My Awesome Year

Oh my God....

2009-02-05T17:47:00.002-05:00

Ok, I really can't justify how long it's been since my last post. Can we just forget about the last few months and the lack of posting? Actually, we can, since no one actually reads this blog. For some reason I feel obligated to write a REALLY LONG post to update EVERYTHING. But, hey, it's my blog and a quick I'm back and I intend to post from now on should be enough, right?

QUICK SUMMARY THEN!!

1) I'm sitting right now in Fort Myers Florida in a cheap hotel room at a surgical conference. What this means is: I have completed my very first oral talk at a national meeting. To that end, I have submitted two manuscripts to major journals...I will submit a third, fourth and fifth soon. I think this is solid progress. So research is going JUST FINE.

2) I have competed now in several ballroom dance competitions and really feel like I'm getting good at swing dancing, cha-cha and rumba. Moreover, I'm continuing salsa dancing. Also good. So far, this is working...

3) I just got back from a three week trip to INDIA. I know, I really missed out on an opportunity for blogging. I also got really good at photography, and would have been posting pictures from my D40...and my new iphone! Oh my god, so much has happened.

4) Current weight: 145 pounds! My god, I'm actually getting skinny!!! Although I think this may be due to a tapeworm or something from India. Eat up, little friend! Help me keep this weight off!

5) Cook off this Sunday.

6) What I need to do: New workout regimen.... Print Step 2 stuff and start studying.

All in all, things are going well. I'm just gonna pretend the last four months (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, random events, India, Fort Myers, etc.) were insignificant and start truly updating NOW. I say that, we'll see what happens...

hey Soccer team!!! See, I mentioned you guys (Mica, Erica, Connie, Anne, Megan, Kirstie, blah blah blah).

I love New England

2008-10-22T21:58:00.002-04:00

Great Weekend in Vermont

2008-10-22T10:23:00.001-04:00

I spent this past weekend with some friends in Vermont at an unbelievably beautiful farmhouse. The foliage was stunning, the landscape was gorgeous, the hiking was great and I'm just about running out of adjectives.

I got to try out my new D40 up there. I have added a link to my picasa page in the right column. Full set of VT photos is there.

Ultimate

2008-10-13T09:57:00.002-04:00

I love this game. We're actually forming a team. Granted, I can only really throw backhand, but my forehand is coming along and I hope I can one day have a decent hammer. (If it's not clear, we're talking about frisbee).

What's great about ultimate is that it's a game of sportsmanship. There are never any referees (although occasionally there are 'observers' who help mediate disputed calls) and all calls are made by the players on the field. People are generally friendly and try to get everyone involved. I see more people smiling while playing this game than I do with any other game.

Anyways, below is a picture of our team. Go Con-Fuego!!!

Embracing Nerd-dom

2008-10-07T23:40:00.002-04:00

Wow...two posts in one day...the last one was just to get the Cape Cod pictures in (all the way back from Labor day weekend!! That's how behind I am) so I guess that didn't really count.

I've recently come to the realization that self-acceptance is a big part of growing up. This is particularly important when making life-changing decisions involving education, careers, family, etc. I also feel that if you embrace who you are now, it opens up avenues for change and makes methods for achieving future goals much easier. So what am I trying to say with all that BS? Well...

I'm a NERD. Just looking at my life and my blogs recently, I think it's clear that I'm a NERD. And that doesn't bother me at all. In fact, I am quite proud of it and completely willing to accept it. There are hundreds, probably thousands of things about me that make me a nerd, a dork, a geek, or whatever... Here's a totally random sample of ten of those things...

1. 3 out of 5 of my radio presets in my car are set to public radio stations (I'm also a member of my local NPR station).

2. I get fired up those engineering school fight songs...here's an example...
E to the X; D-Y, D-X
E to the X; D-X
Cosine, Secant, Tangent, Sine; 3.14159!
E-I, Radical, Pi; Fight 'em, Fight 'em WPI!!!!

3. I can do a few pen tricks. (I'm not as good as that video, but I know the basics...)

4. I spent a summer during high school at debate camp. It was hot...

5. I counted down the days to the turning on of the Large Hadron Collider. I also found this video absolutely AWESOME! I don't know why, but I think it's so incredibly hot that some girl is that passionate about physics (or anything for that matter) to the point where it inspires her to make herself look ridiculous...

5a. I nearly cried when they announced that the LHC was being shut down for several months due to unforeseen leaks.

6. I once had a crush on Sarah Vowell (don't ask...).

7. I find the joke, "Yo mamma's so fat that she splits neighboring carbons into two peaks on her NMR spectrum" totally funny.

8. I named my soccer team "Cremasters of the Universe" and giggle every time I say it.

9. I love music by They Might Be Giants. During middle school, I saw them live in concert at a local library!

10. I'm a five-foot-seven Indian medical student.

Cape Cod

2008-10-07T14:50:00.006-04:00

Over Labor Day weekend, I rented a house for my friends from college who now live in New York City on Cape Cod. It was a very nice, relaxing weekend. We went biking, ate some great seafood, went to the beach where we played frisbee and football and just plain chilled out. It was a great group of people and the conversations were always interesting. I also got to show off some new found cooking prowess. We cooked some large rib-eye steaks (they were some fantastic cuts actually), seared some scallops, boiled corn and had a nice salad, along with some decent wine (I love riesling...the cheap sweet stuff moreso than the "good" dry stuff). Anyways here are some hilights of 257 pictures taken that day, but feel free to browse the rest of them...this goes for all 2 of you who actually occasionally browse this blog...

For the full set, click here.

So what do I want to be when I grow up?

2008-10-06T09:02:00.003-04:00

It's October now, the weather is becoming increasingly cold, and the leaves are starting to change (though the Fall rain this season was heavy so it's not as pretty as years before). Part of why I'm doing this research year is to learn about myself and really hone in on a specialty that I find interesting. I need to figure out what I enjoy most about medicine. Medicine is no longer a career path that can be chosen simply for the money, as the upcoming changes to our healthcare system (no matter who is elected) will undoubtedly continue the downward trend in physician salaries. So I thought I'd spend some time and write an initial flow of thoughts on what I want to be when I grow up, just so I have something to which to refer as I continue to make this decision. I consciously try not to post about medicine here because frankly there are PLENTY of blogs about medicine and medical school, so let's hope this is just one of a few.

Ok, first off, I'm gonna have to LOVE what I do. I know that seems pretty obvious and very elementary, but I find it surprising how many of my peers are basing their career decisions on things other than this simple fact. I understand (and will discuss in a second) that other criteria come into play here. Things like lifestyle, desire to have family, money and prestige all can play some role in this type of decision, but honestly, how do you not start with the idea that you simply must enjoy your job? Medicine is unique in that the half life of medical knowledge is five years. That means by the time a newly minted physician finishes residency, half of the knowledge he or she gained during medical school is completely obsolete. So medicine is LIFELONG education, LIFELONG schooling. There is really no 'settling down' into a routine. So I have to pick a specialty where I enjoy reading the journals, going to the national meetings, and clicking with the other personalities of that specialty.

On that note, the question is, what did I LOVE during my third year? What were my favorite rotations? That's actually easy...I absolutely LOVED surgery. I enjoyed the fast pace of surgery. I enjoyed the fact that there was very little bullshit when it came to writing surgical notes and making decisions. I liked that decisions generally resulted in action. I also loved the fact that surgery often offered an outright cure. And I simply LOVED being in the OR. There's something relaxing about it. There's music playing (even during the very complicated surgeries), there's some joking around going on, and time simply flies by (most students would disagree with me on this). I feel like the surgeon also carries a certain respect level not afforded to some other specialties. When I was on surgery and did a consult in the ED, the ED nurses and physicians made sure the patient chart and imaging studies were ready for me to look at before I got down there. After surgery, I was on medicine, and did a medical consult in the ED, and couldn't find a single person willing to help out. It just felt different, I can't even really explain it.

Another rotation I enjoyed was OB/GYN. Ultimately, OB/GYN is a surgical field. A lot of time is spent in the OR in addition to the clinic. The pace is extremely fast and the field is very diverse. The OB/GYN does primary care, specialty care, medical diagnosis, and surgical intervention. I think that's awesome. The specialty itself also tends to be a happy one. Everyone loves babies and I can't imagine helping someone bring a child into this world ever getting old and "routine." The surgeries can be big too. The C-section is the only procedure I have seen where there is 500ml bloodloss routinely.

What about pediatrics? This was my very first rotation during medical school. I actually did excellently in this rotation. It was incredibly interesting and simply a lot of fun. I never thought that I would be good with children. But I guess having lots of little cousins helps somewhat in this department. I quickly managed to learn that a screaming kid is nothing to be afraid of (in fact, it's so much easier to examine the back of their throats when their screaming their brains out then trying to get them to open their mouths when they're quiet). At first, holding a newborn was frightening, but pretty soon, I was flipping the babies onto one hand to examine the back, doing the pediatric reflexes, finding the femoral pulses, etc. I learned how to distract 9 month olds with my school ID while I looked in their ears. Oh, and I thought I would hate working with the adolescents, but it turns out I enjoyed listening to their problems and educating them about their personal health. Pediatrics was also a great 6-week parenting course. I saw examples of some phenomenal parents, and a few examples of some terrible parents. I actually now have a pretty good idea how I would parent when the time comes (one example, I would make sure there are low-height bookshelves in EVERY room of the house PACKED with all types of books. Even in the kitchen and bathrooms. That way, the kids can reach for a book at anytime and read it or have it read to them).

I didn't enjoy my medicine rotation all that much. I just felt like a glorified secretary: arraning imaging studies, coordinating consults, making sure orders got carried out, etc. However, the subspecialty of gastroenterology really interested me. I think that's because I found it a lot like surgery. There is a significant clinical component, a lot of the pathologies are the same, and they do lots of procedures as well. If I do medicine, it will be only to do gastroenterology (which means I'll have to suffer for three years before hitting the GI fellowship).

My Winamp playlist just ran out, so that's enough for today. I'll continue this later...

yay!

2008-09-30T18:15:00.003-04:00

New camera will be arriving today...I got the Nikon D40 for an excellent price ($399.99). The kit comes with a lens (18-55mm). I will hopefully be able to buy another lens for this to complete the package, but for now, I need to learn how to use a DSLR camera! I'm very excited about this. I'll take some pictures with it and we'll see what comes out. I'm in the market for one of those big 8 gb memory cards for the camera. I should be able to get a good deal on it.

Research continues to move forward. I'm actually at work right now downloading a massive dataset. Should be good, but it's taking a long time.

I've decided to go ahead and pony up the money for some private salsa lessons. So far, the lessons are going great. I really feel like I'm improving. The format of the lessons is quite simple...The instructor watches me dance with a partner and then comments, critiques and adjusts. Extremely helpful. The teacher provides the dance partner, an outstanding dancer who works with him, who can really tease out the problems in my leading. It doesn't hurt that she's cute either...

Stock market fell 700 points yesterday...looks like it's recovering some today...very exciting.

I have swing dancing tonight and I can relax tomorrow.

A Busy Schedule

2008-09-24T22:32:00.003-04:00

Here are things in which I am actively participating right now:

Research: Going very well!! A bunch of abstracts submitted. Some big projects on the horizon. I will start writing manuscripts soon for the abstracts which I submitted. That could be kind of a drudgery, but I think it will be a great experience. It'll take a while for the first manuscript, but hopefully it gets easier after that. I'm excited about this and I'm feeling productive.

Soccer: We are on Game 3 of our session and so far haven't lost a game. I'm the "captain" of the team and I put it in quotes because all that is is administrative responsibilities (i.e. emailing the team reminding them of the game, deciding team name, etc...). It's not really a reflection of my playing ability. One thing that is cool is that a lot of my teammates are also my schoolmates. So it's much more of a social game.

Rowing: I've gone three weeks in a row now. I'm learning the lingo. I'm feathering and squaring okay. BUT, my last time out, I did catch three crabs and it was very embarassing. It's very nice however to be out on the lake on the boat during sunset.

Frisbee: We have an ultimate frisbee team!! We're playing every weekend AND we're even scrimmaging local college clubs. I'm meeting new people and getting lenty of exercise.

Cooking: I've successfully cooked an awesome steak, some seared sea scallops, and pulled pork. The steak and scallops were cooked on the Cape (I'm just gonna post the link to pictures tomorrow or something). The pulled pork was cooked this past weekend while I was in New York. That took 7.5 hours of low temperature roasting of pork shoulder. It was awesome. I have a knife skills class tomorrow night (before a soccer game at 11PM!!) so I think that will round out my skills. I'll try to post something about that (jeez, I've said that a lot in past posts, huh?).

Salsa / Ballroom Dance: Ok, so this is actually picking up too. I've joined a ballroom dance society. I'm finishing up swing dancing and learning other dances as well (tango and cha-cha for example). I have been attending salsa socials. The next one is this Saturday night at WPI right here in Worcester. I have also decided to take a few private lessons in salsa. I figured this is my year off, screw the money, if I want to do it, I should just do it because the opportunity will never again arise. I really want to work on the fundamentals and get those down. I'll post how these go.

OK, so those things I am actively participating in RIGHT NOW!!!! It's a lot. And a few of those will be ending soon (frisbee and rowing actually have a season's end). I'd like to add a few things to my plate. First, I would like to take up photography and as such would finally like to buy a DSLR. Just waiting for a great deal. Second, I need to start to work out seriously at a gym. I've been running (did I mention my 5k race?) and playing, but I need to get some concentrated exrecise.

Ok, enough for now...I think I can dispense with the progress posts and start to post on some real posts. This blog is really the only thing that's not actually getting done right now!

Busy in a Good Way

2008-09-17T21:01:00.002-04:00

I'm really busy right now...I get home every night around 9:30 or 10:00 and then have to sleep. I'm trying to stay on top of things, and I'm doing alright. The difference between this year and any other year where I was really busy, is that I'm loving what I'm doing right now. All the activities, all the work, all the time, all the people, etc...

I'll have to keep this short for now, but on Mondays, I have ballroom dance in the evenings, on Tuesdays I have rowing immediately followed by Swing class...Wednesdays are free, so I try to hit the gym hard, but I haven't done that yet...Thursdays, I have soccer...Fridays, I try to go out and be social...Saturdays, I do something physical. This past Saturday I ran my first ever 5K race!! On a whim...I decided to do it...I thought I could handle it and didn't half bad. Sunday, I have ultimate frisbee. Rinse and rewash. Throw in a salsa class here and there, and I have got a pretty packed week.

I'm trying new things as they come. Upcoming, I have a cooking class, and maybe a little bit of hiking before it starts getting really cold.

This weekend, I will visit some old friends in New York City and catch up with them a little bit.

Let me just say, that all this is costing me a bundle, and I am so lucky to have supportive parents are supporting my awesome year. It's really awesome so far. I wouldn't be able to do this otherwise.

More details when I really have time and simultaneously feel like writing...

Toenail Update

2008-09-04T09:52:00.002-04:00

My toenail fell off finally...It looks disgusting and awesome at the same time. I'm saving the toenail for now for some odd reason. Should I post pictures? Naah...no need to gross myself out in the future...

3rd Progress Post - A Punishment

2008-09-02T18:37:00.002-04:00

As I update my blog for the first time in WEEKS, I'd like to point out that I'm punishing myself for falling behind on this. I didn't even want to look at my blog as the time between my last post and this current one continued to increase day by day, and then week by week. As each weekend hit, it got worse. But then I finally opened my blog this morning and saw...a comment!! Someone actually read my blog and commented on it!! It was also an inspiring and extremely thoughtful comment, which I really appreciate. Thanks, SeaSpray!

So now, I think I'll have to do a major update on the goings on so far.

RESEARCH - My first project went quite well and I got an abstract submitted to a national meeting! It felt like it was never gonna happen. My head just wasn't wrapping around all the stuff I needed to learn. Finally, things started clicking and it started to go much faster. My computer programming skills started to find their stride and with significant help and pushing from my research mentor, I got things done and an abstract submitted!! I used that momentum to work on another project (on acute pancreatitis) and just today, completed the abstract. There's a deadline for another national meeting coming up this weekend and I will hopefully finish all the editing and refining this week and we'll get that out too! So, all in all, in two months of work, two abstracts that will hopefully turn into two posters at national meetings, that will hopefully turn into two talks at those national meetings, that will hopefully turn into two manuscripts and then finally two publications!!! For two months, that's huge. I'm really happy and excited about this, and my research mentor seems pleased as well. So all in all, this is going great.

STAY ORGANIZED - Actually, this is going quite well too! My to-do list is strong and working well. My calendar is constantly updated. My things are getting done. I do however need to follow my finances as I am spending way too much money. My credit card bill recently was huge and my withdrawals from my checking account have been consistently increasing. So I've decided to follow my spending by using buxfer. I'll see how this goes.

BALLROOM DANCE - Swing dancing is obviously well under way! It's going well, but I happen to be the only person in my class under the age of 50. Plus, I feel like I'm learning "old people" swing instead of the swing I see in youtube videos. I'm learning ballroom swing, or what I like to call "snooty" swing. I realized afterwards that the dance I really want to learn is called jive. No matter, I'll need East Coast Swing anyways before I learn jive. Salsa dancing continues to go well. This week I'm also learning a little bit of Bachata, which is something I've always wanted to learn, ever since I actually saw that at a salsa club. Such a beatiful, sensual, yet classy dance and the music is gorgeous.

COOKING - I'll have to blog about this is in its own post at the end of the month. I will say that I have taken one class with Helen Rennie now and it was on meats. I feel much more comfortable cooking meats and I have even successfully roasted a chicken and cooked rib-eye steaks for my friends, all of whom were quite impressed. I will be learning knife skills coming up and am quite excited about that. I think my comfort level is growing, and I will continue to cook this year. I do need to make simple dishes at home though to get better at the basics. Will work on that...

EXERCISE - Okay, I haven't really been able to get on the wagon here. I think I just have too much other stuff going on to get in formal gym time. That said, I am continuing to play indoor soccer and will actually be playing in two leagues this upcoming Fall session! So that's twice per week. I will continue to take group classes at the gym whenever I have time. I bike a little bit now. And I have also started playing ultimate frisbee!! There's a local pickup game every Sunday, and I got into it. So it's not like I've been NOT exercising. I just haven't been following a regimented program. My weight remains stable and I'm comfortable with my BMI as it is, but I would certainly love to actually look good too. But I am healthy, and that counts for a lot. Oh, and rowing. That kind of has fizzled out a little bit. I went once, it was fun. Before I give up on it, I'll go again this weekend. Maybe I'll be able to get into it.

THINGS TO BLOG ABOUT - I just went Cape Cod over labor day weekend and had a phenomenal time. I rented a house with a bunch of friends from college and it ended up being an excellent weekend. One of my friends is an excellent photographer and is very into DSLR cameras (he recently got the Nikon D80 kit). There are 257 pictures that were taken, and I'll write about the cape and post those pictures as soon as they come out. Also, I need to blog about cooking class, and I need to blog about salsa dancing.

Okay, things are laid out. It looks like I'm making progress everywhere. But my schedule is a little overwhelming right now. I still haven't explored specialty options for my future career as a doctor (that's kind of important), haven't really started studying for Step 2 of my boards, and there are a few things that I am currently stagnating on. To all of that, there are a few things that I would like to start doing, one of which is photography. My friend with the awesome camera inspired me to get into it a little bit, so I'm now in the market for a starter level DSLR camera. That means my wallet will take another hit. Great....

Until next time!!

Finally

2008-08-12T23:16:00.003-04:00

I've been a little lax lately with the updating of this blog. Either I haven't had much to write about or I have TONS to write about and am SO BUSY that I just don't have time to do it. Which do you think it is???

Well, either way, I have a new laptop! I'm typing from it right now! It's great, I love it, and it should last me the next two years. Best of all, it is completely paid for by research funding. Yay!! It's an Lenovo Thinkpad T61, and it is perfect. So I'll leave it at that for now.

2nd Progress Post

2008-08-03T22:06:00.002-04:00

Since my updating has been weak recently, I thought I'd post a progress post thus far to lay out where things are right now. I think this will help me get a lay of the land. Or at least I hope. On a side note, I'm listening to George Winston right now as I type this and it has been a long time since I heard his beautiful piano music. It's around 10:15 right now and it's quiet, and his music just adds beautifully to the atmosphere.

RESEARCH - Things have picked up a bit. My project is a little more defined, though right now there are a few things going on on the backburner as well, so it looks like this will actually keep me busy. I'm still learning SAS and progress has been slow, but I think I should receive my new laptop that is sorely needed soon and be up and running from that point onwards. I'm semi-excited about the next few weeks, but am very nervous too since they will be absolutely KEY. More on this later as my August 25th deadline for the first abstract approaches. Fingers crossed!!

STEP 2 CK - Got the book Crush The Boards, but really haven't started thinking about this yet. Materials are in hand though. I'm targeting September as a major month to really study.

STAY ORGANIZED - Okay, I've kinda fallen off the wagon here. Not that I'm completely disorganized or anything, but I definitely haven't been keeping up with my next actions on my to-do list, and I haven't been keeping my calendar updated. I'll have to spend tomorrow morning doing that. In fact, let me add that to my to-do list and my calendar for the morning!!

BALLROOM DANCE - I went salsa dancing on Saturday night and lessons continue to go well. I was thinking I was starting to get the hang of it, and I do have a few complex turn patterns in my repertoire that I can play around with to make things look different. I really thought I was getting good (and I am definitely getting better). But when I saw the other guys dancing at the club, MAN! I realized I have a long way to go still to become decent at this. I want to be at the point where I can compete with anyone at the club. There are so many dudes who look great while dancing and the girls they dance with look all the better when they dance with them. That said, swing dancing starts on Tuesday, but that may be a mistake if I want to continue to get better at Salsa. Will have to think about this....

EXERCISE - Must...start...seriously...working...out. That said, soccer is going well. My second week of playing was okay, even though my toe still hurts. I also managed to go rowing this past weekend! Add that to the do list for stuff I have to post more detail about. Anyways, I had a great time and the beginner program starts in a week so I'll be able to do that!! I'm excited about this! It was great to be out on the water rowing with a cool group of people in a full 8-man boat early in the morning with the sun rising in the distance.

OVERALL - It looks like I've made some serious headway into some of these things. Research is number 1 priority right now. My schedule with all my hobbies is kind of getting tight though. Mondays right now is Salsa, but I'll have to add rowing to that. Tuesdays will be swing dancing. Thursdays will be rowing and salsa AND soccer (obviously I'll have to stagger which ones I skip). Weekends will be devoted to research and reading. Damn...I'm a busy guy...and I like it. Things should stabilize in September. Hopefully, I'll be able to move soccer to Sunday nights. Beginner rowing will be done by then and I'll be able to be more flexible with my rowing schedule. That should leave Thursdays open for advanced salsa and Tuesdays will be rowing and swing.

Ok, I'll have to write about a specific topic next time. But as I finish this, I am pleasantly suprised by the progress. I bet it'll be the opposite at the end of this week.

Prisoner's Dilemma

2008-07-30T01:40:00.002-04:00

Tonight, I saw the movie, The Dark Knight. It was simply awesome. I'm about to go off on a bit of a rant here (not like Dennis Miller though) and I don't know how it will look afterwards, but we'll see....

My parents immigrated to this country back in 1989. I was five years old. I remember back in India I was a huge fan of He-Man. I know that He-Man was here in America, too, but certainly not on the TV networks that we got with bunny ears when we first came here. But I found a new hero at the time. It was Batman. I used to watch Batman every day. I didn't like Superman, I didn't like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and I definitely didn't like Dick Tracy. I could never put my finger on why I loved Batman so much, but now that I think about it, it really just has to do with the complexity of his character, the daulity of purpose.

I saw Batman and Batman Returns. I liked them okay. At the time, the action was what I was into and as those satisfied me enough. But I never bought Michael Keaton as Batman or Bruce Wayne. A short, normal looking bald man. This is the same reason I can't watch Spiderman (I mean, come on, Tobey McGuire??).

After this, around 1992-1993, Batman The Animated Series (BTAS) started coming on regularly in the afternoon when I came home from school. I can honestly say that this show transformed my love for Batman. This literally is my favorite cartoon show of all time. This was how I always pictured Bruce Wayne and Batman and the villains that he faced. The plots were complicated and very mature. There were literary references littered throughout the shows and tributes paid to the original creators of the Batman comics. BTAS protrayed Bruce Wayne as he was meant to be: a deeply disturbed, dark human being who could only find satisfaction and purpose in crime fighting after what he had been through in his childhood. Bruce Wayne was rarely happy, rarely smiling. Moreover, there was always a sad weakness in him. His vulnerability was always clear. But he still fought the good fight. The villains...what can I say? They too were extremely dark and complex. The Joker's love of tricks and dilemmas, Two-Face's undying grudge and addiction to gambling, The Scarecrow's use of fear and Clay's constantly changing form (both emotional and physical) were always things I understood more and more as I got older. And what BTAS did with the Emmy winning episode where the origins of The Freeze were explained...OH MY GOD! The Freeze ended up being a tragic character, forever frozen due to unrequited love, leading the viewer to have an odd compassion towards him. The topics that were dealt with included choice, destiny, fate, morality, truth, justice, harmony, compassion and love. I loved every minute of it. Moreover, the animation was superb.

After that, there were other movies...Batman Forever and Batman and Robin came out (gag me please). But I never got the same complexity and interest out of those that I did with BTAS, and that's sad. A kid's TV-show beat out the movies in terms of writing and complexity. And there was no way that George Clooney should have ever been a Batman.

Before I watched Batman Begins, I was skeptical. I didn't think the magic of BTAS could ever be captured again. And I am not a big superhero movie fan either. I didn't really enjoy the James Bond flicks and hated Superman. I mean, come on, if you're the man of steel, have superhuman strength and can fly and are faster than a speeding bullet, you'd better be able to save the world no matter what. There was never anything interesting. I stopped watching the James Bond movies after Goldeneye. Yeah, the plot was somewhat interesting, but when he's running from the Russian military on that open runway at the airport with all the soldiers firing AK-47s at him, and he manages to escape because they all miss...I just turned it off. I need a psychological thriller type plot with the action supplementing it. That's what a superhero movie should be.

Then I saw who the cast was for Batman Begins. Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne? Hmm...that seemed relatively interesting. A very versatile actor. He has the style of a Bruce Wayne type, a strong voice, good facial expressions, and can play dark characters. I've been a huge fan since American Psycho. Michael Caine as Alfred? That seems like the perfect casting. Morgan Freeman as Fox? Yeah, that can work too. Gary Oldman as James Gordon? I couldn't have picked it better. Liam Neeson? Ken Watanabe? Oh my God, this could be good. So I watched it.

And let me say, Batman is back!!! BTAS only occasionally referred to the origins of Batman in flashbacks in various episodes, but never had an episode about it. This is the first time, that the origins of Batman were shown on the screen properly. The feeling in my gut that I had when I watched BTAS was back. The villains were complicated, Bruce Wayne himself was deeply troubled. The dark imagery was overwhelming and the adrenaline coursing through me was constant. Plus the layering of the plot and the philosophical allegories were brilliant. The idea of FEAR was brought forth, examined, discussed and then turned upside-down. I really enjoyed it like I hadn't enjoyed a super hero movie in a long time. The acting and cinematography were also superb.

Tonight, I saw The Dark Knight. And I have absolutely nothing to say. It's 2:13 AM as I type this and I still can't sleep. The emotional, psychological, visual and grueling thrillride that was this movie simply cannot be matched. I had high expectations going in. People who had already seen it told me it was ten times better than Batman Begins, and I LOVED Batman Begins. There are times when people can build a movie up too much and it always turns out good but never as good as you expect, so I was cautious. Nevertheless, I was still blown away. The character of the Joker as brought to a whole new level for me. Bruce Wayne continued to develop, and his emotional vulnerability and physical weaknesses became central to the film. I have so much to say, but I just can't say it. It was such a rush. If anyone hasn't seen this movie, then they must. If they were ever fans of Batman, then it's a crime for them to miss this. This and Batman Begins are truly bringing together all of the previous embodiments of Batman and placing truth in front of the audience. That is, what Batman was always meant to be.

I loved the movie.

Did Nothing

2008-07-28T23:10:00.003-04:00

I was hoping to have tons to write about today since I had so much planned for the weekend. For example, I was suppsoed to go salsa dancing on Friday night, but that didn't happen. I was supposed to go rowing on Saturday morning but that didn't happen either. I literally ended up accomplishing nothing this weekend.

So Friday night, yeah, my toe was still killing me. I suffered all day, hoping I'd be able to go Friday night, but no, I couldn't. I stayed in and relaxed and watched TV. Boooo. I'll have to write about salsa dancing some other time then.

On Saturday morning, I set my alarm (on a saturday morning) and woke up at 6AM. I got ready and left the house and got to the lake by 7AM. I was at the right place, the right time and everything, but no one was there. I did see a few boats out on the lake (and it looked like they were having a great time rowing), but no one was at the dock. I later found out that the rowing club had a race that day in Rhode Island and as a result, they started earlier that morning. So I missed out on rowing. So I went home dejected. I was supposed to have brunch with a friend in Boston, but I fell asleep on the couch as result of having woken up so early. So that didn't happen either.

Now here is a point where I could have been productive. I recently had my car's brakes changed and inspected, blah blah, but the tires still needed to be aligned and rotated. I could have gone to the tire shop and gotten all that done Saturday afternoon since it was free. Hell, I could have even read a book, gone over some research stuff, learned some SAS programming, read about biostatistics, etc. But no, I did nothing. I watched TV all day. And since nothing is on on Saturday afternoon, I ended up watching stuff on the Food network. Luckily, there were a few episodes of the Mythbusters, which I always enjoy.

On Sunday, I did have lunch with a few friends, celebrating someone's birthday. Afterwards, I relaxed, giving up on being productive over the weekend. Once I gave in, I enjoyed being lazy.

Today, I was at the library, learning some SAS programming and doing some preliminary work on my research project (due August 25th!!). Plus, I got my car all set, and got organized a little bit more. So all in all, today was pretty good. But I need to make up for this past weekend.

So to summarize what I am planning for the next few weeks: GYM!!, rowing, salsa dancing, swing dancing (Finally!), and RESEARCH.

On a side note, tomorrow, I will be seeing the Dark Knight on IMAx. That's gonna be absolutely awesome, I'm very much looking forward to it.

First Game of New Soccer Session!

2008-07-24T22:58:00.006-04:00

I started playing indoor soccer a few months ago at Teamworks in Northborough and it was the best decision I have made this year. I didn't have a team of my own, so I just signed up as a free agent. I used to play soccer as a little kid, but stopped freshman year of high school. My high school was very serious about sports and even if I made varsity the following year, I wouldn't have gotten any playing time anyways. So I made the decision back then to quit soccer and focus on non-athletic extra curricular activities since soccer would have taken up a majority of time if I continued it. I totally regret that decision because I only now realize the value of high school team sports. The social comeraderie, the committment and effort. Not only that, I feel like those who played sports and were in good shape in high school, the formative years of growth both physical and emotional, tend to continue to be physically and emotionally healthy throughout adulthood. Now, for me, it takes extra effort to maintain my weight at a BMI with which I am comfortable.

Last session, I was also a free agent and was placed on a "free agent team." Needless to say, we lost every game by a large margin. But the point was, it was laid fun for our team. Everyone was having a good time, getting some exercise, and not yelling at each other like I saw some other teams do. Nobody was very intense and by the end of it all, we all felt pretty good. There's a group of medical students that play as a team, but they're taking the current session off. Hopefully, I'll be able to join them next session.

Anyways, tonight was our very first game. There were enough free agents to make two sucky teams for this session so we played each other. The score ended up tied in the end 10-10 so all in all, it was both a really bad and really awesome game. I'm totally winded.

ALSO, at one point I was on D. The other team's player was charging at me with the ball. I stuck my foot out, knocked the ball out of the way, but the guy didn't stop running and ran his foot right into my right big toe. It felt like he took out the nail. I felt immediate intense pain, but couldn't think. The ball rolled to another player on their team and he had an open shot on net (only the goalie was there). I managed to run over, jump in front of the shot, and the ball banged off my ass and was cleared. I played the rest of the game with mild pain in my right toe (I was able to move it and it was clear it wasn't broken).

On the way home in the car, I noticed that the pain was considerably worse now that I wasn't playing and the adrenaline of the game wasn't coursing through me. By the time I got home, the stinging was unbearable. I took off my shoe and noticed that the sock was all bloody around the area of the toe.

NOW, to interject here, I was both dismayed and THRILLED! When I started playing soccer a few months ago, I scraped up my knee pretty badly the very first game. The blood was dripping down to the top of my sock (covering the shinguard). I was actually pretty happy at the time because I seriously couldn't remember the last time I had scraped my knee. There was a time during elementary and middle school where I tried to think of a time when my some part of my body wasn't scraped. I was so active then. But then I quit sports and my studies took over and then college was pretty lazy. Seriously, I never scraped anything and it kind of pissed me off to know that I was no longer athletic or active and that I was a good 25 pounds over the weight with which I was comfortable. Looking at my knee that day was awesome and it felt great. Similarly, today, looking at my toe and looking at the bloody sock, I had mixed feelings. Yeah, I was in pain, but I had a bloody sock!!! I played through pain!! Just like Curt Schilling in that legendary 2004 ALCS!!

Anyways, I wanted to take a picture of my own bloody sock, but my mom, being the perfect mom that she is, immediately threw the sock into the sink, knowing that the bloodstain wouldn't come out if we waited longer. Damn her. But here's a picture of my toe all wrapped up! I think the nail may come off, there's definitely blood in the nail bed. It'll probably turn black for sure.

This really may put a damper on the salsa cruise tomorrow night, but I hope it won't be too bad tomorrow and that the injury was largely soft tissue. The nail was largely intact actually. And hopefully, I'll be able to play next week, cause I had a great time (though I am ridiculously out of shape).

1st Progress Post

2008-07-22T23:27:00.003-04:00

So as of right now, I feel like things are progressing slowly. But that is to be expected as I have really set a bunch of goals without having a clear idea of how I am going to achieve them. I'm confident that things will iron out and I will be able to eventually get into a routine. Right now, just reading what I just wrote, I can see that my blog will be quite dry if I keep writing like this. An unstated reason for me blogging in addition to simply documenting the year and making myself accountable to something for motivation was to also improve my writing skills. I mean, my writing is crap. It's so mechanical, scientific and simply uncreative. I think by writing often (i.e. blogging), I'll have to improve somewhat...right?

OK, so research....this has been really tough so far, but I'm just starting as of yet. Basically, my research for the year is going to be retrospective studies using these huge inpatient databases (some state level, some national level, either way, thousands of patients with thousands of fields for information) to look at hospital treatment outcomes. So the good thing is that it is many projects and it will give me the experience of simply coming up with interesting ideas and seeing their results relatively quickly. Right now, however, my knowledge about this stuff is minimal. We will be using SAS to analyze these data and that inovlves learning a programming language. Now, it's not possible to learn an entire programming language relatively quickly for someone like me (i.e. no programming background). But I need to learn enough of the basics and concepts so that I won't require too much help. Additionally, I need to learn biostatistics. I got a great book called Intuitive Biostatisitcs that I'm trying to pound through as fast as possible, but the days have been slow and progress has been minimal. My goal right now is to just work hard and finish a project as quickly as possible. I'll learn SAS as much as possible and, hopefully, I'll have the opportunity to be productive. Ultimately, I want the experience of coming up with an idea, using the database and SAS to analyze the results, write the abstract and submit it to a meeting, write the manusrcipt, present at the meeting, and then push the manuscript through for publication. That's the goal. If I can repeat that 2 times, then this year will be wildly successful!!!

As far as keeping my life in order organizationally, I've decided to make my calendar electronic. I will enjoy updating it and therefore, I will likely review it. So, I will be using Google Calendar for now. Ultimately, I'd like to purchase a smart phone to hold some medical software and my calendar/email/personal tasks. That way, I'll be able to carry around the calendar with me. For now, I found a great application called Remember The Milk and it has been awesome tool for a to-do list, though I'm having trouble getting it to interact with Google Calendar the way I'd like it to. Basicallly, the key to a good organization system is the weekly review. That's the most important part in David Allen's Getting Things Done and I think for the next few weeks I need to be consciously consistent in reviewing. If I can do that, then I should be able to get into the habit and will be able to define my actions and have a system that will let my thoughts fall out of my head and into a place where I don't need to think about them and can review them in a timely manner.

My Exercise Goals: I will start soccer this Thursday!! I will be on another Free Agent team as I am signing up by myself and that likely means that we will lose every game this season by a sizeable margin, but hey, I'm gonna get better at soccer and I will have fun and I will get in shape. Hopefully in September, I'll be able to join one of the medical school teams. Rowing will start this Sunday morning. Hopefully I will make it.

This Friday evening, I will be going on a salsa cruise in the boston harbor. The more I dance, the better I'll become. I'll write all about my experience with ballroom dancing (only Salsa for now) at a later time as this post is already getting prohibitively long.

OK, so cooking...I'm learning slowly. I think my goal for the summer is to cook one serious meal per week, most likely on a weekend night. The goal of this will be to simply try, not necessarily to make something edible. If it is edible, then yay!! I'm taking one day cooking class about meats with Helen Rennie in mid August and I think that will really help me. I'll write about that when the time comes. So at least that's going right now...

OKAY, that's it for now. Looks like I have something sort of planned in each facet of my goals for the year. I'll probably end up adding goals and doing other stuff and most definitely will end up not achieving or simply giving up on a bunch of goals, but this is where I am right now.

PHEW...that took much longer than I expected. Hopefully, I'll get better at this.

2008-07-20T18:11:00.003-04:00

Below is what I would ideally like to accomplish this upcoming year. These are my overall goals and contain the numerous components of my life that I would like to constantly keep in mind and work towards. I'll keep the blog updated whenever I get a chance on how I am doing regarding each of the things below.

Research
-Learn Biostatistics
-Learn SAS language as much as possible
-Learn to write papers
-Come up with tons of ideas
-Write tons of papers

Medical School Stuff
-Study for Step 2 CK
-Take Step 2 CK in January
-Figure out what you want to do with your life!!!!

Stay Organized
-Continue to use the system in Getting Things Done
-Make the organizational system as electronic as possible

Exercise
-Regularly workout at the gym
-Join rowing club at Lake Quinsigamond
-Play indoor soccer at Teamworks

Ballroom Dance
-Learn salsa dancing as well as possible
-Take lessons @ World Rhythms
-Take lessons @ MIT
-Finish private lessons with Javier
-Go clubbing as much as possible
-Start East Coast Swing progressive lessons @ PSM dance studio

Miscellaneous Personal
-Continue to learn how to cook
-Continue to explore wines
-Learn as much about personal finance as possible
-Finish reading Personal Finance for Dummies
-Read novels or listen to e-books when there is time.
-Start a BLOG!!!