In some ways, I'm a lot like Forrest Gump

Today has been a day filled with lots of studying, and not a whole lot else. Actually, this whole week has been... same story as always, right? I guess I haven't just been studying, I've been doing some running, in preparation for the 5k that's a week from Saturday.

I've been pleasantly surprised, actually. I mentioned that I wanted to run one this spring to a couple of friends, and they both said they would like to run one as well, and so we decided to see if we could get more of our classmates to run with us, and so we've got quite a few people (i.e. more than just me) who're going to run a 5k together. We're like the medical school cross country team. I've never been on a cross country team before (there's a reason for that...)! So I'm looking forward to that.

Something out of the ordinary did happen this week... so, my school is located "on the campus of the University of Notre Dame", but really its across the road from the main entrance. So there's a pretty well-trafficked street there. That's fairly important to the story.

In addition, there is a group at Notre Dame (some sort of acting group or theatre thing) that's putting on the play "The Vagina Monologues". Well, being the Catholic university that ND is, there was some opposition. The local (arch?)-Bishop said that it was not allowed. But the president of the school gave the group the go-ahead anyway. Anyway, its been the "hot topic" around campus for a couple of weeks. Anyway, there were some people out protesting it on the corner by our building on Tuesday. They were very offended by the play, they see it as "immoral".

Actually there was a pretty general consensus among the people in the medical school that these protesters were being ridiculous. One of the graduate students that I know was leaving early, and he stopped and talked to a few of the protesters on his way out and one of them (oddly enough named Matt), told him that they were from Pennsylvania and they were protesting because they felt that the play was immoral and vulgar and shouldn't be put on, especially not at a well-known Catholic university.

Well, I guess I didn't realize that it was such a big deal. First of all, I never really knew what "The Vagina Monologues" was. I looked it up and got the general feel of what it was about. I guess (after just reading the plot synopsis) I just didn't see what all the fuss is about. I mean, obviously I'm all for morality and personal responsibility and doing what's right and all of that. I'd be interested to hear what you all think... (i.e leave comments!)

In other news, the local high school told Hillary Clinton that she couldn't come speak there on Friday... that was a GREAT idea. Nothing like NOT participating in politics...

I've created My(own)SQL!!! (actually I haven't)

I had a quiz this morning. It was no big deal though. Just 20 questions, multiple choice. Not that grades really matter... I just spent all weekend studying for it. Actually, I know how I did already, because right after we took it, we then went over all the questions as a class and what the right answers were and everything. Unfortunately, I didn't count how many I missed, so I don't REALLY know how I did. Again, it's not like grades actually matter or anything.

After that, I went for a jog over at the fieldhouse. Then I spent a lot of time studying this afternoon. This evening, I decided that I wanted to try to be an IT professional and make my computers work. Well, really just the old one. It went crazy. So that's what I'm doing as we speak. Backing up files, and hopefully reinstalling the operating system. I just hope I get EVERYTHING backed up that I would ever need.

On a related note, I bought this big external hard drive at Best Buy (it was on clearance) so I could do all this "backing up", and it said on a sticker on the packaging "500 Glorious Gigabytes"! Which I thought was funny.

For the record, I DO realize that backing up files doesn't make you an IT professional. For that you have to do things like talk about proxies and "server downtime"... And get paid for it!

Easter

Happy Easter everybody! (don't worry, I won't be telling you what easter means today...)

I hope you all are having a great easter. I am spending the day studying... like always. I'm halfway done with my Immunology class, but its only 2 weeks long, so I have to have half of immunology memorized before tomorrow!!! No big deal though, I pretty much have it down. Seriously. The only problem is that, like everything else I've learned in school, I'll probably only remember about 20% of it for more than 1 week after the class is over. Oh well, I guess if I ever need it, I'll just have to look it up.

So, on to the question of the day...

The question:
Should Bobby Knight go back to coaching at IU?

The answer:
Yes, and I will give him as many chairs to throw as he wants.

March Madness

Its also the start of March Madness! I can't believe its already here!!! Can you? I have to admit, I haven't followed basketball AT ALL this year, and so my bracket that I filled out may get broken later on tonight. I mean, basically, when you pick Notre Dame to win it all, you're taking a gamble. Which is what I did. Hopefully they won't be the 5 over 12 upset this year.

Also, I've got a 3 day weekend! Due to Easter and Good Friday, we don't have lecture tomorrow. Unfortunately what that really means is that I just have more time tomorrow to study. But at least we won't be getting pages and pages of new material. So maybe I'll get caught up (or get ahead...wait that couldn't possible happen!) However, tonight I plan to watch a lot of basketball. In honor of Maundy Thursday.

Which brings us to the question of the day. Today, the question is:

What does Maundy mean?

The answer:

Maundy, which sounds an awful lot like 'Monday' comes from the old English words "mawn" and "dein". "Mawn" means "before" (loosely), but the use of the 'w' denotes that the thing that is "before" also comes first in a number series. Who knew the old English had such crazy words (for the record, the alternative spelling replaces the 'w' with 'gg' and changes the meaning of "maggn" to "before" in a "causal sense"). "Dein" is simply an old English word roughly equivalent to "Friday".
So the real meaning is Mawn-dein, or "Before Friday in a number series". Thus, Maundy Thursday literally means "Before Friday in a number series Thursday". Which doesn't make a lot of sense and is quite redundant. However, in some languages, repetition denotes emphasis, especially with regards to royalty and religious topics, therefore this refers to the day before Good Friday.

And you don't have to take my word for it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maundy_Thursday

I Have Antibodies

I decided now was as good a time as any to write my post for the day. So, I'm just taking a little break from studying to write about how I've been studying all day, and answer the most burning questions about the universe. So here goes.

Actually, I did more than just study today. I also went for a jog (training for my 5k in a couple of weeks), and after that, I got a phone call from the medical school's "professional assistant", saying "Can you make it back in? We have a thing that this afternoon that we forgot to tell you about."

It turns out the "thing" was the "Council of Elders", and while that may sound like something that you would see on Survivor, it really was a part of my Intro to Clinical Medicine class, and they had these older folks come in, and a 'Geriatrician' from Indianapolis was here, and we talked about issues that these older people had had to deal with in their encounters with the medical profession.

Then after that, I studied all day. For my 2-week-long Immunology class. At least at the South Bend center its a 2- week class. In other centers they have a longer time with it. But we all take the same final exam, so I kind of think they have an advantage, as far as grades go... but, oh well. I guess that happens.

And now, on to the burning question for the day:
(Still on the subject of dreams, and not really an original question)

The question:
How do we know that 'dreams' aren't our real life, and this 'real life' isn't just really a bunch of dreams?

The answer:
Well, I guess we can't really know that for sure. But I think what we can say is that if 'dreams' are in fact our real life, then we do a lot of sleeping (at least I do), because I rarely remember my dreams. Or at least we do SOMETHING so that we don't remember anything. And maybe that's just what happens. They say that nobody gets enough sleep anymore, so it would be nice if this non-sleeping "real life" wasn't real, and we got plenty of sleep in our REAL real life.

I hope that cleared it up for everyone. Of course maybe this could answer the last question (at least if we assume that dogs are real) because if we have dogs in this "real life" dream-world, then of course they do dream.

Saint Patrick's Day!!

Actually I forgot to wear anything green. However, I did start the first day of Immunology. It was like being in a foreign country, where they speak a different language. I've never had Immunology before, and although I know a little already about the immune system, I can't say that I've ever studied it in depth. So I was a little lost today. Hopefully we can remedy that tomorrow. I spent all day studying, so I hope that that will help. Of course I didn't study what we're going over tomorrow, so then again maybe not.

Now, on the the first of my series of questions about the universe. I spent the better part of 2 minutes thinking about what to write here, so bear with me.

The question for today is this: Do dogs dream?

I forgot to say this, but I also plan on answering these questions as well. So my answer for today's question is as follows:

Like all scholarly pursuits, the first thing we have to do here is define our terms. Most importantly, what is a dog? Based on my personal experience, a dog is a mammal. It barks. It has teeth, and is also known as "man's best friend". Now, what is a dream? We could say that dreams are what you do when you're asleep, the bedtime stories that everyone tells themselves. We could say that. But we could also say that dreams are the things that you would like to do in the future. And in that sense, we then have to rephrase the question:

Do these barking, toothed, mammals that we love so much have things that they would like to do?

I think the answer to that question is yes. They want to eat. They want to chew on shoes. They want to beg for food. They want to chase squirrels. And most importantly, they desperately want someone to teach them to "roll over". At least that is what I have been told.

In conclusion, dogs dream. What Freud would have to say about their dreams remains a mystery, and my Superego won't let my Id make up lies about what he would say if he were here to ask.

Speaking of Id, The Wizard of Id is one of my favorite comic strips ever.

The Start of Something Huge

I have decided to add some spice to this lame excuse for a weblog. For the next several weeks, I will be writing about the questions of life that keep me up at night. Things like: why do we write from left to right, why is alphabetical order in that order, why did the chicken cross the road, and what time is it when the clock strikes thirteen?

Of course this doesn't mean that I won't be including all the exciting details of my life. Have no fear. My burning questions about the universe start tomorrow. Today, I rearranged my apartment, and it looks AMAZING.

Also, today is the last day of spring break. And school starts again tomorrow, bright and early with Immunology.