Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Well, the summer's taking off. . .
Yes, I'm getting in the groove. I got here at 8:30 a.m. and I'm still here at the vet med building. Unfortunately, my dinner (a carton of cottage cheese and a container of pineapple chunks, both labeled with my name and the date) was purloined out of the cafeteria fridge by some nameless, faceless jerk.
Now what kind of person would steal cottage cheese and fruit? It's not like it was anything irresistably appetizing like homemade cheesecake or prime rib--it's curdled milk and canned fruit, for pete's sake! Geez! Anyway, in order to quench my hunger and rage, I had to go halfsies on a pizza with a classmate. Instead of a 60 cent dinner, I had an 8 dollar dinner. Poo.
Rants aside, I started this morning with a good workout in the barn attic above the cows--that's where the Vet Med Fitness Club has a little "gym." I can watch the horsies run outside while I do burpies.
I've got a modest schedule with the research for now, so I've been getting interviews done for the pet column so I can hopefully get ahead on those since the research schedule will get busier as the summer rolls on. The job is great--I'm learning tons from talking with the different clinicians and staff. I interviewed our ER vet this morning and got invited to hang out in the ER on Friday--that should be interesting. Lotsa cool emergencies come in during spring.
This afternon my research mentor and I had our first "field day" collecting snails at a local private pond. Some folks in town own a HUGE plot of land behind a motel. They've got a great house and dozens of acres of woods, prarie and human-made ponds, one even has a sand beach. They also have a collections of peacocks and swans which provided ample musical and visual entertainment as we sloshed through the water in search of snails.
I tried to work on the GIS (Geographic Information Systems) assignment this evening with my pizza buddy, but we are both too technically illerterate to figure out how to merge data into this program--so we'll try again tomorrow. I think the doughy pizza made us sluggish.
I just checked on the snails we collected earlier, and a few of them are shedding the little critters we need for our experiments--so there's small victory for the day. . .
the parasite that we need for our experiments
. . . to compensate for the trauma of losing my cottage cheese and pinapples.
Yes, I'm bitter, but I'll get over it .
Friday, May 21, 2004
Under construction
Pardon the malfunction with the photo links below--the university computer services are going through some changes, and my photo files are in the middle of being moved. They're floating out
somewhere in the purgatory of the UIUC server. . .
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
The End of an Era
Okay, so the era was only two semesters long, but I'm still bummed.
The Suds laundromat/bar on Green Street has closed it doors for good. I went there last night with three bags of dirty laundry and a hankering for a Heineken and channel surfing bad movies, only to find that the "Suds" sign was gone, along with all the washers, dryers and neon lights flashing "Bud".
Suds' variety of top-loaders, with a view of the bar
I ended up spending the night at a smelly (literally) dive laundromat down the street with a chain-smoking attendant and her chain-smoking teenage offspring.
Now where can I go for a 10 a.m. screwdriver buzz while I watch the clothes spin round and round? I'm going to miss the free popocorn and watching TNT's "Movies for Guys Who Like Movies" with the laundry attendant/bartender, his studious girlfriend, and the small group of regulars in the bar.
And the dryers were really big!
I was so looking forward to summer visits there, because during the school year I would bring my books and pretend to study while one eye was on the two TV sets (one with sports and the other with action movies), but now that I have the freedom to actually watch cable sans guilt, they've taken my surfing outlet away!
Watching TNT movies and sports
And what am I going to do with my "Suds Club" card?!?!?
Whoa is me. . .
Monday, May 17, 2004
Back from the Black Hole
Alright, I'm done with finals, I'm done coughing my lungs out and I've done my dishes and vacuumed my apartment. Does this mean I'll be back blogging on a regular basis? Maybe. I still have three loads of laundry to do, I'm still recovering from being sick which means I have a lot of weight to re-gain so I have to eat eat eat, and I have to tend to my garden which is finally sprouting some herbs and lettuce. (Tomatoes, beans and peppers will come later. . .)
Ahh, what's new? I started my Geographic Information Systems (GIS)workshop today, which I'm finally getting elective credit for. It's pretty cool--we're learning how to put all kinds of data, including topographical features, water sources, residences, vegetation cover, disease cases etc., into integrative map programs to visualize and analyze cool things like disease outbreaks. Maps are fun, especially if you're a nerd! The neat part is that there's some great software and data resources (like satellite photography) resulting from decades of military R&D, and now tree-hugging pacifist geeks like me can use the same technology for environmental, public health and conservation projects! The irony.
I started my
pet column job a few weeks ago and it's fun. What's nice is that I get to talk to the clinicians who are practicing hands-on research and medicine. After being in the classroom eight hours a day, it's nice to be reminded that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. So now I get to write and get paid for it. Although the journalist-style interviewing and writing will take ne a while to master. . .
Anyway, here's a factoid I learned from one of my clinician interviews: did you know that until this year, there were no standards designated by AAHA (American Animal Hospital Association) for post-surgical pain management? Meaning that if your pet went in for an invasive surgery, no pain killers were required as the pet recovered from anesthesia. . . How would you like to wake up without any drugs after after getting
your gonads removed? Sheesh!
I start taking care of some snails this week form my research project, then in a couple weeks I get to go a' hunting for tadpoles in the local ponds! Fun stuff.
