Shouzer

So,  my second year of grad school just started…a full week after my first year ended.  Talk about a crappy break.  It seems that lately all I see are the walls of Rush when I get here every morning around 6 am and leave by 6 pm.  Then its off to some building on UIC’s campus for another 2.5 hours of fun: MCAT prep.  The test date is quickly approaching, and I’m starting to get more nervous. 

I guess I can only blame myself for how things are right now.  I made all the decisions that got me where I am…it just really sucks.  And now I have to seriously buckle down and start thinking of my thesis and getting that ready to go.  Here’s the crappy part:  I’m given some dedicated research time during my second year, but it isn’t until April.  I am required to give my final defense sometime in May.  What does this mean?  It means I have to do the “exhaustive lit review,” design a protocol, give my preliminary defense (hopefully only once), collect my data, give my final defense (again, hopefully only once) and then write my final paper. 

Of the 7 other grad students in my program, I am the only one with research time scheduled in the final quarter.  Talk about drawing the short end of the stick.  So this means that while taking classes, doing my rotations in the clinical lab, working in the ICU and hopefully going on med school interviews, I also have to squeeze in time for research.  I didn’t even factor study time and me time in there.  Something tells me this is gonna be fun (yeah, right).

Hope everyone else is enjoying summertime.  Me….not so much.

I’ve already completed one summer school class, an intercession course based around Bloom’s Taxonomy. Right now, I’m taking two more classes, and I’ll have another one start and end before summer is complete. That’s a total of four classes, three of which have already begun.

This might sound crazy, but it’s the truth. Each of those three classes has had a unique relationship with NBC’s The Office. I will list.

Class 1. The professor describes herself as being from “the Scranton, Pennsylvania area.”
Class 2. The inscription on the professor’s bookbag reads “Houghton-Mifflin.”
Class 3. The associate professor’s name is Michael Scott.

You cannot make this stuff up. It’s just too weird.

One of the things that I sometimes overlook when asked what I miss about Champaign are the last two months (or so) of last school year when Jared, Al, and I played NBA2k7 nearly every night in my room. Though it will probably never come to mind as quickly as “the restaurants,” “living on my own,” or “Illini basketball,” those games we played were every bit as enjoyable. You see, Jared became a master of the “3 Team Trade” in Association Mode, and we wound up playing with a trio of Gilbert Arenas (Jared), LeBron James (me), and Amare Stoudemire (Al). The point of playing was not to win, but to maximize our winning margin. We started out with the goal of scoring 100 (a “hundystick”), but got to where it was disappointing if we didn’t have 100 by the end of the third. I don’t know if that sounds like fun to the reader, but that doesn’t matter. It was fun.

This post obviously means nothing to anyone but Jared and Al, but it was just on my mind. I was thinking about how the NBA playoffs were coming up, and how the Jazz might face the Suns in the first round, and how that would be an awesome series to watch with those guys and then follow it up with some 2k. We could probably try to play over Xbox Live, but it just wouldn’t be the same.

Anyway, I’m just saying I really liked doing that, and I’m not going to get to this year.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-tuition-web-27mar27,0,5136278.story

For the first time, new undergraduates at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign this fall will have to shell out more than $20,000 to attend the state’s flagship university.

The cost—the highest for any public school in the state—includes nearly $12,000 in base tuition and fees and more than $8,000 in room and board. The university’s Board of Trustees approved the increase Wednesday. Tuition for the typical new freshman will increase 9.5 percent to $9,242, an amount guaranteed for four years.

It looks like we got out of there just in time. Here’s my favorite part:

Engineering and business students will pay $4,152 more.

To add a completely ridiculous cherry to the top of this sundae, by my experiences, financial aid awards have declined over the past 5 years. So in summation, here’s what they are saying: “We’re making it more expensive for you to go to college, but don’t worry, because we’re giving you less help to pay for it.”

I know I’ve been absent from the blogging world lately (*cough* Juvers *cough*) I’ve been studying hard for finals, but this deserved a post. I know Steph and Megan will appreciate the irony of this. Turns out that our chorus teacher that lasted one year was a contestant on ABC’s The Bachelor: London Calling. If that’s not funny, I don’t know what is. This woman was always complaining about having to leave “upstate New York” and move to southern Illinois. I had to check out the shows web site since I obviously did not catch the episode when it aired. Here’s a screen shot of her. I can only assume by the look on her face this is when she met “The Bachelor.”

Obviously since she is on this show her marriage to the classical saxophone player did not work out. Honestly, I’m glad. He was a real ass. Though, she must be happy out in LA now. Not in the simple, small town, rural southern Illinois. She always seemed to complain about that every day.

Anyways, gotta get back to studying. Last final is in two hours.

it holds no relevancy to the majority of you, but maybe someone out there can offer up an explanation.

how come everywhere i need to go on campus is on the third floor?

it’s ludicrous. there are five places i need to be on siu’s campus during a given week this semester, and getting to four of them involves taking stairs to the third floor. it just gets old, and actually makes little to no sense.

a secondary complaint to this is as follows: i have now taken six math courses here at the so. ill. u., and a grand total of one of these have actually been in the math building. now, i would understand if the classes were first of second year math courses that needed to be housed in lecture halls, but this is not the case. the course numbers are 250, 251, 301, 335, 352, and 472. guess which one was in the math building. yup, 250. someone explain this to me.

I’ve got a considerable bit of student loan debt. In addition to the federal loans I took out, I also had to get a number of private student loans to pay for school. I never gave much thought to it, because it was generally just what I had to do. I simply wouldn’t have had enough money for school otherwise.

Now it’s come time to try consolidate, as seems to be the norm. You hear these things all the time about how you can save hundreds of dollars a month by consolidating. My experience so far is that it’s little more than a lie. Federal loans aren’t an issue, but even then I’m not saving hundreds–try tens.

As for private loans, that’s an entirely different story. So far, it seems like the best consolidation loan I would be able to get would give me a higher interest rate than any of my existing loans. How does that make sense? They tried to convince me it was based on credit, but that’s obviously a lie, because so were my initial loans. And in the case of two them, the interest rate they’re offering is actually 2.5% higher. Not only that, but it would be over the course of 5 more years than what I’d currently be paying.

In short, I should have started a fucking bank. Making an automatic 160% percent on every dollar I give out? That’s not a bad deal at all. Yeah, that’s right. I give you $10, you give me $26. Booyah.

I will never understand the propensity for professors to schedule an exam immediately following mitderms.  Now I know I’m on quarters and it’s compressed, but come on!  We just finished studying our asses off and there’s no time for a break. 

I guess I really shouldn’t be complaining.  I did afterall choose to go to grad school.  But still, when your study guide for a midterm is >150 pages, and you just had the test on Thursday, there is no need to have another exam the following Friday.

So, yes, I’m still alive and I still visit Shouzer and try to stay current on everyone’s happenings. Unfortunately school hasn’t been allowing me the time to post much. Luckily though I can actually take a bit to fix that.

I just finished my midterms this past Friday. That was the first thing, being in the sixth week of a 10-week quarter this fast was a wake up call in terms of time management and study habits. Having spent my whole life in semesters, this was a huge adjustment. Second, working has been kicking my ass and not in the fun way of long days in a busy ER with multiple traumas. Don’t worry Harlow, no more gruesome stories from me anymore.

I traded in fun in the ER for fun running a simulation lab for medical students and residents in the anesthesia program at Rush. It isn’t what I wanted to do–I really did want to work in an ER up here–but I had to take what I could get. I have learned more about anesthesia though by working in their simulation lab, and it has presented me with some great networking opportunities so I suppose it isn’t all that bad, right?

A few weeks ago I had a run in with the vacuum cleaner in the dark hallway of my apartment. It resulted in a fracture and dislocation. Thankfully, Al came over the next day and reduced my toe. I would have done it myself, but hey, it hurt like a bitch to touch so there was no way I could make myself do it. Al did great, and I have the satisfaction of knowing I was his first live patient he treated all on his own. Great job, Dr. Abalos! It’s healing well, by the way.

In some exciting non school/work news, I did do something entertaining last night. Scott and I went to see Kathy Griffin live at The Chicago Theatre. Her stand up was awesome! I don’t know if any of you watch her show on Bravo Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, but I highly recommend it.

Kathy has been in the news a bit recently for her “controversial” Emmy acceptance speech. I think her speech is great and dead-on. Here’s a clip of it and her subsequent interview on Larry King, in which she goes on to explain the meaning of her speech…but that meaning apparently fell on deaf ears to some.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbziBwi489Q

As I said, her routine was excellent. I think anyone that can make a crowd laugh as much as she did last night for 1.5 hours straight through deserves major props. In my mind she isn’t on the D-List (and hasn’t been for some time, I might add). She has great sass and a rapid-fire wit and knows how to use it.

Hope everyone is doing well.  I’m outta here!

That’s right, I’ve got more pictures for you. The first set is an update of my ever-expanding Bangkok folder. Enjoy:
Bangkok

I think the new ones are towards the end, but not quite the very last ones. The last pictures in that folder came off a different camera, and the pictures are sorted by name. I’ve tried to change it, but I’ve never been successful. Basically, I just don’t care enough to do anything about it.

I recently made all of my travel pictures public here. However, I took some shots of my kids today that won’t show up there. It seems somewhat wrong to put those on the internet for all to see, like an invasion of privacy or something. Anyway, if anyone wants to see them, I will email you the link to the private album, assuming you aren’t a known child pornographer or something, then you can’t have them.

So, I realized I haven’t posted on here in ages, and as such I felt it was time for an update. Don’t worry Hark, no ER stories anymore as I no longer work in an ER (at least for the time being). Like Al I’ve moved to Chicago (thanks for the apartment listings, btw) and am slowly settling into life here and in my new apartment. I also found out while walking to Starbucks this morning that I live just 1/2 block north and 1 block west from Al.

Scott and I are now living together–and settling in quite nicely, I might add. After having a long-distance relationship for the past two years, it’s weird to think that I’ll be seeing him everyday from now on. Guess I haven’t gotten used to the fact that short visits are no longer what’s in store for us.

The city is wonderful, and the neighborhood our apartment’s located in is great. It’s close to Rush, which is where I will be starting grad school in September. It is close to the expressways and the CTA, and to some really great restaurants and bars…all within walking distance. I definitely didn’t have it this good in St. Louis.

Now to just finish all this unpacking….

Well, I officially graduated on Sunday. I’ve had a few people ask me if I feel any differently, and I really don’t. Sure, it feels nice to get it all over with. Then again it feels nice to take a nap sometimes, so I’m not sure what that’s worth.

It’s kind of a pain figuring out what I should and shouldn’t unpack now that I’m home, though. I’ll be leaving again in two months, which is a while, but it’s certainly not permanent by any means. Plus, once I’m gone, I’m pretty much gone for good. So there’s no reason to be leaving anything around here.

In graduation-related news, I got a few gifts from relatives who were visiting (and which were very appreciated). I got quite a few things that should help a lot when I get to Seattle. To name a few, I got some much needed dishes, pots, and pans. I also got a print of a painting I really liked on the cruise from Megan, which will be my first decoration piece wherever I live, hehe.

I also got a new guitar from my parents. It’s an “Electron Blue” Fender Stratocaster, and I’m going to have post pictures later. I haven’t played in a couple years, but I figure I’ll have plenty of time when I get out to Washington, and so that should come in very handy. Plus, it’s just sweet, hehe.

My sister Corinne also got me an amp to go along with the guitar. It’s a Marshall, which is very nice. I haven’t played around with it much yet, an electric guitar would be somewhat worthless without a nice amp, haha.

I went up to Rose yesterday for the graduation rehearsal/senior send-off. Well, I really went to visit friends, and that was just my excuse. The senior send-off was nice though, they had a BBQ for us, and all of the seniors were there, so I didn’t have to track people down to see them.

They started hitting us up for donations at the rehearsal. They found some poor sap of an alumni to tell a bunch of seniors in their last week of college that giving money back would bring them good karma. They also handed up donation envelopes right there for our convenience. They had $1 bills in them which we were apparently supposed to give back as our first official donation to Rose-Hulman. At least, that’s what everyone else did. I honestly wasn’t listening to the speaker at that point so I have no idea what they really wanted. I, obviously, just kept the dollar.

I got other good news while I was there. My senior design team got an award for 2nd best presentation at the senior symposium. We get a cash prize, $38/person, so that’s pretty nice. Even I get one, despite the fact that I wasn’t at the symposium. Maybe I should use the money to take the rest of the team out for dinner or something. That would be nice of me, but I’ll probably end up keeping it…

I’m about to head to bed on the last school night ever.  Sure, I’ll have finals starting in a few days, but even that’s different.  It’s strange that I’m basically ending the one thing in my life that I’ve spent more time with than anything else.  Anybody who knows me, though, will certainly know how much I’m looking forward to this.

On an entirely unrelated note, the air conditioning in our apartment is really starting to piss me off.  I’m fairly certain the blower fan isn’t working, because there’s hardly any air coming out of the vents around the apartment.  The a/c itself seems to be working like a champ, but that really does me no good unless I stand in the closet where the thing is.  That’s just not something I’m willing to do.

So I’m stuck with keeping my door open and letting the air slowly drift in from about five feet away, where the aforementioned closet is.  It’s a pain in the ass, though, because I like to shut my door at night to keep the noise out in the morning and such.  I’ve been waking up hours earlier than I want the last couple mornings, because it’s just too hot.

I feel like we should get something up here about the shootings that took place in Blacksburg, Virginia. My prayers go out to everyone who has been affected by what occurred there yesterday.