Do I dare?

*slowly ventures back into the world of blogging*

wow...not much going on, eh?

So...I'm in school...dropped university symphony to take the honors section of my Concepts in the Biomedical Sciences course. I think it's been worth it. The class involves freshman research, and is the only class at MSU to do that, and MSU is one of only three universities to do freshman research. So...basically for the last ten weeks I've been isolating, amplifying, cloning, and inserting a gene from Tetrahymena thermophila, - a pond organism - into E. coli cells. This will allow research to be done on this gene, which is a homolog to the Sirtuin 2 gene in homo sapiens, which regulates ...something with cell life longevity, and gene transcription silencing or something. Still working on that part. :p Anyways, different projects can then be done on the Ttherm gene to figure out what it does, and to make relevant generalizations to the Sirtuin2 gene in humans. It's actually related to cancer research, believe it or not.

As of now, I have A's in all of my classes. In fact, I have set the curve for both exams in psychology, and I have a 115% average in that class. Praise my God. :) BMS and Chemistry are both bordering on the "A" line, and my religions class (don't take religion at a state school, btw), is 94%, I think.

So...there's a quick update..enjoy!

The Interminable Wait

H.O.L.Y. C.O.W. Talk about taking a while between blog posts. :p Aunt Kady, this post is for you! ;)

Okay, so I ended up purchasing the Asus EEE PC 1005ha netbook. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220551 I also purchased a Samsung external CD/DVD player with USB power since no netbooks come with an internal media drive. After about a week of having it, I went ahead and upgraded to 2gb of memory from the stock 1gb. Total, the netbook/accessories have cost $465. Mom and dad paid for about half of that for my birthday/graduation gift. It's a pretty sweet little thing, and it runs most of the games I own. Unfortunately, the native screen resolution is 1024x600 (widescreen), and most games don't look too good in that resolution. I have an 17in CRT monitor at home that I use as my external monitor. It's not the best looking monitor, so I hope to upgrade come Christmas time with a 20" LCD flat panel monitor, saving room on my desk and making the screen look a TON better. As far as system capabilities go, I can run my chat client, watch a Hulu.com video and browse the internet all at the same time. Occasionally the Hulu.com video will run a bit choppy, but if I pause it and let it buffer, it's okay again. Just watching the Hulu.com video, it never has problems.

Okay, enough about that...

I am in NY right now. Over the weekend my family helped my brother move up to Buffalo, NY so he can attend the school there in hopes of obtaining his Ph.D. in chemistry. After getting him settled, my parents, two younger sisters, and I crossed the state and came to Long Island, where my grandparents live. *waves hi to grandparents* We are spending about a week here before heading back to Missouri.

And on to school..
I have no idea what the last thing I said about school was. I received a $500 scholarship from the Medical Explorers group I am in at the hospital towards my school fees, plus I received a $500 scholarship from Southwest Home Education Ministries for use towards the same end. I went through the Student Orientation, Advisement, and Registration program at school (freshman orientation), and have registered for all my classes for the fall. I am taking Concepts of Biomedical Sciences, General Chemistry 1 for the science major, Introduction to Psychology, Literature and World of the Old Testament (honors), University Symphony, and Introduction to University Life (honors) for a total of 16 credits. To be technical, provided I do not drop a class this semester, I will be a Sophomore at the end of this fall semester, with 30 credits to my name.

And for the future...
I am contemplating a mission trip to Haiti next summer. I have yet to actually talk to the missionaries my family knows down there about that, but my parents and I are praying about it. I'll probably email the missionaries when I get back home from NY, if not while here. I'll keep you updated on this item, and we'll see if it goes anywhere. I was challenged to go on another missions trip by a friend...it struck me as odd that even though I consider "missions" to be a large part of my calling by Christ, I've only been on two missions trips in my whole life. To be fair, I DO consider doing music and preaching at the local mission to be "missions" work, but I feel called to foreign missions...anyways, I felt very strongly that I should again pursue some overseas missions work. So...we'll see what happens. :)

Okay, that's enough for now. Sorry again for the lengthy wait between posts.
Laterz,
Siah

Scholarships and PC's

OH! One thing I forgot to mention....I was selected to be the recipient of this years Medical Explorer Senior Scholarship. It's a $500 award, deposited into your student account at whatever institution you are planning on attending. It's awarded based on academic achievement, community service, and evidence of leadership. I was pretty stoked about getting that one. So I've got another $1000 in my student account at MSU in addition to my scholarships...I'll probably either save it for a couple of years and buy a really nice MacBook, or use it on food when I'm practically living at school.

Oh, speaking of MacBooks and computers...I'm debating between getting a Netbook (mini-laptop) or a real Laptop (like as a replacement desktop) or a Netbook and a Desktop...or other various combinations of those 3 items...

A netbook would be very handy for school. It weighs an average of 3 lbs, and is about 10-11 inches diagonally. It's excellent for word processing, email, and internet. It's media processing ability is below-par. Hard drive size is around 120-160 GB. Average cost of a decent netbook, outfitted, is $450.

A Desktop is great for at home use. It allows for games, hi-speed internet, word processing, and a myriad of other things, such as media work. It's the fastest option in processing power, and will have the largest hard drive (600-800 GB). Average cost, $750.

A Laptop would most likely be used as a desktop replacement. It would be powerful enough to play games and work with media, but also portable enough to take to school. It would be about 9 lbs, and measure anywhere from 15-18 inches diagonally. It's not quite as fast as the desktop, but still is decent, and will have a medium sized hard drive (320gb). It runs about $1000-1200 on average.

Then of course, through all of this, is the eager waiting for the new Windows 7 OS to come out...it runs with half the processing power that Vista requires, and from talk from Beta users, runs better with the un-finished Beta then Vista does fully updated.

Finals, and WHAT is Research, Pt. 1

To Ms. Laura....I'll eventually get around to answering your question that you asked regarding "research" on my last post.

Finals are over. I got a B in Calculus 1 and an A in English Composition 2. I was rather excited about both. Going into my english final, I had only recieved 3/5 papers back from the teacher. So I only knew that I had an 82.5% average for my papers. I really wasn't sure what my grades were in the class, because he wouldn't tell us a lot about how attendance and in-class work affected our grades...but apparently I did good enough, cause I got an A. Calculus 1 I was also very excited about. I had to get a 69% on the final to get a B, which I apparently got....I wish you could see the final, and see what score you really made, etc....

My senior recital is coming up rather quickly. Very scary, actually... 6 days. I have a total of 7 solos and 2 duets...solos have to be memorized...I can ...get through all but two of the solos by memory...but only 2 fairly decently. I'll make it, I know..it's just nervewracking. My hands were swollen so bad on Tuesday. I couldn't hardly grip anything or make a fist with either hand. It wasn't too hot. lol But they are better now, and I'm back to practicing and staring at my music for a few hours a day.

Okay...now...MY view of Research....
I saw "research" as....mm...an exploring of a topic, and then writing my conclusion about that topic. So, in the case of home schooling which I wrote about (and I believe I have posted on my other blog), I wrote my conclusion, based on a question that I asked at the beginning to get me jumpstarted. My question was "Is home schooling effective?" I looked at the history of homeschooling, the legality of homeschooling, the cirriculum available to homeschoolers, the academic acheievements of homeschoolers compared to their public school counterparts, the success of graduates after high school, and the satisfaction of homeschooled graduates and their parents after homeschooling. I came to the conclusion that "Yes, home schooling is a generally effective method of schooling, and has higher average academic achievement rating then other methods of home schooling." This view I expressed in my paper, not really including other viewpoints or bringing any "other sides of the arguement" into play. This was mainly because there WASN'T a lot of good evidence against home schooling. It was mostly people calling it "child abuse" and ranting about how "homeschoolers aren't socialized, won't know how to function in the real world, etc"....actual evidence (usually done scientifically, or using psychological studies, see Dr. Brian Ray, etc) goes directly against these claims. So in my paper, which is essentially my conclusion of the research I've done, I ignored these false claims, and only used evidence which actually had something to back it up.

I'll get to the "school" version of research in my next post....

Piano Papers...

I have a piano recital tomorrow. And for once, I actually made it TWICE through my song at my piano lesson today (by memory)...this is unheard of. Usually I memorize my song at the recital itself. They have this little piano upstairs.............

I'm playing The Easy Winners, by Scott Joplin. It's pretty cool, although playing 5+ minute rag wears on your arms.

The Evangel University Garage Sale "starts" tomorrow. By "starts," I mean that the helpers involved with the garage sale start to clean out the dorms and sort different items. It's an event that lasts till Tuesday evening. Then on Wednesday, the sale REALLY starts. The nice thing about working and helping out is that if you see something you want while items are being placed out in the gym area, you can grab it and set it aside, purchasing it on Tuesday...so you basically get first pick on stuff. I can only help on Saturday, since I have a large amount of school to do in the next two weeks.

Speaking of school....I have two english papers (one of which is for the final) and two calc tests (one of which is the final) to do within the next 2 weeks. Oh. Boy.

Oh, and I got a grade back on my Research Paper...an 85%...not so good. I mean, It's okay, but still not what I wanted. I had NO grammatical or syntax errors, only an apparently total mis-understanding of what "research" is...*sighs*...

SHEM recap, and the next week in preview..

The SHEM convention is over. A rumor I heard from a board member said that there were between 1350 and 1500 attendees at the convention. Those numbers are up slightly from last year. The convention this year did not seem to be nearly as busy and packed, at least at the registration table...

Friday night, I "graduated." Sort of. Mom and Da handed me my diploma, but it was unsigned. My Da stated that before they would sign it, I had to "finish my school, including American Government and Spanish 2." So technically, I'm not graduated. And I have no excuse to skip on those classes either. ;)

Saturday at the convention was fairly boring for me. I got reassigned to the back loading dock of the convention hall. There were some parking issues that I had to make sure didn't occur. I spent over 10 hours back there, mostly by myself. The take-home calc quiz got worked on quite a bit. O- lent me his laptop, so I was able to goof around on that for awhile too...Basically the day was slow, until about 5:00. Then the vendors on the lower floor started to pack up, and pull their vehicles around to the back loading dock. I ended up being the loading dock "manager," directing traffic and assisting with loading and parking. That was fun! Not extremely labor intensive, but mentally nervewracking a few times.

My next english paper is due on Thursday, and I have a Calc test on Tuesday. My paper is nearly done, except for re-writing the first paragraph, and doing some editing. I'm fairly well studied for my Calc test too....this week should be fairly easy. EXCEPT for the fact that my mom's sister and her husband are coming for a few days this week. AND I have a piano recital this weekend. AND the annual college garage sale that my family always helps at is this weekend. I sense tiredness coming on. :)

Laterz...

My life, as you know it.

Hmm....apparently it's been a while since I've blogged! Per request from a few friends, I will resume blogging, at least for this post...

My life begins right after the last post ended....and continues to this day. I shall attempt to fill you in on the large details...

No major repurcussions occured as a result of my accident. I still get pretty sore from time to time, and I am just starting to be able to rebuild my strength. But other then that, I'm okay.

The insurance company ended up giving us $3500 for the totalled vehicle. We bought a 2000 Buick Century with that money.

Other then that, my life has been filled with school and applying for various scholarships, etc. I did not recieve Drury's or Missouri State's Highest Academic scholarship. I had to interview for both of those, and neither school selected me. I do, however, get all my tuition paid for at MSU, and the Bright Flight Scholarship, which equals $2000 a year, until next fall, when it will be $2500 a year.

I recently found out that I had missed the deadline to join the Honors College at MSU. I sent them an email requesting an extension, and they granted it. So my Honors College Acceptance letter is in the mail, on the way to MSU.

I just found out today that I am one of two recipients for the SouthWest Home Education Ministry Scholarship, given by the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. The award is worth $500, and is deposited into the student account of the University you attend. So..that'll pay for some meals and books and what not. I'm pretty happy about that one. I really didn't expect to get it. Praise the Lord!!! :)

2nd Tuesday in May I'll find out if I was awarded the Medical Explorers Scholarship. Only one of those is awarded per year, and it's also worth $500. I would absolutely love to get both of those scholarships. :) One down, one to go. :) If I get it, it will be good news in the midst of finals week.

Yes, finals week is approaching. I have 2 and a half weeks before finals week. I believe as of 3 weeks from tomorrow, that I will be done with this semester. I have a graduation this Friday, at the SHEM convention. I am also planning a Senior Recital, to take place at the end of May. That will really be my "graduation, it's all done and over - finally" celebration.

So...english papers seem to be my problem this semester. I procrastinate FAR too long, then I slap something together that I don't have time for, and I get bad grades. B and C so far this semester, in fact. I turned in my research paper last week, which is worth double any other paper. I hope that it goes better then my past papers. :)

Of course, SHEM is up and coming. I am volunteering as a page yet again, with my two younger sisters. I love the work. It puts me around people, yet still gives me the opportunity to move around and not be stifled. Plus, as one of the older young men involved with volunteering, I have a lot of responsibility generally placed on me, something I greatly enjoy. Well, for limited amounts of time, anyway. And in novel places and with novel things.

Well, I think I have just about written down all I can for now. Look for another blog post in a "country" month! (ie, 2-4 "real" months).

Auto Accident

I’m going to use the street names from the town that the accident occurred in. Kansas Expressway is a two-lane divided highway. It town, it has numerous stoplights, and functions as a large road. Atlantic Ave. is a minor road that intersects Kansas Exp.

6:45AM

I am driving a 1997 Buick LeSabre, heading Southbound on Kansas Expressway, right lane. I have a green light as I approach the intersection of Kansas and Atlantic. Several cars on the Northbound side of Kansas Expressway are in the left-hand turning lane. They have a green light on yield. Four cars turn in front of me. I am far enough away from the intersection that it is not a problem, and I only slow slightly as a precaution.

6:46AM

I enter the intersection of Kansas and Atlantic, driving 40 mph, and realize with a shock that a 5th car has decided to turn from the left-hand turning lane of Northbound Kansas Expressway onto Atlantic. I am already in the intersection as the driver in a 1990 Ford Ranger XLT attempts to barrel in front of me. I have only 10 feet in which to make any decision. I cannot remember if the left lane beside me is empty or not, so I choose to slam the brakes and stay in my lane. My brakes lock up, and I impact the passenger side of the pick-up truck, directly behind the cab. At impact, I throw one hand up to block the air bag as it deploys. My car imbeds itself in the side of the truck, and both spin together towards the right. My southbound vehicle is now pointing almost west, and his west bound truck is pointing north, northeast. Not knowing if the dust/smoke in the air is from the airbags or from the engine smoking, I unlock the door, and shove it open. The engine is appears to be smoking slightly, so I run around both vehicles to the driver’s door of the truck. The driver is okay, and he exits his truck. I ask him if he has a cell phone with which to call 911. He replies in the affirmative, and calls 911 immediately. Another truck pulls up alongside of the wreck, and the driver rolls down the window. He tells me “As long as the both of you are okay, I can’t stay, cause I have to get to work. I saw the accident happen though, and if you need a witness to prove that it was his fault, you can contact me at this number.” He hands me a piece of paper with his name and number on it. I thank him, and he drives off.

6:48AM

I return to my vehicle to search for my cell-phone, which appears to have been lost. I find it. As I’m standing outside my vehicle, trying to sort it all out, a good friend of the family’s drives by, and sees me standing there. He pulls over, and instructs me on what information to get from the other driver, and helps me to get my belongings from the vehicle.

Long story short: The other driver was ticketed (I’m not sure the exact citation). My car was towed to the lot, with damages as follows: Both front airbags deployed, hood crumpled in two on itself, front right end of vehicle smashed in, and anti-freeze fluid leaking. His car was drivable, with damages as follows: Side of truck smashed in nearly 1.5 feet. Passenger door dented.

Other bits and pieces of description:

A bird (slightly smaller then a robin, tan, with black specks) lay dead outside my drivers door. It was unmangled, unsmashed, and there was no blood.

A man in scrubs from St. John's stopped and asked if we were okay. After assuring him we were both okay, he left. He was wearing tan scrubs and a dark blue jacket.

My car is worth 2000-2300 bucks, according to Kelly's Blue Book.

Ah...Inaugurations...brain dead.

Okay...breathe in, breathe out...you got something done...it's okay...just rest now....

*sighs* Welcome back, readers. I'm still trying to comfort my fried brain...why it's breathing, I don't know..but...okay whatever...blog post!!

I haven't applied for Graduation yet...I'm working on my recital; I've picked some pieces out...I haven't applied to Camp David yet...I finished my apps for DU and MSU, I finished compiling my portfolio for DU and MSU (I still have a wee bit left with that, but nothing too hard or time-consuming),...

I did my spanish!! And went to the Dentist...I wrote the essay for MSU...I did my 5 pages (front and back of college lined paper) of calc homework...

and not on my list, but completed...chores. :) and piano practice..and blogging!! And I worked today...well...this morning, anyway...

Sorry...my brain is still trying to recuperate...I'm not really all here...hence the ellipsi..

Oh, my choir teacher is gonna try to find me a song that I can voice at my senior recital, since I love to sing..

And ...today marked the last full day of President Bush's 8 year term. God help us now. I'm not the biggest fan of Bush. I think he made mistakes. But...he IS human. And whether he did the best thing, at least he DID something. He did what he thought was right. History will be his judge, but I at least will honor him for his commitment to doing what he thought was best...he certainly wasn't trying to run a popularity contest.

We'll see how Obama handles. I sincerely wish him the best of luck in his first term. He's gonna need it. I hope...well, my first wish would be that he actually has some sense in him and rules moderately. I'm not sure that'll happen...so if it doesn't, then I hope he rules so rottenly that people will not re-elect him. What I REALLY don't want is for him to rule just moderately enough that he gets re-elected to a 2nd term. I really don't want to have him as my Commander-in-Chief if I join the military in 4.5 years.

okay...laters...everybody watch the election, even if you hate Obama. It's historical..it counts for school credit. :)

It's okay, my sweet brain. You will recover...

Stress...

YAY!!! This is my 100th blog post, if you are interested. I'm happy. :)



So school started on Monday for me. My first day in Calc 1, and we had to take a quiz. Basically a review of what we should know already, but what we would most definitly know by the end of the semester...Luckily it wasn't graded, cause...well...I got 1.5 out of 7 correct..



Woohoo!! I had my first english class yesterday..it looks to be a decent class...our first quiz is on Thursday...we have to list the first name of every other student in the class...that should be exciting...

Okay, so I'm a wee bit stressed...I have to plan my senior recital...apply for graduation through SHEM, apply to Camp David, finish apps for DU and MSU, finish portfolio for DU and MSU, do 4 spanish lessons, go to the dentist...write an essay for MSU....oh...and somewhere in there, I have to do school homework...

all that has to be in the next week, so I must needs beg off of writing more, and go to work.
laters..

Lewis, Tolkien, and School

Bah humbug. The Christmas season was delayed me from posting. So...until I get back in the swing of a schedule, here are some quotes from two of my favorite authors, CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien.

LEWIS:
Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.

Humans are amphibians - half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time.

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.

If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalists for the same reasons.

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.

Let's pray that the human race never escapes from Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere.

Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.

The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.

The safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way."

Thirty was so strange for me. I've really had to come to terms with the fact that I am now a walking and talking adult.

What we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.

You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.



TOLKIEN
Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.

I am told that I talk in shorthand and then smudge it.

It's the job that's never started takes longest to finish.

I warn you, if you bore me, I shall take my revenge.

There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.

What do you mean? Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good on this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?

Fair speech may hide a foul heart.

Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer.

"What has it got to do with the story? Where is this place? Why emus? And what is the thing in the foreground with pink bulbs?" ~On a cover painting for The Hobbit that depicted a hill, two emus, and a Christmas tree.

"I begin to feel that I am shut up in a madhouse." ~On hearing that the artist of the aforementioned painting had not read The Hobbit

"Charge 'em and they scatter!" ~On driving a car among other vehicles


Hope you enjoyed some of these!!

I start school tomorrow. I'm still going part time at home, part time at the college I was at last semester. This semester I'm taking 8 credits at college. A five credit Calculus 1 course and a 3 credit English Composition Course...woohoo. Calc 1 is 4 days a week, 75 minutes/lecture period. Ick.