"You're a Nerd."

Mumford & Sons is the new SotM

2011-07-11T10:22:00.000-06:00

These guys are currently my favorite band out there, and this (the song of the moment) is one of my favorite songs by them. It builds very nicely and deserves a few minutes of your time. Give it a listen!

In other news, I have finished my first year of medical school. This is a happy thing. The summer involves enjoying time with Jess, playing video games, catching up on tv shows and movies, and doing research at the children's hospital. I don't know that it will involve much blogging (beyond the Chick-fil-a post that I promised everyone), but we'll see.

Happy Monday!

Nedroid (because I'm lazy and it made me laugh)

2011-01-09T15:27:00.002-07:00

The blog is still here, friends, but my time to attend to it is not. In the meantime, enjoy this wonderful comic.

As always, a billion thanks to Nedroid for making my night last night.

The Hush Sound!

2010-11-19T08:03:00.000-07:00

Surprise, school is busy. Due to preparing for an exam remediation and a bit of rejiggering of priorities (still working on that), the blog has taken a bit of a back seat. But here's some music to enjoy!

All three tracks are by one of my current favorite bands, The Hush Sound. I have to thank my sister, Mandy, for introducing me to this group. Heavy use of piano, male and female vocalists, and a very peppy sound--what's not to love? The female lead is Greta Salpeter, and I love her semi-smoky voice, which is why these particular three tracks made it in. Break the Sky, the 3rd track, is probably the best of the bunch--if you just listen to one of the songs, make it that one.

Sadly, the group is currently on hiatus while Greta and the male lead (Bob Morris) pursue their own solo projects: Gold Motel and Debate Team. I will investigate them both to see what I think. Rumor has it that there will be one last reunion show in Chicago in December. Seeing as Illinois is no longer as far away as it used to be, do I smell a road trip?

Happy Sunday

2010-10-31T21:05:00.000-06:00

Happy Sunday, friends. It's been a good day--church, 3 hour nap, and a yummy dinner with friends (more to come on that). I leave you with this as I go to bed and get ready for another exam week. It more or less approximates what I looked like when I started dating Jess.

H/t derp.com

Inception picture

2010-10-27T20:21:00.000-06:00

So this picture has been making me laugh a lot, both today and a few weeks ago when I first saw it. Please enjoy. FYI, it actually doesn't have anything to do with Inception, but the screen captures are from the movie.

Things We Saw at the Pumpkin Show

2010-10-24T15:56:00.000-06:00

A pumpkin weighing over 1600 lbs.
A replica of the world's largest pumpkin pie.
More food vendor stands than things to see and do (aside from people-watching).
Some friends from our ward.
A fat guy saying, "I want sum' funnel cake."
Some scary looking carnies (and some normal looking ones, too)
Girls dancing to Irish music. Either they had all slept with tight curlers the night before, or their teacher went wig-happy.
A castle house.
A handful of spaces in mouths where teeth should have been, but weren't.
Pumpkin chili and pumpkin ~~sloppy joes~~ burgers. And pumpkin waffles, and pumpkin bread, cookies, cake, pie, etc.
Delicious mini pumpkin donuts, only $3.50 a bag (heaven, especially when fresh from the oil)
A nice lady running the mini donut stand, who recognized me when I came back an hour later for another back. Yes, they are just that good.
A 3-mile long line of traffic waiting to get off the freeway to attend the Pumpkin Show--fortunately we noticed these as we were headed the opposite direction on our way home.

Celebration!

2010-10-20T18:11:00.000-06:00

Last week was my 150th blog post (yay.), and to celebrate, I provide you with this most excellent picture.

Yep, it's Darth Vader on a chipmunk. That about sums it up.

(Thanks, Giz, and good work Powerpig on Flickr)

It's bedtime

2010-10-17T19:55:00.000-06:00

Well friends, the test went well and I had a nice relaxing weekend. Time to hit it again this week, and I'm gonna go to bed now because I was up studying until 2:30 on Thursday night. So I leave you with this.

Thanks, Derp.com!

In lieu of a longer post

2010-10-13T17:11:00.001-06:00

Because I have an anatomy exam on Friday and I want to pass this one, I will be using this time to study rather than composing a longer post. Please enjoy the video--these folks are pretty amazing.

Special thanks to Up Next In Sports

New SotM!

2010-10-12T13:18:00.000-06:00

Just recently, one of my favorite bands released a new album--that's right, Guster has a new release after four years! The album is called Easy Wonderful, and the new SotM is called Do You Love Me (track 2, for those interested). Check it out, and revel is their returned glory!

Sad to say, Guster was here in Columbus last weekend, just across the street from campus. Because we had previously-made plans I was unable to attend. I hope this is not the case next time they come 'round.

Excellent moment in testimony meeting

2010-10-10T18:01:00.000-06:00

One of the guys who shared his testimony today said something very clever. He likened medical school to the mortal portion of the plan of salvation:

"We come to Earth, receive a body, and get tested. We come to medical school, receive a body, and get tested."

I let out what was probably the loudest laugh that I've ever produced in a chapel, and apparently (Jess said) about half the congregation turned to look. I hadn't noticed, because I was too busy being entertained. An excellent Sunday today. I only wish I had been clever enough to think of it first.

How Do You Learn?

2010-10-06T19:33:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned previously, medical school often feels like drinking from the firehose. The whole process basically involves absorbing large amounts of information at a quick pace. This is easier in some subjects for me (concept-based ones) than others (memorization-based ones). Anatomy just happens to be one of those memorization-based subjects, and that is what we're slogging through right now.

I've found that flash cards tend to be a helpful way for me to memorize things, partially because they are very portable (I can go through them on the bus!), and partially because for my brain to memorize things, I have to beat them into it repeatedly. And then some more. Occasionally I'll try to come up with mnemonics to help things stick a little better. Discussing things with other people and reviewing together also helps, as does drawing things out.

But as I am always looking for a better way of doing things, what do you do, dear (5) readers, to make things that you learn stick?

Costco Trips

2010-10-03T20:29:00.000-06:00

I love Costco--they have great stuff in bulk for cheap. They give food samples. They have a tasty food court. And where else can you buy a package of toilet paper that weighs more than you do?

We went there on Friday for date night (how romantic!) and picked up all of those aforementioned things. We got a delicious pizza for ten bucks that's much bigger and much tastier than the Hot and Readys at Little Caesar's. We also got a yummy tub of cookie dough, ostensibly for baking, but really just for snacking on out of the fridge (yum).

So here's two more things about Costco that I wanted to share with you.

1. Costco milk in Ohio comes in a different shaped jug. Totally weirded me out the first time I saw it. But hey, they're stackable!

H/t The Brown's Sanitarium

2. "Pat". At our local Costco gas station, there is one attendant that we have seen every. single. time. we've filled up. Like the SNL character, "Pat" (not the real name, so as to protect the innocent and ambiguous) is of indeterminate gender. Pat's name is one that is usually a female name, but spelling would allow it to be a male's name, too. Pat's build is completely ambiguous, but skinnily so rather than SNL's fatty. Hair? Ponytail. Voice? Sounds like Shawn from the early seasons of Boy Meets World. Most of this wouldn't bother me so much if Pat weren't so chatty. At least half of my visits to the pump consist of awkwardly conversing with a person that wants to come across as a woman, but all of my senses are screaming to me is a man. And the pump just doesn't seem to pump fast enough.

Happy birthday, Kelli!

2010-09-29T19:28:00.000-06:00

In honor of Kelli (my sister)'s b-day yesterday, and mostly because I think it will make her and Mandy laugh, I present you tonight's blog post.

I love Nedroid

2010-09-26T19:33:00.002-06:00

Thanks Nedroid!

Picture post

2010-09-22T18:48:00.001-06:00

Well, it's been a crazy day. My brain feels like this cat's face looks. And picture makes me laugh. Enjoy

Another week, another test

2010-09-19T15:47:00.000-06:00

First off, thanks everyone for their kind words on the last post. I'll be remediating the exam the week after Thanksgiving, and I'll be spending half an hour per day going over stuff from that particular block to make sure I'm ready for it.

At OSU we have the option of two different pathways for our learning to take during our first two (pre-clinical) years. We face the choice in a few months, and in the meantime we get to sample both. We have 3 blocks of anatomy that each take about 4 weeks--these are set up with daily lectures and a packet of lecture learning objectives. On Friday we finished up our independent study pathway sample, which was a week of epidemiology and biostatistics. There were no lectures to attend, we were simply bought a book, were given a packet of information, and were expected to learn it all for the test at the end of the week (it's a short unit).

This most recent test went much better than the first. I passed easily, which is nice. Tomorrow we jump back into anatomy, and I'm going to be careful to not fall behind like last time. If I had to choose between the two pathways right now, I would probably go with the independent study (because of the better experience). We'll see how that opinion is affected by the next few weeks.

Wish me luck.

Epic fail

2010-09-15T20:22:00.000-06:00

'Tis a sad story indeed that I share with you tonight. Our first exam was last Friday, and it went well for many people. Alas, I am not included in the privileged group of "many people." That's right, I have failed my first test ever. While I'm not proud of the fact, I am glad that it was only by 4 point (got 66%), and I can't say that it was totally unexpected.

My study habits were not up to snuff--in fact, I hardly studied at all during my first two weeks of class. This resulted in four days of crazy cramming, which (obviously) did not do the job. So I had to meet with an academic advisor today and we made a game plan (or rather, she wrote down the plan that I had already formulated before I knew about said meeting). I have already been doing much better this week with the new unit, and will continue to implement my improved study skills and discipline for next week and onwards. I also plan to spend about half an hour per day studying stuff from that first unit so that I'll be ready for the remediation after Thanksgiving weekend.

So, word to the wise: give your course material the time that it needs, even if you don't think it needs it.

Catchall

2010-09-12T20:29:00.003-06:00

So, first exam is finished. I learned a lesson the hard way that if you fall behind in medical school, there is no catching up. The few days leading up to the exam were pretty awful, full of study, study, and more study. Despite these efforts, I was still not as prepared as I should have been for the test. Fortunately, at my school there is no official class rank, and all tests are simply pass / fail. This means that I just had to clear 70% in order to pass. The exam had two parts, a written portion that we took on our computers in the lecture hall (this was multiple choice and covered anatomy, histology (tissue biology--mostly pictures of cells), and embryology), and the lab practical, which involved going to the cadaver lab and identifying structures on the bodies that had been pinned by the professor and TAs. I got 75% on the written portion, which means I could miss up to 20 of the 50 practical questions. I'll get those results later this week. While normally I would be disappointed with this kind of performance, I did learn a valuable lesson, and the clock essentially resets after each exam. As long as I pass, I'll be pleased. And then I'll do better on the next exams. But enough of that.

In other news, I discovered a way to bring back the song of the moment. Grooveshark, a very cool music-streaming service, can make widgets for you for free. They host the music file, and I get to share it on my blog. And if anyone has concerns about copyright issues, they speak to Grooveshark instead of me. This is a good thing. So song of the moment is back from hiatus, and it's back with a song by The Black Keys. Turns out these guys are from Ohio, which is cool. It's just two guys, one on guitar and one on drums. They sound kinda like the White Stripes, and I really like this song. It probably helps that I found the video entertaining. Here's the link.

What else... Still on track for 100 books this year. I'm excited to reach this goal, but don't foresee a specific numerical goal for the next couple of years. I think this will help me be more willing to read some of the lengthier tomes I've been wanting to get to (Rough Stone Rolling and The Lady in White come to mind).

Also, we played a game last night called "Killer Bunnies", and while it was pretty strange, I thought it was a lot of fun. Jess even played, which is a pretty big deal.

EDIT: Jess so gently reminded me that she in fact not only played Killer Bunnies (a pretty big feat in and of itself), she also won Killer Bunnies. Congrats to her, and hopefully this helps her be more excited about playing in the future. :)

First exam!

2010-09-08T18:57:00.000-06:00

Well, med school is moving right along. Our first test is on Friday, and I'm not ready yet. So I'm going to continue studying instead of making a longer blog post, and I leave you with this video metaphor for the past couple of weeks.

I'm a lucky lucky lucky little boy.

Parasitology Flashback

2010-09-05T14:34:00.000-06:00

During my undergrad, I took a course in parasitology, or the study of parasites. While this class didn't provide me with a lot of information I can use (outside of cool small talk, unless I visit third world countries), it was hands down one of the most interesting classes I have ever taken. One of the creepy critters we learned about was called Dicrocoelium dentriticum, and it has one of the craziest life-cycles of any organism ever. The comedic genius at The Oatmeal has illustrated said life-cycle. Please enjoy.

And that pretty much sums up one of the coolest pieces of knowledge in my head. Special thanks to The Oatmeal for helping spread (hehe) something so crazy awesome. Well played, Captain, indeed.

The Little Walk That Turned Into a Big Walk

2010-09-01T20:40:00.000-06:00

So tonight we decided to take a little walk to the nearest branch of our public library. This is the approximate route we planned to take (approximate because the starting point isn't actually our home address, but it gives a good enough idea of routes and distances):

View Larger Map

So yeah, 1.7 miles and half an hour each way. However, it turns out that we don't know those neighborhoods very well (especially on foot), and we didn't have a GPS with us, nor did we print out a map or write out any sort of directions. So this is the the route we actually took to get there (scroll up a little so that the whole blue line is visible--it's not wanting to default to a good view):

View Larger Map

Yup, 3.9 miles and almost an hour and a half. After we had walked so far south, we called the library to ask for directions. And then turned around and walked the other way for a while. We finally made it to the library with the DVDs we had checked out last week. We had 15 minutes until the library closed to browse the shelves for more stuff to watch, and then began our trek home. Rather than taking the direct route (whoops), this is how we came home:

View Larger Map

Yup, 2.2 miles. And that was .5 miles more than it would have been if we had followed Jess' suggestion to turn left on Greensview instead of right. Alas, my directional sense failed me tonight (where are you, mountains?) and I lengthened our expedition. In order to pass the time, Jess had me tell her scary stories (because we were walking through dark neighborhoods without streetlights--what??). The first was about large amounts of student loan debt. The second was based on a story told around the campfire at scout camp by a good buddy of mine. It was about a creepy dude named Stubbs, who lost his limbs from being run over by a train, then grew extremely long nails / claws out of those stubs. He runs around on all fours and is just in general a scary character.

So our trip that was supposed to be about 3.4 miles total and a little over an hour and a half turned into a 6 mile journey that took three and a half hours. Yikes.

Book review

2010-08-29T18:35:00.000-06:00

This is cross-posted from Goodreads. I finished "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" yesterday, and it was a book that gave me a lot to think about. Please enjoy.

This was a really interesting book that we read for a med school book club. The main idea here is the huge cultural divide between the Hmong people's paradigm and that of Western medicine. Fadiman dispenses a lot of information about the history of the Hmong people, their beliefs, and their difficulty adjusting to life in the US. Interwoven through this is the sad story of Lia Lee, an epileptic child caught in the space between these two worlds.

Lia's parents view her disease as something spiritual--her spirit is caught away during her epileptic episodes. The doctors view it as a storm of electrical activity in her brain. Both sides have different ideas about how she should be treated, but communication between the groups (and even more so, understanding) is exceptionally difficult. There is no shared language, and Lia's parents are illiterate.

What do you do when you are faced with a situation like this? I felt extremely frustrated for and with both sides as I read this book, and I think the book presented more questions than answers. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it leaves a lot of thinking to be done (and some good discussions at book club). Lia ends up a vegetable, but with parents who love and care for her in a very powerful way. Tough stuff here.

When I was in Bolivia, I was told many things there by well-meaning people about how to maintain good health. Their counsel included warnings about not sitting on a hot seat ("it will give you hot blood") and not sleeping with a fan blowing on you ("you'll get sick"). I did both of these things and was just fine (I wouldn't have slept at all otherwise). Looking back, I laugh at some of the ideas they had and the consequences. I can't laugh the same way about the consequences of Lia's parents' ideas.

One of the biggest things I will take from this book is the need to connect with the patients I work with over the coming decades. If I don't understand them, everyone is in for a world of hurt. My medical school has made a good effort to teach us patient-centered interviewing and care, which I think will be a helpful way to approach my interactions with patients and prevent situations like that of Lia.

I appreciated that the book was very balanced--it bashed neither the doctors or the Hmong people, and presented both sides as very invested in helping Lia, but with their own strengths and weaknesses.

This book was written almost 15 years ago, about a series of events almost 20 years ago. I'm curious to know how the situation has changed in that time--I think it would be great if Fadiman wrote a follow-up article or book.

Rating: R, for language (3 or so F-words, little else).

Brilliant idea

2010-08-25T19:30:00.000-06:00

Saw this a while ago online. It's fake food that looks like it has spilled. Perfect for saving your seat! Where would you use yours?

h/t to Gizmodo and Jeremy's Place

Cuttin' for the very first time

2010-08-22T15:07:00.000-06:00

We began anatomy this week, and unlike the class at my undergrad, we get to do the dissections ourselves. Each group of 8 medical students is in charge of one cadaver, and we learn everything from them--starting with surface anatomy and working all the way down to the deepest muscles and skeleton.

Medical school usually begins with anatomy because that is the foundation for all of the rest of the knowledge that follows. The donors who gave us their bodies have facilitated this for us, and it's a humbling thing to dissect another human body. We learned a little about each of our donors (age at death, what they did for a living, family members who survived them), and their initials.

*This paragraph deals more directly with dissection. I've tried to keep it from being terribly graphic, but this is a warning for those who don't want to read it*
Our donor was a female, and we began by making t-incisions in her back. The first step is removal of the skin and the tissues directly below it--this process is called flaying, and is one of the few parts of dissection that involve a scalpel. You pull on the corner of the skin, and use the scalpel to cut the connective tissue that attaches the skin to the muscle below. Most of the rest of dissection is called "blunt dissection", and is done with a blunt metal probe, scissors, and your fingers.

We follow particular instructions, found in a book called Grant's Dissector. We dissect MWF, with four of the eight people in our group being there and doing the dissecting. We rotate through on a two on, two off basis, which is done in such a way that on any given day, two people who are there were present at the previous dissection. This helps keep continuity, which is useful.

By the end of next week, we'll have worked our way down the arms and to the hand. Pretty neat stuff. If you have any questions, feel free to ask! Also, there are videos on Youtube (search "human dissection") that you can view if you're interested in seeing what the process looks like. Because it's not the sort of thing that you want little Timmy to stumble on, it requires that you have a Youtube site login to view them. By the way, it's not a gory process, as bodily fluids have been replaced with formaldehyde and other preservatives.

Incepcion

2010-08-18T18:32:00.000-06:00

On Saturday Jess and I went to see Inception, and it was awesome. Probably one of my favorite movies that I've seen in a while. Seriously, if you haven't seen it yet, go do so. It was a pretty clean action movie with some very interesting themes (and I double-checked at kids-in-mind.com to make sure I was remembering things right).

We tried out a new theater called the Movie Tavern. Not only do they sell a $5 ticket anytime if you show a student ID, they sell food during the movie (in a very unobtrusive way). As we were there to celebrate my recent white coat ceremony, we partook of food and drink. Jess had a tasty panini, and I got some chicken sliders. I don't know why these share a name with the abomination from White Castle, but they were pretty darn amazing, and one of the cheapest things on the menu. It was a great experience.

After the show, I happened to see this mashup of Dora the Explorer and Inception, and I loved it (plus, the little girl is adorable). So now I'm sharing the love with you. Please enjoy.

Can you say "buuurrrrrmmp"?

White Coat Ceremony

2010-08-15T15:27:00.002-06:00

First thing first. I was able to get the parking ticket situation resolved. An email came out on Thursday telling us what to do (I wasn't the only one who got a ticket). It was simply a matter of going to the Traffic and Parking office and paying $5 for a "day pass" for the day before. While I was a little bugged, I was much happier to pay $5 than $50. But I've still got a lot to figure out about parking at / around the university. One of the only things that I don't like. Now on to more ceremonial things.

Monday afternoon, Jess and I headed over to the student union building. It's a new building, finished earlier this year, and it's really pretty nice. The ceremony was held in one of the ballrooms upstairs.

Pretty stuff hanging from ceiling of the ballroom

Nearly all of the 200 or so new students were there, many with members of their family present (probably more than had RSVP'd, because there weren't enough seats for everybody).

There we are, before all the action started.

I could actually see Jess taking the picture, thus my smile at the camera.

We then heard from some of the higher-ups at the med school, several of whom shared some nice things about what it means to be a doctor, and the symbolism of the white coat (integrity, trust, etc). After the speeches were done, we were called up row by row to receive our new short white coats (you get a long one once you get your MD) that were embroidered with our names on them (very cool).

Your coat is placed on you by members of the administration, and several handshakes and "good luck"s and "you'll do great"s are given. This was a cool ceremony and a cool milestone. Unfortunately, it was also kind of boring, like a graduation ceremony. So I'm glad that I don't have to do this too often. After all of the hoopla, we shuffled over to another room where ice cream was provided and mingled for a bit. We snapped a few pictures on our way out, and then I hung up my coat in my closet when we got home because, as far as I know, I probably won't be wearing for two more years when I begin my clinical rotations. But it's still spiffy.

Also, here's an official news post about it from the College of Medicine.

Orientation: Complete

2010-08-11T20:15:00.002-06:00

This week I officially began my journey to become a doctor. Orientation ran from Monday until today, and while med school orientation may seem like a really exciting thing, it turns out that it's really not much different from any other orientation / beginning of college or high school classes. Yup, you sit on your duff for several hours each day, learning about policies and procedures. Including the amazingly complicated academic status colors (at least 20 minutes on this stuff--it should have been more like 5: "Green is good. We'll email you if it changes, look to see what the change is and what we need to do about it." Was that so hard?).

Fortunately my expectations of hundreds of inane, too-specific (that is NOT B-roll) questions asked by former pre-med students went unfulfilled. It was the pre-med part that worried me (because pre-med students in general are anal), but the "former" part that saved the day. This was good.

My whining aside, I'm pretty excited for what's ahead. I've met a lot of great people, and this should be a great class to study and have fun with. Anatomy begins on Monday, and in order to learn about the human body, we have the privilege of taking one apart. Pretty awesome. More to come on that next Wednesday.
Monday afternoon was the White Coat ceremony, probably one of the cooler moments of the week. I'll probably post about that on Sunday.

And I got a parking ticket today... even though I followed the instructions for parking given to me by the orientation committee. It's $50, so it's more than I can just shrug off. I will appeal it tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed, gang.

Like Sands Through the Hourglass, This Was the Longest Day of Our Lives

2010-08-08T14:09:00.001-06:00

We recently had the wonderful opportunity to return to Utah for my little sister's wedding. This was made immensely more affordable (read: possible) by a good friend who had access to buddy passes with a particular airline. Most emphatically, I do not want this post to come across as ungrateful. We're so glad that we could use the passes and make it back for such a special occasion. And the trip back home to Ohio was uneventful and worked out great, so no worries there. However, the flight out to Utah was something that we'll probably never forget. Here's why...

Highlights / summary:
- 22 hour day.
- Feet in all four time zones across the contiguous US in one day.
- Annoying televisions in most of the airports (turns out that most daytime tv really sucks--wait, I already knew this).
- Annoying people in some.
- A lot more people flying than expected, and thus:
- Lots of full flights with not enough room for everyone on standby.

We awoke at 4am eastern (that's 2am mountain time) to have time to finish packing before we began our epic journey. We left the apartment at 5, and were at the airport around 5:30. We drove ourselves, and some great friends were willing to come pick up our car (and us when we got home) so that we wouldn't have to pay $50 for a week of parking. We split a tasty Chili's breakfast burrito at the airport (only $8!) right before boarding. The first flight left Columbus for Chicago at 6:30, and we got on without any trouble.

Chicago was another story. We spent most of the time running from gate to gate (fortunately, just once to another terminal and back), getting on the standby list of any flight heading west. For the first couple hours, we were a little more selective because we wanted to fly to Denver, then to Salt Lake. No dice. So we kept trying, and would be standing next to a new gate every 20 minutes or so, listening and hoping that our names would be called. Finally we were able to get on a flight to Omaha, Nebraska.

In Omaha, waiting for a flight.

The airport in Omaha was much smaller than the one in Chicago. This was good because it wasn't so stinking crowded. This was bad because there were far fewer flights leaving the city. We arrived around 1pm central, and hoped to catch one of two flights around 2:30. We split a Godfather's personal pan pizza for lunch (~$5, probably one of our better food deals at the airport--the other was Popeye's in Vegas) and waited until 5:30 when a flight was leaving for Phoenix, and another for Vegas. During the wait, the tv droned on and on in the background, playing Days of their Lives, and a handful of other soap opera dreck that all looked the same. Boo. After sitting and waiting for a while, my legs needed some stretching. I stood up and stretched various ways while reading my book, and this initiated a conversation with a nice old couple sitting across from us. Apparently I was an odd sight. Anyway, we lucked out and were able to board the one to Vegas. After thanking the airline employee profusely, we hefted our carryons and got on the plane.

We arrived in Vegas around 6pm, with two more flights leaving for SL before morning. We were unable to get on the flight at 6:55, so we started looking at our options. 1) We could rent a car and drive to SL, arriving probably around 2 or 3am. Once we looked at pricing, though (~$200 plus gas for just one night), we changed our minds. 2) We could get a hotel room for the night for about $30 and then catch the 6am flight the next morning. This was a pretty good option, but I didn't want to deal with shuttles and such. Lazy, I know. 3) Have a sleepover at the airport! What with the bouncing floor and noisy slot machines, it would have been a long night. We hadn't finalized our decision by the time the next flight was boarding.

We sat, listening, but couldn't hear anything the gate agent was saying. We could see that she was talking into the PA, but for the first time that day, we couldn't pick up what the agent had said. So we hustled over to her to check and see if, just maybe, we had been called. Sure enough, she had called our names twice and we hadn't heard a thing. Lucky for us we checked. So we got on the plane and Jess was lucky enough to babysit a 7 year old and 9 year old the whole flight home.

We arrived in SL, exhausted but happy, at about midnight. My folks were kind enough to come pick us up (and we'd had a couple other offers from wonderful friends and family to do the same) and shuttle us back to their place where we crashed (in the sleeping sense, not the automobile sense).

So yeah, a rough day for flying, but we were grateful that we could do it on the cheap, and for all of the support that the buddy pass friend gave us throughout the day, helping us find the flights we needed and such. And now we're really happy to be back home in Ohio. Med school orientation begins tomorrow morning. Here we go!

Likes and Dislikes

2010-08-04T21:06:00.000-06:00

Likes:
- Being at home again.
- Huge thunderstorms.
- Going to the temple.
- The green-ness of Ohio.
- Having groceries in the fridge.

Dislikes:
- Cost of airport food.
- Seriously, airport food is freaking expensive.
- Being woken up by huge thunderstorms.
- Going from Mountain time to Eastern.
- The fact I always get a runny / stuffy nose whenever I fly.

Super Special Thursday Post!

2010-08-01T11:50:00.000-06:00

Here it is!

Item the second: some weeks ago, I went to a picnic dinner up the canyon with some family and a few friends. We had some yummy rotisserie chicken, rolls, jello salad, etc. After we ate, we did a little geocaching (and found the cache, because dad is so good at it) and walked past a small reservoir on our way back to our picnic site. My brother and I had been looking for and collecting flat rocks for skipping on the water. After we finished tossing our rocks, my dad proposed a competition (as he is prone to do). Floating about 40 or 50 feet out on the water was a line of white pipes, which help block detritus from flowing down the spillway and continuing to wherever the water goes. The challenge was to find five rocks and throw them at the floaters, and whoever hit the pipes would win.

Dad went first, slowly getting closer with each throw, but never quite getting there. Then Jordan took his turn--his rocks landing just on either side of the floaters. Jeff, a family friend, went next and hit the pipes with one of his tosses. Then it was my turn. I hit it with three of my five rocks, and ended up with the high score. I was very proud of myself

Since We're Back

2010-07-28T23:19:00.000-06:00

I figure that, being back in Utah now, it is an appropriate time to share the following pictures / events from before the move.

Item the first: Hikes! My sister Mandy and I went up Big Cottonwood Canyon to the Mill D trailhead back early May (I think). This trailhead leads to both Dog Lake (~1.5 miles) and Desolation Lake (~3.5 miles). We had planned to go to Dog Lake because we didn't have a lot of time, and began our trek up towards the lake. About 100 feet up the trail, we met the first patch of snow, followed by more dirt trail, followed by another snow patch, etc. Eventually we got to a point where everything was covered by snow that was at least 3 or 4 feet deep. The temperature up there was perfect--nice and cool, but not too cold. Unfortunately, hiking through snow is significantly more difficult than just a trail.

Nothing there to provide scale, but trust me, it was deep.

After arriving at the junction where the trails to Dog and Desolation Lakes diverged, we decided to turn around. And it turned out that hiking downhill in snow is even tougher than hiking uphill. About every eighth step, we sank five or so inches into the snow.

After a couple more months, Mandy was back in town and we decided to go hiking again, and make it one of the lakes. Kelli didn't have work that day, so she came along with us for an extra fun sibling activity. No snow on the trail this time, which was very nice. After arriving at the junction, we decided to push on to Desolation Lake. It was a beautiful day and the trees were gorgeous--perfect conditions for a morning hike. We all got a little tired towards the top, but were really happy when we arrived at the lake.

We only saw one other person up at the lake, but he was crazy enough that he was worth it. Dude seemed like a pretty outdoorsy fellow--was toting around a large backpack that looked well provisioned--but had disobey several posted signs that prohibit pets (because it's a watershed area). He had his dog with him and tried to keep it hidden as he packed up. He didn't stick around long once we arrived.

We had a great time together and loved being up there. And for now, this is where we finish because it's almost 11:30 which is like 1:30 for my body clock. Not to mention that we had a long day yesterday (more about that in Sunday's post). More mountainy stuff to share, and it may show up tomorrow in a super special Thursday post.

A sampling of Ohio restaurants

2010-07-25T18:20:00.000-06:00

In the approximately week or so that we have been in Ohio, we have had some opportunities to eat out. This is where I share with you, the reader, the results of said opportunities and my reviews of the food / restaurants.

Unfortunately, there were no Robin burgers on the menu.
(Image h/t Charlie's Bird Blog)

Red Robin: (Yes, this is not just an Ohio place--in fact, I have lived many years within the vicinity of a RR. But we still ate here in Ohio, so there.) Many moons have passed since my previous visit to this place (maybe as an 8 year old with gma and gpa?). We went while mom and sisters were still here as a partial celebration of mom's b-day and as a thank you for their help. They have a huge selection of burgers and other foods that I didn't pay much attention to. My pub burger was tasty, but not as good as Jess's Whiskey River BBQ burger. Fries were pretty good, but flipping hot. A little on the pricey side for weekly excursions by students, but a fine celebratory location. They also came and sang for mom and brought her some free ice cream. And then when our server found out about mom's chocolate allergy, she brought out a large cup of vanilla soft serve and let us keep the first chocolatey sundae. Woohoo! Great service, very happy wait staff, and pretty good food.

A slider
Image h/t Wikipedia

White Castle: *shudder* We have one of these close to our current place of residence, and I had heard of them before, so we decided to give them a try last weekend. We got a bag of 10 cheeseburger "sliders." A slider is a burger about the diameter of a hockey puck, and itty bitty guy that is so greasy it makes the bun soggy and causes the burger to slide right down your gullet. I think we both plan to avoid this restaurant in the future, and I would happily suggest that you do, too. Don't feel bad about not having them in Utah--you're better off for it.

This is Moose, who looks just like
Raising Cane, the restaurant's mascot.

Raising Cain: This is a chicken finger joint that has locations all over the US, but mostly in the South. Closest locations to UT are in Nevada and Colorado, but we have several scattered throughout Columbus. We came here at the recommendation of some friends in the ward, and were rather pleased with the food here. The menu is simple, kind of like In-n-Out. Basically you choose how many chicken fingers you want, and whether you want them on a kaiser bun or with toast on the side. My sandwich was delicious, with moist chicken that was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The fries were ok, but nothing special. Crinkle-cut, they seemed a lot like the crinkle fries you buy frozen in a bag and cook at home like tater tots. Jess got the fingers with toast on the side, and the toast was pretty amazing. Thick bread, yummy garlic butter and spices on it. Mmm. They also have a special Cane sauce, which seems like fry sauce plus some garlic powder, salt, pepper, and perhaps a couple other seasonings. Not quite as good as Wingers (sticky fingers win), but 3 or 4 bucks cheaper per plate. We'll probably be back.

Cuzzins: We found a fro-yo shop here that is self-serve like the billions back in Provo. A little less selection of flavors (I think they had 8 or 10 vs 14 or 16 at other places), but still tasty and still sold by the oz. 42 cents per oz instead of 38, but still reasonable. We scored a sweet coupon from the local paper that got us a free yogurt last night, which was awesome. Jess indicates that we'll definitely be back.

We plan to continue to explore the local food, and there are plenty of cool places to choose from nearby.

Mov-ed

2010-07-23T09:09:00.000-06:00

We've finally arrived in Ohio, and things have been kind of crazy--mostly with finding places for our stuff, finding new stuff to find places for (see Jess's posts about couch, washer and dryer, end table, etc), exploring Columbus, and getting settled in.

Because we spent the week before the move packing, the week of the move driving, and the week after finding places for stuff, blogging took a back seat. Had I been a truly prepared blogger, I would have had some posts in the pipe so that it wouldn't have appeared to be any different from normal. I am not a truly prepared blogger. But this post is essentially a notice that the posts should be back on schedule (Sun and Wed nights) starting Sunday.

That is all.

Dive! Dive!

2010-07-04T19:03:00.001-06:00

As I mentioned previously, Jess purchased a pass for an exploratory dive lesson at Dive Utah for me for Fathers Day. We bought another pass for my brother as a graduation / birthday / getting caught up on whatever else we owed him gift. Dive Utah was offering to extend the same special price to anyone else who wanted to come along with us, so my sister joined us, too.

Once we arrived, a nice guy named Doyle had us fill out some release forms and then took us back to a classroom where he explained what SCUBA stands for (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) and that the most important thing in SCUBA is to just keep breathing. We got our equipment, hopped in the pool, and learned how to clear and breathe through the regulator, how to purge the mask, and how to equilibrate the pressure so your head doesn't feel like imploding.

After learning the basics, we swam over to the 12 ft deep portion of the pool, where we hung out underwater, tossed little dive toys at each other (harder than you'd think underwater), and enjoyed the fact that we were breathing in a place that previously was only accessible with the price of intense inner ear pain and aching lungs. A very cool experience in all, and something that I think I'd like to pursue later in life. Only bummer was that I felt a little dizzy when we were all done. Small price to pay.

Here's the video summary:

(From The Life Aquatic, one of my favorite edited movies. My apologies about the poor video quality.)

For Bob

2010-06-30T20:00:00.001-06:00

As a little bit of background, a good friend of mine for a long time had misinterpreted the phrase "Pulitzer Prize" as "Pulit Surprise." While both sound enormously exciting, I let forth a significant giggle when I heard the second one. So when I saw this illustration on a website that I follow, I immediately thought of Bob. The elephant's name can only be Pulit.

Big Trouble for Little Bradley

2010-06-27T21:47:00.002-06:00

Image from Listicles

So I got a DMCA takedown notice [the most relevant info is about 1/3 of the way through the article] this past week for one of my songs of the moment. I never expected that little old me would be a recipient of such a thing. While I understand the desire of content owners to control said content, internally I chafe a little at not being able to share my music with my friends. So for now, song of the moment takes a hiatus.

In other news, the big move is only two weeks away and the time is flying. Anything we're wanting to do here in Utah (restaurants, sites to see, fun things with family, etc) needs to happen quick. We've had a few get-togethers with some of Jess's friends, I finally went to lunch and a movie with my brother yesterday (his Christmas gift from us), next week I'll go on a hike with my sister, and we're planning a few dinners up the canyon. It's turning out to be busier than expected.

The show my bro and I saw was Prince of Persia, and it was an entertaining summer movie. Lots of exciting action and parkour, magic, mystery, betrayal, backstabbing, humor and even some romance. It's made by Disney, but is rated PG-13 and probably too intense for those younger than teens. End thoughts: I recommend it.

King's English Bookshop

2010-06-23T20:00:00.002-06:00

At a work retreat a few weeks ago, Jess won a couple of gift cards. One was for Red Hanger, so we dry cleaned two of my ties that were really needing it. The other (significantly more exciting one) was for the King's English Bookshop in Salt Lake City. It sits at about 1500 East and 1500 South, and is a quaint little independent book seller.

Last weekend we wandered around the store for a couple hours and loved it! The shop is in what was probably once a private home, and the whole place is filled with floor-to-ceiling shelves of books. Heaven! I felt little happy tingles as I sauntered past shelves and handled some of the wares. We ended up buying Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (which I'm saving for our road trip and after) and Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.

Check this place out--as an independent local business, they could use the support. Too bad we're leaving in a couple weeks.

SotM: Sarah McLachlin - Blackbird

SotM change

2010-06-23T13:33:00.002-06:00

New song up, Sarah McLachlin covering the Beatles' Blackbird. Absolutely beautiful version of a very nice song. Give it a listen.

Fathers Day

2010-06-20T20:29:00.004-06:00

First off, happy fathers day to all of the excellent men out there. Thanks for your examples and help in the little things and in the big things. I hope to be a good one, too, someday.

Second, Jess got me some very cool presents for FD today (FYI, this isn't an announcement--we like to give each other gifts on FD and MD just because). Remember that soap I blogged about the other day? The stuff that looks like bacteria? Yeah, she got me some of that. It smells like grapefruit.

The second gift is sort of a joint gift with one that we got for my little brother. We're going to have a scuba diving lesson! Scuba diving is another item from the bucket list, and this will be a good way to get a taste. I'm very much stoked.

SotM: Band of Skulls - I Know What I Am

Return of the SotM!

2010-06-17T10:40:00.000-06:00

After some research and a little bit of blog tweaking, song of the moment has returned. Currently it is a song by Band of Skulls called I Know What I Am. It reminds me a bit of the White Stripes, but with a fuller sound. Nice, driving bass line. It is rock, but not metal.

Also, I am trying to establish a blogging pattern, and so far Sunday nights and Wednesday nights are my plan and I've held to it for two weeks. I'm thinking that I'll probably just do a new post each time the SotM changes, outside of schedule. Any RSS readers who have a preference for how they are advised of the change?

Another Nedroid!

2010-06-13T20:00:00.000-06:00

I love this guy's stuff. It always makes me happy! Go to his site and read the backlogs--it's easily worth an afternoon of your time.

Three mostly unrelated things

2010-06-09T19:50:00.001-06:00

1: I don't recall whether or not I shared this on the blog (and couldn't see after a cursory search), but I set a goal in January to read 100 books this year. It has been a perfect year to attempt this with long bus rides during my last semester of school and a pretty laid back summer. We'll see how fall goes...

So the good new is that today I finished book number 50--that's right, halfway through my challenge, and there are still three more weeks before the year is half over. I'm ahead of schedule, which is probably a good thing. I calculated a pace of two books per week to meet my goal, and that will be harder to keep up once medical school starts. More med school in a moment. Book 50 was a good one: Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians. You can see my review here (this goes to my goodreads profile, you'll need to scroll down once you get there).

2: Thanks for all of your thoughts about the song of the moment. I'm glad that those who commented are in favor of it ('cept you, Kel. I have my eye on you and your different music tastes...). I think I'm going to try to get it back up by next Wednesday. I appreciate the RSS issue being brought up. I'm thinking of leaving the player at the top of the blog like before (optional, as always), but need a good way to let those who read the blog through Google Reader or other feed readers to know when the song has changed and what it is. My proposed solution: indicate the current song of the moment at the end of each post that I put up. Those who care to hear it can then visit the blog to listen, and won't need to bother checking in vain if it hasn't been updated. Thoughts?

3: Way back in item number one, I promised more med school stuff. Here it is. I'm wanting to chronicle the medical school experience, and want to do it with a blog. However, because of patient confidentiality issues I probably either need a privacy barrier or to blog anonymously. I like having my blog public. I also don't think I would be able to maintain a personal blog and a medical school blog--I don't want to spread myself too thin. But maybe if I compromise and just do one post per week on each? Dunno. Once again, I request your thoughts. What would you like to see? We'll probably revisit this topic later after I have cogitated more on it.

Music Question

2010-06-06T21:24:00.000-06:00

Well, Google changed the way their webhosting works--instead of Google pages, they have developed Google sites. Still easy to make a webpage for oneself, but I haven't been able to find a way to host some of my files there like I had done before. This is relevant because this was how I provided the song of the moment on my blog (before the redesign). It stopped working with the Google transition, and so there has been no song of the moment for some time now.

So here's the question: does anyone care? Is that a feature that anyone enjoyed (or would have if it had been updated more frequently)? I have a couple of ideas brewing for how to re-institute it (Dropbox or gDocs being the two biggies), though it wouldn't look any different than before. Would any particular change(s) make it better / more user-friendly / cooler / more used?

Leave me your thoughts in the comments. I may even bring it back if no-one ever used it, as I enjoy spreading a little music love (even if it's just to myself).

Best Soap Ever!

2010-06-02T20:01:00.000-06:00

Saw this on one of the blogs that I follow. How could I not love it? It's soap that looks like a culture plate! Too cool!

(h/t to Gizmodo, one of my favorite tech blogs)

A couple of funny videos

2010-05-06T21:28:00.000-06:00

Now that it's May, it's time for another post! Specifically one of a couple of videos that have made me laugh quite a bit lately.

This one was shown to me by my little bro. "That's it, hehe!"

This one comes from a buddy at work named Steve ("How 'bout 'Steve-zee'?"). I just love it. Please enjoy.

Something from the bucket list

2010-04-26T21:07:00.000-06:00

So there is something that I have been wanting to do for a long time, and tonight I finally bit the bullet and did it. Yup, I shaved my head completely bald. Bic'd (Bicced / Bicked?) it. My hair grows fast enough that it should be back to normal by the time that we head to Ohio. Anything on your own bucket lists you'd like to share?

Anywho--here's where we started:

Whoops. I mean here is where we started:

Here's halfway through the first buzz with the clippers (my potential stopping point for next time?), and channeling my warrior spirit in the second:

And here it is all finished:

Time for a change

2010-03-27T21:57:00.000-06:00

So it's been a while since my last post, and I'm thinking that it might at least be partly due the fact that I haven't changed what my blog looks like in the entire time that I've had it. So--I wanna change it, but I'm not exactly sure how I want to change it, what it should look like, etc. Please feel free to suggest things. And maybe I'll end up posting more (I probably will, but just needed a little more time which has finally arrived with a bit of a lull this week in my classes).

Happy 2010!

2010-01-08T19:01:00.001-07:00

Saw this on Gizmodo and just had to share. This is awesomeness in 7 panels. Happy future, everybody!

Favorite Books of 2009

2010-01-03T18:00:00.000-07:00

2009 was a good year for reading. I'm pleased to announce that I met my goal last year of 60 books, and beat it by 10. The following books were some of my favorites that I read during the past year.

The Undaunted: Gerald Lund's new novel about the pioneers who left Cedar City and blazed a trail through Hole in the Rock. A fabulous book with adventure, excitement, and yes, even a little romance.

The Hunger Games / Catching Fire: Found these books by Suzanne Collins this year, Catching Fire just came out in September. The story focuses on a girl who has to participate in the Hunger Games, a tournament where young people are forced to fight to the death. Probably don't start this series until the last book comes out later this year. Seriously, it sucks to wait and see what's coming next.

Frog: This was a beautiful photography book with lots of pictures of frogs. Dunno why, but they are one of my favorite animals. Lots of gorgeous photos. I hope to own this one for my coffee table someday.

A Tale of Two Cities: I originally read this book in high school and didn't much care for it. Upon re-reading it this year, I realized that Dickens has a sense of humor and can tell a great story. Who knew? Maybe that's why he's such a famous author.

Anyone else read some good stuff they want to pass along? Also, feel free to check out my goodreads profile (link on the right in my book queue) to see what else I've been reading.

A Christmas Miracle!

2009-12-26T19:39:00.004-07:00

So, tonight we went to the store for this:

But came home with this:

Only a dollar a bag! Merry Christmas to ME!

Med School update

2009-12-20T15:34:00.002-07:00

The semester finally finished, so I can give some attention to my poor little blob. A lot has happened since last update post, here's the skinny: Went to Ohio State, was very impressed, the interviews went well. Two weeks later I heard back from them--I got accepted! This was a huge weight off my shoulders because now I know that I will be going to med school now no matter what. All that remains to be seen is where.

I interviewed last Thursday with Duke via Skype. Kind of a strange experience having the interview by online video conference, but it actually worked out pretty well. I spoke with the assistant dean of admissions for an hour and forty minutes, and it was a great conversation. I felt like we got along well and that I was able to respond well to the questions he asked me.

I also found out last week that OHSU (Oregon) would like to interview me in January. More to come on that. Still no word from Stanford and Johns Hopkins, nor any further word from Utah. Chances are I'll be hearing back with decisions from Utah and Duke at the end of February or early March.

This one's for Christian

2009-11-08T21:25:00.004-07:00

(He's a theater/media arts major)

(h/t to graphjam.com)

Where I'm at application-wise

2009-11-01T16:45:00.002-07:00

So, I ended up applying initially to 9 schools: Washington, Oregon, Stanford, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Ohio State, Johns Hopkins, and Duke. All but Washington asked for a secondary application (no big surprise as I have no ties to the state). I have filled out secondary apps for everyone except Duke, Colorado, and Arizona, and hope to finish Duke within the week. I probably won't finish the applications for CO and AZ because they each want $100 to process the application, and I don't feel strongly enough about going to either of them.

I interviewed at Utah a few weeks ago and have an interview scheduled at Ohio State in late November. Unfortunately, they scheduled for right around Thanksgiving, so airfare is a little higher than I would like it to be. Oh well. One of my old roommates offered transport and a place to crash out there, for which I'm grateful.

Still just waiting to hear back from Oregon, Johns Hopkins, and Stanford. A post in the near future will talk a little more about my interview experience.

P.S. Anyone know of any good deals on airfare? What do you use when you are traveling to get the best deal? My interview is on a Monday morning--is a particular day or time most conducive to cheaper tickets?

The only good use of autotune

2009-10-21T21:30:00.002-06:00

I found this video today, and it made me really happy inside. For those who don't know, autotune is a cop out to make people who are not musically talented sound like they are. :) Basically it's meant to "fix" small off-key slip ups. A lot of artists overuse it, and then they don't have to sing well, because the machine does it for them. Case in point, the scientists in this video are simply speaking, yet this sounds like it could be on a hip hop or electronica station.

Med School Application Process

2009-10-10T16:55:00.003-06:00

One day short of two months with no posts. The paucity of posts is explained by the fact that I have been busy between school, work, and applications. Here I'm going to give a basic rundown of the application process for med school.

Back in May I took the MCAT, which is the admission exam for medical school. The next step of the process was to fill out the primary application, which is a basic, centralized application for every school you want to apply to. You fill out personal information, all of the classes you have taken in college and grades from those classes, different activities you have participated in during college (service, research, etc), write a personal statement essay, and select all of the medical schools you would like to send the application to (~30 bucks a pop). You also must find several professors and supervisors to write letters of recommendation, which are associated with your application file. The application service takes about 30 days to verify your application and transcript.

Schools that are interested (either in you or just your money) send a request for you to fill out their particular secondary applications, different for every school. Some are fairly simple, but most require another handful of essays to be written. After filling out the secondary, you get to pay another 75 - 100 dollars each.

After they screen the secondaries, schools then contact you to set up a time for an interview at the school. Of course, you get to pay to fly yourself to the school and find yourself food and lodging for your time there. If you make it this far, you basically qualify for acceptance at the school--they're checking to see if you're a good fit.

Now you wait. And wait, and wait. Schools make their decision and contact you via email, letter or telephone. Their deadline for decisions is in April. Some may decide and let you know sooner. In the meantime, you put all of your plans for the future on hold, because you don't know where you'll be living for the next four years.

Next post will be about my experience thus far in the process.

Our square footage

2009-08-11T13:22:00.001-06:00

Out of curiosity, I measured today the square footage of the apartment we've been living in for the past (almost) two years: 337.5. Less than I thought. I'm proud of us.

Some political thoughts

2009-08-08T20:52:00.003-06:00

For the past few months I've had a few thoughts rattling around in my head regarding our current political situation. Short version: I'm still finding my political stance, but there seems to be too much name-calling and too little actual political discussion to work towards solutions. Biased shouting is preventing reasonable dialogue. (See Limbaugh and Hannity vs. HuffPo and DailyKos. Note: I tend to ignore all four of these sources.)

Longer version: As far as I can tell, there is an entire spectrum of political beliefs. To simplify, we'll call one end of the spectrum the "extreme liberal" end, and the other we'll call the "extreme conservative" end. It seems to me that the people on the extremes of the spectrum are shouting very loudly at each other, and this prevents meaningful discussion. Name-calling doesn't help--I believe that most of the people leading our country at any given time are doing their best not to drive it into the ground. They want to help the nation and its people. Unfortunately, the people at each end of the spectrum have their own ideas about what is the right way to make that happen and then demonize others who happen to take a different viewpoint.

A very simple example: In general, liberals subscribe to the "tax and spend" ideology, where the public is taxed and government uses the money in different programs to meet needs of individuals/groups. Conservatives generally believe that the market should be left to operate on its own, and that individuals and communities should altruistically care for the needs of individuals/groups.

Both of these ideologies are valid ways of thinking and caring for the public. Each has their pros and cons. My point in this post is not to advocate either stance, but rather that neither side is made up completely of idiots. Smart, good people have found reasons to sway one way or the other. Maybe we should find out what those reasons are before we criticize what they choose to support. In the end, we may not be able to come to a perfect consensus. That's ok. At least we know what the others think and why. And then we can vote on it. The majority vote will win. Sometimes there's a stalemate and compromise is required. That's ok, too. That's the way this country was set up to run.

But let's not call each other names. That wasn't appropriate in Kindergarten, and it's not appropriate now.

We got a convertible!!

2009-07-31T21:03:00.001-06:00

For more on this story, see Jess's blog here.

Hi, my name is Brad, and I'm a bookaholic.

2009-07-29T20:34:00.004-06:00

So I have to let you in on a couple of secrets. First: I have a reading queue in my blog side bar... but it's not super accurate. Yes, I plan to read all of the books in it, but my to-read queue is a bit longer than what you can see there. There are 18 books listed on my blog, but the true queue actually contains 797.

Second: reading pays. I've received 5 free books in the past 6 months or so, plus a $10 gift certificate to a local restaurant. All for reading... woohoo!

The summer reading program at the local library is pretty great--they were the source of the gift certificate. The books came from a website called Goodreads, which just so happens to be one of my favorite websites ever. Basically it's a giant database of books with social network functionality. So you create a profile and start telling the website books you've read, and marking other books that you want to read. You can rate books and leave reviews on them. You can be friends with other people who use the site and see what they are reading and what they think about it, etc. So anytime I hear about a book that sounds interesting to me, I'll go to the website, find it, and mark it as "to read". Then it doesn't have to sit in my brain anymore. I also haven't lacked for new books to read since I started using it--I know exactly what books I'm wanting to read rather than trying to remember what that cool book my buddy told me about is called. I've outsourced a nice little non-essential portion of my brain.

Now, I can't possibly read all of these books in my queue in any reasonable amount of time (at best it will be over 10 years...), but it'll keep track of them for me nonetheless. I've also figured out how to choose what to read next: I go to a random number generator and give it the number of books in the list, and the number it gives me is the next book. Sweet.

There's a section on the site called "Firstreads" where you can enter free drawings for books that are coming out soon. Publishers and authors put them up, and if you see one that strikes your fancy, you can enter for it. If you win, they send you the book for free, end of obligation. They hope you will read it and give a review, but you don't even have to do that. If you do, though, it makes it more likely that you will win more drawings in the future (as it plays into their algorithm for choosing). Out of the 5 books I've received, only one was a real stinker, so after I read it I sent it off to the DI.

Anywho, I really like Goodreads. Feel free to add me as a friend on it if you wish. Goodreads + libraries = reading bliss. Also, I've linked to my profile if anyone cares to see what it looks like.

Pain and puns

2009-07-16T23:14:00.002-06:00

These are the two elements of great summer television. Case in point: I Survived a Japanese Game Show! and even more so, Wipeout.

These two shows bring me waaaaay too much joy. Seriously.

Application is in!

2009-07-06T22:05:00.002-06:00

Today is momentous: I finally finished my med school primary application. This thing a beast and has taken me about a month to fill out. One of the worst parts was inputting every college class I have ever taken, one at a time. And I have to send them my transcript. So why do I have to put the info in manually? I dunno.

Anywho, it's finished. I submitted it this afternoon, and it feels really good to be done. Here's the list of schools I applied to: (drumroll, please)

Utah
Colorado
Washington
Oregon
Stanford (CA)
Ohio State
Duke (NC)
Johns Hopkins (Baltimore, MA)

Texas schools have their own, separate application (do they seriously still want to be their own country or something?). I'm currently thinking about applying to three of their eight schools, but 1. feel too lazy to basically fill out the same long thing again, 2. don't have any particularly strong reason to apply to Texas, and 3. each application costs money, and I'm pretty happy with my current list.

Any thoughts? Can anyone convince me to apply to Texas? Any other schools I should have included in my list? Why? Should I be avoiding any of the schools that I did apply to? If so, why?

And the waiting game commences...

MCAT

2009-07-02T09:38:00.002-06:00

First, a quick breakdown of the test: it has four sections--physical sciences (physics and inorganic chemistry), verbal reasoning, two essays, and biological sciences (biology and organic chemistry). Each of the three non-essay sections is given a score from 1 to 15. These three numbers are added together to give your total score out of 45. The essays are scored separately and given a letter from L to T (T is better). Your final score is reported as a number and a letter, 45T being a perfect score on all sections of the test.

I took the MCAT on the 28th of May, and had to wait until June 30th for my score. Needless to say, it was kind of a long month. And here are the results: 36O, with a 12 on each of the multiple choice sections. The score report also gives what percentile you rank with your score. Interestingly enough, a 36 ranks in the 96th percentile (confusing, since 36 works out to 80% of 45), and I should be able to get in somewhere for medical school. Now we'll just see if it's where we want to go.

Now it's time to finish the stupid application.

P.S. My "O" score on the essays turns out to be in the 50th percentile. I couldn't help but laugh when I saw that. Fortunately, the number score is the one that schools look at more.

Old fambly picture

2009-06-09T22:27:00.002-06:00

Hey all, I was digging through some old photos tonight and found this treasure.

Mandy looks stunning on her stool, Jord's the little stud on the left, Mom is dazzling as always, and you can see the devilish look on my face there on the right--one hand on the hip, the other on my sister's knee! We're a gifted family. Dad was busy taming lions, and Kelli wasn't quite talented enough to make it into our little performing group so she got stuck taking the picture. Middle-child syndrome?

Just kidding. Kelli is actually the most talented amongst us, and this picture isn't really my family. It's from Awkward Family Photos, a pretty fabulous site.

Heads up

2009-06-09T22:17:00.002-06:00

Hey everyone (mostly any ladies, probably, who happen to view my blog and not my wife's), my wife and her friend are having a cool giveaway at their new craft blog, floralshowers.com. Check it out and enter to win!

Good news, bad news

2009-05-28T21:43:00.002-06:00

It's done. Thanks everyone for your well-wishing and prayers and such. I feel like the test went pretty well, and I'll find out my score in a month. There is an essay section on the test that has to be graded, and so we don't get to walk out of the testing center knowing our score. Bother. When I got home, we went out to dinner to celebrate--Kentucky Bourbon burger from Carl's Jr. Mmmm, my mouth salivates just remembering it.

Sadder news: the blasted check engine light came on again today on my way home from Salt Lake. Hopefully it turns off again on its own soon like last time.

That is all. Good night and good luck.

Two small things

2009-05-27T18:48:00.002-06:00

I've updated the song of the moment. Catchy tune, and amusing lyrics--seriously, have you ever heard a song that used the word "ampersand" before? I highly recommend it.

Tomorrow is the MCAT, at high noon. Place: OK Corral. Only one of us will walk away.

Surprise!

2009-04-24T13:47:00.002-06:00

So, yesterday morning I would have expected this post to be about how glad I am that the MCAT is over. But things changed. I got an email yesterday afternoon from Prometrics (the people that run the testing centers for these big graduate school tests) saying that tomorrow's proctoring of the exam was cancelled. I was rather incredulous. All of this work, all of my psyching up, and for... nothing?

I called up the phone number that was listed in the email, and after waiting almost half an hour, I explained my predicament to the guy on the other end. He was very helpful, and we were able to get me scheduled for May 28th at noon at a testing location in Salt Lake. It sounded like they had to pull some strings but everything is on track, just with a new date.

My feelings on the matter: mixed. I was pumped and ready to take the test and be done with it. I was kind of upset yesterday. On the other hand, I get an extra month to study for the test, and I get to take it at noon instead of 8am. Also fortunate is that they were able to reschedule me before it gets too late in the application cycle--if they tried to reschedule my test for late June or July, I would have been fairly angry.

So anyways, thanks everyone for your kind thoughts and prayers. Keep 'em going for another month. :)

I'm not contrary.... Oh.

2009-04-18T10:55:00.003-06:00

When I was in Bolivia on my mission, the lady who cooked lunch for us said to me: "Elder, usted es muy contrario." This translates to: "Elder, you are very contrary" (but it doesn't rhyme in Spanish). Just last night, I came to the realization that I haven't changed much in that respect in the past 3 1/2 years (side note: can't believe it's been that long already). I mentioned this to Jess last night, and she just sort of laughed at me and said "yep." We discussed my contrariness for a few minutes, which helped me understand my standard reaction to so many things.

I think a lot. I analyze things. Probably too much. I find that a lot of issues have multiple facets, and that makes it harder to make snap judgments. Because of this I tend to want others to see these other facets, and my subconscious method for doing this is to play devil's advocate. I don't always espouse the idea that I present--mostly I just want the person that I'm talking with to think about it. Have they considered this aspect of what they are talking about? If they have, great! I'm not looking to argue, just to show that things might be more complicated than initially realized. I actually don't like contention--I just like to explore ideas.

So what's the bottom line? Two things: 1. If I have ever offended you because I came across as argumentative or disagreeable, that was not my intention. I apologize. Hopefully what I have written here will help you understand what is going on inside my head. 2. Finding character defects is kind of a painful process. However, recognition is one of the first steps towards fixing a problem. I still think that thinking things through is good, but maybe I just need to be more careful in how I present the things that I've thought about. I need to harness this power for good instead of evil. :) Any ideas on how to do that? Did any of this make any sense?

Yaar, thar be pirates

2009-04-14T22:54:00.004-06:00

Interesting news this week: pirates off the coast of Somalia took an American ship (the Maersk Alabama), but the situation has been resolved. The crew of the ship acted quickly and disabled it so that the pirates wouldn't be able to sail it. So three of the four pirates hopped in a lifeboat with the captain of the Maersk. After a while at sea, US Naval forces showed up (the SEALs), ready to rescue the captain. At least one of the pirates had an AK-47 assault rifle aimed at the captain's back, so the commanding officer gave the order to fire. Three Navy snipers dropped the three pirates at the same time, one head-shot each. The captain was rescued, safe and sound.

I have two main thoughts about the whole situation. The first is that it breaks my heart that things are so bad in Somalia that people are having to resort to piracy to make a living. The country basically has no government, and hasn't for a while. There is no easy solution in sight. Even sadder is that these men lost their lives essentially because of the situation they were in.

However, these men did have agency and they used it poorly. The life of an American citizen was in danger through no fault of his own. So my second thought is that how impressed I am with our military men and their skill. They took care of the situation quickly and efficiently, and saved the life of the captain. This is the sort of thing that you read about in a Tom Clancy novel, not hear about in real life.

So I'm glad the captain is ok, that the SEALs are awesome, and that the crew were quick on their feet to prevent bigger problems. But I'm also wondering, what can be done to help the Somali people and prevent this sort of thing from continuing/happening again?

More cool science pictures

2009-04-03T18:33:00.002-06:00

I found these pictures a while ago and thought they were pretty awesome. They come from National Geographic's Best Science Images of 2008. Basically they provide further validation for studying what I study.

(Note: this is sort of a cop-out post meant to take care of something that I had backlogged for a while. I've got something better [a real post] coming down the pipe, have no fear.)

Happy first of spring!

2009-03-20T22:26:00.001-06:00

I'm glad I got the other shots yesterday, because these made a nice comparison. Perfect timing!

Spring is coming...

2009-03-19T21:34:00.001-06:00

And I'm very excited. Those are some of our daffodils that are coming up. Sweetness!

Open mouth, insert foot.

2009-03-03T23:18:00.002-07:00

I've been volunteering at a hospital on a weekly basis for the past seven or eight months. It's been a good experience--I enjoy spending time at the hospital and helping out in small ways (it also gets me some of my requisite volunteer hours for medical school). One of my responsibilities is to help move patients from their beds or stretchers to the CT beds so that they can get scanned. Tonight was one of the funniest moments that I've ever had there.

One sweet older woman was wheeled in to the scanner room, and the first thing I noticed was her hair. Most people who are in the hospital aren't too concerned about their personal appearance because they have other more pressing matters to attend to (like cysts, rupturing appendices and the like). Her hair looked amazing. Something like these two photos, but blonde and less of a tousled look. And no nose piercing (like Alyssa Milano).

So, needless to say, I was impressed. She looked really good for an old lady laying on a hospital bed. So I figure I should let her know--who doesn't love a nice compliment, especially when they're not feeling well? And that's when my foot entered my mouth. I say, "your hair looks really nice," and at that very moment, her blonde coif slid back on her head, exposing her real hair, which was brown with a lot of thick gray streaks. I could feel my eyes widen in shock as I realized that her nice-looking hair was actually a wig. Her eyes were closed, so she didn't notice, and she said, "thank you. It takes a few hours a day to comb it and make it look nice." I could feel myself turning red, and caught a few funny looks from Susie and Michelle, the techs who were on duty.

As soon as I got into the room where they operate the scanners (not the same room that the scanners are in, to prevent the workers from getting a lot of exposure to radiation), I lost it. I busted a gut, and so did everybody else. Some of them had totally noticed that it was a wig from the moment they saw the lady, and they gave me a hard time about it while we waited for the scan to take place. This was probably one of the funniest things that has happened to me in CT.

P.S. I would like to add that it didn't seem like the woman thought I was making fun of her. It sounded like she took my compliment the way it was offered--in a totally and completely sincere manner. She was a sweetheart, and I wish her the best.

Slime molds!

2009-02-22T19:07:00.005-07:00

So the other day I found a website with really cool pictures of slime molds. Slime molds are amoebas that are similar to fungi, and they look really cool. I've included a couple of the pictures that I liked best from the site, but I highly recommend that you go to the site and look at the rest for yourself (as there are about 40 pictures there).

These sorts of things are why I love microbiology. Nature is just plain awesome.

(Edit: Apparently when you link to online pictures, it's hard to control the size--therefore some of these photos don't actually fit on my blog. Just another reason to go see the site. Seriously, check it out.)

Yeah, those last two are a picture of the same thing at different times. Cool, eh?

(Edit: I figured out how to change the image size, so I did. Now you can see the whole thing. Hooray!)

6th challenge from Maren

2009-02-22T18:46:00.003-07:00

So my sis-in-law put me up for a challenge, and here's how it works:
In your pictures folder on your comp, go to the 6th folder of pictures, then the 6th picture in the folder and post that picture on your blog. I probably would have been content just to see which picture it was, but then I felt bad for not living up to the tag. So here it is for you all to see.

This comes from Christmas beard 2007, and is a picture of me and the wifey right before I shaved it off. It only grew for one week compared to last year's 2-weeker, so it almost looks thin. I figure that for Christmas beard 2009, I'll let it grow until it's shoulder-length. Mmm, boy. Just trying to Follow the Prophet. (Lorenzo Snow or Joseph F. Smith, to be precise.)

This would be the point in the post where I would tag six other people, but I'm not really that into that part of it. So go for it if you like, but I won't put you under any imaginary obligation to continue this trend.

It's me... super-hero-ized.

2009-02-14T23:37:00.004-07:00

I found this website today by happy chance. It's called Hero Factory, and you can make different superheroes. So I made myself into one. Notice the patch and the spork. Please feel free to visit the site, make one of yourself, and then post a link to it in the comments. (Edit: By "post a link to it," I guess I really mean that you should click "download" to get a copy of the image, then put it up on your blog, and then put a link to it in the comments.)

Faith

2009-02-08T22:38:00.002-07:00

I study the sciences, and as a result I've run into a lot of different ideas about the world and the universe. There seems to be a growing shift to atheism (or at least agnosticism) in the world (and even one or two people that I know) which has led me to think more about faith, what it is, and why we need it. I ran across a post at Mormon Matters that articulated a lot of the same ideas I had been mulling over.

I think that faith is a decision. We choose to believe or to not believe. God has provided enough evidence (or sufficient lack of evidence, if you choose) on either side so that we can make our choice about what we want to believe. God will generally never give us incontrovertible, sensory evidence about his existence and science cannot definitively prove that God does not exist. Andrew at MM states that God wants this to be a difficult choice, and thus we must struggle and work to make our faith grow. He says, "by concealing himself and his doings, God had demonstrated he wants faith development to be a soul-searching, heart-wrenching, and mind-bending experience." Essentially, I think God wants to see how bad we want it.

Two particular scriptures come to mind that help provide me some reassurance in this process. One is in Ether 12:6--"ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." This implies that after our faith has been tried, we will receive further witness (=personal evidence). An example of this shows up in Alma 32, where the prophet is teaching a group of people about how to know if his words are true. He compares his words (and God's word) to a seed. That seed requires nourishment and care in order to grow. When we see the growth, we have further evidence that what we have worked on is worthy of our work.

I have chosen to believe. I don't have all the answers to all of the questions that might come up. Some of my questions have to be put on the shelf until I receive further light and knowledge. However, in my decision to believe I have found more and more evidence that there is indeed a Creator, and I grow stronger in my faith that we have a Savior who loves us and will help us be our best and return to live with God.

Sad day.

2009-01-22T22:25:00.003-07:00

A picture is worth a thousand words, and these are very sad words. See the two arrows? Those parts should be connected, but they're not. Also, you can see our lovely green floral print chair in the bottom of the photo. On a brighter note, I won two games with broken strings tonight, and it's the first time that I've ever busted strings--makes me feel manly. Manly and sad.

Christmas Beard 2008

2009-01-19T22:04:00.005-07:00

Here it is, two-and-a-half glorious weeks worth of beardage. And the tragic end.

Jess is happy because it's all going away.

Probably the weirdest thing I tried. And it looks like I'm trying to look hard. 'Sup.

Who doesn't love a good mustache (more mustache pictures to come...)?

My best Charlie Chaplin impression. Notice the lack of any (colored) hair directly beneath my nose. That's probably my weakest "growing spot."

So sad.

But this is why it's worth it. :)

Nobody ever seen him again... He got eaten.

2009-01-08T21:00:00.002-07:00

How's that for weirdness? I made a post about the songs of the moment and even received two comments on it. And then I checked my blog today and it's all gone. Like it never even happened. Anyone else have something like that happen on their blog?

Bonus points for the title reference.

I want one!

2009-01-05T21:52:00.001-07:00

Apple's newest product. I can't wait!!

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Soylent Heat

2009-01-02T16:39:00.002-07:00

I read an interesting tidbit yesterday. Apparently there is a town in Sweden where they are going to use heat from a crematorium to help heat the town. My first feeling about it was shock and little bit of disgust, but the more I think of it the better an idea it sounds. Since people are going to be cremated anyways, you may as well harness some of the energy that comes from it.

That does not entail tossing limbs into your home fireplace instead of logs. That's just plain creepy.

Coolest themepark ever?

2008-12-28T20:37:00.002-07:00

In my web surfing today, I found something that made my jaw drop with pure awesome. Männerspielplatz is German for "men's playground," and that's exactly what this themepark is.

It costs about $280 per day, but after that, it appears that the possibilities are near endless. You can off-road in a Hummer or Land Rover or four-wheelers, you can play with giant construction equipment like front-loaders, backhoes and dumptrucks, skydiving, flying airplanes and standing on the skids of flying helicopters, ride in a speedboat, go rafting or sailing, spelunking (explore caves), or go through spy/secret agent training.

So basically, how cool is that? What would you want to do there if you could? What other ideas do you have for cool stuff they could offer in a manpark?

Success!

2008-12-22T16:57:00.002-07:00

The songs of the moment are now working.

Also, the car is now registered, so there's a big weight off our shoulders.

Also, I'm tired of the snow now. Seriously, I think we've been hit with more than a foot today. Why? When will it end? Should I think about going to med school in Arizona or Texas instead of here in Utah? Goodness gracious.

Glad it was just a dream

2008-12-21T15:50:00.003-07:00

Two nights ago I had a dream. It wasn't really a nightmare, per se, but I was sure glad that it wasn't for real. On the front right-hand side of my neck I have a dry patch. It has been there for a few weeks, but it's nothing serious and putting lotion on it helps. (No Kelli, it really isn't a hickey...)

In my dream I looked in the mirror and saw something else on my neck instead. I had one of these:

For the uninitiated, that is a cutaneous anthrax lesion, meaning that the person has an anthrax infection in skin. Now, this isn't life-threatening, but it sure had a strong effect on me. I kept on checking my neck once I woke up, and continued thinking about it during the day. Sure glad that it's just a dry patch. Maybe I had to study too much for my Infection & Immunity class? You be the judge...

Some Christmas songs of the moment

2008-12-20T21:57:00.002-07:00

The two that are up right now are a couple of my current favorites. They both happen to be by the same band--Barenaked Ladies, or BNL. Now, before anyone takes offense, there is not a single woman in the band, nor do they sing about anything inappropriate, nor do they do anything naked. They invented the name as a joke while at a Bob Dylan concert. They are one of my favorite bands, and I invite you to give them a listen. Most of their stuff is very light-hearted pop/rock.

That being said, the first song features Michael Buble and the second features Sarah McLaughlin. Good stuff, and they get stuck in my head frequently at this time of year.

I got tagged

2008-12-04T21:30:00.002-07:00

7 things I can do...
Read fast
Talk loud
Laugh a lot, even at things other people don't find funny
Sweat like crazy
Make Jeopardy with Powerpoint for my Infection & Immunity class
Drive a stick-shift
Grow microbes

7 things I can't do...
Eat peanut butter
Eat fast (says Jess)
Understand Polish
Handle lots of heat (temperature)
Wrap my legs around my head
Shop for longer than half an hour (unless it's electronics)
Surf

7 things I always say...
"Yuppers"
"Awww yeah"
"Sweet"
"Excuse me"
"Ehf"
"Mmmhmm"
"daddy-o" (in reference to my father)

7 things I always eat...
Chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate.
Sandwiches. I can eat anything in a sandwich. Minus peanut butter.
Chocolate. Seriously, I love it enough that it merits two spots in this list.
Leftovers. Jess usually won't touch them, so they fall to me.
Pizza. One of my favorite foods. I could probably eat it every day and not get sick of it.
Dollar menu items. The new double-stacker at Wendy's is a new favorite. Carl's Jr. has more "foody" food than Wendy's on the dollar menu (and in general), though.
Water. I love having a bottle of cold water on hand at all times. Mmm.

7 tags:
I don't think I even know seven people. How about these:
Merry Christmas
Happy Birthday
50% off
Special
Size: M
Hand wash only
PG-13

Ben Folds SoM

2008-11-17T21:01:00.003-07:00

The new song of the moment is You Don't Know Me by Ben Folds. This comes from his most recent album, Way to Normal, and Regina Spektor joins him on this song. I'll be honest, it took me a couple of listens to enjoy it (because it's kinda different from some of his previous stuff), but now I really like it quite well.

As I was listening to NPR on the way to school this morning, someone gave a review of the album (and sort of Folds in general), which has led to this song receiving the coveted title of Song of the Moment. As a warning, the CD version drops the F-bomb (unfortunately, would it be Ben Folds without a little potty language?). I have edited that out for our listening convenience. At some future point I think I may have a "Best of Ben" post where I share some of my favorite songs of his. We'll see.

Also interesting, my SIL posted about this very song a couple of weeks back. We don't always have congruent taste in music, so it's nice to have a song that we both like a lot. Even if she thinks he sounds like Kermit the Frog...

New song of the moment

2008-11-05T22:19:00.002-07:00

Ok, I'll admit that I'm not that surprised at some of the responses that I've received in regards to my poll. As a result, I've put up a new song tonight. It's by The Weepies, and it's called "The World Spins Madly On". It's a nice laid-back acoustic tune, and the band was recommended to me by a buddy in my ward. Tonight I listed to two of the albums that the band has released, and it was calm and relaxing. I may give another listen through to find one more tune to put up.

I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the feature, but I will try to update it more often (by popular request). Kelli: how can I make it clash less? I can change the colors on the player fairly easily--what colors would you recommend?

Song of the moment

2008-11-02T17:41:00.002-07:00

Thanks everyone who participated in the poll. It was interesting (and somewhat disappointing) to see the results: 3 people HAD listened to the song of the moment at least once, and 9 people never had. So now I have a few more questions...

If you HAVE listened before, why did you? What did you think? Would you like to see more of any particular thing?

If you HAVEN'T, why not? Do you only view the blog view Google Reader or something similar? Do you think I have crappy taste in music (/are you just not interested)? Are you reading at work, so you can't listen to anything?

And for both parties: any reason to keep it alive? If I were to continue this little blog feature, should I do anything differently (update it more, help you discover new bands, etc)? What would make you listen or cause you to be interested?

Any additional thoughts, comments, ideas and jokes are welcome and requested. Thanks!

Heads up

2008-10-21T22:51:00.002-06:00

Just as a heads up to anyone who reads my blog via Google Reader or another RSS feed reader, there is currently a poll on my blog that is not visible as a post--it's off to the right. I'm conducting some research that will lead to a future post. Please participate. Thank you, and good night.

Science rules!

2008-10-19T15:45:00.002-06:00

Today's bit of nerdiness has to do with glass. I found this image on Make (a blog about building and making things) a little while back and decided I wanted to share it.

This is called a "Prince Rupert's Drop", and is a piece of molten glass dropped into cold water. The outside cools much faster than the inside and contracts. This means there is an extreme amount of energy trapped in the glass. However, because of its structure, the fat part of the drop is extremely strong and can be hit with a hammer without breaking. The tail of the drop is extremely fragile, though, and if you damage the tail in any way, the whole thing explodes. Pretty freaking awesome, I'd say. Here's a 2 1/2 minute video from Youtube that shows it more dynamically. The best part is about half-way through when they break one in a plastic jar so you can watch the explosion happen.

P.S. Bonus points to anyone who can give the source of the title for this post.

So maybe THAT'S why we didn't get results...

2008-10-15T22:32:00.004-06:00

Reader's Digest version: we've been using one-tenth of what we thought we were using, and concentrations that low probably can't do anything against microbes. And I figured it out!

Longer, richer version: Potential good news today. I was working up in the lab today and made a discovery that bodes well. First, though, a brief overview on the project for those who don't know: I work in a Natural Products Research lab, which means we look at things that come from plants. Specifically, I'm working on a project where we're looking for medicinally-active plants from Guatemala. We grind and mash up the plants to get at the good stuff that's inside, then test that good stuff (the "drug") at different concentrations against five different microbes. We've probably run 60-some-odd plants, and we haven't really had any significant inhibition of microbial growth. Unsurprisingly, this has been a little disheartening.

Recently we had discussed tripling the concentrations that we use for the test to see if more drug will provide better results. Being somewhat anal, I went through (on paper) the calculations to make sure that the method I would use to triple the concentrations would work. I checked my method against the normal way we had been doing it, and all went well at first. Then on one of the steps, my numbers weren't working out. So I tried it again, still no dice. I tried again, using a calculator--still nothing. My calculations showed that we were using only 10% of the concentrations we thought we were using! That means that instead of 1000, 500 and 250 ug/ml, we were using 100, 50 and 25. That's pretty much nothing.

I've been known to mess up on my math before, so I thought about it qualitatively. We were trying to go from 400 ug/ml to 1000 ug/ml by diluting. Yeah, that's right--that's impossible. So I tried to find someone else to check my math with, and was finally able to find my professor who I work with. I showed him what I had found, and he was shocked. This was a fairly simple calculational error in our protocol that had snuck past seven or eight people for nearly a year. But it explained a lot.

When Aaron, Mark and I began working in the lab, we were trained by folks working on another similar project in the lab, with plants from Morocco. They were running these plants for a third time to verify previous results. The PhD. student in the lab had recently shown them a faster way to make their dilutions (different concentrations of their drugs) via serial dilutions (that's for the nerds out there), and the new method is how we were trained. Unfortunately, that was where the error came from. Those two students were surprised when their third set of results didn't match up with their first and second sets. We also were unable to duplicate previous results with a plant from Arizona. And we also have gotten pretty crappy results on our Guatemalan plants.

Today all of that strangeness made sense, and I happened to be the one who figured it out. I was rather pleased with myself. Unfortunately, we'll have to re-run all of the plants that we've done so far. Fortunately, I'm paid by the hour. How's that for job security? And this time we may actually get some good positive results that we can publish and present. Fingers are crossed.

Wahoo!!

2008-10-09T22:55:00.003-06:00

Okay, I'll post something more substantial in the near future (after mid-terms). Jess told me about Sitemeter, which is a service that tracks visits to your webpage. I've been looking at some of the hits that I've received, and I discovered something pretty awesome. Get ready:

Go to Google. In the search box, type "nerd haircut". Check out the top listing. Sweet! I never thought that I'd be top listing of anything on Google. It's a good day.

School has begun

2008-09-17T21:39:00.003-06:00

Classes have started, and it seems like free time has sort of disappeared. This explains the dearth (lack) of blog posts, as well as the big slow down in my pleasure reading. This is looking to be a good, but busy semester--two Spanish classes (to finish off my minor), two biology classes (physiology and infection & immunity) with a pre-med internship (I go shadow doctors) and a careers in microbiology class to top it all off. This semester's tests started off on a very positive note--I happened to ace my physiology test today. I'm counting my blessings.

With all of this business, I'm looking in to how to keep my life organized and keep from getting swamped. One of my tricks that I picked up a few semesters back is to use Google Calendar to keep track of classes, assignments, and other important things. Each class gets its own color code, I can drag and drop things if due dates change, etc. I delete assignments as I finish them, and it helps me stay on top of things.

Another thing that I'm trying for the first time is to use an index card as a to-do list. I throw it in my back pocket and use it to keep track of (non-school assignment) things I need to get done and any random important information I need. Once I get most of the things checked off and/or the card gets super hashed, I swap it for a new one, copying over things that still need to be done. I've liked it so far, except that I lost the first card that I made. Not so handy if I lose the card.

What do you do, oh faithful blog readers, to stay organized and keep track of all the crazy things going on in your busy lives? Any thoughts on how I can improve my system?

Anniversary Dinner

2008-08-28T17:55:00.003-06:00

To go along with Jess's post about our anniversary, I've decided to share my review of Pizzeria 712 from Yelp. One of my upcoming posts will be about Yelp, a site where you can review restaurants and read reviews from other people.

This is probably our favorite place to eat. The ambiance is incredible--this place feels like something that you'd find tucked away in some little corner of a big city. The restaurant feels cozy, and it's fun to see the brick oven blazing away in the corner. On our most recent visit, we saw that they had opened up some outdoor seating. It was nice outside, but I missed being able to hear the music as well as I could indoors. They ask for music recommendations from their patrons, and we've heard things from classic jazz music to Feist to the soundtrack of the Darjeeling Limited. It fits the atmosphere.

The staff is attentive and very helpful. Trent has provided us with fabulous recommendations on both of our visits. The folks who work there have tried all of the dishes they serve and can let you know what's the best. This is handy because the menu changes every few months (they incorporate foods that are in season).

The food is amazing. Seriously--wow. I'm not a big fan of vegetables, but I loved the roasted asparagus and the heirloom tomatoes were to die for. My wife got bruschetta with the heirloom tomatoes on arugula, and I had braised beef shortrib on crisped polenta with a horseradish cream. Mmmm. Our pizza was interesting, but tasty. It had sauteed mushrooms, carmelized onions, potato and some arugula. I'd never had lettuce on a pizza, but it was pretty good.

This is one of our favorite places to eat. It's one of our "special occasion" places because we're poor college students, and we've spent an average of $40 on our two visits. Give 'em a try, you won't regret it!

Political News

2008-08-20T21:42:00.004-06:00

Guess what everyone--Dell Schanze is running for governor. Dell who? Yes, that's right. Mr. Totally Awesome Computers guy. Superdell. Yup. That one.

We found out the good news last night when Jess received an automated phone call from Superdell himself. He's the Libertarian candidate on the ballot for governor this year, running against current governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. (the Republican candidate) and Bob Springmeyer (the Democratic candidate). He informed us in this phone call that he's the only true American running for office. I forget what he told us about Bob, but he sure did say a lot about "socialist Jon Huntsman" and how taxes have been raised exorbitantly during Huntsman's term in office, how he's in the wallets of the big corporations, etc. If Superdell were governor, he'd be different and fix everything. He told us that our cars would soon run on water instead of gasoline if he is governor. How could life get any better?

So after this fine message, we decided to check out his website. [To be fair, he has put up a new website since we were looking at his stuff last night. It's more professional than his blog.] It wasn't anything more than a link to his blog. So I read his most recent post and the comments on it. Wow. I don't know that I could even do it justice. You really oughta just go and read it for yourself. He seems really defensive and easily excited. So I've continued to study up on him, and it's been entertaining.

He's got some fairly strong feelings about the media. In fact, after he closed his company (Totally Awesome Computers) he blamed the media and said the following according to Deseret News: "It's too bad that all of the media in Utah are liars and murderers. You just destroyed the greatest computer company of all time. We were the best in the world, the world champion. All this hatred was created by you. You're basically angels of Satan. All I can say to the people in Utah is, please pray for all the news people." I guess he's not one to mince words. [Angels of Satan?? Whoa...]

I was looking on Youtube to see if I could find any of his old commercials to link to here in the post, but didn't have any luck. However, I did find some videos about paragliding when I searched him. Here's one. I read the information about the video (on the right hand side), and one thing caught my attention. "We would like to publicly thank Dell Schanze, a phenom[e]nal innovator for all the efforts put forth to create a safe and wonderful sport for generations to come." Cool, I thought. Who is giving him these glowing accolades? I clicked the username (imasuper0308... could it be?, I wondered) and discovered that the user's name is Dell. So who's we? Did he really just congratulate himself? That's Totally Awesome.

Spiders

2008-08-03T20:22:00.003-06:00

A couple weeks ago, Jess and I were discussing a difficult question. A difficult question that put to you seven readers of my blog in the form of a poll. Are spiders bugs?

A few days back, I got the results. The vote was close, but the "yes" folks had it 4-3. So my new question is "how do you figure?" Go ahead and explain your reasoning in the comments. Also, feel free to share any good spider stories that you have.

My argument: to me, "bug" is synonymous with "insect". Being a biology nerd, I was taught that an insect has six legs. A spider has eight, and is classified as an arachnid, not an insect. If I were to describe an area with many creepy-crawlies (think the small hole with the release lever in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom where the lady has to stick her hand in and pull the lever to keep Indy and Short Round from being squished and stabbed in the room with the lowering spiky ceiling) I would likely say that there were lots of bugs AND spiders. I wouldn't just say it was full of bugs. Besides, "bugs" doesn't sound very scary. I'm not really afraid of bugs. But I can be afraid of spiders.

Almost completely done!!!

2008-07-26T12:45:00.002-06:00

Nearly one year later, we have finished all but the last handful of thank you cards from our wedding. Monday we'll be sending them out and we'll be free! Thanks everyone for your patience and not hating us or thinking that we're not grateful for your kindness. And I'll be honest--I've been amazed at the people (like Melissa and Nate) who got their thank yous out in what seems like less than a week after their wedding. Props to you.