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Found My MAP
UMBC has this interesting little subsection on the student portal called “My Academic Profile,” or “MAP.” This page is supposed to display your progress through completing the General Foundation Requirements (GFRs) the university requires before they will allow you to graduate. The caveat? They never update the darn thing, largely because the inane system requires…
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Ready to Cure Cancer?
Even before I began my research position, I have frequently heard people of many different areas of focus, science majors included, talk about “curing cancer.” The implication is that somehow, it would be possible to find a treatment or technique that would be able effectively eliminate the phenomenon. This assumption is extraordinarily frustrating to me…
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Whiteout
My day has included some rather interesting and unexpected turns of events and it’s barely afternoon. I’ve been struggling with my torrent client for weeks trying to figure out why I suddenly went unconnectable. After almost haphazardly trying a few things this morning I finally stumbled upon success, which happily coincided with my acceptance into…
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Application Processes
I have spent the morning (since about 6:50 AM today) working on various application processes, ranging from the stuff required for UMBC’s Health Professions Evaluations Committee (basically the gateway to the med school applications) to scholarships. I’m getting increasingly frustrated with this whole system as I continue to try and force myself into paper in…
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Welcome 2008
I have only recently returned to my apartment, and my internet-based mainstays, on account of the recent holiday season, my lack of a laptop computer, and because I am too cheap to add data service to my cellular plan. As a result, I have only recently been affectionately reunited with Tess, my lovingly constructed desktop…
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Web Grievances
Whenever a title contains “grievance” one prepares for the worst, so I’ll try to keep the whining to a minimum. It seems I was over-hasty to laud the virtues of Imeem, as Kyle and more recently, I, have discovered its frustrating limitation. It appears that user-uploaded content only plays as a 30-second clip when embedded…
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Final(ly Done)!
I am finally finished with this semester. Looking back, I actually feel like it went by extremely quickly but once the end is in sight, everything seems to slow down. I think all of my finals turned out relatively well, the two most uncertain ones being Cell lab and Spanish. Of course, those are also…
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In other news…
It appears that Facebook has gotten the blog import feature working again. Perhaps now I should go back and tag some of these. Rachel and I watched Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End on DVD last night. I tried to get a better quality picture by hooking the player up via the component video…
Matter, Energy, and Life of Michaela A. Castello.
Category: Long Reads
Stories that take a bit longer to get through.