The kids flew to Seattle last weekend and have been enjoying some time with Becky's family for the last few days. They are young that they still miss us a lot, especially Colton. So it will be nice to see them late tonight.
We're flying out after work for a nice week and a half of cool Seattle weather. I'll write of the events when we return.
Other than that, July has been pretty nondescript. I'm still working a lot in the lab trying to get good data. I'm learning a lot of techniques and cell biology, but hoping that we can really come up with some good data in the next few weeks.
Tucker and I, and Dan to some degree, have rebuilt our back porch. It's going to end up costing us over $1500 with the Home Depot supplies and dumpster, but it's looking much better. We still have to finish the outdoor shower, mister and gutters. For Tucker, I've purchased a PDA for him off Ebay that I need to configure and deliver after we return.
Other than that, Cedar is limping again (normal set-back for Valley Fever) so I'm not running a lot atm. I'm doing some reading; House of God or, when I can steal the book from Connor, the new Harry Potter. Oh, and I've been playing Pirates on Xbox, an early B-day present for Colton.
Time to get serious and start reading Micro Made Ridiculously Simple, watching some of the DVD lectures I purchased off Ebay and review some anatomy. I was awarded the Anatomy paid TAships for Fall (almost most probably Winter as well)! It will be a great review for boards and provide $30+ per hour. Not bad!
Whew. One last thought. It's a sign of the computer age that I have to pack FIVE(!) devices with their rechargeable batteries and cables on a vacation (LOL).
1) Notebook PC (e-mail, videos)
2) PDA (schedule, references)
3) Digital Camera
4) MP3 Player (audio lectures)
5) Cell Phone
No, this is normal. I'm not a flaming geek. I still pack books too :-).
Thursday, July 28, 2005
July's Epiphany
Becky has been saying my family is on "Grady" time since we were dating 14 years ago. She frequently reminds me that a) I was 45 minutes late to our first date and b) my brother is the only person she knows that missed his own B-day party.
Her family on the other hand, used to go postal if they weren't 15 minutes early - literally! She would get evil looks from her family if we arrived only on-time, which of course got feed back to me for the rest of the evening. The other two in-laws and myself have relaxed them somewhat, but they are still extreme.
This week I finally put these different philosophies of scheduling life into perspective. Becky and her family come from the CEO viewpoint. If time is up, you end whatever you're doing, make a decision and leave. My family, and a good part of the population, come from a Surgeon's viewpoint. You don't leave a job until you're darn sure that it is done to your satisfaction.
I think many medical students fall into this latter category because so many of us are Obsessive Compulsive. I remember not being able to change out my suit until I had picked up a couple hundred pine cones in my yard (almost every day!) or not being able to swim until I had removed every pine needle from the pool in our backyard. For an anon username Dr. OCD would be appropriate, but guaranteed that one has been used many times over!
Her family on the other hand, used to go postal if they weren't 15 minutes early - literally! She would get evil looks from her family if we arrived only on-time, which of course got feed back to me for the rest of the evening. The other two in-laws and myself have relaxed them somewhat, but they are still extreme.
This week I finally put these different philosophies of scheduling life into perspective. Becky and her family come from the CEO viewpoint. If time is up, you end whatever you're doing, make a decision and leave. My family, and a good part of the population, come from a Surgeon's viewpoint. You don't leave a job until you're darn sure that it is done to your satisfaction.
I think many medical students fall into this latter category because so many of us are Obsessive Compulsive. I remember not being able to change out my suit until I had picked up a couple hundred pine cones in my yard (almost every day!) or not being able to swim until I had removed every pine needle from the pool in our backyard. For an anon username Dr. OCD would be appropriate, but guaranteed that one has been used many times over!
Friday, July 15, 2005
July 2005
July flew by. I feel like I got even less done this month than in June. I'm doing more experiments, but not getting any useful data yet. I also haven't managed to get through many papers yet.
The job shadowing ended up going well. But it sounds like my preceptor might have been steering me away from RadOncs due to the competitiveness. I e-mailed someone at OHSU to see if DOs were welcome and she replied, yes, but that 140+ people apply for the ONE residency spot they have per year! UW has 2 and of the residents currently in training, two are DOs, but I get the feeling that I need a fallback.
I've started my residency program ranking spreadsheet which includes RadOnc, Rads and Path programs, in that order, at this point. A lot depends on Becky, since her JD career options would be greatly enhanced in CA. It sounds like we'll probably stay in the Western states but I definately need to do more research on programs; reputations, DO favorability, competitiveness, research, etc.
I finished my one video game for the summer, Jade Empire. It was ok, but nothing like an addictive MMORG. I also got some reading done. I'm trying to finish 'The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down' and 'House of God'. I finished my Biochem review book, so after I get done with those two, I need to jump on Micro Made Ridiculously Simple. I also purchased a Rio 6GB MP3 player on Ebay that I've been using to listen to lectures. I've got about 3GB of songs and 3GB of lectures and it's working well so far. To round out the geek factor, I re-installed my med software on my Pocket PC. Since I got my MP3 player, I had a whole 512 MB SD card to fill up with s/w I purchased off Ebay. Now I have just about three programs of everything.
Working out on the other hand, isn't going too well. We just got the pool up and running after the pump broke down. And the dogs are now in good enough shape to do some running with me. So hopefully I can work off a few pounds and get into a bit better shape before school starts in 6 weeks.
Tucker is helping me rebuild our porch in the backyard. Last weekend we tore off the roof and the 1/3 that is falling apart. Tomorrow, starting at 6am, we hope to get most of the structure complete so that all we have left is the roofing.
Only other event worth mentioning is that we spent the weekend before last at my father's in San Diego. Is was a fun trip and the boys had a good time. Colton even got to ride a horse for the first time.
That's it for now. Hopefully I'll have more to write about next month, a trip to Seattle, Miho moving in, great research results, finishing more review material and getting in decent shape. Shoot high right? :-)
The job shadowing ended up going well. But it sounds like my preceptor might have been steering me away from RadOncs due to the competitiveness. I e-mailed someone at OHSU to see if DOs were welcome and she replied, yes, but that 140+ people apply for the ONE residency spot they have per year! UW has 2 and of the residents currently in training, two are DOs, but I get the feeling that I need a fallback.
I've started my residency program ranking spreadsheet which includes RadOnc, Rads and Path programs, in that order, at this point. A lot depends on Becky, since her JD career options would be greatly enhanced in CA. It sounds like we'll probably stay in the Western states but I definately need to do more research on programs; reputations, DO favorability, competitiveness, research, etc.
I finished my one video game for the summer, Jade Empire. It was ok, but nothing like an addictive MMORG. I also got some reading done. I'm trying to finish 'The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down' and 'House of God'. I finished my Biochem review book, so after I get done with those two, I need to jump on Micro Made Ridiculously Simple. I also purchased a Rio 6GB MP3 player on Ebay that I've been using to listen to lectures. I've got about 3GB of songs and 3GB of lectures and it's working well so far. To round out the geek factor, I re-installed my med software on my Pocket PC. Since I got my MP3 player, I had a whole 512 MB SD card to fill up with s/w I purchased off Ebay. Now I have just about three programs of everything.
Working out on the other hand, isn't going too well. We just got the pool up and running after the pump broke down. And the dogs are now in good enough shape to do some running with me. So hopefully I can work off a few pounds and get into a bit better shape before school starts in 6 weeks.
Tucker is helping me rebuild our porch in the backyard. Last weekend we tore off the roof and the 1/3 that is falling apart. Tomorrow, starting at 6am, we hope to get most of the structure complete so that all we have left is the roofing.
Only other event worth mentioning is that we spent the weekend before last at my father's in San Diego. Is was a fun trip and the boys had a good time. Colton even got to ride a horse for the first time.
That's it for now. Hopefully I'll have more to write about next month, a trip to Seattle, Miho moving in, great research results, finishing more review material and getting in decent shape. Shoot high right? :-)
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