The Hush Sound!

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

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

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

• 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!

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

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

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!

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

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?

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

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!

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

Thanks Nedroid!

Picture post

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

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

'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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

Fathers Day

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!

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!

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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!

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

Favorite Books of 2009

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.