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April 29, 2008
April 28, 2008
21 days until May 19th!!!
21 days until graduation…May 19…GRADUATION..YAY…OR YATCH! I cannot believe that the actual day is getting so near. I am so excited for graduation, yet as the same time, I am so nervous and scared as the day is approaching so quickly. It seems to me that I am at the endless cycle of catching up and finishing required projects, papers, and assignments before graduation. I decided recently that I will vigorously focus on my master project in the summer; there is no way I can complete them along with everything that I have to do right now.
So I am recovering from Taste Diversity last week; if you missed the event, way too too bad! We have such a blast! I estimated that we have more than 300 attendees this year. Unfortunately, I have been severely sick after the event. We have posted many pictures on facebook for you to view; if you’re curious, please go to UofM School of Public Health Facebook to see all the great pictures. Basically, I have been sick and as the same time working nonstop on my assignments.
Despites all the works that needed to be done by tomorrow, after three hours lecture today, Andrea (a great friend of mine from Epi.) decided to walk in the cold to Dinky Town for lunch. We planned to go to Qdoba, but changed our mind to Annie’s Parlor after. I am telling you..it was the best homemade American hamburger and French fried I had ever ate within my 14 years living in the US. Andrea always makes fun of me about me and my almost always eating Asian food. I am still so happy that I ate that hamburger there, it was so super delicious! Please go there if you have not done so.
In addition to all of my endless projects, I am waiting from my internship application in Washington DC. I applied to several projects, got denied some and still waiting from some. I really am hoping to get accepted in one internship project so I can experience the actual work force outside of school. That’s all for now, I will update with you again very soon….in the mean time…peace and stay healthy.
Fewer Moving Parts
The end of the semester would probably feel more inspiring if it felt like spring outside. Or perhaps it would be even more difficult to concentrate. I feel a wave of ADD coming over me and almost anything sounds better than doing homework right now. I'm pretty anxious to wrap up the school year, I must admit. I'm kind of tired of my current class load and am looking forward to a fresh semester which will come up soon. I'm still not looking forward to online classes. The best part of school is hanging out in class and talking! It'll probably be even harder to sit in front of my computer during the awesome Minnesota summers... But I'll manage.
I am in project land right now. I'm getting some extra time for my paper for eugenics class beacuse I still think I can make a really sweet paper with a little more time. My final project for Community Health Assessment will be not too bad, I just have to get it done. It's just a short group presentation about finding data on community health topics and presenting how it was found as opposed to the actual data. And then there's a 4-6 page paper that I don't think will be too difficult. Biostats just has a third test. But I will have to study for that a bit. I really can't screw it up.
Although the weather was depressing this weekend, I still managed to get out and have some fun. Friday evening I went to a gathering at one of the faculty member's homes in our division. It was a lovely event with a number of faculty and students there just hanging out. With awesome food. I saw some local theatre at my favorite small venue here, Old Arizona, The play was called Broken Brains and it was about brain injuries and mental illnesses performed by people with those afflictions. It was funny and witty but addressed serious issues. It was fabulous and reminded me how great the indie theatre scene is here. Then I went to Big V's to see a local band called The Deaf. Since the last time I saw them, they've replaced everyone except the drummer. I'm really not sure why they kept the name. Then I made it over to the Triple Rock to see Story of the Sea and Kid Dakota, also fantastic local bands. It was a very entertaining (and late) night. Good times.
And my running buddy and I did 10 miles yesterday! We ran to St. Paul and at one point saw the Minneapolis skyline and it looked really, really distant. I had to ice down my inflamed knees afterwards. But surprisingly, I'm not very sore today. I'm a pretty slow runner. And I saw There Will be Blood last night at a really cool old second-run theatre called The Riverview. It was just ok I guess. I really liked the ending though. Gross.
Ok. Wish me luck on having a better run at focusing. It's really hard for me to turn down fun stuff.
April 26, 2008
Are you job hunting???
Hi everyone,
I know many of you are graduating and looking for jobs right now. It's a little rough, but I know you can find the job for you. The Biostats department held "mock" interviews for graduating MS and PhD students to get some practice in before starting the job process. While I did not participate (I already had my job at that point), I did get some access to some of the questions they were asking and I thought that most applied to pretty much any of the public health degrees so here goes:
1. Teamwork is a critical part of our work here. Tell me about any experiences you have had working as part of an inter-disciplinary team.
2. Your resume showed that you had a Research Assistant (or Teaching Assistant) position. Describe the research projects you worked on (or classes you taught).
3. What kind of writing experience do you have?
4. I see from your resume that you are working on a master's project. Tell me about it. What is your topic?
5. Are you able to set and meet deadlines?
6. What makes you qualified for this position?
7. Do you prefer to work alone or in teams?
8. What will be the biggest obstacle for you in this position?
These are just a start, but I thought they were good questions that are relevant to our field. When I was going through the process myself I bought a few books, but you end up paging through a bunch of questions that aren't relevant. The other thing I would add that is important here is to understand and learn as much as you can about the company or organization that you are applying for and to come up with some intelligent quesitons of your own!
Good luck to everyone in the job search process - whether it is a summer internship or your "real" job after graduation, I hope you find exactly what you are looking for! Have a good weekend!
April 24, 2008
Dine out for Life
Sorry to be an absentee blogger these past days, but school has finally switched into high gear with finals right around the corner. BUT I do want to alert everyone that today is Dine Out for Life, sponsoring the Aliveness Project, a really great AIDS service organization in Minneapolis. Go to the Dine out for life website at http://www.diningoutforlife.com/Minneapolis, find a participating restaurant and have a great meal--a no brainer!
April 22, 2008
Biking in Minneapolis!
Christie Martin is ready to get her bike out!
Christie is grateful for healthy babies!
Entertainment of the week:
I am Legend
Minneapolis/St. Paul Happenings:
SPH Taste Diversity Event: Global Fusion
Wednesday, April 23rd, 4:30-7:30pm
The Whole
SPH Multicultural Celebration
Saturday, April 26th, 1-4pm
Tedd Mann Concert Hall
Word of the Day, Monday April 21, 2008 (dictionary.com):
chimera \ky-MIR-uh\, noun:
1. (Capitalized) A fire-breathing she-monster represented as having a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail.
2. Any imaginary monster made up of grotesquely incongruous parts.
3. An illusion or mental fabrication; a grotesque product of the imagination.
4. An individual, organ, or part consisting of tissues of diverse genetic constitution, produced as a result of organ transplant, grafting, or genetic engineering.
Week at-a-glance (weather.com):
Mon Apr 21
Scattered T-Storms
70°
45°
60%
Use Caution on the Roads
Tue Apr 22
AM Clouds / PM Sun
63°
41°
20%
Wed Apr 23
Partly Cloudy
67°
55°
10%
Thu Apr 24
Scattered T-Storms
66°
41°
40%
Check Flight Delays
Fri Apr 25
Few Showers
50°
35°
30%
Sat Apr 26
Partly Cloudy
54°
39°
10%
Sun Apr 27
Showers
52°
37°
40%
April 21, 2008
Not easy to graduate
Hi everyone,
Sorry about the absence for a while - but I am swamped! I am convinced that it is VERY hard to actually graduate in May. This semester has been flying by and really busy and I can easily see why someone would not be able to finish their plan B thesis in time for a spring graduation. I should be on track, with my defense scheduled for May 2nd, but last week I would have sworn that I was not going to pass one of my classes. We had a take home exam and for the first few days I didn't even know where to start on it. It was bad. Thankfully I was patient - I know that sometimes my brain just needs a few days to think about math problems - and they slowly came to me (one even in the shower!) I definitely didn't rock the test, but I at least should have done well enough to pass the course, which is really all I care about at this point. As one of my friends and a another graduating student would point out "we have attitude issues" :)
Being done is another whole scary thing in its self though - the three weeks I have off sound great (though I still haven't planned anything) BUT I will be starting my "real job" the second full week fo June and that's a little overwhelming. I"m trying to prepare myself for the fact that I will have no idea what's going on for the first few months, but it's hard.
Thankfully, I have good friends and have (slowly) learned that I can't survive graduate school without taking breaks and having some fun. With all of this going on, I've still managed to see most of my friends and even read a book for fun (when it is nice outside who wants to do actual homework?) I went rollerblading yesterday which is always fun (side note: watch out for steep hills - I didn't crash but came really close!) I hope all of you that are in my position are making time for yourselves as well. And if you're not graduating yet, REALLY enjoy your summer!
Talk to you all soon!
April 19, 2008
Music of Hair
I don't really like cutting anything out of my life but I'm afraid the next couple of weeks will force me to actually say no to something fun. Unless I can figure out how to cut sleep and still get through the day. And night. I do really feel like exercising is my new addiction. I'm still absolutely dependent on caffeine as well and the two combined seem like the perfect cocktail for getting less sleep and still rockin' it hard. I'd also like to take the opportunity to praise the deliciousness of Holiday gas station's coffee. I used to drink it regularly when I lived near one because it was only one dollar for a gigantic mug and now I hit it up whenever I can because it's freaking delicious. It's seriously the best coffee I've ever found. So, I have now breached final project kingdom. For Community Health Assessment, our group has to present databases and public information about diet and nutrition and stuff. I think it'll be interesting finding the web-based applications from which to pull the data. Or at least hopefully the data itself will be interesting. Fortunately, that is partly what my awesome preceptor for my field experience does for Ramsey county. She'll be a fantastic resource. I already got an extension for my eugenics paper, which is great. I think I can really write a killer paper if I just had a little more time. Luckily, my professor agreed and I think I might take another month or so. I have tons of resources already and am looking forward to figuring out my thesis and really diving into the material. By the way, I'm lounging back right now with a frozen package of really old Wisconsin Blend vegetables thawing on my right shin. I think it's really helping ward off the shin splints although it's cold. And biostats. Oh, biostats. Why do I suck so badly at you? I mean, I think I have a B so far and if I don't totally screw up the final, I'll be all right. But I have to stick with it till the bitter end. At least not I have more fodder for statistic jokes. They can be funny when used correctly.
I've been working out hard in the last week. I went on what is now a super long run but will be a relatively short run in the future of 9 miles. That's definitely the longest I've ever run at one time and it was great! I went with one of my bff's and we talked the whole time which was fun. And I just got back from another, but not quite as long, more like between 7-8 miles. It's kind of hard to gauge and now I'm just going on time. I'm not very fast though. My pace is like 10 minute miles. But hey, if I can sustain that for the marathon (that I just signed up for, yikes!) I'll be pretty awesome. And since my chest has almost healed all the way, I've been boxing harder again. And the duathalon is coming up in a couple of weeks! I'm tired and hungry.
I went to the BEST show ever last night. Remember how I raved about Man Man and Yeasayer? Well they played together at the Varsity last night and it was amazing. The energy was intense, music was unparalleled and everything about the night was beautiful. Last weekend I saw the Fuck Buttons and Caribou at the Triple Rock and was blown away as well. Caribou are amazing performers. It was dimensional, encompassing and loud! And then there was Destroyer at the 400 Bar Wednesday night. They were also bad ass. In fact. it was a pretty awesome week of music, actually. Till next time...
April 14, 2008
I'm Still Alive
My apologies once again for being so late in having another blog entry. You can understand if I am a little preoccupied. I’m about a month and a day before I will be presenting my masters project to faculty and students. Yikes indeed. There’s really not that much else to say other than I’ve been working my butt off on this paper to make sure that I graduate in time, because if I don’t, that takes away my job. Talk about pressure. To compound that, the key actor interview process for this project is still crawling along at a snail’s pace. I have enough where I can be writing a draft of the final two sections of my paper (which is what I’ve been doing all weekend), but it certainly would have been easier if I had all of the interviews under my belt…or even knew when they would take place.
I did go out Saturday night for a while which was needed for my own sanity. A friend of mine was in town from New York so three of us went to dinner with her. As we left my apartment I realized it had been the first time I had left the building in 50 hours. I’m not exaggerating, just a lot of me staring at my computer, typing away. Anyway, we went to a restaurant called “Seven,” which is downtown and serves all kinds of sushi. I had never tried sushi until about a year ago, but this stuff was delicious. The restaurant was one of these very trendy places, with techno music in the background with that same bass beat every techno song has, combating your efforts to have a conversation. After dinner we went out for awhile (into the cold, as it was in the 20s when we left the restaurant). The next day I felt so much better that I had done something besides school for a bit. But now, it’s back to the grind.
Wish me luck as I write yet another draft. See you around the blog.
April 13, 2008
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Christie Martin is starting to get stressed as graduation nears.
Christie is grateful for sunshine!
Entertainment of the week:
School of Public Health Film Festival
Minneapolis/St. Paul Happenings:
American Cancer Society
Relay for Life
6 pm, Friday April 18th - 6am, Saturday April 19th
Located at the U of M Fieldhouse
For more details, go to http://events.tc.umn.edu/event?event=116302 or www.cancer.org/docroot/par/content/PAR_1_Relay_For_Life.asp
Word of the Day, Sunday April 14, 2008 (dictionary.com):
abulia \uh-BOO-lee-uh; uh-BYOO-\, noun:
Loss or impairment of the ability to act or to make decisions.
Week at-a-glance (weather.com):
Mon Apr 14
Sunny 52°
37°
20%
Tue Apr 15
Partly Cloudy / Wind
65°
50°
10%
Wed
Apr 16
Cloudy
63°
40°
20%
Check Flight Delays
Thu
Apr 17
Cloudy
59°
38°
10%
Fri
Apr 18
Mostly Cloudy
57°
44°
10%
Sat
Apr 19
Cloudy
62°
46°
20%
Check Flight Delays
Sun
Apr 20
Partly Cloudy
66°
46°
10%
April 11, 2008
Pod
The weird paradox of time in that black-hole-Brian-Greene-bend-the-universe-way is definitely happening. The school year is nearing an end and I just looked out my window and it's snowing. Again. Lame.
Last night was a fabulous talk at the Science Museum from Holocaust survivor and Mengele twin Eva Kor. She talked about her life at Auschwitz with her twin, the experiments and how she survived. It was an incredible story of strength, survival and determination. She was an adorable little old lady with a huge personality. The most interesting thing about her story was that after she publicly forgave Mengele at Auschwitz, the other surviving twins she had made great efforts to find wanted nothing to do with her any longer. I'm not really one for 'inspirational type' speeches, but her talk was very incredible. However, I thought her end message was not completely flushed out. It was 'don't judge other people before you know them'. I have a problem that that blanket statement. I think judgment is a good thing so long as you don't take it too far (and too far can even be attitudes).
Registration has already started. I'm taking Epi and Health something Management both online this summer. I'm a little intimidated by Epi. I heard it's a lot like Biostats and I'm terrible at Biostats. In fact, I really hope I get a B so I don't have to take it again. I think I'll be ok but the last test I took was ugly. Luckily it wasn't awesome for everyone either and we have a chance to make up some test questions if we re-do them. That's really fantastic, don't get me wrong, but now I have to do more Biostats. It's just really difficult for me. I was always pretty good at math, but stats isn't really math.
Good news. I think I just deeply bruised my pec muscle on the left side as opposed to cracking a rib. Luckily I can still hit a heavy bag, just no push ups for a while longer. My sparring buddy is going to fight for her first time next month. I'm excited to watch her fight and imagine myself in that situation in less than a year. I've been busy at night too. Last week my mom came in town and we saw a local rock opera by the band Fort Wilson Riot. It had cool puppets. Saturday night (which was my birthday!) we went to the show of my mom's favorite band, Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers at the Fine Line. Besides the drunk idiots, it was awesome. I saw the Rolling Stone's Shine a Light at the Imax theatre. It was loud and fantastic. Ummm.. I saw some west coast bands the other night at the Entry- Fleet Foxes and Blitzen Trapper. It was a fun mountain-man rock show. And I am STAYING home tonight. I've had late-night work events and am tired.
April 10, 2008
Yay....I Completed my Internship!
First and foremost, hello my friends…for the second year students, congratulation on the getting closer to the graduation date and I …..share your endless pains. Well, I have been missing in action for awhile due to many reasons (I know..but I am still a student..and student can have many reasons), but at least I am on my way to catch up with everything now.
Life has been up-and-down for the last several weeks; I completed my internship at the City of St. Louis Park yesterday……yayyyyyyy…now I can have the extra two days to work on my school works and catching with my friends. My experiences at the City of St. Louis Park were uniquely indescribable. Okay, okay..let me tell you in detail, I just wanted to make it sound mysterious so you will get curious.
Well, I spent about 130 hours interning at the city Hall doing many things. My SPH mentor is a supervisor of the Environmental Division and he was the one who connected me with his opportunity. On a side thought, make sure you stay connect with your mentor or if you don’t have a mentor yet, do connect with the Mentor program. You will not expect what your mentor will connect you with! So, my internship experiences allowed me to learn many things both personally and professionally. I was able to attend many professional meetings within and outside of the division. I attended different workshops and conferences on environmental related topics. I accompanied food/housing/facility inspectors to residential and commercial facilities for routine inspection. I enjoyed going to different food facility to conduct inspection because it is so cool to see how different restaurants operate behind scene. So, that’s the brief executive summary of my internship; I enjoyed it very much!
I will be busy with this week and throughout next week with so many activities. I am looking forward to attend the Alum & Student Reunion today and the Student Research Day tomorrow. I am a bit proud and excited for the Research Day because I am among one of the judges for the Student Choice Award (okay..Thuy…humility..sorry, just feel like giving myself some positive encouragement!) Next week I will participate in my first Relay for Life; I am very excited for this first experience as I fully dedicate the whole night for my deceased McNair Scholar’s adviser Dee and my friend who is struggling with cancer.
Besides that many things going on, myself along with almost forty other SPH fellows are working vigorously on planning for Taste Diversity – Global Fusion approaching in two weeks. If you are planning to go…good for you, if you not sure….do something good for yourself and invite your friends to go. This is a fantastic celebration for you, friends along with your family to end the year and experience other cultures existing in SPH. There will be food from around the world…students and faculty talent shows (includes singing, dancing..and who knows!) , souvenirs..and many other one of the kind activities..We guaranteed you!
Well, that should be good for now..see you all later…!
Opera time
I am currently in the midst of dress rehearsals with the Minnesota Opera's production of Rusalka, opening this Saturday night at the Ordway Center downtown St. Paul. Why watch the Minnesota WILD play in the NHL playoffs at the XCEL center when less than a block away you can catch the opera??!
FMI:
www.mnopera.com
April 07, 2008
National Public Health Week
Christie Martin is enjoying her cooking club!
Christie is grateful for the SPH 4th Annual Film Festival!
Entertainment of the week:
Season Finale of The Moment of Truth
American Idol
Dancing with the Stars
Men's NCAA Final: Kansas Jayhawks defeated the Memphis Tigers 75-68 in OT
Minneapolis/St. Paul Happenings:
National Public Health Week
For more information on events at the University of Minnesota, go to: http://www.sph.umn.edu/nphw/home.html
George Michael
Xcel Energy Center
07/07/08
8 pm
For more information, go the official website: http://www.georgemichael.com/
Word of the Day, Sunday April 6, 2008 (dictionary.com):
importunate \im-POR-chuh-nit\, adjective:
Troublesomely urgent; overly persistent in request or demand; unreasonably solicitous.
Week at-a-glance (weather.com):
Mon Apr 7
Few Snow Showers / Wind
46°
31°
30%
Tue Apr 8
PM Rain / Snow Showers
43°
32°
30%
Wed Apr 9
Partly Cloudy
47°
34°
20%
Thu Apr 10
Few Showers
45°
32°
30%
Fri Apr 11
Rain / Snow Showers
38°
27°
40%
Sat Apr 12
Rain / Snow Showers
37°
29°
30%
Sun Apr 13
Sunny
47°
35°
0%
April 04, 2008
43 days until my last final...
Hi everyone,
Oh yeah, I'm counting again - 43 days! Only this time it sounds way too CLOSE! I have a lot of work to get done before graduation - homework for both my classes, a take home mid-term that looks evil, finishing up my thesis to get to my committee members, starting my presentation for that (I set my date for MAY 2nd!), work for my RA, and a final project for each class - a group project for Clinical Trials and an individual project for Bayesian Analysis, AND a final in Clinical Trials on May 17th. If I weren't so busy I would be really overwhelmed that I need to fit that all in the next 6 weeks!
This week I did get to have a little bit of fun though. I went to the Twins Opener on Monday! It was a lot of fun - they said it was the largest attendance in 15 years! Pretty exciting and great game - kind of went down hill the rest of the week when I wasn't there, but they will get it back! This weekend will involve mostly a lot of homework and "checking things off the list", but I do have a karate tournament to coach on Sunday and will try to have a little relaxation time in there too (hopefully). And let's be honest...I'll be "working" on homework while watching the Twins game tonight and the NCAA final four games tomorrow...probably not the worst way to do homework!
I hope you all have a great weekend. If you are working on graduating as well, good luck! I know you understand the overwhelming work load in these last few weeks!
Last modified on Monday Jul 02, 2007