Double Awesomeness

Yesterday was busy, as I had an orchestra concert. So I'm posting this now.

A couple of months ago, I got a letter from Smith's Medical/Deltec saying that a new Deltec Cozmore system was coming out (looks the same, but with many new features, new software, etc). And it was free to me if I wanted to upgrade. I'm not going to say no to a free upgrade, so I did the online training and the little "what have you learned from staring at pump demonstration videos for two hours" exam. A couple of weeks ago, I finally faxed the form into my pediatric endocrinologist. I never heard anything back from my endo about it.

Meanwhile, since I am going to Germany soon, my mom mentioned that I may wish to get a new digital camera; my camera was between four and five years old, and I would want something little and light that I could shove into my purse. So, after much deliberation and trying out the lovely features of the Canons I was considering at Best Buy (including the "Come on, random person in the video game section. Look over here so I can try out the face detection! Why can't you read my mind!"), I settled on the Canon 800 Elph (something like that. I have also heard this series referred to as the Ixus series, and the model number in Europe is different, I think). My dad and I ordered it online.

After I got home from school, I remembered that my camera was supposed to come in within hours, and since there were no notes on the door from our friendly neighborhood UPS man, it hadn't come yet. Soon Radar, our chihuahua, started barking; there was a UPS truck outside. A guy walked up to the door with two medium-sized boxes. Thinking it was my new camera, I excitedly asked who to sign for. The UPS man, not knowing exactly what I meant, replied "Smith's Medical." (I was actually asking if I should sign one of my parents' names, since they had given me permission and my mom was nearby anyway, but whatever.) Just hearing the word "medical" took a little of the magic out of it (I thought it was infusion sets or test strips), but my mom signed (she came over partially out of curiosity and partially because I don't know how to deal with delivery guys that well) and we got the boxes. We then realized that one of the boxes was from Amazon. And then I realized that Smith's Medical was my pump company. I always think of it as Deltec, which sounds waaay cooler than anything "medical," so I hadn't realized what the box contained. But my camera and my pump came in on the same day!

I won't go into camera specs here, but I will mention the pump. It has amazing new features, such as a basal testing feature complete with blood sugar testing alerts, a disconnect-reconnect bolus feature, and a weekly schedule for bolus alerts and basals. It even has HypoManager, which tells the user how many grams of carbs to eat if he or she tests a low blood sugar. There are a few other features as well, but my favorite is CozFoods. CozFoods is a database that is located and edited on the computer using the new software provided with the pump. Over 400 foods, complete with carbohydrate, serving size, and other nutritional information come pre-loaded. The database is downloaded onto the pump, and the MealMaker feature can be used to add up the carb total for a meal. The user only has to find the food he or she is eating in the well-organized database and enter how many servings he or she is eating, and the pump calculates the bolus and adds it to the MealMaker total. Once the MealMaker has all of the components of the current meal, the user pushes Done and can double check the bolus and change it. Extended and Combination bolus options can even be used with MealMaker. It's amazing. If you want a new pump or are considering pumping for the first time, definitely consider the Cozmo and the CozMore system. The pump has a blood sugar meter attachment that can tell the pump one's blood sugar, and the pump can decide how much insulin or how many carbohydrates are needed. The software is easy to use, but if you use Macintosh computers, you will either have to break down and buy a Windoze computer or use Parallels/Boot Camp/some other emulator. And you need an IR port. The pump itself is wonderful as well. Check it out.

I'm baaaaack!

Sorry for the dearth of posts. All of my teachers seem to think they should all give us projects now.

Anyway, I just saw Pirates 3. Make sure you stay after the credits.

And to ruin it:

The undead monkey goes crazy and turns into a clown. He hijacks the ship, knocks over the cameraman, and all of the characters start singing. Ummm… and the fish turn into tennis balls. The end.

Yeah. Kidding. I think you could guess that. But it's good. Go see it. Just be sure you know that it is 3 hours long before you go.


In other news, I just switched my computer's interface into German. It's cool. I already did that with my gmail account a few months ago.

I really should go. I still have stuff to do.

Tag! I'm It!

My cousin Hol tagged me for the following challenge:
"The rules are simple; give five reasons why you like blogging, and tag other bloggers. No tag backs, but be sure to let them know who tagged you."

<announcer guy>So, without further ado, here's Ky with………
Why! Do! You! Blog! *crowd cheers* </announcer guy>

1. You know that feeling you get when you just experienced something amazing, or horrible, or some other extreme emotion? You just want to share it with somebody. Anybody. And I can do that through blogging, especially if I'm the only one home. I could talk to my dog Radar, but it helps if the receiving end of my story actually knows what I'm saying. Though Radar is extremely cute and sweet.

2. For a while, the main reason I was glad I had a blog was so that I could use it as a travel log. I still like using it to record my adventures. I plan to write about my travels this summer, if that's possible (*singing* going to Germany! w00t w00t w00t). Note to those who click on the link: the posts are mostly very long and they are also in reverse order. Read from the bottom.

3. As a high school student, I get an overdose of logical thinking all day. Even in English class—we learn formulas and specific processes with which to read passages, answer questions, and write essays. (Not math. It's more algorithm-ish.) My blog is my creative outlet. I have long considered myself both a left-brained and a right-brained thinker, and so that one side doesn't get overloaded, the other has to be used sometimes. And since blogging doesn't take that long, I can do it more often than I, say, play around in Photoshop Elements or read. Oh man, I wish I could just read books more. Summer is coming, thank goodness. (And AP Literature and Composition next year, but I don't know about that. There's something about overanalyzing literature that makes most books I read for school incredibly uninteresting. Somehow it managed not to ruin Pride and Prejudice, but the other books have largely been slaughtered by analysis packets and sticky notes. And don't get me started on books that are innately boring *coughAcross Five Aprilsmultipletimesinelementaryschoolcough*)

4. It's a nice break. Before I started blogging, I was working on math homework. (What teacher gives homework before an AP exam most of her class is taking? My math teacher. And several other teachers give homework during the AP-testing weeks. Yuk.) After I got frustrated with partially decomposing fractions (the math classroom was too warm for anyone to do anything except try to stay awake, so hopefully my dad remembers how to partially decompose fractions), I came up here to work on my German project and discovered that I had been tagged. Ahh, break from academia. Sweetness.

5. Blogging gives me a connection with the rest of my family. My parents read my blog, and so does Hol (and I'm assuming that her husband J reads it as well). When I fly off to Germany, my only connections home will be Skype and Burnt Waffles. And with my blog, I don't have to worry about accidentally skyping my parents at two in the morning and missing them completely. Okay, so I could write postcards, but this is so much faster. And I don't have to worry about only having two inches to write in. Nor must I worry that the pretty picture postcard I buy in Germany be mangled and stamped so much by the time it reaches my house the picture is indistinguishable from the messy chickenscratch on the other side.

6. ***Extra Credit!*** My handwriting is moderately bad. On the internet, no one can read your handwriting—because they can't see it! So I don't have to worry about handwritten letters to family being illegible.

Anyway, I’m supposed to tag another blogger. Being a shy person, I’m just going to tag my mom, Glee, of Pig Song. Have fun, Mom! (I hope you love blogging!)

Crunch Time

Okay, everything seems to be piling up this week. I have two projects due, an AP test to study for and take, after school club thingies, etc. Posts will not be plentiful. I'll see if I have any time at all.

1st AP is over!

I just finished my first AP test this year. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. My BG's were a bit high—my history teacher gave us all bagels and juice this morning, and even though I bolused for it, I was still rather not-on-target. But I think I did well anyway. On the essays, I think I got a 7 or 8 on the first one, a 5, 6, or 7 on the second one (it was kind of weird, but some graders might be nice!), and on the last one, I think I got a 9. 9 is best, 1 is horrible, and 0 is off-topic or blank, I think. Combined with my expected score on the multiple choice section, I am pretty sure I got a 5 (the best score). Sweet.

Anyway, since CollegeBoard didn't let me use a mechanical pencil on the SAT but didn't specify that for the APs, So I brought the following bundle of pens and pencils (we use pens for the essays):



Waay too many. I was able to use mechanical pencils, so my efforts in carrying this bundle to school were mostly wasted. Heh. Several of my friends gawked at the number of writing utensils I brought, but (probably) as a future engineer, I've gotten into the habit of bringing three times more stuff than I need to. Oh well. At least I'm extra prepared.

Awww…

I just realized that my last few posts were food-related, so I won't go that route today.

Especially since I couldn't resist posting this picture I took of my lovely doggie last night. For those of you who don't know, his name is Radar and he is a long-haired chihuahua. One of his legs is growing back the hair the vet had to shave to operate on his ACL a few months ago, but he's still as cute as ever.

















I wuv him.

AP Exams Coming Up! What Fun!

I have two AP exams coming up. My AP US History exam is Friday morning, and my English Language and Composition exam is next Wednesday (the 11th and the 16th). I can't wait—to get them over with. These exams might get me college credit and get me out of freshman English and History. As I plan to major in Engineering, it would be great to get the humanities out of the way. Not that I dislike English or History—I would just rather focus on being a nerd/geek. Er—engineer. Whatever.

My English teacher decided to wish us all luck on the upcoming AP today. He often tries to make class interesting by showing us various things he has picked up over the years, such as a unique vase he picked up while he was a garbage collector in college, or old photos from when he was younger. Today, he pulled out a tin lunchbox with a picture of Wonder Woman on it and asked one of the boys in our class what she was wearing on her wrists. I don't know how exactly the boy knew that Wonder Woman wore deflector bracelets, but he answered the question correctly. Our teacher then proceeded to open the lunch box and show us that it contained a large quantity of green rubber band bracelets that had "webvan.com" printed on them in yellow. (This domain seems to be unregistered, by the way.) He explained that, in case we got distracted or started feeling hopeless and overly emotional during the test, we were to snap the bracelet on our wrist to snap us back into reality and deflect distraction. Corny, but cute. He also gave us each a little flat colored marble, like the kind one uses to play mancala. He said that they had been blessed by his wife (I'm sure he was joking on this one) and if we came upon a particularly tough question on the test, we should rub the stone to help us focus. Mind you, we were all laughing from the moment he started passing out deflector bracelets. All the rest of the day, I would see other people who were in his classes snapping their bracelets and accidentally knocking their mancala marbles off their desks. Maybe it was funnier when it was actually happening than it is on a computer screen, but I think it was hilarious.



Thanks for offering to link me, Kerri! I'd love it! And congrats on your blogiversary!

Chocolate is good…

Today at Wegmans I saw this:





Chocolate covered Cinnamon Altoids. Dark chocolate, even. It seemed like it might be a bit weird, but the combination of chocolate and cinnamon is surprisingly good. I've lost count of how many I've eaten today. Thankfully, the carbohydrate count is 1g apiece—nearly negligible. Sweet.

Literally.

In other news, I write on the back of my hand too much. By this point, I can tell you that, if your skin is not dry, a red Pilot V-Ball Grip pen's ink will stay reliably on your hand the longest. Surprisingly, a sharpie washes off quickly, although having adequately moisturized skin will keep any ink from washing off for at least a few hours. Of course, all inks are prone to rubbing off on one's face while one is sleeping, provided that one sleeps on one's hand. Several times during each school year, the following conversation takes place: "What's that on your face?" "There's something on my face?" "Yeah, right there." That is when, after a confirming trip to the bathroom mirror, I discover that I am wandering around with a reminder to not forget to bring my school violin home for a string change. Or some other reminder. One of my yearbook pictures even shows me with an ink mark on the side of my face, but thankfully, you would only notice it if I told you.

Oops. Don't look at last year's yearbook, please.

Fooooood…

Mmmm. I'm stuffed. Kind of to celebrate me finishing my SAT's (even though I still have two Advanced Placement Tests to do, and those are harder) and kind of because we had coupons, we ate dinner at Don Pablo's tonight. I always get the shrimp burrito with beans and a corn cake on the side. The burrito is nice and spicy. And shrimpy. I hope I bolused correctly, but with some restaurant foods, it's a lost cause; I'll still wake up tomorrow morning in the 300's.

But it was worth it. Some foods are. Like good Tex-Mex, or smoothies, or my mom's chocolate-chip-and-crasin scones. Yum. (I had some of the scones yesterday after the SAT. Like I said, YUM.)

Just thought I would make everyone feel hungry before putting the ol' laptop to sleep for the night.

SATs

Okay, every time I read my cousin's blog it makes me want to post. Thanks, Hol!

Anyway, I took my first SAT test today. I'm not allowed to say anything specific about the questions until I get my score, so I'll have to remember the funny thing I wanted to say for a few weeks. I'll post it if I remember!
It was an interesting experience. Because of my diabetes, I got approval from the College Board to get extended breaktime and permission to test my blood sugar, eat, and drink water during the test. (No extra test time, though.) What I did not realize was that I would be in my own private test room with my own proctor. It was kind of cool, especially because I did not have to worry about being rushed into taking the next leg of the test. The proctor was a very nice lady. She would talk to me about college plans, etc during the breaks and always asked me if I was ready to move on before she started reading the directions for the next part of the test. She even wrote start and stop times out for me (very useful!).

I took a SAT Subject Test—World History—last year without accommodations. It was strange. We were all in my school's Auxillary Gym sitting at the tables used for AP testing (for which I also have accomodations, but I only get my own room if my blood sugar goes wacko in the middle of the test. That's fine by me; I don't always like being "special."). It took a long time to fill out the oh-so-fun bubble sheets (writing out our names, birthdays, etc and then bubbling in the same info so the computer can read it). The test was almost like the AP World History Exam I had taken not a month before—I was positive that it had stolen a question from the AP exam. Which would make sense, because both are run by College Board anyway. Heh.

Anyway, that went well. I have to admit the SAT was a bit fun for me; nine sections of problem solving and an essay section. I enjoy problem solving and am fairly good at writing essays. The only bad part: My shoulders hurt from hunching over my test. Not because I was scared anyone would look at my answers—I had my own room, and I doubt that the proctor or the copy machine in the room would have any use for my answers—it's just a bad habit. Oh well.


In other news: I will more than likely be getting a new digital camera soon. Since I will be visiting my penpal in Germany (only 45 days left!) right as school ends, my mom convinced me (okay, so it didn't take that much convincing; I want a new camera) that I should get a new camera to record all of the memories, places, etc. Most blogs I read start each day with a picture. Hopefully, with a new, non-clunky camera, I will become one of those people who carries a camera around ad infinitum and takes pictures of everything funny, interesting, weird, etc. And then blogs about it. Regularly. Seriously, people—I think this is it. I may have found a way to blog more than twice a year. So I might actually build up a huge fanbase consisting of all of seven people. Or maybe eight.

I should seriously do my homework now.

An Answer To A Request

After I got my lovely Scion xB, my cousins in Texas requested that I post a picture of it. I am finally doing that. Keep in mind, if you will, that this car is red usually; the color is a bit orangier because the poor car is covered in tiny specks of pollen.

It's a great car. Thanks, Dad! (even though it is still technically yours)(sometimes he even drives it and moves the seat and the mirrors, which is annoying, but I don't mind)