Other than finals, a date, a car wreck, the GRE, and melanoma, the past week was boringly mundane.
First, I had three finals last Monday. All three of them went well. The first two were back-to-back, then I actually had 9 hours between my second and third final and spent them studying. The third final turned out to be 50 multiple-choice questions that took a grand total of 20 minutes. Of course, if I hadn't studied, there are at least 5 or 6 questions I know I would have been unable to remember and would have had to have guessed on, having not gone to that class in a month.
I spent Tuesday at work, then Tuesday evening studying. My last final exam was at 8:00 am on Wednesday in my political science class. I went to a grand total of 6 sessions of that class--the first day, the day the first essay was due, the day of the midterm, the day the second essay was due, the last day of class (to find out what would be on the final), and the day of the final exam. The test consisted of a 40-question multiple-choice section followed by an essay question. We were asked to discuss the quote, "If everyone has an equal vote and equal political rights, what does it matter that some people make more money than others?" I ended up writing about 5 handwritten pages worth of commentary, in which I showed no fewer than 7 reasons it does matter.
From Wednesday through Friday, I spent my days at work and my evenings studying for the GRE (Graduate Record Examination, like an SAT for grad school).
On Friday evening came the first piece of semi-major news in my recent life. I have had a mole on the back of my neck my whole life. Recently, (~Tuesday through Friday) it had been itching slightly. It was not enough to bother me too badly, but I thought I might want to get the doctor to examine it, because moles are not supposed to itch. If you are squeamish about blood and descriptions of minor surgical procedures, you probably should skip the rest of this paragraph and all of the following one. On Friday night while I was on my way home, I was lightly scratching around it (lightly being barely enough to eliminate any kind of itch). One of my fingernails caught the mole, and it bled enough that some of it flowed down to my shirt collar, then bled again when I was as gently as possible cleaning it off, just lightly dabbing at it with a wet Kleenex. It had never done this before, and certainly wasn't supposed to. I couldn't tell if it looked different than it used to because I not only don't look at the back of my neck very often, but there was also blood blocking my view. I decided it was past time to go to the doctor about it.
My appointment was yesterday afternoon after the GRE. The doctor heard my description of what happened, then examined it and told me the mole had developed into a melanoma. He said it looked like a benign form, but he wanted it removed right away and sent to a lab for testing. He first numbed the area with an injection of litocane, then took a scalpel and cut off the mole. I could see him making a sawing motion with the scalpel, but I couldn't feel anything except the blood when it dripped past the numbed area. Once he had cut off the mole, he dropped it into a little container of deionized water to send to the lab, dabbed the blood off my neck, and cut off the small pieces he had missed. He made a comment about how much it was bleeding, "That one was pretty vascular," and proceeded to hold a piece of gauze on my neck. After a couple of minutes, it was still bleeding more than he wanted, so he had me hold a fresh piece of gauze to the back of my neck while he retrieved a ferric subsulfate solution to constrict the blood vessels and help stop the bleeding. As a side note, I have no problems clotting, and cuts on my fingers, for example, usually stop bleeding very quickly. After two applications of the solution and more pressure, the bleeding finally slowed enough to apply a band-aid, and I now have a band-aid on the back of my neck where the mole used to be, and the doctor will call me if the lab reports anything that will require a follow-up visit.
So, I had a most likely benign form of potential skin cancer that should be all gone now, and it only cost me $15 for the copay.
Saturday, I went on the date I mentioned in my last journal entry. I have to say, it's amazing how different people can be once you get past their "meeting new people" facade. I thought when I first met her that she seemed like a decent person, and that I would like to know more about her. I found out that I was wrong. She turned out to be the type of person who doesn't want to think for herself, and uses her religion as an excuse for bigotry. Not only that, but she believes morality to be an absolute and therefore thinks anyone who doesn't have the exact same moral system she has is immoral. Needless to say, I was not happy to hear these things coming out of her mouth. She did not say them in so many words, but these things definitely came out during the course of our conversation.
Once I had decided I didn't like her, I started to have some fun with it. I danced around the issues, trying to get her to be explicit and obstinately refusing to fall into her verbal traps and be led to a conclusion I did not believe in. She wasn't even sophisticated enough to hide her traps--it was more like setting up a pitfall, then instead of covering it up, setting up a spotlight aimed straight at it and neon signs reading: "Danger! Pitfall!" Meanwhile, she obstinately refused to be rational and admit that I might have any valid points whatsoever. She appears to believe whatever her religious leader tells her, (including said leader's interpretation of the Bible, which is quite obviously derived from selectively reading it to support his already-established belief system) even though I pointed out some glaring contradictions in her beliefs.
For just one example, she made the following two statements: "humans are flawed and imperfect" and "You know what is right and wrong by listening to your heart." I repeated the first statement, to which she agreed, and then asked how we can know anything for certain, including right and wrong, if we are so flawed and imperfect. I continued, stating something to the effect of "Furthermore, everyone in the world has at least a slightly different view of what is right and wrong. If everyone's idea of morality is different, is everyone wrong, or is only one person in the world right?" Her response: "I'm confused." I explained myself in different ways several times, but that was as far as she took that line of reasoning. Try as I might, I could not get her to think about it any farther. I can go into more detail about the conversation if anyone wants me to do so. Eventually she complained of having a headache, which I can believe--quite honestly, I tend to do that to most people when involved in an intellectual conversation, especially stupid, irrational people--so I took her home. We mutually agreed not to see each other again.
Sunday consisted of me studying for the GRE, watching Family Guy on DVD, and playing the computer game my parents gave me for my birthday.
On Monday, I narrowly avoided being the fourth car in a pile-up on I-5 on my way to take the GRE. I was following the person in front of me in moderate (for L.A.) traffic, meaning 4 lanes going about 70 mph with about 3-4 car lengths between us. The person ahead of me, which I will now refer to as car 3 (with the person ahead of him being car 2, and the next person in line being car 1), was an SUV, so I couldn't see around him to know what was going on farther along in the lane. When I drive, I always try to monitor the space around me so I know whether or not there is a car behind or beside me at all times, or if there is one moving into that area. Well, we were going along at 70 mph when car 3 without warning slammed on the brakes. I hit mine hard and swerved into the empty space to the right of me--my part was over in less than half a second. As I was about to see, there was a traffic jam we had just reached as a result of an upcoming interchange--people in California slow way down when the highway splits, even if, as in this case, it goes from 4 lanes to 5 total. As I went past, I saw car 2 (also an SUV), tires smoking, swerving off to the left, slam into car 1, followed almost immediately by car 3 slamming into car 2 from behind. Glass, plastic, and metal shattered, crumpled and flew. I could not see if the car that had been behind me was involved as well or not, but I was extremely happy I had managed to be quick enough to avoid it. I realized that the driver of car 2 had apparently not been paying attention and had noticed too late that car 1 had stopped due to the traffic jam. A couple of seconds later, the adrenaline hit and my heart started racing.
The rest of my trip to the test center was uneventful. I took the GRE (it took about 3 hours) and scored a 1410 on the verbal and quantitative portions (I should know how I did on the essay portions in a couple of weeks). In case you are wondering, the scoring system works the same as with the SAT--top score possible is 800 in both categories, for a total of 1600. One major difference is that, instead of a fixed difficulty level (which is higher than that of the SAT to begin), a right answer leads you to a tougher question and a wrong answer leads to an easier one. Regardless, I scored significantly above average. Another major difference between the GRE and the SAT is the pressure--you are being monitored by both camera and microphone the whole time, and two proctors walk around the test room of 20 test-takers, constantly watching for any evidence of cheating.
After that, I went to the doctor's office and had the mole removed.
Today was blessedly uneventful. I went to work, then came home, and that's about the extent of what is worth mentioning about today.
I spent Tuesday at work, then Tuesday evening studying. My last final exam was at 8:00 am on Wednesday in my political science class. I went to a grand total of 6 sessions of that class--the first day, the day the first essay was due, the day of the midterm, the day the second essay was due, the last day of class (to find out what would be on the final), and the day of the final exam. The test consisted of a 40-question multiple-choice section followed by an essay question. We were asked to discuss the quote, "If everyone has an equal vote and equal political rights, what does it matter that some people make more money than others?" I ended up writing about 5 handwritten pages worth of commentary, in which I showed no fewer than 7 reasons it does matter.
From Wednesday through Friday, I spent my days at work and my evenings studying for the GRE (Graduate Record Examination, like an SAT for grad school).
On Friday evening came the first piece of semi-major news in my recent life. I have had a mole on the back of my neck my whole life. Recently, (~Tuesday through Friday) it had been itching slightly. It was not enough to bother me too badly, but I thought I might want to get the doctor to examine it, because moles are not supposed to itch. If you are squeamish about blood and descriptions of minor surgical procedures, you probably should skip the rest of this paragraph and all of the following one. On Friday night while I was on my way home, I was lightly scratching around it (lightly being barely enough to eliminate any kind of itch). One of my fingernails caught the mole, and it bled enough that some of it flowed down to my shirt collar, then bled again when I was as gently as possible cleaning it off, just lightly dabbing at it with a wet Kleenex. It had never done this before, and certainly wasn't supposed to. I couldn't tell if it looked different than it used to because I not only don't look at the back of my neck very often, but there was also blood blocking my view. I decided it was past time to go to the doctor about it.
My appointment was yesterday afternoon after the GRE. The doctor heard my description of what happened, then examined it and told me the mole had developed into a melanoma. He said it looked like a benign form, but he wanted it removed right away and sent to a lab for testing. He first numbed the area with an injection of litocane, then took a scalpel and cut off the mole. I could see him making a sawing motion with the scalpel, but I couldn't feel anything except the blood when it dripped past the numbed area. Once he had cut off the mole, he dropped it into a little container of deionized water to send to the lab, dabbed the blood off my neck, and cut off the small pieces he had missed. He made a comment about how much it was bleeding, "That one was pretty vascular," and proceeded to hold a piece of gauze on my neck. After a couple of minutes, it was still bleeding more than he wanted, so he had me hold a fresh piece of gauze to the back of my neck while he retrieved a ferric subsulfate solution to constrict the blood vessels and help stop the bleeding. As a side note, I have no problems clotting, and cuts on my fingers, for example, usually stop bleeding very quickly. After two applications of the solution and more pressure, the bleeding finally slowed enough to apply a band-aid, and I now have a band-aid on the back of my neck where the mole used to be, and the doctor will call me if the lab reports anything that will require a follow-up visit.
So, I had a most likely benign form of potential skin cancer that should be all gone now, and it only cost me $15 for the copay.
Saturday, I went on the date I mentioned in my last journal entry. I have to say, it's amazing how different people can be once you get past their "meeting new people" facade. I thought when I first met her that she seemed like a decent person, and that I would like to know more about her. I found out that I was wrong. She turned out to be the type of person who doesn't want to think for herself, and uses her religion as an excuse for bigotry. Not only that, but she believes morality to be an absolute and therefore thinks anyone who doesn't have the exact same moral system she has is immoral. Needless to say, I was not happy to hear these things coming out of her mouth. She did not say them in so many words, but these things definitely came out during the course of our conversation.
Once I had decided I didn't like her, I started to have some fun with it. I danced around the issues, trying to get her to be explicit and obstinately refusing to fall into her verbal traps and be led to a conclusion I did not believe in. She wasn't even sophisticated enough to hide her traps--it was more like setting up a pitfall, then instead of covering it up, setting up a spotlight aimed straight at it and neon signs reading: "Danger! Pitfall!" Meanwhile, she obstinately refused to be rational and admit that I might have any valid points whatsoever. She appears to believe whatever her religious leader tells her, (including said leader's interpretation of the Bible, which is quite obviously derived from selectively reading it to support his already-established belief system) even though I pointed out some glaring contradictions in her beliefs.
For just one example, she made the following two statements: "humans are flawed and imperfect" and "You know what is right and wrong by listening to your heart." I repeated the first statement, to which she agreed, and then asked how we can know anything for certain, including right and wrong, if we are so flawed and imperfect. I continued, stating something to the effect of "Furthermore, everyone in the world has at least a slightly different view of what is right and wrong. If everyone's idea of morality is different, is everyone wrong, or is only one person in the world right?" Her response: "I'm confused." I explained myself in different ways several times, but that was as far as she took that line of reasoning. Try as I might, I could not get her to think about it any farther. I can go into more detail about the conversation if anyone wants me to do so. Eventually she complained of having a headache, which I can believe--quite honestly, I tend to do that to most people when involved in an intellectual conversation, especially stupid, irrational people--so I took her home. We mutually agreed not to see each other again.
Sunday consisted of me studying for the GRE, watching Family Guy on DVD, and playing the computer game my parents gave me for my birthday.
On Monday, I narrowly avoided being the fourth car in a pile-up on I-5 on my way to take the GRE. I was following the person in front of me in moderate (for L.A.) traffic, meaning 4 lanes going about 70 mph with about 3-4 car lengths between us. The person ahead of me, which I will now refer to as car 3 (with the person ahead of him being car 2, and the next person in line being car 1), was an SUV, so I couldn't see around him to know what was going on farther along in the lane. When I drive, I always try to monitor the space around me so I know whether or not there is a car behind or beside me at all times, or if there is one moving into that area. Well, we were going along at 70 mph when car 3 without warning slammed on the brakes. I hit mine hard and swerved into the empty space to the right of me--my part was over in less than half a second. As I was about to see, there was a traffic jam we had just reached as a result of an upcoming interchange--people in California slow way down when the highway splits, even if, as in this case, it goes from 4 lanes to 5 total. As I went past, I saw car 2 (also an SUV), tires smoking, swerving off to the left, slam into car 1, followed almost immediately by car 3 slamming into car 2 from behind. Glass, plastic, and metal shattered, crumpled and flew. I could not see if the car that had been behind me was involved as well or not, but I was extremely happy I had managed to be quick enough to avoid it. I realized that the driver of car 2 had apparently not been paying attention and had noticed too late that car 1 had stopped due to the traffic jam. A couple of seconds later, the adrenaline hit and my heart started racing.
The rest of my trip to the test center was uneventful. I took the GRE (it took about 3 hours) and scored a 1410 on the verbal and quantitative portions (I should know how I did on the essay portions in a couple of weeks). In case you are wondering, the scoring system works the same as with the SAT--top score possible is 800 in both categories, for a total of 1600. One major difference is that, instead of a fixed difficulty level (which is higher than that of the SAT to begin), a right answer leads you to a tougher question and a wrong answer leads to an easier one. Regardless, I scored significantly above average. Another major difference between the GRE and the SAT is the pressure--you are being monitored by both camera and microphone the whole time, and two proctors walk around the test room of 20 test-takers, constantly watching for any evidence of cheating.
After that, I went to the doctor's office and had the mole removed.
Today was blessedly uneventful. I went to work, then came home, and that's about the extent of what is worth mentioning about today.