Memoirs of a Pre-Med

6 Personal Statement Do's and Don'ts from US News

2012-02-08T17:23:00.000-08:00

6 Personal Statement Do's and Don'ts US News posted an article on March 11, 2011 about the do's and don't of personal statements. I've seen a few things and I've talked to a few admission's advisers and the one thing they really want is just be you. That's the one thing I've heard, be you, be sincere. Your personal statement is finally the chance you've been waiting for, artistic expression on

Four Year Course Schedule

2012-02-07T22:01:00.000-08:00

I had to do a lot of different variations for coursework for my last year and a half of school to see how my units were going to play out, when I was going to apply to medical school and when I was going to take the MCAT. In doing all that, I modified the course schedule I used and made a template for people to use to plan out all their courses, when they're going to take the MCAT, when they're

Minor in Web Literacy and Technology

2012-02-07T21:20:00.000-08:00

A few years back I talked to the adviser for the minor and she approved a course that would substitute another course, it was a 310 course for a 300 level course. They were both taught almost exactly the same way except for the last few weeks. I thought it won't matter when I get the course moved over, I can just wait. By the time I finished the minor, the adviser switched three two times. I

Spring 2012 Class Schedule For Real: Picking Your Courses is all About Strategy

2012-02-03T13:41:00.000-08:00

Biology 342 - Human / Mammalian Physiology Biology 342 - Human / Mammalian Physiology Lab Biology 370 - General Genetics Biology 370 - General Genetics Lab Chemistry 441A - Biological Chemistry Kinesiology 109A - Fitness Walking I changed the other post so much I figured I would stop changing it around, wait until the courses were actually switched and then do another post. I decided to take the

Spring 2012 Class Schedule

2012-01-23T16:26:00.000-08:00

Edited: January 26, 2012 Biology 342 - Human / Mammalian Physiology Biology 370 - General Genetics Biology 370 - General Genetics Lab Chemistry 441A - Biological Chemistry Kinesiology 109A - Fitness Walking Psychology 370 - Abnormal Psychology Right now it's a toss up between human physiology lab, abnormal psychology, and fitness walking again. I'm excited about this semester. I walked into

Logging Hours of Activities Done

2012-01-12T08:15:00.000-08:00

My first post to Pre-med Hell was a post about logging the hours of things you do in a day and did that for two weeks to show how much time you spend in certain areas and where you can cut the fat so to speak to increase efficiency in your day. I just updated and revised my curriculum vitae (CV) and one of the great ideas I brought up to other people and they agreed was to log the amount of hours

MSAR (Medical School Admissions Requirements)

2012-01-10T00:40:00.000-08:00

Buy the book as soon as you can. Read requirements and statistics with a grain of salt. Buy book again your applying year. Breathe I've spent the last couple days going through all the requirements on the introductory chapters of the MSAR. Haven't gone through the schools and the statistical information provided for the schools; however, I really like the book. There are a few points of bias

Graduation is Sooner than it Ever Was

2012-01-06T14:16:00.000-08:00

I've spent hours over the last few weeks checking my course work for my major to see if everything adds up and I have ten courses left. It hit me. I'm going to be a college graduate. Not only am I going to be a college graduate but I'm going to be a college graduate in biology. Even if the worst case scenario happens, I don't get into medical school and I don't become a doctor, I will still have

An Inevitable Turn of Events

2011-12-30T11:49:00.000-08:00

I have spent the last year working on myself and it has been the idea behind many of the posts, tweets, and Facebook updates. Since the storm has settled, it is time for a new direction in life, it's time for a new outlook, and its time for a new and improved determination. It's time to create goals and do them without excuse. It's time to remember my old goals and continue them to completion,

Moon and Light

2011-12-22T22:33:00.000-08:00

Picture of a blue moon with street light at the bottom. Nice angles. I like it.

Lunar Eclipse

2011-12-22T22:29:00.000-08:00

Woke up after three hours of sleep at 5:00 AM to see the lunar eclipse at the library. A few study partners woke me up to see it. Doesn't look all that bad. Though, I do like my moon pictures a little more.

Moon at Night During Finals Week

2011-12-22T22:22:00.000-08:00

Nice picture of the moon at night during finals week. Taken during one of the breaks, long nights of studying in the library, sleeping over for two weeks.

Proposition 65 Warning in Starbucks

2011-12-01T16:21:00.000-08:00

I took this picture of the Proposition 65 warning in the Starbucks of our library, yes we have a Starbucks in the library, why that would be, I have no idea, but I'll digress for now. The end of the warning leads you to the OEHHA website (http://oehha.ca.gov/prop65/acrylamide.html) where it talks about acrylamide as a carcinogen (cancer causing agent). I'm not a clinician, I don't know anything

Yellow Leaves Falling

2011-12-01T15:38:00.000-08:00

The picture really does an injustice to the scene that was set up but I was walking to my car from the library and saw that a bunch of leaves had fallen from the tree and they must have been fresh because they were almost all the same color as the tree they came from. They were all yellow, it was really a sight to see. I tried to grab a picture with my camera phone but I could only do so much.

Relearning 20 Essential Amino Acids for Ochem

2011-12-01T15:29:00.000-08:00

Relearning the amino acids was pretty easy for ochem after molecular biology. These are just the R groups attached. For anyone that hasn't learn them the R group attaches to a central carbon. The central carbon is attached to an amine group (NH3-), a carboxylic acid group (COO-) and a hydrogen atom. These would be the R groups for the 20 amino acids found in the body that scientists thought

Caterpillar

2011-12-01T15:15:00.000-08:00

I found this little guy crawling around the stairs at our new science building. Very cool! Not a bad shot for a picture phone. I like the floor background.

Running into Natural Simplicity

2011-12-01T15:03:00.000-08:00

The way the leaves fall on a tree is so intricate, so elegant, and so peaceful in a park when no one is in sight. When college life and study life is at a climax, it's nice to step back into nature and see what other beauty the world has to offer. And for that I am thankful that this tree grew at this park so I can see the leaves falling as I jogged by for my daily workout. I miss camping. I

Rock Legend is on its way! Two more events to go.

2011-11-04T21:02:00.000-07:00

I sent a long email to a Rock 'n' Roll coordinator about not finishing the Rock Legend heavy medal, which is doing seven events in the series. I mentioned what happened in Chicago and the situation with my studies and future studies, that it would be hard to participate in the series again this involved, time-wise and financially. They were very understanding and amazed at my dedication to their

The Natural World

2011-10-23T11:20:00.000-07:00

It's just about twelve in the morning and of course I have a million thoughts running through my mind but this one thought keeps popping up. Thoughts that can change the entire direction of your life depending on how much you take them to heart. How we view the world, we think we're incredibly indestructible when in reality the balance of life is so fragile we would be sent to oblivion so easily

Points are Amazing!

2011-10-12T22:49:00.000-07:00

In sciences it's hard to get points, you have to work for every penny you get and when everything is on the line and points are how to get passed the line, it's amazing what that can do. Our ecology professor messed up on the exam and everyone was coming to him with questions about the same problems so he just told us today that he's giving points because of it. It was a small amount compared to

Equation Proportionality

2011-10-09T16:51:00.000-07:00

My physics professor was going over equations for magnetic fields magnetic forces and their relationship to electric forces. She was talking about the equations and how different variables relate to each other. One thing I've been fascinated with is how mathematicians comes up with these relationships for equations. When lay folk take math courses they just memorize the equations as much as they

Apologies! But I Bring Flowers???? Many Updates for an Extended Absence

2011-10-02T12:10:00.000-07:00

I looked at the date for the last submission, that conference seems so long ago now and I would like to apologize to the readers who really want daily or every other day updates, but maybe if I bring flowers that can make up for it? <3 Haha, well I tried at least. I thought these flowers were fake when I showed up to work, they even feel like fake flowers but they're not fake flowers. They are

UCLA NAMME Pre-Health Conference

2011-09-18T09:29:00.000-07:00

Went to the NAMME Pre-Health Conference hosted by UCLA yesterday. I was having a few doubts about going because I want to keep up with my coursework but it was definitely inspiring to talk with passionate admission's advisers and committee members. With the AMSA-ARC-UCD conference there were so many people it was hard to record anything or personally meet with the people who spoke. In this one I

Working on Strength Training Now

2011-09-12T21:30:00.000-07:00

I think I've gotten enough endurance training down for the last year and I'm ready to finish the goal that I put up a few months back to get a sub 2:00:00 half marathon time. I signed up for the Rock n Roll New Years Half Marathon because I woke up 2 hours late for the Chicago half. So, I plan on meeting my goal by the end of the year, would be amazing but we'll see how it goes. I wanted to

A Review of 20 Essential Biographies

2011-09-10T10:48:00.000-07:00

20 Essential Biographies for Medical Students So, before I hit the rec center and get my work out on after an eight week lapse, I almost forgot to tell you guys about a review of biographies one of my frequent readers sent me. Not going to lie, at first I thought it was spam and was hesitant to click the link. I thought what could possibly be so essential for premeds that they would need to read

We Just Got a Panera Bread, Chipotle, and Sprouts!

2011-09-10T08:43:00.000-07:00

I haven't been to one of the shopping centers in a long time, it's about fifteen minutes away, haven't bought clothes in a while so I've had no reason to go over there. Plus, there's a bunch of construction, makes it impossible to get around there. I'm surprised in the last two years they've got a Panera Bread, Chipotle, and this really good food Sprouts grocery store. I don't even know what to

Growing our Own Antibiotics

2011-09-10T08:38:00.000-07:00

We got fed up with the prices of pharmaceuticals so we thought we would make our own. Same thing as growing fruits and vegetables in your backyard. Apparently, we went with antibiotics first.

Sunset at LBMMC in August

2011-09-10T08:33:00.000-07:00

Took a picture of the sunset at LBMMC after work and it turned out pretty well. Nice contrast with the buildings and the trees and the sun in the horizon. You also get the blurriness of the camera phone in the picture as well, you're getting three times the amount of picture for the price of one.

Studying Alcohol the First Week of School

2011-09-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

First chapter was alcohols and I was remembering the ways to prepare alcohols. Two of those ways are hydroboration and oxymercuration-demurcuration. In basic terms it's a way to get rid of a double bond and add a hydroxy group (OH) to the molecule, or to put it a different way it's a way to add H2O to a molecule because you're adding a hydrogen (H) as well. One way adds syn which is in the same

Biostats Shirt and Week of Welcome

2011-09-10T07:59:00.000-07:00

This shirt is really funny haha. One of my friends from high school stopped by at our booth for CPHA to say hi and talk about a few things. Of course I had to take a picture of the shirt. Week of Welcome went alright this year. Our leadership team was so busy with classes we couldn't even really attend so we're planning to recruit a different way. We have plans for some great events so I'm

Bell Shaped Puddle

2011-09-06T10:01:00.000-07:00

Found some dew that spilled over on the grass that totally looks like a bell shaped curve. Slightly left-skewed and leptokurtic. Brings back memories already.

Patience Might be the Hardest Virtue to Learn

2011-09-06T09:53:00.000-07:00

"Our census is low we're sending you to the core for a transfer from the ER." "Alright let me eat lunch and ill run over there." "Thanks Brian." I walk down there and about a half an hour later a security guard came down the hall with the patient to transfer them to the room, I knew then this was going to be an interesting case. I walked into the room to help them get her settled in and the

Testing the Blogger App for my new Phone

2011-09-05T16:45:00.001-07:00

I just used my phone to type out a post but it was incredibly hard in the main browser for the phone so I just found the blogger app and I wanted to test ir out to see if it would work. This is much easier to post a text blog. When I was writing it in the browser I had to use that screen to type it out and half the time I couldn't even see what I was typing. Going back to text was impossible.

Class Schedule for Fall 2011

2011-08-31T22:53:00.000-07:00

Class Schedule Chemistry 322B - Organic Chemistry Lecture Chemistry 323B - Organic Chemistry Lab Physics 100B - General Physics Lecture Physics 100B - General Physics Lab Biology 350 - General Ecology Kinesiology 142 - Fitness Walking Taking the second part of organic chemistry and physics. The first part wasn't good enough so I figured I'd come back for round two. Second part organic

The Writers Block has Cleared so I Better Post Quickly

2011-08-29T07:40:00.000-07:00

I woke up last week and felt like writing so I figured I would finish up a post for pre-med hell that I had been thinking about for a month. Then I wrote a post on my own blog about stats and then I wrote on my team blog three or four posts. I got four posts in the making for PMH and five more for my team blog plus a few helpful hints posts, made the profile page more interactive, I was doing it

Judgment Day is Over: Explaining Biostats and Some Pointers to Help

2011-08-23T22:23:00.000-07:00

[If anyone is interested in knowing, there's another way to spell judgement correctly, judgment]. [Post is kind of long but if you're afraid of biostatistics or you want a little explanation than this is a good post to read. It's even good to read if you're not in Science because you can read research articles a little better now.] On my Facebook I put a status up before my exams on Thursday

Hanging out with the Chicks

2011-08-16T22:35:00.000-07:00

I wanted to start this post by apologizing to a few readers that are on my Facebook page. I just found out my autosync hasn't been functional for about five months now. It should continue to post from now on. My mom had a great idea to get chickens so we could have fresh eggs instead of store bought eggs. So, we started out with chicks and nurtured them for twelve weeks inside until they were

Biostats is Ending with a Bang

2011-08-16T00:42:00.000-07:00

In light of attempting to post more regularly, just going to take a few minutes to give another little update. Chicago was the most fun I've had all summer and by far the most disappointing weekend. I planned my schedule to get the weekend off, flight paid for, run paid for, and woke up 2 hours late for the half in the morning. The trip, for the most part, was utterly useless. Would have rather

Providence, Chicago, and Biostats

2011-08-13T20:45:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to apologize for not posting in a long time again. I just saw the date on the last post and it's been quite a ride the last two weeks. Biostats has been hectic, I haven't had one weekend to study, been working or running in half's every weekend the last 5 weeks. Not complaining though, I'm out of debt (for now), having a lot of fun catching up with friends and family, and having fun

Eat Your Vitamins! Learning What Your Vitamins Are Actually Doing

2011-07-30T20:57:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons all these people tell you eat all these vitamins and minerals is because of these transporters and the molecules involved. For example, Vitamin B1 also known as Thiamine. Definition of a derivative is a starting material made into an end material. Two of the derivatives are Thiamine Triphosphate and Thiamine Diphosphate help in the citric acid cycle [like a fruit cycle? :)].

A Review of Secrets Behind the Veil

2011-07-18T16:22:00.000-07:00

“I feel like I already went through medical school.” Favorite quote: "Know that your most potent tool of healing is not your knowledge but your compassion." All throughout grade school I had trouble reading the required novels and when I graduated high school, I never wanted to read a book again and believed I wouldn’t. Odd, considering I always knew I was going to college right after.

And Biostats Begins

2011-07-14T11:03:00.000-07:00

Giving myself about 15 minutes to write. I had a lot to talk about yesterday but between sleeping and my biostats lecture I have seem to forgotten. Biostats is... well Biostats. Some of it is interesting and some of it I can't wait for the 6 week marker. All in all, I'm just overjoyed to be finishing it in 6 weeks and not 16 weeks. Oh, yes, one of the concepts were going over right now is

Biol 340: Molecular and Cell Biology Finished

2011-07-08T00:42:00.000-07:00

I just finished my second official summer course, I must be more acclimated to science because it wasn't much except for a few nerves running on midterms. Fantastic teacher, she made the class flow so easily. Fast grade, fair grader, replies to emails quickly. One of the best teachers I've had. It was refreshing and thankfully so because I had a few extra minutes to work on some other things.

...The Bombs Bursting in Air...

2011-07-04T22:55:00.000-07:00

Do you know what it's like to watch your loved ones die right in front of you? Have your friends appendages fall in your lap? Hear the cries and screams of or the smell of burning flesh? Neither do I. So, as we light those ions on fire and see the beautiful glows in the the now moonlit sky, let's remember the people in the past, the people in the now, and the people in the future who experienced

The Beauty in Bad Smells

2011-07-03T19:21:00.000-07:00

I was at the hospital the other day and I walked by the administration building and I noticed a rank smell in the distance, possibly the garbage, possibly something else. And I said, "Oh, this hallway could smell better." I walked into the elevator and the smell was still lingering, "Wait..." There's a few people that talk about the aroma of the floors and units. They talk about senses that I've

Yellow and Purple Flower Next to Each Other

2011-07-01T23:07:00.000-07:00

I remember taking these my first day of summer school. I parked at the church for college students a couple blocks away from the rec center and on my way I found these two flowers paired together. The usual happened, I took the pictures with my camera phone which were hard to take midday (glare from sun) and people would walk by. It's funnier when males walk by. Absolutely beautiful together.

Phosphate Translocase Fail

2011-06-30T22:35:00.000-07:00

We were studying transporters for aerobic respiration. Baby respiration really, just a few, I've had more in general bio classes. But, I wrote phosphate translocase as an antiport and as you can see in the picture, it was a double fail. If you take apart the word antiport which you should for many scientific words. Anti meaning in opposite directions and port meaning a mode of entry. So,

Dreamt a Day in Medicine

2011-06-27T11:15:00.000-07:00

When I was flying home from Seattle and I was falling in and out of sleep on the plane, I thought a lot about my personal statement for medical school. [I dreamed about nucleophiles and electrophiles and I haven't forgotten their characteristics since.] The audience that we have to capture is letting us into one of the most noble professions we know of, what should I say to them? What will be

In a Seattle Airport

2011-06-25T00:36:00.000-07:00

I'm in an airport in Seattle Washington, recovering from a flight of outgoing children, sitting at a table near Seattle's Best Coffee attempting to listen to music over the construction in the background, setting the tone for a great love song line-up I'm trying to put on Youtube right now. Maybe I should switch to Alternative or Metal? I know everyone is as anxious as I am about this half

Good SI Instructor or Great SI Instructor?

2011-06-19T23:47:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday I wasn't studying so well, a few nights that could have been better. Lead to a few unproductive study days so I figured the best way to study before class was to go ahead of time and draw some of the tests out that researchers use to study in molecular bio. Something we did in SI that helped is that we wrote it down and it was a little easier because it didn't require going over as

My Anniversary Already, How Come My Phone Didn't Remind Me?

2011-06-18T21:50:00.001-07:00

I thought we already had the technology to sync our phones with our minds so they know exactly when we needed to be reminded of something even though we're totally unaware? Science fiction is the future of tomorrow, never say never. I knew my work anniversary was coming up but I totally missed it. Been working at the hospital now for four years and and it will be five before I know it. I think

I Guess I Forgot How Much I Matter to People And to People I am Sorry.

2011-06-16T13:00:00.000-07:00

I watched one of Miley Cyrus' movies The Last Song and I didn't see the movie all the way through the first time I watched it. I just knew a few parts that happened. If anyone has seen the movie, it's a tear-jerker. Lucky for me it's thrown me off the past two straight days and if anyone has taken a summer class they know two days is like a week. I come back to school the next day and I feel like

Peptide Bond with all Protein-Related Amino Acids

2011-06-10T01:53:00.000-07:00

I figured that I would learn peptide bonds at the same time as learning my amino acids. If you notice there are a lot of atoms that don't change, backbone atoms, the R groups or the larger pieces that are going down from the backbone and repeat every 3 positions. Luckily for me it helped me on the exam today, understand two questions (and my o-chem background) which is 4 points which is a lot in

Biology 340, Molecular and Cell Biology, Summer 2011

2011-06-06T08:21:00.000-07:00

We're studying proteins, DNA, and chromosomes in molecular biology right now. One of the things we get to do is learn all the amino acids and their properties. For some reason, I learn these when I play counter-strike. This is the second time that I've done it and I know them all by heart just after an hour of playing and I've done pretty well with a few minor mishaps a few days after. So, I

Facepainting at the Hospital

2011-06-06T08:04:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago childlife, a department to bring toys and games to the kids in the hospital, brought a woman in who face paints. She painted the kids and the workers. I didn't really want to get one done but one of the kids had his done so I figured I would get the same thing as his. Oddly enough the adults were more terrified then the children were.

Concluding Soliloquy

2011-05-30T11:24:00.000-07:00

The anxiety of yesterday is wiped. The air is slowed to a warmth. The cars, a devoted absence. The sun is glistening in ambiance The grass, a sharp burial. The wind caressing my skin. A sharp inhale, domination. I am free to roam serenity. A prolonged exhale, a lull. And I'll fade into forever.

Breakfast for Mother's Day

2011-05-21T15:10:00.000-07:00

I was making my mom breakfast for mother's day and there was collateral damage. The counter is fine but the eggs, well, they didn't make it. We wept in guilt as we ate their family. If you look at the picture upside-down, it doesn't look any different but at least then you'll be upside-down. Time to go work out. I hope everyone gets the grades they wanted. Right now there's not much we can do

Bluish Purple Teleporters

2011-05-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

My computer is telling me I took this picture on the 8th but I don't remember taking it. If the date is true then I took them at Cal State Long Beach. The flowers are beautiful though.

Teaching a Friend Organic Chemistry

2011-05-21T11:38:00.000-07:00

My friend was taking an introductory to chemistry course for non-majors and I was trying to teach him organic chemistry for his 3rd or 4th exam. We were going over naming cyclic structures, and I gave him this structure to name just to see if he could do it and he gave me this name. It still makes me laugh, I love it. He has the write idea and technically he's not all that off from the real name

Pandora Can Read my Mind

2011-05-21T11:23:00.000-07:00

I knew about Pandora a long time ago. People at work would listen to it and I thought they would get okay play-lists going. I never signed up because I've been with Yahoo! Music a while back and it was okay but it was hard to stream everything and their database system wasn't as good as they are now. This was a long time ago, way before Web 2.0. The database system is a lot better now and the

Finally Able to Go Home (Finals Are Over)

2011-05-21T10:57:00.000-07:00

I put a post up earlier in the week or the past two weeks that I was sleeping in the library because they opened it 24 hours, so we set up the place over the past two weeks and we had a free studio apartment. It was really awesome to spend the last two weeks there, just worry about homework and studying. You don't have to worry about getting too and from school which can take up to two hours a

Organic Chemistry Activators and Deactivators

2011-05-15T15:45:00.000-07:00

Taking a little break from Physics right now so I can get a little writing in. I'm really nervous for this exam, I don't think I know enough about the physical world to pass this class but d-day will be tomorrow and judgment day will be within the next week and hopefully pity is spared on my grade point and graduation date. If not, I'm going to have so much fun in Summer Physics I may not be

Studying at the library for Two Weeks for Spring 2011 Finals

2011-05-14T13:02:00.000-07:00

I keep forgetting to update this regularly but I've been really busy studying for my end-of-the semester exams. For Science majors, we have two weeks of finals, or what we call two weeks of finals. The professors are trying to get in that last exam for the final in lectures and our labs usually end one week early so we have time to study for finals but that means we have exams one week before

Mom Starts to Workout More

2011-05-08T12:53:00.000-07:00

Just going to write a quick update on me, I glanced at this on link suggestions for Firefox when I was going to another site for school (get to write a research paper). I thought I would write a little something on what's been going on lately. Been gearing up a lot the past two weeks for these next couple days. I have a streak for three days for Finals and then it tapers off into the last part of

New Running Headphones

2011-05-03T08:49:00.000-07:00

Headphones with Non-interchanging Ear clip (for active listening) Headphones with Interchanging Ear clip (nonactive listening) I was running around my local park a few times and I was gearing up to try and do a 6 minute mile, I did a bunch of stretching, I found a song that I had listened to too many times years and years ago, Blink 182's "Feelin' This." This guy in his car kept looking up at

Toilet Paper Pyramid

2011-05-03T08:29:00.000-07:00

Sounds like a band's name. My brother and I stack the toilet paper now. Livens up the bathroom. Got the idea from Scrubs, "She's gonna live with us now." "Oh, cool, bring some toilet paper." And then the images of her toilet paper set up like stacks of gold. Now if only we had a wiffle ball (or as Firefox is telling me, a waffle ball).

MAPS Health Fair Inspires Me to be a Doctor Once Again

2011-05-01T22:58:00.000-07:00

The Minority-Focused Alliance of Pre-Health Students pulls it off again with another amazing health fair, offering free services to the community in the City of Bell. Many of the participants have gone without seeing a doctor for a few years and longer. We provided basic vitals, a small amount of dental work, and a few screenings. After that the participants have an option of speaking with a

Finished Physics 100A Lab

2011-04-26T18:18:00.000-07:00

This morning was my last physics lab discussing waves, frequency, and wavelength. The lab was actually interesting and easy to pay attention too, trying to generate nodes in a string. So funny, it's supposed to be harder than the other concepts in physics but I think it's much easier than the earlier concepts of physics. Harder to understand maybe but more interesting which makes it more

Life Purge: It's Time to Take my Life Back

2011-04-25T14:45:00.000-07:00

I'm just going to reserve everything to this blog for the rest of the semester. I was reminiscing a few days ago about how I used to be before my diet started going to waste and my working out slowly decreased to minimal. I remember advice that I was giving to a friend who wanted to do get fit the healthier way. One of the first things I always recommend or recommended to her was that you have to

Doing the Math for a 2:00 Half Marathon

2011-04-23T11:20:00.000-07:00

Since I posted about running a 2:00 half marathon I've put more time into figuring it all out. I even mapped out the park I've been running on for the last month and it's no wonder I got a 2:33 and I wasn't that sore because I was running 11:45 minute miles and I was running on average about 0.3 miles farther than I'm used too. I had a really great run yesterday and I've been on a high ever

One More Round of Midterms Before Finals

2011-04-22T22:55:00.000-07:00

I went into my walking class and I sat on the chair and closed my eyes, I woke up to the teacher asking me if I felt better from the half marathon (I was excused to go stretch, she knows I'm going to run afterward anyway). So, she asked to get the attention of the class and I closed my eyes again and fell asleep again. I don't think I've been that tired in a class. Before I woke up I was at the

Finished Sub 2:40, It's time for an Iron Man

2011-04-20T20:10:00.000-07:00

I usually don't post about my athletics on here because I've been reserving it for my team's site but I did the La Jolla Half Marathon 2011 and I did a great job. I was nervous about it for two weeks because the half marathons I did in the Fall and Winter had long recovery times, so I was worried about my organic chem exam that was two days after. Even more so I was worried about the hills that

A Tired Thank You

2011-04-13T19:48:00.000-07:00

Going to give myself five minutes to post a little something then I'm gonna take a nap. I have a few more followers on the side of my blog and I've been meaning to post a little something about thanking all my the people who read. It's really great, I really appreciate the time you take out of your day to read a few lines or, even better, more than that. Thank you. Been studying organic

The Disease Process of Love

2011-04-09T15:44:00.000-07:00

Katy Perry seems to have a new single out, "Futuristic Lover." I haven't actually heard the song fully awake until today, I would hear it from my alarm clock half asleep and I had it stuck in my head so I figured I would listen to it a few times while doing my o-chem lab report. I didn't understand the lyrics so I went to look them up. My college education keeps telling me to correct her grammar

The Water is Now Useful

2011-03-31T13:26:00.000-07:00

I keep water bottles in my car to make sure I get water throughout the day at school. Didn't think I had enough time to go into the garage to get one so I put them in the bed of my truck. Only on a special occasion when I remembered they were there did I get them. I moved the water bottles to the front of the car because I wanted to recycle them, way too hot for way too long, too much plastic

Yellow Flower Matched up With Dead Flower

2011-03-31T13:13:00.000-07:00

Yellow flower matched up with another dead flower. Found this one doing a run in the afternoon two days ago. Might not be able to do a few for a while, going to be working three straight and then school for the next month and a half.

Atari Toiletpaper

2011-03-31T12:48:00.000-07:00

Found these flowers on my morning run through the park. They were coming over the brick wall of one of the houses. Interestingly enough, I thought a dog was going to jump the fence and I'd really have to use those muscles I've been working on. Thankfully, not and I was able to get a few great pictures of these flowers. Went out at the perfect lighting for them, southern California 9:00 AM. The

Recrystallization Action Shot

2011-03-29T17:03:00.000-07:00

I was going to act like I was actually doing something in the photo but I won't play it out. I was just posing for the camera to get a photo. Actually, if I kept doing what I was doing, I would reverse the process I just did. Vacuum filtration is a procedure to separate solids from a liquid. The flask (container) with the pinkish liquid has a funnel on it to small holes to let liquid pass

What Are We Doing Here? Because a Pre-Meds Life Is Too Easy To Give Up

2011-03-21T21:46:00.000-07:00

I saw a Scrubs episode today and it was the one where the patient's were given a kidney transplant. The girl that no one seemed to like being around died of Rabies and all the patient's were infected and passed away, The Fray's How to Save a Life was playing in the background, and my eyes were watering and BAM "Welcome to the Daily Show." Scrubs has the most meaningful endings and then it's cut

Switched Back to CDs

2011-03-20T22:14:00.000-07:00

Bought three CD's in March and I haven't stopped.A few songs that I've found on Youtube that I thought were really great, I looked at the lyrics and I was utterly stunned. I haven't seen above par words in a long time. I've grown pretty tired of iTunes and Top 10 singles and listening to the same song over and over and over for months. I've had the same twelve songs on a running play list for

"Digital Rights Management has too much control over consumer purchases" by Courtney Takakuwa

2011-03-15T15:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry everyone, I don't have enough time to post a nice article so I'll just quote her and give her credit. She makes a very good point. I've had issues with this and iTunes for years. I've bought over two hundred songs on iTunes but it always seems harder than it should be to get the music from it. She also makes a good point that they should not be able to tell you how many computers you can

Fruit and Vegetables Stores

2011-03-12T16:46:00.000-08:00

It's too much money to be unhealthy. I wish fruits and vegetables were more popular. This was $13. No wonder people go for the dollar menu. I wish we had fruit and vegetable stores like we do McDonald's, or churches, or bars. They're so delicious and so healthy for you. I wish we subsidized them too and if we do then we need to subsidize them even more. I wrote down all the fruits and

Fortune Cookie Found Says "Your Charm is Quite Irresistable"

2011-03-12T10:49:00.000-08:00

I'm not someone who believes in the good fortunes that come from post-fortune-cookie eating. Most of the time people are just more aware or they correlate it with that event when it is more likely to be a complete coincidence. I'm aware that there are a lot of fortune cookies out there with a lot of different sayings but this is the third time that it's happened over the span of two years. And

Cough Drops and a Quick Tidbit on How They Work

2011-03-09T16:42:00.000-08:00

The bug that is going around Southern California has a few super powers. It has taken out a lot of healthy people that I know, including myself. I woke up one morning and I could barely swallow without having this incredible pain in my throat. After two hours I got to the point where I could partially swallow. I searched for cough drops for hours when I got home. Of course they were in the last

First Gift from a Patient's Family

2011-03-09T15:42:00.000-08:00

It might not seem like much but this is the first gift that I've received since I've been working at the hospital. I was sitting for a teenager that was coming off a bad overdose. On one of my breaks I asked how the family was holding up in the adjacent room; I asked how they were doing and sympathized with them about what was happening from the other room. They were very appreciative and they

Carried Around a Cyclohexylhexane Molecular Model for Two Days

2011-03-06T11:39:00.000-08:00

The molecule that I carried around for a day and a half. I got some long stairs from people, maybe they were interested in what it actually was or maybe they were trying to take in the moment for a good laugh session later. Either way, I thought it was pretty cool and I had to carry it around because I needed it for studying and for the exam the next day and I didn't want to put all those carbon

Organic Chemistry Study Session

2011-03-06T11:23:00.000-08:00

With a group of people studying organic chemistry the day before the exam. It went well, we learned a lot. The crown on the top of my head is a little thing we came up with. It's a cyclohexane molecule in chair confirmation (most stable shape that molecule can be in) and it's showing the axial (hydrogens pointing straight up or down) and equatorial (hydrogens off to the side) positions of the

Speak from Your Heart and You'll Win Everytime

2011-03-06T07:52:00.000-08:00

I usually don't like bragging or showing off, I almost didn't push the post button because I just don't like doing it but some credentials are needed. People have always been attracted to my writing. I took a few minutes between the last sentence and this one to figure out how long I've been writing. I was amazed, I can't believe I've been writing since I was about 13 or 14. 7 or 8 years, wow. So

Conversation View in Gmail Settings: Making Gmail Easier to Use

2011-03-05T07:20:00.000-08:00

The Process Login to your gmail account > Click "Settings" at the top right > Go to the "Conversation View" section near Browser Connection and My Picture > Click the "Conversation view off" radio button and Save settings. The Explanation I was working on my Google Calendar and I remembered reading an article in Yahoo! News about Google making an option like Yahoo did. Instead of streamlining

Partitioning Toppings and Separating Them From the Lettuce Might be the Greatest Invention since Sliced Bread in the Food World

2011-02-27T22:37:00.000-08:00

Was waiting for the CPHA meeting to start and I thought I would get something to eat. I shot out of bed and didn't have any thing the whole day. I didn't want to eat too much and I didn't want to eat anything too unhealthy (I ate this sandwich from school the other day and it was 2 grams Sodium (daily intake should be 1.5 g Na; usually Na content is published as mg though so it would be 1,500

Add Contact from Email in Gmail

2011-02-27T11:01:00.000-08:00

I knew Yahoo! had a way of adding people to contacts that weren't already there so I knew Google had to have the same thing. I didn't figure it out until today that there is a little down arrow to the right of the email at the top that. Click that and if the contact isn't added, just push "Add [contact] to Contacts list."

Changing Your Air Filter is Really Simple

2011-02-15T15:22:00.001-08:00

I used to get anxiety attacks going to this small engine repair class in high school because I had this odd built up fear about cars. I'll have to figure out why that was later in life but right now the fear has dissipated and I'm fascinated with how they work and I wish I had more time to understand mine. I know a lot of other people still have the fear so when I was changing out my air filter

The Khan Academy

2011-02-12T11:18:00.000-08:00

Some Videos Resonance Sigma bonds and sp3 orbitals Pi bonds and sp2 orbitals Naming Alkanes The Khan Academy is an academy produced from Salman Khan tutoring his cousins. It was introduced to me a long time ago by Mohammad, from Pre-Med Hell. I was going through a rough time so I didn't want to spend too much time doing anything else. I just took another look at it on Youtube and they are great

My New Found Muscle Tissue

2011-01-30T13:49:00.000-08:00

The first time that I was able to exercise in about five weeks. I didn't exercise for the first two weeks of Winter because so much was going on. Right after I had three half marathons in a row. I post all the details of my runs on my team's website. One of the recommendations for running a half marathon is that you stop exercising or do a very light exercise four days before the event. They also

Disclaiming the Disclaimer

2011-01-30T02:06:00.000-08:00

Just one more quick post that I'm going to add a disclaimer to the about tab of the blog. As I was saying two posts earlier, I'm going to have less time to write these. So, in the interest of writing as many as I can, I won't be checking spelling and grammar as much. We don't have an editor so I will go back and check them all in the summer. Thank you for your understanding and if you find

I'm Going to be a Good Doctor Specializing in the Exiciting

2011-01-30T01:58:00.000-08:00

I had this post idea from months ago (possibly last summer). Since doing homework right now would be really inefficient, I thought I would write a few words about it. A lot of people ask me, "What kind of Doctor do you want to be?" A long time ago I used to say that I wanted to do cardiology because I love the heart and vascular system and how it works; heart contractions, nerve conductivity

Spring 2011 Schedule: I Can't Do it All

2011-01-26T16:36:00.000-08:00

Class Schedule (15 Units) Biol 260 - Biostastics Biol 260 - Biostastics Lab Phys 100A - College Physics Phys 100A - College Physics Lab Chem 322A - Organic Chemistry Lecture Chem 322A - Organic Chemistry SI Chem 323A - Organic Chemistry Lab Soc 462 - Medical Sociology Extra Curriculars Leadership Academy LSU Leadership Academy MAPS Webmaster CPHA Officer (Webmaster) Racing Events Surf City

In The Interest of Full Disclosure

2011-01-26T11:23:00.000-08:00

The blog Posting this Semester The Blog I'm sorry I didn't get this out sooner, I've been running around for the last two weeks trying to update my school schedule, finish up some last minute things before the semester started, and finished up running three marathons. My original intent was to post this a few weeks ago, see what some people think and then go from there. But, I think this is the

Planting Trees for Martin Luther King Day (Day of Service)

2011-01-17T16:20:00.000-08:00

Woke up at about 7:30. Couldn't go back to sleep after that so I went to my desk and saw a receipt for the Martin Luther King Day, Day of Service (Tree Planting), for the 3rd District Council in Long Beach. "Oh, good thing I woke up so early" (event was at 9:00 AM). The leadership academy sent an email and I thought it was a great way to fulfill the service project requirement. It was partnered

Costly, Common, and Avoidable Medical Errors

2011-01-12T15:09:00.000-08:00

In Cheryl Clark's article, "Top 10 Most Costly, Frequent Medical Errors" written in Health leaders Media, she writes: Avoidable medical errors added $19.5 billion to the nation's healthcare bill in 2008, according to a claims-based study conducted by Millman, Inc. on behalf of the Society of Actuaries (SOA). The report lists the 10 most expensive errors in healthcare settings.The word that