Genius

I'm a great fan of evolutionary logic-based thinking.

Doctor Mama wrote I great post about why the world is becoming fat. I've been preaching the same exact thing ever since I took Gen BioII and I'm glad to see that I'm right. (or that someone at least agrees with me)

I have to give props though. She does a much better job explaining it than I do.

Encounters

During the summer I work at a community park, which consists of a tennis center, platform tennis courts and mini-golf. Today, I was fortunate to get to open at 7AM. Normally I close and I prefer this since I'm a night person, but I owed someone a favor.

Around 11AM I saw some people walking over to the picnic tables with food and after a while it clicked that we had a birthday party this morning. Okay, whatever, not a big deal. A birthday party doesn't really involve me doing anything extra. I moved to the mini-golf hut and prepared to be bombarded by 5 year olds looking to play some mini-golf. I then see a car driving through the park towards the mini-golf hut, which is a little unusual since cars don't drive through the park. As the person got out of the car I immediately recognized the person as a patient I had recently met while shadowing. The party ended up being for his son.

Later on in the day he came up to ask for a club and ball for his son and I definitely thought he gave me a look like "hmmm... I feel like I've seen you somewhere," or "oh, this is the guy at the doctor's office. I wonder if he remembers me?" But regardless, there was a look. In my head I questioned whether to say hi and explain where he knew me from, but there was always the chance that there was no look at all and I was just being weird like usual. That time I let it go and didn't say anything.

I then talked with my co-worker about how I knew him but didn't know if he recognized me. I mean I don't think I even said anything in his presence during his doctor visit. She, like always, said that it would be weird if I said something and that it would probably go against some patient confidentiality thing. I told her she was nuts and it wasn't like I was announcing to the world what he went to the doctor for; which, by the way, was absolutely nothing embarrassing. Although, I did learn some supplementary private information about him, but I wasn't going around saying, "Hey! You're the guy who (insert private matter here)!" I ended up deciding that if I saw him again I would say hi.

He ended up being the one that came to pay for the party. Once again, I thought I saw a look like he knew me from somewhere. So, I said, "Are you wondering where you know me from?" His answer was kind of a vague yes/no thing, like as soon as a mentioned it he realized he knew me. Then I just told him that I was the student interning with the podiatrist. He immediately remembered me and we had a little chat, which didn't include anything about his health.

Afterwards, like usual, I felt like a moron for saying anything. But if he did recognize me and I didn't say anything then I didn't want to be that guy who can't remember a recent patient's face.

Question for the readers:
What would you have done in that situation?


Once again I make a big deal about nothing.

An Announcement:

I feel I should take this time to make something clear to everyone.

I am perfectly aware that TV doctor world is NOTHING like real doctor world. I've shadowed a few medical professionals in different areas. (Although they were all private practices) And I can honestly say that I think I have a good idea of what the real medical world looks like.

When I read the blog post that Intelinurse left (http://www.mylifemypace.com/2006/07/24/so-why-do-you-want-to-be-a-doctor-part-2/) I must say that I was quite humiliated. This is definitely how my entire blog comes off and I really want to do something to fix it. I don't think I want to do anything like changing the name of the blog, because it seems that I may have started to become popular. (5 post! 4 from people I don't know!) So instead, I think we're going to see a change in the subtitle and “About” section of the blog.

It also seems that people are quite worried that I really will/want to turn into House. Fear not. I'm way to big of a tool to ever become such a jerk. But I'm not gonna lie. In person I can be extremely opinionated and almost stubborn about my views, but that has never stopped me from doing whatever people ask of me. :-/ I’ll try to give you all a nice image of what my real personality is like, in terms of TV characters, of course.

Opinionated like Gregory House
Passionate like John Carter
Tool bag like Mark Green
Pussy like George (God, please don't set me up with any weird fat chicks.)

I'll finish this post with an excerpt from a letter of recommendation about me: (Read as: shameless pat on the back)

"Dr. Wannabe is inquisitive and witty ... When he accompanied me into patient visits he was professional, friendly, and most importantly compassionate. Dr. Wannabe has a wonderful bed-side manner which is naturally soothing and put patients right at ease."
- Super nice P.A. who I shadowed

Let me once again assure you that my reasons for going into medicine are for real. When I first went into college I was undeclared between pscyh and bio, and chose bio because is was really what I loved. I then decided at the end of freshman year that I would bite the bullet and become premed, which I use to think of being impossible. So, I changed my major from Biology to Biomedical Sciences and I have since basically committed my life to achieving my goal of becoming a great doctor in a TBD field that I love. (Leaning towards ER. Post some good ER doc blogs! I only know about Dr. Couz whom I adore. drcouz.blogspot.com)

Name Change?

I was watching my beloved ER Theatre last night, which is nothing more than two episodes of ER being shown back to back. Dr. Mark Green was still alive in these episodes and like usual was being a tool for everyone, losing hair and having relationship problems. Whenever I call myself a tool my friends say I'm just being a good friend. I still think I'm being a tool and they probably think so too. Regardless, I'm watching this episode and I'm starting to think, "Hmmmm, who does Dr. Green remind me of?"

Then it dawns on me. I am Dr. Green, minus the medical degree.

This was a very sad realization for me because I wanted to be the cool Dr. Gregory House, but instead I'm going to be the-nice-guy-who-finishes-last-Dr. Mark Green. I could definitely see myself in Dr. Green's shoes. "Hey Dr. Wannabe, can you do a rectal examination for me?" "Umm, I was just about to go home, but yeah I guess I could..." That's how it's going to go down and now I'm going to cry a little. And I'm probably going to be in the same hair situation as him when I'm his age. Whatever. At some point Natural Selection decided that having hair did not give a bigger edge in life. (This is what I'm going to tell myself and if you try to burst my bubble I will hunt you down.) I suppose the relationship side of life won't be that bad in the long run. Sure I'll go through a messy divorce with my first wife, but that's after lots of hot sex in hospital closets. And then in the end I'll end up marrying a tall, English red head. COUNT IT! And I will then soon after die of a brain tumor... Son of a bitch!

There is also a strong similarity between me and Dr. John Carter. Both are going into medicine because we love it even though we could easily get better paying jobs through family connections. (I'm don't have it to quite the same extent, but I'm sure it's there if it ever got to that point.) That's pretty much where it ends though. I don't plan on having an addiction to pain killers, and I'll be damned if I ever go to Africa to help people. I also don't think I'm going to have women swooning over me either because I look like Dr. Green. I wouldn't be that surprised if I had to help a family member kick a heroin addiction though. (Kidding. Well, half kidding)

After reading all of this I've come to the conclusion that I watch too much ER. Actually, I watch too much TV in general. What can I say? TV is my hobby/passion/heroin.

I'm sure in the future I'll go through what characters I could see myself becoming from Grey's Anatomy. (hint: none of them because I'm never going to have sex in a closet. Oh wait, George made a girl while having sex. We’ve found our winner!)

Let the Summer Begin

It's official. I dropped Physics. That's drop, not withdrawal, which means that med schools will never know about this class. Unless, one of you out there decide to tell them about my struggle with this class. But you guys are my pals. Except the damn frenchman. ::glares::

I don't know what I'm going to do with all of my free time. Probably do a lot of sleeping. Mmm, sleeeeep.

I'm also going to look around to do some more shadowing, hopefully a DO in a primary care field. I want to see what all the complaing is about. Unfortunaly the DO who I have might sights aimed for I've heard is not a social butterfly. Not like he's a mean guy or something, he's just not much of a talker. I'll just have to work my charm, again.

In other news, I also found out that my dorm room was broken down from a triple to a double. Let me explain.

April, 2006: Room Selection Day

My roommate and I were on line to select our room for next year. Ahead of us were a group of guys from the cross country team. They told us that they were going to choose to live in the same housing area that we were going to choose (8 person townhouse) and told us they would have an extra room to live in, if we so choose. Since my roommate is teammates with them and we know they're good guys we decided to live with them. The only problem was that the room that was left was a "build up." A build up is a room where they put one extra person into it temporary and then move the person out of it into another dorm when rooms open up. This year though housing once again had too many people requesting housing so the chances of an extra room opening up was looking slim. The guy who was suppose to room with us looked like the complete opposite of me and my roommate. Basically he looked like a big partying/working out/don't give a shit about school guido. And I'm an expert in facebook judging so it must have been true. All summer I've been checking our housing assignments online and today he was finally taken out of our room! Can I get an AMEN?!

Let's Try to Be Creative

I just saw a preview for this movie called The Prestige staring Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. Who else is in this movie you may ask. Scarlett Johansson and Michael Caine

So what's my beef? Well... Christian Bale and Michael Caine were just in Batman Begins as Batman and Alfred, respectivly. And Hugh Jackman and Scarlett Johansson star together in the new Woody Allen movie, Scoop. A little odd I thought.

P.S. - It looked like a good movie. As of now I'm putting my money on it.

n00b

I'm such a moron.

Last spring the hospital that I'm doing my internship at told me how I'm going to need an up to date physical and general medical clearnance to do my internship. So I went home to get a physcial done before the school year ended, but I never got their exact list of requirements. I told my doctor my situation and he prescribed me a list of bloodwork to get done that would allow me to work in a hospital.

Fast-forword to the lab bill of $1200!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sitting here now thinking about the lab work that I had done and say to myself "WHAT THE FUCK? WASN'T I IMMUNIZED AGAINST ALL THOSE THINGS?!?!? So I check the list that I now have and realize that my physical with the dates of my immunizations covers everything....


I DIDN'T NEED ANY OF THAT BLOOD WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is my doctor an idiot? Why did he prescribe all that stuff. God I was so stupid back then. If that happened now I would have been all over that shit. Oh the stuff you learn with basic life experience.

I'm Sorry

The class and work combination has taken over my life once again. I don't have time to do anything. Well, except for watching 6 hours of The 4400 tonight when I get gome from work. (11.45ish PM)

PS - Physics sucks more hardcore than ever. Today he started teaching us stuff that wasn't even close to being mentioned in the text book.

This is me bitching about stuff

Before the summer started my friends had asked me if we could go up to Vermont to go golfing and partake in other festivities. Since I knew that my schedule was going to be mad busy I never really gave this much thought cause I wasn't keen to the idea of only going for a weekend. Plus I don't golf so I didn't know what I would do with myself up there.

Last week we talked about it more and people showed interest in going and the idea started to grow on me. I idea of trying out mountain biking specifically caught my interest. So I went about getting permission from the parentals and calling family to make sure that the house wasn't going to be in use this weekend. After doing this planning I start asking the guys about traveling arrangements and stuff like that. Now I don't know why I'm so surprised about what happened after that, but people started backing out.

One person specifically had been really pushing that idea of going up for a weekend. This same person backed out and said it wasn't worth going up for just a weekend. Funny... When I said it wasn't worth going up for a weekend people though I was being a killjoy. But when others say it's not worth it it's completely rational thinking. Oh, and there just happens to be a high school graduation party that weekend, and we all know what are at high school graduation parties. High School Graduate Girls!!!! His aunt even told him not to bother staying for the party but why give up the chance at not getting ass from the same girls again this summer?!

Another friend just refused to give an answer one way or the other when he had absolutely nothing better to do that weekend. There was one who wouldn't ask for time off from his job but it's only his second week working there so I won't bust on him.

I've basically given up on the idea of going up and it will be close to impossible to get me to want to go up again before ski season. Sucks for them.

I'm trying to find other things to do with my weekend since I don't really want anything to do with my friends right now. I asked my NJ friends from school if anything was going down, but he claimed that nothing was happening and that he had work. Last time I checked that's the answer he's had for every time I've wanted to come visit, and every one of those weekends he got shit faced. But when certain other people go to visit there is a huge celebration, which no one bothers to tell me about.

This is basically the story of my life. I go to great lengths to set up trips and good times but things never work out because people are jerks. Then when other people decide to do stuff I'm never thought of. Nice guys finish last? You're dead right.

w00t!

I PASSED PHYSICS!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got a C+ in the class and it's the most excited I've been in a long time. I realize that this is the opposite direction that I want to be going with my GPA, but it's dooooooooooone. Kind of...

Unfortunately, I've decided that I'm going against the plan that I typed out for ya'll and I'm going ahead with taking Physics for Science Majors II. I figure if I get the same prof then I will know what I'm going into. If I don't get the same prof then how could it be any worse. (Oh boy, I can't wait to see how fate gives me the finger on this one.) If I get physics completely out of the way this summer it would just make my life sooooo much easier. I get a week off before the class starts. My friend and I are hoping to go to Vermont this weekend. They want to golf and I want to go mountain biking. Hopefully things will work out.

In sadder news I'm starting to think that maybe Primary Care isn't what I want to go into. I'm afraid that insurance problems would suck the joy out of medicine. Errrrrr... I don't want to let the system beat me before I get started. Could I be a PCP but see patients as a specialist also? I'm just going to put these specific thoughts in the back of my head right now cause they're not going to change whether I apply to medschool or not.

Attempts at Disillusioning

Today, I was shadowing Podiatrist and everything went pretty well. I'm very comfortable around him and I'm becoming almost useful. After working with him a couple of times I've realized that the money that he makes is very important to him. At least I assume that because of how much he complains about insurance companies paying less and less for what he does. Okay, that's fine. He's feeling underappreciated and isn't getting out of his job what he thought he would be. Whatever, those are his priorities and things aren't going perfectly.

Deep down I wonder how bad could it really be when you're driving a Mercedes, taking your 10 and 7 year old to Disney/Universal Studios for the 18th time, (No exaggerating. That's the number he told me.) and going out to lunch with your wife to Cheesecake Factory where he predicts to spend about $100 dollars. And those trips to Florida he told me use to cost him about $3600 and now cost in total about $4000. All I know is that if I was living that kind of lifestyle I would be extremely happy with where I was. Now I'm not trying to deny that money is important to me because let's be honest we work for a reason. But the reason I'm choosing medicine is because it's the area that I can enjoy the most while still making a living.

The last patient of the day comes in with her husband who happens to be a Family Medicine physician. FM gives me a weird look and then asks if I was a resident. (I was beyond honored) I then told him that I was pre-med and the first thing he tells me is, "Don't do it." At first I gave a smile cause often doctors will say that kiddingly. But it didn't stop there. Podatrist and FM start venting to each other about stupid patients, liability and insurance companies. (By this point in the day if I hear one more thing about insurance companies I'm going to hit someone.) FM then gives me a scenario that he's currently in and asks how I would handle it. I give my naive premedical student answer that the best you can do is tell your patient all their options and how serious the situation is. He then goes on about how that's how it should be, but isn't what reality is. Now I'm perfectly aware of this and know that you need to watch your back more than that, but I can't honestly make a real decision without some experience under my belt. So after he says, "Don't do it," for about the 5th time I ask him if he's actually serious, because I get the sense that he's not just kidding around anymore. He gave me a straightforward yes, but gives the routine “But if the money’s not important/If it’s what you really like…” support. Podiatrist has told me from day one that if I do end up in medicine I should only consider plastic surgery, cosmetic dentistry and ER because those are the ones that don't have to deal with insurance companies. ER is the only one of those I would ever consider, but as of now I can’t see it being my number one choice.

AHHHHHH!!!! What is the deal with these jerkoffs. I don't want to be an asshole and just say to them, "I'm not in it for the money," because then it'll sound like I think they're shallow. I really don't think that of them. I just think that they probably should have chosen a better profession to make big bucks. Next time I see Podiatrist I'm going to man up and ask him how he chose his profession. I'm also going to ask Ortho. what he thinks about his career. I'm going to try not to give up Podiatrist, but I have a feeling that everyone knows how he feels about his job.

I'd also like to get it out there that I realize like I sound way too idealistic about the medical profession. I claim to be immune to the aggravation of "the system," but I know that I will become a little jaded by it all. I expect and accept this. But I still believe that as long as I go into something that I like then that will get me through life. Oh yeah, and I also am not going to be complaining if I make the physician average of $150,000.

I Hate Physics, But MD Doesn't Hate Me.

So, I'm in my last week of Physics for Science Majors 1. I still think I'm going to fail, thus leaving me with some very tough choices in the near future. I really wish that I had known that this school had tight connections to the Columbia School of Engineering and that the class is targeted for pre-engineers. So here are the potential scenerios:

• If I don't get credit for the class then I'm certainly not taking Physics 2 this summer. It's not that I wouldn't be allowed; I just don't know why I would do that so myself. That then leaves me with a couple of options of when to take physics.
• I take it in place of one of my classes this fall and spring w/ Orgo(year long) and Micro(fall)/Genetics(spring). This would then allow me to take the MCATs in the spring and continue with the tradtional medschool application process. But it may be too heavy of a course load. Plus the Physics prof. at my school is a diiiiiiick.
• I take Physics in place of Micro and Genetics and then leave my senior fall with Vertebrate Physiology, Developmental Biology and Micro, and my senior spring with Comparative Anatomy, Genetics and Human Nutrition and/or Clinical Microscopy.
• I take Physics at a different school next summer, which would leave me with that year off after college.
• I take Physics my senior year with the other classes listed above and then end up taking the MCATs senior spring and leave myself with a year without school.

I'm not a fan of any of these choices and I'm constantly praying that somehow I get credit for this class. And I honestly don't know which of these choices I would choose. My advisor would probably play a big role in what I do. If a gun were held to my head I would choose the first option and suck it up.

• If I get at least a C that means I get credit for the course, but I don't think I want to push my luck next summer session. I would then take Physics 2 at my school with Orgo and Genetics. I definitly think I could handle that. I've heard that genetics isn't that bad. This would also allow me to apply according to plan.
• If I get a B- or higher in the class then I would take Physics 2 this summer. I mean if I can get a B- then I guess grades don't mean shit in this class. Plus this would allow me to continue with my ideal schedule of classes.
  

Did this make your head spin? I normally love making these scenerios and scheduling for the future but the idea of not getting credit for this class makes me feel physically ill. Normally I'm all for talking about my classes with people, but I actually refuse to talk about Physics with others because of how crappy it makes me feel. I should know by sometime next week what the plan is going to be.

In other news...

I was telling my friend (whose mom is the office manager at the doctor's office where I'm shadowing) about how I didn't think the doctor liked being shadowed since he didn't make any real conversation. He just laughed at me. I was a little confused and he explained that the doctor isn't much of a talker the first time he meets people. NICE! (no sarcasm) I'm so glad that it's him and not me. I'm just going to have to break out the old charm. I've always had a knack for getting non-talkers to become comfortable and break out into conversation. Not that I think he's uncomfortable. I just seem to be good at getting the ball moving with the mutes.

Today in Physics the professor decided that he was going to give us his sales speech. He was talking about how the school has close connections with Columbia University's School of Engineering and how being a physics major is great. He told us all of this after finding out that the majority of the class was premed. He explained that as a physics major one could still apply to medical school and if it didn't work out engineering could always be a safety net.

Engineering....
a safety net....
You've got to be fucking kidding me. I'd rather drown.

He continued to talk about the program they have where as long as the student has a 3.0 they would be accepted to Columbia's School of Engineering and would graduate with a B.A, in Physics and a B.S. in a wide range of engineering fields. He also told us that he thought everyone of us was extrememly bright and could guarentee us scholarships should we choose to change schools and majors. (I guess 31/60, 41/60 and 20/70 on physics test qualifies me as bright.) No offense, but he was telling this to the people at Duke, Cornell and Boston College. Hell even my school is tons better than this place.

Horrah for Shadowing!

It's amazing that after only about 8 hours of shadowing I feel like I've already seen such a wide variety of patients. I've seen people that have dropped 45 lbs. weights on their feet and breaking every metatarsal. (And not having it looked at for over 24 hours) I've had a little old lady come in with these ridiculous clear plastic shoes that she want turned into customized orthopedic shoes. I've had someone cry once they heard that their shoulder was probably going to need surgery to fix and that is would only be 80% better at best. Then there was the very odd hippie couple that had a million and one questions about a broken heel surgery and then decided they wanted a second opinion. There was the single mom with the baby who had a "bent" wrist but didn't have the insurance to pay. (They were taken care of free of charge.) Oh I love shadowing so much. Too bad that I don't think the doctor feels the same way about someone extra being in his way. Oh well, this is what I have to do and I'm not taking prisoners.

Freaking Global Warming Son of a Bitch

So CNN.com has reported that the world is now the hottest it had been in 400 years and they chalk it up to global warming...wait no now they're saying the past 2000 years. My question is, "WHY THE FUCK WAS IT THIS HOT 400/2000 YEARS AGO WHEN THERE WERE NO CARS?!?!?!?!?!" They say that past warming trends were due to volcanic eruptions and increased solar fluctuation. Last time I checked a volcano just recently erupted and oh yeah there was Mt. St. Helena. Duke also just did a study on recent solar energy intake and it's relation to the recent increases in SST (sea surface temperature), one of the main hypothesis to why we've been having more and stronger hurricanes. Oh, wait a second. Only the North Atlantic basin has had that pattern of hurricanes.... The actual average number of hurricanes has remained constant across the globe. Silly scientist should be calling it USA Warming, duh. Regardless, there was a solid correlation between the increased solar activity and increased SST. But I doubt they're connected in anyway. Oh yeah, and thousand and thousands of years ago (i forget the specific time period name) when the CO2 levels were very high one would think there would have been a pattern of climate conditions that we claim global warming causes now, like El Niño. But I guessed Global Warming has changed it's mind since then since there was actually a higher frequency of La Niña back them.

I'm off to drive my $50/tank car until there is no oil left on the Earth, and I'm going to love every second of it.

Well It's Over Before It Began

Today the Chair of the Environmental Science department at my school sent out an e-mail about how good the Al Gore Global Warming movie was. Well, ya'll don't know this about me yet but I don't buy into the accepted theory of global warming. For a while now I've supressed my beliefs in fear of being blacklisted from the School of Science but this was the last straw. So I wrote a letter about how I didn't think it was fair that the anti-global warming theories are never mentioned in class. The e-mail was respectful and I was "cool." Regardless, I'm sure that the science department will disown me. I probably should have done this after getting all my LoR from them. Oh, well.

Why DO instead of MD?

A commenter asked this question and I felt that it deserved more than a comment answer.

Number one reason why: Because if there were TWO Dr. Gregory House, MDs the world would probably collapse upon itself. I'm doing it for the goodness of mankind.

The first way I heard about osteopathy was from my mom who knew our old babysitter's daughter went to some kind of different med school where she wasn't a MD, but she had all the same privileges. She also mentioned that it might be easier to get into this type of school than an MD. So, I'm not going to lie. The initial reason I was drawn to osteopathy was because it was suppose to be easier. (I'll wait for the room to stop booing and hissing before I continue)

I then did my research on osteopathy to figure out what it really was. What I found amazed me. How could there be this type of profession that was exactly the same as a MD-doctor that so few people knew existed? As I read further about the founding of osteopathy I seemed to agree more and more with their philosophy about treating the cause than the symptoms. Then there was this part that looked a little like voo-doo. OMM. But once I learned more about it it made more and more sense to me. Keeping things in the body in their correct places should help the body run optimally. My dad then told me about this doctor that his entire office goes to for all of their back and neck problems and that they were kind of like this doctor's cult following. Turns out that he was a DO.

Lastly, I feel that the medical philosophy of osteopathy most similarly resembles what I love about medicine. I like that symptoms are seen as pieces of a puzzle of a bigger problem and that it's not always the most obvious answer. I like how osteopathy sees the connection of all the parts of the body and that one part is not independent of another. I know that now a days both osteopathy and allopathy (MD) recognize and address this when teaching but I feel that it's more innate in osteopathy.


Now it's time to get back to Physics.
ACK!

2 Down. 8 to Go.

Physics is going by reasonably quickly. Although, that's not really going to matter if I don't step my game up a bit. I got a 31/60 on my first test. In the other class evidently the class average on tests are like 30% and if you have a test average of 60% you'll get an A; so I don't really know what to expect grade-wise. I miss the days when professor would just make fair tests. I won't say that I'm that surprised by my grade because I really didn't know what to expect his test to look like, but now I know how to study for them. Hopefully this will lead to better grades.

Lab seems to be going okay though. The labs are fairly easy and the computer does most of the work. Plus he doesn't make us write lab reports since we have lab twice a week. I don't know how I'm doing on the questions because he hasn't handed anything back yet.

My lab partner is a pretty good guy. He always seems to know what the deal is with the labs, which is excellent because before we start the lab I'm always a little slow. I make up for it though with my Excel skills. He's never used Excel before and we have to use it for every lab so I pull my own weight. But I seem to have another one of those lab partners who wants to get out of there as fast as possible. Now don't get me wrong I don't like lab anymore than other people but if all we have to do is add a weight to a block then why do we have to fake results? My Chem lab partner last semester was the same way. She was much worse than this guy about rushing everything and freaking out if things weren't moving quickly. She would sometimes want to leave things until next time even though I knew that would just delay us later on. So I being the tool that I am would insist that we stay a little later than the average group and get it done right. Once again though she was a little more on top of what was going on in lab than I was.

Lab seems to be a bit of a weak area for me. My first lab ever was my freshman Bio2 class. That was probably the biggest waste of time in terms of what they had us do. (Stare at a tank with a fish in it and wave pieces of paper at it? Wtf^>!>!) Plus it was impossible to write a lab report for the woman since she never said what we were supposed to explain. I also had never written a lab report in my life before this class and she just assumed that we all knew how to so that sucked. Chem1 lab was just a blur to me along with the rest of that class. I don't remember what the hell happened in that. Bio1 lab I enjoyed but blew at the practicals up time. The prof. had a slide fetish and I'm absolutely horrible at examining slides. Chem2 lab was fine cause I had a good partner. My lab reports still blew though. I really just don't like writing them and put little effort into them. I'm going to have to work on that for next year.

The other day in recitation I was making some small talk with the other premeds. I asked DukeGirl about some of the classes she’s taken. She said the first semester of Orgo isn’t bad, which is consistent with what other people have said also. When I asked her whether she had taken “micro” she looked at me like wtf is micro. Worst. Bio Major. Ever. Then I asked if she had taken Immunology and she said it was a graduate level class at Duke. I’m not gonna lie; that was a little bit of an ego booster for me. BCboy told me that he has taken it and that it was also a pretty tough class for him as well, which also made me feel better about myself.

Tomorrow I'm going to my brother's high school graduation. I was never a fan of his school because it cost so much money to go to but he never did any work. Also he went to school with a lot of uber rich people, which skewed his view of what life is really like. For instance when I told him that I don't plan on joining a country club when I get older he thought I was nuts. I then pointed out to him that none of my friends belong to country clubs and they all live in our town. He's in for a big shock once he goes to college, which coincidently is also my school. I'm so upset that he got into my school I can't even tell you. He's in for a shock when he actually has to do work. I can't wait. Some may think I'm a bad older brother for being happy about the transitional shock he's going to go through. But if you knew him then you would be happy that he's finally going to get slapped in the face by reality. Although, he is going to be a business major so there is a slight possibility that he never does have to do work in college either. (That's a whole other topic for me to talk about one day)

PS - I don't hate MDs. Any remarks made about them are with love. :-)

666-Satan Has Taken the Form of Radians

Today in Physics we had our first test and I have good news. There wasn't any calculus to be found at all!

The bad news: my calculator was set to give answers in radians and I didn't know how to fix that until after the test.

Regardless, I'm pretty sure the way I tried to solve the questions was wrong...Oh, wait this just in: After consulting with my notebook it looks like I was dead on.

Awesome.....Akndlfnasodnfvklwdngbrnw
I just sent my professor an e-mail, but like every time I try to send important e-mails through my school's e-mail service I'm sure it won't really be sent.

Why do med schools put me through this? Actually the better question is: Why do I put myself through this?

I was just reading a blog on my beloved studentdoctor.net about this person who was doing his IM intern rotation at Johns Hopkins and I seriously thought he was going to kill himself because of it. Evidently the hospital was completely ignoring the new work hour regulations and he was working 34+ hours shifts and consequently almost killed someone. From what he said though, regardless of the hospital ignoring the regulations IM is one of the more demanding residencies. I always thought it was the opposite...

So, I pose another question to myself. Why do I want to go into the field that's going to kill me?

Everyone keeps telling that I'm crazy for putting myself through this but what else am I going to do. It's pretty undeniable that bio/medicine is what I really like and I already know that I hate the business world. So that leaves me with.....lawyer? yeah right. teacher? well that's probably going to happen since I'm going to fail physics....screw my med school application...and have nothing else to do with a B.S. in Biomedical Science. (In psychology we call this chain of thoughts the Distorted Thought Process, “catastrophizing”.)

Hmmm, psychology. You see there's a field in which I excel. The only problem is that I'm not terribly interested in it. The science isn't "hard" enough for me. Well maybe when I'm teaching at my high school I'll learn to love psychology and go into that.

Ugggggghhhhhhh... ::breath:: ::play Michelle Branch:: Okay, I feel a little better. The tests are non-cumulative including the final so I'll just start doing better on everything. It's great that all I have to do is say "I'll do better," and it'll come true. What's that you say? That's not how it works? Shit.

On a funnier note I was "that guy" in class today. We were talking about speed of objects in relation to other objects. He had just finished the topic and asked if there were any question.

Yes, I had a question but did I really want to risk him going into a tangent? It may never end... and what about the social repercussions. The class would think that I was "that guy." Until that point of was just the guy who didn't talk to anyone and I was fine with that. (In fact, that's what the majority of the class is. I love it.) But no I just couldn't help myself...

"Is anything in the universe completely stationary?"

And like the dog that chased the cat with the white stripe down its back I realized this was a terrible idea. And whispered to the class "I'm so sorry." Most people just turned around and laughed and one person said "curiosity kill the cat." So I guess I'm no the longer the loner anymore. I'm the cat.

Meow.

I Now Know Why People Hate Smart People

God this class is so annoying. All day the professor just keeps proving all these formulas using calculus. That's great and all but he doesn't do any examples showing us how to use the calculus methods to answer questions>!dflnqwdgfnw;kdgknv

Then in recitation when we're doing practice problems the TA (who btw is a moron) just shows us how to answer the problems using the non-calc equations. So how is someone who isn't use to doing calculus suppose to know how to answer the questions using calc?

The worst part about all of this is that my class is filled with a bunch of braniacs. We have the chem and math majors who get all horny over calc and then we have the girl from Duke who is above memorzing formulas (there are only three...) and would rather just derive the answer. Well that's great for them and everything but once again WHAT ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE ONLY TAKEN CALC 1?!?!?! I feel terrible for the girl who has only taken pre-calc because I don't know how she can follow what's going on in class. The class doesn't even have a prereq. of Calc I so how can they force us to use calc to answer the questions????

We have a test on Tuesday and I have no idea what kind of problems are going to be on it. The TA claims that my professor is an easy grader, but I don't think I buy it. I'm probably just going to end up solving the problems using the equations instead of proving the answers using calc. I mean he's already proved to us that the equations work by using calc so why does he need me doing it? I mean what's the purpose of developing the equations if you're not even going to let me use them?!?!?!?!?

Bah. I'm def not enlightening these people to D.O.-hood because they don't deserve to work with normal people.

They Have Some Nerve

Today I had my first day of Physics for Science Majors at Adelphi University. I was expecting a normal sized class (relative to my school) of about 20-30 people, but nope it's a quite intimate setting of 8 people. No hiding from the professor or even thinking about looking at my cell phone in this class...

The teacher asked each of us where we go to school. There are 3 people from Adelphi, 1 Duke, 1 Cornell, 1 BC and 1 Binghamton. He also asked how much calculus each of us have had and the majority had taken calc 3 and everyone else, excluding myself had taken at least calc 2. So if I didn't feel like the inferior liberal arts college kid to the Duke, Cornell and BC people, I now felt inferior to basically everyone. What are they even doing taking this class. Calculus isn't even a prereq.!!!!! They should all be done with this class. Bastard squirrels...

At least when I told the Chem. major from Cornell that I was Bio.Med.Sci. and the only reason I was taking this was for the MCATs she shuddered with horror.