Oprah sans Uma

I’ve been away for a while, so I’ll return with this statement: I hate Oprah.

Now before a couple days ago I simply hated the idea of Oprah. The fact that some lady with no particular qualifications or expertise holds sway over millions of viewers opinions on every subject under the sun. Oprah influences American reading habits more than any other person, which just seems wrong. Granted, anything promoting literacy is good and I don’t have a particular individual in mind who should be the preeminent authority on all literature, but suffice it to say that I feel Oprah shouldn’t hold such power.

After a couple people telling me “have you seen pregnant man!” I decided to watch the Oprah episode in question. Thank you Youtube. Here I’d like to interject that I was not at all amazed by the pregnant man, as people suggested I would be. I have little problem calling the individual in question a man (he is a woman who has undergone gender reassignment) but he isn’t male. This isn’t an XY individual that has miraculously become pregnant. It’s an XX individual who has had their breasts removed and undergone testosterone therapy. Although it’s socially unusual that said person is pregnant, biologically this is no big deal.

In any case, my point being that this is the first time I’ve actually watched an episode of Oprah, and she drove me crazy. She added nothing of value to the presentation. She just threw out banalities and seemed to get excited about random things.

Pick a better culture crush America.

Staying Single in Columbus

I premiered my latest movie on Friday. I'm too lazy to talk about it at the moment, so here's last year's movie.

Buckeye Blast

Test week.
No time.
No sentences.
Here's a video.
I made it.
I think technically a couple of those were in fact sentences.

An exercise in futility

I hate exercising. HATE it. This is partially related to my aversion to sports, but there are lots of other factors. I find it boring, I dislike feeling exerted, I dislike the gym itself, I don’t like being sweaty, I see no results etc etc. The point being, I hate it. But I make myself go, because I do know it’s important, I do want to be more attractive and in a few months I’ll be telling nearly all my patients that they should be exercising more (because almost everyone should) and in general I try not to be hypocritical.

So I trick myself. Since class is on the way to the gym, I make myself go immediately afterward. I’m already part way there, so I might as well I tell myself. Of course this is silly since class is a 2 minute walk, so I could easily go home and go some other time. But that’s part of the trick. I am incapable of exercising without my iPod. The distraction is absolutely necessary if I want to exert myself for more than 5 minutes. Additionally, I read while I’m listening to music, to add another layer of separation from me and the exercise. Some people manage to study on the treadmill, and this boggles my mind. I would most certainly kill myself if I had to read about dermatology while running. So I buy magazines (currently Entertainment Weekly and Spin) exclusively for the purpose of reading them while working out.

I lost my iPod earbuds earlier this week, so have been unable to workout. It’s strictly impossible. I actually have 2 other sets of earphones, but I require the earbuds, which don’t get sweaty. Just as I was about to purchase another set, I found them. So today I headed to the gym for the first time since Saturday. Once I got there I looked in my bag, only to discover that I’d left my gym shorts at home. Fortunately walking to and from the gym takes 20 minutes, which is almost the same thing as working out.

CH3CH2OH

Ethanol: never had it, never will. Do I think there’s something inherently evil in those 9 atoms? Is there something diabolical about that particular arrangement of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen? No. Or at least I don’t think so. I am wrong on occasion.

In excess it most certainly damages the body. I’m not going to go into the potential benefits in small doses. Let’s just assume that it’s unhealthy in general, and say that’s reason enough not to drink it. There’s also the fact that I’ve covenanted not to drink it. That is reason enough never to imbibe. But why did I covenant not to? I think the most reasonable explanation is that nobody needs to drink, and there are some people whose lives would be ruined by alcoholism, so we all commit not to drink. It’s certainly a sensible decision.

None of this is new to me. What is new is debating whether or not I would be an alcoholic. Traditionally my answer would be no. I tend to have a pretty blunted response to medication and caffeine, so I hypothesized that alcohol would affect me less than the average bloke. And although I feel genetics has a huge impact, and I know nothing of my own, strictly on a personality basis I think I could be a potential alcoholic. How did I come to this conclusion? Veronica Mars.



Yesterday I watched 20 episodes of Veronica Mars. This was certainly not my intention at the beginning of the day. I watched an episode as I ate breakfast, which I can justify. I realize that breakfast sans television takes 5 minutes and with television takes 45, but I’ll allow that inefficiency. I did a lecture, then watched another episode. I did one more lecture, and once again rewarded myself with an episode. And then I rewarded that episode with another 17.

Why exactly did I watch 20 episodes in a day? There are a number of intrinsic reasons. Primarily, Kristen Bell is extremely cute. I felt a bit bad considering her character is 17, but I was able to justify myself since the actress is 27. It was also a bit bittersweet in that she looks very similar to a girl I used to date, but it was primarily a positive association. The show itself has an interesting concept, an engaging plot, and a sense of humor very close to my own. Compound these facts about the show with how flexible my schedule is and how little I like the musculoskeletal block that I’m currently studying, and you’ve got a recipe for indulgence. I tried to justify the marathon (notice how many times I’ve had to use justify in relating this experience) by thinking how I was going to watch all these episodes eventually. I might as well check Veronica Mars off my to-do list so I can focus more on rotator cuff injuries tomorrow. Ridiculous thinking, I realize. Because I’ve got The Wire to watch next, and a never-ending stream of television and movies that I’d like to watch at some point after that. It’s not like the entertainment is ever going to run out so I can strictly focus on learning medicine. And at least with The Wire I could talk about the show without people thinking I was pervy and asking “Wasn’t that show on the WB?”

The good news is that I didn’t watch any Veronica Mars today. This victory was diminished by the fact that I finished off the series yesterday. However, I didn’t watch The Wire either, which is a minor accomplishment. Maybe I wouldn’t so much be an alcoholic, just a binge drinker. What’s worse for a medical student: the time consumption of entertainment or the brain damage of alcohol consumption? Some students actually manage to pass doing both. Once vice is all I can handle.