blind vs blind

When the Devil came

He was not red
He was chrome instead
-Wilco, Hell is Chrome

Still have bikes on the brain. Bought a used jacket from craigslist last night and got some gloves and cool goggles thrown into the deal. Probably saved me 300 bucks. I won't actually use the goggles as I will have a helmet with a face shield, but they are silver and will likely be involved in a costume at some point.

I'm having some difficulty figuring out what bike to buy. I won't have my license until I take the course, which isn't until the end of april. The problem is that now is the time to buy and I'm not sure if it's even possible to get a bike shipped to your house. Still trying to get my dad to sell me his. Seems unlikely at this juncture.

Exam time is soon to be upon us. In an effort to jump start my studying, I spent a few hours in the lab today muddling my way through head and neck anatomy. Everyone likes to complain about something, for me, it's anatomy. UBC tries really hard, but is just generally sucky in this area. We are in a brand new lab, which is great, but it's way too small for the 224 people in our class and there aren't enough prosections or plastinated specimens. Furthermore, this term, climate control broke down twice and the lab was somehow 30 degrees (don't ask me how this is possible in february). With the ratio of students to instructors being about 40:1 when lab is in session and 224:0 any other time, let's just say I'm thankful that I have a good background in the subject. Unfortunately, I didn't do that much head and neck in undergrad, so I'm finally getting an idea of what it must be like for most of the people in my class.

The essence of my lab experience today..

Classmate #1- What do we have to know for the this part?
Me- Umm.....dunno....frontal nerve......nasociliary.....lacrimal.
Classmate #2- Do you think this is the frontal nerve?
Me- *staring blankly at Netter's Atlas* Ummm...sure.
Classmate #1- Do you think we'll have to know the branches?
Classmate #2- Yeah, probably. Do you think this is the supraorbital branch?
Me- Could be.

It can be kind of maddening. Thankfully, some kind souls who knew more than I eventually showed up and took me under their wing.

Forgetting the combo to my locker and spending 30min trying to open it before lab did little to make the visit less inefficient or frustrating.

On a happy note, we got tickets to see the Soweto Gospel Choir on Saturday night for 10 smackers! Yes!

On a dorky note, check this photo I'm about to take of myself. (I shaved my head for cuts for cancer two days ago)

monsoony soon

The more decisions you are forced to make alone,
the more aware you are of your freedom to choose.
-Thornton Wilder

I've been following the Kyle Merritt Major-(In)Decision-Making-Protocol for the last couple weeks or so about this whole motorcycle adventure. If you've witnessed it, you know how painful it is for me and anyone that has to talk to me. I analyze, I whine, I delay. I won't say I'm a BAD decision maker, as I'd like to think I make the right decision....eventually. As with most things, I would like to blame this unpleasant personality trait on my parents. Especially my father. For two reasons.

1. It's genetic.

My dad is thoughtful and deliberate, and, well, slow. I don't think I fully appreciated this until we were travelling in Guatemala together. I loved the time we spent together there, but I think that trip really let me understand both of my parents better for different reasons.

2. It's environmental.

My parents have always been great at not telling me what to do. Other than for giving me lots of love, I think this is what I appreciate the most about my mom and dad. They were very good at assessing my ability to make decisions and supporting me non-judgmentally when appropriate. You'd think this would allow me to have practice at making smart decisions when there was less riding on them, and I think it did. Unfortunately, my dad also had a habit of talking about the road-not-taken quite a bit, immediately post-decision. Once you decide to do something, you want to forget about the pro's column on the other side of the list for awhile.

Anyhow, as we say in PBL. It's a complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors.

So, I'm going ahead with the plan. I'm pretty sure it's not my best idea, but I'm excited about it. The time I spent in the daycare on wednesday really made me realize that pretty soon, I will actually have to work hard, and sometime after that I might have children and a career to manage. Although this Obs/Gyn block is really making me happy about being a man (this was menopause week), I'm hearing the tick-tock of the clock lately. I'm almost 26 people! Do they call this the quarter life crisis?

little miscreants

We're on the sea
We're in a ship and we are sailin' by
All of the fish and all the octopi
We look them right into their octopi eyes!
-Mother Mother, Polynesia

Great band from Vancouver. I bought their album on impulse at Zulu the other day and thought maybe I'd maken a mistake but boy was I wrong. I mean, the album is unique and invigorating and I like it quite a bit. Also, who says "maken". Do you ever wonder how that happens? How did I even maken that up?

Moving on.

We are doing pediatric clinical skillz these days. Today we had a session on toddlers and eventually did some observation. I'm still not exactly sure what we were supposed to get out of the session, but it was fun to watch the little people run around. One 3 year old was using words like "miscreant" and "skewered"-so funny.

Probably since the age of 20 I've been looking forward to one day having kids. Although I have some concept that it will be difficult, I don't think I really have any idea exactly how tiring it will be. Today when I got home I just sat around, watched some television detectives bust a wealthy murderous family (have you ever noticed how the criminals in law and order are always rich?) and really enjoyed not having to take care of anyone.

I've been watching a number of music videos on youtube recently. I saw this video and still don't know what to say about it. Jamie would have some brilliant critique, but all I can manage is that it makes me feel.....weird. I guess I'm trying to decide if I love this song or hate it.

making fun

Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.

- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

My dad is coming to town this weekend and we are planning on doing some motorcycle shopping. I'm starting to really realize the impracticality of my plan, and have been considering buying an old station wagon instead, you know, something that could carry something other than me. I'm mostly afraid that I wouldn't want to get rid of a car after the summer and would be condemned to the many woes of the financially strapped car owner. We'll see.

We had our first real day of spring yesterday, it was amazing. It just smells so good here when it warms up. My bike is in the shop so I've been on my board a lot more and it's been great. The bussing has kind of got me down, but it sure is relaxing to be rolling around alot more. I sold my second to last board to a girl in my class this week which paid for my Sasquatch ticket. Only one left now and I've got a few interested parties. I hope to build some more sometime soon but it seems highly unlikely at this juncture.

A pic from wreck beach last spring.

vrooooom

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe
-Albert Einstein

Just a short post tonight. Feeling sleepy.

I'm unable to change my rural practice rotation, so it looks like I'll be up north for July. This somewhat screwed up my summer plans so I'm making new ones.

Right now I'm planning on buying a motorcycle in May, driving it up to Port McNeill when Courtney goes up there for rural practice in mid-june and then taking the ferry up to Prince Rupert. I would then ride to Fraser Lake the following day to start my rural practice. This way I would have some wheels to do some exploring on the weekends. On the way down I would go through PG and southward till I got home. Anyhow, not sure how this will work. In an uncharacteristic bout of impulsivity, I went out and got my learner's license again. I got my learner's and intermediate license two summers ago on my dad's motorcycle, which was short-lived but lots of fun. Trish's brother sells motorcylces for yamaha/bmw, so I think I will go out and talk to him to see if he can give me a deal or any advice on buying a bike for the summer. I haven't really thought things through (like how much all the protective gear will cost me) but it seems like a fun plan. I initially thought about riding my bike to the ferry and from rupert to fraser lake, but I think it will be a long trip to do on my own. Who knows if it will all pan out, but for now I'm enjoying thinking about it.

peachy

let's go out, we'll take no prisoners
lonely love gotta leave it behind
we look like a million dollars
every time they look at us, we'll blow their minds
-Joel Plaskett Emergency, Million Dollars

It's been longer than usual methinks. Much has transpired.

Had a great time down at Mt. Baker. Experienced a little difficulty getting up to the mountain on the first day due to a small blizzard and a red sunfire with summer tires. We made it up and experienced the gobs and gobs of fresh powder that is apparently the norm at Baker. Spent the rest of the weekend doing not a whole heck of alot. It was amazing.

As regular readers may know, I have been waiting to hear about my rural placement this summer as well as my 3rd year rotation schedule. The good news about rural is that I'm going to a small town in the north (Fraser Lake pop. 1804) and my preceptor sounds pretty cool. The bad news is that despite my hours of reading reviews and ranking locations and preceptors, I was somehow unable to ensure that all my the placements I ranked were in the june timeslot that I wanted. I got my 20th choice (the majority of the class got in their top 10), so I guess I'm unlucky and stupid. Right now I'm going in July but I'm in the process of contacting my preceptor to get it moved forward a bit if as right now, the timing precludes the canoe trip I had been planning.

In regards to the 3rd year schedule I got much luckier, winning the most coveted B4 schedule. Peds, Internal Medicine, Surgery, Derm, Optho, Elective, Emerg, Ortho, Anasthesia, Psych, Obs/Gyn. Should be sweet. Hopefully I can convice the powers at be to let me go down to Guatemala during my surgery rotation. It's a bit of a long shot.

Just discovered yesterday that the Sasquatch Music Festival is happening this year on the two days exactly after my last exam in May. YES! If I haven't asked you, and it's possible for you to come, please let me know, we'd probably like to have you along. Especially if we know you.