his 5 suggestions on becoming a positive deviant:
1 - Ask an unscripted question
2 - Don't complain
3 - count something
4 - write something
5 - change
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This is a dialog between a Celestial (which is a type of God) and an Eternal (a human endowed with god like abilities in order to protect the Celestials):
Eternal: Why did the other celestials put you to sleep?
Celestial: You wouldn't understand.
Eternal: TRY me.
Celestial: No. There are concepts you have no referent for.
Eternal: I'm pretty bright.
Celestial: Can you explain Democracy/Tyranny/Comedy to a bacterium? Try explaining the concept of the holy trinity to a blade of grass. They are concepts they...
Eternal: ...have no referent for. I get it.
Pick up the comic miniseries of The Eternals by Neil Gaiman and art by John Romita Jr.
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This is what I hope the future holds...
http://actionnooz.com/video/tech/neuros ... brain-tech
Playing video games with our brain waves, or turning the lights off without even having to clap (if you have the clapper) if you are too lazy.
Amazing
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So I managed to get an A in Chemistry 1, it was a tough class and required almost all of my time and attention. I had to sacrifice going to the beach with my friends which was a pretty painful thing to do. But all the hard work, late nights up studying flash cards, typing up lab reports, and early mornings paid off and I got the grade I worked hard for. I hope to keep up this routine and maintain the good grades. I start chemistry 2 tomorrow morning.
I also finished reading a book recommended to me by a good friend, titled "Complications" by Atul Gawande. It is all about the many difficulties that doctors face in today's medicine, where society stands in its decisions, and the imperfect science that it is. It was really a good read and he definitely did his research and provided many statistics. There was a part towards the end about how many times doctors make decisions based on their gut and these decisions are highly variable throughout the country. A patient is more likely to be recommended back surgery in Santa Barbara, California than more conservative treatments in Brooklyn, New York.
I thought to myself, how can we as humanity improve upon this situation. I imagined a futuristic computer system where a doctor could input their patients information, lab results, and diagnosis, and then, like a google search, be shown a run down of similar patients with their treatments received and outcomes in percentages. Today hospitals have closed information systems where patient information has to be re-entered into each different hospital they go to. Medical information is not shared due to hippo laws, protecting patients' privacy. I asked some friends what the need is for this and they said people don't want others to know about their sexually transmitted diseases, or what surgeries they might have had. This is where the obstacle lies I believe. What if there was a way to get through this barrier, either by anonymizing the data, providing false names, or other possibilities. I think the information it provides to doctors across the world would greatly improve the treatment and outcome of visits to emergency rooms.
Next up, I plan to read his next book titled "Better".
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Three weeks have gone by since I started General Chemistry I at Towson. I have met some really cool people in my class and I really enjoy waking up each morning and having one single goal: to attend class, pay attention, do my work, and be the best student I can. A few of us have started a study group and it has really paid off. Don't like to brag but for the first exam I got the highest grade I think I have ever received on any exam, a 99
. I am really happy because I remember dropping chemistry with a W freshman year at Maryland. I remember feeling so shitty when I got a D on my first exam back then. I felt like I was incapable of reaching the goal I wanted. It feels good to know that I do have it in me, to accomplish the task I set in front of me.It is just the beginning, I have two more exams and a final. This class is intense, and there is a ton of work and studying, but I am enjoying it. It is a great challenge for me.
Also, volunteering at the ER has been a great experience. I have seen so many things, and learn so much every time I go. I got to watch a surgery of removal of the appendix. It was pretty sweet. I thought I would get nauseous but I guess all the messed up shit I've seen on the internet has desensitized me haha. It feels good to help anyway I can there. Meeting and talking with the nurses, EMTs and doctors is fun too.
My old boss called me and wants me to do some contract work, but I don't know if I will have time for it. I stay up pretty late each night trying to get as much done as I can. It would be nice to make some money though. I'll have to think it over.
I loaded DSOrganize onto my Nintendo DS and it is a great freeware application with many features like Paint, Todolist, an image browser, a file browser, an IRC chat client, and a text only web browser which is great for reading in bed. I would like to create a flash card type study application for it but I don't have the time right now. It would be nice to export a .txt file from excel and import it and be able to study all those polyatomic ions and other things I need to memorize.
Also, I found this awesome new website called Jott.com and basically it is this free service where you call this number and you say whatever you want, and then a few minutes later you get an email with whatever you said in text format. This can be used for reminders and todolist stuff which I think is great.
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...You take the time to create a gif map of a level in Spider-man 2 for the Nintendo DS that shows where every bad guy is and where the hidden power up is, and then upload it to gamefaq.com, and feel a sort of simple joy, due to making a video game level easier for other struggling nerds out there. Go forth my nerdy brethren, defeat Doctor Octopus' evil robot henchmen. So far I am working my way through this game which is turning out to be pretty fun once you get the hang of the awkward controls. You are timed on completing the levels and if you finish under the limit you get power ups.[ view entry ] ( 317 views ) | related link
This game was totally awesome. Probably the best 2d pixel art graphics I have ever seen. Konami did a great job on this one.
You can be either a dude with a whip or a chick with magic, or you can be them both, and theres a ton of different weapons. After you beat the game you can unlock other characters to play through the game with, you can unlock Richter from the PS1 Castlevania game Symphony of the Night, and you can play as Maria who is a little girl that throws birds at bad guys, and you can also unlock the two evil vampire sisters, which are super powerful, and lastly, if you have enough free time, you can unlock a bad guy you can play as "Old Axe Armor." In order to unlock him you have to kill one-thousand of them and then save the game. Such an addicting game, A+![ view entry ] ( 791 views )
