More is Less

On Saturday, I had the most productive day ever. Too bad Sunday was my least productive day ever, partly thanks to the Colts game.

On Saturday, I played my guitar and gave a speech for a scholarship brunch, worked out, showered, visited some Purdue peeps at the annual Timmy Foundation retreat, spoke a little before the crowd there as well, took a nap, read through several class lectures, and went to a birthday party to top it all off. In the course of the day, I got two free meals, free alcohol and snacks, and free flower centerpieces for my mom.

On Sunday, I did crap. I did clean out quite a bit of stuff at home, though, and I disposed of maybe 30 old t-shirts. How the heck did I acquire so many shirts? A bunch of them were from back when I thought I wore a size large, for whatever reason. It's amazing I even had friends, looking as ridiculous as I did with oversized clothing.

Olympics Special

I love watching the Olympics. It makes me wonder if I could ever do anything as incredible as what these athletes are doing. And then I look at the bag of chips in my hands and realize the answer is no.

Kenya on My Mind

The first leg of my flight to Kenya is this Saturday at 1:50 pm. I can't say I'm exactly ready to go. The most extensive prep I've done so far is buzzing my hair even shorter. I've barely begun packing. I still have lots to get done here. I don't think I've mentally prepped myself well enough yet. How comfortable am I with just dropping all my responsibilities here? I don't know, but I guess I'm going to have to find out. Thankfully, I have friends taking over to edit the first-year orientation videos, and so far they've done a great job. I just finished my MD video about four hours ago. I didn't realize what a load off my shoulders that would be. The finished product isn't perfect, and it'll need a little work when I get back in August, but I'm happy with the results, and I think people will really enjoy it. My last hurrah before I leave for a new chapter of my summer.

The hardest part about moving... is moving.

I'm emptying most of my stuff from my apartment today. I tried to clean and pack some of it up last night, but looking around my room right now, it's pretty clear I didn't make any progress whatsoever. I think it might have been the fact that I started watching Arrested Development last night on my computer, thinking I could pack and watch at the same time. But then I ended up just watching without actually packing anything.

There was a pretty amazing storm last night with some nonstop lightning. Too bad I couldn't enjoy it fully since I was too busy watching Arrested Development.

I caught the season finale of Lost, too. It's really interesting, now that I've had even just a tiny bit of experience in shooting a film, to analyze camera angles, movements, and focusing. I never realized just how important all that was. Even with great acting, a show would be awful without some really good camera work. For instance, shooting over someone's shoulder really tightens up a dialogue scene. Cutting to different people's facial expressions during periods of silence is good, too. If only I had a film crew to do all this stuff for me. Dang it, I knew I should have applied to Hollywood School of Medicine. I probably would have been waitlisted, though, for shoddy camerawork.

Behind the Scenes

I should just anticipate from now on that any video-related project will take 10 times longer to complete than I think it will. I started editing my music video from scratch last night after I discovered that the file sizes were causing the computer in the IT building to crash after a certain point. So now I'm going through the raw footage again to recut everything and save them as smaller files. My first set of files ranged from about 10 to 60 Mbs each, so this time I'm going to compress them from 4 to 15 Mbs, and hopefully that should solve my issues. If not, I think this video is cursed and just isn't meant to be.

Tonight, we filmed one of the videos we're going to show during the first-year orientation next semester. It took us a couple of hours to film this clip that's going to be about five minutes long. It would have been so much easier if we could have just gotten another videocamera for different angles. I know the acting can be hard, but I discovered just how exhausting it is to direct and work a camera for two hours nonstop. I don't even want to think about how long editing is going to take. Hopefully I'll be able to get a couple of people to edit with me so they can continue doing it after I go abroad, since I kind of doubt I'd be able to finish editing three videos in the next week. I wish I could interface my brain with a computer and have the videos done just the way I picture them in my head in about 15 seconds. I think these clips are going to come together nicely, though, and everyone did a great job acting.

Not Enough Time

I leave for Kenya on Saturday, June 7th, and return to the states on August 8th, the Friday before classes start. The return date isn't what I would call ideal, but it does give us an extra week in Kenya to do whatever we want, it seems. However, with that tiny bit of time before the first week of class, I'll need to move into my new apartment, work on MS1WK1 stuff, get readjusted with the jetlag, and who knows what else since there's gotta be lots of things waiting for you to do after you leave the country for nine weeks. I can't believe I'm leaving in less than two weeks. I'm really looking forward to the trip, but there's still so much I want to get done before I go. And once I'm gone, I know the first thing awaiting my return is classes, so leaving will feel like I'm one step closer to losing my freedom. All the more reasons to enjoy the freedom I have now. But why I do I feel so tied down?

Life Scripted

I just got done with my first three hours of substantial video editing for MD. Thankfully the IT building is open 24 hours a day, including holidays, apparently. I had been there a couple weeks ago to play around with the equipment and see what was available in the multimedia rooms, and I've spent many hours at home cutting raw footage into segments, but tonight was my first time putting the pieces together into one video. I must sound like a giant loser right now. I'm still learning all the quirks of the PC in the multimedia room, but it's still infinitely faster than what I own. There are also a couple of multimedia Macs in the IT lab, and this is one of the first times I've seriously wished I were more familiar with using Macs. There's more user friendly software on them, I think, but I figure with the time it would take me to get used to using the Mac, I'd be done with my video. Another few hours in the lab and I should have a rough, presentable video, but I'm still missing several scenes. Actually, it turns out it's a good thing I haven't finished filming yet, since I've noticed a few scenes that I need to reshoot or can cover up with what I have yet to shoot. I'm going to try to finish shooting everything this week and hopefully have the video entirely done by next weekend. I expect that'll I'll be doing more film editing for a couple of upcoming MSI orientation videos, so I'll try to keep my projects from overlapping too much.

I got almost halfway through with the video tonight, but as I was importing one of the final clips of the night, Adobe Premiere gave me a low memory warning. I'm hoping this doesn't mean the demise of my ability to edit the rest of my video, since I clearly still have many more clips to import. I'm really happy with the way it's turning out so far, even though the video looks like it could have been put together by a five-year-old. Sure, I wish I had shot some scenes differently, with different angles, different lighting, different zoom, whatever, but there's so much to like about the video that I can overlook its faults. Whenever I watch these scenes, I'm reminded of how much fun it was to shoot each of them and how great it was that whoever was in the scene volunteered to be in it. And for the people who honestly had trouble in front of the camera, I'm trying to make them look as good as possible through clever editing. It's the least I can do for them for agreeing to take part in this insane project.

As for the MSI orientation videos I mentioned earlier, those are still in the scripting and casting stages. One video will be educational, and another will be downright useless but fun. The educational one will be fun, too, but educational fun could never beat useless fun. It's like comparing Number Munchers to Grand Theft Auto. Number Munchers could be just as fun as GTA, but it's adulterated with intelligence and doesn't have enough explosions. Of course, I finished the script for the useless video first, and I'm still working on the educational one. Both are parodies of TV shows since I'm clearly not capable of crafting original, creative works from scratch. I've never written a script like these before. The closest I've come was when my friends and I filmed "MacBeth Meets His MacDeath" in 11th grade, but that involved plagiarizing Billy Shakespeare. I think I would enjoy being a scriptwriter in another life. I don't mind putting words in people's mouths and making them do my bidding. Mwahahaha.

Catch My Disease

Being sick right now is more miserable than any day of studying this past year. I made it through a full day of work and meetings thanks to a bunch of pills. I probably shouldn't have gone in to work in the first place, but I would have been far more miserable sitting at home doing nothing. I should have known better than to expose everyone else to whatever I have, though. I'm a terrible person when I'm sick.

It first got bad yesterday. I started feeling a little sick last Thursday, and I don't think playing redneck golf in the rain and Mario Kart Wii until 3 am on Sunday morning helped much (great fun, though, Steve, thanks!). During the day on Sunday, I helped my brother install drywall in our dining room ceiling, and I put together an old bunkbed so that my brother and I have somewhere to sleep when we're both at home. The bed still has a bunch of "I've been Krogering" and dinosaur stickers from my youth stuck on it. Anyway, that physical labor pretty much killed me, and I felt like poo when I went to sleep last night. I wish I could diagnose myself. I still get the cold and flu confused. All I know is that the Cocksackie viruses are transmitted via the fecal-oral route primarily in the summertime, and norovirus causes explosive diarrhea. Too bad I have neither.

My dad just called me to see if I'm still sick. I love how my parents still tell me to put on a jacket when it's cold out as if it's some amazing revelation. And by love, I mean hate. It's like I'm trying my hardest to catch a cold. Man, if only people would wear jackets more frequently, no one would ever get sick. Jackets would put doctors out of business.

I think I have yellow fever.

Kenya Krash Kourse

We had our Kenya orientation today. There are four of us in the Slemenda Scholars program, where we serve as ambassadors of sorts between Indiana University and Moi University in Kenya. The other students in the program are pretty cool. Our orientation wasn't quite what I expected, though. Most programs don't let you choose whatever travel dates you want and how much time you want to spend in the field. It's nice to have that kind of flexibility, but we almost felt like we weren't given enough guidelines and restrictions. I guess my mentality was that the program directors know about the program, whereas we don't, so they should have had more details in place for us by this point (e.g. travel dates).

We tried to use that flexibility to our advantage, though, since they originally proposed June 15th for our departure. The four of us spent some time deliberating on how to fit an extra week into schedule without disrupting the flow of the program, so we can travel, climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, go on a safari, etc. We could have gone a week early and traveled during that week, but we any attempt to climb a mountain that early without acclimatizing would have killed us. We could have stayed a week later, but then that would put us extremely close to the start of school, and it'd be beneficial to have some time to unwind, readjust to jetlag, etc. Luckily, I was in the presence of smart people, and Andrew suggested that we go a week early, start our program a week early, and travel a few weeks into our stay at a natural break point in the program. So that's what we decided on. I imagine we'll come back with about a week to spare before classes start, so that should work out pretty well and give us a full eight weeks in Kenya. [Edit: We're getting a full nine weeks! See entry on 5-26.]

During our orientation, we watched a video (which I had seen a couple times before, unfortunately, but it's a great video) about the IU-Kenya AMPATH (Academic Model for the Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS) program. We also did a couple of educational activities, went through the typical precautions and expectations runthrough, and got our vaccinations. All this time I had thought that I would need to arrange my own shots through my doctor, so this was a relief. Yeah, I've never been so happy to get shots. We got four today: HepA, polio, meningitis, and yellow fever. The doctor was just waiting for us with all his needles lined up. It was a good bonding experience for us. We also got oral typhoid fever vaccine, which is supposed to be kept refrigerated. But because we got our vaccinations and then sat through another few hours of orientation, the typhoid vaccine also sat out for a bit. Here's to hoping there's still some residual immunogenicity. Ron, the IU-Kenya program manager, said that we got about $850 worth of vaccines today. It turns out yellow fever is a pretty big deal, since we got "yellow cards" that show our date of vaccination, which are necessary for travel into the country.

As for what we'll be doing in Kenya, I'm still not 100% sure. What I know is that the COBES (Community Outreach Based Education and Service) program that goes on every year was pushed back about a month due to the post-election violence earlier this year. Because of that violence, Kenyans and the AMPATH program are still recovering and rebuilding. When we first get to Kenya, we'll travel from Nairobi to Eldoret, which is where Moi University and the IU House are located. The four of us will rotate through to see different aspects of the AMPATH program for about two weeks. Then, per our own plans, we'll take a week "off" to do whatever. When we come back, we'll start COBES, assuming classes procede as scheduled. This entails a week or two of classes which are historically boring to us foreigners. I don't say that to be disrespectful, but it's just the truth from every first-hand source I've asked. It's just the nature of the class, since the teacher is teaching what we learned as MSIs as well as some things that don't pertain too much to us, like how to build a well. On top of that, Kenyans are soft-spoken, so traveling students couldn't hear much anyway. Our participation in the class is to help integrate us with the other Kenyan students, to experience their educational system, and so that when we go into the field with them later, they know who we are. After the classes, we will be integrated into community groups with the Kenyans and live in a remote site for a few weeks. What we do there I'm not entirely sure, but I think it involves learning about and helping the local community with healthcare projects and otherwise. I must sound awful not knowing that much about what I'm doing in Kenya. I don't mean to sound like I don't care or anything, but there really are a lot of questions we won't have answered until we step foot in Kenya. To loosely quote one of the partnership founders, the Slemenda program has always always been really flexible, but this will be its most "fluid" year ever, mostly because of what happened this year. Good thing I work all right with or without a schedule. Besides, it's summertime. Summers and schedules don't get along very well, anyway.

One Tiny Step

I passed micro! I was literally on the verge of doom. It turns out there really is a correlation between studying and how well you do on a test. I can't believe all my classmates kept this secret from me for so long.

Micro? Big deal.

I did great on my third micro test yesterday. Am I allowed to boast on this one if I admit that I sucked majorly on my last exam? I'm climbing out of a hole, for sure. Any deeper and it would have been a grave. The price I paid for a good grade this time was sleeping in the Daly center, which was not so much sleep as trying to stay warm in a chair. With this last test averaged in, I would need to do something insanely stupid on the micro final to fail the class. For someone who knows that sleeping in Daly is a bad idea and does it anyway, the stakes are pretty high.

On an unrelated note, my allergies are going haywire. For the life of me, I can't figure out what the heck I'm allergic to. It usually only flares up indoors, only in certain buildings, and it's seasonal. Does that make any freaking sense at all? Maybe I'm allergic to indoor trees? Seasonal paints? I'll accept any crazy theories at this point.

I have this ridiculous idea to film a documentary while I'm in Kenya. Too bad I don't have any equipment or experience, but that's never stopped me before. If all else fails, I'll draw a flipbook of my time in Kenya, which will include stick lions and badgers. I've been talking to some people in the IU administration to get ideas for funding or equipment loans. I haven't gotten very far yet, but I finally spoke to the audio-visual guys for the IU med school yesterday. For those of you who know what I'm talking about, this includes the legendary Angel. I found them in their windowless hideout in the basement of the MS building. Their response to my proposal to borrow a videocamera was mostly positive until I mentioned the bit about wanting to bring it to Africa. It turns out their policy that equipment can't leave Indiana applies to Kenya as well. Well, my visit took much longer than I anticipated because the AV guys were so reluctant to let me go. Bless their hearts, but they kept wanting to dump their wealth of technical knowledge on me. Drew was down there with me (sorry Drew), and they couldn't seem to catch on to our social cues that a conversation was about past its prime. Some of these cues included inching towards the door, the hand clap, and exclaiming, "Thanks for your help. We should go." The gist of our conversation was that what I wanted was an impossible dream, and I should call CBS to pick up the story.

Well, now it's time to study some more micro. Our core content, which is a 20,000-page beast stating everything we should know for the final, is insane to say the least. At least we're in the home stretch...

Drew and I went for a spin in his dad's Corvette when we got tired of studying last night. Actually, it was more like he got tired of studying, and I wasn't doing squat. He about broke the sound barrier on I-70. Maybe I won't write how fast he was going in case it can be used against him in court.

Video Games

I'm about one-fourth done now with shooting my music video. I filmed six people today, which is my new record. If I could maintain that kind of efficiency everyday, I'd be done in less than 2 weeks. Too bad I'm not a very efficient person in general. The incredible thing is that I actually could have doubled my output today if people hadn't refused shooting on the premise that they "looked like crap." Not to raise controversy, but most of those comments came from girls. Girls always look good to me, so I guess I just don't understand. I mean, yeah, we had an exam today (which totally rocked me, btw) and everyone slept two hours each the night before. But then again, I'm sure everyone looks better than I do at this point, with my unkempt hair and beard, so I have pretty low standards these days. I think that "looking like crap," though, could give the video a little character. What's wrong with reflecting reality?

I'm really happy with the way the scenes are turning out. There are a lot of funny and creative ones, and it's been a lot of fun working with everyone on it so far. The reason that it's been so fun is due to a lot of spur-of-the-moment things, like grabbing random props and people expressing various body motions. So the video's kind of been evolving on its own and going beyond what I scripted originally. I'm glad that I left a lot of room for improvisation since my actors have contributed a lot to the creative process. I'm actually surprised at how receptive people have been and how much they've been getting into it. It helps that many med students are used to volunteering for random things and are comfortable enough to put themselves on display, so to speak. I imagine that for many people, there might be an internal struggle between looking goofy on camera and getting that five seconds of fame. I know I'm embarrassed as hell when I have to see myself on video, so I applaud all these brave souls, leaving their motion pictures in my hands. There's already a small blooper real in the works. My hope is that the final product does everyone justice.

Makin' Noise

Today marks the unofficial start of spring break. We have classes on Friday, but hey, it's Friday. We had a nice and easy quiz in physio today, which was a good change of pace from the ownage I've been receiving lately with tests and quizzes. I even stayed for a lecture today. I kind of forgot what sitting through a real lecture felt like, instead of just watching screencasts online. Actually, I'm really glad I sat through the lecture because our current physio professor is an effective lecturer in real life, but for some reason I just can't follow her when I watch online. It might have something to do with the fact that I set the play speed to 2x, but that's kind of what I've grown accustomed to. I get awful memory retention doing this, though. I'm still not sure if it's worth the few minutes I save per lecture doing it this way. It got me through most of first semester all right, so I'm guessing it couldn't be all bad.

Ted, Shrey, Zaf, Geoff, and I had a little jam session after school. The four of them comprise a pseudo-band called Stridor. That has to be one of the coolest band-sounding medical terms ever. I'm employing their services to record a full-band version of the song I played at Evening of the Arts in January. We stalled a few times during practice with our ADHD and forgetting chords and lyrics, but we made some good progress. Musically, I think our song sounds superior to the song we're parodying (Rockstar by Nickelback) since the original didn't have much flair and was carried entirely by the vocals and lyrics. I've learned that singing through amps takes some getting used to. It's a lot easier to sing out of tune for some reason. At least, for me it was. It's also harder to sing in tune when your vocal cords are strained, for reasons that escape me. We're going to record the song for real after spring break. I can't wait to hear/see how this all turns out. Getting the audio down will probably be the easiest part. I started putting together a schedule of sorts for the music video, and it looks like shooting all the pieces of the video is going to be one hellish job. Splicing them all together and syncing the video with audio is going to be another crazy feat. Slow and steady, though, right?

I thought it was cool how good my Stridor buddies sounded when they were simply jamming. It's like the music just flows out of them effortlessly. I need to learn how to improvise that easily. I think I'm too stuck on overused chord progressions, and I rely too much on the structures of existing songs. The plus side is that I've gotten much better this past year at quickly picking up "mainstream" songs and singing while playing. For example, I used not be able to get Petty's "Last Dance of Mary Jane" or Matchbox Twenty's "Push" for the life of me. There was just something in those songs that kept throwing me. So I didn't even attempt those songs for a while, but when I tried them again this year, something just clicked. That's always a good feeling. I really want to get an electric guitar now. There are so many things you can do with an electric that aren't quite so feasible with an acoustic, and I feel like I'm missing out on a whole new spectrum of exploration. Alas, I am a student, and I have bills up the wazoo and no income. If I do get an electric, it probably won't be until the summer since the last thing I need right now is more distractions. I almost wouldn't mind trading in my XBox for a guitar. I mean, a real guitar, not a plastic Guiter Hero guitar. That would totally rock. But what would be even better is an XBox AND an electric guitar. That would insanely rock. I figure if I don't eat for a few months, I can save up enough money for a nice guitar and amp. It probably won't be enough to pay for my subsequent hospitalization and feeding tubes, but as long as I've got music, and if I've got my friends, who could ask for anything more? Who could ask for anything m-o-o-o-rre?

'Stache Bash

A fellow med student has proposed that the guys in our class participate in 'Stache Bash to raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. As he put it: "What is manlier than facial hair, 7 Tour de France titles in a row, and healthy testicles?? Answer: not much." So true.

Basically, what this entails is growing facial hair for a period of time without shaving (or, under extenuating circumstances, limited shaving). Sponsors donate a specific amount for each day you go without shaving, or they can just pledge a lump sum for the final result. I'm thinking of starting my quest tomorrow, and it'll last until the beginning of May, after our finals are over. I can't help but feel that this is a bad idea. I think the longest I've ever gone without shaving is 3 weeks, and that was already pretty hideous. This undertaking requires I grow facial hair for more than twice that long. I'm quite sure I'll lose a few friends in the process. In fact, the number of friends I lose will help me gauge how successful I am in this endeavor.

I've had many bouts of not shaving in the past, such as during Facial Hair February, No-Shave November, and just out of sheer laziness. But it's never been something I've committed fully to the point of going overboard on facial nastiness. I think if there's a time to do it, it'd be now, before I have to see patients consistently and before I have more standards of decorum to uphold. Come to think of it, this is quite possibly my last chance. Unfortunately, I do have one patient interview before the school year is over, so I might have to trim a little. I'll try to trim just enough to look presentable so I don't lose too much of my hard-earned fuzz.

I have to admit I've grown a little more vain recently with my new-found longer hair that I can almost whip around like in shampoo commercials, and since I've been working out and I now have a totally rock-hard bod and my shirts rip when I accidentally flex a little. Anyway, maybe growing some dirty patches on my face will cause me to stop wanting to look in the mirror, thus reversing my formative narcicism. Also, I plan to let my hair grow out more, so when my mop starts going rampant, it'll be somewhat balanced by the stuff growing on my chin. I think this is how people turn into hippies.

I plan to take pictures frequently, and maybe I'll even turn these pics into a stop motion capture film when this is all said and done. I can't wait for the final cut.

Boilermaker Ballin'

Last night was the first annual Boilermaker Ball for Purdue alumni, held here in Indy at the Crowne Plaza Union Station. It just so happens that our med school dance in January was held there, too. You could tell the Purdue people had a much larger budget to work with, just from the decorations. It almost felt like we were in a different place. I went with Hayley, Stephanie, and her fiance, so it was a good break for the med students among us.

Purdue Pete wearing a tux! I feel short.

I read somewhere that tickets were $100 a piece or something. Yeah, I'm such a high roller. Actually, we were lucky to be guests of the College of Science, and we got to have dinner with Dean Vitter and other administrators I hadn't seen in a while. There was a silent auction beforehand with tons of amazing items that I couldn't afford, including vacation packages and assorted Purdue paraphernalia. Dinner was pretty awesome, since there were dishes presented in ways I had never seen before. When you have to ask yourself, "How do I eat this salad?" you know you're in the company of greatness. Oh, yeah, the food tasted amazing, too. There was a live auction after dinner, which included typical purchases like "Fighter Pilot for a Day Adventure" (where you fly in a real fighter jet with a real pilot), and a "driving experience" where you can go for a casual spin in such cars as a Murcielago, Maserati Gran Tourismo, and your choice of Ferraris. Each live auction item sold for over $3000. I love going to events where everyone else there is on average 1,000,000 times richer than me. I'm not ashamed to admit that my net worth is about $1, and that's counting the nickel I found last week. On second thought, is it possible to have a negative net worth? I just filed my taxes, and it turns out Uncle Sam wants more milk money or he'll give me a swirly.

I was impressed at how nice the event was for its first year. The irony is that I'm not one for extravagance at all. While I thoroughly enjoyed the evening, it was mostly because of the company and being able to see people I hadn't seen in some time. If I somehow manage to accidentally become wealthy down the line, I still wouldn't really see myself jumping at events like this. I mean, yeah, I will always support my alma mater, and I'm proud to call myself a Purdue alumnus, but I'm just more of a low-key type of person. I'd rather donate some cash and then sit at home with a good book, I suppose.

When I Was Your Age

Today was the last of four OASIS Vital Visionaries sessions. V.V. is a volunteer program that is designed to facilitate interactions between medical students and the older adults. There is a growing concern that apathy among young doctors towards the elderly will not bode well for an aging population in need of health care. Each session was held in the Eiteljorg Museum in Indy, where we analyzed art and had a rollicking good time bridging the generational divide. Since starting this program, I've realized I have more interactions with older adults than I once considered. For instance, when I visited Purdue last weekend for the Timmy banquet, I went up a few hours early to see a retired professor and a former administrator/advisor near retirement. No, I'm not afraid to admit I have "old people" as friends. In fact, did you know being surrounded by lots of old people in your country increases your average life expectancy? I even worked out the math, which is too complicated to show here. If you still don't believe how wonderful old poeple are, here's a short list of their contributions to society (unverified):

Wheelchairs
Apple Pie
Dentures
Viagra
The Wheel

Unfortunately, I missed the first and third V.V. sessions due to legitimate conflicts, which put my attendance at a miserable 50%. I quite enjoyed the first session I attended, and all of the older participants were pretty fun and lively. We attempted to build clay pots at the end of that session, but I guess the facilitators couldn't figure out a way to get those fired for us. However, I wasn't able to finish mine, anyway. Also, what I made looked somewhat disfigured, so maybe it's better that I not have a permanent memento of my failure as a ceramicist.

Today's session was quite different since we doubled as volunteers for some event involving hordes of little girls. The Eiteljorg is a Native American museum, and today they hosted an educational adventure into the presumed life of Kaya, one of the "American Girl" dolls. I was in charge of teaching kids how to use a hand-powered drill to drive holes into pieces of wood to be used in necklaces. It's actually quite ingenious how the drill works, as it translates vertical motion into rotational motion. I couldn't find a picture of one online, but I'll post a pic from the event if I can get one from a friend. Part of my job was also to talk about the drill and to pique the kids' interests in using it. At first I found it hard not to use words like "inertia," "friction," and "displacement," and I don't think any of the kids understood my lame jokes about how I love modern electric drills. Kids these days... no sense of humor. I guess they'll never understand old people like me.

Have you seen the remake of "My Generation" by the Zimmers? They're a British band created in response to the isolation of Britain's elderly population, and they purportedly have the oldest band members in the world, like 4 to 5 times my age.

Timmy and Jimmy

I drove up to Purdue on Friday for the first ever Purdue Timmy Foundation banquet. I went up a little early to see a couple people I hadn't seen in a while, which was a nice bonus. Also, this just illustrates how surprisingly flexible med school is, schedule-wise. I was impressed at how well thought-out the banquet was, and the overall flow was very smooth. I'm so proud of this year's officers. They indicated that it would have been much more difficult to pull off the banquet if I hadn't created a new officer position and reorganized the leadership structure last year, which made me feel pretty good. Under different circumstances, it could have been a really risky move what I did, shaking up and restructure officer duties right before I left. In all honestly, the fact that it worked out was probably more due to their efforts as current officers. You can create all the leadership positions you want, but it doesn't amount to much without the right people serving those roles. I was impressed at how they all developed their individual roles so well this past year.

The "pre-banquet" entertainment consisted of a string quartet composed of fellow students. The dinner was buffet-style with catering by the Purdue Union, which I've actually missed. In fact, I even miss Purdue's dorm food. Purdue food in general is pretty good, I think. Another example I can think of is the restaurant in Stone Hall, which is run by hospitality and tourism management students. I once had pheasant there. I think the best part about Union catering is usually the dessert. They never disappoint, and they didn't this time, with tiramisu. Not exactly something I have everyday. But I wonder if I would like tiramisu as much if I actually did have it everyday....... um, yes.

After dinner, I had the honor of giving a little speech to talk about my own experiences and to introduce Dr. Chuck. It wasn't one of my greatest speech-giving moments since it was mostly extemporaneous, although I did have some speaking points written on a tiny Post-it note. At least it was a good learning experience. Dr. Chuck was inspirational as always. There was a silent auction on the side with a large assortment of items, including a flat-screen TV, signed Purdue footballs, photographs, and the like.

Since I'm writing this post retroactively, I can proudly say that the Purdue Timmies ultimately reached their goal of raising $4500 for a new hospital that is being built in Quito, Ecuador. That amount of money can pay for the construction of a 2-bed room. Compare that to about $1M per bed in a U.S. hospital (according to multiple sources).

As fate would have it, I learned from my Timmy friends that the funeral for James T. was going to be held on Saturday. James was a friend of mine who had passed away earlier in the week. His funeral was originally going to be Thursday, which I couldn't make. I didn't realize they had moved it, due to his parents being unable to fly in soon enough from Dubai. I'm glad I was able to go to say goodbye. The funeral was especially tough because I had never been to one before, but I don't imagine they get much easier. James was a pretty private person, but he was always about putting others above himself, and it showed in how much time he dedicated to service activities. He always had a smile on his face, and I can't say I ever heard him utter a bad word about anything or anyone. I think it goes without saying that a lot of people loved him. It was nice that I was able to see so many people I hadn't seen in a long time. I knew James through Alpha Phi Omega and Boiler Gold Rush from my first two years at Purdue, but I dropped them after science student council and Timmy starting taking up more time. Therefore, many of the people I saw at the funeral were people who, 3-4 years ago, I used to see on a constant basis. All those familiar faces reminded me of how our relationships with people can be so strong but tenuous at the same time. There were people I could hug like no time had come between us, but I couldn't help but wish we had more holding us together than tears and faded memories.