Another day, another blog post

I really don't have anything too exciting to post today, but I didn't want to go without posting either. One thing exciting that I did find out today is that the physio teacher's book (Cardiovascular Physiology) is available to be downloaded. Don't ask me how it got to be online, but it is. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be distributed this way, but fortunately we're in a country that's pretty corrupt and has little in the way of laws. Also, I think it kinda sucks of AUC to not tell us about this book before the new professor got here, only make 8 or 9 copies available, and then put them all on reserve so you can't check them out. So, if you have a mac, I've made it very easy for you to get a copy. Simply click on the "Go" menu in finder menu, click "iDisk," and then "other user's public folder." Type in my .Mac name (slevit1) and you'll see it there. Download the file and the Chmox program, which you'll need to read the file, and enjoy. She actually follows the book pretty much word for word, which is good news for those who don't want to go to class. Personally, I've recently decided just to go to class and use that time to study, instead of wasting it by going home and doing exactly nothing.

Also, they had a Buzz session today, which I attended (a meeting with 10 students and the dean). Just like the last one, this one was not terribly useful. Basically, the response we got to almost every question was, "I know, I agree, I can't do anything about it," referring to the fact that AUC is a family business and they don't always like to cough up the necessary money. With all the money we pay to go here, you'd think maybe they'd invest a little more of it. But, not for now...not with the shiny new DO school being built in Colorado! If nothing else, it's a tiny bit helpful to know that even though they can't do anything about it, the administration at least recognizes the problem and would like to help, if given the resources.

Oh...one of my currently 2 incoming students that I'm orientation advisor for finally got back to me today. I'm hoping the other guy contacts me sometime soon. If I am your OA, or if you've got another one assigned to you, don't be afraid to use us. I have heard some stories of deadbeat OA's in the past, but most of us really want to help. We're all too familiar with the fact that it's very difficult to get any kind of answer from AUC on anything, so it's nice to have someone in school to talk to if you have questions or concerns.

Just one more

This one was too funny not to post (from xkcd.com)

How I feel about classes right now:

MCB: Super ultra mega boring. Both because we've already had at least half of what we're doing and because it's just not interesting right now. It also doesn't help that it's the first class in the morning and the longest class

Immuno: Mostly boring, but at least we have Dr. Shupe teaching now. She's probably out best immunology professor. I still wish we had the guy from South Carolina, but she's good

Physio: New professor just started and I don't know that I'm gonna like her. I think she might be a little too smart for our own good. She is teaching cardiac physiology, and she wrote a book called Cardiac Physiology! She definitely knows what she's talking about, but she's dry and already said that her questions are going to be difficult. Seeing as it's a pretty good bet that we'll never have to calculate the equilibrium potential across a cell membrane, I'm not really sure why teachers insist on testing us on it! Hopefully though, her questions will only have one right answer and we won't have to guess which of the correct answers she wants us to put on the scantron! Good news though - after a couple bad questions were given back on the physio block exam, I now honored that exam!! :)

Useless Pictures

These really mean nothing, but I enjoy them anyway.



Edit: St. brings up a good point....all of these are from xkcd.com. It's a great website filled with tons of these that I recommend you check out. These were my favorites after a couple of minutes of browsing. If I could come up with these myself, I may not be in medical school ;)

Hello again

For a while there, I think I was doing pretty good...posting at least every day, sometimes multiple times a day. So, sorry for the brief intermission. This past weekend was pretty busy though, between the Phi Chi pledge scavenger hunt and studying for the immuno quiz that we had earlier today.

First, Friday night was the 3rd semester date auction. It was a fund raiser for the 3rd semester (as the name implies), but dates from every semester were up for auction by anyone at AUC. I thought that dates were gonna go for like $50 max, considering the typical med student budget. But, the average was probably around $200, and one guy (Vik) even went for $1050!! I'm glad people have over a thousand dollars to waste on a dinner date which is not romantic or a guarantee of anything after, in any way. I heard that the class actually had a little pool going for that one, so maybe it wasn't so bad after all. Since I didn't have my flash charged up, I didn't take my camera, secretly hoping that I wouldn't become the official photographer. However, as soon as i showed up, Song came up to me, gave me her camera, and said, "here, you're good at this, take pictures." So, I did, but she's got all the pictures and I have no idea when she'll get around to putting them up.

Saturday morning was the Phi Chi pledge scavenger hunt - one of 3 events that the pledges are required to participate in before they can be initiated. I won't go into event details since it's sort of a secret (and events are often repeated from semester to semester), but I think it was a good time for everyone. We had the pledges do some pretty amusing things to watch (don't worry, nothing that anyone would be upset about doing) and had a good end to the day on Happy Bay beach. If you're not familiar with the island, Happy Bay is a very nice and mostly private beach on the French Side. The reason it is so private though is that they only way to get there is a pretty decent hike. You can't get close to the beach by car. So, Matt and I took his little inflatable boat over to the beach, toting along and extremely oversized and very heavy cooler. It was quite a painful adventure, getting the cooler to the boat. The things I go through for the pledges.... :) In the end, I wound up with a sexy farmer's tan [burn].

I was not happy at all going into this immuno quiz. I think that the powerpoints we get are pretty terrible from this particular teacher and most people agree that explanations are a little lacking. Also, I am not a fan of little cutesy ways to remember things; B-cells and T-cells don't tango, and I wouldn't want to make a sandwich out of serum or antibody. And, as I expected, we were not so much tested on the concept of these little memorization techniques, but the actual memorization technique (which I think is a pretty terrible way to test). As it turned out though, I did well on the quiz, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much. The information isn't presented well (in my opinion), but the quizzes are pretty easy, so it all works out in the end. Now, just wasting a couple hours between class and ICM.

Hillary v. Obama

Why I hope you will vote for Obama

I have already mentioned, in a previous blog post, one of the numerous reasons that I will not be voting for McCain. Largely, I will not support a candidate who thinks that his religious ideals have any place in his political decisions. Because of his religious beliefs, none of which are logical or could withstand a single inquiry for proof, he is against stem cell research, against abortion, and against gay marriage. As I'm in medical school, I strongly disagree with his views on abortion. I hate to be so blunt, but if you seriously believe that a soul enters the body (if you can call it a body) as soon as conception occurs and that somehow, this life is just as valuable as the life of someone who is currently living, breathing, dreaming, and quite possibly, suffering, well...you should have your head examined. Seriously, do it now, because there are people dying every day because of of others who share your similarly absurd beliefs. Anyway, enough about McCain.

So why shouldn't you vote for Hillary? Well aside from the fact that she is ultra liberal, believes that healthcare is an entitlement (one which small businesses should be forced to pay for), and the fact that as first lady, she was the leader of one of the largest political failures in recent times, Obama is just a better leader than she is. While she likes to talk big talk about how experienced she is, and how she is action while Obama is just words, her record can't back her up.

I just read a very interesting article by a lady who actually took the time to research what Obama and Clinton had done during their time as senator. It is a very unbiased article and I recommend you read it. Basically, it shows that while Clinton has introduced plenty of nice sounding bills (almost all related to women and children), a large portion of them never got a co-sponser, few passed, and they were limited in scope. Obama's bills, on the other hand, addressed much larger issues, had more co-sponsors, and were more likely to pass. As I would hope that our next president would be a strong leader and address all of the important issues facing our country, it seems obvious to me that Obama is the best choice for president. The article can be found here

Also, doesn't Hillary just seem a little desperate lately? She had to give her own campaign $5 million, while Obama breaks fundraising records, she hasn't congratulated him on a single one of his sweeping wins, and is singing her own praises on things that he's actually better with! If Clinton really cared about her party winning this presidential race, she would withdraw now and help to unite her whole party behind one strong candidate. Perhaps she hasn't read nearly every poll, which predicts that Obama may beat McCain, but she will not. I am a registered republican, but I will be voting Democrat in this election (once Obama secures the party nomination). Please join me in doing the same.

Date Auction

There is a date auction this coming Friday. I've never heard of or seen a date auction, outside of the movie Road Trip (of which I am a big fan). Not sure that I'll be attending since I don't need a date, but I might, just because it might be neat to see how one goes.

Anyway, we just got the flyer for it today. Out of all of the pictures that the people being auctioned off could have picked, two of them picked pictures which I took! They're the only two in the auction that I've taken pictures of, or else maybe there would have been more. They are good pictures, if I do say so myself. But, it's good to see that other people like them too.

Now, it's time to do some serious studying for the physio quiz tomorrow!

Lunar Eclipse [pictures]

Tonight, North and South America experienced the last total eclipse until 2010! Fortunately, here in St. Maarten, we had pretty perfect weather. It looked as though the clouds were going to obscure the view, but they blew away just in time. As soon as the eclipse was full though (but not until after I had gotten a bunch of pictures), they blew back in. I took about 100 pictures, but narrowed it down to the 11 best. They can all be found on my flickr site (http://flickr.com/photos/slevit1), but here are a couple of them.

Vista Wonders

Oh this is great...just watch it through. "Sinkhole of Support." amazing.

Edit: The original video was taken down. Hopefully this one will work!