Physiology

We started class with Physiology. Our professor is from the Philippines and talks as fast as those guys on the radio talking about the small print in car dealership ads. So not only is his English not the best, he talks at warp speed. So it should be a tough year! He also says he doesn’t like to grade curves. At first we thought he meant on a curved grading scale, but then he said he only likes to grade with the 3 stroke approach. Which just confused and scared most of us. WTF is the 3 stroke approach???? So he then goes on to demonstrate…

the curves

B: has curves in it

C: has curves in it

D: has curves in it

now for the 3 stroke approach

A: takes 3 strokes to make the A symbol

F: also takes 3 strokes

So basically he wants you to either get an A or fail, which is ok in my opinion I don’t plan on getting anything lower than an A anyway’s.

Biomechanics

Next came Biomechanics with Dr. B. He was our anatomy teacher over the summer, so we all felt at home with him and his teaching methods. It will be a hard class, but we all feel comfortable with him and his teaching style so its not a big shock to us, not like our Physiology teacher is!

Lunch!

Patient care principles

We had Dr. Pitt, who is the head of our program. She taught us Psychosocial last semester. It will be ok, it basically medical terminology and all the small detail stuff with running a clinic.

Now it wouldn’t be a full day at school if they didn’t change something on us without warning and today was no exception. They switched our schedule around a bit. Now we have Human development for 3 solid hours in a row instead of 2 hours on Thurs and 1 hour on Tues. Seriously shoot me!

Ok so the new pictures are up in my photo gallery take 2.

I decided to try something a little different since I have some free time on my hands. Here is my first attempt at making a panorama.

This is the office all put together.

Also got the new class schedule up! take a peek at the calendar.

Ok that’s all I got for now!

Grades were posted a few days ago and I am happy with what I ended up with. My GPA for the summer is a 3.33. So not too shabby for my first semester of graduate school.

I finally ordered the rest of my books for the Fall. It brings the grand total to 10 books and just shy of $410 which is pretty darn good considering it would have cost me around $750 if I bought the books from the school bookstore.

Tonya is off to work today while I sit on my ass doing nothing. Man I love my break. Going back to school in a week will be rough! But I am ready to start this next semester. I already have homework in my Physiology class, it wasn’t even a full 4 days into our break and the teacher put up his course outline with the first reading assignment. What’s worse than that is I have him for two classes, that’s right not one, but TWO!

I have been watching the Olympics a bit, mainly at night to watch Phelps kick some ass. That relay a few nights ago was intense.

My usual routine for the past week as been:

7 am – wake up

7:30 am – eat breakfast

8:30 am – go to the gym

12 pm – eat lunch

1 pm – look over some muscles and old anatomy stuff

2:30 pm -  eat a snack

3 pm – take a nap

6 pm – eat dinner

10 – 11 pm – go to bed

pretty rough eh?

Tonya is at work today, tonight is our movie, beer, and pizza night. I am looking forward to that. It was Tonya’s idea to have a ‘us’ night, its what her dad and Colleen do as well.

Today I am thinking about the gym and then maybe go over some muscles and just a quick review of anatomy stuff. I want to stay fresh on it, since our teacher basically said “stay current on this stuff or it will be one hell of a semester.” So I will stay current.

We finally got all moved in, pretty much all situated with us still needing to get small things here and there. We need/want a shelf on this one bare wall in the living room and then we still need furniture for the bedroom and I still have to get the “Donnie” (guest room) all set up. So it will just take time. I want to have the guest room situated with a desk at least by the time I start classes again.

I have applied and now I am just waiting for school to verify the last bit of loan money I requested from the grad plus loan. Just an extra $12,500.

Tonya is getting all settled in and I think is starting to like it out here. Work is a bit rough for now, I think it just takes some time but it’ll come around. She registered for classes out here and will start I think in a few weeks. Once we start to get all situated and get into a groove it’ll be good.

Tomorrow we are going to Chad’s house, (a guy in my class). We are having a BBQ, I think just a few people from class will be there, mostly couples. It should be a fun time.

Alright so I ended up with a 96 on the second practical. I think I got a 97 on the first one, so I have done pretty well on the lab tests. Now all that is left is the final. It should be one bitch of a test but I will be ready for it.

Basically the test was like this. We walk in and each body had about 6 questions on each body. With all sorts of fun little questions.

Name the antagonist to this structures (tibialis anterior) eccentric action.

Fun huh? Yeah I thought so too. Oh by the way the answer was extensor digitorum longus. They are anterior (front) lower leg muscles. Just in case you really wanted/needed to know.

Well psych has just ended and now I feel like going to bed. Its been a long long day. peace!

The actual final is a week from tomorrow. Still have a lot to do, but I don’t feel too overwhelmed. I really have nothing else at the moment. I am far too busy with school to have anything else new in my life right now. When we hit the weekend maybe I will have something new to report.

OH yeah, I have been really longing for one of those new “netbooks”. They are basically a really cheap $399 10” laptop. I don’t know why, I think because its a tiny little gadget that I can play around with and take to school without fear of breaking it. They weight 2lbs so well see. Every computer maker is basically making them now, Dell is coming out with a $299 computer next month so we will see… And before anyone asks, no I don’t NEED one, I WANT one. Nough said!

Peace!

I’m so pretty!

I was looking over all my flashcards I had made and wow I cant believe how many there are. I easily went through about 4 packs of notecards for this class.

Tonya should be here in less than 2 weeks. Very excited. VERY excited. It will be nice to have that break while she gets here to settle in. I think Megan will be here a week as well so they can go out and explore and what have you.

Well I just wanted a quick update since its been a few days. I will write more probably tonight.

Oh yes, what you are looking at is every muscle in the human bodies upper arm, forearm, and wrist with a few finger flexors and extensors. All in all there are 24 cards on my table like  this with about 12 more (the hand muscles) waiting patiently for me to come visit them tomorrow. I just thought I would show a little proof that I am in fact studying and LEARNING!!!! When this class is all said and done, I will space out every flashcard I made to show you how many muscles I truly know. If you were wondering why are they in different colors its because I have them split up into the upper arm (yellow), wrist (purple), and forearm (blue). 

Ok I took my self allotted 5 minute break and now I must return to studying before Burn Notice comes on. I love that show!

Our financial aide allowance came in yesterday. The school determined somehow that my estimated cost of attendance is $33,024.00. That amount is for the whole year including next summer. So tuition for the year is right around $25k. That leaves me with 8k and some change for a year! After dealing with the morons over at the financial aide office, I finally spoke with a woman who knew what she was doing. She told me to email the head of the financial aide dept. and see about getting that number increased. I figured that I would need around 15k for the year. So I need about double of what the school thinks I need to live. I don’t know how they came up with this number when for this summer alone they let me have 5k. For the summer only. wft is going on. So I am annoyed and just generally pissed off. If I cant get this number raised to $40,000 then I will have to take out private loans which are lines of credit which means no fixed interest rate.

Anyway’s, it turned out good. I think the next time, besides cleaning it I will just leave out the potatoes. I really just wanted the chicken for other things later, like wraps and what not.

I ended up just shredding the meat and putting it in a container. It will make some good sandwiches and wraps for a few days.

Now I must head back to studying the muscles of the arm. Oh quick side note, I was able to successfully memorize the brachial plexus. I made it my bitch!

Mmhmhmh looks tasty!

Ingredients:

• 1 4lb whole chicken
• 1 large potato
• 1 onion
• a few carrots
• threw in a little squash thing (wanted to try something wild!)
• small slice of butter
• salt and pepper
• diced garlic (I bought a jar, cheaper than a clove)

Now I just set it on “high” and wait about 5 hours. Should be done right around 6pm. I will update you with the end result!