1/8th a doctor!!!

I made it!!!

The first half of the year is done and done!!! Time for some well earned time off back in the hub with family and friends!!!

It's been a super long week, but a ton has been accomplished--four tests, one newsletter, one big surprise for the class, a wicked party, a basketball game, and a bunch of other stuff...

since break is starting up, i'll be taking some time off from the blog, but i hope to put up a couple reflections on my five months here...

looking forward to seeing everyone...

cheers,

what is original?

i was watching nbc tonight, and during their advertisment for "the office," a remake of a wildly successful british comedy, they claimed it to be an original comedy...

can a remake of a foreign success be consider original in any sense?

cheers,

voyeurism...

i'm sitting in "my" starbucks... (actually, i haven't really been coming here enough to call it my starbucks) just sitting down actually, and setting up for a five hour haul of studying, and i get the pleasure of the following modern service-industry based incident...

the scene: starbucks
the players: "barista" (i think that's the word), and one particularly distraught and unskilled customer

anyway, apparently there's some sort of history between this customer and this barista, which i don't think actually exists--the customer apparently feels like the barista has had attitude in the past towards this particular customer, and, today, she decided to bring it up and confront this particular barista (a particularly cute asian one, incidently)...

it was hilarious to watch... maybe there was attitude, maybe there wasn't... who the heck knows... but who would even care about such a thing enough to turn it into a ten minute spectacle and turn their local bean-scene into dangerous ground? (like you'd ever order food again from someone or someplace you dressed down openly)...

god, i wish i got the whole thing on tape...

i'm not siding with either of them because i have no clue if one or the other is in the right, or something is being made out of nothing...

but, as a devout right-coaster, what's a quality joe-joint without a little sass from the servers? no place i'd want to be... where's the character without it? what would regina's pizzeria be like without waitresses moving into their fifth decade of service curtly demanding your order...

anyway, let's post a photo from tushar's bag of tricks... (i don't know if i mentioned it, but when i downloaded a photo I wanted from tushar, i got 399 additional unrequested photos, and they are solid gold) let's take a look in the bag...


















I call this piece "i'm going to get you, sucka" (dedicated to Prof. H. J. Portlock), starring minneapolis male modeling sensation A-roop. Note the pumpkin and the bird in the background, and the photographer's interesting utilization of angles and unorthodox perspective--this is the height of current MSP mod photography.

cheers,

busybusybusy...

this last week of class is killer busy...

we have four exams in four business days, plus i'm hosting an interviewee for two nights, i'm trying to pull together the class of '09 newsletter, and i've gotta get ready to get out of R-town for the two week winter break (which i'm highly anticipating)

first test went really well though--sat down, did all twenty-nine questions in a short few minutes, and walked right out of there...

that's right, we be gangsta....























cheers,

did you hear the one about...?

last day of anatomy... some highlights:
























Dr. C, the course director for anatomy, has a wry sense of humor, and rather enjoys cracking jokes during lecture... for weeks, we've been talking about getting a snare drum and crash cymbal to give him a little rimshot every time he says one--you know, the "ba-dum crash" you associate with the punchline... well, Dave and I pulled it off...

high comedy... everyone loved it...





here's the infamous table 11 doing a bit of the "dance of joy" now that anatomy is over... what a quality group...

























and here's a shot of me sneaking into a shot with all of the beautiful people of the class of '09...

cheers,

three degrees of separation...

in pathology, we're studying emboli...

for some reason, every time it comes up, I can't help but think of John Knowles A Separate Peace--you probably read it in high school... remember that Finny dies at the end from a marrow embolism?

And then my wandering mind lands of Sideways, the recent indie film hit about wine... miles' english class is reading it at one point, and he's sitting there dazed as the bell rings...

and then i can't help think of my favorite scenes--the golf scene, reclaiming the lost wallet, crashing the car... and i nearly lose it...

emboli are a real problematic subject for me in lecture...

ghastly cold...

omg... the cold is just oppressive...

the thermometer reads -1F, but the net says it "feels" like -20F...

this is probably the first day, other than a couple days with torential downpours, that i'm truly thankful i live a mere forty meters from the nearest tunnel to school...

buckle up for a lot of posts about the temperature, specifically it being low...

anyway, here's a toasty indoor shot of the lot of us at Doc R's birthday a couple of weeks ago...



cheers,

baptism by dissection...

by now, with only one anatomy dissection left, everyone in my dissection group has had the same experience...

while working intently upon a particular area, I, and some of my colleagues, occasionally get in rather close... and sometimes the forceps or a clamp slips, and all of the sudden you feel the splatter of cool...

and then you turn to your partner and ask,

"um, do i have fat on my face?"

ugh, it's just gross...

oneil...

good news, good news...

the young and accomplished oneil, a fraternity brother and friend from tech, has been invited for a MudPhud interview at the clinic...

three huzzahs for bro oneil... an all-around tribute to the human race...

already something to look forward to this coming january...

cheers,

snow blows...

all week long i've been looking forward to a trip to the cities with friends to check out a hip new fusion eatery, do some shopping, and paint the town red...

but what happens?

snow... a constant barrage of snow...

anyway, it wasn't all bad, as after helping the awesome albert, his lovely wife krista, and their beautiful and boisterous daughter bella (seen here below--Albert's expression is due to the shock of a his surprise b-day party being sprung on him at the student lounge)








move to their new home in southeast rochester, my body was due for a rest... and chilling at tushar's indoor pool party and watching the USC game (see below: sujit--the true usc fan--on the left and tushar--who's a UCBerkeley guy and I think lost a bet--on the right) with these guys was just what the doctor, who i guess is me, ordered...





anyway, even though my weekend didn't go as planned, it was definitely nice...

also, on friday, i went to my first baby shower--albert and krista are expecting again... ha!!!!

cheers,

love this photo...

nothing to add today, but i just like this photo...



that's tushar in the backgound... we're at one of the local taverns post medschool ball, enjoying a drink and, me, a quarter of a cigarette before stubbing it out...

cheers,

burgertime and coldplay...

when i look at the coldplay album cover for X & Y, i can't stop thinking that the burgertime guy is somehow the inspiration for the concept...

decide for yourself...




















the bottom one is Peter Pepper, if you were wondering...

cheers,

urology...

spent the afternoon with a consultant on the urology service in clinic--pretty interesting stuff actually... I'm a bit surprised at the diversity of stuff that they actually do... lot's of prostate (benign prostate hyperplasia mostly) stuff today... anyway, i was hoping to be in the O/R with Urology tomorrow, but that fell through...

just as well, though... i've really got to get some studying done...

and another photo...



this is brandon, ashlee, diana, and i at pizza luce (the first piece of good pizza i've had in the state) after the saves the day concert... that was a fun night...

and speaking of brandon, dave and i went to spectate the class basketball team, and they edge it out in a squeaker... good times...

cheers,