Monday, November 25, 2002

More quiz results

How Spiritually Intelligent Are You?

You scored 24, on a scale of 9 to 27. Here's how to interpret your score:
23 - 27 Spiritually Adept: You consistently act with spiritual intelligence, through sensitivity, compassion, and understanding

Which Bible Hero Are You?

You scored 28, on a scale of 10 to 40. Here's how to interpret your score:
25 - 34 JOSEPH. Self-assured and proud of it, you're leadership material through and through. Hey, can you help it if other people think you know it all? You do!


They wrote that I was a Mainline to Conservative Protestant. Already knew that, but took the quiz anyway.


John
Radiology is totally a self-motivated rotation, unfortunately I havn't been feeling that motivated for this past week. I'm making up for that by doing call tomorrow evening :)

Right now I'm wasting time by taking quizzes at Beliefnet.com

For my spiritual type quiz, I got a score of 90 (25-100) which makes me a "Candidate for Clergy."

Here's a description for what type of Christian I am. I completely disagree with the "Jerry Falwell" descriptor, and it was somewhat inaccurate. Rebuttal in Italics.

Jerry Falwell Christian
(a.k.a. "Historicist" or "Literalist")
You view the Bible as historically accurate and divinely inspired (Agree with this). You go to church every Sunday (Yup, sometimes twice), with the Good Book in a Bible cover (Three bible versions: RSV, TEV, and NKJV. No cover though, will get the Message and NIV sometime later in my life), and Wednesday night (Thursday night)for Bible study. You've read at least one of the books in the apocalyptic "Left Behind" series (completely disagree with the eschatology behind Left Behind), prefer your iced tea very sweet (prefers Chinese tea), and suspect Bill Clinton has murdered (had intimate relatons with) somebody somewhere in Arkansas. You watch "Touched by an Angel," even though you think it's not Christian enough (too saccharine for my tastes). You may watch Mother Angelica's Eternal Word Television Network, and you adore Dr. Laura (Yeecch!), Chuck Colson (Great guy), James Dobson (Has good points), and Rush Limbaugh (pretty good). If you're Catholic, you go to Latin Mass and weekly confession, though you don't have much to confess. You think homosexuals are sinful but try periodically to love them. You think the surrounding culture is so polluted that you shop at Christian bookstores (Hey, Northwestern is the best bookstore ever!!!!), listen only to Christian radio (I have 3 Christian radio stations on my dial, but I also listen periodically to Cities 97)and send your kids to Christian or parochial schools--or homeschool them. You give generously to your church and Christian charities. The Bible provides you not only a direct connection to God but a roadmap for how to lead your life (Can't argue with that).

John

Sunday, November 10, 2002

Today is a very special day for me (November 10). However, right now I'm dithering in the library reading stuff instead of doing what I really need to be doing.

Next up is Radiology! Will write more later.


John

Friday, October 25, 2002

Pediatrics has been going really well, and I have a really cool team. All my patients have been doing very well -- they are simply adorable. I still think that I will like to go through a medicine subspecialty, but I'm really excited about somehow incorporating kids in my practice.

Tomorrow, I'm going to pay my respects for a dear friend. He has inspired me to become the doctor I'd like to be.

John "A Wild-Stars Wars" Fan
P.S: Thank you Anita!!!

Sunday, October 13, 2002

A suffering Minnesota sportsfan

Ok, I admit that I'm originally from California. However, I've been rooting against my hometeam Angels in favor of my newly adopted team the Twins. Aargh ... the pain, the agony. Only a page can save me now. Wait a sec ... I just got a page. I hope it's not another admission. Nope, it's for dinner. Cool.

Dinnertime,


John
P.S.: I really dislike the rally monkey!!!!

Thursday, October 10, 2002

It has been awhile since I've written a substantive blog, but forgive me in advance for rambling because I have just completed my first overnight call schedule at St. Paul Kids :)

My team is amazing! The residents are super nice, cool med students, the food is good, wonderful kids, great teaching, etc... It is probably my best rotation experience yet. Sure it started out pretty slow, but then I had two admissions and got 3 hours of sleep last night. However, during the down-time Brad and I threw my tornado red foosball back and forth to one another. We also made jokes about our fluid rounds :)

Anita's visit

My girlfriend came to visit me this weekend. I've been looking forward to that weekend ever since I started surgery. We had a brunch get together at Highland Grill with my friends Jessie, Gully, Tseganesh, Heather, Lydia, and JP. Yeah, it was the usual crew but I havn't seen them in ages. The night before I went bowling with JP and Kirk over at Rand-Ham. We then went to Stillwater to visit the antique shops, apple picking, hay ride, climb trees, and watch the autumn leaves. Afterwards, I made some apple pie (actually Tseganesh helped a little) and ate my Kiwi-Apple-Sugar-Cinammon concoction. The next day, Anita and I had an adventure locating Bethlehem Baptist church. We missed the first service, so we ate breakfast at this little underground water-hole over at dinkytown. Unfortunately I started panicking that we would miss the next service, but ended up being 15 minutes early to the next church service. This weekend was definitely one of the most special weekends in my life. I'm constantly delighted by all the little surprises that Anita thinks up. She always manages to bring a smile to my face :-)


John

Monday, September 30, 2002

Getting Published

I'm gonna be published in the journal of In Vitro (Cell and Development) :) Sure, probably only 50 people in the entire world will read it but that's ok with me. I doubt there are that many people who are interested in murine leukemia viruses or myogenesis.


John

Survived my orals

I studied really hard for the oral exam, but it was actually very straight-forward. Hmm ... it would have been nice for me to show them that I've learned a ton of stuff. On the other hand, I heard that the multiple choice test is exceedingly difficult. Oh well ...


John


John

Tuesday, September 17, 2002

It has been a really slow surgery service this week, but I still have a lot of reading to do. I've made up my mind that I will not go into surgery as a profession. Right now my top three are still internal medicine, pediatrics, and neurology.

Interesting things:

1. Listening to Derrick's (the intern) self-produced CD, Love is Amazing.
2. Getting a new nickname, QuickSilver

Things to do next week.

1. Study
2. Sleep
3. Surgery rotation


John

Thursday, September 12, 2002

Biking

I've gotten to enjoy biking. Now is actually the perfect time to go biking, but I don't have the time. Sigh ...


I love ..... ...... .....

09/10/02

John
Tying knots redux

The best part of surgery is actually doing surgery, not standing around with retractors. Today, I was fortunate enough to participate in the med school's animal lab. Although it was pretty sad that a pig had to be sacrificed for our education, it definitely bolstered my confidence in surgery. I had the opportunity to cut out the spleen, gallbladder, and do a gastric pyloroplasty. Sounds kinda complicated, but it wasn't too hard of an operation. I even had a chance to practice my knot tying skills. At first, I totally forgot how to do a one-handed knot but like biking your muscle memory automatically remembers and does it for you. That's the coolest thing -- knowing how to do something without actually thinking about it :)


John

Wednesday, September 04, 2002

Tying knots

I'm starting to get the hang of tying knots, but I'm still incredibly slow compared to my chief resident and surgeon. They are just amazing to watch -- knots flying like crazy, little squirters everywhere, tools flying around :) My legs are like jelly though after a 6 hour operation -- I can't imagine doctors who continue to operate past 20 hours.

Today I was pimped quite a bit by Dr. Tuttle, fortunately I was able to answer all of his questions during his Q and A session :) He did stump me on one question: What drug was Dr. Halsted addicted to? The answer: The same drug that John Belushi overdosed with minus the heroin.

Who is Dr. Halsted? Well, he is probably the greatest American surgeon of all time, a cokehead, and an icon over at Johns Hopkins.

Tomorrow, I will be on call. Fun, fun, fun ..... Slowing down .... Yawning ... Getting Tired ... Need my sleep ..... To be continued ....


John
P.S.:

Monday, September 02, 2002

Favorite Quote of the Day

"My friends like to tell each other that I am not really a born-again Christian. They think of me more along the lines of that old Jonathan Miller routine, where he said, "I'm not really a Jew -- I'm Jew-ish." They think I am Christian-ish. But I'm not. I'm just a bad Christian. A bad born-again Christian. And certainly, like the apostle Peter, I am capable of denying it, of presenting myself as a sort of leftist liberation-theology enthusiast and maybe sort of a vaguely Jesusy bon vivant. But it's not true...I could go to a gathering of foot-wash Baptists and, except for my dreadlocks, fit right in. I would wash their feet; I would let them wash mine."

Anne Lamott


Here I am in the computer lab procrastinating as usual, instead of reading Surgical Recall, and somehow I stumbled into this quote by Anne Lamott. Sure she is as diametrically opposite of who I am theologically, politically, but both of us are completely embraced by Jesus. By the way, I would let those foot-wash Baptists wash my feet too :)

Going to church in scrubs

You know you are addicted to foosball once you start going to church in scrubs. Here I was finishing my 28 hour surgery shift, (happy as a clam sustained by a Belgian Waffle with whipped cream and blueberries), figured I could get a few games of foosball before going to church. Unfortunately I didn't have time to change so I went to Park Avenue in scrubs. In the evening I decided to change into my bright orange Northwestern volunteer shirt for church at Stadium Village. (God is probably laughing at my dress choices :). After church, pastor John challenged me to a game of ping-pong. Even though we played with an orange ball (the T-shirt was a convenient camouflage), he still whooped my butt.

John

Saturday, August 31, 2002

Surgery call

I'm sneaking out of surgery to write this blog. Actually my resident decided to take a nap, so he sent me out to do some reading :) So far surgery hasn't been as bad as I expected. On the other hand, it will get a lot busier in the upcoming weeks. The residents have been really nice, but I still think that this will be my last surgical rotation ... sigh ... Anyways, neurology is still my favorite rotation so far. That reminds me, I need to take care of my recommendation from Dr. Ramirez.


Gotta do some reading,


John

Sunday, August 25, 2002

Miniature golfing and air hockey

I went miniature golfing for the first time last Friday. Pastor John was so surprised that I have never miniature golfed that he insisted that I try it out :) On my very first hole, I had a hole in one!!!!! I didn't do so hot afterwards, but he only beat me by 4 strokes after 18 holes. Beginners luck? Next we played air hockey, where I barely beat him 7-6 on the very last second. Now Pastor J wants to challenge me in ping-pong :) All in good fun. His wife is a very good cook, unfortunately she is going to Germany for 3 weeks so I won't be able to learn cooking from her. Hmmm ... I'm doing surgery right now so I might not have the time. Anyways .... procrastinating again


John
Sara Groves Concert

It was a really emotional event for everyone, because it was here in Cedar Valley Church of Bloomington that Sara Groves launched her career. My favorite memory of her night actually came from watching her two year old Kirby play air drums in the air. What I like most about the concert tonight were the lyrics since it touched on the Christian journey as well as relationships :)

I was really lucky to sit in the third row of the concert. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera along. I also got an inside scoop on Sara since I sat next to her bus driver, Mark. He didn't give me too much dirt about Sara, since she and Troy are some of the nicest people he knows. It's always nice to hear that about Christian artists you admire.

After the concert, I bumped into Amy, Jess, Becca, and Keith. Amy showed me the secret passageway into the church where she managed to sneak in past all the lines. She is very tricky (went through the fallout shelter :) Then Becca and Keith had to drive me to my car, since I was totally lost after going through the secret entrance. I wonder how many people were at church, since so many of us skipped. Well ... at least I helped with the church set up before going to the concert :)


John
Biking

All ye Mudders, do not fear! This is not a retread (bad pun) of my fearless biking accident :) I had the most amazing bike ride with Jon Parkhurst the other day. We decided to go on a random bike ride, and we ended up in one of the prettiest parks (Crosby Farm Park) this side of St. Paul. I felt like I was completely in one of the most remote places in the twin cities. It definitely is one of the hidden gems with a small lake and a cluster of wild flowers. Yeah, it was a 16-17 mile bike ride but it was totally worth it. After biking, Jon made an amazing spaghetti meal. I think it must have been the cooking wine and the olive oil :) We also had a really neat raspberry cheesecake dessert and some kiwi fruits. If you exercise, you can pretty much eat anything you want :)


John
Car troubles

I had the most unusual car problem :) Well, I knew that I had a slow leak in my tires, so I knew that there must be a hole somewhere. Yup, the mechanic found a nail ... that's not too surprising. The unusual thing was what he found under a hood. A mouse or as Anita would say, ewwwwww ....


John

Tuesday, August 20, 2002

Thrown to the wolves

That's one of my residents theory in training the medical students. Sometimes I'm afraid of making any mistakes, but the resident allows me to make decisions and sees me struggle to determine what things are right for the patient. Eventually he corrects me, but it still is pretty nerve racking. Anyway, it is a really good way to learn but sometimes wonder if I can be more prepared.

Breathing deeply,


John

Sunday, August 18, 2002

NWA World Perks membership

I have no idea what that is. All I know is that I have gone on a ton of Northwest planes without joining a frequent flier miles. I guess by now, I probably would have been half-way to a free round trip ticket. Oh, well ... Now, I'm really confused by all this proliferation of travel websites: travelocity, expedia, orbitz, cheaptickets, etc... I think that Orbitz is sponsored by all the major carriers, however for one multi-city jaunt that I was planning there was a difference of about $100.00 between the different websites. Is it just me or they are purposefully trying to confuse everyone? I guess all these airlines are in trouble with US Airways and United threatening bankruptcy. Hmmm ... another bailout I suppose. Ideally I would like an interstate high-speed railway. Oops, the government is shutting down the Acela train service. Anyways, I've gotta go back to working on Parkinson's disease.

Later,


John

Thursday, August 15, 2002

Last weekend

I'm just really happy that my good friends have been visiting me this summer. Last weekend I got a chance to see Anita Chang. She's never been to Minnesota before, so I could show her all the neat places here. We went to the lakes, took lots of pictures of Lucy (the cartoon character, not the skeleton :), ate wonderful ice cream (Sebastian Joe's), touched the Mississippi, made a great chicken dinner sans okra, and went to an open house. To be continued ...


John

P.S.: Someone just challenged me to play foosball.