parasitology – Imaginary Sunshine

Study Mode: On

Michelle — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 08:22:02 +0000

Not a whole lot to report, but I have the urge to just blog right now. Granted, I’m starting this at 11:57pm on Friday… So yay, this’ll be posted on Saturday, of course. I don’t know why I felt the need to mention that, I mean, you can tell by the date stamp when this post goes up. I may schedule posts over at BlytheLife.com (which is the only reason why posts go up three days a week over there, because I schedule everything like a month in advance, because I’m cool like that), but I don’t do that here. Mostly because it’s my personal blog and it seems weird to schedule posts for that? I mean, I used to do ‘sponsored’ posts here, but I haven’t done that in ages. Mostly because people don’t seem to think that bloggers are worth as much money (for the most part), so all my posts are all just written for me now (yay).

And now I’m all rambling…

So I’ve been working on study notes for the last week. I actually got up early enough to head out to school on Tuesday to study in the library. All the other days I either woke up around 8am (when I wanted to be at school already) so I just stayed at home to study. Which worked well, because I love the fact that I can just stay in my room in my pjs and comfy fleecy robe (which is warm!) and just work away on my laptop. I’ve also been watching podcasts during my study breaks (and listening to them as well). Mostly knitting related, because I’ve suddenly fallen back into knitting (I did take a loooong break without knitting a darn thing). I haven’t been able to find any crocheting podcasts that I like. I’m a big fan of the ones with video, not just audio, because I like getting to see the projects. I also caught up on the Savage Love podcast. Because who doesn’t like to listen to Dan Savage answer his caller’s questions about sex? (The answer: prudes.)

I’m actually ahead of my studying schedule. I finished all my study notes for zoogeography & paleogeology. I’m almost done going through learning goals for my climate change class (whoot). I finished the notes for my parasitology take-home final, which is another essay. I did a little bit of outline for that paper, not as much as I would have liked to have done, but I did most of it. I’m hoping to finish the climate change study notes & parasitology paper outlining Saturday morning, because I’ll be going out for lunch with the family and then listening to my sister’s choir sing Christmas carols in the mall (horrible acoustics there, just got to say…).

I got an email from an offlinefriend asking me why I never blog about Clay anymore… Not sure if she was more concerned or if she was just being nosy. I’m going to go with concerned, because being nosy is never cool. There’s not really a whole lot to report on the boyfriend front. We are still together, we had our third anniversary in September of this year. He works a stupid amount of hours (like seriously stupid amount of hours) and I spend a lot of time studying. Well, I always have an abundance of free time to spend with him, but he works what feels like 24/7. It’s probably closer to like 12-16/7, but that’s still a lot of hours in a week and he does need to sleep. I’ve also been using my sadly boyfriend-free time to work on his Christmas present. It’s going to be awesome. And he’s going to love it. Mostly because I say that he will… I’m really trying to put together something thoughtful and practical and useful and all those things. But I always end up coming up with something impractical, but still super awesome. So we’ll see how that goes… Wow, rambling. We also don’t live in the same city (maybe ~30-45min drive, depending on the the traffic, so it does make things difficult at times. But I don’t know, I haven’t been all gushy about the time that we do spend together, because if I did, my blog posts would be like “So, I saw the boyfriend and we did A and he made me B for dinner.” and I would also have to totally censor my blog posts from some of the activities that occur, for obvious reasons… And with that… Change of topics!

This didn’t really get mentioned on the blog, but my dad went away on vacation/trip/whatever for three months. He went to visit relatives and whatnot. Came back with a lot of gifts, which is always appreciated. He was away during my birthday so he brought me back this:

Yes, it is another Blythe doll. (He also got me another one, but she’s under the tree for Christmas.) The doll’s stock name is Simply Bubble Boom. She’s a limited edition doll, at 1500 dolls in this model. She was actually part of a trio of crime-fighting skaters. Yes, I said skaters. She came with some super cute orange skates, not pictured. The other doll that my dad got me for my Christmas present was Simply Sparkly Spark (who has blue hair!) and the last of the trio (that I’m not getting) is Simply Thumpty Thump (who has a bright purple hair colour). I’m really happy with her. Her hair is a neon reddish-orange, so it looks rather pink in some lights and rather orange in others. Which is kind of really awesome. I decided name her Moxie, and she is my 8th Blythe doll and first in the FBL mold.

(For those who don’t really like Blythes or just dolls in general; sorry about the photo and the blurb… But I like ’em! And I do try to restrict dolly talk to the designated blog when I can. But I was just super pleased at getting a new doll for my birthday… and there will probably be photos of my Christmas doll too.)

Oh hello, December

Michelle — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 05:44:48 +0000

Over the last two weeks, I wrote a lab final (parasitology) and three papers (one zoogeography; two parasitology). A total of a lot of stress (lab final) and a lot of research (7, 1 and 10 for the total number of references that I used for my papers) and several thousand words typed in 12-point words, double-spaced with full citations.

My 3 topics of choice for my papers:

Ursus maritimus (polar bear) and Ursus arctos (brown bear) and their sister species relationship (evolution, phylogeography) – 25% of my grade.
Schistosoma mansoni and influences on a mollusc intermediate host – potentially 27.5% of my grade.
Trophically transmitted parasites and the methods of transmission – potentially 27.5% of my grade.

I have a week off between end of lectures and the beginning of finals. Whoot… I’m so incredibly excited for studying, haha. I’m spending all next week (at least, Monday to Friday) at school. Got a whole study schedule planned. I have a paper to write as a final for parasitology. More writing about all the gross things that you can get from drinking water and cuisine?! Yay! I didn’t really how much I’d like parasitology until after having taking the course. It’s fascinating what’s in our food and we don’t even realize. Or what kind of normal ‘hosts’ that the nastier parasites have. So cool to learn about the world still.

And with that, I’ll be online minimally (sort of) until I’m done with finals… Until then, have a lovely December!

Stress happens, and then I sleep.

Michelle — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 05:17:24 +0000

It’s coming down to the last 2 weeks of school (classes end on December 2nd for me) so that it is crunch time! All of my midterms are thankfully done (I have a friend who has a midterm the last week of classes, ew) and I’ve just been working away on research for a few more papers (I have two drafts done and I’m waiting for a professor to review one of them – I have another paper that I have yet to write, but I think I’ve finished all of my research for it). Besides that, I also have a lab final to study for (boo) and 3 finals to start to study for. I’m taking four classes, but one of my classes (Parasitology) has a take home final. I’ve never been able to grasp the brilliance of this concept because generally science courses do not have take home/open book finals. We get two full weeks to work on the final ‘exam’, we’re encouraged to use the textbook and we’re allowed to work in groups, ask the professor questions… Brilliant, absolutely. I just hope he’s making us do incredibly difficult essays as I know it’s supposed to be long-answer type of questions.

So I’m going to be doing a lot of studying… Starting soon. I need to get that last paper written (and then editing the other two) before I feel like I can “really” study (except for my lab final – I need to study for my lab final because that is important as well, even if it’s not worth a whole lot).

I feel like it’s important to note that today was Election Day in British Columbia. All of the municipal elections in the province happen on the same day – we elect for the mayors, city councillors, school trustees and whatnot. I did not head out to the polls today (although my other family members did). I feel bad about this because I almost always go to vote when there’s an election. I had to go out a little bit after lunch to the bank and when I was walking up my driveway to get back into the house, I slipped and fell flat on my back. My driveway is black and there was ice on the driveway that hadn’t melted yet (it was in the shadows casted by the bushes). So I slipped and fell. I’m sure if there were witnesses, they would have told me that my fall was spectacular (it sure felt that way, anyways). But that really isn’t the point. I managed to get back up on my feet and stiffly walked up the steps to get back into the house. I’ve remained indoors for the rest of the day because my lower back is sore. I’ve also been limiting my walking around, because movement is bad (heh). I normally bruise very easily but no (visible) bruising as of yet. There’s also no swelling, I just hurt.

Life happens, I guess. Here’s to the next four weeks! My last final is on December 16th (Friday), meep.

Protected: First impressions, yet again.

Michelle — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 02:48:06 +0000