Weekend Update

Friday
• I started off the evening with a med school potluck. I always think it’s kind of funny to do potlucks with non-church people. The potluck seems like a very churchy thing. I don’t have any particular reason for feeling this way, it’s just that I’ve never done them much outside of a ward setting and I guess I think of Mormons as being more domestic than the average individual. But these last two year’s I’ve discovered something shocking: non-Mormons are better cooks than Mormons. Certainly there are some Mormons that are a wonder in the kitchen, but in a dish for dish battle, the med school potlucks have handedly beaten the Mormon ones. A statement on the skill set of 20-somethings in the church? Perhaps. In any case, dinner and the conversation afterwards were quite good.
• After dinner we headed over to Pi Day. I haven’t thrown a Pi Day party in a couple years since an accountant friend feels more passionately about the holiday than I do. I was quite full from dinner so had a single piece of pie, which was a bit sad since there was a fine selection. Although I didn’t join in on the Guitar Hero (the default activity with this particular group of friends) some fine conversation was had.

Saturday
• I had a great debate Saturday morning: The Saint Patrick’s Day parade, or the NCAA Fencing championships. Turns out that I don’t actually like parades (like fireworks, they often make me think that I like them, only to find upon arrival that they are quite boring) so fencing won. It’s also interesting that while basketball, football and baseball hold little to no interest for me, I end up dragging my friends to go watch fencing, ping pong, and wheelchair rugby. As so often holds true, if it’s popular I dislike it and if it’s weird it’s fascinating. I probably should have brushed up on my fencing knowledge because we did spend most of the time trying to figure out what was going on.
• Because I’m currently in a non-dating period, I let fencing stand as my social activity of the day. I was moderately productive throughout the afternoon and capped it off with Chinese food and a bad movie. It was called Bound if you’re interested, and while bad is rather strong, I was hoping it would be great, and it certainly did not reach great.

Sunday
• I threw my second annual St. Patrick’s Day-inner. Although I have just bashed on Mormon cooking, this potluck turned out quite well. Bryce made some fine corned beef and cabbage, I made my colcannon from last year and we had a fine selection of food from the dozen or so people that we invited. Although I prefer making new dishes (I recently taught myself how to make flan) the colcannon was pretty popular last year so I gave it another shot. The reviews were once again “This stuff is actually pretty good.” No one’s ever heard of it and it looks pretty ugly, but colcannon has a pretty solid track record. I officially passed the torch of the holidinner afterwards, making up the tradition that one of the people we invited must throw their own potluck at the next holiday. I’ll let you know come Arbor Day or Cinco de Mayo if that pans out.

What's New?

When someone asks “What’s new?” I say “Nothing much.” There’s a linguistic term for this automatic and meaningless response, but unfortunately my brain is not the sponge I sometimes purport it to be. In any case, this is normally true. What’s new? I’ve been doing much the same thing for the last 2 years (socially, academically etc) so I don’t consider much to be new. I want things to be different, but they’re not. C’est la vie.

Last night had you asked me “What’s new?” I would not have said “Nothing much.” I would have said “I saw two genitourinary exams today.” That was new. As a single Mormon boy who chooses to avoid athletics (and thus communal showering experiences) my exposure to genitalia is quite limited. Textbooks are one thing. Watching a testicular exam and DRE is quite another. Looking through a speculum is quite another.

Today I heard an hour-long lecture on aspirin. What’s new? Nothing much.

Doctors should be smarter than this

Stupid things in medical texts:

Potential benefits of oral contraceptives: decreased pregnancy.

Really? Surprising.

Congenital Deficiency of 5-alpha-reductase
Advantages
Small prostate
No prostate cancer
No male-pattern baldness
Disadvantages
Ambiguous genitalia in male fetus (poorly formed penis and persistence of vaginal pouch)
Well, that’s really a toss up. I can certainly see the advantages of having no DHT.

It’s test week. Why else would I post medical stuff?

Dexter - another time killer

What do I need to help me study for my board exams? I know, a new tv show. I'm an idiot. But isn't this a perfect opening for a show about a socially responsible serial killer?

Chris Oscars

I made it a goal to see all of the Best Picture nominations this year. Combining this information with the fact that my last post was about my goal of winning 50% of my Spider Solitaire games and it may seem that I live the idlest life of the planet. I highly doubt this to be true. I also performed my first full physical on a dermatomyositis patient yesterday, it just doesn’t make for very good blogging.

I’m never going to see every nominated movie, nor do I aspire to do so. I also don’t plan on watching the Oscars. But I figured watching the five “best pictures” of the year is a pretty good standard for my cultural competence. Here’s my take, in the order I saw them.

1. No Country For Old Men. A great movie, and probably the coolest of the bunch. I was rapt throughout, though having hitmen on the screen will naturally make it easy to pay attention. I’m not sure I fully appreciate the meaning of the story, but I’m certain it’s in there somewhere.
2. Juno. A great comedy. It was both very funny and very sincere, which is admittedly a hard balance. But I’d be hard pressed to say it’s important, which you’d think the best picture of the year would be.
3. There Will Be Blood. I’m pretty mixed on this one. I enjoyed it and feel that many elements were very well crafted. But it never really congealed for me. I loved watching Planeview go guano-crazy, but that was the biggest impact it had on me.
4. Michael Clayton. As a legal thriller I think it failed. There were no twists or turns. Despite his title, I didn’t think Clooney fixed much. It’s hard to get really into a movie when the protagonist just makes phone calls and arranges things. Some fantastic acting no doubt, but not really a fantastic movie.
5. Atonement. A bit slow and predictable, which seem to be the hallmarks of any romantic film. But very well done. I thought it was very believable and quite powerful, and all-around a great movie.

So what would I have win? That’s tough. Not Michael Clayton or There Will Be Blood. Don’t get me wrong, they were both good movies, and I did enjoy them quite a bit. But they don’t stand up to the other three. I probably would give Daniel Day Lewis the best actor and Tom Wilkinson the best supporting actor though. Juno was the movie that I enjoyed the most, but I have a hard time naming it best picture. I could’ve given Little Miss Sunshine the best picture nom, but not Juno. I’m sure I’ll watch it more than any of these others, but that’s not what I’m looking for in the Best Picture. So it’s down to No Country and Atonement. I just watched Atonement an hour ago, so I’m not sure if that helps or hurts it.

For emotional impact, Atonement wins. No contest. For cerebral impact, No Country wins, but it’s pretty close. For visual artistry Atonement wins, and it had a good musical score to boot. Acting is pretty much a toss up. No Country had much more interesting characters, but Atonement had more resonant performances. No Country had a silenced shotgun. Atonement had Keira Knightly. It’s so close! I’d say that No Country is the cooler movie, but Atonement the better one. Maybe in a couple weeks I’ll change my mind, but for now Atonement wins Best Picture. Incidentally, that’s not an indication that Keira trumps silenced shotguns. The other factors prevailed.