Tuesday, February 26, 2002

Values Debate

Ok, I had a debate with Norma over at the fraternity. It really shouldn't have been a debate, but she was just trying to harrass me :) Norma's a huge sci-fi fan, and I made the impolitic remark that all the resources used for the making of Time Machine could have been spent for better use. My contention is that if people put more of their energies into fighting poverty, disease, and starvation instead of making dumb TV shows the world would be a better place. I do believe that their is a place for art and beauty, but I see no reason why NBC just spent 100 million dollars renewing Friends. Oh well ....


John
La Bodega (February 25, 2002)

In honor of Kirk's birthday, we went to go to La Bodega, a hip little joint at the corner of Lyndale and Lake. Their specialty is Tapas -- or model food in English. Model food is basically dainty, pretty, small dishes that models eat. It was very tasty, but you can't really satisfy your appetites in one serving. According to Roseann, you could get really cheap Tapas in Spain and the reason they make it tiny is because Tapas are generally served at night (their smallest meal of the day). To me, it is the Chinese version of dim sum. I shared my dish with Joe Lee, so we ate chicken honey mustard and halibut. The funnest part of the night was to see Kirk and Michael L. dance the flamenco. Like I told them, it takes two to flamenco.

Still need sleep,


John

Monday, February 25, 2002

Valentine's Day (February 14,2002)

Did you know St. Valentine was a Christian physician? As the legend goes, he helped restore the sight of a blind woman. I'm not sure how that has anything to do with Valentine's day, but I find it interesting that he is a real historical figure instead of a make believe person invented by Hallmark.

That evening we had our core group meeting at the basement of the church. Diana, Becka, Jess, and Amy did all the beautiful decorations and food. All the guys did was to help eat. We did help clean up :) It was also the first time that I heard of the band Ten Shekel Shirt.

My brain is turning to mush,


John
P.S.: Christianity Today's website has a bunch of cool e-cards
Getting Lost in Wisconsin (February 12, 2002)

Where is the worst place to get lost at night? I gotta say Wisconsin, since at least there are a lot of nice people when I got lost in Iowa. Here I was trying to figure out why there are no more lights on the highway when I finally saw a building. Before I went in, I noticed that it was a strip club! Out in the middle of Nowhere, Wisconsin. I quickly bolted as fast as I could.

I found a gas station where I asked for directions instead. She wasn't that nice and she gave me unclear directions. I got lost again until I finally read Amy's directions again. Finally I made it to Houlton elementary with -7 minutes to spare (7 minutes late for all the non-math people out there :). It was really neat to see the second and third graders sing about what they want to be. I'm really happy that one of them sang about wanting to be a doctor. That made my day! However, if I weren't going to be a doctor I would have to say that teachers probably have the most important and toughest profession.


John
Boundary Waters Trip (February 8-10, 2002)

That was one of the most amazings weekend that I've had in medical school. It was a time of many firsts: cross-country skiing, broomball, sauna, dipping into an ice hole, getting the 50 point bonus in scrabble, snow-shoeing.

I didn't know that the boundary waters is so far away. We stopped by Duluth and I thought that we were almost there. Ummm ... I was wrong. Although there wasn't any snow on the side of the roads, pastor Sanny was telling all of us to keep faith that there was actually a lot of snow up there. Our next stop was at Grand Marais. Still no snow, but I still had faith :) John and Diana also pointed out the hotel where they went for their honeymoon. The North Shore is really pretty, but I'm not really sure that I would want to honeymoon there during winter. We went up the gunflint trail and saw two meese. Actually JR, our resident hunter, saw them. After 6 or 7 hours from Minneapolis, we finally reached Adventurous Christian retreat.

I didn't go last year, but according to Connie (our guide for the weekend) we were legends. Note to self: long-johns and fire do not mix.

We were playing with Amy and Jess' magic ball when we got the fan's cord tangled up. One of the coolest pictures I have is of Chris trying to fix the fan. Anyway, I had some time to think about giving a bible bullet. Somehow, Jeremiah 29:11-13 came to mind. Awesome bible verse!

I woke up at 6:30 the next morning and had some quiet time for myself. The first thing I tried to do was to run in the snow. I felt like a kid again -- running and tumbling across the snow. JR thought I was nuts, but it must have been the Canadian air.

At 9:30 all of us got ready to do some cross-country skiing. It was a little bit nerve racking, because I was the only one who has never cross-country skiied before. However Kathy was an excellent and patient teacher. I did fall numerous times, but I actually enjoyed it. After a while, I was looking forward to zooming down the little hills. The moment that I finally found the groove was when I stopped paying attention to my form and started to enjoy the woods, trees, and nature. I have another amazing picture of the whole group waiting for me. It was an amazing accomplishment! To top it off, I still feel like I have enough energy to do another loop. Hmmm ... after a couple of weeks, I sorta forgot about the pain. My right knee was killing me, and I found out from class that my femur and patella was not in exact alignment. Gotta work on my VMOs .... Still I would go cross-country skiing in a heart beat!

We were tired, but we felt like we should go snow-shoeing. That was a blast too, but then I realized that I did get tired after a couple of hours of skiing. I didn't have boots so I borrowed Russ'. That mean that I could use his special snow shoes. Unfortunately I broke it while trying to chase the girls (just kidding!). I actually have no idea why it broke, but the straps on those snow shoes were pretty messed up before I put them on.

The evening was spent watching people do some rock climbing. Oh, before that Tim Anderson and I were the dish-washing crew. We made it our mission to be the fastest dishwashers this side of the Mississippi. Unfortunately, while washing the dishes I missed Amy's ascent to the summit. Even though we had a ballayer, it was still pretty scary when you fall off (I did that :) but it was a really big high to go all the way to the top.

Saunas are Hot

My friends say that I like to point out the obvious, and obviously they are right (just wanted to point that out). How hot was it ... 200 degrees fahrenheit. People say that I'm crazing for jumping into the water hole, but you can't help but jump in there after spending 15 minutes in the sauna. This is further proof to me that the Finns are the hardiest people on earth.

The best part of the evening was when JR lost his sandal in the ice hole. He wasn't able to retrieve it, because it sunk down to the bottom. I suggested half-jokingly that we should pray about it. Right after we prayed for his sandal, it floated up. You might say that this is a coincidence, but God answers way too many prayers for me to claim it to be a coincidence. Wow, He even cares about JR's sandals!

Broomball

I was in no shape for more punishment, but I agreed to play broomball anyway. I don't remember much about it anymore, except that I kept falling on my right rear end.

Scrabble

The entries are getting shorter and shorter, because I'm getting tired of typing. Here is my 78 point word: JASMINE.

Gooseberry Falls

A frozen waterfall? I can't believe that I was actually walking on the river bed. Still, there were others in the group who did far more adventurous things there. Believe it or not, while we were up there someone came up to John and said "Are you John Sanny." He is famous!

Trip Home

We made a gentlemanly's wager among the guys on who could predict our arrival time. I was the closest, but all of us went a little bit over. What a weekend!

Good times,


John
Done with Tests for Now! (February 25, 2002) (Warning: Rated R for Religiously Explicit Content)

Moral of the story: Don't procrastinate by studying 34 lectures in a day. Although it is humanly possible, it is very stupid. I know ...
It probably is a sin, although I don't see that expressly printed in the bible.

The wisest man on earth once wrote
But beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body.

Ecclesiastes 12:12

Like all the athletes out there (such as my hero Kurt Warner), I have to praise the Lord for letting me do alright on the exams even though I procrastinated big time this weekend. I didn't do as well as I normally do on exams (108/122) but I'm just glad that I passed with a comfortable margin. I've made a promise to myself that I would never, ever do this again.

What I need to do is have some quiet time and meditate on where my life is going. No, I'm not talking about what kind of doctor I want to be (I've already thought about that). What really matters is what I'll be doing outside of medicine. Yesterday, pastor Harry Maghakian preached about the dash (1976-?). Although it is a measly dash, it is far more important than the numbers that bookend it. I know what life isn't ... life isn't just studying, eating, and sleeping.

Thoughts on _Just Like Jesus_ by Max Lucado.

Just imagine somehow that Jesus had complete possession of my heart. Everything else about me would still be the same ... my life, my studies, my profession, my family.

One of my biggest blessings this year was to receive an email from Kelly Helenihi. I became friends with her family when she came to Minnesota for her son's bone marrow transplant. Sometimes you wonder why there is so much injustice and suffering in this world. Yet she taught me so much about being totally dependent on God's grace. It is so amazing to be able to cry together and pray. I didn't have any answers that night, but I did feel like Christ placed me in that very moment.

I know that there are a lot more people in my apartment complex who need prayer, yet somehow I've not taken the time to get to know them. If Jesus had complete control of my heart he would take away the fear and self-doubt.


John

Tuesday, February 19, 2002

Finally got the pictures back from the boundary waters trip. My favorite pic has got to be the one with me using a snowshoe as a crutch :)

Still praying for more snow, but thankful that the weather has been awesome!


John

Sunday, February 17, 2002

Tests coming up this Saturday and Monday

Next week after my pathophys test on Monday, I will write massive blogs.

Plans:

1. Make Chinese Chicken Fried Rice for the fraternity
2. Study
3. Sleep
4. Study

John

Monday, February 11, 2002

Fewer Blogs until February 25 (Outline for upcoming blogs)
1. Boundary Waters
a. trip up
b. cross-country skiing
c. devotional (_Just like Jesus_, Max Lucado)
d. sauna
e. running into ice hole
f. broomball
g. devotional (Phillipians)
h. random thoughts on the other devotional
i. Gooseberry Falls
j. KFC
2. Bell-ringer
3. Amy's concert
4. Valentine's day

Wednesday, February 06, 2002

Tired of Typing

Sometimes I wish that I were a more selfish fella and not be such a nice guy :) Just kidding ... the thing is that I volunteered to do some help for neuroscience knowledge coop. I got snuckered into rewriting one of the reviews, and it takes way too much time! I wouldn't mind if I learned the material again, but all I'm doing is just retyping notes that the third years wrote last year.

Oh well,


John
It's 39 degrees outside and I'm in Shorts!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How long will this great weather last? I'm starting to think that I'm in California again :)

I'll get my reality check when I go up North :) It was -40 sans windchill last year.


John

Tuesday, February 05, 2002

Good Earth

No, it's not the title of a book but instead it is a really nice "organic" healthy-fusion restaurant in Roseville. My good friend Jon Gully just turned 27 or 28 (I lost count, he's just old) and we all went there to celebrate his birthday. The best part of the evening of course was the dessert ummm .... I mean having everyone sing happy birthday. The dessert was the cheesecake with multiberries as decoration. It was really yummy and it was complimentary of the restaurant. My theory about desserts is that I almost never eat them, so I keep thinking about them. We also had a very good time embarrassing Jon by making him wear a crown and hold balloons in front of all the other patrons in the restaurant. At least he didn't have to dance with a belly dancer :)

Dr. Gary Miller

If I have to choose a role-model on who the ideal doctor would be it would have to be a mix between Dr. Gary Miller and Dr. Dye. Dr. Miller is my current preceptor and Dr. Dye was one of my other preceptors last year. Dr. Miller is one of the nicest and funniest people that I've encountered. Everytime he enters a patient's waiting room, you could already see the patients smile in anticipation of his corny jokes. He also cares so much for all of his patients. Unlike some other doctors, he takes his time and is never hurried. The downside is that he is sometimes late with his patients. On the other side, we have Dr. Dye who is extremely efficient and super smart. He can dictate really fast. The common denominator is that both of their patients love them. Oh, Dr. Dye also has some of the corniest jokes too. Hmmm .... I wonder whether the reason I like these two is because they have corny jokes :) Here's my goal:

1. Be as caring as possible without becoming jaded by human nature
2. Enjoy my patients as much as possible
3. Have a stock of corny (not tomato) jokes
4. To be comfortable with the latest technology and be able to do a complete dictation super fast.
5. Be the best possible doctor I can be

Shuang Chen

Going out two nights in the same week? You might wonder what is going on. The problem you see is that I have too many friends. Just kidding!!!!!!! This time I went out with Roseann and Eric Ekstrom and Steve Chao. Roseann is such a cutie and she is one of the nicest people in medical school. I keep teasing her for being older than me (she can't help that), but in fact she is just like a big sis to me. I'm probably her bratty little brother :) Her husband is a PMNR doc who was the chief resident at Hennepin (One of my goals is to be chief resident in internal medicine, but that is still a long ways away). Steve Chao is my compadre in crime. We are organizing a triad based on the movie Oceans 11. Ok, so that isn't entirely accurate. He and I are study buddies for the USMLE Step 1 for the boards. Probably the hardest test that I will ever take in my life :) The dinner was awesome: we had lobster, walleye, chicken almonding, and black and pepper shrimp. That was one of the best dinners that I've ever had in a long time. Roseann knows all the good places to eat, so I probably have to invite her and Eric out more often :)

Venipuncture

I drew Stanley Iyadurai's blood, Stanley drew John Asleson's blood, John Asleson drew Caitlin Anderson's blood, and Caitlin drew my blood.

The circle is complete.


John

Saturday, February 02, 2002

Winter Carnival

Did you know that it has been one of the warmest recorded winters in Minnesota history? Fortunately it has cooled down enough this week for the ice sculptures to stabilize. I didn't get a chance to go on the giant slide, because I missed the exit sign and headed south to downtown St. Paul instead. It was quite nice to spend some time with Amy and Jessica around downtown St. Paul. Hmmm ... Let's see. There was some eagles, humpty dumpty (intact and crashed), the statue of liberty, firefighters, biplane, and a really cool-looking red/pale yellow/blue decorated pine tree. Then we went to a candy store and got some orange-flavored white chocolates. Yummy ...

Skyway experience

Skyways are a uniquely Minnesotan thing. It is sorta like an above-ground maze that connects all the buildings to one another. We went in the World Trade center and saw Charlie and Snoop Dogg (oops ... I mean Snoopy). Long-live St. Paul.

Ok, I'm getting delirious right now ...

Signing off,


John
P.S.: Will complete the set of blogs later
The Gophers won again!

It was soooo loud over in Williams Arena. The house was jumpin' and Rick Rickert was totally unbelievable. That guy is tall, but he still looks like a freshman -- I can't wait till he can hold his own agains the big bad bruisers of the big 10. At first, it looked like Indiana would totally dominate the game but somehow the gophers got the energy to come back in the second half. Boy was that an awesome game.

Wisconsin is coming up next. If they win, I can't wait to rub it in ....

John