Jetsetter (?)

In One Ear - Cage the Elephant

It is 4:25 pm. It's getting dark already. It's disconcerting.

I leave tomorrow and I am mostly ready. There are a bunch of little bitty things that still need to be done, like washing out that empty thermos that's been lying in the corner for weeks...I have to check my status pages at all the schools and hope that they don't call me until Jan 14th. Oh, and I need to (figure out how to) change my voicemail message thingy. I need to watch all of the videos that come up when you search "traveler's spanish" on youtube.

I will have reasonable internet access but will probably not be blogging. However, there is a group blog...link will be posted on facebook shortly.

I am currently going through a pop-culturally delayed "your mom" joke phase. If you say anything to me, I am likely to respond with "just like your mom" (or yo mama or even y tu mama tambien)(much too lazy to look up the accentos).

I went to an extremely intellectual dinner party yesterday. Almost everyone in the "kids' room" was a banker (...), med student, dental student, health policy student, or sibling of a Rhodes Scholar. We watched She's the Man, discussed Justin Bieber, and debated the merits of the Princess Diaries I vs. II.

In two days, I will have been on seven planes in the last two months.

I've been fervently wishing for 2011 for a long time. See y'all then.

Still coffee and neuroscience

Over - Lindsay Lohan

(I've given up on Miley and needed another hapless starlet to hang my hopes on, so it's back to the Lindsay bandwagon)

(she's only HUMAN you guys)

(and that video is drama. Go on, click on it.)

Speaking of things being over, I have received two rejections and two "silent rejections"...#terminology

One of the schools supposedly gives post-interview decisions on the 23rd of every month. Do you think they'll be working the day before the day before Jesus Day?

Remember when this blog used to be about (read: link to) important things? but now it's just about me. I'm sorry. School does this to me. Also KK takes every other week off, and the things she does write are barely even amusing anymore.

And DADT got repealed and T-Paw is leaving soon so like..what can I even complain about?

Um, two finals left..but like, they happen every few months. I don't know why this surprises people.

Coffee and neuroscience

Blue Blood Blues - The Dead Weather

5 days until school is done.

9 days until Peru.

Good morning.

UPDATE @5:14 pm: I am currently wearing a turban. I made it myself by wrapping a scarf on my head. If someone could please buy me a giant hair bow to go with it, that would be just lovely. (The black one, plsthks.)

Meredith is coming back soon and she is bringing me lots and lots of PANTS.

David is also coming back soon, but I am pretty sure he is not bringing me any pants.

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here

Sweet Disposition - The Temper Trap

(yes, you can make fun of me for posting musicalish things)

The next 24 hours have so many different things I need to do/study/practice/memorize that it is physically impossible for me to do it all. Having accepted this, I feel very calm and not like it's "finals week". Anyway, it will all get done--it always does, somehow.

On a semi-related note, how do people lose weight when they're stressed? I'm a stereotypical stress eater. It is 8:30 am and I've had two breakfasts, too much coffee, and oreos and m&m's.

Sometime between 8 and 8:15, my lab presentation turned from a complete joke into something semi-legitimate....what. Oh, and the melanopsin lecture yesterday. It was brilliant. It was a thesis defense and I was amazed that the grad student was such a good lecturer/presenter that I was able to follow the entire time, and I feel like everyone got something meaningful out of it, from her non-scientist family members to the department heads. It was the most jam-packed defense I've been to, too; not surprising when you consider that she has already published two (three?) papers in prestigious journals and basically single-handedly figured out the subtypes of intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells.

And, they served really good wraps.

Here is a picture of a pirate.

We need to talk.

Dear Pubmed,

I love you, I really do. I spend more time with you than with Google or Wikipedia, and that's saying something. But I just... I just need a break. Your uniformly bolded titles and neatly organized (and always relevant!) "Relevant citations" section are starting to imprint permanently into my retina. The thing is, science is complicated. I know that. But do you really have to reveal how little I know after keystroke? Every time, Pubmed? It's a little insulting. Could you please just pretend that I know something meaningful once in awhile?

The last straw was when I was about to turn in my gigantic term paper, did a quick search to confirm something, and found that an article has just been published that topples the fundamental concept underlying my paper.

What do you mean, fractalkine and CX3CR1 aren't monogamous?!?

Ignorance is bliss, Pubmed. I think you and I should make like fractalkine/CX3R1 and see other chemoki-- I mean, people for awhile.

Please don't take this personally.

Sincerely,

A tired science student

Almost there

The title of my term paper is "Fractalkine signaling in the development and initial maintenance of chronic pain" and it is...a pain.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you. I'll be here all week, and probably the next week.

Also, Cordelia is not cooperating, and my mother's computer and I don't really get along...there are bunnies on her desktop, and there is no backspace button.

A means to mighty ends

A bit of background information is in order. Many med schools are currently in a state of curriculum flux. It is not unusual to hear an admissions rep refer to it as "transitioning". Anyhow, this last one is changing in a rather different way from most. With that out of the way I now present to you a special reversed and non-fake edition of question-and-answer.

Q: Can you tell me more about the curriculum change? Why is the basic science stage so much shorter than at other schools?

A: We basically took all the redundancies- and scrapped them.

Boom.

I want to go to there.

Favorite interview day. First off: three hours, in and out. This was great because as much as I'm used to a long school day, one of these things going for 8 hours or whatever is extremely tiring.

Also, in researching this school I noticed how many absolutely innovative ideas come out of that place every day- whether it's a truly groundbreaking way of educating or internal efforts to make healthcare more affordable.

Oldest public hospital in the country. "Pre-revolutionary"--as in the war.

The first ambulance. (It was a horse-and-buggy affair.)

I teared up during the tour...twice. I'm not even sure why. #goingcrazy

Hopefully no one noticed...

Also they had really delicious sandwiches...

I really hope they let me in. It will be hard to hide my disappointment if they don't.

Also I'm kind of over airports now...too bad I have to go to another in less than three weeks...wait, WHAT?!

Me: Well, when it comes to chronic pain treatments, it was hoped that the human genome project...

Interviewer: Now that was a pain, wasn't it?!

"Prometheus, teacher in every art, brought the fire that hath proved to mortals a means to mighty ends."

--Aeschylus

"When an axon of cell A is near enough to excite cell B and repeatedly or persistently takes part in firing it, some growth process or metabolic change takes place in one or both cells such that A's efficiency, as one of the cells firing b, is increased."

--Hebb's postulate, describing activity-dependent synaptic plasticity

the Arthur theme song - Ziggy Marley

Kal Ho Naa Ho - I love this song, okay? don't judge me.

Silly rabbit

Shelter - the xx

Recently it was suggested to me that I go into psychiatry, something I've never considered. I've never even taken a psych class. But I think my mother would be upset if I became a psychiatrist.

To do: Obtain a pizza permit.

Also...why hasn't Fergie done another solo album? Just wondering.

Okay, I really hope the last few hours fill my application-related depression quota for the week... because I am going to be CALM for this one.

CALM!!1!

this is working.

Circadian rhythm

We survived November. High five y'all.

I think this is Thoughtful Discussion Week. A deconstruction of abortion law on the connector (probably not the best place...) with fellow TA (happy birthday Ali!).

[Side note: I was telling my lab TA about one of the hospitals I toured on Monday. The women's hospital is ultra-swanky and has birthing suites with room service, and you can request a view of the lake. For you know. If you want to look at the lake while giving birth. Anyway the TA laughed and said something like, "...as if I was ever going to give birth anyway." And I kind of stared at her. And she continued, "Well I might consider adopting someday. But giving birth myself, no. Never."

Okay. I'm not sure why my reaction was to quickly look around to see if anyone else had heard her. And just being a little shocked that she shared that with me. I guess I just assumed that people who reject the "be fruitful and multiply" dogma would feel compelled to hide it or be apologetic about it; she was neither. And that is frickin amazing and caught me absolutely off guard. I tried to make a joke about how frank she was being and failed miserably and quietly went back to my microscope....well handled, self. I really hope I didn't make her feel awkward.]

Also a convo with a fellow Peru-tripper about our experiences with crazy pre-meds and how incredibly insensitive some of them are. And I was more than a little self-righteous, I'll admit, in telling her that those ones never get "there" (or at least, I have only seen very calm and articulate and kind people there). It was really more about the culture of ridiculousness that surrounds this whole process. There is a whole industry of companies that prey on terrified high schoolers and college students---you have to take X course to get Y score on section Z and you have to have an interview coach and have your essays proof-read a year ahead of time. And the student groups. Let's not even talk about the student groups.

Also, I think there will soon be a discussion of New Atheism. And I almost picked a fight with Zach about birds, but someone else did it for me, and better than I would have.

Now playing: Shots shots shots shots shots shots, etc. I'm not sure why this is happening.

Also if somebody could remind me to go to that lecture on melanopsin...that would be great. One chemical that's possibly the key to our mental, emotional, hormonal responses to day and night. Wheee. And, there will be cookies.

Umm, please read this. I went through the 3D scanning thing, but then they still had to give me a "pat down" since there was a zipper on my shirt. The pat down consisted of confirming that there was, in fact, a zipper on my shirt.

Third one was tricky. I'm not sure how it went. But, fourth one's the charm, right?