Week Whatever

Greetings from Windburg.
Indeed the weather has a rapid-change multiple personality disorder but one thing is a constant throughout it all: the wind. Whether it's a small breeze or a gust of fury, it is almost always there. Admittedly there have been about two days that were without wind, but those were also the days that all the animals sprouted wings and became flying menaces to the city for a day. However, they all went back to their homes and continued their lives as normal once the wind picked up again.
At any rate, aside from the occasional freak mutation of squirrels, cats, and things, life is rather normal...for BYU-Idaho. In my A&P lab, we've finished off the entire skeleton and will be tested on it next week. The test will go thus: we'll be let into the lab room 20-something at a time. Bones with labels on certain parts of them (corresponding to note cards that will have a question) will be spread out on the tables. We will have about 1 minute at each "station" to answer the question (such as "Name this structure", or "Name this bone", or the like). We will go over about 50 questions, I believe. So there you have it, folks; if you don't know your bones inside and out (in some cases literally, like the skull), you're sunk. Time to bone up on it all...
So looking at the picture that is with my post from November of last year entitled "Thanksgiving Break!", you'll notice the houses and nice big trees. Here's what it looks like now: ------------------------->
For reference, the tree all the way to the right in this picture is the same tree at the far right of the other picture.
Nice, eh? My prediction is that we'll be looking at this eye-sore for quite some time. The plan is to put the 5-story building right there. I just feel sorry for the people in the houses and apartments around the construction sight.
Moving along, another highlight of the week was last Thursday, when I played for the ward Ultimate Frisbee team. That was a fun game. First off, the wind was relentlessly blowing in one direction on the field, which happened to be going towards one goal area the entire game. Basically, the only way anybody scored was when they were going with the wind (although there was a time or two where a goal was almost had going against it). That game I earned more than my fair share of grass stains and scrapes and a nickname. The other team started calling me Peter Parker and Spiderman, which I choose to take as a big compliment on my playing. My team won the game with an intense "buzzer-beater". The game-winning point was made just as the time ran out. It was amazing.
Anyway, it seems that these are the highlights of the week. For those who would be even remotely interested, my dating stats so far are 2 dates, both blind dates. They were both good dates, too, which would be encouraging for those who labor under the belief that there is no such thing as a good blind date. On that note, peace-out.

Fat and Skeletons

This is just a random picture from last Spring...yep.

It seems like yesterday that I was writing the last post. Life plugs on as it usually does (thank goodness; I'd rather have it plug on instead of stopping all together). The excitement of the week consisted of Ultimate Frisbee, figuring out the molecular formulas for Butane, Methane, and Propane in my chemistry lab, church, and, of course, going over more of the human skeleton in my Anatomy and Physiology lab.
The trochlea of the humerus is connected to the, trochlear notch of the ulna (convenient), the trochlear notch is connected to the, olecranon process of the ulna...Yessir, this week in A&P lab, we covered the spine (each vertebra), the sacrum, the ribcage (complete with sternum), the shoulder girdle (sternum, clavicle (collar bone), scapula (shoulder blade)), and the appendage commonly known as the arm, from the tip of the fingers to the shoulder. Now I can tell you things like where your deltoid tuberosity is, or where exactly the hamate bone is in your wrist- isn't that great? I could even locate the lateral epicondyle, or the coracoid process of the scapula, or...well, I could be here for a while and I think you all get the picture. Next lab we will finish off the human skeleton by essentially learning about the waist-down.
In lecture we learned about something very fascinating. I notice that I usually talk about the little tidbits from that class, but I assure you, I'm learning quite a bit. This little factoid is about something called brown fat (as opposed to white fat, which is the picture above). Hopefully everyone knows that a fat cell is a specialized cell that stores a bunch of fat and gets all big and bloated and such. Brown fat cells have lots of these little organelles (structures within the cell) called mitochondria which causes them to burn the fat stored inside the cell. Well research has been done on a mouse that was obese and even had diabetes. They figured out how to stimulate fat cells to become brown fat and, therefore, burn more fat without the subject even trying. After stimulating its fat cells to become brown fat, the mouse lost weight at a rapid pace and was even cured of its diabetes. Just like that. Imagine if they started doing that for people. I don't know if they'll come out with anything soon for us, but that is a very encouraging bit of news for diabetics and people who struggle with obesity or even just being generally overweight. We'll have to see what the future holds.
Moving on...
Church was great, per usual. We had Ward Conference so the Stake Presidency was there. I ended up filling in for the executive secretary (being one of the assistant exec. secs.) for Ward Council. Pretty much the whole meeting was the Stake Presidency getting to know us and the Stake President, Pres. Baron, teaching us about Lehi's Vision in 1 Nephi 8 and why he didn't throw the fruit to Laman and Lemuel in his dream. It all tied into leadership. If you want to know more, I could expound at a later time, so you'll probably have to contact me outside the blog or something.
Well anyway, there's still much for me to do and I haven't even begun on ward sports. Well, to make a long story short (you're welcome), it's important to get out, run around, and just have fun without worrying about school matters. Done and done.
Anywho, I'm out-

Ch-ch-ch-changes

This week can be summed up in a word: sick. About this time last week I noticed a little post-nasal drip action that seemed rather harmless. By Friday I was technically sick, though I didn't feel completely so. That was a good thing considering I had a date that night. What? Steven Brown dating? Yeah, don't act so surprised, it's happened before and you all had fair warning at the beginning of the semester (for those of you recently joining us, please refer to the first post of this year). It was a good date, all in all. It was my best blind date, which is a plus, and there might be a second in the future. My date was a part of a quadruple date; it was me and three roommates with their dates. If there wasn't such a thing before, there is now. Basically it was a smorgasbord of desserts and then everyone just playing games and having a good time while digesting the gratuitous amounts of food lodged in our digestive tracts.
Everyone needs a good Saturday every once in a while. One that just starts out nice and easy with no sense of rush and keeps that mood the whole of the day. That was my Saturday; just some time to relax and not worry too much about the seemingly immense pressure of school and life in general. Although I was productive, it wasn't enough, unfortunately.
Sunday, which was Mother's Day, was an interesting one. I hope you all respected the day in some way and enjoyed it to the fullest extent. Mothers are a special thing and I'm more than happy to have so great as mine. I called my mother and presented a little musical well-wishing that only a mother could love. Part of it, one could argue, may have been due to the fact that I had woken up that morning able to sing Barry White songs without the slightest exertion. However, those who would wish to argue that point would do well to resign themselves to defeat.
The human skull is more complex than I had imagined. Two hours of my Tuesday afternoon were dedicated wholly to the study and memorization of (what I counted to be) 94 structures that make up the skull. This includes foramena, canals, processes, bones, fossa, plates, sinuses, and lines. Each group had their own skull to work with, which were mostly models. In the case of my partner and I, we had a model and an actual human skull (which, by the way, had seen better days). This class is getting intense. These next 3 weeks will be dedicated solely to the human skeleton as far a as lab goes. While this is going on, we're moving on to things like metabolism and its facets in the lecture. Also, we had the lab and lecture exams this week. I have now completed both and am feeling pretty a-okay about it all. In the lecture exam, I discovered the humor that Bro. Shaw has. I was cracking up during a test--that's a first. What really won me over was the fact that he had a bunch of pictures of Calvin making faces from Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes. Each picture had a corresponding letter for the bubble sheet and we were instructed to select which one best represented our mood at the time.
As for the rest of this week, I have two tests for Algebra and one exam for Chemistry with homework for the next units already coming in. It's a little daunting, looking out at it all, but taking it all one step at a time shouldn't be too difficult.
In other news, after a few days of rain, the sun is actually appearing again and the weather is turning nice. Although I like the rain, this is a welcomed change. Speaking of change (disregarding welcomed or not), for those of you who know the area, a number of buildings on 1st West are being torn down to make way for a new kind of building for Rexburg: a 5-story one. The 5 buildings from the North-West corner at the 4-way stop from the stadium (the last building to be demolished is the Castle Apartments). It's a little shocking to see, but that's life. I just hope they leave the nice, big trees that are along the street there. There might be naivete in that hope, but a guy can dream.
Anyway, it's time to wrap this up and send it on its way and send myself to bed. This is Steven Brown, once again signing out and headed for his bed!

24 Years Under the Belt Without Breaking a Sweat

It's that time again! Funny how it keeps coming up every week, like how birthdays keep coming up every year. Speaking of birthdays, I had mine recently. I am now the grand age of 24 years old. Here at BYU-Idaho, being over 22 and unmarried tends to make the more narrow-minded folk think there's something wrong with you. Being 24 and unmarried makes you ancient and some kind of weirdo, I guess. It's as if people are bewildered that you're not using a walker, powered wheelchair, or at least a cane to get around. That happens to be an exaggeration, but not much of one. It's just the culture of this LDS college town. Our culture is such that we tend to marry young and that confuses most people in the world today. I agree with marrying young. For one thing, as you both figure your way into life, you do so together, strengthening bonds between husband and wife, and getting settled on how you're going to do certain things early on. Anyway, I'm not here to discuss marriage or start any debates on the subject.
The reality is that I'm still young. 24 years of accumulated wisdom (most of it not adhered-to, some of you would say), and just overall growth doesn't feel like one- still looking towards the age instead of back at- would think. Progression is an interesting thing. It's truly a 1:1 ratio, getting out of it what you put into it. It's all relative, anyway. To a 5 yr-old, I'm an omniscient demigod (which may or may not be more exaggeration). To a 50 yr-old, I'm a wet-behind-the-ears kid on wobbly legs in the adult world. Truth is, no matter what stage you are at in life, it's your first time being there and you're trying to figure it out. Some people take to it like a fish takes to water, while for others it's more like a bird learning to fly, and still for others it's more like a rock trying to fly. I see myself somewhere between the rock and the bird sometimes, fish and bird other times. I think it's safe to say we all have that kind of range.
Anyway...
Classes plug along at the usual rate. Zipping through the different kinds of functions in Math 110 leaves my mood sour (mainly because of the structuring of each assignment which involves printing off pages of homework for one function) while flying though physiological process and tissues in Biology 264 leaves my mind spinning. As if that wasn't enough, Chemistry 105 swoops in and churns my insides with atoms, compounds, and laboratory experiments. On top of that, I received a new calling for my ward. I'm one of two assistant executive secretaries. Basically, I'm in charge of Tuesday night interviews and appointments, so I sit outside the Bishopric's offices and make sure people see the Bishopric and everything is organized. I'm finding less and less time to look for work, so my chances of getting any kind of job goes down almost exponentially.
One thing I like about my Human Anatomy and Physiology teacher is that he likes to throw random, interesting facts at us. For example, while we were talking about lipids, he told us two things. One was about the old process of tanning animal hides. It involved squishing the animal's brain and spreading it across the hide while working it into the pores through means of massaging and even chewing to get the fats and oils out of the pores. Every animal, except for the giraffe, has enough brains to tan its own hide. Another interesting fact involves the sperm whale and the triglycerides in its enormous head. The composition of each triglyceride is just right so that the oil in its head matches the density of the water at whatever depth the whale is at. That way, the whale can just float at that depth without having to expend unnecessary energy. The oils also perform another important role. There are huge capillary beds that run through the head. When the whale surfaces from incredible depths (down to (and possibly deeper) 2 miles deep), the nitrogen bubbles forming in the blood run through the capillary beds as the oil is expanding to match the density of the water around the whale. As the oil expands, it "squishes" and pops the nitrogen bubbles, thus preventing the ailment known as The Benz. I warned you that I would regurgitate stuff like this at the beginning of the semester.

The Sodium Chloride's Bonded to the Leg Bone...Wait

Hello again, ladies, gentlemen, and others. This post's title is brought to you by the striking similarity between my Anatomy and Physiology homework and my Chemistry homework. We're on to chapter two in both classes and are getting into chemistry for Anat. and Phys. while getting into the Periodic Table of Elements in Chemistry. There was a point when I was reading my A&P book when I thought it would be a good time to wrap up my chemistry homework and get to my A&P homework. There are slight differences between the classes, of course. A&P's chemistry is fairly basic and focuses on the uses in the body (as one would hope), whereas chemistry goes more in depth and even delves into physics to help explain a thing or two. There are border-crossings every which way with these subjects; no science is sacred.
Anyway, you might be wondering about the odd-looking drink at the top of this. In case you can't read the label, it's called a Green River and is one of my favorite soft drinks. I first happened upon them at Scout Camp at Camp Meriwether, which sits right on the Oregon Coast. Ever since then, I've been looking for them (not very hard) with no luck. Only recently did I find out that they're made in Chicago, Illinois. A dear FHE Sister and good friend actually had a few shipped out. With my birthday rapidly approaching and my resolve to be a good home teacher, I received two bottles. If you live close by and are itching to see what they taste like, I might be persuaded to share...for a modest fee.
At any rate, life chugs along like it always had. Epithelial and connective tissues swirl and mix in with Church doctrine, elements, fundamental particles, conversion factors, mathematical functions, etc. to churn out a potent syrup of chaos in my mind. That's not including the other areas that require my attention, such as job-hunting. Really, I, like Bilbo Baggins of The Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien, feel like butter spread over too much bread, but only sometimes. We're only two weeks into it all, so I'm still feeling out the groove and rhythm that will make this all manageable and like clockwork. And with that, it's time for this Jack to be a dull boy.

And We're Off!

I suppose it's high time I get to the blog this week. So here we are a few days (3, to be exact) into the semester. Yeeha. Already I walk around looking nervous with a large bucket to hold my brain in when it tries to escape for a better life. So it's not that bad, but I have the feeling that it very well could get to that point if I'm not careful.
So far, all my teachers are great! That's very comforting considering I was half-expecting one of them to spend most of the time as Dr. Jekyll's counterpart. I think one of the best qualities a teacher can have that is revealed in the classroom is a healthy sense of humor. If that sense of humor is unhealthy, then I might suggest heading for the hills. Well my chemistry teacher, math teacher, anat. and phys. teacher, and religion teacher all seem to have healthy senses of humor. So there's a lucky break in that. Homework balances it out nicely though. It's most likely due to the fact that it's the beginning of the semester and therefore natural to feel like one's mind is scattered throughout the stratosphere, but there's a foreboding air about my homework amount. This will probably be a rigidly-scheduled semester. I almost joined the University Band because I have an opening for that hour, but doing homework during that time would be more beneficial. Another thing is that all of my classes are structured so differently from any other class I've had so far, except my religion class since I've had that teacher before. For example, in my Bio 264 class, it's optional whether or not we show up to the lab. We still have to do the work, but physically showing up is an option! The teacher said it was a change due to better help the students get out what they're putting in. So far for that class, I've learned about the 6 levels of organization (chemical, cell, tissue, organ, organ system, and organism), and 6 systems in the body with the major functions of each. The first part of the class, my teacher said, will be mostly histology (cells and tissues) before we get into the fun stuff.
That's about all there is to tell this semester. I'm loving that most of the campus is free now; no longer carrying a huge blemish of construction but just a little one. The school is now working on an amphitheater right in front of the Smith Building (for those of you who know where that is). The renovations are very pleasing for convenience and aesthetics.
Before I sign out of here, one thing I've missed aside from the friends up here was the weekly campus-wide devotional. They are now held in the BYU-I Center and are as good as ever. "Devo Days" are just good days, enough said. I'm signing off and headed for...something!

I'm a-Back!

Well folks, here we go again! Yes-siree, the blog is springing back to life like a 90 year-old arthritic man springing from his bed after a deep sleep. Indeed, I bet some of you are just as excited at this blog coming back as the previously-mentioned man is about getting up. All I have to say is that nobody's forcing you to read this, so there. I can't imagine this new streak of blog posts will be any more exciting or any better than Fall semester's posts. At this point, I think the most you can all hope for are potentially humorous dating stories and potentially boring human anatomy tidbits.
It's hard to say what this semester has in store for me, honestly. I can see a good work load every day with the classes I'm taking. Speaking of, they are as follows: Math 110 (college algebra), Chemistry 105 (with, from what I'm gathering, the hardest teacher for the class), Biology 264 (Human Anatomy and Physiology I), and Religion 324 (Doctrine and Covenants). I'm technically also signed up for Math 109 (Precalculus) which is a mistake and a class that I can't, for whatever reason, seem to drop. So there's potentially another source of humor for the semester...We'll have to see.
Anyway, classes don't start until Tuesday, so I'm up here kickin'-it in Rexburg, waiting for more people to show up. Job searching will be fun, as always. Competing with 100 students for one job is not something I take pleasure in.
Anyway, it's windy (like it always is in good ol' Rexburg) but beautiful outside and I'm getting cabin fever. As for my chemistry teacher, we'll see if he's really all he's cracked up to be, or if he's just one of those teachers that most students don't like but turns out to be one that I do like. At any rate, I'm keeping you posted, signing out, and headed for something great!