The following is my statement of purpose from my application to a master’s program for Applied Cognition and Neuroscience.
When I first started college, I knew nothing about neuroscience – as expected. However, after nearly four years of study towards a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience, I still know nothing about it. If anything, my years of undergraduate study have made me more aware of how little I really know. I originally chose the neuroscience major because of a long-standing curiosity in the science behind individual differences in cognition and behavior. Soon enough, studying neuroscience itself became my motivation for studying more neuroscience – a positive feedback loop, if you will. Neuropharmacology explained how physiological changes produced by various drugs affect cognition and behavior; neuroplasticity illustrated the brain’s ability to adapt, and the possible degrees to which that adaptability can be affected by drugs. Cognitive, developmental, and behavioral neuroscience demonstrated how neuroplasticity, neurophysiology, and neuropharmacology affect (and are also affected by) learning and memory.
The integration of the various branches of neuroscience occurs at so many levels that the study of one invariably leads to another. Studying neuroscience has made me realize that we still have much to learn, and that what we do know is infinitesimal in comparison to what we do not know. It has taught me to focus more on understanding concepts (and less on memorizing facts), and to apply those concepts in everyday life. Though these could be said of all sciences, neuroscience was the catalyst in my developing these views. In studying the role of the nervous system in cognition and other biological systems, I have gained a greater appreciation for other sciences (such as chemistry and physics) in which my knowledge is poor.
Many neuroscience courses used scientific papers as reading material; through learning how to interpret scientific papers, these courses allowed me to further develop my critical thinking skills. Rather than taking a research paper at face value, I have learned to use my current knowledge to search for possible confounding factors, the importance of a data set in the overall findings of the study, ways in which the study could be improved, and future applications or studies of the findings. These classes have also given me practice in presenting and discussing new topics, especially in regards to adjusting the semantics of my speech to suit the audience’s level of knowledge. For a brief period of time, I volunteered in Dr. Filbey’s lab, where I gained some basic insight into the protocols, tasks, and imagining techniques used in human research (on addictive disorders).
In high school, I earned high grades with little effort. During freshman year, I quickly found that achieving the same grades in college required a great deal more effort. I struggled with attention and time-management issues, but figured that these problems were due to a lack of practice and experience. In sophomore year, I tried various study strategies, none of which seemed very helpful. During junior year, I went to regular counseling sessions; the first was because I wanted to be evaluated for ADHD, but subsequent sessions were devoted to general stress management. Throughout all of this, my grades only improved slightly, and I continued to have attention and time-management issues. So, in the fall of my senior year, I sought psychiatric help and was diagnosed with ADHD.
Even with a professional diagnosis, I was reluctant to accept that I had ADHD. Accepting the diagnosis felt equivalent to using ADHD as a scapegoat, while denying it suggested that my previous efforts were not sincere enough. None of my neuroscience classes had discussed ADHD in depth, so to understand it better – and potentially myself – I began reading research papers. Since being diagnosed, I have accumulated papers covering various aspects of ADHD, such as studying strategies, coping mechanisms, and genetic, physiological, and behavioral studies. This entire process has taught me a great deal about myself, especially in regards to how I respond to stress. As a result, I am better prepared to handle any difficulties I might encounter during my graduate studies.
Out of the many aspects of neuroscience, neuroplasticity, learning, memory, and cognitive neuroscience have been areas of continual interest. In addition to studying each individually, I am interested in studying their interrelationship. In pursuing a master’s degree in Applied Cognition and Neuroscience, I hope to explore these areas in more depth. If possible, for my area of specialization, I would focus on these aspects in regards to neurological disorders and brain damage. I wish to research in one of the neuroscience labs in order to expand my shallow understanding of research, and to augment my conceptual understanding of neuroscience. My current plan is to enter medical school after earning my degree, but I also view the master’s program as an opportunity to explore all possible career paths. My post-graduate objective is to make an informed decision in choosing a career path using the experience gained during the program.
My parents visited this past weekend, and I finally tried talking to them about waiting another year before applying to med school and staying here to do a master’s program. Of course, things tend to not go as well as planned, and I wasn’t able to get my parents to understand or listen to my reasoning. Not knowing how else I could explain things to them, I figured it was time to ask my uncle for help. Continue reading “My Last Resort: Asking for Help”
Hay look here’s the rest of what was originally supposed to be one blog post.
ADHD/General Health:
Settled on an appropriate daily dosage of Adderall XR
Problems in establishing a healthier lifestyle because of Adderall (decreased appetite, insomnia, being fat when not on Adderall)
How these problems affect school life
Eerrmahgerrrd wtf am I supposed to do
Why it’s good for me
Wtf do I do
Med School/Future:
What med school?
Pursuing a master’s degree in applied cognition and neuroscience?
Errmahgerrrrd how do I explain this to my parents?
ADHD:
So, sometime around my last week of finals during the fall, I managed to find my optimum Adderall dosage. I know I was still skeptical about being ADHD in general, and unsure of how obvious the effect was supposed to be, but now I’m able to clearly see how much it helps. I am better at prioritizing/planning, have better inhibitory control (study breaks are more likely to be short breaks, rather than a complete diversion), increased ability to maintain attention — in general, better executive function.
Something I noticed the few times I took Adderall during winter break, it’s easier to keep up with household chores also. Like, my mom occasionally admonishes my sister and I for never doing the dishes when we visit home. (I’m bad about doing dishes in the first place. I’ll just let them accumulate until I run out of silverware and dishes.) So every couple of days, I’ll think, “I should put up/wash the dishes. It’s not like there are that many, and my parents would appreciate it.” I want to do the dishes and I am mentally aware that it doesn’t take a lot of time, but it feels like it will, so I just procrastinate on it until my parents come home and end up doing it themselves. Both times I took Adderall during the break, I did the dishes of my own accord. Rather than feeling, “It’s such a bother, having to wash dishes for ten minutes instead of relaxing and watching TV. I’m on break, after all,” it’s more like, “Well, since I’ve already turned on the water to rinse off my plate, might as well wash it and all the other dishes while I’m here.”
I also noticed that I get way more talkative on Adderall. I’m more likely to talk with my friends, rather than being mostly passive in the conversation. Though I sometimes feel bad because I occasionally end up doing a majority of the talking. I’m also more likely to initiate conversations with strangers (like people sitting by me in a class). Don’t get me wrong, it’s still really rare, but still more likely than never. One of the best outcomes I’ve had is being able to approach and talk to professors. I kinda see the increase in talking as more of an increase in my self-confidence, though I can’t think of an explanation for why that is.
So taking Adderall definitely helps me both in studies and social life. But the side effects I experience are pretty intense. Mainly loss of appetite and difficulty sleeping. Now, I’ve always been pretty bad with eating healthily and regularly, for reasons similar to not wanting to do dishes (just feels like so much effort). I’ve never experienced forcing myself to eat — actually, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced having absolutely zero appetite. It’s weird, feeling my stomach growl and knowing that I’m physically hungry, but not having any desire to eat. And after trying to force myself for a while, eventually I just get repulsed at the sight and thought of whatever I’m eating. Light/snack foods seem to go down easily enough — yogurt, granola bars, baby carrots — but anything more substantial than that requires a great deal of effort. I usually try to wolf down a bowl of oatmeal in the morning, before my body has started metabolizing the adderall.
The other issue I’m having is difficulty sleeping. It’s hard for me to fall asleep, stay asleep, and I feel like I hover between consciousness and being asleep (sometimes I can’t tell if I really slept or not). People are generally advised to take adderall before noon in order to avoid sleep problems. I take Adderall at 8 in the morning, and still have trouble falling asleep when it’s 2 AM. Then I end up sleeping in until 12 or so the next day (since I only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays) and can’t take Adderall because I woke up so late. On average, since the start of the semester, I’ve taken Adderall on Tuesdays and Thursdays only, because the rest of the week, I wake up at noon and can’t take Adderall unless I feel like staying up for 36 hours. And yet I’ll still feel tired when I wake up, even after three consecutive days of sleeping for like, 12 hours (the weekends). I’ve tried exercising to try tiring my body out enough so that it overcomes the adderall-induced insomnia, but no. I can feel exhausted, but then find myself still awake 4 hours after going to bed.
So, not only do I lack proper nutrition (even moreso than I did before), I also lack proper sleep/rest. Eventually, those effects will negate any benefit I get from taking Adderall. And up until my appointment with the Dr. Stein yesterday, I had accumulated an extremely high level of stress trying to figure out how I was supposed to overcome these side effects. I figured they might decrease once my body gets used to the adderall, but that can’t really happen if I’m only taking it twice a week. And I can’t take it more than that unless I just never want to sleep. And then I haven’t been able to keep up with all of my classes because I’m not taking Adderall on my days off, on top of being mentally fatigued from lack of sleep, made even worse because I haven’t been eating anything substantial. I just found myself going in circles and the stress just kept increasing and things started feeling hopeless.
I’m supposed to do an ADHD self-report scale symptoms checklist once a week, so that my doctor can get an idea of my progress (or lack thereof) with the medication. He remarked that it seemed like the Adderall wasn’t having much of an effect anymore, but I figured that was more due to me only taking it twice a week. I told him about the sleep problems, so the solutions he offered were: switch to a non-stimulant ADHD drug, or get prescribed some sort of sleep aid. I opted for the latter; I don’t like the idea of increasing the number of drugs I’m taking, but I’m reluctant to switch to another ADHD medication because then I would have to experiment with dosages again, and also have to possibly deal with a new set of side effects. Of course, I might encounter side effects with the Clonidine also, but I feel like there’s less probability of me having problems with it.
He gave me a prescription for Clonidine, a mild sedative that was first used to treat hypertension. It’s also used to treat anxiety and panic disorders, and apparently can also help moderate impulsive and oppositional behaviors associated with ADHD. (Wikipedia, yay!) He only talked about how it aided in sleep, since that’s what my main problem was. He also gave me a list of sleep hygiene tips, which lists the combination of melatonin, zinc, and magnesium supplements as a sleep aid. I figured I’ll try that for a week, and if it doesn’t seem to be effective enough, then I’ll get the Clonidine prescription filled and try that out. Hopefully I’ll be able to wean myself off of at least the Clonidine, once I establish a routine and healthier lifestyle in general.
Med School:
As for med school, I went to a pre-health adviser to get some direction on things to do for the application process. She took a look at my GPAs and course history, and with the knowledge that I’m still figuring out all the ADHD stuff, she told me to wait until next year to apply. I knew it was reasonable, and perhaps, the better thing to do for me, but I still couldn’t help but feel disappointed. It’s not like she said I’d never get into med school, and apparently I also need to retake two med school pre-req classes because they don’t meet the minimum grade requirement. Which I probably should’ve realized earlier, but with the whole ADHD thing, and apprehension for talking to people with authority (profs, advisers, older people in general), it’s kinda obvious why I didn’t. It didn’t help that I’d been in a frenzy the whole week prior to the advising session, trying to get together all the info she’d possibly need or ask for, most of which wasn’t even looked at. So I guess the news hit me hard because I’d put a great deal of effort into prepping for the meeting, and I also felt that I should’ve figured out all the ADHD stuff earlier, and if I had, then maybe I wouldn’t be in this situation.
After a week or so, I calmed down and accepted that it would be better for me to wait. I already had a bunch of stress from ADHD problems and trying to keep up with school as is; worrying about applications might drive me insane. But how am I supposed to explain this to my parents? What else am I supposed to do in all that time between graduation and entering med school, aside from retaking two classes? A friend suggested I go for my masters in Applied Cognition and Neuroscience. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. I’m still fighting an uphill battle with ADHD and studying and healthy living. I need time to establish a plan for living normally with ADHD, and then figuring out an effective study method. Just retaking the two classes won’t be enough, and I’m sure I won’t be able to figure it all out before graduation. The masters program will give me a workload to test and refine my study methods. Even if I were to apply this year and, by some miracle, get accepted somewhere, I’d drown under the course load within the first week.
So then I realized it. I’m just not ready to go to med school yet. How am I supposed to learn how to care for other people when I’m still trying to figure out how to take care of myself?
I think my parents will be able to understand my reasoning, and it’s not like I’ll be doing nothing. I might have to emphasize that waiting another year won’t hurt my chances of getting into med school. Hopefully seeing that I’ve put a lot of thought into it will also keep them from trying to persuade me otherwise. Not to mention that an adviser pretty much said that the chances were really slim if I applied this year. But hopefully I won’t have to tell them that.
Blogging for stress-relief isn’t as therapeutic when you write it after going to the doctor and getting a possible solution. Nor does it accurately convey the extent to which the stress was affecting me. Oh well.
All right, here’s the outline of what’s sure to be a tl;dr post. (There was originally more to the outline but then my tl;dr post was becoming too tl;dr and I had to break it up because I’m fail.) Summary:
End of fall semester
Winter break
WoW all day every day
Start of spring semester
So in my last post, I was all conflicted about whether I truly have ADHD, or if I just convinced myself that I do, which then caused me to subconsciously adopt behaviors indicative of ADHD. I spent the last few weeks of the semester kinda out of it, probably. I continued to experiment with Adderall dosages, which also means that I was subject to its side effects also (mainly loss of appetite and trouble sleeping). Which meant that I didn’t eat enough — and I already have poor eating habits — nor did I sleep enough. I also suddenly had to deal with another health issue that cropped up; I got medicine for it. Like the Adderall, it suppressed my appetite, but what’s worse is that it did not play well with the Adderall at all. After two days of trying to take the two medications together and feeling completely nauseated and miserable, I decided to hold off on the Adderall until I finished the other medicine (10 days or something like that). The best part is that it didn’t even fix my problem! (Which resolved itself over winter break.) Anyhow, with all that going on, I don’t know how I managed to get A’s in all my courses. Some were A-‘s, but I had expected to get a B+ or something in those anyway, so I’m very pleased with how my semester ended.
Brad apparently wants me to be more acquainted with alcohol.
My last final was during the week before Christmas, so I don’t think I got home until the 22nd or so. Christmas didn’t really feel like Christmas this year. Christmas Eve with the extended family didn’t have the festive vibe compared to previous years. Apparently the explanation as to why Christmas didn’t feel like Christmas needed to be a post of it’s own. It’s all about my family’s dynamics (password: “family”). Anyway, I had 3 weeks for winter break. The first week I spent at my parents’ house because they had the week off on holiday. I remember watching lots of movies, and then some post-Christmas shopping at the mall (to look for good deals and presents for my dad’s birthday in January). The second week was spent at my sister’s house in Austin, most of which was spent playing WoW with her and Brad. On New Year’s Eve, we played pretty much until midnight — or I did, since I’d just gotten a one month subscription because it was being offered super cheap that weak and needed to lvl up my toons to where they could take main-story quests. And then I went back to lvling up my toon while Brad played some D3 and my sister fell asleep.
Living it up on New Year’s Eve playing WoW in the footie pajamas my sister gave me for Christmas.
The last week was spent back at my parents’ house. During Thanksgiving, my mom had requested that I make a beanie and scarf for my dad’s Christmas present. I wasn’t able to do that in time for Christmas and had to give him something else. Luckily, my dad’s birthday is in January, so I had a second chance. Since his birthday was after the start of classes, my mom also wanted to celebrate his birthday before I left. Since I was on break and had so much free time, I was in charge of making a cake and wrapping the presents. We (I) planned on celebrating the Friday before classes started, to give me as much time as possible to finish the scarf. Now, I’d managed to knit the hat during all the movie-watching the first week of my break. I’d started the scarf, but obviously didn’t make much progress during the week spent at my sister’s house. I worked on it somewhat on Monday and Tuesday, though most of Monday night was spent obsessing over finding a way to get my dad’s cheapo brand LED TV to work with his outdated surround sound system. Due to overnight shipping being unexpectedly and exorbitantly expensive, Wednesday morning I had to pick up my sister’s wedding invitations in Houston, then drive to Austin that same day to help her assemble them since Brad was visiting his family out-of-state. I planned on driving back to my parents’ house on Friday.
Not too shabby-looking! Especially since it was the first time I’d ever decorated a cake.
We definitely didn’t work on invitations Wednesday night; I think we just watched movies until we fell asleep, and I spent most of that time working on my dad’s scarf. I’m sure we didn’t get up until sometime in the afternoon on Thursday, and we didn’t start working on the invitations until close to midnight. Or maybe a little after. We finished them a lot faster than we expected — within 2-3 hours. I think it was because we had FRIENDS running on the TV while we worked. Which we then sat and watched until we fell asleep once we were done. Or my sister did, at least. I went back to working mindlessly on my dad’s scarf. Thankfully the FRIENDS dvd automatically starts playing the episodes after a certain amount of time on the menu screen, otherwise I would’ve gone crazy listening to the theme song repeat over and over. Around 5 or 6 in the morning, I stopped knitting and took a quick nap, after having nodded off while knitting so many times before. My progress was frustratingly slower than expected and it was Friday and I was supposed to go home that day and I still had to bake and decorate a cake and what the heck how am I supposed to do all of this stuff —
My dad opening his birthday presents — stuffed in a shoebox that had recently held a newly-bought pair of boots. After wearing the hat and scarf for a while, he said that they made him feel hot. My mom was like, “Good! Then they’ll keep you warm outside too.”
But I managed somehow. I left my sister’s house a lot later than I’d planned, but I managed to finish the cake and the scarf without either turning out too ugly. Sped the 1.5 hours home and ate dinner with my parents, who lovingly waited for me so that we could all eat together. And then I went back out to my car to sneak in the cake and scarf without my dad noticing. Needless to say, the presents weren’t wrapped, but it’s just paper and we only had Christmas paper anyway. Aaghhhhh why do I fail at summaries? Like anyone really cared to know all those little details. I write for forever. I JUST HAVE SO MUCH TO BLOG ABOUT BECAUSE I HAVE NOBODY TO TALK TO. ;; So, beginning of spring semester. I got an internship at a hospice where I basically am a volunteer whose only responsibility is to be friends with the hospice patients. I’m in an MCAT class and I’m supeeeeerrrrrr behind on homework and stuff. Meaning that I haven’t started. My car had a sudden weird breakdown a month ago involving brake calipers and overheating causing a failsafe to kick in that shut down my engine and there was some huge rats nest in my engine and I’m finally taking it to the dealership tomorrow but have been driving it sparingly since that incident and it’s like noooormmmaallll. But apparently it’s total bs for my car to have had that problem since it’s a 2009 model and those problems are power-train related and are supposed to be covered for like 100,000 miles and my car’s only around 35,000. Oh wow, look at how quickly that devolved I’ve been up for 36 hours run on sentences forever. And there was this one night that it snowed and I was like “Oh shi–” and went back into a knitting frenzy to make beanies for my friends that were supposed to have been their Christmas presents for like 2010. And then the weather got all warm like it was trolling me and this semester was supposed to be easy but it’s not and I’m losing my marbles. More reasons contributing to loss of marbles to be covered in next blog post.
Herp — I meant that my sister and her fiance got D3 for me as an early BIRTHDAY present, not early Christmas present. Also, sorry about the dim lighting . . . that’s just how I usually keep my apartment, and I forgot to turn on another light to make the lighting better. And yes, I know that the last sip of hot chocolate I took in the video was timed absolutely horribly. (Wut, you mean that stopping in the middle of a sentence is inappropriate?!?)
A couple of other plus points about bartending that I didn’t cover in the video:
– I could use it as a fairly self-sustaining source of income should I need to use it as such.
– It would help me further in becoming socially adept, which would help with med school applications and interactions with future patients.
– I would get more interaction with customers as a bartender than as a server, which ties in with the previous point.
– I would get paid more than if I were to be a server, which ties into the first point.
– It could help me become more “well-rounded”, as opposed to if I were to try and get a job in the medical field as a scribe or something like that.
I JUST WANT A JOB GAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH.
I want to be cremated. Unfortunately, my grandma passed away two weeks ago, and her funeral was this past weekend. I’m glad that she doesn’t have to suffer anymore, but it was really difficult to watch my parents, aunts, uncles, and grandpa have to deal with the pain of her loss. Most of my family wrote a piece about her for a memoir, and after reading through the rough copy last weekend, I wish I had been able to get to know her better. Most of my cousins also were in the same situation as me; the language barrier and my grandma’s quiet nature kept us from being able to bond with her over the years, but it’s easy to see how amazing she was through what my aunts and uncles had to say about her in the memoir.
In junior high, my great grandma passed away, but I don’t really have any memories of her at all, and my memory of her funeral proceedings are very hazy. So it was pretty surprising to see the ceremonial/traditional funeral garments that my parents, aunts, and uncles wore . . . to be honest, it had a cult-ish Ku Klux Klan vibe since Asian cultures traditionally associate white with death and mourning. And the daughters of my grandma had a hood as part of their garment.
Although my grandma passed away, it was nice to see that my family was also able to have fun, even on the same day of her burial. After her burial ceremony, our family went to a restaurant to eat, where we had reserved a private room. I’m not sure how other funerals are, but I think that the feast was probably also a way to celebrate her life.
I suppose I should get back to my initial point. I want to be cremated when I die. My grandma had an open-casket viewing before the burial, and whoever prepared her body must’ve pulled back the skin on her face to make it more taught and “prettier”. They also put make-up on her, and the lipstick made her look completely unlike how I had seen her when she was alive. So I want to be cremated in order for people to be able to remember me the way they want to, not still and lifeless. Besides, I have this crazy notion that I’d arrange for my ashes to be split up into bottles for people to take away with them. Like party favors or something. So that they can scatter them on their next vacation. In any case, I’d want my funeral to be more of a celebration, but I guess funerals are for the living, not for the dead. Or so I’ve heard.
I don’t know if anyone’s noticed, but there is a new sub-page under the “About the Authors” page. Phantasma is a fellow student who is starting to focus more on his interest in writing and drawing/art. I’m sure he’ll post his on introduction soon enough, but I figured I should go ahead and formally announce it in a post of my own. After all, this is my blog.
Classes are officially over for me, and now it’s finals time. I only have two, and the first one isn’t until Friday, the 11th, so I have quite a bit of time to procrastinate study. However, what I’m worried about most at this point is my piano II class’s recital on Saturday. What with the funeral and the suspense with my grandma’s death, I hadn’t really put much effort into practicing my piece. It’s an etude, which is a piece “intended as an exercise or to demonstrate technical virtuosity” (dictionary.reference.com), and as such, a real pain in the ass to learn. I’m happy to say that I’ve seen a great amount of progress in the past couple of days and can get through the piece fairly easily. At least, I pretty much know the notes; it’s just getting my fingers to remember them by Saturday. If I don’t have it down by Saturday evening, I at least have a fall-back, and my professor already knows about this. But she’s given me her vote of confidence and seems to think that I’ll be able to have it together by Saturday, so I’m sure that’ll help boost my morale and all that jazz.
I probably won’t publish another post ’til after finals, but at least then I’ll have time to make a vlog.For all my readers who are also students, good luck on finals!
I just tried an epsom foot soak for the first time in my life, and it felt soooo good. Next step is to take an epsom salt bath.
Sorry guys, I had no idea that I could ramble so much. Originally, this video was ~28 minutes long — apparently I consider my rambling important enough to still make you listen to 20 minutes of it. I’ll try to keep my list of topics uber short next time!
Ghetto setup #2 (And hopefully the last one)
I’m going to go ahead and post this now, but I’ll probably edit the text portion of this blog sometime in the future.
Also, I was totally kidding about having a boyfriend. Because he figured out that all he wanted was a “casual” relationship, and I have no understanding of that concept at all. Casual relationship = friendship to me. That should make sense, right?! I suppose that will be the topic for my next text (only) blog.
SPRING BREAK HUZZAH.
Extra time for me to study for the two exams I have the week I get back from spring break looollll.
If I don’t look directly into the camera lens for a really long time, it’s because the eyes are the window to one’s soul AND I DON’T WANT YOU TO STEAL MINE. (HERP LOGIC)
All right, I know that I haven’t posted a blog in a while (2 weeks wow, has it really been a month?), in spite of saying that I’d post one at least once a week. Sorry! We’re trying something new in this blog.
Although I state in the video that every other week will be a vlog post instead of a blog post, I’m sure that I’ll still have some text to go along with the video that comments on the video or adds anything I may have forgotten to say.
In other news (since I didn’t really give any updates on my personal life at all in the video), I’ve been doing pretty well in my classes. The lowest grade I’ve made on an exam so far is an 88. I have one tomorrow, and another neeeext week, I think? And then it’s SPRING BREAK, HUZZAH!
I’ve found the solution to keeping Jager from peeing on my furniture and whatnot; cats appear to seriously prefer the sand-y texture of regular clumping litter, rather than the more earth-friendly biodegradable (and flushible!) Feline Pine that I use. Except, he still uses the covered litter box (that contains Feline Pine) to defecate in. The uncovered litter box, which contains regular kitty litter, is used only for urination. Is just weird that my cat should have two litter boxes all to himself.
Ummm, I got my navel pierced last Friday, and the story behind it is pretty lame. So I shall spare the details on that.
This is my ghetto camera setup because I don’t have a tripod.
Ahahahahaha.
I’ve definitely fallen behind on my workout schedule, but luckily, I’ve found people from class who like to workout after class every Tuesday and Thursday, so I’ll probably begin going with them to the gym. In my off days, I’ll try to get myself to do some stuff with the balance ball I got from Target. Those workouts are pretty challenging! D:
Umm, ummm. I suppose I should do a video of a close-up of the Kindle Fire case that I made. Like 3 weeks ago. Next time?
I thiiiiink that’s most of what I intended to say. Also, it will take forever for me to get used to the way my voice sounds to other people. I think I sound rather nasally. And awkward. Very awkward. But so nasally!
Oh and I have a boyfriend now what?Except I shouldn’t because I should be focusing on school and premed stuff and stuff.
I just failed so hard at eating dinner. At the end of last week I made a pot of rice and prepared some lap xuong (a type of Chinese sausage), and practically every chopstick-full of rice I ate resulted in dropping rice grains all over myself. Not to mention that I spilled rice even before I started eating because my hands were being all derp and dropped the chopsticks multiple times.
No matter what the amount, getting money is always fun. Even if you don't yet understand the concept of money.
But anywho.
Uhh, today is lunar new year. Chuc Mung Nam Moi! (“Happy new year” in Vietnamese.) It’s the year of the dragon, the 5th sign in the Chinese zodiac which symbolizes power, good luck, success, and happiness. The day where lunar-new-year-celebrating-Asians will get little red and gold envelopes filled with dollars bills and the occasional $5 or $10. OR, you could be really lucky and get $2 bills. /sarcasm?
Unfortunately, I was not able to return home and partake in the Tet festivities. I wonder if I’ll have any red envelopes waiting for me the next time I visit home.
So, so, so, I bought a Kindle Fire off of Craigslist last week, after waiting for what seemed like foreeveerrrr to find a price I liked and a person who actually responded to my inquiry. I got a pretty good deal (25% off retail price), especially considering that some people insist on trying to sell their Kindle Fires above the price listed on Amazon.com.
I may have mentioned in a previous post the idea of rooting my Kindle Fire. As of right now, I’m pretty pleased with the Fire the way it is, even if the roulette showing recent activity is pretty ridiculous. In addition, the root for the latest Android build (Ice Cream Sandwich –> ICS) has already been made, although it’s buggy and still being worked on by developers. Besides, if I root my Kindle, then I won’t be able to have access to the Kindle Reader’s Lending Library or whatever it’s called, as well as free access to selected movies and TV shows. Of course, to take advantage of these perks, one needs to be a member of Amazon Prime. My only real complaint is that there are no decent note-taking apps (that use handwriting, rather than typing the text) on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread, which is what the Fire has, albeit changed up and slightly crippled). The promising apps I found are only available for Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) and up, and apparently the code for Honeycomb wasn’t released; the only roots available for the Fire as of right now are the full-blown Android Gingerbread and buggy ICS. In any case, not being able to take hand-written notes on my Fire isn’t remotely close to being a deal-breaker. The 7″ screen isn’t exactly ideal for that kind of thing.
Total "wtf" title, but it makes sense after it's explained.
As for the academic front, I feel like I’m off to a decent start. I’ve been exercising on a regular basis, though not every day like I originally planned. Right now I’m only up to 1 hour gym work-outs Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. But hey, it’s a start, right? I also bought this ebook off of Amazon during the break when it was on sale called Eat That Frog: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time. Kinda seems ridiculous, but for me, it’s helped quite a bit, and I’ve only read 3 chapters (less than halfway).
The main thing that it’s stressed so far is to plan ahead. For you non-procrastinators, this seems like a no-brainer, right? And perhaps even for procrastinators too. But the simple act of writing everything down actually helps a lot. Granted, I haven’t been completing everything I’ve written on my To-Do lists for the past two days that I’ve tried it, but I’ve been able to get the most important things done, at least.
It’s gonna be a challenging semester, probably moreso than I realize, but I’m sure it’ll be worth it in the long run. It better be, though for $1.50, if it doesn’t turn out to be worth it, at least it won’t be a big loss.
Last week I had my first counseling session for the semester, and my counselor noted that I seem much happier than I had last semester, though we both aren’t sure yet if that’s because of the break, or because of the Wellbutrin. That being said, I do feel happier this semester, as well as actually motivated to do well. Of course, the motivation may be due to me only taking classes that I’m actually interested in for this semester, rather than because I need it as a prereq for med school.
My lifestyle in general has become more healthy; I’m eating 3 meals a day at more regular intervals, rather than the 1 or 2 I would eat in the past few years. As I already stated, I began my journey to getting fit. My sleep seems to be more restful and undisturbed as well. I just feel good. Knock on wood. We’ll see how things are after the first round of exams. Which come at the end of next week. Yikes.
Also also also, I applied for a job on campus. It’s a typing data entry thing and only pays $8/hr, but a job is a job, and at least it’s not my only means of support. Actually, it’s more for personal spending money. Project money. I applied Saturday evening (I think?) and haven’t gotten a reply yet, but hopefully I can nab it. If not, then maybe I can get a job at a center that specializes in programs for ADD, ADHD, autistic, dyslexic, etc. children, which would be more up my alley what with being a neuroscience major and all. It’d probably look better on my resume too. I’m hoping to be able to stay on campus for work, though.
Geebus, so many things to talk about! I swear this is the last thing.
It seems that I’ve finally gotten a volunteer position at a hospital. People must not like to communicate with me, because scheduling an interview appointment with the volunteer coordinator took forever (and didn’t even happen when I applied last spring). So did scheduling an appointment to get my TB test. And the first two people I tried to buy a Kindle Fire from on Craigslist never responded; one contact number was completely wrong. People just don’t pick up their phone. To be fair, I screen my calls too.
Anyway, the volunteer orientation is this Wednesday. After that and after my reference gives back a completed reference form, I should be all ready to volunteer. The only thing left is to get my DART pass so I don’t have to drive in that abysmal traffic. (Srsly, why is there traffic when there are no vehicle accidents or anything???)
Also, someone stole my bike. Really? My bike? And why the fusk can’t I change the color of the strike-out font?
P.S. My cat has been much more affectionate as of late. I feel loved.
