First Full Week Is Finished, and I'm Learnin'!

That's right, I have officially finished my first full week of classes. Due to the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday on Monday, classes didn't start until Tuesday, so my school week started last Tuesday and ended today. So what have I learned so far? Here are a few things:

1. A person can be in constant atrial fibrillation and have little or no noticeable side effects.
2. The Chinese name "Huizhen" means "Jean" in English.
3. A "categorical random variable" is a variable in which observations are categorical responses.
4. It is possible to live fairly normally after a railroad spike has been driven completely through one's skull.
5. Leaving one's student ID in one's dresser drawer at home is detrimental to one's meal plan.

Let's go over these one by one in a little bit more detail...

The person who is in constant atrial fibrillation is my Cell Biology professor. He is probably in his mid-60's and in fairly good health, but apparently has a heart defect of some kind. He has to go in to the doctor every two weeks (I think) and get shocked to get back to normal heart rhythms. Apparently one can live normally with constant atrial fibrillation, and the only noticeable side effect is an increase in heart rate (probably an increase in blood pressure also).

My Statistics professor is Huizhen Guo, a Chinese lady who told us her name means "Jean" in English.

The definition of "categorical random variable" came from my Statistics class. The reason I included it in my list was because it was quite humorous to myself and a couple other classmates. This is because we have been taught not to use parts of a word in it's definition, as our Chinese professor did. She has obviously not completely mastered the English language, in case you couldn't tell.

In my Psychology class, we learned about a man named Phineas Gage that worked for a railroad company that drove spikes into the ground. As he was driving one into the ground with gun powder, it shot up and drove through his skull, starting below the eye and exiting at the top of his head. The spike severed a part of his brain (I think it's called the amygdala) which caused his emotions to be expressed without being controlled by the cerebrum (the cerebrum holds back those emotions to an extent; without the connection within the brain, emotions are expressed fully and can be wild or extreme). He lived a fairly normal life physically, but did not act like himself due to the brain damage. This led to discoveries about how small parts of the brain affect large parts of a person's personality.

And finally, no, I didn't learn about the student ID thing from a book. Unfortunately I learned about it from personal experience. I had taken my ID out of my wallet and placed it in my dresser drawer at the beginning of my break, merely to cut down on the bulk that was filling my wallet at the time (cards, receipts, etc.). However, once it was time to leave, I forgot to take it out of my dresser, and it was left behind. On Tuesday when I wanted to go to dinner (I had a sandwich that my mom bought for my trip that I didn't eat, and I had that for lunch that day), I opened my wallet and my ID was not there. So I had to have it mailed to me, which took about two days, and in the meantime I had to buy my meals with my own money. Thankfully the expense was minimum, and my mom got my ID to me in a very quick manner. Moms are great, aren't they?

Well, now you have learned a few things that you can share with your loved ones! I will make sure to write about my other "pearls" of wisdom as the semester progresses. Y'all have a good week!