A lab rat named desire.

Being a poor, starving student has let me resort to somewhat sketchy (legal) ways of making a few extra dollars. Since working in the US on a student vi.sa is rather complicated, I have learned how to make a few(!!) real dollars by answering sketchy ads on Craigslist to participate in research studies. Now, now, they're haven't been THAT sketchy -- they've all claimed to be associated with Google, Yahoo, or Stanford University. Although, I did participate in a breast cancer study that was incredibly sketchy; I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't really with Stanford. Ha.

Today was one of those "study days" for me. Ongoing, I've been participating in a study on emotion regulation in women with Stanford. First, I went in for a fMRI -- a VERY cool experience! I actually got to see real live images of MY brain! (yes it exists!). However, I was shocked with an electric current while in the fMRI which was NOT fun and I also had to look at some rather gruesome images of people dying or maimed. All in the name of Science folks. Yup, Science is great. They also made me spit in a cup which will apparently map out my genes and predispositions.

Oh yeah, I was talking about TODAY though... so today, I go to the Stanford hospital to get some blood drawn for the study; that's all I know going in. But, when I get there I see I'm going to be staying in a real ward of the hospital, in a real room, and that this is real business. So they take some blood in many tubes with pretty tops (of course, I got home and immediately "internet searched" to see what they tested for). Then, I watched 30 mins of Planet Earth to relax and they drew my blood again. BUT THEN..... I was told I would have to give a 5 minute presentation on why I should get a specific job to a panel of people and that it would be videotaped. I was instructed that I could only talk about myself and not my past resume. No ums, no pauses. Yippie (gag). So then 2 VERY INTIMIDATING people walk in and I have to give this presentation in front of the 3 of them. IT SUCKED. I talked for maybe 2 minutes.. and then it was very awkward after that but I somehow managed to survive for 5 minutes. Secondly, I had to do a mental math test which sucked EQUALLY to the speech. Ever tried counting down by 15's from 9876 in front of 3 people?? Everytime I got one wrong, I had to start again. Plus, they firmly told me faster, faster, you're too slow, etc. They never smiled; the people that they hired to do this were AMAZING.. they deserved an Academy Award for their acting. But, it sucked - it was embarrassing, nerve racking, stressful, and a big blow (exactly what they wanted it to be). So then, they took my blood again (to test my stress levels - cortisol lvls) and asked me some questions about the experience and how I regulated my emotions. Neat stuff. Today was about immunology and stress. The study has been very cool & it's been a lot of fun being part of it despite of some of the nerve-racking activities.