Holy crap. I used to be totally Pro-Ikea. However, Ikea went ahead and made the decision for me to end that campaign. This is the state of my dresser after PROPERLY using it since I bought it in August 2006. Yes, slightly over 6 months ago. I had a dresser in college from Ikea that lasted at least 3 years (had to leave it behind). This one, however, is the biggest piece of shit ever. Note the metal tracks completely dislodged from the wood that they used to run smoothly against. The dresser is literally stuck in this position. No matter how hard I push or pull, it doesn't move at all. So basically if I want to get to the bottom drawer, I have to lift up the middle one, which is full of shirts (no, it's not due to overstuffing) and grab what I need before dropping the drawer, further damaging it.
So basically that is my current gripe. Back to studying. I'm coming home for summer in less than 2 months!
EDIT: Thanks to Max for informing me the picture was gone. I tried blogging out of Picasa this time and I guess that's not very reliable. It will surely never happen again!
Listening To: The Format - Tune Out Haven't we heard this song a thousand times before? Oh well, after a while it all sounds the same. I guess it's better than silence and better than shame.
Today in my Microbiology class, we were talking about enteric diseases. These are the type of diseases that screw up goings-on in your gastrointestinal tract so you're subjected to wonderful symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea. For some reason, I'm glad I'm not going to be a GI specialist. Anyway, I think one of my favorite disease to learn about is Typhoid. Not because I want to suffer the illness (in Neuro a few days ago we had a lecture about pain and the professor decided to go off on a tangent about how pain is a universally uncomfortable feeling but there are people out there that enjoy pain), but because I think it has a pretty interesting history.
I took two Microbiology classes in college, one of them was in my senior year and it was a Food Microbiology class. In my freshman year, I took Natural History of Infectious Diseases, which was an awesome class. This is where I first learned about Typhoid. One of the most frustrating things about the disease is that some people can actually have the pathogenic bacteria (Salmonella typhi) in their body but not develop any signs of the disease. These people are what are known as "carriers". The method of transmission of the bacteria is mostly related to food preparation but also can be in the water in areas that have bad sanitation problems. Therefore, a carrier can infect numerous people just by preparing their food and wouldn't even know about it.
In the early 20th century, the most notorious of Typhoid carriers was identified. Her name was Mary Mallon and since has been affectionately nicknamed "Typhoid Mary". She was a cook for a family and was closely related to many incidences, but suspected of unknowingly infecting hundreds of people that she had prepared food for. Since she was a major threat to other people's well-being, the authorities told her that she either had to have surgery to remove her gall bladder or stop cooking. Surgery in those days had the tendency to leave the patient with more problems than they went in with, so Mary chose to quit the cooking job.
Cooking was Mary's thing, and so she couldn't find anything else to make a living from, so she did the unbelievable. She changed her name and got a new cooking job. Once this was discovered, the authorities were not too happy and sent Mary to jail. The best part of this story is more legend than fact since there's really no way to prove it, but I was told in my freshman year Infectious Diseases class that before the prison administration had found out the relevance of who she was, they assigned her to work in the kitchen area of the prison. Shortly thereafter, this was discovered. Mary then spent 26 years in quarantine and died in 1938 at the age of 69...not due to typhoid but to pneumonia.
Listening To: Franz Ferdinand - Walk Away I cannot turn to see those eyes As apologies may rise I must be strong and stay an unbeliever And love the sound of you walking away.
I think this is pretty funny. Apparently over spring break, they did some electrical work on our building. As far as I can tell, nothing is changed. Everything still works fine. Anyway, this is the notice that is still posted up at the elevator bank. Apparently after printing out the notice, management decided that they had printed a typo in telling us to remain calm in case of a power outage and they actually meant to tell us to panic.
I can't figure out what kind of animal that is, since I don't know of many animals that don't have faces. Speaking of faces, why does the guy only have 2 teeth? Maybe it's some resentment from the students about the shabby dental health insurance plan at the university.
Last night a few of us went to Dave & Buster's for a birthday. It's like an adult version of Chuck-E-Cheese's (minus animatronic band plus beer). It was pretty fun, but I didn't even come close to using up all of the money on my card since the game selection was pretty much a Time Crisis/House of the Dead frenzy. Seriously, they had like every version of those games, and they get pretty old pretty fast.
Listening To: Arcade Fire - Black Mirror Mirror, mirror, on the wall. Tell me where those bombs will fall.
Listening To: Rancid - Time Bomb Tears come from the razor that is tattooed below his eye. His mother knows that he is strong enough to die. He's rollin' in the Cadillac, it's midnight, sunroof is down. Three shots rung out, the heroes dead, the new king is crowned.
