Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Little bucket list

1.  Paddle boarding
2.  Rock climbing
3.  Dog sledding
4.  Drive in a convertible along the coast
5.  Kite flying

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Battle of the random knowledge

At Hometel, there are these two men, one is a grandpa (mid 60s?) the other is a middle aged man (40s?) who are always in a show off battle of random knowledge.  It's kind of funny.  During breakfast, during dinner, during random evening encounters.

They will discuss about classical music, art history, and cars.  It's about who can top off each others knowledge.  They are amiable to each other, but there is a mild tense of competition.  They go down to the specific dates!  For example, they would be talking about art in Chicago. Then they go into an art piece and ask if they know the artist.  Then they go into the personality of the artist from a biography they read/watched.  Then they go into the specific dates.
    "Well I heard that in 1600s the culture was this, so he drew it this way"
    "Perhaps, but the avant garde skill he had within that era made him a shunned artist till 1657."
    "That may be so, but in 1660 he created his masterpiece."
    "Actually, that masterpiece was not the most praised.  In Korea it may be so, but in France, they consider ______ as the masterpiece."
    "The art was stolen in China.  They don't even know if it's a real painting in the Louvre"
    THEN THEY GO ON CRAZY TANGENTS JUST TO SHOW OFF THEIR "KNOWLEDGE"

Honestly, I am VERY SURE those dates are pulled out of their butts.  It's just funny to over hear.  Then they would try to prove their fact by asking fellow hometellers.  "Excuse me ma'am, have you heard of Van Gogh?"  "Excuse me, have you heard of this painting ______?"  "How did you feel about it?"

It's ridiculous.  And RIDICULOUSLY ANNOYING.

They will ask me a question and I would shrug, then answer "I derno" and pick at my food.  Nope, not having it today.  Cut 'em off short.

Then they go onto another victim adjacent to their dinner table spot.

HAHA.


Friday, March 13, 2015

Im okay

All the hard work prepping for boards 3...I came out 75% confident that I passed.  I messed up on station 3 and wasnt too sure if the camera views on fundus and bio were good.  I know I missed little things here and there but I am praying for a pass.
All I know was that I was on autopilot.  I couldn't stop myself even if I wanted to.  I was just going through the motions and script like a robot and I finished each station 15 minutes early.  I could have redone some stuff but my mind was completely blank. 
Luckily I got injections on my first try and finished it as well.
The strange thing was I wasnt nervous with stations 1, 2, and 4.  I was smiling and making jokes with the patients and it was totally fine.  But when it came to station 3 I kind of crashed.  It started from a poor retinoscopy to an incorrect subtraction calculation on NRA/PRA.
Don't ever want to experience that whole process again.  I would voice record my written script and play it, repeat after it, then do it again for 2 hours in LA traffic.  I would do a 3 hour round trip commute to practice in fullerton, talking outloud and standing listening sitting going through the motions for 6-10 hours on whatever days I could squeeze in, looking for affordable hotels and flights during the week of TWO large national beer and education conference, making sure we make it to the connecting flights, being in a foreign area, making sure we wake up on time that is 3 hours ahead on top of daylight savings...so gross.
I hope the effort I put in reflects the score.  If I fail this one, then life is too CRUEL!!!

When I’m in writing mode for a novel, I get up at 4 am and work five to six hours. In the afternoon, I run for 10 km or swim 1500 m, or do b...