Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Transformers, Book Club, School and Team Maverick

I first started this entry while watching Transformers, borrowed from Jacob Terry. When I first saw the movie, I remember not liking it that much. There was something about the movie that I didn't like. It just seemed coincidental and silly. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more had I not been slightly uncomfortable sitting next to my 9 year old brother in law during the scene where Sam's parents where having a birds-and-the-bees-esque conversation. I don't know. It was one of those "...oh...I wish they had left that out" moments. Watching the movie alone--Katie didn't want to watch it--I enjoyed it better the second time. I really enjoyed Shia [rhymes with "hiya"] LaBeouf's acting.
The thing that really made me want to talk about the movie was that I was watching it alone. Had anyone else been there I would have commented that I did not understand why the scorpion robot they were battling in the desert did not kill all of the soldiers. What was stopping the robot from advancing on the troops on the first scene in the movie? It's a robot. Small arms fire wouldn't repel it. It's not scared and it doesn't hold human life as anything sacred. Anyways...I noticed that.

We went to a halloween party at Heather's house, Ashley--Jacob's fiancee--'s friend. Anyways. It was enjoyable. People were talking and an idea of starting up a book club emerged. I think that it would be a good idea. A book club would be fun. It could be a book club where each member could pick a book that everyone should read, then we could discuss it. It would be a Jane Austen book club for guys. It didn't necessarily have to be a large book each time. If, for instance, someone really had an article out of Science, Nat. Geo., Popular Mechanics, GQ or whatever, shoots go! I guess if we don't organize it locally, we could organize it online in a google group or some other forum, maybe a facebook group. I really like DUNE by Frank Herbert. I may pick that, but...it is a bit long. We'll see after Christmas. I asked for some books.

My first semester at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine-Georgia Campus went well. In my "Biomedical Modeling" (Physiology) class I earned an "A." I was happy about that, but...more importantly, I really liked how we integrated physics into the physiology. I did have to memorize certain things; however, for the most part, we learned principles and used our physics, chemistry and bio previous knowledge to make sense of everything. It was fun to predict how things would interact, based on what we knew. It really made things make more sense in terms of how the body works normally and what happens when it's abnormal (sick).
In my second course, the Biochem, Molecular Bio, Cellular Bio, and Genetics, I found more difficult. It was less conceptual and focused on the minutiae of the microscopic world. I came out of that course with a 93.4% final average, which I was happy with; however, I was also somewhat dissappointed that I had missed a full "A" by .1%. I had never taken Biochem or Cell Bio, so some of the things discussed were novel for me.

I made some friends here as well. The first person I gravitated to at the school was Terrel Sanders. Terrel and I sat together the first day and then Nimit Patidar sat next to us. From there, I've met a slew of people from orientation to present. Team Maverick, according to my understanding is H.A. Barrot (aka what happens in the box stays in the box Barrot), M. Maggat (aka Mike-opedia) , N. Patidar (aka hotel operations {and powerpoint extraordinaire}), T. Sanders (aka Hypertrophic Geneticist), and F. Kortman (Papa-to-be). The name comes from the excitement that was inherent with the election this year. Basically, we get real maverickey at GA-PCOM. In all actuality, it's sort of like a service club. Nimit especially and Kareen, which often associates with team mav have been essential in proliferating and distributing study aids to help the Biomed class. Terrel also was the author of several scientific journal explication packets as well during the Dr. Jenney journal days. Mikey and Hershey, along with Nimit, during the past test also made up a ton of questions to study for the embryo and histo test. Anyways. There's my shout out to Team Maverick.

A link to a website that Hershey showed me is below. It has some beautiful photos. The website is called, Stuck in Customs
http://stuckincustoms.com/

Saturday, November 01, 2008

My Notebook

At church, they make a point of encouraging us to keep a journal. I'm grateful for different journals and accounts from people in the past. I have benefited from the written accounts of prophets, scientists, artists, family members and others. If someone becomes popular enough, their main works become famous. Once they cannot produce major works, then their scraps, notes, and remains become imbued with power. Journals tend to humanize people.
My first semester at BYU, I discovered Anthropology and decided to make it my own. I met with Dr. Hartley-Moore. She explained what the degree involved. I was excited to have found something that combined my love of language, religion, literature, people, and travel. I was so excited about the prospect of doing anthropological field research that I decided I would start carrying around a notebook to write things I noticed on campus. It was fun taking notes that year, it was fun taking notes in Greece during my mission (with the blue calendar charts). Since the mission, I have used a notebook inconsistently. The year I did at BYU, I wrote poetry and made some fun drawings. This year, I started during the first day of my Master's program. It has been useful in helping me remember names, write notes about the guest lecturers, and think about different topics throughout the day.
The notebook is also a statement in style. My mother-in-law, Mary Beth gave me my current notebook. I really like it. It is thick gridded notebook, no larger than a standard bible, without the index or footnotes. Nice.
The one thing about the notebook is that it really doesn't count as a true journal. Sometimes, it can be as journal-like as a bookie's ledger. The information is really more for me than anyone else.
I'm not very good about doing these posts. I'll start them but not be able to finish them when I first start. If I do not finish at first try, they become disjointed and unfocused. The same thing happened with the last posts. The only one that I finished the first time was the ee cummings post. That has been my favorite.