Gettin' Me Some Learnin'

Today was the day folks that I buckled down and got to studying.  Turns out, if I am going to enroll in nursing school next year (I should hear back in the next few weeks) I will need to take the placement exam for Anatomy and Physiology I and II, as well as for Microbiology.  With the weather being cold and not wanting to overly caffeinated myself, I decided to head over to the Cathedral of Learning.

The Cathedral of Learning is one of the tallest educational buildings in the world, the tallest in the Western Hemisphere, coming in at 42 stories.  The building is made of steel (shocker) and covered with limestone.  

The Commons Room is an amazing 15th century English perpendicular Gothic-style hall which is four stories tall and covers nearly a half acre.  This section contains true arches which support their own weight, as opposed to the rest of the building which is held by steel.  Apparently the fireplaces still work and are lit during finals to give the room a cozy feeling.  Too bad I came a few weeks too late! 

I did get off to a good start, but soon it seemed like hundreds of high school aged children were walking around.  It turns out they were there for a forensics competition.  I was a speech and debate geek back in the day; it was hard to believe that my teammates and I were once that age.  CRAZY.  With the racket going on I decided to pack things up and go poke around the rest of the building.

While walking around I also decided to poke my head into some of the Nationality Rooms (there are 27 in total).  Each of the rooms depicts a different ethnic group that helped to build the city of Pittsburgh; Ruth Crawford Mitchell thought it would be a way of involving the community in the construction of the Cathedral of Learning.  The money to build each had to be raised by each ethnic group, but the maintenance would be paid by the University.  The first four rooms were dedicated in 1938 (Scottish, Russian, German and Swedish), with the newest rooms including the Indian room (2000) and the Welsh Room (2008). 

Twenty five of the rooms hold daily classes and the other two can be explored through a guided tour.  Different traditional and religious holidays are celebrate and appropriately decorated throughout the year. 

Czech Room

Scottish Room

Italian Room

Smoking and Your Health

This was posted yesterday over on the Fooducate Blog!  I couldn't say it any better myself so I just copied and pasted!

Smoking and Cholesterol
The nicotine in cigarettes increases LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) and decreases HDL cholesterol (the good) in your bloodstream. Diet also has a big impact on your cholesterol levels, so if you are a smoker, you need to be doubly careful about your intake of saturated fats and trans-fats.

Smoking and Bone Health
Studies over the last few decades have shown that smokers have a lower bone density and higher risk for osteoporosis. The exact chemistry has yet to be explained. If you’re a smoker – make sure you get enough calcium in your diet..

Smoking and Vitamin C
Smoking literally sucks the vitamin C from your body’s tissues.Whereas vitamin C is an antioxidant, the chemicals in cigarette smoke are oxidants. So vitamin C, instead of bonding with free radicals in the body and removing them, bonds with the chemicals from the smoke. Smokers therefore need a much higher level of vitamin C and in general much more antioxidants in their body. So if you’re a pack a day person – make sure you’re getting ample fruits and vegetables in your diet as well.

Smoking and Weight Loss
Nicotine has been shown to be an appetite suppressant, but if you think smoking is the way to stay thin, you’re thinking very short term. The damage you are doing to your body by smoking far outweighs the few pounds not gained.

To summarize, quit smoking ASAP. Until you do, be on top of your game nutritionally.

Hello Snow Miser

(Legit) Winter has hit here in PGH!  Today the temperature has been in the high teens and snowing on and off all day long.  In honor of this winter wonderland weather, here is a beloved childhood clip of the Snow Miser. 



Addendum:  I had to dig out my car for a second time after I left work.  No es bueno!

20 New Year’s Resolutions For 20-Somethings

Here are some great ideas from the Thought Catalogue:

1. Before you status update, Tweet, Tumble or Instagram, pause and say to yourself, “is it entirely necessary that I share this morsel of thought with my entire social network?”and if the answer is not, “yes, I absolutely must,” then step away from the Internet.
2. Know which candidate you’re going to vote for in the upcoming presidential election, and know why.
3. Enough with the 14-day juice cleanses. If you want to lose a little weight quickly, eat less and exercise like crazy. If you want to lose a lot of weight slowly, do whatever Jennifer Hudson did.
4. If you really like the person you’re hooking up with and would like them to be your boyfriend/ girlfriend, find a way to tell them, and hope for the best. If you don’t and wouldn’t, stop.
5. Find a way to save approximately 300 dollars and spend it on a flight to see a friend or family member who lives far away.
6. Please stop liking the Kardashians, all of them. It’s not helping anyone, least of all the Kardashians.
7. Spend less than or equal to the money you earn each month.
8. Wear clothes that fit you, especially to work.
9. Call someone on the phone at least once a week, and speak to him or her for at least ten minutes.
10. Start preparing now to get over the fact that Facebook is probably going to change again in six months. You’re not going to deactivate your account. You don’t know how.
11. Wait 30 seconds before you look up a fact you can’t remember on your phone, and try to remember it using your brain. This is what the olden days were like.
12. Replace one terrible reality show you’re currently watching with one wonderful scripted show currently available on television.  Swap suggestion: Real Housewives of Anywhere for HBO’s Enlightened.
13. Try that food you think you don’t like but have never actually tried, unless it’s brussel sprouts. They really don’t need any more attention.
14. Cut one person out of your life who you truly do not like and add one person who you truly do. Note: not on Facebook, on Earth.
15. If you’re still blacking out regularly, you should stop.
16. Volunteer once over the next 90 days.  You’ll feel really good about it, and probably end up volunteering again over the next 275.
17.  Tell someone who you love that you love them on a more regular basis. To their face, not in a text.
18. Back up your entire online life onto an external hard drive, especially your photos.
19. Crap or get off the pot. This applies to whatever thing you’re not doing that you should just sack up and do already.
20.  And in the eternal words of Tom Haverford, “TREAT YO SELF!”