Down my Alley

Friday, October 29, 2004

Another 2nd place

in my pharmacy class costume contest. This year I dressed up as a professor we have had the past 3 years. He often wears mismatched sport coats, slacks (dress pants), shirt and tie. In addition, tennis shoes and carries a murse (man purse). He also has a mustache and keeps his hair somewhat unkempt. So here's what I wore: brown pants (wool-like), a blue white striped shirt, red patterned tie, a green/gray sport coat, white socks and tennis shoes, carried a bag, and put on a fake mustache. It got huge laughs and was extremely well recieved (including from the professor who teaches the class the contest was held in). BUT, a guy in the class dressed up as a Hooters girl...and let's just say, I had NO chance to win after that.

And as you noticed in the title, it read "another" 2nd place. Last year, I went as Papa Smurf. That's right, blue shirt and gloves, red pants, red hat, painted my entire face blue and white for the beard. I remained dressed as Papa Smurf for 14 hours including working the front desk of my dorm, eating in the cafeteria, and having a non-pharmacy class. BUT in the contest, a student had an inflatable cow cowboy costume, it was hilariously huge. So in my two attempts, I was unable to pull out the W in the costume contest world. The fun thing is that I'm 22 and still get to have costume contests...that rocks!!

Oh well, such as life, yo!

And you thought I was never going to post again...HA

Friday, October 22, 2004

Hangin' at New Lisbon

So, it's been several days since a post and I'm sure you were beginning to think I've given up (and by you, I mean the 1 maybe 2 people that read this thing). Alas, I continue my blogging days. Here's the report, Clusters have begun, in fact 3 tests down, 1 presentation down, but 2 tests yet remain. Which brings me to the title of the post. I'm spending the weekend studying (and watching Notre Dame football...the World Series...the Colts) at New Lisbon IN with my study buddy. She and her husband are kind enough to put up with my annoyances for a weekend...small price to pay for me getting her through pharmacy school. Thus far, I feel the testing has been aight, but I'll keep ya posted when official grades come in.

That's all for now. Back to the books, yo!

Monday, October 18, 2004

A bowling I went

Alrighty, so here's the deal. In Cincy at the Hoinke, I didn't bowl so well. Doubles I had close to 550 (too many splits) and in Singles I snuck out an 810 (4 games), so again, nothing special. Dad did pretty fair and will increase his winnings from the tournament. Dad also did well in the senior tournament on Saturday (finished 4th). I watched and studied for my upcoming tests. And that was about the extent of my fall break.

Monday night is bowling night for me and I will probably update my scores on here fairly regularly. So here goes: 207-215-213 = 635. Not great, but considering how I have been bowling in league, I am happy with it. Won all my points, but my team didn't fair so well.

And my group finished our 10 page drug monograph that I had complained about earlier. I am very glad that is done with...now all I have to worry about our those 5 tests and 1 presentation starting on Thursday. Yeah clusters!!

That's all for now, yo.

Thursday, October 14, 2004

It's Fall Break!

First, since you are all so curious, I'll give you a quick recap.
Mon: class, study, bowl (192-243-223 = 658)....my first 600 of the year (kinda sad, huh?)
Tues: class, work on that 10 page drug monograph thing...it is nearly complete...yeah! And I beat Medal of Honor: frontline.
Wed: class, then discovery day (talked to a bunch of rotation locations...and got free stuff), then worked at CVS (boring)

And that brings me to today...the first day of Fall Break. Any day without school is typically a good day. Don't get me wrong, I love school....it's the classes I don't like all that much. Really, classes wouldn't be so bad, if it wasn't for that "Dr." in the front of the room droning on and on about something...and if the seats were more conducive to napping. Anyway, fall break is here and I plan to enjoy it. Current game plan: bowl in Cincinatti on Friday (the Hoinke), watch Dad bowl in Illinois (Sat.), and take it easy on Sunday...until I have to leave for work back here in Indy (4-9). Oh yeah, I will also be studying at every possible moment...stupid Clusters the week of our return (boo!!).

So that's it. I'll keep ya posted, yo!

Sunday, October 10, 2004

Efficacy of Telithromycin

So, I spent the majority of my "free time" this weekend reading studies about Telithromycin (name brand Ketek). I read 11 studies (about 10 pages each). After about 4 of them, I was pretty much getting the gist of it. Everyone came to the same result, but I nonetheless, had to review them all. Here's the general info on Telithromycin: it's a ketolide antibiotic (drug class to treat bacterial infections), designed for activity in Respiratory Tract Infections (pneumonia, sinusitis, and exacerbation of chronic bronchitis), and has the advantage when it comes to resistant strains of micro-organisms.

Here's what I read all weekend:
1) Resistance is increasing to antibiotics (Penicillins and Macrolides [think Z-Pak or Biaxin])
2) Telithromycin is effective in treating resistant infections
3) In non-resistant infections, Telithromycin is equally effective to every other antibiotic
4) T-mycin is well tolerated (it does cause more diarrhea though...that kinda sucks)

That's about it. You now know about as much as I do about T-mycin. I however must put all this knowledge to use and write a drug monograph about it. It is supposed to be about 10 pages long. I just said the basics in 1 paragraph, and now I have to enlongate that to nearly 10 pages. Even courier new isn't going to help me that much on this one. Oh well, the research is done (that's the hard part) and the writing can now commence (the only slightly easier, but just as painful part).

I'm outie....sleep awaits.

Friday, October 08, 2004

Ladder 49

Post number 2...you should be impressed that I've not already gone and gave up on this blog thingy. Anyway, on to the heart of the matter, my Friday night. Tonight was "Movie Night" for young adults at Speedway UMC. It was myself, the associate youth minister, and another college kid named Jason....that's it. To their credit, Speedway does not have an active young adult program and is just trying to get one going...but I digress. The movie for the evening was (if you read the title of the post, you probably figured it out) Ladder 49. All in all it was a very good movie. A good story, good acting, and parts everyone can enjoy (some humor, some romance, plenty of action). Being that it was a church outing, after the movie we discussed some implications. Questions raised were about a tight knit group of friends, our common purpose, and what's our motivation. Some things to think about. I'd recommend the movie to most people. If you don't want to have anything given away about the movie, DO NOT read further.



- No one told me it was going to be a tear jerker. Not many other movies do I leave the theater is such silence with only other people's sobs/tears as noise. And NO, I did not cry (had that lump in my throat though...you know what I mean). A very good soundtrack though.

That's all for tonight, yo.

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

It Begins

After reading my brother's sight, Sean, and former roommate, Matt, I too have decided to create a blog. There really is no reason for my creating one. Most people who read it (all 1...maybe 2 of them) typically will keep in touch with me anyway, but I figure what the hey, let's give it a shot. So, let's get this blogging thing started.

Currently on the mind, all the crap I have to do for school. Here's the rundown. Worksheet due this Friday, poster project due Friday (thankfully already done), quiz and Therapeutics case on Friday, a 10 page drug monograph project due on Oct. 20th (I just now started my research and have a packet of studies that are oh-so boring to read), then clusters (6 tests in 3 days) starting on the 21st. To compound this already packed schedule is the fact that I've fallen behind the normal keeping up with studying. So, in summary, I'm busy, will be busy, but will still find time for video games.

Currently hooked on: MarioGolf 64, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (Gamecube), and Madden 2004 (Gamecube)...more later on video games for sure.

Alright, that's all for now. It's a start, right. Sweet action, yo!