Fruition

Today is one of those days when my head is reeling with so much excitement I want to dance around in circles, but also thoughts of inadequacy that all I ever do is dance with excitement but never actually put that excitement into action. I'm part of a grant proposal for our residency program to enhance our advocacy training as residents (ie, teach us how to better advocate for children in our communities, politically and through everyday practice as a doctor through establishing and partnering with community programs, lobbying, etc). I have been working with a couple other like-minded residents and attending physicians who are very inspiring and came away from a meeting today just full of thoughts. But I feel like often on these topics I get so excited, but don't have the tools and skills to make any of the thoughts I have come to fruition. Hopefully by being surrounded by people with much more experience than I things may actually happen.

On a different note, here are the curtains I made a week or two back when I made myself stay up till the wee hours of the morn to stay on a night schedule during ER. I got kinda ambitious and when buying the fabric from the ties bought fabric and a pattern to make linen pants and a skirt...we'll see when they actually get made...maybe on the next rotation where I need to stay up most of the night!

My standardized tests

Measuring what, if anything, students have learned is rough. Almost painful even. There is really no win for the teacher. If you have them write papers, you have to read them. If you do short answer exams you have to read them and decide whether or not their fringe answer is close enough. If you do multiple choice/scantron exams you have to write the questions – which is worse than I would have thought.

BUT, you have more creative license when writing them – especially if every now and then you want to put a give-away answer in there. Here are a few for an exam coming up:

1. The mechanism that Durkheim describes as constructing the beliefs and bonds of a given group is:
     e. Positive reinforcement in the form of limited distribution of chocolate.

2. Mr. Stroope pointed out that Hindu characteristics, beliefs, and actions are pervasive in India and that as a result:
     e. It is easy for McDonalds to blend in and sell hamburgers as long as a picture of Ganesha is present.

3. Central to the spread and success of the Reformation was:.
     c. Better farming practices that allowed more free time for reflection.
     e. People had always known there was something unlikable about the Catholic Church.

4. A schism, pertaining to religious bodies, is when:
     b. Cracks are found in the church’s foundation.
     e. A denomination stops using one Bible translation and begins using another.

It looks like I run out of 'could be true' answers towards the end of questions (most of those are the 'e' option...).  Also, I suppose I could actually defend some of those somewhat.  Ehhh, I hold the answer key and that is that.

The joys and sorrows of days off

Currently killing some time before I can go bed - and for anyone who knows me well sitting down to watch a movie or read will just turn into an earlier bed time. Worked a night shift last night, have tonight off, and then have clinic tomorrow starting at 1 pm followed by a night shift....so trying to stay up a few more hours so I can sleep in a little longer tomorrow to make the night quite as bad. I do love days off, but not knowing whether to flip my body back to a day or night shift is hard. And I'm pretty sure tomorrow in the ER is going to be BUSY! Last night was completely dead. At 3 am there were 2 patients in the whole ER. That is unheard of in the winter - normally by then you are starting to get caught up so the wait is only 1 hour instead of 2. It has been crazy cold and icy here, so no one apparently left their house - not complaining though, great to have a more relaxing night, but I am afraid that once the ice thaws a little more tomorrow people might come out in herds!

I pulled out my fleece lined jeans to go grocery shopping today and was still cold. Dallas is not supposed to have windchills in the single digits. A lot better than most of the country though I guess. Started sewing curtains today too...if they turn out ok i'll put up a picture in a few weeks when they are done. Thank goodness for google - i have been having to look up all the sewing terms as I am quite the novice. I never have been gifted with much craftiness but hopefully I can at least make curtains!

Here are a couple pictures for fun from the past months

Crabbing in the Puget Sound with my sister (excuse the rain gear, it was little rainy and cold)

Visiting our neice and nephew in Arizona last weekend.
Aaron and Lucy and me and Sam (I think we need to get the kids some sunglasses!)

complimentarian

The other day I went for a short run.  It has been a while, and I died.  I got to thinking about the fact that I have a fairly low tolerance for pain as I walked part of the run.   This relates also to normal work.  I have a low tolerance for pain in the form of studying, too.  This is why I will often take frequent breaks - especially when I am bored or tired of what I am doing.  But luckily I also seem to have a fairly high tolerance for stress.  This helps to balance out my low tolerance for pain when deadlines are only a few hours away (yep, today is one of those days!). 

But then last night, as 1:30 AM rolled around and my eyes were tired and burning, I asked myself whether or not it was a bad idea to be trying to finish the edits on the MA thesis and if I should stop until morning...

I decided no.

Because I am hardcore like that.

sara got a new do

ahhh, this one is overdue, but better late than never.  Sara chopped the hair.  shortest it has ever been. 

Study Buddy

It has been a bit since I have posted a pic for not reason. Enjoying some coffee that some friends of our roasted.

From Photostream

Photosynth!

A while back I saw this video on TED about a 3-D photo viewing thing from Microsoft.  It is available to look at and make your own now.  I got excited about it and gave it a shot in our office.  not too great of pics and it is all messy, but it is still cool.  you can pan and zoom using the circular arrow thing in the middle.

Sometime I will do a 'real' one....
(you may need a Silverlight plug in to view it, but if you watch netflix, you probably already have it...)
(and it looks like you have to actually go to the blog to see the link, if you read blogs by a RSS reader...)

writing on the wall

You know how sometimes people write or draw stuff on the walls of public bathrooms?  Baylor is no different, and sometimes this is pretty entertaining.  Here it seems to develop into conversations as people write replies and what not.  I have a new favorite bathroom wall conversation, just enough wit to make you think while standing at the urinal.  There is the usual crass stuff, and then the following:

Person A:  Act like men for God's sake.
Person B:  Or, act like God for man's sake.
Person A:  Touche.

inconspicuous consumption

I have been thinking about how I/we buy things this week.  It mainly started after reading this article about books and publishing after Amazon.  Now, I buy a lot of books and Amazon makes it so easy to find them, order them, get them for cheap, and they offered my free shipping on any purchase no matter the total price because I am a student.  Mainly because of this last part, they have received a lot of money from me this past year.

It is easy to consume, but hard be consume well.  Responsibly.  Maybe even morally.  Emile Durkheim was a French sociologist back in the day and he worried about the effects of modernization on society.  In the pre-industrial revolution days, he saw society as being defined by mechanical solidarity - people are socialized and bound to one another because they were in community with each other and interacted or were aware of one another regularly.  After society modernized, this changed to what he called organic solidarity.  This was defined by a removed dependence on others.  I don't know who provides my gas for the car, but I need them, and so on.  We are all still connected, but in a different way; often unnoticed but still 'organically' needing each other.

I have mentioned before that I like Wendell Berry.  He is a critic of short-sighted modernization.  Being a farmer, this typically is aimed at agriculture, but he is aware of and talks about the wider implications.  This is a point of a great essay, where he argues that we try to solve problems by immediate and short-sighted solutions, or try to get unrealistic gains that don't take into account long-terms results.  (Solve problems with solutions that are the next problem to be solved.)  He thinks that we do not think about the fact that everything is connected in some way and changes, or failings, affect the entire system for better or worse.  (other related Berry posts talking about implications of this here and here... if interested)

My consumption is no different.  It is easy to not think about the authors, publishers, book seller, and all the other people involved with each of my purchases.  Amazon is arguably a less than responsible way for me to spend money, and my spending has implications for many other people out there that it is easy to forget about.  The other day I spent a bunch of time trying to find more responsible ways to purchase books because I think it is important for me to be cognizant of the effects of my spending.  This is the same reason we only buy fair trade coffee (I know, this list should be longer...).  My spending DOES do something, it is just a matter of whether that something is in line with how I ought to live or not.  We are blessed to be a society that has the option to consume; we are cursed to be a society habituated into doing it blindly.  And that is costly.