I heard once that Death comes on swift wings,

Learning

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:01:02 GMT

I may bitch about the mountain of stuff I have to do, but I am very grateful to be entering a career where I will never learn everything there is to know.

I would be terrifically bored if I ever learned everything there was to know about my chosen profession.

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:28:33 GMT

I have a "friend" on Facebook who defriended me recently. We were never really friends and we haven't said more than two words to each other since before college.

Still, I can't help but feel that I did something wrong. It's a funny, transient feeling, but I thought it was odd that this was the first place I went. If I had to guess, it's probably because I use Facebook like twitter.

Friends list

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:21:00 GMT

Did some clearing. I removed anyone who wasn't also friended with me.

If you're friended with me and I haven't returned the favor, it's because I cannot identify the person with the lj-tag. If you let me know who you are and I actually know you, I'll be happy to add you.

Reflecting

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:50:15 GMT

I looked over some of my previous posts. I realized that I never took the time to write anything positive about my relationships with people, I mostly use this as a place to vent when things go wrong.

I think next time around I will take the time to mention the exciting and wonderful things. If you just read my lj, my life sounds very depressing.

Football

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:42:26 GMT

The Bills have got to trade T.O. if they can. The season is over.

At least we aren't going to go 7-9 again. Thanks to our entire starting defense being out for the season, we can compete for the worst team in the league spot and get a good draft pick.

Hooray!

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:12:53 GMT

I helped my first patient today!

How to mislead with words!

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:35:40 GMT

Heading from news article:

"Minor side effects from early swine flu shots"

Actual data from article:

"Four out of 39,000 people vaccinated against H1N1 in China have had side effects"

Cause what we sure need is more baseless panic over vaccines!

If anyone is curious

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:27:25 GMT

I learned today that the 8 glasses of water a day thing is total bullshit.

Also, if you are exercising like mad (running a marathon or the like), you want to drink Gatorade, not water.

Because I hate people

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:11:52 GMT

I always wanted the elections at AO to work cabinet style. Rather than electing everyone to a position, we should elect a president and he or she should appoint all other positions.

That way their can be backroom deals and intrigue! "Sure, I'll vote for you, but I want Non-Ac."

Fun Fact!

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 23:10:44 GMT

Swine flu is delicious.

Hooray!

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 01:47:09 GMT

We won a game!

I'm also happy that the Pats lost, but I am sad that the Jets won. It is a hard place. Can't there be a game where they both lose?

So...

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 02:16:19 GMT

The Bills remain, ad infinitium, a hard luck team. Tom Brady though, obviously has more kinks to be worked out if the Pats want to remain competitive against good teams. As of right now, it's looking like a winter full of the Steelers.

Football!

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:19:46 GMT

So I watched 2.5 games yesterday and had some impressions.

Jets vs Houston

Despite what the announcers said, I was not all that impressed with the rookie. He definitely exceeded my expectations, but I didn't think he was that good. He had a lot of bad passes, and if the Houston secondary wasn't the worst thing in existence, many more of them would be picked off. Still, he showed remarkable resilience, he turned right around and drove for a touchdown after he threw a pick, an excellent sign for a rookie quarterback. It was a good game for Sanchez to start, give him some confidence for when he has to go against decent defenses.

The much bigger story was the Jets defense. They should be rightly proud of their showing. Either Houston has a terrible offense or the Jets defense was fantastic. Given the small sample size, I'm inclined to go with the Jets on this one.

Verdict: Jets are better than I though, Sanchez is about what I expected and the Texans have a lot of work to do.

Giants vs Redskins

Picking the Redskins was a trendy move this week among commentators. I, for the life of me, could not understand this. They argued that the Giants had no receivers, so they would be beat, but the Giants have not recently been a team known for their receiving. Their defense is very good and Brandon Jacobs will eat your face.

Verdict: A lot of people undervalued the Giants, they're probably not as good as last year, but they're still a good team. Redskins remain an unfortunate team to root for.

Bears vs Packers
Only saw a brief portion of this game so I'm not going to comment beyond that Cutler is no miracle man and the Bears need to give him some time before they declare this a bust.

Tonight:

Bills vs Patriots
The important game tonight, not in terms of who is going to win (Patriots) but in terms of how much. If Buffalo gives them a game, it means that the division race may be closer than people would think. If they blow them out, the "good old" Patriots are back and may very will lock this one up.

I also hope Marcus Stroud makes a necklace out of Tom Brady's teeth. Trent Edwards also better wear two football helmets, either that or carry a gun.

It sort of amuses me

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:43:44 GMT

How the major news outlets (on their websites at least) totally missed the point of the speech.

While the devil is in the details, the three points he laid out are good, with the first being the most essential. Throwing the public option under the bus was probably a good move. As much as I'd like to change to a system like that, it would just throw everything into chaos. The concept of a health insurance non-profit is a good idea as well, many of our hospitals run that way already.

A forum I find slightly less distasteful

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 04:02:30 GMT

I was writing this e-mail in response to a friend and I figured since it represented my thoughts right now on the topic, what more appropriate place for my musings than the blagosphere? Take as you will.

Re: Health Care Reform

One of my chief complaints about this whole thing is that *nothing* exists yet. There are a whole bunch of people that are floating around a whole bunch of ideas, but there is nothing even approaching a bill that would merit serious consideration. Believe me, there is nothing more I would like to do than to use my great MPH degree to pass judgment on the work of our elected officials, but no one has afforded me the chance.

I'll also tell you that my chief concerns with health care reform are economic in nature. If you let me warp time and implement the British, Canadian or Swedish (especially Swedish) health care system at the turn of the 1900's, I'd do it in a heartbeat. But, that's because I believe good health is a human right and because our current system is pretty awful (not terrible, but lags pretty far behind other developed countries). However, in our unfortunate system we have insurance companies which make a great deal of money and are a significant portion of our economy. I don't like it, but that doesn't make it not true. I am concerned as to what effect a government option would have on those companies and as a result, to the economy in general. I also don't believe the doomsayers, mind you, but Obama has to do more than ask me to cross my fingers and pray.

Whoa now.

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:35:32 GMT

I am a terrrrible basketball player.

First day of classes

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:17:42 GMT

Not too bad, just some basic review. Played some tennis too, life is good.

Also, sometimes I need to be reminded as to how awesome The Moon And Antarctica is.

2012

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:06:10 GMT

Supposedly Alec Baldwin is considering moving to Connecticut to challenge Joe Lieberman for his Senate seat.

I completely support this move, mostly because I would like "becoming a celebrity" to be known as a reasonable early step into politics.

The Saga Continues

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 06:44:40 GMT

Moving into my dorm room is this weekend and then orientation begins on Monday. I am not excited about the move, but am ridiculously excited about medical school. There is a universe of knowledge out there and I can't wait to touch it.

I am also interested in the other medical students, albeit quite nervous about them. What sort of people are they, who will I hang out with? Standard introductory concerns. Hopefully, my massive amounts of charm (hah!) will enable me to ward off any and all of my certain initial faux paus.

Wow

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:27:30 GMT

Penny Arcade is giving out pick-up advice. The end times come.

I was sleeping in the tube room

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 14:27:38 GMT

When I was awoken by an undergraduate that needed to play video games for class. It was a surreal experience.

The Most Successful Man I Know

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:02:21 GMT

My grandfather made much success out of his life by following these four principles.

1. Be Excellent
2. Be Polite
3. Listen When People Talk (especially about themselves)
4. Offer Advice Whenever People Ask (and be diplomatic, but truthful)

I guess you could call these the axioms I aspire too. I am woefully behind on many of them.

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:38:20 GMT

So I've gone to Carolina, in my mind.

Roy Halladay

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:57:25 GMT

I think he makes the most sense on the Tigers, but they are also the team that probably has the least ability to pay for him. I hear he'd also fit in on the Dodgers and the Phillies, but I don't know the NL well enough to comment.

It doesn't really make any sense to trade within the division, the Yankees need bull-pen help, not another starter and the Red Sox need to add a bat. Neither team would want him as a rental and when you combine that with his 32 year age and the substantial salary he is likely to garner, it doesn't seem to make sense for two teams that are already rather leveraged. I guess it could work, but then those teams would need to trade a starting pitcher for what it is that they actually need.

Personally, I think they dangle him here, but he stays a Blue Jay for the season. Then after the World Series they put him on the market again and count on the recent sting of defeat driving up the price for those teams that could actually use him, a la the Mets, K-Rod and Putz.

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:27:48 GMT

2 down, 1 to go.