Brain pain

Auuuugh.

Brain hurts. Multiple factors I believe. Largest having to deal with this article from SciAm.
Oral contraceptives and brain plasticity. Are you really "yourself" when taking estrogen/progesterone or whatever combo. Maybe no. (Side note: What constitutes a person anyway?)

Timing is fitting. I took my last oral contraceptive pill today so I'm beginning an additional log to monitor changes as time progresses away from that era. Just the usual, blood pressure, body weight, mood fluctuations. Good thing I keep fairly good journals. The coding on my writing style can be a bit time consuming.

Anyway.
So SciAm posts this review on a study monitoring the effects of hormonal contraceptives and brain plasticity. Great, but they don't give a link to the article! Just to pubmeds main page!

Auuugh.
This is where my pain really sets in. I wanted to see this study. So now I'm digging through pubmed to try and locate it.
More pain as I realize that SciAm doesn't list the author, the title, or really much of anything that could help me locate it. Just the name of the Journal and that it was published "recently"

Ah, found it. Maybe the article did have the author. Just halfway down and it looked like Pfizer. So, naturally I thought it was the drug company.
My bad....

Bah. I don't want to purchase anything. I just want to read the article.
It's times like this I wish more people thought like Cory Doctorow.
Who needs copyright? Make everything creative commons and we can get along and share nicely...

Plus, I can read those articles if I wish.
Anyway, enough rant about how I can't read it. Lets dive right in and discuss it.

Oooh ohh! I found it!
Wow, it's at this point I wish I had my sisters' brain.
This is confusing stuff.

This study assessed grey matter volume in men, women using hormonal contraceptives and women not using hormonal contraceptives. The women not on contraceptives were assessed twice. Once when estrogen/progesterone levels were high (folicular) and again when they were low (mid-luteal).
For the scans they utilized the fMRI machine. A functional MRI maps blood flow and oxygen. This is based on the theory that neuronal activity is reflected by greater consumption of O2.
So the fMRI lights up the areas where O2 consumption is high, and we believe that area of the brain to be "workin."

All in all what they found is women on hormonal contraceptives had a minor inlargement of the prefrontal cortex.
This is the part that known as your "personality" in layman's terms.
They don't discuss how this effect anything, just that there are differences. So conclusions about behavior cannot really be drawn from this study. Only that brain plasticity and structure is affected by hormonal regulation. Hormonal regulation is enhanced by hormonal contraceptives.

Limitations?
They don't specify what type of hormonal contraceptives the women used. Oral, injections, etc. Nor do they separate the estrogen/progesterone group from the progesterone only group.
I don't think they administered hormones to the male population either, it's tough to tell.

Now my brain really hurts.

I purchased the 6th edition of the APA publication guide. I think I go read that. It might make the headache go away...

What a weekend.

I've worked since the last update, and that's about it.

Very, very busy days. Finally got a chance to run again yesterday. I ran at 5 in the afternoon and I'll be honest. It was a bit chilly. Weehaw! Autumn is finally here.
For my run this morning it was 53 degrees. I wore long sleeves. I was still cold. It felt great.

Haven't had a great amount of time for "fun" research. I've been doing REAL stuff. I've been working like mad for the past three days on an actual project for work. I put a proposal together for "change of shift" huddles. Complete with a lit review, a pilot study, a data collection tool, etc etc etc. I scienced all day Sunday.

John and I watched the original Taking of Pelham 123 last night. We had seen the remake a month ago or so. It was very interesting to note all of the differences. I appreciated that I could watch and enjoy both movies. They are similar and yet different enough to keep one intrigued even though the plots are essentially the same.
A few of the major differences that were interesting to note were things such as. Everything is so yellow in the 1970s while it's blues and greens in 2000s. People were much, much ruder to each other in the 70s version and cared much less about the people on the subway. Another difference was the mayor of New York was such a pansy that everyone hated. You just can't do that anymore. It's way too taboo to make fun of the mayor of New York. The President is free game, but not New York. Interesting no? Also, the remake worked in this twist of wall street that used some crazy technology.
All in all, I can't actually choose which Gerber I liked more. Walter Matthau, or Denzel Washington. Both excellent. Both great movies. I recommend both. They each stand on their own feet exceptionally well.

Zombie nightmares last night. Shudder.

They're coming for you, Barbara....

Something about being a maze of a building and having to get out while zombies were bursting through the walls. This is what I get for playing Last Night on Earth, before going to bed.
I almost lived this time too. Rats.

Time for work again. I'll be so excited when John's next test is over, he's been studying for a long time. He needs a night off. That will be tomorrow. We'll probably go get some pizza.

Take THAT b-thalassemia!

Back to work today!
I always get more done when I have a time crunch. I guess that's what makes me such a procrastinator.

I had a great few days off. Didn't really do much on my "list" I read a lot of books though. I'm currently in the midst of "Hitler's Scientists" it's a quick overview of the crazy and unethical things that surrounded WWII, plus all the things we learned from it. *Whistles* Review once I'm done with it.

I got a book on cat training, but SOMEONE wasn't the the mood to be trained. Sigh. Spock is pretty good about coming when he's called, but... I'd like to teach him a few more things. You know, sit, fetch, things like that. He'll do them occasionally, but only if he wants to. So there. I just he's just a cat.
Honestly, that's one of the reasons why I like cats, they don't fall all over themselves to make you love them. They have the attitude that they could really careless. So when they do really want to snuggle, its doubly sweet.

Like last night, John and I were kinda laying in bed, exhausted. Teasingly, we "kicked" Spock off the bed. Next thing we noticed, he was burrowing his way back up under the covers where we couldn't see him and he snuggled up next to us, hidden. So cute!

This morning on my run I listened to last week's Nature Podcast and learned some pretty awesome stuff. Such as THIS article.

That's the medscape btw. SO, using gene therapy they've "cured" someone of b-thalassemia.
b-thalassemia is an anemic blood disorder similar to sickle cell. In this disorder there's a mutation of one of the heme molecules that are on your redblood cells. Heme is used to transport oxygen.

Here's a rough and dirty version. They modified a virus to contain the gene they needed to replace in this guy's DNA and introduced it. The virus did it's "Virus-y" thing of going in and taking over the DNA replicating and replacing etc etc. Through this method they essentially fixed him.

This young man has had blood transfusions since age 3 and subsequent transfusions approx every 3 months to keep his blood levels at a functional level. He underwent this therapy 3 years ago and hasn't required a transfusion since June 2008!
Wow.
That's great.
Of course limitations include small sample size and length of observation.
Awaa??

Sorry. I've been working on a lit review for the past few days. Pointing out limitations has become a bit of a habit. I'm putting together my stuff for the introduction of change of shift huddles in our ER. It's a pretty impressive report. I've got to get my crap together for the pilot study I'm starting in October. Augh, I've got to create a reliable and valid measurement tool in the next few days...
Blerg.

Oop! Off to work!

The Yo-yo of life

I just realized this morning how much I do simply to counteract other things I do.
That's pretty much all my day consists of.

I eat breakfast so I have energy to run which burns off the food I ate.
I shampoo to get the oils out of my hair, then I put oil back in my hair so it doesn't get damaged by the dryer.
I make the bed to unmake it later.
I do laundry to clean my dirty clothes.
I buy food just to eat it.


I read books so I can watch futurama later with John and have my brain melt out!

Now I have to go to Goodwill to give someone else the joy of my old kitchen table!

Speaking of...

So, my awesome list of things to do over my 5 day break isn't going so well.
I write lists like these just so I can ignore them and do the boring stuff.
Like grocery shopping.
For some reason I spent 30 minutes at the library loading up on Vegan and Vegetarian cookbooks only to go out and buy all frozen dinners for the next week.
The worst part is I didn't realize what I had done until I had to drag it all inside. Then the incongruousness of the situation hit me.

Nice.

Speaking of nice I have a new kitchen table! I gave myself a blister putting it together. Ouch.
Speaking of ouch my cyst was lanced today.
Speaking of lanced (well, er... Lancet) I can get journal access through work!
Speaking of journal access that's what I did all day yesterday. Researched the effectiveness of "pre-shift" huddles for critical care units. I'm conducting a pilot study in our ER and needed some articles for my lit review.
Speaking of lit review. I'm reading this totally awesome book called "Panic in Level 4: Killer viruses, cannibals, and other journeys to the edge of science."

I think that's all I can "speaking of"

Ps. the author of this book is the only non-doctor to win the CDC's Prevention Award.

September 2001

THAT day.

In September an amazing phenomenon occurs. Everyone whips out their American Flags, Rifles, and Bibles. Reminding us to Never Forget. (Or as one person quipped Never Forgive. My issues with this view later.)

Everyone's got a story about what they were doing in September 2001. I've got a bit of a different tale about September 2001, but I'd be lying if I said it was one I'd ever forget.

September 2001 I was thirteen, homeschooled, and still waiting to get my braces off. My brother, Aaron, was a senior in Homeschool High and taking a couple of college classes at the community college. We were at Volleyball practice that morning and Aaron was running late.
Then the accident happened.
Two girls came running in the gymnasium from where they had been playing outside saying that Aaron was stuck in his car and was yelling for help. By the time we made it outside this man was lifting Aaron's truck off his body. Aaron had been trapped between his car and a 3 ft high cement wall. The truck had been rolling down the hill towards a house at the bottom of the parking lot. Aaron had jumped infront of it in an attempt to stop the car. Well, it stopped, but only after it had smashed him into a concrete wall and trapped him there. There was an amazing flurry of activity. Jake and Jackson, teammates from the boys team carried Aaron into the bathroom and we ripped his pants off. There was a large (3-4 inches length) gash on his upper thigh, and I could read his license plate backwards off his leg. The most disturbing part however was this gash (through which I could see bone, it's vaguely bluish) was not bleeding. Aaron was very white, not yelling anymore. Very calmly telling us that he really hurt. My mom decided there was no time to wait for an ambulance and we loaded him up in the car and she drove off to Cox North, the hospital Aaron was born at 18 years and two days ago.

I was left at the gymnasium, there wasn't room in our small car. I didn't feel like going back to practice. So I waited. Mom said she'd be back to pick me up once Aaron was in the ER. After all, he'd only been 18 for two days, she figured she'd still have to do all the legal stuff. I just kinda sat. I'm sure it was only 30 minutes or so but Gretchen, my teammate and much taller twin loaded me in her car and we drove to the hospital. My mom had called and told us he had been transferred to Cox South. I remember the ER waiting area vaguely, I remember a small carpeted room where the Chaplain talked to me and I remember the surgical waiting area. I remember Gretchen and Jake being there except when the Chaplain told me Aaron probably wouldn't live. I remember being with most of my family when the surgeon told us Aaron would not be able to walk again if he lived. I remember finally getting to see him a day later, in his hospital room, mad as hell, legs flayed open to counteract compartment syndrome. I remember him doing sit-ups in bed on day two. Trying to sneak out of bed with a walker on day three ( both legs still sliced open in a quadruple fasciotomy) Aaron was an athlete. He played Volleyball with me, had just joined my cheerleading squad and was a fantastic gymnast. Fantastic. How was he supposed to start his adult life with such a sudden shift in lifestyle? To go from a kid so active he was pulled from public school to being wheelchair-bound?
I remember being in a very crowded room hearing the President declare war and thinking how stupid and silly war seemed now that my brother was paralyzed.

I remember the doctor telling us that had Aaron not been in such great shape he should have lost his legs. I also remember him leaving the hospital, and being carried in the house.
I remember physical therapy.
I remember him relearning to walk.
I remember Aaron going to ground zero that January to help clean up the wreckage. I remember when Aaron received his cheerleading scholarship to Southwest Missouri State that next fall. I remember Aaron going on to teach boys gymnastics for at least 5 years.

Not all memories are bad.
Now I remember what it's like to almost lose someone.

I love you Aaron, thanks for being more than a memory.

Cosmicism

Ok I know more than half of you read that as COMICism and are now expecting something about Scott Adams or Jerry Seinfeld.
Sorry, I'm here to disappoint.

This is my post on cosmicism.
Cosmic, with an "s."

Really, this just flows from a rambling moleskin notebook entry I scribbled yesterday while waiting for John to finish up another 20 slides before dinner.

Cosmicism is a literary movement developed by HP Lovecraft (of whom I'm been reading a lot of lately.) Lovecraft was a "weird science" writer in the 1920s. He created the Cthulhu Mythos that I've been greatly enjoying. Lovecraft was himself a very intriguing personality. His life story reads like so many of his own tales (giant galactic monsters absent however.) His brief 46 year life is peppered with those around him suffering mental disorders, dying suddenly, and abandoning him moneyless, jobless, and depressed. Having started this literary wave of cosmicism, inventing the Necromnomicon, and bolstering weird science through pulp magazines I find it amazing that at the time of his early death (per colon cancer) he had never published an actual book.

So, what is the cosmicism and why have I chosen to be fascinated by it and therefore submit you all to my wonderings? Cosmicism is the idea that the universe is far too vast and unknowable for rational thought or meaning and all life is insignificant. Not nihilism. Humanity is not meaningless, just insignificant in relation to the vastness of the universe.
As Douglas Adams put it.
Space, is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is.

Whereas DNA (no really, Douglas Adams middle name is Noel. Same as mine.) used cosmicism in a humorous way to highlight the pretentiousness and self-important we all give ourselves, Lovecraft's method was much darker. He leaves one with a sense of utter hopelessness. He doesn't give his heros what they need to overcome their obstacles. He leaves them deranged, confused, and terrified. They might escape the evil, but they know their attempts are in vain for any extended period of time. I love it, it's realistic.

I love the way he handled Cthuhulu. He didn't really attempt to describe this entity of extreme terror and hideousness but he let you know that simply its presence made the entire crew of a poor, poor sailing ship lose consciousness and rationality at the sight of it.

He does the same thing in The Dunwich Horror, by having the monster remain invisable and at the end when they are attempting to destroy it. Instead of having the point of view be from one of the men near it, he has you far away on another hill, standing NEXT to the person with a telescope. He doesn't even let you hold it.

Its the idea that if mankind ever had to actually face the truth about our place in the scheme of things we would all go nuts.

I think it's fairly true.
This is why we have so many damn coping mechanisms (my personal favorite being bureaucratic tape) if we all keep ourselves so busy with the "non-important" things then we never have to face the music. Life is pointless, insignificant, and to short to really get anything done.
Like my Dad always told me, "Life sucks, then you die."

For those of you who know me you're probably confused and shaking your heads. There's no way someone as positive, naive, and ambitious as myself can actually believe or find comfort in this idea of cosmicism. Why not? Believing myself to be insignificant has been quite possibly the most liberating idea I've ever held onto. Nothing I really do will make that large of an impact so who cares if I screw it up? I'll never have the answers to everything, so why fret about looking for them? I'll get what I can out of life but won't get everything.
As one of the greatest minds of the future once uttered.

Life, loathe it or ignore it, you can't like it.

Thanks Marvin.

Up and Down with Burke and Hare

I guess relaxing stresses me out.
I always seem to be formulating lists of things to do. Most of the time it's quiet dull, cleaning house bits, cooking bits, things to keep the machine of life running. But occasionally I find lists like these
Books to Read
Traits to learn
Habits to form
Etc.

One of the best of these contained items such as. Learn lockpicking, teach the cat tricks, learn a useless language, build a marshmallow catapult.

Seriously? Yes. I have the next five days off. Lets see how well I can do on these...

I just finished reading a book about Burke and Hare. (5 points to anyone who knows who these people are without looking it up.) Here's where I tell you about them. They were two "body snatchers" essentially who murdered people and sold their cadavers (mostly still "fresh") to the local medical school. Ach. Pretty creepy. They were very obvious about it too and killed a total of 16 people. They murdered people by getting them very drunk, then "burking" them. Burking was laying on top of them and covering their nose and mouth until they suffocated. At the time these murders were committed the exact mechanism of death was undetectable. All evidence suggested the person drown in their own intoxicated vomit.

Hare was offered immunity when he turned on Burke at trial. Burke was hanged then publicly dissected. The Edinburgh Medical College Museum still has his skeleton.

I didn't know this however, it seems next month Simon Pegg (Shawn of the Dead) and Andy Serkis (Gollum) will be starring in the film Burke and Hare. Huh, good timing.

Don't you feel educated?

What I don't understand is Wikipedia is listing this upcoming movie as a British-Japanese-American Black Comedy.
What? These dudes were Irish. Where's the Japanese come in?

Up the close and down the stair
Up and Down with Burke and Hare
Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief
Knox the man who buys the beef!

Kids really knew how to make good jump-rope songs back then.

Ring-around-the rosy
Pockets full of posy
ashes, ashes, we all fall down!

By this point I'm sure everyone knows that's about the plague.

Lizzie Borden took an axe
Gave her mother 40 wacks
When she saw what she had done
Gave her father 41!


Sheeshes.

What to do

Hmm, second OK Go title for my blog this month...

I had a day off today. The entire day. John was gone too. What did I do? Well, actually not much. I decided to get a doctor here in where I live now so I jumped online and began the RESEARCH!

First I had to find out what insurance I had through work then skim through their pages of acceptable providers, 84?! How am I supposed to arbitrarily pick from 84 different names?! Wow.
With a little help from vitals.com I "reviewed" some doctors. Unfortunately most of them had only 1 review. Yea, great sample size there. Phsaw.

Thanks to this article from NPR I narrowed my search a little more. (I also only looked at those within 2 miles of my house.)
I landed with a new female doctor who was accepting patients right now and could actually see me within the next hour provided I filled out the paperwork in time.
Hastily, I printed out the 12 page history, 2 page HIPPA, and 1 page personal data sheet and swibbled away.

The history was unremarkable. I simply wrote NO or NA to everything (save seasonal allergies as a child) and signed the bottom. Then I threw on my vibrams and was out the door.
1 blood draw and x-ray later I was told I was healthy but... what was I going to do about my blood pressure? 130/80? That's amazing for me. (Not great, but better than last years 150/90 incident or the previous years 180/100 embarrassment) We talked a bit about the general diet=vegetarian, exercise= 2miles a day, stress=not gonna change. Finally, we landed on my birth control. I take an estrogen-progesterone compound, well estrogen can increase blood pressure. So, I switched today. I opted not to go to simply oral progesterone (since a slip up by even one hour can greatly increase the baby risk) Now I'm getting shots every 3 months.
A bit scary since it can completely eliminate your menses (where does it go?!) by inhibiting follicular development.
Wahoo.

I was going to switch to this a while ago, but realized I would be moving, so here I am. All moved. I will say I did google scholar this thing like crazy as I waited for the injection. I hope I don't have the weight gain side effect. I worked so hard to get back into these size 4s. I'm not going anywhere!!

In other news. I ran this afternoon to a new podcast and nearly peed my pants it was so funny. I guess I'm a bad person for not listening to Carl Sagan's Dance Party earlier in life but man, oh man was it funny. Tuesday runs are going to be so much more fun now. Not very "science" heavy but very sarcastic. I recommend it highly.

Back to the doctoring bit. In my "weekend of horror" where I sat around and did nothing, I think I gave myself a pressure ulcer. Well, it hasn't gotten any better, it's making it a pain in the (exactly where it is) to sit and it keeps seeping serosanguinous fluid!
So the fact that it's been two days of bandaids and neosporin sans ANY clotting or scabbing at all made me ask the doctor about it.

It's either an abscess (antibiotics for a week) or a pilonidal cyst.
Great, I've got Jeep Disease.
These cysts experienced a great out-coming during WWII when the service men did a lot of riding around in bumpy jeeps. They would get (essentially) ingrown hairs on their coccyx making those bumpy jeep rides a pain in the... er... coccyx.


I'm sure all you non-medical people out there are shocked at how personal this blog suddenly is.
Oh wow, today we talked about my menses and infected butt-hairs.

Ha ha, how funny.

Sorry all.
; )

Monday the 13th

Look out!
It's dreaded Monday the 13th!!

For once in a long time I'm not in a terrible mood. I love fall. It feels like fall now.
I had a fantastic weekend. John had a test on friday so he was free to be free all weekend. We did absolutley NOTHING of value. In fact, I think I have a pressure ulcer forming because I spent so much time on the couch...
Ever heard of Amnesia?

No no no, not the condition. The video game! It was released on Sept 6th and we downloaded it from Valve on saturday and spent nearly the entire weekend scaring ourselves silly. It's really fun. Set in a Prussian castle sometime in the 1850s you don't really know much about who you are or what you're doing as you go along. Occasionally, you get flashbacks that assist you in figuring out the backstory. The best part about this game is you have a health and a sanity meter. You're sanity decreases if you spend too much time in the dark or if you see a monster. So you can't really fight the bad guys. You have to hide from them and hope they don't find you. As your sanity decreases the visual field changes, it gets wavy and harder to control and you can't see as well. Very bad news if you're trying to run away. Lots of fun.

It was a very scary weekend. We played that a lot and then watched Shutter Island. I had heard a lot of bad things about this movie and didn't really know if I would like it. I mostly heard that it wasn't that well done, the plot was poor, and various, "It's not scary." bits. Which, if you're wanting a scary movie, then it's not. However, it is a very good psychological thriller. Not the best I've ever seen. I'm not about to rant on about how good it was but I really enjoyed it.
I think it was well done. If you want to think a little, or have a good conversation with someone I recommend Shutter Island and grab coffee later (just make sure the other person understands a little human psychology first!)

In addition to this, I'm midway through The Dunwich Horror. (I guess I'm really gearing up for Halloween this year.) Another in my anthology of HP Lovecraft fiction. I'm greatly enjoying this author. Wowza. I love his tone of writing. It's very intentional. I am in anticipation of what the "Horror" is. Can hardly wait!

For now, back to real life.
This whole "new doctors" thing isn't really working. Sure, they're all (so far) nice and great to work with. I really enjoy the PAs and all, but our patient wait times have skyrocketed since we only have one physician for the entire department until 1300. No I'm not kidding. Show up at our ER before 1 pm and there is one doctor and one PA. (The PA doesn't even get there until 10 am!) I don't know who's brain child that was, but it was a terrible idea.

I do have the good news of going back to working 3 times a week instead of my ridiculous 5 12 hour shifts. Ach, it balanced out well. We almost ran out of money, so it's been replenished. Phew.
This morning's run was set to a new podcast (yippee!) I ran to Point of Inquiry. They interviewed the author of Catching Fire:How cooking made us human.
Good stuff about how cooking made humans more clannish, setup patriarchal societies, allowed for more calories, softer food for faster eating, and the general evolution that follows those simple laws. Maybe I'll check it out at the library sometime.

It did make me hungry though...

Do What You Want

I love my life when I get to do what I want.

For the past two weeks I've been jamming to OK Go's, "Do What You Want" whilst I get ready for work. It really puts me in the mood that no matter what happens I am in control of myself. Things can get crazy sometimes, but I'm good as long as I get to do what I want.

Today I really get to do what I want. I'm on call right now. Meaning I get to sit at home and get paid for it as long as if they call me I can get there within 30 minutes. I thought I was going to work today so the call at 9am was really great. By that point in the morning I'm already ready to go. So I just get to sit around now.

Like I could ever sit around. I finally got to cook up some food for this week. Good thing too, I was running out of frozen dinners! I made up some of these yummy things. As well as some grilled veggie wraps. Now I've got a brown bag full of veggie wraps enough for the next week! Nom nom nom.
While I was cooking I watched some Star Trek TOS. Right now I'm blogging and watching Cosmos. I could listen to Carl Sagan's voice all day.

The morning run was set to The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe. A few weeks behind actually.

The Canadian school system wants to shut down the WIFI. They're claiming that WIFI is making the children sick. They get sick during the weekdays but not on the weekend. It must be the wireless in the schools.
Or maybe the kids don't want to go to school.
More on this later. I'm gonna eat some delicious lemon linguine.
Yum.

Increase the theta waves ensign!

Had a fabulous weekend with
my sister Kelly.She came for a visit and make my weekend awesome. John had to study the entire time so he really missed out on some fun stuff. We ventured to the Little Rock Museum of Discovery as part of our lifelong goal to visit a science center in every state. There we met Tammy the Owl at the live animal show and made great fools of ourselves. It's a little awkward being 16 years older than the entire audience and still geeking out about owls. We participated with great enthusiasm.
"Does anyone know the differences between birds and mammals?"
"Oh oh! Live birth!
"Lactation! Lactation!"
We did keep it to whispers as not to disturb the children...Ahem.
Kelly seriously freaked out on the brain model though. I think we spent a good 10 minutes identifying structures and function on a giant light up brain. I ranted a bit in the "Health" section on the old science they were displaying. Lies to the children! Update this data! 1993? Seriously?

I've chosen this article in honor of my fabulous (although pretentious) sister.

I want to remember this crazy weekend (especially the sushi) so, the best way to do this would be to line up my neuronal firings with my theta waves.

So, there are beta (Awake) and delta (Asleep) and pretty much every Greek letter of waves that your brain gives off at different intervals depending on the task. Theta waves are the oscillations that you get when doing or looking at something novel. You're neurons also fire impulses in an attempt to lay down a memory. Rutishauser et. al found that the number of impulses didn't effect how well a memory was formed but rather if the impulses lined up with the theta oscillations.

WHAt?
That's just really cool. I think I'll geek about that for a bit. Is this why we have stronger memories if we put things to music? Does that line up our impulses with a beat? Would studying with a metronome help? Probably not since a theta wave oscillates at 10 per second... That'd be a crazy tick. Is there a way to control theta patterns?

I know a lot of people are mapping brain waves and making music out of them. I also know there's a bit of pseudoscience about using music to control delta waves. What can one do to control their theta waves?

Gah. There's so much crazy going on! Theta waves and heart arrhythmias during sleep? Delta waves and schizophrenia?
I have to go to work.

Ps. We also played in the fountain at the park with all the little children. It was fun.
Here she is climbing the rock wall at the River Market

Fwd:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sam Crowe <bennett101@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 5:10 PM
Subject:
To: bennett101@gmail.com

Ugh.

Another week down. It's been a bit of a while since I blogged, or at least I feel that way. Just working mostly.

I've been running every other day now that the weather is nice. 75 degrees this AM. Wonderful. I didn't run today though I had to get some laundry done...

I'm scanning the reader right now looking for good science news. Racking my brain too.

John and I recently traveled (Last Saturday actually, so much for recent) to a nearby town because they had the closest gamestore. Pretty much the only game store.

Here's the tale.

 

Bored on a Saturday. Not very good. He's got plenty to do, but occasionally he needs a break from studying and I have been trying to think of things that we can do quickly that will allow him that moment of escape. Movies take too long, eating doesn't need to happen all that often, and you can only play Wii golf so many times.

In the backroom I was assessing our boardgame collection. Pretty sad. We have mostly 4 player games. Eh. That's what they make. The two games we have that are ok with two players are Trivial Pursuit and Trivial Pursuit Star Trek: The Original Series.

Not the best if you're wanting a brain break. So I hopped on the internet and googled "Game Store" with my zip code. Closest store 30 minutes away. So into the car we went.

Good idea.

This was a huge game store. They had sessions running while we were there, the owner greeted us at the door. Called us by name when we left. They had tons of games. It was wonderful. An entire D&D wall. Wow, it was nice. I was very happy we went. Spent a bit more money than we should have and not as much as we wanted to. We picked up Pandemic, a favorite of mine since the first time I ever heard of it and Last Night on Earth. Fabulous games both of them.

 

 

New Month!

Deep breath in and out.

I love the first of a new month.
This month just happens to be my favorite as well.
In my synethesia, September has always been a deep red and denim. I love it. It's a beautiful, crisp delightful time. Autumn is my favorite season. There's nothing like being outside in Autumn.

The first day of a new month always has such possibilities. I think of all the great things I can accomplish in a new month. None of it ever really gets done, but I get to think about it. As a kid I would write and/or draw up these great schematics of what I would teach myself or research or write about and break it down into individual days with different colors and goals. Ah, I was such a little nerd. If I had accomplished all of my little goals I've set for myself since childhood. I could have solved global hunger by now. (and speak Spanish!)

I feel like I go back to my synesthesia more than any other topic on my blog. It's just such a big part of who I am. I often wonder how other people remember things or categorize since they don't see the world the same way I do.
Of course, that goes for a lot of things.
*Ahem*

I'm so glad it's cooled off a bit. I've got to enjoy running a lot more now. Outside! Whee!! I did discover that I live on a beast of a hill though. Gah. It's about 30minutes down and back up. It's a good morning run. I do need to do a bit of shopping around and find some more podcasts. I don't really like running to music anymore. I'm too used to it. I need to engage the brainz!

Any suggestions would be great. Here's what I already have. The Nature Podcast, The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe, Persiflager's Infectious Disease Puscast, and EscapePod.
Something approx 30 minutes, science/healthcare related. That sort of bit.

I'm adding Point of Inquiry and Scientific American (Although I prefer their RSS feed.)
Today I learned about australopithecus africanus (yes, I had to google the spelling) using tools to kill, FDA regulations on inhome genetic testing, and the inheritance of anxious temperament in monkeys from the Nature Podcast of Aug 19. I'm a bit behind. The cat chewed through my connector cable, so it's a bit more difficult to upload my pods. :,(

As far as the science is concerned today. I've got to do dishes so... sorry all. No sciencing...

Oh, today we get a host of new doctors. Yesterday was the last day for all of the current docs at St. Vincent's ER. Hm... This will be an interesting day.