The Adventure Never Ends

Last Couple of Days in the Mountains

2011-10-16T23:19:00.000-05:00

Enjoy the slideshow!

First Week in Colorado

2011-09-27T21:44:00.001-05:00

Thought I would post some photos from the first week and a half here.

The first picture is standing at the Visitor Center at the Air Force Academy. The leaves are starting to change.

The second picture is of the cadet area at the Academy. The weather has been really nice lately.

The third picture was taken at Hoosier Pass at 11,507 feet in the mountains west of Colorado Springs. This is right outside of Breckenridge.

The fourth picture is at Berthoud Pass which is well north of where Hoosier Pass is. Berthoud Pass is at a little over 11000 feet.

The highest mountain pass that I was at last weekend was Loveland Pass at 11,990 feet. It is not too far from the freeway and is about an hour outside of Denver.

Academic Rotation Over

2011-09-16T20:02:00.000-05:00

It has been a busy but laid back five weeks at Creighton for my academic rotation. I gave my two lectures yesterday and today and I think it went fairly well. My topic was adult cold and I was up there for a little under 2 hours.

I think I learned a lot about academia during the last month and while I think I could do it well, I think the politics of it would wear on me pretty quickly. My next rotation is in Colorado and is a hospital management rotation.

Jake

I Know It Has Been A While

2011-08-24T21:23:00.000-05:00

Since I have gotten home, I have been a lot busier than I was in Alaska. I now have work again and trying to get everything done has taken away from blogging time. What I can say is that the new rotation is going well, I am a week and a half in to it and I like the academic side of things so far. I head out to Colorado in 3 1/2 weeks. This year is going by very quickly.

Sun Setting on Alaska

2011-08-01T00:53:00.000-05:00

Figuratively, for me at least. Literally, the sun has started setting at about 12:30 AM or so recently, which has changed from about 2 to 3 AM if at all in the middle of June. All that remains for me on this rotation is 2 weeks in the adult ICU, along with a presentation on tuberculosis on Tuesday. I am not worried about the presentation as I think I have a pretty good grasp on the subject and I will be able to get my point across fairly well. This rotation has been easier than I thought it would be...although the getting to the hospital at 630 in the morning most days has been taxing.

My next rotation in Omaha is a teaching rotation and I expect it will be pretty low key. I think most of my time will be spent getting ready for Colorado later this fall and then Oregon this winter.

Week 2 of Acute Care

2011-07-23T20:17:00.000-05:00

Monday through Thursday this week was more of what happened last week. My time was spent in pediatrics and was not all that exciting. It was pretty slow to speak of this week.

On Friday, I got to watch two surgeries. The first was a female patient who was having trouble walking because of a compressed disc in the spine. The surgeon took out the disc and put in a new one. The second surgery in the afternoon was the repair of an inguinal hernia. This was by far the more interesting of the two surgeries. It was done laparoscopically, meaning an small incision was made and the surgeon used small grabbers to do what needed to be done. Overall it was a pretty good week. I move to adult medicine this next week. I am happy that I don't have to be in till 1030 this week.

Days 4 and 5: Start of the PICU

2011-07-16T23:57:00.000-05:00

As it says in the title, I have been in the PICU the last two days. PICU stands for Pedatric Intensive Care Unit. It has been great so far. Some of the more interesting things:

We had a code blue very early Friday morning, probably about 8am. Someone in the hospital was having a grand mal seizure. A code blue is an adult medical emergency. We attended the code to help with the medications from the crash cart. We had to run a long way to get there (up three floors and on the opposite side of the hospital.)

Also on Friday, we had a pediatric patient who was admitted with a giant aneurysm (giant actually being a medical term for an aneurysm over 2.5 cm in any direction.) It was shown on CT and unfortunately the location and size mean the prognosis is poor.

Learning about a lot of interesting things on this rotation, it has been great so far. I met the guy I will be working with the last week I am here and he is a condescending jerk. Oh well, I have had excellent luck so far and I figure one bad apple isn't bad.

Also, some Seattle Seahawks personnel came into the PICU unit on Friday, if it sounds random, that's because it was. They were all great to the kids.

New Rotation Begins: Days 1-3

2011-07-13T22:33:00.000-05:00

The first three days of this rotation have been pretty quiet. On Monday, I followed one of the techs around and we filled the Pyxis machines all day. Pyxis machines are machines in the nurses units that dispense inpatient medication without the nurse having to go to the pharmacy to pick it up. This is something I have done before, so it was not a big deal.

The last two days have been spent in the IV room, just making random IVs. This is also something I have done before. I have been using the downtime that I've had to do the major project I have during this rotation...another powerpoint presentation. This time I decided to go with tuberculosis. It is common in Alaska Natives and knowing the most recent way to treat TB is always good.

Tomorrow it is time to start pediatrics and going in at 0630. Ugh.

Dawn of a New Day

2011-07-11T01:23:00.000-05:00

It is Sunday night up here in Anchorage, about 9pm, and of course the sun is still out. I have to report for my second rotation tomorrow at 8am, which will probably be the latest time that I will get to go in. While I haven't got my schedule yet, I am assuming that I will need to be at the hospital at 630 or 700 am until I leave Alaska. I usually get up early, but I am not excited about starting that early.

This also will likely be the hardest of my rotations. My plan for this rotation, unlike the last one, is to get all of my assignments done in the first 2 weeks. I didn't get my last assignment done for this last one until the 2nd to last day. I am up for the challenge and happy to get it out of the way early.

I like Alaska and the Anchorage area very much, but I have been without transportation for most of seven weeks now and I will be very happy to get back to where I don't have to ride a bicycle everywhere. I don't miss the extremely hot and humid weather that the Midwest is having, though. I would definitely like to come back here in the future and be stationed out of Elmendorf AFB. The Air Force considers Alaska to be overseas and they expect medical personnel to do one overseas assignment during their career.

Days 24 and 25: Last Days

2011-07-10T01:25:00.003-05:00

Thursday and Friday were the last days of my ambulatory care rotation. Other than the 4th rotation, which is Colorado at the Air Force Academy, this is the rotation that will be most like my job. Thursday was a very random day. I worked on my last assignment for most of the morning and in the afternoon saw a few patients before going to a journal club about a study for a diabetes drug that ended up not working. A journal club is basically a group of people that get together and talk about a journal article for some drug trial. If it sounds extremely nerdy...that's because it is. I had to give mine a few weeks ago and was lucky because there was only one other student there. This time, I was one of about 6 students at this journal club. The group was being led by the woman I worked with in the diabetes clinic a few weeks ago. As a result, I was the only person answering and asking questions.

Friday was less random. It was only a half day. The morning was spent getting my final evaluation done (which I did pretty well on). I did what was asked of me on this rotation and the person giving me the evaluation said I was very motivated to get things done and did well incorporating what the pharmacists said into what I was doing. I didn't think I was really doing anything special, so ??? Either way, I got what may be my first real A in pharmacy school. (I have gotten other A's in pharmacy school, but only in a few classes where you were guaranteed to get an A unless you were a freaking idiot. There were only 4 of those or so total in 3 years. In the classes that were actually of substance, I never got above a B+. I do have lots of C's.) So...yay me.

Friday over lunch was a catered presentation about a new blood thinner called Pradaxa. (We got to eat Qdoba!!) Basically Pradaxa is a ridiculously expensive drug with a handful of drawbacks over the current therapy (warfarin). The most telling statistic is that: You have to treat 90 patients with Pradaxa to get one less stroke over using warfarin. As you can tell, I am not impressed with the drug. Mainly for that reason, but also for others that get much more technical.

Less than five weeks left in Alaska now. Just got housing for Colorado, excited about that.

The 4th of July and Days 22-23

2011-07-06T22:55:00.000-05:00

I didn't do much over the weekend, other than get some work for the rotation done and get some small tasks around the apartment done. On Monday, my roommates and I went down to Hope, which is about 70 miles away by road but 25 miles away as the crow flies. We went there to go on a white water rafting trip. Following are some picture from it. We went about 10 miles on the river through mainly Class III, IV and V rapids. It was a lot of fun, they gave us dry suits to wear so when we were done we were not even wet.

Tuesday and Wednesday of this week have been spent mostly in the embedded clinic. This is a pharmacist who answers questions from doctors and changes medications as needed to make sure that the patient has the best drug therapy they can get. It has been a hard few days. I have spent most of the last few days looking up articles regarding cholesterol drugs and their interactions. Further, this morning I had my presentation on MS at 8am. It took about 20 minutes and there must have been about another 20 minutes or so of questions. I thought it went really well. I have one more day in the embedded clinic and one more day in the outpatient pharmacy before the end of this rotation. I will be happy to move on to something else next Monday, but for the most part, this rotation was enjoyable.

Days 19-20: Nearing the End

2011-07-03T22:12:00.000-05:00

Thursday was another day spent up in the pediatrics pharmacy. Not too much to speak of today, just some antibiotics and topical creams to counsel on. Nothing too tough.

Friday, the big pharmacy downstairs was short staffed, so we went down there and did another day of counseling on medications. Friday was very much an antibiotic and pain pill sort of day. Lots of patients are extra motivated to get their pain medications before a long weekend.

This next coming week is fairly general outpatient counseling. I can't believe that one rotation is almost done!!

Days 16-18: Interesting Week

2011-06-30T18:58:00.000-05:00

This week has been a little more shuffled that the last 3 weeks of my rotation. Monday, I was supposed to be in the pediatric clinic, but the pharmacist there was sick so I ended up working downstairs in the bigger of two outpatient pharmacies. It was fast paced but pretty easy. Nothing I have not seen before.

Tuesday, the pharmacist for the pediatric clinic was there but still wasn't feeling well, so she left at 2. I did some counseling on mostly antibiotics and ibuprofen.

Wednesday, I was scheduled to be in the smaller of two outpatient pharmacies. It may be smaller, but it is just as busy. We had a patient come in with metastatic colon cancer at one point to pick up an extraordinary amount of pain medication and anti-nausea medication. We also had a patient come in with a systolic blood pressure of above 200 (normal systolic is 120...mine is normally about 80.) We promptly had this patient head down to the emergency room.

The weather has been really nice up here lately. Only a week and a half left for this rotation until it is time to head upstairs for sicker patients.

Days 14-15: Internal Medicine Pharmacy

2011-06-25T19:00:00.000-05:00

The last 2 days were spent in the Internal Medicine clinic, which serves people in neurology, rheumatology and general issues. I was working with a pharmacist who graduated from Oregon State back in 1999, so we had plenty to talk about since we both lived in Corvallis for a while. (And both of us think that it is the best town we have lived in so far.)

Side note on Corvallis, for those few people who read my blog who have never been there. (I guess I should say those few people who read my blog, haha) It is a city of 53,000, in the Willamette Valley, 1 1/2 hours south of Portland and 1 hour away from the coast. There are a lot of positives about the city...there is plenty of open space, it is spread out making it feel smaller than it is and there are not a lot of homeless people who live there. The campus is really nice, too. There are a few really old buildings on campus (Snell Hall, Milam and some buldings on engineering row come to mind), but for the most part, everything is very up to date. I really like that the school is on the semester system too. I could go on and on...but I will keep this short.

In the Internal Med clinic, we saw a lot of arthritis patients and patients who had severe stomach pains caused by H. pylori infection. See attached H. pylori picture.

Anyway, the H. pylori is easy to treat, but it is a 4 drug regimen which is kind of confusing for the patients that we have coming through. 3 of the drugs you have to take 4 times a day and one of them twice a day, in addition, some of the drugs that you take 4 times a day can't be taken together.

Next week is the pediatric clinic. The nice thing about this next coming week is that I don't have to go to work until 9:30AM. Most of last week was 7:30. I realize a lot of my friends on their rotations are going in a lot earlier than that, but 7:30 is still early!! This rotation will be over a week from Friday, at which point I will be going upstairs to people in an ICU type environment at the medical center here.

Watch for a new slide show in the next few days!!

Days 11-13: The Blood Thinner Clinic

2011-06-23T15:35:00.000-05:00

Monday through Wednesday was spent in the anticoagulation clinic, which is the clinic where you make sure people are taking their blood thinners correctly. Each of these people has to get their blood tested to see how thick their blood is, then we adjust their dose accordingly. That went pretty well this week.

Last night, we cooked a salmon that one of my roommates had caught on Tuesday down near Kenai. Here is a picture of me de-boning it.

Day 10: TGIF

2011-06-19T00:39:00.000-05:00

It is Saturday night as I write this, but I will recap the events of yesterday. We had a full day of clinic and saw about ten patients. I think I was doing a better job yesterday answering the questions that the nurse, pharmacist and dietitian were asking me. I was teaching people how to use their insulin and their blood glucose meters and now I have my very own blood glucose meter. I find that when I test my blood sugar, I generally am in the 70s, which would be considered low blood sugar in a diabetic patient but normal for someone without diabetes. I got off work at 4 PM and headed downtown on the bus with my roommates. We stayed down there for a little while and tried to find the baseball park.

We never did end up finding the diamond, so we walked back to the University, which ended up being about 6 miles. We did stop to eat at some point in there, though. It really wasn't a big deal since it is light most all night. It gets a little darker for about an hour from about 2-3am, but there still is enough light to see for miles. The sun does set but it doesn't go very far under the horizon.

Today, I was very productive, but did not do anything too exciting. I think the next weekend or two will be pretty laid back. The only place I want to go in the rest of my time in Alaska is Denali and I think it will be a few weeks before I make it up there. Transportation is the main issue.

Days 7 ,8 and 9: In the Diabetes Clinic

2011-06-16T20:50:00.000-05:00

The last 3 days I have been in the diabetes clinic taking medication histories from patients and telling them about their medications. Many of the patients are really nice and will tell you what you need to know, so that is good. The pharmacist I am working with has done this for a long time and she expects me to know a lot. I think I can answer about half her questions, but she is really nice about everything. I hope that I am doing OK this week...I will find out the middle of next week what they think in my midpoint evaluation for this rotation. I do really like the nurse we are working with this week. She has probably been doing the diabetes clinic for 20 years and while she is nice, she is also very direct and she will not sugarcoat what she thinks of the patient's health when she talks to them.

Today is another full day in the diabetes clinic, followed by anticoagulation clinic for the first three days next week. Hopefully I will do better over there.

It poured last night, but it is supposed to be sunny for the next 3 days here. Tomorrow, I will only have 8 weeks left.

The Beginning of Diabeetus Week

2011-06-14T00:07:00.000-05:00

Today was the beginning of a week in the diabetes clinic. By 10 AM Monday morning, it was fairly obvious that I did not know nearly what I needed to know about the diabetes drugs. There are about 25 of them in all, some are alike but they each have their own details which make them different from each other.

I do know the important things: how metformin works, how insulin works and how the sulfonylureas work. The majority of patients will take drugs solely within those three areas for their diabetes. After that, I can't keep them straight. The pharmacist I am working with this week has probably been doing the diabetes clinic forever and is trying to be as nice as possible while I recite my line "I don't know." Thankfully, no patients were harmed today because there was no clinic today. The doctor that runs the clinic on Mondays and Wednesdays is in Bethel this week.

I am sure tomorrow will be better.

Saturday in Seward

2011-06-13T00:57:00.000-05:00

We did the 130 or so mile drive down to Seward yesterday to see the Exit Glacier. Attached are some pictures from our trip. The scenery was beautiful, as usual, and it was cool to be walking on a giant piece of ice.

End of the First Week!

2011-06-11T04:02:00.000-05:00

Today was a very short day for the rotation. I went in and learned about clozapine for a couple hours in the morning, worked on my powerpoint presentation that I have to give later on in the rotation and watched a pharmacist counsel someone on smoking cessation. The smoking cessation counseling was actually much more informative than I thought it would be. There are a few different options when it comes to drug therapy (patches, lozenges, gum, Zyban and Chantix) but the biggest part of therapy is changing your habits. I will be counseling these in a week or 2.

This evening I went to Elmendorf AFB and went to the commissary. (I rented a car for the weekend.) The food is about HALF as expensive as any other store in Anchorage. I went crazy and have enough food for a few weeks now...and I only spent $60.

After that, I went back to the apartment and got two of my three roommates and we drove south for about an hour down to Whittier. These pictures are all taken about 1130 to near midnight. Notice how light it still is.

Day 4: The Village People

2011-06-10T00:00:00.000-05:00

Today I was in the Village pharmacy. This pharmacy is unique in that it alone controls the drugs in about 40 smaller clinics in its service area (which is southwestern Alaska and the Aluetian islands.) Many of these small villages don't have any medical professionals, so they have someone in the village designated as a medical aide and have them go through a course which is a lot like military combat medic training. They then can dispense some medications with the OK of the pharmacist back in Anchorage. It is a neat system, but one that would only work in Alaska because of the sheer distances involved with coming to the few major cities for medical care.

Over the last few days, I feel like I've gotten to know the ins and outs of Alaska a little better. A lot of people can point out Juneau, Anchorage and Fairbanks on a map, but not a lot of people know the difference between a village like Barrow and a village like St Paul (Barrow is on the North Slope and St Paul is in the Aluetian chain.) One of the pharmacists I worked with today has been in the Indian Health Service for 19.5 years and her husband just retired from the Air Force. (He is non-medical.) She was giving me tips about what the uniformed services look for in career advancement, something which is extremely helpful. The director of pharmacy here is also prior Air Force, and I talked with him briefly. We will set up another time to talk more.

That's all for now. Tomorrow I am in the Tobacco cessation clinic.

Days 2 and 3: Cultural Orientation / Outpatient Pharmacy

2011-06-09T00:48:00.000-05:00

Day 2 was another half day. It was spent in a building off of the Native Medical Center campus listening to 4 speakers, each from a different part of rural Alaska. There is really no such thing as "Inuit" or "Eskimo" when talking about Native people in Alaska. People coming from the north part of the state are mostly Yupik or Chupik; Natives from the southeast part of the state are Haida or Tlingit; Natives from the central part of the state are generally Athabascan and Natives from the west part of the state are generally Aleut. All of the speakers were really nice and very informative.

Wednesday was spent in the outpatient pharmacy counseling patients on their medications. Today was one of the very few days that I will be spending in the outpatient pharmacy. Next week, for example, I will be in the diabetes clinic all week and for the next few days this week I will be in a specialty pharmacy that they use to mail out medications to people who do not live near Anchorage.

First Day of Rotation

2011-06-07T01:15:00.000-05:00

Today was the first day of my first rotation, this one being ambulatory care. This rotation is really a mish-mash of a bunch of different topics. Upon getting my schedule today, it looks like an entire week will be spent on diabetes counseling, every Friday in the smoking cessation clinic and some time in the pediatric, anticoagulation and internal medicine clinics. This is just my schedule for the next 5 weeks. After that, I will head upstairs to what likely will be more ICU type cases.

So far, everyone is really nice.

Flat Top

2011-06-06T18:44:00.000-05:00

Flat Top is another mountain just outside of Anchorage. We hiked this one on Sunday in conditions which could have been better. It was again rainy, windy and snowy. Once we got into the fog, the conditions got a lot better. I forgot my camera card so I only took a few pictures on my phone on may way up the mountain. After this picture, we were scaling a rocky face of the mountain...actual rock climbing. I did not have the right gear to be rock climbing but I made it anyway.

My knees hate me now. They want a vacation.

Rabbit Lake

2011-06-05T13:20:00.001-05:00

About 4 pm yesterday, we decided to hike to Rabbit Lake, just outside of Anchorage. Down in Anchorage, it was cool, cloudy and not raining. On our hike, it was much colder, rainy, windy and very foggy. This picture is at the top of the mountain. Most of the lake is frozen over, except for part of the lake near the left hand side of the top photo.

Alaska slideshow

2011-06-03T01:44:00.002-05:00

Memorial Day

2011-05-31T02:11:00.001-05:00

Memorial Day in some years is also my birthday. Today happens to be one of those years.

I had a good 24th birthday. Definitely the most low key birthday I've ever had, which I am ok with. Today was just spent exploring Anchorage more (some would call it wandering aimlessly, but I prefer exploring...)

I took a few pictures of the hospital I will be working at. Here they are:

Here is my address for the next month or two. Please use this address exactly and please don't send anything after July 15th. Thanks. It is:

Jake Mock
3700 Sharon Gagnon Lane
MAC 2 - 210A
Anchorage AK 99508

Some needs are (if you want to send something):
-Quarters (the laundry machines take them and it is hard for me to get a large amount of change at once)
-Crunchy peanut butter or cereal is always welcome

Also, I made another slideshow. This one is from my San Diego trip in March.

Wildlife Watch, Pt. 1

2011-05-29T13:26:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, while exploring the bike trails of Anchorage, I came across this: a moose just sitting there just off the trail. Other than that, the last few days up here have been fairly uneventful. I am just trying to explore right now as much as possible by bike.

Wasilla

2011-05-27T01:38:00.001-05:00

Today, I did find out that the sun does actually go down here. At 2am I got up to go to the bathroom and it was "dark"... kind of the same thing you would see 1/2 hour before dusk in the continental US.

Last night, we went up to Wasilla, best known as where Sarah Palin is from. Took a few pictures on the rivers on the way up there.

Tomorrow I have to turn the rental car in. Luckily, I have the bicycle now.

The Sun Also Rises

2011-05-25T20:52:00.000-05:00

Since I arrived in Anchorage yesterday, the sun has not gone down while I was awake. I made it till about midnight yesterday and it was still plenty light outside. The sum MAY have gone down while I was asleep, but I don't know. I was awoken by a gaggle of canadian geese this morning. They were just chilling in the little open area that is outside of my window. I wonder how long it will take me to see my first bear or moose here.

Rented a car yesterday when I got here. There were a lot of big things I had to pick up, such as a bicycle and a microwave. Also picked up some bear spray (which contains a lot of capsacin. You can also use capsacin for osteoarthritis. The more you know...)

So...Anchorage is interesting. It is the most drawn out town you will ever see. It feels much bigger than it actually is...some of the city is actually open space and it is common to see wildlife in city limits.

My 'apartment' that I am staying at is kind of rundown. So far it is me and two other guys, both of them are about my age and really cool. The three of us took the rental car about 50 miles south of anchorage, almost all the way to Girdwood. I am planning on heading down that way tomorrow. Anyway, we had the chance to take some pictures...

I also got the chance to meet the people I am going to be working with today at the Alaska Native Medical Center. They are also really cool. Beginning June 6th for 5 weeks I will be doing my ambulatory care rotation in their outpatient pharmacy. It seems that I will probably do a ton of patient counseling...they are freaking busy from the looks of it. But that is good...something I do all the time at Hy-Vee, where I work back in the midwest. The other rotation I have here is my acute care and will probably involve a project or two and some hospital type work. Much more laid back. Probably will be a lot like North Lincoln Hospital in that regard. (I will be there in LC in January.) I have posted my rotation schedule to the side of the blog.

Sightseeing day tomorrow. Will post more pictures then.

Traveling All Day Tomorrow

2011-05-23T20:38:00.000-05:00

Leaving Omaha for Anchorage tomorrow, via Salt Lake City and Portland. I will be leaving at roughly 6am tomorrow. This time of the year the sun rises about 430 am in Anchorage and sets about 1130pm. Looking forward to getting up there. I will be there for just under 12 weeks.

I am also looking forward to seeing my parents and my grandma in the Portland airport for a few hours tomorrow. It will be a whirlwind trip tomorrow. Will write about it on Wednesday.

Firing Up The Blog Again

2011-05-22T23:34:00.002-05:00

First things first. Sitting in a classroom is done for me. Thank God.

Now on to clinical rotations. My first two are in Alaska. Now that I have more time, I plan to blog a little more. I am not really that much of a fan of talking on the phone...look for a few pictures here, slideshows, and a little writing over the coming weeks.

And enjoy the slideshow below of my recent trip to South Dakota.

First post in 9 months

2010-12-27T13:52:00.000-06:00

It is now a few days after Christmas and for the second year in a row, I have stayed in Nebraska for the big day. I will be heading back to Oregon on New Years Day.

A lot has happened in the last nine months. First of all, I quit working at The Nebraska Medical Center so I could go home for my last free summer. I worked as an intern at Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital for the summer. My friend Dan came with me and we drove both there and back. On the way out to Oregon, we met an older pharmacist in Moab, Utah who offered to take Dan and I in a ride in his Cessna (an airplane). Moab is easily one of my favorite places in the United States, and to see it and the Canyonlands by plane was absolutely amazing. It is another one of those stories that no one would believe if I had not had someone there with me to prove it. I ended up flying the plane for about 20 minutes...it is a rush and easier to fly once you are in the air than one would think.We also saw Arches NP, Bryce Canyon NP, Zion NP and Great Basin NP. Bryce Canyon is something you need to see...Great Basin I was really disappointed by.

Once I was back to Oregon for the summer I worked at the hospital and went of vacation with Kev to the Bahamas for a week. There are parts of those islands that are really rich and other places which are really slummy. On the way back to Omaha, Dan and I stopped in Yellowstone just for a day. That was the second time I had been there...also one of my favorite parks.

Once we got back to school, things became pretty unremarkable. While I learned a lot this last semester, only three things were really memorable. One was burning the crap out of myself on a tubing trip during the first few weeks of the semester.

Another was a trip to Colorado with my friends Chad and Jake. That trip was eventful...in a good way.

The last happened just a few weeks ago. After 18 months of waiting, I found out that I had been selected for the Air Force's HPSP (Health Professions Scholarship Program). This means that the Air Force will pay my last year of school (about $45,000, for those who are counting) and also pay me a stipend and I will owe them three years as a pharmacist. The job market has really tightened up for pharmacists in the last 2 years as the economy went into the tank and is not expected to get better soon. While I am really excited that I will be in the military, because it is what I've wanted to do since I graduated high school, I am also relieved that I will not have to look for a job next year. This could get ugly for some of my classmates, some of whom are completely unaware as to the situation. My commissioning is set for the 2nd of January in Lincoln City. I will not know which base I will be stationed at until much closer to graduation.

I am also happy to report that I only have one more semester of classwork to complete. Then I will have 8 five week rotations to do before I graduate and take the pharmacy boards. I already know that the first two rotations will be in Anchorage, Alaska. I have also asked for one in Lincoln City and another one in San Antonio, Texas. There are two of the bigger Air Force bases in San Antonio and I was there for the APhA meeting during my first year of school. The other four rotations must be in Omaha, says the school.

It is nice to be 16 months from graduation after all this time in school. I now work at Hy-Vee pharmacy, where I will be till I graduate. I like where I work, which is a bit surprising to me since it is a retail pharmacy. I have to work in an hour and I should get going.

Jake

DC Day 1-2

2010-03-11T21:44:00.000-06:00

As I said,in an earlier post, I am only posting blogs for when I am out of town. I am in DC this weekend for the American Pharmacists Association national meeting, which happens every year. I like going to this meeting because it is the one meeting that shows all sides of pharmacy.

This year, I was selected as a delegate, one of only 20 or so students nationwide to be able to serve as a delegate. The other 20 or so students and I join about 150 pharmacists to vote on the upcoming year's policy positions. This year is especially important because it is becoming increasingly likely healthcare reform will be passed in some form or fashion. I am excited to be able to help out my profession.

We went to the Jefferson Memorial today. I had never been there before. It is kind of out of the way but well worth going to. I also went to the Air and Space Museum again today. I like the space portion of that museum.

The meeting itself runs from Friday to Monday so I should be busy over the next few days. -Jake

First Post in Six Weeks

2009-12-27T19:28:00.000-06:00

The first semester of second year has finally finished and Christmas has came and went. I have now been part of two "historical blizzards" in the last month here, but I don't think either of them was as bad as most people thought they were.

I will be home in a little over a week, but I still have plenty to do here. In addition to work, I am trying to go through my room and throw away any papers I do not need. There is a lot to go through, but I have done about half of it already.

I am also trying to get ready for next semester. We have six classes in the spring. I'd like to do a bit better than I did this semester (3 C's and 1 C+) although I will take passing if it comes down to it (I think that grade point average is a terrible predictor of success.)

Things I am planning to do next year (2010):
March (spring break) : Denver for the first half of the week, then DC for the second half for the APhA meeting.
May (after classes are over) : Drive back home for a week.
June: Bahamas cruise
August: Drive back to Omaha
October (fall break) : Don't know yet. Maybe a short road trip to go camping.

Fall Arrives in Omaha

2009-11-08T11:56:00.000-06:00

As we near the middle of November, the weather in Omaha remains very nice. It has been in the high 60's and low 70's for the last week or so and it is supposed to be sunny with well above freezing temperatures for at least he next 10 days. This is a welcome thing to hear, since last year we pretty much had snow from the first of November until March. Classes are going OK, I am not doing great in them, but I will pass them all this semester. Supposedly, this is supposed to be our hardest semester, so I will be glad to see it go. I can't believe I've lived here for almost a year and a half.

In other news, the Air Force board for pharmacy meets on Tuesday. I will not know for at least 3 weeks after that. Wish me luck!

Chinle Days 3-5

2009-10-22T09:29:00.000-05:00

On Monday, we went around and did odd jobs for the elders in the Many Farms area. These people are either too old to do these jobs themselves or are handicapped. We ended up visiting 2 houses in the morning and four in the afternoon on Monday. The most houses this class had ever visited in the past was five houses in one day. At each of these houses, I chopped wood. Chopping wood or "chopping woods" as they call it, is important because it will get very cold in this area during the winter and many of these people have very small woodstoves which provide their only heat. At many of the houses, my classmates swept and mopped the floors and cleaned the houses.

A picture of wood chopping will appear here later.

On Tuesday, we did much of the same, except this time in the Rough Rock area. We also did six houses on Tuesday. Our first three houses were older women who were all sisters with each other. They each lived fairly close to one another. Until Wednesday, we also had Dr. Roche and Dr. Jones with us. At each house, we would look for cats and dogs for which our professors had brought cat and dog food.

On Wednesday, we were in the Chinle pharmacy. In the Indian Health Service, everyone is counseled on their prescriptions. I did about 10-15 counsels that morning with one of the pharmacists there who would quiz on every aspect of the drug. I don't know if any of us were ready for that, but we learned a lot. In the afternoon, we met with the native healer, and he told us about some of the traditional Navajo ways and traditions. After that, we went back to the pharmacy and continued counseling until 5PM. Immediately at 5, we went to get Navajo tacos at a local restaurant. A Navajo taco is a taco salad, except there is no shell and a flatbread type tortilla there instead.

Chinle Day 2

2009-10-18T18:41:00.000-05:00

Early this morning, we went to a Native American style Catholic church service. It was nice but also short. Later that morning, we went on the hike in Canyon De Chelly National Monument.

We had a tour guide named Elsie who showed us the best way to go. We went on the "Hanging Ladders" trail. One can imagine why the trail is named the "Hanging Ladders" trail. It is named that because there are 4 or 5 places where you must climb up or down a ladder hanging over the cliff face.

In total, it took us about 4 1/2 hours to climb down the canyon and then back up. Although it was crazy climbing in some areas, it was a lot of fun. Here is a picture of the canyon from near the bottom.

Chinle Day 1

2009-10-17T22:07:00.002-05:00

This will be a pictureless post since I left the camera in the rental car.

I left Omaha for Albuquerque at 8am this morning, with about an hour layover in Denver. Albuquerque is beautiful, from what I can see. It was roughly 75 degrees and clear when we got here. After we got here, we went and got our rental car after braving a line that was much too long. Ended up getting two cars; one for the two professors and one for the five students. We ended up driving a 2008 Dodge Durango, of which I am not a fan. (I drove from Gallup to Chinle, about a 2 hour drive. It has awkward controls and no pep for a car its size.) However, we did go to a great Mexican restaurant there in Gallup.

There were many rock formations on the drive to Chinle, but other than that, the land here is pretty flat. I really like the temperature and the landscape though. This area has shot up the charts in terms of places I want to live.

A recap:

Places I'd like to live after graduation:
Utah, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, etc.

Places I am not a fan of (in terms of me living there):
California, Florida, Maryland/DC, Anything north of Kansas in the upper midwest (too COLD)

I probably won't go back to the NW because there are few Air Force bases there (that and the fact that I am over dealing with the rain 9 months out of the year.) Luckily there are plenty of bases in the SW/Texas/Oklahoma/Utah (I think around 12-15.)

Going hiking tomorrow here: (this is a prepackaged internet photo)

Summer Always Comes to a Close

2009-08-22T20:23:00.003-05:00

Summer is now over for me, after three short and fun-filled months of leadership activities and get-togethers with my friends and family both in Omaha and back in Oregon. While I am sad that the summer is over, this means that I will be busy "in the swing of things."

I've got 6 courses this semester and I think I am decently positioned in terms of progressing in the program. My courses this semester, while much more challenging, seem very manageable.

It is another very nice day, so I am going to go enjoy it outside :)

-Jake

Back on the Coast With Apparently Nothing Better To Do

2009-07-26T22:50:00.004-05:00

Actually, I'm just trying to kill time until I thoroughly get my ass beat by Kev at pool. However, the beach is fogged in, like usual, so not going to go down there today.

Flew out of Omaha pretty early last Thursday and got into Salt Lake about 9:30. Nice state, crappy airport. Ended up staying at my second least favorite airport around nine hours (the worst is by far Charleston, SC...), but I guess I shouldn't complain since my roommate was stuck in Houston for 34 hours the next day.

Anyway, being back on the coast has been fairly uneventful. Traffic is terrible, per usual, since the highway I live on is the easiest way to get from Portland to the coast. Temps in Portland are supposed to be 100+ the next three days, unheardof for the area.

Was up in Grand Ronde today, where it was a VERY comfortable 95 (no humidity), but plenty of people were complaining of the heat (come out to Omaha.) Met with one of my good friends from high school, she is going to graduate from Oregon State after fall term.

Yesterday was spent in Corvallis, where I went to undergrad. Met up with a few friends, but I plan on meeting up with many more people on Wednesday when I go back up there. I'm also going to get one of my tattoos worked on while I am up there.

In other unrelated news, finally got the Air Force application done. Just have an interview to go and then a long waiting period to find out whether or not I am chosen.

The summer is coming to a close and so is my trip. Will only be here six more days, but I'll be sure to have a lot of fun.

Pictures next time for sure, maybe a healthcare reform post. Who knows.

Weekend in Washington DC

2009-07-17T19:48:00.005-05:00

I had a good time in Washington DC at the student pharmacist leadership conference. I met a lot of people from a lot of different schools, who all promised me that they'd see me in Washington DC again in March (the site of the national meeting this year.) In related news, I was at Arlington National Cemetery the day I left and I fell into a manhole. I fell about 3 feet, not the requisite six to be pushing up daisies. Next time I will try harder.

The Start of the CWS Championship Series Brings a Blistering Start to Summer

2009-06-22T20:44:00.004-05:00

Today is the first "real" day of summer, and the temperatures today and in the next few days are in the mid to high 90's with high humidity. The humidity makes it feel somewhere around 105-110 degrees F.

This week's championship series is Texas vs. LSU. There are still many more people in town than usual, but I don't mind it that much. I've been spending a lot of time in my apartment or at work, two places which have great air conditioning systems.

The weekend before last I went backpacking in Colorado. Here are a few pictures.

This Has Been A Long Time Coming...

2009-06-06T22:16:00.003-05:00

My parents and my grandmother were in town last weekend for my birthday. We ended up spending a lot of time at the pool, at Walmart, cooking and at the zoo. Some of the pictures from above are from the zoo. The third picture is of Nicole and Dan at the zoo. We went again today. It was a mildly hot but very muggy day.

Summer has been going by very fast. It's almost been an entire month since I was done with finals. I have to go back in mid-August, but in the meantime there are a few trips in the works. I will post pictures as necessary.

Have a good week.

San Antonio, Part 2

2009-04-08T11:13:00.005-05:00

This is the Alamo. It is much smaller than one thinks it is. The Alamo was very close to both our hotel and the Riverwalk.

This was during one of the APhA meetings. The longhorn did not care enough to move much.San Antonio has a decidedly Mexican flair.This is part of the riverwalk, near the mall.

APhA2009 San Antonio

2009-04-05T23:35:00.004-05:00

I arrived in San Antonio on Thursday afternoon to 90 degree weather after a couple of nice flights with no turbulence.

Relay Night Makes Me Sing "Hakuna Matata"

2009-03-28T03:27:00.004-05:00

Tonight is finally Relay Night and it is currently 33o in the morning, and to be honest I am not at all tired yet. As for the team, everyone else is gone...the last person left about an hour ago. We did have a good turnout, though...10 people at one point. We ended up raising $2170, a little short of my $3000 goal, but I am very happy that our team raised as much as we did. (We had the 3rd highest team total.)Kev also left today. We didn't do a whole lot this week except for go to the zoo. I think he had a good time, though. I will probably see him in a few months in Chicago.

My San Antonio trip is quickly upcoming. I got my name badge in the mail yesterday and I am leaving Thursday midday. Judging by the amount of people going, it should be a very good time.

A Tornado Warning Ruins My Perfectly Decent Wax Job

2009-03-24T07:22:00.002-05:00

There was a tornado warning for our area for a couple hours on Monday night. It was very rainy and windy, as one would think. However, there was one casualty: the layer of wax I spent a couple hours on Saturday with Kev putting on my truck. We have been to the zoo and to the mall so far.

The tornado warning happened in somewhat unusual circumstances. It was warm and cloudy skies until the skies got very gray, very windy with sideways rain. It pushed through in the period of about 45 minutes and then it was blue skies.

It So Turns Out That The Nicest Day In Weeks Is Also A Little More Irish Than Usual

2009-03-17T17:43:00.004-05:00

So today is St. Patrick's Day and I skipped out on work (which they were OK with...my preceptors are GREAT...) but not for the reason many people are partaking in today. There were a few people who I knew who went to a bar at 6am today before their 8am classes. (I was also up early selling green pancakes.) I must say that I have not seen so many people roaming the streets of Omaha... ever. It was actually a tad ridiculous.

However, today is was 70 degrees, as was yesterday. It's supposed to be in the 50's for the next week, but as long as we stay above freezing, I'm OK with the weather.

We just got our fall schedules today, and while I will be busy next fall, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. I do only have an hour of class on Fridays with very busy mornings and less busy afternoons the rest of the week. For next fall break I will be going on an all expenses paid trip to Arizona for my Native American Culture class. That will be pretty cool.

I am also going to be completing my summer schedule soon. These next six months should be interesting.

Beau and I are about 98% moved in to the new apartment...just a few last things to grab.

The Relay for Life 3 point contest was yesterday. Participation was light. We made $60. Now our total stands at $1635 with about a week and a half left.

That's all for now.

Apartamento Nuevo

2009-03-10T23:29:00.003-05:00

More pictures are to come soon.

The End of the Ice Age

2009-03-06T11:24:00.002-06:00

After many months of cold weather, Omaha finally got into the high 60's yesterday, weather you can walk around in without a coat. In the summer months, it's usually around 75-100, which I am really looking forward to. Later on today, I will see if I am moving to the other side of my apartment complex. It's a little bit more per month, but I think it will be worth it. I am glad spring break is finally here. Kev will be here in two weeks and Relay is in three.

Have a good day.

Dinner with the Dean

2009-02-28T10:38:00.001-06:00

Friday was a very busy day. In addition to two presentations and salsa dancing, I ended up going to the Dean's house for dinner with about 10 other students. We had pizza and salad and talked to the dean and his wife for almost three hours. Most of the the questions were about funding, the program, and where he wanted to see the school go. It was overall a pretty good time. There are several large curriculum changes upcoming.

I now have one week and two tests before spring break.

It is now starting to get a little warmer after the 6 inches of snow we got on Friday. It should be all melted before Kev gets here in a little under three weeks.

Offutt AFB

2009-02-06T20:25:00.002-06:00

On Friday, three other people from my pharmacy class and I went to Offutt AFB for a tour of their facilities. We met two health professions recruiters in south Omaha and drove out to the base. We first went to their "gym." It turns out that the gym at Offutt used to be an airplane hangar...to give you an idea of the size of the place. It was very nice.

We then went and talked to a pharmacist that had been in the AF for 18 yrs. He was probably in his early 40's and he told us about much of what they do there. We talked to him for about 90 minutes while touring the main base pharmacy and then went to a buffet style lunch, which was very good.

After lunch, we went out to the satellite pharmacy and toured it along with some other buildings, such as the base exchange. (Basically a cheaper supermarket.)

In three months I will be starting the application process. Answers are generally back by November.

Also, I am amazed about how warm this winter is. Apart from the couple weeks before I left and when I got back, it has been unseasonably warm. Forecast is in the 40's and 50's this week.

A few pictures from the Midwest

2009-02-01T14:53:00.006-06:00

The sucker fish is in the bottom right corner, it is hard to find. It is black. There is also a fish right under the thermometer.

Today, it is currently 55 degrees outside. Perhaps it will stay this way for a while.

About a week ago, since then everything has melted off.
About a week and a half ago when it was well below freezing.

Super Bowl, Relay and Related Topics

2009-01-29T10:58:00.005-06:00

Super Bowl is this Sunday. In short, it's gonna suck. I'm honestly more interested in watching the commercials this year. I was very happy with the commercials last year...so I hope the companies don't disappoint this year. My prediction: Steelers 31, Cards 17.

Got the tickets booked for my parents (and grandma) to come out this summer and planning a trip for my brother. The flights from PDX are surprisingly decently cheap (just over $200). As I've said before, I'll be out here in the Midwest all summer, most of that in Omaha and a week in Chicago.

Relay is in about 6 weeks and so far I've sent out about a million emails and raised $110 myself. This is always a good event and many people are affected by cancer. Hopefully, we'll meet our goal of $3,000. After Relay is over, the APHA National Meeting is the very next weekend in San Antonio. That should be a lot of fun. After that is over, we have a regional meeting to plan for over Halloween weekend, and I am responsible for the Expo (a giant pharmacy career fair.) After that, I will be running for National Member at Large at the 2010 National Meeting in DC 14 months from now.

This next year or so should be busy then.

2008-12-17T06:15:00.000-06:00

Tuesday's snow action.

End of November

2008-11-30T08:38:00.000-06:00

It snowed overnight here:
It also is just a few short weeks until Christmas, and the coat that my mom and grandmother got for me finally came in the mail:
In other news, OSU lost the Civil War, it looks like we are going to El Paso for the Sun Bowl this year.

South Dakota and MRM

2008-11-09T20:57:00.000-06:00

Midyear Regional Meeting was in Sioux Falls, SD this weekend.

Here is what I learned:

1) The Midwest is really flat and really cold. It was about 15 degrees in South Dakota this weekend. They do keep the snow off of the roads pretty well though.

2) The Creighton chapter, by far, had the most attractive attendees. When you are in professional dress and you still look like crap, something needs to be done. Yes I am talking about you Wyoming...

3) You get lots of free stuff at these meetings. I have an overabundance of clips, pens, and notepads now. You also get the blue Target light bulb, honest to God I don't know why.
4) We spend lots of time debating policy. And holy crap, the way we do it is terribly inefficient.

5) Did I mention they like to give away things? Apparently everyone else got a door prize except me or any of the 7 other people that drove up with me. Someone from Creighton did win a free registration to the national meeting though. (Worth ~200.00)

More people should have gone. We ended up having a good time, although there is absolutely NOTHING in South Dakota. We ended up with a few great stories in addition to a few MRM duties next year. Creighton grabbed 2 out of the 3 elected positions for next year (there were 7 other schools there for our region, Region V.) A fellow first-year student will be the coordinator for next year's MRM, which will be in Omaha.

Hopefully we can get lots of people to come to that. If I am elected president next week, I'm sure I'll be helping with that a lot. We'll see though.

Burn in Hell, Lance Burton

2008-10-20T23:32:00.000-05:00

I was in Las Vegas Saturday and Sunday and in the four hour drive there, there were about 3o billboards for Lance Burton's magic show. Apparently, he really wants me to come to his show.

After getting to Vegas, we went to Caesar's Palace. Caesar's Palace was big, but not all that great, so we decided to go to New York, New York. We walked by the Bellagio on the way there. Amanda, Whitney and Ryan decided to go on the roller coaster at New York, New York. Afterwards, we all decided to go get some food, but all of the restaurants we passed were freakishly expensive. We decided to stop in one anyway. I ordered a salad.Apparently, they don't cut up their salads there. Hmmm.This is Kelly, Whitney and Amanda at the MGM. Late that night, we decided to go back to the hotel we were staying at, the Hard Rock Hotel. They have very nice rooms, but I decided that I was going to gamble $20 before I went to bed. I went to the big wheel for the Wheel of fortune and promptly won about $350.
The next day Marilyn and Steve came by to visit before they drove back to Oregon. A small world it is.

Intern Registration

2008-10-12T10:04:00.001-05:00

Just got my intern registration this week.

A picture of the new bike bridge:

Also here are some pictures I though were funny.

Fish This Time!

2008-09-14T17:46:00.000-05:00

More Apartment Pictures

2008-08-31T23:44:00.000-05:00

Below is the table and chair set I only paid $100 for. It looks really nice.

DNC Thoughts and a Beavs Game

2008-08-28T22:21:00.001-05:00

First, for the Beavs game...it was on TV so I made a point of watching it. It was one of those games that I thought we should win, but knew we probably wouldn't. Everything was going fine through the first three quarters, OSU was ahead 20-17 over Stanford, and then everything went to hell.

And I do mean "went to hell." When OSU does something, they do it well. First, there was a backwards pass at our own 3 yard line that the reciever decided "I really don't feel like going after that ball," so the ball promptly went into the endzone for a 2 point safety.

Not less than five minutes later Stanford had scored twice and OSU was down 36-20.

At the end of the quarter, we decided to actually try to win the game and scored. 36-28.

We ended up getting the ball back, and got all the way down to the one-yard line (which for all of you non-football people out there is three feet away from scoring) and then losing the ball with 30 seconds left.

Which left me confused.

In a completely different story, I've been watching the Democratic National Convention.

There were some amazing speeches. That is for sure. It will be an interesting fall before the election.

Thriller

2008-08-28T08:59:00.000-05:00

I am now four days into the first week of pharmacy school and I must say that it has been very exciting.

Except for that exciting part.

As of now, my communications teacher is on a rant on why she thinks we should buy the book. It is actually rather comical.

My calculations teacher is a good guy, as is the Health Care Systems guy. The Biochem teacher is Irish, and I find that to be a continual and unending source of irony.

Finally bought a bed, and now the only thing left that I need is a table...this whole moving thing is expensive.

I'm enjoying myself though. Will write again soon.

Med Center and Other Topics

2008-08-09T19:26:00.000-05:00

I started at the Nebraska Med Center this week, learning various systems and about some of the things I will be doing over the next few weeks and years. Here is my name tag (everyone must have and wear one, and depending on your job it allows you entry into some of the protected areas of the hospital.)

So far, I really like my job. We are on the 8th floor of the Clarkson Doctors Building South.We are soon moving off of the Nebraska Med Center campus into the Mutual of Omaha building, which is about 8 or 10 blocks closer to my school, now making it only about a mile or so away from Creighton. The map above is not complete. Here is a picture of the Mutual of Omaha building.The Med Center has about 20 or so pharmacies. One of them is a large outpatient pharmacy (patients pick up their prescriptions here.) The rest of them are inpatient pharmacies (people who require a hospital stay use inpatient pharmacies, only accessible by pharmacists, nurses, and doctors. There is one large inpatient pharmacy and many, many smaller ones. (ICU has their own, as do NICU, burn unit, trauma, OR, ER has 2, cancer center, etc...)

My job has little to do with dispensing drugs, though. Instead, we evaluate whether the hospital is using the right drugs, how much it costs the hospital, whether the protocol is being followed, etc. It is very interesting.

Now here's some pictures of the area.

Henry Doorly Zoo

2008-08-06T21:00:00.001-05:00

The New Apartment, in pictures

2008-08-06T20:39:00.000-05:00

Wyoming and Nebraska

2008-08-04T17:17:00.000-05:00

The rest of the trip east after Yellowstone was interesting. The day I left Yellowstone, I ended up going through Grand Teton NP. I spent much less time in Grand Teton than I did in Yellowstone.

After Grand Teton, I took a 300 mile drive SE through Rocky Mountain Wyoming. It was the most up and down drive through nothing I have ever taken. There were about 3 towns in this 100 miles, and all of these towns had less than about 5,000 people.

The next day, I had my longest drive of the trip at 400 miles from south-central Wyoming to central Nebraska. It was a very warm day in Wyoming that day, and there were two more Rocky Mountain summits to drive over. From Rawlins to Laramie, it was a 100 mile stretch with a summit that topped out at about 7,000 feet. As soon as I got into Laramie (about 1/4 mile from the first Laramie exit) my truck started to overheat and that was the end of that. I called a tow truck and had it towed to the Laramie Nissan.

Turns out that the people at the Corvallis Nissan forgot to put back on the radiator overflow cap, and since there was no cap, there was no pressure. I paid $300 which I need to get back from the people in Corvallis.

As soon as that was done, I headed even further east, past Cheyenne into western Nebraska.

Being from Oregon, having lived in Hawai'i, I thought I knew what a rainstorm could throw at me. This rainstorm lasted about 30 minutes, and sent cars on I-80 hiding under overpasses. Ironically, there is an overpass in western Nebraska about every 10 miles.

Oh...one other thing. Who knew that in Sidney, Nebraska housed the headquarters of Cabela's??????????

Yellowstone and Wyoming

2008-07-31T21:59:00.000-05:00

The drive through Idaho may have not been the most exciting drive I've ever taken, but Yellowstone more than made up for it. Tuesday I got to West Yellowstone at about 5:00pm, but decided not to go into the park until Wednesday. I ended up doing the South Loop, with Old Faithful about 11:30 am. The south loop is about 100 miles from start to finish, and I did not go on the northern loop. Thursday, I drove back through the park and through Grand Teton NP.

There was a wildfire that closed part of the southern loop just after I went through.

The drive after Yellowstone to Rawlins in south-central Wyoming is on par with Idaho, although it was much prettier than Idaho was. I felt like I was on a roller coast though.

On the Road Again...

2008-07-28T22:09:00.000-05:00

I left Lincoln City at 1:30pm yesterday after many goodbyes, and headed up to Tumalo to meet my parents and friends. Tumalo is about 200 miles from Lincoln City near Bend. Although traffic was really bad, the weather was really good and towing a Uhaul really isn't all that bad. Glenn and Linda Eastman came over from Redmond, about 20 miles away, and they brought their incredible pasta salad. You seriously haven't had pasta salad until you've had his.

Today, I had 360 miles to drive. I thought I'd leave about 10:30 and have a nice and leisurely drive through Burns. It wasn't.

This was waiting for me right outside of Bend: After waiting for two hours for the wreck to clear, I was finally back on the road. From Bend to Burns, there is two towns and it is nothing but flat land and sagebrush. Got gas in Burns, it hadn't changed much since I was there a little more than 2 years ago.

Now, I thought that Burns to the Idaho border wouldn't be too bad, beings that the area is called the "high desert." I have never been through any stretch of highway that went up and down like this stretch. After the long journey through the mountains, I finally got to the border of Idaho.

And there is absolutely nothing in Idaho.

The town I stopped in, Mountain Home, may have been the biggest town I've driven through in 90 miles so far in Idaho, and it's about 10,000 people.

Last Week in Oregon

2008-07-20T19:26:00.000-05:00

I figured I'd write a post before or two before leaving Oregon for Nebraska. Omaha is a much bigger city than people think...it's roughly as big as Portland's metro area. I've been constructing a map to show me where to go in my truck and on my bike (it shows bike trails and shops clearly on the map.) I am almost all packed, save for a few things which I will pack on my day off on Thursday.

I've been trying to visit a lot of my friends ahead of leaving on Saturday. There's a few people who I am trying to get to come out there. One of the first things I'd like to do when I get out there is go to the Henry Doorly Zoo. It's supposed to be one of the nation's leading zoos.

I also keep getting emails from Creighton telling me that they are looking over my class waivers. I hope to take as few credits this fall as possible (I'm hoping 11, but possibly 15) so I can work on a few things outside of school, such as completing Rosetta Stone in Spanish.

There is also supposed to be a bike bridge completed over the Missouri River before I get there so I can bike to school if I like.

I will be taking a week to get out there and will post pictures on here starting Monday 7/28. That's all for now.

Juneau

2008-06-29T23:52:00.000-05:00

Now, I will tell you about some of time I spent in Juneau.

First....I wanted to do some shopping, so Kev and I went to the shops in downtown Juneau. (Downtown Juneau=where everybody doesn't live.) The best shop by far is this Russian place aptly named the House of Russia. For irony's sake , I had to get a communist shirt. Here I am modeling it. Just thank God that I'm not going to quit my day job, lol.
After doing some hardcore shopping, we went to the top of Mount Roberts in a little tram like you'd see in a James Bond movie. There was a lot of snow at the top and a nice view of the cruise ships up there, but clearly there was something more awesome to be seen.

In addition to the "Not a Trail" sign, there was a bald eagle and Kev found $10 up there. Completely worth the 23.95 I paid.

Once we got back into Juneau, we decided to walk back to the ship, which wasn't very far. We walked past a pharmacy, and because I am lame and like to take pictures of various pharmacies, we decided to go in. I decided to buy a laser pointer, but that's not important. What's important is the person who I am buying my items from. He is the most wanna-be gangster I have ever seen. The kid is no older than 12. He runs to the window when a motorcycle goes by and asks me all sorts of questions in gangster-speak. (Honestly, I am thinking...if white kids in Juneau, Alaska want to be gangsters, we are ALL screwed.)

Sorry kid, I doubt you're going to be pushing the rock or intimidating those fishermen anytime soon in Juneau.

After I left, he started to hit on the two girls behind me in line, who ironically were on our cruise ship and we saw EVERYWHERE after that. They were a little old for him...15 and 17.

Long Awaited Update

2008-06-25T22:18:00.000-05:00

Sorry, I have been gone for a while. I've had finals, followed by cruise, followed by 40hr work week. But now I can write a little bit.

First, ended my time at OSU with a 3.11 GPA. Got my Bachelor's. Didn't walk at graduation. It was joyous.

Instead, my family and I decided to cruise Alaska.

More posts to come on this topic.

And I'm working at Rite Aid until I leave at the end of July for Creighton. Woohoo mindless boring wander!

Grades, New Truck & Etc.

2008-06-10T22:25:00.000-05:00

And it's the middle of yet another finals week.

In case you care...ended up with a B- in my Bible class and a B+ in the anatomy lecture. Got A's in my drugs in sports class and in Ultimate frisbee. I should be getting a B in the anatomy lab. I've got the vertebrate physiology final tomorrow and the public speaking final on Thursday.

Then...it's all over. Woohoo.

Here is a picture of my new vehicle. I traded in my Toyota and bought a Nissan. It is a 2008 Frontier Crew Cab. V6 4wd and lots of neat little goodies. Needless to say, I will be keeping it for a LONG time.

Just Say No to Sentra

2008-06-07T11:43:00.000-05:00

I have just a few days left of school...three finals this week and it's all over in Corvallis. I just need to pass my last two finals to graduate, the anatomy class I am taking has no bearing either way.

Everything else has gone fairly smoothly. I've already had a couple of finals and I expect to get an A or a B in those.

I also sold my truck on Thursday to 400 lb man. (No joke.) He bought it for $16,000, which I thought wasn't too bad considering that is above book value, that it needed new tires, and the current state of the vehicle market. Anyway, I needed to go down to the coast to attend graduation and other such events, so I had to rent a car from Enterprise. (They'll pick you up!)
They'll pick you up late...about an hour late. I didn't really mind though. I ended up renting a Nissan Sentra for the weekend. I don't like how the car looks or how it handles. There was an amazing amount of room in it for its size, though, and it had lots of power and there was almost no road noise at all. Meh.

I will be getting a 2007 Nissan Frontier. Here is the picture from their website.

They have not been able to sell trucks very well in the current market, so it is deeply discounted. It also has a sun roof. We shall see, however.

Oh, and the Alaskan cruise is in a week! Should be fun.

Back from Blanco

2008-05-26T20:42:00.000-05:00

Went camping to Cape Blanco over the weekend. There were about 30 of us total, and I only knew one person before this weekend. Everyone was very cool for the most part, though. I ended up going up in the lighthouse at Cape Blanco on Saturday and tidepooling on Sunday. It was good times, even though it took me HOURS to get down there and back. Enjoy some pictures.Above is Cape Blanco lighthouse.

Above is a seastar when we were tidepooling.

Below, I drove down on to the sand to take a great picture at sunset.

Three weeks left

2008-05-19T10:55:00.000-05:00

Three weeks left of classes, that is. Then I will have two finals and be done.

Looking forward to the cruise. That should be interesting.

Just listed my truck on Autotrader today...I think I can get more out of it there than I could at a dealership. We will see, though.

An expansion on Creighton

2008-05-14T23:05:00.000-05:00

I should get my letter from Creighton tomorrow, which I am excited for. Here's how it's going to go: Hey, we want you to come to Omaha. Now pay us $400! But hey, I'm excited to pay them lots of money. It's a great school.

I'm excited actually multiple times. First, I might get waived out of FIVE courses...those being microbiology, anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and a statistics course. That means I can either retake a few of them and get a really good grade in them or I can take interesting electives like diabetes care or pharmacogenomics or addiction. Or I could go outside pharmacy and take Tropical Extreme Weather.

I'm also excited about driving there this summer. Yellowstone NP happens to be not too far out of the way, so I am definitely going to hit that up. That will be cool.

I'm also pretty sure that I'm selling my truck. Ironically, my truck is selling for more now than it was when I bought it a year and a half ago. I could probably sell it for a much as I paid for it 18 months ago...which would be awesome. (Cars are never supposed to be a good investment.) I would like to get a truck that is more compliant to people (read: 4 doors), and I'm am looking at some. And I know that I'll be able to pay for it while I'm in school. Why? Creighton is awesome in that the living expenses are actually what they should be.

I did find out today that my credit score is not great anymore, for two reasons. One I knew about, and that's because my credit limits are low. The other is really dumb. I got rid of T-Mobile last November, and the said I dropped service too early and so they charged me a early cancellation fee...FOUR MONTHS LATER! AND THEN SENT ME TO COLLECTIONS!! I never got anything from anyone, and I didn't find out until today when I was checking my credit.
Those bastards. I currently have a 620. The credit score people said I would have around a 760 if I didn't have that damn collection. (WHICH SHOULDN'T BE THERE!)

Anyone feel like cosigning for me? (Wink wink nudge nudge Grammy?) I don't feel like paying 10% interest.

Accepted and Going to Creighton

2008-05-12T21:51:00.000-05:00

On Monday, while I was in my ultimate class, I got the call from Creighton telling me that they had pulled me off of their waitlist. (Actually, it was a message telling me to call them back. Details.) Anyway, I have decided to go to Creighton.

More on this later.

"Rally" Monkey

2008-05-09T11:31:00.000-05:00

A few things to talk about today.

I FINALLY got rid of (mailed) all of my old roommate Whitney's stuff back to her...cost $95 all together, but she is sending me a check. (Her fiance's family has a little bit of $, to put it mildly.) It seriously took waiting in line at the post office for about an hour. And there is no Linus Pauling stamps left :(

After that, I went and got a ticket to go to the Obama rally in Albany today. I saw Chelsea Clinton when she was here, and I wasn't all that impressed, to tell you the truth. Reportedly, he wanted to do the rally on the OSU campus, but the OSU administration denied him the chance to hold in anywhere on campus. (Their reason: We have a volleyball tournament going on this weekend...so you can't hold it in Gill Coliseum.) There are other buildings on campus.

Went to class after that, got my speech midterm back, it was an 87. I'll take it. Also got the final moved up a week, which makes me VERY happy. Driving there and back is ALWAYS boring. However, I've only got 4 weeks of real school left...and then only two finals the week after. However, that week before finals is looking particularly hellish.

I will be speaking in front of a group of middle school students at Linus Pauling MS (Linus Pauling is sort of big around here) on June 3rd at 10 AM for about 15 minutes. There are 15 of us in the class, and we will be there all morning telling personal stories and examples about how to be successful dealing with drugs and in life in general. A lot of my classmates are OSU athletes...the two people teaching it are legends in their fields...Jess Lewis was an Olympic wrestler, and Dr. Tricker is renowned in drugs in sport. The speech will be fun...email if you'd like directions.

Here's a secreenshot from cnn.com about Oregon...

Seis De Mayo

2008-05-06T20:10:00.000-05:00

A number of topics to talk about today.

First, Barack Obama has won North Carolina by 14% and Hillary Clinton won Indiana by 2%. The primaries are almost over...woohoo. Oregon's is in two weeks! Woohoo.

Second, first round of midterms completely over. My lowest score was an 80, the highest a 100. I've now got about 5 weeks left.

Third, it's about three weeks from my birthday. 21st..

I'm now going to Salem for my public speaking class. Enjoy...I will write soon.

Lu'au Link

2008-05-01T12:07:00.000-05:00

The link to the OSU lu'au webpage I made is here.

Enjoy.

OSU Hui-O-Hawai'i Presents...

2008-04-27T19:12:00.000-05:00

The 2008 Luau!!!!!

I really do love Hawaiian food and festivities. We served Kalua pork, in addition to some other foods, and the volunteers also got poi. Poi is made out of the taro root, which there is a shortage of in Hawaii, so we didn't serve it to the public. Poi and kalua pork are AMAZING.

I volunteered by taking around 300 pictures and more than 30 minutes of video on my camera. ( I completely filled one of my 1 GB camera cards...but I had brought 2.)

Below is the always-popular Fire Knife Dance.

This is the Poi Ball dance below.

Decisions and Mike

2008-04-23T19:09:00.000-05:00

Three very unrelated issues, yes. All should be said, though.

First, today is the one-year anniversary of Mike Vaughan's death in Iraq. I don't know if anything is going on, all I'm saying is think about him today.

Second, I've decided that I will wait until June the 13th to hear from Creighton. If I get accepted, I will go to Nebraska. If I remain on the waitlist at that point or am rejected, I will go to Hawai'i.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE Hawai'i. It's a great school, a great climate, etc. I could go on and on. But, in the end...Creighton is known around the nation, and after interviewing there, it's obvious why. They've got great people and great facilities. They offer many more classes than Hawai'i, not to mention the TWO teaching hospitals less than a mile away from campus.

If I'm at all serious about being a good pharmacist (and I am), I can't turn Creighton down knowing that they will better prepare me. The school is everything I'd want it to be.

I've heard that there's nothing to do in Nebraska (which is wrong) and that I'd be crazy to not pick Hawai'i. I can't go wrong picking either one, but Creighton is the BEST possible situation.

Talked to the senior admissions counselor at Creighton in person at OSU's health professions career fair. She said that they'd start looking at everything again around May 10th, after their finals are done. I think it helped me that I talked to her in person; she is a very nice lady.

Really, I was at that career fair for no other reason to talk to her and BS with my adviser and a few people I had met at past career fairs (the schools and companies send the exact same people every time.) It's never a bad idea to network, especially when it only takes an hour.

Oh, before I forget, midterms have been particularly good this term so far:
Physiology: 100%, Human Anatomy: 82%, Bible as Lit: 96% Lab midterm is next week.

Please read my other post for the third bit of juicy news.

Beaver Baseball and Sun

2008-04-12T16:15:00.000-05:00

Kev came up yesterday and left about an hour ago. We went to the Oregon State-Stanford game last night, which was a really good game. Kev ended up catching a home run ball...there were 6 or 7 home runs between the two teams yesterday.

That's not the best part, though. It's the bottom of the ninth with two outs, and we have a pretty good hitter at the plate.

And he strikes out. We're going to extras, folks, tied at 9.

Our pitcher, in the top of the tenth, strikes out the side, and we are up again. First pitch, our batter has a deep fly to left field that doesn't quite leave the park. One out. Next batter takes a ball to the gap in left center field and is in with a double. First pitch of the next batter is a solid hit over the second baseman's head in short center field.

Beavs win 10-9 in walk-off fashion.

I also decided that wearing no shirt for most of a blue sky day without any sunscreen was a good idea yesterday and now I look like a lobster. I must have forgot how white I am.

Now I'm up in the Valley Library floor #6 watching game 2 and the score is tied 2-2 in the 5th.
We'll see how this one goes. I need to write a couple speeches and do some other homework before 5ish.

I'll try to blog more often!

Jake

Crisis Averted, and...

2008-04-03T20:19:00.000-05:00

Well, the last 36 hours have been especially interesting.

Let me begin with the impending crisis (well, it's not really much of a crisis) of a call to the University of Hawai'i yesterday. Since I hadn't gotten anything from them since December from them, I emailed them to ask when orientation was and if I'd completed my prereqs last Friday. Since I hadn't heard anything by Wednesday, I called them to ask whether they had received my email. They had, but hadn't opened it yet. The woman on the phone said that she didn't think my classes would meet their anatomy requirement. They require 8 sem hours (or 12 quarter hrs) of Human Anatomy and Physiology, as I found out. (Their website simply says "Anatomy.") At Oregon State, the pharmacy department requires Vertebrate Physiology, a 400 level class with no lab, since the lab is a first-year professional (P1) class.

Ironically, I took Human A&P 1 lecture my first year here during the summer (took it S/U, which is more or less Pass/No Pass), and passed the course. I then decided to not take any more anatomy until last summer, when I signed up for the 2 of the 3 P1 labs mentioned above (got B's in both of them.) They are technically "Advanced Human A&P Lab."

Thinking this might happen, I signed up for 9 credits of anatomy-related classes this term. I am taking the 4 cr. Vert. Phys. required for graduation, in addition to 5 cr. for Human A&P 3 + lab 3.
I actually got 5 different calls from 5 different people while at work today, this being call #4. Hawai'i called to tell me that they would only count the Human A&P courses, including the one I took S/U. I would have a total of 12 after this term. Crisis averted.

Caller #5 advised me that he was an ass and wanted me to figure out a jumble for him. (Kev Hall.) Caller #1 advised me that fire pants are best in Carhartt's and are bad for women since there is too much room in the crotch area. She also told me that she was given a horse. (Aimee) Caller #3 called to ask me to find out what caller #1 told me about fire pants and to tell me that VIP no longer means Very Important Person. (Amanda tells me that VIP, at her place of employment Dress Barn, VIP means Very Indulgent Party.)

Caller #2, by far, had the best information to tell me. All the way from South Dakota, Chuck Elroy III called me to tell me that he had been accepted to South Dakota State's pharmacy school. I congratulated him, because, well I know how much waiting for this decision sucks. This decision from the school is the difference from attending another entire year of school.

Congrats Chuck!

While on the topic of pharmacy schools, I'm in (right now, at least.) However, this anatomy misunderstanding has gotten me thinking about going to Hawai'i. I still am on the waitlist at Creighton, I think quite high, although they won't give me a straight answer. What I'm saying is that I have some serious reservations about Hawaii.

1-Housing sucks in Hawai'i, period. There's not enough of it, and what is there is expensive and not placed in great areas or the landlords suck.

2-We still don't know the status of the accreditation site visit that was scheduled for this month. Alternatively, Creighton was just reaccredited for 6 more years last year and has been around for 100+ years.

3-Moving to Hawai'i sucks. Bigtime. It is impossible to move anything big, including a vehicle. I will not live on the Big Island without a vehicle, since it really wasn't great last time not being able to go anywhere except with other people's vehicles.

4-Speaking of, air to Hawaii is now very expensive. When I lived there before, I was able to get a roundtrip to PDX for 254.00, now it's 600+ dollars. That means it's much harder for me to come to the mainland.

5-Hawaii does not have a pharmacy building yet, however I do like the building they are using now.

6- I'm short in financial aid by around 5,000 dollars. It will cost about 50,000/year including 31K/year in tuition. I think Creighton will be around 5K cheaper/yr...but I'm NOT basing the decision on $.

7- Hawaii doesn't really know what direction it's heading in, in terms of its pharmaceutical emphasis. I see the little things such as the anatomy mixup possibly turning into mixups when it comes time to do the licensing exams. I originally picked Hawaii because I would like to be part of a new school's first few classes, as you can help steer where the school goes.

I see the cold weather in Nebraska as a potential BIG problem for me, even though housing, the school, the building, moving, airfare all strongly favor Creighton for me. I would enjoy being in Hawai'i again, but I've seen many of the things to see there, although there's still huge parts of Kauai and Maui I haven't explored. I know people would rather come to Hawai'i to see me.

I think I'm probably leaning towards Creighton, though I won't know till at the earliest next month whether I'm able to go there. I know where I'd live, and I've always wanted to go to an ISU/U Iowa dual meet, which is a couple hours away from Omaha. The College World Series is there. Kev might move back to Illinois in a few years if everything works out.

Enough of the life decisions, for now.

In other slightly odd news, I got mail from a magazine I have been getting for the last few months but I didn't subscribe for. Men's Vogue sent me a survey to ask about how much I liked subscribing to their magazine. Somebody's telling me I need some style. (Here's the odd part: The survey was sent with a real $5 bill. A real, honest to God $5 bill. I was confused, to say the least.

Oh...and by the way, classes are awesome. Especially Ultimate frisbee, since there's a lot of people that don't know what they are doing and it's fun to teach other people the sport.

Also, I'm watching TV while writing this...I've got it turned to NBC. Jeff Zucker, CEO of NBC, was introducing My Name is Earl's first episode after the writers strike. Anyway, he was showing us nbc.com, which was showing a commercial for Esurance involving a pink-haired woman. Anyway, the guy says "I dated a pink haired girl once. She was CRAAAAAAAAAZY!!!!"

Again, it's been an odd last day and a half.

Spring Term Starter

2008-04-01T12:30:00.000-05:00

Another term has started, and for once in Corvallis, it's all clear skies and sunny...not to say that it is warm. I'm just happy it's not raining, after all the weird weather we've had.

Trying to get ready for this summer and beyond, and I got a call from Chinook Winds about the job I'm supposed to do this summer. I explicitly stated that I wasn't available till June many times in the interview, but the lady in HR decided to call me anyway on Monday. She obviously wasn't aware of the arrangement...and was really rude when I called her back. A sign of things to come, haha?

We'll see. It should be an interesting summer.

Anyway, I went to my first English class this morning, the Bible as Literature...the guy is awesome. He's a Ph.D in English in addition to being a preacher, and he's one of the funniest lecturers I ever encountered. What a way to get the English requirement out of the way.

That's all for now, will talk soon.

Remembering Chuck Two

2008-03-31T09:51:00.000-05:00

To be completely honest, I didn't know the guy as well as some. I had heard stories, especially about rocks and the serial killer story, but the only way I really knew him was through Taft's sporting events. He was at every football, basketball, and football game. He would berate the refs at every chance, with a fervish almost on the line of Joseph Hathaway.

However, I was again surprised at the amount of people that showed up to his "Celebration of Life." There must have been almost 500 people there. I was very impressed about what people had to say, especially Chuck 3.

I hope his family completes the mourning process on their own time and then continues on with life. From what I gather, that's what he'd want.

Ultimate Pics, Part 2

2008-03-16T21:27:00.000-05:00

Class picture taken the last day of class winter term

I am guarding the big klutz in blue: Ben Sigler. He doesn't actually go to Oregon State anymore since he graduated last year, but he shows up anyway. He's actually one of the funniest people I know.
I don't know what the hell I was doing here.

March Madness: Upon Us

2008-03-16T21:13:00.000-05:00

The college basketball tournament is again upon us, so I dutifully took 20 minutes to fill out a bracket.

My pick is UCLA to win it all.

East Region:
St Joes and Boise State with first round upsets
Regional Semifinal: North Carolina over Washington State, Tennessee over St. Joes
Region Final: North Carolina over Tennessee

Midwest Region:
Davidson and Kent State with first round upsets
Regional Semifinal: Kansas over Clemson, Georgetown over USC
Regional Final: Kansas over Georgetown

South Region:
St Mary's with a first round upset
Regional Semifinals: Texas over Stanford, Memphis over Michigan State
Regional Final: Texas over Memphis

West Region:
No first round upsets
Regional Semifinals: UCLA over Drake, Xavier over Duke
Regional Final: UCLA over Xavier

Final Four:
UCLA over Texas
North Carolina over Kansas

UCLA over North Carolina in the Championship game in early April.

The Best Teacher Ever

2008-03-07T01:20:00.000-06:00

This is how I want to live my life. Please take 10 minutes and watch the video.

Breaking News

2008-03-03T23:44:00.001-06:00

After much thought, I have decided to take my spot at UH Hilo rather than wait for Creighton to get back to me in late May. I know that I'm leaving a lot when I turn down Creighton: a well established, modern, caring Christian school that is very serious about the doctors, dentists, pharmacists and physical therapists it trains on a yearly basis. It even has the nation's first pharmacy distance program.

However, I think I'm going to help Hawai'i get off the ground as part of its second class there.

The trip to Omaha was great. I learned that I really liked the Omaha area and that I wouldn't have a problem with living in Iowa. I liked how they were about full disclosure. I liked how new their science building was and the fact that they had a medical center next door. I liked that it was a Christian school that was about morals and values. I liked the way that they used technology in their curriculum. In short, I knew I'd be fine there.

UHH is a second year school that doesn't even have its own building yet. I feel as if they want to do things the right way, though. I know I'd be much more happy with Hilo's weather. (I don't know if I could stand the biting cold, as much as I liked the snow when I was there. I thought it was bad in Corvallis when it was 20 above.) The school is certainly different and I'd have to acclimate to it again. However, there's something about helping a program such as Hilo's get off the ground, especially when it is the first of its kind in Hawai'i.

I know that island fever might become a problem, but this time I will have a car. (Huge difference in my eyes. I love to take pictures.) One huge thing when I was there the first time was a lack of a good facilities for a workout. (Honestly, you could get rained on during a workout because there was no roof.) Their new student life center opening in April will help alleviate that. Last time, I lived in a crappy apartment with a roommate who barely spoke English. This time, I will be getting a apartment or house that is much better, maybe even a little ways outside of Hilo. I plan to get a 2 bedroom place so that people can stay when they come to the Islands. (Which I will make people do.)

Getting things over there will be a problem also. I can mail things, take them on the plane, or get a moving service to move them across the Pacific. Without much to do last time, I was really bored by the end of four months. (You can only get so far on a bike.) There is supposed to be a ferry running between the three main islands and Oahu by early 2009, so that might be an easy way to get from island to island without renting a car soon. Right now the ferry only goes from Oahu to Maui.

Everything will be expensive, but I'm not worried. I may be taking a big risk by going to a less established school, but the school already has a nursing program and the pharmacy program is on the path to accreditation.

I think I'm making the right choice, knock on wood.

Reasons I didn't go to the UO

2008-03-02T11:29:00.001-06:00

If you go to the U of O or Oregon State, chances are overwhelming that you've heard about the U of O's $227 million stadium in the works and that they are adding baseball and cheer and cutting wrestling for the 2008-09 school year.

Which is all fine and great, until you hear why Pat Killkenny, UO AD, did it.

It was because he wanted to be fiscally responsible, folks.

Eugene Register Guard

U of O student Paper, the Daily Emerald

Let me put this into perspective for you. Raising Reser phases 1, 2, and 3 and the new Gill Annex will all be done for around $50 million combined.

The new Student Sports Complex, for which I sit on the committee that plans it, is estimated to cost $6 million.

The new Linus Pauling Institute will be about $63 million, and was included in OSU's capital campaign, including a private donation of $20 million.

Capital Campaign for OSU: Linus Pauling Institute

Other OSU Capital Campaign Initiatives:
$35 million for student scholarships
$7 million for new College of Pharmacy programs
$138 million to the College of Engineering to complete the Kelley Engineering Center and to build on the breadth of programs
$30 million to the College of Forestry
$34 million for the Vet Med program
Renovations to Goss Stadium, etc.

I'm not writing this to bash on the University of Oregon itself, just the actions of Phil Knight and Pat Kilkenny.

Since when do you need a $225,000,000 stadium when there are many pressing needs at your school, especially outside of athletics? Think scholarships. Think academics. I'm 100% sure you'll find $100 million worth of needs on that campus.

It's not that I hate athletics either. Anyone who knows me know that I'd play sports much of the day if I could. Here's where I go on to my real problem with it: the cutting of programs for "financial responsibility."

Pat Kilkenny, Congratulations! You trimmed the U of O from an $500,000 per year cancer when you cut the wrestling team. Just to let you know, sir, that would take 450 years or so to equal the costs of the proposed stadium that you are going to build over the top of Williams Bakery.

As a former HS wrestler, I know that wrestling programs are being cut across the country and at some point it doesn't make sense to keep it as a D1 sport because of the lack of schools. However, we are not at that point yet, and if you were to axe the sport, why not keep all the equipment and keep funding the team to a smaller degree as a club team?

I'm glad that the U of O decided to add baseball and cheer. Two great sports that I couldn't play if I tried. Baseball will probably get 3 to 10 times the funding of the wrestling program and cheer will probably equal or double the wrestling programs costs.

Pat Kilkenny, all I ask is that you grow a backbone and tell us why you really decided to cut the team. Don't play it off to fiscal responsibility or Title IX when we know that's not the case.

And while you're at it, take a trip across campus and look at some of the non-athletic programs that your school has and ask yourself how much better those programs would be with another 100, 300, or 500 thousand dollars. Ask yourself how many different programs you could fund with 225,000,000. Ask yourself if you really just cut a team for "Fiscal responsibility." Finally, ask yourself if you can sleep at night with the decisions you've just made.

100th Post, Movie Reviews, the like

2008-02-26T22:42:00.000-06:00

Before I say anything, all you voracious blog readers need to go see the movie "Vantage Point." Great movie.

I don't really have much to say in this post, other than a few short points. This week has been busy, primarily because it's so close to the end of the term. I have, however, started looking for apartments on the Big Island because it's becoming apparent that I do need to prepare that I may be going to Hawaii shortly. Anyway, I found a really nice house for $850 in Pahoa, about 10 minutes from Hilo and probably about 15 minutes from the UH to the east. It's a three bedroom, one bath. If I get accepted at Creighton, there's a nice apartment complex in Council Bluffs, Iowa where I'd live.

I'd definitely try my best to get a two bedroom apartment so people would easily be able to stay when they visit, especially in Hawai'i. I enjoy traveling, and showing other people around an area they've never been before...and very few people have been to either Hilo or to the Omaha area.

Got lunch with Marcella tomorrow at 1:30 PM. That should be very interesting.

Until later,
Jake

Ultimate Pictures

2008-02-22T10:12:00.001-06:00

Four Weeks Later...

2008-02-21T21:47:00.000-06:00

and I am an alternate at Creighton. What that means is I still have a chance to get in, but they'll get back to me....in late May.

Which is good and bad.

The good part of this is that I still have an acceptance in Hawai'i, a school that I'm almost sure which get accredited by the time I would be there.

The bad part is that I will have to wait three more months before figuring out where I will be going next year, and possibly over the summer.

Alternates are placed into the program as other people decide to go to other schools.

I think Creighton is the better school, and it's obviously easier for me to move there over Hawai'i. The weather is tons better in Hawaii, but I'd have to sell my truck and buy another one over there (it would probably be cheaper in the end to do that, since transporting an empty vehicle to the islands is about $1300.)

We shall see in the coming weeks.

Performance Enhancers: Good or Bad?

2008-02-18T19:55:00.000-06:00

All we've heard on the news lately it seems is Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee's Capitol Hill appearance on the presence of steroids in baseball. So here's my newest question: When is it ethical to use a drug and when isn't it?

Let me begin by saying that synthetic human growth hormone (HGH) is a prescription only drug. Clearly, Clemens and whomever else in professional sports who are taking this without a prescription are in the wrong. However, there's plenty of crooked doctors out there who would gladly give any professional sports figure a script that they knew had no therapeutic use in the person other than to increase lean body mass.

Turner Syndrome and stunted growth are approved therapeutic uses, and unapproved therapeutic uses include remission of multiple sclerosis, treatment of osteoporosis, and increasing lean body mass in obese people. It's a hormone that you make in your body in the pituitary gland near your brain. It's a hormone that affects many other hormones in your body.

Back to the ethical question though: Should we be able to take anything we can get our hands on or should we let medical professionals dictate what, how often, and how safe our medications are?

Currently, the law says that it's the latter, and I tend to agree. The vast majority of the general population does not know enough about what they are taking to take it safely, even if they have been taking it for years. This is only going to get worse as new medications come out in the next few decades as I would guess that pharmaceuticals will get more person-specific, based on your DNA.

Far too many people would die of overdoses, especially the mentally disadvantaged (say Lithium, for example.) But that's just my opinion.

Rejected at Oregon State

2008-02-16T14:55:00.000-06:00

Got a rejection email from Oregon State yesterday, which at one point was the school I wanted to go to for pharmacy school. Throughout the year, though, I saw more and more of things I didn't really like. I'm sure everyone who goes there will do fine and make great pharmacists, but I feel better going somewhere else. I still have my acceptance from Hawai'i and am still waiting on Creighton. (My mail is horribly slow.)

Went up to the state tournament for HS wrestling yesterday, was fun to watch, but it's probably the last year I'll do so. It will be interesting to see the differences in Nebraska and Iowa. (I'm assuming I'll be at Creighton next year.)

This is it for now. See y'all later.

Dumb Super Bowl Commercials

2008-02-04T17:30:00.000-06:00

I thought that one was funny, though.

Carlos Mencia, I expect more from you.

Great Super Bowl Ads

2008-02-04T17:24:00.000-06:00