Student SPHere 2008-09

Entering the seventh week - about halfway into the semester - I am finally beginning to feel the demands of graduate school. So far, I've managed to keep on top of my studies and work, but I always feel that there is so much more I can do. The progress I'm making on my master's project is coming along more slowly than I like. Still working on formulating that question!

Student Senate is starting to get busy too; our new committee co-chairs are finally beginning to plan events for the school year. I'm excited for the quality and quantity of student-run programming that will enrich other students' experience at the School of Public Health.

Feeling overwhelmed is a common happenstance. I admit that time management is not my strong suite. However, getting things done get much more easily when I take the time to break down what I need to do into smaller tasks. Writing them down is important too. Aside from reminding me what needs to be done, it pumps me up and makes my projects seem less daunting. There's quite a feeling of satisfaction in being able to cross off a completed task on the list.

Went with fellow SPH-er Casey to take photos of the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center(HERC) for a class project. It's located near the Farmer's Market underneath I-94. What they do is burn garbage to produce energy that is then sold to XCel. I had never been, much less heard of it, so this was new for me.

Casey being delinquent

Shortly after this photo was taken, we were approached by an employee and asked to leave. Apparently HERC is not open to the public, although we did not see any signs noting this. We gladly complied anyway, as he was operating a huge bulldozer.

This past weekend was full of excitement. On Saturday, I got to experience homebrewing beer! It's a popular enough activity that one can buy a kit. Kits are wonderful learning tools great because everything you need is included, so all you need to do is invest some money and invest some effort into following the directions. The photos below illustrate a couple steps of the process. It was surprisingly less difficult that I had conceived, yet at the same time, one has to be conscious of making sure everything that the wort - the solution of grains and hops and yeast before it ferments and becomes beer - stays sterile and doesn't become affected by anything that would spoil it.

Hops, grains, and some dry yeast

Letting the grains steep

Letting the wort ferment five to seven days. Stay tuned!

Regarding the Confounders: GREAT NEWS. We won our fourth and final game, which allows us to play next Sunday in the playoffs. That consists of three games over the course of five hours, so I am looking forward to the friendly competition and exercise.

We were running short this past Sunday - many people have midterms coming up and had to cancel at the last moment - so I was not able to take any photos. However, I finally processed the photos from our second to last game:

Good defense

Noel making a nice pass

Wish me luck this week in getting things done!