I have a secret for all of you guys. I hope you can keep it! I got a sunburn on Saturday/Sunday because I've been working on cleaning out the gutters on the garage and house and installing gutter guard. Quite the project, let me tell you. Anyways, my sisters have this weird thing about dead skin. They LOVE to peel if off of me...or anyone, for that matter. The delight in seeing if they can get great big sheets of sunburned skin to peel off. It's somewhat disturbing to me, and so I am trying not to have them find out that I am currently peeling. But I also have this urge to find out if any of them read my blog....sooooo: I'm posting this as a bit of a test. I know if they read this, they'll be in my room in two shakes of a tulip tree in the wind. If they don't, I just might get away with a sunburn and no peeling sisters this time! :-D
Note: I don't really mind all the much if my sisters peel my shoulders, as it hurts my neck if I try to stare at my shoulders and peel away dead skin for any extended period of time.
Okay, I guess that's enough for now. :-D
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Ugh...got to keep up with this thing!
Wellll....I can't decide if I really want to pick this back up or not. I think I shall, if only to get people to read this again before I ... well, I shouldn't get ahead of myself.
I'm going to Haiti this summer, from July 5th to August 16th, to help out in a medical clinic in the NW region. It's run by a missionary family that we know. I'm really looking forward to going, and I hope it will be both a spiritually enlightening and mentally and physically strengthening trip. Before I leave, I plan to post on something called G90X, which is similar to the body workout program called P90X...except better, in my humble opinion. Stayed tuned to hear more about that! :-D (<--- that's an incentive to get you to come back and read more. ;) ).
Last semester went well, as I finished with all A's in my classes. This Spring semester I took General Chemistry 2, Chemistry Lab, Hero and Quest, Human Genetics, and Introduction to Society. Genetics was quite involved, as I spent many hours in the lab sexing, typing, and counting fruit flies. Oh the joy, the happiness, the...anguish of sitting for hours (total) at a lab bench with your eyes glued to a microscope and the probe in your hand separating flies by sex and mutant characteristics. Anyways, that's done now, thank God! Intro to Society was laaaammmeee... as are most of the soft science general education classes. Easy A though. :-D Hero and Quest was different then any other class I've been in. Our professor told us the first day of class that he was not a teacher so much as he was a fellow colleague of ours wanting to help us on our journey in life. His goal in the class was to have non-consensus seeking arguments put forth and argued upon from our moral standpoints. Definitely an interesting class, especially when you have fairly fundamental Christians like myself arguing with liberal feminists.
This next semester, I have Anatomy, Physics, Communication, and a music history class. I've decided (at least until I get told I can't or something else comes up) that I'm gonna try to get a music minor at school. I have the 'time' (as far as credit hours go) to do so, and I figure I might as well try for another minor rather then taking meaningless classes. So we'll see how that goes. :-D
I also got an iPod Touch a few weeks ago. Definitely loving that. There's a website, http://www.freeappaday.com, that offers one application (normally non-free) per day for free. Sometimes the apps are cool and totally worth getting a checking out, and sometimes they are incredibly stupid. But, to each their own, and I know I've enjoyed some of the puzzle-type games that have been offered in the past.
Anyways, I think that's enough for now! Please check back soon, as I hope to keep this blog somewhat up-to-date pending my trip to Haiti. I'd like to have this blog serve as a medium to show/tell my experiences in Haiti.
So long for now!
~Strider
I'm going to Haiti this summer, from July 5th to August 16th, to help out in a medical clinic in the NW region. It's run by a missionary family that we know. I'm really looking forward to going, and I hope it will be both a spiritually enlightening and mentally and physically strengthening trip. Before I leave, I plan to post on something called G90X, which is similar to the body workout program called P90X...except better, in my humble opinion. Stayed tuned to hear more about that! :-D (<--- that's an incentive to get you to come back and read more. ;) ).
Last semester went well, as I finished with all A's in my classes. This Spring semester I took General Chemistry 2, Chemistry Lab, Hero and Quest, Human Genetics, and Introduction to Society. Genetics was quite involved, as I spent many hours in the lab sexing, typing, and counting fruit flies. Oh the joy, the happiness, the...anguish of sitting for hours (total) at a lab bench with your eyes glued to a microscope and the probe in your hand separating flies by sex and mutant characteristics. Anyways, that's done now, thank God! Intro to Society was laaaammmeee... as are most of the soft science general education classes. Easy A though. :-D Hero and Quest was different then any other class I've been in. Our professor told us the first day of class that he was not a teacher so much as he was a fellow colleague of ours wanting to help us on our journey in life. His goal in the class was to have non-consensus seeking arguments put forth and argued upon from our moral standpoints. Definitely an interesting class, especially when you have fairly fundamental Christians like myself arguing with liberal feminists.
This next semester, I have Anatomy, Physics, Communication, and a music history class. I've decided (at least until I get told I can't or something else comes up) that I'm gonna try to get a music minor at school. I have the 'time' (as far as credit hours go) to do so, and I figure I might as well try for another minor rather then taking meaningless classes. So we'll see how that goes. :-D
I also got an iPod Touch a few weeks ago. Definitely loving that. There's a website, http://www.freeappaday.com, that offers one application (normally non-free) per day for free. Sometimes the apps are cool and totally worth getting a checking out, and sometimes they are incredibly stupid. But, to each their own, and I know I've enjoyed some of the puzzle-type games that have been offered in the past.
Anyways, I think that's enough for now! Please check back soon, as I hope to keep this blog somewhat up-to-date pending my trip to Haiti. I'd like to have this blog serve as a medium to show/tell my experiences in Haiti.
So long for now!
~Strider
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
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!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
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
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
Sunday, May 24, 2009
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.
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....
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....
Thursday, April 30, 2009
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*...
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*...
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