Proc makingit data = Class2008;
by major;
class music shoebrand icecreamflava;
model success= booksshred time location height age money passion neuronoutput caffeine;
run;
Let me be up front. I'm a long distant Arab by way of being Pakistani. A splash of French, a pinch of Italian, a glimpse of Swedish. A solid 0.25 Native--1/8th Cherokee + 1/8 Mohawk. My gramma could sure fry some mean chicken and make black eyed peas. Oh, and I'm Bengali...I'm a refugee, a displaced person in my own country. An American-born confused Desi--you heard it. I'm a solid US-er with global citizenship. Somebody ought to do a SWOT analysis on me.
So let's talk about race baby....I'm not a politician, although I am running for president in 2020... ;) Yeah, it's about time we got real. Wait, I gotta get back to my social epi paper which I have yet to start. Sorry Professor Oakes...
So, now where were we again? I must sincerely apologize for ignoring you devoted blog readers. I actually had a prospective student mention to me (g'luck on the decision if you're reading this!) that I have been MIA on the blog lately....Well, there are reasons for that, reasons for which many 2nd year students can relate to, but that are most likely inexcusable.
So, what's new in my life? Well...I've been proc statementing it with some data. Ended up deleting a whole entire data set [good thing for back up!] trying to make a silly old variable...uh, the 'set' statement, folks, is an important one, don't forget it! :)
Taste Diversity is coming up! This year we are having a talent show--so everyone should participate! For real. Us girls are doing an Indian dance, and I might also do a piano piece... There's gonna be tons of great food--and fun! So even if you can't do the talent show, you gotta come for the food....I've been also thoroughly enjoying my social epi class, which is entirely good, since I'll be dabbling in social epi for the next 4 years.....Oh, and btw, I shall make a decision about which school I am going to for my doctoral program next week, as this weekend, I make the decision...The other day was grad fest, and I went and got my cap and gown--yikes! Reality kicks in...! I'm both excited and a bit stressed, as that means the closer to graduation, the less time I have to work on my master's project....!
Well, I just wanted to quick check in, let you know I'm still alive....
Hopefully, my next post won't be so drab and boring....We'll see....Someone special is coming to visit me from Boston for one whole week! I'm SOOOO excited!!!! I'll give you a clue on who--ummmm...so, he's handsome, and Nigerian, smart, and....lol......
i know i know, i haven't graduated yet....but i'm almost there!
so today i'm on strike.
to express my strike-iness attitude, i will no longer use capitalization.
so i apologize...not because i'm sorry bout the grammar nighmare. but that you have to squint your eyes to adjust to liller letters more often.
so today is march 7th, 2008. i say this only because i'm slightly disoriented and need to remind myself that i have 7 days left before spring break. what am i doing for spring break, you ask? i'm....i'm.....catchingupwithalltheworkivepostponedfor2monthsincluding
mypoorneglectedmastersprojectandsleepingsleepingsleeping.
arentyougladyouaskedthatquestion?
phew. now that we got that out of the way. on to more delightful topics. the last time i spoke to you, and i know you've been waiting and waiting to hear from me, was 10 years ago, and so it is about time i update you....
I GOT IN!!!
do you remember what i was babbling about back then? yes, well, go ahead, scroll down a bit....i was talking about
phd programs. so i did a lil dance for one, and the second i screeched to my roomate....poor girl. so where did i get in? why don't you guess...i applied to only 2 programs and got in 2 programs:
a.) u of MI
b.) u of MN
c.) unc
d.) harvard
e.) john's hoppin kins
f.) yale
(go ahead and use the 'when-in-doubt-choose-b' rule)
at any rate, man, am i looking forward to some springing break. tomorrow i am totally excited to go to a wedding! but i don't know what i shall wear??? usually weddings are in the summer. is it okay to wear black and silver?
thuy, the shoes you got me, btw, rock....you're prollie the only one reading this, so this goes out to you....
and oh man, cheers to ol school waltzes in the spring....to lovers and dreamers....
"Let us then, be up and doing. With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait."
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
There's something dreadfully exciting about not knowing what tomorrow may bring. And yet so….exasperatingly…restless. Take next year for example. Who knows where my feet will take me next? There are so many limitless possible paths.....yet, so much is dependent on factors that are seemingly out of my control. The feeling is something reminiscent of my senior year, when I submitted some applications to jobs, grad school, and considered my future. I had no idea I would end up in the middle of Montana doing research—a year that turned the tides in a direction I would never have anticipated. Like finding love. In a time which I had stubbornly declared to be on a journey of independence. I suppose it is precisely in declarations such as that in which one is most likely to be bamboozled by the thing that one runs from. And yes, you read correctly. I’m breaking the silence with the four letter word. Hey its post-Valentine’s day. And for the first time, I have a real valentine.There's so much more, but we'll save that for later.....:D But...*sigh*.... he is 1000 miles away…
The thing is, age steals proximal relation to the paths already traveled, and I find myself struggling to remember how it is I got here. Perhaps a clue about where I will go lies in this memory. In my social epi class, we grapple with social determinants of health—and Professor Oakes suggests that “where we get started” relates to “where we are going”. Our future, our present is so rooted in our past. Although, our past does not predestinate our destiny, it certainly may predict it.
I must say, the past two paragraphs are so enigmatic and abstract. And a tad experimental--grammatically speaking...I have been stretching my none-sense neurons...So, the story is I’m waiting to hear back from Phd programs in social epi….And I probably should make some sort of plan B- like apply to some job or fellowship. But the truth is, as much as I’m shrugging it off as ‘out of my hand’, I can not—I refuse to—let a piece of paper direct my future. If not now, tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, the next day. Yes. I am that determined. When you know it is your destiny…when you know you can’t shake it from your system…it becomes just that real….If not for myself, I owe it to the ones who got me here in the first place.
The start of term should not have taken me by surprise--I have been anticipating it for at least a month. And here we are, in the second week. The second week of my final semester as a Master's student. Hopefully. And by hopefully, I mean that I hope I can get my master's project off the ground in order to graduate by May, survive three courses, work approx. 25 hours per week, while flying all over the country. I'm currently on my lunch break, to briefly catch you all up on my spaztic life.
My Master's Project has in fact been approved!
Would you like to know the title of my master's project? [and too bad if you could care less...:P...]
A gender comparison of tobacco use and psychosocial risk factors among urban youth in India
If you are curious to know more, see the extended entry for a portion of the proposal - minus tricky details....
I had a great procrastinator's weekend - including having a wonderful time ice skating for Nicole's bday....I haven't done that in 12 whole years....! Here's [are] a few snapshots to serve as evidence that I still make room for fun amid the craziness of grad life....
3 papers and 2 grad school apps later, I'm checking the 'to do list', and it appears I've got another heavy load coming up.....Uh, that would be 2 tests, and a paper ya'll. Then it will be another whirl wind, as I have not started my Christmas shopping, and I really really need to clean my room. Hannah, bless her heart, has graciously accepted my heap of clothes that welcome her to our habitat. This weekend has been extremely busy, and I don't know where the time goes these days......
I must say, that this has been the busiest term yet, what with 6 courses and all. To briefly reflect, my courses have really been able to broaden my interests and I have thoroughly enjoyed my classes. I'm excited to be in this field, as it seems that there are limitless opportunities to engage in health and social change. I have registered for too many classes next term, simply because I can not decide on my course load.....! There are too many good courses to choose from, sheesh. I wish they'd make it easier for me....
At any rate, I hope that you all are surviving out there--hang in there, we're almost done! I'll have to do a better job at updating you all again, once this week is done.....
[ late night musings: having your friends write your term paper really pays off....for a nice chuckle past midnight, that is...]
(From Mr. Forrest Stonedahl, an excellent friend and math geek)
Don’t Drink or Smoke
An excellent paper by Amenah Babar. (Really excellent, trust me.) 1 Introduction
Too many fruitless words have been written about the alcohol and tobacco problems in India. I will not make this same mistake. Let’s get right to the heart of the matter.
As seen from Equation 1, the problem’s difficulty not to be underestimated.
However, in my inestimable brilliance, I suggest that a simple u substitution into Equation 2 will yield considerably lower rates of tobacco and alcoholism in India.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Case closed.
For some rather juvenile attempts at solving similar or related problems, please see the references section below.
References
[1] Paolo Alu, Singular schemes of hypersurfaces, Duke Math. J. 80 (1995),
325–351.
[2] , A blow-up construction and graph coloring, preprint?, 1996?
3] , Chern classes for singular hypersurfaces, preprint, February 1996.
[4] Paolo Alu and Carel Faber, A remark on the Chern class of a tensor
product, Manu. Math. 88 (1995), 85–86.
[5] V. Navarro Aznar, Sur les multiplicit´es de Schubert locales des faisceaux
alg´ebriques coh´erents, Comp. Math. 48 (1983), 311–326.
[6] Gottfried Barthel, Jean-Paul Brasselet, and Karl-Heinz Fieseler, Classes de
Chern des vari´et´es toriques singuli`eres, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris 315 (1992),
187–192.
[7] Jo¨el Biran¸con, Philippe Maisonobe, and Michel Merle, Localisation de
syst`emes di ´erentiels, stratifications de Whitney et condition de Thom, Invent.
Math. 117 (1994), 531–550.
[8] Jean-Paul Brasselet and Gerardo Gonzalez-Sprinberg, Sur l’homologie
d’intersection et les classes de Chern des vari´et´es singuli`eres (Espaces de
Thom et contre-exemples de Verdier et Goresky), G´eom´etrie Alg´ebrique et
Applications 23 (1987), 5–14.
[9] Jean-Paul Brasselet and M. H. Schwartz, Sur les classes de Chern d’un
ensemble analytique complexe, Ast´erisque 82-83 (1981), 93–147.
[10] Jean-Luc Brylinski, (Co)–Homologie d’intersection et faisceaux pervers,
S´eminaire Bourbaki 585 (1982), 129–157.
[11] Jean-Pierre Dax, Points singuliers normaux, points singuliers normaux
simples et mod`eles d’´elimination, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris 315 (1992), 315–
319.
So in Dr. Miller's class "Genetics in PubH", we grapple with some ethical questions....For instance, Dr. Miller presented a scenario:
A couple is referred by an infertility specialist for genetic counseling. They are both deaf from birth. They have one child together but they want to use 'technology' to ensure that the child is deaf.....[take a deep breath] The woman is 43 years old, and the couple want to use an egg donor from a younger woman who is also deaf to achieve another pregnancy. However, they want to select an egg from the donor that carries the gene for the same kind of hearing loss as the mom, thus ensuring that the child will be deaf............So.....What are the ethical concerns for such a question?
That brings us to the point of how we define disease. What is it? And maybe more importantly, who defines what is a disease? I am doing some research on Down syndrome for a paper, and one of the consistent concerns that I come across is the ethics in prenatal screening for downs-- new methods in which parents can determine if their unborn child has downs. These new techniques present some interesting questions when it comes to the implications they have for society--should we be able to determine who is born?
That brings us to eugenics. Eugenics being the "social philosophy which advocates the improvement of human hereditary traits through various forms of intervention.Throughout history, eugenics has been regarded by its various advocates as a social responsibility, an altruistic stance of a society, meant to create healthier and more intelligent people, to save resources, and lessen human suffering. More controversially, some, such as the Nazi regime in Germany, used eugenics as a pretext for racial discrimination."(Wikipedia)
Our generation will certainly be faced with some unique questions when it comes to genetics. (see extended entry for more controversy about new born screening...Did you guys here about the parents who had the child at home, and was forced by the state of [gosh, i forget] to have screening???)
On another note, who enjoyed the snow fall this past weekend???
"I'm about to change the focus
From the richest to the brokest
I wrote this opus
To reverse the hypnosis
Whoever's closest
To the line's gonna win it
You gonna fall tryin to ball
While my team win the pennant
I'm about to be in it
For a minute
Then run for senate
Make a slum lord be the tenant
Give his money to kids to spend it
And then amend it
Every law that ever prevented
Our survival since our arrival
Documented in the bible
Like Moses and Aaron
Things gon change, it's apparent
And all the transparent gonna
Be seen through
Let God redeem you
Keep your deen true
You can get the green too
Watch out what you cling to
Observe how a queen do
And I remain calm readin' the 73 Psalm
Cause wit all that's going on, I got the world in my palm
You could get the money
You could get the power
But keep your eyes on the final hour..." Lauryn Hill
It's crunch time. 3 papers due next week, grad apps filling up the final hours, presentations, tests, job searching, back up planning, thesis plotting, and.....Restless nights....All I can think about.....is a moment. I just returned from out East, visiting Imran, my older brother for Thanksgiving. And I left hope in MA. I've been down the same path, and I'm contending with the One who directs the changing of the wind. I don't know if I'll win. I usually lose. But this day, it's a new day.
[ hmf. 2nd to NO ONE! come on people, we got to get it back....! ]
FROM THE STAR TRIB:
The state of perfect health? Not anymore
Minnesota is pulled down to No. 2 in annual rankings by obesity, a lack of insurance and binge drinking.
By Josephine Marcotty, Star Tribune
Nov 5, 2007
Minnesota can always pride itself on being No. 1 in some things. It's the coldest state -- or at least one of them. It has the most lakes. And almost always, it has the healthiest population.
Well, now we've slipped a little on that last one.
In an annual report on state health rankings released Monday, Minnesota is No. 2 after holding the top spot for four consecutive years. Vermont, the little state that has been nipping at our healthy heels, moved into first place.
Minnesota's numbers fell in part because more of us are obese. Plus, an additional 1.3 percent don't have health insurance compared with last year. Like the rest of the Upper Midwest -- Wisconsin, especially -- we don't do well with binge drinking (We ranked 41).
Our smoking habits did improve. The number of people who smoke has dropped from 20 to 18 percent of the population, moving us up from 18th to 15th in the nation.
The rankings are provided by the nonprofit United Health Foundation, established by UnitedHealth Group. Each year since 1990 it has compared states on 20 health measurements to determine whether the nation is getting healthier -- or unhealthier.
For the first time since the report was introduced, the health of the nation declined, said Dr. Reed Tuckson, senior vice president of the Minnetonka-based foundation.
The major reason is that the nation is fatter. A lot fatter, he said. Since 1990, obesity rates have exploded from 11.6 percent of the population to 25.1 percent, he said. In Minnesota it climbed 0.7 percent in the past year to 24.7 percent.
"This is really beginning to get out of control," he said. That one factor has outweighed improvements in the number of high school graduates and reduced deaths from heart disease, according to the report.
The decline in smoking has stagnated nationally, but Minnesota's 2 percent drop in the past year was a point of pride for Dr. Sanne Magnan, Minnesota's new health commissioner
"I'd love to see it get to less than 10 percent and collapse on its own, so that it's no longer an acceptable behavior and the tobacco industry is nowhere to be found," she said.
Minnesota also did not do well on access to prenatal care. But then, it never has. In 1990, 72 percent of women said they had good prenatal care in the first three months of pregnancy. That number crept up to 76 percent last year and remained there this year.
Magnan said this problem has stumped state health officials. When asked why they don't get care sooner, women in Minnesota say that they either didn't know they were pregnant or couldn't get an appointment, Magnan said.
"We are trying to do some things to address that" with increased funding to family planning organizations, she said.
Binge drinking is also a problem, she acknowledged. Tuckson said binge drinking is defined as having five or more drinks on one sitting for men and four or more for women. The percent of people who admitted having that much at least once in the past year dropped from 18.7 percent in Minnesota to 17.6 percent. But Tuckson said rates may not be comparable because this year a different set of data measured it.
But on that score Minnesota is a clear winner compared with our neighbors on the east and south. Iowa ranked 48th in binge drinking. And the beer-swilling state of Wisconsin? Dead last.
Amenah's Upper Consciousness (AUC): AMEEEEENAH!!!! Wake up! Rise and SHINE!
Me: raroooo gggirglie lumoba....
AUC: You don't want to be late, now do you?
Me: What? What? What day is it???!
AUC: It's...TUESDAY! Your favorite day....
Me: Uh...and you are? And....uh.....why.... why Tuesday?
AUC: Tuesday? You were born on a Tuesday in 1983. And I. I am your personal assistant. Man, we go through this EVERY day....
Me: Wrong. I was born on Friday. Am I really that old? My personal assistant? Wait, I don't pay you, do I? I mean, I'm broke. Seriously, a broke grad student.....I can't even pay for a ticket to APHA....And I just paid for a stinking new tire....Some mean person slashed it....I better not be paying you....
AUC: Look, enough nonsense. You've got to get going, lazy bones. Quit stalling. You've got to clean the community room, answer 25 emails, do something with that dreadful hair, reply to some more emails, [can we please not take 3 hours figuring out what to wear?], make some lunch/eat some breakfast (we both know your tummy is demanding), get to Social and Behavioral, eat lunch rushedly, meet Mark, go to Epi III, do your Epi III HW, [can we pllllleeeease go running today?], visit the family [i MISS our NIECE!], study for PubH Genetics, write some cover letters, [okay, maybe for your sake, we'll schedule some procrastination time], and can you pleeeease settle on a topic for our masters? I mean, we are graduating in the spring, right?
Me: Wait, who are you? And she's MY niece! And give me a break on the master's thing, I've been enrolled in 5...errr... I mean 6 classes this term....
AUC: I can not believe that you didn't know you were enrolled in 6 classes! Who enrolls in 6 classes, and then goes around thinking she's in 5? Can you COUNT? For crying out loud....I'm gonna need to apply for a transfer if you don't get it together.
Me: Oh, so now it's all about me, what happened to the WE?
AUC: We, you, me. Whatever. And then you need to make a list of supplies you need for your 'catering' thing, you know, for the chicken curry dinner for 150 people....Call your mother. Call your brother. Call....
Me: Let me get out of bed at least....
.....some unknown time later, in social and behav class.....
Me: boy, class is always so interesting....I can't believe the gov't actually subsidizes 1.5 billion dollars for tobacco farming. I mean, that is a lot of new shoes. And farming has really decreased since 1820....I really should work out, that obesity epidemic is probably infectious by culture. That's quite...I can't believe he just said that WHO is not really that important....! Sigh...Did we schedule in some time to think about.....Hey, AUC, are you there????
AUC: If you're talking about a particular boy, NO. Pay attention in class!
Me: But.......
AUC: Gi. GI. No buts.
Me: Homecoming was this weekend, and there was a parade....Carleton never threw parades...
AUC: Ameeeenah. Foooooocus......
Me: Ok ok....But the drums were really loud!
.......to be continued when AUC allows Me to write again......
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Last modified on Monday Jul 02, 2007
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Last modified on Monday Jul 02, 2007