Once Under the Fish and the Salsa in Wisconsin

Ha. So when is the last time I've posted here? Long, long ago, I think, and a good deal has happened since then. So much that I'm not going to be able to recount it all. I graduated from Penn State last week, and senior year was a bit of a whirlwind for a lot of reasons. The beginning of the year was a ton of classes and MD/PhD applications and interviews and the like, and the end was a ton of interviews and re-visits and thesis-writing and an absolutely amazing girlfriend and friends. The year was filled with wonderful adventures of should-have-been-working-on-thesis-or-math and other unforgettable times with friends.

Graduation was bittersweet; my family got to meet lots of people who mean a lot to me, including professors and advisers and the like, and all said good things. Next year I will be going to Duke University Medical School and Oxford University through the NIH Graduate Partnership Program. (Basically, 2 years at Duke, 2 years at Oxford, 2 years at NIH, and 1 year at Duke, at the end of which I'm a Duke MD and an Oxford DPhil.) So that should be pretty cool. Sadly, the awesome girlfriend and I are going in different directions, so for those of you who don't know, we're broken up now (and on the best possible terms, but that doesn't mean I have to be happy about it).

To people at PSU, or people I knew from PSU or the surrounding areas, I will miss you all very much, I will try to visit, and please try to keep in touch. If you need advice navigating PSU, med-type things, or life in general, or just want to say hi, my gmail address should work forever. This summer I will be mostly in the DC area, but "this summer" ends in early August for me.

In my continuing quest for certifications and the like, my pilot license was delayed by a few conflicts of interest between the plane I train in and the ground, but that should be back on schedule soon, and hopefully I will be a private pilot by the end of the summer. I am an Advanced Scuba Diver, Scuba Rescue Diver, Nitrox Diver, Scuba Training Assistant, and Dry Suit Diver. (NAUI, of course.) And I am a NREMT-B with ACLS, PALS, NRP, and WEMT.

This may seem strangely like a previous entry.

Hey all, so the summer is going swimmingly, and maybe at some point I'll actually update on that. (Short update: I've at least submitted AMCAS at this point :-P) This is just a quick announcement that I'll be teaching a CPR for the Professional Rescuer (this is a Red Cross class equivalent and recognized as BLS for the Healthcare Provider by the AHA) on Saturday September 22 (no home football game) at the State College Red Cross office in suite 203, Glenland building (corner of Beaver and Pugh). I know a few of you have asked about classes like this. This class will include adult/child/infant CPR, oxygen administration and bag-valve-mask ventilation, two-rescuer CPR, stroke recognition, etc etc. Cost is $65 and includes pocket mask, books, and about 6 hours of my oh-so-wonderful instruction. I may be able to arrange some kind of being-my-friend discount if you need it, since the Red Cross likes me these days. (Just for the record, I teach as a volunteer.)

The class will start around 8:30 in the morning on June 16; if you are interested in taking it or have any friends who would be, just let me know and I'll get you set to sign up.

Cheers to all, and hopefully I'll actually post an update at some point :-P

Hey all, so the summer is going swimmingly, and maybe at some point I'll actually update on that. This is just a quick announcement that I'll be teaching a CPR for the Professional Rescuer (this is a Red Cross class equivalent and recognized as BLS for the Healthcare Provider by the AHA) this coming Saturday at the Red Cross in State College on Pugh Street. I know a few of you have asked about classes like this. This class will include adult/child/infant CPR, oxygen administration and bag-valve-mask ventilation, two-rescuer CPR, stroke recognition, etc etc. Cost is $65 and includes pocket mask, books, and about 6 hours of my oh-so-wonderful instruction. I may be able to arrange some kind of being-my-friend discount if you need it, since the Red Cross likes me these days. (Just for the record, I teach as a volunteer.)

The class will start around 8:30 in the morning on June 16; if you are interested in taking it or have any friends who would be, just let me know and I'll get you set to sign up.

Cheers to all, and hopefully I'll actually post an update at some point :-P

Ladies and gentlemen, I have often asked myself, what is the best short expression or explanation of love that exists. I won't limit myself to any particular subset of love in this question, but I will limit myself to a strict definition of "short." Which is that it has to be pretty short. (On the order of a few lines from a song, though it doesn't have to be song lyrics.) Here are some of my nominations. Some of them are silly; some of them may not be great songs or even great lines, but they're at least all kinda cute, and that counts for something. I expect votes and/or further nominations from y'all.

( Nominations )

So it's spring break. I always have a bit of an odd time writing these posts, because I'm not quite sure just how emotive to be. Ah well; how about a summary of events.

Friday 2 Mar: State Patrick's Day; was on the ambulance, was able to attend Shamrockappella in its entirety, then got very little sleep that night. I enjoyed most of the concert, though the Penns have a tendency to run very long shows. Was never a huge fan of Savoir Faire, and that didn't really change that night, but the other groups were wonderful.

That Sunday was the Nickelback concert, which was lots of fun. Finally figured out how to get back up to the first aid room to claim coats. The opening bands, while well-known, were long and repetitive for my taste; Nickelback themselves I enjoyed quite a bit.

This past Saturday night (the 10th) was my sister's Tres Bien ball thing. Imagine a debutante ball but with 90 girls (her graduating HS class). Parts were long and graduate-y (namely, the part where each girl walked forward, escorted by her father, and curtsied to the people handing out the little medal things. But parts were lots of fun, like the dancing with the amazing guy-to-girl ratio :-P I'm proud of my sister. She's going to Emory next year, and I daresay she might even be ready. And she's stayed really classy at a time when that can be hard to do.

Sunday, I helped my dad clean out his office, because he's moving to another room. And he was going through old medical books, offering me some, and reminiscing over others, and throwing others away. It was awe-inspiring, seeing a lifetime of books there, most marked up, most beyond what you would have to study in med school or residency or even fellowship. The thought of trying to learn that much is a little bit beyond me right now. ::sigh:: Hopefully I'll get there. I got a few pretty good books out of the job :-)

Also got a USUHS coin, that says (on the reverse side): "First our patients, then, our peers and subordinates, finally, ourselves." A bit in conflict with EMS doctrine, which is "First, yourself, then your partner, then your patient, then everybody else." Ah well; I've always kind of wondered about that. I think I'd put partners as more important than the patient, because if your partner goes down, who will help you with the next patient? As far as self . . . who knows. Maybe along the same lines as patient? Or partner? Or something? Ai-ya.

Today I visited my high school, which was fun as always. Saw a few teachers I hadn't seen in a while; missed seeing a few too. And then in Mr. Walstein's multivariable calc class, gave a 45-minute comedy routine focusing around college, EMS, and high school life. To which Mr. Walstein (as class was ending) said, "so you all know what he should really do." To which the class replied, "comedy." Ai-ya.

Sleep well, all.

Hi all, THON was a success; raised a huge amount of money, the people I know in it seem to have had a great time, etc. Pictures below.
( Pictures )

So yes; for those who have me on your friends list, you know I generally try to update once a month or so. And looking back, my last update was December, so I didn't even do a beginning-of-the semester post, really. I'll give the short version of life, because news is always easier absorbed in sound bites.

( Winter break )
( Semester )
( Life )

So yes, as I'm trying to cram two months or so into one post, I did leave a good deal out; feel free to ask for details if you'd like them. Wish me luck in my weekend nocturnal lifestyle; I'll try to get back to my oh-so-frequent once-a-month update cycle :-P

Also, if you haven't yet discovered them, the following webcomics bring me joy: xkcd, Dr. McNinja, questionable content, sometimes dinosaur comics, generally ctrl+alt+del.

So enough amusing things happened between Thursday and now that I'll give a brief rundown:

-> Thursday night, wilderness EMT oral final exam. Dr. Logan comes in and says something along the lines of: "So I was making up the way this exam is going to work. I spent hours arranging a matrix of who's going to quiz whom, and room layouts to show how people will rotate, and all of that. We were going to do scenarios, where you look over them and answer some questions. But then I realized, this is kind of pointless. You're basically just moving around playing the guess-what-I'm-thinking game. So yeah, how about I just read through some scenarios, we'll talk about them, and I'll give you all the points." The class applauded, and that's what happened.

-> I didn't really sleep Thursday night, because we had a homework party in my room and then my roommate was studying after that, and I'm weirdly sometimes not good at sleeping with any light. But whatever, I probably got a couple of hours?

-> Friday was a busy day. I woke up early for donuts with the dean (a monthly honors college event thing), then went to a couple of classes, then had lunch, then met with Dr. Cunning and found out that I'm nominated for Goldwater by Penn State. Woo.

-> I stopped by the honors college office for a couple of reasons, and wound up being co-opted into hole punching and stapling to get the huge honors diversity report in to old main on time. Woo.

-> I went to EMT a wrestling match, which was more interesting than I thought wrestling would be. It was fun, and PSU won. Anyway, around 9:00 PM I walked back to Ritenour to drop off my duty shirt, finish paperwork, and leave. When I got there, I said hi to the people on the night shift, and Nina, who is altogether and awesome person, was pale and unhappy looking. She said she had an infection and just started antibiotics that weren't agreeing with her (nausea, etc.). So I let her go home and sleep and I took the rest of the night's shift. It was awesome, because I got to work with Julie, who is awesome and I only get to see occasionally (regardless of the fact that now that she's graduated she's becoming a cop in my home town).

-> Didn't get any sleep on Friday night, because we had perfectly spaced calls all night. All alcohol-related. I stuck around and had breakfast with the oncoming day crew.

-> Saturday morning, I went FLYING! AMAZING! On very little sleep (I wound up sleeping an hour or so after breakfast before flying, so from 9-10 AM or so) I hitched a ride to the airport on the ambulance, and took a 45-minute ride or so with Brad, the guy who's going to be my flight instructor. He's a great guy (approves of my being a physics major and is a Mac guy), and let me fly quite a bit (basically everything between takeoff and landing) which was tons of fun. The plane is a Grumman AA1B, and the instructor said, "This is really really responsive. Some people say that it's dangerous etc etc, but the truth is, if you learn to fly in this, you can fly anything." So yeah. Amazing. I'm taking ground school next semester, and flying a little next semester slash over the summer.

-> I got home from the flight, ate dinner with that day's ambulance crew (completely randomly, because as I was walking home, the ambulance drove by going to lunch, and I jumped in). Then I napped until dinner with friends (good Korean food to say farewell to those studying abroad next semester). Then last night, a brief stint at a Hanukkah party was fun, and then lots of sleeping.

-> Today, some studying, the usual.

Exam schedule: Monday, theoretical mechanics; Tuesday, probability; Wednesday, electricity and magnetism. Home on Thursday night, hanging out with people after that. To Costa Rica (for Biol 499A: Tropical field ecology) on Dec 27, back on Jan 11, and back to school on Jan 14 or 15.

Phew. The LJ post for December is thusly made.

Ladies and gentlemen, happy Thanksgiving. Today I am most thankful for all of you. I have wonderful friends, who give me compelling reasons to live, and I wish a lot of times I could do more for you.

Yesterday I visited my high school, which was nice, and then saw Stranger than Fiction with Brittany & co. I have to admit, Stranger than Fiction was a lot better than I thought it would be; it wasn't Will Ferrell standard material at all. In fact, it's probably exactly what I needed to see in the bizarre state of mind I was in yesterday. That plus driving in the rain and the dark, plus some sleep did me a bit of good.

If I can make it through the rest of this semester with some degree of success, I feel like things will be a lot different next semester. If I make it through next semester, I feel like things will be a lot different next year. And I don't mean "different" like "oh my gosh I can't wait it'll be better," I more mean that it's hard to convince myself to get into too much of a rhythm now when life will be changing so much so soon. Ah well, as I said, I have amazing friends who are good to me.

Happy Thanksgiving, all.

( My current music )

I humbly submit this entry for the Simmons Table Challenge. The group pictured is well-known in the Simmons dining hall, and we generally have members shift in and out during the course of mealtimes. Today, however, many of our proud representatives struggled against foes ranging from personal space issues to chair availability to the Pauli exclusion principle to sit simultaneously and put forth this entry. Pictured, counterclockwise starting at Dean Brady, are:

1. Dean Brady, Fearless Leader of the SHC
2. Laura Warg, with her Hand Positioned for a Roman Soliloquy
3. Jaclyn Kasrel, who is Perfectly Posed for the Picture
4. Brian Finkelman, who Looks at his Food Contemplatively
5. Tausif Khan, who is Hidden behind Cody's Head
6. Cody Goddard, Specialist in Photography and Sleep
7. Elizabeth Kowalski, who is Too Awesome for Just One Chair
8. John McManigle, whose Face shall be Hidden for Eternity
9. Rebecca Patterson, dressed as the Sexiest Blue Man for Halloween
10. Kaitlyn Dalsey, who is the Amazing Pink Person for Halloween
11. Zachary Fifer, who is Eyeing Kait's Cookie
12. Jennifer Clark, who is Chewing For The Win
13. Kim McKitish, Lover of Architecture and Ice Cream
14. John Interrante, dressed as the Baldest Blue Man for Halloween

Today was amazing. Woke up at 8, taught CPR from 9-12, and then came home to prepare for Hogsmeade trip. The Harry Potter club went to Hershey Park in the Dark. You know that feeling, when you're in a large group of people that's just clicking in exactly the way it should? When things fit, and you fit, and life is good? It can happen in all kinds of different situations. I think the first time I felt that was in the sort of "final party" in the summer after 8th grade; that was the last time I saw most of my friends from middle school. Who weren't really friends until late in the game, because it takes a while to develop that kind of thing. And since then, of course, there have been a few more times like that. Many centered around Blair, robotics and sysops and magnet arts night and the wonderful friends I have in general there. And many here at Penn State, be it lighting the simmons tree or running around in the snow or truth games or again just friends being friends. Today was awesome. We ran around Hershey Park, rode roller-coasters in the dark, ate giant turkey legs (delicious!), jumped around and said "bother bother bother" to each other, drove in the dark, huddled for warmth, and filled the park with our calls of "God Save the Queen!", "Huzzah!", and "England Forever!" "And Scotland for a Wee Bit Longer!" People are awesome. HP people come to mind right now, but I have so many amazing friends, I'm just going to take this moment to indulge in how lucky I am to know great people. Thank you, all.

I look to the sea, reflections in the waves spark my memory,
Some happy, some sad.
I think of childhood friends and the dreams we had.
We live happily forever, so the story goes;
But somehow we missed out on that pot of gold.
But we'll try best that we can to carry on.

A gathering of angels appeared above my head.
They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said:
They said come sail away, come sail away
Come sail away with me.

First, let me say that anyone who can identify the subject line without a search of the internets wins major points. Anyone who identifies them with a search gets minor points.

Second, clearly I haven't updated in quite a while, and I give my apologies.

( Class Summary )

( Activities and Schemes )

( People and Plans )

Speaking of postcards, I haven't sent any postcards this year, and most of the reason is that I'm a little shady on a lot of people's addresses. Comment with an address and you will likely get a postcard.

To close, I leave you with three quotes:
A physics professor writing on the board: "Plus. Or, minus, if you will. . ."
A fun, valid English sentence: "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo."

Finally, from House:
Dr. Cuddy: Your reputation won't last if you don't do your job; the clinic is part of your job. I want you to do your job.
Dr. House: Ah, yes, but as the philosopher Jagger once said, 'You can't always get what you want.'
Dr. Cuddy: [later in the episode] I looked into that philosopher, Jagger, you mentioned, and you're right, you can't always get what you want. But as it turns out, if you try sometimes, you get what you need.

"Tell Cosette I love her and I'll see her when I wake."
-- Fantine, in Les Mis

So generally I don't post more than once a month, as you either know or can easily check. But last night I went to sleep at about 6 PM, got about 12 hours of sleep, and had a couple of very odd dreams. They felt like dreams I'd had before, but if I did, I didn't tell myself about them then. And my theatre professor insists that writing summaries of dreams is a good thing, and I figure that one of you Freudians out there might be able to shed some light on my inner psyche ;-) I sure don't know what it's about.

"Go then; there are other worlds than these."
-- Stephen King


I'm swinging on the branch of a tree
With two best friends
(Who don't exist in life, but similarities);
We're going to rob a bookstore.
I break the window, and jump through;
(The store is high off the ground.)
The employees are closing up, but
they seem to be expecting us;
We're doing what we need to do, and they don't mind.
It's an odd quest-ish feeling, and they share it,
So they finish closing up and leave.

We're picking through the booty,
Trying to find what we need,
When one friend, a bit too much like me,
Falls in love with the other, a bit too much like a sprite.
But he'll make a mistake,
A mistake just like the one I made
When I fell for her
In a previous dream
That both of us shared
But was even less real than this one.

So I try to warn him, then to stop him,
And she knows exactly what's going on.
But free will is what it is,
And he makes his mistake,
And we three go our separate ways.
I walk in the rain on the boardwalk,
Listening to sad show tunes.
I pass by a carnival,
and talk to a baseball coach
As I hunt for the sanity that was
Robbing a bookstore
Just after climbing a tree.


"You know that place between sleep and awake, the place where you can still remember dreaming? That's where I'll always love you..."
-- Tink, in Hook

And as I woke up and took a shower, of course, the details faded. But I think there may still be enough there to remember. At the very least, last night, I got 12 hours of sleep and something to think about.

He said I was in my early forties
With a lot of life before me
When a moment came that stopped me on a dime.

And I spent most of the next days
Looking at the x-rays,
Talking bout the options,
And talking bout sweet time.

I asked him when it sank in
That this might really be the real end;
How's it hit you when you get that kinda news?
Man what'd you do?
-- Tim McGraw

I haven't posted for a while, because this has been a bit of a busy summer. And life these days is odd in that some of my closest friends I don't see very often for large parts of the year, but that's something I'll get used to. In any case, that's not where I wanted my story to begin today.

My story begins today on the elevator on my way to lunch. A 40-ish year old woman randomly on the elevator asked me if I was a resident. I said no, I'm an undergraduate from Penn State. (We Are.) She shook my hand, said "God bless you," and told me that she just got news that, 18 months after her treatment had stopped, she was still brain-tumor-free. We talked briefly, and as she got off the elevator, she said she was going to go celebrate. A better reason to celebrate I can't imagine.

( A few other patient stories... )

( My actual research... )


Other scariness comes in studying for the MCAT, which supposedly I'm taking on August 19th. Now that I've learned nephrology and endocrinology, if I learn some embryology, chemistry, and organic chemistry, I should be okay. Four weekends left; here's to hoping.

Maybe one of these days I'll update on the social life of the summer, which includes bike rides with Brittany and Mike Price, fun National Symphony Orchestra concerts with NIH people from Blair, crazy lunches with Sheila et al. at NIH, and of course awesome times seeing Samantha in Atlantic City, DC, and Philly.


Passerby to random gentleman: "I’m leaving my baby in the car with you."
-- OverheardAtTheUofC.com

So on Monday, I got back from University of Chicago, and now I'm to work at NIH. Seeing Lys was very awesome; seeing ScavHunt, well, now I know what she was talking about somewhat :-) I'll withhold any kind of overall summary of the whole thing because, well, it's complicated. I feel like random stories much better illustrate it.

( Stories (with pictures!) )

More pictures are on Facebook. Now that I'm home, let me know if you're around any weekends, etc. In other excitingness, I have patients tomorrow! Yay for Thursday clinics!

So I feel like many many many things have happened over the past month-or-so. And now, lest I forget them, a review:

-> On April 13, a continuing education class on respiratory emergencies, with a fun ER doc from Mt. Nittany. At one point, the doctor says something like "I don't know why you guys can't carry aspirin yet; it even took an act of god before paramedics were allowed to carry it. I mean, they can carry lidocaine, which can stop the heart, but they couldn't carry aspirin. what's the worst that could happen: you give a patient aspirin, and they've never had it before, and they have some kind of hypersensitivity reaction?" So I reply, "that's what we carry epi-pens for!" And he says, "Exactly, you'd have that under control. Now, whether epi is going to do their MI any good is another question entirely," and another guy shouts out, "that's what we carry AEDs for!" And the doctor says, "Yes! It would be the mother of all calls! All those things you never get to use, you'd be all over." Later in the class, we were talking about CHF, and how episodes are caused either by an increase in blood volume (like the ham dinners they like to serve at old peoples' homes for Easter "to reduce the census," as he says) or a decrease in cardiac output. And the doctor asks what will decrease cardiac output. The first response shouted out is "beta-blocker overdose!" The doctor looks at that EMT funny and says "I don't think that's even on the top ten list, but yes, yes that would do it," and proceeds to make fun of him for the rest of the night. A good lecture.

-> On April 19, I had an ochem exam. The previous ochem exam had not gone well for me, so there was much studying involved here. Not much to say about it; this one went well; I'm just putting it here so that you can understand why on

-> April 20, there was a celebratory air (for me, after ochem) at the University Park Airport plane down drill. This was one of the more hokey drills I've experienced, with inflatable dummies, and "transportation" consisting of throwing them over a magic line. I was the intrepid transportation officer. It was a beautiful night for a plane crash, and barbecue sandwiches were served.

-> On April 21, I went to the Nittany Lion Brigade Dining Out with Sam. It was a fun time, and in a throw-back to prom, we got little champaign glasses. And afterwards, Sam got her official introduction to Firefly. So yes; this was a very happy day.

-> April 22 was BioDays. This involved me attaching my homemade ECG (modified to work with a computer instead of a palmpilot) to little kids, and printing ECG's for them. It was also a good time, though by the end, I was a bit tired. But yes, kids generally enjoyed having their ECGs, and looking around the heart room in general, etc etc. Yay for BioDays!

-> April 23 was the LIVE concert at PSU. Free admission if you wear a uniform and a stethoscope. Excellent!

-> April 28 was the biology final exam (which went very well), some relaxing, dinner with Sam and her parents (who were in town for her awards ceremony), and then an a cappella concert. Woohoo!

-> April 29 was EMS bike training (biking down stairs, etc etc), my last EMT shift of the semester (women's lacrosse game, PSU beats JHU), and then the Pennharmonics final spring concert. Sam had never heard the Penns before, and I said before the concert "well, if they don't sing Mr. Roboto, I'll have to play it for you when we get back." And of course, the Penns being the Penns, they lead with that song :-)

-> April 30 was missing the EMS company meeting to study for ochem all day.

-> May 1-5 was the final exam week (though three had happened the previous week, leaving only three for this particular week), and on May 5 I moved back home.

-> May 2 was watching all of Lain. Not sure quite what I think about it. I don't know that anime will ever quite be my forte.

-> May 8 was visiting Blair. Saw most of the people I needed to see, had a lot of fun, and realized I miscommunicated with Ekta about being able to visit Thursday :-(

-> May 10 (tomorrow), I'm off to University of Chicago to visit Lys and Shiela and do some ScavHunting ^_^ Be back on Monday the 15th. Start at NIH on Wednesday the 17th or so.

So, that was an update of updates. I'm glad it's summer, but I wish summer could be something like 3 weeks long before Fall starts again. The beginning of next year will be a lot of fun. As will most of next year, I'm sure.

Fall classes are Phys 419 (theoretical mechanics), Phys 400 (intermediate E&M I), Math 418 (probability), Biol 412 (ecology of infectious diseases), Phil 432 (medical and health ethics), EdThp 497H (leadership jumpstart TA), and Kines 498x (wilderness EMT upgrade).

Life in the fall, I'm quite sure, will be nice. And probably less stressful than life this spring :-)

-> Ai-ya.

-> I built an electrocardiograph. Hopefully that page will become more substantial soon.

-> I have now seen V for Vendetta twice in theatres, which I don't often do, and very much recommend it to anyone and everyone.

-> Some days are better than others.

-> The latest organic chem exam definitely didn't agree with me. I'll need to haul ass on the last two.

-> I don't have bio class tomorrow, as I have a neuro seminar instead, which should be good. Shortly thereafter, my only ambulance shift of the month.

I rather feel like spouting off a lot of random quotes and song lyrics without attribution:

-> "Reason says I should have died three years ago."

-> "I was on this call, and a medic was there. And he had this machine. And it took all the vital signs for me!"

-> "Are you like a crazy person?" "I'm sure they'll say so."

-> "And it's beginning to snow."

Until next month, I imagine.

Hey all,

I don't think I've posted for a while; life has been extremely busy. Last weekend (18-19 Feb) was, of course, THON weekend. For those of you who don't know, THON is Penn State's 48-hour dance marathon. More info is at that website, but the idea is that a bunch of people stay on their feet for 48 straight hours, and through the magic of student philanthropy, that turns into millions of dollars to support pediatric cancer treatment and research. People lose sleep "For the Kids."

Needless to say, I had a kind of crazy weekend. On Saturday, I taught a Red Cross Standard First Aid class (first aid and adult CPR/AED) from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Then I had a THON EMT shift from 2:45 PM to 10:45 PM, then another shift on Sunday from 5:45 AM to 1:45 PM. I have nothing but good things to say about the whole situation, but as I'm not really allowed to make public statements about that sort of thing, I won't.

What I will say is that THON dancers are amazing, and go through hell to help others. They all do it for different reasons, but that just means that we can all derive inspiration from them in our own different frames. The tons of people who support the dancers -- "moralers," security, the OPP people, &c. all do a great job making the whole thing work. And they also lose significant amounts of sleep, and give the whole situation the emotional and physical support it needs. The kids themselves are also great; they know to varying degrees what's going on, and they really show their appreciation for the whole event.

Which brings us to a multiple-choice question: THON is: a) the world's biggest student-run philanthropy, b) the world's biggest dance party / Greek social, c) the world's biggest nuthouse, or d) the world's biggest squirt gun fight. The answer, of course, is all of the above. Those kids are ruthless with their squirt guns :-)

This week has been a lot of trying to get ready for spring break, since there's only one week left and I don't have this weekend. It looks like the only things I really urgently need to do next week are write a physics paper and write up the trip to London. I should be able to manage that, though it'll probably be a long week. This weekend, I'm off to Boston for the NCEMSF conference. Should be a fun time; perhaps I'll report when I get back. On the other hand, perhaps I'll be too busy working. Either way.

( Picture )

Very little to say in life. How about some random updates?
-> Did all right, but not great, on my first exam of the semester (developmental neurobiology). It's that sort of "oh, this is the kind of thing I should memorize" experience, so all-in-all an uneventful thing. Hopefully ochem goes well.
-> I'll get to see Mike Price and anybody else in the Boston region on the weekend of Feb 25-26. Gotta love the NCEMSF annual conference.
-> I've come to the conclusion that Firefly and Serenity are amazing, but I feel very bad for anyone who saw the movie without first seeing the TV show.
-> My parents continue to worry that spending lots of time on EMS will take a toll on academics or socialness. I think my reply, for the moment, is that so long as I have a 3.9 and friends, I won't worry too much about EMS taking too much time up. In other news, I have quite a few shifts lined up for late February :-) The first is a basketball game on the 15th. (Unless I get really bored this Friday and do something.)

Quick entry ahead, ne? Got back last night; took a 2-hour bus ride followed by a 2-hour car ride with my dad. The bus ride was awesome; I always enjoy long rides in the dark, half conscious, thinking about life. And of course, the conclusion I come to is that I've been looking at things a bit the wrong way lately, but what else is new, eh? Glad to have seen it.

Today, slept past my alarm (apparently getting up to turn it off; generally I don't do that whole "don't remember what happened when I woke up briefly" thing at all, but today I guess I did) but woke up around 10:30 and visited Blair. Saw everybody I planned to except Léa (and Otto, who I figured would be gone by the time I got there) and one or two teachers. For the most part successful. And saw Connie :-D and Gannett :-D Twirling hugs for them both! All-in-all a successful visit, though I doubt I'll be going to Iran with Swaney :-(

And tonight, Rent with Lynn and Nick and Jaya and Bill and Sherri and other Nick. I'm incredibly impressed with the movie; aside from one or two very small things, it was very much in line with the musical. The same spirit, the same emotion; I honestly didn't think it could be done, but I think they did it. Wow.

Also, Lynn and I are going to have a baby in about 9 months. And then run around the mall with it. Laughing.