"Lost"

What up with some guys being super creepy when they drink?

My friend called me last week to ask about this guy I am friends/used to work with. They were at a party together that I couldn't make it to, and she told me he kind of hung around her all night. And he offered to drive her home since they lived in the same area. Halfway of the ride back, he said he was "lost" and suddenly stopped his car in some dark, deserted street (BS, since I've seen him use his smartphone GPS in the car before).

After a few moments of acting lost, he attacked her mouth. Now, she did give in to a little making out with the guy but stopped him from going further (even with his continued attempts). When he finally got her home, he was trying really hard to get her to let him stay since she had said earlier in the car ride that no one was home. No need to guess what he wanted. But she was able to fend him off.

Well the first thing my friend asked me whens she called was, "Does he have a girlfriend?" (and this was before she told me about the whole story). And I answered in the affirmative, and I definitely heard her voice drop as she said: "Oooh."

After her story, she lamented: I just feel so... so..
Me: Cheated?
Friend: No, not really cheated, since I don't really know him.
Me: Hmmm. Used?
Friend: Yes! Used. He kept asking to go to my apartment (instead of his) so I knew
something was fishy.

Yeah, I didn't think that any of my guy friends could be this...icky. I let him hug me last week! He's very clean cut and Abercrombie-fied (maybe that should have been a warning). Not what I expected. That whole "lost" trick? I wonder how many times he has used that on a girl. I feel really bad for my other friend, the host of the party, cause he's kind of in love with my friend. And works/is friends with that guy. Sad.

On Principle

So I got back a problem set from chem today and I saw that I was docked a point (out of 20). Now I normally don't go arguing with TAs or Professors over points because it's a little degrading and pre-health students get a bad rep for point-mongering anyway. But the reason I got deducted was because I had used significant figures instead of keeping a few numbers past the decimal place. Now this professor has never established any rule on sig figs until a student in class had asked him about it right before our first midterm (after we had turned in our problem sets), to which he responded: "Just put a reasonable number, don't round up too much." Ummm, okay, that's not ambiguous at all.

So I brought up my 1 point with the TA and he looked at it and went "hmmm, thats a good point, ask the professor." So I did. And at first, he was like "however the TAs grade should be fair" and asked what the TA had said. So I told him and I tried to explain myself better.

Professor: So you want one point? That will make you happy?
Me: Well...yeah. But I'm doing it on principle, cause I only made sure to account for significant figures based on the information you gave, I was just being safe.
Professor: *looks more carefully at paper* But even if you did do sig. figures, it should be two numbers.
Me: No, the lowest number you have is 0.04 moles.
Professors: OHH, I see what you did. okay. okay. Alright, I agree with you.
Me: *muhahaha in head*

Yes, I do feel vindicated.

The Last Shell

I am trying to study Physical Chemistry but I seem to have no motivation to learn about the molecular orbit theory and the valence bond theory. I hope I'm not the only person who keep forgetting these theories every time they learn it. I know that it's been covered at least 4 times during my schooling: 8th grade science, 10th grade Honors Chem, Freshmen Gen. Chem, and Organic Chem. Oh well.

In other news, my new netbook is set to arrive tomorrow.



Nothing fancy, just a tentative replacement for my dying laptop. Got it for $200 over president's day weekend. Supposed to have a scratch free surface and a waterproof keyboard though I'm pretty sure mine doesn't have a touchscreen like the one shown above.

Call-back!

Well more like an interview-back for the research position. I recieved a confirmation email that they recieved my application on Thursday, and it said that they would contact me the next day to inform me if I earned an interview. So I was checking my email and phone all day Friday. My housemate said that Friday is too early, it'll probably take a week to get back to me, but I still went to sleep a little bummed. But hurrah, I got an interview. They gave me like 50 different time slots to choose from, so they probalbly gave everyone an interview who applied but whatever, I'm happy.

Currently watching: Doc Martin (netflix recommended)

Softness All Around

Went to see my Arab gender professor yesterday evening to discuss my paper. I feel better about my topic and thesis now. Instead of trying to find a pattern among media depictions of Arabs, I am trying to find a "disruption" (as she puts it). I didn't even realize that was what I was doing, but she seems to like it. I also discussed my midterm with her, like what I can do to improve. I explained that I worked up to the last minute and she advised to do an outline. Like actually write it out, not just having it in my head. And to also repeat key words that were used in the essay prompt. The few points that I missed were because I forgot to discuss one facet of the third question in the prompt. She was very nice and helpful, asked me at least three times how I was liking the class. I'm glad I went. She commented that she remembered my essay, and it was "one of the good ones". Her words motivate me to aim higher for the final.
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A little gift from my brother through Kleenex's "Softness worth sharing" campaign, where they allow you to send someone a tiny pack of tissue with a note on the front of the package. I sent one to him for his allergies and morning sniffles and he sent one back to me to for toilet-paper back-up (he knows that my apartment always seems to run low).

Job Fair

Got back my Arab Gender midterm today. I was surprised by how fast my heart started to beat as the professor pulled out the large stack of blue-books from her little suitcase. When she called my name "A!-va" (I still haven't corrected her pronunciation yet), I raised my hand for her recognition and accepted my exam back. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and then opened up the front flap. A-. Whew. I was so nervous because I hadn't taken an in-class essay exam since my first quarter in university, over 2 years ago, in which I did horrible in (and thus proceeded to avoid classes with such exams). The night before the midterm I had become slightly delirious with fear and could only muster about 4 hours of sleep.

The Professor said we all did well, with majority of people earning B's and 11 with A's. She continued that some of the essays were written just beautifully, on the level of graduate students. I'm sure that the wonderful, sophisticated essays were on the Palestine/Israel essay prompt that I purposefully didn't pick, and not on the more easier mother/son relationships that I did choose. But I'm going to go ahead and happily delude myself in believing that that compliment applies to me too.

We finished watching Elia Suleiman's movie, "Divine Intervention", today.


It was bizarre. Beautiful. Bad-ass. It needs a full post.

After class, I walked over to the winter internship and career fair held quarterly in my university's pavilion. I didn't think that many students would attend because of the pouring weather but I should never underestimate ambitious college students. The majority of the attendants were dressed in 3-piece suits or pencil skirts toting around a folder of resumes - totally putting my sweater dress, black tights and empty hands to shame. To be fair, I didn't really go to the fair intending to find some prospective career, it was more out of curiosity and boredom (since class was canceled).

I was surprised to find one internship that I would consider applying to. A paid one at Pearson's textbooks. I know it's completely random of me but it seems so different and unique. The representative, Polly, was really sweet and encouraging. She said that they hired two of the last few Davis undergrads that interned there, comparing my major/minor to a Physiology major who had a linguistic minor. They only want graduating seniors, so I will definitely keep this job opportunity in the back of my mind for next summer.

A page from their little info book about their company:




How can I say no to a Roald Dahl reference?

Steady-state outbox/inbox volume

Finished my research application. It is due at noon. I should not have procrastinated but I could not muster up the motivation to write the two essays on the last page until the last minute. I let my housemate read it before I send it and she said it was "really good"-so I'm mollified.

Right after I turned it in, I saw this in my inbox:



Tempting.

Samtana

Call me a typical fan-girl but I totally loved Glee's Bieber episode. And I don't even like Justin Bieber. I haven't been too into this season but I actually sat through this whole episode. This was totally me after Sam's "Baby" performance:


Maybe I'm into Sam's renditions cause my my conscience deemed him age-appropriate to lust after, where as Justin Bieber was a definite no-go. Anyways, Team Samtana!

RLN: I typed Justine Bieber twice in this post and it was an honest mistake both times, I swear. It was very tempting to leave it like that.

Women in Medicine

The midterm yesterday went well. It was less challenging then what I expected which is good, I guess. I'm pretty sure I got a A. Office hours definitely helped reinforce the material from lecture. So I'm patting myself on the back for trekking out to his office the last two weeks.

After the midterm, around 6, I attended a Women in Medicine panel on campus. It was put on by a medical sorority so a lot of the women were alums, which is great. I met the first medical student I know who has gone straight from undergrad to medical school, no gap year. I asked her when she took her MCATS and she said April of Junior year, which is the latest you can take it if you want to get straight in. She got a 34. Yikes, I can not imagine taking that in two months, nor can I imagine doing that well. She's 25 now, in her first year of residency - family medicine, I believe. She had her first child third year in Med school. Props to her. All of the women on the panel were married, and most had children. It was pretty motivational. The take home message from the panel was not to rush, everything will fall into place. They emphasized that they know it's hard for us to to believe that now but in the end, there is no rush. Hmmm. I'm trying to let that sink in. That thought is battling with my parent's urging to figure out what I want to do and do it quickly.

Halfway through the panel, my stomach started hurting like crazy. Sigh, this is what midterms do to me: stress, indigestion, sleep deprivation and the worst: canker sores from the sleep deprivation. It's usually only one or two sores, but that's enough pain, thank you. Except for the stomach ache, the usual symptoms weren't as prevalent this time around because I managed my studying and time better.

Today was pretty low-key, nothing particularly interesting. My physiology professor is canceling class again. 3rd time this quarter. It makes me completely sad, because the reason for the cancellation is because his wife is going into surgery. I would give up all potential canceled class days for all my undergrad and grad years for his wife to be in better health. But I can only hope that the surgery goes well. Of course he remained perfectly positive and happy in office hour today.

Neato facto from our discussion:

Carbon Monoxide poisoning is a result of Hemoglobulin's high affinity for that gas (compared to oxygen), causing the amount of oxygen delivered to our tissues to be almost none (only .3ml per 100ml of blood from non-Hb bound dissolved oxygen). This doesn't get sensed by the baroreceptors in our carotid sinus or our aortic arch because blood pressure remains the same, making carbon monoxide a silent killer. Ooo, deadly.

Teach-in: Egypt

Part of an essay for my Arab Gender class:

Professor Asad AbuKhalil begins the teach-in with a provocative question that sends the auditorium into mostly silence, mingled with a few indignant murmurs: If Americans says that they identify with the Egyptians protestors, why then do they not protest like them on our American streets?
The self-titled “angry Arab” continues his criticism by exclaiming that the passiveness of the American people toward the Egyptian Revolution extends to the American government. Their mostly ambiguous stance is in actually quiet support for the dictator, Hosni Mubarak, and that such support is both political and race based. He continues that the Obama administration is in compliance with the regime, they want the dictatorship to continue as long as it can for the United State’s own personal gain. This claim sends the older white male next to me to scoff, and become restless in his school desk. Does Professor AbuKhalil speak the truth? Is our government in allegiance with this tyrant? Does our government seek to benefit in some way from keeping Mubarak? These were all questions I have never considered before attending the teach-in.

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Professor Abukhalil from the popular blog, The Angry Arab News Service
The essay is for extra credit. I'm really glad I attended the event. Was surrounded by many cultural/political erudites. A great undergrad experience. Over 300 people attended. One of the professors was actually in Tahrir Square two weeks ago. Some of the fake protestors started physically beating her after she had came out of a building she was doing an interview in but some policemen were able to grab her and hide her in one of their tanks. Amazing.

Hearts

Physiology midterm tomorrow. I feel pretty prepared but I want to look over muscle contraction again and create some concept maps for blood pressure maintenance. I'm really digging this class- the material and the professor. The office hours seem to pass by so fast. He's such a positive upbeat guy. His wife is pretty sick and sometimes he picks up calls during office hours and we overhear him giving the person on the other end an update on his wife, like all the tests that they are running on her. Today, he relayed to the caller that he wouldn't be home to feed his dogs because he needed to go to the hospital. Did I mention that the hospital is in San Francisco? He's been commuting every day after his lectures and office hour. What a guy.

Two cool factoids from our discussion:

Diuretics are prescribed to patients with high blood pressure because diuretics cause an increase in urination. More liquid out means less steady-state volume, or more specifically for the CV system, less arterial blood, which equals less arterial pressure.

The military gives people who are hemorrhaging injections of Sodium Chloride to decrease the loss of fluids. I think he said that the ions diffuses into the vascular system which produces the osmotic pressure to cause flow into the blood vessels from the interstitial fluid compartment, reducing filtration and increasing re-absorption. Neat.

Right after that discussion, I headed straight to my clinic class with my classmate. Preceptor coordinator gave an impressive presentation in all the details and planning that goes in to arranging doctors to become preceptors for the clinic. After that I stayed behind for the Susan G. Komen grant committee presentation. Most or all of the members are leaving or graduating soon and they were looking for new people to continue with the spread of breast health. It sounds like a lot of work but I think that I might apply for a position. The fact that it is paid is a plus.

After that, I walked across campus to take the bus home, there was loud music playing and hundreds of people in line for something. Seeing all the shivering college girls in their not-so-weather proof mini dresses jogged my memory that Snoop Dog was here today for a concert. Lol, I was tempted to name this blog title, Doggy Style, but decided against it. I completely forgot that today was Valentine's day, I thought it was tomorrow. I suppose it's a good thing that this midterm-induced haze has made me completely desensitized to the holiday. Oh well, cardiovascular physiology has already given its heart to me. ♥

Random last note: The Merriam Webster Dictionary site word of the day was "canoodle". Cute.