May 2011
30 posts
Day 627
Faces of Courage
Today I had the privilege of taking portraits of these beautiful women, all of which are cancer survivors. There were about 40 in all who posed. I’m halfway through editing and these are my favorite shots so far. The women were taking part in a three day camp started with the purpose to encourage, pamper, strengthen, and most importantly show them all that they are...
Day 626
I went with some friends to the art museum downtown to see their new Degas exhibit. There were a lot more statues and a lot less pastels and paintings than I expected. I really enjoyed his sculptures of horses and his pastels of the ballerinas the best. I also read a couple more chapters of House of God today. Every time I open this book, Samuel Shem seems to capture exactly how I feel about...
April 2011
29 posts
Day 625
Study, Study, Study
Day 624
Tonight, two new friends of mine from church asked me to do their wedding photos. I was super honored yet very reluctant. One, because I will be studying and two because (I may have talked about it before on here) it’s really nerve racking to try to capture every moment of this extremely important event! There’s no doubt that you will miss a few. So I don’t know. On one...
Day 623
Outside Hooker Tea
Day 622
I got so frustrated today with studying my review books, I had to move around a lot. Sometimes, I just hate this stuff. I had a meeting with a course director today and we kind of figured out a plan that should get me in shape to remediate a shelf exam in a couple weeks. I also heard that there was some controversy about me during the board meeting to decide if I should repeat the year. ...
Day 621
Today was Easter. It was beautiful. But I didn’t get anything done.
I was able to spend time with my extended family which I rarely do anymore. I realized I have become the “doctor” in the family now. In the kitchen, I sat at the table studying my pathology review book while my aunts and uncles and cousins sat in a circle around me talking about their various illnesses. It was actually...
Day 620
I was reminded by some friends at church today of how desensitized I have become. Food poisoning, with all its vomiting and diarrhea, is not appropriate dinner table conversation or any conversation usually. I’m really grateful to be making friends outside of medical school. I think they’ll keep me human. Somewhat.
Day 619
This morning, I got an email this morning telling me the board had met and decided I don’t have to retake the 2nd year!!! So, just as I hoped, I will be retaking the two shelves I failed, which will be difficult too but it doesn’t even compare to how terrible it would be to retake the year. Needless to say, I am so grateful and happy. At night, I took a study break to listen to some folk music...
Day 618
Study, Study, Study
Day 617
I watched Annie Hall again tonight. Man, I forgot how great that movie is. I realized that the movie 500 Days of summer borrowed so much from it too. Woody Allen has a way of showing life for what it is, even with surreal elements. His films are a snapshot of humanity. It’s the kind of art I want to create. Specifically the type of films. I came to most of these conclusions a few years ago...
Day 616
Still no word about if I have to repeat the year. I’m getting restless.
Day 615
So lately, I’ve been working a little on the music for the new album, Year Two. Since I already wrote all the vocal melodies, it’s relatively easy to write the backbones to these songs. It’s a funny feeling to actually be able to play them because it’s like all of a sudden I have a batch of new songs but really I’ve been writing and singing these songs all year.
Day 614
Study, Study, Study (yes, again)
Day 613
Study, Study, Study
Day 612
After studying all day, I was able to stop by an art gallery closing reception on campus where my friend Katie had won an award for her photography. Almost every piece in the main gallery I saw was really well done, including Katie’s prints. It makes me so happy to be able to take in some beautiful things after a long day of memorizing the details of terrible diseases.
Day 611
Highs and lows, what did I tell you.
I found out I didn’t pass two shelf exams: pharm and PMIID
Everything is up in the air right now, I don’t know what’s gonna happen and neither does anyone else it seems.
Today I talked to the associate dean of education. He was so supportive and is really on my side about this whole thing. A board has to meet, possibly next week to decide if I repeat 2nd...
Day 610
Ladies and gentlemen, I am tremendously pleased to announce that you can now stream the entire Year One record by The Culprit Life here: http://theculpritlife.bandcamp.com/
You can download the song below for free and buy the whole album for $3!
The Proper Way to Raise the Dead by The Culprit Life
If you take a listen back through the blog’s audio archives you will find a...
Day 609
Last minute changes to the album artwork and a hassle in converting the songs to the FLAC format required for upload kept me busy for a lot of the day. I discovered that I really love the mp3 format because, although it is compressed and not as high quality, it saves the lyrics, order, album cover art, and song/artist tags all in the same file. It’s so easy to work with and every player...
Day 608
I studied for a while at my friend Ali’s place today. It takes me so long to get through these practice problems, if it weren’t for those I think I would be done studying for the boards in two weeks instead of five.
Day 607
Kevin came over in the morning and we worked on the final mix of the record. After he left, I put it all together for the first time with the transitions and everything. It felt so good to finally hear it like that, like I had intended it to be heard. There were still a few little adjustments to make, like turning down the volume in areas where it was clipping even though in the recording...
Day 606
The Rebel
I worked on editing a few photos today of Polley that I took after the last test. I don’t often find reason to convert my photos to black and white but it seems like whenever I do, I am really happy with the results. Also, I was playing with aspect ratios a bit. I decided to make a few of them into 16x9. It looks really great to me because this is the format for widescreen...
Day 605
I participated in a great event today called Give Life Day. We helped sign people up to be organ donors and to be on the bone marrow donor registry. I also got to give blood which I haven’t done in a while unfortunately. I started studying for the Step 1 exam today which shocked several of my class mates who are rightly taking a few days off after the beating we received from the shelf...
Day 604
The Violinist
The first exam of the day was a 45 minute sprint with 40 questions. It wasn’t difficult except for the lack of time. I finished all except one which I just bubbled in a random answer for.
The second exam was given immediately after (not even a bathroom break) and it was 2 and a half hours long. That was a lot more difficult except I had plenty of time to finish. I...
Day 603
Well friends, here it is. The final exam. Tomorrow I either pass the second year of medical school or… I don’t know what. I’ve run the gamut of emotions today while trying to study for our 3 hour and 15 minute exam that seems to be on anything and everything plus a lot of statistics. I’m just so mentally tired. I just want it to be over with. That’s how most of...
Day 602
So we had our physical diagnosis shelf today. It was okay. Better than the last three shelf tests that’s for sure. Still, literally 1/3 of the questions were not physical diagnosis questions. A lot of them required anatomy knowledge to answer, the kind of which we had to learn in the anatomy course we took in first year, not in any physical diagnosis course. And then there were a lot of...
Day 601
I met a girl at church today who is leaving soon to attend medical school and Chicago. She asked me if I liked it. I didn’t know what to say. Medical school isn’t something you like so much as something you do. Nobody says “I want to be a medical student”, they say “I want to be a doctor”. Because, when it comes down to it, NO ONE would want to be a medical...
Day 600
Study, Study, Study
Day 599
As you might have guessed (there seems to be a trend), the exam was pretty awful. Compounded by the fact that we all thought it was going to be a little easier. Nope. And I think that’s all I have to say about that.
In better news, I finished the lyrics for another song off the Year Two album. At this point approximately 80% of the lyrics (and vocal melodies) are finished for that...
