Ultimate

So I have been playing ultimate frisbee now for a couple months. It's a sport with deep seeded roots amongst the hippies, many of whom continue to play at 50 years old and up. But that doesn't matter to me, it's still fun. I started playing with Garrett about two months ago, the same time he started, through friends of his from previous emplyment and amongst them, several church acquaitances. Even though there are a few players out there I would continue to consider better than me, I feel I have improved greatly and play at a comparable level to any one of them. I am no longer a useless member on the field. There are just those couple of players out there I have always felt portrayed excellent playing ability. To be as good as them would be sufficient.


That is, until last night. I have started playing with a different group of people that meets in NLR a couple nights a week. I showed up thinking I would have at least some experience on my shoulders and perhaps I could play better than just one person out there. WRONG! These guys, and a couple gals, are the city's best of the best. They live for the game and have been playing for years. They actually play by the official rules, which come with a learning curve if you're trying to learn them whilst playing. They did throws I hadn't seen, man-on-man playing we never practice, and counting of all sorts including stall counts. All of this was a whole new game to me. I had read the rules, but seeing them in action is a completely different story. I felt, once again, useless. And that's when I realized, nobody we play with on Saturdays is absolutely phenomenal, not Ramsey, not the Millers, no one. So it's time for me to step up my game - and if I am so fortunate as to be able to match the guys I play with during the week, becoming the new ultimate God on Saturdays will be no problem. (Not that that was my goal from the beginning, but I can see now how it can (will) happen.) You're on, Garrett ol' boy. The truly competitive spirit has risen.

Week 4

I am about to enter my fourth week of intensive course review. The first two years of medical school are spent sitting in class or standing in lab for hours on end, learning the so called basic science material. The remainder of our waking hours are spent studying said material. However, it isn't so basic anymore; not like high school biology where simply knowing where the femur was served sufficiently on a multiple choice exam, while the other possible answers consisted of skull, rib, humerus, and hot fudge brownie. The questions we are now faced with present a patient with a set of symptoms. That is all. The final question stem may be: What side effects do you expect to occur in this patient? This means we have to diagnose the patient, remember which drugs are likely to be used in this patient, and then choose the drug with a side effect appearing as an answer choice. All the while, keep in mind the potential lab abnormalities which may or may not be given which may mask something or be a simble red herring. The test for which I am preparing has 350 similarly worded questions over an eight hour time period. **Whew, sounds tough** OK, so I'll pass it, but to what degree? I have this week followed by three more to continue preparing. Better get to it.

The First Time

So this is the first blog, at least at this location and with this purpose. After wasting brain cells participating in the MySpace and Facebook craze, I felt it was time to fulfill a more mature purpose. I know I have at least minimal writing ability - I went to a liberal arts university and as some may have experienced for themselves, writing is one of the few things to take away from such an experience. After Rachel got involveed on BlogSpot with her movie review page Mrs. Thuro's Rants and Raves and her other page Mrs. Thuro's Life Rants and Raves, and then her friend Carrie got involved with Carrie's Lair, I couldn't resist. I have heard an awful lot about Carrie, and now, after having kept up with her new blog, I am even more interested in meeting her for the first time in a short while. While my goal may not be to get folks interested in meeting me, I think it would be great to attract a few regular readers, and perhaps give some people insight into what makes me tick, or get ticked off. For now, I leave you with that and will try to update regularly.