Lee.org

You didn’t think I did my taxes early because I’m just a good person did you?

Do taxes, so I can fill out my FAFSA, so I can apply for loans and grants for school. Yipe, the spring application deadline for CalGrants is in 3 days, Friday. But I can’t apply until my FAFSA clears… in 3 days. Talk about cutting it close!

TDAmeritrade took their time getting me my tax info. Then I mostly did my taxes. Then I was waiting for some tax help from CCSF. But that was a bust. I knew more about taxes then they did. So I just did my taxes on my own.

I thought that maybe I could put money into my IRA and pull it out when I needed it for school next year; I thought maybe this would be a good way of getting tax free money for school. But it turns out that while I would not be subject to the 10% penalty (because of a school withdrawl), I would still have to pay taxes on the money taken out of my IRA. So it’d be a lot of paperwork for not much gain.

And now I’m down to the wire on this grant/loan cycle.

AND I have big Chemistry and Physics tests tomorrow and an Anatomy test Thursday.

My spring school schedule is set!

Darn it was stressful today. About 30 of us stood in the hall listening to people’s names being read, being accepted into Anatomy 25. With my heart racing, fingers tingling and shaking, I used what JTF taught me about my stress response to keep me standing. John, I wish I could slap you on the back and laugh about it. You see, I’ve got this plan. In this plan, I’ll be applying to the DMI (Diagnostic Medical Imaging) program at CCSF in August. But to make that happen, I need to get into all the right classes.

Turns out, Prof Guthrie let 56 people on the wait list into his class and I was. . . . #56. Phew! There were students that didn’t get in because of clerical mistakes. One hadn’t made sure to put herself on the attendance roster at a previous class. Another hadn’t shown up at another impromptu acceptance ceremony held last week and lost her spot. That kind of stuff is particularly crushing because I made my own mistake and missed the previous acceptance ceremony, but fate had it that my name wasn’t read then.

Last week, I was also the last person let into the Chemistry 32 class! So I have to give a shout out to the universe for those two bits.

My classes this semester:
Anatomy 25 General Human Anatomy and Lab
Chemistry 32 Intro to Medical Chemistry and Lab
Physics 10 Conceptual Physics and Lab
PE 200C Fitness Center Super Circuit
Volunteering at CPMC

Hurray!

Now I just need to pick up a Physiology class this summer (no one knows if it will be offered yet!), and I’m track for getting a shot at getting into the CCSF DMI program in January.

Oh yeah, and I’ve got to ace everything this semester.

3 days of Exclamations: My personal journal from Sunday January 8, to Wednesday January 11.

Sunday January 8th, 2012:
See Delaney! +

Monday:
8am: Welcome to Foothill College, Los Altos, CA! +
8:01am: I locked my keys in the car! –
8:30am: Ack, classes are starting today?! –
8:45am: Quarters instead of semesters? What does that mean?!
9am: With quarters I can squeeze in Bio prereq, Anat & Phys 1, Anat & Phys 2 by July! + +
10am: Bio 14 class is fun and easy! +
12am: Bio 14 lab is fun and easy! +
3pm: Foothill campus is really pretty! +
4pm: Argh, I need Bio, Anat & Phys 1, 2, and 3, which would stretch into the fall!- – –
5pm: The college police can’t slim-jim my car! –
6pm: I’m #4 on the Chemistry waitlist! +
7pm: The Chemistry teacher is really bad! –
8pm: I won’t get into Chemistry anyway! –
8pm: The AAA guy opens my car in 30 seconds flat! +
9pm: Drinking at Lucky 13 with David M! +
1:15am: Getting harassed by the bartender to leave and drive drunk home! – – –
2:30am: Home! Not driving drunk! Still angry at the Lucky 13 bartender! + + –

Tuesday:
3pm: Welcome to the College of San Mateo! +
4pm: Drop in counseling says “You don’t need us, everything is online”! – +
5pm: Looking online, Contra Costa Community College’s no-prereq Anatomy class has 1 seat open and no waitlist! + +
5:01pm: I apply to CCCC!
5:30pm: I am accepted to CCCC! +
6:30pm I’ve figured out their website! +
6:35pm: Their registration computer says they have no open seats in Anatomy and their waitlist is full! – – –
Frustration sets in, I want to get off this crazy roller coaster! – –
8pm: Dinner with Delaney! +
10:30pm I’m home to pack for an 8:30am flight!
midnight: As always, I get pre-flight “stage fright”, packing and procrastinating until 3:30am! –

Wednesday:
Cat-nap til 6:30am!
I leave 3 minutes late and miss my train! –
There is another train in 15 minutes! +
Continental is now United?!
The TSA random bomb sniffing lady finds a 3′ whip in my bag and the supervisor calls it a weapon! – –
(I have visions of “We’re taking this plane to Cuba! [crack!]” with my signal whip) + +
They tell me to mail it or check it and send me packing! –
I repack and try to get it through a second time!
It occurs to me I might have, I don’t know, just committed a felony! –
They send me packing again! – (+)
I missed my flight! –
Checking my bag will cost $25 each way, but if I mail it I won’t have it! –
I repack and go through another line entirely… and go right through! + +
Egg and cheese croissants in the airport are $10! – –
A real breakfast is going to cost me $20???? – – –
Boudin Bakery clam chowder in a bread bowl is $7! +
I am the VERY last standby passenger allowed on the plane! +
Nap time! + + +

This coming week’s calendar is smoother than last week’s. Tuesday is the deciding factor. I’m waiting to hear if I get into Anatomy 25.

Yellow= I’m registered, or an important timely thing.
Purple= Anatomy 25. I don’t know what section I’m getting so I’ve got to keep it all open
Blue= maybe classes
Gray= other stuff

Phew.

I got in to Chem 32 & Lab. I have Physics 10 but not the lab (I could teach the course but I need the stupid lab credit, feh!). I need Anatomy and I’m starting from 0 on that one.

Tomorrow… err 5 hours away… is going to be pretty crazy.

I’ve got a busy week coming up, trying to get into all the classes I need.

Phew!

Last semester at CCSF I was in a circuit training class. They’ve got a nice gym at the Ocean Campus!

I totally loved working out. Just about every time at the gym I pushed myself 100%, grunting and groaning and letting it burn. I worked to muscle failure on most machines most days. It was awesome. The “Growing Old Is Not For Sissies” poster is hanging in the gym. Yes, it inspired me.

I loved working my biceps; boy they get big quick! I hated doing abdominals; the burn feels like knives in my belly. I did them all.

Here is my review of the semester’s workout:

Data is taken from the Fitlinxx system. Every machine has a little Fitlinxx computer that tracks your progress. It’s not a perfect system but it’s pretty good and convenient to tell you what weight you did last time. The Fitlinxx online charts effing suck. It took me 45 minutes of copy-pasting and reformatting to get the data you see below.

————————————————–

All measurements below are “2 sets of 10 reps of nn pounds”. That was my goal at each session. When I had to rest mid-way through a set, I’d tell myself, “Fine, you can take a break, you just have to do one more rep.”

Bicep curl. I never made much progress, going from 80 to 100. But my arms started to look awesome.

Tricep extension. Huge gains! Started at 30 (and huge lactic acid burn the day after) ended at 95!

Chest Press. Great progress. 60 to 120!

Chin Assist. Small gains 130 to 100 (at this rate, I’ll be doing a real chinup in 2 years, meh.

Hip Abduction. 130 to 220. Nice!

Hip Adduction. 70 to 100. Good.

Lateral Raise (trying to build up my shoulder profile) I worked it every time I went to the gym and went from 30 to 90!

Back Extension. 150 to 190. Good.

Leg Press. 155 to 200. Good.

Leg Curl. 50 to 90. Good.

Leg Extension. 85 to 130. Good.

Leg Press. 210 to 210. Bad!

Some exercises not on the Fitlinxx system:
* Lower abdominal hyperextension crunch. Lay way back on a yoga ball and then sit up slowly. I started doing this mid-semester and went from 7 to about 11 reps. It buuuuuurns!

* A Lower back contraption where you lay face down, put your pelvis on the pad, hook your legs on a bar and let your upper body fall forward toward the ground. Then you straighten your back so it looks like you are superman. I started doing this mid-semester and went from 6 to 10 reps.

I’ll definitely sign up for the gym next semester :-)
————————————————–

Life Fitness Arm Curl Bicep Curl
8/23/2011	1	10	30.00
8/30/2011	1	10	50.00
11/8/2011	1	9	70.00
		2	6	50.00

Life Fitness Pro2 Bicep Curl (pretty much identical to the above machine...
they have 2 bicep curl machines)
9/6/2011	1	9	80.00	
		2	10	65.00	
9/9/2011	1	10	80.00	
		2	10	65.00	
9/13/2011	1	6	80.00	
		2	3	80.00	
9/16/2011	1	10	80.00	
		2	6	80.00	
10/21/2011	1	10	80.00	
		2	6	80.00	
11/14/2011	1	10	95.00	
		2	10	95.00	
12/2/2011	1	10	95.00	
		2	12	80.00	
12/9/2011	1	10	95.00	
		2	10	80.00	
12/16/2011	1	10	95.00	
		2	12	110.00	
12/20/2011	1	8	95.00	

Life Fitness Arm Extension Tricep Extension
8/23/2011	1	11	30.00
		2	10	30.00
9/27/2011	1	10	50.00
		2	14	40.00

Life Fitness Pro2 Tricep Extension
8/26/2011	1	11	40.00
8/30/2011	1	11	50.00
		2	10	50.00
		3	11	50.00
9/6/2011	1	10	65.00
		2	2	40.00
9/13/2011	1	12	80.00
		2	5	80.00
9/20/2011	1	10	80.00
		2	10	80.00
10/21/2011	1	10	80.00
		2	10	65.00
11/1/2011	1	10	95.00
		2	7	80.00
11/14/2011	1	10	95.00
12/2/2011	1	10	80.00
		2	10	80.00
12/9/2011	1	10	80.00
		2	10	95.00
12/16/2011	1	10	95.00
12/20/2011	1	10	95.00
		2	10	95.00

Life Fitness Chest Press
8/30/2011	1	12	60.00	
		2	12	60.00	
10/21/2011	1	10	75.00	
		2	11	90.00	
11/1/2011	1	2	75.00	
		2	10	90.00	
		3	12	90.00	
11/8/2011	1	10	105.00
		2	10	105.00
12/16/2011	1	10	105.00
		2	9	105.00
12/20/2011	1	12	120.00
		2	8	120.00

Life Fitness Pro2 Chest Press
8/26/2011	1	12	55.00
9/6/2011	1	10	70.00
		2	7	70.00
9/9/2011	1	8	70.00
		2	8	70.00
9/20/2011	1	10	85.00
		2	8	85.00
9/27/2011	1	10	85.00
		2	7	85.00

Life Fitness Dip & Chin Assist Narrow Grip Pullup
8/30/2011	1	8	130.00
9/16/2011	1	10	120.00
		2	8	120.00
9/20/2011	1	10	120.00
		2	10	120.00
11/1/2011	1	10	110.00
		2	8	110.00
12/2/2011	1	10	110.00
		2	5	120.00
12/20/2011	1	9	100.00

Life Fitness Hip Abductor (Outer Thigh) Abduction
9/6/2011	1	2	10.00
		2	10	70.00
		3	10	70.00
9/13/2011	1	9	90.00
		2	12	90.00

Life Fitness Pro2 Hip Abduction
9/9/2011	1	10	130.00
		2	10	130.00
9/20/2011	1	12	160.00
		2	11	160.00
10/21/2011	1	10	160.00
		2	11	160.00
11/1/2011	1	10	175.00
		2	10	185.00
11/8/2011	1	10	190.00
		2	10	190.00
12/9/2011	1	10	205.00
		2	10	205.00
12/16/2011	1	10	220.00
		2	10	220.00
12/20/2011	1	10	220.00
		2	10	220.00

Life Fitness Hip Abductor (Inner Thigh) Adduction
8/26/2011	1	12	70.00	
9/6/2011	1	4	75.00	
		2	10	10.00	
		3	10	90.00	
11/1/2011	1	8	90.00	
		2	11	100.00

Life Fitness Lateral Raise
8/23/2011	1	10	30.00
8/30/2011	1	6	30.00
		2	9	10.00
9/6/2011	1	8	40.00
		2	8	40.00
9/9/2011	1	10	40.00
		2	8	40.00
9/13/2011	1	10	47.50
		2	10	47.50
9/20/2011	1	10	60.00
		2	11	60.00
9/27/2011	1	9	70.00
		2	12	70.00
10/21/2011	1	10	62.50
		2	9	70.00
11/1/2011	1	8	62.50
		2	8	70.00
11/8/2011	1	10	70.00
		2	11	70.00
11/14/2011	1	9	77.50
		2	10	77.50
12/2/2011	1	10	77.50
		2	8	77.50
12/9/2011	1	10	85.00
		2	9	85.00
12/16/2011	1	10	90.00
		2	8	82.50

Life Fitness Leg Extension
9/16/2011	1	10	75.00
		2	10	75.00
12/16/2011	1	10	90.00
		2	10	90.00

Life Fitness Back Extension
8/26/2011	1	12	150.00
		2	12	150.00
8/30/2011	1	12	165.00
		2	12	165.00
11/14/2011	1	10	180.00
		2	10	195.00

Life Fitness Leg Press
8/30/2011	1	6	95.00	
		2	12	155.00
		3	11	155.00
		4	10	215.00
9/9/2011	1	14	175.00
		2	13	195.00
9/16/2011	1	10	115.00
		2	12	115.00
10/21/2011	1	10	195.00
		2	13	235.00

Life Fitness Pro2 Leg Curl
9/13/2011	1	10	50.00
		2	9	50.00
9/16/2011	1	10	50.00
		2	10	50.00
9/20/2011	1	10	50.00
		2	11	50.00
9/27/2011	1	10	50.00
		2	10	50.00
11/1/2011	1	10	65.00
		2	8	65.00
11/8/2011	1	11	80.00
		2	10	80.00
12/2/2011	1	1	80.00
12/16/2011	1	10	95.00
		2	10	80.00
12/20/2011	1	3	95.00

Life Fitness Pro2 Leg Extension
9/20/2011	1	12	85.00	
		2	10	85.00	
9/27/2011	1	10	100.00
		2	10	100.00
10/21/2011	1	11	115.00
		2	12	115.00
11/8/2011	1	10	130.00
		2	8	130.00

Life Fitness Pro2 Leg Press
11/1/2011	1	10	170.00
		2	12	210.00
11/8/2011	1	10	210.00
		2	11	230.00
11/14/2011	1	10	230.00
		2	5	230.00
12/2/2011	1	10	210.00
		2	10	210.00
12/9/2011	1	10	210.00
		2	10	210.00
12/20/2011	1	12	210.00
		2	12	210.00

From a frenzied evening of studying Medical Terminology and then going out with friends…

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Please apply suction to my midventral subpelvic acral epidermis.

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Here, let me give you a dorsal view of my third distal phalanx.

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Someone asked me recently “How’d you come to decide that radiation therapy technology is for you?”. Here’s a brief answer.

For the last couple years I’ve been having a harder and harder time finding good work. I started out of college way back doing software QA (Quality Assurance) work. As proofreaders are for books, QA is for computer software. It went well enough but after many years I got tired of always being a critic and never actually MAKING anything. When I moved to San Francisco about 6 years ago, I saw a couple things happening. For one, my tech skills were not staying current and I didn’t feel the passion I once had to keep them updated. I found that I really loved working on some large art projects in the Bay Area. I realized that, yeah, building stuff is cathartic. I’ve found a few jobs building things, I’m a Department Head at the Crucible, I helped and install some fancy cameras last year. But one thing I realized was that I needed to do something quite active in order to keep this up. I considered becoming a full time mechanical artist, or getting a mechanical engineering degree, or just finding a career that would be good and afford me the time and money to pursue my desires.

So this past June my dad called me up and told me about a newspaper article he read about Radiation Therapy. He relayed from the article that the career required someone that is very good with people and comfortable with technology, had limited hours (9-5-ish), paid well, the field had excellent growth and low unemployment projections for the next 20 years, a reasonable path into the career (a 2 year degree) and… well, he thought I should look into it. So I did! I’m a bit concerned how I’ll handle the patients of mine that don’t survive treatment (if you pick that up, this is radiation treatments mostly for people with cancer) but I’ve been speaking with people and I’m getting ready to volunteer in a hospital to get more of a feel for it so… it’ll all work out.

cerebrotomy – cutting into your brain
cerebrectomy – removing your brain!

A pyrometer measures heat. A pyometer measures pus. Eiw!

I think I got cerebromalacia from studying so hard for my DMI medical terminology test.

Oh, and if we went by latin roots, we’d all be taking photograms with photographs.