I finished the certificate program at GA-PCOM in Biomedical Science. I will not go onto the second year to get the MS degree since I was accepted into the DO program for the class of 2013. Katie and I are ecstatic to say the least.

We left Florida and a relatively comfortable life specifically to attend the GA-PCOM biomedical science master's program in hopes of successfully being admitted to a DO program for the class of 2013. I am grateful that everything worked out so wonderfully. I learned a lot of information this year that will serve me well in medical school come August. Teaching at Mater I used to tell the kids that they could make a plan to go after their dreams. I told them that they could plan and put themselves into positions that would get them where they wanted to go in life. I decided that I should do the same, and I'm lucky to have such a supportive wife. She literally supported our family this past year.

I don't know if anybody reads this blog, but just in case you didn't know, Katie and I are having a little girl come the end of July. I feel her when I touch Katie's belly kick and writhe around inside. I'm anxious to meet her. [Special thanks goes to Courtney and Avery Anderton for their role in influencing Katie to have our girl.]

After church today, I decided to bust out my little used guitar. I bought it while I was in college so a friend of mine Steven Melonakos, a soon to be UNC dental school graduate, could teach me (some chords) to play. It was fun. It's been so long that I can't really hold the (left hand) notes correctly, but maybe this summer--by the end--I'll be able to play a part of a song.

While rooting around in the guitar case I found this scratched on the back of a piece of paper, from before I was married:

I'm sitting here, alone, with friends
Waiting
So slip beside me and hold me tight

Spectacular and talented
Though you can't tell tonight
I'm walking down the hall.
Hope I don't see you today. No I don't.

Word Nerds and Linguistic Fancies

I've been listening to word nerds, a podcast that I found on itunes. I like their discussions, though at times, I feel that the conversations could be as fluid as NPR's Car Talk's Tappet brothers's conversations. Below are some links to things that they highlighted in December and November. I haven't listened for a couple of months.

If you do not have time to listen to a whole podcast, but you can take a minute or two to read a blog on language and linguistics, I highly recommend Language Log. The posts are fun and interesting. They had one speculating how fluent President Obama was in Indonesian, which he learned as a child. They also had a post charting "That's Greek to me" phrasing in different languages, where some languages pointed to Greek, Chinese, Arabic, and even Heavenly Script as being the more unintelligible language.

In the end, check language log out. It's fun.

The other links suggested by the word nerds, but...language log is better.

Word Nerds: http://thewordnerds.org/
Nature Magazine Article: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v449/n7163/full/nature06176.html
Dead Words: http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2008/11/zounds-nixonian-skedaddle-and-other-dead-words/

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/

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.

Did you pickup the hitchhiker? I don't know. How's my tire?

As I drove to school this morning, I saw a pair of hitchhikers on the North bound ramp of I85. A horseshoe mustached man and a round, blond haired woman made me think about the time I was compelled to pick-up a hitchhiker walking along the side of the road. I was driving back to Georgia after 9 months of school at BYU. With my 1993 VW FOX loaded to the brim, except for a CD case, map, and food in the front seat, I decided to detour myself over and visit my cousin Kevin Kortman in Fort Collins, CO. As a reference point, it usually takes me 32 hours to get from Marietta, GA to Provo, UT. I was planning on taking three days to make the trek; it took 5 days.
When I decided to detour to Ft. Collins, I passed a lanky, scruffy looking man hitch hiking along the side of the road. I thought about stopping, but in the end, I decided that it wasn't a good idea and passed him. Less than a mile later, "*clocsh* flip-flip-flurr-floprr-flip-fliprr" the outer sidewall of my tire detached itself from the body. Changing a tire is an annoyance that is easily remedied with the appropriate tools and mind frame of "I'm reinforcing my manliness by changing this tire." The thing that I always forget to include in the emergency/tire changing toolkit is a way to clean yourself up after you've done what you need to do. Also, if for any reason your not able to quickly change the tire or do the repair, it's likely I will sweat my clothes to wet and further require a towel or washcloth. Finally, the notion that "I am so manly" changing this tire is somewhat negated when you're worried about getting grime on your pants or ruining a shirt, or messing yourself. The repair took longer than I had hoped mainly because I had packed my trunk tightly with my stuff before leaving under which were the tools and tire needed to fix the one that had "broke." With my belongings on the asphalt, I see the lanky vagrant get closer and closer. Just as I am putting on the last lug nut, the man is 200 meters away. It was a sign that I should have picked him up the first time.
The particulars of finding a repair shop and the trip to the next town with the syphilitic man that had his vehicle taken from him by his ex-girlfriend that he had just helped move into her new apartment, which (of course) was the reason he had to walk back home that night is for another post, if you'd like. This is one of the reasons that the 3 day trek took 5, two were eaten up walking 12 miles on dirt roads from Quinter, Kansas, to Grainfield and hitching a ride back.
The point of this was. I saw some hitchhikers the other day. I thought about picking them up, but I did not. They may have been decent. I guess I'll never know; my tire didn't blow out.

ee cummings

So before I get into anything else, I wanted to give a nod towards the late ee cummings. He is my favorite poet, though the likes of Walt Whitman (principally), Edgar Allan Poe (due to my father reading his work to my sister and I growing up), and Homer (from sheer mythical influence and fantastic inspiration) have all left their mark. I wish I had read more poetry. It's not that I cannot read some now, but I feel that my poetic peak has passed. If you're interested in e e cummings, and have any other authors that you think I might be intersted in, please leave a comment.

I have the complete poems of e e cummings; however, I am very interested in purchasing his lectures given at Harvard, i: six nonlectures. The lectures are e e cummings speaking about his life and some of his influences. It would have been so exciting to listen to these live. That's one thing that I really enjoyed about BYU and even PCOM-GA now, the lectures and people speaking. The likeliness of a poet speaking for the medical school is pretty low, but the medically centric guests are engaging.

I think that I'll make another post later on some other authors that I enjoy.

Why not?

Why not? Ever since Katie started her own blog, I would always excitedly look at her blog page to see what she's been up to. I know what she's been up to, for the most part, but I still enjoyed seeing what pictures she posted or the project she worked on published. Secretly, I would also love it when she posted things where I was involved as well. With her small business starting and our not working together anymore at Mater, I figured, it was time for me to post things on occasion as well.