You are the only person on Earth. You  are at your desk when a light flicks on in the house across from yours.

Not just a coincidence.

A friend of mine posted the following regarding the hype over the Michael Brown case:

"silly really! News Flash! White people love Black People. We are not in the 1800's anymore. I think we should raise hell about the fact that they are still calling white people racist"

I wonder whether white people said the same thing on 1960.

Eric a Garner, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Tamir Rice - rest in peace.

Dear Andrea,

After meeting you, I gotta say something. I can't keep it in. You are too interesting.

First off, you are very smart and sassy for your age and I know that those two characteristics will make you a strong and brilliant women one day. 

You're better at legos than I am. You built that birthday cake in minutes, and if given just a little more time, you would have built that rescue ax too. You like to challenge yourself. You even said "if I don't try the hard stuff, how am I gonna learn?" Wise words, Andrea. Wise words.

You are a hands-on person and you like to learn new things. You picked up that juggling book and out of nowhere and you decided that you would learn to juggle. While it may have been inappropriate to throw around paper balls at the church, I know you will practice when you get home.

You may not have the strongest family system. You don't have a consistent Daddy any your Momma is a very busy lady just trying to pay the bills. And maybe your older brother can be a bit of a dolt sometimes, but you know what? You got beauty, brains, and brawn to overcome it all. A strong women is one who can build a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at her.

And I'll be there for you to hand you those bricks, just as I did the lego pieces. And once again, I will stand amazed at what you can build. 

Sincerely, 

Your mentor,

Sufia

If you're struggling with organic chemistry...

...and think you are dumb for it, then you must also consider Bill Gates to be dumb.

He received all As at Harvard (this was the era before grade inflation) except for the C+ he received in organic chemistry.

I hope you all feel better now, because I certainly do.

Ebola isn't such a foreign problem after all.

My city of Cleveland has now seen Ebola:  Read the news here

Optimizing Blog Speed

I have connected my blog with Google Analytics so that I can see things like average time spent, bounce rate, new v. returning visitor, etc. It is very helpful and interesting.

I just looked up how fast my page loads through Google Analytics. I was a bit surprised and embarrassed. It was around 7 seconds which is pretty slow especially since my users are probably only half interested/just wasting time on the internet. Who would actually wait 7 whole seconds for something they did not even care much about? No one, not in this fast-paced, impatient, give-me-entertainment-now-culture.

So I optimized it. I'm not sure how it all works, because I just followed a youtube demo. But it was excellent so here you go:How to optimize blog speed by eliminating render blocking

My site was so slow  because I have all these widgets that take forever to load. Now my site content will appear before the widgets are done loading. The loading time is down to 1.53 seconds!

At least I think that's how it works.

From watching this demo, computer coding looks a hella lot like DNA coding. On every blog spot, the html is nearly identical. There are just a few pieces of the code responsible for the different phenotypes. Ahh sorry, is my INTP showing?

Comment below. and let me know how long it took for your browser to load up my site! Thanks!

"Historians are bad communicators of their diligent research. 

Politicians are diligent communicators of their bad research"

-Sufia

This is why problems exist.
The silence of our wisdom is lost with the noise of our politics.

Historians, speak up! Connect with scientists. Connect with doctors. Connect with engineers. Connect with lawmakers. And most importantly, connect with the common people!

In our lovely democracy, the common people are capable of the most change.

Why do I write about this write now?

Today I attended a medical history book club at Case Western Reserve University's historical Dittrick Medical Museum. It was great. Enlightening, I felt apart of an elitist club,

The problem? Historians were communicating their observations with fellow historians. What good does this do?

If we were to confer back to MBTI, then historical societies are simply groups of perceivers who like to sit around and think about interesting things, but lack the desire to do much about the world's problems.

Most people are Judgers. They are doers. So perceivers, please educate the doers on what we should do. Its your societal contribution.

Sorry this post is so crappy. I'm starving and have this terrible migraine.

Which brings up a question: Is the mood of an INTP highly dependent on his or her physical condition? Because when I am just slightly hungry I get moody and all my cognitive functions are pretty much hopeless. Thoughts?

That's me...

Organic Chemistry's natural affinity to a love-hate bonding relationship with Students

I am a freshmen at CWRU enrolled in Organic Chemistry (capitalized because of its Godly Importance).\

I am taking several other courses towards a Biomedical Engineering degree, but they are all irrelevant compared to Ochem. My other classes are like the much older children of a mother who has just given birth to a precious new baby. Nobody cares or has time for the other children. The baby demands your full attention - actually, it ionically steals your attention.

It makes me stay up until 2am. It makes me cry when I just can't figure out the right confirmation. It makes me skip a meal. It makes me hold in my pee until I'm finished with an assignment. It makes me watch kitten videos and rom coms just to remind myself that happiness still exists.

But like a mother to her baby, I love it. It's fulfilling and gratifying. It trains your brain like no other subject, and it makes you smarter, more calculated, and logical.

It is a required course for pre-meds. Most of the pre-meds I have spoken to hate the fact. Ochem is the bane of their existence. They don't understand why they have to take it....And just a few years ago, they actually didn't have to.

It's a new requirement. And its generally known as the weed-out course for pre-meds. If you can't handle Ochem, maybe you're not ready to handle the stress of med school or of being a doctor.

And they - whoever makes up these rules - have a point. Organic chemistry requires judgement and decision-making. There are always several possible solutions, but there will always be one "major contributor", i.e. best solution given the "constituents" of the issue.

It requires logic and problem solving. An Ochem student must search through the library of their brain to knowledgeably assess the situation, narrow down options, and ultimately choose the most likely successful arrangement.

Logic, common sense, and judgement - three necessary components of a good doctor that the wrote memorization of a typical biology class will never teach you.

So, yes, it sucks.
But it's necessary and if you study it enough, you realize that it's beautiful.

Hang in there future Ochem students.
And read this article on Harvard Ochem: How to get an A- in Organic Chemistry

The irony of this post: I wrote this to distract myself from Ochem. I have an exam tomorrow...

Sen. Claire McCaskill Slams the Charismatic Dr. Oz

Senator McCaskill, chair of Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance  publicly spanks Dr. Oz on his televised promotion of scam weight loss pills

My take on how it went down:

 "I'm surprised that you are defending...I mean I've tried to really do a lot of research in preparation for this trial, and the scientific community is almost monolithic against you in terms of the efficacy of the three products that you've called miracles."

....Transformation from demure doctor to petulant cat pending...

\

Read/Watch the Hearing Here