You ever feel like you study your life away? Neither do I. Though you'd probably think that I'd feel that way. Really, though, I probably don't study as much as I would work if I were working full time. It does suck when I have to study on weekends before a test, but for the most part med school isn't that bad. Pictured here are a handful of the books I would like to know inside and out before I take the boards this next summer.
In other news, today in class someone asked what the difference is between a "string sign" on barium enema of Crohn's disease and an Omphalocele. I fully realized that nobody who reads this blog will get why that is funny, but trust me, it is. Really funny. It was asked by the guy who always asks random, non-relevant questions. I'm pretty sure that today's question topped them all, though.
Another guy asked how it was possible to see through cancer with an X-ray. I was the only person around me who thought it was funny, which surprised me because isn't the answer obvious? Cancer isn't lead. It is like other bodily tissues. X-rays pass through all kinds of body tissues, why not cancer? You can see through cancer on X-ray the same way you can see through skin, muscle, organs. I mean, isn't that the point of x-rays? to see through things to get at what is underneath? Of course you can look through cancer.
I am by no means smarter than your average med school student. But sometimes when I listen to other people's questions in class my ego gets boosted ever so slightly.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Gob with the sneak attack
Gob's new favorite way to try and eat our food. he is quite the crackhead. (PS, haley didn't give in).
Really?
Wow. This story is amazing. What is wrong with us? We want to hear about people's little domestic spats? This is the most mundane story in the world about a dad who is mad at a mom because he doesn't think she disciplines the children very well. Why would that make national news? Why does anyone care about this story?
I can't believe this is a story worth writing up and I can't believe that I have now blogged about it.
I can't believe this is a story worth writing up and I can't believe that I have now blogged about it.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Gob vs. Snake
After rocking my test on monday (see previous entry) I took Gob out hiking in Modoc, SC. After we had been hiking for just under an hour, job was slightly ahead of me wandering back and forth along the trail. All of the sudden, I see little Gobby fly about 6 feet into the air, apparently scared to death. Apparently, this little guy had taken a lunge at him (pretty sure it bit him). I then took a half dozen pictures of him while Gob barked and barked and barked. The snake was less than intimidated. As we walked back to the car, I kept a tight eye on Gob, looking for signs of poison (I am far from proficient in identifying snakes). He seemed fine, if not a little shooken up from having the crap scared out of him. I later found out it was the "black rat snake," quite harmless. Sure made the hike interesting though.
Whoop whoop (cop siren)
Haley asked me to take some pictures for the cover of the MCG telephone directory (yeah, the major one that gets sent out to thousands of people). Excited to get my photography out there, I jumped on opportunity. I wanted to get a really good shot of some of the buildings on campus and decided to go out early to get either a night shot or early morning sunrise shot. So, picture me standing out on the corner of the "busiest" intersection on campus: Where Laney Walker Blvd. meets 13th street. It is 6:00am and I have my tripod pointed at the MCG cancer center (pictured here) and begin taking pictures. Not three shots later, a black and white came screetching across 4 lanes of traffic (well, more like 4 lanes, no traffic - it is really early), flying onto the curb in front of me. Of course I smell some harassment coming on, but continue to take pictures. The cop gets out of his car, I explain what I am doing, he asks for some ID (which of course I didn't need because it is lawful for anybody, let alone a student of the institution to take a picture). I show him my ID and it should be over, right? Well, he then proceeds to call it in, then call every other cop on duty, then the local chief on duty, and then the head chief that wasn't on duty. I then point out to him that anybody can take a picture of anything in public at any time and that he was, in my mind, harassing me. He then said something about security and a post-9/11 world. I let him know that I understood, but by showing him my ID, I should be good (even without an ID, I should be good). He then proceeded to ask me questions for a half hour. Yes, a half hour. Interspersed in this half hour, they guy repeatedly made phone calls asking people what he should do with "this kid." I was very tempted to just walk away at this time, knowing full well that I had every right to do so. Better yet, I should have continued to take pictures and ignore him - but I didn't want to provoke him. Oh, and officer Barbara (yeah, real name, and yeah, it was a dude) wasn't the brightest star out that morning. He had to repeatedly ask me what group I was taking the picture for, even when he had it written down in front of him. He had previously asked me the same question 3 times. I ended up having to make a couple phone calls on my own in order to get a name of some faculty on campus who would back me up. This guy was an idiot. When he was finally satisfied, he left me with a parting message "hey, buddy, at the end of the day I got a job to do just like you." Thanks, officer Barbara, for that deep thought. You still harassed me for a half hour over nothing.
I really think it may have had something to do with my slightly darker skin. I wanted to tell him that I descended from the same Northern European ancestry that he did, but I didn't want to push my luck.
p.s. this isn't the picture we are using, but it is my favorite.
I really think it may have had something to do with my slightly darker skin. I wanted to tell him that I descended from the same Northern European ancestry that he did, but I didn't want to push my luck.
p.s. this isn't the picture we are using, but it is my favorite.
perspective
haley and I went to look at stars the other night. sometimes, after you've been studying for about 10 or 11 days straight, it is nice to pull your head out of your dark tunnel and look up. At the end of the day, studying and test taking don't really matter. Oh, and by the way, I rocked that test in to the middle of next week.
Friday, October 05, 2007
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Man vs. High Tide
Sunday, September 30, 2007
10:41 PM
Friday afternoon. Big test. Done at 11:00. The plan? Go fishing in the ocean to celebrate. Drag the wives down to Savannah for a day of fun in the sun. Get to Savannah around 1800. Dinner at local fish house followed by stop at Basspro shops.
2 sinkers
1 large bopper
5-pack assortment of swimbaits
1 pack of BPS supershad III fake minnows
3-way swivel
2 hours later I am sleeping, dreaming of the next day's events.
We had been planning on going down to Savannah for some time. Recently, my study mates and I have taken up fishing. Every Saturday morning for the past two months or so, we have spent down on the river trying to catch largemouth bass or large stripers. Though we have technically caught largemouth (I even caught a random member of the Pike family, the Chain Pickerel), We have been disappointed by the smallness of the fish and by the amount of time it takes us to pull in 2 or maybe 3 fish.
Discouraged by our bad luck/inadequacies as fishermen, we decided it was time to try something else. Garrett lives down in Savannah and we heard there are some good inlets down there you can take your canoe/kayak to and catch some serious ocean fish. And so we headed down.
5:30am rolled around pretty early, having gone to bed around 1:00 the night before (as well as every night for the past week or so--we did have a test on Friday). We stopped at a bait shop to pick up a casting net and a minnow bucket, which eventually saved the day…
We put in at the fishing dock at the inlet to the "Back River" between Tybee and Little Tybee islands. We had heard from numerous people that the fishing is awesome there and canoes/kayaks are more than sufficient to get your way around. We had also heard from both the Basspros and the bait shop owner that it was really windy out and that Saturday was to have the largest tide of the year (9+ feet). Not to be discouraged, we testosteroned our way out into the sea.
At first the waves were a little choppy, but appeared innocent enough that we lulled ourselves into a false sense of security. About halfway across the 1000 yard+ channel the wind really started to pick up as did the incoming tide. The current got real strong and the waves got really choppy. The only thing more amazing than the fact that we didn't capsize is the fact that there was hardly any water in the boat after we finally did make it to the other side. We gradually made our way around the island, looking for a cut to go in between the different waterways. All around us was tall grass that seems to thrive in the brackish water of the incoming and outgoing tide. As we navigated our way through the grasses, we quickly realized that we would need some calmer water if we were going to be able to get a cast out, let alone catch any fish. Unfortunately, we spent the better part of the next 5 hours navigating our way through rough water, fast wind, and few fish (which means we saw a few fish and caught none).
After rowing for a couple hours, we made our way around the island and somehow made it back to the main channel separating the two islands. The water looked even worse than before, with increased wind and this time the water was going out, the tide having peaked and switched about an hour previous. Tying down all our equipment and taking a well-earned rest, we chilled in the tall grasses on the edge of the channel. Luckily the ride to the other side was much better than we built it up to be.
Once on the other side, we hugged the shore and I decided to get out of the boats and try my new toy out. As I awkwardly cast the monofilament/nylon/lead net out into the water, I felt weak and defeated. Then, to my astonishment, I managed to catch a tiny minnow. I repeated the throwing of the net only to catch a shrimp. Encouraged, I continued to cast that net out into the water until I had about a dozen shrimp. Justin and Garrett also got in on the action and within about a half hour we filled our little minnow bucket up with shrimp.
We then headed back to the pier to meet up with our ladies for lunch. As we enjoyed our footlongs from Subway, we mulled over strategies to hunt our elusive water-prey. Luckily the ladies didn't mind us going back out and we decided we would meet up with them later for dinner. Now encouraged with our live shrimp for bait, we once again set out. Though the shrimp rigs proved heavy for our small rods and reels, we managed to get a couple good casts out there. I even had fish on my line on 3 different occasions, but unfortunately I have been fishing for bass too long and tried to set the hook before the fish managed to ingest my entire bait. You can imagine how excited I finally was to actually feel a fish tub on the end of my line and you can probably also imagine my letdown when I didn't pull them in. Such is life.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention all the dolphins while we were out there. At one point, we were fishing in between some docks when a dolphin came within about 5 feet of our canoe. It scared the living crap out of us and this giant fishlike thing rose and then lowered back into the water. It was the last thing we were expecting and seriously, it gave me quite the startling. We continued to have dolphins swim all around us for a good part of the day as we went in and out of the channels.
So, yeah, we still suck at fishing. However, we did manage to get back with a bucket full of the freshest shrimp any of us had ever had. We fried it up plain in a little butter and it was good. Very good. Than, after paddling sunup to sundown (quite literally) I got a really good night's rest. It was awesome.
10:41 PM
Friday afternoon. Big test. Done at 11:00. The plan? Go fishing in the ocean to celebrate. Drag the wives down to Savannah for a day of fun in the sun. Get to Savannah around 1800. Dinner at local fish house followed by stop at Basspro shops.
2 sinkers
1 large bopper
5-pack assortment of swimbaits
1 pack of BPS supershad III fake minnows
3-way swivel
2 hours later I am sleeping, dreaming of the next day's events.
We had been planning on going down to Savannah for some time. Recently, my study mates and I have taken up fishing. Every Saturday morning for the past two months or so, we have spent down on the river trying to catch largemouth bass or large stripers. Though we have technically caught largemouth (I even caught a random member of the Pike family, the Chain Pickerel), We have been disappointed by the smallness of the fish and by the amount of time it takes us to pull in 2 or maybe 3 fish.
Discouraged by our bad luck/inadequacies as fishermen, we decided it was time to try something else. Garrett lives down in Savannah and we heard there are some good inlets down there you can take your canoe/kayak to and catch some serious ocean fish. And so we headed down.
5:30am rolled around pretty early, having gone to bed around 1:00 the night before (as well as every night for the past week or so--we did have a test on Friday). We stopped at a bait shop to pick up a casting net and a minnow bucket, which eventually saved the day…
We put in at the fishing dock at the inlet to the "Back River" between Tybee and Little Tybee islands. We had heard from numerous people that the fishing is awesome there and canoes/kayaks are more than sufficient to get your way around. We had also heard from both the Basspros and the bait shop owner that it was really windy out and that Saturday was to have the largest tide of the year (9+ feet). Not to be discouraged, we testosteroned our way out into the sea.
At first the waves were a little choppy, but appeared innocent enough that we lulled ourselves into a false sense of security. About halfway across the 1000 yard+ channel the wind really started to pick up as did the incoming tide. The current got real strong and the waves got really choppy. The only thing more amazing than the fact that we didn't capsize is the fact that there was hardly any water in the boat after we finally did make it to the other side. We gradually made our way around the island, looking for a cut to go in between the different waterways. All around us was tall grass that seems to thrive in the brackish water of the incoming and outgoing tide. As we navigated our way through the grasses, we quickly realized that we would need some calmer water if we were going to be able to get a cast out, let alone catch any fish. Unfortunately, we spent the better part of the next 5 hours navigating our way through rough water, fast wind, and few fish (which means we saw a few fish and caught none).
After rowing for a couple hours, we made our way around the island and somehow made it back to the main channel separating the two islands. The water looked even worse than before, with increased wind and this time the water was going out, the tide having peaked and switched about an hour previous. Tying down all our equipment and taking a well-earned rest, we chilled in the tall grasses on the edge of the channel. Luckily the ride to the other side was much better than we built it up to be.
Once on the other side, we hugged the shore and I decided to get out of the boats and try my new toy out. As I awkwardly cast the monofilament/nylon/lead net out into the water, I felt weak and defeated. Then, to my astonishment, I managed to catch a tiny minnow. I repeated the throwing of the net only to catch a shrimp. Encouraged, I continued to cast that net out into the water until I had about a dozen shrimp. Justin and Garrett also got in on the action and within about a half hour we filled our little minnow bucket up with shrimp.
We then headed back to the pier to meet up with our ladies for lunch. As we enjoyed our footlongs from Subway, we mulled over strategies to hunt our elusive water-prey. Luckily the ladies didn't mind us going back out and we decided we would meet up with them later for dinner. Now encouraged with our live shrimp for bait, we once again set out. Though the shrimp rigs proved heavy for our small rods and reels, we managed to get a couple good casts out there. I even had fish on my line on 3 different occasions, but unfortunately I have been fishing for bass too long and tried to set the hook before the fish managed to ingest my entire bait. You can imagine how excited I finally was to actually feel a fish tub on the end of my line and you can probably also imagine my letdown when I didn't pull them in. Such is life.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention all the dolphins while we were out there. At one point, we were fishing in between some docks when a dolphin came within about 5 feet of our canoe. It scared the living crap out of us and this giant fishlike thing rose and then lowered back into the water. It was the last thing we were expecting and seriously, it gave me quite the startling. We continued to have dolphins swim all around us for a good part of the day as we went in and out of the channels.
So, yeah, we still suck at fishing. However, we did manage to get back with a bucket full of the freshest shrimp any of us had ever had. We fried it up plain in a little butter and it was good. Very good. Than, after paddling sunup to sundown (quite literally) I got a really good night's rest. It was awesome.
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