Will consist of not much other than studying. After a very strong last 2 blocks, I finally let my confidence get the best of me. While I studied consistently every day when I got here, that was not the case for the last block. I did study a lot towards the end, but it was already too late. My mistake was taking nearly a week off from studying after the last block. I figured that i was doing well, we don't do as much the week after the block, so I could take it easy a little and just catch up later.
Well, if you haven't been in med school yet, please take my word that you cannot catch up on a week of medical school. It's just not going to happen. So, I spent the last two weeks trying to catch up constantly, instead of getting ahead in the new work. End result...I did not do well at all on the last exam. I did still pass everything, which was far from the case for everyone, so not doing well is relative. But, all that matters to me is that I know I could have and should have done a lot better.
At least now, I know that I can't take any breaks like that again. I know what works for me now and what doesn't, so I'll just use this as a learning experience. Now, I just have to study every night again, like I did for the first block, and destroy it again. Honoring is still a possibility, if I can keep up my performance from the first two blocks.
In other news...Leopard (mac's new OS) is now on its way here!! I'm very jealous of the people in the US that already have it, but I am not willing to download an entire operating system from a torrent. It may be the exact same thing, but that's just too big of a risk for me. So, I can't wait for it to arrive. Sometime this week, I'm also finally going to get around to updating my iPhone to the current firmware, now that it can be unlocked as well. And if you were wondering, enabling encryption for my TV show downloads is still working perfectly. Some others have also tried it, with success.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Saturday, October 27, 2007
RAIN!!!!
It is officially bucketing outside. I use that word because nothing else really conveys what it is doing out there. It's not really raining, because I don't think that there are any individual rain drops. It's basically just a waterfall from the sky. Combine that with the fact that the water is directed to just fall off the roof (no sort of downspout or anything), and it's really pretty impressive out there. Very dark and ominous looking. At least it's raining and warm, unlike home where it's raining and cold. Too bad I left my scuba gear at the dive shop!
OK...back to studying for the block on Monday!! I hope to be done studying tonight, using tomorrow just for review. We'll see how that goes though.
OK...back to studying for the block on Monday!! I hope to be done studying tonight, using tomorrow just for review. We'll see how that goes though.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
I pay for internet and intend to use it!
When you move into the AUC dorms, part of your housing fee goes towards the internet connection. Unlike in previous semesters, you have no choice of service providers, or service levels. For better or for worse, you get NetStar's lowest level of service. Actually, you get lower than the lowest, because if you live off campus, you are not sharing your bandwidth with as many people! What we are getting is a maximum of 256kbps, per room. I have monitored my usage, however, and almost never get anything higher than 100kbps, and those are fleeting moments.
To make matters worse, not only are we getting only a maximum of 256, but what we are getting is being "prioritized." This is NetStar's word to describe the method in which P2P applications, YouTube, and some other sites, are being severely limited in available bandwidth. However, "prioritized" is not the correct word to describe what they are doing. What they are doing is throttling our bandwidth...telling us how much we can or cannot use for certain applications. Even if they were to hypothetically allot every student 10mbps (about the amount the entire campus is getting), P2P, YouTube, and some others, would still run just as slow. I find this unacceptable since at no point were we told that we could only use the internet for certain things or given any option in the matter. If I had known about the current internet setup before, I would not have lived in the dorms.
In any case, I have found a solution to the throttling problem (for P2P apps). It's very simple...just enable encryption on your P2P client. If you're using a mac, the newest version of Transmission supports encryption, and does it automatically. If you're not using a mac, get one. Or, use uTorrent, which also support encryption. The minute that I relaunched the updated Transmission client, my download speeds went from ranging around 0.8-4 kbps to 60-80 kbps! Happy downloading...
With encryption enabled, the internet provider does not know what, specifically, your connection is doing. Since, they can't identify it as P2P activity (or anything else that they're throttling), they can't block it. While Comcast has figured a way around this, it is highly unlikely that NetStar will!
To make matters worse, not only are we getting only a maximum of 256, but what we are getting is being "prioritized." This is NetStar's word to describe the method in which P2P applications, YouTube, and some other sites, are being severely limited in available bandwidth. However, "prioritized" is not the correct word to describe what they are doing. What they are doing is throttling our bandwidth...telling us how much we can or cannot use for certain applications. Even if they were to hypothetically allot every student 10mbps (about the amount the entire campus is getting), P2P, YouTube, and some others, would still run just as slow. I find this unacceptable since at no point were we told that we could only use the internet for certain things or given any option in the matter. If I had known about the current internet setup before, I would not have lived in the dorms.
In any case, I have found a solution to the throttling problem (for P2P apps). It's very simple...just enable encryption on your P2P client. If you're using a mac, the newest version of Transmission supports encryption, and does it automatically. If you're not using a mac, get one. Or, use uTorrent, which also support encryption. The minute that I relaunched the updated Transmission client, my download speeds went from ranging around 0.8-4 kbps to 60-80 kbps! Happy downloading...
With encryption enabled, the internet provider does not know what, specifically, your connection is doing. Since, they can't identify it as P2P activity (or anything else that they're throttling), they can't block it. While Comcast has figured a way around this, it is highly unlikely that NetStar will!
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
I just impressed myself
So I went to get some water to drink and while I was standing there drinking, I glanced over at my jug of protein powder (I know, very exciting). While looking at it, I saw that it listed the amount of each essential amino acid that it contains. Prior to this week, I would have just glanced at it, though "ok, whatever...glad that means something to somebody," and given it no further thought. But, I actually know the structure of all of them and what they do now, as well as why those few are essential!!! Who would have guessed...actually learning a few things in med school!! :)
Block 3 approaching
As Block 3 gets closer (it's on Monday), I'm beginning to realize that I am quickly running out of time. I suppose I still have a decent amount of time, but not as much as I would like. Fortunately, tomorrow we aren't doing much in anatomy, just some x-ray stuff, and we don't have anatomy at all on thursday or Friday. As usual, we also don't have Histo on Thursday. So, not getting much new information will definitely make it easier to catch up. I'm not really far behind, but there's still a lot to learn!
Dr. G (histo) has decided to move waaaaaay to fast through a lot of the information recently. Since he didn't finish the respiratory system last week, he blew through the remaining slides today in about 5 minutes, skipping most of them and saying that he didn't have time for it. I was clearly not the only person in the class who was not happy about this. He also said that he put the review from Monday on the Notes drive, but I couldn't find it there today. Of course, with computers the way they are here, it's very possible that this was not his fault.
On a related note, there have apparently already been over 30 first semesters who have dropped histo!! From what I understand, this isn't the number of people failing (i've heard that number is closer to 50), but just the people who have already dropped!! After looking at the graph of grade distribution in anatomy from the last exam, there are probably a lot of people dropping that class as well. I don't have any idea how people are doing in MCB, but that class had the most people fail last semester, so I wonder if that's the same this semester. This next test in MCB though I think is going to be the first real test of who will or will not do well...I think we've got more and harder info to learn now, and I have heard that two of the professors from this block write very difficult tests. One of the professors said that they think our class will be down to around 110 students by the end of the semester. That would be a very high attrition rate!
I thought I didn't have lab today, but as it turns out, I did! I am very glad that I checked with John before lab started, just to make sure. In lab, I worked some more on the heart, and then cut a flap into the right atrium so that we could start learning the inside of the heart. Lab goes by so much faster and is so much more enjoyable now that we're finally dissecting!!! Now, it seems like there is actually a lot to get done, instead of having to try to continuously figure out new things to do. It will be nice though to not have lab the rest of the week, so that I can spend more time on studying for the block.
Dr. G (histo) has decided to move waaaaaay to fast through a lot of the information recently. Since he didn't finish the respiratory system last week, he blew through the remaining slides today in about 5 minutes, skipping most of them and saying that he didn't have time for it. I was clearly not the only person in the class who was not happy about this. He also said that he put the review from Monday on the Notes drive, but I couldn't find it there today. Of course, with computers the way they are here, it's very possible that this was not his fault.
On a related note, there have apparently already been over 30 first semesters who have dropped histo!! From what I understand, this isn't the number of people failing (i've heard that number is closer to 50), but just the people who have already dropped!! After looking at the graph of grade distribution in anatomy from the last exam, there are probably a lot of people dropping that class as well. I don't have any idea how people are doing in MCB, but that class had the most people fail last semester, so I wonder if that's the same this semester. This next test in MCB though I think is going to be the first real test of who will or will not do well...I think we've got more and harder info to learn now, and I have heard that two of the professors from this block write very difficult tests. One of the professors said that they think our class will be down to around 110 students by the end of the semester. That would be a very high attrition rate!
I thought I didn't have lab today, but as it turns out, I did! I am very glad that I checked with John before lab started, just to make sure. In lab, I worked some more on the heart, and then cut a flap into the right atrium so that we could start learning the inside of the heart. Lab goes by so much faster and is so much more enjoyable now that we're finally dissecting!!! Now, it seems like there is actually a lot to get done, instead of having to try to continuously figure out new things to do. It will be nice though to not have lab the rest of the week, so that I can spend more time on studying for the block.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Dissecting the heart
Today in lab, I spent about 2 hours dissecting out the coronary vessels. It may not sound like a ton of fun, but I liked doing it and time went by very quickly! It is certainly very nice finally having bodies! Dissecting on the heart was a little frustrating because the heart is not very large and likes to roll around a lot, but it went much smoother once I finally got a block of wood to prop it against. Dissecting the blood vessels was also not very easy because they're totally surrounded by very closely associated fat and fascia. It's a little tricky to cut that away without destroying the smaller vessels. But, I got a decent amount of it done in the 2 hours I had. I would up having the L coronary artery, L circumflex, L anterior descending, diagonal, L marginal and posterior descending arteries. I also got the great cardiac vein, carotid sinus, and middle cardiac vein dissected out. If it's not already done when I get back to lab Wednesday, I'll finish up the right side. That side is going to be harder since there's a ton of fat on it!
Now, I'm just wondering what they're going to have us do with the heart. We're supposed to cut it open sometime soon to look at the chambers, but that would definitely not be good for the dissection I did today! If we just keep dissecting everything away, we're not going to have much left for the practical.
Oh, and the TA's did a decent job destroying one of our lungs while they made up the mock. Other people in my group spent a long time and did a good job dissecting out the bronchopulmonary segments, but the lung looks like it's been punted across a football field, at the moment. In their attempts to make the mock a lot harder than the actual practical, they twisted the lung around in all sorts of ways. If we ever run into a patient with a similarly contorted lung, it won't matter if we can identify the structures, because they will be very much dead.
I don't want to blame everything on the TA's and certainly some of them are very good, but this is not the first time they've screwed up a dissection. Some of them have a habit of being way too rough when they're trying to move things away or point something out. The other day, a TA was trying to get to the phrenic nerve (which goes down the side of the heart) and was just basically pulling at it to rip it away from everything else, and didn't seem to notice that he was just squeezing the hell out of the heart in the process.
How to ship (and not ship) to St. Maarten
After a couple of months in St. Maarten, I've tried a few different ways to ship to AUC. Some are fast, some are slow, most all are expensive. But, here's what I think are the best:
If you want something reasonably fast and for not a ton of money, use The Mailbox. You set up an account with them for about $100/year and they give you a US address to have people ship to in Miami. They just pay whatever it costs to send something there. Then, they ship it for you to St. Maarten. They'll ship two pounds/month, included with your membership, and you pay less than $3 for every pound after that for the month. It takes a week or so to get here and they deliver to the school twice a week, or you can go and pick it up in Simpson Bay.
If you want something faster than that, you have to pay for it. Shipping via FedEx or DHL straight to the school is the fastest option. I'm not sure how much it costs, but it is significantly more than using the mailbox, although it's faster.
The worst option is to ship to the school via USPS! First, it's about the same price as using the mailbox. But, it's a lot slower. If you use USPS, they ship it to the St. Maarten post office. And, you want to avoid any kind of St. Maarten government agency at any cost. Not only do they take forever to deliver it, half the time, they don't even deliver it!! They leave a note at school that you need to pick it up at the post office, just to charge you a storage fee when you do pick it up!!!! I know this because I got caught in this silly little scam of theirs today when I went to pick up my new wireless keyboard that my parents had sent. The woman at the post office couldn't tell me why they didn't just deliver it to the school, but I suspect it's just so they could charge me to store it. I have also heard of a few people who have had things lost by the St. Maarten post office.
If you want something reasonably fast and for not a ton of money, use The Mailbox. You set up an account with them for about $100/year and they give you a US address to have people ship to in Miami. They just pay whatever it costs to send something there. Then, they ship it for you to St. Maarten. They'll ship two pounds/month, included with your membership, and you pay less than $3 for every pound after that for the month. It takes a week or so to get here and they deliver to the school twice a week, or you can go and pick it up in Simpson Bay.
If you want something faster than that, you have to pay for it. Shipping via FedEx or DHL straight to the school is the fastest option. I'm not sure how much it costs, but it is significantly more than using the mailbox, although it's faster.
The worst option is to ship to the school via USPS! First, it's about the same price as using the mailbox. But, it's a lot slower. If you use USPS, they ship it to the St. Maarten post office. And, you want to avoid any kind of St. Maarten government agency at any cost. Not only do they take forever to deliver it, half the time, they don't even deliver it!! They leave a note at school that you need to pick it up at the post office, just to charge you a storage fee when you do pick it up!!!! I know this because I got caught in this silly little scam of theirs today when I went to pick up my new wireless keyboard that my parents had sent. The woman at the post office couldn't tell me why they didn't just deliver it to the school, but I suspect it's just so they could charge me to store it. I have also heard of a few people who have had things lost by the St. Maarten post office.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
back from the US
I just got back in St. Maarten today from my slightly extended weekend home. It was a great weekend and I am not at all excited to be back in St. Maarten! I got home Thursday night, into Washington Nat'l airport, and it was very good to see my parents and Heather waiting for me!
After I got home, at around 12 midnight, Heather and I went to Taco Bell. I didn't really want it that bad, but I wanted to go just because I could. By the time we drove around to the window from ordering, our food was already ready to go! It was absolutely amazing how efficient workers can be in the US! Taking less than 5 minutes from the time you drive up to the time you drive away in St. Maarten is something that will NEVER happen!
The next day, Heather and my mom and grandparents and I went to the Delly for breakfast and then stopped by the Apple Store so that I could get an airplane adaptor for my laptop. I studied the whole way from St. Maarten to MD, but I had to study from the books since my laptop wasn't going to last that long. Again, it was nice to see fast, efficient service and knowledgeable salespeople, since they also do not exist in SXM. The Annapolis Mall's addition is nearly completed and it is gonna be really nice. I can't wait to see it when I go back for semester break in December. That night, we had an amazing dinner at Ruth's Chris. The steak was perfect, as usual, and after eating their creme brule, I will never eat it again in SXM.
Saturday, I slept until like 12:30 and then went to the firehouse to visit. While I was there, they got a call, so I drove the utility and treated a girl who had a goal post fall on her head. It wasn't too exciting of a call, but at least I got to drive emergency and run a call, which I have not been able to do for nearly 2 months. It was nice to stop by...I'll definitely have to spend a couple days there over winter break. For dinner, a lot of my family and I went to The Melting Pot. It's really Heather and my place, but we decided to be nice and let the family come :). If you have not been there...go there.
Finally, Heather took me to the airport very early this morning to catch my 8am flight to San Juan and then to SXM. I've heard San Juan is worse than Miami International Airport, but I find this very hard to believe, and it was fine for me. Although, they could use some more (a lot more) food choices.
So, now I'm back in SXM, wishing i was home and missing Heather. Back to studying I suppose. I'm just about all caught up now in MCB after studying on the plane rides, but I've still got a little Histology to go over tonight.
After I got home, at around 12 midnight, Heather and I went to Taco Bell. I didn't really want it that bad, but I wanted to go just because I could. By the time we drove around to the window from ordering, our food was already ready to go! It was absolutely amazing how efficient workers can be in the US! Taking less than 5 minutes from the time you drive up to the time you drive away in St. Maarten is something that will NEVER happen!
The next day, Heather and my mom and grandparents and I went to the Delly for breakfast and then stopped by the Apple Store so that I could get an airplane adaptor for my laptop. I studied the whole way from St. Maarten to MD, but I had to study from the books since my laptop wasn't going to last that long. Again, it was nice to see fast, efficient service and knowledgeable salespeople, since they also do not exist in SXM. The Annapolis Mall's addition is nearly completed and it is gonna be really nice. I can't wait to see it when I go back for semester break in December. That night, we had an amazing dinner at Ruth's Chris. The steak was perfect, as usual, and after eating their creme brule, I will never eat it again in SXM.
Saturday, I slept until like 12:30 and then went to the firehouse to visit. While I was there, they got a call, so I drove the utility and treated a girl who had a goal post fall on her head. It wasn't too exciting of a call, but at least I got to drive emergency and run a call, which I have not been able to do for nearly 2 months. It was nice to stop by...I'll definitely have to spend a couple days there over winter break. For dinner, a lot of my family and I went to The Melting Pot. It's really Heather and my place, but we decided to be nice and let the family come :). If you have not been there...go there.
Finally, Heather took me to the airport very early this morning to catch my 8am flight to San Juan and then to SXM. I've heard San Juan is worse than Miami International Airport, but I find this very hard to believe, and it was fine for me. Although, they could use some more (a lot more) food choices.
So, now I'm back in SXM, wishing i was home and missing Heather. Back to studying I suppose. I'm just about all caught up now in MCB after studying on the plane rides, but I've still got a little Histology to go over tonight.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
sorry it's been so long...
But I've been home in MD for the last couple days!!! I'll post more later about the weekend, but now I'm off to chipotle...with my amazing girlfriend, HEATHER!!! :)
There, she has a name...
There, she has a name...
Monday, October 15, 2007
Good start to the week
Today was Monday. For most people, this is probably a bad thing. But, not today, not for me! First, we don't have Histology on Mondays (or Thursdays). Any day that we don't have a class is a good day! Also, i didn't have lab. Again, any day without lab is a good day. Lab does go by much faster and is not nearly as much of a waste, now that we've finally got bodies, but I still don't particularly like going. I would probably like it a lot more if we had twice the number of bodies and less people in the room!
But, I decided to go SCUBA diving today with Matt, which is mostly what made the day good. We got out at 10:30 today from class, so there was a little time to study before going diving at 1:30. I went to a place called Dive Octopus on the French side in Grand Case. The diving is supposed to be better over there and I figured I'd check a new place out. Overall, I think I like this dive shop the best so far. It's owned by a husband and wife from Canada who just decided to up and move here years ago. It's not a very big shop and you have to walk out in the water to get to the boat, but I think it's worth it. The water is only about waste deep and it's only as far as you'd walk out on a dock, so not too bad. Apparently, getting permission to build a dock on the French side is not easy. And, to be fair, there were none to be seen close by.
The boat that they use is much newer and faster than any dive boat I've been on before. It's not a very large boat, but it's got two 150hp motors on the back which propel it very fast. And, although it's a pretty small boat, they only take a maximum of 6 divers, which is very nice. Today, the owner was the captain and divemaster. He's very friendly and knowledgeable of the reefs around St. Maarten.
The place he took us today was a reef in Grand Case bay, since it's a pretty shallow reef and we had a snorkeler coming along. He guaranteed us to see a turtle, and we wound up seeing two. They didn't seem to be at all scared and I got the best pictures that I've gotten yet of a turtle. There was also a very large sting ray, but it swam away before I could get a good picture of it. The visibility wasn't amazing since it has rained recently, but it was good enough and there was plenty to see close by.
After diving, Matt and I went to a small restaurant close to the dive shop that the owner (John) recommended. The food was good and fortunately, the local employees are not aware of the horrible exchange rate of the dollar compared to the Euro!! So, they just told us it was the same price, dollars or Euro. Needless to say, we made out very well because of this and a plate of ribs with 3 sides wound up costing $8! The menu actually had prices listed for the drinks the same in dollars or euros, but were assuming this was either a mistake or was for drinks only.
After lunch, came back and studied Histology. Since we didn't have histo today, I am now officially caught up in that class. By Wednesday night, I will hopefully be solid with the other two classes. Only 3 days left until I'm back in Baltimore for the weekend with the girlfriend and family!!! Can't wait for fast internet, good service, and big roads!!
Link: http://flickr.com/photos/slevit1/sets/72157602444848615/
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