kisya, I'm so happy that you are alive!

tem bolee you've got some theories comming into your head, so that means you're doing well. i've got an idea about what you were saying pro questions kotorie prihodyat with an information. smotri, ya vspomnila an example from phylosophy course: . eto point, tochka, eto kakie-to personal knowledges, takoy mind celoveka kotoriy nicego ne znaet ili znaet no malo, kotoriy ne hocet nicego znat to be exact. znacit to, cto on znaet i to, s cem eti znaniya prihodat come into contact, enough for him to answer all his questions and to solve all his problems.
tak, a teper smotri what's going on with us, u nas eti znaniya about O (eto ne zero!!)this big, da ili daze bigger, tak cto the circumference comes into contact with more reality and general knowledges, and as a consequence, it seemes like we don't understand whats going on around, and we're having a hard time answering our questions which are come into our mind ili ponimaem, no malo....
tak, tak, i guess, my theory is more complicated to comprehence then your, sama kazetsa zaputalas, tak cto ne bud surprised esli nicego ne poymesh zdes! a ya dumayu poymesh, ili pocustvuesh.
u menya segodnya bil big day, ya sdelala cto-to, cto dolzna bila sdelat long time ago, kazetsa. rasskazu tebe potom!

Last day before exam(s)...

Whats the difference between "light" reading and studying anyway? It seems all psychological. I can sit for hours, enthralled by The Economist, but hardly last an hour reading Robbin's Pathology. I can lose a whole night browsing through internet news sites, but my head seems to spin after a short time infront of Pathology powerpoints.
So taking the anxiety out of the experience should be the solution right? But when I start with the "just browsing through my lectures" mindset, I end up falling asleep and/or not retaining any of the information... so what to do.
I think it must be a positive cycle. The answer is to spend more and more anxiety-free time in front of the subject -just like I spend hours in front of the Economist. The more my mind is filled with information about medicine, the more questions it will ask; I'll have a larger mental database of information to relate back to.
Thats the theory anyway. Back to the books, I'll tell you if it works in 20 years or so...

getting close to test time.

Today I'm starting to bear down for exams coming up this tuesday. I only have Path to study for, but I still have a long way to go before I'm ready. In my HHT research project, I saw the little boy's mother about his case again today. She reported to me that he had an episode of food induced vomitting which was followed by another episode of vomitting with bile and dried blood. This was followed again by bloody diarrhea. They attributed the event to trauma related to the first vomitous, which seems to me to be a likely explaination anyway. I tend to disagree though.
Tonight I'm going to have a nice dinner and a glass of wine. I'll read some more in Isaiah and hope to add a "blog" with my review. I'm encouraged by what I'm finding. Tomorrow morning I call Anya early and then I'll probably go to the SDA church and then try to find "Buck" about getting a banjo from him.
...more to come:)

HHT screening etc...

Today I saw a little boy's mother about him having HHT. The boy is from Holland, but I don't know where their extended family is from, and anyway, it doesn't exclude them from my research anyway. I think he has it and it seems that the family has seen a doctor about it before in Holland and they are also under the impression that it's hereditary. Tomorrow I'm going to see the mother again at 12:00 and get more information out of her. Including the boy, I count 7 candidates for HHT in 3 families. I've informed a mother and daughter that I want to get blood tests, I hope to inform the others after I see the mother tomorrow. Tonight I'm calling my brother about sending blood samples to his genetics lab. I talked to my dad tonight and he says he's also going to see if there are any labs in the area that do that kind of test. I still should go to the Lion's Club and screen the older men for the disease; I'm encouraged that HHT is on the island and I would be very suprised if I've already found all the likely candidates. I'll talk to some people in Windwardside about that maybe this evening.
I talked to Dr. Schnabel about starting a Melatonin research project too. I don't know, maybe I'm biting off more than I can chew, but it seems that it's a good and relatively simple project to do too. As long as I do well in my classes, I don't see why it wouldn't be worth doing too. And, as long as I'm in the research mind-set, why not?
I want to go see "Buck" or whatever his name is about getting one of those little banjos that he makes and taking lessons from him. That's the other thing that I think is well worth the time it'll take to do. The banjos that he makes are so small and unique, that it'll make the perfect interesting little portable instrument. It'll also reinvigourate that part of me that still wants to create.

friday night just sitting around...

There's a party going on down the street; I can hear the music from my window; but I have no intention of going. For some reason, I really have no desire to see the hoards of people, drunk and dancing and talking excitedly to a mass of friends they spent the whole week with. I suppose the drinking would be fun; but the hangovers are so much worse these days. Just now, outside the window, I heard, "Scott, what are you doing; come swing-dance." I don't know that girl too well, and I doubt they're playing swing music :)
Anyway, I'm supposed to call Anya in an hour & 1/2. I'll find something to do to stay up until then. :)

just a quick note b4 the weekend...

I'm going running with Josylin in a few minutes, then I'm going to dinner with Trusha and some girls, and then I'm going to the back 2 school party at Scott, Hari, and Chad's place just up the street. I had a relatively productive week, especially the last couple of days, and I'm not behind in my classes. I enjoy listening in these classes, and find it a pleasant challenge to find ways to keep myself engaged. It feels like my understanding of the basic sciences is about to come together. I should go; I need to get changed and put on my contacts. Things are going well...

Thursday: Grocery day

Today the ship came in with our supplies of fruits and veges for the week. I got my usual rations of tomatos, and green peppers. I forgot the cucumbers though and got potatoes instead. I'm making a concerted effort to get back to the library and study this evening; the last 2 days have been a disaster as far as studying after school is concerned. I'm really starting to get into a groove as far as listening in these classes is concerned though. I should go; I'm due to call Anya back and I want to go running before I go to the library.


My house on the Saba cliff and the airport

just wanted to try adding a couple of things...

I wanted to try adding a picture of Anya:


... and a link to my web page:
www.geocities.com/merrittsse/braincharts77.htm

1st day of 4th semester

Today I started Path 1, and sat in on Path 2 and Kaplan review. I'm excited about the prospects for this semester but a little indecisive about how to organize my time for the semester. If I just go to Path 1, I can be done with classes in the morning and have the rest of the day in the library to study; if I go to both other classes and listen in, I'll have an excellent preview of next semester's material. I suppose the latter is the thing to do, considering that i can still skip the last 2 classes the week before the exam and I'll still only have 1 class to study for. I expect to do very well this semester!!!

I think I was in love with Anya before I went to Germany these last 2 weeks, but if I wasn't before, I DEFINATELY am now. She's better than me, yet I feel like there's still so much I can offer her. We seem to be drawing closer to understanding and (perhaps even more importantly) agreeing with each other's opinions and perspectives. I still have to work harder on expressing value for her feelings and opinions. Now that I think about it, I know that I made light of her pet likes on a couple of occasions while we were together. She didn't really do that to me; I ought not do it to her.

Today I arrived back in Saba from my trip to see Anya. I arrived a little too late to go to Path 1 in the morning, and the other class i'm just sitting in on, so I decided to sit out the day and go tomorrow. I talked to Anya a few minutes ago, and was about to go running when it started raining. I hope it'll stop soon and dry up a little so I can go anyway. Tomorrow I hope to get everything back in full gear; I'm really hopefull about this next coming semester and beyond.