I just can't get enough

The State of the Union address consistently aggravates me. It's not because it pits two mortal enemies against each other (the president and words). It's also because the address never really tells you what it's supposed to. I hear "State of the Union" and I'd like to know where we are at with poverty, unemployment, healthcare, etc. In my mind, if you're not going to do that then you should at least tell me what has changed since last time. You should tell me what bills were signed into law, what programs/initiatives were successful, etc. Sadly, we never get this. Instead we get a list of what this country needs. We need better health care. We need to rely less on oil. We need to balance the budget. That's all the State of the Union is - a big laundry list. Frankly, I find this insulting. We all know what this country needs. If you're going to go down that road then at least tell us how you're going to do it in the coming months/years. Is this too much to ask? As long as I can remember the State of the Union has been a waste of my time. And yet I still keep watching...I just can't get enough.

We're not even a month into the new year and I went to the ER to get my lacerated thumb stitched up. Then on Sunday, in the middle of judging the Planar Chaos Prerelease I started to feel incredibly sick. It was about 30 minutes after I started to drink a bottle of juice. I then proceeded to vomit every 20 minutes for the rest of the day. I took water periodically, but I think that was what caused me to vomit so frequently. All I had had that day was the juice, which is mostly water, so I think my stomach got confused. At any rate, after 5 hours of vomiting I was too weak from dehydration to move from the mattress in the store's office. I had to have an ambulance pick me up and take me to the hospital ER. Once there they put me on an IV and gave me fluids and medication. I was there all night and then they finally discharged me. I'm feeling much better now, but two trips to the ER in less than one month...I just can't get enough.

In Memorium: Dr. Pavlica

I was interested in science for as long as I can remember. Much of this has to do with the influence of my first and most important mentor, my mother. When I reached high school, though, I met the second most important mentor for my scientific career, Dr. Robert Pavlica. Sadly, Dr. Pavlica passed away on Tuesday and in honor of his contribution to myself and countless other students I wanted to say a few words.

While many students have outstanding teachers over the course of their lives, it is a rare situation to find one like Dr. Pavlica. Rather than pursue a career in industry or high-level research he taught at the High School level and created a program to teach high school students how to do independent research. The program is now nationally recognized and named Authentic Science Research (ASR). At the time, the concept was unheard of. I was lucky enough to gain acceptance into this very small program during my sophomore year of high school. The result was a mammoth jump-start to my scientific career. I was doing independent, original research in my teens. I was making posters and giving oral presentations at conferences. I was applying for grant monies (which I actually got). All of this without even a high school diploma.

I was very proud of the program that Dr. Pavlica created and even assisted him in its design; the current student handbook is an updated version of the "binder" I created when I was in the program. Towards the end of my high school career, Dr Pavlica and I had some disagreements over the philosphy of scientific conferences and "competitions," but such is to be expected when strong-willed individuals are juxtaposed.

Irrespective of our differences I owe a great deal to Dr. Pavlica. At each step of the way, college research, masters research, and now Ph.D. research, the journey has been very smooth and all of my mentors were amazed at how much I already had under my belt when coming to them at those stages. For all this I owe a debt to Dr. Pavlica. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to repay the debt to him. However, when last we spoke he mentioned how happy he was that I was getting my Ph.D. Ultimately, to him, that was the real endpoint of the program - getting the highest scientific degree possible. Very few graduates of his program complete that full journey. I will.

Star Wars Pants

Thanks to Huggy Bear for passing this on to me. In the spirt of mom jokes, the Keepers of Lists have recorded the "Top 258 Star Wars Lines Improved By Replacing a Word with Pants." I've listed the Top 20 below, but you can view the full list here.

• I find your lack of pants disturbing.
  
• You are unwise to lower your pants.
  
• The Force is strong in my pants.
  
• Chewie and me got into a lot of pants more heavily guarded than this.
  
• I cannot teach him. The boy has no pants.
  
• Your pants, you will not need them.
  
• You came in those pants? You're braver than I thought.
  
• In his pants you will find a new definition of pain and suffering
  
• I think you just can't bear to let a gorgeous guy like me out of your pants.
  
• Governer Tarkin. I should have expected to find you holding Vader's pants.
  
• I've just made a deal that will keep the Empire out of our pants forever
  
• Pull up! All pants pull up!
  
• I sense the conflict within you. Let go of your pants!
  
• These aren't the pants you're looking for.
  
• Alderan is peaceful, we have no pants!
  
• A disturbance in the pants. I have not felt this since near my old master...
  
• He has no time for smugglers who drop their pants first sign of Imperials
  
• Looks like someone's beginning to take an interest in your pants.
  
• The pants will be down in moments, sir, you can begin your landing
  
• Lock the door. And hope they don't have pants.
  

Stitches

As my own little messuped-up way to ring in the New Year I spent four hours in the ER yesterday. I was cutting the last few plastic blocks for a study I'm conducting and since they are big blocks I opted to use the electric band saw in our department. It's pretty dangerous as you need to use a sharp-toothed blade to cut blocks as hard as the ones I had, but I've cut many blocks this way in the past with nary a problem. However, this time, with only four more blocks to cut, the block got jammed and my left thumbed slipped forward into the blade. The result was a fairly deep laceration of my thumb.

Of course I cursed, then ran around the hall way to room 23 where the Mount Sinai Hand Fellows just happened to be doing research with one of our medical students (I love working in orthopaedics). I told them I was cut very bad and they gave assistance immediately. They spent some time cleaning the wound and restricting blood flow so it would clot. During all of this, though, I forgot that I have a bad vaso-vagal resonse to pricks/cuts on the palms of my hands. Well, I didn't forget. I figured I just had to put my head down and bear it out. Apparently, that's not the best plan. The sweating and faint feeling that comes is from a lack of blood to your head. If the response is very strong you can pass out entirely, which is eactly what happened. Fortunately I was in a department with doctors all around me (not common for other research departments which don't have immediate clinical revelvance in the work they do). When I regained consciousness I was on the floor in the neighboring office and they had my legs elevated, which helped the blood get back to my head.

I headed down to the ER and spent a grueling four hours in pain before the cleaning, tetanus shot and stitching was all done. Fortunately the cut didn't go below the dermis, so I only needed two stitches, but the cut was over the tip of my finger and apparently the numbing of the thumb nerves doesn't really make it up that far. So, basically, I felt everything as they stiched me up. Thank the lord I only had to have two stitches. The other good news is that the cut missed both nerves, so I should have near perfect sensation in my thumb when I recover (which means I still feel the pain of soccer balls I deflect in goal - joy). The stitches come out next week. Looks like I'll be playing soccer in the field for awhile lest I rip my stitches open as a goalie. So, yeah, moral of the story...don't use the electric band saw to cut objects just because it's the quicker method. Safety first!