I've been seeing this nearly every other time I reload a web page, for the past two weeks. I have to hit reload 3 or 4 times before the connection actually decides to work.
Monday, December 15, 2008
tomorrow cannot come fast enough!
The internet is really pissing me off right now. I just tried to open a web page, and was greeted with this lovely error message:
I've been seeing this nearly every other time I reload a web page, for the past two weeks. I have to hit reload 3 or 4 times before the connection actually decides to work.
I've been seeing this nearly every other time I reload a web page, for the past two weeks. I have to hit reload 3 or 4 times before the connection actually decides to work.
4th semester student no more!
Today was the final exam for 4th semester (actually, for the whole school, but that doesn't particularly affect me). From what I know so far, I'm not overly happy with the results, but in either case, I'm now a 5th semester student. I actually probably did fine on the finals, but just not quite as well as I would have liked. I'll know more once we get the neuro and pharm path grades back. I still don't know why some teachers manage to get grades out within an hour of the exam, and others take more than a day. They're all scantrons, so they really should be done the same day!
But, I'm off topic. The point is that I'm now a 5th semester student! I remember first semester vividly, thinking that 5th semester was forever away and just wishing that I could be in my last semester on the island. Well, that time has finally come. The new first semesters will be here shortly, wishing they were in my class :)
With the completion of 4th semester, basic sciences is essentially over for us. The only real classes next semester are a half semester of pharm and half semester of behavioral. When you're only taking two classes though (particularly when one is behavioral), it's a minimal amount of work...at least compared to the rest of medical school. We also have ICM 5, but that is intended more as a review, and to prepare for clinicals. While I did think that ICM 2-4 were largely an enormous waste of my time, ICM 5 is almost entirely clinical scenarios, and I think they'll be both interesting and helpful.
For now, it's time to put in some laundry and prepare to come back home tomorrow! There are very few things I miss about SXM when I go home, but among the things that I will not miss one tiny bit is the internet here. It has been particularly atrocious for the past two weeks. I cannot wait to get back to my 20 Mbps FIOS line at home!
Note: I just hit the upload button, to send this to my blog, and I got an error that it timed out, so hopefully it will go up some time tonight. Wow the internet sucks here!
But, I'm off topic. The point is that I'm now a 5th semester student! I remember first semester vividly, thinking that 5th semester was forever away and just wishing that I could be in my last semester on the island. Well, that time has finally come. The new first semesters will be here shortly, wishing they were in my class :)
With the completion of 4th semester, basic sciences is essentially over for us. The only real classes next semester are a half semester of pharm and half semester of behavioral. When you're only taking two classes though (particularly when one is behavioral), it's a minimal amount of work...at least compared to the rest of medical school. We also have ICM 5, but that is intended more as a review, and to prepare for clinicals. While I did think that ICM 2-4 were largely an enormous waste of my time, ICM 5 is almost entirely clinical scenarios, and I think they'll be both interesting and helpful.
For now, it's time to put in some laundry and prepare to come back home tomorrow! There are very few things I miss about SXM when I go home, but among the things that I will not miss one tiny bit is the internet here. It has been particularly atrocious for the past two weeks. I cannot wait to get back to my 20 Mbps FIOS line at home!
Note: I just hit the upload button, to send this to my blog, and I got an error that it timed out, so hopefully it will go up some time tonight. Wow the internet sucks here!
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Religious parents kill their child....again
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=6436872
There are a couple of possibilities here....either they didn't pray hard enough, god didn't care about their child, or they are utterly lacking in common sense and possibly not intelligent enough to be allowed to walk around in public. No matter how you look at it, these two people have murdered their child, by withholding medical treatment that would have almost certainly cured her bacterial pneumonia. Instead of just taking her to the doctor and getting her the appropriate (very common) antibiotics, they opted to put her life in the hands of....well...imaginary friends.
Of course, they are arguing that the charges infringe on their freedom of religion and right to raise their child in their own way. I'm sorry, but freedom of religion does not include the option to let your children die. You may be free to practice whatever religion you like, but you are not free to use that religion to the detriment of others. Children should be given some sort of protection from parents such as these. I use the term "parents" strictly in the biological sense, as they were clearly not functioning as parents in any other capacity.
For more egregious examples of the parents believing they can just ignore reality, here are a few more links:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=5968611&page=1
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/DiabetesResource/story?id=4536593&page=1
The title of the above article, if not so sad, would be laughable. Reading it makes my head hurt. All I can think is, "uh....no shit!"
There are a couple of possibilities here....either they didn't pray hard enough, god didn't care about their child, or they are utterly lacking in common sense and possibly not intelligent enough to be allowed to walk around in public. No matter how you look at it, these two people have murdered their child, by withholding medical treatment that would have almost certainly cured her bacterial pneumonia. Instead of just taking her to the doctor and getting her the appropriate (very common) antibiotics, they opted to put her life in the hands of....well...imaginary friends.
Of course, they are arguing that the charges infringe on their freedom of religion and right to raise their child in their own way. I'm sorry, but freedom of religion does not include the option to let your children die. You may be free to practice whatever religion you like, but you are not free to use that religion to the detriment of others. Children should be given some sort of protection from parents such as these. I use the term "parents" strictly in the biological sense, as they were clearly not functioning as parents in any other capacity.
For more egregious examples of the parents believing they can just ignore reality, here are a few more links:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=5968611&page=1
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/DiabetesResource/story?id=4536593&page=1
The title of the above article, if not so sad, would be laughable. Reading it makes my head hurt. All I can think is, "uh....no shit!"
Strength of 30,000 men? Riiightt....
Crazy people make me smile. There are just so many things wrong with what this man has to say, I can't possibly list them all. You've gotta listen for yourself! I would like to point out, however, that trains can have up to 25,000 horsepower, and even the weak ones have thousands of horsepower. Pretty sure he's not winning any fights against a train.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
The Maltese Falcon is in St. Maarten!!
The Maltese Falcon, which at nearly 290 feet is the largest sailing yacht in the world, came to visit St. Maarten today! Unfortunately, I won't be able to go see it since I'm stuck inside studying for finals. But, as you can tell from the pictures, it's a very impressive boat! As of March, it is for sale, for the low price of $150 million!! So, if you've got some spare cash lying around, it might be a fun investment. One day...
block 3 results are in...
And I basically destroyed the whole thing! Much to my surprise, I honored every exam of the block, and even somehow squeezed out a 100% in path!! I have no idea how I pulled that one off, or how I got an A in neuro. I knew for sure that I got three questions wrong in neuro, which was all you could miss and still get an A. But, I was assuming that I'd also get another one wrong somewhere in there. I'm certainly not going to complain though! With those grades, I'm now within the range to honor every class and get dean's list for my first semester (I usually miss dean's list by one or two bad exams). However, that's also a lot of pressure since not honoring any of the finals will mean that I won't honor the class. In the mean time, I guess I should get to studying, if I'm going to keep this pace up! The next couple of days are not going to be fun.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
one more week to go...
And it's going to be a rough week! Last block exam is tomorrow, and I've still got a couple hours of studying left ahead of me. I really have no idea how tomorrow is going to wind up, but I'll have my fingers crossed. Sorry for the lack of blogging, but that's how it goes the weekend before an exam!
Saturday, December 6, 2008
I miss Taco Bell :(
I was watching a little TV while eating today and a commercial for Taco Bell came on. Taco Bell doesn't have particularly good food, but damn is it satisfying sometimes! I really miss the St. Maarten Taco Bell. It may have been the worst Taco Bell that I've ever been to, but it was still Taco Bell. If there was only one of the whole island, I have to imagine that it would have gotten some business! Why did Taco Bell go out of business? Why would they do that to me?
These are the things I think about when I'm studying too much...
These are the things I think about when I'm studying too much...
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Parole date is set!
It's official, I am done with Basic Sciences and leaving St. Maarten on Wednesday, April 15th! Today, we had the lottery to see when we take our Kaplan comp exam, which is the last thing we have to do before leaving. I got the first day, which is exactly what I wanted. So, assuming I pass everything (which I'm not really that worried about), I'll be done with the island forever in 132 days!!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Christmas is coming to AUC!
Most people see this and think Christmas. I look at it and think it's almost time to go home!!
Pathology tomorrow? Nope!!
Today was our last day of pathology! I've still got a ton of studying to do before the final, but no more lecture! So, possibly the most important class of basic sciences is now over! I should technically know an awful lot of things about all that ails you, but it remains to be seen how much of it I actually remember. What I do know though is that there are a ton of things out there that can kill you! In 5 minutes, we've got another pharm lecture, so I can learn how to fix some of those things. There's finally a light at the end of the tunnel. It's faint, but it's there.
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