Micro-Blog-a-Thon

Thursday, October 30, 2008

What's wrong with America?

 
Seriously, what's the deal? Are you suggesting that all the kids start replacing "for" with "4"? I saw this sign on the corner, and had to stop to take a picture.
     
I'm just sayin'...

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Why DO they call it Wednesday, anyway?

This evening I played in (I think) the last regular season game of our flag football schedule (I pay really close attention...). Fortunately we won, which means that (I think) we've made the playoffs. We're 3-1 for sure, so hopefully that's good enough to get us in. We're already way better than last year (0-4 maybe, I just know it was bad), and possibly the best team that the med school has ever fielded in the Graduate/Faculty/Staff league. So, that was good.

In addition to playing football (by the way, it was really cold at the game, and I think my feet may have experienced Reynaud's phenomenon--or do I just have sophomore medical student syndrome?), I've had to get back in the studying mode. Which is OK, since learning is kind of my main responsibility.

At any rate, there's not too much else to tell. I was in the hospital today, and we didn't see anyone with it, but we did discuss my favorite disease of all time, situs inversus, where all the organs are on the opposite side.

Well, that's just about all I've got for today. I hope everyone's enjoying the cold weather as much as me, and I want to announce that I had to scrape my car windows for the first time this morning.

In addition, I'd like to point out the AWFUL punctuation in this post (oh, I know), and make everyone aware of my distaste for grammar, and the fact that I don't really trust English teachers :)

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Will work for DSLR...

As of this evening, I am back in South Bend, where I plan on using the few days that I have left of fall break to watch the World Series, continue to catch up on sleep, and generally enjoy not having class.

Recently, I have had a ton of time to do things that I don't usually get to do, one of those that I really enjoy is playing with my camera. So, I went back in Merry Lea a few times, and I took a bunch of pictures, and even a few that I like that I feel like are worth sharing. So here we go... :)

To begin with, its fall, so I tried to find some good-looking leaves, and this is the best I could find:


















While walking around that day, I noticed that it was a pretty sunny day, and--being the wannabe "artist" that I am, I wanted to try playing with the light and the leaves, and so this is my favorite of the results of that:


















The next day, it rained, which gave me an opportunity to take a different set of pictures. Unfortunately some of those did not come out so well, but I was able to take a few that I was pretty happy with. Here is my favorite:


















Then earlier today, I was back, and this time, there were animals. Namely, amphibians! To start out with, there was a large salamander on the road:


















After that, there was a nice little frog (I say nice, because it was kind cold enough not to hop away from my camera)

















There are some rumors floating around about badgers living in Merry Lea, and in fact, I did see an animal that could have been a badger. Unfortunately, I didn't get a real good look at it, and no pictures at all. So maybe there's badgers out there. Either that, or bigfoot.

P.S. This is what part of the alphabet would look like if Q and R were eliminated. -Mitch Hedberg

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

I Must Have Tripped or Something

As always, I have been busy! And the fact that you're reading this means that right now, I'm not quite so busy. Actually, I had a pretty crazy couple of weeks. Lots of tests, lots of studying, not a lot of time to do much else. Not that I'm complaining though--I could have nothing to do... and that would be WAY worse than being busy.

Anyway, I've got about a week off now, which I am trying to use to catch up on all the things that I had been neglecting... which I would say has been a pretty rewarding experience overall. In addition to doing things that I have to do that I never seem to have time for, I also went to a wedding and my brother's football game and plan to do lots of other exciting things before this week off is over.

So, in conclusion, I haven't actually tripped and fallen off the face of the earth... it just seems that way. Sometimes. At least to me.

And you should all read this article.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

I know kung-fu...

Yesterday I went to the ENT (aka otorrhinolaryngology!!!) physical diagnosis session. It was prett cool. We learned how to use the otoscope, which is harder than it looks (but happily, I figured it out)... In addition, I learned how to use a little mirror to look down someone's throat and "visualize the larynx". Which is a fancy way of basically saying--"look at their vocal cords". It was pretty cool. I had this head lamp on and everything. :)

I have to be honest, it was really good to do something school-related that I actually enjoyed! Not that I can say the same thing about the exam I took this afternoon, or the studying that I'll do tonight, tomorrow, and all weekend for the cardiology exam I have on Monday... (nothing against cardiology, just all the studying)

I am looking forward to being able to actually DO something in medicine, rather than just study all the time. Now, don't get me wrong, I know its important to learn pretty much all of the stuff that I'm trying to memorize right now, but its not really the stuff that I enjoy... I see it as more of a hoop to jump through so I can actually do my job.

So of course, I'm liking it that we're getting into the hospital this year, and I'm glad that I'm finally learning physical diagnosis... I just want to skip the learning part, and be really good at it right now. We had a PD (physical diagnosis) session on Sunday, and to be honest, I did OK. We were mostly doing cardio exams, and listening to murmurs and stuff. And like I said, I did OK. But of course there were a few little things that I didn't do absolutely perfect. And my instructor was sure to point those things out to me... So hopefully I'll get that stuff right next time. I would just really like to be able to just them all perfectly right now.

Anyway, that's pretty much the story of life right now... wishing I knew more than I do... and I suppose there's really only one solution to that... (unless they've come up with a way to just upload everything into my head like they did on "The Matrix" when Neo learned kung-fu) and of course, that solution is to study more...




And since that was just a movie (or was it...?!?), I guess I'll have to study more!

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

So true!

Just for the record, with my last post, I wasn't expressing support of either of the candidates... and also for the record, I tend to agree with these people.





(See: http://flickr.com/photos/blakemasters/2920722992/ for the original Flickr posting)

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Oh yeah, oh yeah, WHOO!

So, Saturday... maybe the best day of the week?

Today was spent studying all morning, followed by football (KEY PLAYS!!!), and this evening, I've spent a considerable amount of time pretending I was studying... Just kidding, I really have been.

Anyway, there isn't much to tell. I just feel that I have been slacking in my writing, and I want to make it up. Unfortunately, there isn't much to tell.

Which is why I may start discussing politics...


Just kidding, I wouldn't do that. I might lose my non-profit status... ;) But if Luke Skywalker was running, I would vote for him.

Friday, October 3, 2008

KEY PLAY!!!

I have been busy. Way too busy to write. In fact, way too busy to sleep! Just kidding. I just keep forgetting about it. : -\

Anyway, things are good. I mean, I'm spending another Friday night at the medical school, but that's nothing new... This time, its pharmacology. I'm hoping that if I work on my pharm., I'll end up with a good harvest. (zing....!)

Not to mention the cardiology or the pathology, or the physical diagnosis... As a matter of fact, for the first time so far (I'm sure there will be many, many more), I have to go into the hospital on Sunday. So, so much for the 3-day weekend they said they were giving us to "study". I've got to see patients. Which isn't bad, it just means I can't be studying then...

So, there you have it. Just another exciting day in the life... on the bright side, I got a new license plate today!

Plus, tomorrow is Saturday, which means a lot more...



KEY PLAYS!!!!!!!

P.S., I finally got a camera phone this summer, and I love it (see picture above), mostly because I always have it with me. If you also have a camera phone, I recommend reading this article, about how to take better pictures with it.