Thoughts from ME

The gene known as FMR1, Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein, is a main contender for the spotlight in medical research of today. There are three specific disorders, called Fragile X-associated Disorders, that are caused by permutations of this gene and two of those disorders are studied at the University of California Davis Medical Center (UCDMC) located in Sacramento, CA. The two kinds of Fragile X-associated Disorders are discussed as well as final thoughts on the UC Davis internship. The first of these disorders is Fragile X Syndrome and is the best known cause of the disorder known as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or simply autism. Approximately 1 in 88 children in the United States are affected by ASD. Those who suffer from ASD show signs such as delayed speech development, difficulties with social interactions, disrupted immune responses, and multiple other symptoms that range across the spectrum. This disorder is studied extensively at the Medical Investigation of Neu...

Recently I've really liked these songs. So I wanted to share them somewhere! The short lived Wonderland musical that ran in 2011 had some really good songs, although it's totally weird. This  is currently my favorite of the songs from this musical. And this song from the Pirate Queen musical. "I see horizons wide as mans." When I first arrived in Woodland I listened to this song a BILLION times via Spotify (yay!) during my drives to and from Davis. Whitney Bashor is so fun to sing along to! (Warning. The song is beautiful. The musical is about adultery - not beautiful :( This one is really liked - though not a personal favorite. And then there's just this super random song from Amanda Seyfried (who I don't even like) - but this song  about little red riding hood is a little quirky so I enjoy it!

I recently moved out to California. I wasn't sure I'd be able to make it since I had a lot of car problems (typical, right?) among other things. But it happened! And I made the trek out, stopping for a time to see my sister in Nevada. I'm living in the most beautiful place I've ever seen (if you take out all of Virginia of course!) Pictures to come of that. I logged onto my blog with great hopes of writing all these magnificent thoughts and everything. I think this will be a little rough sailing! It's been so long since I've written anything of this nature! Mostly, I wanted to get on my blog for two reasons: one, to document somewhere other than facebook my experiences while here in California, and two, to share a thought or two about the timing of life. I'll start with the second part I think. Since coming home from the mission, it has been a little hard for me to feel purpose in my life. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there is a...

Today was my first day shadowing a local doctor here in Rexburg! We saw mostly old people and a few children, including a one year old baby. It was interesting to shadow the doctor and spend time in his office, getting to know the nurses while the doctor was in with patients I couldn't be in with for various reasons. The children were all so cute! And the old people SOOoooOo talkative, looking for someone to listen to them to distract them from their personal issues. There was a surprisingly large amount of waiting around while the doctor updated papers and charts, mostly on his laptop that he carried around with him to each appointment. I had not realized before how much paperwork was involved. The doctor said for each patient he spends roughly 20 minutes in paperwork. Even the nurses had a lot of paperwork to update. What do you call paperwork if it's on the computer?... computerwork...?  

For a class I had to read George Orwell's 1984. Here is my paper :) Read the book!  George Orwell’s powerful tale of the woes of totalitarianism is a poetic cry for the sanity of mankind, a cry for us to stand up and think for ourselves. In 1984 Orwell cries for humanity from the lips of Winston Smith, a man frozen in a world he cannot escape, a world full of people he views too empty-headed to be worth very much. I appreciated this powerful story and the message Orwell hoped to convey to his readers. Among the things that made this book great are the setting of a twisted London, the character of Winston Smith and his associates, as well as the storyline and the style used by Mr. Orwell.             What first captured my attention is the setting. This includes the odd view of London as well as the homes described. A powerful part of the setting was the description of the posters that showed the visage of “Big Brother”...

Hey all! I know it's been forever :)   I've been thinking recently about the brain and us, humans and how we just get so attached to things and then we can't really shake them. I don't just mean things that aren't good for us either. For example, people. We get really attached to people.  Here's a poem I really love by e.e.cummings that I think adequately shows what I'm talking about: i carry your heart with me by E. E. Cummings i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling) i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true) and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows ...

Hi!!! I am officially an RM and returned after faithfully fulfilling my call for the Church to serve in the Virginia Richmond Mission. It was Awesome and hard and fantastic and looong and so unbelievably short aaaaall at the same time. Yup :P And I've just finished my two week visit back to my mission and am now spending a week being a total beach bum on the Atlantic Ocean in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It is soothing here. I love walking across the street to step onto the sand of the beach. It is an awesome sight in the best sense of the word to be able to stare out into the ocean. Today after breakfast we crossed the street and played on the beach. I went wave jumping and had a blast!! Just thinking about it I can taste the intense saltiness that would fill my mouth or burn my nose when I messed up my jumps. I had a great time though and wasn't even out too long. It'll be some time before I'm anywhere near a beach like this again so I'm going to take advanta...