Case study

I've concluded that I don't really care enough to update my blog about the day to day happenings in my life, so I'm changing the focus a little bit with this post.

The other day I discussed the following case with a friend (yes, we're med nerds):

There is a 9 year old boy who is definitively brain dead. There is no chance of recovery. He requires a ventilator to breath, and in one month his body will completely shut down (his heart will stop beating). The parents are Orthodox Jews and believe (in accordance with their religion) that death is when the heart stops. They do not believe that brain death means that someone is dead.

The doctors want to remove the boy from the ventilator; the parents insist he be left on it until death (from their perspective) occurs. Who would you choose to side with if say you were on an ethics board?

Evaluate the scenario from two worlds, one in which there are finite resources and the boy is occupying room space in the hospital as well as using up a ventilator that might be needed elsewhere; the other where there are "infinite" resources, there is no burden to the hospital, doctors, medical staff, or other patients if the boy is left on the ventilator.

Additional details:
- Yes, the boy is completely brain dead, 0 chance of recovery
- The parents are willing to pay the money to keep the boy on the ventilator
- It's their only child

I'm interested to see what you all come up with...

Goals

Actually just one goal. I scored my first college hockey goal on Sunday :D

Don't Sing It, Just Bring It

This is a phrase that I first heard here at SLU from my roomies, but it's probably one of my favorite phrases nowadays along with my personal variant:

"Don't sing about it, just bring about it"

The meaning is pretty simple, and we all can take something from it. Basically don't just talk about something, do it. So next time you have a choice between talking and walking, try walking.

Obama's Inauguration Speech

I tragically missed the first few minutes of Obama's Inauguration Speech due to chem lab but I rewatched the whole thing afterward on everybody's favorite youtube. Just some thoughts:

In a word: "wow" President Barack Obama is certainly one of the best speakers of all time. Every time I listen to him speak I can't help but be drawn in, mesmerized by his words. I literally get goosebumps. Having debated for 4 years, I've seen good speakers, bad speakers, intelligent speakers, dumb speakers, charismatic speakers, and likely any other description you could think of. Obama's speeches, be it his Democratic nomination speech or that at today's inauguration, absolutely blow away 99.9% of all speeches I've ever heard. The remaining .1% include only the best of the best, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address (no I have not heard an actual sound clip but the words speak off the page), JFK's inauguration, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s "I Have A Dream,"

So why? what makes his speeches so powerful, so moving? I'm sure linguists will dissect his style for years to come. Whole books will be written on the subject. But for me, it is the sincerity of his words. I don't know the man. The closest I've ever come to him is by reading his book or listening to him speak at a rally, but for some reason I implicitly trust him. When he says that he will transcend right and left politics, I believe that he will transcend right and left politics. Every. single. one. of. his. words are delivered with force. No word is wasted. No word is thrown out there as filler. It is the hallmark of every great orator to rouse the masses and to stir the hearts of even their fiercest critics. Obama has done so consistently from his first step into the limelight at the Democratic convention in 2004. Say what you will about his ideology, but he is undisputably one of the great speakers of our time. You might think "hope" is just a cute catch phrase, but now even the most critical side of me can't help but do just that, hope.

Late Night Chem Cramming Genius

So we're up cramming for chem, and Pranay and I come up with an incredible idea for a video game:

Virtua Fighter god style

While we don't quite have the graphics designer to make it into a real time fighting game, we did devise a sample text based game. Here's a snippet:

Zeus casts lightening on Buddha. Buddha blocks with Bodhi tree. It's not very effective...

Buddha casts temptation on Zeus. It's super effective! Zeus sleeps with human woman, gets beat up by Hera.

Hockey or Hackey as they say in Chicago

We got our jerseys on Tuesday! They're freaking sweet. Picture below. I'd show you my away jersey, but it smells like crap since I wore it on Tuesday. Speaking of which, I scored my first goal on Tuesday! It wasn't pretty, the goalie gave up a huge rebound and I backhanded it over him, but hey I'll take it. I also had an assist off a 2 on 1 play so that was pretty cool. I think we lost that game 13-3 or something, but we only had 5 skaters, and they were pretty good. Fortunately it was just a practice game. We have 4 games this weekend. Hopefully we can pull wins in 2 of them.


^one at a time ladies...

Awkward Observation

This is kinda awkward but warm headphones are really nice... I left my Shure headphones next to the vent for my laptop so when I grabbed them and put them in my ears I noticed how awesome warm headphones are. uh yea now I'm feeling awkward... but seriously try it sometime.

A Little Gem from Chem Class

While looking through toxicity data for a particular chemical, I found this gem (this is an exact quote):

Oral

Woman

420 UL/KG

LDLO

Remarks: Behavioral:Excitement

Full info:

Oral

Woman

420 UL/KG

LDLO

Remarks: Behavioral:Excitement. Cardiac:Pulse rate. Kidney,

Ureter, Bladder:Hematuria.

That's hydrochloric acid btw...

Depressing Reminder of Reality

We ate lunch in the Central West End today which is a pretty nice area that's got a fair number of good restaurants and the like. We were walking back from an incredibly satisfying lunch. Walking towards us was a young man in military uniform accompanied by his parents. On the side of the street was one of those random slightly crazy guys who seem to be around in big cities. As the young man passed by, the guy pointedly asked him, "how's it going soldier boy" with a mocking tone. Without pause, the young man evenly replied, "it's alright, I'm still alive." Wow. That's not something you hear everyday as a response to the question of how are you.

Near Midnight Contemplations

While I read about the fascinatingly complicated biochemical pathways involved in DNA transcription and translation, I can't help but appreciate my good fortune. There are a near infinite number of ways to be absolutely screwed over genetically. For example, one unfortunate mutation in the part of the genome that codes for the active site of the threonyl-tRNA synthetase complex would be absolute gg for your body (no I didn't make that up). There are an absolutely insane number of various enzymes that must function relatively perfectly in order for your body to function normally. If I were to type up the manner in which just one molecule is digested, it would probably be longer than this whole post. So who do we thank? Some may say God, some evolution. I'm still unresolved on the question of a higher power, but that doesn't stop me from truly appreciating my good fortune at being relatively healthy.

Some think that science destroys beauty as it reduces everything in nature (the color of fall leaves, the birth of a child, the stunning display of a meteor shower) to its most basic explanation, dissecting macro phenomena to their bare elements. I respectfully disagree. Understanding the underlying concepts and processes behind these phenomena only makes me appreciate all the more the sheer elegance of the world around me. An absolutely astounding number of processes need to work with inhuman precision for me to type this very human blogpost. I realize that this might make little sense, but the next time you're trudging through that required 100 level science course, think about it, you might just see your perspective change too.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you President Barack Obama

Here they are:

^There were at least 10,000 people there. It was crazy.

^yes I still look like a little kid. yes I was freezing.

Time

This is a much needed update. Time. In high school, I had what seemed like infinite prep time. Yea I debated and stuff but past that I didn't do too much. College has basically turned that on its head. Between classes, hanging out with friends, newspaper, hockey, and a myriad of other responsibilities (like this blog) that I generally neglect until the last second, I really don't have that much time to just bum around and if I do I normally spend it sleeping. This isn't a negative. I really enjoy the fact that my days are packed. I feel and know that I'm actually getting stuff done. 

There's no way I can detail everything that's happened since my last post but I'll try to hit some salient points.

Politics

I went to an Obama rally @ Mizzou. Funny story. I was lounging near the dolphin fountain on campus, enjoying the rare day of 70 degree weather, taking photos of the fall beauty when I get a phone call "the Obama rally bus is leaving at 4." 4? It was 3:50, frick. First of all I thought it was leaving at 5. Secondly, I wasn't even sure if I wanted to go. But hey, it was a once in a life time opportunity so I made the split second decision to sprint to the bus. Fortunately I had the newspaper camera with me at the time which led to the following shots (I took 225 photos so these are just some random ones I've grabbed, anyone who wants to sort through them all with me is welcome to):

oh jk blogspot is being dumb and won't let me upload at the moment. sorry folks

We had a ton of people in our room on election night as we tracked Obama's quest to victory. It was pretty epic. I frankly was shocked that they called it so early 10-ish here. We celebrated with sparkling grape juice. No alcohol of course. Oh and naturally I voted.

Hockey

We went 1-3 our first game weekend. Sadly, I didn't get any play time but hey I'm a freshman and honestly I haven't been playing so hot lately. It's frustrating. I'm screwing up the most basic stuff like passing.

I'm gonna lump working out here as well. In an effort to get in shape for hockey, as well as to get the ladies, I've been working out a fair amount. This regular exercise has actually paid off. I've significantly increased the amount of weight I can lift in just a few short weeks. I'm eating like a pig but burning it off just as fast which is pretty cool. 

Newspaper

Finally got an article published. For some reason, everytime the assignments I take always seem to become extremely complicated and involved, even the most innocent ones. Oh well, it's fun. I'm working on an article about minority representation in student government right now, pretty fun stuff. I'd just like to note that being involved in a weekly newspaper really gives me a whole new perspective on the world of journalism. It's a nightmare enough trying to get articles done on a weekly basis. Interviewing multiple people, many of whom don't respond to your calls, writing, etc is quite an undertaking. I can't imagine how people get this stuff done on a daily basis. 

Oh and I get courtside seats to St. Louis U basketball games (or any sporting event for that matter) for free. Just gotta ask for it as my photography assignment, grab a press pass, and voila.

Studying

Nothing interesting here, I have A's. Not failing any classes. Trying to decide whether to take 18 hours (max) or 15 next semester. 

Random update:

I have a license. Rohit you fail at life in this respect.

So yea that's my update. I'll try to be more regular in the future now that I've brought my blog back to the present.

Neelaysh: Emo Edition

Doing chem at midnight really isn't very fun, so instead we decided to...

Before

People from left to right: Nilam, Pranay, Dannie, Amenah

We be gangster

All the credit goes to my incredible hair stylists

'nuff said

What would emo be without guyliner

Myspace angle

Another myspace angle

Anyways, that's all for now :)

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I'm in stats class right now but I can't focus. All that's running through my head is "tryouts, tryouts, tryouts, tryouts, tryouts." :(

AHHHHH!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHH hockey tryouts on friday!! I really really really hope I make the team. My chem test seems pretty insignificant at the moment.

Published

My first pics should be appearing in this week's issue of the university. They're just some pretty basic portrait photos that I took of people who were being interviewed. 

In other news (<-- hahah bad pun), I met up with an architectural expert today about the ADA problem and there might actually be something there. I'll have an official report this week, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. If there's a story here, it very likely will get front page :). 

Breakthroughs?

I really don't want to jinx it, but I'm too excited to not share. After days of uneventful cold calls and dead ends to lawyers and various disability organizations, I finally got someone to send out an expert to examine the actual site and determine whether it is in compliance with the ADA. Now they haven't actually sent out anyone yet so I've got my fingers crossed and I'm hoping.

Hmm what else is going on... I'm photographing the women's soccer game on Saturday. It's my first time really photographing a sports event at ground level. I did sneak in my camera into HP Pavillion to photograph the Sharks playing, but I'm pretty excited to get some sweet press access. This guy at newspaper has a 300 mm lens with a constant f2.8 maximum aperture. Now I don't expect any of you to share in my utter excitement but suffice it to say that its a freaking huge lens that costs like $4,000!!!

I started going to Karate this past week. It's great to get back into a martial art. All the formalities (like bowing before you enter the studio, addressing each other as sir or mam) bring back all my memories from the the 7-8 years that I did tae kwon do. I'm surprised that I remember everything pretty freaking well having never formally practiced for the last 4 years. I guess when you've performed a kick 10,000 times it's kinda hard to forget. 

Anyways that's it for now. Back to hitting the bio book. I figured I'd post out an update now because I don't think I'm going to get another chance for the next week or so. It's crunch time, I've got some epic tests coming up.

Quote for the week:

"It's the brown touch"

Song for the week:

Song for a Friend - Jason Mraz

^Dan 

Nostalgia

Today as I was trudging through my Stats homework, I was talking to Pratusha about what's going on at Harker. There have been a lot of changes. They have a new building, they don't have to take finals, the debate team has Scotty P, winter ball has been moved to January, but really things are the same. Seniors eat in the Sledge just like we did, all our favorite teachers are there (notable exception of Mr. Grant), and juniors will always be juniors even if they're doing college apps now. Don't get me wrong I love college for the freedom, the fact that my friends are a few doors down or a couple flights of stairs up, and a billion other reasons. It's probably just the combination of things, talking about Harker, reliving the good ol' times in the Sledge, and Pandora just happened to put on some Jimmy Eat World that made me think about all the crazy drives in Ravi's car, but I've been struck with nostalgia. I really do miss the epic musical chair games we played, wandering around aimlessly through campus at least a hundred times per afternoon, getting Siam Thai, the really lame dances that Shan always dragged me to, knowing every single person's name, the ridiculous number of psych references, worrying about getting in trouble for stupid things like collared shirts. I could keep this list going forever. 

Well suffice it to say I miss y'all a lot. I'm posting up a picture of my homie's one per week.

Quote for the week:

"Epic sleep"

Song for the week:

This one's a classic. Sweetness - Jimmy Eat World

^Phil (we just love chemistry so much)

New Adventures

Subway is now dead to me. You can thank Jimmy John's for that. For all you unenlightened folk, Jimmy John's is an INCREDIBLE sandwich place that's less than 5 minutes away from my dorm. Their bread is fresh baked, meat and vegetables freshly cut, etc, etc. Basically its awesome. It's just a tad more expensive than Subway but whatevs. The walls are also covered in cool posters and signs. 

So new adventures... Yesterday I first moved into the wonderful world of Journalism. So I wandered into the newspaper room. The way it works is that the editors announce possible assignments and writers are expected to volunteer for ones they want to write. Ok some quick background that'll make this a lot clearer. SLU just built an $80 million dollar arena that seats 10,600 people. It's pretty beastly. The newspaper got a tip that there are now curb ramps (y'know like at a crosswalk the curb sorta slopes down) for handicap people. This might violate the ADA (American Disabilities Act) which would be bad for SLU because then they'd probably have to rip up the curb and make it compatible. So I have till Friday to get this expose researched and written. It's Thursday and I still haven't been able to find a disabilities lawyer who I can talk to about this issue. Oh well, we'll see what goes down...

As I write this entry I'm sitting in the bio building because Phil and I idiotically thought bio lab was at 8 am when it was actually at 9 am so we're sitting here in our rain soaked pants (imagine like the worst rain we got all year in San Jose, it's that bad). 

So after a simple bio lab in which the only negative was my soaked clothing, a good Chinese meal, and a hot shower upon returning my room. I think I'll finish up this post with what hopefully will become a recurring theme. One cool saying or joke or something I've heard and remember, and one song that you guys should check out to expand your musical horizons.

This saying comes from a sign in Jimmy John's:

Work like you don't need the money; Love like you've never been hurt; Dance like nobody's watching.

And the song for this post is Sunrise, Goodbyes by Houston Calls 

El Segundo

I'm not feeling particularly creative with post titles and I'm studying Spanish at the moment so that's why you have the title of this post. I'll fill y'all in briefly on what I'm doing and then finish it up with some pictures so you can see who everyone is.

SLU (St. Louis University) has a roller hockey team. As you all know I love hockey to death, so naturally I'm trying to make the team. Every tuesday the team plays scrimmages against another local team (normally from the adult leagues) so last tuesday I headed out to the rink to get some experience playing with the team. A mess is probably the best way to describe it. College hockey is obviously a lot more intense than high school, and being 60 lbs lighter than the next smallest guy doesn't help. Obviously I have a lot of work to do. The coach says that I need to get in better shape so that I can skate at 100% for the whole game. I've been dedicatedly hitting the gym over the last week and tomorrow I'll get another chance to up my game. Tryouts are at the end of September so the final trial is looming. Admittedly, I'm not too optimistic, but that doesn't mean I'm not gonna give it my best shot.

Other than that, it's mainly been studying and hanging out with people. I signed up for a bunch of clubs at the club fair, the Indian Student Association, Global Medical Brigades, Karate, Newspaper, Pre-med club. Obviously I'm not going to actually participate in all of those but those were the interesting ones that I saw. I'm trying to become a photographer for the newspaper which would be pretty sick assuming I'm not stuck doing fluff pieces (<-- Robin) but hey as a freshman I'll take that. Anyways pics as promised:

^my bed

^chilling in the room at some insane hour


^Phil and I ran for floor government positions