First of all... Credit reporting is most *certainly* regulated by federal law. The thing is that no one KNOWS that or any of the codes surrounding it, but there is a fortune in undiscovered lawsuits for any lawyer that would bother with it. Even banking officials don't know this crap, but it's there. She was essentially positing that if you aren't careful, anyone can stick anything on there (true), but that you were essentially powerless, so you'd best keep your nose clean.
Ha! So I said "Uhhh... the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the FDCPA are federally regulated stipulations on credit reporting." I know this, because thanks to creditboards, I bumped my credit scores up A HUNDRED FRIGGING POINTS on all three scores.
She said something about how that didn't mean you could do anything, which wasn't even the original point, and I said, if they fail to comply, you can sue them for a lot of money, at which point she was all "well, no one has TIME to do that in medical school, do they?" and made the class laugh at me.
Woman, punk me when I'm only sitting in this hell to be polite??????
For the record, if you remained to the end, she's still wrong. I got nearly everything off my credit reports with nothing more than certified mail and a few complaints to the Better Business Bureau and the state Attorney General concerning a couple stubbornites that didn't like obeying the laws. I neither filed a lawsuit nor talked to a lawyer, and while *educating* myself on the process took a buttload of time, the actually process invested in writing was not ALL that substantial. Hmph.
So don't believe everything you hear. Best plan is keep control of your credit, NATURALLY, but come on.
The other thing she put into the powerpoint (when she finally got it working), was I suppose a point on delayed gratification versus instant gratification (yeah, we're all becoming DOCTORS at a quarter million dollar expense because we likey the instant), but she attempted to make it by asking whether we'd rather have a jeep now or a Lexus later.
Uhh... given those options??? Jeep now. Why must she assume I'd be more into rampant consumerism as a doctor than I am now?
Sigh. But still not a waste of time like the drug seminar was a waste of time, and while certainly annoying in places, not half as infuriating or hypocritical.
So back to studying... Midterm in two weeks!!!!! AIIIEEEEE!!!!!!!
Feb 18, 2007
Histology Relevance...
Okay, perhaps I've been studying too long, but the Rectal Columns of Morgagni sounds like some place a young noble hero with flowing blond manlocks would have to fight his way through to free the fair maiden from the thick longitudinal bands of the fearsome taenia coli.
And poor poor Morgagni. You're a well-schooled Italian anatomist dedicating your life to the study of the human body, and you are remembered in posterity as a developed, MUCOUSY part of the mammalian arsehole. Simply undignified.
If I ever discover some until-now unseen area of the human ass, please, oh please, just cut me the check and leave my moniker out of the naming ceremony. Attribute all discoveries to Nicholas Cage. He knows what he did.
*Addendum: Our hero has now fought his way past the Rectal Columns of Morgagni and is sneaking past the Crypts of Lieberkuhn, (Lieberkuhn apparently had a better press agent than Morgagni, though not by much) as we speak, perhaps in search of Lemmiwinks the Gerbil. Mr. Slave, how could you??
And poor poor Morgagni. You're a well-schooled Italian anatomist dedicating your life to the study of the human body, and you are remembered in posterity as a developed, MUCOUSY part of the mammalian arsehole. Simply undignified.
If I ever discover some until-now unseen area of the human ass, please, oh please, just cut me the check and leave my moniker out of the naming ceremony. Attribute all discoveries to Nicholas Cage. He knows what he did.
*Addendum: Our hero has now fought his way past the Rectal Columns of Morgagni and is sneaking past the Crypts of Lieberkuhn, (Lieberkuhn apparently had a better press agent than Morgagni, though not by much) as we speak, perhaps in search of Lemmiwinks the Gerbil. Mr. Slave, how could you??
Deep Breaths
All right... better now.
Yesterday, I was in a bad place, mentally, and it was a bad day to blog, or apparently, do much of anything.
My ire remains to a degree, even though some of the 'offenders' are good people and friends of mine, but there is a level of courtesy that was just fully disregarded, and I want to insincerely thank all those people for fucking up my Saturday so thoroughly that I didn't get a damn thing done. I'm going to have to become a defensive alcoholic because had I gone out Friday night and gotten hammered, I'd have staggered home at 2 am, fallen into sweet ethanol induced slumber and NOTHING would have gotten me up, thus I'd have spent the first few hours of Saturday with a bit of a headache and otherwise had a productive day.
Instead, I was pretty much up all night, thus screwing Saturday for me, since the powder puff football game in the quad also had music (and alcohol; thanks again, school) thus couldn't sleep then, and every time I started trying to focus on studying, I started crying. Wahoo.
To warn incoming students or first term students who haven't gotten to this point, yesterday commemorated my first celebratory "screw this; I want to go home" moments. No matter how much you love it here (and I actually do), I suspect most people will reach this point, probably many times, during their stay because you just reach a place where you feel negative, down, and you want things back the way they were, even if the way they were sucked (like being stuck in a dead end, temporary, cubicle enclosed technical writing hell, though I liked the other aspects of my life). I think this is more med school than Caribbean, but the far from home aspect (unless you're from here, of course), can make things worse. And different stimuli sparks it. I have a very high tolerance for slow service and such, but I've seen that drive some people to a similar state where things snowball.
So be advised. But I'm back to liking it here. Sleep deprivation combined with anger does strange things to me.
On the downside, my father's been in the hospital recently, and I've been worried about him, not due at ALL to the fact that he's been smoking since Sir Walter Raleigh discovered tobacco in the States (right, history people?) (just kidding, dad!!), and at first they thought it was TB (which meant I was going to have to get tested) and then it wasn't, etc etc, but now it turns out, some form of necrotic pneumonia so he's been getting to cough up ACTUAL pieces of his lung. Yummy. But he got out of the hospital, so that's really cool, and I chewed his ear for a while after he got out, because after a stint in the hospital, I find that people love hearing all about *my* problems being stuck in a tropical paradise to pursue a medical degree but baby didn't get enough sleep, causing her to be a mite manic depressive.
Ah well.
I'd also like to thank these bitches for drastically improving my day yesterday. You see, I couldn't focus on studying AT ALL because I was so tired, and couldn't sleep, so I ended up reading this website called "Smart bitches who love trashy novels" in which they make so much fun of horrid romance novel covers in such a creative way that they had me shaking with non manic laughter every time I gave up the books and went to their website. So high level recommendations for that website, particularly for those of you who are so stressed you can't see straight. And no, you don't have to like romance novels. To me, it's funnier if you don't (which I don't).
Yesterday evening, I secured some surprisingly good chicken tenders and spicy fries from Glover's and ran into Lori, Emma, and Emma's sister (whose name I don't remember, but she's awesome) who were busy trying to secure a pizza from Evil Glover's Lady whose efforts to reduce them to stone with her... uh... stony glare were fortunately unsuccessful. They helped pick up my spirits with some pick up basketball in which we all discovered that we suck painfully at it. Being women, this luckily did NOT lead to being teased off the court because the boys make allowances for women to be bad at sports. Hooray for gender typing!
After my chat with dad, I crashed and burned, earplugs in, and woke up after about 11 hours. Ahhh, bliss. Yes, it put me a bit late in the day, but sweet Random Chance, did I ever need it. So I've been getting my biochem study on like mad today, and damned if I am not so down with glycolysis and the TCA cycle now (yes, I went BACK to review it, lest any first termers remind me that being down with the TCA cycle puts me a week and a half behind). Thanks again, Lippincott. I'm planning on wet lab tonight, since my knowledge of the viscera could use some work.
Yesterday, I was in a bad place, mentally, and it was a bad day to blog, or apparently, do much of anything.
My ire remains to a degree, even though some of the 'offenders' are good people and friends of mine, but there is a level of courtesy that was just fully disregarded, and I want to insincerely thank all those people for fucking up my Saturday so thoroughly that I didn't get a damn thing done. I'm going to have to become a defensive alcoholic because had I gone out Friday night and gotten hammered, I'd have staggered home at 2 am, fallen into sweet ethanol induced slumber and NOTHING would have gotten me up, thus I'd have spent the first few hours of Saturday with a bit of a headache and otherwise had a productive day.
Instead, I was pretty much up all night, thus screwing Saturday for me, since the powder puff football game in the quad also had music (and alcohol; thanks again, school) thus couldn't sleep then, and every time I started trying to focus on studying, I started crying. Wahoo.
To warn incoming students or first term students who haven't gotten to this point, yesterday commemorated my first celebratory "screw this; I want to go home" moments. No matter how much you love it here (and I actually do), I suspect most people will reach this point, probably many times, during their stay because you just reach a place where you feel negative, down, and you want things back the way they were, even if the way they were sucked (like being stuck in a dead end, temporary, cubicle enclosed technical writing hell, though I liked the other aspects of my life). I think this is more med school than Caribbean, but the far from home aspect (unless you're from here, of course), can make things worse. And different stimuli sparks it. I have a very high tolerance for slow service and such, but I've seen that drive some people to a similar state where things snowball.
So be advised. But I'm back to liking it here. Sleep deprivation combined with anger does strange things to me.
On the downside, my father's been in the hospital recently, and I've been worried about him, not due at ALL to the fact that he's been smoking since Sir Walter Raleigh discovered tobacco in the States (right, history people?) (just kidding, dad!!), and at first they thought it was TB (which meant I was going to have to get tested) and then it wasn't, etc etc, but now it turns out, some form of necrotic pneumonia so he's been getting to cough up ACTUAL pieces of his lung. Yummy. But he got out of the hospital, so that's really cool, and I chewed his ear for a while after he got out, because after a stint in the hospital, I find that people love hearing all about *my* problems being stuck in a tropical paradise to pursue a medical degree but baby didn't get enough sleep, causing her to be a mite manic depressive.
Ah well.
I'd also like to thank these bitches for drastically improving my day yesterday. You see, I couldn't focus on studying AT ALL because I was so tired, and couldn't sleep, so I ended up reading this website called "Smart bitches who love trashy novels" in which they make so much fun of horrid romance novel covers in such a creative way that they had me shaking with non manic laughter every time I gave up the books and went to their website. So high level recommendations for that website, particularly for those of you who are so stressed you can't see straight. And no, you don't have to like romance novels. To me, it's funnier if you don't (which I don't).
Yesterday evening, I secured some surprisingly good chicken tenders and spicy fries from Glover's and ran into Lori, Emma, and Emma's sister (whose name I don't remember, but she's awesome) who were busy trying to secure a pizza from Evil Glover's Lady whose efforts to reduce them to stone with her... uh... stony glare were fortunately unsuccessful. They helped pick up my spirits with some pick up basketball in which we all discovered that we suck painfully at it. Being women, this luckily did NOT lead to being teased off the court because the boys make allowances for women to be bad at sports. Hooray for gender typing!
After my chat with dad, I crashed and burned, earplugs in, and woke up after about 11 hours. Ahhh, bliss. Yes, it put me a bit late in the day, but sweet Random Chance, did I ever need it. So I've been getting my biochem study on like mad today, and damned if I am not so down with glycolysis and the TCA cycle now (yes, I went BACK to review it, lest any first termers remind me that being down with the TCA cycle puts me a week and a half behind). Thanks again, Lippincott. I'm planning on wet lab tonight, since my knowledge of the viscera could use some work.
Feb 17, 2007
Inconsiderate bastards
Okay, attention remaining screamy people in SD1; your attention please:
SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why the antipathy? Okay, it is 4:40 am. Granted, a Saturday morning, but since we're all in medical school, the people that actually decided to get caught up RATHER than partying would like their decision to be honored rather than having to sleep in until 2 in the afternoon anyway, because apparently some of you were raised outside, in the barn, with the pigs. Please, next time, stay there!
Equally interesting is that after Unifieds, at 10 PM, though *I* wasn't being particularly loud, there was a large group gathered outside, and one of our RAs bitched us all out and threatened to call security.
4:40 in the morning? Couldn't be bothered. Maybe they're out drinking. I dunno.
I'm hoping these people amend their drinking habits to either be all responsible medical students just like our evil clinical skills enforcers suggest OR at least develop *enough* of a drinking problem to be unconscious by now. I don't particularly care which. It's not that I've never staggered in at 5 in the morning (though not here); but I have NEVER been so inconsiderately drunk that I would yell down a dorm hall or hotel or whereever for 3 hours.
So that's my rant for the (early) morning. Back to attempting to sleep...
SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why the antipathy? Okay, it is 4:40 am. Granted, a Saturday morning, but since we're all in medical school, the people that actually decided to get caught up RATHER than partying would like their decision to be honored rather than having to sleep in until 2 in the afternoon anyway, because apparently some of you were raised outside, in the barn, with the pigs. Please, next time, stay there!
Equally interesting is that after Unifieds, at 10 PM, though *I* wasn't being particularly loud, there was a large group gathered outside, and one of our RAs bitched us all out and threatened to call security.
4:40 in the morning? Couldn't be bothered. Maybe they're out drinking. I dunno.
I'm hoping these people amend their drinking habits to either be all responsible medical students just like our evil clinical skills enforcers suggest OR at least develop *enough* of a drinking problem to be unconscious by now. I don't particularly care which. It's not that I've never staggered in at 5 in the morning (though not here); but I have NEVER been so inconsiderately drunk that I would yell down a dorm hall or hotel or whereever for 3 hours.
So that's my rant for the (early) morning. Back to attempting to sleep...
Feb 14, 2007
Got all hot and sweaty
Because I hit the gym and managed to grab one of the ellipticals. What did you guys think I was gonna say?
So now I stink. Mmmm. But am I going to wash before I blog? No way. I keep it real.
A unified update, because as a complete dork, I focus on even the insignificant grades. In Histo, they threw out two questions, bringing me to B status (hooray), and in my former arch-nemesis biochem, it turns out I got an A in biochem and an "F" in arithmetic, and added up my score wrong, so wahoo, with an embarrassed chagrin at having the mathematical ability of a five year old. Thank you, childhood dependence on calculators. I think I was the only one in the MCAT counting on my fingers.
I've also found major inspiration for not only getting into major shape but losing as much weight as humanly possible without lapsing into anorexia -- a way to cheat in anatomy. I bruised my ribs during the unified because on the question about the intercostal level of the apex of the heart, I was jabbing myself to try and get some inkling of an idea. When we came to the question about the blood supply to the mammary gland, well... let's just say it got a bit interesting, and I'm not the only one. Let's hope we can all use some etiquette when it comes to the exam on the pelvic viscera, though the Living Anatomy segment (where we palpate each other) should CERTAINLY be fun.
Today, I learned that to get many forms of mail, you need a courier, which made me feel like either a spoiled princess or like I was in Mosquito Coast. Paying 35 bucks for a package was fun too, combined courier fee and import tax. Yeesh.
So I found something to complain about with that.
I'm not great about attending biochem lectures because I usually don't know what's going on, and have trouble staying awake, thus, when the guy at the bookstore told me that to retrieve my package, I HAD to be there at 4:30, which is smack dab in the middle of lecture, I was annoyed, but not too distraught. Finally, a *good* reason to ditch lecture rather than my normal one of "Aw, screw it."
So then our biochem professor had to get himself a girlfriend or a Zoloft prescription and morph into someone awesome. Our normal misanthrope was genuinely smiling, telling jokes that were actually funny, and best yet, relating a lecture on pyruvate dehydrogenase, which I *understood*, to real life events, going on to errors in metabolism caused by poisoning, which he related to new evidence on Napoleon Bonaparte's death.
Oh... my little history tabloid heart went pitter pat. I hope *that* guy's back on Friday. And I had to ditch out at the break to get my package! Dammit!
What struck me as particularly hilarious is during said discussion involving arsenic, he mentioned a medical show he had seen where a guy had come in and the doctor (not House) had seen white lines on his nails and figured out that he had arsenic poisoning, because, as it later turned out, his wife was trying to kill him for the insurance money (true story!).
At this point, there was a rustle as THE WHOLE CLASS checked their fingernails. I cackled at this (while checking my nails) because even with the vomitous sicky magic that is Valentine's Day, you still can't *entirely* trust your significant other enough not to secretly think they might be trying to kill you. And to you all reading this, I'm willing to BET you just checked your nails.
Speaking of VD (valentine's day, not the more pleasant venereal disease), blech and bah humbug to all you couples out there that celebrate this Halmark generated holiday. What's especially fun is that apparently the greeting card companies have picked up on the fact that there are a fat lot of jaded cynics out there like me that HATE Valentines Day and have started marketing... that's right, anti Valentine's Day cards. Capitalizing off a protest of a beast you created. Well played, Halmark. Well played, indeed.
On a completely unrelated note, here's some more diving pictures:
The Veronica L! In her chopped off, Ishie was too stupid to bring her wide angle lens on this WRECK dive glory!
Appetizer.
The side of the wreck of the Veronica L and my failed attempt to take an artsy shot.
Biggie fish at a cleaning station.
So now I stink. Mmmm. But am I going to wash before I blog? No way. I keep it real.
A unified update, because as a complete dork, I focus on even the insignificant grades. In Histo, they threw out two questions, bringing me to B status (hooray), and in my former arch-nemesis biochem, it turns out I got an A in biochem and an "F" in arithmetic, and added up my score wrong, so wahoo, with an embarrassed chagrin at having the mathematical ability of a five year old. Thank you, childhood dependence on calculators. I think I was the only one in the MCAT counting on my fingers.
I've also found major inspiration for not only getting into major shape but losing as much weight as humanly possible without lapsing into anorexia -- a way to cheat in anatomy. I bruised my ribs during the unified because on the question about the intercostal level of the apex of the heart, I was jabbing myself to try and get some inkling of an idea. When we came to the question about the blood supply to the mammary gland, well... let's just say it got a bit interesting, and I'm not the only one. Let's hope we can all use some etiquette when it comes to the exam on the pelvic viscera, though the Living Anatomy segment (where we palpate each other) should CERTAINLY be fun.
Today, I learned that to get many forms of mail, you need a courier, which made me feel like either a spoiled princess or like I was in Mosquito Coast. Paying 35 bucks for a package was fun too, combined courier fee and import tax. Yeesh.
So I found something to complain about with that.
I'm not great about attending biochem lectures because I usually don't know what's going on, and have trouble staying awake, thus, when the guy at the bookstore told me that to retrieve my package, I HAD to be there at 4:30, which is smack dab in the middle of lecture, I was annoyed, but not too distraught. Finally, a *good* reason to ditch lecture rather than my normal one of "Aw, screw it."
So then our biochem professor had to get himself a girlfriend or a Zoloft prescription and morph into someone awesome. Our normal misanthrope was genuinely smiling, telling jokes that were actually funny, and best yet, relating a lecture on pyruvate dehydrogenase, which I *understood*, to real life events, going on to errors in metabolism caused by poisoning, which he related to new evidence on Napoleon Bonaparte's death.
Oh... my little history tabloid heart went pitter pat. I hope *that* guy's back on Friday. And I had to ditch out at the break to get my package! Dammit!
What struck me as particularly hilarious is during said discussion involving arsenic, he mentioned a medical show he had seen where a guy had come in and the doctor (not House) had seen white lines on his nails and figured out that he had arsenic poisoning, because, as it later turned out, his wife was trying to kill him for the insurance money (true story!).
At this point, there was a rustle as THE WHOLE CLASS checked their fingernails. I cackled at this (while checking my nails) because even with the vomitous sicky magic that is Valentine's Day, you still can't *entirely* trust your significant other enough not to secretly think they might be trying to kill you. And to you all reading this, I'm willing to BET you just checked your nails.
Speaking of VD (valentine's day, not the more pleasant venereal disease), blech and bah humbug to all you couples out there that celebrate this Halmark generated holiday. What's especially fun is that apparently the greeting card companies have picked up on the fact that there are a fat lot of jaded cynics out there like me that HATE Valentines Day and have started marketing... that's right, anti Valentine's Day cards. Capitalizing off a protest of a beast you created. Well played, Halmark. Well played, indeed.
On a completely unrelated note, here's some more diving pictures:
The Veronica L! In her chopped off, Ishie was too stupid to bring her wide angle lens on this WRECK dive glory!
Appetizer.
The side of the wreck of the Veronica L and my failed attempt to take an artsy shot.
Biggie fish at a cleaning station.
Feb 13, 2007
I passed!!!! Wahoo!!!!!
Okay, in case anyone's been wondering where I've been, I dived into my books and haven't resurfaced in some time due to a little thing called the "First Unified Quiz". Which makes me feel all responsible and such. The Unified is not a very significant portion of your grade. I think between 3 and 5 percent generally. The thing about Unifieds is that they tell you HOW you've been studying. If you crash and burn on them, essentially that's a wake up call that says "Hey buddy, you need to reevaluate your study methods and start over" and I SO didn't want that. Basically, I was terrified that if I failed biochem, it would mean NO social life for Ishie because I've been dedicating SO much time to it over the weeks. Histo... er... well, it's my lowest unit class. I'm sure I glanced at some of the lectures!
I hadn't left the dorm since Friday night, really, and prior to that was pretty study oriented. On Saturday, it was ALL DAY. I was literally in my dorm room from wake until sleep with the exception of doing my laundry which involved walking 15 feet down the hall. Gah.
Sunday, I studied at the library, requiring a change of scenery, and on the way back, ran into the bazaar for the people running clinical rotations. I feel so WANTED!!! Well, not by California; I saw none of my peeps, but apparently, I'm catnip to New York and England.
I'm not the primary target since I'm only a first termer, but even in the midst of studying, it's not a bad idea to make connections early. These people will own you in your third and fourth year so good impressions are important as are "ins" with people.
So then it was back to the dorm for even MORE studying. Gah. Then, with a brief interruption for some high school shit I'm not sure why I was a part of, it was MORE studying, followed by sleep (I'm getting too darned old to pull study-all nighters), followed by another FOUR HOURS of morning study in the library, punctuated by that realization that I don't know anything! Eek!
As a great omen, it began POURING at about 1:35, just as we were making our way to the lecture halls for seating at 1:45. They check ids at the door and the wind here falls horizontally, and I was in the back of the line, so let me tell you how much fun *that* was.
By the time I got into Bell Hall, I was DRIPPING wet. I had to dry my hands and arms so I could take the test. Water was running down my face. What's also notable is that Bell Hall is wonderfully air conditioned. What wasn't so wonderful is that now, for the first time since I've been in the Caribbean, I have been COLD. Shivering freezing COLD, as one is when you drench them from tip to tails and put them under an air conditioner for two hours.
But anyway... did all the official test stuff with my heart leaping in my throat, opened the test booklet andddddddd.....
Hmm... not so bad. I know most of this stuff!
So I went through and felt pretty good, but it's a multiple choice test with 25 questions in each subject (Histology, Developmental Anatomy {composed of gross anatomy and embryology for a whopping 8 units of your grade}, and BIOCHEMISTRY, my white whale), which means even if you think you did well, one blip in subject matter, and you've got a 60. I prefer more choices on a test.
The results! I knew I hadn't done all that well in Histo because I'd skipped a bunch of middle guy (The one that woefully is NOT Dr. Paparo) lectures, and then hadn't read them through enough because... uh... it wasn't biochemistry.
72 in Histology. Which is passing!!
88 in Anatomy. Which is .5 points from an A!
80 in Biochem. I gotta B in biochem! I gotta B in biochem! Happy day!!!!!
Apparently the trick in biochem is to not attend half the lectures and dedicate 80 percent (a coincidence?) of your study time to it. Who knew?
Naturally, the culmination of our first test meant.... excuse for a party! I got out of the test at 3:40, and ran into some friends, so we made the mutual decision of going to Pearl's/Glover's to grab beers. Hey, as long as it's after 5 somewhere, right? Apparently, we weren't the sole people failing our clinical skills seminar, because we ran into, probably half the class, most of whom were already well on their way to intoxication. I felt so behind. David bought me a couple of beers, and I introduced him to Piton. Ah, Piton...
We all made plans to meet at Banana's for dinner, did so, and enjoyed some painfully bad service, but good food. Ah, Caribbean life. Joie didn't come though. Come with us next time, Joie!
So we walked back from Banana's (as a group this time!) and I had EVERY intention of going to my dorm, maybe putting in a LEETLE bit of study time, and then going to bed, since I had a lab this morning...
Toga parties are fun... right? I've now been to my first toga party, though I regrettably wasn't wearing a toga.
Sej, on the other hand, takes toga parties VERY seriously and had someone run into town to get her special toga and rope material, which combined with her bitchin' sandals to make one hell of an outfit. I felt so unhip in my cargo pants, despite the fact that the models dancing in the Gap commercials assured me that they were Crazy! Sexy! Cool!
We grabbed an airport shuttle (shrug) to Stuart's, which is a beautiful resort bar, but damn, bring your own alcohol! I was leaning over the counter for FORTY-FIVE MINUTES, TRYING to get a vodka lime! Yeesh, I got half sober! Fortunately that was amended, so did a little dancing. Togas do nice things for men, by the way, and my eyes were popping out my head at the number of eligible Caesers. Rowl.
The bad thing about Stuart's (Stewart's?) is since they're attached to a resort, they kick you out at 1, so it was back to Banana's with Lane and Mel (Sej disappeared, which should have been difficult to do in a flaming red toga, but...), with Ryan in tow, an MPH student we adopted at the student store since he'd just gotten off the plane about an hour before meeting him. Welcome to SGU, Ryan! After securing more beer, Ryan escorted me home for the stretch from Banana's. Awww.
And so now I'm waking up and getting ready for class. But I passed, right!? Wahoo! As the title says.
I hadn't left the dorm since Friday night, really, and prior to that was pretty study oriented. On Saturday, it was ALL DAY. I was literally in my dorm room from wake until sleep with the exception of doing my laundry which involved walking 15 feet down the hall. Gah.
Sunday, I studied at the library, requiring a change of scenery, and on the way back, ran into the bazaar for the people running clinical rotations. I feel so WANTED!!! Well, not by California; I saw none of my peeps, but apparently, I'm catnip to New York and England.
I'm not the primary target since I'm only a first termer, but even in the midst of studying, it's not a bad idea to make connections early. These people will own you in your third and fourth year so good impressions are important as are "ins" with people.
So then it was back to the dorm for even MORE studying. Gah. Then, with a brief interruption for some high school shit I'm not sure why I was a part of, it was MORE studying, followed by sleep (I'm getting too darned old to pull study-all nighters), followed by another FOUR HOURS of morning study in the library, punctuated by that realization that I don't know anything! Eek!
As a great omen, it began POURING at about 1:35, just as we were making our way to the lecture halls for seating at 1:45. They check ids at the door and the wind here falls horizontally, and I was in the back of the line, so let me tell you how much fun *that* was.
By the time I got into Bell Hall, I was DRIPPING wet. I had to dry my hands and arms so I could take the test. Water was running down my face. What's also notable is that Bell Hall is wonderfully air conditioned. What wasn't so wonderful is that now, for the first time since I've been in the Caribbean, I have been COLD. Shivering freezing COLD, as one is when you drench them from tip to tails and put them under an air conditioner for two hours.
But anyway... did all the official test stuff with my heart leaping in my throat, opened the test booklet andddddddd.....
Hmm... not so bad. I know most of this stuff!
So I went through and felt pretty good, but it's a multiple choice test with 25 questions in each subject (Histology, Developmental Anatomy {composed of gross anatomy and embryology for a whopping 8 units of your grade}, and BIOCHEMISTRY, my white whale), which means even if you think you did well, one blip in subject matter, and you've got a 60. I prefer more choices on a test.
The results! I knew I hadn't done all that well in Histo because I'd skipped a bunch of middle guy (The one that woefully is NOT Dr. Paparo) lectures, and then hadn't read them through enough because... uh... it wasn't biochemistry.
72 in Histology. Which is passing!!
88 in Anatomy. Which is .5 points from an A!
80 in Biochem. I gotta B in biochem! I gotta B in biochem! Happy day!!!!!
Apparently the trick in biochem is to not attend half the lectures and dedicate 80 percent (a coincidence?) of your study time to it. Who knew?
Naturally, the culmination of our first test meant.... excuse for a party! I got out of the test at 3:40, and ran into some friends, so we made the mutual decision of going to Pearl's/Glover's to grab beers. Hey, as long as it's after 5 somewhere, right? Apparently, we weren't the sole people failing our clinical skills seminar, because we ran into, probably half the class, most of whom were already well on their way to intoxication. I felt so behind. David bought me a couple of beers, and I introduced him to Piton. Ah, Piton...
We all made plans to meet at Banana's for dinner, did so, and enjoyed some painfully bad service, but good food. Ah, Caribbean life. Joie didn't come though. Come with us next time, Joie!
So we walked back from Banana's (as a group this time!) and I had EVERY intention of going to my dorm, maybe putting in a LEETLE bit of study time, and then going to bed, since I had a lab this morning...
Toga parties are fun... right? I've now been to my first toga party, though I regrettably wasn't wearing a toga.
Sej, on the other hand, takes toga parties VERY seriously and had someone run into town to get her special toga and rope material, which combined with her bitchin' sandals to make one hell of an outfit. I felt so unhip in my cargo pants, despite the fact that the models dancing in the Gap commercials assured me that they were Crazy! Sexy! Cool!
We grabbed an airport shuttle (shrug) to Stuart's, which is a beautiful resort bar, but damn, bring your own alcohol! I was leaning over the counter for FORTY-FIVE MINUTES, TRYING to get a vodka lime! Yeesh, I got half sober! Fortunately that was amended, so did a little dancing. Togas do nice things for men, by the way, and my eyes were popping out my head at the number of eligible Caesers. Rowl.
The bad thing about Stuart's (Stewart's?) is since they're attached to a resort, they kick you out at 1, so it was back to Banana's with Lane and Mel (Sej disappeared, which should have been difficult to do in a flaming red toga, but...), with Ryan in tow, an MPH student we adopted at the student store since he'd just gotten off the plane about an hour before meeting him. Welcome to SGU, Ryan! After securing more beer, Ryan escorted me home for the stretch from Banana's. Awww.
And so now I'm waking up and getting ready for class. But I passed, right!? Wahoo! As the title says.
Feb 10, 2007
Yummy
Mmm... inexplicable midnight BBQ. Again.
Yup, ate chicken... what's the type of vegetarian that eats anything except beef? Not a vegetarian? A carnivore with a bad experience? Gotcha.
Though actually, largely due to cost and my laziness in bussing to the store, I've been running really low on the meat, chicken, fish, or otherwise. I'm mad into the peanut butter though. Ulp, talking about food again. It seems a relevant topic since that's what sucks up the remainder of your loan check when you live on campus. Well, that and rum, for my alcoholic compatriots.
So what's up? The FIRST UNIFIED QUIZ is up; that's what. Monday, to be specific.
I felt unwoefully prepared for it up until a brief study session with Joie and now I feel woefully unprepared. Dehydroga-whatnow? Damn biochem. At least I'm getting the big picture. Now, if only they'd test me on the big picture instead of the middling minutia.
Also, one particular professor has decided to delve completely into trying to screw us. The guy speaks softly, so I was having trouble understanding him, and I had no idea what he was talking about despite reading ahead, thus I headed home for the LippIncott Bible. Apparently, I wasn't alone.
So now, this guy's taken to adding stuff into his lectures as "fair game", which isn't in his lecture notes to try to force people to attend. Even better, he often says things IN lecture like "don't bother scribbling this down; I'm putting it on Angel later" and then lo and behold, it's not on Angel, so even if you DO make it to lecture, you're screwed. No questions during lecture either, so if you didn't hear one of those super secret extra points (because if you don't like my non-mandatory lectures, you're a scumbag and I'm going to contribute to you failing the USMLEs), you can't ask him to repeat it, even if, like in today's case (before I left), your question is due to an error in the lecture notes wherein the words "increased volume in blood" have replaced "increased volume in urine" which is quite a damn difference. Sigh. Stop changing lecturers! Leave Paparo as Histo guru, since I do *not* need to hear about the ever present 7th grade wonders of mitosis, and leave Trotz in charge of biochem, or, if you're nice, give us Saeed back. Either that, or take a lesson from Anatomy and change out people who are equally talented at not only knowing their stuff, and this is critical, but at CONVEYING THAT INFORMATION TO OTHER HUMANS. Other-histo guy thought we were too dumb. Current biochem guy... I think... hates us... or life... or both. Previous biochem guy thought we were way too smart. Where's the porridge that's just right??
Fortunately our current anatomy prof is absolutely awesome, and the previous profs were good, so histo and biochem, take notice. Embryo, you've been taught by one dude since the beginning, and though I was not down with the first lecture, we're on fine terms now, so stay the course.
Oh, Anna Nicole's dead. I just thought I'd mention that to emphasize the increasing disconnect I feel with American news so that it only occasionally catches me by flashing an interesting enough headline when I'm checking my mail. It's odd to think that due to a rather key lack of television, a complete devotion to studying, and other factors, major news events (Poor Ms. Smith not withstanding) can completely pass me by. I don't know anything about any of the movies that are out either.
I do know Grenadian news!!! China has been building Grenada a giant, disproportionate, out of place looking (but awesome) cricket stadium. This, naturally, has been quite expensive and time consuming. The Chinese were doing the official handoff to the Grenadians in a huge ceremony, which Grenada celebrated by playing.... the Taiwanese national anthem. D'oh!! Well, if you're going to pick the wrong anthem, by all means, make it an enemy. So, the prime minister had to go on live and apologize deeply and pledge an investigation into how Valerie Plame's name was leake... er... how the band could have practiced the wrong anthem and had *no one notice*.
I found this out at the dive shop on Wednesday, otherwise known as Grenada's Independence Day. They wished me a happy Independence Day at which point I was thinking "It's great that Grenada and America have in common our independence from... well... you people..." But best not to smart off at the people that control your air supply, plus they're incredibly awesome and I'm an anglophile. But they had fireworks! (the country; not the dive shop).
Speaking of media, two noteworthy aspects. First of all, House apparently comes on at Glover's at 11 PM on Tuesday nights because the Fox feed, unlike the CBS feed, is from Colorado rather than New York. What on earth cable service do they use? Patch Networks? So I got to watch House!!!
I also got to discover why, until now, I had never seen a full episode of American Idol. Gods. I got there at 10 and we left it on to make sure we secured the television, and whew! Insipid anyone? This brings me to the second noteworthy aspect. Glovers has two televisions, one of which is a sweet-ass plasma (I think) and the other is a hospital-style mounted television that you have to balance on a bar stool to get to. Guess which one we had?
The good tv was occupied by a group mostly of riveted men watching Scarface, a movie I am *extremely* embarrassed to have never seen. Well, now I've seen the last hour of it because to distract myself from American Idol, I'd turned around in my chair to ponder why Al Pacino's half naked sister seemed to be coming onto him... Ewww... I hope it had something to do with the mountains of cocaine. I have GOT to see the rest of that movie!
The interesting thing about Scarface is not only its apparent attraction to men (and bloodlusting females such as myself) everywhere, but how transcendent the movie is. There were guys of ALL cultures watching that movie, yet, right towards the end, as Pacino whips out the enormous gun, EVERY man (and the women, myself included since I knew *that* part, who weren't engrossed in Ryan Seacrest) in the place said, yelled, or mouthed "Say 'Hello' to my little friend!!!!" Booyah.
What was also weird is that Scarface drew most of the men working at the bar and American Idol took a good portion of the women, thus giving an extremely screwed up vision of America (or perhaps not) which probably is a large contributing factor (or at least pre-current political climate) to why the entire world thinks we're completely bugfuck. I dunno; maybe we are. Say Hello! To your NEXT AMERICAN IDOL! Aiiieeeee!!!! Rat a tat *boom*. Or something.
But House was good. Hooray for House. Lots of Hugh Laurie bicep porn. Always a good thing.
Back to Wednesday, because it's late and I'm disjointed, if you couldn't tell by the 'cuda picture, instead of responsibly studying over the holiday, I went diving!! I'll probably upload some more pictures at a time when I'm not being lazy (good luck).
First dive was Purple Rain, which was nice, but a little dark due to a cloudy day. It's been raining a LOT lately, but the vis was still nicer than anything I'm used to. There weren't any eels or other large, unique critters out because I had my camera and that's the way it works.
Second dive was the reef leading up to the Veronica L and the Veronica L herself. I do so love that wreck, though Fang started showing a bit too much interest in me after I hit him with the strobe a few times, so I bravely hid in the wreck. Heh heh. But tons of parrotfish, wrasse, and other brightly colored fish that I can't identify yet. Tons of squirrelfish. To my Monterey dive buddies, squirrelfish seem to be the "rockfish" of the Caribbean in that they're everywhere and like to get in the way of pictures of other things.
So, to bed to bed! I have two days of hardcore studying and then half a day of crying and wishing I'd studied Wednesday instead of diving.
Yup, ate chicken... what's the type of vegetarian that eats anything except beef? Not a vegetarian? A carnivore with a bad experience? Gotcha.
Though actually, largely due to cost and my laziness in bussing to the store, I've been running really low on the meat, chicken, fish, or otherwise. I'm mad into the peanut butter though. Ulp, talking about food again. It seems a relevant topic since that's what sucks up the remainder of your loan check when you live on campus. Well, that and rum, for my alcoholic compatriots.
So what's up? The FIRST UNIFIED QUIZ is up; that's what. Monday, to be specific.
I felt unwoefully prepared for it up until a brief study session with Joie and now I feel woefully unprepared. Dehydroga-whatnow? Damn biochem. At least I'm getting the big picture. Now, if only they'd test me on the big picture instead of the middling minutia.
Also, one particular professor has decided to delve completely into trying to screw us. The guy speaks softly, so I was having trouble understanding him, and I had no idea what he was talking about despite reading ahead, thus I headed home for the LippIncott Bible. Apparently, I wasn't alone.
So now, this guy's taken to adding stuff into his lectures as "fair game", which isn't in his lecture notes to try to force people to attend. Even better, he often says things IN lecture like "don't bother scribbling this down; I'm putting it on Angel later" and then lo and behold, it's not on Angel, so even if you DO make it to lecture, you're screwed. No questions during lecture either, so if you didn't hear one of those super secret extra points (because if you don't like my non-mandatory lectures, you're a scumbag and I'm going to contribute to you failing the USMLEs), you can't ask him to repeat it, even if, like in today's case (before I left), your question is due to an error in the lecture notes wherein the words "increased volume in blood" have replaced "increased volume in urine" which is quite a damn difference. Sigh. Stop changing lecturers! Leave Paparo as Histo guru, since I do *not* need to hear about the ever present 7th grade wonders of mitosis, and leave Trotz in charge of biochem, or, if you're nice, give us Saeed back. Either that, or take a lesson from Anatomy and change out people who are equally talented at not only knowing their stuff, and this is critical, but at CONVEYING THAT INFORMATION TO OTHER HUMANS. Other-histo guy thought we were too dumb. Current biochem guy... I think... hates us... or life... or both. Previous biochem guy thought we were way too smart. Where's the porridge that's just right??
Fortunately our current anatomy prof is absolutely awesome, and the previous profs were good, so histo and biochem, take notice. Embryo, you've been taught by one dude since the beginning, and though I was not down with the first lecture, we're on fine terms now, so stay the course.
Oh, Anna Nicole's dead. I just thought I'd mention that to emphasize the increasing disconnect I feel with American news so that it only occasionally catches me by flashing an interesting enough headline when I'm checking my mail. It's odd to think that due to a rather key lack of television, a complete devotion to studying, and other factors, major news events (Poor Ms. Smith not withstanding) can completely pass me by. I don't know anything about any of the movies that are out either.
I do know Grenadian news!!! China has been building Grenada a giant, disproportionate, out of place looking (but awesome) cricket stadium. This, naturally, has been quite expensive and time consuming. The Chinese were doing the official handoff to the Grenadians in a huge ceremony, which Grenada celebrated by playing.... the Taiwanese national anthem. D'oh!! Well, if you're going to pick the wrong anthem, by all means, make it an enemy. So, the prime minister had to go on live and apologize deeply and pledge an investigation into how Valerie Plame's name was leake... er... how the band could have practiced the wrong anthem and had *no one notice*.
I found this out at the dive shop on Wednesday, otherwise known as Grenada's Independence Day. They wished me a happy Independence Day at which point I was thinking "It's great that Grenada and America have in common our independence from... well... you people..." But best not to smart off at the people that control your air supply, plus they're incredibly awesome and I'm an anglophile. But they had fireworks! (the country; not the dive shop).
Speaking of media, two noteworthy aspects. First of all, House apparently comes on at Glover's at 11 PM on Tuesday nights because the Fox feed, unlike the CBS feed, is from Colorado rather than New York. What on earth cable service do they use? Patch Networks? So I got to watch House!!!
I also got to discover why, until now, I had never seen a full episode of American Idol. Gods. I got there at 10 and we left it on to make sure we secured the television, and whew! Insipid anyone? This brings me to the second noteworthy aspect. Glovers has two televisions, one of which is a sweet-ass plasma (I think) and the other is a hospital-style mounted television that you have to balance on a bar stool to get to. Guess which one we had?
The good tv was occupied by a group mostly of riveted men watching Scarface, a movie I am *extremely* embarrassed to have never seen. Well, now I've seen the last hour of it because to distract myself from American Idol, I'd turned around in my chair to ponder why Al Pacino's half naked sister seemed to be coming onto him... Ewww... I hope it had something to do with the mountains of cocaine. I have GOT to see the rest of that movie!
The interesting thing about Scarface is not only its apparent attraction to men (and bloodlusting females such as myself) everywhere, but how transcendent the movie is. There were guys of ALL cultures watching that movie, yet, right towards the end, as Pacino whips out the enormous gun, EVERY man (and the women, myself included since I knew *that* part, who weren't engrossed in Ryan Seacrest) in the place said, yelled, or mouthed "Say 'Hello' to my little friend!!!!" Booyah.
What was also weird is that Scarface drew most of the men working at the bar and American Idol took a good portion of the women, thus giving an extremely screwed up vision of America (or perhaps not) which probably is a large contributing factor (or at least pre-current political climate) to why the entire world thinks we're completely bugfuck. I dunno; maybe we are. Say Hello! To your NEXT AMERICAN IDOL! Aiiieeeee!!!! Rat a tat *boom*. Or something.
But House was good. Hooray for House. Lots of Hugh Laurie bicep porn. Always a good thing.
Back to Wednesday, because it's late and I'm disjointed, if you couldn't tell by the 'cuda picture, instead of responsibly studying over the holiday, I went diving!! I'll probably upload some more pictures at a time when I'm not being lazy (good luck).
First dive was Purple Rain, which was nice, but a little dark due to a cloudy day. It's been raining a LOT lately, but the vis was still nicer than anything I'm used to. There weren't any eels or other large, unique critters out because I had my camera and that's the way it works.
Second dive was the reef leading up to the Veronica L and the Veronica L herself. I do so love that wreck, though Fang started showing a bit too much interest in me after I hit him with the strobe a few times, so I bravely hid in the wreck. Heh heh. But tons of parrotfish, wrasse, and other brightly colored fish that I can't identify yet. Tons of squirrelfish. To my Monterey dive buddies, squirrelfish seem to be the "rockfish" of the Caribbean in that they're everywhere and like to get in the way of pictures of other things.
So, to bed to bed! I have two days of hardcore studying and then half a day of crying and wishing I'd studied Wednesday instead of diving.
Feb 7, 2007
And no one understands him...
but his woman...
They say that fish Fang is one *bad* mutha...
Shut yo mouth!
I'm talkin' bout Fang.
We can dig it!
They say that fish Fang is one *bad* mutha...
Shut yo mouth!
I'm talkin' bout Fang.
We can dig it!
Feb 6, 2007
What I learned in Clinical Skills...
During medical informatics, during the "learn how to use a search engine" segment, make sure you come early enough to sit in the back so that you can blog instead of actually having to pay attention in class, as led by professor Severus Snape.
Oh good, we're learning how to use the member's center of SGU... that thing that if you didn't know how to use it, you wouldn't have known to be at this session anyway.
Hmm... I suppose I'll study anatomy.
*Addendum*
Okay, the class is a *total* waste of time; I'm not going to sugarcoat that, but the guy leading it turned out to be nicer than I had original anticipated from the Dean's convocation and the beginning of class, so I'll issue a partial retraction of the "Snape" crack, but only partial.
Now, I'm ditching the second part of the "Electron Transport Chain" as taught by Dr. Oh-screw-it;-I'll-just-learn-from-the-lecture-slides-because-you-are-extremely -confusing" and am about to head back in time for the lecture on glycolysis by Dr. Cranky-misanthrope-who-is-also-a-good-lecturer.
I think the latter went to EVIL medical school (punctuated by me using my extensor digiti mini-me to put my pinky against the corner of my mouth).
And speaking of anatomy, we have a new lecturer whose name I've forgotten who is extremely awesome. So I guess there are benefits to changing stuff up once in a while, but I do wish they'd ditch the biochem guy so I'd stop having to teach myself!
Oh good, we're learning how to use the member's center of SGU... that thing that if you didn't know how to use it, you wouldn't have known to be at this session anyway.
Hmm... I suppose I'll study anatomy.
*Addendum*
Okay, the class is a *total* waste of time; I'm not going to sugarcoat that, but the guy leading it turned out to be nicer than I had original anticipated from the Dean's convocation and the beginning of class, so I'll issue a partial retraction of the "Snape" crack, but only partial.
Now, I'm ditching the second part of the "Electron Transport Chain" as taught by Dr. Oh-screw-it;-I'll-just-learn-from-the-lecture-slides-because-you-are-extremely -confusing" and am about to head back in time for the lecture on glycolysis by Dr. Cranky-misanthrope-who-is-also-a-good-lecturer.
I think the latter went to EVIL medical school (punctuated by me using my extensor digiti mini-me to put my pinky against the corner of my mouth).
And speaking of anatomy, we have a new lecturer whose name I've forgotten who is extremely awesome. So I guess there are benefits to changing stuff up once in a while, but I do wish they'd ditch the biochem guy so I'd stop having to teach myself!
Feb 4, 2007
I saw...
A spotted eagle ray!! My first one ever! The thing had about a 6 foot wingspan, causing me to mistake it for a manta ray briefly and then I saw the head, and naturally, I had neglected to bring my camera! Ah well... those are never good shots anyway, she said as if sour grapes had never been explained to her.
Awesome dive though. In a sense, I'm glad I hadn't done much warm water diving (though the Philippines were amazing) before I came to live here, because it means I am endlessly impressed and amazed by the diving here, plus, after I leave or when I take trips, the places described as better (Tobago, Carriacou, Bonaire, Dominica, Little Cayman) will seem better in comparison rather than this place seeming worse. So for the meantime, I'm pleased.
Of course, I'm also the sort of person (the photographer sort of person) that will dive the same site over and over. Ask me how many times I've dived the Breakwater in Monterey (popular training site). Go on! Heh heh.
Also a couple spotted morays on this dive, and a big 'cuda. One of the highlights for me was a porcupine fish that was about three feet long. I'd seen these cute *little* guys in the Philippines and the maximum length I saw was about 7 inches. I had no idea they got that big! Our divemaster, Phil, clicked and pointed and kept swimming, and I saw rather large flapping fins and thought "Hmm... snapper?" then went around the bend and went "AIIIEEE!" The weird part, is even on steroids, they look identical and still have that cute expression on their faces that I call *chirp?* Don't ask.
Unfortunately, I dropped by the store on the way home, feeling pretty confident and while waiting for the bus, eavesdropped on two other students quizzing each other. OMG, I don't know anything! Eek! Eek and damn! So I'm studying my butt off now in preparation for a five hour study session tonight which will hopefully cement things before unified. Halp!
Awesome dive though. In a sense, I'm glad I hadn't done much warm water diving (though the Philippines were amazing) before I came to live here, because it means I am endlessly impressed and amazed by the diving here, plus, after I leave or when I take trips, the places described as better (Tobago, Carriacou, Bonaire, Dominica, Little Cayman) will seem better in comparison rather than this place seeming worse. So for the meantime, I'm pleased.
Of course, I'm also the sort of person (the photographer sort of person) that will dive the same site over and over. Ask me how many times I've dived the Breakwater in Monterey (popular training site). Go on! Heh heh.
Also a couple spotted morays on this dive, and a big 'cuda. One of the highlights for me was a porcupine fish that was about three feet long. I'd seen these cute *little* guys in the Philippines and the maximum length I saw was about 7 inches. I had no idea they got that big! Our divemaster, Phil, clicked and pointed and kept swimming, and I saw rather large flapping fins and thought "Hmm... snapper?" then went around the bend and went "AIIIEEE!" The weird part, is even on steroids, they look identical and still have that cute expression on their faces that I call *chirp?* Don't ask.
Unfortunately, I dropped by the store on the way home, feeling pretty confident and while waiting for the bus, eavesdropped on two other students quizzing each other. OMG, I don't know anything! Eek! Eek and damn! So I'm studying my butt off now in preparation for a five hour study session tonight which will hopefully cement things before unified. Halp!
Feb 3, 2007
Playing with...
the idea of shorter posts... (what did you think I was going to say?) in the interest, naturally, of being responsible, studying excessively, and getting in as much diving and beach time as humanly possible.
Naturally, the second something even slightly pisses me off, this policy will go out the window and you all will be treated to a dissertation length blog entry and I do thank you kindly for the hits!
Today I finally got to meet with my advisor/sometimes histo prof (they switch around, sadly, since new guy isn't half as good), Dr. Paparo, and Saora is quite right; he does appear to give a damn. Lovely breakfast at the university club followed by entertaining conversation which included his statement that he was trying to force the administration to put in a running path around the school so that we're a bit *less* likely to get hit by a bus (and a guy in Lance aux Epine apparently got mowed down by a jeep that didn't stop and now sports a broken arm; poor dude) and have a safe place to run. He also gave us a bunch of tips on safety in Grenada, which largely revolves around common sense, as well as a few places to NOT be (for the girls, though probably the guys as well, Fish and Chick seems to top the list).
He even drove us back to True Blue so we wouldn't have to wait for the bus. Cool guy. I think he finally takes back over the histo lectures this week which means it'll be easier to stay awake.
Apparently the rainy season has started early in Grenada, though I'm currently observing it from a choice vantage point in my dorm's study lab rather than swimming, er, walking through it grasping my books for dear life as I had the distinct pleasure of doing last night.
So I have little to report because I've pretty much been either sleeping or studying all day. Wanna know about basophilic white blood cells? They have a darkly staining nuuuuucllleeeuuuus? No? Ah well.
To those planning on attending, currently attending, or whatever though, I again have to say for biochem READ LIPPENCOTT. Read it like a novel, a Bible, a tome of information that will ride you through the bitter storm. Words cannot describe how much I love this book. It may top Stranger in a Strange Land for "favorite" because I'm slowly, but surely, seeing the light.
If only they'd had a Lippencott ORGANIC chemistry, hell, I might be in an American medical school right now... though come to think of it, with the view I have from this window, that's all right with me.
I'm in a state of being slightly behind in embryo in not having studied it, though I fully comprehend what is going on, just perhaps not at a testable level. Anatomy's going to need a bit of catch up, but so far I feel like I'm managing my time all right.
Unfortunately, this is the second week of medical school, and I am well aware that the pace will gradually increase until Unifieds, at which point, someone will fire off a starter pistol, and we'll all wish we were dead.
But in the meantime, I get to dive tomorrow morning, culminating in yet another fascinating day of exploring the human body at all levels, most specifically the one accessed by clicking through lecture slides on my laptop. Am I boring yet? Yes? All righty then. Come to think of it... this isn't all that short. Curses! Damn my technical writing/Annexcafe-induced typing speed!
Naturally, the second something even slightly pisses me off, this policy will go out the window and you all will be treated to a dissertation length blog entry and I do thank you kindly for the hits!
Today I finally got to meet with my advisor/sometimes histo prof (they switch around, sadly, since new guy isn't half as good), Dr. Paparo, and Saora is quite right; he does appear to give a damn. Lovely breakfast at the university club followed by entertaining conversation which included his statement that he was trying to force the administration to put in a running path around the school so that we're a bit *less* likely to get hit by a bus (and a guy in Lance aux Epine apparently got mowed down by a jeep that didn't stop and now sports a broken arm; poor dude) and have a safe place to run. He also gave us a bunch of tips on safety in Grenada, which largely revolves around common sense, as well as a few places to NOT be (for the girls, though probably the guys as well, Fish and Chick seems to top the list).
He even drove us back to True Blue so we wouldn't have to wait for the bus. Cool guy. I think he finally takes back over the histo lectures this week which means it'll be easier to stay awake.
Apparently the rainy season has started early in Grenada, though I'm currently observing it from a choice vantage point in my dorm's study lab rather than swimming, er, walking through it grasping my books for dear life as I had the distinct pleasure of doing last night.
So I have little to report because I've pretty much been either sleeping or studying all day. Wanna know about basophilic white blood cells? They have a darkly staining nuuuuucllleeeuuuus? No? Ah well.
To those planning on attending, currently attending, or whatever though, I again have to say for biochem READ LIPPENCOTT. Read it like a novel, a Bible, a tome of information that will ride you through the bitter storm. Words cannot describe how much I love this book. It may top Stranger in a Strange Land for "favorite" because I'm slowly, but surely, seeing the light.
If only they'd had a Lippencott ORGANIC chemistry, hell, I might be in an American medical school right now... though come to think of it, with the view I have from this window, that's all right with me.
I'm in a state of being slightly behind in embryo in not having studied it, though I fully comprehend what is going on, just perhaps not at a testable level. Anatomy's going to need a bit of catch up, but so far I feel like I'm managing my time all right.
Unfortunately, this is the second week of medical school, and I am well aware that the pace will gradually increase until Unifieds, at which point, someone will fire off a starter pistol, and we'll all wish we were dead.
But in the meantime, I get to dive tomorrow morning, culminating in yet another fascinating day of exploring the human body at all levels, most specifically the one accessed by clicking through lecture slides on my laptop. Am I boring yet? Yes? All righty then. Come to think of it... this isn't all that short. Curses! Damn my technical writing/Annexcafe-induced typing speed!
Oh, hypocrisy...
The following is a list of the school sponsored, approved events involving alcohol since I've been here *off the top of my head*, meaning I'm probably leaving out three, four, or fifteen:
-The Rhum Runner cruise to meet/carry your classmates. Rum was FREE. Water was not.
-Student Government sponsored party the night before the Dean's Convocation
-Stoplight party at Aquarium
-MONDAY night party for the upper termers to celebrate their genetics final. First termers, in an invitation extended at the beginning of lecture, were more than welcome.
-Party at De Big Fish for something that involved dressing like an animal, I think.
-Party at Aquarium by the Caribbean Students Association.
And I think there's actually been about two others, and then there's something coming up where "responsible drinking is encouraged". Monday begins our third week of classes.
On top of this, they sell a good variety of spirits at the student store located in the student center, including Carib, Piton, Smirnoff Ice and a host of others.
Now... I like parties just fine. I like celebratory occasions, and as you know even like to get some variety of hammered on occasion (though not with Jager!). I don't mind the large variety of parties offered because it means I never have to make the decision "ooh, I really should study, but I don't want to miss that party" because there's a party virtually every night, thus I can catch the next one.
All of that is *fine*.
What is NOT fine is a TWO HOUR MANDATORY drug seminar again brought to you, I believe, by the Clinical Skills department, in which we were treated as squalling idiots with a *particular* focus on alcohol abuse, including a sermon by a speaker that I can only describe as yelling at us for forty minutes not only about alcohol, and quite laughably, the environments and cofactors that *create* alcoholics, but inexplicably about premarital sex and his political views that *we* should force all the smokers to the black sand beach and nowhere else on campus and *we* should vote for legislation when we're doctors imposing higher taxes and greater bans on tobacco and alcohol.
Yeeeeeaaaaaaaahhhhh... screw you hypocritical self-righteous assclowns... that was my general impression.
Also fun was that it was also mandatory for vet students who were primarily ignored except for one speaker who apparently was defensive about such a thing and mentioned that the vet students had to learn all the same stuff but on multiple species, something that I appreciate but do NOT enjoy having a Friday afternoon dedicated to listening about. Two hours guys. You know what else was two hours today? Biochemistry. This created a rather significant "importance" gap because I was torn between medical school level work and fifth grade "Dare to say 'No'" campaigns, though I can honestly say that in fifth grade, they treated us with a touch more respect. But what was notable about having the vet students is that the lecture hall doesn't seat that many people, so they got to spend their two hours (since the med students had just had lecture in Bell Hall and had seats reserved) sitting in the aisles. Poor vet students.
We get it. Doctors have a higher incidence of drug use, largely due to stress and availability. We get that many of these problems begin in medical school with the stressors, and they particularly emphasized how stressed med students never feel like they had enough time. I wish I'd had partaken in a beer before class because it would have made me feel more mellow so with those statements I wouldn't have felt compelled to run forward and strangle the speakers.
Yes, as a med student, I do feel pressed for time, which is why I resent having it encroached upon by this sort of self indulgent bullshit.
Plus, the naivity of thinking that somehow these doctors that are going to turn to drug abuse are going to be changed from this path by a two hour mandatory seminar is nearly unimaginable. But the hypocrisy of it, complete with questionaire with things like "Have you consumed enough alcohol to be intoxicated in the last 12 months?" Absolutely. At two of your parties. Do I have a problem, yet? Should I seek counseling? The mind boggles.
Oh, and apparently marajuana is illegal in Grenada. Who knew? Wait... everyone did.
Whew! Sorry, had to get that off my chest. Now, to emulate my biochem professor, to change thought trails, here's a picture of a pretty building:
Since Joie helped me so much with biochem and I needed the anatomy review because I'm kind of useless with the muscles of the forearm and hand, we studied a bit for anatomy and then headed off to wet lab for review. They have really great hours so that you can wander off to lab in scrubs at 8 at night to get some review in with the upper termers. I re-met Tommy, whom I didn't recognize at first (despite the fact that he is quite... well made) because I saw him totally out of context after running into him at the culmination of a SGU sponsored party after which I went to a semi-sponsored weird late night BBQ and met him, but to be fair, he was NOT wearing scrubs at the time. Great tutor though since my brain had the off switch activated and I couldn't differentiate the thenar muscles for anything.
On the way back (at 10), we had our first proper Caribbean downpour, and in the short run from lab to dorm, I looked like I'd been dunked in a swimming pool. BTW, in the Caribbean, there is the light pleasant "Why am I wet when the sky is blue?" gentle rain one tends to associate with the tropics, and then there is the torrential sideways howling wind rains that one from California, such as myself, tends to associate with a *hurricane*, though according to my Trini (Tobagan?) roommate, "Oh, this isn't a storm". Good gods.
There was apparently a party in the letter dorms (there are the superdorms (SD1 etc) and the letter dorms, which largely consists of married people and upper termers), which I didn't attend, but the party came back to SD1 because the letter dorms ran out of beer. Essentially, everyone was celebrating the end of the drug awareness seminar, including one chick who got a 7 out of 7 on the "Do you have a problem with alcohol?" test and got trashed to celebrate. Heh heh, I like her. I wish I remembered her name... I'm not sure she can remember her name. Considering one of the questions involved having a drug/alcohol related sex encounter you regretted, I do want to hear that story! I got 1/7, and felt disappointed. I hate failing tests. I would have gotten drunk to commemorate my lack of alcoholic tendencies, but I have an advisor meeting in the morning at the University Club, and I failed the question about missing responsibilities because I was getting wasted and continued said regrettably responsible behavior. Tsk. At Sandblast (huge drunken university sponsored bash after midterms), I intend to bump my score from 1 to 6. I don't want to go full 7 because I'd hate to show off.
In the interim, look! I finally found a native monkey!
You can tell he's a native because of the Grenadian flag earring. Yea, okay, but we don't have any monkeys on campus (damn school) and all the ones in Grand Etang seem to have bugged off, so there ya go.
-The Rhum Runner cruise to meet/carry your classmates. Rum was FREE. Water was not.
-Student Government sponsored party the night before the Dean's Convocation
-Stoplight party at Aquarium
-MONDAY night party for the upper termers to celebrate their genetics final. First termers, in an invitation extended at the beginning of lecture, were more than welcome.
-Party at De Big Fish for something that involved dressing like an animal, I think.
-Party at Aquarium by the Caribbean Students Association.
And I think there's actually been about two others, and then there's something coming up where "responsible drinking is encouraged". Monday begins our third week of classes.
On top of this, they sell a good variety of spirits at the student store located in the student center, including Carib, Piton, Smirnoff Ice and a host of others.
Now... I like parties just fine. I like celebratory occasions, and as you know even like to get some variety of hammered on occasion (though not with Jager!). I don't mind the large variety of parties offered because it means I never have to make the decision "ooh, I really should study, but I don't want to miss that party" because there's a party virtually every night, thus I can catch the next one.
All of that is *fine*.
What is NOT fine is a TWO HOUR MANDATORY drug seminar again brought to you, I believe, by the Clinical Skills department, in which we were treated as squalling idiots with a *particular* focus on alcohol abuse, including a sermon by a speaker that I can only describe as yelling at us for forty minutes not only about alcohol, and quite laughably, the environments and cofactors that *create* alcoholics, but inexplicably about premarital sex and his political views that *we* should force all the smokers to the black sand beach and nowhere else on campus and *we* should vote for legislation when we're doctors imposing higher taxes and greater bans on tobacco and alcohol.
Yeeeeeaaaaaaaahhhhh... screw you hypocritical self-righteous assclowns... that was my general impression.
Also fun was that it was also mandatory for vet students who were primarily ignored except for one speaker who apparently was defensive about such a thing and mentioned that the vet students had to learn all the same stuff but on multiple species, something that I appreciate but do NOT enjoy having a Friday afternoon dedicated to listening about. Two hours guys. You know what else was two hours today? Biochemistry. This created a rather significant "importance" gap because I was torn between medical school level work and fifth grade "Dare to say 'No'" campaigns, though I can honestly say that in fifth grade, they treated us with a touch more respect. But what was notable about having the vet students is that the lecture hall doesn't seat that many people, so they got to spend their two hours (since the med students had just had lecture in Bell Hall and had seats reserved) sitting in the aisles. Poor vet students.
We get it. Doctors have a higher incidence of drug use, largely due to stress and availability. We get that many of these problems begin in medical school with the stressors, and they particularly emphasized how stressed med students never feel like they had enough time. I wish I'd had partaken in a beer before class because it would have made me feel more mellow so with those statements I wouldn't have felt compelled to run forward and strangle the speakers.
Yes, as a med student, I do feel pressed for time, which is why I resent having it encroached upon by this sort of self indulgent bullshit.
Plus, the naivity of thinking that somehow these doctors that are going to turn to drug abuse are going to be changed from this path by a two hour mandatory seminar is nearly unimaginable. But the hypocrisy of it, complete with questionaire with things like "Have you consumed enough alcohol to be intoxicated in the last 12 months?" Absolutely. At two of your parties. Do I have a problem, yet? Should I seek counseling? The mind boggles.
Oh, and apparently marajuana is illegal in Grenada. Who knew? Wait... everyone did.
Whew! Sorry, had to get that off my chest. Now, to emulate my biochem professor, to change thought trails, here's a picture of a pretty building:
Since Joie helped me so much with biochem and I needed the anatomy review because I'm kind of useless with the muscles of the forearm and hand, we studied a bit for anatomy and then headed off to wet lab for review. They have really great hours so that you can wander off to lab in scrubs at 8 at night to get some review in with the upper termers. I re-met Tommy, whom I didn't recognize at first (despite the fact that he is quite... well made) because I saw him totally out of context after running into him at the culmination of a SGU sponsored party after which I went to a semi-sponsored weird late night BBQ and met him, but to be fair, he was NOT wearing scrubs at the time. Great tutor though since my brain had the off switch activated and I couldn't differentiate the thenar muscles for anything.
On the way back (at 10), we had our first proper Caribbean downpour, and in the short run from lab to dorm, I looked like I'd been dunked in a swimming pool. BTW, in the Caribbean, there is the light pleasant "Why am I wet when the sky is blue?" gentle rain one tends to associate with the tropics, and then there is the torrential sideways howling wind rains that one from California, such as myself, tends to associate with a *hurricane*, though according to my Trini (Tobagan?) roommate, "Oh, this isn't a storm". Good gods.
There was apparently a party in the letter dorms (there are the superdorms (SD1 etc) and the letter dorms, which largely consists of married people and upper termers), which I didn't attend, but the party came back to SD1 because the letter dorms ran out of beer. Essentially, everyone was celebrating the end of the drug awareness seminar, including one chick who got a 7 out of 7 on the "Do you have a problem with alcohol?" test and got trashed to celebrate. Heh heh, I like her. I wish I remembered her name... I'm not sure she can remember her name. Considering one of the questions involved having a drug/alcohol related sex encounter you regretted, I do want to hear that story! I got 1/7, and felt disappointed. I hate failing tests. I would have gotten drunk to commemorate my lack of alcoholic tendencies, but I have an advisor meeting in the morning at the University Club, and I failed the question about missing responsibilities because I was getting wasted and continued said regrettably responsible behavior. Tsk. At Sandblast (huge drunken university sponsored bash after midterms), I intend to bump my score from 1 to 6. I don't want to go full 7 because I'd hate to show off.
In the interim, look! I finally found a native monkey!
You can tell he's a native because of the Grenadian flag earring. Yea, okay, but we don't have any monkeys on campus (damn school) and all the ones in Grand Etang seem to have bugged off, so there ya go.
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