Sunday, January 25, 2009

A little light reading from my trip


25 in Mississippi by William M. Priestley

This book was written and published (through Lulu.com) by a friend of mine that managed to survive his two years of being transplanted from Dublin (in the palest of the pale) Ireland to Pascagoula, Mississippi. And in spite of conspiring fates, hurricane Katrina, American women, broken down cars, broken collarbones, and the on-going challenge of a constantly changing classroom, he somehow emerged the other side with words of wisdom.



It's a great read for a teacher. It's a great read for anyone who's giving up a bit of their life for service (ala ACE, PLACE, PACE, JVC, TFA, Americorps, Peace Corps). It's adventure, romance, drama, and comedy written tongue in cheek with (what I can only assume is) a well restrained wit.



Will - Kudos!

Everyone else - Have a read!




View all my reviews.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Obama




Speechless... I'm absolutely speechless.

Proud to be an American. A little unnerved having a president that is articulate and well-regarded. Breathing a sigh of relief as I watch Cheney wheeled out and Bush flown away.

But wow...

Monday, January 19, 2009

Predictions and Predilections

First off, let me say that I have the utmost respect for people who put their names and asses on the lines to bring us the sports predictions every week. I don't have the guts to put stuff like that in writing. And beyond saying that I'm a HUGE Boston sports fan (Thanks to my father's hometown of Quincy and my childhood summers on the South Shore), Go Sox! Go Pats!... Ok, maybe the Bruins are just getting lucky this year. And I'll admit that the Celtics are a bandwagon that I've tried not to jump on. I'm not going to risk my pride by promising wins in any sporting events.

That being said. Bill Simmons (aka The Sports Guy) went 0 for 4 on his second round NFL picks. That alone could be demoralizing, but the man came out with a column to appease even the most cynical (and now deeply in debt to a bookie) fan. Here's one of my favorite bits:

The good news: We have to redo the Mount Rushmore of Faces. I can't narrow it down to four from these seven: The Troy Aikman Concussion Face (really, the face that got this running joke going 10 years ago); either the Joel Goodson "I Can't Believe I'm Having Sex With Lana The Hooker On a Train" Face or the Thomas Hill "I Can't Believe Laettner Just Made That Shot" Face (they're basically the same face); the Mike Myers "Did Kanye really just say that?" Face; the Manning Face (bonus points because not one but TWO brothers use it, as we saw these past two weekends); the Art Shell "I Died Two Quarters Ago" Face; and now, the Jake Delhomme "Seriously, I Might Get Beaten Up In My Own Locker Room After This Is Over" Face. If you think you can top any of them, knock yourself out. You won't.

He followed it up with a solid and 100% correct prediction for the AFC and NFC championship games, and I'm looking forward to the Superbowl suggestions. (The full article is linked to the title of this blog and has an amazing list of awards... totally worth the read).

After all that, may I say that I think the Steelers are after winning another Superbowl. My only justification for this is that being from Minnesota, my wardrobe is well equipped to handle some of the worst weather when it comes to cold. And I don't think that the devil is that good to me. I mean, what is the temperature in hell right now? -10? I mean... the Cards? Really? Sure, maybe the same Arctic cold front that's hit the States and Ireland has blown through hell as well. It's possible. But a Cardinals' win would make it a permanent winter there, and I think Satan only owns a banana hammock.

Onto things that govern my life a little more than American Football (sadly, yes, there are other things). Right now I'm on a GP rotation (GP=General Practice... much similar to Family Practice in the States). As with any medical specialty, there are pros and cons to GP.

Pros: The hours are great, 9-5 on most days; there isn't much stress or emergency; the GP I'm working with lives across the street from his clinic, is raising 5 kids, and takes a few minutes off to pick up the kids from daycare and drop them back at home while most people are on a tea break. Basically, the life style is nice. The money is nice. And if you have a good office assistant to grease the wheels, the business end of things can run smoothly.

Cons: You spend about 30% of your day on small talk (that's great for some people, but not my thing). You spend another 30% of your day trying to convince people to quit the bad habits that are slowly killing them (ie: no, that's not an infection... your cough is from smoking 3 packs a day). If you do your job well, you don't see your patients very often. But I'll tell you, the ones you don't want to see are the ones that keep coming back.

I really get why people like GP... But I don't think it'll be my thing. 2 more weeks in the surgery then I'm back in the classroom. I like working with my GP (he's great and let's me be ridiculously hands on), so don't get me wrong. I'm also learning a lot. But on the heels of Psych, I'm starting to itch for "real" doing. (Don't get mad. GPs do really important things... but for a student, it's not the glitz and glamour that I'll remember on my exams).

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Music for the New Year

Before you read the list, let me say that this has everything to do with my mindset on the 1st of Jan. Not all of the songs on the list are "new" per se... In fact, some are quite old. But I think you'll get the gist. And I listened to the list again last night when I was getting ready to go out... Excellent! I don't always dance around in my underwear when I'm getting dressed, but I did. Rock on.

Music for the New Year
  1. Pony (It's Ok) - Erin McCarley
  2. Suddenly I See - KT Tunstall
  3. Live Your Life - T.I. (featuring Rihanna)
  4. Lose Yourself - Eminem
  5. Breathe, Stretch, Shake - Mase
  6. Tequilla - Big Bopper
  7. Hot N Cold - Katy Perry
  8. Single Ladies - Beyonce
  9. Shake It - Metro Station
  10. Sex On Fire - Kings of Leon
  11. Remember the Name - Fort Minor
  12. Burn It To the Ground - Nickelback
  13. So What - Pink
  14. I Don't Care - Fall Out Boy
  15. My Hero - Foo Fighters
  16. Thunderstruck - Sprung Monkey
  17. Stay Young - Oasis
  18. Holiday - Green Day
So... there you have it. My musical attitude for the year :)

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Ok. So this year I made the decision not to make any resolutions. No list of rules. No restrictions. No ridiculous goals (and no... probably not another marathon... but don't hold me to that, because I didn't make a resolution NOT to run a marathon). Instead, I wrote a letter to myself. Yeah, weird right. I know. But it was actually a fun thing to do. I took a piece of paper, addressed it to me, and wrote to me. I said some nice things to me about me. I made a few comments about how I did last year. I made some suggestions for next year. And mostly, I told me to be nice to me. Neat, eh? I thought it was cool. And no, Annie, I'm not going to kill any snow lepoards.

I'm not going to put the letter up here. Sorry, it's kinda personal. But what I will do is post my list of new years songs on the side bar. That's right, to over-shadow the summer soundtrack, there's a NEW YEARS PLAYLIST! Rock on. There's a bit of attitude in it... that's cause I've been feeling a little sassy. But I started off new years day, in the gym, rocking out to this mix. Enjoy!

In other news, my rotation on Psychiatry is officially over. I'm grateful for this. I did not enjoy it. The teachers and tutors were great, and supportive, and encouraging, and excited about psych... but there's something about having a chair thrown at me that just puts me off. I wouldn't cut it in psych. Give me blood and guts and a knife and a needle and thread. Liz would be happy. Crazy people make Liz more crazy than she already is, and we don't need that... Look, I'm talking in 3rd person.

But, because I feel the need to make a tribute to psych, here is my parting contribution.

HOW NOT TO TALK SOMEONE DOWN

Worst Suicide Intervention Ever -- powered by Cracked.com