January 2012
1 post
May 2009
3 posts
a white tiger mauled and killed a zookeeper at a New Zealand wildlife park today. inevitably, he was euthanized. the park, which contains many endangered lions and tigers, said that it would provide counseling to its employees. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry reported last year that the animals at the park were kept in small, crowded, unsanitary enclosures, conditions so poor that...
i have this one biochemistry teacher, Dr. Pehrson. Great guy. Great teacher, too, he won the vet school teaching award last year. He has Nobel Prize envy, though, it’s kind of sad. We all feel bad for him. He likes to keep his students informed of recent advances in science and research. He also tells us about Nobel Prize winners and why they won and for some reason half of them...
a bunch of undergraduates next door are having a party. since i can’t concentrate on studying, i thought it would be fun to keep a log of what i’m hearing.
11:13PM I hear loud talking but no one is saying anything interesting. Sounds like vet school lectures.
11:15PM A loud cheer just erupted from the house. I’m guessing a girl took her shirt off.
11:16PM Someone just...
April 2009
2 posts
i think more and more there’s kind of a trend these days to annoint something or someone the best ever. maybe it started with the comic book guy on the simpsons proclaiming everything worst ___ ever. but maybe, and i think more likely, we’re all just a little full of ourselves. i notice this especially in sports, where tiger is the best golfer ever, federer is the best tennis player...
remember in the shawshank redemption when brooks left and then killed himself because he didn’t know what to do with himself in the real world after so long in prison? morgan freeman said something like, ‘he’s just institutionalized, that’s all.’ and that’s how morgan freeman paved his career as a narrator. people thought that movie was good because morgan...
March 2009
5 posts
candy
one thing that never gets old is candy. i like candy as much today as i did when i was three. i remember telling my friends at the time that if i ever stopped liking candy, they had my approval to murder me. they took down my information, stored it safely in their respective wallets, and we went our separate ways, hoping to never have to meet again, for that would spell my death. by them. so...
human medicine vs. veterinary medicine
in veterinary medicine, you have two relationships that you must forge in the examination room; one with the animal, and one with the owner. in human medicine, there are also two relationships to keep in mind; one with the patient, and one with his insurance carrier. in veterinary school, you study the importance of biosecurity and the public health concerns of emerging infectious diseases. in...
troup school
in third grade our school formed a relationship with an inner city school in New Haven named Troup School. i don’t really know what brought this about or why, but i think it was so that we would learn how to interact with African-American children. this experience was advertised to us as an opportunity to make friends and colleagues for life, people with whom to share our experiences in...
•again today, driving on the highway i saw an ambulance with its lights flashing. i don’t really know how to react to this. i don’t remember being taught a highway ambulance protocol. i could slow down or pull over but if the car behind me doesn’t follow suit, it could get ugly. another problem is that ambulances on the highway drive slowly, like around 50. it makes sense,...
rode through a car wash today. i think it’s safe to add enjoying a car wash to the list of activities that are not as fun once you grow up. it’s a long list now, at least for me, including things like yo-yos, balloon animals, spontaneously stripping off all clothing at the sight of any sprinkler, randomly running around screaming, ice cream trucks, making fun of nerds. but...
January 2009
3 posts
as i drove down the highway this evening, a police car with red and blue flashing lights whizzed by in the left lane. as it came upon unsuspecting cars, they quickly applied their right turn signal (because when confronted with a police car, people use turn signals) and moved aside at the earliest opportunity for the police car to pass. this situation is one of few in life where one person has...
school is a unique creature. being in school or being out of school or talking about school stirs up many emotions. there’s no feeling quite like the last day of summer vacation, or the first day of school. there’s no other experience that gives you the same feeling that you get when you are sitting in lecture, feeling yourself getting older, feeling a heachache being born,...
growing up is kind of depressing. you start to look at things differently when as you get older, i think. you begin to see things in terms of the past rather than the future. you begin to evaluate yourself, your life, in terms of what you have accomplished and not what you will accomplish. you begin to look at children with jealousy and hostility and people older than you with disgust and...
September 2008
2 posts
i think people as a whole are good, though at times it may be difficult to see. but certain situations present themselves that illuminate the benevolence and spirit of the human race. i remember reading a number of articles after September 11th that discussed the image of the cold, impersonal New Yorker being shed in place of the inspiring character revealed in the face of tragedy. Similarly,...
school
being in graduate school definitely has its advantages, like not making money and having to take exams, but there are subtle differences between graduate school and elementary school that make me yearn for the happy days of my childhood. for example, we have lunch now like we had lunch when we were little. but in elementary school lunch meant sitting with your class and discussing video games...
July 2008
3 posts
the olympics
the olympics are coming. soon! and sadly, like stuffed-crust pizza, TGIF, Monopoly, and Michael Jackson, the olympics are not nearly as cool as they used to be. i think one reason is that olympians, like all professional athletes in this country, are becoming increasingly unlikable. gone are heroes like carl lewis, michael johnson, and gail devers. in their place are anonymous athletes who...
i’m learning a lot during my summer job at a vet hospital. i think dogs and cats are very different from the kinds of animals i’ve worked with previously, wild animals. for one, dogs and cats need their nails trimmed like people. also, they like people. most wild animals don’t. but dogs and cats, they love people. a dog you don’t know may come right up to you and lick...
the curious case of Mr. Thees
i had this one teacher in school, mr. thees. he was as intimidating as one could be while closely resembling charlie chaplin which, as we soon realized, was pretty damn intimidating. he had a mustache, a bald head, and a scowl that could melt m&m’s in your hand. he ran a science class, teaching us about volcanoes, bunsen burners. the more i think about it, the more thankful i am...
June 2008
3 posts
it sucks
it’s been almost a year since i moved to philadelphia and there has been one thing that has legitimately annoyed me since coming here. i consider myself a pretty easy going and conscientious individual; i hold the door for people behind me, i wash and wax my car every day, i tell people i regularly contribute to numerous meaningful charities. but the traffic lights in this city are awful. ...
there’s something stupid about being at a grocery store cashier and having them ask you if you want them to hand you the receipt or alternatively put the receipt in the bag.
May 2008
6 posts
cribs
after watching a couple of episodes of cribs for the first time, i think i now better understand the elements of luxury that one should have in one’s house and the kinds of things that are sensible and practical to do with lots of money. apparently if you’re rich you need a big, big house. that much is obvious. you also need a viewing room with a projector, screen, and a row of...
these past few weeks i have been studying hard during my finals period. and everyday, at around the same time, while i was reading on the sofa, i would hear a faint, foggy twinkle. and then it would get a little louder. and a little louder. it was the ice cream truck. he’s started driving by my street for the summer. it seemed like a blast from the past, something that i haven’t...
it's time to grow up
i recently turned 25. it was pretty sad. i think being 24 i was still able to tell myself that i was pretty young but 25 seems like a milestone of sorts. it’s too bad, i enjoyed being a little kid, and then a teenager, and then a young adult. i guess now when i go to the video store i’ll have to shop in the adult section. and start reading the newspaper over a cup of coffee in the...
garbage
i bet if you took all the garbage that people produce in a year and piled it up, it would make a great big mountain of garbage.
cows
cows are cool. i think one thing cows have going for them is that they are enormous. it’s not something that, on it’s own, will render a specie cool, but when a specie has several things about them that make them cool, being incredibly large does enhance the fact. they have big veins, which is nice when you are trying to get a blood sample, but also impressive when you just sit their...
April 2008
3 posts
horses
-twins used to be cool. it used to be cool to meet a twin, ask them if they have a weird connection, if they read each other minds, stuff like that. but now i think the hoopla has subsided. it’s no longer anything special to be a twin, i think they should go out and get a real job. -things i learned about horses today while learning about horses •always approach a horse from the...
a few things
-i had/have this friend joe who was nice and funny but he got too wired during exams and this one time we were taking this french test and i was sitting next to him and he was clearly flustered; he was holding his forehead in his hand and scribbling frantically and then all of a sudden he turned to me and in a really vicious tone said, “Breathe through your mouth!” Given that I was...
January 2008
3 posts
super matchup
a week from today will be the super bowl. and it will pit the juggernaut patriots against the suprising giants. and i think this matchup will be significant for a number of reasons. i predict that a record number of households will tune into the game, because i believe that the matchup is a compelling one. the super bowl, after hitting it’s peak somewhere in the 90’s when it became...
hold it
i think there are certain decisions we have to make in every day life that separate the good guys from the punks. one such decision, in my opinion, is deciding under what circumstances to hold the door for the person behind us. i think in a communal place where everybody knows everybody, like an office building or school, people tend to hold the door. in school a lot of times i find that people...
sports
i think in a lot of ways sports can represent certain metaphors for life, teach us things about life that we can’t learn on youtube. like losing a hard fought game teaches you about humility and being a gracious loser. winning a game easily against a lesser opponent teaches you to feed on those lower in the food chain. losing by TKO in a boxing match teaches you how to get the snot kicked...
December 2007
7 posts
hoops
i played one season in a basketball rec league when i was in middle school. it was a golden season. i joined my team in the middle of the season and we went on to lose only one more game the rest of the season, the one loss coming by one point in overtime. there were many memorable moments from the season. milad was involved in one of them. he was our school’s version of fez on that...
the thought that counts
i think one of the cool things about people is that you can usually tell when they are thinking. people are so different and completely unique and i think we are relatively unequipped to interpret the facial expressions of strangers, and yet i think we can tell when someone is thinking. they go into that trance and you can see it on their face and in their body language. it’s almost like...
a couple words of advice
when you take dead batteries out of an appliance, throw them out or put them in a marked container for recycling right away, because an unmarked battery sitting around for longer than a second will be mistaken for a fresh battery, wasting valuable seconds the next time a battery of that size is required. make it a priority to remember to brush your teeth in the morning; i forget a lot and it...
evil tennis
so this one time my parents and i went to this CAPI gathering, and without getting into details, i’ll just describe it as sort of a picnic/barbecue/conference. and we had gone many times to this annual event and they always held athletic contests, once i won the swimming race. and so this year i entered the tennis tournament. and there were only two other people who ended up signing up...
perfecto prep
did anyone watch the baby looney tunes? i don’t know the official name but it had buster bunny and babs bunny and little versions of donald duck and tasmanian devil and they all went to elementary school….well maybe you haven’t seen it but it was a show to be reckoned with. it had the classroom scene, with paper airplanes and making fun of the teacher and getting sent to the...
the other side of things
did anyone watch garfield? the cartoon show….it was good, real good. back when garfield had street cred and having a fat cat was not the norm. jon had trouble with women and odie had trouble catching his tail and garfield really didn’t have much trouble with his lasagna and his bed and his abu dhabi and his t.v. But then what happened after the first hilarious episode. did you...
little kids
we were funny as little kids. every single one of us. and at the time, everything we did was completely normal and justified. i remember this one time in fifth or sixth grade. me and my friends were in the school band. i played the baritone horn, and john, jack, and kiran played the trombone. the four of us had a low brass rehearsal once a week and then the whole band, full with flutes and...
November 2007
4 posts
fun stuff
i don’t know who invented amusement parks, and chances are, neither do you. but i think it was a good idea. i view amusement parks as a positive addition to our society. i mean they’re not that great or anything. but it’s one more thing you can do when you want to do something. i mean in terms of doing stuff there are really two scenarios. one is when you really want to do...
king of the fetus
I have this one professor, Dr. Jean-Pierre Saint-Jeannet. He is the course organizer for my Developmental Biology class. He is also one of the leading developmental biologists in the world. Maybe in being overused on t.v. or in magazine articles that phrase has lost its luster, but that, my friends, is a big deal. He is one of the most prominent researchers of this subject that there is. I...
stinky giants
the giants lost today. disappointing. very disappointing. they had won six straight going into a showdown with the one team above them, the cowboys. 31-20. damn giants. i was mad they lost but more mad that i was mad. following sports is a losing hobby regardless of how you look at it. the odds of every single one of your teams winning the championship every single year is slim. so, in...
my first day of school
i remember my first day of school. not ever, i can’t remember that far back but my first day of school now. actually, i really can’t remember that either. but i remember my most recent day of school. had some lectures. a little lunch break action. some histology lab. yup. pretty cool. the thing about school is that there are so many different kinds of it cuz the word is so...
July 2007
1 post
uh...hi
this is awkward.