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!

Why splints suck

I wish that there was some way that I could post the smell of my splinted hand, because it is very gross. Hopefully, extensive washing can remove this odour from my life.

In other news, I have developed a most interesting typing technique, where my right hand touch-types as normal, but my left hand is held rotated with the thumb pointing straight down, in the standard thumbs down position, and the extended thumb is used in a hunt-and-peck manner for all left-hand keys. Looks very cool, like my left side is an industrial robot.

Neo-Plastic

Today, I had my first follow-up appointment with my plastic surgeon. First of all, my passive range of motion was surprisingly good. Secondly, the bone itself appears to have already healed a once-again-surprising amount. Physio starts Monday, and the splint will be gone in two weeks. Frisbee forbidden for eight weeks, though.

Evidently, I'm a superhealer who should be studied.

Or, maybe my rapid healing is thanks to the bearded guy I ran into in an entranceway of Foothills last week, who used his healing hands on the fracture.

beans

Another night at the study centre, and once again I'm jacked up on coffee beans. This is the last time, 'cause I don't understand the dosage of these things. More Avril.

Watched the original 'Dark Water' today. Scary. I notice that a lot of the successful Japanese horror movies appeal to the fear that adult males have of children, like 'Ju-on: The Grudge'.

Note to self: no longer accept chocolate-covered coffee beans from fellow medical students. If accepted, do not combine with caffeinated beverages.

Nick'n'Avril

Watched another great movie tonight, 'Cure'. Kôji Yakusho, he's so trustworthy.

Good news, I guess: I've noticed that I am listening to less Nick Cave these days. That must be a positive thing for anyone's mental health.

Bad news, definitely: tonight I've had Avril Lavigne on repeat play. That must be a negative thing for anyone's mental health.

Okay, don't worry, tonight has just been an anomaly. Actually, early Bowie has been my thing recently. I've finally understood why Heather, Sara, and Steve were so hunky dory back at GHS. It took me a while, but better late then never.

By the way, it turns out that more than 10% of the out-of-province students in my current class are GHS alumni! How's that for a quality high school? Okay, there are only two of us, but still, that statistic is accurate, and we're far from Gloucester out here.

It's snowing out there again. I want some accumulation to jump into and roll around in, though.

Yellow and Blue

Those are the colours of my left arm, mostly yellow from the forearm to the fingers, with touches of blue at the wrist and knuckles. I can barely move my fingers anymore, after just one week of immobilization. It should be even worse, when I am finally free of the splint. Yowzers.

To encourage my hand in its healing, I mentally projected a slightly-modified Yoko Ono lyric to it today, from 'Milk and Honey'. With my best mental Yoko accent, of course.

My hands, so beautiful
My hands, I even dream about them
In a day, no matter how many times we meet, it is not enough
In a lifetime, no matter how many times we meet, it is not enough
My metacarpals, so beautiful
My metacarpals, I even dream about them

I hope that helps healing along. Six weeks like this? Neo-Plastic Ono power to the rescue!

Last Life

I joined zip.ca last week, because I could no longer go on without foreign films in my life. My standard technique for movie selection is to just select anything in the foreign language section with a good title; I never check the synopsis, as that ruins it for me. This is how I 'discovered' the films of Takashi Miike, back in Boston. So, on Friday I watched a great film, 'Last Life in the Universe'. The high point for me was Takashi Miike brilliantly playing a yakuza. What a surprise that was. Recently, I had a similar surprise watching 'EM Embalming', which featured the spectacular Seijun Suzuki as the lead embalmer's aged sidekick. Which reminds me, I still need to see his latest film, 'Racoon Princess' with Zhang Ziyi.

Shaving 2.0

On Wednesday, as I was shaving in the morning, I realized that last Friday, I had misinterpreted my shaving gel incident. Rather than it having been some general life lesson that I was being given, it was instead a direct warning about the events of the following Sunday. Indeed, that was the last time I shaved before breaking my metacarpal, and so that was the last opportunity to send me that message.

Think about it: what do autumn leaves do? They throw themselves at terminal velocity to the frozen ground. Don't look down; I did look down, to watch my hand twisting away underneath me, in a way it never had before.

So, that immediately raises the question: who attempted to warn me not to wildly pursue that frisbee to my doom? Why did they choose the medium of shaving gel and an obscure Leonard Cohen song? The first name that comes to mind, naturally, is Leonard himself. I assume that while meditating on a mountaintop somewhere in California, as the sun broke over the horizon he foresaw my injury, and immediately attempted to warn me. I submit to you, the first miracle of Leonard Cohen.

Had a rough week? I sure did. There's no better way to finish things off on a good note then by rereading 'Super-Frog Saves Tokyo' by Haruki Murakami (who is apparently currently on a tour of the US northeast).

Feeling

Was overjoyed to be able to feel my left hand when I woke up this morning, including all the fingertips. Prognosis looking good; can't wait until I get to move all my fingers again. Hurrah!

Why do 'the abled' laugh, when you tell them that it was frisbee that almost ruined your life? I will never leave the study centre again; it's just too dangerous out there!

Patch

Have you ever seen the movie 'Patch Adams'? I watched it on Saturday night, and was left wondering about the guy in the psychiatric hospital, who always had his hand up in the air. What was his story? Well, today, I think that I have figured it out. I am pretty sure that this is how his life went:

After years of making his way through graduate school, he found his life energy being drained away by prep after prep of insoluble protein, nickel column after nickel column, miniprep after miniprep. Surely there must be a better use for my brain, he thought to himself. So, with a dose of inspiration and fortitude supplied by those around him, he rose up from the ashes and achieved the impossible: acceptance into medical school, a dream long ago abandoned, now come to life. Upon beginning at medschool, he found that it suited him exactly, and that this was what he was born to do. So, with his mind in Nirvana, and his soul floating through the clouds, one Sunday he went to play frisbee, and broke his left fourth metacarpal, with an ugly spiral fracture with displacement and shortening. As he sat at his desk post-plastic-surgery, wondering whether or not he would recover the feeling in his fingers and the full use of his hand, his friends made fun of his needing to continuously hold his hand high in the air, to avoid swelling. And so he remained, sitting in a stunned silence, his dreamy existence shattered, and his hand held high for evermore.

The only good thing that came out of the event for him was being able to watch the surgery on his own hand, with the skin and muscle cut away, to vaguely feel the screw entering his bone, and watch all his own tendons sliding up and down as he tried to open and close his fist post-op, with the skin all still pulled back.

That's my best guess, anyways.

Bread 2.0

The baking went well. I found a recipe on the web that needed just flour, yeast, salt, and water. I had no idea how much kneading you're supposed to do, but it seems I got it about right. I split my dough into two loaves, one of which I kneaded over a bit more than I think I should have. That one ended up looking very nice and puffy, but the other was a bit more 'artisanal' looking.

Anyways, it's a lot easier than I thought, and the flavour and texture are great.

I think I forgot to mention why I needed to start baking stuff. I went to the Co-op a few weeks ago, to buy a kilo of flour for spätzle. I figured that a kilogram would last me a few months, maybe more, given how often I tend to cook. Well, 5 kg was only a buck more than 1 kg, so I was going to buy that. But, 10 kg was only 30 cents more than that! Wow! So, now I have a 10 kg bag of flour in my kitchen, and it needs to be used.

Bread

Today, my mission is to bake a loaf of bread. I've never done that before. Have yeast, will travel!

Had a big exam yesterday, hematology. Next up: the musculoskeletal system! Fun!

Shaving

This morning, as I was about to shave, Leonard Cohen's 'The Smokey Life' cycled into my iTunes playlist.

Take a lesson from these autumn leaves
They waste no time waiting for the snow

I failed to pay attention to my can of shaving gel for a second, and instead of shooting some gel into my hand, instead a thin blue line of gel flew across the bathroom. It was as if the shaving gel had understood the lyrics, and was taking this chance to make its break.

So don't look down, the ground is gone
There's no one waiting anyway

Unfortunately, the gel ended up splattering itself all across the far wall of the bathroom, its struggle for a life beyond its can or my face denied.

That's when I understood that the gel was trying to teach me something. You've broken free from your can, it told me, but watch out for the bathroom wall. O Teacher, I hear you, I will not allow myself to follow that same fate.

After all, to Gaia, what are humans but some facial lubricant?

Pics

Oh, I got that photo library website going. Message me for the link & password...

It's Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. To celebrate, I cooked up dinner for the usual crew on Friday night, as our current exchange students go back to Sapporo next Saturday, after our hematology exam. I cooked up a big five pound pork roast, with potato dumplings with crouton filling, along with red cabbage and spätzle on the side. It turned out great, although it's been a long time since I've cooked a roast. The gravy worked out very well, which is a change from Boston. We followed up the roast with pumpkin pie and Saskatoon berry pie, along with a good bottle of ice wine.

Anyways, to prepare for people coming over on Friday, I spent a couple of evenings finishing unpacking and cleaning up my apartment. It is now spotless and most awesome. I went to Ikea to try out couches, but decided to forget about a couch, and just go with my pillows, just like my place in Toronto...

Basically, I decided that what I really wanted was a leather couch, and if I couldn't afford one now, then no couch until I can. It's basically the same deal as for my future TV: it's either a 50" widescreen LCD or plasma, or nothing. Looks like it will be 'nothing' for a while.

Oh, now I remember why I mentioned all this. As I was looking around for a guitar tuner during the party, I found my copy of 'Smoochy', that I haven't seen in several years, despite searching for it repeatedly in Boston. It was with my motorcycle title, that I have unsuccessfully searched for for the last two months. Nice!

Snow

When I left for school this morning, it was snowing. It was a fine granular snow. It started up again in the afternoon, but had changed over to bigger flakes. Wintertime is here. I started chapstick use a few days ago, 'cause my lips hurt real bad!

Gondo

Today I went running after waking up. It was pretty cold this morning, so very few people besides runners were down by the river... maybe ten non-runners on my whole circuit. No fair-weather rollerbladers, the wimps. I noticed that 95% of the runners were running alone, though. That made me wonder, are the runners alone or are the alone runners?

In any case, I think I figured out the 'train noise, it's a good thing' thing. It's self-evident: it's a reminder of life in the womb. What else could it be? The low rumbling heart-beat-like sound; the clunk of the wheels over seams in the tracks even gives you your first and second cardiac sound separation.

Anyways, I was thinking of that because of a conversation I had yesterday. Chihiro, Shuntaro, and Takeshi threw a dinner party at Chihiro's apartment, which is down the valley about 2 km, and also on the river side of her building. It was just the three of them, me, Kent, Marcel, Diane, and at the beginning, Chihiro's landlady and her friend from down the hall. Somehow the conversation got onto train noise (something to do with the level of street noise in that area), and the neighbour said that he loved the sound, and was happy to have recently moved from the north side of the building to the south side, because that meant that now he could hear the train. That is pretty weird phenomenon.

Anyways, my last story for the week is that I went speedskating for the first time on Wednesday night. I rented a pair of those really old-school skates, with the low-cut ankle support. The blades were pretty dull, so it wasn't easy, but even with dull blades, you could feel the speed difference. With minimal effort, and even less control, I was about even with the fastest people on regular skates that were there that evening. So, it would be interesting to try out a pair of modern speed skates.

But, that reminds me of my biggest problem with Calgary so far: lousy skate sharpening. The last time I had my blades sharpened, I was still living in Toronto. So, they were getting pretty dull when I started skating again here in Calgary. I had them sharpened at the oval, and instead of some expert doing it, the girl at the counter went into the back room and sharpened them. The result was a disaster. The edges were completely gone. She had actually managed to remove any and all sharpness from anywhere on the blade. I could have used the blade as a pillow, even (perhaps replacing the Turkish-English dictionary I used as pillow for the month of August). Well, I then brought it to a sports store, hoping for something better. Again, a teenager went to the back room and sharpened them. The result that time was passable, but not great. At least it is currently a bit better than it was when I got to Calgary. However, back in Ottawa, I remember that skates were always sharpened by middle-aged guys with mustaches and long hair (or at least a mullet), and they always had a Hattori-Hanzo-like devotion to the skate blade. If you rubbed your hand accross the blade, it would be cut.

Okay, there was one more thing I wanted to say. Speedskating in that rented pair of skates, I wore off a circle of skin on my foot about 8 mm in diameter. It was quite painful walking on Thursday, and so I was walking with this limp, dragging my right leg out straight, with the foot swung out, so as to not irritate the foot at all. I told people that I felt like Gondo in 'A Taxing Woman' (I could hear the soundtrack in my head as I dragged myself along), but nobody had a clue what I was talking about. What's wrong with society that people don't understand these things?