Lifescouts: Bowling Badge

Hello!

I think some of the badges for nerd week aren't necessarily activities done solely by nerds, but I guess I would think things like that because I am a nerd.

I've been bowling many times, but I'm not an amazing bowler that can get a perfect 300 or a horrible bowler, just average. At the university I transferred from, there was a bowling alley in the student union. It was really cheap to play and included rental shoes and the bowling ball. It also didn't have the customary cigarette smell that a lot of the bowling alleys in my hometown have. It was in that bowling alley that I had bowled last. I went with the girls of my Bible study as well as the freshmen boys study. It was a really great time to bond with other people and just blow off some steam. Then afterwards we went to the dining hall for "Cookie Break" where they give you two free cookies and a cup of milk for free as long as you are a student. I really miss those kids. . . 

Badge count: 18

Lifescouts: Observatory Badge

Hi!

I think I'm getting better at writing shorter posts. Or maybe I just have less to say about things right now. Do you guys prefer the longer or shorter posts?

First off I want to say that this badge is really pretty to me. I don't really know why but it looks so cool and realistic. My observatory experience comes from some fieldtrip I went on while I was in elementary school. There's a local science center in my hometown where my elementary school loved to take us depending on what we were learning about in science class. I don't actually know what the science center does, like if research actually goes on there or if it's just to give enriching science experiences for kids. Either way, they have an observatory and we got to go in and look at the stars. I specifically remembering my teacher telling us that if we fell asleep we would be in big trouble. I remember thinking that everything was really cool and trying to memorize the different constellations, but I couldn't really tell you any of that information now. Still it was a fun fieldtrip.

Badge count: 17

Lifescouts: Scrabble Badge

Hello!

As the days continue on, its starting to hit me that I'm almost done with my sophomore year of college. And if that wasn't enough of a wake-up call, I have to start prepping for the MCAT and thinking about medical schools. But to keep me in my unrealistic world of never growing up for a little while longer, I'll save the "ahhh, is my life on track" post for another time.

My streak has been broken by the marching band badge. I guess that's what happens when I play the piano and physically cannot march on the field playing my instrument with my high school marching band. However, I have played scrabble. . . badly. I've never sat down and played the physical game with three other friends, but have played it online. And no I'm not talking about Words With Friends because I'm not sure if that counts. The thing about scrabble for me is that I never really got into it. I always felt limited by the letters I had and the letters on the board, because I hope it's not my vocabulary that hindered me. Either way, scrabble is a good game to play when trying to figure out who is the most creative and verbally savvy person in your friend group.

Badge count: 16

Lifescouts: Rubik's Cube

Hi!

I'm on a roll with these nerd badges!

The Rubik's cube is something that I wouldn't have gotten interested in if it wasn't for my mom. I don't remember why she got so interested but she wanted to learn how to solve it and thus so did I. We started out messing around with this miniature Rubik's Cube keychain that isn't even Rubik's brand. In fact we messed with it so much that the stickers started to come off and the pieces fall apart. By that time I was literally putting the pieces together. So my mom decided to invest in a real Rubik's cube and it now sits completed on my desk at home. For I a while I kept trying to beat my time at how fast I could complete it, but I think I never got below 3 minutes. I actually wonder if I can still complete one. . .

Badge count: 15

ER Observation 2

Hello!

Today (3/14/13) I did my second day of shadowing in the ER. Same doctor, same hospital, but a whole lot more chaotic. Well maybe not a whole lot but definitely more eventful for me in regards of procedures.

The main thing that stands out in my mind is the code that came into the ER. I know this sounds really bad, but before I went for my first day of shadowing, I told my friend that I kinda wanted someone to code so I could see how a hospital tries to revive a patient. I guess I got my wish. . . in a really morbid way. I was with the doctor in a patient room getting a better history on a patient that came in due to lack of consciousness and some chest pain. Out in the hallway was some yelling and a gurney with a doctor doing compressions. One of the other doctors came in and asked if he could steal me and led me to the room where they were trying to revive the John Doe who came into the ER in cardiac arrest. The main difference I noticed from a code in real life and a code on TV is the speed of compressions administered to the patient. While on TV, it does appear rushed and urgent, it doesn't come close to the extent in real life. In order to revive a patient and continue blood profusion to the brain, you need to do 100 beats in a minute and those doctors/nurses/transport did a good job doing compressions at about 121 beats per minute. It was also exciting for me because I got to help slightly. If they needed more gloves, I got them gloves. I opened and prepared epinephrine when the nurses arms were full. And finally I held an IV pump so that fluids would be administered. Also, the whole rubbing paddles together and shocking the patient with 300 joules of electricity doesn't happen anymore. They have a defibrillator that delivers the shock for them and it only goes up to 200 joules. They did get a sinus rhythm for about 5 minutes but never got a strong pulse and eventually lost the rhythm. Sadly, they eventually decided to stop and call it.

In comparison, the rest of my day was a little uneventful. Rather than a theme of abdominal pain like Monday, today's theme was shortness of breath. Other than that I watched an echocardiogram done and and abscess removed.

I guess upon my immediate reflection of my shadowing at the ER, I realized I can handle the blood, stool, and puke that comes with being a doctor. All in all, this was a success.

Lifescouts: Video Games

Hello!

Have you guys ever watched/heard of the channel on YouTube "My Drunk Kitchen"? Well Hannah Hart, who is the host, has a specific way of saying hello that is kinda her thing and now whenever I type "Hello!" that's what I say in my head. Thanks Hannah.

This badge is another badge that I feel a lot of people should have and doesn't make me special. And then I start to think there are a lot of people less fortunate than you and realize that this is a #firstworldproblem.

There's also no way to really tell a story about this. I'm not an award winning video game player with the high score on a game at my local arcade, but at least I know I've dabbled in a few video games. While I wasn't the video game obsessed kid that played games immediately upon coming home from school, I was obsessed with Pokemon; and what kid wasn't from my generation. What's really surprising is my mom got pretty into the game too. She's the type of person who takes the "Gotta catch them all" slogan seriously and really tried to catch all the Pokemon. In fact she got really discouraged when she realized that you could only get certain Pokemon in certain games. I only had the gold version. In fact, if I hadn't won an award from my third grade teacher and got to go to a baseball game for free, I never would have won my GameBoy color or the Pokemon gold game. I really miss those days where the only thing I had to worry about was whether or not I could beat Misty the gym leader. I also want to comment on the insanity that is the new Pokemon games. The new Pokemon do not count as real Pokemon to me because they aren't a part of the original 150. Plus, I've heard the new games are kinda bad. But at least that trend lives on for this generation.

Badge count: 14

Lifescouts: Chess

Hi!

I'm starting to realize that the last few lifescouts posts about how I got certain badges are very interesting. Or at least in my opinion. Like my stories don't have any interesting twist or funny moments. Sorry! But not everything in a person's life can be as interesting as people wish they were.

I've finally caught up to nerd month! I'm really looking forward to this month because then I can gauge exactly how big of a nerd I am. And I'm saying that in a good way.

Now just because I've played chess before doesn't mean I'm good at it. In fact I think I'm really bad at it mainly because I have such a hard time remembering how certain pieces can move. There are so many aspects to take into consideration when playing chess and I just haven't gotten enough practice to fully understand how to strategize. I've also played the Chinese version of chess, which from what I can tell is the exact same rules as the chess you're thinking of. I believe all the pieces are the same and the goal is the same. Really it seems like the only difference is that the pieces are in carved into shapes and they have Chinese characters on it. Are you guys good at chess?

Badge count: 13

Lifescouts: Horse-drawn Cart

Hi!

This badge is another one that doesn't come with a particularly interesting story.

During my elementary school years, I would go to daycare after school so that I wouldn't stay home alone until my parents got back from work. Then during the summer, I would attend that daycare for the majority of the day since no one could stay at home with me during the day. Since daycare was a summer camp of sorts, they planned random fieldtrips for us to go on so that we would learn something during the summer. Once of those trips was to a farm where they took us on a horse drawn cart tour of the property. The only distinct thing I remember from the trip was that we stopped in the road because our tour guide noticed this plant known for it's stinky smell. Basically, it smelled like a skunk if the leaves were damaged in anyway and that smell served as a protection mechanism. I also learned that day that if you make a hole in the middle of a weed with a rake or something and then put grass seeds in the hole, the grass will overtake the weed and all your weeds are gone. Just a fun tip for you guys, but I have no idea if it works.

Badge count: 13

ER Observation 1

Hi guys!

Today (3/11/13) I shadowed a doctor for the first time. He is the director of the Emergency Department and has been practicing medicine for about 20 years.

Now on to my experience. The hospital I shadowed at isn't a major trauma center so it definitely wasn't like you see on TV where every patient who comes in on an ambulance has a gun shot wound or was in a major car crash. No one coded and no one went running to save a persons life. Really today's theme was sutures and abdominal pain. . . not the most exciting day of my life. But it had its perks. I had never seen anyone suture a real laceration. I mean I had done practice sutures on a pig foot during a summer program but I'd never seen it done on a real patient and trying to consider if the skin is strong enough or how to make the cut heal in a pretty manner.

The only other thing that was really apparent to me was how amazing it is for doctors to take the information from a patient history and additional labs and determine a diagnosis. For the ER the goal is to discover what is the cause of their complaint and how can that cause be fixed. Or if the patient has a simple problem like a deep cut to the face, then the solution is to simply put in sutures.

I am a little disappointed that there wasn't a big mysterious case that ended in a huge surgery, but that is the reality of being a doctor. There was a patient that came in screaming, seeing dead relatives and believing that the doctor was God, but really the only problem was she hadn't been taking her anti-psychotic medication.

That's all I have for you guys! Part of the reason for this post was to keep you up to date with my life, but to also help remind me two years down the road of what happened during my doctor shadowing.

Lifescouts: Pet Owning

Hello!

The weather might be great where you are reading this, but I just want to comment on how bizarre the winter has been here where I am. One week it's 70 degrees with the sun shining and seems like we completely skipped over winter again and then the next week it's 30 degrees with wind blowing at like 15 mph. To make it worse, when it's warm it rains and when it's cold it doesn't so there's no chance of us getting snow even though at times it's cold enough.

Moving on to my new badge:

Growing up I had always wanted a pet whether that pet be a dog, cat, or guinea pig. However, I was never allowed to get one because my parents didn't want to have to take care of it for me and my mom is allergic to so many different things. But things looked up for me when I entered 3rd grade and for a science project the entire third grade class began making aquariums and terrariums so that we could take care of fish, frogs, crabs, and roly polys. After building the homes and taking care of them at school for a while, all the kids were given the opportunity to take the animals home. Everyone's favorite, including mine, was the crab and they were the first to run out. So I was left bringing home two frogs. I loved my frogs so much and named them Strawberry and Blueberry. But just like any other kid, I got bored of them. Then of course they eventually died. Not from my lack of care for them though! Since then I've had some fish, but having those types of pets never stuck with me because you can't really interact with them, you know?

Badge count: 12

Lifescouts: Horseback Riding

Hi! How are you guys doing on your badge counts?

My memory of how I earned my horseback riding badge is a little unclear. Really the only reason why I know I have this badge is because there are pictures of toddler me in a really adorable cowgirl outfit riding a horse. Since I was so small it was probably a pony, but they're the same species so it counts! From what I can tell about the pictures, I was at a friend's birthday party and in true stereotypical little girl fashion, my friend had a pony ride at her party. I don't remember if I enjoyed riding the horse or if I was afraid, but I did it. What I would really love is to go trail riding some day because I think horses are such beautiful and intelligent creatures.

Badge count: 11

Lifescouts: Zoo Badge

Long time no see! Which of course is my fault but schoolwork has been picking up and I'm just trying to finish out my sophomore year strong. I cannot believe that I'm almost a junior which for me brings a new RA job, the start of my MCAT studying and research into medical schools. Everything ahead of me seems so daunting, but that's life and I just have to take it one step at a time. Or at least that's what I try to tell myself.

In keeping with my current trend on blog lately, I have another Lifescouts badge to share. I know I'm really behind on these, but cut me some slack! Since Alex has started doing theme months, I want to get caught up on animal month so I can see how big of a nerd I actually am. :)

I feel like the zoo badge is one of the least exciting because I'm sure that a majority of kids have gone to the zoo on a field trip during elementary school. I actually can't even tell you how many times I've been to a zoo. There's the local one in my town that celebrated the birth of a baby giraffe last year to a zoo in China where I got to see a panda. Really the only reason my parents were willing to go to the zoo was because I wouldn't stop talking about wanting to see a panda, and man did I have fun. It was a dreadful rainy day and the animals weren't too happy but my wish came true!

Sorry I don't have a more interesting story to tell about this badge, but at least it's short and sweet!

Badge count: 10