-
Wolf Pumpkin Carving
I love carving pumpkins. I’m not necessarily that talented at the practice, but I put in a good effort and I can generally follow a pattern. It’s turned into one of those things my brother Mark and I do together every year, only now I’ve spoiled everything by moving to California. This year we had…
-
Pumpkin Carving Party
We had a bunch of people over to carve pumpkins on Hallowe’en weekend. It was a first experience for many of our friends and the results were quite impressive. One of the pumpkins turned out to look oddly similar to one of our Biochem professor’s trademark expressions. There’s also a toothy face, a devouring face,…
-
Hallowe’en Doggerel
We’re kind of old But still polite! We visit you This rainy night. Although you laugh At this funny scene, We wish you happy Hallowe’en! Our rhyme is done So please be sweet: You’re never too old To trick-or-treat! Performed door-to-door last year (2009) by Mark and I (alternating lines until the final one, said…
-
Trick or Treat? [Updated]
Hallowe’en is fast approaching, and once again I am caught without a costume. I was thinking of hunting down a few accessories at a thrift store so I could be Hipster Hitler, but I’m not sure how well that would go over with folks not privy to the comic. There’s also the possibility of making…
-
Mouth-Watering Barbecue
A bunch of us in my class wanted to have a post-test celebration, but since the exam was on a Monday we had school and lab obligations all week. Thus, our Post-Test Party was a kind of extended lunch at the creatively-named “Korea House,” a Korean barbecue forty minutes away from Loma Linda. I’d never…
-
First Test Down
My grad school class had its first test yesterday. I’d say that it went pretty well, and not just because the multiple-choice section was accidentally made from the answer key. The essay questions will likely carry a lot more weight now, but I’m as cautiously optimistic as I can be after a test I spent…
-
Round and Round We Go
Studying has more or less pushed me underground for the past week—we’ve got our first biochem test tomorrow. A side effect is that I’ve been unwittingly collecting pictures of metabolic cycles drawn (and redrawn) on various whiteboards. It started innocuously enough with me simply intending to “look at it later,” but instead of doing that…
-
Why Two Degrees?
Looking over the long road ahead of me, one might consider asking, incredulously, why somebody would want to do an MD/PhD program at all. It’s certainly a justified question, to which the short answer is that I think receiving training in both clinical medicine and research science will be especially valuable in my future career.…
Matter, Energy, and Life of Michaela A. Castello.