PENN-sieve

Photo from a HEAD gathering at the beginning of the year. That's me (LOL), Natalie, and Kadian.

I bought trouser socks today. I really think that they are more like knee highs than socks. In fact, they are knee highs made out of tight material instead of pantyhose. Each pair cost almost three dollars! This is way more than knee highs or socks! They do look nicer than socks with a pair of loafers and they do keep my feet warmer than knee highs so I suppose they were worth the money.

The worse show I ever saw was last season's "Yo Momma" on MTV. And then this year, they renewed it and now they are in New York. *shaking my head in disbelief*

The traditional Penn State cheer starts when one person yells "We Are" and a group responds "Penn State" and this repeats forever until the person who led the cheer says "Thank You" and the group concludes "You're Welcome". Very polite cheer, don't you think.

Penn State is a huge campus. I live and work in East Halls which is .63 miles from the HUB (Hetzel Union Building) in the center of campus. The Main Residence Life building is across the street from the HUB so I go there at least once or twice a week.

Today I had to go to the HUB at three different times throughout the day for a meeting and also had to go to West once (which is on the other end of campus!). In between my meetings today, I had to come back to my office for meetings with students.

This is why I don't get to wear my heels anymore. All this walking makes flats a nice investment and pretty much a necessity. Get your walk on!

On Friday, I read in the paper that Pennsylvania lead the country in the number of murder-suicides. We have had 18 so far this year (tied with Texas).

On early Sunday morning, a Penn State student's brother came to visit and ended up taking his life in one of our campus apartments after an 8 hour stand-off with the police. Though I was on call this weekend, I am not responsible for the area where this happened but it is only about 1/4 mile from my apartment.

Sad and scary. You can read more about the incident here:

http://live.psu.edu/story/20301

Enough said - if you aren't watching it, you should be!

LOL - that was a common phrase on t-shirts won this weekend for the Penn State versus Michigan game.

Saturday was a big game. When I first accepted the job at Penn State, tickets for the Michigan game were selling for $300 on Ebay. This is a huge markup because the average student ticket costs $21 and the other tickets cost $46. I started the day like most people without tickets but around noon, I went shopping with a few of my students so we could buy supplies for our Casino Night program on Sunday. Tom, one of the students, asked if we knew anyone that needed tickets because his uncle had a couple that they weren't using.

Now here is a little background on Tom - he's from a family of influence. Freshmen at Penn State are not allowed to have vehicles on campus without special permission - Tom has a car (a Mercedes Benz wagon no less). Tom's uncle has box seats for every game as well as several regular seats.

So I asked Tom how much he wanted to sell the tickets for and here is where the story starts getting good. He said face value of $46 each- finding tickets for this game at face value like a one in a million opportunity. And then it got better - the seats were on the 50 yard line in row 11! Of course, I told Tom I would take the tickets.

I called my colleague Bryan (think "Just Shoot Me") because I knew he had a friend in town who was a rotten, dirty Michigan fan but did not have tickets for the game so I offered him one of my tickets. I could have made a little profit here but I was just going to sell it for what I got. Bryan offered to buy both tickets and then to give me his ticket (which is in the nosebleed alumni section) for free. In the end I took it and figure I made out $46 to the positive because i got to go to the game and didn't pay a penny.

I watched the game with Jess (Bryan's wife) and had a blast. We had a white out for the game which was when everyone wore white - the student section was amazing in all white. The game was good - we lost but we held our own.

Last week, I had to convince my supervisor that I needed to fire one of my student workers. This student was placed on probation last year before I got here and then did the same thing he was placed on probabtion for - not once but twice! My supervisor wanted to give him another warning but I put my foot down. It is not fair to the rest of my staff who do their job.

Today the employment decision was upheld by the Director of the department. When I shared with one of my colleagues that I had let the RA go, she clapped and jumped for joy. Now while I do not want someone who is not dependable on my staff, I wouldn't clap and be excited because I had to let someone go. Firing an employee is a tough thing to do and never calls for celebration. It's actually very draining for me personally because I know that my decision has a large impact on the student. The student is now in a difficult circumstance - he is unemployed and no longer will be housed by the department.

Part of me is not surprised that she clapped and another part of me is shocked. I think I will go take a nap.

If you really know me, you know that I have loved Kyle Chandler since he first appeared in "Homefront" back in the day. When they blew up Kyle Chandler on Grey's Anatomy, I seriously considered not watching the show anymore; I was that mad. Then I saw a preview for "Friday Night Lights" starring Kyle Chandler in the lead role. Oh happy day!

Well, tonight was the second night of FNL and I just can't get into the show - it's about high school football which really isn't an interest. I am sad. I still love Kyle Chandler and will keep the show on every Tuesday just so he gets the ratings - maybe I will grow to love it.

Today was the first day I wore heels to work. The work environment is so casual here. My feet hurt. I will need to dress up more or I am going to forget how to walk in heels!

So four joints a week is bad but one a week might be good - LOL - gives new meaning to medical marijuana usage!

Marijuana's Key Ingredient Might Fight Alzheimer's
By Charles Q. Choi
Special to LiveScienceposted: 05 October 200610:04 am ET

The active ingredient of marijuana could be considerably better at suppressing the abnormal clumping of malformed proteins that is a hallmark of Alzheimer's than any currently approved drugs prescribed for the treatment of the disease.

Scientists report the finding in the Oct. 2 issue of the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics.
About 4.5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease, which gradually destroys memory. As more people survive into old age, cases of Alzheimer’s disease are expected to triple over the next 50 years. There is no known cure.

The researchers looked at THC, the compound inside marijuana responsible for its action on the brain. Computer models suggested THC might inhibit an enzyme with the tongue-twisting name of acetylcholinesterase (also called AChE) that is linked with Alzheimer's.

AChE is known to help accelerate the formation of abnormal protein clumps in the brain known as amyloid plaques during Alzheimer's. This enzyme also helps break down the brain chemical acetylcholine, which is linked to memory and learning. Acetylcholine levels are reduced during Alzheimer's.

In lab experiments, the scientists found THC was significantly better at disrupting the abnormal clumping of malformed proteins. THC could completely prevent AChE from forming amyloid plaques, while two drugs approved for use against Alzheimer's, donepezil and tacrine, reduced clumping by only 22 and 7 percent, respectively, at twice the concentration of THC used in the tests.

"We're not advocating smoking dope, but if we can make analogues of THC, it could play a role in treating Alzheimer's," researcher Kim Janda, a chemist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., told LiveScience. "It would be nice to do more animal studies along these lines."
Past research on human brain tissues and experiments with rats have suggested that synthetic analogues of THC can reduce the inflammation and prevent the mental decline associated with Alzheimer's disease.

However, marijuana is not necessarily good for the mind. Prior investigations have shown that years of heavy marijuana use, consisting of four or more joints a week, can impair memory, decision making, and the ability to pay attention to more than one thing at a time.

Today, I was able to get the internet connected correctly in my apartment. The only jack that did work was the one in the spare bedroom so I had my computer in my bedroom on my ironing board. Not the best set-up.

I wanted to be able to connect from the living room and finally headed over to the university's ResCom office. Everyone told me that the process to get the switch was going to be nearly impossible and very lengthy so I kept putting it off. Not having internet for the first month that I was here was miserable and I did not want to go through this again. I finally went to ResCom and requested to have a different jack activiated. I asked for the switch at 630pm and it was changed by 830pm.

What does this mean for you? I will be online more frequently since I can watch TV and be online at the same time. What did I learn from this? Don't listen to people; they lie.

When you first meet people, one of the questions they always seem to ask is "What are your hobbies?". It's a great question if the person plays a musical instrument, is into deep sea fishing, or can juggle chainsaws. Unfortunately, I have none of those hobbies so when someone asks the question my typical answer is read, travel, watch TV. What boring answers!

One of my new place, new resolutions was to develop a real hobby. I signed up for a wheel throwing pottery class with KDN. My third class is tomorrow and we are learning how to trim bases.

Wonder what you are getting for Christmas - that's right - a Tracy original!

Did you know that plant varieties can be developed through traditional processes, such as crossbreeding but in order to genetically engineer a food gene, new DNA must be introduced into the plant's cell? This procedure is not possible under natural conditions or processes. How do you introduce new genes into a cell? Through the introduction of bacteria or viruses!

In 1999, more than one-third the corn and over half of the soybeans grown in the United States were genetically engineered. Despite the prevalence of GE food, its effects on human health and the environment remain largely unknown because consumers have no way of knowing which foods contain or are produced with GE material.

Shouldn't we know what we are putting in our bodies?!

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has refused to exercise its authority to require genetically engineered food to be labeled even though a survey by ABC News, conducted June 13-17, 2001, found that 93 percent of the public believed that genetically modified foods should be labeled. As ABC News stated, "Such near-unanimity in public opinion is rare."

Just a few years ago, stores all over the US had to pull Taco Bell taco shells because they were made with a GE corn that was not yet approved for human consumption. This GE corn could be fed to cattle and we wouldn't even know, even when we would eat the beef.

Shouldn't we know what we are putting in our bodies?!

Citizens from around the world have demanded labeling of genetically engineered foods, and more than two dozen industrialized nations have either passed or enacted labeling requirements. These countries include the 15 nations that make up the European Union, as well as Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and many others. Even China has agreed to label genetically engineered foods. American corporations such as PepsiCo, Kraft, and Coca-cola have decided not to use GE foods in their products sold in China. Why do American companies treat Chinese citizens with a higher level of respect and care than they treat us? (Another BLOG topic for the future!!!)

The U.S. government should enact similar labeling legislation in our country to protect the right of citizens to know about their food. Help demand that The Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act is passed!

Visit this site
http://www.thecampaign.org/

They have a lot more info on GE foods, letters to write to politicians and companies, and a lot of other activist items.

If you don't join in and speak up for the benefit of the world, who will?