Last Day of Break - Tri 2 Starts Tomorrow -

Tomorrow's entry will be Tri-2, Wk 1, Day 65.

I'm anxious as all get out ...whatever that expression means.  I just want to do very well this trimester.  I do hope my parents will be helping me from the start and that I maintain or even improve upon the study habits I was able to develop from midterms on in Tri-1.  In my mind, all their help tends to offset the two hours of driving I have to commute each day for school.  I've played a game of Civilization each day during break and named the cities I've built in that name the different cranial nerves we will be studying in Neuroanatomy.  This I have down - to wit;

1. I Olfactory - Sensory
2. II Optic - Sensory
3. III Oculomotor - Motor
4. IV Trochlear - Motor
5. V Trigeminal - Both
6. VI Abducens - Motor
7. VII Facial - Both
8. VIII Vestibulocochlear or Auditory - Sensory
9. IX Glossopharangeal - Both
10. X Vagus - Both
11. XI Spinal Accessory - Motor
12. XII Hypoglossal - Motor

I'm thinking these are the nerves my dentist friend, or any dentist for that matter, would be experts in due to the nature of their work.  I also have the cranial nerve flashcards ready to go.  Around the brain we have a PAD - or Pia, Arachnoid and Dura matter and the cranial nerves live in the piamatter.  I'm not sure how we extract a human brain while keeping all those nerves in tact but I'm sure I'll learn.  

On my phone - speed dial #2 is set to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or, as my brother pointed out last night ALS ...it didn't occur to me to use the more familiar acronym.  Even more familiar would be the term Lou Gehrig's disease.  This is a neurodegenerative disease which pertains to the spinal cord and is one of the diseases I ran across in my book, Neuroanatomy Made Rediculously Simply.  Pernicious Anemia was another disease I ran across and I think I just like the word "pernicious" so that disease stuck in my head.  

I've been changing the numbers on my phone to different neuroanatomy type terms to help increase my exposure to those terms.  Grandma (# 5 on speed dial) is now 5Trigeminal.  I also think Trigeminal + Oculomotor now equals Vestibulocochlear.  

I've greatly changed around my home and cleared out 5 bookshelves from my 2nd bedroom in anticipation of a possible roommate starting in July.  I also cleared out 3 tall bookshelves from my garage to make room for two more whiteboards and moved another bookshelf from my living room to make room for a couch that was in the 2nd bedroom.  

I'll have 8 classes and 4 labs in Tri-2.  The five big science classes are

1. Gross Anatomy II - This is a 6 hour class and I'd really like to get an A in that class.
2. Neuroanatomy - 5 hour class - again, I'd like to Ace this class, this is probably the most intimidating class I have which is why I've done some prep for it.  
3. Biochemistry II - I think I may have had the ability to get an A out of this class in Tri-1 but kind of blew it off to study other classes I was struggling with more.  An A could be pretty tough depending on if the teacher uses the same Bell curve for grading but I could still be pretty proud of a B.
4. Physiology I - this is new to me and along with Biochemistry this is another teacher that supposedly co-teaches at a nearby med school.  Since I don't know any better, I'd like to get an A in this class also.  :)
5. Microbiology I - This class is with Dr. Vinod.  He's actually an amazing fellow and incredibly smart but the teaching format is a little difficult to learn from via class alone.  I'll need to do a lot of reading for this class and should be able to pull out no less than a B

For the most part, my grades are time dependant meaning if I have enough time, I can get a good enough grade.  I guess this is why I hate losing 2 hours a day to driving because often you only have from one day to the next to get stuff learned and I know I could be looking at something productive in those two hours.  I need to get over that and accept my situation.  Maybe I'll look at an audio recorder for some of my classes to be able to at least hear my teachers in the car while I'm driving.  

I'm looking at three days going from 7:20 a.m. to 3:40 p.m. (Tue, Wed & Thur).  Monday I'll get out at 2:40 and Friday goes until noon.  

I'm not exactly sure which books I still need.  I have quite a few already for most of my classes.  Those books are a heavy investment.  Professional Development this semester is only a 1 hour class pertaining to personal finance which I should like.  The book for that class is around $120 which is cheaper than many but a lot for a one hour class.  

I've been giving up and letting go of a lot of things that don't directly pertain to school.  I noticed a renewal notice for a website I used to maintain called DollarWiseDecisions.com

I'm rather passionate about finance and investing but I think I'll be letting it go.  The cost is only $20 or $30 per year but I can't really devote the time for that site.  I've unsubscribed to a great many mailings that I get to help unclutter my gmail inbox.  

Of course, these actions are in line with the blindness thought experiment I did in days gone by in which I concluded that a viable reason many people don't achieve all they could is not because they lack talent but rather because they have too much talent and are not focused enough in any one endeavor.  Naturally, since the genesis of those thoughts came from me, then I would be the person I'm most accurately talking about but I also believe this could be the case for many people since I tend to see great potential in the masses of humanity. 

I didn't exercise much during my break.  The 5 day per week, 4 week bootcamp I signed up for starts in exactly one week - that should be a hoot but, I haven't done well enough on my own so I should benefit greatly from an extra hour per day of exercise.  I'm hoping this boot camp will help reengender exercise into my life.  About a week after school my blood pressure did come back down to more normal levels with systolic readings of 111 and 113 on two different occassions.  I'm reminded of a friend from savvis (previous job) who had bypass surgery and then took to walking every day around our parking lot during lunch.   I also watched a heart transplant surgery on the internet a few nights ago so my awareness is increasing as far as heart health is concerned.  I've still got some youth left in me but it's not going to last forever and really must take positive action concerning my overall state of health to stave off any serious complications in the future. 

Better finish getting ready for the new Trimester - Wish me luck!