In Honor of my new Profile Pic

Isn't this a hilarious shot of Sebastian? I think the angle makes him look like a freakishly huge cat...like real tiger-size. That was a fun study break, but now it's back to Virology on a Friday night.

In-Class Post

There's nothing like using my thousands of tuition dollars a year to play online in class rather than pay attention... In my defense, I would learn nothing by paying attention. It seems that they design vet school so that the fall semester is full of interesting classes that make you glad you're here, and the spring classes make you desperate to escape.

I added a live traffic feed to my blog last night and have discovered something very interesting! I honestly thought that two or three people read my blog because that's who comments. Apparently that is not the case. Hello Austin, Oakland, Menomonie, and Springfield!

I am starting to fret a bit about finding a summer job. I am waiting to find out about a position with Banfield (a corporate clinic) but chances are I won't be able to work in either Ankeny/Des Moines or Omaha (and live with my parents again) because you get to pick based on when you turned in your application, and not every clinic takes summer students. Along with about a gazillion other things on my plate for Spring Break is now the need to call clinics in Ankeny and Des Moines to find out if anybody wants to hire a second year vet student and pay me enough to survive for the summer. I haven't worked in a clinic since the summer of 2005, so I really need to use this summer to relearn and hone some of those basic skills before I start my fourth year rotations next summer (yikes!).

To get back to this class I'm sitting in right now (which should be done...but she's still talking), the instructor is--to put it kindly--a bit absent-minded. Case in point, we had an in-class quiz yesterday that she gave us too near the end of the hour to finish, and she allowed people to take it home! Granted, it was open-note, but how can she not be aware that there are students in our class with a slightly off-kilter moral compass who have no problem working together and making sure they have all the right answers? We always hear about how we need to follow the "honor code", but the number of people in our class that are willing to cheat is appalling. I certainly don't think we're worse than the average population of humans, but anybody who thinks we have the moral high ground doesn't realize the cliff is crumbling.

I think that at some point I need to learn how to break out of the blog template world and freebase it. It won't be anytime soon, but one of these days...

Not really new, but hey, I'm a little slow

Ok, I just watched these videos in succession and cannot stop laughing. These would be considered NSFW by a lot of people, so be warned. First, here's the video Sarah Silverman made for Jimmy Kimmel (whose show I do not actually watch, although these videos make me think perhaps I should):



In retaliation, Kimmel presented the following video. In sheer star power he wins by a landslide.



Seriously, people. Must you make me laugh this hard after eating Taco Bell late at night?

Neil Gaiman rocks my socks off

One of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman, is an amazingly cool guy. I fully believe there are some authors I read who are not very pleasant people in life. Mr. Gaiman is not one of them. He held a vote and posted the book that was most voted for online free here for a month! To make things even better it is my absolute favorite book by him. In fact, if my dad hadn't "borrowed" it about a year ago--okay, I pushed it off on him to read because I love it and he liked Good Omens when I pushed that off on him before that--I would be reading it again right now (very slowly, as I have six exams in the next two weeks). Luckily, I don't have to wait to do that because I can read it on my computer in the next 30 days!


If you're always looking for a new blog to read like I am I strongly recommend the blog of the esteemed Mr. Gaiman. He posts a lot of interesting news and links, and is just an all-around fun guy to keep up with on a daily basis. :)

Spread the word!

This Book For Free is a new blog that is a win-win for everyone. The author posts books that she will ship to people for free, and all you have to do is put your name in for the books you want (and will hopefully win) and spread the word! It's a way to get new reading material and meet people from all over the world. Right now she's only posted romance novels but she said other genres are on the way. So, check it out and tell your friends!

Implicit Association Test

This is a pretty cool test about how you really feel about the presidential candidates. You can find it here.

My results didn't completely match what I expected. I had the most positive association with Clinton, which I expected. What I didn't expect was that I would have a higher positive association with Huckabee than Obama, and that McCain would be the lowest! I figured that McCain would at least be higher than Huckabee, but my mind apparently says otherwise.

Damnit

It turns out there was an opening into the pulp chamber. I already got Kaya scheduled for her root canal in Illinois the Tuesday of Spring Break. I know this would seem ridiculous to most people, but I'm taking an online Continuing Education course from Dr. Manfra (she's at the U of Illinois) so it will be fantastic to meet her and see her work, and I'm spending so much on school already what's another couple thousand in loans. Plus, Kaya will be able to show off her grillz rather than a giant hole. The biggest problem is that it takes not two, as I originally thought, but three visits. The first during Spring Break will be the root canal. Three months later they do the impression, and then any time after a week after that the crown can go on. Those next two visits will be during the summer, at least.

I'm kind of scared to tell my family. In fact, I may not. They would see this as beyond ridiculous and a waste of money. They aren't what I would call role model pet owners. They feed them and take decent care of them, but if a medical or surgical problem like this would come up they would take the cheapest route (in this case, tooth removal) because it's just a pet. But Kaya is pretty much my baby, so I'm willing to spend the money. I was just hoping I wouldn't have to.

Today's the big day

Not Valentine's Day, though it is also that. Kaya is going in to get her teeth looked at to see what our options are. I'm kind of nervous, even though this is not a risky procedure in any way. She's my baby, so I guess it's parental nerves. *g*

Of course, since she has surgery today she had to go and eat a chunk of Nylabone last night and make me worried about a GI obstruction. She's still acting normal this morning, so hopefully it was small enough to pass without a problem.

I also have a Surgery test this morning that I did not study well for. We'll see how that goes...


Edit: I am tentatively keeping my fingers crossed that things aren't as bad as they seemed. Dr. Nieves was able to pop off the slab, and she said it doesn't *look* like the fracture got into the pulp chamber. We're bringing her back in tomorrow where they're going to clean it up and do radiographs to check things out, and if it's not in the pulp chamber Dr. Nieves can just restore it (basically a filling). It's not likely to last her entire life like a crown would, but if it starts to flake off we just have to be extra-good about brushing her teeth. I will definitely take that over a crown!

Clinton and feminism

Extremely bored. Two hours of Clin Path on Thursday is waaaaaaaaay too much. I thought I would better use my time blogging.

So, this really fun blog I read, called The Book Bitches, posted about how some people accuse Hillary Clinton of setting back feminism because she stayed with Bill, and then mentioned an interesting idea (from someone else) that the slowing of the feminism movement was actually the result of women tearing down the same women they fought with for the right to improve their lives.

I completely agree with the theory. Women are the worst critics of other women. We are jealous of how other women look, what they do, what they wear; why would level of success be any different? The responses to the post had typical "I'm not a feminist, so..." and "I'm a feminist, so..." posts, and it just irked me. What is a feminist? People are so afraid of the word because they don't want to be thought of as a bra-burning ball-busting bitch. That is not what feminism is. I posted a response saying so. It will be interesting to see how/if the "I'm not a feminist" crowd responds.

525, 600 Minutes

A year ago today I made the second major decision of my life. I think I will always question whether it was the right decision. If we had held out a little longer, maybe we would have found out she didn't really have FIP but was only positive for coronavirus and had something treatable. If I had known then to pay extra to bring her to the teaching hospital for a second opinion, what might have happened? Those "ifs" will get you, especially when it's too late to do anything about it.

Here's to you, Sabriel. You were a cat without comparison, and we will be lucky if we ever have another kitty with your sweet temperament.

And now, for your viewing pleasure

I've been enjoying a new online comic. I should have been studying for Wednesday's Virology test, but instead I watched the game, am now watching House while laughing at these, and will go to bed afterwards. Here are a few of the better comics (if you click on them they open full-size):



















































And now, my all-time favorite:
























I could have died laughing at this last one. Oh, man...

And the winner is...

I feel like the world's worst dog owner. Between our small animal dentistry lecture in Surgery and the Hill's lunch lecture on dental health, I have been scared into taking better care of my animals' teeth. So, Saturday has become tooth-brushing day. I learned at the Hill's lunch that brushing once a week is pretty much worthless because plaque builds up in like hours, but it's got to be better than nothing. I can't brush their teeth every day.

Anyway, we just started last week. Yesterday was day 2. I took a closer look at Kaya's teeth yesterday, and saw something that looked like a little calculus build-up. Lo and behold, I was wrong, and she has an upper fourth premolar fracture, exactly why we've been warned against letting our pets chew on Nylabones. Our Surgery teacher said they were fine for heavy chewers, which Kaya tends to be, but the Hill's guy said you shouldn't let your dog chew on anything you can't bend over your knee. Looks like he was right. I have no idea how long it's been there.

I first cried, because this is what I do. I know it's nothing life-threatening, but I feel so guilty for not noticing it for however long it's been there. I also feel bad for letting her chew on Nylabones, although I didn't even know until recently that she shouldn't be doing that. Guilt is not a reasonable emotion, however.

Once I got over that, I emailed our Surgery instructor to find out what my options are. I pretty much need to bring her into school no matter what, because even if we go with a "simple" tooth extraction, the upper fourth premolar has three roots, and it's not an easy extraction. I would feel better having it done at the school. We do have some alternatives to discuss, which is another reason to take her to the school.

It all depends on how bad the damage is. If the fractured slab is external (not in the pulp of the tooth) they can just remove it and clean it up. If it is into the root they can do a root canal (which is really three root canals) and then put a crown on it. The root canal alone would be about $900. I don't really care about the money. I can take out a little more loan money for the semester to cover what I decide to do. I just want to do what's best for her.

I need to talk to someone about recovery from extraction vs. getting a crown. I know getting a crown requires being put under anesthesia twice--once for the root canal and impression, and once for the crown. I want to know how long a crown can be expected to last (i.e., will we be replacing it in three years). Lots of questions.

I know that at this point the fracture is no longer painful because the slab is dead, but I can't believe we wouldn't have noticed the initial pain. Which makes me wonder if it's even remotely possible this has been in existence for the almost-year we've had her. Which then leads me to wonder how we never noticed it and neither did the vet during her physicals if that is the case. *sigh* I know I need to stop beating myself up over this, because all I can do is give her the best treatment possible, but it's hard. I hold myself to a higher standard than the average pet owner, even though a lot of this stuff we are just learning for the first time.

I suppose in a way I should be glad, because if we hadn't just learned this at school, I might not have started brushing her teeth and might not have even found it until it abscessed out her nose or something awful and gross like that.

Poor Kaya.

Best use of a helicopter ever.

Poor little guy. At least it worked out all right.