I don't know why, but I realized today that lately I have been all out of sorts.  I have made a number of uncharacteristically rude comments online (at other sites), have been quick to anger at times, and just generally unpleasant. I wish I knew why, so I could put a stop to it.  I suppose I will just have to try harder. Though letting it out now and then sure is fun. . .

I have been a student for a long time.  It has been a total of 22 years now.  That is, obviously, the majority of my life.  I am used to being a student, with all that entails.  And there is one thing that being a student doesn't generally entail. Benefits. While I will still be in training, it suddenly dawned on me that I will be employed.  And with employment comes benefits.  And in our case, Dartmouth-Hitchcock has some pretty nice benefits.  I was inv...

Yes, I am a geek. No question about it, I don't try to hide it. My latest expression of geekdom is the following : Yes, I went into Best Buy with my little son and a digital camera. Yes, I took a picture of him playing the a box of Galactic Civlizations II. And yes, I did it to win a Galactic Civilizations II T-Shirt. And I won! There is my little man, Gal Civ II in hand, having a good old time playing with the box. So now, thanks to the friendly folks at Stardock I will be getting ...

Remember, back in High School how they took attendance?  You could only miss so many days and then you got in trouble.  Had to have any and all absences "excused".  Boy, that was great.  Wasn't it? Well, after getting a Bachelor's, and now only weeks away from having my MD, apparently I am in High School again. My current four week rotation is the famed Capstone course.  It is a new, one of a kind course in which they cram everything they fear the may have missed i...

I have discovered that I really enjoy going for walks.  So, during my lunch time I head for a walk around Duke's campus.  It is a delightful little 3 mile loop during which I thoroughly enjoy my iPod with one of the great albums I have on there or with perhaps the Poweruser.tv podcast.  It helps burn a few extra calories each day, helps increase the circulation to my gray matter and just gets me out in the sun.  It has also taught me something I found quite exciting. I...

Just over a week ago, tragedy struck. One of the students at my medical school tragically took her own life.  I didn't know her personally, though I did recognize her.  She always had a smile on her face and seemed to be a wonderful, positive person.  It is a sad demonstration that no one is immune when it comes to depression. My heart goes out to her family, her friends, and most of all to her.  When I was younger, and much more naive, I didn't understand how someo...

I am feeling quite lonely Three days now that my wife has been gone.  In the past, this has happened when I was in the middle of a busy rotation.  So I was at school all day, too tired when I came home to really even notice.  Sleep a couple of hours and then run all day at the hospital.  No time to feel lonely. Not this time.  This time, since I have the girls with me still, I have had to take some time off of school.  Just me and the girls.  We have had ...

Match day. It means little to most people, if it means anything at all.  But to medical students it is just about one of the biggest days of our lives.  It is the day where you find out if everything you have been doing for the past four years is going to pay off.  It is the day you find out your future.  Not only where you are going to be living, but it is the day you finally have nailed down what branch of medicine you are going to specialize in.  Once you have matc...

I love it when someone can poke a little fun at themselves. One of the best aspects of some recent "Mormon" movies is that there are many aspects of Mormon culture that they don't take seriously. Films such as "The RM", "Singles Ward", and "The Home Teachers" have me rolling on the floor as they poke fun at very true aspects of life in Mormonia. Likewise, it appears that certain groups at Microsoft don't take themselves too seriously. One of the aspects that helps to build the mystique o...

Pimping. It is the cornerstone of medical education, at least in most US medical schools.  You learn the basic science in the normal classroom or lab setting, but when it comes time for the clinical education, didactic sessions become rare and most of the learning is hands on. This can be very beneficial, as this type of learning is often much more permanent.  I assure you, when I think of diseases that I have encountered, I think of that patient and what their story was.  T...

There are all things we like, and other people just don't get it.  That is fine, we don't all need to like the same things, as that would make life terribly boring.  But you know, there are just some things I don't get either.  I don't need to get them, but I don't understand why so many people do.  Here are a few. Anime : What is the deal with Anime?  So many of my classmates are huge fans.  They download like crazy, have DVDs, etc.  I have seen bumper sti...

Bizarre. That is the only way to describe it.  Bizarre.  I am currently taking my 4 week, mandatory "Capstone" course.  It is an amalgamation of all sorts of different things they think they should teach us before we go.  Sort of a last ditch effort.  To be fair, there have been some really great lectures/presentations so far. But today we had a class that just beat them all.  It was a thoroughly uncomfortable experience. The class was on LGBT issues in med...

Every once in a while you have an experience that can profoundly touch your life.  It leaves an indelible mark upon your being, causing ripples that extend throughout your life.  Often, these moments involve others.  But what is most interesting is that, not infrequently, those others are unaware of the part they played in that life-altering moment.   So it is in medicine.  Every once in a while I am truly aware of and overwhelmed by the trust and confidence that pati...

The internet is a treasure trove of written material.  With the increased penetration of broadband internet service, video and audio are now gaining a significant foothold.  However, written communication remains the real backbone of the internet. This certainly has its share of disadvantages.  It can, at times, be difficult to pick up on sarcasm, when someone is joking or not, and other facets of communication that become much more evident when the actual words are coupled wit...

Because of my chosen profession, I have to be pretty tolerant of many things that most people think are disgusting.  Blood, body parts, organs, and with my chosen specialty, even pee.  I can handle them just fine.  In fact, there is nothing I find more fascinating than having my hands down inside a human body, working on making it better. That really gets my motor running. You would think that, having become immune to being grossed out by that sort of thing, that I would be ...