So, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted on this blog. I haven’t really had much to say I guess. It was a busy semester that required a lot of focus, so I didn’t really feel like putting much effort into blog posts. I have also been using Twitter a lot more, though perhaps not as much as I’d like.

And so, before I get into the main purpose of this post, I suppose I should give a brief update of how things went this semester. During the spring semester, I managed to keep my perfect 4.0 going at Lakeland with Calc II, Biochem II, Intensive Organic Chemistry, General Physics II, and Immunology. I then lost that during my May term art class. Art is so very much not my thing. The class was fun. It was a class on ceramics. It was nice to get hands dirty playing with clay. I’d offer pictures of my work, but I didn’t take any. An AB doesn’t hurt the GPA too much, but the idea of a General Ed requirement removing the possibility of a 4.0 bothers me a little. Oh well. I’ll get over that I guess.

Now, for a brief update on New Year’s resolutions:

• School Related
  • Try harder in school (Probably a little odd coming from a currently 4.0 student, but I really don’t put as much effort into school as I’d like. In order to prepare for medical school, I feel this is quite essential.) - I’ve just explained the grades. I think I’ve put a lot more effort into school this semester than I had previous semesters. Still probably not as much as I wanted to, but getting better.
  • Prepare for and perform well on MCAT - Fail. Kinda. I’m no longer planning to take the MCAT. Instead, it will be the GRE, as I’m planning to go to grad school for chemistry. After long deliberation, I’ve decided that this is probably a better choice for me.
  • Get accepted to a medical school - Again, planning for grad school instead.
• Health Related
  • Exercise more - Success so far! Been walking, running, and biking a lot. I would like to do some more in other regards, like sit-ups, push-ups, and other things to help get in better shape, but this is going pretty well as a whole.
  • Eat in a more healthy manner - Ditto. Been cooking and eating in a lot more, rather than fast food. Feeling so much better about this.
  • Lose weight to a healthy level - Down from about 295 pounds at the beginning of the semester to just under 250 pounds now. I’d like to lose more at this point, but I am feeling significantly better about things. Next hurdle is getting out of the obese BMI range, but that’s only a few pounds away.
  • Quit smoking completely and permanently - Getting there. I’ve cut back a lot and tend to go days at a time without it. It’s becoming more of a casual and stress relief thing, rather than an addiction. I still want to and need to stop completely, so I’ll still be working on that.
• Personal Related
  • Read more - Yep! I’ve read a few books for fun, as well as several comic books (!). I don’t know why I’d never been into comic books much, but thanks to an awesome friend, I’ve realized the beauty if this awesome medium.
  • Blog more - (Epic?) fail. I don’t count Twitter as blogging. Yeah, it is micro-blogging or whatever they want to call it, but it’s not the same as actually providing in-depth updates as to what’s going on.
  • Have more fun - Mostly. More on this another day.
  • Keep my apartment clean - Doing much better in this regard as well. Not perfectly, but it’s quite manageable most of the time.

And so, I’ve decided to update the resolutions to reflect changes:

• School Related
  • Try harder in school (Probably a little odd coming from a currently 4.0 3.979 GPA student, but I really don’t put as much effort into school as I’d like. In order to prepare for medical graduate school, I feel this is quite essential.)
  • Prepare for and perform well on MCAT GRE

  • Get accepted to a medical school Prepare applications for graduate school

• Health Related
  • Exercise more
  • Eat in a more healthy manner
  • Lose weight to a healthy level
  • Quit smoking completely and permanently
• Personal Related
  • Read more
  • Blog more
  • Have more fun
  • Keep my apartment clean

Now, I suppose, a real quick update on summer plans is in order. I’m basically doing summer research again at school. It’s a very different project from what I did last summer in tardigrade DNA sequencing. This summer I’m working to perform some computational modeling of small peptide portions of the amyloid beta found in Alzheimer’s patients. A lot of the work requires a good understanding of quantum mechanics, which is what I’m working to understand right now. Self-learning quantum is proving to be complicated, but I think I’ll be able to handle it. Once I have that down, I’m hoping to pick up on this project I with which I helped a friend during Biochemistry I. I had a lot of fun working on that project, and I hope that I can have some success in doing so throughout the remainder of summer. Computational chemistry/biochemistry is a very interesting area of research to me, and it’s potentially something I will be pursuing if I get accepted into a grad school.

Also this summer, I’m taking another general ed class that is proving to be more work than I desired, but it will be nice to get it out of the way prior to this coming school year.

There’s probably more that I want to say right now, but I’m not exactly sure how, and it doesn’t seem like something that fits in the rest of this post, so I’ll save it for a little later (i.e. six months from now, lol…). Anyway. Just wanted to let people know that I’m doing mostly well and having fun in my own unique sort of way. LOL

Well, school’s cancelled for tomorrow. While this would normally be occurring because of ice or snow, this one is due to some extremely cold temperatures coming into the area. We’re talking actual temperatures of -15º – -20º F, with winds of 15 – 30 mph, giving a windchill possibly exceeding -40º F.

That’s cold.

Now to the more important matter. School. Generally speaking, Thursday’s are probably one of the better days to be cancelled, as I only have organic chemistry lab. However, it would be our first day of lab, including decisions on projects and safety training. I’m not entirely sure how this will affect the semester schedule, but I’d guess it will push some of that off until next week, making for a busy week next week.

This also assumes that school won’t be cancelled Friday, as the low temperatures and wind are supposed to continue into early Friday. I don’t want to make it seem like I’m hoping it will be — I’m really not. Some people are going to school to learn things. Having missed days like this puts the rest of the semester on a crunch, leading to less material being covered.

Sometimes I wish I were somewhere warm without needing to worry about snow, cold, poor road conditions, etc. Then I think about the other problems these warmer areas have. Oh well.

After one day of classes, I can tell this is going to be a tough semester. Immunology is a tough read, even with some knowledge of some of the material. Organic Chemistry will be a lot of work. Lab reports, presentations, poster sessions.

I’m going to need to work hard to do well.

It was part of my plan. Just not sure I figured it’d be as bad as it currently seems it will be… I guess we’ll see…

So, after a first semester that was a fair amount of work and actual concern about not getting straight A’s, I’m into my third semester at Lakeland. Up for me this semester are five classes, totalling 19 credits (a 1 credit overload).

• General Physics II
• Immunology
• Intensive Organic Chemistry
• Biochemistry II
• Calculus II

This should be a challenging semester for me, which is one of the reasons I’m adding Immunology. The other reason is that it’s only offered every other year, and I kinda want to take it. Anyway… that’s it for now…

So, this is probably a little later than most people post these. However, I did establish my resolutions for the year prior to the beginning of the year. I just haven’t felt like posting them…

So, here goes!

• School Related
  • Try harder in school (Probably a little odd coming from a currently 4.0 student, but I really don’t put as much effort into school as I’d like. In order to prepare for medical school, I feel this is quite essential.)
  • Prepare for and perform well on MCAT
  • Get accepted to a medical school
• Health Related
  • Exercise more
  • Eat in a more healthy manner
  • Lose weight to a healthy level
  • Quit smoking completely and permanently
• Personal Related
  • Read more
  • Blog more
  • Have more fun
  • Keep my apartment clean

So there you have it. Several things I want to do this year. I’m hoping to accomplish all of them! Ambitious? Yes. Impossible? Not at all…