Winter break is in full swing, and I have spent the last several days doing (almost) nothing! Normally, that would sound less than spectacular, but in this case, it is great. Not to sound like I'm bragging, but I've been working pretty hard, and its real nice to get a break.
We've had a pretty big snowstorm here, and there's a lot of snow around. Nathan's school had a snow day on Monday, and there's a lot of snow around. (Oh yeah, I'm at the lake right now, not South Bend) I've been back in Merry Lea a couple of times, and it was a really a whole different experience back there when there's a foot of snow on the ground.
Other than that, there isn't that much to tell. I'm just enjoying the break.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Friday, December 14, 2007
1/8
That's how much of medical school I have done. With the semester over, I thought it would be a good idea to finally write some more on here. Mostly, I've just been studying, which doesn't translate into anything cool to write about. But supposedly I learned all of histology in 3 and a half weeks... I took the NBME shelf exam today, so I guess when I get the results back, I'll find out if I really did learn what I needed to know.
Anyway, I now have about 2 weeks off of school.
So I guess that about covers it.
Anyway, I now have about 2 weeks off of school.
So I guess that about covers it.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
I couldn't think of a good title...
If you had asked me today "How are you doing?", I would have said (like Joyce of Wengatz hall cleaning fame): "Doin' pretty good for a Monday...!" Actually, it was a pretty good day. Probably the best thing to happen was that I found out I pretty much rocked my histology test's world. So that had me feeling pretty smart...
However, tonight I went to this talk "they" had at the school about blood clotting and deep vein thrombosis (prophylactic thrombolytics to be more specific...). It was really geared for the orthopedic surgeons in the audience, of which I am clearly not one. After that, I no longer felt smart at all. In fact I felt pretty dumb. Most of the time, I had about a 10% idea what they were talking about. But on the positive side, I got to watch some people argue with the presenters during the Q&A time. So that was interesting. But again, they were mostly arguing about stuff I didn't quite understand.
Anyway, I enjoyed it on some level, mostly on the level of: 'wow, look how much you don't know--now go study!' Which isn't all bad.
However, tonight I went to this talk "they" had at the school about blood clotting and deep vein thrombosis (prophylactic thrombolytics to be more specific...). It was really geared for the orthopedic surgeons in the audience, of which I am clearly not one. After that, I no longer felt smart at all. In fact I felt pretty dumb. Most of the time, I had about a 10% idea what they were talking about. But on the positive side, I got to watch some people argue with the presenters during the Q&A time. So that was interesting. But again, they were mostly arguing about stuff I didn't quite understand.
Anyway, I enjoyed it on some level, mostly on the level of: 'wow, look how much you don't know--now go study!' Which isn't all bad.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
What are books?
Well, the Thanksgiving holiday is over, and am totally back into school. With a whole histology class to fit into just three and a half weeks, I don't really have a choice but to hit the books with a vengeance. Which is hard to do after a four day weekend. But I guess it happened today.
I say I guess it happened, because I got the the end of my studying tonight (about 15 minutes ago), and come to think of it, I can't really say one thing that I know for sure that I learned today. So in some respects it feels like a wasted day. Of course, I'm pretty sure that studying was still worthwhile, but it just didn't feel as productive as it could have been. But that's how it goes I guess. As long as I learn what I need to know, everything will be fine.
I don't have a whole lot to write, but I did take a walk in Merry Lea while I was at the lake, and I took these pictures.
I say I guess it happened, because I got the the end of my studying tonight (about 15 minutes ago), and come to think of it, I can't really say one thing that I know for sure that I learned today. So in some respects it feels like a wasted day. Of course, I'm pretty sure that studying was still worthwhile, but it just didn't feel as productive as it could have been. But that's how it goes I guess. As long as I learn what I need to know, everything will be fine.
I don't have a whole lot to write, but I did take a walk in Merry Lea while I was at the lake, and I took these pictures.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Tranquilo...
So, in regards to my last posting on here (just a few hours ago)...
I was clearly overreacting a little bit... I'm not sure what came over me. But, after talking to some of my calmer classmates (who remarked that several in our class were kind of being ridiculous), I think I have come to see that, hey, its not that big of deal. So what if we don't have EVERYTHING spelled out right away. It's gonna be fine, and also, the school brought in this professor all the way from Fort Wayne because he's supposed to be good at what he does. He probably doesn't really WANT to be here (i.e. did he have a choice?), so we should probably cut him a little bit of slack.
Even if none of that was true, we should probably cut him a little slack, or at least be a little bit more respectful, just because he's our teacher, and he knows more than us. Even for selfish reasons: he's gonna be giving us our grades...
So yeah, I think I've learned a life lesson today. And that is, RELAX. I mean, what's the worst that can happen? I fail one test? Already happened, but I'm still here, and I don't even have bad grades. And even if I did, how bad would that be? (As long as I'm doing my best, that is).
Just in case you were wondering, no drugs were taken during the writing of this post... all natural "seeing the light". Can I count tranquility as part of my Self-Care Competency #4?
I was clearly overreacting a little bit... I'm not sure what came over me. But, after talking to some of my calmer classmates (who remarked that several in our class were kind of being ridiculous), I think I have come to see that, hey, its not that big of deal. So what if we don't have EVERYTHING spelled out right away. It's gonna be fine, and also, the school brought in this professor all the way from Fort Wayne because he's supposed to be good at what he does. He probably doesn't really WANT to be here (i.e. did he have a choice?), so we should probably cut him a little bit of slack.
Even if none of that was true, we should probably cut him a little slack, or at least be a little bit more respectful, just because he's our teacher, and he knows more than us. Even for selfish reasons: he's gonna be giving us our grades...
So yeah, I think I've learned a life lesson today. And that is, RELAX. I mean, what's the worst that can happen? I fail one test? Already happened, but I'm still here, and I don't even have bad grades. And even if I did, how bad would that be? (As long as I'm doing my best, that is).
Just in case you were wondering, no drugs were taken during the writing of this post... all natural "seeing the light". Can I count tranquility as part of my Self-Care Competency #4?
Transition
So, a lot has happened since my last post. Most notably is the fact that today was the first day of another 'block'. What that means is that another class is over! Which is great. I'm pretty sure that I passed, cause I think I would have had to get about a 20 percent on the final to fail. I guess that is a possibility, but really only if all of biochemistry got revised overnight. And since I think they would have bothered to tell us that (or maybe I would have seen something about it on the internet), I don't think that that happened.
Anyway, I started histology today. For those who don't know, histology is the study of tissues. And it is EXCITING! Just kidding, its really not that exciting. It involves looking a microscope slides, pictures of microscope slides, and theoretically it involves making microscope slides. But we don't get to make any microscope slides. Because this is medical school so ^obviously^ we don't need to know how to do that...
The teacher for the class is not from South Bend. They had to bring in somebody from Fort Wayne because for some reason (that nobody will talk about...I wonder why?) the old histology teacher "resigned" last year. Anyway, so far the class is kind of ridiculous. The guy came in, didn't tell us his name, didn't give us a syllabus or anything like that, started talking about his "laser disc" that has all of these pictures on it, and then launches right into lecture. So, at that point, I didn't know his name, what we were doing, or really anything that you might want to know before you start a class. So, great day... We did finally find out what book we're using, and that we do, in fact need it. I guess I should amend that. I finally found out what book we're using. Our class representatives found out awhile ago, and went over to the Notre Dame bookstore to make sure that they would order it so they had it when we were all looking for it.
Guess what? They didn't have it. So we have ordered it off of Amazon.com, and supposedly it will be here tomorrow. We'll see.
Good times. On the positive side of life, this is only a 3 day week, we have our first intramural basketball game tonight, and we had this speaker come in at noon today who is a general trauma surgeon, and got me convinced that I want to be a general trauma surgeon (of course I have thought that after every speaker they've have come in...)
Anyway, I started histology today. For those who don't know, histology is the study of tissues. And it is EXCITING! Just kidding, its really not that exciting. It involves looking a microscope slides, pictures of microscope slides, and theoretically it involves making microscope slides. But we don't get to make any microscope slides. Because this is medical school so ^obviously^ we don't need to know how to do that...
The teacher for the class is not from South Bend. They had to bring in somebody from Fort Wayne because for some reason (that nobody will talk about...I wonder why?) the old histology teacher "resigned" last year. Anyway, so far the class is kind of ridiculous. The guy came in, didn't tell us his name, didn't give us a syllabus or anything like that, started talking about his "laser disc" that has all of these pictures on it, and then launches right into lecture. So, at that point, I didn't know his name, what we were doing, or really anything that you might want to know before you start a class. So, great day... We did finally find out what book we're using, and that we do, in fact need it. I guess I should amend that. I finally found out what book we're using. Our class representatives found out awhile ago, and went over to the Notre Dame bookstore to make sure that they would order it so they had it when we were all looking for it.
Guess what? They didn't have it. So we have ordered it off of Amazon.com, and supposedly it will be here tomorrow. We'll see.
Good times. On the positive side of life, this is only a 3 day week, we have our first intramural basketball game tonight, and we had this speaker come in at noon today who is a general trauma surgeon, and got me convinced that I want to be a general trauma surgeon (of course I have thought that after every speaker they've have come in...)
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Down, Set, Hike!
I had a big test today. Actually, I don't know how big it was. It was one of 4 for my class. I don't know, maybe it actually was a big deal. I guess its possible I'm just rationalizing because I didn't do all that great on it... Maybe. But of course, I studied like crazy for it. In fact, I don't know what I would have done differently to try to learn the material in the time that I was given. There was just a lot there. Who knows.
But hopefully I did "good enough". I don't know if you all have heard of it or not, but Positive Psychologists talk about something called "satisficing", which means doing "good enough" instead of "maximizing"--doing as good as is humanly possible. They will tell you that you will probably be happier if you try to just do good enough more of the time than if you try to do the absolute best all of the time. Of course that just means lowering your standards, but who cares. If it's good enough, its good enough. And if you really need to do something REALLY well, then do it. Just don't do it out of habit. Because "good enough" is, in fact, good enough. If it wasn't you would call it NOT GOOD ENOUGH. But you don't.
Anyway, earlier today, we had a short demonstration on how to deliver babies by the St. Joseph residency program. Which basically amounted to free lunch, and residents trying to show all 30 of us at the medical school how to do it using 2 mannequins all at the same time. I guess you just catch. Actually, all I learned from that was "O-A = Okay!". Which kind of sounds cool if you say it, even if you had no idea what it meant... Anyway, it was pretty crazy. But you can't argue with free lunch and sweet mnemonics.
Well, that's about all I got. Enjoy Wednesday, the Day of Wednes. Possibly the Day of Wetness if it rains again. Or the Day of Witness of the Jehovah's Witnesses come to your house.
But hopefully I did "good enough". I don't know if you all have heard of it or not, but Positive Psychologists talk about something called "satisficing", which means doing "good enough" instead of "maximizing"--doing as good as is humanly possible. They will tell you that you will probably be happier if you try to just do good enough more of the time than if you try to do the absolute best all of the time. Of course that just means lowering your standards, but who cares. If it's good enough, its good enough. And if you really need to do something REALLY well, then do it. Just don't do it out of habit. Because "good enough" is, in fact, good enough. If it wasn't you would call it NOT GOOD ENOUGH. But you don't.
Anyway, earlier today, we had a short demonstration on how to deliver babies by the St. Joseph residency program. Which basically amounted to free lunch, and residents trying to show all 30 of us at the medical school how to do it using 2 mannequins all at the same time. I guess you just catch. Actually, all I learned from that was "O-A = Okay!". Which kind of sounds cool if you say it, even if you had no idea what it meant... Anyway, it was pretty crazy. But you can't argue with free lunch and sweet mnemonics.
Well, that's about all I got. Enjoy Wednesday, the Day of Wednes. Possibly the Day of Wetness if it rains again. Or the Day of Witness of the Jehovah's Witnesses come to your house.
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