October 17, 2007
Finals: Learning Curve Steep enough to Kick-turn on.
So, referring to SMS’s short quarter finals, the above title is likely a wee bit of hyperbole, especially for many of my classmates. You see, SMS eats bench research for breakfast. As such, probably a tenth of my classmates already have PhDs and another eighth will soon get them as part of the MD/PhD or MS/PhD programs. The result is that frecken everybody save my five-year-out-of-college-novel-writing self could write a phonebook-thick dissertation on their favorite chaperon molecules or transcription factors. For these folks our month long crash course in biochemistry, cellular biology, and histology wasn’t anything to sweat about. Read the rest of this entry »
October 12, 2007
The Other Side of the Gamete
So as KC’s comment so wonderfully illustrated, the testicular dissection was less than easy to watch or perform. Probably KC and I didn’t help this by getting into an all out pun war. And I have to give it to him; he was really on the ball….ouch….sorry about that. Why is it that puns are so hilarious to the pun-maker and so painful for the pun-listener? One of life’s great mysterious, I’m sure. Read the rest of this entry »
October 8, 2007
Meditations on Spermatogenesis…
At times, embryology can make for tedious reading. A lot of X happening because of Y signal pathway and Z transcription factor, or A disease happening because B signal pathway can’t activate C transcription factor. But every once in a while the syllabus throws out these great cocktail conversation starters–witness spermatogenesis. Read the rest of this entry »
October 6, 2007
Settling in…
So what happens after the profundity of the stethoscope ceremony? Nothing exciting really, which was probably a good thing. At times during SWEAT and orientation, I think each one of us felt a bit of sensory overload. So the following days of settling into a routine–lectures in the morning, afternoons in the histology or anatomy labs–gave us a taste of what our every day lives might be like. Weekends were spent at social parties (one of which I threw) or at various get-to-know-the-area events: a bike ride up to Skyline (pictured) was my favorite. Josh’s second book, Flawless, came out along with this new website. He did a reading at Kepler’s that was well attended. Meanwhile the Northern California savanna climate was slowly closing the dry season and, in our version of autumn, blustering in the windy days that mark the beginning of the rainy season. Read the rest of this entry »
October 3, 2007
Stethoscope Ceremony
So, just today I stood for my anatomy oral exam. Best part about doing this at Stanford? Because our professors–dear dear gentlemen both–are British, it’s perfectly acceptable to respond to all questions in the quirky pronunciation of Merry Old: ca-PILL-ary, pul-MOAN-ah-ry, tra-CHEE-ah.
Anyway, point is, for the first time in a month, I’ve the time to write again. For a warm-up, I thought I’d try to bring this blog closer to up to date. Then it’s on to see what I can do about those Spellwright edits my editors been making noises about.
So after we return from SWEAT came a few days of orientation. Largely this was the same as it is for all institutions: here’s the libarary’s website, here’s your class website, here’s your ID and a website you can use to keep tabs on it, blah blah blah. We did get a few exhortatory speeches about challenges we would soon face and the resulting personal changes. Though we prepared for bouleversements of perception and character, nothing much happened. We spent days listening to professors, nights drinking beer in graduate housing… Read the rest of this entry »
