i think my life is steadily coming back under control. it feels nice. my take-home test is handed in, and my presentation (tomorrow!) is in outline form, though not yet powerpoint-ready. i’m about to go home (i realize it’s the middle of the day, but hey — no one’s going to stop me) and do some laundry and clean my bathroom. and finish the presentation for tomorrow.
what would life be like without powerpoint? i can no longer imagine it, though i remember back in the day, in elementary school, i would get really excited if the teacher handed out transparancy paper and sharpies for us to make ‘slides.’ actually, i can even remember being excited about this in high school. man, i must have been understimulated.
anyway, this time, i’m crafting a (very dry and boring and list-y) presentation about leukotrienes, which are inflammatory mediators that exacerbate asthma and allergies. they are what singulair blocks, and if you’ve seen the commercials, you know that singulair is the best drug ever, even better than crack. much better, in fact. not that i’ve done any personal comparison testing.
it’s interesting that while the medical community went crazy for presentations with funny pictures and random illustrations (ie, they had a sense of humor), the graduate school crowd is much, much more serious. my analysis is that since medical people are surrounded by so much seriousness during the rest of the day, they’re ready for a few laughs in their powerpoint presentations. plus, they’re all super-sleep-deprived, so they need the distractions to keep them awake. in contrast, the grad-folk tend to have inferiority complexes when topics that are clinically-relevant come up, and they don’t want to downplay the sciency-ness of what they are learning about with trivialities such as funny graphics or a few sound effects.
and so my presentation tomorrow is going to be very boring. because it’s supposed to. and i hope everyone falls asleep, because then i could quietly sneak out in the middle and get home early.
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