Supa Dupe PhD Candidate Panda

Hello, world! So much has happened since I last updated my blog. DEAL WITH IT. But the worst is over, so now I shall recap my saga.

SUPA DUPE updates:

1. I am officially a PhD candidate in biomedical engineering! Probably the biggest thing hindering updating my blog was stressing out/kind of studying for my QUALIFYING EXAM. Well, the worst of it is over. Our program has qualifying exams at the end of the graduate student's first year. It is a 90 minute oral examination held by a committee of three professors. I had heard mixed reviews from previous students who has passed the exam, even though the fail rate has been pretty low. So I did many a mock oral exam with my peers and older students in the program, blew through two  textbooks the weekend before my exam (not recommended...I just tend to focus better when I'm cramming). Anyway, long story short, I PASSED!! To commemorate the event, I even made business cards! They are so baller. Unfortunately, I have not been able to actually use them yet (except for when I just show them off to my friends); however  remain optimistic as I foresee many networking opportunities in the near future.

You wish your business card was as dope as mine.

2. My age is composed of two consecutive numbers! No, I'm not 12 or 34...I am 23 years old/young! It was a bit hectic as my birthday was May 10, and my qualifying exam was scheduled for May 14. Needless to say, I didn't celebrate until after my exam. The party  planning got a bit crazy as The Boyf was trying to plan a surprise party at the same time as I was trying to plan a dinner. Shit went down and the jig went up, but in the end we figured it out and I had a great night with my friends. The Boyf got me the NEW IPAD! I got a case and bluetooth keyboard for it, and am currently proposing this prose on the technology. Coming from someone who has always had Windows products, I may or may not be considering buying a Macbook!

Birthday cake from The Boyf and my transition from 22 to 23!

Post quals/birthday festivities at Cosmo-Lava lounge!

3. I no longer have cockroaches in my kitchen! Unfortunately, this took too long to fix, and the only way to rid myself of those pesky creatures was to move to a new apartment. Now I am happily residing in a 2bed/2bath apartment with Mr. McDonald, soon to be Dr. McDonald. He is planning on defending in July, and then The Boyf plans to move into my room and we shall have the extra room available for rent. Even though we drive each other crazy sometimes, I am glad we will soon be able to see each other every day, instead of every two months.

In short, life is good. I had stressed out since January about all these things happening, but then I remember all the times I had freaked out previously in my life for no good apparent reason, and somehow everything works out. God is good and takes care of everything. I took this personality test that examined my strengths, and Belief was one of my top 5. Which means that I believe fate has led me to become a panda. IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW!

Also, the stupid IRS has been freezing my bank account recently due to an ERRONEOUS sum of money from taxes back in 2009 that I failed to pay. The key word here is ERROR, aka WRONG, aka THE IRS ARE IMBECILES that have incestuous relations with each other that procure 6-fingered child monsters, who continue to inbreed disgustingly within the next generation, causing the organization to levy innocent (and normal phalangic) citizens in order to pay the high cost of surgical removal of the damned fingers, the procedure to which I MYSELF may or may not be contributing with my doctoral research.

I HATE THE IRS.

But speaking of incest, I read the book ''100 years of solitude'' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez on a whim last weekend, and it was absolutely fantastic! Probably one of the best, if not the best, books that I have read in my entire life. Not only that, but it was an English translation of a Spanish, which makes me sad that I did not keep up with Spanish long enough to be able to read the original version of the novel. But if you have never read it, READ IT. You won't regret it, I promise you. It's so crazy and insane in the membrane that you'll wonder if the author was brilliant or deranged, or BOTH. I support the latter. MY IDOL.

And speaking deranged, today we ordered the TRIPLE CORONARY BYPASS BURGER at the Vortex restaurant, which was a bit disappointing but nevertheless lead to a satisfactory bout of diarrhea. Just kidding. OR AM I. 

I was more excited about the $10 coupon from Google offers.

Like I said, deranged.

But anyway, now that summer has arrived and I am finally DONEZO with IBS and the Core graduate classes that also caused IBS, I should have more time to update! I would toast with some wine, but alcohol just makes my stomach itchy, so I'll stick with the flavored sparkling water. Here's to a fruitful summer, with lots of updates and  fun stuff...not to mention a lot of badass research.

Would it be too much to ask for a first-author paper by August?