Friday, April 26, 2002

Right now I am on the verge of emailing the course director to proclaim my love. Because of the horrible way the questions were written by one of the profs, I had previously told a few people that I felt the desire to hurt him (I was honoring the test until his questions came along). Well, after careful reconsideration of the whole issue, they decided to accept multiple answers for a few of the questions. And I, for once, was able to benefit (well, technically I benefitted from similar situations in other classes but I'm not as lucky as many other students). So according to my score sheet that they xeroxed unscored by the scantron machine, I have honored a physiology exam. And of course, the question I challenged wasn't accepted and Dr. Mitchell didn't really explain why but since I'm overjoyed at the gain of 3 points, I don't care. Nor do I have the time or energy to really fight that challenge. Yippee! Now I have to get my butt in gear and prepare for my neuro exam. I'm so happy! I think maybe I'll just go talk to Dr. K though I'm sure he knows he's made many of us happier as we prepare for our neuro exam.
~me~ at 2:04 PM

Thursday, April 25, 2002

Why is it that the most basic things that we need are the most expensive? For example, I bought a cable modem and will be buying my wireless router for a total cost of $220 (I saved $$ from my loans over this past year) yet to get a decent mattress set (getting a queen sized bed for resale value) it costs at least $400. Or at least those are the cheapest prices I found online. they also sell twin beds online for a lot more than I paid for my last one a few years back. I doubt the technology of mattresses has changed drastically to cause an increase in prices but the prices I saw were shocking! I only paid about $160 for my twin set and that included a free delivery from Portland to Eugene! The lowest price I found was $200 something because you have to buy the mattress and box spring separately and each costs about $130. And that didn't even include the frame that costs an additional $20-$40! I know I can get a much better deal by going to the stores but since I'm supposed to be studying hard for my neuro final, I can't go window shopping until Monday. I'm going to see if I can buy it now and have them deliver it at the beginning of June when I move into my new home (that's what I did when I bought my last bed). My roommate doubts my ability to find a good mattress at a low price. It may cost me to drive around town but I'm determined to find a great deal! Plus, half the fun of bed shopping is to lie on the beds and jump around on them to test them out! This sounds silly but I enjoy lying (I don't know which spelling is correct so no comments) on the really expensive beds to motivate me to work harder so that many many many years down the road, when I have the $$, I can buy a bed like that one. Sort of like looking at the best of anything. It makes you dream. Then you realize how far away that goal is and what you must do to get there. I also would love to be able to design my own home or at least specify features and let the architect use his imagination. For example, I want to have a moon roof (not open air but a big window in the ceiling) in my bedroom that has a cover to it so on beautiful nights, I can open it up and go to sleep sort of under the stars and on nasty nights when it's rainy, I can close it. I think it's odd that I have these dreams requiring tons of money yet I'm not interested in the big money fields of medicine that would fund such dreams. Hmmm...I guess I'll just buy a prefabricated home and buy a tent to sleep outside when the mood strikes me.
What else...oh I'm the treasurer for the Family Medicine Interest Group. Apparently in addition to money we get from the Medical Student Government, we also have drug money. Some drug company will give us so much money and all we need to do is fill out some form. But since it is drug money, the goal is not to use it unless we run out in the end. Most of the budget is to fund lunch meetings since the only way to get lots of students at the meetings is to have food...or a great speaker. So my job is to look at this year's budget and propose a new one for next year. And then fight to the death with the treasurers of the other groups to get all the money we want.
Oh I also almost found a Dr. that has a clinical study I wanted to try and get involved with. There's a Dr. at LSU medical center that runs a pediatric obesity study/program. I was so excited but then I found out that these kids need to pay $950 to participate and insurance won't cover any part of it. So basically, only the rich fat kids can participate. I'd rather be involved with something that is affordable for most people or even the kids on welfare. Alright, I'm going to study neuro. It's actually quite interesting.


~me~ at 7:00 PM

Wednesday, April 24, 2002

So it doesn't seem possible to add old dates to this system. Actually, there might be a way, but it's not worth the effort to find out. I'd rather hang out with friends, watch tv, go shopping, etc. Oh well...time for bed. I'm tired. I finally got started studying for neuro. Hmmm...at 4 points per lecture I wonder how much I need to know from each lecture. Last time they seemed to stress generalities in lecture yet they tested on some details. Okay, those were important details but since most of the class neglected to learn those details, the questions got thrown out and now they are magically appearing on this exam. aka free points because they told us the questions and the answers and they don't rewrite the question, they just reprint them! Ah gotta love the neuroscience director! She anticipates challenges and just gives everyone credit for questions that many people got wrong so she doesn't have to listen to us gripe over details...I guess the biochem and physio course directors enjoy seeing our creative sides. I have challenged a few questions but unlike my classmates who get the confusing and challenging ones wrong, I have the bad luck of getting the easy ones wrong (stupid mistakes usually or overanalysis) and finding the obscure ones easy and understandable. In other words, I have yet to get credit for a challenge I submit. I am mad though because I was doing incredibly well on the physio exam (I was honoring it) until I got to this one page of 5 questions and I only got 1 right (I dropped to high pass)! Pathetic! But then I was talking with the course director and he said that only 12% of the class got one of those questions right! I wasn't one of them. So anyway, since he noticed that many students are in my position (excellent performance except for that string of questions), they're going to evaluate the questions and maybe give everyone credit for some of those questions. With my luck, it will be questions I got right anyway. That's what happened for most of the challenges in the past. Bed time! Good night!
~me~ at 12:32 AM

Tuesday, April 23, 2002

Yeah! Three exams done and one to go! So to celebrate the fact that procrastination didn't harm me (I did better than on the past 2 exams for both biochem and physio), I procrastinated yesterday by watching "Snow Falling on Cedars" and doing laundry. And I procrastinated today by watching "The Piano" and working on my website. But now I'm starving so I'll write more later!
~me~ at 7:40 PM

Sunday, April 21, 2002

Studying for physiology...well, I guess since I'm typing this I'm not technically studying right this minute but if I didn't take breaks my brain would be fried by now. I hate exams, all they do is make people ugly. Instead of wanting to really know the stuff, we turn into big machines trying to cram as much info in our heads hoping that God went with the top of the line memory chip when he made us...or that he has at least upgraded us over the years. What a geeky sounding statement. Oh well...if anyone is curious about the different types of diarrhea and how you can give it to your enemies, come talk to me. Sadly, I know more about that than what's happening in the world around me...by the way, are we still at war? Thanks to MJ, I now have a new way to procrastinate...as if I needed help in the procrastination department! Mom, don't worry, I'm passing my classes (final grades yet to be determined). As more evidence of my dorkiness, I'm taping two shows on TLC right now. One is about finding the garden of eden and the other is about finding the real Eve using molecular biology techniques and other stuff. And to further the dorkiness, I'll admit that I love TLC. They have the best shows. My favorites are Trading Spaces (Mat got me hooked on that show), The Baby Story (the best ones are people who foolishly choose not to use drugs to dull the pain...Ouch!), Trauma:Life in the ER (hey I may be on it someday when they shoot at Charity ER), and Maternity Ward (they show the real stuff not seen on the baby story). Alright, I better go back to learning about how my kidneys make pee since I can feel my mom cringe at the thought of how much time I have spent on this rather than studying. Sometimes, it's just too easy to get my mom to react that it's fun!
~me~ at 7:58 PM