Thank You: Dr. Travis Grimes

I had two friends in undergrad at CSUSB, my wife and Travis.  When and where we meet is lost in an undergrad haze.  I know that we started having classes together doing our sophomore year.  Eventually we started studying together for Organic Chemistry.  There was a lot of smart people in that class but Travis and I would get the top, or near top grades in the class.  We always had a friendly competition with the scores on the quizzes and tests but our scores were always close.  Since we were two of only about 10 Chemistry Majors for our year we had basically all our classes together from then on.  As the quarters rolled on and the classes became harder and harder (Physical Chemistry and Linear Algebra were by far the hardest classes I have ever had) I started to depend on Travis.  He was/is very focused on what ever task is at hand.  He would often be at the library hours before I showed up studying.  I of course would show up about an hour before a big test, having not studied at all.  He would then go up to the chalk board and go through everything that I needed to know.  Sometimes (not often) I would actually score better then him because his review was so good (he would get a little mad about that).  There is not doubt in my mind that I would not have received that grades that I did and passed the classes that I did without Dr. Travis Grimes pushing me to the limits of my intelligence and providing me with a solid work ethic.  Through out the years anytime we would see each other in the morning for the first time we would call each other Doctor (Good Morning Dr. Grimes).  We would chuckle and dream about the future.  After undergrad I went to Pharmacy school and he went to Washington University (the one in Pullman) to get a PH.D.  So in a few weeks we will actually get to call each other Doctor, for real!!! Thank you Travis and good luck with everything that you do.

Done: This is me

A week after I graduated from CSUSB I am finally able to post some pictures of the event. I have been so busy since graduation that I have not been able to post anything. What have I been busy doing? NOTHING just enjoying my family, it has been so nice. Usually I would have started summer school by now but not this year, instead I will be relaxing in my new back yard playing pool and watching the Angels win the AL West.

Did I mention that my wife graduatated with me, only she was a double major

My mom had to get a cake even though Porsha and I do not like cake. Bannana Cream pie next time please

Porsha painted this to make sure everyone knew what event they were at and who it was for

The tram after graduation actually took us further from our car.

No More: This is me

I am no longer a college student... I finished my college experience rather unceremoniously this afternoon. After arriving at school at around 8am I studied for 6 hours straight. Studying for six hours straight was not something I pictured myself doing on the last day of college, but that is exactly what I did. Then I walked into the lecture hall, sat down, and took the test. This next part did not go how I have imagined so many times before. When I was finished with the test I walked up to the front, turned in the test and walked out the door and to my car. I always that that I would do something crazy or high five someone...anyone. Instead I left the last class of my college carreer without a sound. Throughtout the day however I did have my little moments to savor the last day. I was in the chemistry study room I overheard several people talk about their school schedules next year. BioChem, P Chem, Linear Algebra ect. usually I would be involved in these conversations but today I just smiled to myself and thought of enjoying my summer and starting Pharm School in September.

Broken: This is Ava

I went to school yesterday early in the morning so that I could study all day for my A&P lab final. I did pretty good on it, at least I think... When I got home the plan was to study for the three finals that I had today. Of course that didn't happen, my wife wanted to go check out some stuff at Home Depot so we headed over there. 3 hours later we were on our way home with a truck full of stuff for our new place. While we were unloading the truck Ava screamed super loud, normally she is just being dramatic but this time she was screaming for a reason. My little girl broke her arm. We rushed her to the E.R. as fast we could.

They were great to Ava and even though she was in pain they did a great job. I know she is my daughter but personally I think Ava took the pain and shock better then anybody I have ever seen.

She is a little grumpy today but perfectly understandable. We were up all night so my three finals were a little rough to get through. The good news is that I only have one more final to go and then graduation!!

My Grade has been Stolen: Reward if Found

Four Weeks until I graduate from CSUSB with a BS in Chemistry. I have not been very excited until the last week about graduating, but after this round of midterms I realized that I only have a few short papers to write and Finals. After Four years of school I am almost there. My undergrad was hard at times but hopefully it prepared me for pharmacy school.

Currently I am in class and not very happy. I just found out that I lost 10% on my A&P midterm because I forgot to put a 1 in the box that said grade level. This is standard practice for all tests that uses this scan-tron and I have been doing it for the last four years. For some reason I did not fill in the 1 before I turned it in, I have never forgot this little procedure before. So 10% is gone with no chance of return because of a mental lapse that I had. I do not think that 10% is fair at all I can see taking 1 or 2 questions worth of points which would be about 1-2% on this test but 10% is crazy. This test was 125 questions, so that means 12 of the questions I got right have been voided. I estimated about 25 hours of studying for this test or 12 minutes per question so that means 2.3 hours of my study time was wasted. That might not seem like a lot but I work 35-40 hours a week and I have a 2 year old along with 15 units this quarter. So 2.3 hours is at times hard to find and for it to be wasted is not fun. I thought test were supposed to reflect your knowledge of the subject however my grade does not reflect my knowledge at all. There should be an asterisk or something to say that I actually scored better then my score shows.

Is This a Commercial or a Blog

I'm not really the type of person to get super excited about new gadgets. I figure that I an get it in a few weeks or days after it goes on sale. No need to rush to the store just to wait for 12 hours to get this new item (i.e. PlayStation 3 a buddy of mine spent over 24 hours in line at wall-mart just to be one of the first to own this 500 dollar toy). Sometimes I like to wait a few months so that maybe I could pick it up at a little lower price. Costco for example will bundle things like game consoles together with extra stuff but it will still be the same price. Get to the point Downed Pilot please... OK so I am tremendously excite about Apples new IPhone. This thing is an Ipod (can't live without it, and I know you can't either) An internet device that uses Safari (Mac's Web Browser which is superior to explorer) and a crazy phone that uses a touch screen with no need for a stylus. It also has a camera and a mini speaker. My point is, YES I will wait outside of a cingular store for several hours to get this phone. A few months ago I broke my phone and I have been using this cheep $20 phone because I didn't want to spend any money on a phone when I am going to be paying big bucks for the apple iphone.

On Tuesdays I have the great pleasure of attending 8 hours of lecture before going work for an additional 7 hours. This is by far my favorite day of the week. The four two hour classes that I have are listed below, the number next to the class indicates the importance on a scale from 1-10. 1 being not at all important and 10 being of the utmost importance in my school career.
1. Environmental Chemistry (1)
2. People and Technology (1)
3. Medicinal Chemistry (2)
4. Intro to computer game design (1)
As you can see I am taking almost nothing that will mean anything to me in 6 weeks.I finished all my classes for my chemistry degree in December and the only reason I am still going is for A&P my very last pre-req for pharmacy school. The reason i am taking the classes listed above is to maintain my full time student status so that I get the full amount of financial aid. The only problem with this is that I do not care about these class and I just want them to end. Six more weeks and I am finally done with undergrad.