Changes of my Study Program

My study programm is called "the new one", that's supposed to be less heavy than before. It lost some subject like anatomy, because it wasn't justified, and some advanced courses moved early because they were more related to the excercise of the career so they can work as introduction.
Talking to former students, the change seems to be good.
I can only talk about the second year of chemistry and pharmacy, that includes basic chemistry, basic biology and some practical courses.
But there are still some changes I would like to see in the career.
So far, there have been some troubles because of the requirements of some courses include others that aren't that necesary. They are very advanced and complicated, but then we don't really use that much of it in the next, and some people who failed those courses can't take the ones even though they are capable enough to do it. For example, electromagnetism was needed for physiology, because understanding energetic fields and ion corrents was key to study the movements of ions in the cells. But we barely saw any of that in electromagnetism, which was focused on the maths of it more than the nature of it.
Sometimes, requirements are only there tu avoid students to have schedule clashes, because we have a lot lately, and their organization is not our responsability. Specially if we pay good money for every year.
The official lenght is five years, and the media per student is 7-8 years, so it would be a great help  for us to finish the career.
Another issue is the lack of diverse and interesting cfg, that is to say, General formation courses.

Every body has one...

The world is changing. Some people would say we are going down. That people usually say this new generations have no respect for values, principles and we have lost sanity and basic decency. They say we don't care about what it is important, that we are trapped in our own reality. We don't respect the elders. We don't follow the rules and that is the reason of all the bad things that happen to us. 

That might be truth in some ways. Maybe some things are getting worst. 

But in my experience, and the experience of the million of people that today are fighting to repair the mistakes our granparents commited or allowed to commit, this generation is gold. I love this century, and the things that I don't love  about it are usually the things of the past century that are still getting in the way fo the new ideas. 

I can say that I have nothing to envy from the past "simple time" because "simple" means indiferent. I I see absolutly no reason to respect someone only because they have lived more than me, because some of them have only lived and experienced their own reality, which sometimes some of them strongly believe it's the only reality. 

The past is misogynist. The past is homophobic, transphobic, xenophobist, racist, classist, violent, abusive, intolerant, indifferent, prejudiced and I could keep going until my nose starts to bleed...

So I think the world is getting better... slowly and hardly... but better. 

Good changes are being made. People is finally understanding. Lives are being saved. 

Please, I beg all of you... don't ever give up... we can do it. 

Whats my opinion about the legalization of abortion in three cases?

To start, I'm against abortion. I believe that it is one of the most cruel things a human can do. But I understand that my view is entirely subjective. It relies in the values I have developped according to my experience, and the way I have interpretated that experience. 

I strongly support the legalization of abortion. And I think that the "three cases" are a contradiction. 

All of that vanishes if we understand that the rights of a woman over her body are not over the right of another human's rights.  And that is the big question. 

Is it human? even if it wasn't, does it have rights? It is a complicated question with a simple anwer. We don't know. And we can never know.

There is absolutely no way to decide, because all the arguments are: 1) based on personal believes, philosophical, spiritual, religious, etc. 2) based of scientific facts that still need subjective interpretations: we know in which stage of development the brain starts its activity(does that make it human?), we know when the heart starts beating (does that make it human?), we also know that even a single cell is autonous, but not independet, but the body doens't recognize it as a parasite and has the exact amount of chromosomes a human should have (does that make it human?). 

At the end, women not only have a right over her body, she has the right to choose what she believes about life itself,  and acting according to it. 

Sexual education to decide. Contraceptives to make a choice. Legal abortion not to die. 

Whats my opinion about having exotic pets at home?

Some people justify the symbiotic relationship between cattle animals and human civilization to survive and developped. 

But out of that, It is animal abuse to get them out of their enviroment and to change their behaviour. Making them dependent to us, is limitating their chances to survive. Limitating their resources is killing them slowly and painfully, phisically and mentally. It also makes a damage to the enviroment they were taken away from. 

Also, I don't see that much different between taking an elephant to my backyard with no space nor water than cutting down their jungles and drying their rivers there in afrika. 

What is my opinion on the legalization of marijuana and other drugs?

Marijuana is not addictive, and makes no harm by itself. If a kid smokes it, or if an adult smokes it all day, of course it will have side effects. Same thing happen with anything. I'm not saying drugs are like sugar, because they are not. But it is all about a good, informed and critical use. It should be under strong control, just like guns and vehicules about the amount cultivated, and where and how is selled.

What is your opinion on recycling?

It has been said and proved by all the scientific community that the way we produce is just not viable. Our life style is murdering us. All the discussions about equality and rights is useless if we go back to the jungle like animals. Recycling is necesary, and also easy and totally doable. It doens't requiare much effort.  Once the population is educated on the topic, how to do it correclty and efficiently, it could become part of the daily rutine, like brushing your teeth and doing the laundry. 

But the population is not enough. Reycling and other ecological methods are also easy with the proper machinery in our over industrialized system. 

It is not enough to encourage recycling to the industry and school. It must be a standardized and regulated obligation to industry and shown as a civil duty to the masses that directly benefits them.  

From cartoons, animes to TV series

Since I have memory, I spend the weekends in my grandfather's house. He let me do whatever I wanted during those two days, and I mostly spent them with my eyes stuck in the tv. I didn't have cable on  my house, so I took advantage from those hours as much as I could. I didn't know How I did it, but I think I managed to follow every show of that time.

Thanks to this, I grew up with a big love for fantasy and story telling. Later in life I moved my attention to books more than shows, but I still keep an eye everything that goes to air. 

I must say that we live in a great era for animated shows. There are great artist out there, creating original and entertaining shows full of contents as well, enjoyable for kids and adults. 

The only difference is that, today, I watch the episodes online, as soon as they come out, and after I watch it, I  go straight to the online fanbases to enjoy the discussions, analysis, memes, fanarts and theories. 

I love my generation. 

There are two shows that really mean a lot to me, one from my childhood and another from nowadays. 

The first one is Avatar: The Last Airbender, or The Legend of Aang. I have no words to explain how much this means to me. This show literally grew up with me. It started as a simple show I watched sporadically, but I became so obsessed with the story and specially, the characters that the first thing I did when we hired internet so long ago, was to watch it from the beginning. Only there I realized how much I had missed! a lot made sense then... I still watch it, now and then.

"Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked"

The other one is Steven Universe. I can't believe how actual this show is.  It has hit me hard and low sometimes, sometimes nearly makes me cry, which is kind of the purpose of the show. It talks about very modern themes in a very creative, respectful, sensitive and powerful way. Anyone could believe it is not a children show, but it is. It is for XXI  century children. Besides, the artwork is amazing.

When it comes to oriental animation, I'm not a big fan precisely, but I deeply respect it. If I watch an anime, it is mostly because someone else recommended it to me. I have liked most of them, but I was raised by Uncle Sam, and I can't change that, which is hard because almost all my friends are low key otakus (don't deny it), and sometimes I feel a little left out. 

 About mangas and comic books, I'm a total ignorant. Although I enjoy listening to other people about them, when I try them myself I never finish one.

Cartoons mean an escape from life, but also a space where I can reflect on life. They give me something to think about when I don't really want to think. They have given me a community to participate on, when outside life fail me. Talking about our favorite cartoons is a really good way to start conversations with new people, and even my friends when they get bored of me... 

"One of my favorite scenes in Steven Universe"

Post Graduate Studies

If there's something I don't like talking about is the future.
After I get my degree on Chemisttry and Pharmaceutical, my first step is to get a job and get a house, so if possible, I'd like to keep studying in a part time way.
Employability in my career is good now, but I don't about tomorrow. Competition is going to be harder every time a new generation go out to the field, and I can't stay behind, nor allowing my knowledge to become outdated, so further studies are in my list, but not in the near future.
As I wrote in the last post, the specialities I'd like to study are Veterinarian Pharmaceutical, since I really wanted that to be my career. Some people have suggested me to get a Doctor's Degree and dedicate my life to investigation in the veterinarian area, to discover, developped or improve  better animal medicines. I feel very attracted to that idea. If I could make it happen, I'd be able to make a real difference for animals from my career.
Another option would be to take off to another country, using my studies as an excuse. I've heard that studying outside is an experience that open your mind in strong ways, just because of coexisting with people with other cultures, not only the culture of the country you are in.
I have family in Canada, although I've never meet any of them, but It's better than nothing.

Dream Job

I got to be honest. I don't have a single clue of what job I want to have. I assume, since I'm studying Chemistry and Pharmaceuticals, I'll work as a pharmaceutical chemist.
But like they taught us at the beginning of the career, there are a lot of different areas where I could develop: pharmacies, pharmaceutical factories, pharmacies in hospitals, research and investigation, and even pedagogy.
From them all, I'd feel more comfortable with the administrative roles of a pharmaceutical than the scientific ones. These would be working on a hospital or a community pharmacy.
I made my intermediate practice in a Cruz Verde pharmacy, and I'd call it an acceptable experience.  It was an indoor job almost all the time, except when I was sent to other pharmacies for small deliveries. My boss, the pharmaceutical were seated all the time, checking emails, ordering papers and watching mexican telenovelas.
Generally speaking, I got the impression that it was a very routine job. This would be ideal to me, because my real goals aren't the ones related to my professional career, so I need to have a good amount of free time and space for myself.
                                               
Everybody says that this job are very well paid, which means that I'd be making around 1 million Chilean Pesos, or even more if I'd applied myself. To me money is not that important, as long as I can buy a house big enough to provide a healthy space for my future pets, i'm good. But what I really need, since i'm useless on my own, is employment stability. (I wouldn't last a day unemployed).
If I decided to make it a little more close to my personal interests, I'd like to complement my studies and specialize in veterinarian products, because when I was a child my dream job was to be a vet, and I'd like to be able to do something for animals from my position. Or maybe I'll specialize in cosmetics, which is also inside the pharmaceutical sciences, so I could become something like a professional cross dresser during the night times.
Anything else about my future are still nothing more than fleeting dreams. Sometimes I want to give up on everything and study to be a librarian, or a book seller. Or maybe an author myself. Sometimes I see myself as a famous flutist, or a drag queen who travels around the world winning contests... but the real dream job would be a corpse for medical researches... hopefully soon.

New Antipsychotics

According to the OMS, last October 10th was International Day of Mental Health, that's when we discuss topics regarding mental illness such as depression, anxiety, bipolarity and schizophrenia.

"The Madman's Tale by John Katzenbach"

These are diseases that deeply affect the life of the ones who suffer from them, including symptoms like abnormal thoughts, emotions and behaviors that difficult the relationship with the environment, reality, their relationship with people and themselves. 

Despite the high amount of mental diseased people in the world, we still have to face an incredible amount of stigma and prejudice when it comes to discuss the issue. Since they originate in the mind, sometimes is hard to understand what's going for people from the outside. But it all have its root in the biochemical balance of the brain.

The treatment for them consist in a combination of psychotherapy and medicine, but we still have a long way until we can produce satisfying results that really help to improve people's quality of life. Most of medicines for mental illness, called psychotropic drugs, barely manage to reduce the symptoms and produce a lot of problematic side effects.

For example, antipsychotics, the drugs used to treat psychosis and bipolar disorders, consist in chemical molecules that decrease the action of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the central nervous system. Normally, this neurotransmitter is responsible of motivation, pleasure, memory, attention, etc. But when in higher concentrations than usual, in specific areas of brain, it can cause psychiatric illnesses like schizophrenia. 

However, it is very complicated to reduce dopamine only in some areas and not others. This means that antipsychotics keep under control the  "typical" or "positive" symptoms of schizophrenia, like hallucinations and delusions, but on the other hand, most of them fail with other issues like affective dullness, slow thinking, lack of motivation and incapacity to maintain habits. Meanwhile, the side effects include sedation, which can cause toubles for working and studying, nausea, sexual disfunction... sometimes, to fight this side effects they take more pills with their own side effects.
Peopel with this diseases fill they are trapped between two nightmares.
Becauseof al this, farmaceuticals have the must to find different options for treatments that accomplish more specific targets in the brain, or at least have more manageeable side effects so we can actually talk about an imporve in the patient's life, and not only make them less dangerouse for society.

Some New Antipsychotics approved by FDA in 2017

Las year, some of the new antipsychotics were approved by FDA. They allow wider intervals of administrations, which leads to less intense side effects with a better improvement on the patient's social integration

About pets, love and friendship... and responsability. 

I must confess I'm very excited about this blog. Telling the story of my pets is basically telling the story of my life.
I'll make my best to summarize everything. Or maybe not. 

Chapter One: Yuma, The Forgotten One

When I go back to my first memories, I always picture a large female german shepherd living in the backyard of my house. My first pet, although it wasn't actually mine.
My mother always made sure I understood that animals were sentient beings, capable of feeling pain and love. Even if they didn't comprehend these concepts, they deserved our love and protection. 

But, as I grew up, I could see how she and everyone in the family didn't really believed what they said, including myself.  Eventually, carrying with the responsibility of a large dog was too much, and Yuma was left behind in that small backyard... growing old, getting sick... fed with human left overs, surrounded by her own trash. She wasn't allowed to get out, because she was too hard to control. Years passed before she could saw any green grass, when her soul was finally freed by the hand of a vet because of a vascular disease. Her meaningless remains are still buried in the front yard, with no more than a pencil as tombstone, nailed in the ground by a heart broken 12 years old me.
My regret will never be enough to make up for the fact that I never did anything to help her. If anything, I made her life worse. 

But I hope that what I didn't do for Yuma, I did for the rest. 

Chapter Two: Teodoro, The Loved One. 

A couple of years before Yuma passed away, one rainy afternoon my cousin brought home a little cat in her arms. My grandmother acted like she didn't want it, but we all succumb to the heavenly cuteness of this hellish creatures. 

It was school day, and we needed to leave. I think I was in the first course of basic education.

He was left in my room, windows closed so he didn't escape from our love. I was more than happy.
Every time I tried to leave, he'd cry out loud. I would enter, wondering what would he want. A bowl of milk and a bowl of water was all my mind educated by american cartoons could offer. I went in and out a couple of times before realizing what he needed was company. 

And that was the begging of the most beautiful relationship I've had with an animal, in which I learnt the true meaning of love and friendship. 

I remember waking up at 5am to give him his food if he asked for it. I remember hiding the blankets and sheets from my mother because he peed on them. I remember losing my fear of darkness so I could take him to the bathroom to drink water. I remember the first times I dared to speak up to adults, because they were yelling at him or trying to hurt them... 

If what I felt for him isn't love, then love doesn't exist.

Chapter three: The blond brothers. 

It was normal for us to see cats passing by our home, stealing teodoro's premium food we bought. But these ones really gave a fight to stay. There were brothers apparently, three yellow cats with tiger lines, while Teodoro was white with grey spots. My cousins and I developed some affection for them, and without thinking too much, we disobeyed the human rules and followed our humanity. 

We called them: Mi Niño, Mi Rey and Pompilio. Even though they were not ours officially, we gave them food and allowed to stay in our beds when it rained. 

Unfortunately, this led to a territorial conflict that made my best friend, Teodoro, leave the house.  Aparently, cats had their own rules. And part of having any pet is respecting their nature.

I was coming back from a vacation, and he wasn't there. I was told different things: the blond brothers kicked him out, he left searching for a partner, he left looking for me...

To this day I suspect that the true was the one nobody even suggested. Maybe I needed to feel like it wasn't my fault, maybe I needed someone else to blame. But I suspect he died, and that he was poisoned like it had happened before in the neighborhood.  He was the first family memeber whose death I had experienced, and those were my very firts grief tears.

Chapter four: Otto, The Devil. 

Meanwhile we struggled to maintain peace between King Teodoro and the invaders, another creature came to our lives. 

The old lady who lived alone next door called the bell of our house one night. She requested our help with a noise that came from her backyard. She was very religious, and at first she thought it could be the devil himself. We went to her backyard and heard the noise. It seemed like a very scared cat that was probably trapped between the bushes. It was dark, so we searched around, moving some branches and wires here and there, until a skinny black cat came out of no where and escaped before we could give a better look.
It's funy that I never look for a pet. They always just appear somewhere in the house and say "you take care of me now, congatulations". Sometimes I feel like they are sent by God whenever a dark time is ahead. And after Teodoro went buying cigarettes and Yuma returned home, some dark days arrived. So dark, God had to send the devil himself... but we named him Otto.

Chapter five: Cleopatra's Reign

"Cleopatra, your new queen"

We still had the issue of the blondies, but they didn't last longer after Cleopatra made her entrance in the house, since then called "Cleopatra's personal slaves house". Much like the queen she is, we found her sleeping under the shadow of the bushes, a young female cat with orange and black mix as fur and a twisted tale, surely from an epic fight against a shark or something. I went running to my grandmother and begged her to keep her. I wasn't even living there at the time. Years later my grandmom confessed that she only agreed to keep Cleopatra because she hadn't seen me that happy in a very long time.
So there I was, my eyes glowing full of hope with another living thing I could give love to and receive orders from.
She was instantly recognized as a natural killer. Not a "hunter", because once the victim died and she couldn't have any more fun with it, she threw it away and Otto devoured it. When I went to pick her up from the vet, I came back so, so proud... they told us they needed five of them to keep her under control... and some of them didn't live to tell. She knew how to open doors and she understood her own name... she didn't care, but she understood. She was smart enough to not eat stranger's food, and that's how she survived the following cat assassinations that occurred the next months, that took the life of Otto.

Chapter Six: Federica, The Surviver. 
I think I was in 8th grade when I received the new that he had been poisoned. I'd like to say I was

"Federica, The surviver"

lucky I wasnt there and see his agony, but that wouldn't be true. Even my grandmother said that whoever did it, was not human as far as she understands it. I still bame the old lady... finishing down the devil who peed on her plants. I repulse her, just in case.
Later, I heard from an aunt that she thinks she saw Mi Niño and Mi Rey dead too. I cannot describe the feeling of impotence I felt and still feel. By the time, I already pictured myself as the future best veterinarian in the galaxy. A little taste of it came when my mother secretely came home with another cat in distress, like three years ago.
That one was a case. She was found in a suitcase along two dead brothers under the heat of sun, struggling to get out with not much strenght left. She couldn't open her eyes because of ocular secretions. Worms in her stomach, bugs in the little fur she had left ... We kept her hidden until we got rid of those things, but the tub was an issue. The medicines were more expensive that the others. We tried, but we needed to buy in a very strict schedule and we were always late.
At the end, we used sea water.IF YOU EVER HAVE A PROBLEM WITH TUB IN A DOG OR CAT, BATH THEM IN SEA WATER FOR TWO WEEKS. 
It is miraculous. And that's how she bacame one of the most glamorouse, elegant and beautiful black cat you could see. She likes smocked ham sleeping dangerously close to the heater in winter.

               
And to this day, she and Cleopatra are my lifelong roommates, and I could not be more grateful for them. I also had two dogs more, some fishes and some birds, but Cleopatra just told me nobody cared so I'm going to sleep.