If you know me at all, then you'll know I love sports. Yes, even if I don't play it at all. Football (both the soccer kind and the American kind), baseball, whatever. I love it. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that I have been getting up at ungodly hours so that I can stream all the games on espn3.com, or go to O'Brien's at 0545 and line up when they don't open 'til 0630, or that I sit in lab and put my headphones on and yell at my labmates about the score when they are in the next room.
Therefore, I shall share some of my admittedly useless thoughts on the World Cup thus far. Yes, I have finished my first year of medical school, and yes, I will post about it later, I suppose, but I am so much more excited about the summer and the World Cup, so this goes first.
10. What other team scores more goals after the 80th minute? They're going to make me have a heart attack.
09. I still can't decide who I'd rather our next round opponent to be. Yes, I know we're playing Ghana. But they looked pretty good today against Germany, even if they lost, and Germany might be without Schweinsteiger...
08. The World Cup always reminds me how good-looking these football boys are ;-). Usually if I get to watch the matches, they're fuzzy blobs on my computer screen. Now, they're in hi-def on big screens, and they just make me smile...
[EDIT: The five most attractive footballing men...to me--
05. Jérémy Toulalan - grey hair and all.
04. Carlos Bocanegra - Aye aye, captain!
03. Benny Feilhaber - Jordin Sparks lip-synching? Kinda makes him even more attractive?
02. Yoann Gourcuff - too pretty for words. Have you seen his eyelashes?
01. Zinedine Zidane - headbutt or no, amazing skills = infinite hotness.
There. Looking at pictures to make up that list just brightened my Friday afternoon.]
07. Comeback kids! I can't believe we keep conceding these early goals, and our defense looked shaky even today, but what I can't believe even more is that we keep getting these equalisers later in the game.
06. Yay Michael Bradley! It must suck to be known as "Coach's son" or having people think he's only on the team/starting because of nepotism. Good for him for scoring that goal in the Slovenia game, and super asserting himself in the midfield the last couple of games.
05. WTF, France! I was really hoping Les Bleus would do well, especially after the horrible spectacle that was EURO2008. What happened? Zidane, we miss you!
04. Hey Wayne Rooney, you suck. Okay, maybe you don't actually suck, but your attitude makes me sick to the stomach. Yes, you're a striker, so your primary job is offense, but when you're stripped of the ball, show some urgency and at least try to make a play on it and get it back! Same goes for you, Jozy...but I like you better.
03. Landon. Donovan. After the 90th minute today, and the goal out of halftime in the Slovenia game. Amazing.
02. I think my med school class is amazing. I have only been to the American games at O'Brien's with them, but I know a bunch of them hang out regularly at Nick's to watch the games, at 0430. Awesomeness!
01. There should be a new rule in the World Cup. If you think an American goal has been scored offsides, keep your flag down and don't call it, side judge. Because you are wrong. Just like the two refs before you. That's right. We should have beaten Slovenia, and beaten Algers by more than one-nil.
Anyway...I'm just super excited we've made it this far, and I hope we beat Ghana next! Avenge the 2006 World Cup loss!
Go USA!
23 June 2010
24 April 2010
On a day with kimchi fried rice
I suppose by the title of this post, I must start at the "end" of the day and work backwards. If you look at the time stamp on this post, it will read something like 20:30, which is not truly the end of my day, but you can consider it the end of my "generative" (SBS term!), productive day.
I am sitting at my computer at the moment, enjoying a bowl of freshly-made kimchi fried rice, which I was suddenly inspired to make today after staring at my pesto pasta for about the seventh day in the row and deciding that I had finally had enough. I love kimchi, and now that I have used about half a tub of kimchi in making myself some fried rice, I will have to go buy some more. I question the amount of kimchi I used, but it still tastes great, probably thanks to the huge dolop of chili sauce I topped it off with. I have never before made kimchi fried rice, and it is not difficult, but there is still a sense of accomplishment. Oh, how med school skews your view of things. No longer is doing well on a test something that gives me that sense of accomplishment (perhaps because doing well comes so rarely and the tests so often), but feeding myself well and making myself go to the gym, those are such confidence boosters.
As some of you may know (or not, I don't know who actually reads this), this weekend was Second Look. For those of you not affiliated with a school of medicine world, second look is when they invite all the accepted, prospective students back and we try to get them to come here next year. I volunteered to lead a tour, as well as sit on the student panel and try to answer some questions. The tour was...well, it was a tour. How exciting and how boring can it really get? The student panel was also...a student panel. I don't really know what they were expecting. We gave the regular answers that anyone would expect. Are we happy? Yes, I polled some of my classmates yesterday as we sat at happy hour. Yes, we are happy. Perhaps I do not understand because I did not attend Second Look last year myself. But I honestly believe that happiness is something that you are responsible for yourself.
And so in that vein, I took the time and played tennis this morning!
Go Yankees!
Sorry it was such a useless post. But I was excited about kimchi fried rice, and I did not want to study.
I am sitting at my computer at the moment, enjoying a bowl of freshly-made kimchi fried rice, which I was suddenly inspired to make today after staring at my pesto pasta for about the seventh day in the row and deciding that I had finally had enough. I love kimchi, and now that I have used about half a tub of kimchi in making myself some fried rice, I will have to go buy some more. I question the amount of kimchi I used, but it still tastes great, probably thanks to the huge dolop of chili sauce I topped it off with. I have never before made kimchi fried rice, and it is not difficult, but there is still a sense of accomplishment. Oh, how med school skews your view of things. No longer is doing well on a test something that gives me that sense of accomplishment (perhaps because doing well comes so rarely and the tests so often), but feeding myself well and making myself go to the gym, those are such confidence boosters.
As some of you may know (or not, I don't know who actually reads this), this weekend was Second Look. For those of you not affiliated with a school of medicine world, second look is when they invite all the accepted, prospective students back and we try to get them to come here next year. I volunteered to lead a tour, as well as sit on the student panel and try to answer some questions. The tour was...well, it was a tour. How exciting and how boring can it really get? The student panel was also...a student panel. I don't really know what they were expecting. We gave the regular answers that anyone would expect. Are we happy? Yes, I polled some of my classmates yesterday as we sat at happy hour. Yes, we are happy. Perhaps I do not understand because I did not attend Second Look last year myself. But I honestly believe that happiness is something that you are responsible for yourself.
And so in that vein, I took the time and played tennis this morning!
Go Yankees!
Sorry it was such a useless post. But I was excited about kimchi fried rice, and I did not want to study.
06 April 2010
On revelations, not epiphanies. Actually, ramblings.
So, it's been a while. Every time I hear that phrase, I think of that old Staind song that was oh-so-popular back when we were in high school. Hmm, haven't heard it in a while, perhaps I shall go and hunt it up on the computer.
Anyway, Spring Break was a very long one and a half weeks ago. I can hardly believe it. It seems so far away already, and I have literally had just six days of school. And it's not like I even attend 50% of the lectures. What did I do? I slept, ate delicious food at home, did some inane little things, and hung out with some friends. All in all, I lazed around for a week. And it was wonderful. I do miss old spring breaks, though, when everyone had spring break around the same time and I got to see more of people, instead of hearing via facebook or gchat that their spring break ended as soon as mine began, or that it ended even as I was beginning to prepare for finals. But that is neither interesting nor useful in any way, so I'll leave it at that.
Relevant to Spring Break but not quite is that fact that I spent, at the very least, 18 hours in a car listening to the radio over the entirety of spring break. I imagine that's not that much longer than the average commuter who sits stuck in traffic five days a week, but it did mean that I had to listen to several songs over and over again.
Allow me to introduce to the number one most overplayed song this Spring Break -- Orianthi's According To You. Now, before I looked up this song, I had never once before heard of Orianthi. I must admit that I found this song, at first, rather catchy. And then I put it out of my mind because EVERY SINGLE RADIO STATION, literally, played it at the very least, twice a day.
Then, last Wednesday, I was driving back from the airport after dropping my mom off, and this song came on the radio...again. Well, if you know me at all, I really like listening to the lyrics of songs. So I had all these scenarios in my head about the story behind this song. The obvious one would be the crappy relationship she's in, where her boyfriend is complaining about everything that's wrong with her, whereas there's this mysterious other guy who apparently loves everything about her. Then there's the question of whether or not she's still into the guy who hates everything about her, with the one verse that sounds like she's finally telling him off. Then, I thought, wouldn't it be really crazy if this "you" she's referring to her is actually herself. Maybe someone with a self-confidence crisis or something? Which is unlikely, because she refers to this "you" as a guy. Layers, perhaps? But whatever. Like I said, this is what I'm thinking about on the drive home. You know, in case school wasn't enough to think about.
So I came home and looked up the music video. Which consisted of a punk-rock-looking girl playing the guitar with some random hand showing me the chords in the foreground. Disappointed. I really was. I'd spent a good ten minutes thinking about this song, and they give me a girl playing a guitar in a garage and a photo shoot or whatever. Really? I'd like some closure, Mr./Ms. Songwriter, on what you intended for this song to mean.
In other news, we're studying endocrinology and metabolism this quarter (along with neuro, yay! and a couple other things irrelevant at the moment). So in one of the lectures, we talked about energy intake and expenditure, calculating BMI, etc, etc. So as I'm sitting in the library the other day, not wanting to study, I decided to calculate my own BMI. Which is not exactly good news. If I did the calculations right (which is also questionable, since my arithmetic has seriously deteriorated since I started using calculators), if I gain about 10-15 pounds, I could be considered "overweight". Ahhh! Okay, have decided to start going to the gym in the mornings and tennis on Saturdays. And eating healthier. Seriously. I always say this, but I'm really going to be on top of it this time.
Uhhh, yeah. I think that this post qualifies as rambling after an early morning workout. It does not qualify as revelations, much less ephiphanies. 'Til next time, which may be soon, as tests start again next week.
Anyway, Spring Break was a very long one and a half weeks ago. I can hardly believe it. It seems so far away already, and I have literally had just six days of school. And it's not like I even attend 50% of the lectures. What did I do? I slept, ate delicious food at home, did some inane little things, and hung out with some friends. All in all, I lazed around for a week. And it was wonderful. I do miss old spring breaks, though, when everyone had spring break around the same time and I got to see more of people, instead of hearing via facebook or gchat that their spring break ended as soon as mine began, or that it ended even as I was beginning to prepare for finals. But that is neither interesting nor useful in any way, so I'll leave it at that.
Relevant to Spring Break but not quite is that fact that I spent, at the very least, 18 hours in a car listening to the radio over the entirety of spring break. I imagine that's not that much longer than the average commuter who sits stuck in traffic five days a week, but it did mean that I had to listen to several songs over and over again.
Allow me to introduce to the number one most overplayed song this Spring Break -- Orianthi's According To You. Now, before I looked up this song, I had never once before heard of Orianthi. I must admit that I found this song, at first, rather catchy. And then I put it out of my mind because EVERY SINGLE RADIO STATION, literally, played it at the very least, twice a day.
Then, last Wednesday, I was driving back from the airport after dropping my mom off, and this song came on the radio...again. Well, if you know me at all, I really like listening to the lyrics of songs. So I had all these scenarios in my head about the story behind this song. The obvious one would be the crappy relationship she's in, where her boyfriend is complaining about everything that's wrong with her, whereas there's this mysterious other guy who apparently loves everything about her. Then there's the question of whether or not she's still into the guy who hates everything about her, with the one verse that sounds like she's finally telling him off. Then, I thought, wouldn't it be really crazy if this "you" she's referring to her is actually herself. Maybe someone with a self-confidence crisis or something? Which is unlikely, because she refers to this "you" as a guy. Layers, perhaps? But whatever. Like I said, this is what I'm thinking about on the drive home. You know, in case school wasn't enough to think about.
So I came home and looked up the music video. Which consisted of a punk-rock-looking girl playing the guitar with some random hand showing me the chords in the foreground. Disappointed. I really was. I'd spent a good ten minutes thinking about this song, and they give me a girl playing a guitar in a garage and a photo shoot or whatever. Really? I'd like some closure, Mr./Ms. Songwriter, on what you intended for this song to mean.
In other news, we're studying endocrinology and metabolism this quarter (along with neuro, yay! and a couple other things irrelevant at the moment). So in one of the lectures, we talked about energy intake and expenditure, calculating BMI, etc, etc. So as I'm sitting in the library the other day, not wanting to study, I decided to calculate my own BMI. Which is not exactly good news. If I did the calculations right (which is also questionable, since my arithmetic has seriously deteriorated since I started using calculators), if I gain about 10-15 pounds, I could be considered "overweight". Ahhh! Okay, have decided to start going to the gym in the mornings and tennis on Saturdays. And eating healthier. Seriously. I always say this, but I'm really going to be on top of it this time.
Uhhh, yeah. I think that this post qualifies as rambling after an early morning workout. It does not qualify as revelations, much less ephiphanies. 'Til next time, which may be soon, as tests start again next week.
25 February 2010
On all that is (my) life
True to procrastination custom, I am writing again as a test comes up. I can't quite decide what to write about today, as my mind is clouded with a bunch of things, with occasional freak-outs about renal function and anatomy interrupting my semi-coherent thoughts.
School has once again set itself into a frenetic pace of facts, concepts, and seemingly irrelevant tidbits that I know will come back to haunt me. My classmates are as wonderful as always, evidenced by a fun-filled ski trip up to Mammoth and numerous little gatherings. The time spent watching the Olympics or TV shows that I wish resembled real life accumulates as usual. And plenty of time staring at my food, the TV screen, the computer, or just at the ceiling, mulling over half-baked ideas, like how the more time I spend here, the less I feel I can function in the real world.
So perhaps I shall catch you up with my life, because if you're reading this because you know me, we probably haven't chatted on the phone in a while. Like months or something.
A group of 30+ classmates and I went to Mammoth the last weekend of January for a glorious weekend of snow and skiing. It was my first time to Mammoth, and I was absolutely overwhelmed/amazed with the resort that is Mammoth. I love Tahoe and have skiied there forever, but never have I seen a resort with as many lifts and runs and cafes and what not like there is in Mammoth. Plus, it had been snowing the week before, and even when we were on the mountain, so there was fresh powder galore. I must admit, though, that I prefer more ice with just a thin layer of powder. This powder was so tiring, and so inconsistent to ski in. I like zooming. For me, the appeal of skiing is not so much the danger or whatever, but just the thrill of zooming down a mountain, and feeling like I am going faster than I ever can anywhere else. Either way, a deliciously loud and raucous weekend for some in the class, while I enjoyed my snow and sleep. :)
Aside from Mammoth, there have also been numerous little social gatherings, such as a birthday party at InCahoots, which I suppose I can best describe as a "country line-dancing club." If you've talked to me lately or sat in my car, you will know that I am in something of a country music "epoch" (I really can't think of the right word for this right now, my head is swimming with 'impermeability' or 'parathyroid' or 'reabsorption' or what not). Don't laugh, I actually think it's quite good, this country music. I don't know why I didn't realise it earlier. Bluegrass, still no, but country is quite palatable now. Anyway, the line-dancing club was kind of awesome. Like really, awesome. Haha, had a lot of fun learning the "Honky tonk twist" I believe it was called, and some two-step. Other than that, some random gatherings at friend's places to watch TV, gossip, talk irrelevant nonsense about goodness-knows-what, and enjoy some tastly ethanol preparations.
And, like many others, I am kind of addicted to the Olympics at the moment. It doesn't matter if I know nothing about the sport, I will still watch it. I will stare at the TV and wonder what on earth the commentators are going on about, and I will pick favourites out of the athletes I know nothing about, and I will watch. It's quite horrible, really. It's no wonder renal is killing me, seeing as I usually study to the Olympics.
I don't know how big this news is outside of UCSD, but there's been what's been termed "racially-charged" incidents on campus lately, which started with a very stupid "Comptom Cookout" party that turned into inappropriate comments on campus TV, demonstrations, teach-ins, walk-outs, and the very latest is a noose hung in the Geisel library. Personally, I felt that the Comptom Cookout was probably planned by a couple of dumb kids who really didn't intend to cause as much a ruckus as they did, but with the comments on campus TV, and now the noose, I am beginning to think there is something very wrong at UCSD. Or perhaps in the La Jolla area in general. The Comptom Cookout was ignorance, but this lynching is malicious. If it was intended to be a joke, I don't see the humour in it. It's no longer a question of being politically incorrect, but it's now a hateful thing, almost a hate crime.
I don't have any big thoughts about it, I have no theories, no ideas on how to fix things, but I just needed to say something, because I feel like I have been trying to believe in the best of people, that they are just people making stupid mistakes, but they have proved me very wrong. And for that, I feel horrible.
My other half-baked ideas? Mostly irrelevant and just some flightful fancies. They can be shared another time. Perhaps before the GI exam, which is just a brief two weeks away.
Time to get back to the kidney...I leave you with this, from my oddly funny renal professor.
School has once again set itself into a frenetic pace of facts, concepts, and seemingly irrelevant tidbits that I know will come back to haunt me. My classmates are as wonderful as always, evidenced by a fun-filled ski trip up to Mammoth and numerous little gatherings. The time spent watching the Olympics or TV shows that I wish resembled real life accumulates as usual. And plenty of time staring at my food, the TV screen, the computer, or just at the ceiling, mulling over half-baked ideas, like how the more time I spend here, the less I feel I can function in the real world.
So perhaps I shall catch you up with my life, because if you're reading this because you know me, we probably haven't chatted on the phone in a while. Like months or something.
A group of 30+ classmates and I went to Mammoth the last weekend of January for a glorious weekend of snow and skiing. It was my first time to Mammoth, and I was absolutely overwhelmed/amazed with the resort that is Mammoth. I love Tahoe and have skiied there forever, but never have I seen a resort with as many lifts and runs and cafes and what not like there is in Mammoth. Plus, it had been snowing the week before, and even when we were on the mountain, so there was fresh powder galore. I must admit, though, that I prefer more ice with just a thin layer of powder. This powder was so tiring, and so inconsistent to ski in. I like zooming. For me, the appeal of skiing is not so much the danger or whatever, but just the thrill of zooming down a mountain, and feeling like I am going faster than I ever can anywhere else. Either way, a deliciously loud and raucous weekend for some in the class, while I enjoyed my snow and sleep. :)
Aside from Mammoth, there have also been numerous little social gatherings, such as a birthday party at InCahoots, which I suppose I can best describe as a "country line-dancing club." If you've talked to me lately or sat in my car, you will know that I am in something of a country music "epoch" (I really can't think of the right word for this right now, my head is swimming with 'impermeability' or 'parathyroid' or 'reabsorption' or what not). Don't laugh, I actually think it's quite good, this country music. I don't know why I didn't realise it earlier. Bluegrass, still no, but country is quite palatable now. Anyway, the line-dancing club was kind of awesome. Like really, awesome. Haha, had a lot of fun learning the "Honky tonk twist" I believe it was called, and some two-step. Other than that, some random gatherings at friend's places to watch TV, gossip, talk irrelevant nonsense about goodness-knows-what, and enjoy some tastly ethanol preparations.
And, like many others, I am kind of addicted to the Olympics at the moment. It doesn't matter if I know nothing about the sport, I will still watch it. I will stare at the TV and wonder what on earth the commentators are going on about, and I will pick favourites out of the athletes I know nothing about, and I will watch. It's quite horrible, really. It's no wonder renal is killing me, seeing as I usually study to the Olympics.
I don't know how big this news is outside of UCSD, but there's been what's been termed "racially-charged" incidents on campus lately, which started with a very stupid "Comptom Cookout" party that turned into inappropriate comments on campus TV, demonstrations, teach-ins, walk-outs, and the very latest is a noose hung in the Geisel library. Personally, I felt that the Comptom Cookout was probably planned by a couple of dumb kids who really didn't intend to cause as much a ruckus as they did, but with the comments on campus TV, and now the noose, I am beginning to think there is something very wrong at UCSD. Or perhaps in the La Jolla area in general. The Comptom Cookout was ignorance, but this lynching is malicious. If it was intended to be a joke, I don't see the humour in it. It's no longer a question of being politically incorrect, but it's now a hateful thing, almost a hate crime.
I don't have any big thoughts about it, I have no theories, no ideas on how to fix things, but I just needed to say something, because I feel like I have been trying to believe in the best of people, that they are just people making stupid mistakes, but they have proved me very wrong. And for that, I feel horrible.
My other half-baked ideas? Mostly irrelevant and just some flightful fancies. They can be shared another time. Perhaps before the GI exam, which is just a brief two weeks away.
Time to get back to the kidney...I leave you with this, from my oddly funny renal professor.
14 January 2010
On amazement
Organ physio...definitely not easy, but much more enjoyable than CBB ever was. Adding to my enjoyment is that two of my professors are Australian; one with an Australian accent, and the second with a decidedly British accent and flair.
And by flair I mean a bow tie. Dr. West is one of the most interesting people I have ever met. Turns out the guy basically invented the lung (okay, so maybe I'm exaggerating), and he graduated from medical school (in Australia) when he was 23. Twenty three. That's how old some of my classmates are now, and we're just getting started. And then he went to Britain, and then subsequently moved to the states. The 81-year-old has, to date, made two trips up Everst in his lifetime (maybe he didn't reach the summit, but still, how many people can say that?). He has also done work with NASA studying the respiratory system in microgravity.
And above all, he is just an awesome professor.
And therefore, he amazes me.
And by flair I mean a bow tie. Dr. West is one of the most interesting people I have ever met. Turns out the guy basically invented the lung (okay, so maybe I'm exaggerating), and he graduated from medical school (in Australia) when he was 23. Twenty three. That's how old some of my classmates are now, and we're just getting started. And then he went to Britain, and then subsequently moved to the states. The 81-year-old has, to date, made two trips up Everst in his lifetime (maybe he didn't reach the summit, but still, how many people can say that?). He has also done work with NASA studying the respiratory system in microgravity.And above all, he is just an awesome professor.
And therefore, he amazes me.
09 January 2010
On winter and the new year
It's about a week into the new year, and I have done precious little aside from going to class, studying, eating, and sleeping. In that order. Meanwhile, it is a balmy 73 degrees today (23 degrees C), and I am stuck inside making sure that I don't fail spectacularly on the first test of the new year for OP (Organ Physiology), which comes next Friday.
New Year's Resolutions...as I do every year, and yet fail to keep most of them:
- To be more friendly and social
- To be more open-minded
- To give 110% on everything as opposed to being content with being mediocre (mostly school-related)
- To go to the gym at least twice a week and eat more healthily
There, I leave you with that until I have something more worthy to say.
Happy New Year!
New Year's Resolutions...as I do every year, and yet fail to keep most of them:
- To be more friendly and social
- To be more open-minded
- To give 110% on everything as opposed to being content with being mediocre (mostly school-related)
- To go to the gym at least twice a week and eat more healthily
There, I leave you with that until I have something more worthy to say.
Happy New Year!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)