family picture

LEFT TO RIGHT first row: my brother, pochacco, me; second row: elephant, wolfy, piggy, doggie, sharky (can you tell that grey puff ball is a shark?? look closely!)










i came across this picture that was taken about a year ago! these are some of my brother's most cherished stuffed animals. when i was young, i had stuffed animals on my bed too, but they always ended up on the floor by morning. my brother actually hugs them, pets them, loves them. they are some of the softest stuffed animals ever! i like to steal them because i don't like to actually put the effort into making my own stuffed animals soft. i didn't realize this before, but stuffed animals are only cool if you love them. i always hated mine.

dumb kids, smart kids

this weekend i was helping out in the 3-4 year old sunday school class at church. some kids are just so loveable...and some kids are REALLY not.

kids that are not loveable have/are...
1. runny noses
2. dirty faces
3. smelly (somtimes the smelly kids are so clingy, wanting to sit on my lap.)
4. dumb/slow
etc.

but this one kid in my class is AMAZING! he is 3 and a half. he is the ONLY kid in the entire class who colors in the lines, and usually picks appropriate colors. this past christmas, the kids all got sets of stickers to make the nativety scene. all the kids just put their stickers on randomly, having the wisemen upside down, or basically flying to the manger. this kid, however, put the correct stickers in the barn (baby jesus, joseph, mary, etc.) and all people and animals were right side up and ON THE GROUND!!! also, since there was not enough room in the barn, the kid lined up the three wisemen outside; he told me that the three wisemen were on their way to see baby jesus. not only does this kid have commen sense when coloring and placing stickers, he also can write his name...legibly!!! he is the only kid in the class who can write his name on his paper to the point that i can just glance at it and know what it says. this week, he had another name written on his paper, so i asked him who that was. he said it was his sister. and then he proceeded to tell me he had two sisters and was then able to write the name of his other sister as well!!! OMG THE KID IS AWESOME! NOT ONLY THAT! he is incredibly athletic at 3 years old! he can drop kick a ball...like drop it and kick it in the air. he can catch pretty consistently. he throws like an adult. when he kicks or throws a ball, it invariably hits the ceiling of the classroom. most of the other kids have trouble writing their names and also cannot catch!

UMTYMP

last night i checked my brother's UMTYMP homework.

which brought back many memories! UMTYMP was one of the (maybe THE) defining experiences of my middle school and high school life. i entered the university of minnesota math program in 7th grade, and for the next two years took algebra i, algebra ii, geometry, and precalculus. 9th grade was the start of 3 years of calculus (no math in 12th grade!). during these 5 years, we covered about a chapter a week, and amazingly, the teacher usually was able to cover the material for the entire chapter during the two (solid) hours we spent in class each week. it was in UMTYMP that i learned to write my math homework neatly, to fully utilize the example problems in my math textbook, and the joy of finishing homework ahead of time. i have always been good at following directions, and afterall, what is an algebra textbook but a giant book of protocols? it was after entering UMTYMP in 7th grade when i first felt the pressure of a full homework load, and first experienced the cramped hand of a two hour lecture and note taking session. it was not only the math, but also many other aspects, that made up the cherished experience of UMTYMP. taking math with the same group of people for 5 years, i got to know some interesting people and made some very dear friends. every thursday we gathered at the local community college from our respective schools across town to catch up, copy homework (i was almost always the copiee), tease each other, eat snacks, and of course listen to lecture. maybe the most important aspect of UMTYMP was a very amazing professor, dr. schwartzbauer, a university of minnesota math professor who we had for calculus i and ii. actually, he was old, unmarried, lived with his mother, and had cats, but we idolized him. he was truly an amazing teacher and very passionate about teaching us the magical subject of calculus. he also gave us his take on a whole host of other topics. i remember he did not believe in the thinning of the ozone layer and, during one lecture, explained to us the chemistry behind his theory (despite being a math professor). he also does not go out of his way to recycle (and i have learned from him in that respect). his favorite movie is citizen kane and his favorite author is ayn rand. we, being bright-eyed and innocent, had no clue who ayn rand was (let alone how to pronounce her name!), but promptly went out and read the fountainhead (still one of my favorite novels!). i have heard that dr. schwartzbauer has since retired: a huge loss for the UMTYMP program.

anyway, back to last night (excuse the above paragraph, i just had to indulge my UMTYMP memories). all of a sudden my mom decided i should check my brother's math homework. she had been doing this for him last semester, and had done this for me during my first year of UMTYMP. my brother is in 7th grade, and in the second semester of UMTYMP's algebra sequence. when i came home from work last night, i found that actually working through / checking the problems was not time consuming at all. while doing this algebra homework the first time around in 7th grade i felt as if i was doing math all week, i found that i can now do the whole week's homework in under two hours. i guess i have become older and wiser! (although, i did always think that he has less homework now than i did during my algebra year in UMTYMP. turns out, his algebra i and algebra ii are being covered by ONE textbook, while i had to go through TWO textbooks in one school year when i was in the program. my two books were each no less thick than his one book. so, we almost always did a whole chapter a week, while i found that my brother's class often splits one chapter into two weeks). this week was the first 4 sections of chapter 8, something about functions. i think this was his first introduction to functions (i hope so), because i heard him say, "f times a plus f times b" when referring to f(a) + f(b). then i asked him what a function was, and all he could do was point to the diagram of a "function box" in his textbook. (it kind of looked like a weird food processor. put x in through the top and it spits out f(x) through a spigot on the side.) it was quite obvious he had not taken the time to read completely the text and the example problems. does he think he is too good for the book? obviously he is not. he had to completely redo all the problems for section 8.3. as i was checking, he was like, "o i do not have that many wrong?" i was like, "well this whole section is wrong." he's like, "well that's encouraging." IS IT MY JOB TO BE ENCOURAGING?! plus his problem is he thinks he does not need to read the book, so the solution should be to beat him down and cut off some of that confidence! i guess my brother is not like me. he likes positive reinforcement, and i do not. also, i do not really believe in it. to combat his laziness, my mom and i have devised a new system (i think a mix of positive reinforcement and negative punishment? or is it positive punishment? idk, i hated psychology.):

A. my brother gets $10 if, for that week, he gets every problem correct. (won't likely happen.)

B. my brother gets $3 if he gets less than or equal to 3 problems wrong. (still unlikely.)

C. my brother has to pay us $1 if... (much more effective, muahaha!)
1. my brother cannot correctly answer something specifically stated in the textbook.
2. he copies a problem statement from the textbook incorrectly.
3. he misses answering parts of a problem.
4. he misses a negative sign.

actually, i came up with part C, at which point my brother started crying, so my mom appended part A, at which point he still would not stop crying, so then she added part B. another one of his problems is that he likes to wait until the last minute to finish his homework. so, while i was trying to check his homework, he was still doing it, meaning we were fighting over the textbook. and we were at it until midnight. i do not have a creative way to fix this, only to say, "you have to finish half of the problems over the weekend."

after less than a week of blogging, i have realized, i tend to ramble. this got really long. but, hopefully you can see that UMTYMP was really one of the most cherished experiences of my life. and it just really irks me that my brother does not do his math homework with the same amount of respect and tedium that i once did.

two jewels of wisdom

i've realized that shauna's blog is (at times) more informative than my blog. so, i've decided to contribute two jewels of wisdom that i have gathered during my time in biomedical research purgatory.

1. specialize in anything chronic

lauren, a dentist turned phd student in a lab that shares space with my lab, studies chronic pain. as a dentist, she specialized in chronic jaw pain. her patients had been in pain for years by the time they saw her. generally, they had no problem waiting another two weeks to see lauren. in her line of work, there are few emergent cases, which means much less oncall type situations and less "sure i'll squeeze you in" type appointments. as opposed to dentists who specialize in acute pain...

2. pick animal models that grow slowly

in my research i work with xenopus laevis (african clawed frog) embryonic spinal neurons. meaning these xenopous neurons are a model for the human neurons we want to know more about. xenopus embryos develop fast and their neurons grow fast, which makes them a convenient model. the neural tube forms in xenopus embryos less than 24 hours post fertilization. and...to culture (cut off a piece of tissue from the back including spinal cord, dissociate the cells, and plate out single cells/neurons on glass) neurons at the stage i want, i have to catch the xenopus embryos in a 1-2 hour window. which means my schedule in the lab revolves around the development of my xenopus babies. AND...because the neurons grow so fast, i have to do my experiments 14-20 hours after plating out my cells. i have to get back to lab and i can't be late! trying to do experiments on neurons much after 20 hours means dying neurons or neurons that are no longer growing (using growing neurons is important for us!!). and thus, my days revolve around xenopus embryo development and neuron growth. as opposed to a rat or mice model. rat and mice development is more or less measured in days. while their neural tube forms closer to ten days post fertilization (more waiting), i can culture embryonic rat hippocampus neurons any time on day 18. and to catch them while they are still growing fast (but not as fast as xenopus neurons unfortunately), i can do experiments on them anytime within the first 3 days after plating!

better yet, skip animal models altogether and join the growing field of computational neurobiology and make the computer work around your schedule.

hmm...seems my two points are actually pretty similar...

string players are so cool!

last night i finished the japanese drama nodame cantabile. i have had some bad experiences in the past with japanese dramas. i watched itazura na kiss recently, the japanese version of iswak. (well itazura na kiss was made first and iswak was based on the japanese manga itazura na kiss.) my problem with japanese dramas is the amount of screaming (baka! baka!) and a very literal interpretation of the manga. is it really necessary that when the heroine is slapped, she is thrown across the room, or into a tree? there is also an abundance of ridiculous/ugly/gross characters/storylines. and nodame cantabile is no exception. despite being leery of japanese dramas, i decided to watch nodame cantabile because it won best mini series at the the most recent seoul drama awards (a very new, international, but korean award ceremony).

turns out i thoroughly enjoyed the drama! it is basically about two piano students at a music academy. the girl (nodame) is a sloppy player, but very expressive/talented. the guy (chiaki) is a perfectionist and has a dream of being an orchestra conductor. the storyline is nothing more than a very typical asian drama story--sloppy/poor girl likes perfect/rich guy, who eventually also falls for sloppy/poor girl--but executed very well. the standout element of the drama is its score. (nodame cantabile also won best director and best music director!) the music is amazing and refreshing after watching an abundance of dramas with the same old pop music. there is a wide variety of classical pieces: piano, piano duets, orchestral, piano concerto, even an oboe concerto! i have never liked the oboe, but i appreciate it a bit more now. the romance (of course very important) is very convincing. unlike many dramas in which it does not make sense that the awesome guy falls for the weird girl, chiaki is at first moved by nodame's expressive piano playing, if not attracted to the girl herself. it's natural that chiaki, a guy who LOVES music, grows to appreciate nodame, a girl who makes exquisite music. their relationship develops at a very natural and convincing pace, and is a classic example of two very different people learning from each other (popular drama theme). at 11 episodes long, the drama was neither rushed nor did it drag. despite the exaggerated nature of japanese dramas, i grew to love both leading characters. as i was watching a scene where nodame is feeding chiaki a bite of pudding, i suddenly realized, there is a level of cuteness that only japanese people can reach. i don't know how to describe this drama other than enjoyable and it made me smile.

also, there is a really cute violin player in nodame cantabile. string players who carry their instruments on their back like a backpack are so cool!

btw, mysoju.com is one of my favorite sites to stream kr, jp, or tw dramas! they have an extensive library of english subbed dramas. they don't host the videos directly on their site, but gather all the different episodes and parts together for each drama so that you just have to click on their links to watch an entire show. you can watch the videos embedded on their site or go to the hosting site (youtube, veoh, dailymotion, gofish, etc.). they are constantly linking to different sites as different parts of dramas get taken down from sites like youtube and veoh due to copyright issues. props to mysoju!!

first post

when i was volunteering at the salvation army good samaritan medical clinic this monday, a very old, retired nurse asked me, "so how is your job as an emt?"

i was an emt (mit-ems!!) in college, which is how i came to be doing nursing assessments at the local free clinic. now, though, i work as a research technician in a molecular neuroscience lab.

i explained to her that i now work in research, and then almost as an afterthought, i added that i would be going to medical school this fall. she promptly replied, "i have never had a desire to be a doctor." then she explained that doctors were too far removed from the patient. she wanted to take care of patients. i smiled, but inside i was aghast. man, i just want to get away from the lab bench! basic science research--talk about far removed from the patient.

and next year, i will most definitely leave the lab bench! this morning i just mailed a $100 check to university of minnesota medical school. they call it an "acceptance deposit", which must be paid within two weeks of the acceptance letter and is "non-refundable after may 15, 2008." does that mean it IS refundable before then? nowhere does it explain how i can get that money back should i decide to go to another school. (also, nowhere in the packet of materials i recieved with my acceptance letter does it specify the "pay to the order of" for that check.)

confusion aside, with my first (well maybe only) medical school acceptance, i feel i am finally moving in a forward direction post mit graduation. it has been a long year and a half since my undergraduate graduation. this purgatory that is the time between undergrad and grad school has been filled with frustrating biomedical research, living at home with my parents and little brother, and hundreds of hours working on applications in coffee shops. in an email, an MD friend, upon hearing of my acceptance, wrote, "welcome to the game!" after going through a year of the med school application process, i do feel that this career choice is (unfortunately) a game. as i accept my first acceptance, i feel very excited to be going back to school, but i also wonder HOW MANY ASIAN DRAMAS CAN I WATCH BEFORE I BEGIN MED SCHOOL?!

and so for the next six months, i will earnestly watch asian dramas, discover more chinese music i like, write my own dramas based on the lives of my friends, and blog about how i wish i live in taiwan (instead of dreary minnesota). med school here i come!!