Friday, October 29, 2004
The Perfect 2nd year "Frankenprofessor"
In the spirit of Halloween, I'd like to present the perfect professor, created from sewn-together parts of all our current professors.
My Frankenprofessor would have:
Dr. Wallig's energy and intesnsity
Dr. Smith's dry wit
Dr. Martin's worldliness
Dr. Grimm's boyish good looks
Drs. Kuhlenschmidt's and Maddox's timeliness and attention to detail
Dr. Pijanowski's chuckle ("huh-huh, huh-huh")
Dr. Paul's morbid sense of humor
Dr. Hoyer's penchant for quiz games
Dr. McAllister's deep, clear newscaster voice
Dr. Cortinez's extemporaneous style
Dr. Jorgenson's friendliness
Dr. Wallig's Tie of the Week
English Setters
See how his tie is flopped about? Dr. Wallig was bouncing off the the walls this morning, slurring words together and talking a million miles a minute. I guess that what can happen when one gets married, moves into a new house, and teaches clinical rotations all within two weeks, and then drinks five cups of coffee before lecturing.
Thursday, October 28, 2004
To Dad, the Safety Manager
I get to go to the
Illinois Veterinary Emergency Response Team (IVERT) training in Springfield November 18-19th on behalf of the Public Health Club. I'm pretty pumped--maybe I'll get to dress in a plastic suit like the scientists in
E.T.!
Last year all the class of 2006 told us that second year is hell. Now they're saying third year is hell. So what's the deal? This semester isn't too bad--we have some days that don't start until 9 and we have one afternoon off each week. So now I'm getting worried about next semester. Will it be the nightmare everyone says it is?
Actually, this semester
is kinda nightmarish. There's only so many days I can take of sitting on my butt in a dark lecture hall (see "monkey balls" below), and it's killing me. I understand that we need to know endless lists of drugs and bugs and bacteria to practice medicine, but it's hard not to get bored with this 2nd year, 1st semester curriculum. I want to get down to the
real stuff--the examinations, the poop, the blood, the needles, the differential lists. . .
So maybe I'll start hanging out in the wildlife ward again, or hang out with the 4th years doing their clinical rotations, or attend internal medicine rounds on Fridays.
I gotta get off my butt and do
something to remind me that a real life of practicing medicine awaits. . .
If third year is full of classes where you actually learn surgery, dentistry and radiology and get tested on technical skills and problem solving every week, the that's
my kind of hell!
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
(Angry geek-girl strikes again!)
Revelation of the Day
Rising health care costs are caused by people who don't take care of themselves, even though in this day and age they should know better.
You know those questionnaires health insurance companies make you fill out? If people with inherited, unpreventable conditions, old people, and smokers have to pay higher health insurance premiums, so should these folks:
- People who eat junk food (i.e. fast foods, soda pop, fried dough in any of its many its forms) more than a couple times a week and exercise no more than 30 minutes a week
- People who get "wasted" more than once a month
- People who stress themselves out and get hypertension working 60-80 hours a week so they can make an extra $50 K a year to afford their latest fashions, jet-skis, beemers, gated communities, artery-clogging junk food, cancer-causing cigars or liver-killing martinis
Why should I suffer rising health care costs--the consequences of these folks' unhealthy choices--when I consciously decide to live simply, eat healthy, simple foods (except for the occasional Taco Bell burrito or hot fudge brownie sundae!), exercise regularly and choose mental health over material things?
Why is so much money being drained from the health insurance systems to treat folks with illnesses they knowingly bring upon themselves (many of these people ignore doctors' advice to cut back or slow down) when there are so many people suffering from unpreventable illnesses?
Why are almost two-thirds of this nation's population suffering from "
overnutrition" when two-thirds of the
world's population suffers from
malnutrition?
Socialize health care? For the ones who take of themselves and get sick from unknown hazards or unpreventable disease, sure. As for the alcoholics, druggies, face-stuffers, couch potatoes, and $100-K-plus-a-year, angina-ridden, corporate-ladder climbers: make 'em pay more, I say.
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
An acquaintance commented that my blog seems a bit "tame," (unrepresentative of my radical self?) so I thought it may be the time to throw in a little profanity. So here goes:
PowerPoint sucks big monkey balls
Disclaimer: About 20% of the time, PowerPoint does not
suck. In fact, when used properly, it's the great communication tool its creators intended it to be. HOWEVER, most of the time, PowerPoint is misused, and like any other abuse of technology, can cheapen the human experience (along with hedonism, gluttony, the "overnutrition" epidemic, trendy clothes made by Bangladeshi children paid 80 cents a day, boob jobs, spray-on tans, our reliance on our cars, shopping as a "hobby," lack of respect for language, reality TV, apathy, people who think God is partisan, and the abandonment of walking as a mode of transportation and social interaction).
"Do you want to minimize interaction with your students? Do you despise making eye contact when you speak to people? Do you like to turn the lights off so you never have to look at the smelly, unkempt formaldehyde-urchins who grace you with their stench every morning? Then use Microsoft PowerPoint--it's been voted 'Crutch of the Year' by The Complacent Pedagogues of America three years in a row!
Science teachers, if you're presenting a complicated sequence of biochemical events, you don't have to explain it step by step--just put it all in one image that you flash on the screen for 20 seconds! And remember, printing off PowerPoint notes keeps lumberjacks employed by using 3 reams of paper for every 20 words of text!"
You see, we modern-day vet students, probably like many other students of science, spend about seven hours a day looking at PowerPoint slides. Yes, for classes that involve plethoras of visual information, PowerPoint can be a useful tool. However, for lectures about concepts involving processes or math or biochemical cascades, PowerPoint falls short. Some of our professors know this, and hence use the good old-fashioned overhead projector, or the medieval chalkboard.
Ahh, the chalkboard. When I was in undergrad, virtually all my professors used a chalkboard, and only a few cutting-edge tecchies were into overhead projectors (but then again, back then, no one had ever heard of a prion, stem cell research was not a hot topic, and biological taxonomy only had five kingdoms). Either way, students watched as teachers wrote out chemical equations or drew arrows to the next step in the cascade. I know Dr. JoAnn Eurell will point out that with the growing popularity of tablet PCs, teachers can handwrite notes on the screen during a PowerPoint presentation. But that doesn’t solve the lighting issues.
Sitting in the dark is not conducive to staying awake, and to exacerbate sleepiness, many teachers speak with a hushed, soothing or monotone voice, now that 21st century technology has also brought microphones into the classrooms.
However, my biggest beef with PowerPoint is how lecture content seems to be getting more and outline-oriented. Granted, we may need outlines to manage information, but material should be presented to us as a complete (and Heaven forbid--interactive?) lecture, not as a
reading of a list.
Hell, I can go print out the slide presentations and read them in 10 minutes, rather than the 50 minutes the instructors take, but then I'd have to spend my money on paper, when I've already spent all I've got on tuition.
If I wanted to pay several grand a year to have people
rattle off lists to me, I would have hired a team of
Billy Crudup,
Matt Damon, and Dr.Grimm look-alikes to do it. Oh well--too late now!
Sunday, October 24, 2004
The Boy Who Cried WMD
George's
Presidency 101 Global Test.
Is it funny because it's true? Or is it sad because it's true?
This weekend, I took I hike with Stephanie, Linea and Duchess (Linea's dog) through Allerton park, just 20 minutes from C-U.
Duchess takes a rest after a long hike.
Saturday, October 23, 2004
I do it all the time:
See more at
engrish.com.
Friday, October 22, 2004
Here's to you, Diggerblue!
(imagine me holding up the beer currently in my left hand in a "toast" gesture)
Ahh. . . here's a link to Diggerblue's
rant (posted over a year ago, but still timely) about defeatism, idealism, sifting through biased information (and our own biases) in search of truth, and our power to change the world--using baby steps, of course.
"You see, I may not know a lot in this world for sure, but I do know that one way to make sure you don't get what you believe is right, or don't change anything for the better, is to do nothing."
--Diggerblue
Yay!
Second round of exams are over (Bacteriology, Parasitology, Pharmacology and Pathology) and Epidemiology midterm next week. I can;t believe we're already halfway through the semester. I don't know if I feel any smarter. . .
The Nerdiest Nerd of All:
The Band Nerd
Last weekend when I should have been studying the differences between alpha-1 blockers, I visited my alma mater's homecoming game to play in the Huskie Alumni Band. Not only am I a vet-student-always-talking-about-gross-parasites-at-the-dinner-table kind of nerd, I'm also a former band nerd!
And I was the only
drummer in the Alumni Band. The others weren't nerdy enough to come back.
There I am! In the yellow circle
I don't what that facial expression was all about. The cymbal player was from the class of 1968, and he and his wife travelled all the way from Arizona to come to the game.
We marched to the stadium with the rest of the marching band right through a bunch of drunk tailgaters, and on the way three drunk guys tried to give me beer. One guy put a full, closed, cold bottle of MGD on my drum and ran away. I had no pockets avaiable to put it in (the drum was in the way!) so I ended up giving it to some other drunk guy.
That drum major is having way too much fun.
The great think about being an alum is you don't have to wear the nerdy uniform and hat!
Notice how two band guys have to hold the conductor's podium so it doesn't fall over? That's how windy it was!
The crappy thing about being short is that no one can see you from the stands because the cymbal player or drum major is in the way. The great thing sbout being short is that everyone around you serves as a wind block--it was frickin' cold out there!
Since it was so cold I skipped the rest of the game and spent the the afternoon in DeKalb's one and only Irish Pub, O'Leary's. They even have a big plaster cow by the bar.
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Exercise is good for the brain
We had our 2nd Bacteriology exam today, so since I don't have any other exams this week, after the exam I decided to get back in the swing of a regular work-out regimen.
The vet med gym is the attic of the obstetrics barn, so we get to work out above the cows. Part of the "architectural makeover" in store for the vet college will no doubt include a new gym, but that'll be after our time.
Greg's getting strong so he can handle those cows!
Annual Pathology Club Picnic
(more nerd fun!)
Dr. Wallig hosted the 2004 Pathology Club pot luck with lotsa beer, chips and home-made food.
We voted on our favorite tie, which Dr. Wallig agrees to wear for a week straight
He demonstrates the proper way to tie a tie (if you tie it too tight, you may suffer ischemia of the melon)
The winning tie!
"Totally Awesome!"
Derek hosted an 80s party complete with. . .
Mullets and mesh tops. . .
Dancing. . .
A fire pit. . .
. . .and valley girls!
Friday, October 01, 2004
Dog Day
For mycology lab the other day, students brought in ther dogs so we could swab ther ears for yeast. (Stinky!) So, of course, no one paid attention during lecture that afternoon.
Gunner found the lecture boring. He used to be a blood donor dog who lived in the hospital, then Alix took him home.
Jason and his new baby, Casey
Buster in the lab
Elvis and mike--their facial hair matches! Elvis also used to be a resident blood donor
Jim and a CUTE puppy
Erin and Patrick
Joyce and Jim swab an ear. Don't Bulldogs have the cutest butts in the world?
Amanda and Emily
Melissa and Jasmine
Lindsay and baby Zoey
Zoey has the most beatiful spots--and another cute butt!
You know you're a vet student when. . .
I just heard a news story on the radio about a paraplegic guy who watched helplessly from his wheelchair as a black bear known to the locals as "Fat Albert" raided his kitchen and ate 5 pounds of cholcolate.
All I could think was, "I wonder if chocolate is toxic to black bears. If so, is 5 pounds a sufficient dose to make a 600-pound bear sick? I wonder if that poor bear will have diarrhea."
I am officially a nerd.
