School's Out

Today was supposed to be the first day of our two-day first year OSCE final exams. Basically, we get tested in communications by interviewing a standardized patient, then we have to follow that up with a set of physical exam maneuvers. Tomorrow would have been similar, with either suturing or IVs added at the end.

I was scheduled for an 8:20 a.m. start time. Physical exam is by far my weakest subject this year, so I was pretty nervous about things. I love precordial and resp exams, but MSK leaves me cold. Anyways, I spent the last couple of days freaking out about it, and finally got everything necessary into my brain last night. Slept terribly, dreaming about the exam, and that it somehow involved bicycling, followed by an essay. The essay I wrote was great, but I had trouble coming up with a good ending for it...

Got up at 6, made it to school on time. They signed us in for the exam, told us to wait a few minutes, then told us that there would be a slight delay. I was crazy thirsty, so I eventually went to go get a drink of water. On my way out, I overheard the profs talking in the hallway, and heard the words "cancellation" and "inflame the situation". Not at all what I was expecting to hear.

About an hour later, the whole thing was cancelled, due to the standardized patients being on strike. Tomorrow is still up in the air, but my bet is that it'll be cancelled as well. The result? A big super-stressful exam has just become a four-day weekend.

In The Mood

Another weekend, another batch of films. Unfortunately, I've hit my zip.ca account's eleven-film limit for the month again, and I'm only two weeks in. So, I had to head over to Blockbuster to rent 'In the Mood for Love'. I'm not the biggest Wong Kar Wai fan, but I loved 'Chungking Express', so it was time to finally see this movie; I almost went to see it in the theatre in Boston, back in early 2001, but never made it. Anyways, perhaps the plot was a bit slow, and not much 'happened', but it did deal some nice emotion, especially towards the end. Nothing like some repression of love and desire to make you connect with a character. Best of all, though, had to be Maggie Cheung's hair and cheongsams. A lot of love was obviously put into making those dresses and filming them; it appears that they were all tailored by one guy, Leung Long Kong, a tailor in Hong Kong (the only information about whom I can find, is directed at Korean tourists). Tony Leung's suits and ties were pretty inspirational as well.

'2046' is sitting on my desk at home...

Cohen

Yesterday, I got Leonard Cohen's newest book in the mail: 'Book of Longing'. The first 1000 people to preorder it through Chapters/Indigo got a signed copy, so Leonard's sig is right there on the title page. :)

I just read the first few poems, though, as I had other forms of entertainment on my agenda. First, I finished watching the loooong television version of Ingmar Bergman's 'Fanny och Alexander', which was good. I wonder if I should still bother to see the theatre-release version. Next, I watched 'Crash'. No, not the Oscar-winner from last year, but the David Cronenberg movie. Wow, that was one screwed up movie. Fun to pick out the filming locations around Toronto, though. Playing 'spot Boyd Banks' was fun too!

Ice Cream

I went for ice cream with Rococo yesterday afternoon (after getting my meningococcus and yellow fever vaccinations). We drove to the southwest, to a place highly recommended by peers. Well, it was okay, but nothing special, ice-cream-wise. It was, however, incredibly expensive, given that it is run-of-the-mill ice cream. More expensive than going for ice cream at Harvard Square, maybe 1/3 higher in price.

Some googling has revealed three more ice cream places in Calgary, and one way out in Cochrane. The Cochrane place I heard about as a teenager already, and I can't recall if I ever actually went there at some point in my distant history. The thing is, I don't really want to drive 75 km round-trip, just to get ice cream.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I have to admit, my hope for good ice cream in Calgary is fading fast.

Diet time

Last week, I couldn't take it anymore, so I got rid of the beard, and went and got a haircut on Saturday (after it stopped snowing). When your beard is always getting in the way of eating, and your hair is always in your eyes when you're trying to do some physical exam, it is pretty annoying, to say the least. Anyways, after the haircut, I went straight to a photo shop to get a couple of passport photos.

I saw two more movies over the weekend. First, 'Deadly Outlaw: Rekka', which was another unbelievable Takashi Miike movie. Next was 'Super Size Me'. We were going to get dinner from McDonalds to eat while watching, but instead picked up a BBQ chicken dinner from a local supermarket, along with an apple pie and a four-litre bucket of cheap ice cream. It was fat enough to make all three of us pretty ill, especially as we watched Morgan Spurlock go downhill. I have to say, it really made me feel sick. I swore I'd take up running again the next day. Of course, it was too cold on Sunday morning, so I successfully sidestepped the movie's effect. :)

Fore!

You know you're in meds when you get you start getting invitations to golf tournaments in the mail. Got my first one last week. Should have listened when I was told to start playing golf, back in Boston. At least I bought a glove at that time, even though I never actually hit a ball.

Saw another two movies last night. 'Fantastic Four', which was a real stinker, and 'The Delicate Art of Parking', which was a low-budget mockumentary filmed in Vancouver, and wow, a funny movie that caught me completely off guard. I'd never heard of it before. I also saw 'Omen' on Wednesday night: who knew that there were Thai boy bands big enough to have movies made purely to showcase them ('D2B' in this case)?

Stress: The Wellman Agenda

Well, had an intense day so far today. Last night at 2 a.m., I finally figured out that I don't owe US taxes for last year, which was nice. Once that was done, I was able to study for the 'well man' thing I was scheduled for this morning. It turned out to be good, and I shouldn't have gotten so stressed out over it...

Not that I was stressed out enough to hunker down and work harder over the weekend. I still fit in 'Madagascar' and 'Derailed'. Madagascar was pretty funny, and was everything that 'Ice Age: The Meltdown' was not. 'Derailed' was a bit of a dud. We rented it under the impression that it was some kind of relationship drama or something, and instead was more of a crime movie. What sucked, was that the major plot twist was completely predictable. I mean, I love Jen as much as any North American, but it wasn't really worth it.

Speaking of Jen, I finished 'Friends' season six, and realized that I hadn't actually seen season seven yet. So, my future still holds some excitement.

The Week in Review

Hmm, I forgot to post about so much stuff this week.

First of all, I finally got my plane ticket to Tanzania. I had waited too long to book it, and was about to get screwed on the price. I woke up Monday morning, and got a call from a classmate: she had found a cheap ticket, had gone ahead and booked it for me (it was the last seat out of Dar at the end of August), and all I had to do was pay for it. Sweet! No effort required on my part, just the way I like it. She even got the dates right on the stopover I wanted in Frankfurt.

Next, on Wednesday, I had a class in a room that I rarely enter, and when I put my bag down in the corner of the room, I saw the scarf that I had lost on March 1st, just sitting there, neatly folded, in a window bay. I loved that scarf, and was pretty depressed about it disappearing, and now, it had come back to me, after six weeks. Nice!

Anyways, I spent the rest of the week happy about the weather, and getting psyched about summertime. What to do in my two weeks of vacation while I'm in Tanzania? Ngorongoro? Serengeti? Zanzibar? Kilimanjaro? Kilimanjaro is probably out; I don't think I have enough free days in a row to make it up.

I even got excited about a one-night stopover in Dubai. It will end up being a big pain, though, since I'm only there for nine hours.

Anyways, this morning I woke up, and thought that it was Monday and I'd slept in. That meant, I had to run to school ASAP and perform a DRE for the first time. Oh man, was I glad when I realized that it was still Sunday... things aren't looking so rosy for tomorrow.

Spring

I finally saw 'Hotel Rwanda' on Thursday night. A powerful movie. It's incredible what some people are capable of doing. Talk about courage. Last night, I went to see 'Ice Age: The Meltdown'. Another story of courage, but somehow not as powerful.

This morning, I went for a ride on my bike. I noted that the run-off from the snow in my back alley had almost completely dried up. This afternoon, it was snowing again. Big, fat, coarse chunks of snow.

Relaxation

I was happy to get renal exams over with last week. The weekend was a time to relax a bit. I watched 'Brokeback Mountain' and 'Robots'; despite being an Ang Lee fan, I preferred 'Robots'. Also, I started on 'Friends' season six, the last season I haven't seen. Finally, I slept a lot, and ate quite a bit: Saturday night was tanuki udon. Nice, although not Toronto quality.

Finally, to bring a bit more excitement to my life, I decided to shake things up in the shampoo department. I had a set of shampoo and conditioner given to us by some local salon during the first week of school, and I busted them out of the closet. The shampoo had an intense coconut smell, and when I put it in my hair, it lathered up like crazy, unlike any shampoo I've tried before. The result was, that I was able to mold my hair up into a single big white spike on top of my head. It was fun. I thought at that moment, what a pity it was that there was nobody there to see it.

When I told a couple of classmates my shampoo story, it was suggested that I wash my hair in a sink, so that other people could enjoy the big white spike. I have to say, that statement really made me realize that there is a serious lack of quality entertainment around here.

Anatomy

I've got my renal/urology anatomy/histology/pathology exam this afternoon. At the moment, I'm sitting in a café, listening to Prince, and doing some last minute studying. I'm currently wondering what the other customers think about the powerpoint slides I'm looking at...

Saturday, Saturday

It's a beautiful day out there. The sky is blue, with just a few clouds on the horizon. The grass fields on the valley wall have acquired a greenish hue. The puddles are covered with a thin layer of ice, but the ice will be gone soon...

Finished 'Lost' season one yesterday. I'll grab some breakfast now, finish 'Zouzou', and then hit the books for my renal/urology exams. :( Rococo refused to lend me 'Friends' season six until after this weeks exams were over. :(

Boston

Once again, here I am blogging instead of studying. I got out of my midterm OSCE last week, thanks to my bad back, and so I've got it tonight instead. Yesterday, I ended up finishing up season five of 'Friends', then watching another four episodes of 'Lost' season one (just four episodes left), and then went to sleep instead of studying. This morning, I got up early, came to school, got coffee, and now here I am instead of studying. So, I'll make this a quick post.

As promised, I am now going to report to you the things that I most miss about Boston. Let me start with a story: it's an unhappy story about the state of Calgary ice cream affairs, so skip to the next paragraph, if you don't want to see it. Me, I'm an ice cream lover. In undergrad, I used to love having ice cream and apple pie for dinner, since ice cream could be had for $1.00 per litre, and pie was ultracheap (under a dollar) at the end-of-week baked-goods sellout at the local IGA. Eventually, I discovered Greg's Ice Cream, which was pretty awesome. It made for the occasional tasty treat during my years there, and set me on my path of searching for the finest ice creams possible. I found myself in Calgary last summer, and so began my search for the best ice cream in town. I started with a place located right near my apartment, that I was told had great ice cream. Atmosphere was nice, but the ice cream was nothing special at all. Next, through discussions with classmates, I was told that the best ice cream in town was at another store, a short drive away. I went there one evening in November, and was overjoyed to find a fantastic selection of flavours. I bought a tub of chestnut, taro, and some other flavour, now forgotten. That night, I began with the chestnut. I love chestnut purée and chestnut pudding; this ice cream was nothing like that. Instead, it was bitter and flavourless. The next night, I moved on to the taro. I love taro; there was this chinese delivery place in Toronto that used to know me as the guy who ate a bucket of taro with every meal. This taro ice cream was atrocious, having only purple in common with that awesome root. Yuck. To top it off, that night, I was pretty sick. Refusing to believe that ice cream could make me sick, I tried it again the next night. The flavour was as bad as the previous night, and I became sick once again. Just to make sure, I had it again the next night, and got sick again. Well, by then I had finished the taro, and moved on to the last flavour. It was gross too, although I can't remember what it was supposed to be. I threw out the rest. I never throw out ice cream, so that was a first.

Anyways, that brings me to my list of things I miss about Boston:

1) Ice Cream. Ah, Boston has two spectacular ice cream places: Toscanini's and Herrell's. I loved both of those places, and have many happy memories about both. The flavours, the friends, the good times. My sister had a high-school friend living near San Fransisco, who married a guy who had gone to MIT. He would have their favourite flavour shipped in on dry ice from Toscanini's. Anyways, both of these places are located near...

2) Harvard Yard. No place in Boston has the atmosphere that Harvard Square does, and no place feels as good to walk through as Harvard Yard. How terrible to work at Harvard, and be located at the medschool, instead of enjoying the trees and grass of the yard, the activity of the square, and the pleasantness of the undergrad residences. The Harvard campus is definitely the best thing about Boston.

3) Boca Grande. There was a location not far from our Harvard lab, and another close to the apartment I lived in for a couple of years. Both were great. A lot of Bostonians liked Anna's, but I have no idea why. I have found nothing mildly resembling Boca Grande here in Calgary.

4) Pho Pasteur. I know there are a lot of good Vietnamese places in Calgary, but I guess I just liked the atmosphere of Pho Pasteur. Again, on Harvard Square, although I liked the Newbury location too.

5) Korean food. Three places come to mind: Café Han River at St. Mary's, Korea House in Chinatown, and best of all, Buk Kyung II in Alston. At that last place, I was introduced to jajang myeon, which was spectacular there. Interestingly, one day while in İstanbul last summer, I succumbed to the urge to eat jajungmyun, and walked from Taxim across to the only Korean place I knew in town, in behind the Blue Mosque in Sultanahmet. I had my jajang myeon (coincidentally with a Korean family from Boston sitting at the next table), and then headed home, stopping by an internet café on the way; that café stop was where I found out that I had gotten into medschool. So, medschool and jajang myeon are now forever linked in my mind.

6) Walking everywhere. I guess I miss living in a town where I walked pretty much everywhere. Partly that was because I disliked the mass transit system, but still. Calgary is a car town, no doubt about it.

Hmm, that's all I can think of! :) Anyways, if I was to make a list of things I love about Calgary, public health care would be near the top. You know, I was thinking that I wish that I had watched more 'Friends' before moving to the US. I would have had a better idea of what a dog-eat-dog world it was out there...

Back Again

Today, my back is finally good enough again for me to get back to my regular life. I ended up missing three days of school this week, and spent most of that time flat on my back on my sofa, watching some DVD or other. I made it 2/3 of the way through season 1 of 'Lost', got to the end of season 3 of 'Friends', watched 'Batman Begins' (finally found out who the heck Katie Holmes was), and last night, got around to watching 'Crash'. It wasn't a bad film, but it felt very 'TV-movie', so in retrospect, I'm a bit surprised that it managed to win the Oscar for best film. Looking back at the nominated films, it's the first of the bunch that I've seen, funny enough. Hmm, I need to spend more time at the cinema.

Oh, one of these days, I will write a blog entry listing all the things I miss about Boston; I had cheesecake for dessert last night, and it got me thinking...

Just looked up Crash on the imdb to get that link above. And, surprise surprise, writer/director Paul Haggis' career has been completely in television. No wonder it had that TV feel.

Tagged

I got tagged by Marysienka. :) I'm supposed to list six weird facts about me. That is a tough question for me; I'm so very normal. I'll list what I can.

1) Degrassi, I love everything Degrassi. 'Kids of Degrassi Street', 'Degrassi Junior High', 'Degrassi High', 'Degrassi:TNG'; I love them all. That is weird.

2) Comic books. I have too many, and spend too much pre-exam time reading them.

3) Textbooks. In the case of textbooks, I buy them, but never read them. Well, I read a third of them, I guess. The rest just sit there and say, "Hi, I was a waste of good money."

4) Similarly, I have a collection of musical instruments. Three guitars, one bass, a nice electronic Yamaha piano, and a violin. No, I can't play any of them. Actually, now that I think about it, I left the violin and one guitar out east, since it was a bit silly to lug them around. I regret not buying an electric saz last summer, though. That would have been cool. Next chance I get, I will buy one.

5) I have a weird obsession with languages and orthography, despite having no ability to learn them. On my shelf are textbooks for German, Hindi, Inuktitut, Korean, Lakota, Latin, Manchu, Mandarin, Mongolian, Swahili, Turkish, Tuvan, and Uyghur. Of all those languages, I only have skillz in two of them, and those are very basic skillz. I should probably get a Persian or Arabic text next, or perhaps something closer to home, like Blackfoot.

6) I guess that I hate furniture. That's abnormal. When I grow up, I want to minimize the amount of furniture I own. Unfortunately, peer pressure is strong, when it comes to furniture.

So, who should I tag in return? Hmm.

Ouch

Yesterday, my back went out on me. I woke up fine, noticed some sacroiliac pain while shaving, had trouble lifting my backpack, but made it to school. When I tried to get to lunch across the street, my back became so painful, I could barely move forward anymore. Note, however, that I could still move sideways, i.e. abduction and adduction were okay, and walking backwards was easier than walking forwards. So, what muscle did I screw up, I wonder? It took me fifteen minutes to get back across the street & parking lot to get back to school...

I was supposed to have my midterm OSCE exam in the evening, but got let off the hook by my preceptor (a great doc, btw), and was lucky to have Rococo give me a drive home. Magic Pants carried my superheavy backpack... Ah, it's nice to have friends who care. :)

Anyways, today I stayed supine all day, watching Friends season 2 (now finished, bring on 3) and a really really stupid movie. Now, though, I am up and about, able to walk normally, but unable to bend over or pick up anything heavy. Happily, I made it to the postbox to mail off that movie, and have found that the café across the street has wireless access! Schwing!

More Hair

This morning, as I was combing my hair post-shower, I realized that my hair now comes down past my nose, to the top of my upper lip. So, it's probably longer than it's been in six years or so. Meanwhile, the hair on the back of my head is a pretty decent length as well. I haven't had a haircut since July, in İstanbul.

Actually, I haven't shaved my goatee since that beard-growing contest that started up in February, so that is getting pretty long as well. I wanted to get rid of it a few weeks ago, but now I'm used to it, and I'm a bit afraid to get rid of it.

In summary, I look like a total bum. So, now I desperately need a haircut. I don't wanna look like a nerd, though. :(

Mountain Man

Yesterday was a good day. I headed up to Banff, then through the Kicking Horse pass to Emerald Lake, then back to Lake Louise, and finally back to Banff for dinner. I swear, Lake Louise is one of the more perfect views on the planet. That you can get unlimited coffee refills, including a biscotti, for $4.95, overlooking that view, is a good thing.

Anyways, I had a half-bound bison burger for lunch, and had a generous cut of prime rib for dinner, so I ended up pretty full. This morning, my friend Rich was in town, and we tried to hit the Keg for lunch, so that I could feast on prime rib two meals in a row, but unfortunately, they were all closed until dinnertime. So, instead we went to Red Lobster. I used to hate that place with a passion, so this is the first time I've gone to one in at least five years. I ended up really happy with it, surprise surprise. I shall return.

Pork Barrel

Nobody, and I mean nobody, can cook up a pork roast quite like me. I stuck one in the oven on Tuesday evening, in time to eat a nice big juicy slice at midnight. Mmm, mmm.

Unfortunately, now I've had pork for almost every meal since then. I should run out on Sunday night...

I finished reading 'Memoirs of a Geisha' tonight, so I can return it to the person who insisted I read it. Next up, maybe I'll read an actual renal text. Sadly, the textbook I bought for the course has the definitions of molarity and molality wrong. They tried to simplify the concept so that we dumb medstudents could understand it, but they simplified it to the point where their explanation was completely wrong. Oh well, I have found errors in most of the textbooks I've used since entering meds, so I suppose this isn't much worse. However, if they get the easy stuff like molality wrong, then how much can you trust the more complex stuff?

Okay, forget textbooks for a moment. Tomorrow should be a good day, since I'm going to head up to Lake Louise and Banff. Where to eat? Last time I was up there, I dragged Magic Pants, Rococo, and Bejeweled! to tea at the Banff Springs, against their will. Hmm, where can I find some nice pork in Banff?

Looking Sharp

I went skating up at the oval again on Sunday. We have a new batch of exchange students in town, so a bunch of us (Magic Pants, Rococo, Lightweight, Bejeweled!, and Mr. Taboo) went skating with them. I've complained about the poor quality of skate sharpening here in Calgary before, and finally found a solution to the problem. Mr. Taboo, who plays a lot of hockey, always gets his skates sharpened at a specific place in Edmonton. So, I sent my skates up to Edmonton with him on Friday, and so Sunday, I was good to go with freshly sharpened skates. Thankfully, the sharpening job was, in fact, quite excellent. My skates haven't felt that nice on the ice since leaving Toronto way back when. Amazing what a difference it makes.

Unfortunately, the oval is now closed for the next few months. There are some big races there next week, and after that they're keeping it shut until July or so. Not sure why... maybe renovations?

Busy Bee

Yesterday was the last day of interviews for next year's class. After seeing all these people coming to interview, and after many discussions with people about what makes a good candidate and what doesn't, I am now once again wondering how the heck I got into meds. As the interviews proceeded, we found out what questions were being asked; they turned out to be your typical medschool questions about ethics, empathy, truthtelling, etc. Going over my answers from last year, I realize that I gave the 'wrong' answers for most questions. However, I don't know if that was good or bad, since I also didn't give the 'standard' answers, that it seems that almost all applicants give. I am thinking of going over my application file in the admissions office, just to find out what it was that they liked about me.

Anyways, evidently, things have been pretty busy, as I haven't had time to post recently. I'm way behind in personal email, phone calls, etc, as well... gotta catch up this week.

Oh, the moon was incredible on Wednesday night. The crescent seemed to be at a very strange angle... Have I not been paying attention?

Fat, not.

I wonder if I already mentioned this in an earlier entry... I recently bought a battery for my bathroom scale, and weighed myself for the first time since last May. I found that I now weigh less than I ever did in my entire time in Boston. My BMI is sitting at 19.5. Not too shabby, but I don't understand how it happened. I haven't exercised much, my diet is pretty atrocious; I should be getting fat, not thin.

Anyways, in related medical trivia, it turns out that I'm a walking, talking, poster child for pneumothorax. I'm told that if I take up smoking, I'll quickly end up a great patient for my peers to examine.

In unrelated unimportant news, Rococo, Magic Pants, J, and I went to see 'Match Point' at the theatre after the exam on Friday. It was a pretty good movie; I left thoroughly satisfied. Afterwards, we hit Montana's for rib tips and dessert again; I think that just about does it for the Montana's routine, though. :(

I also recently made it through Rococo's entire DVD collection of romantic comedies, so it seems I should have more time to study in the future, unless I finally borrow seasons 1 through 6 of 'Friends'. Decisions, decisions.

Le Week-End

Had exams today, in resp. Survived another course: whew. What I need to do, is cancel my zip.ca membership. Anyways, it's time to go intense on renal.

This weekend, we have the first round of interviews for next year's class. It will be interesting to see the process from the other side of the battlements. It turns out that around 900 people apply from out-of-province, for the 15 spots available to them; I had no idea there were so many o-o-p applicants. Meanwhile, around 700 apply for the 85 in-province spots. Neither is great odds...

Sounds

In the last while, I've discovered three enjoyable sounds.

1) When I open my freezer door, the bottle of Jägermeister bangs against the guard rail in the door, and sets off this interesting buzz, that resonates for about three seconds.

2) In the local cancer centre, the stairwells have these big tubular steel railings; when you rap them with your knuckle, they act like big tubular bells. Somehow, the way they are attached to the wall allows them to resonate perfectly.

3) The hillside I walk up and down every day is south-facing. The bright sun will sublimate the snow away, even on the coldest days. When just the right amount of snow falls, and the day has just the right amount of sunshine, the dried grass is left with an extremely thin layer of ice coating its surface. When you walk on it, it creates a sound like cellophane crackling. Thank you, Gaia!

Weathering the weather

My friend Bil just moved to LA, and now feels that gray skies constitute bad weather. Meanwhile, here the high was -24 ºC yesterday, and it was in the -30s last night. I went shopping, and couldn't feel my feet for a while...

So, am I complaining? No and yes. No, because I kinda enjoy that. Yes, because, I have to say, the weather in Calgary has been a bit too hot for my tastes the last month or so. Sure, we had some nice -20 weeks back in December, but since I got back after Christmas, it has hung around the freezing mark, with a few days in the high teens, if you can imagine that.

Anyways, yesterday's pleasure will quickly fade away again, as Monday's high is supposed to be above zero again. :( At least we have some snow on the ground.

Valentine's

It's Valentine's Day again. Long ago, Leonard told me something related to this subject, but now that I'm in medical school, I thought perhaps I'd look into the matter myself. I went through my textbooks, my guides, my atlases, and my high-yield notes, and it seems that he was right: there ain't no cure for love.

I walked into this empty church; I had no place else to go
When the sweetest voice I ever heard, whispered to my soul
I don't need to be forgiven for loving you so much
It's written in the scriptures, it's written there in blood
I even heard the angels declare it from above
There ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure for love

Le Hockey

Saturday morning, I went to see our class women's hockey team play against our second year's team. They lost, but it was fun to watch, anyways. I tried to remember the last time that I actually went to a hockey game. If memory serves me right, it was in Rockland, Ontario, back after Guy Lafleur retired for the first time (from the Canadiens). I forget why he was playing, and who he was playing against, but I was a huge fan of his, and to watch him play in a small arena like Rockland's (where he had played so often as a kid, too) was a real pleasure.

It's funny, I was such a big fan of Guy back in the beginning of the eighties, I watched every game that was on the tube, with my Canadiens sweater on, and my hockey stick in my hands. Last night, I watched 'Bend it Like Beckham', and was reminded of that worship. I still have a big Lafleur poster up on my bedroom wall, back in Ottawa!

Moon and a Tune

Back in Boston, I was heavily addicted to my mp3 player. I never went anywhere without my FL100, or my Koss earphones. After I got to Calgary, I stopped using it, mainly because my rechargable batteries disappeared in the move, as did my player for a while. Well, two weeks ago, I refound all the necessary components, and I've had the player surgically reattached to my body.

The result is nice. Recently I have taken up the habit at nighttime of always walking up the hill to the hospital backwards, for a better view into the sky. These days, Orion is always high at around the time I usually head up to school, between 10 p.m. and midnight. That is great on its own, but it's better with a bit of Leonard to accompany it:

Maybe there’s a God above
But all I have ever learned from love
Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you...

Or some Nick:

Beneath the hanging cliffs and under the many stars where
He will move, all amongst your tangled hair
And deep into the sea...

Too bad the days are getting longer again.

I can't shut up...

...about Degrassi:TNG. That is quite a surpise to me. Yesterday and today, I watched 2/3 of the second season. The writing is pretty powerful, with several very engaging characters/actors.

After watching the first season, I thought to myself, it sure would be better if it had more stories about the adult generation in it. Well, the second season gave me just that, with the Spike/Snake wedding, and heavy Joey involvement in the plot. Good work. Nice to see more Lucy and Caitlin as well.

I also felt that one of the strengths of Degrassi JH/H was the size of the cast. D:TNG suffered by focusing on a small group of people. Well, they introduced a bunch of new characters in season 2, bringing up the cast size to something more Degrassi-like, allowing exploration of more diverse subject matter.

Finally, it was interesting to see that Bruce McDonald directed a few more episodes, and again did a great job with them.

So, why isn't this series all over the tube in the US? Subject matter too controversial, perhaps? Maybe they can't sell a series set in a foreign city? Funny, in Degrassi Junior High, they always hid the identity of the city; they actually went so far as to show US money in one episode of DJH...

Voodoo

I got back from Banff this evening. Wow, what a great weekend. Friday night, we got to the 'wellness' conference at about 6 p.m., had dinner, then headed into town to go clubbing, a bit after 10. We ended up at Hoodoo Lounge. The DJing was a bit weak, but the girlz dragged me onto the dance floor, which I typically hate, and I started to get into it. Once Run DMC came up, I went trance and wouldn't stop dancing until I got dragged back off of the floor at 1:30, to catch a bus up the hill to the hotel. I would not stop, though, not even when we got outside. I have never been in the groove like that, ever before. What happened? Strange.

Next day, it was seminars about various Wellness topics. Meditation was my favourite. We did this kind of stuff back in high school, at athletic camps, and I have used the techniques once in a while to help with insomnia, but this weekend reminded me of what I like about it: it modifies focus, awareness, perception. Mebbe I should spend more time pursuing it. Anyways, since meditation was in the morning, I had already achieved oneness with the universe by noon! That gave me all afternoon to ponder the ten dimensions of string theory.

Well, Saturday night, the remaining quadrangle of nerdz decided not to go clubbing, and hung out at the hotel. This morning, we headed back into town for some shopping, then went to the Banff Springs Hotel for afternoon tea, checked out the actual hoodoos on the edge of town, and headed back to Calgary. Nice day! I love being outside in a hint of snowfall, which was the case for most of the time we were there, and Banff is a gorgeous place. The view from Banff Springs is certainly incredible, and we discovered that it is the ideal study location, with all of these big halls overlooking the valley and mountains, and virtually no through-traffic of people. Hopefully, I'll be heading up there again soon, to get some quality studying in.

Plates

Tonight, I took my old Massachusetts plates off of my car and bike, and replaced them with Alberta ones. So, I'm finally completely legal. I'm sorta sad about it, I guess. I'm not sure why.

Tomorrow, I'm heading up to Banff, until Sunday. That was my motivation for getting my car registered: I didn't want to get hauled off to jail, while I was driving people up to the park. Anyways, there's some meds conference on. Banff has hot springs, and that is what I'll be up to on Sunday morning. How's that for relaxation? Truly, meds is like a long vacation.

Survival

If there's anything that I've become good at in the last year, it's pushing myself beyond any reasonable physical limits. Yesterday, I got intensely sick while at school (I am guessing I ate something bad, but who knows). Still, I refused to go home, and made it through the whole day's schedule. After resting a bit (more on that below), I ended up staying up until 1 a.m. to bake cookies (dark chocolate oatmeal) for the 'Well Physician' class today. In the morning, I got up at 6:30 to bake another batch of cookies (this time my speciality, cranberry and white chocolate), and then went off to class. The presentation went well, and the cookies went over even better... starting with the random people in the elevator, who enquired after the contents of my pot, and who I rewarded with a few, the people I ran into in the hallways, in the coffee queue... lucky I had baked up so many. Anyways, I ended up not getting to eat lunch, developed some intense stomach pain, and finally got home just before 6. What did I do? I went running, of course. When I finally got home from that, I ate. Two cans of chili. Great.

Anyways, enough of that. So, I mentioned 'resting a bit' up there. Okay, what I really did, was watch the last DVD of Friends season 10, with the final episode. I was never the biggest Friends fan, but I am a sucker for that kind of stuff. I was relieved to finally know the end of the whole Ross-Rachel thing, although frankly, I have to say that the writing on the last episode was lacking in imagination. I mean, Rachel has to give up all her dreams of Paris, career, etc, for a wishy-washy guy whose big gesture is going to the airport. Sheesh. Absolutely, he should have had to quit NYC, abandon everything, and head to Paris, or something like that, to show some emotional desperation and commitment. Nope, let Rachel do the sacrificing, so that they can have a final shot with all of them leaving the old apartment together. Better would have been to have the whole crowd self-destruct and fade away one-by-one, or two-by-two: Rachel gone, Ross dropping everything and taking off, Phoebe not bothering to help move because she's all married and stuff, and the other two taking off to some distant suburb, leaving Joey all depressed and alone with that penguin of his. Now that would have been a nice, gut-wrenching finale.

By the way, the hospital that Rachel's dad is in, after his MI a few episodes before the end, is actually Robarts, the humanities library at the University of Toronto, the largest library in Canada (according to wikipedia, it's currently the largest book repository in the world). 'The Turkey' is its obvious nickname. Somewhere in that building lies a copy of my thesis. I spent so many hours sitting in front of that building, waiting for the chinese truck to cook me lunch: either beef rice noodle (best in Toronto), or beef eggplant, oh so special.

Oh great, now I'm depressed. The truck people sold their business a few years back, I'm told, and the quality of the new people just wasn't the same. The rice noodle went downhill. The truck lady, with her incredible memory for the favourite dishes of hundreds of devoted students, will never be forgotten.

Just before 11 p.m. tonight, I finished reading my resp textbook, under two weeks into the course. Yes, I started a textbook-reading competition against a few classmates last week, and tonight was the end of it. Only one other student was serious competion: 'Magic Pants'. It appeared that he would also finish tonight. Who won? To be continued...

Poor Use of Time

I watched 'Sweet Home Alabama' last night. A girl in class lent it to me; she said I'd like it. Well, I am a sucker for thunderstorms, I suppose.

To pay for the time spent, I had to head in to school at 6:30 a.m.. I have to give a presentation tomorrow, in our 'Well Physician' course. The class is meant to help us learn how to deal with the stresses of medicine, and funny enough, that course is currently my main source of stress.

A Fine Line

On Saturday night, two of my classmates dragged me out to see 'Walk the Line'. Down in number from last weekend, we merely constituted a 'Triangle of Nerds'. I'll admit that I was hesitant to see it, since Joaquin Phoenix almost ruined 'Gladiator' for me. However, here, his wooden, lifeless acting was not much of a detriment to the film, given that for most of the time, he was supposed to be drunk, stoned, high, pissed, or in withdrawal. The rest of the time, he just looked either anxious or frightened. Anyways, it was actually a great film, with a great story to tell. Now, I'm trying to figure out how to get Reese Witherspoon and her momma to come save me. Is not knowing how to roast a nice, juicy turkey, sufficient?

After the movie, we hit Montana's again. The rib tips appetizer was awesome, the mile high ice cream cake was great. I declared, 'This is the best night ever!' Unfortunately, after getting through the fried cheesecake, for about three seconds, I was almost positive that I was going to ralph. So, at 1:20 a.m., arteries unhappy, we stumbled out of the restaurant, back into the cold night of reality.

Back to Life, Back to Reality

My health has more-or-less returned to me. All I have left now is a frog in my throat. In small group today, I tried to ask a question, and it took me four starts; all I could get out were strange croaks and rasps.

This week has been a bust. All I did was be sick and be studious. This weekend, with 'Friends' season 10 disk 1 out of the way, the studying should continue. Oh, what delights.

I also went for a spin on my motorcycle today. I finally went for that out-of-province inspection. The bike passed, with a tire replacement. The car didn't fare so well. I have to get some stuff done to it next week, something to do with some axle or universal joint housing cracking or something. Next week, though, I should register both of them and be totally legit. In the meantime, as Bruce said:

License, registration, I ain't got none.
But I got a clear conscience,
About the things that I done.

What was it I wanted to say today? I thought that I had something to say...

Oh yeah, happy Mozart's 250th birthday, everyone!

Ill

Last night, I stumbled out of the medschool and back to the fortress of solitude, and was completely wiped by the time I got home. I fell into bed all febrile, weak, and nauseous. Feverish dreams ensued, with my half-awake mind fixated on a few lines from LC:

I fought against the bottle,
But I had to do it drunk.
Took my diamond to the pawnshop,
But that don’t make it junk.

I finally got sick of being sick, pulled myself together, and studied for five hours. I'm six pages short of being halfway through resp. Then, I looked up the complete lyrics, so that next time I get feverish, I don't get stuck on the first lines.

All Quiet

Not much happening here at the moment... I think I have some kind of virus, I feel kinda weird.

Last week I ran into a girl I knew in gradschool; she oversaw my work when I did footprinting of a ribozyme in the Collins lab. Now she has two kids, and has been a professor at U of C for the last five years. "So, you're in first year?" she asked me.

Man, those Collins lab people keep on turning up in random locations... whatever happened to Ricardo, I wonder.

Crouching Chairman, Hidden Geisha

Last night, I went to see 'Memoirs of a Geisha' with a few of my classmates ('The Circle of Nerds' I like to call us). The movie starred Zhang Ziyi and Michelle Yeoh, so of course it reminded me of Crouching Tiger, one of my favourite films. Zhang did a pretty good job, and it was interesting to see Yeoh in a completely non-martial-arts role. In supporting roles were Li Gong, who seems to be getting more intense these days, and Kaori Momoi, who I remember from 'Pyrokinesis', of all movies. But, the highlight of the film for me was Kōji Yakusho, who was awesome, as always.

Unfortunately, the movie is rather too sentimental for my tastes, with a pretty shallow central philosophy. I 'identified' with Nobu, but everyone else in the movie lacks a real raison d'être.

Anyways, after watching the flick (my butt went ischemic sitting in those small theatre seats), we headed across the parking lot to 'Montana's' for some appetizers and desserts. Suburban Calgary is all box stores and chain restaurants; it's pretty depressing. At least Montana's has nice high ceilings. But, why name a Canadian restaurant chain after a US state? For the same reason that that US chain is called 'Bugaboo Creek', I guess.

Otherwise, I studied like nuts this weekend. Getting a good head start on resp, gotta love it. The cardio exam on Friday went fine, and I owe that in large part to finishing the EKG textbook in the middle of the first week of the course. I never did finish the second (more important) textbook...

Dream Analysis

I had an odd dream the other night. I was at some big meeting, in a big theatre, with most of my meds class, with some panel discussing something to do with either racial or sexual equality. Why, I don't remember. I was somewhere in the back listening to the discussions. One girl off to the side of the room kept interupting the speakers and going on and on... I couldn't figure out who it was; I didn't recognize the voice. I finally was able to see who it was; I immediately recognized her. "Oh, it's H..." I woke up soon thereafter, and it struck me. Who is H? Do I know H, or was H a figment of my imagination? After ten seconds or so, I remembered who it was: H was in my class in grade 8. In my dream, my brain had somehow brought up an image of this person, aged her appropriately, and then recognized her.

Amazing what the unconscious mind is capable of. Interesting to me, was that when I woke up, it took me a while to figure out who it was, so my conscious mind was a step behind the unconscious.

Anyways, I then wondered why my brain had resurrected H. Why H, given the number of people that must be stored away in the depths of my mind? Well, it ties into Degrassi, of course. My recent Degrassi Junior High overdose resulted in extreme exposure to the name 'H' (the name of one of the characters), and so the part of my brain that stored the name 'H', and people classified as H, was stimulated to send off some signals.

Okay, back to studying.

Still Studying

I got a few good hours of studying in today, which has put me in a pretty good mood this evening. Of course, now I'm surfing the web again, instead of reading. No probs, I just won't go to sleep until I'm half-ready for Friday. I don't have to be in the cardio clinic until 9:30 tomorrow morning, so I can sleep in a bit.

I almost blew it, though, because I decided to go buy some pop this evening. Once I got to the supermarket, I decided that I'd pick up some frozen spinach. Not one of those big blocks of spinach, because so are so hard to work with, but instead those frozen chunks of cut spinach you can buy out east.

I'd never seen spinach like this before Christmas, but back home, you can buy it frozen into these standardized ice-cube-sized chunks, so that when you want to eat some spinach, you just unfreeze, say, three chunks, and you're set. The rest of the spinach stays nice and frozen in your freezer, and there's no hammer required.

Well, I couldn't find any at the supermarket. So, I decided that by hook or by crook, I would not return home until I found them. So, I headed to another supermarket, and again had no luck, despite a thorough dig through the freezer section.

I was about to head further out into the suburbs to the nearest 'Real Canadian Superstore', but reason won out. I got a burger to go from Harvey's, and hit the books again.

Anyways, speaking of food, I bought a little wheel of Oka cheese recently. Haven't had that in a long time; mmm, what a great cheese.

More of the Same

Well, after episodes 1 and 2, the series focuses on the kids. I noticed that Maria Ricossa plays the mother of one of the kids; she was great in 'Riverdale'. Was I the only person that watched that show? From the Imdb, I also noticed that her sister on 'Riverdale', shows up as a principal in later seasons of D:TNG. Toronto is only so big, I guess.

D:TNG

I had a pretty stressful weekend, what with our cardio exam coming up this Friday. So, it was nice to sleep in a bit this morning. Just after ten, I heard the mailman arrive, so I got up to see what had arrived today. First, a notice that my Swahili books are down at the post office waiting for pickup, and second, 'Degrassi: The Next Generation', season one, disk one. Yes!

I watched the first two episodes. The time and place: it's the ten-year reunion of the Degrassi High class, and the setting remains Toronto. The plotline is split between the adults and the kids. With the kids, Emma is sucked in by a cyberstalker, but saved by her |-|4x0r friends. On the adults' side: Joey and Caitlin meet for the first time in ten years. Wow, you could cut the air with a knife!

I was a bit surprised about how well the Joey character still worked; some nice acting. More surprising to me, though, was that the episodes were directed by Bruce MacDonald, with Don McKellar guest-starring. MacDonald was the guy who directed 'Highway 61'; I didn't realize that he had moved towards TV since then. McKellar was one of my favourite actors back in the nineties, great in so many Atom Egoyan movies; I should dig around a bit to watch some of his more recent stuff.

This morning's score:

Degrassi: 2
Cardio: 1

Studying

Not much has been going on here recently; just spending my time studying for a cardio exam next Friday. After reading so much about atherosclerosis, I'm considering actually adding salads to my diet. Perhaps the occasional fruit or vegetable. Can man live on instant noodles alone? I have a feeling that the answer to that is 'no'.

Anyways, sitting here in the study centre for hours at a time can be a bit of a strain on my wandering mind. To help focus, I've got Rivers Cuomo's 'Burning Sun' on repeat in iTunes; I'm at about 50 repeats at this time. Will it make my top 25 list by the end of the day? Funny, I can't find the lyrics anywhere on the net; I guess that's because it's an unreleased song, with just the first 56 seconds floating around the net.

I'd die for you,
Why can't you be the one
To set my mind at ease?

I'd try for you,
But now the burning sun
Is setting on the seas.

Ain't nothing we can do,
I gave my strength to you,
But if my dream came true
I'd hold you every night.

Hmm, my dream came true; I'm in meds. But, where I live, the burning sun tends to set over the southern bank of the Bow.

If I interpret these lyrics correctly, they're about his favourite textbook.

Hair

Today is day zero for our class' beard-growing contest. This naturally brought up the subject of Aries on Xena. I forgot that, in the post-Xena years, that actor had died in an accident... a blow to the progress of human beards.

In other news, Google Earth has finally been released for the Mac. I discovered this around 2:30 a.m. last night, and paid for it with decreased sleep.

Things are pretty dull around here, preparing for our next exam, next Friday.

MacWorld

Another year, another MacWorld. Once again, the rumour mill was more or less completely wrong in all their predictions. All models that 'reliable sources' predicted would be renewed, weren't, and all models that they predicted would not be, were. Okay, the PowerMacs weren't replaced, but that is the sole exception to that statement.

Anyways, although I really wanted to buy my parents a new Mac Mini, I'm pretty happy to see that the iMac is finally a nice machine. However, I have no use for one.

I'm also happy that my 17" is still not out of date. :)

It's a beautiful night here in Calgary, with an icy fog in the air, and a thin layer of fresh snow on the ground...

Addiction

They say that the first step in dealing with an addiction is admitting that you have a problem. Well, I have a problem. Last night, I watched Degrassi Junior High DVDs until I passed out.

Forget Ross and Rachel, now I need to know what's happening with Joey and Caitlyn on the new Degrassi.

Something to look forward to

I spent a quiet weekend, mostly reading Bashō at home, and watching my Degrassi Junior High DVDs. Went out for dinner with the class diners' club on Saturday night, followed by a bit of gaming...

The excitement for the weekend, though, was the discovery that a new Murakami book is coming down the pipe, 'Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman'. Although it's a book of short stories, and I'm guessing that I'll have already read a fair share of them, it still means that late next August, I'll have something to look forward to. I can't wait!

Travel

Last summer the ultimate destination of my summer travels was the eastern tip of Turkey. Now, it's the location of the current Turkish bird flu outbreak. Three teenagers have died in Doğubayazıt, at the foot of Mount Ararat, and now the town is under quarantine. Meanwhile, there are more human cases in Van, a bit to the south (I didn't make it there), and there are outbreaks in poultry in Erzurum and Iğdır, where I also visited. It's a beautiful area; I hope things don't get worse.

Meanwhile, today I committed to Tanzania for my elective next summer. I ordered two books on Swahili...

Clean

This year, I need to think more before I speak. Here's why:

Before Christmas, I think I mentioned that I had cleaned up my apartment. In fact, I got my bathroom so clean, that I remarked out loud to myself, "This bathroom is so clean, I could eat off of the floor behind the toilet!"

One night this week, I decided that I needed a NyQuil to soothe my virally-infected nasal passages, in order to get some sleep before an early-morning clinic session. When I opened up the package, one of the caplets fell to the ground and rolled away. I got on my hands and knees to find it: there it was, on the floor, behind the toilet.

If I didn't believe it, I shouldn't have said it. I ate it.

Into the Night

Right before Christmas, I ran out of all of my stores of Korean instant noodles. So, after I got back from out east, I had to start eating the rest of the food in my apartment. I finished all of the Irish Stew I had, as well as the ravioli, and even ate into my stock of Kraft dinner. Yesterday, I decided that it was time to go buy another three cartons of noodles, since I could no longer go on without it.

I usually go out to the east side of town to go to a superstore out there that sells them in cartons, but as I left the study centre to go shopping, one of my classmates told me that there was a closer superstore that stocked them, in the northwest. Just take the Sarcee exit from Crowchild. No problem.

So, I headed out into the night, to a place I'd never been to before. I drove on, and on, and on... no sign of Sarcee. The lights of Calgary disappeared behind me, and I carried on. I knew full well that I had missed it, but I kept on going. Leonard sang:

And no one knows where the night is going

I knew that it wasn't leading to noodles. I headed northwest into pure darkness.

As a result, for dinner tonight, I started with a raisin scone, followed up with an old bag of barbeque potato chips, and had two peanut butter cups for dessert.

More on my Christmas Haul

So, since I listed off the books I got for Christmas, I may as well list off my other major material gift/acquisition: 'The Rough Guide to Central Asia'. A pretty fun album, I've had it on repeat since last night.

In not great news, I can't for the life of me find my negatives from my Mongolia vacation a few years back. I found the slides , and one of the rolls of negatives, but the rest are missing. I wonder if I left them at Enders. I scanned them in there at one point, so maybe I forgot them in the old computer room or something? Sad, if they're really gone for good.

Exam went well today, but I was coughing up huge amounts of sputum all morning...

2006

Well, it's the first day of a new year, and I have returned from parts east to my fortress of solitude here in Calgary. As I watched the ball fall in NYC last night, I got hit with the usual melancholy that you are supposed to feel when you hear Auld Lang Syne. I was thinking about how my last year had gone so well, when I realized that all my supposed successes were in the material world. Of course, watching TV news for the first time in months also reminded me what a lousy year 2005 was for so many people around the world, and here I was, happy about exam results. I need to work more on the immaterial in 2006. More self-denial and giving away of possessions and money.

I suppose that in 2005, I enjoyed some happinesses that had nothing to do with material wealth or status... and I did spend a good deal of the year in a dreamstate of inner peace and contentment, which I guess is also a good thing.

Well, on that note, Christmas presented me with a couple of good books as gifts. First was 'The Peoples of the Great North: Art and Civilisation of Siberia', and the second was 'The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches' by Matsuo Basho. Hmm, that wikipedia entry is grossly oversimplified.

Well, Basho is, of course, the guy who wrote:

Breaking the silence
Of an ancient pond,
A frog jumped into water --
A deep resonance.

As translated by Nobuyuki Yuasa. Anyways, here's why this book is so awesome:

Determined to fall
A weather-exposed skeleton
I cannot help the sore wind
Blowing through my heart.

You and me both, Basho!!! :)

Homeward Bound

I climbed up the hill to the medschool for the last time in 2005 today, as tomorrow morning I head home. I won't have internet access at home, so this will also be my last post for the year.

2005 was great for me, starting with my quitting Boston and heading to İstanbul for the summer, and culminating in getting accepted into meds here in Calgary in July... just-in-time medschool admission, very efficient. Well, as the year is coming to a close, I'd like to say thanks to everyone who helped me get here, from providing inspiration, or encouragement, or getting me to put in the effort to get through mcats and admissions successfully. You know who you are, so thanks.

I still can't believe that I got in, despite their actually considering my complete undergrad CGPA. Wow!

Anyways, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone. May 2006 be as good a year. Peace.

The good old days are back for a day

My friend Rich is in town; we'll hang out tomorrow. What to do in Calgary? Lunch, perhaps Vietnamese? Follow with comic book shopping, arcades, and the Greenhouse Tea Room. Oh wait, subsititute that last one with some other bubble tea place... and, I don't know any arcades here... nor comic book stores...

My bathroom is spotless. I'm very happy about that. On top of that, I caught up with my laundry, and bottled my beer. Now, if I could just clean up my office, I'd be set.

Summer Dreaming

I really wanted to go to Mongolia again next summer for my elective, but now I think that I've decided to go to Tanzania instead... hmm, what to do?

Communal Living

Yesterday about half of our medschool class headed south of town to High River, to go to a skills workshop put on by the docs in the hospital there. We practiced suturing, intubation, casting, and good old IVs. It was a great session.

Afterwards, we headed out to a Hutterite colony not far from High River. They're a Germanic religious group, originally founded in 1528, apparently. They're basically a reformist Protestant group with a strong anti-war philosophy, explaining their movement to the US from Russia (where they had eventually ended up) back in the 1870s; it also explains the move of seventeen of their eighteen colonies from the US to Canada during the first world war. Funny enough, anti-communal laws established in Alberta in the 1930s eventually led to their reexpansion into the US. I knew that they lived in colonies, but I thought that was for religious and customary reasons. I didn't realize that they were communal, with all income going to their colony leader, who then budgets it out on farming equipment, housing, carpentry and metalshop equipment, supplies, allowances, etc. The reason for their belief in communes is due to references to communal living in the Bible.

Pretty nice bunch of people, and it was interesting to see that they still read and write German using Gothic script, something you almost never see anymore. When I was a kid, I read a lot of books in Gothic, so I enjoyed myself reading stuff posted on one of their fridges.

You may wonder why a medskills trip was combined with a visit to the Hutterites, but it makes sense. Hutterites are one of those groups that makes for interesting genetic analysis, and so the conditions carried within their community is something that docs around Calgary need to be aware of.

I need to clean today...

Night of Union

Tonight (the 17th) is the 732nd anniversary of the Night of Union. As Rumi said:

"Come, come again, whoever you are, come!
Heathen, fire worshipper or idolatrous, come!
Come even if you broke your penitence a hundred times,
Ours is the portal of hope, come as you are."

What a concept.

Vacation All I Ever Wanted

I'm now officially on vacation until January. Just in time.

Saw 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire' at the local IMAX theatre yesterday. Good stuff, great on IMAX. Potter needs a haircut, though. Actually, there was a lot of long hair in that movie. I guess I could use a haircut as well.

Orienteering

I went orienteering this evening, for the first time in many years (probably nine or so). It was a simple street course around part of Calgary, and ended up being about a 10 km run. Weird to meet people I haven't seen since '93.

Beer and cookies

I started up a fermentation of 22 litres of wort last week, on Wednesday night. However, it is acting strangely, in that my fermentor isn't producing much (i.e. anything) in the way of gas. So, either the fermentation is just going really slowly, because my kitchen is too cold for the yeast to grow quickly, or the yeast I added was dead, and my fermentor is completely sterile. Both of those answers are unlikely, so that leaves me wondering.

I will open it up early next week to see what happened.

That same night, I also baked up about fifty cranberry and white-chocolate oatmeal cookies, and forty dark-chocolate oatmeal cookies. They were for a bake sale on Thursday, for AIDS week. My cookies ended up being a big hit. I wish I had kept some for myself...

Taken to heart

Yesterday I held a beating heart in my hand for the first time.

I followed it up with eight straight episodes of 'House'.

Christmas

We had our class Christmas party last night. Was interesting to see everyone dressed to the nines.

Had fun trying to get my vehicles inspected during the day. I was told that Canadian Tire did out-of-province inspections, so I headed up there on my bike. "Sorry, we do out-of-province inspections, but not for bikes." (They do do the federal bike inspection, though.) "Okay," I said, "I'll go home and come back with my car." I did that, and I when I got back, I got: "Sorry, we do out-of-province car inspections, but not on weekends." Hmm, couldn't I have been told that when I said I was going home to go get my car and I'd be right back? Normally, I would have laughed it off, but I hadn't had a coffee yet. :) Instead, I was miserable about the hour and a half I had wasted driving back and forth.

So, picked up the boyz, we went for a coffee and a drink, and hit the Christmas party. Fun ensued.

Snow

On Monday night, I was walking home from the hospital, at around 3:15 a.m. or so. The temperature was sitting around -20 C, and it was snowing lightly.

The snowflakes were extremely fine, such that they weren't really visible as distinct objects in the darkness, as they floated on the wind. Instead, they were only visible as tiny sparks of light, reflected from the street and city lights. It was incredible, like the sky was full of little sparkles, almost to the point that it was like brilliantly shimmering pure white fireworks...

I don't recall having ever seen snow like that before in my life. I hope I experience that again sometime.

In a completely unrelated note, watching 'House' the other day, I noticed that he has the exact same desk lamp as me, the Antifoni from Ikea! I am more like the guy every day.

December 6th

I didn't get around to posting on the 6th, but I wanted to mention it, because it is a pretty important day up here in Canada. In 1989, at the École Polytechnique at the Université de Montréal, Marc Lépine killed 14 women, in a personal war against feminism.

That event completely changed the dialogue on women's rights in Canada. Violence against women is only a small part of this debate. Equality for women in society and in the workforce would seem to be such a basic right, and yet it remains denied to them.

Whenever I hear people say that they hate feminists or feminism (especially when I hear women say this), I can't help but think of those poor fourteen. Their deaths, though, did wake up Canada, and serve as a constant reminder of why feminism is so important in the present and to the future.

War is over, if you want it

That may sound simplistic, but he and Yoko had it right.

Twenty-five years, since the world lost its biggest advocate for universal love and oneness.

Morris

Oh, I wanted to talk about my shower last Friday. There I was, thinking about life, and how I've lived so many lives at this point; I must be on life number five now. Then I thought, five lives? A human only has one. A cat, on the other had, has nine, so that must mean that I am actually a cat living out some kind of feline fantasy, and I have four lives remaining in this world.

Why was that significant? Because, they say that curiosity killed the cat. That explained my activities of the previous night. 2 a.m., having met my study goals for the day, it was time to go to bed. Or was it? No, it was time for me to find out what happened to Ross and Rachel. That's right, after all this time, I needed to know the answer to that question at 2 a.m. on a 'school night'. I ended up going to bed at 4, having finished season 8 episodes 1-6.

Canada Post is mocking me, though, by failing to deliver the next disk in the series to me, even though it was mailed out last Thursday. Ditto for my cardio textbook, by the way, which I have been eagerly awaiting since last Wednesday.

Luckily, I have an exam in another course tomorrow (I guess that's later today), so I had something else to read over the weekend. Plus, the first 'House' DVD came in the mail yesterday...

I was also reading Yunus Emre over the weekend. Perhaps I'll post a couple of quotes next weekend.

Sugar Pie

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon baking. I started by heading over to the medschool to download some recipies. My intention was to bake a pumpkin pie, specifically this one, that I came across while reading one of my favourite food blogs. First I was frightened by the crust, but then I got over that by deciding on a graham cracker crust instead. However, the powdered nutmeg and powdered cloves made the recipe a no-go. Nutmeg would have been possible, but I would have had to find and buy a little nutmeg grater. Powdered cloves, though, defied imagination. I couldn't do that with a grater; I would have needed some kind of mill. I guess a peppercorn mill would have done the trick, but seriously, who eats powdered clove?

Anyways, I instead decided to just buy a pumpkin pie. I headed over to the local Co-op, and bought a ton of ingredients for making some cookies too, and then headed over to the condensed milk section, as I had a hankering for some. When I took a can off of the shelf, there on the label was a recipe for sugar pie! Wow! So, I headed home, baked a few dozen cookies, then started the sugar pie. It turned out quite well, although the graham cracker crust could have used some pre-baking to prevent it from being dissolved away by the filling.

For breakfast I had two slices of pie. It's great, but is a real test of one's body's ability to process simple sugars. I don't think I'll ever make this again, unless I have to feed some hungry voyageurs.

I also have a litre of whipping cream in my fridge now. I'd better start on that tonight.

No Free Lunch

My neighbour finally smartened up and put a password on his network. :( Suddenly, once again, all I have at home for time-wasting are my books and laundry!

I learnt something in the last day. I need snow tyres for my car. My American summer tires just don't cut it up here on the unsalted streets. I barely made it up a gentle incline last night, after dropping off a friend on the south side of town.

Next

First CV textbook down. Next!

I'm tired. Can't wait until Saturday morning, when I have penciled 'sleeping in' into my schedule.

I have successfully slowed down my pace of movie watching, thanks to my love for the EKG.

If I can be sirius for a moment...

I don't know why, but I spend a lot of time looking up at the sky these days. It helps pass the long nights, I guess.

So, last week, I think on Tuesday, as I was walking back from the hospital, I did my usual stop'n'stare into the sky from the Bow valley's edge. It was about 4:15 a.m., so Orion had swung off to the west, giving me yet another picture of the sky above my neighbourhood. I noticed a star, incredibly bright, in a nice constellation that just jumped out at me. I didn't know what it was, so when I got home, I looked it up in my little book of stars. It turned out that it was Sirius, and the constellation was canis major. All these years, naturally I had heard of Sirius (a.k.a. the dog star), but had never bothered to actually look for it, and it had never jumped out at me before.

Anyways, I hope we get a bit of aurora borealis action going over the winter. I have a need for entertainment.

Miyagi

I forgot to mention, it was sad to hear that Pat Morita died on Thursday. For those of you in Boston, ask Yoko to do her Miyagi imitation for you; it will bring a smile to your face... followed by a tear. (;_;) Daniel-san!!!

Novel idea

I wish I'd heard of this before: November was the 'National Novel Writing Month'. I've never wanted to write a novel before... but why not? Sounds like fun. Maybe next year? In my spare time, of course.

Hmm, that reminds me, I was planning on getting work as a film extra, but forgot about it. I don't want to miss out, the next time Brad and Angelina are filming in Calgary. What do you think, should I take a shot at making the small time?

I'm on chapter two of 'Rapid Interpretation of EKGs'! Fun! Go go go!

Exams

I had an anatomy exam today. By all rights, I should have failed, given the effort I've put into the subject, but managed to memorize 90% of what I needed to during the last three days. I overlooked a couple of subjects while studying, but overall had very few weak points. Basically, I managed to jump out of the fire...

...and into the frying pan. I have another exam tomorrow, and I've put even less effort into it than I did into anatomy. Good one!

I really let my hand ruin my flow, for the last six weeks. No more; this week I went back to my old ways. Next week: no going home before 1 a.m. at the earliest! I must have mastered the basics of cardio by next weekend. No movies except on weekends, or as special rewards for extra-intense extreme studying.

Okay, back to work. I have a Takashi Miike movie waiting to be watched post-exam.

Che and Bolivia

Here's something interesting from the NY Times: 'Che's Second Coming?' As you know, Che was captured and killed in Bolivia by government troops, with assistance from the CIA, back in 1967. He was there to get a revolution going, but wasn't able to get the local support he needed, at that time. It seems that he went to Bolivia 35 years too early; his efforts now appear to be coming to fruition.

Too much film

I finally got those pics uploaded, that I had scanned before my last post. One nice stereo pair from the Galata Mevlevihane. Good. :) Needless to say, I didn't stay up until 4 to process them on Thursday night, nor on Friday night. Should I start on the next roll? I actually have exams on Thursday and Friday, so I should be studying more than playing with old film. :)

Speaking of film, I've watched 22 movies within the last 30 days. I don't think I can keep up that pace, and still keep my marks in a satisfying range. Man, I want to see the new Harry Potter and Wallace & Gromit movies, but haven't gotten around to it. Maybe next weekend?

Anyways, right now I'm just baking some cookies to wind down, and I should cook some dinner so that I don't just eat cookies. Then, I should finally get down to studying. Or, should I watch another movie, 'Born into Brothels'? Tough call.

Nights of Stereo

I was up until 4 last night, scanning in a roll of stereo film. It's funny, I get so much pleasure out of those pictures. My camera is very hard to use; getting the exposure right is not easy, and if that wasn't enough, focus is a matter of 'I think that's about 14 feet'. Well, this last roll was mostly well exposed, starting with some decent pictures from Prague. Next, though, was a string of photos from the Czech republic, New Hampshire, and Six Flags, all out of focus. Finally, a series of photos from a sema in Galata Mevlevihane. Those last ones I was most excited about. I knew they were underexposed (it was low light, and I wanted to not have the dervishes washed out by their spinning), but how bad they were, I didn't know. That drove me to keep on scanning, relentlessly. I was pleasantly surprised to find that one or two of those Mevlevi pics were decent. It will take me another long evening of processing to get them into final shape.

Anyways, it's interesting to me, that even when the pictures are out of focus, that little bit of stereo effect that you get brings so much life to the image, I don't worry so much about the problems of exposure or focus. Reflections on marble or in windows, shadows underfoot, all become essential parts of the photo.

In unrelated news, I discovered how to find out that when it comes to international health, it's easy to find out who in your medschool class talks the talk, but doesn't walk the walk. Hold a global health interest group meeting a week before an exam, and see who shows up! Apparently, there are very few true revolutionaries in my class. A luta continua!

Two more movies down so far this week: 'The Motorcycle Diaries' and 'Sideways'. I enjoyed both; the first was inspirational (making me want to hit South America on my bike), the second amusing and freakishly depressing (making me want to take up drinking large quantities of only the finest wine).

Today's Film

Another day, another exotic movie. This time, the movie is... wait for it... 'Ice Princess'. Yes, you read that right. What, I'm supposed to not see a Michelle Trachtenberg movie? The big thing I don't understand about this movie, is why we are supposed to be happy for her when she blows off Harvard? That's so nuts, I don't get it at all. Hmm, I noticed that in the results list for one of the competitions, they spell 'Worcester, MA' as 'Wooster, MA'. Funny stuff, makes you wonder, was it on purpose, or is it just that the person who typed it up lacked a Harvard education? Anyways, I hate to say it, but I'm afraid that Ms. Trachtenberg needs to unlearn some of the acting skills she learnt from Buffy.

Yesterday was a good day. I started with finally figuring out a nice method for patching together the stereographic photographs from my old Kodak. Finished processing my first roll, all the way from back in 2003, then moved onto scanning in a roll from 2003-2004. I processed this film in Prague, and when I got it back, saw that most of the film was terribly overexposed, to the point that I thought it was junk and unsalvageable. Well, my scanner rescued out a lot of the photos, and Photoshop helped with some nice level correction. One of the shutters on the camera is a lot slower than the other, so one photo from each pair is always more exposed than the other. Photoshop lets me match the colour palette on the bad photo in the pair to the good photo in the pair, which makes a huge difference. Next, Corel Photopaint lets me stick the two photos in the pair together very easily, without resolution loss, something that is a lot less easy using Adobe software.

I followed that up by hitting Ikea to buy a lamp for reading in bed: 'Antifoni' was my choice, to match my desk lamp.

So, I spent my evening scanning photos, baking cookies, and reading books of 12th-century philosophy in bed. Ah, life is good.

Bahauddin

Today I wandered into the local Chapters, just to kill a bit of time. I was actually going to get a coffee, and sit around reading for a while, but the coffee shop was crowded enough that I lost that desire.

Instead, I just browsed through the store, and ended up in philosophy. There, to my surprise, I found a translation of the Maarif, a.k.a. 'The Drowned Book', of Bahauddin Valad (1152-1231 AD), the father of Rumi. To say I was happy to find it was an understatement, since I didn't even know that it existed. So, I bought it and am now partway through reading it.

However, I have to admit I'm somewhat irked by the translation. Yet again, this book features the technique of 'second translation', where a poet will rework the text to make it 'better' than the straight, literal translation. You see this all the time with Rumi translations as well. Augh, I understand that this would appeal to some people, but what about the rest of us, that want to hear these works from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Why do I need someone who isn't Bahauddin or Rumi to 'improve' his works? Anyways, as I read, I always wonder what the truth behind the work is. Where does Bahauddin or Rumi begin, and Coleman Barks begin? At least include the original translation in an appendix or something... :(

Despite the problem I have with these translations, I think that in the current world-state, with interreligious strife due to the dominance of literal, soulless religion (think al Qaeda or the intelligent design people), people need to look back and critically evaluate current religious doctrine. In other words, once again nail some theses on the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg. The works of Mevlana and other sufis reveal a depth of understanding about life and belief far beyond current religious groups. Me, I'm not religious, but Rumi allowed me to understand why people believe, and to respect them for the sincerity of that belief. At the core of religion you should find 'love'. When this is not the case, religion has been perverted to benefit greed and anger.

Anyways, interestingly, in the notes on translation of The Drowned Book', the authors offer up Leonard Cohen's work as an example of modern sema. Hmm, they've got that right. Here's a Leonard quote that is pure sufi:

I asked my father
I said, father change my name.
The one I'm using now it's covered up
With fear and filth and cowardice and shame.
He said, I locked you in this body,
I meant it as a kind of trial.

That's from 'Lover Lover Lover' from 'New Skin for the Old Ceremony', where I swear that he is using lover in the sufi sense. To finish off this post, let me quote a passage from 'Hidden Music', one of my favourite Rumi translations.

I said, what about my eyes?
Keep them on the road.
I said, what about my passion?
Keep it burning.
I said, what about my heart?
Tell me what you hold inside it?
I said, pain and sorrow.
He said, stay with it.

Battle Royale: Thumbs Up!

It was a holiday here today, so it was movie time: 'Battle Royale'. It arrived in the mail yesterday morning, but I used the technique of delayed gratification to increase my enjoyment of the film. I placed the disk on my desk, looked at it, let it breathe overnight, and sat down with it this afternoon, after finishing some paperwork. Wow, it was great: I laughed, I cried, I reflected on love, trust, growing up, death, and murder. All the things you want out of a movie. I recommend it.

I'm using a neighbour's wireless network. Is that bad?

The Starry Night

I have been wondering for the last month or so, why I had never once seen Orion in the sky since moving here. Why? Was it avoiding me?

Well, last night I left school at around 3:40 a.m., and when I arrived at the top of the hill, on my way back down into the valley and my apartment, there was Orion in the sky, leading me home. The sky was crystal clear, and the southwestern sky, which always seemed tainted by clouds or light pollution, was instead as beautiful as the northern sky.

I stood there for ten minutes or so, awestruck.

I wondered whether Orion was my favourite constellation or not. The challengers would be the good old reliable big dipper, or the mysterious tortured Cassiopeia. I guess that I love all three, in different ways, and all powerfully. Sigh.

Still, though, the beautiful night sky here in town just makes me want to get back to Mongolia ASAP. The night sky there was unlike any I'd seen in my life, so brilliant and vast and incomprehensible. In Mongolia, they should charge admission to go outside at night.

Did van Gogh ever experience a sky like that, or was Europe in his day already too polluted by the industrial revolution? It must have still been that pure night sky, and I imagine that Pierre also looked up at a similar sky at the entrance to Arbat square.

Showertime

This morning, I climbed into the shower, and discovered something interesting (to me). I had two almost-finished bars of soap in there, one a bar of blue Dial, and one a bar of white Zest. Well, I had left the two sitting on top of each other yesterday, and so they had now fused together into one bar, half blue and half white! I felt like I was washing with Aquafresh! So, that made my day.

Anyways, this afternoon I watched two movies, first 'Cursed', and then 'Contempt', which I mentioned yesterday. The latter turned out to be a great movie for a guy to watch, if he wants to bring himself down.

But, what brought me up again was that zip.ca has shipped me 'Battle Royale'! Wow, I've wanted to see that movie for about two years, so I hope that it isn't a letdown.

Last and least, I've switched browsers again, if anyone cares. Back to Safari!

Always more

I watched a few more movies over the weekend. 'Aragami: The Raging God of Battle' had neither enough raging nor enough battle to satisfy. Style was good, substance was lacking, and the end of the movie was a predictable letdown. I followed it up with 'Sanjuro', which, after a few minutes, I realized I had seen before, perhaps ten years ago or so. A great movie, though, and I'm glad to have watched it again, because Toshiro Mifune was awesome, all belligerent and strutting around and enigmatic. I need to act more like that. Plus, you have to love those camellias.

Which reminds me, earlier this week I mistakenly watched another movie that I'd seen before, 'Another Heaven', which was appropriate for Hallowe'en, I guess. However, I think I've seen too many hypnosis movies recently.

Oh, I also watched 'The Adventures of Baron Munchausen' on Friday. I saw that in a theatre when it first came out, but felt the desire to see it again, and you know that I fulfill all my whimsical wonts. Now, I have Jean-Luc Godard's 'Contempt' waiting for me at home, but I'd better study another hour or two before I head home... gotta keep up that average, 'cause life is all about the marks, and I'm all about life.

Winterstart

The run in Banff turned out to be quite fun. I ran with my upperclassman and mentor, Albert. The temperature wasn't too bad, at least for the first half of the race; it was just a few degrees below zero, maybe -6 degrees Celsius. We kept a slow pace, partially due to the density of runners, and finished alive and well. That was my personal goal. At the finish line, all the runners got two beers. Funny, I wanted something non-alchoholic, so I was out of luck!!! There was water somewhere, but I couldn't find it. How bizarre is that? How about something with electrolytes in it, besides beer, people? Granted, the beer was light beer, so I guess it would have been acceptable, had I not been driving back to Calgary afterwards. Had half of a banana and a cookie, though, which was dinner.

I desperately want some prime rib. Maybe next week sometime.

We are bacs. Resistance is futile.

Heather, a former physio in my class, checked out my hand today. Another positive review.

I also met with my faculty advisor. Can't wait to shadow him in surgery. He had a copy of an aviation magazine (the AOPA magazine) on his office coffee table, so he's obviously a pilot. I need to get back into that; fuel prices have dropped over twenty percent since the post-Katrina peak, but my cash flow is poor, due to recent excessive textbook purchases.

A Leonard Cohen quote from a Juno awards show in the early nineties came up in a trivia game tonight (Cranium, actually). I had it after three words, "Only in Canada..."

Tomorrow I run an 8 km road race in Banff. How will that turn out? I'm fat and out of shape, have my left hand in a splint, and the race will be at 4540 ft of altitude, at night time, in sub-zero conditions. "Only in Canada..."

Important Step

As of yesterday morning, with my left hand, I can once again give the finger.

I guess that means I can safely drive again.

1092 minutes

Today I received my latest order from amazon in the mail: the complete DVD collection of Degrassi Junior High! That's right, 1092 minutes in total.

Quiet

Came home after a dinner neurosurgery information session, and took a nap.

Woke up: total silence. The Venetian blinds, bright. Only one thing could cause that, snow with accumulation. Ran to the window, 'threw up the sash,' yes, there's an inch of snow on the ground. Got out there, walked up the hill to the hospital through the snow-covered grass, flakes blowing around me, paradise.

There is no silence like that of a snowfall in wintertime.

In the Tom Baker centre, the muzak is Billy Joel -- I love you just the way you are. That's Rich for you; welcome to Calgary.

Physio

Today I went for physio for the first time. The good news is that, based on my current active motion range, my physio predicts that I will easily regain full hand motion and control. I'm happy to hear predictions like that. On the other hand, my fingertip sensation seems a bit off, but I'm not sure that is a direct result of the injury, and if it is, whether it is long-term. Still, it seems adequate already.

Anyways, the physio started by asking me to list three activities, which I can't do now, with my injured hand, but which I would like to be able to do again. Basically, they are meant to serve as signposts in my recovery. My mind blanked under the pressure. "Typing," was my first response, but then I felt that that was too easy. I then thought about my studies, and said, "Perform a physical exam." I'm supposed to be starting with that next week, so it's directly relevant. However, once again it seemed like something really basic, for which I would just need some strength, but not much more. What could I say, for my third objective? I tried to imagine my left hand doing something that required fine motor control. The physio waited for an answer. "Knitting!" I declared. No, not something manly like 'perform neurosurgery' or even 'play guitar.' Well, I was immediately embarrassed. My physio, hoping to make me feel less silly, offered, "My wife loves to knit."

Well, I no longer have to wear my splint, except at night, or in situations where I could inadvertently hurt my hand, like walking around, etc. In fact, at the moment, I am touch typing this entry! At some point this evening I resumed normal typing, without even noticing the switch!