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May 30 I bid adieu to you!Well...as you can tell, I haven't been here in awhile.
Truth is...I am simply having far, far more fun with facebook. I enjoyed the blogging part, but I guess deep down: I'm more of a socialist rather than a preacher....I prefer talking with people, rather than talking at people.
So, I'm not going to shut this space down, but no more blogging for now!
Cheerio, C May 06 Where's Laura?So here I am back on Saba (known as 'the Rock'). Sadly all by myself this time....Kim and the boys struck off for home.
Craziness, living in a tropical environment: I leave for 7 days and come back to what? More friggin mold....mostly in places where the boys love to spill stuff, slobber on, chew on, etc, etc.
We had an absolutely fantastic time in St. Maarten during the break. Beaches galore, in the pool galore. The kids are both water fanatics.
Speaking of water, it has been seriously dry here on Saba, my cistern was the lowest I have seen it. Thankfully, today it is pouring rain for greater than 5 minutes...and we need it to fill up the ole cistern.
Between Kim and I, we've managed to sell most of the kid's stuff, aside from the crib and other baby furniture....I'll keep throwing out the sales pitch until we can unload it for someone else to use, rather than spend lots of silly money shipping stuff in.
So I noticed Laura is gone....dropped off of the face of the Windows Spaces. I hope she comes back. Although I only got to her space sporadically, she is juggling quite a bit and still managed to find time to post comments on mine, and I assume many, many others. I guess that means Lexi that you'll have to kick the comments up a notch! Let's hope Laura makes it back sometime.
Last night we found out that the Chinese restaurant had the DeLaHoya/Mayweather boxing match televised. I went with my mates Andy (Halifax) and Raj (Vancouver), we were able to get front row seats at the bar...and this is because we were only 3 hours early for the fight. urps! So what else do you do to kill time but drink: heavily. I consumed far too much rum, rye, vodka, beer. Raj lost the bet on the fight. His punishment? Had to do a shot of Chinese rum in a bottle filled with 2 pickled baby iguanas.
Even though I luckily did not get iguana juice, i'm feelin' mighty low at the moment, thanks for asking though.
I am seriously turning into a facebook-whore: I am continually amazed at finding people that I haven't seen or heard from in years. Facebook allows you to blog, and I'm still working out the nooks, crannies and kinks of facebook, but if it can do the same blog style as here: I'll be dropping this site and movin on to facebook, full time! Since I'm guessing Laura's space got shut down by the microsoft live space people...my continual sales pitch for facebook should expedite my space being removed exponentially.
Well, I'm going to take a nap: LATER!
C April 26 St. Maarten for a last hurrah...It's official...Kim and the boys are heading home May 4th: for good. It will be a tough 4 month stretch for sure...the longest time ever I have been apart from Kim and the kids. The only upside to this is:
Really though, I would much rather be together then apart, but we have no choice. Kim has to meet with all the schools to see which one is best for Noah this September (he has autism, relatively mild on the spectrum of autism disorders). So, my folks are coming down this Saturday, and we are flying over to St. Maarten to meet them. We are staying there for 6 days, then Kim and the boys fly home with my parents, while I head back....all by myself We have compiled a list of stuff for sale, along with the sweet Hyundai. So far stuff is selling like hotcakes. Which makes me wonder why do hotcakes sell so well? Are we talking flapjacks or bakery style hot cakes? Glad everyone likes the pics...it honestly takes me forever to upload them from here. My top download speed is a whopping 15 K per second. Fast as my hyundai. The funny thing, our car has been super-reliable here, but I would bet it would last less than 5 minutes on the 401, since it never goes above speeds of 40 Km/hour on Saba. I'll try to do one last post before flying out on Saturday. C April 22 Saba Election TimeSince there really is NOT a lot to do on the island, election time is a really big deal. And I mean really!
Saba is presently part of the Netherlands-Antilles. The island of Curacao is the 'head island', meaning all money stems from Curacao. Most locals believe that Curacao is corrupt (a corrupt government: go figure!) and doesn't distribute the wealth evenly. In defense of this argument: Saba's infrastructure is truly in disrepair and underfunded.
In 2008, the Netherlands-Antilles as a country is being dismantled, as all of the other islands have had enough of Curacao. Saba is going to become a Dutch island. This basically means that our flow of Heineken and Gouda cheese will be uninterrupted (thank heavens, we would have mass rioting otherwise), but probably won't have legalized prostitution or marijuana use (and just when it sounded oh so promising).
Back to my point, the elections this year were truly important, as they are the leaders heading into this huge transition.
What I find more amusing, is the rules involved with voting. Basically, the whole island shuts down after 12 noon on Friday and everyone votes and gets wasted. You cannot buy alcohol at any store, bar, shanty. BUT, most if not all of the candidates running have open houses at their homes: filled to the rim with what else.....copious amounts of booze.
So on this small island (with 1200 local population) every citizen votes, unwind, drink......and then get in their cars, driving around and blasting their horns: non-stop.
Needless to say, Saturday morning was perhaps the quietest I have ever heard, even the roosters must have partaked as they were quiet.
I finally got around to posting some new pics...We still don't have any great pictures of both the boys together, but alas they are 4 and 2, so whatcha see is what ya get.
That's about it for now...
C
April 19 So famous...I'm infamousI wrote my finals yesterday, things went well; though I'm not sure if all of my class will make it through pharmacology.
We were supposed to have a "shelf" exam that was worth 25% of our grade on Monday. Turns out some med student somewhere in the universe posted all of the questions (and answers) on the internet.
Since these questions are 'retired' US medical licensing exam questions, the school has to order this exam way, way in advance. The school was notified on Friday that the exam was compromised, therefore throwing our grading system for pharm in flux.
We still took the shelf on Monday...but our prof said that it wouldn't count for anything. So now our grading is on the previous 4 block exams, plus the final block exam I wrote yesterday. Since supposedly 15-20% of my class was failing the exam going into that final, and with the shelf not counting, I was expecting a very straightforward, piece of cake exam.
Instead of cake, we got an instruction manual for how to make the oven, using chewing gum, paperclips and balsa wood....it was a tough bugger. I studied like a maniac for it, came out with an 88%. I guess this is finally the semester where the prof doesn't push everyone on through. Hard to say though, since our final marks won't be posted online until probably next week.....stay tuned.
Either way for me, ended up with an A and felt like I had good command of the material...so I'm smiling, just not sure if those people that are borderline will be frowning, or turning the frown upside down or just downright miffed.
Anyways, had my big B-day yesterday: I have to do math now to figure it out, but 35 years....good thing I still feel like I'm 25, normally I don't even think of my B-day: but with the posts here, along with the oodles of posts on facebook, and a class anouncement: I was a celebrity for one day. Thanks though for the B-day wishes.
Speaking of celebrity.....Did you guys read the National Post paper on Monday? I was front page news (I'm serious). My school's administration was aware of my effort to get an article in Toronto Star: which totally fell through. A senior reporter from the post was writing an article regarding Canadians that have to go abroad to study medicine, since we have a grand total of oh....17 medical schools for the whole friggin' country.
Anyways check it out, it's honestly a bit of a lame-O article, but at least it gets the word out to the public that without IMG (international med grads...Canada will ALWAYS have a physician shortage). 25% of Ontario doctors study out of country according to the provincial licensing body.
National Post: "Would-be MDs forced overseas for studies"
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=d65c3773-f81d-42d1-a707-0a55a24ef0b1&k=99299 I'm looking to hire an agent with my new found fame and notoriety....right.
Actually, i'm hangin out with the kids as much as possible...since I won't be seeing them for 4 months (Kim travels home for good in early May). Will post again and upload photos in the next couple days.
C April 11 Mr. Birddog Mystery SOLVED!Ummm....this blog post is going to be absolutely meaningless to everybody, except to our pals back home that have partied with us from way back...
I was studying tonight, listening to some random stuff on my iTunes, and I came across a song (I have a boatload of music) that brought back some memories....and a mystery! Since I particularly enjoy procrastinating; and looking up useless stuff instead of memorizing more silly drug trade names, along with the adverse drug reactions (which by the way have NO physiological correlation 70% of the time), I began my quest.
Remember Daft Punk? House music stuff:
"One more time....celebrate and dance with me...one more time".
They had an album called Discovery: Bradley and I played it ...A LOT! Especially during the summer of '01 up at the cottage.
They had a song on that album called face to face, a real incessant loopy track, that had this person....you couldn't even tell what gender: singing a little phrase that no one could figure out what they were saying.
After numerous surveys of different cottage-party attending people that summer, 95% of our isolated survey thought the person was saying, "Mr. Bird-dog".
Well, I still to this day can't figure out what they are saying but have stumbled on the sample in the song, purportedly the ONLY sample in this track:
It's friggin....ELO: Evil Woman!?!?!? I cannot hear that song in there for the life of me, but that's what they say in the post below.
If you have heard of Daft Punk...or you're one of our buddies from way back, click on the link: you'll be amazed at the samples out of that disc.
I've got ELO on my external along with all the Billboards from the 70's. I'll throw it on the laptop over the break and let you know, but that is the origin of Mr. Birddog....supposedly.
Another stupid fact-finding quest (semi-)solved. I can sleep easy at night once-again.
Speaking of music. I've been toying with adding the Windows Media Player on my site to add on some tunez, perhaps even add in Mr. Bird-dog so one and all can enjoy. BUT, and here is the big BUT: I probably would tend to stick with some of the not so top 40 stuff and a bit more unique music that I like. There are more than 40 songs at once that people can enjoy listening to in any given week...RIGHT? Let me know if you're game or you prefer silence (Question is directed to all...but really to Laura, Lexi, the occasional Jess and very infrequent sister commenters).
Sorry Lexi...no country either.
 C
April 09 Yummy veins and yummy cakeI'm going to apologize right now for my future lack of attendance. I have finals Wednesday, next Monday and next Wednesday.
Therefore I will be absentee for the next wee bit. (I just cannot get enough of using the word 'wee' in my writings). Such a fun word!
Today we did some setup of IV lines and venipuncture (drawing blood). I am an absolute pansy...I love doing it on other people, but cannot watch the needle enter my vein. I have this fascinating ability to lose all pigmentation and turn as white as.....as........Michael Jackson in a matter of seconds. The good news is: if I don't look, no problems whatsoever.
I feel for some of my classmates, some of them look like they were attacked in the forearm with an icepick, rather than a 22 guage needle.
My oldest Noah turned 4 last Saturday! Craziness!! Hard to believe how quickly they grow up. I can only hope that I can get a lot of rotations nearby so I don't miss out too much of their lives over the next couple years.
Our friends came over, they gave Noah a way2cool remote control car. He prefers the car off though, it sort of scares him when it moves. We sung Happy B-day and had some cake. NEWSFLASH: Noah & Jaxon both love cake. They can both now say the word "yummy" after eating lots of cake.
Oh sweet, sweet sugar...it turned both of my 2 boys into wild men. It took us hours to get them off of the ceiling, but we finally got them to bed that night....albeit late!
My passport is buried in Ottawa, nowhere to be found. But we have a really nice beach here on Saba, (biggest it has perhaps ever been) so all is not lost. We'll take the kids there a couple times over break.
I have some new photos, but my bandwidth sucks so bad, it will take only, oh....2.2 days to upload the photos, I will do so after April 18th...promise!
Sounds like the weather back home is not so spring like? Snow! Have I said that I don't miss winter at all? Sunny and hot today: 31-32 degrees...I'll take Saba weather (for now anyways).
Also, I have signed up on facebook, tracked down some friends, some I haven't seen in years. I just wish the setup at facebook wasn't so restrictive. I also REALLY wish that you didn't have to be a windowslive owner to post comments here either. Now that I think of it....I wish I won the lottery or found a big bag of money. But, alas I don't play the lottery, and have yet to find my big bag of $$$.
After that last paragraph, don't be surprised if I get my space shut down for touting something that Microsoft doesn't own.....
C
April 04 Dr. Chris - public speakerLaura's comment echoes probably what everyone else is thinking...where is this guy?
After my heated soapbox-retort on evolution criticism, I was mentally exhausted and spent.
Well, actually I just had block exams, as well as had to prepare for a presentation to the school on chiropractic. I've been sort of preoccupied with these things and neglected my blogging duties. My apologies.
Like most people, I loathe public speaking. Actually, forget loathe: I downright despise it. Kim seems to be a natural at it though. She has given a talk to the behavioural science class on autism. I still have students mention to me that she is a fantastic educator
I on the other hand, can pull it off so people don't think I am nervous. But truthfully I am never semi-comfortable up in front with hundreds of eyes peering at me.
I'm not alone however...Believe it or not, it is the most common fear listed by humans. People fear public speaking more than snakes, spiders, fire, heights, drowning, etc. Pretty wierd when you think of it, huh? The one thing we are afraid of the most....is really the least harmful of all those phobias I mentioned. We humans sure do have a wonderful and wierd psyche.
Thanks to both Lexi and Laura for your comments on my last post BTW.
My talk was received very well. Students and faculty asked some great questions (proof that they were listening!) and I am happy with how it went, and even happier that it is over with.
Other than that....block exams went well, escaped with all A's considering my motivation has dipped mighty low as of late.
14 more days....followed by one more semester and then hopefully lots of rotations in Ontario.
Hey Laura: you have any family connections to any physicians in Ontario that would be willing to take me on for a rotation? You must know someone.....you're Italian!! I'm not, unfortunately, but would be more than willing to pretend to get a rotation or two!! Gold chains and hairy chest, right? DONE! (I'm kidding..........about the gold chains and hairy chest)
C March 31 The dumbing of America...When I created this space, it was for the purpose of to be able to mass share pics of the kids, provide people with an insight into our unique life and situation and some rather lame attempt at humour through the blog.
My goal is not to talk about politics or religion, cause really there is no right answer with either of these topics. So please don't get confused on this, my retort is NOT slandering one's faith, belief, religion OR cult for that matter.
I came across this post from Slashdot.com. What a bewildering statistic! Here is the post:
First of all, 10,000 years old? Ummm....could someone explain to me where the dinosaurs fit in on the grand scheme of things? Carbon-dating is oft-criticized by religious zealots for dating inaccuracies all the time.....unless it proves that an ancient stone is from the correct era, when correlated with the timeframe noted in the bible.
48%? We need to start doing a better job integrating science with education!
Please don't get me wrong, I have no qualms with faith. I believe that faith is a very personal, but also very rewarding and significant part of one's life. No person should be ashamed, or feel guilty about their beliefs on faith regardless of where those beliefs lie. Why? Because until those answers are uncovered, nobody can say that their belief system is more correct than others.
But as for me I am a student of science. There are countless articles and millions of everyday teachings, both scientific and empirical, in both healthcare and life in general that point towards evolution as the accepted hypothesis.
A hypothesis does not mean truth, it simply means that due to reasoning and rationale, this is a suggested explanation that has gained acceptance. It has not been invalidated and there is no way (as of now) to disprove it.
The key point: acceptance does NOT equal truth.
While modern science cannot explain life's origins, there is overwhelming compelling evidence that evolution is a basic principle of life. Only the strong survive. Take bacteria, which have a life cycle far, far quicker than humans or other members of the animal kingdom.
For example, when penicillin (one of the pillars of modern medicine) was discovered, we noted a sharp rise in life expectancy and a reduction in bacterial infections. Then we began to notice that those early antibiotics proved no longer useful to treat the same bacteria.
One nowadays does not have to read too many headlines before seeing a bacteria that is highly resistant to many of our antibiotics that we have. These resistant bacteria are causing havoc in hospitals, and cause a growing (albeit slowly), chance of death. Why does this happen? Because a very small and isolated bacteria in the overall population of that bacteria existed. This isolated bacteria had a unique genetic makeup that allowed it to avoid death from the antibiotics. After a period of time, the bacteria with that unique genetic makeup become the majority of the population. Furthermore, we have proven that DNA when passed on to any progeny, undergoes mutation: we never get a "carbon-copy" of the parent DNA. This mutation ultimately leads to uniqueness. It is why you and I look slightly different. When this uniqueness allows it to survive over others this is called natural selection. This natural selection is what evolution is all about.
Does this mean that I don't believe in God? NO! It means that I believe in evolution. Certain conservative-christian groups, as well as certain extreme left-wing atheists like to strengthen their arguments by lumping everything together and trying to make a clear line: that everything is either black or white....That to believe in God, you must discount science, especially evolution. Just because the bible didn't mention it, doesn't mean that it cannot be true. After all, kangaroos and grizzly bears exist...and they're not in the bible.
Last time I checked, this small planet called Earth we live in displays far, far more colours than simply B&W.
C
March 27 Passportless and forlornLooks like I'm stuck on Saba for a while.
After we got back from Canada in February (for Allan's funeral), I sent my passport and ID and photos to get my passport renewed.
Unfortunately, I'm one of 20,000 Canadians (per day!), that are looking for a passport. According to my father, they were processing applications yesterday that were received on January 16th. Sadly in my case, February falls after January....
So, now we are screwed. I made some vacation plans during the upcoming break too hastily (naively thinking I would have a passport in time) and booked flights....which now will cost me dearly to cancel. I checked my cancellation insurance: it oh so conveniently doesn't cover anything when you have passport issues. What bewilders me is:
In the defense of insurance companies: I would get $750 dollars (US dollars: SCORE!) for loss of an eye, during any in-flight accident. I'll keep the eye, thank you so much for the offer though! I will probably get my new passport in June. Maybe even June of this year!
I'll reserve from spewing off some profanity over this. But this really, really blows goats. One thing about Saba.....we have a lot of goats.
Now we'll see if my family still wants to come to Saba or St. Maarten (I can travel there or any other Netherlands-Antilles countries without a passport).
At least I'm marooned in the Caribbean, without a passport, but with my #1 pal: Kim, and my super-destructive, poor-sleeping, but lots of fun boyz.
C March 23 My kids, spiderman, and a fractured laptopSo my 2 boys are growing to be quite the pals....
They chase each other, they have little races with their trikes around on the deck and in the house.
And they love to have pillowfights.
Well, actually Noah loves to whip pillows, and generally Jaxon finds it amusing to always be on the receiving end of it.
Jaxon also is slowly turning into his (potential) future favourite action hero: spiderman. He climbs the railings of our deck with increasing frequency.
Pretty scary really. Considering we live on a cliff, Jaxon displays no fear (or common sense for that matter) and finds it really funny to have mom or dad come running after him.
Lastly, in their rambunctious ways one of them may have mistaken Kim's laptop for a pillow during a pillow fight (it happens, especially if you are under age 4) and tossed it: onto our very hard, unforgiving, and overall unkind to breakable things and fragile electronics tiled floor.
To put it simply: Kim's laptop no longer workie. Granted it was a dinosoar, a vintage Toshibasoarus....but it worked and I think the motherboard has suffered a fatal transverse fracture that no dinosoar surgeon (or chiropractor) can repair.
The good thing is: we still love our kids, bud sadly: we will miss our web-surfing dino.
C March 18 Back to the grindA couple members of our family (& our pals) Erin & Derrick left yesterday, after spending a week with us here.
We're pretty sure they had a good time. Kim "the tour director" had a busy agenda set for them. Hiking every day (think stair-stepper from hell, with nice scenery and you have the Mount Scenery trail). Lots of other trails, as well as a day of diving. After I finished my exams on Tuesday, Derrick and I went snorkelling. Had some really strange weather, almost like a tropical depression that just would not go away, with constant clouds and occasional to steady rain from Wednesday through Friday morning.
Thanks to some classmates (and their respective others) we arranged some extended babysitting, which allowed all four of us to go over to St. Maarten for a couple days.
St. Maarten is the exact opposite of Saba: somewhat flatter, lots of scrub and bush vegetation, and almost the entire island is surrounded by pristine beaches. It also has enough amenities and commercial-ism to make you feel nauseous and your wallet in your back pocket feel tremendously lighter.
Truthfully, Saba is much more undeveloped, and far more tropical than St. Maarten. I'm glad to have both nearby, and I'm happy to live on the quieter island....Though it is nice to indulge in the other stuff once in a while.
We found a fantastic beach that Kim and I have never been to before on St. Maarten up on the french side. Relatively quiet, we weren't getting harrassed to buy something every 5 minutes and there is a cool little place to eat right on the beach. Some tasty tropical iced drinks (daiquri, mudslides, marguritas) readily on hand.
We were in bed before 2:00 AM each night.......I guess we are getting a little older.
Other than that, the new camera is pretty awesome. We took some pics, and in the next little while I'll put up a new album for all to enjoy.
Good to hear that everyone else had a nice March break.
TTYL,
C
March 08 Paralyzed Uncle Joe!Did I tell you guys that I'm off the island in August?
Since that time is coming up here is my timeframe:
from now till August...keep on keeping on with the same stuff I complain about daily on this blog: classroom, bookwork, exams, studying, etc
August 2007: sit for my step 1 USMLE (Medical Licensing exam)
September 2007ish: Hopefully start my hospital rotations (thank god, clinical stuff once again)
January 2009: finish my rotations (hopefully)
February 2009: compete with other med students for residency spots: decided by a combination of arm wrestling, stare-down competitions, sheer prowess and intimidation, oh...and I almost forgot...just about anything you've been tested on in your academic career that is graded on some sort of mathematical scale.
June 2009: start residency: and once again, start making some $$$$$.
Funny......I was actually in a good mood prior to writing this thing. Now that I see June 2009, I'm thinking, WTF am I doing? I had a very good life prior to this. Making a good living, nice house, Kim was happy.....and I was miserable. Maybe it was the fact that I owned a minivan, but I think it was due to my feeling of being unfulfilled with my career.
I consider myself a very good chiropractor, but the philosophy of chiropractic never meshed with me.
Don't get me wrong, it works very well, and I can honestly say there is some solid peer-reviewed literature that backs up chiropractic manipulation. I was just very, very bored with what I was doing: saying the same thing, doing the same thing, and always having to justify my career choice to strangers in a grocery store, who instantly told you how their Uncle Joe was paralyzed from a chiropractor, blah, blah, blah. I have always wanted medicine, I settled for chiropractic as a career and realized after a few years of practice I could go on with it perfectly fine, OR I could do what I have always wanted, and what I (not necessarily others) perceive as a truly noble way to help people, while pulling in six-digit-figures without acting like a used-car-salesman (no offence to all you blog-reading used-car salesman out there).
The truth: It's just like everything else in the real world: There are doctors of all sorts out there: There are good doctors, and bad doctors; good people and bad people; paralyzed people and "paralyzed people" who walk perfectly fine, have full mobility and 100% intact muscular integrity...What I'm really trying to say: opinions are a great thing, provided they are informed opinions. People who rely on heresay and third party gossip to form their world outlook, well.....Let's just say they make the world a colourful place.
Speaking of making the world a colourful place, Jaxon my youngest is right into the mimicry mode now: I got him to say, "poop" and "change diaper", all in the same sentence! Now if only I could get Noah to talk, we'd be set.......that remains to be seen.
As for Uncle Joe: After a bit more prodding it became obvious, he simply had post-tx soreness, a self-limiting muscle strain. Just like all pills have side effects, all physical therapy inevitably challenges some sort of muscle and/or joint. When you're injured, it takes time to get things back to 100%.
I tried to explain this fact to the niece, but she sadly, had a pre-formed and unchangable opinion. I have learned something in chiropractic practice: You definitely cannot win them all!
If I could fix everyone in one visit, regardless of whether I'm a chiropractor, physician OR both; I would also qualify to wear the nametag, "Hello, my name is God".
C March 07 What time is it?It's a Wednesday, and guess what time is it pour moi?
Yeah, exam time! That's all it ever is, but here we are again. I may be a bit incognito for the next couple, as I have to get my butt in gear for the upcoming block exams.
Before I go, something funny that was said to us recently by my pharm prof, Dr. Beedimani
A Neurotic is someone who builds a castle in the sky. A Psychotic is the person who lives in it. The Psychiatrist is the one who collects the rent. March 04 2 is better than 1Erin and Derrick (not only Kim's younger sis and hubbie, but really close friends to us) are coming down next week Saturday. That's right Erin: even though I tease the crap out of you, I deep down, sort of, kind of enjoy your company.
Though I'd still pick hangin' out with Derrick first, hahaha. Just gotta get in that last pre-travel dig, ya know?
Since I have exams on the following Tuesday, I won't see much of either of them until Tuesday evening. I am trying to get a leg up on the studying in anticipation of them coming down, but I am LAY-ZEE!
Author's note: LAY-ZEE, from the english word, "lazy" really means that I have spent only 20 hours studying since Friday at 2:00 pm.
Yes, I know...that is very sad....and yes, I am an absolute geek.
Remember when I said that our camera died recently? We found a great deal on Best Buy, and went for it. Our old camera was acting really screwy.....I recharged our rechargables, stuck them back in and voila: works perfectly!! So, it seems we have two cameras.
Oh, well. The old digicam has had some issues that were becoming more constant, rather than intermittent. Two is better than one. The old Canon may go on the fritz again tomorrow, who knows? And, who exactly is Fritz???
So E&D are bringing down our new camera (I love gadgets, warning: Nerd Alert), along with my next fave thing to gadgets: LUGGAGE!!
Actually, luggage is not my favourite thing, but we need some lightweight stuff to drag all our stuff home this August. We had a new set in 2000, but if you haven't air-travelled recently, the weight limits on checked baggage have dropped dramatically. Our largest suitcase, when empty weighed in at 18 pounds. This behemoth now allows me to put 2 socks in it, a pair of jeans, 2 T-shirts and a pair of cargo shorts.........and I'm basically at the weight limit. If you are sooo friggin' bored you have nothing else to surf at: check out the cool, ultra light, reasonably priced and oh-so-hip luggage: www.heys.ca
So we are now the proud owners of a new 3 piece set that weighs in at a combined 15 lbs. <----------ME SO EXCITED!!!!!
Actually, I'm not really that excited about the luggage. But it is some new stuff, and new stuff always makes me happy!!
Since we are now in the starving student mode, and besides groceries, bills, gas for the car and tuition we REALLY don't buy anything. Mainly cause we cannot afford it, with neither Kim nor myself working since November 2005. I have had the luxury (no pun intended) of being really poor, twice!! So don't worry, I will always be a humble physician.
C
March 02 SchizophreniaWriting is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. ~E.L. Doctorow
I've covered schizophrenia in both behavioral sciences, genetics, neurology, pathology and most recently...pharmacology. Schizophrenia is greek for splitting of the mind. It affects 1% of the North American population. Typical symptoms include a dull unresponsive or muted state, delusions and hallucinations (often auditory) and disorganized thinking.
Most people think of schizophrenics as axe murderers, or mass murderers who wear an old-school hockey goalie mask. A common misconception is that schizophrenics are not any more dangerous or violent than anyone else in the regular population.
The disorder effects ones ability to think, as well as inappropriate emotions and behaviors. The classical onset is when someone reaches college/university age. They start school, and then start to unravel, or abruptly change. An interesting aside: almost ALL schizophrenics love to smoke cigarettes. Even if they were a non-smoker prior to onset of this disease, they rapidly gravitate towards picking up the habit. There are many theories on this, but none proven.
Sadly enough, suicide is very common with schizophrenics, upwards of 40-50%. Often the voices that they hear are very negative and degrading, making depression highly associative with schizophrenia.
Attached is a picture from a 19th century artist, by the name of Louis Wain. His story is quite interesting, as he was a well known artist that had quite a fancy for drawing cats. Even though we are not sure if these pictures were drawn chronologically, they provide insight into the "unravelling of the mind" that occurs with schizophrenia. I've uploaded a couple other photos from schizophrenics as well. They are incredibly perverse, but fascinating nonetheless.
That's the end of the lesson for today, class...
C February 28 Some acknowledgements and another rodent storyJust to be thorough here in giving thanks: I truly appreciate all comments made on my blog. It is relatively new, Laura has been posting comments from day 1. Thanks and You rock!
Alexis has made numerous posts, and I appreciate your attempts for lining up rotations/residency in Englehart. Beggars can't be choosers, but truthfully: If I have a choice, I'd like a bit more metro for the experiences and proximity to other areas. Thanks though, and who knows, I may be there yet!
Even my sister made it here once. So thank you one and all. As for all the anonymous readers out there? Thanks for taking the time to read, and try to get some insight into my complex neural network!
I'm going to copy in a cute story I got from a MD blog: http://drtony.blogspot.com/
Mouse Story ...
A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.
"What food might this contain?" The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning. "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it." The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers." The mouse turned to the cow and said, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose." So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap-- alone. That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient. But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.
The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them. The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.
So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.
Stay tuned: my next post will talk about a fascinating, yet very saddening disorder: schizophrenia
C February 27 What's new? Not much...Same ole stuff today. In class all day, I'm tired....had a good workout in the gym, now home and head back to the library shortly.
The kids had a decent night sleeping for once, too bad I can't say the same for myself. I slept like crap, waking up multiple times almost in anticipation of Noah coming to our bed in the middle of the night.
Thanks to one of my fellow students and his constant bitching about a few questions, the prof threw 5 questions out from the pathology exam. Fortunately for the constant complainer, his grade went up by 2%, unfortunately for the vast majority of our class, our scores went down by either 2-5%. Our 87% class average, dropped to an 84%. Even though the prof claims differently, I swear that the number of failures in the class went up to 7 from 4 people. Doesn't make much sense to me. Losing the marks is not that big a deal, but it really sucks that the change was made due to one cutthroat in our class who has to compare his marks to everyone elses, rather than concentrate on his own achievement.
Some people have really small minds, and simple outlooks on what REALLY is important, huh?
 To cheer up this post, (I have been bitter all day with the 4 point deduction on my score) here is a short list of stuff that always makes me happy:
Nuff said, C February 25 1/2 Rock LobsterSo Kim and I went out for our Saturday AM trip to the beach. We had a babysitter for the morning (thanks Nug). We packed up the towels, bottled water, sunscreen and hopped in the car for the 15 minute car ride (hard to believe it takes 15 minutes to drive 1/2 way across a 5 square kilometre island). The roads are so up and down, crazy curves and super narrow. We'll try to get a video of a 'typical drive on Saba' sometime in the future (read on below).
When we arrived at Well's Bay (see our pics for a view of what the beach looks like). What did we find? No beach, at all. Nothing but rocks.
So what gives? Saba is a really mountainous island, with some pretty deep water just off shore.
 With the shifting of the tides, the ocean simply deposits ALL the sand 50 feet offshore, rather than against the shoreline. There have been times, I have been told where the beach was gone for 16 months straight. We have been lucky thus far, with the beach gone this time last year for a couple months and then has been present ever since. People don't come to Saba for the beach life, that is a certainty.
Hopefully it comes back within a few weeks, since we have visitors coming down.
Since the beach was non-existent, Kim and I went for a hike. The hike was on the south side of the island, called Gillett's quarter (see the pic with Noah in our Saba photos). It is really rocky, grassland savannah type of terrain, and you need the sunscreen for sure. In our haste to get going, I got Kim to apply the sunscreen on my back, while I did my face and ears. Too bad I forgot to get the front part of me and my arms. My chest now resembles the title from the blog post!
 Other than that, no new photos in awhile, as our digital camera has died a sudden and tragic death after 3 and a 1/2 years of loyal service. We will send it back home to see if it is fixable, but will be looking to buy a new one soon, as the kids only stay little for so long!! Good thing St. Maarten is the place to go to get good electronic deals.
C February 23 Me & my twinI really don't have anything new and exciting to report. Just another great day in the Caribbean.
Here is a picture of me and Robb, my 1st semester twin taken at Lollipop's one of the local watering holes at the beginning of the semester.
As you can see, I got the better looks of the both of us.
I'll post more later this weekend,
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