Procrastination

So I needed to quickly know a value for the Faraday constant, and that led me to a very cool discovery. My method of choice was, of course, a quick Google search for faraday constant. At the top was, first off, my answer, but also a little link saying more about calculator. Looking to blow some time, I follow, and discover another new feature of Google.

Basically, it turns your search into the answer to a math question. But not just silly stuff like 1+1. You can put constants, units, and pretty much anything else you can think of in, and it can figure most of it out. Preposterous calculations such as speed of light in picometers per decade are quite possible. Suffice it to say I spent too much time dabbling at this.

My procrastination only continues as I write this post, but really, I just had to kill 10 minutes before supper was ready...

Schtudying

Studying. I've been studying for finals, starting last week Wednesday. For those of you keeping track, that would be two and a half weeks before my first exam. As a professional procrastinator this is a major step forward in my studying career. My hope is that through this proactive approach I will somehow be a better studier than in the past.

As a professional procrastinator I have been very successful in the past. That past would mostly entail my undergrad education. In a world of multiple choice questions and occasional short answers, it works well to cram. Now I would call most of the cramming I did in undergrad the non-memorization type of cramming. I learned concepts, facts when needed, but all of it was done in an effort to keep the amount of studying time to a minimum. At least subconsciously, if not overtly. By learning things reasonably well in a short period of time and then getting it all out efficiently on an exam I managed to get the marks I needed, while maintaining my procastinating nature.

I suppose my justification for this type of work was that in the end, I was still working on the "these marks are just numbers to get me somewhere else" theory, one that had been in force since late high school. However, I should really be moving out of that mindset at this point, since a) the marks don't matter any more and b) I'm supposed to know and remember and use this stuff forever. At least that's what we're told. Once in a while you wonder when doctors need to know that Lck is the signaling molecule for the CD4 and CD8 receptor and phosphorylates a... oh, never mind.

The big question is how do I learn to learn for good? Much of my undergrad knowledge is still there, in pieces, but as I joked with some people this very evening, the ability to recognize and choose a correct multiple choice answer from a set of alternatives doesn't exactly cut it when a patient presents with a set of symptoms. I guess my first attempt to make this stuff stick is to study it more in advance (thus my slow digression from Captain Procrastinator to some advance work). Perhaps I need a new style. But I'm kind of stuck in the one I've got, and it does seem to get the job done. I do think with a more focused attempt to learn the stuff that seems relevant for the future I can make it work. So onwards with the concise, hopefully applicable, likely illegible study notes. Hopefully some of it sticks.

Of Lions, Witches and Wardrobes

Last night I finished reading "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe." I'm not sure exactly what age I would have been when I first read the book, but suffice it to say I'm pretty sure the number fits on my hands. When I finished the full set of books, I remember my parents telling me that not only were these books stories about kids going off to another world, they were also allegorically the story of Christianity. At the time I remember pondering this quite seriously, and my child's understanding of faith allowed me to see at least some of the parallels that existed.

It's probably a shame that I waited this long to reread this book (and I'll get around to the rest of them sometime as well) since I really enjoyed looking for all the allegory in the story. Lewis is actually very direct in much of the material, and although I won't go into details I was actually a bit suprised at how obvious some of the parallels are. Especially when you're looking for it, much of the book jumps out at you. This is the English student in me creeping out again, but frankly I'm OK with that, since I don't often get a chance to let that side out with 10 hours of immunology with the same professor in the same room over the last two days... but I digress.

My reason for resurrecting this book from my distant past is, of course, the upcoming film version of the story. In my mind before reading the book I particularly wanted to see how I thought the story might translate to film. Plot-wise I'm sure the writers will make their usual obtuse changes to the plot for the sake of making the story more film worthy, or to put their own stamp on it, or to change things for the sake of changing them... whichever of those options is usually invoked when perfectly good stories are modified for the sake of film. At this point I'm resigned to the fact that no story can make it to film in its written form. But I'm much more interested in how the Christian allegory in the story will be presented. I wonder if a secular movie going public would even notice many of the parts of the story that are thinly veiled portions of Christ's passion? Or Peter as Peter? My fear is that the allegory could be intentionally subdued to maintain the political correctness of the film. I think it would be a great disservice to the story to try and make it into a secular adventure film. Hopefully I'm not the only one.

I suppose only time will tell.