Tag: hannibal

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…busy-ness, etc…

Yeah, school is keeping me busy, but not too busy… We got our exams back yesterday (I got a B+…not too terrible for the first exam…), so now we’ve moved on to DNA replication/repair in class…it’s been about 4 years since taking Genetics at Truman, so it isn’t quite as clear in my head as biochem was in the last unit, but it’s coming back to me…slowly… Anyway, it’s causing me to do more reading than I’d prefer…thankfully, I can do most, if not all, of it while I’m doing work at the lab in the afternoons.

That leaves me a lot of time for TV. I’m realizing how old I am since I’ve got shows to watch every weeknight…which really sucks, since I’m supposed to be studying, etc. This is mostly Brooke’s fault, of course…if she wasn’t watching these shows, then I wouldn’t have gotten “in” to them over summer… So yeah, I’ve got 3 “CSI” shows to watch during the week, “Law & Order: SVU,” “Threshold,” “Numb3rs,” etc…and the World Series of Poker is on Tuesday nights as well… I can easily sit in front of the TV for 3.5 hours almost every night of the week…which is terrible, but almost unavoidable… My VCR gets quite a workout every night, it seems…

Anyway, Brooke’s ‘rents are visiting on Friday and taking us to a Card’s game, which is cool…the 3rd-to-last regular-season game at Busch Stadium (which means absolutely nothing, truthfully…). Otherwise, I’m hopefully getting some poker played on Saturday…been a few weeks since I did that… Playing with the praise band at Webster Hills tonight, and then again on Sunday morning…looking forward to that, of course…

So, basically, life goes on. Nothing too fascinating to report…except that Brooke is this close to starting substitute teaching, which will bring in some much-needed income to a relatively poor couple…and by “poor” I don’t mean “bad”…I mean “financially lacking”… 😛

P.S. …there’s a calendar link up top…since I now have my calendar online…if you wanna know which weekends we’re in Columbia/Hannibal/etc., that’s the place to check…w00t…

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It all comes down to this…

So Thursday is my first exam in BBS 501, which is our basic biomedical sciences course that all 1st year graduate students take in their first semester… Thus far, it’s really just been a review of biochem class from Truman State… The thing I’m slightly worried about is the amount of material being covered. I’ve been through 16 lecture periods at 1 hr each…which translates to over 5 weeks of MWF classes at Truman… So yeah, when you think of it that way, 5 weeks of material in any science class is a decent amount…but at least it has been mostly review…

Anyway, I don’t think I’ve described how grading is done here. It’s all graded on a curve (such that, typically, a 70% is considered a “B”…) and you’re graded with your peers from previous years, so they’ve been keeping records of how students have done over the past 7 years of the program. Therefore, if the average of all those students (~50 – 60 people) on this test was an 80% being an “A”, then that’s what this will be… So yeah, it matters how well we as a class do…but it also matters in reference to previous years, not just ourselves… I’m not sure whether to take this as a good thing or not…probably, I guess… We do get 3 hours to complete the exam, so that’s somewhat comforting.

Also, we aren’t taught by one professor. We have a rotating group that teaches each section. This time, we had 4 different professors. Each professor gets 5 points-worth of questions per lecture period so, for example, Dr. Shilatifard taught us for 2 lectures…meaning he can only write 10 pts for the exam. So if I really didn’t understand his stuff, then it’ll account for 10 points out of the 80 possible… At least I know generally how many points each day is worth going into the exam…it’s a little easier to pick out the key points of each day this way…I guess… We were also encouraged by our advisor to seek out old exams so that we know how each professor words their questions…and, supposedly, these questions don’t change much from year to year…

Therefore, this week has got me studying for my first exam of graduate school. It’s especially difficult to study knowing that a). I get a full day off on Wednesday to study for the Thursday exam, b). it’s all been review material thus far and c). lots of shows are premiering this week, so I want to watch TV instead… 😛

I’m not sure whether to be worried, though. There are a few things going for us and a few things going against us… I guess, in the end, it all comes down to how much effort I put in over the next few days…

…and how many beers I have… 😀

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Randomness, etc.

So yeah, a few random things:

1). Yesterday was the Biochemistry Dept. orientation for new graduate students. I’m not really considering them right now, but I am going to be rotating with a professor in that department beginning next week, so it was worth a listen, I guess… Regardless, we got free food, visited with some students in the department (I may be set up in a poker game in the next week or two as a result…heh…), and later in the day, we got to participate in a reception with more free food and about 9 varieties of beer. It is still rather odd to be on campus in a science building with free beer provided to the students. I think I could get used to this “private school” shenanigans…

2). I’m heading to Columbia this weekend briefly to visit with Jan Allmann, who was an exchange student from Germany my senior year of high school. He’s back this summer (though leaving shortly…) interning at MU for something business-related. Anyway, Brooke and I are going to Columbia Friday afternoon for some frolfing and dinner, then returning here on Saturday. My parents and Brooke’s parents are then coming into St. Louis on Monday (Labor Day) for some BBQ, so that should be fun…

3). My laptop has an obnoxious white line traveling horizontally across the entire LCD screen. I called Toshiba about it last night and they said to take it by Mobile Office Machines, here in St. Louis…who’s apparently a licensed Toshiba repair place. So I called them up this morning and I’m taking the laptop by them. They’ll need it for 24 hrs to properly diagnose the problem, then they’ll order the necessary part (while I hang on to the laptop) and they’ll call me when it arrives…and then they’ll fix it… Firstly, thank God I have that 3 year warranty on this toy…and secondly, thank God I live in a metropolitan area with a repair place close by so I don’t have to UPS this thing to China…

4). School is going alright…all still mostly review, but I’m sure it can only get harder from here. I’ve been very good about reading the material ahead of time before going to class so I know what’s going on before I get there…go me…

5). Mike Goodspeed had a very good posting on his blog a few days back…you should check it out… I still stand fast by my decision that George W. Bush is an idiot, for the record…and on a related note, the poverty rate in this country has risen to 12.7%…

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This is it…

Yeah, very shortly, I will be attending classes at Saint Louis University, “officially” making me feel like a graduate student (the summer thus far hasn’t been much besides a “job,” of sorts…now I actually have to study and such…). This is both exciting and rather scary, the former due to the fact that I get to finally delve in to my chosen profession…the latter because…well…it’s graduate school… Likely this will be my largest challenge to date. The really odd parts follow:

    — I am going to school at a new place with new people and new professors.
    — I am at the bottom of the food chain again, much like I was five years ago at Truman.
    — I don’t have as many friends/bar buddies in this town, so I won’t be as socially active as in recent years.
    — Along with that, I’m married now, so my roommate won’t be able to help me in my classes as in recent years…on the other hand, it’s easier now that I don’t have to make time to go to my girlfriend’s place to hang out with her once and awhile…she’s conveniently at my place all the time now… 😛
    — I no longer have “responsibilities,” such as attending AXE meetings, Wesley House functions, or working for ITS. It’s school and home. That’s it.
    — I have to drive to class every morning. Snow or not. And fight for parking.

So yeah, completely new shenanigans to deal with. Really, I’m the same old person in a completely new environment…making me wonder how I’ll deal with the situation. Will I study as much as I should? Will I make it to class on time? Or at all? Will I be able to manage money better now that I’m married and on my own? Will my personality remain the same, or should I expect another paradigm shift as what occurred in college? …or will I wake up tomorrow and still be in my bed at the old apartment in Kirksville?

…as Spock once said: “Life…is not a dream.” And as he also said, in a different movie, I “will perform as according to one’s gifts.” Hopefully I’m as prepared as I can be for the flames I am to be thrust in to….’cause it’s going to be close to five years that I’m roasting in them…

“Sounds like fun.” (…that was Kirk, this time…)

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…busy, busy, busy…

Yeah, I’ve been pretty busy lately… This past weekend, Brooke and I drove to Sedalia for Anne Gumbel’s wedding…it was lovely, of course, but I didn’t get to see as many folks (i.e. Alex, Gavin, Jess, etc.) as I would have wanted to. Tony was along, so that was semi-entertaining… 😛 On Sunday, Brooke and I went with my parents to Lohman and showed some wedding pictures to my grandmas. I think they were happy to see us…but probably somewhat amazed by the technology I brought along (they’ve never seen a laptop, so far as I know…). I’m close to getting some pics up on the wedding website for download, but for now, many of them are viewable through this part of my website.

Otherwise, Brooke and I are looking into replacing one of our cars in the near future, I’m thinking… Both our cars are over 100,000 miles and we’ve had some issues with Brooke’s car recently, so it may be wise to get a better, lower-mileage car to use for driving to Columbia and Hannibal… So yeah, if you know of any cars under 50,000 miles that don’t cost too much and are semi-reliable, lemme know… 😛

But yeah, St. Louis is treating us well… Still keeping busy at work, but not doing anything particularly special right now. We got another shipment of turtles in today, so we’ve got more to “play” with in the coming weeks…hard to believe that tomorrow marks the halfway point of my summer lab rotation…

…on the other hand, Thursday marks my first payday…w00t… 😀

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Time for a BBQ

Well, Brooke and I went to Hannibal yesterday for Tom Sawyer Days…yes, they have a festival about Tom Sawyer… They had some interesting stuff going on and it was gorgeous outside, so it was a good day overall…just really long… Regardless, we made it back here late last night and we’re checking out a new church this morning…hopefully I can play some drums sometime in the near future, eh? This afternoon, we’re gonna BBQ a bit and go down to Fair St. Louis…Switchfoot is performing tonight and then, of course, fireworks…

On a side-note, Friday went pretty well when I went to SLU to investigate professors to work for. Dr. Ariel does some fascinating stuff with turtles, so I will probably work for him, but I’m still meeting with another guy Tuesday morning. Now, the catch is that I can’t start work for another week (July 11th), which leaves me quite open for this week…therefore, I think Brooke and I are going down to New Orleans as a semi-honeymoon-type deal… We’ll probably leave Tuesday late-morning and come back on Saturday. We found a couple hotels within a block of the French Quarter, so this should be really cool (actually, quite warm, sadly…).

Oh yeah, apparently, some Japanese guy set a new record and memorized and recited 83,431digits of Pi…seriously, some people have way too much time on their hands for their own good…

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…and then…there were two…

Yup, I’m married…crazy, eh? Brooke and I have moved into our new place in St. Louis and are almost done putting everything where it needs to go…by the end of tomorrow, we should be mostly done…until the next volley of wedding presents arrives this weekend… That, and I start at SLU for graduate school on Friday. I’m glad that things are starting to settle down a bit, since these last few weeks have been absolutely insane…but a good “insane,” I guess… 😛

Brooke and I went to Hermann, MO for Saturday night and Sunday night to stay at a B&B (…we hope to take a “real” honeymoon in mid-August, of course…suggestions as to where?), which was pretty cool…they upgraded our room to a suite for the two nights at no charge, so we actually had a living room, bedroom, bathroom and kitchen to ourselves; we’ll have pictures up eventually… We also toured the Stone Hill Winery and the Adam Puchta Winery (after sampling their excellent wines, we both had to take a nap…heh…). Overall, great wine, great food and a great time…nice and relaxing!

We just got DSL hooked up today after SBC got their act together… This $15/mo DSL service is great, though…moves a bit quicker than I expected, honestly…hopefully it keeps up… Therefore, we’ll hopefully both be online a bit more often now, although I’ll likely be somewhat busy at school…

Keep in touch, everyone!

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Ouch…

So yeah, the so-called “bachelor party” was last night…and my head hurts tremendously now… We went to Flat Branch, but there was an hour wait (…and we went at 7:30 pm, mind you…on a Thursday night…), so we went to Grindstone Brewery instead… The food was pretty decent there, actually…maybe slightly expensive, but not by much… After that, we went to Harpo’s for the rest of the night…and thus, my headache may never go away… 😛

We’re about to leave for Hannibal, so I won’t get to make updates until June 28th now, since I won’t really have internet until then. The rehearsal and dinner are tonight, so the busy-ness continues…

Here we go!

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Updates and such…

So yeah, as of last Saturday, I have a B.S. in Biology and Chemistry (now officially, since grades are posted and I apparently graduated…). For now, I’ll continue working at the HelpDesk here at Truman until ~June 17th, when I’ll start worrying about getting all my stuff moved to St. Louis so I can start graduate school at Saint Louis University beginning July 1st. Also, I’ll be getting married June 25th in Hannibal… Yeah, things are changing rather quickly…

Otherwise, I’ll be going home to Columbia for Memorial Day weekend so I can go to Stu and Angela’s wedding. His bachelor party last Friday night was rather fun as well, consisting of frisbee golf, dinner at Flat Branch, and a lot of Halo 2…the best bachelor party ever… 😉