Much like Marissa, I've also been quite busy during the weekends, mostly because of all the Welcome to Florida shows this summer. They've certainly been fun, but it was nice yesterday to finally have a chance just to chill out (I spent the day out on the deck naked to the waist in a kiddie pool full of tapioca pudding; it does wonders for my skin, not to mention my tastebuds!). There are probably too many stories to mention from the past month, so I'll just pick a few highlights....

So far, I have spent most of the summer searching for jobs. I have found a couple cool things to do with my bioethics master's degree, but the only interview I have right now is at Cedars-Sinai hospital in LA. I've never been to LA before and the offices for my job are in Beverly Hills, so I'm pretty pumped to fly out there. It's a great hospital and I could live in California...if I can afford it. What I really want to do is sabatoge their milk industry and get Wisconsin back on top. I'll report back soon.

Another pretty exciting job that I've applied for involves working for a consulting firm that deals with human subjects research regulations, arms control, and national security. Oddly enough, I'm qualified to deal with any of those areas. I took an entire course on bioethics and national security (which was awesome), and my master's thesis is on non-lethal weapons control. We'll see where that goes, but either job should be interesting.

As of this week I'll be half way through my summer course on ethical issues in animal biotechnology. There's a lot of crazy stuff going on, especially in the US, and most Americans (myself included) have no idea. For example, most people don't know that there is a drug on the market that is extracted from the milk of genetically modified goats. From what I can tell, and I am no expert, this is a pretty ingenious and safe way to manufacture complicated pharmaceuticals. However, things like glowing fish and other glowing pets are quickly making their way onto the American market without people really considering the long-term effects of these animals on the environment. More specifically, it's only a matter of time before they start finding their way into the ecosystem and screwing with reproduction. Who knows where it'll end up? Soon we'll have glowing people! And I don't mean the kind when you shoot a cheesy compliment towards your date. I know telling Conn alums is not where the announcement is needed, but stay informed and discuss these things with your friends (i.e. how cool it would be to glow in the dark).

I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend! One good place to keep up with current developments in science is www.scienceprogress.org. You also check out the New York Times, especially the science section on Tuesdays. Take care everyone.

I've been meaning to write a new entry for some time now but have found myself busy doing... stuff, which I will now tell you about. I have done something fun every weekend so this is going to be a long entry. Thus, I've separated my entry into segments so that you can come back to finishing your reading easily.

We've made some very nice progress with our giving drive since my last post! We're up to 41.6% and only need gifts from 40 more people in order to become the first class EVER to break 50% participation our first year after graduating! Don't forget to visit http://giving.conncoll.edu by June 30 in order to be a part of the success. Just like last year, even a dollar will do it, and this goes for all the alums out there, not just Class of 2007!

New Class of 2007 donors since my last update:

Eve Bertin-Lang
Nate Borgelt
Jessie Cheitlin
Christine Cruz
Vickie Curtis
Justin Eddings
Emily Gagen
Sam Garner
Rose Golder-Novick
Sara Jayanthi
Daniel Layfield
Jenny Madden
Neil McGowan
Jon McManus
Alexis Meisels
David Owyang
Tyler Pace
Jaime Pepper
Caeli Rubens
Melissa Skolnick
Zach Smith
Elaine Weisman

It's that time of year! Conn's fiscal year is closing in about 3 weeks, and I want every member of the Class of 2007 to visit http://giving.conncoll.edu and make a gift before that time so that we can show the College that we're serious about creating a new tradition of consistent young alumni giving. Fortunately, we're still all about the participation, so keep those $1, $5, and $20 gifts coming in! Currently we're at about 37% participation, which is good, but we can DEFINITELY hit at least 50%!!! Here's a list of everybody in the class who's already made a gift:

Keith Anthony-Brown
George Arab
Sarah Armstrong
Lucy Arnold
Leah Barison
Emily Barry
Meghan Barry
Peter Baum
Laura Bernardi
Jessica Bethoney
Michelle Blankenship
Avery Block
Meredith Block
Chris Bothur
Katherine Brant
Caitlin Bresnahan
Laura Brown
Sarah Butler
Indy Buttenwieser
Kathleen Callaghan
Jason Carey
Kristin Chapman
Elizabeth Charpie
Solomon Choge
Ben Clopper
Katie Coats
Tes Cohen
Jess Comras
Chrissy Cooper-Vince
Caley Corsello
Liz Cryan
Rachel D'Agostino
Sophia Day
Zumara De la Cruz
Daniel De Sousa
Jed Dederick
Andy Deitz
Dani DeLaurentis
Adam Deligianis
Maria Dewees
Tina Dietrich
Jennifer Dillon
Kip Doble
Connor Donohue
Scott Faber
Brittany Fallon
Alex Feinstein
Sarah Felch
Bailey Fidler
Kevin Finefrock
Amber Fitch
Sophie Fitzgerald
Soren Gabrielsen
Rachel Gallitto
Henry Gaud
Joanna Gillia
Christiana Glas
Ally Glassman
Megan Glendon
Molly Goettsche
Art Gould
Lindsay Graff
David Greenidge
Liz Greenman
Marissa Grey
Jess Grossi
Ga-Nesha Hamilton
Cornelius Hardenbergh
Emma Haritos
Pat Heffernan
Sara Helstowski
Jake Henry
Yeslan Hernandez
Nate Hinman
Kristin Hocevar
Tana Hoffman
Grant Hogan
Emily Honstein
Dana Hoyt
Laura Irizarry-Garcia
Vassi Ivanova
Hans Jensen
Ross Jordan
Ryan Kelley
Fred Kemper
James Knurek
Bob Kyne
Donna Lanphear
Alex Lanstein
Amanda Laramie
Michele Lefkowitz
Robbie Logan
Whitney Longworth
Matt Magida
David Markham-Gessner
Amy Martin
Mike Materasso
Alex Maybury
Craig McCarrick
Megan McCarthy
Andrew McCullough
Meg McLaughlin
Justine Miller
Alissa Minot
Justin Morrow
Brenna Muller
Rysia Murphy
Visna Ngov
Micki Oliva
Kyle Olson
Mike O'Neill
Matt Ostrach
Andrea Packard
Soraya Palmer
Elizabeth Parillo
Natalie Paris
Ellen Paul
Beth Pearson
Teresa Pereira
Cammie Phelps
Adam Phillips
Evan Piekara
Jon Pisarski
Amanda Poe
Alex Rehnberg
Chris Reilly
Allison Reynolds
Mollie Reznick
Kimberly Richards
Alyson Ricker
Nick Rivera
Adam Robbins
Melanie Roberts
Beth Rodgers
Adam Romanow
Justin Rosenberg
Alexander Rotolo
Amanda Rowell
Nick Roybal
Rosemary Rutan
Amy Samuel
Meaghan Seelaus
Benjamin Sheldon
Ilya Simakov
T.J. Sliker
Allie Smith
Nicholas Socha
Seth Solway
Greg Sowa
Christopher St. John
Peter Sterling
Alex Stillson
Steven Strauss
Charley Struse
Brenna Sulat
Erin Sullivan
Cait Sweet
Jesse Szafarz
Alyssa Tartaglione
Sasha Terris-Maes
Will Thayer
Katie Tripple
Marissa Velarde
Amanda Wallas
Lisa Warren
Alice Watson
Alan Weene
Stefanie Weiss
Ingrid Wenzler
Katy Whitney
Katie Williams
Gerald Wols
Bradley Wray
Laz Yiannos
Tyler Youngblood
Allison Zelman
Jessica Zhao

Thanks for your support, everybody! If you're not on this list, BREAK OUT THAT CREDIT CARD AND GO ONLINE TO http://giving.conncoll.edu TODAY!!!

My semester ended up well, but I can't say that I absolutely love exam time. I had three sizable papers and a 48-hour take-home final for my law class. My first paper was on the ethical obligations of television dramas to portray accurate scientific and medical information to the public if it's conceivable to do so. Meaning, that if the information exists television dramas cannot just make things up because, in many cases, it becomes a hazard to public health. It was certainly a fun and interesting paper to write, but it had it's shortcomings. The take-home message of our paper is that television dramas, at the very least, have an obligation to offer a balanced view of controversial issues so as to not completely misinform the public. The reason why this is so important is because a significant portion of Americans do not have the reading comprehension levels to get information elsewhere and are essentially at the mercy of what the television tells them. And, especially with TV dramas, people think what they're seeing is an accurate portrayal of what actually happens.

My next paper was for my narrative ethics class. For this paper I designed a medical ethics teambuilding program for clinical teams in a hospital setting. The goal of the exercise was to build a positive and respectful atmosphere for everyone on a clinical team and teach everyone on the clinical team to value the varied moral perspectives of others in order to expand the narrative of the patient. The exercise essentially involves clinical teams reading and discussing short doctor or patient narratives and attempting to glean all the possible moral considerations that may or may not be in the narrative. Hopefully, the members of the clinical team will use what they learn and apply it to the hospital setting. This is just a rough sketch of the teambuilding exercise, but you get the idea.

My third paper was for my moral philosophy class. I'll spare everyone the details on this one (because they weren't my own ideas!). Basically, what we had to do was discuss the narrative movement in bioethics and how understanding narratives and stories contributes to medical ethics. Interesting and important stuff, so good thing I took a whole class on it.

AND finally, my 48-hour champion law school exam. It was a typical law school exam (or so I'm told) that involved a fact pattern question and theory question. The fact pattern question involved analyzing a fake public health policy, offering all the legal objections, and making policy suggestions to make the policy legally and socially more acceptable. The theory question allotted us 2500 words to create a coherent theory of public health and two examples of this theory in action. As my professor later told me, if you can come up with a legitimate theory of public health in 2500 words then you have the potential for a bright career in public health! Well hooray for that. Naw, I like public health, and so do you! Next time, she should probably give us something that's possible within the word limits.

THEN, I went home and had some fun in the Midwestern behemoth, Chicago, with former camel Emily Gagen. There was also a sizable amount of merriment in my Midwestern gem, Milwaukee! That's right, it's my gem. More on that next time.

Oh yeah, someone really did pee on my car in Philly, but I'll talk about that next time too. It gives everyone something to look forward to. Stay smelly camels!

Despite my complaining, there were many more positive things about the weekend than there were negatives....

I was lucky enough to be able to stop in at the One-Year-Out reunion of the class of 2007. Mr. Reilly clubed out Tansil Theater with classy lighting, great eats, a signature blue camel cocktail and Prez. Big Hig even came through. It was a swanky affair where I ran into peeps like HF Teammates Whitney Longworth and Yeslan Hernandez, my shoe shopping wizard Ally Glassman, studio ally (soon to be Boston ally) Amber Fitch and a few other faces. The next morning I was cheering on ’08 grads as they took the stage for the quick two minutes it took to grab the paper from His Higness.

May started out with a bang, as it usually does, ever since the introduction of Floralia into my life. Now, I consider it a nondenominational holiday, which I plan on celebrating for the rest of my life. I believe that I have the power to make it a holiday that is celebrated by many across the nation and, eventually, across the globe. In fact, I celebrated Floralia along with other fellow Camels in Cape Town during our semester abroad during which most of neighbors got involved, including our landlord & lady as well as our frequent cab driver. It was incredible, to say the least. This year was my first and perhaps last Floralia at CC as an alum. Nonetheless, I will carry along the tradition of waking up early and having a drink in the shower on the first Saturday of May wherever I go. I believe Floralia is well on its way to having national recognition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floralia

Last week I played my last two Conn-affiliated concerts of the year, the first being the Student Composers' concert on Wednesday and the Connecticut College Orchestra concert on Thursday. Both were quite nice, and I'm pretty sure I can pin the success of each on the participation of Anthea Kreston and Jason Duckles, who are the College's violin and cello teachers, respectively. Anthea and Jason played many of the students' compositions on Wednesday night, and I had the pleasure and privilege of joining them on the performance of a piece for violin, viola, cello, and double bass. The following night, both of them were joined by Rieko Aizawa, who together comprise the Amelia Piano Trio, to perform Beethoven's Triple Concerto (contrary to what you might expect, a triple concerto is not, in fact, a mysterious and much-whispered-about high dive maneuver whose grace and difficulty is matched only by its deadliness). I can say without risk of overstatement that the performance was one of the most fulfilling I have ever played on double bass! At the same time, however, it will be nice to have fewer rehearsal for the next three months....

I was about to walk out the door until I realized that I left my coat back at my table. Pretty disappointed and shocked that this guy had been so rude after someone went up to say “hey,” I went back to get my coat. I certainly understand that he probably gets this crap from people all the time—it must be obnoxious and exhausting! But, there are nicer ways to avoid being bothered by people in a Philly bar (if you'd like some suggestions just ask, I'm from the midwest). Anyway, I went up to him again and told him I just wanted to ask him a question. Without hesitation he told me I was starting to get really f-ing annoying. Starting? I thought I was annoying the first time I went up to talk to him. Of course, I told him I just wanted to ask a question, but he just wanted me to get the f#$% away. His bodyguard, who was probably enjoying this little exchange, told me he had had a long day. Really? Luke Wilson had a long day. I wasn’t aware that having a long day gave you license to take a verbal dump on everyone that talked to you. I mean, you are a celebrity. You don’t think people are going to innocently come up to and express their fanhood? I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with how long his day was and everything to with how big his ego is. I certainly enjoy his silly Frat Pack movies, but there is no excuse for treating people like that (says the bioethicist-in-training). He could have at least given me some credit for having the balls to talk to him, while most people at the bar were ignoring him.

Anyway, I just find it extremely intriguing that someone whose entire existence relies on his fans was such an unrelenting jerk to me AND everyone else at the bar. But, if anyone who reads my blog can offer some perspective on this unfortunate situation, please do. For now, I’d recommend a boycott of his movies until he starts being more polite and responsible in public. There are plenty of people that love his movies and look up to him in some way or another--God forbid. Don’t disappoint your fans Luke! I could always just go to Bryn Mawr, where he’s currently filming a movie, and say, “Hey Luke, I just wanted to ask you a question!”

On Monday morning I actually got out of bed with more than a half hour until I had to leave for work (very unusual), so I decided to check out some TV while eating breakfast. I flipped on the tube, saw that it was tuned to VH1, read in the lower left corner that the video that was about to start was "Beat It" by Fallout Boy featuring John Mayer, and immediately turned off the television and ate in silence. I've been developing a new theory that Monday morning sets the tone for the entire week ahead, so I wasn't about to risk screwing myself over for five days just for a little distraction while noshing on an eggwhite omelet (some people think I'm an egg racist for only eating the whites, but really I'm just trying to avoid the cholesterol)....