Sam’s Blog

I could get away with doing a lot less work.

But that would be boring.

This thought struck me as I was cutting out paper ornaments to decorate my floor’s stairwell. I plan on having a (paper) Christmas tree with my residents’ names on the ornaments, a gingerbread house, a candy cane, and an OU wearing a santa hat. Something for each side of the stairwell near the hall security doors. I plan to put up this stuff in a couple of days when it’s officially December. I still consider it a little early to decorate for Christmas, but the residents will only be here for 2 weeks of December.

I’m taking the MCAT and the GRE next semester (yes, and. I know I’m insane). I’m looking at an MD/PhD program on the recommendation of a professor that I respect. She’s deeply involved in the pre-med and med school recommendations area at OU, so I trust her. This does throw a lot more work my way… But it’ll be great if it turns out. However. The MD/PhD program only accepts 5 people per year. It’s pretty likely that I won’t get in (I’m not being negative, just realistic. Lots of applicants, only 5 spots. *shrug*), so that’s why I’m taking the GRE as backup. I don’t want to go to just medical school. I loves mah research. *hearts*

So we’ll see. If I get into the MD/PhD thing I’m certainly not going to turn it down. But I won’t be devastated if I don’t get it, since I know it’s a pretty high goal and my alternative plans of a PhD are still desirable.

I’ve started having dreams about lab.  This is either a bad sign or a good sign, depending on your point of view.  Since I like to be positive, I’ll say it’s a good sign that I’m thinking about the experiment I’m running and lab is slowly inching its way into every crevice of my brain.  I woke up this morning moderately worried that I’d left a male in the small experiment tank overnight (that tank’s not aerated [though the large experiment tank is]), but I know for a fact that I put him back in his home tank.  So he’s fine.
I go into lab every day, for anywhere from 5 minutes (Mondays when I only have time to feed them) to 6 hours (weekends) so it makes sense that I’d start dreaming about it.

As long as I don’t start droning on and on about lab to people who aren’t interested I suppose it’s all good.  :)
And fish-related dreams are better than whatever I was dreaming about before the fish.  Something about peeling a zombie.  Why would I want to peel a zombie?!

My brain is weird.

In other news, my Spanish class is cancelled for the rest of the week!  We’re doing oral interviews, which will basically be a 15 minute chat about the semester, the presentations we did, and how we’re doing overall.  She said it’s not for a grade, and is just for our benefit.  She’s such a nice lady…  My interview is tomorrow.  I like chatting with her.
Anyway, this means that I can sleep in quite a bit on Wednesday and Friday if I want.  Woo sleep!  I have top rounds Thursday night, so it’ll be good to get some extra sleep.

Thanksgiving was tasty as usual, though I didn’t see as many of my relatives as I would’ve liked.

I did not figure out how to blog via mind-link to the internet, but I did spend a lot of time sleeping on the couch and watching TV. I missed my bed here.

March of the Penguins is awesome. I watched it twice and now want a plushie baby penguin of my own to hug and love. See why?

I’ve been playing this game today. They show small ads at the bottom of the page; the sponsors pay to show their ads, then the money from ads goes to buy rice. Each word you get right is worth 10 grains of rice. It’s rather addictive.

Unless I figure out how to blog by transmitting my thoughts to the internet without using the internet, there won’t be entries until this weekend or whenever I get back from Thanksgiving break in the forest.

I’ll be working on the telepathic blogging thing though.

I haven’t decided whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing that I’m alone most of the time I’m in the fish lab.  On the one hand, there’s nobody around to hear me talk to the fish.  On the other hand… I’m talking to the fish.  Like they’re dogs or something.

“Who’s a good boy?!”  “Are you a male? ……. Yes, you’re a male!  Good boy!”  “Come on!  Cummeere!  Who’s a good fishy?”  “Wow, you’re big for an Oxo male.”  (He was 29mm)

I know they can’t hear me and do not speak human.  I really do.

It just helps me stay on track if I talk out loud while I’m doing it.  If I don’t keep VERY careful track of the identity of the fish I’m working with, they’re useless and effectively dead.  (You try telling apart 20 - 30mm fish that are all about the same color and pattern.)  The fish are from a cave system in Mexico, so it’s not like we can get more by driving to the pet store.  So, it’s extremely important that I remember what I’m doing.  Therefore I talk to the fish and keep sticky notes on every tank labeling gender and population identity.

There is a method to my madness.

Usually.

Offer them free candy. Works wonders.

Note: You must actually possess the candy and be willing to part with some.

Data collection went well today, except for a small mishap with miscommunication. However, nothing was harmed and a trial was just postponed to avoid possible complications.
A new person was asked to feed the fish this weekend, and did not know that my fish are on a  feeding schedule.  I’d already caught the female I needed for my first two trials, so I was able to do those.  However, I decided it was best to postpone another set of trials until tomorrow since all the other females had eaten and Luna1 had not.  Human moods and behaviors are often dictated by food (see above), so why not fish? Therefore it is important to feed them consistently either before or after trials.

It would’ve been silly to go into lab today and try to collect data when I can barely walk in a straight line or sit upright in a chair without tilting over (I’m typing a bit sideways at the moment).  Therefore I’m just trying to keep my eyes open for a couple more hours… Then it’ll be sleep until I wake up and lab time on Saturday.  I can get plenty of lab stuff done before the football game starts at 7pm.  The lights shut off in the fish room at 8pm anyway.  (It’s nearly impossible to catch a 30mm fish in the dark.  I’ve tried.  [The lights shut off before 8pm one evening.])

Silly body, why do you require sleep?  And why do you crash at the most inconvenient times?  I suppose it’s protesting a week of 6 hours of sleep or less per night.  Oh well.  12 hours or so of sleep tonight should make my body and mind function properly again.

I’m always impressed by my bosses in Housing; they know the name of every single RA and office assistant.  That’s about 100 people, give or take.  A lot of adults I interact with slip up sometimes on my name and call me Sarah or Stephanie or some other S name, but my Housing bosses never do.  Some RAs in other centers just think of me as that S girl that follows Seth around.  I am not some random S girl.  I am Sam.  And Dianne and Johnnie-Margaret know this.  I appreciate that.

Also, my history of science professor is really nice.  I e-mailed her yesterday to ask how many absences I have in her class (since she takes attendance).  I mentioned that I was too sick to come to class yesterday morning.  This was her reply:

Dear Samantha:
I’m sorry you are not feeling well — I hope you will be better soon. I turned up two absences before today. If that doesn’t sound right, let me know (if you think you might have more, if would be because sometimes I forget to send the attendance sheet around, and when that happens I mark everyone as present.) I’ll mark today as an excused absence due to illness.
kp

Normally you need some sort of documentation of serious illness to get an excused absence.  It’s sweet that she trusts me.  I suppose e-mailing her the day of class helped (instead of waiting until finals week and then complaining loudly about the attendance policy I’ve known about since day 1).  I will, of course, reward this trust with further trustworthy behavior and class attendance.  It’s not acceptable behavior to exploit someone’s trust.

I’m not sure if this is just a horrible allergic reaction to the chalk dust from that review session Seth and I gave last night or if I’m getting sick and the chalk dust sneezing just happened to coincide with the onset of the cold.

Either way it’s unpleasant.

But!  I have a large jug of apple juice, which I always want when I’m sick, so it could be much worse.  And I have an antihistamine for last night and a nasal decongestant / sinus headache relief med for today.

I’m not sure what’s up with my immune system this semester; I rarely get sick this often.

Clean room = happy Sam.  I went 2 weeks without cleaning my room and was about to start freaking out.  Of course, this meant that there were about 10 things on my floor + some dust and I hadn’t made my bed in a while.  But still.

I have a 99.1% in Spanish.  I find this highly amusing.