Protocol Snow

Hey folks, I’m breaking my blogging hiatus briefly with some great news: my brother was accepted to Harvard Medical School, MD-PhD program! Not only will medical school be free for him (I’m going to be saddled with all kinds of loans when I graduate med school), but he’ll be PAID. This is awesome timing for him as well with Barack Obama’s recent legislation on stem cell research, which my brother has big dreams for. Research really isn’t my thing — I’m doing a poster presentation at a research fair in a couple weeks, but that’ll probably be my last experience with research =P

But this is great timing for me as well, a kick-in-the-pants motivator with the USMLE Step 1 less than 3 months away. I’m slipping back into blogging silence after this post, but if you haven’t noticed on the sidebar, I’ve set up a twitter account which I’ve been updating pretty regularly. Keep up with my mundane updates that way if you wish, and I’ll be returning to blogging status in June! If all goes well, I’ll find a new WordPress design because this very stark, minimalist design is too boring for me.

So with this flurry of blog posts in the past few days, it’s time for me to take a break. I have less than 5 months until I take the USMLE Step 1 exam, possibly the most important test of my medical career. As I mentioned a while back, I will be taking a blogging break until then so I have one less thing to distract me. I will, however, still be visiting my usual sites so don’t be surprised if I stop by and drop a comment (I can’t study all day after all).

My schedule for the next half year or so: finish the 2nd year of med school strong, prepare for the test in early June, attend my brother’s graduation at Harvard, come back to school for hospital orientation, and then a vacation at an undecided location. Take care, and see you in the summer!

My brief summer is now officially over as I start my second year of med school tomorrow. I never did get around to posting my Tokyo vacation photos, but honestly, after spending so much time looking at them to create my Blurb photobook, I’m not too eager to go back through those and pick out photos to upload. Maybe I’ll do it… someday, but for now, the pictures of my book will have to do. You’re not really missing much, I just did typical touristy things in Tokyo that you can find thousands of photos of on Google Images.

Since I volunteer at a free clinic every Monday and I was already dressed up, last week I did a little imitation of my personal hero, Dr. McNinja.

Summer’s over, it’s gametime. Time to show the world how it’s done — with ninja-like intensity.

Just finished my last test as a 1st year medical student! You know, before I started school last August, I thought I would be frequently writing about what life in medical school is like. As it turns out, it’s a lot like college, except with more tedious studying. I’ll probably have more interesting stories in 3rd year and beyond once I start training in the hospital for real and working with patients daily.

I’m flying home to Los Angeles in a couple hours, then I’m leaving Sunday for Taiwan/Tokyo! I’ll be back in a couple weeks with lots of cool photos hopefully.

I’m watching the National Spelling Bee right now, and every time I see this competition, I always think the same thing: televised Science Bowl would be so much better.

In fact, I wrote about this in my GameDaily blog almost a full 2 years ago. I have a Word document saving every single post I ever made (a monster 420 pages) so it was easy to dig it up.

Academic Elitism
6.1.2006

For the first time ever, the National Spelling Bee Finals is being broadcast live on primetime broadcast TV (ABC). I’m currently watching it now and eh, it’s kind of dull. I was reading an article on ESPN the other day — apparently, it’s now legal to bet on the Spelling Bee? Wonder what the odds at the Vegas Sportsbook are…

Still, with the continuously rising popularity of this academic competition, I can’t help but feel that National Science Bowl would make for a much more exciting spectator sport. Obviously I’m biased since I was in the program for three years in high school, but Science Bowl sounds better even on paper. Spelling Bee has snooty officials, long wait times as contestants ask the same half a dozen clarification questions, and droning definitions from the judges. It just makes for plain boring television when the contestants stare blankly off into the distance while standing in front of the microphone. In any random five second interval, you can hear coughing from the audience. Guaranteed. Everybody’s restless sitting in that auditorium.

Science Bowl, on the other hand, is frenetic, fast-paced, and thrilling. 4 members are on a team, and two teams face off against each other with buzzers somewhat similar to the type on Jeopardy. Questions are drawn from all arenas of science, from the core subjects (math, biology, physics, chemistry) to some of the more specific fields such as computer science, astronomy, and environmental science. Questions are asked rapidly, and you can buzz in anytime, even interrupting the judge mid-stream if you think you know the answer. There’s crazy scribbling on paper for math problems, penalties for wrong answers, and scoreboards. Even bonus rounds! What’s not to like? It would make MUCH better TV than this drab spelling bee.

I had lunch today at Souplantation, which is a pretty popular salad and soup buffet restaurant. That in itself isn’t noteworthy, but there were troops of 8th graders from my former middle school eating as well, still dressed in gym clothes and sporting their team colors since today was the annual Spartan Olympics. I was in their position nearly a decade ago, when I was excited about graduating middle school and moving on to high school, yet it feels only a blip of time has passed. Where have all the years gone? Have I made the most of those years? This must be what a mid-life crisis feels like…

My spring break essentially ends today, as tomorrow I fly back for school and Sunday I’ll have to do a lot of spring cleaning, shopping, and chores. Breaks from school are great because not only can I rest my brain, I can also recharge my spirit. It’s time to realize my full potential.

I’m in the Host Defense blocks of med school right now, which involves covering different bacteria, viruses, and fungi that can invade the body and cause all sorts of disease. It reminds me a lot of Pokemon actually. Every time I learn about a new bug, I add it proudly to my collection and marvel at their attack powers I can use to fight other trainers. I am building up a fearsome arsenal to fight Gym Leaders and collect all the gym badges. My ultimate goal is to conquer the champion… er, test.

Ok, lame. But anything seems amusing after studying all these dumb bugs.