The "Saturday Morning Special"

I imagined an innovation of flavor a couple weeks ago, but waited until yesterday afternoon before actually creating it. Yesterday worked well for its debut, as Janelle was out of town, which meant that I didn't need to explain myself to her as I prepared this gastronomical exploration.

(Janelle, I promise I'll make you one as soon as you get home. xo)

Step 1: Caramel Coyote Ice Cream

Step 2: Root Beer Dessert Topper

Step 3: Chocolate Syrup

Step 4: Honey Nut Cheerios (For a nutritious appearance)

Step 5: Milk

Step 6: Enjoy!

Burnout...

I have finished my third week back since Spring Break, and I'm not sure exactly why, but yesterday at about 5pm my brain decided there was nothing more it cared to do. Granted, Friday was a long day to cap off a long week. In retrospect I was probably burning myself out getting through what I was doing, but now that it is the weekend and I know I have no tests until a week from Monday, I can't seem to focus or keep on task at all.

I've pretty much given myself a pass for tonight, although I may try to read a few things for school. I just feel discouraged, distracted, and unmotivated. Oh, and stressed out. I hope it doesn't take me long to get back to normal.

Soundtrack to a Medical Education

I wanted to share the 15 songs that, so far, have saved my sanity and my GPA here at Midwestern University. After five months of studying, I have listened to these songs for over 116 hours (Yeah, I figured it out. What's it to ya?). For me, they provide the right balance of being interesting, having undistracting beats, and occasionally waking me a bit when I'm feeling dozy. For your enjoyment I present my studying soundtrack:

1. Mike Mills - Air
2. Lovers' Carvings - Bibio
3. No Distance Left To Run - Blur
4. Letters from the Sky - Civil Twilight
5. I Will Follow You Into The Dark - Death Cab For Cutie
6. Your Heart Is An Empty Room - Death Cab For Cutie
7. Transatlanticism - Death Cab For Cutie
8. Blind - Hercules and Love Affair
9. Bulletproof - La Roux
10. Gimme Sympathy - Metric
11. Knights Of Cydonia - Muse
12. Just - Radiohead
13. Buildings & Mountains - The Republic Tigers
14. Take Me To The Riot - Stars
15. Night Windows - The Weakerthans

Directions: 1) Listen, 2) Succeed, 3) Repeat.

The only other track that might be stealing my attention is "Brown Noise Loop" on the album White Noise Loops for Sleep. No music - it is just muffled noise sounds that keep you from paying attention to other sounds (like when people are laughing in the quiet study room, ahem), but it may been the best $0.99 I've spent in some time.

A Great Start

Last night I took my first one-on-one medical history in a simulated clinic setting. There was an actor portraying a patient with whom I interacted as though I were the doctor. I wanted to do a great job because it was my very first time in this role, but the first thing I did was knock the clock off the wall by closing the door too forcefully, leaving a pile of broken glass on the exam room floor and a no-longer-functional clock on the counter for housekeeping to replace.

I'm not a doctor yet, but I'm off to a great start.

13 hours, 5 minutes

I just realized/found out that the test I've been studying for all yesterday and today isn't tomorrow. It is on Friday morning. The test that I haven't started studying for yet is tomorrow. At 8:10 am I have a biochemistry exam. That gives me roughly 13 hours and 5 minutes to prepare for it (and sleep).

{rolling eyes}

SomethingQuil

Yesterday I started feeling sick: exhausted, uncomfortable and grumpy. Knowing that not taking a break would make me feel sicker, I took the evening easy and mostly rested. Unfortunately, in the middle of the night I woke up and could not fall back asleep. Eventually (around 2am) I decided to take something to make me groggy and get rid of the headache I had. I sleepily stumbled to the bathroom and grabbed a NyQuil to sooth me back to sleep.

Only problem: I took the yellow pill instead of the blue one. Yeah, DayQuil.

I realized the mistake almost immediately and ran back to bed. I figured if I could fall back asleep quickly the stimulants might not wake me when they kicked in. My plan almost worked. I managed to fall asleep for a good hour, but after that I was alert and awake (even if I did feel much less sick).

Let me assure you, that will be the last time in a long time that I confuse those two.

Etch-a-sketch

On the last couple days, this piece of artwork has come up a couple times in conversation. I believe it was completed in 2005 on a Sunday morning as I was waiting for church to start. When I finished the picture (which took about 3 hours or so to do) I kept it safe for several month before finally shaking it up.

Since then, I have never undertaken a new etch-a-sketch, because I almost feel like I can't really live up to doing something so great again. Maybe that is true and maybe it isn't, but challenges from friends have started me thinking about giving it another try, whether or not I can make it as awesome as this one.

In Memoriam (1995-2008)

I recently sold my first, and so far only, bass amp: a Sunn SB160 60-watt Vintage amp.
This amp was purchased in 1995 and was already "old" when I first got it. It was bought to accompany my still wonderful Ibanez Soundgear (model SG1600, I believe). It has been with me through thousands of hours of practicing and who-knows-how-many dozens of shows in several cities over twelve years.

I know it was time to let it go--I never use it anymore, and it isn't easy to accommodate in a crowded apartment--but it is still a little sad to see it go after so long playing together.

Maybe one day I'll regret having let it go, but by then I'll be a billionaire, and I'll be able to buy it back, and get a new Brite button to replace the one it never had when I owned it.

Goodbye SB160.

Just Another Income Stream

So, unless you're new to my blog, you have probably asked yourself after reading a post, "Why is Andrew's life so incredible and mine so humdrum?" I do not know the answer to this (nor to many other questions). but I do know that you are probably right to be jealous.

Feast your eyes on the contents of an email from earlier today. If you were me, this sort of thing would not even be exciting anymore because things like this are what make my life what it is. That is where my fortune came from in fact. My comments are in red. Behold:

Dear E-mail Owner (personalized introduction),

You are a winner of the UK National lottery online program that was held on the 9th August, 2008 (I won without even entering!). You have been approved to claim a sum £500,000.00 of (Five Hundred Thousand Great BritishPounds) (yes, "great britishpounds") of cash credited to file KTU/9023118308/03.To file for your claims you are to contact our claims agent (random extra spaces, missing spaces and grammatical errors):

Mr. Claire Kingston (gender-confused contact who has not stolen any prize money to buy her/himself a telephone)
Email: mrs.claire.kingston@gmail.com

Provide her with the following information to claim your prize. Full Name: Address: Phone Number: Country of residence: Sex: Age: Amount Won:

Yours faithfully,
Gibson Witterford (whose email is "maryanndaniels@adelphia.net")
Online Co-ordinator
U.K NATIONAL LOTTERY (an organisation I've never heard of from a country I've never been to)

So if anyone is in a financial bind, you know who to talk to. Don't worry... I've got your back.

Let the Games Begin!

See, even in Microbiology we've caught Olympic fever.

Work was a little slow, so I started prepping a little for the upcoming Olympics. These are bacterial and fungal growth media in petri dishes. Since we already had them in so many colours, I figured that I may as well assemble them into the iconic Olympic rings (in order to bolster morale in the lab). So far so good.

I know, you're quite impressed, aren't you?

Dear Thief

You stole my headphones and I know it.

I remember them being somewhere in the clutter in my room. And then you broke into my room. And you ransacked the entire place. And you found my headphones (you weren't interested in the iPod).

Then you tried them out (which explains why my Ipod wasn't where I left it). And you started cleaning up. And you must have spent hours on end cleaning because when I got back it looked the same as when I left. Exactly the same. Except for the iPod. You must be some sort of mastermind of genius to have executed the whole scheme so seamlessly.

Well thief, this is my oath to you: I will hunt you to the end of the earth if it takes my last dying breath. And with the energy from that breath, I will retake the earphones you stole.

Consider yourself warned.

Hair-pull-outingly busy

I think that is how I'd describe it. I would love to post more, but sometimes it just doesn't fit in my schedule.

Today's topic is Thermostats.
If someone is hot, why would they turn a thermostat off instead of turning it right off? When I think of turning a furnace off instead of adjusting the heat, it makes me think of someone refusing to eat for a week because they are so full right now. The very thought makes my blood run cold. Oh wait, nope. That chill is just the cold air in my room. My mistake.

I was thinking how much I want a bluetooth thermostat. I would adjust it all the time via computer and program in amazing algorithms of eco-friendly temperatures. It would cool the home whilst I work, and keep it toasty when needed. Then, when I needed to change it because my schedule changes, some sort of consumer-friendly interface would let me readjust it all in mere moments. Programmable ones are too hard to remember what all the buttons do so all their usefulness goes unused. I searched online and couldn't find one though. I guess that is a product our children and our children's children will have to enjoy instead.

Contacts

For a while now I've been starting to wear contacts and, after some trial and error I think I've found a brand and type that are fairly comfortable. Almost too comfortable.

Last night as I was preparing for bed I popped out my left lens and put it in solution. Then I went to take out my right, but it felt like I was pulling on my cornea, not a contact lens. I stopped and thought about how painful pulling a cornea off might be.

Looking in a mirror I scoured my ocular cavity for any signs of silicone, but found none. My eye didn't feel totally normal (like how it usually does after the lens is out), but I wondered if that wasn't from pulling on my cornea. Frustrated I went to bed figuring that if it was still in there, I would feel it more in the morning.

I still felt it this morning and, as I poked around the edges of my eye, I cough sight of my contact lens, folded in eighths tucked deep in the outside corner of my eye. Does anyone have suggestions for keeping your contact lens from folding into eighths while you are wearing it?

And how did I not notice that?

Milk

I'm not crazy about milk. I have never been one to have a frosty glass of the stuff or, until recently, even dip cookies in it. From my experience, milk has only two real uses:

1. Cereal
2. Making Kraft Dinner (or "Mac & Cheese" in American)
   

I've tried to convince myself that it's just in my head. Every once in a while I'll decide that if I just get a chilled glass and fill it with brand new cool milk and gulp it down my esophagus, that I will become enamored of its frothy goodness, but each time to no avail. It may simply be in my head, but I have learned that just because something is in your head doesn't mean that is is not real.

I know of some people who don't stop using milk when the "expiration date" "passes" because it "doesn't taste bad yet." I am not one of these people... in fact I am the opposite of these people.

Case in point: I poured myself a heaping bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios this morning and found two jugs of milk in the fridge. one "expires" in four days, the other in six. After opening them, I didn't feel 100% confident that they were 100% okay because something just didn't feel right about the whole situation. If you're familiar with the little girl in Signs, you may understand how I feel about milk I find in the fridge. I poured my cereal back into the box and just had toast instead.

Milk to me is a strange beast. One that I can not quite live without, but that I will never be completely comfortable with.

Anarchists and their Offspring

My friend Dave sent me the following text:

I just realized
how disruptive
a social force
babies are: they
breastfeed, cry,
and defecate in
public all the
time.

He's right, you know.
And that is exactly why babies are anarchists' only hope. If I were going to start an anarchist organization, I would put babies on the flag and on the membership cards of the members because they symbolize so perfectly what we would all stand for.

Too Many Andrews

The other day I was sitting reading and heard from afar, "Hey Andrew! Over here!" Looking up I saw a fellow maybe a hundred feet away (30m) I can only assume was an Andrew greeting a group of friends. "Oh well," I thought.

Not 20 seconds later I hear, "Andrew! Hey right in front of you." This time I was sure that old friends of mine had finally found me. Right in front of me was a group of kids about to greet yet another Andrew who was even closer than the first.

And these are only the Andrews whose friends happened to be walking by at that exact moment. If you ask me, there are far too many Andrews and we need to do something about it.

Time For a New Message?

{Burrrrring!}... {Burrrrring!}... {Burrrrring!}... {Burrrrring! Click.}... [familiar male voice]: Hey this is Andrew. Leave me a message. {Pause. Short tone.}

[unfamiliar, annoyed female voice]: Hey Rick, this is [inaudible]. Can you have Mike give me a call as soon as possible.

Rick? Rick!? Why would Rick get this message? Anyways, now I'm thinking of changing my message to something a little more fool proof:

"Hey this is Andrew. You've reached me, Andrew, by calling me on my own personal cell phone which only I, Andrew, use on a regular basis. If you have a message for me, Andrew, please leave it after the beep. Thanks! {Pause. Short tone.}"

Snakes

If there is one thing that makes it hard to wake up on a Saturday morning, it is to dream that your house is infested with poisonous snakes that are hiding all over the place on your floor.

Backing up

I was driving this morning and found myself immediately behind a black minivan.

It had Ken Garff symbols on the windows, had Ken Garff symbols on the paint, probably had Ken Garff symbols on the seats, and the steering wheel and the spare tire too. As I pulled up behind it, I saw that across the rear bumper was scrawled "We back up every vehicle we sell!"

I wondered, though just for an instant, why they would spend so much time driving in reverse.

Contingency Plan

I need a contingency plan. By definition, I don't know if there is any unexpected money coming my way, but if there is, I need to be prepared for it. Because of this, I decided that I need to know beforehand what I will do in the event that I get large, unexpected sums of money.

$0-20 - Dinner for Janelle and I
$20-75 - Clothes or shoes
$75-150 - Clothes/shoes and take Janelle out for dinner
$150-300 - European mutual funds
$300-600 - Custom-made contact lenses
$600-1,500 - Upgrade for my computer
$1,500-3,000 - A used car
$3,000-8,000 - Invest in my not-yet-existent inventions
$8,000-25,000 - A new car
$25,000-120,000 - Savings for my education
$120,000-325,000 - A condo/house
$325,000-1,000,000 - Custom built condo/house
$1,000,000-10,000,000 - 50% Charitable causes, 50% to build a eco-friendly home (wind and solar powered eco-home of the future).
$10,000,000-10,000,000,000 - Give most away to charities. Invest the rest except for a house, car, and a fund whose interest I could live off of.

Well, it is a work in progress. I'll probably change some of it around in the next little while. I know that the odds are against me on actually receiving those large, unexpected numbers, but if I'm not prepared with what I want to do with that money, there would be no point in getting it in the first place, right?