Good Morning

Still plugging away at studying this morning. I am having to do some yoga not only to try and relieve my stress but also in hopes of helping my immune system improve. I am thinking I will have 2 pink eyes within the next day or so.

For all of you who are interested in the environment and local food or farm bills, here is a really great blog, More Deliberate Everyday, and this recent post everyone should take a look at to see the interplay that exists between gas, ethanol, food, costs, and starvation. Take a look, it is a great post.

Also, for all you "greenies" out there, here is a great blog that provides a lot of the new technology and research being done in the name of "green." Ecofriend provides a ton of information from around the web and does provide sources for further investigation.

Last, but not least, please let me know if there is something that you want to hear from me or want to know about me and I will add it in to the next couple of posts.

HAVE A GREAT ONE!

The Busy Life

Good morning everyone. I just wanted to hop on here and give everyone a little overview of what all I have to do. I not only still have my cold, and now pink eye, but I am still plugging along with exam week. Have a presentation and 30 pager due today then anatomy exam on Thursday.

On another note. Yesterday was our presentation of our research in Medical Anthropology (60% of our grade). The way it was set up was like a professional presentation; instead of turning in a paper, everyone compiles a 3 ft. x 4 ft. poster highlighting the while process. While this allows for a better method to overview everyones work, it leaves somethings to be desired. I noticed that when you have a dozen graduate student anthropologists and 20 or so undergraduate anthropologists in the same room there is no boundaries to the conversations. While the presentations included sex ed, obesity, pregnancy, nutrition, blood, community, and anything else you can think of .....the conversations were even better. Discussions of how to use female condoms, understanding obesity and what an obese body looks like, the changes that happen to the body during labor, and the trauma of Uganda. While anthropologists can often times be overly critical and often too analytical, the conversations have no boundaries and make for a good time.

Help?

If anyone can give me instructions and suggestions on how to improve my page image let me know. I know nothing about http coding so I will need specifics. I would like to have a better header image and background image if anyone could let me in on at least that.

Thanks!

AWWW

My favorite Idol got voted off tonight. That's right, I am idol follower and I love it. Anyway, the plague of popularity seems to have crept its way into American Idol and sent the least "typical" candidate home. In a competition whose major demographic is pre-teen and teenage girls one would expect the attractive and "normal" individuals to be left. And now there is only one unique and individual singer left, but no one had the voice like Carly Smithson.
Secondly, and still showing, is a show on PBS called "National Geographic's Strange Days on Planet Earth" and it is amazing. So far the major argument is that our fish supply is one corner stone to all that is changing on the planet. Having impacts in global warming, jet streams, and even population migrations in the desert. Worth watching if yall are into that!

An Update

So I thought that I should provide a quick update of what is going on at this point and express what I have left to do as to get a little sympathy (yes I sometimes enjoy playing pity party).
Yesterday I finished a very intensive Essay style Exam (GA level) that took around 2.5 hours to complete. Topics included: Shamanic and Bio-medical referral system established in rural India, education and risk factors among farmers in Southern Mexico, implications of a nurse-mid-wife program in rural Africa, GOBI international child care project, and the implications STI (sexually transmitted infections) among individuals in the good-ole U.S.A. Today's anatomy exam was also one of a great challenge while covering the reproductive system, endocrine system, embryology, growth and development, and genetics. Hormones and their interplay into the whole body and pregnancy were of particular focus.
As for the rest of my week, and next week, here is a quick overview of what I have been working on. I will be attending medical school and surgeon focused seminars on bone mineral composition and densities. I will also be working on my new Archeology contract for identifying bone material for the Bell Meade site in Arkansas. I still have to complete my research presentation on the implications and unwritten understanding that are accompanying the obesity epidemic and how it is being culturally and clinically overshadowed and perpetuated. Also, by publication (and project for class) on the Memphis local food market and implications for improving Memphis is due as well as my comprehensive Anatomy final.
All this being said. I just wanted to say that I will be getting little sleep, drinking tons of coffee, and will be using this outlet as a means of procrastination. Thus, please take what I post with a grain of salt and I will attempt to contribute more responsibly at the end of the semester.
Cheers!

Just real quick

I know it has been a few days, but I had to go spend some time in Knoxville to reset my focus. I will be in exam mode for the next two weeks but will be back to inform you on my opinions and crazy factoids soon after. Thanks to the Modern Gal, I have quite a few things to tell you about. Check out my blog at stumbleupon.com for some laughs, but until then here is one for ya.

HAVE TO WATCH!

Not going to say anything, you can make your own opinion, but you need to watch this one!

Some great new websites

I just happen to come across two really great websites today that are already having an amazing impact on how I navigate the internet.

First off is Zotero which is a resource that integrates directly into your FireFox browser and serves as a major resource tool. The program allows you to save reference material, sites, points of interest, and the like in a database to be used on or off line. In addition it automatically collects bibliography information for single or multiple sources and exports them in the style indicated to Word for citation. Also, it allows the user to add notes, organize databases, and amend any information need to all be exported in citation or report format. It is a must have for any student researcher and especially graduate students.
Second is a website also to be integrated with FireFox. The tool is called Stumble Upon and is amazing. This site allows the user to select what areas interest them the most and picks websites at random for the user to then rank and add to favorites. The site then publishes a blog on the individual (My Stumble Upon Blog)to allow for others to view. There is also a community component in that you can view other peoples ranked websites and communicate much like the blogging community. This tool is great in that it brings up site that one might not have ever found before.

On a different note. Bush decided to implement an emissions law to take effect by 2025. Nothing like dragging it out as long as possible. After all, the American public would rather ensure that he gets maximum profit from his oil ties rather than save our planter, water, and food resources.
Good Day!

WOW!!! Just watch "us" grow.

Not much explanation needed. I am doing research on obesity, and will be for years to come. Take a look at the CDC records on the topic.

What a Trip

As crazy as it sounds...the wife and I needed a night outside of Memphis and away from much of the drama that accompanies our usual company. We are kind of enough to have an amazing friend that does not have to consume alcohol to enjoy herself (a quality I do not always possess) and volunteered to drive. The reason being, our wonderful friend whom went to college in Jackson, MS invited us down to see the amazing Molly Ringwalds on Friday night. While the drive was longer than we might have usually endured, it was worth it. I found an amazing person to begin to build a friendship with whom works with my wife, and found an intelligent male that has a lot of the same outlooks on life as I do (hard to come by). Even my wife, whom was feeling a little under the weather, sang every possible chorus that she could possibly remember and danced along to all the 80's songs that she was not up on. Over all, even though my loyalty belongs to the Breakfast Club from Knoxville, the Molly Ringwalds were pretty amazing. What can I say, I am a sucker fro 80's music, and when you add drinking and everyone singing along it just makes for a great time. I did talk our new friends ear off on the way back from Jackson, but given that it was 3 am when we left, I was terrified that if I stopped talking I would fall asleep and she would be stuck driving by herself (since the wife was already passed out in the back). Just getting away and being myself was great......can't wait for some of the same this weekend....Knoxville, here we come.

2 Million Minutes

I finally got a chance to see the very influential film that is sweeping the country, and I loved it. The film takes a look at the way in which the United Stats is unable to keep up with the global economy in regards to education and provides evidence for the argument that we will no longer be able to compete in the global system if we do not change our education system. The film follows high school students in the U.S., India, and China as a comparison for how many minutes each student actually spends on studying and getting an education. As would be expected, the U.S. puts more emphasis on sports, extracurriculars, and social events than we do education and it is coming back to bite us in the ass!!! It is worth watching, and here is the trailer.

Autism Awareness Month

I felt I should do my part to promote autism awareness month, and thanks to Studio 360 I have a few things to contribute. Since everyone will be getting their fare share of factoids and testomonials, I thought I would post some of the things on the lighter side of life.


First is Autism the Musical which is exactly what it sounds like. A musical with an all autistic cast as a means of therapy and expression for these kids. It has gotten world wide acclaim and will be making its television debut on March 5th on HBO. Check out the trailer.


Next is the new Broadway play LUCY by Damien Atkins that just opened in March and is getting great reviews. Here is the blurb:
"Lucy is 13 years old; Lucy is autistic. She sees her mother for the first time in years when her father decides to re-marry and start a new life. Lucy is a play about newfound love between a mother and daughter and the revelations it triggers, including a provocative new theory of evolution."
Not to mention that the mother character is an Anthropologist which just makes the play even more exciting for me. It is getting really good press and the evolution spin is keeping people very interested.

Again, you can check out interviews about these issues on the most recent episode of Studio 360 by PRI.

Websites to Note

Really quickly, just two websites everyone should take a look at an consider becoming a part of.

First......The Great Sunflower Project. A project that not only beautifies the country by promoting the planting of sunflowers yet also is a major project in tracking bee activity nation wide. You simply sign up for the program, they send you sunflower seeds, you plant them, watch them for a 30 min. period and report it on the website. You don't have to know anything about bees, they will provide you with all the information you need and you will be participating in an amazing project. It is estimated that every 3rd bite of food you take is contributed to bee pollination. We should help.


Second, Modern Girl led me to a environmental awareness and action program that we can all be a part of. We Can Solve It is an action group dedicated to showing people how they can effect climate change and provide an online community for connecting individuals nation wide. Another worthy cause.