Saved By the Bell

A little bird clued me in on the fact that you can watch the entire first season of Saved by the Bell online at TV-Life. This is seriously the best show ever and if you don't know what I'm talking about you should start watching it RIGHT NOW.

The Element, by Ken Robinson

I just finished reading The Element. It's a quick and easy read. Ken defines the Element as the "sweet spot" that is the meeting point between your natural aptitude and your passion, what you love to do.

I thought it was brilliant how he modified the question "Are you intelligent?" to "How are you intelligent?". I definitely agree fully with his assertion that there are many different types and combinations of intelligences that should be valued and allowed to flourish.

While reading the book I started to think about how I'm intelligent and what disciplines I like or am particularly good at. I would say that I'm a visual person, I have to be able to see something to really understand it. I'm also quick at identifying visual patterns. I'm good at directions and orienting objects/ideas in 3D. I'm a big-picture thinker, I like to think of overall strategy rather than minutia, and I have very good body-awareness and dexterity. I'm also pretty good at reading relationships and navigating group situations. When I can use these skills I'm most creative and having the most fun. Some examples include athletics, cross-stitching, I did jig-saw puzzles endlessly as a kid. I loved organic chemistry and fiddling around with the 3D models. I love leadership and teaching and helping others do their best. And I can always orient myself on North/South and East/West planes. When I give directions I focus more on buildings and surroundings and geography then names of streets.

With this aptitudes in mind, I'm more excited than ever that I'm going to be a doctor. I think all of these traits will fit me well in the future. Using my dexterity in something like like surgery (or other hands-on parts of medicine) is really appealing to me. I also really love helping other people in terms of making sure they're informed and understand what's going on. The images and physicality of medicine is really appealing to me.

I hope that I'll hit my sweet spot as a doctor and love it as much as I imagine I will.

Amazing run today

Ran over 8 miles this morning, probably close to 9. The first half of my run was full of hills, really steep, painful hills, and it was hot. But then, the next 4 miles were all flat, and I was flying. I ran the second 4 miles faster than most of my other runs that are 3-4 miles in length total. After running all those hills, being on a flat surface was incredible! Such a beautiful day too, warm, sunny, not a cloud in the sky. Got to run by a children's carnival, soccer game, tons of other runners, friends walking together, families on a stroll. Love it.

Really?

My parked car got side swiped by another car today while I was at work. There's a great indentation in the driver-side door now and nice white paint from the the other car. Whoever did this, they didn't have the respect to leave their contact information, so now it's a hit and run and I have to go to the police station and file a police report.

I cannot wait to leave San Francisco. First they slash my convertible roof, then a hit and run. To top it off, I'm paying through the roof for insurance but none of this will be covered because my deductible is so high. Unbelievable. My poor car.

Boleros for the Disenchanted

Last night I saw the play Boleros for the Disenchanted at the A.C.T. theater downtown with Abi and Amy. It was terrific, really funny, poignant, sad and heartfelt. Most of all I loved the set and the music.

From the A.C.T. website:
OBIE Award winner José Rivera (A.C.T.'s Brainpeople, Marisol), the Academy Award–nominated screenwriter of The Motorcycle Diaries, returns to his native Puerto Rico to explore the ineffable dreams of lovers. In one of his most personal works, passion and humor collide in an exuberant village in 1953, where Flora's search for true love follows an unexpected course. A bold, moving second act, set almost 40 years later in America, probes the darker mysteries of marriage.
This brilliant new work reverberates with the gorgeous sounds of Latin love songs, or boleros, written by master composer Fabian Obispo. Acclaimed actors Rachel Ticotin (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Total Recall, and Broadway's Macbeth) and Robert Beltran (Star Trek: Voyager, Big Love) star alongside the fresh new talents of Drew Cortese, Lela Loren, Dion Mucciacito, and Michele Vazquez in their A.C.T. debut.

Philanthropy

Learned today that the word philanthropy breaks down to mean the love of humankind. I suddenly like this word a lot more today than I did yesterday.

Operation NICE

Operation NICE is a blog devoted to chronicling acts of kindness and niceness that happen to people around the country. Definitely a nice website to go to after your car has been broken into, credit cards have been scammed, or the dentist double-billed you...Hmm seems like me and people I know are due for some niceness in the near future!

Arif visits SF!

And Kevin now lives in the city! We had a great dinner at Nick's Crispy Tacos in Russian Hill.

My handiwork

Slashed two weeks ago, now good as new after I spent an hour handstitching it back together...Just need some waterproofing now. I really hope it doesn't rain in SF any time soon...

If you don't know it, Look It Up

Since I received word back in January that I was accepted to medical school, a slight change has happened to me...If I hear something and don't know about it, I look it up. This is actually an incredibly helpful new skill that I've per chance developed. It's true related to medical and nonmedical things. For the medically related information, I guess I have this sense now that I'm going to have to learn it eventually, so if I hear about it now I might as well learn about it now. For nonmedical stuff, I'm not sure, maybe since I'll be dealing with such diverse people and patients my whole life I figure I might as well know as much as possible because you never know what might come up in conversation?? Not sure. Anyways, I'm happy to have this "look it up" bug, I've never learned so much!

June bug

I can't believe it's the end of May. June is going to be the best month ever! SoCal for my birthday, relaxing in Hawaii for almost 2 weeks, then its only a month until I start medical school! It's time to start planning and preparing!

VideoMD

Learned about this website tonight, VideoMD.com. I think it's a really good idea to use short videos to give health information to patients, and this is a starting point. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Shout out to Jay for passing along this info!

Sleep Minimization Experiment

It is upsetting to me that I need to waste at least 7 hours of every single day passively sleeping. I'm at a point in my life where I am intensely interested and passionate about learning, reading, understanding that I wish I had more hours in my day. I know, sleep is important, "sleeping on" a decision can help us have insight and perspective, sleep is good for your health. But gosh darn it why can't I just need like 2-3 hours of sleep and call it a night? I mean 7-8 hours every day is like 1/3 of my entire life! That seems unfair. I want more time to live, learn, and contribute then to sleep, dream, and rest.

I know there are some people that supposedly can get by on 4-5 hours of sleep every night, I'm going to give it a shot. Maybe I don't need as much sleep as I think do.

Update: 2 Interesting anecdotes (from here)
1. The longest recorded period without sleep is an astounding 33 years, performed by 64 year old Vietnamese man named Thai Ngoc, who claims to have lost his need for sleep after a sickness in the 70’s. Surprisingly, he experiences no ill negative effects from this condition, not even the normal sleep deprivation effects such as fatigue, loss of concentration, and so on. Under normal circumstances, people who lose even a few days of sleep start exhibiting cognitive symptoms usually only present in senior citizens.

2. Many notable people through history have claimed to need less sleep - Michelangelo, Napoleon, Thomas Edison all claim to have only needed 4 hours of sleep a night. In modern days, Madonna, Jay Leno, Margaret Thatcher and many others say the same thing. It seems to be more prevalent in highly ambitious, driven individuals.

Given anecdote #2, perhaps I will have positive results of my experiment!!!

Another awesome find!

FORA.tv

I was looking up a person at UCSF because I missed a recent talk she gave on 'Bias and Drug Trials' and found the entire lecture at FORA.tv, such a great website to stumble upon!

Here's the down low:

FORA.tv helps intelligent, engaged audiences get smart. Our users find, enjoy, and share videos about the people, issues, and ideas changing the world.

We gather the web's largest collection of unmediated video drawn from live events, lectures, and debates going on all the time at the world's top universities, think tanks and conferences. We present this provocative, big-idea content for anyone to watch, interact with, and share --when, where, and how they want.

With our community of savvy users and an extensive, growing library of smart videos, FORA.tv is at the forefront of the ongoing integration - and transformation – of the traditional media, TV, cable, and online industries from mass-market to high-quality, high-value content.

FORA.tv was founded in 2005 and is funded by a select group of investors including William R. Hearst III and Adobe Ventures.

Cartoons about the US HealthCare System

These are pretty much right on. Comedy is the best medicine. I particularly like the one about intelligent design...SO TRUE.

Cute Cupcakes!

My Grandparents are Goofy

Don't you agree?

Baby goslings at Stow Lake