the world of Yobo..a life in DUO

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-20T13:42:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T10:17:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas!

May this Christmas be filled with hope, love, joy, and peace to you and your families!

Blessings,
Amara and Albert =)

2008-11-30T13:53:00.000-08:00

Hiking, Hiking

From Visiting the Bay Area (072508)

From Trip to Sedona (110808)

Tree, Tree

From Christmas Tree Set-up '08

Peak, Peak

From Hiking to Pinnacle Peak (112908)

Back to the Start

2008-07-03T16:36:00.000-07:00

Back to the Start

On June 3rd, I graduated from OHSU in Portland, OR and received my MD degree. Shortly thereafter, Amara helped me move down to Phoenix, AZ in time for me to start my orientation for my Med/Peds residency on June 11th. My first day of work as a physician was Monday, June 23rd. And since then, it's been busy and lots of learning, but I do feel privileged to learn and practice medicine.

Getting hooded

Shaking the Assistant Dean of the medical school Dr. Keenan's hand

Mike and I all gowned up

The Lai family visiting the International Rose Test Garden in Portland, OR

I have cap 'n gown hair

My parents and I visited the Spruce Goose at the Evergreen Aviation Museum

Here you can get a sense of how big the Spruce Goose really is

Visiting Multnomah Falls

My parents and I at Crown Point (where I proposed to Amara)

"Graduating" from the Christian Medical & Dental Association (CMDA)

CMDA leaders, old and new!

Visiting the Pike Place Market in Seattle, WA

Piggin' out at the Pike Place Market

Amara drummin' it up at the Experience Music Project

Who's taller, me or the Space Needle?

Look at the accuracy of my blind pointing

Riding the ferry to Victoria Island, BC, Canada

In front of the historic Empress Hotel in Victoria

At the Butchart Gardens

Big Chinese food feast

Mimicking totem poles

Parents' meeting for the first time dinner at McCormick&Schmick's Harborside in Portland, OR

Brunch at Three Degrees Restaurant with Amara's parents, my parents, and the Lums (our adoptive parents in Portland)

All packed up and about to embark on our trip to Phoenix, AZ

The car was fully-loaded to the brim!

Gyros lunch rendezvous with Jerm and Niki in Pleasanton, CA

All of my stuff on the floor of my new apartment in Phoenix.. this was packed into my car..

I finally decided to buy a dining table/chairs.. this is from Ikea.. $120 for the set

Thanks to Amara, the bathroom is the best decorated and most coordinated room in my apartment (note the flower arrangement on the left, the stylish candles, the cute little stack of washcloths, the fancy tissue box holder, and the matching decorative bath rugs). My contribution are the non-matching random assortment of bath towels you see hanging on the rack.

Hike Hike

2008-05-23T21:09:00.000-07:00

Hike Hike

Last week, I spent some time with Amara out in John Day, a small town in eastern Oregon. She's doing a 5-week rural rotation out there with Dr. Bob Holland, an excellent doctor who was just awarded the honor of being named the Oregon Family Physician of the Year. While there, we got the chance to enjoy the outdoors a bit, including some nice hiking. Last Saturday, after doing a 6.5 mile charity run to support the local Blue Mountain Hospital in the morning, Amara and I embarked on a fun trip out to the John Day Fossil Beds, the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center, and the Blue Basin hiking grounds. It was blazing hot, in the high 90's (I figure it was good preparation for moving out to Phoenix). But we did manage to complete the shorter 1.2 mile inside trail and the 3.25 mile outer loop trail. There were definitely some amazing and beautiful views (and I'm not just talking about Amara):

Status Duo'd

2008-05-08T12:02:00.000-07:00

Officially Status-DUO'd

Amara and I are now engaged to be married! =)

On the morning of Thursday, April 24th, I sent Amara on a scavenger hunt around campus that eventually ended at the fountain in front of the medical school where we first met 2 1/2 years ago. Then, after she was done with class, we drove out to the Columbia River Gorge where we went on our first hike together exactly 2 years ago before we started officially dating. While the sun was setting in the background, I shared with her how much I loved her, I showed her a photo slideshow I made on my portable dvd player, I read a passage from the Bible in Ephesians chapter 5 about husbands and wives, and then I got down on one knee with the ring in my hand and asked her to marry me. She said yes! After that, we went to a nice dinner at the Portland City Grill, which is a restaurant downtown located on the 30th floor of the BankAmerica building and overlooking the city. Amara called and told her parents about our engagement, and they ended up surprising us by calling ahead to the restaurant and arranging to order/buy a special dessert platter that said, "Congrats from Mom and Dad." It was very nice!

Here are some pictures from our engagement day:

I hope you are all doing well!

$25 for FREE!

2008-05-08T00:39:00.000-07:00

$25 for FREE!

Celebratin' Good Times..

2008-03-20T12:03:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Amara!

Yesterday was Amara's 24th birthday.. the fun actually started two days ago when I presented her gift to her early. I got her a gift certificate for 5-weeks of beginner Viennese Waltz lessons for two at a local ballroom dance studio. We had a fun time at our first lesson. The class was very small, too, with only 4 students, so it was almost like getting private lessons!

To continue the fun, I helped some of our very kind family friends come to campus yesterday at lunchtime to surprise Amara with balloons and a chocolate cake. Amara was so happy to bring the balloons around and get wished happy birthday all day along. Plus, she was the star of her noontime lectures since she brought a whole cake for everyone to share in.

Last night, a group of us went out to dinner at one of Amara's favorite restaurants, a Lebanese place called Nicholas Restaurant. She loves the spinach pie there.

Matched!

Today is Match Day, the traditional day for all graduating medical students to find out which residency program they will be going for the next step in their career training. This morning, Amara joined me at our Match Day festivities, which included a hearty breakfast, along with the presentation/opening of envelopes containing our future destinations. I got my (our) 1st choice.. I'll be starting up my medicine-pediatrics residency at Banner Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona!

Just before opening the envelope..

Opening it..

It's good news!

Yay, we're going to Phoenix (me first, then her next year)!

To congratulate us, Amara gave Mike and I some chocolates shaped like Guinness beer..

Mike and I both got our #1 choices (he's going to UCLA in med-peds next year). We are triumphant!

Ghana Trip Slideshow!

2008-02-12T17:03:00.000-08:00

With traveling, interviewing, and now back to clinical rotations, it's been a busy couple of months since getting back to the U.S. Consequently, I just finished making a slideshow of our trip to Ghana last week. It was great, because Amara and I were able to share about our experience with it at the Filo House, which is a young adult gathering from our church. It's not all-inclusive, but it certainly does highlight many aspects of our trip!

Up, Up, & Away

2008-01-17T16:44:00.001-08:00

For the past couple of weeks, I've been traveling for residency program interviews. It's been fun to visit different cities and states, although the process has been tiring and fairly expensive. Here are some pictures from my travels..

The University of Michigan Medical Center:

A locally famous deli with very yummy sandwiches (I had a corned beef reuben, which was delicious):

A Cottage Inn pizza.. something I needed to have as a reminder of when I was a child growing up in Ann Arbor:

A view of the center of downtown Indianapolis (the monumental statue there is actually very tall - 284 ft!) :

A nighttime view of the windy city - Chicago:

The University of Minnesota Medical Center:

The giant cherry on a spoon sculpture at the Sculpture Garden in Minneapolis:

Me taking a bite at the giant cherry:

A night-time view of downtown Louisville:

The Ohio River running right next to downtown Louisville:

2008-01-06T14:53:00.000-08:00

One final (and overdue) post to describe our final days in Ghana:
http://amaraandalbertinghana.blogspot.com/2008/01/day-26-and-on-sharing-is-caring.html

Thanks for supporting us by reading along and praying for us!

2007-12-31T15:25:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

and Happy New Year!

Life is short.. be sure to take a big bite out of 2008.

2007-11-18T17:35:00.000-08:00

Gone, Gone in Ghana!

For updates from our trip, please visit our trip blog: http://amaraandalbertinghana.blogspot.com/

Take care and God bless!

2007-10-24T23:39:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin Carving

Amara's roommate Heidi hosted a pumpkin carving party on Monday.. lots of fun! Here are the three carvations by the Shepottdorf household:

Can you guess which one Amara and I made??

Pumpkin Carving Pictures

2007-10-19T16:56:00.000-07:00

Images of the Recent Past

CMDA Camping Trip at Cape Lookout State Park

Happy Birthday, Yobo!

Congratulations to the happy couple, Annie & Sean!

The Lai family children get-together

Stirfry Dinner at Heather's

2007-09-03T21:07:00.000-07:00

Ghana Bound

On Saturday, November 17, 2007, Amara and I will be departing on a medical mission to the Baptist Medical Center in Nalerigu, a small town in the Northern Region of Ghana for 4 weeks. The purpose of this trip is two- fold: to further my education in medicine and to provide medical care for these people. Our clinical responsibilities will include outpatient clinic, inpatient care, obstetrics, pediatrics, and surgery. We will be treating many children suffering from malnutrition and typhoid fever as well as adults with malaria, pneumonia, tropical ulcers, inguinal hernias, pregnancy complications, schistosomiasis, hypertension, and anemia. We will be working alongside American doctors who have lived and served in Ghana for years.

In Charles Sheldon's book In His Steps, the townspeople of Raymond are challenged to live their lives and make decisions in the context of and response to the question, "What would Jesus do?" Interestingly, Jesus spent a large amount of his time healing the sick. In my life, I have been encouraged and motivated to do the same. This project is important to me because disease plays a disproportionately large role in the suffering of people in developing nations around the world. By meeting the physical needs of those who are sick and dying, we are then able to display the power of God.

Even though I have always been fascinated by the world of difference experienced in being in a different part of the world, I have not had a background of any short- or long-term international work as it relates to medicine. I anticipate that this experience will help give me a vision for future medical service. God has opened the door for me to serve in a ministry of healing that is truly a privilege. The opportunity to serve internationally offers a unique experience to work with some of the most impoverished and unreached people.

Excitingly, we have been able to apply for and receive several scholarships to help fund our trip from the Christian Medical & Dental Association, the Baptist Medical & Dental Fellowship, and The Faile Foundation.

There are still a lot of preparations to be done for the trip, so your prayer support is very welcomed! =)

The Baptist Medical Center

2007-07-20T00:35:00.000-07:00

Recent Recap

I finished my 3rd year rotations on Friday, June 1st and began my 4th year rotations on Monday, June 4th. It's been a while since I've posted.. so here's what I've been up to!

Went to a birthday dinner for my friend Mike at a Japanese restaurant, and then afterwards we watched Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. While there, I ran into my good friends, the Simpsons, and decided to take a picture with them:

Hangin' with the bigger-than-life famous family

Amara's mom was in town for a few days, so I thought it would be nice to make dinner for them. I decided to make some pork/shrimp water dumplings from our family recipe. They were a big hit:

Yummy, yummy, yummy, we've got goodies in our tummy

On our 1-year anniversary, Amara wanted to take me to go driving at the Malibu Grand Prix, but we didn't end up going because it was raining. Fortunately, we got the chance to go just before I left for California:

Our cool helmets make us both look like Speed Racer

After my Internal Medicine sub-internship rotation ended up June 29, I flew down to San Diego the next day to attend the wedding of one of my high school friend, Lisa:

Lisa's the one in the middle (with the wedding dress on)

Like me, both of them are going to be doctors. She's getting a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan and he's getting an MD/PhD from Duke University. Impressive!

Me with the happy couple

That same weekend, my whole family got together for the first time since sometime last year. As usual, we went out to eat dim sum. With our busy schedules, it's sad how rarely our entire family can be together, so decided to take some family pictures:

My brother is king at picture perfect posed smiling.. actually, we're all pretty good at it

On our way up to visit our friends Annie and Sean, Jenn treated me to an Original Blended Iced Coffee from the Coffee Bean, which I must say, was the best blended iced coffee I've ever had:

Sipping on pure, ice-cold coffee smoothness

While hanging out with Annie, we had lunch at Olive Garden since the Japanese place we wanted to go to - GoRo - was closed (it was July 4th):

At this point, I was pretty stuffed

After lunch, we played some Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution before going to San Marino to watch fireworks. It was pretty warm, but I managed to cool down with a tasty snow cone:

The fireworks were an impressive showing, probably because we were in a more wealthy part of town. Jenn managed to capture some of the action on her camera:

Happy 4th of July!

Sadly, I don't really have any more pictures for what happened during the next two weeks, even though there was a lot of fun stuff..

The following weekend, my parents and I drove up to the Bay Area so that they could spend some time with my aunt, grandma, and great uncle/aunt, while I was able to visit old friends. On our way up, we stopped in L.A. for lunch and to visit my brother who is living there for the summer and taking summer school. When we got up to the Bay Area, we had dinner with my aunt and grandma at a fancy Italian restaurant. After dinner, I left my parents and drove over to Jerki's, who are always very welcoming and hospitable to let me stay with them when I'm in the Bay Area. On Saturday, I visited Amara's parents and we had a picnic while watching her brother umpire a little league playoff baseball game. It was nice getting to spend some time with them in the afternoon. Afterwards, I had takeout Hooters wings for dinner with Jerki and JChan. Unfortunately, I was pretty sunburned from the afternoon, so I was very sleepy and had a bad headache. The next day, I went to church with Jerm at LSCC, then had lunch at Pasta Pomodoro with LSCC, and then visited my cousin who's a interventional radiology fellow at Stanford. She was touting the benefits of a career in radiology, which was fine, but not really for me. I then had dinner with Jon and Frances at Chili's, and then Jerm and I went for a late (10pm) showing of Transformers. What an awesome movie! I left the next morning to pick up my parents to head back to San Diego. Yummily, we had Yoshinoya (at the good one in Cupertino) for lunch before leaving the Bay Area.

When we got back, my life was pretty much a blur because of being home for most of it and just eating, sleeping, and studying (not necessarily in that order):

Hopefully, I did well on Step 2..

Here's a link to online albums for things I've taken pictures at recently:
Picasa Web Albums - Yobo

2007-05-21T22:23:00.000-07:00

A-A-nniversary!

Amara and I celebrated our 1-year anniversary last Friday by having dinner at the Chart House and going salsa dancing at Andrea's Cha Cha Club in southeast Portland. It has certainly been a wonderful and great year.. Praise God for this amazing woman in my life! =)

2007-05-11T09:04:00.000-07:00

OHSU 2nd Annual Student Volunteer Recognition Ceremony

Volunteer of the Year Award

The Volunteer of the Year Award goes to a student who has demonstrated a sustained personal mission toward service. This person exemplifies OHSU’s mission to a variety of service to both the community and the world.

The Honorable Mention goes to:
AMARA!

Amara is a great example of dedication to service on many levels. Amara has volunteered internationally in many countries. She served as a Spanish translator and saw patients in rural clinics in the mountains of Ecuador, worked with Northwest Medical Teams both in child development at an orphanage in Sibiu, Romania and in community building in Oaxaca, Mexico.

In the US, Amara has volunteered at the Lawndale Christian Health Center an urban clinic in Chicago, IL, during which she treated clinic patients, organized community health fairs, made house calls with physicians, and acted as a Spanish interpreter.

On campus, Amara helped create the Medical Spanish Society, a group dedicated to the development of caring, competent, bilingual physicians. With this group, she helped create a medical Spanish curriculum to be offered as a student-taught course for medical students with little-to-no Spanish experience.

In addition to her work with on medical Spanish, Amara has been the student leader for the Christian Medical and Dental Association this past year. As student coordinator for the group, she works to arrange speakers, facilitates meetings, organizes community service projects, and plans social activities.

2007-04-26T23:15:00.000-07:00

Yakima'in It Up

Amara and I spent Easter Sunday in Yakima, Washington visiting her grandparents. We had a splendid time chatting with them, visiting various local attractions, and just relaxing a bit. Here are some pics:

Teepee at Saint Joseph's Mission, a historical site

Delicious local wines and tasty, gourmet sauces at Piety Flats

Scenic point in Selah, the "bedroom" of Yakima

Me, Amara, Joyce, and Fred

2007-03-24T02:20:00.000-07:00

Backpack

Last weekend, Amara and I went out to go hiking near Mt. Hood, which is a little more than an hour away from here. We wanted to visit Trillium Lake, but during this time of year, it's still a Sno-Park requiring either skis, snowshoes, or a snowmobile to get around (and we didn't have any of those). Instead, we hiked a part of the Pioneer Bridle Trail in Zigzag, Oregon. It was quite fun to get out of the city and enjoy the freshness of the outdoors.

More pics can be found here.

Real-ty and Phone-y

My apartment lease was up at the end of February. Interestingly, I've been in the same small studio apartment here close to campus for the last 2 1/2 years. Since the rent is fairly cheap (although it's gone up $75/month since I first moved in) and moving is usually a hassle (except if you have inflatable and/or portable furniture like me), I ended up just renewing my lease for another year, which will make this the longest I've lived in the same place since high school.

Another contract I renewed was for my cell phone plan with T-Mobile. There were a few nice phone deals for me to get a new plan if I switched to Cingular, but the plans wouldn't have been as nice. Plus, switching would require me to have two plans for at least a month, and there would be a bunch of rebates to deal with. So instead, I renewed my contract with T-mobile for another 2 years and got a new phone. I went with the Nokia 6030, which is a simple phone that is capable of making phone calls well and not much else. Though the default ringtones aren't very good, the battery life is excellent.

Date Night

Amara and I try to have date night at least once a week where we get to go out and enjoy ourselves. This week, we went to try an Ethiopian place called Queen of Sheba. The food was quite good. We had a potato/carrot/celery dish, a lentil stew, and sizzling lamb with berbere sauce. All of the food comes served on this huge family style platter on top of large pieces of injera, which is a pancake-like bread that you eat everything with. There are no utensils, so it's all about using your hands (which is fun and can be romantic). The food was very tasty, filling, and a good value.

Afterwards, we went to the bowling alley for the arcade games there. We played air hockey, pinball, Ms. PacMan, Cruisin' Exotica, Wacky-Gators, and the Love Tester. Amara's quite the air hockey player. Our first game, we ended up tying 6-6 before the game timed out, but she had scored 10 out of the 12 goals. The second game, she beat me 7-4. For the Love Tester, Amara didn't do so hot (literally) and scored "Clammy." I, however, scored as being "Uncontrollable," which was (not surprisingly) the highest category on the machine. On the Wacky-Gator game (where you bonk on the gators as they come out of these little cubbies), the high score of the day was 89. Together, Amara and I whacked them silly and posted a new high score of 95. We're a great team!

Reader's Digest

Last night, Amara and I started in a new book together called Abba's Child by Brennan Manning. The book describes the significance of having a personal relationship with God and how we are to live our lives for that to happen. It's nice, too, because the book has study-type questions for each chapter to promote discussion and reflection. So far, it's been good and I'm looking forward to getting through it some more when we get the chance.

2007-03-19T10:45:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, Amara!

2007-03-18T03:01:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2007-02-17T13:47:00.000-08:00

Fun-derful

Whew, updates have become far and few between. I'm currently in my 2nd 5-week internal medicine rotation.. life sure is busy! Anyway, here are some pics from a couple of the fun-derful happenings in the past few weeks..

CMDA NW Winter Conference '07

Earlier this month, we went to the CMDA NW Winter Conference at Cannon Beach. The topic this year was missions, which was extra cool. We had encouraging and inspiring talks from medical missionaries to Africa, India, and China. There was also a speaker from a low-income Christian medical clinic located in the Tri Cities area in southeast Washington. In the afternoon on Saturday, we also had a chance to hit the beach for some sand-y fun. God certainly is amazing!

Yee-haw.. riding a bronzed whale!

OHSU students in front of Haystack Rock

Messages in the sand 1

Happy Valentine's Day!

Amara was super sweet this Valentine's Day (our first together as a couple!). When I came home, I was greeted with a huge hug and was pleasantly surprised to find a series of lovely notes decorated around my apartment. She even made me a very cute Valentine Buddy! We had a delicious salmon and pasta dinner at her place, which she made. Then, we spent some time reading the Bible together before heading out to go swing dancing at the Paradise Ballroom. A very fun and romantic evening indeed! =)

This note was just the beginning to a lovely Valentine's Day greeting..

Super cute balloony Valentine Buddy!

Amara and I with the Valentine Buddy

One big hunk sportin' another

Happy ValenSwing dancing in paradise (Paradise Ballroom, that is)

2007-01-14T00:18:00.000-08:00

Now and Then

Lately, it's been quite (and unusually) cold here in Portland, with the temperature dipping into the mid-20's overnight. Despite the chilly weather (or perhaps because of it), Amara and I decided to partake in some wintery fun on Friday by going ice skating. It was a rockin' fun time indeed since the ice rink features "Rock 'n' Skate" during their evening skating sessions on the weekends.

After skating, we were going to enjoy some TCBY (since I have a bunch of gift certificates), but sadly, they were closed. So instead, we picked up some vanilla flavored soy-based ice cream, frozen strawberries, frozen raspberries, a bottle of cran-raspberry juice, and a can of strawberry nectar and headed back to her place to make some delicious fruit smoothies. They turned out quite to be quite tasty and refreshing (and healthy, too!).

Now (1/12/2007)

and Then (5/28/2006)

More than 7 months later, the smiles are wider than ever.. =)

2007-01-07T22:46:00.000-08:00

Book, Book

Continuing on two book-based activities that we have been engaged in, Amara and I will be starting to read a new book together and also to work on a new memory passage. We just finished In His Steps by Charles Sheldon, which was a strong exhortation to make all decisions in the context of "What would Jesus do?" if he were in your place. We are now embarking on Captivating, a book by husband and wife John and Stasi Eldredge about the core desires of a woman's heart and soul. Here's a description of the book by Publishers Weekly:

John Eldredge became the Robert Bly of evangelicalism with his blockbuster Wild at Heart. Now he teams up with his wife, Stasi, to encourage women to connect with their deepest desires. To facilitate this, the Eldredges reveal in the first chapter what every woman's three core desires are: to be romanced, to play a role in her own adventures and to display beauty. (This formula will be familiar to Eldredge's fans, as Wild at Heart offered a similar tripartite model of men's desires.) The rest of the book is an extended reflection on these three impulses. Drawing heavily on popular films to prove their points, the Eldredges warn that most women tend to become either controlling or needy. Godly women, in contrast, should see God as the ultimate lover, and look to Eve (and not, say, J. Lo) as their model. Also, women should form close, intimate friendships with one another, à la Ruth and Naomi or the ladies in Fried Green Tomatoes. These are all unoriginal themes, which evangelical women's writers have been recycling for years. Christian readers who embrace a robust egalitarianism will not find the Eldredges' perspective congenial. Regardless, the book is likely to fly off the shelves, purchased by all those women who gave Wild at Heart to their husbands, brothers and dads. (Apr. 14)

The memory passage we'll be working on is James 5:13-20, which is about the prayer of faith. You can read it below:

Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

May you all be encouraged in your walks with God!

2007-01-04T18:59:00.000-08:00

Love, Love Quotes

When I saw you I fell in love. And you smiled because you knew.
~ Arrigo Boito

In the arithmetic of love, one plus one equals everything, and two minus one equals nothing.
~ Mignon McLaughlin

In love, we have to dare everything if we really love.
~ Alain Delon

Love conquers all things....
~ Virgil

To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven.
~ Karen Sunde

The only true gift is a portion of yourself.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.
~ Jean Anouilh

To love is to place our happiness in the happiness of another.
~ Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz

Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.
~ Antoine De Saint-Exupery

2007-01-01T22:45:00.000-08:00

Merry, Merry Christmas and a Happy, Happy New Year!

It's been quite a while since a post has graced the pages here at the World of Yobo.. so, it's only fitting that a new year should bring about a new entry. And a pictorial entry nonetheless!

In lieu of sending out any Christmas cards this year, please enjoy the online greeting card below:
___________________________________________________
December 25, 2006

Dear __________,

Merry Christmas to you and your family! I hope you have been able to
spend this Christmas with those you love and cherish. May the holidays
be a time of joy, reflection, and thankfulness for God's wonderful
blessings. Best wishes to you for the coming year!

Sincerely,
Albert =)
___________________________________________________

By way of picture captions, here's an update on some of the fun happenings over the past month or so:

Christmas tree set-up and decoration with friends at Amara's

Before attending the med school Winter Bash dance

Hanging with best bud David, who visited me prior to winter break

At the Portland Christian Center for their musical Christian program

Launching chimney sweeps back to their place of employment at the Dickens festival in SF

In front of the dance floor area at the Dickens festival

Golden Gate bridge in the background, taken while sightseeing at the Coit Tower in SF

Amara with mom and brother at Coit Tower with a view of Alcatraz

Visiting Amara's best bud Charity in L.A.

Cool mirrors full of faces picture at Charity's apartment

Amara and I with my sister Dorothy at a Thai restaurant in L.A.

Attempting to eat a 12-egg omelette, a half pizza platter full of home fries, and two big biscuits at Broken Yolk Cafe in Pacific Beach

Failing to finish a 12-egg omelette, a half pizza platter full of home fries, and two big biscuits at Broken Yolk Cafe in Pacific Beach

Amara and I at La Jolla Cove

Group picture of us post playing frisbee at La Jolla Cove park

Me on the verge of throwing Amara into the water at La Jolla Cove

Us with my dad making his signature water dumplings

Lai family photo with Amara (minus Dorothy)

Christmas at the Sheppard's.. so many presents under (and all around) the tree!

A happy and smiley baby Nathan

Robby with a stress relieving baseball

PJ and Samara with a Thomas Kincaide puzzle

Amara with a massaging foot spa

Amara's mom with two pairs of cross-shaped earrings

Heather with a tealight candle lantern with star-shaped light holes

Me with a splendid handmade photo frame from Amara

Amara's dad with a cute handmade serving bowl from her mom

Danny with a gift card that came out of and was lost in a huge box full of white packing peanuts

Amara and PJ playing the piano together

Amara and I posing in glassless hallway windows at the Winchester mystery house mansion

The Sheppard women in front of daisy-designed stained glass at the Winchester mystery house

Amara and I at the last rest area in California on our way back on I-5 back up to Portland

If you haven't seen my face enough yet, you can check out more pics in the two albums linked below:

Winter Break 2006

Happy New Year!

2006-11-24T16:25:00.000-08:00

Medical Missions

Two weeks ago, I went with Amara to Kentucky (a new venue for me) to attend a medical missions conference. It was held at a mega church in Louisville called Southeast Christian Church:

As a ministry of Southeast Christian Church, the Global Missions Health Conference (GMHC) shares the church’s vision to connect people to Jesus and one another. Stemming from the Missions Ministry at Southeast, which seeks to make these connections throughout the world, the GMHC extends that reach even further. Each year the GMHC connects healthcare professionals and students with one another and with mission workers, agencies, non-profit organization leaders, and ministers. Further, through main sessions and breakouts the conference provides information, training and equipping for medical personnel interested in ways to use their skills to connect people to the Great Physician, Jesus. The GMHC is the largest gathering of its kind. Networking among like-minded believers fosters action and unity regarding the call to evangelize every people. Christian healthcare professionals encourage one another in their faith and work—and the intersection thereof. In addition, the conference is designed to encourage all believers with special worship and prayer times intended to strengthen connections to God. The result, we pray, is worldwide impact.

It was a very informational, inspirational, and encouraging time for me to find out more about medical missions and hear excellent speakers share about their experiences in the mission field. The conference was big and featured awesome plenary sessions with worship, quality breakout sessions, lots of exhibitors from various missionary organizations, and yummy food (like they served Arby's and Chick-fil-A!).

One of the plenary session speakers was Dr. John Patrick, a retired Christian physician who now lectures around the world on many moral issues as well as the integration of faith and science. He spoke on the topic of culture and development. One of the things he emphasized was the importance of raising children with a love for God and a deep knowledge/familiarity with the Bible.

Another cool speaker was Steve Saint:

Steve was born and raised in Ecuador where his parents were missionaries. His father, Nate Saint, was the “Jungle Pilot” who was one of five young men killed in 1956 by the Waodani Indians (known as Aucas) whom they were trying to reach with the Gospel. Miraculously, two years after the killings, Steve’s Aunt Rachel (along with Elisabeth Elliot) was invited by the tribe to live with them where she was based until her death in 1994. Steve’s mother Marj moved with her three children to Quito, where Steve attended school, visiting his aunt and the Waodani during the summers. He grew up knowing the men who had killed his father and came to love them, to regard them as family, to be baptized by their hands, and to be embraced as a son.

The experience of Steve Saint is what the movie End of the Spear is based on. His lecture was entertaining and touching as he recounted his work with the Waodani people and the impact that they had after being transformed in Christ.

The breakout sessions I went to were:

1) Faith Enough to Walk on Water
2) How to Use Your Practice as a Missionary Site
3) The Top 12 Questions
4) Continuing to Follow Jesus: Living the Christian Story
5) How to Manage your Student Loans and Still be a Medical Missionary

A couple of these were more inspirational and the rest were a lot more practical and information-rich.

Amara and I were able to explore the exhibit halls and talk to many organizations and programs about doing short-term missions trips as clinical rotations for next year. Hopefully, we'll be able to find an opportunity for us to serve and work alongside one another for next November.

We didn't take many, but here are a couple of the pics from that weekend:

Amara and I with some of her Lawndale Summer Medical Project teammates from her time in Chicago this past summer

Amara and I in the main atrium of Southeast Christian Church

Growing up, it was on my heart to use my knowledge/skills/training/gifts to serve people. And thus, becoming a physician was a natural decision for me. More recently, the importance of reaching out to serve people's spiritual needs has become more evident to me. I never really knew what that would look like as a doctor, but missions (domestic or abroad) is something that I am very interested in exploring and until now, have not had much experience in.
For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

~2 Corinthians 4:5-6

2006-11-14T21:00:00.000-08:00

Here, Mi, Out

For the past 4 weeks, I've been doing a community health rotation with a family medicine doctor here in Eugene, which is about 2 hours south of Portland. I've been very blessed to have my weekends off so that I can travel for various reasons, the most important being to see and spend time with Amara. Most of the time, I was driving back up to Portland. However, two weekends ago, Amara took her 15 year-old hand-me-down Oldsmobile and made the drive through raininess to come and visit me down here. Lucky me!

I had an internal medicine scientific meeting to go to in the morning, so she came just in time for lunch on Saturday. We had a nice little meal in my apartment here and then decided to take a walk around the University of Oregon's campus. On our excursion, we had a melodiously delightful time singing what we wanted to say Broadway musical-style. We were inspired by standing in the middle of this amphitheater where your voice gets echoed and amplified back to yourself (it's quite cool).

Our voices set the trees ablaze in flaming oranginess

After our pleasant walk, to went for a fun jog up to Hendricks Park, Eugene's oldest city park with a world-renowned rhododendron garden. Unfortunately, the rhododendrons are not in bloom this time of year.

"I'm prettier if I don't stay unbloomed for the winter"

That night, we met up with Steve and Miwa (the Oregon Duck's best Oregon buddy) and had dinner at a yummy Thai place. I ordered a spicy basil fried rice. They have a funny rating system for the level of spicyness you can pick going from very mild to "extremely wild." I went for the "wild" (one step below "extremely wild"), which turned out to be a good level for me. After dinner, we went to their house and played an interesting board game called "Hear Me Out." This is a game that was originally made available through Starbucks stores (like Cranium) that has aspects of Scattergories mixed with an oral presentation part. It was fun.. I got to explain why "The Karate Kid" is one of my favorite movies as well as offer a strange explanation of where tornadoes come from. In the end, Amara and Steve had the most points and tied for the win.

Good game for the talkative

On Sunday, Amara and I went with Miwa to meet up with one of Amara's good friends Brian for breakfast at a movie-themed restaurant named Studio One. Afterwards, we went to a cafe briefly before heading to church at First Baptist Church of Eugene.

To round out our weekend in Eugene, Amara and I went to Sweet Life Patisserie on the advice of her roommate Chanda. They had a wonderful selection of delicious and tempting baked goods including cookies, cakes, pastries, breads, pies, brownies, and more. We indulged ourselves with a chocolate eclair, some brownies, and a tart. Amara ended up bringing a batch of goodies home for her roommates.

Parting with Amara was sad, but fortunately, it would not be long before I would get to see her again! The next weekend would be an enlightening and uplifting time spent in Louisville, Kentucky.. but more on that to come later.. =)

2006-10-29T01:05:00.000-08:00

October-fest

As October comes to a close, I've had a great time in Portland together with Amara.

Happy Leafy Autumn!

To commemorate the fall, we played amidst the colorful leafyness present on OHSU's campus. We first fashioned a loving message to all of our family/friends out of leaves. Then we took various pictures including some showing us having a little leaf war (which ended in a happy truce). What a fun time!

(If you stare hard enough, the leaves jump out and kinda look 3D)

(Carrying your leafy opposition is an unofficial sign of peace)

Happy Pumpkiny Halloween!

Earlier tonight, we went to The Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island, home of the original Corn Maize. The maze itself is quite large, spanning multiple acres, and if viewed from the top, has a very intricate and cool design that changes from year to year. Since Halloween is almost upon us, the maze becomes "haunted" in the evenings and features creepy decor and people who jump out and scare you. We had a shockingly good time. =)

On our way out, we picked up a pumpkin and brought it back to her apartment. After we gutted the pumpkin and began roasting the seeds, we brainstormed and came up with a design of a winking, smiley-faced sun with shining rays and a heart for a nose. I must admit that I wasn't very confident about the ability to carve such a guy, the realization of our design turned out pretty well. Yay!

(Look.. our outfits are color-coordinated, down to the very tomatoes we bought!)

(If he had hands, he'd be holding two scoops of raisins)

2006-10-25T19:51:00.000-07:00

Good, Good Times

Post Post
First off, if you hadn't noticed, I am no longer the sole contributor to "the world of Yobo".. please welcome Yomara, who graciously wrote the previous entertaining and insightful post. Isn't she lovely? =)

Here's a recap of some of the fun stuff we've been up to lately..

Frisbee Golf
A couple of weeks ago, armed with a couple of $2 frisbees I picked up from Fred Meyer (a local grocery, retail store), Amara and I decided to try out the frisbee golf course which is located behind her apartment complex. Who knew that it was such a serious sport and that you needed special equipment. Apparently, they have specific sets of frisbees with different characteristics to play. Depending on the weight and curvature, some of them are used as "drivers" and others as "putters." Those drivers are super cool because they can go super far with the right technique. In any case, we had a fun time going back and forth with our blue and orange frisbees and hitting the targets. In the end, Amara won for the day with a score of 7-6 on the 12 target course (there was one target that we tied on). Fun times!

Pleasant-town
Last weekend, Amara and I were down in the Bay Area to visit her family (who recently moved to Pleasanton) and to attend the wedding of Superman and Oregon Duck. Amara flew down on Friday while I didn't get in until Saturday morning. Upon arrival, I drove straight over to her parents' new house in Pleasanton in my zippy Toyota Corolla rental car. Amara gave me a tour of the house, which is quite cool with a fairly unique layout (and they are even planning to renovate some more and make it even more cool). Plus, they have four of the cutest and fluffy puppies playing about.

We then went to the farmer's market in downtown Pleasanton and enjoyed some fresh fruits and nuts. Afterwards, we stopped for lunch at a Spanish cuisine restaurant. The food was pretty tasty, although a bit pricey. Amara's dad was very generous and treated us to lunch.

1 + 1 = 1

"If love was mathematical
You'd understand the sum
To the heart's equation
Where one and one makes one
And lonely equals me minus you"

Kudos to you if you recognize which song that verse is from. (Hint: it's an old one from Michael W. Smith)

Going to Harvard and Cindy's wedding was quite nice. Not only was it a time to share in the joyous union of good friends, it was a chance to catch up with people and introduce them to meet Amara. She was well-recognized by readers of this blog (like YOU!). The best reaction to finding out who she was has to go to Pastor Josh, though. After being introduced to Amara by Jenn, Josh had a normal cordial response. However, when he saw her standing next to me, suddenly he realized the connection and did a triple take and guffawed, "Oh.. ohhh.. you're Amara!"

The wedding ceremony was held outdoors at the Palo Alto Hills country club. The pastor used an analogy of a violin to describe marriage, since both Harvard and Cindy were virtuoso violinists. The ceremony was followed by a cocktail hour, and then the reception. As usual, the food and company were excellent for the reception. I shared in the tastes of two entrees (prime rib and salmon) thanks to Amara. =) To conclude the evening, the dancing commenced and we lit up the floor for some good jivin'.

Back to School
On Sunday, we started the day with a yummy pancake breakfast (made my Amara's mom) and then headed off to church at LSCC. We then made our way up to Berkeley for lunch with Vince, Jenn, and her boyfriend Lawrence at Zachary's, a popular pizza joint of deep-dish fame.

Since Amara had taken me on a nice tour of her alma mater (George Fox University), I thought it would nice and fitting to show her my old campus. So, after lunch, Vince and I took Amara on a tour of Berkeley's campus, starting at the North Gate and making our way through various notable landmarks including the Valley Life Sciences Building (where I spent a lot of time as a molecular cell biology major), a peek at the Freeborn dorm in Unit 1 (the birthplace of Freeborn 102), and the Haas Business School.

Pick-tures

Over the weekend, I didn't take very many photos (mainly because my camera battery died inopportunely), but fortunately, other people (like Jenn) were more prolific with their picture taking:
Pics from my camera
Pics from Jenn's camera

2006-10-18T16:19:00.000-07:00

Quintessential Love
(by Amara in celebration of 5 months together) :-)

Food for Thought--Antipasto:
Before I continue with my main thoughts, I'd love to take this opportunity to say hello to everyone and let you know that I am very excited to meet you all. Albert has shared much about you--and with you--and it's clear that you are dear to his heart. My congratulations to Jeremy (whom I recently saw performing in his debut music video-- as a part of "Freeborn 102") and Nikki (whose lovely pictures Albert has shown me) on their marriage. Also, I look forward to seeing some of you this weekend at Harvard and Cindy's wedding in California!

Food for Thought--Insalata:
Ah yes, the refreshing goodness of a salad! The thing about this course is that there is a standard, mediocre sort of salad which so many people have come to both expect and accept. . . even though there are more yummy, better, or more fun ways of putting it together (adding a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, for example, or bacon in Albert's case). Anyways, this reminds me of common phrase, which could also be presented in a way that is more fun. . .

Have you ever dated someone and wanted to celebrate the number of months you have been together as a couple? How did you do it? Many begin with a simple, "Happy __ -month anniversary!" Yet I find myself somehow philosophically opposed to using a word that specifically refers to years (anniversary, coming from the latin annum, meaning year) to describe a matter of months. Thus, I have arrived at the following:

Quinquepertitum Celebritas!
(L. a celebration of five portions)

Food for Thought--Zuppa:
Now soup is something that I often enjoy, particularly when the weather gets cold, though I would like to point out that it can sometimes be unpredictable in both quality and flavor. If you alter the proportions of even a few spices just a tiny bit, you may find yourself surprised at the taste of it.

I have been pleasantly surprised a good many times as I have gotten to know Albert better these last few months. His sense of humor and adventure are so fun, and I've really enjoyed seeing him hip hop, break dance, and try out new moves in lindy hop, east coast swing, and salsa with me.

Here is something that may surprise you about me (and, incidentally, is also related to this theme of five). I am related to the famous Dionne quintuplets, touted as the first quints known to survive their infancy (born May 28, 1934). My grandmother even passed on some newspaper clippings and things she'd kept a few years back so I could do a school presentation about them. Here is a site I found with some pictures, archives, etc. It even has a link to the Dionne Quints Museum.
http://www.city.north-bay.on.ca/quints/digitize/dqdp.htm

Food for Thought--Portata (di pasto):
Okay, so by now you are probably wondering why I have entitled this blog spot "Quintessential Love." You have probably caught on to the fact that it is derived from the word fifth (coming from ancient and medieval philosophy, the fifth essence or element, ether, supposed to be the constituent matter of the heavenly bodies, the others being air, fire, earth, and water). But quintessential also has this definition:
--the pure and concentrated essence of a substance
--the most perfect embodiment of something.

This is the meat and pasta--the main substance--of the matter. Pure love, and its perfect embodiment, comes only through Jesus Christ. And in this love we are blessed to take great delight. Getting to know Albert has allowed me to see the beauty of Christ and His love alive and at work in his life. From sharing food with the homeless on our very first date, to sharing his time and his gifts with the friends he holds close, to sharing his thoughts and his gentleness with me, I am blessed and encouraged to see Jesus' heart in him.

Food for Thought--Dolce:
As you have probably all known for much longer than I have, Albert (aka: Sir Albert, Alby, Albywan, Yobo, etc.) is a very sweet gentleman. Here are five sweet things he has done:
1) Before we were dating, he bought me that cute little Patrick bunny (which he posted on this blog several months ago). He found out that I really liked bunnies and got the softest little critter he could find--so cute!
2) He sent me a hand-written card in the mail every week for the whole time I was in Chicago this summer.
3) He stayed up until 3 o'clock in the morning helping me put together candy-laden cards to the first and second year med. students inviting them to the fall kickoff picnic for the Christian Medical and Dental Association, even though he had to be at the hospital early the next morning.
4) He helped my roommate out by carrying her luggage across a distance to our apartment at midnight when she arrived home from her summer family vacation to Spain. (Chanda thanks you, Albert!) He has blessed my roommates and I by cooking us a delicious dinner the other night so that I could continue studying for an exam I had the following day (on kidney disorders and disease).
5) He rubs my feet while we read stories together (currently, In His Steps by Charles Sheldon)--how lucky am I to be dating someone so kind, caring, thoughtful, generous and sweet!

Five names, five portions, five babies, five elements, and five sweet things make up this delicious five-course "Food for Thought" menu. I hope you've enjoyed it!

Happy Quinquepertitum Celebritas, Handsome!

Love and Blessings,
Amara :-)
(aka: Yomara. . . yeah, hee hee, Albert told me about that)

2006-10-09T23:41:00.000-07:00

JERKI

Congratulations to Jerm and Niki on their joyous union in Las Vegas! Here are the pics from my camera from the weekend:

Pics on FlickR

2006-10-05T17:47:00.000-07:00

Picture Perfect

Last Friday, I was sad to find out that my digital camera was defunct. Sad because 1) I liked that camera, and it's captured lots of great memories/experiences, and 2) it didn't work to take pictures on my birthday, so I don't have any pictures from my fun night with Amara (except for a pretty poor quality one taken on my cell phone camera).

Anyway, with a bunch of important events coming up (i.e. weddings and trips), I decided to go ahead and buy a new camera right away. Looking for good deals, I ended up going with the Canon Powershot SD600, a nice and small camera packed with good features at a pretty reasonable price. It was just delivered yesterday, and I had some fun testing it out by taking pictures of things around my apartment. Check out the quality:

Memory Mantel

With my 1GB memory card, I can hold more than 300 pictures. The next time you see me, I will probably be snapping away.. I love having new toys. =)

2006-09-28T00:25:00.000-07:00

Memory-al Passage

For the past few weeks, Amara and I have been memorizing a passage in the Bible together. We decided to start with Ephesians 1:3-14, since it's a beautiful description of the gospel shared by Paul in the opening of his letter to the church at Ephesus. Here it is typed out (from memory, of course):

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love, He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will, to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the one He loves. In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace, which He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment, to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In Him, we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession. To the praise of His glory!

We haven't picked out our next memory passage, but it will likely be something to perseverate on (I'm in my psychiatry rotation now, and we use special terms to talk about the thought processes of patients. Here are some examples: "Linear" means the thought process flows logically from one topic to another. "Tangential" is almost the opposite of linear, where thoughts do not seem to be connected and associations are made quite loosely. "Circumstantial" describes thinking that seems to go all over the place but eventually settles in on the topic at hand. "Ruminate" is similar to the digestion in cows, where a particular thought gets mulled over and over again slowly, but the cycle does finally end and the topic is passed. "Perseverate" is similar to ruminate, however, the thinking never moves beyond a particular idea or topic. Most of the times, perseverating on something isn't a good idea. But if it's something from the Word of God, I think a great deal of good can come out of it. [By the way, if you hadn't noticed, this whole parenthetical portion with a description of psychiatry terms is rather tangential.]) Any suggestions?

2006-09-12T00:04:00.000-07:00

Living Water

The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. —John 4:14

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. —John 7:38

2006-09-11T23:55:00.000-07:00

Knighty Night

Reading can be fun, especially if it is free reading of a great book. A great book that I recently went through is "The Knight In Rusty Armor" by Robert Fisher. It's a short book that Amara and I would spend some time in the evenings reading together. The story tells of what it means to be a true knight and contains simple truths with profound impact.

On the same theme.. Amara picked up this fun book for me during her trip down to the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland (in southern Oregon).

Amara's my princess, and I am her knight.

2006-09-11T23:46:00.000-07:00

Bury Buried

..in sand at the beach, that is.

2006-08-25T20:34:00.000-07:00

Fun Fun Weekend

It's been a busy and long week (I'm doing a surgery rotation in which we have 12-13 hour-long days that start around 5:30am), hence this post about last weekend is coming out a week later. Fortunately, Amara got back a couple of weeks ago and we've been able to spend some quality time together.

On Friday night, we had a planning meeting of the Christian Medical & Dental Association for the upcoming school year. Afterwards, Amara and I drove up to Vancouver, WA (about 20 minutes north of Portland) to an Elk's Lodge where they were hosting a free swing dancing night. Amara's a super stellar dancer, and a good teacher, too! It was my second time trying to do the Lindy Hop, which I find to be a tricky/fast type of swing. She was very patient with me and showed me some cool moves.

On Saturday, we took a trip out to the Oregon coast and visited Lincoln City, where there are lots of good outdoor activities including hiking. We decided to take a trail in the Cascade Head National Scenic and Research Area which led to a great view of the Salmon River and the Pacific Ocean. It was a beautiful day for a hike. That night, we visited some of Amara's good friends from college, had dinner with them, played games, and then just chatted a bit. Since George Fox University (Amara's alma mater) was on the way back to Portland, we stopped there and she took me on a wonderful evening tour of her campus.

On Sunday, we went to church at Imago Dei in the morning, where the message was a special dialogue/conversation between Don Miller (author of Blue Like Jazz) and John MacMurray (photographer) about the intersection of theology and photography. It was very timely in light of our trip to the coast where Amara and I had just witnessed some of the awesome beauty of God's creation the day before. After church, we loaded our bikes and drove to a park nearby for a nice ride into town. We biked quite a ways and eventually found our way to Amara's old neighborhood where she grew up. Considering that neither of us had biked in a long time, it was good, fun exercise.

Here are some pics of the fun stuff we did last weekend:

*FREE* swing dancing in Vancouver, WA

A view of Salmon River near Lincoln City, OR

At the top of the Cascade Head Trail with a view of the Pacific Ocean in the background

Biking from Tryon Creek State Park to Lake Oswego

2006-08-17T15:33:00.000-07:00

Berry Berry-ing

On Tuesday, I was able to leave the hospital early around 5pm, which is a rare and treasured opportunity (especially while being on my surgery rotation). To take full advantage of such a beautiful day, Amara and I went on a nice little drive out to Sauvie Island for some fresh fruit and berry picking. Neither of us had gone before, but I heard from a classmate that it was a fun activity (he had gone with his wife and 2 year-old daughter). By the time we arrived around 6:15pm, many of the farms were already closed. But fortunately, there was one place called "Kruger's Market" that was open until 8pm. When we got there, the market girl gave each of us a small carton and pointed us in the direction of the berry trees. She indicated to us that the blueberry trees were very sparse, but there would be raspberries and blackberries for us. And the blackberries were extra cool because not only are they tasty, they were free to take! On our way out to the berry fields we saw a small sapling that looked like it had been ripped in two. My comment was, "now that's a sad looking sap--ling." Amara thought it was funny and said, "that's the kind of thing you'll put on your blog, huh?" And she was right!

The berry picking itself was nice. I was instructed in the technique of spotting/picking ready-to-eat, ripe berries. While the raspberries were fairly easy to gather, the blackberries presented a challenge because the trees were super thorny all over the long branches, stems, and leaves. Plus, most of the good berries were hanging deeply intangled in the thornyness. Amara was a real trooper and worked hard to get a bunch of them (and got her hands scraped up a little in the process). At one point, we saw a lot of good berries fairly deep inside the reaches of the thorny branches, but using teamwork, we were able to cash in on a big bunch of them. I stood on and held away some of the interfering branches and also grabbed her arm while she stretched forward to collect the berries.

Overall, it was a fun time with a fruity reward. While we were there, we also bought a lemon cucumber, two peaches, and a set of honey sticks (kinda like pixie stix, but with flavored honey instead of sugar inside). Surprisingly, the whole experience only ended up costing $4.66 (that includes the berries and the other stuff we bought). What a bargain!

Here are some pics from our time:

Amongst the berry fields

Starting berryless

Teamwork works!

The fruits of our labor

Fun times at Kruger's Farm

2006-08-10T23:39:00.000-07:00

Earlying

On Monday, I started my surgery rotation at OHSU. So far, it's been quite cool to see interesting operations and help manage post-operative patients. But unlike my pediatrics rotation, my days begin quite early in the morning because I have to pre-round on my patients before rounding on them with my team, and all that has to happen before 7:30am because that's when the first surgeries of the day start. For that reason, I've found myself getting up earlier and earlier, a process I like to call earlying. Starting on Sunday, this is how my week has played out in terms of rise 'n shine times..

Sunday - 8:30am
Monday - 8:00am
Tuesday - 6:30am
Wednesday - 6:00am
Thursday - 4:45am
Friday - 4:30am (predicted)

If you extrapolate this (based on a 4 hour shift over 6 days), two weeks from now I will have to wake up for work at 7pm. Of course, that doesn't make much sense because fortunately, the earlying process doesn't continue indefinitely. Anyway, the point is I should be going to sleep earlier since I'll have to be up in at fairly advanced hours in the day.

2006-08-04T15:06:00.000-07:00

P-E-D-I-A-T-R-I-C-S

To commemorate the end of our first rotation, Amara made a cool congratulatory poster for those of us who did our pediatrics rotation at Emanuel Children's Hospital. To sweeten things up, she creatively incorporated candy bars into the poetic message. The poster is so good, I could just eat it up (too bad I'll have to share with other people.. j/k). I'm such a lucky guy! =)

A fun and *tasty* work of art

2006-08-02T18:59:00.000-07:00

Good Eats

I'm really glad that Amara's back and that we've been able to spend some quality time together. Some of what we've enjoyed since she returned to Portland earlier this week is good food. On Sunday, we went to Newport Bay Restaurant and had a delicious time. We started with some turkey curry soup, and then she had the cedar plank salmon served over a cheesy risotto and I had the crab fettucine in a garlic and white wine sauce.

Yesterday, we happened upon a cute little restaurant called the Three Square Grill in a shopping mall near where Amara lives. From the outside, the restaurant was very understated and unassuming. But once we went inside, it was quite bustling (especially for a Tuesday evening at 7:30pm), and the food turned out to be quite tasty. We started with some crab cakes, and then she had a fancy salad while I had a roast beef hash (yes I know.. breakfast food for dinner? why not!).

Food is so good. I just went grocery shopping today and have the ingredients for a couple of savory meal ideas all ready to go for the coming week. Yum-may!

2006-07-26T18:54:00.000-07:00

BOTM

I have super thoughtful and awesome friends.. thanks to Jerm, Jenn, David, Vince, Annie, Jenny, Judy, and Yasmin, I am now an *official* member of the Bacon of the Month Club! You guys are great!

For the next year, I will be receiving monthly shipments of special varieties of bacon. I'm eager to find out what my first shipment will be! With the fancy "artisan, hand-made" bacon selections I'll be getting, I can finally claim to be a true bacon connoisseur.

"What a bright and shiny package!"

At first I was curious.. but when I opened it..

Look at all the goodies I found inside
(clockwise from top left: membership certificate, outer envelope, greeting card, bacon/piggie pen, two little piggies, Bacon of the Month T-shirt, gift handbook, informational quarter sheet, membership card)

The newest member of the Bacon of the Month Club sporting his official T-shirt and membership certificate

2006-07-22T17:13:00.000-07:00

Psalm 8:3-4

When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?

2006-07-15T16:42:00.000-07:00

Rolex Ad

In the spirit of the catchy contemporary/classical tune found in Diamonds Are Forever ad campaign by De Beers comes a Rolex ad with a cool tune first aired during Wimbledon.

Download it here and take a listen. Good stuff, huh?

2006-07-15T16:20:00.000-07:00

Stepping Along

A bunch of people have been telling me that our USMLE Step 1 results were available for checking online and that score reports should be arriving soon. Personally, I'm not one of those eager folks that has to check these kinds of things right away. So, I decided to wait until the score report came in the mail to find out how I did. But since I signed up for my test using my permanent address in San Diego, I probably won't be the first person to know my score.

When I got a call earlier today and saw on my phone that it was my mom, I had a hunch that she was calling me about my Step 1 results. That said, I listened closely to her tone of voice when she first greeted me to get an idea of how I did. She didn't sound worried or upset, so that was a relief. Anyway, the report had arrived, and she was letting me know about it.. I passed (praise God)! She'll be forwarding the report to me so I can see the breakdown, but it's good to know that it's truly done and over with (at least until Step 2 comes along next year).

2006-07-15T03:54:00.000-07:00

Wouldn't It Be Nice
by Beach Boys

Wouldn't it be nice if we were older
Then we wouldn't have to wait so long
And wouldn't it be nice to live together
In the kind of world where we belong

You know its gonna make it that much better
When we can say goodnight and stay together

Wouldn't it be nice if we could wake up
In the morning when the day is new
And after having spent the day together
Hold each other close the whole night through

Happy times together we've been spending
I wish that every kiss was neverending
Wouldn't it be nice

Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true
Baby then there wouldn't be a single thing we couldn't do
We could be married
And then we'd be happy

Wouldn't it be nice
You know it seems the more we talk about it
It only makes it worse to live without it
But lets talk about it
Wouldn't it be nice

2006-07-08T23:29:00.000-07:00

To my favorite person in the whole wide world . . .

¡hola, bellísima! =)

2006-07-07T23:59:00.000-07:00

Hiking in the Gorge

Last Sunday, I went with a bunch of friends to go hiking in the Columbia River Gorge. We went on several trails that all ended at waterfalls. With the nice weather we've been having, arriving at waterfalls was a treat since we could then cool off in the water (and boy, was it cold!). Here's a link to the pictures from my camera.

2006-06-30T22:25:00.000-07:00

Transition Week

Time to Say Goodbye, Goodbye

After my first day of orientation on Monday, I got to spend some time with Amara before she left for Chicago. We had dinner with her family, during which she shared with us stories and pictures from her trip to Ecuador. Afterwards, I hung out with her while she unpacked and then repacked. We were up quite late that night until about 2am.. I ended up staying overnight and slept on the couch since I would be taking her to the airport in a few hours. When I woke her up, I got a nice rise-and-shine-life-sure-is-fine hug. =) Dropping her off at the airport, I got another nice hug. I made sure to make it a good one since it would have to tide me over for the next 5 weeks..

On Call

During my first rotation in pediatrics, I'll be on call every 5th night, starting on the night of Tuesday, July 4th. Staying overnight at a hospital will definitely be a new experience for me. Hopefully, children of all ages celebrate the holiday safely by practicing firework safety and do not get into any trouble that will necessitate a visit to the hospital that night.

Besides having to do call, I now have the privilege of carrying a pager by which and can be called upon whenever. I'm officially leashed. When I first got my pager, it kept going off and sending me the random message "88." It was most unusual (and embarassing) since it was paging me during rounds (a session in the morning where we are giving reports on patients), and everybody was probably wondering why I was "so popular." As it turns out, the person who owned my pager number before had set-up some sort of call forwarding from their desk phone and it was going crazy. That person was likely no longer working at OHSU and the source of the call forwarding was no longer traceable. They set me up with a new pager number, so fortunately, the problem is now remedied.

Stuck On You

We have had two workshops this week featuring needles. The first had to deal with placing peripheral intravenous (PIV) lines. After viewing a demonstration, we practiced putting IV lines in each other. Since I was one of the last to finish, at one point during my second placement, the lights were turned out on me so that they could start a powerpoint presentation. While it can be tricky to place a line, just imagine trying to do it in the dark! Fortunately, it wasn't that dark and I was almost done, having already done the careful parts.

The second session's topic was needle safety. We learned to uncap, fill, recap, and handle syringes and needles in a safe manner. To practice, we injected bananas and oranges with saline and other fluids. The scary part is that approximately half of all students end up getting stuck during their rotations. While a lot of it is in your control, sometimes it is not. If you ever think you have a bad job, keep in mind that it is someone's job to sort/process through used/disposed "sharps" trash (which includes glass, needles, etc.). Always in perspective..

Supporting Life

Once again, I have been certified in the ways of adult, child, and infant CPR. Basic Life Support is one of those things that people expect all medical professionals to be trained in, and for good reason. While the success rate for being able to resuscitate someone is fairly low, it's always worth the effort to try and save someone's life in an emergency. In fact, it's one of the reasons I became a doctor in the first place.

At My Fingertips

Handy computing will soon be mine as I just purchased a Palm TX for use during my rotations. I've already begun to accumulate the various useful programs I might need while I'm in the hospital. Plus, with the 2GB memory card I have, I'll be able to carry lots of pictures and music with me wherever I go! I'm really looking forward to getting it and setting it up.

2006-06-29T23:12:00.000-07:00

My Girl
by The Temptations

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day
When it's cold outside I've got the month of May
I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way?
My girl (my girl, my girl)
Talkin' 'bout my girl (my girl)

I've got so much honey the bees envy me
I've got a sweeter song than the birds in the trees
I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way?
My girl (my girl, my girl)
Talkin' 'bout my girl (my girl)

Hey hey hey
Hey hey hey
Ooooh

I don't need no money, fortune, or fame
I've got all the riches baby one man can claim
I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way?
My girl (my girl, mt girl)
Talkin' 'bout my girl (my girl)

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day
with my girl
I've even got the month of May
with my girl (fade)

2006-06-24T16:06:00.000-07:00

50/50 Chance

I find it strange that despite advances in technology, accurate weather prediction still eludes us. Understandably, there are tons of variables to take into consideration, but we have very powerful computers and lots of satellites with lots of sensors to try and figure out these such things.

Case and point: The local news was ranting and raving all last week about how an impending heat wave would be upon us this weekend. Even reputable Weather.com issued the following Severe Weather Alert:

...HOT WEATHER EXPECTED THROUGH THE WEEKEND... TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED TO BE HIGHEST OVER THE WEEKEND...GENERALLY 100 TO 105 DEGREES IN THE INLAND VALLEYS...105 TO 110 IN THE UPPER DESERTS AND AROUND 110 IN THE LOWER DESERTS. TEMPERATURES WILL BE BETWEEN 85 AND 95 IN THE COASTAL VALLEYS AND IN THE 70S AT THE BEACHES.

If you're wondering where I live, it's considered to be in the inland valley. Now, guess what temperature it is here while I write this?

77 degrees is a far cry from temperatures "generally 100 to 105 degrees." No matter what the forecast says, the chance of whatever they say will happen (i.e. rain, a heat wave, or cloudy skies) can be regressed to a simple coin toss: there seems to be an equal (50/50) chance that their prediction will be correct versus incorrect. Regardless, I'm happy the heat wave isn't here for real.. otherwise, I'd be frying in my seat right now. =)

2006-06-16T19:01:00.000-07:00

SSS

Sunny San Diego

I'm currently in San Diego, having returned home on Tuesday night. I'll be here for about another week. So far, it's just been my mom and myself, but my brother will be coming home tonight with my sister. It's so warm and sunny down here.. this afternoon, we went to my mom's company picnic in Mission Bay. They had some good BBQ and some other fun activities going on.

Studying

For the past ~4 weeks, I've been studying for Step 1 of the US Medical Licensing Exam. Just like most other things on the path to becoming a doctor, it's a pretty big task to take care of. I'll be taking it on Tuesday, June 20th. If you happen to be think of me that day, prayer would be greatly appreciated!

Sayonara

My wonderful girlfriend left for Ecuador earlier today. She'll be doing some awesome medical missions work with Global Health Outreach for a week. I was quite sad to say goodbye to her when I left on Tuesday. The next time I'll get to see her is when I'm back in Portland on June 26th, and that will only be for a night since she will be heading out to Chicago the next day to spend 5 weeks doing some inner city missions work. What an amazing girl with a huge heart for serving God and doing His work.. Boy, I sure am going to miss her a lot!!

What a lovely couple we make, if I say so myself (which I just did)

2006-06-09T03:05:00.000-07:00

Top Ten

Here are the Top Ten Reasons to Get an Air-O-Space 5-in-1 Sofabed:
10. Inflates in less than a minute
9. Converts into a sofa
8. Converts into a queen-sized bed
7. Converts into a children's high-rise sleeper bed
6. Converts into a recliner
5. Converts into a lounger
4. Usable by land or by sea (floats in water)
3. Stores up more compact than the average sleeping bag
2. Yobo owns one (so you know it must be a quality product)

And the Number One reason to get an Air-O-Space 5-in-1 Sofabed is . .
.
.
1. You get that nifty superhero feeling (like in The Incredibles) of being able to easily lift your sofa to get under it when you are vacuuming.

"I have mutant cleaning power"

2006-06-05T14:43:00.000-07:00

Chicken Curry Dinner

On Thursday night, I invited a bunch of people over to my place to have a meal of some hearty chicken curry. The curry had big chunks of chicken, potatoes, carrots, green peppers, and onions. It was served over white rice, but also with some warm naan. As usual, I overestimated and ended up with a LOT of extra curry, which I joyfully ate for the next three days. Amazingly, there were a total of eight of us in my apartment, which is a new record for my small studio.

Mealin' it up

Afterwards, a bunch of us went to the CMDA graduation party where a couple of the CMDA leaders shared some encouraging words with the graduating students (and the rest of us). At the party, there were plenty of delicious desserts and good company, too.

2006-05-29T23:48:00.000-07:00

Life is Beautiful

Pizza, Pizza

On Friday night, we went to CPK for some pizza and salad. I haven't been to a CPK in quite a while, and there's only one location in the greater Portland area. We split the Original BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad and a Vegetarian with Japanese Eggplant pizza. They were both quite tasty, which is just how I remembered CPK to be. Afterwards, we rented "The Power of One" since it was recommended as a inspirational movie based on a true story. The film follows the life of an English boy who grows up in South Africa during the time of institutionalized discrimination and depicts how he becomes a force in reaching the masses through education and breaking down barriers between previously divisive tribes. Many of the scenes were quite saddening and evoked strong feelings of injustice. In that way, it was successful in moving the viewers (us). For that reason, I would recommend watching it if you haven't seen it yet.

Church and Brunch

On Sunday, we went to church with Jenn (who was visiting from Seattle for Memorial Day Weekend) at Imago Dei. The message was on being "living sacrifices," based on Romans 12:1-3. Interestingly, the Greek word Paul chooses to use in describing "bodies" is not the word for "flesh" that he uses elsewhere, but one for "the whole person." So, the application for us is to be dedicating all of ourselves (mind, body, spirit) towards being holy and pleasing to God. After the service, we met up with a whole bunch of people (a total party of 9) for brunch at Mother's Bistro, a popular restaurant downtown. I (along with 3 others) had the wild salmon hash, which was delicious! It wasn't on purpose, but it turns out that I happened to be the only person there who knew everybody else there beforehand. All in all, it was fun to get together with people (especially those of us who haven't seen each other much because we've been studying a lot for the board exam) and enjoy a good meal.

Skate, Skate

Sunday afternoon, we decided to go ice skating at the Lloyd Center. Ice skating is a great way to spend time talking and holding hands while still getting some exercise, unlike some other activities such as walking (which is nice, but not as fun) or running (which precludes the whole holding hands part). To follow up the chillingly fun experience, we had some of the country's best (frozen) yogurt at TCBY and played a game of I-spy (something I never played while growing up). She spied something silver that started with the letter "s" (that turned out to be a star cut-out in a display case), while I spied something blue that started with the letter "p" (that turned out to be a Pepsi advertisement banner). If you've played the game, you know that you can ask up to 10 yes/no questions to discover the spied item. The funny thing about how my mind works is that I wanted her to ask if what I spied was "something refreshing," to which I would've been able to answer with an enthusiastic "yes!" But in the game of I-spy, who would even think to ask, "is it something.. refreshing?" Apparently, only me.. heh.

2006-05-24T17:25:00.000-07:00

I Could Not Ask For More
by Edwin McCain

Lying here with you
Listening to the rain
Smiling just to see the smile upon your face
These are the moments I thank God that I'm alive
These are the moments I'll remember all my life
I found all I've waited for
And I could not ask for more

Looking in your eyes
Seeing all I need
Everything you are is everything to me
These are the moments
I know heaven must exist
These are the moments I know all I need is this
I have all I've waited for
And I could not ask for more

I could not ask for more than this time together
I could not ask for more than this time with you
Every prayer has been answered
Every dream I have's come true
And right here in this moment is right where I'm meant to be
Here with you here with me

These are the moments I thank God that I'm alive
These are the moments I'll remember all my life
I've got all I've waited for
And I could not ask for more

I could not ask for more than the love you give me
'Coz it's all I've waited for
And I could not ask for more
I could not ask for more

2006-05-17T23:40:00.000-07:00

Card, Card

For that someone special.. here's a cute/touching "thinking of you" card from Hallmark:

Makes a great gift!

If you order from the website, you can even get it personalized.

2006-05-11T20:15:00.000-07:00

Cover the Uninsured Week

Last week (May 1-6) was national Cover The Uninsured Week. I'm proud to say that OHSU students led the way in putting on the main events in Portland for the week on campus and in the community. For the week, we had a keynote speaker from Canada talk about their healthcare system on Monday, a debate regarding universal healthcare coverage in Oregon featuring one of the state senators on Wednesday, a panel of safety net clinic providers on Thursday, and a Community Health Fair to serve the community on Saturday. The health fair was hosted in North Portland at a middle school and included health screenings for adults (blood pressure, body mass index, vision, lead, and glucose), educational materials (diet/nutrition, safety, women's health, and organ donation), entertainment for kids (face painting, balloon animals, and coloring books), and refreshments (bagels, fruit, and water). The turnout was quite good, and I think we all had a good time putting it on.

Health Fair safety advocates: "Be safe!"

Birthday Dinner

On Monday night, a group of us went out to a nice restaurant downtown called Henry's to celebrate our friend Matthew's 24th birthday. We all wore nicer clothes because he was in the mood to get dressed up and go out (and what the birthday boy wants, the birthday boy gets). It was a semi-surprise since he wasn't aware that all of us would be coming (he was only expecting himself and a couple of girls.. perhaps we shouldn't have come??). Anyway, it was a good time of getting out to do something that made me feel less like a medical student and more like a working young adult (which doesn't happen that often).

Happy Birthday, Matt!

If you're interested, here are the rest of the pics I took from that night. (Matt astutely pointed out that he has quite a few attractive female friends.)

Run, Run

After our CMDA Bible study on Tuesday night, a friend and I went out for a nice evening jog. The weather was super nice, and the company was also excellent. We took a path down the hill from where I live and then back up. The run didn't seem too long, but it was still very challenging on the return trip since it was pretty much downhill in the beginning and then uphill on the way back. While I was studying, I decided to figure out how long the course we ran was by plotting it on Google Maps. I was pleasantly surprised to find that we had gone for a 3.8 mile run (which is the farthest I've run in almost a year).

A 6.1155072K Fun Run

2006-05-05T22:34:00.000-07:00

Yum, Yum

On Monday night, I invited a friend over for an Italian-style dinner. I was sorta inspired by the cooking show Everyday Italian on Food Network featuring Giada De Laurentiis. I made lots of goodies.. some fresh-baked ciabatta bread, butternut squash soup, basil-butter sockeye salmon, and a tomato-based creamy shrimp and tri-color peppers linguine. I'm glad that the food turned out pretty tasty and that it was well-received.

Hey Mambo, Mambo Italiano

Golf, Golf

With the beautiful weather, I was in the mood for some mini-golf. So, a friend and I crossed the state line and headed into Vancouver, Washington to the Hazel Dell Golf-O-Rama. For only $3 each (what a deal!), we took on the 18-hole North course. I ended up winning by 3 strokes, and as a prize, I was awarded an opportunity for getting a massage from my friend. I'm planning to save it for a time when I'm more stressed and the tension starts a buildin' in my neck. At that point, I will happily redeem that prize. =)

Calling out my hole-in-one

2006-04-30T22:32:00.000-07:00

If I Had a Million Dollars
Barenaked Ladies

If I had a million dollars (If I had a million dollars)
Well I’d buy you a house (I’d buy you a house)
And if I had a million dollars (If I had a million dollars)
I’d buy you furniture for your house (maybe a nice chesterfield or an ottoman)
And if I had a million dollars (If I had a million dollars)
Well I’d buy you a K-Car (a nice reliant automobile)
And if I had a million dollars, I’d buy your love

If I had a million dollars I’d build a tree-fort in our yard
If I had a million dollars you could help, it wouldn’t be that hard
If I had a million dollars maybe we could put a little tiny fridge in there somewhere.
“You know, we could just go up there and hang out.”
“Like open the fridge and stuff, and there’d all be foods laid out for us like little pre-wrapped sausages and things. They have pre-wrapped sausages but they don’t have pre-wrapped bacon.”
“Well can you blame them?”
“Yeah.”

If I had a million dollars (If I had a million dollars)
Well I’d buy you a fur a coat (but not a real fur coat, that’s cruel)
And if I had a million dollars (If I had a million dollars)
Well I’d buy you an exotic pet (yep, like a llama or an emu)
And if I had a million dollars (If I had a million dollars)
Well I’d buy you John Merrick’s remains (all them crazy elephant bones)
And if I had a million dollars I’d buy your love

If I had a million dollars we wouldn’t have to walk to the store
If I had a million dollars we’d take a limousine ’cause it costs more
If I had a million dollars we wouldn’t have to eat Kraft dinner
“But we would eat Kraft dinner.”
“Of course we would, we’d just eat more.”
“And buy really expensive ketchups with it.”
“That’s right, all the fanciest Dijon ketchups.”

If I had a million dollars (If I had a million dollars)
Wel I’d buy you a green dress (but not a real green dress that’s cruel)
And if I had a million dollars (If I had a million dollars)
Well I’d buy you some art (A Picasso or a Garfunkel)
And if I had a million dollars (If I had a million dollars)
Well I’d buy you a monkey (haven’t you always wanted a monkey?!)
And if I had a million dollars I’d buy your love

If I had a million dollars; if I had a million dollars
If I had a million dollars; if I had a million dollars
If I had a million dollars… I’d be rich!

2006-04-26T22:51:00.000-07:00

Hike, Hike

After taking an exam on Monday morning and going to a MedNet discussion session (we're in small groups of 10-12 people and talk about issues with other 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year med students), I ran into a friend on my way home. On a whim, we decided to go out for a hike that afternoon since the weather was so pleasant. Weighing our options, we chose to head out to the Columbia River Gorge since it has some great trails with lovely views when you reach your destination. We were not disappointed.. the hike was invigorating and fun!

The rock cliffs of Angels Rest, accessible from a well-maintained trail, tower 1,500 feet above the Columbia River Gorge in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. The trail is certain to test your aerobic endurance but includes enough alluring distractions to keep your mind off the elevation gain. As a reward for all of your hard work, there is a first-rate view of the Columbia River Gorge from the top. Trail Surface: Dirt trail with occasional rocky and muddy sections.

2006-04-21T23:57:00.000-07:00

Swing, Swing

Last night, I had a great time with a friend for some free swing dancing (lesson plus open dance) at a place called Nocturnal in southeast Portland. We had a fun time learning some new moves (actually, it was mainly just me learning because she is an accomplished dancer) and then practicing them on the dance floor. I wish I knew more and was more polished, because then I would be able to lead better and could show a girl a better time. Afterwards, the two of us were quite thirsty and in the mood for smoothies. But being 10pm at night, there really weren't any places open besides Starbucks and some bars. Fortunately, Starbucks had a blended, iced strawberry/lemonade drink that was very reminiscent of a Jamba Juice Strawberries Wild (which is my favorite Jamba).

2006-04-15T23:52:00.000-07:00

Dumpling Dinner and Game Night

Earlier tonight, I had some friends over for dinner and a game night. We made some delicious dumplings using the Lai family recipe (it's quite simple actually, and not a secret.. so feel free to ask me if you want it). Afterwards, we played a few board games including Outburst, Taboo, Funny Bones (a Twister like game using cards), and Loaded Questions. Even though my place is small, I enjoy having company over.

Homemade pork/shrimp dumplings

Game night galore

The rest of the pics can be found on FlickR.

2006-04-07T00:16:00.000-07:00

Ute Cute

Spring time brings out many things.. the sun, the flowers, and even new products. FAO Schwarz has come out with a couple of exclusive Patrick and Penelope the Pup plush toys dressed as spring bunnies. Cute, huh? I think the Patrick will make a great gift..

It doesn't get much cuter than animals dressed as other animals

2006-04-01T20:57:00.000-08:00

"But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice." ~Philippians 1:18

It kind of surprised me (but pleasantly) to hear this Christian song by Kutless being played at the end of the most recent Scrubs episode..

All of the Words
by Kutless

How do I speak of the indescribable to You
I will try to explain these feelings that are true
So looking to the sky I will sing and from my heart to You I bring

All of the words in all of my life that could never explain and never describe
All of my love, which is nothing to hide so I lift up my hands and I worship
I worship You

In your presence I forever choose to live
I will praise You for it's all I have to give
So looking to the sky I will sing and from my heart to You I bring

All of the words in all of my life that could never explain and never describe
All of my love, which is nothing to hide so I lift up my hands and I worship

By Your grace You let me come talk to You
It's not that I'm worthy I thank you Jesus
For the love that You have shown

All of the words in all of my life that could never explain and never describe
All of my love, which is nothing to hide so I lift up my hands and I worship

With all of the words in all of my life that could never explain and never describe
All of my love, which is nothing to hide so I lift up my hands and I worship
I worship You

2006-03-31T22:47:00.000-08:00

Relaxin' a la Bay Area

For Spring Break this year, I decided not to go all the way down to San Diego. Instead, I spent most of the time in the Bay Area. It wasn't super eventful, but I did get the chance to see a bunch of people and relax a bit. Here's a quick recap (not all inclusive, and a lot of it is describing what I ate)..

Friday: After being bored for an hour, I picked up and left at 1:30pm to spend the next 10 hours driving.

Saturday: I went with a bunch of people to Great America, courtesy of Jeremy providing tickets for Lockheed Martin day. That night, I met up with Angela, Edena, Frances, Jon, and Gerald for dinner at Sushi House in Alameda.

Sunday: Went to LSCC for church, had a great buffet lunch catered by the Crown Plaza Hotel people, played a bunch of basketball in the afternoon, and then had lots of Arby's for dinner.

Monday: Had breakfast at Jack in the Box, took Danny to his job interview while I watched Superman I (the movie), and then met up with Cindy, Harvard, Jon, Gerald, and Alan for dinner at Little Sichuan in downtown Foster City.

Tuesday: Had Krispy Kreme for breakfast, Yoshinoya for lunch, went to a Subaru dealership for a test drive, and then met up with Vince and his girlfriend for dinner at Fresh Choice.

Wednesday: Looked at motorcycle gear in the morning, had lunch at IHOP, watched V for Vendetta, and then met up with Chia, Eileen, Edena, Cindy, Jon, and Angela for a delicious dumpling dinner at Shan Dong in Oakland Chinatown.

Thursday: Had breakfast at McDonald's (steak, egg, and cheese bagel!), then left to drive back up to Portland.

I hardly took any pictures this break, but Jerm took some at Great America and I took one at Sushi House:

Fun at Great America

Dinner at Sushi House

2006-03-24T11:38:00.000-08:00

Spring Break..

.. it begins!

A t-shirt answered

2006-03-19T23:34:00.000-08:00

Best Places to Live

While it has been rainy and cold for most of the year, there have been a few choice days in which the sun has come out and made it a beautiful place. Unfortunately, these sunny days have coincided with pre-examination study days. Despite this, I still managed to take a nice hour and a half walk up to Council Crest Park (the highest place in the city) for a great study break with a friend. The wonderful views of the city and the sunset helped support the notion that Portland is a great place to live..

Best of the Best: Portland, OR

2006-03-13T22:55:00.000-08:00

Weekend Update

Brain & Body Fair

As a part of the OHSU Brain Awareness program, I volunteered at the 7th Annual OHSU Brain & Body Fair, which was held at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) on Friday afternoon. The fair featured exciting activities and exhibits for all ages to demonstrate the tremendous ability and potential of the brain. I worked with the Parkinson's Center of Oregon people at a booth talking about tremor. We had a strap-on device that fit on kids' arms to simulate a tremor (a fancy word for shaking). This way, the kids could see what it was like to try and write with a tremor. Some of my other classmates were volunteering at the brain dissection table, where kids could see the anatomy of a real brain. Before leaving for the evening, the event sponsors were quite generous and gave us a pizza/beer dinner after the exhibit closed.

Dinner and a Movie

On Saturday night, I went out with some friends to Virginia Cafe for dinner and happy hour. My meal consisted of a $2 vodka/coke and a pretty good mushroom swiss burger with fries. Afterwards, we headed over to the Regal cinemas to see the Academy Award winning (for best director Ang Leee) movie, Brokeback Mountain. I thought it was a bit slow at first, but the story did start to move along and the cinematography of Montana's beautiful landscape was quite nice. Overall, I thought it was a pretty good movie.

Double D

My friend here sent out a funny e-mail at 4 in the morning (apparently while she was still inebriated) inviting people over for dinner. She mentioned that although she would never have "double d's," we could still have a double d (dumpling dinner, that is). So, a bunch of us gathered on Sunday night to eat dumplings while watching the movie Ever After followed by Grey's Anatomy. I helped (along with two other people) in the production of approximately 200 dumplings, which contained pork, cabbage, mushroom, green onion, and ginger. Homemade dumplings sure are good and yummy.

Slimming down

I've been going back and forth between getting an LCD monitor for a while. In all honesty, I really have no NEED for one, but it would be nice to have. Not only would it be bigger (I wanted a 19", which would be 3" larger than the viewable portion of my 17" CRT), but it would save me electricity, give me more space on my desk, and supposedly, be better for my eyes. Late last night, I saw a deal that I just couldn't pass up. I was able to snag a Viewsonic VA902b 19" Flat Panel LCD Monitor from Office Depot for $160 after mail-in-rebates, shipped free!

I hope it doesn't have any dead pixels.. I'm excited to watch tv on a screen reasonably as big as a normal tv.

2006-03-09T18:04:00.000-08:00

Let It Snow

A storm moved in last night and we got a bunch of snow here in Portland. It was quite a sight this afternoon to see the blizzardiness coming down. This just reinforces how wet of a year it has been. If I didn't have a test tomorrow morning to study for, I'd probably be messing around in the snow..

Winter Wonderland

2006-03-06T14:44:00.000-08:00

Samson-ite

To me, being able to bench press a lot more an indicator of how often you work out rather than how strong you actually are (unless you're able to bench 460 pounds like Ben Wallace does.. now that's crazy STRONG). That said, I've been working out more often and have seen the amount of weight I'm able to put up increase as a result. Interestingly, it's coincided with a spell of time during which I haven't cut my hair. As my last haircut was on January 12, it's getting close to two months since my last trim. False logic could conclude that the concomitant increases strength and hair are linked. But fortunately, I'm no Samson and they are not. Still debating on how long I can hold out from cutting my hair..

2006-02-28T21:38:00.000-08:00

Soup Like a Solid

The "Signature" soups from Safeway are quite good. I recently enjoyed a bowl of the Tuscan Tomato & Basil Bisque. As a liquid, you'd expect it to be thirst quenching. This it was definitely not. After finishing a hearty serving, I was more thirsty than ever. I should've been clued in by the semi-gelatinous state it was in before being heated. Despite my hankering for a hose of water, the soup was both flavorful and rich. I think if I put in some lobster, it would near perfection by becoming a very tasty and delicious lobster bisque.

2006-02-27T03:49:00.000-08:00

The Medical Field

Here are two amusing things I found online related to medicine..

I'm Too Sexy.. By Association

According to a recent poll, 10% of people think being a doctor is the sexiest job:

Sexiest Jobs 2006

Picking a Specialty

There are many kinds of doctors, and for most people, it's a hard decision to choose a field to go into. Enter this handy chart:

Follow your personality path

Note, the first criteria to evaluate is whether you are "crazy" or "sane," which could prove to be quite difficult if you actually were crazy (and arguably, most medical students are).

2006-02-22T18:06:00.000-08:00

Paper Clips

Paper clips can be real handy. Besides holding loose papers together, in the past, I've used them to make a small rubberband bow/arrow and to pick certain locks. And now, the triumph of the conducting metal wire composition is mine. I finally figured out what I think to be a fix for the electricity in my apartment, and it comes in the form of a paper clip which I use to fill a gap at the insertion point of this one pipe into another fitting. I hope this fix lasts!

2006-02-16T13:29:00.000-08:00

Movie Reviews

If you have some time to spare and brain cells to kill, you can be like me and view a bunch of not-so-hot movies. During the past week, I watched Cradle 2 the Grave, The Legend of Zorro, and Proof.

5 hours of movies.. about 4 1/2 hours wasted

Cradle 2 the Grave

Synopsis: DMX plays a thief who has stolen "black diamonds" that are sought after by both a group of deadly criminals as well as Jet Li's character.

This movie totally reminds me of "Exit Wounds," which stars Steven Seagal and is directed by the same guy. Tom Arnold and Anthony Anderson are entertaining and provide good comic relief. The action scenes are decent, especially if you like watching Jet Li kick the butts of multiple fighters at the same time. Interestingly, the main villain is played by the guy who hosts Iron Chef America. Just another way that food and fighting are related besides the cafeteria concept of "food fights."

Rating: * * *

Bottom line: Fans of Romeo Must Die and Exit Wounds will enjoy this deja vu experience. Others probably won't.

The Legend of Zorro

Synopsis: On the verge of California's admission into the Union, Antonio Banderas is back as Zorro with the help of wife Catherine Zeta-Jones and their son to foil a plot against the U.S.

Humor should be funny, but this movie's attempt at it was not successful. It had the flavor of Disney-like cheesiness, but poorly placed and ineffectively delivered. The swashbuckling action scenes were consistent with past movies and, consequently, fairly unimpressive. I had trouble even finishing the movie due to sleepiness and boredom.

Rating: * *

Bottom line: It's always difficult for a sequel to beat the original. This one doesn't even come close.

Proof

Synopsis: Gwyneth Paltrow plays the daughter of a renowned mathematical genius who has lost his mind.

The movie itself wasn't particularly good or bad, but I didn't enjoy it much. A large part of the movie is depicted through flashbacks, which makes it seem a bit disjointed. Anthony Hopkins is a quality actor and does a good job of portraying the father/professor who Gwyneth Paltrow has to take care of. I struggled with viewing the struggles of Gwyneth's character trying to prove she was not crazy like her father.

Rating: * *

Bottom line: If you think the glory of math reknown is cool, watch and learn (and experience for yourself) the "crazy" price that must be paid for such acclaim.

2006-02-09T22:57:00.000-08:00

Memory Rich

Since my current hard drive was starting to have some problems, I decided to buy a new one. I upgraded to a generous 300GB drive because it was a good value (~$0.33 per GB) and I figured that it doesn't hurt to have more space (I was actually starting to run out of space on my old 120GB drive).

Out of all the major hard drive manufacturers I know of (Western Digital, Seagate, IBM, Hitachi, Fujitsu, and Maxtor.. sorted roughly in the order of quality/reliability in my opinion), the one I've had the worst experience with and consequently trust the least is Maxtor. Ironically, if you take a peek inside the case of my computer, there are THREE Maxtor brand hard drives sitting in there (only one was connected, but that's the one that is having problem). Every Maxtor drive I've owned (a total of 4) has eventually succumbed to problems resulting in data loss. Why do I have Maxtor drives? The bottom line is that are cheaper than the rest (and one of them, I even got for free because my parents won it at raffle at a company party), and to be fair, they did last a decent amount of time before breaking down.

That said, I decided to take a different route and went with buying a Seagate this time. So far, everything's been working fine. I installed it and got it set-up as my primary slave drive (formatting it took forever), and am now in the slow process of moving all of my files over from the old drive. This large amount of time spent doing "computer stuff" really reminds me of when I used to similar things in middle school. How times have changed..

Walking along Cannon Beach

2006-02-05T19:21:00.000-08:00

Faith and Science

This past weekend, I attended a Christian Medical and Dental Association retreat in Cannon Beach. The theme for the conference was "The Perfect Partnership: Faith, Science and ‘Medicine,’" and it featured speakers talking about science revealing the fingerprint of God, faith at the bedside, the practice of compassion, and more. I really enjoyed the talks by Dr. Gary Ott, MD (a Christian cardiothoracic surgeon) because his presentations offered some good evidence of the implausibility of evolution as a mechanism for life as we recognize it. But more than that, he gave a separate presentation analyzing a few studies on the role of physicians in providing spiritual care to patients.

Amazingly, there were ~100 mph winds accompanying the storm that came on Friday night, but fortunately, the weather after that was quite good. The food at this conference was also very good. On Saturday night, there was a talent/skit portion. The show was composed mostly of kids performing on musical instruments and some people sharing jokes/humorous stories with the group.

After the conference was over on Sunday, some of us enjoyed the pleasant weather and took a walk along the beach before heading back to Portland. I didn't end up taking pictures during the conference, but here are a couple from our walk on the beach:

A beautiful view created by a beautiful Maker

Walking along Cannon Beach

Originally uploaded by albywan777.

2006-01-30T00:18:00.000-08:00

Happy Chinese New Year!

All last week, I was thinking that I should call my mom this weekend and wish her a Happy Chinese New Year. But then on Friday, I realized that she wasn't going to be home (because she's in Taiwan visiting my dad for, duh, Chinese New Year's). So much for that plan..

On Saturday, I was invited to a classmates' house for dinner with her family and a couple other classmates. It was nice to have a good, Chinese-style homecooked meal. We even had the black moss or "hair vegetable" dish, which in Cantonese is called "fat choy." It's traditionally consumed on New Year's to symbolize prosperity, but apparently, the sale of it is illegal because it's getting over-harvested. Kind of makes me wonder how they got it, but whatever.

After dinner we were browsing through this book that tells your fortune for the coming year based on when you were born according to the Chinese zodiac. Supposedly, I'll be having a pretty good year career-wise, but love-wise, since I'm single, I'll most likely stay single. Also, I'm supposed to watch out because some physical harm is bound to come to me. A way to prevent more serious harm would be to intentionally "hurt" myself by donating blood or something like that.

2006-01-29T23:22:00.000-08:00

Cool New Stuff

Here's some cool new stuff that I saw on www.popsci.com.

TV Anywhere

Speedier networks and fancier phones are paving the way for TV-quality video on the go. If I had a longer commute or more free-time, I could really benefit from these such devices.

TV Phones

Flatless Tires

When I was a kid, I used to draw and make up the specs for my futuristic dream car. The two main features for me was that it was going to be really fast/powerful and nearly indestructible. To be indestructible/unstoppable, the car needed special tires (being the main weakpoint to me). So, I had the idea of making puncture resistant metal/rubber tires (picture a center-mountable, hollow metal donut that is coated with rubber). While this is not exactly the same as what's pictured below, I still think my idea is cool (albeit not entirely feasible).

Michelin Tweel

"Michelin aims to eliminate flats and blowouts with its remarkable Tweel concept, an airless one-piece wheel-and-tire combo that could soon enter production. The Tweel's hub connects to polyurethane spokes that assume the shock-absorbing role of a traditional tire's sidewall. The spokes are bonded to a reinforced rubber tread band that can be as specialized as today's tires. By varying the thickness and size of the spokes, Michelin can generate a wide array of ride and handling qualities."

2006-01-24T00:01:00.000-08:00

TENnis

Martina Hingis is back in the women's tennis scene and she's serious about winning. Once I started watching her round of 16 match in the Australian Open tonight, I couldn't stop. Not only is she cute and rich, but she's great at tennis, too. That makes her a 10 in my book.. I think I may have a crush on her. And if that weren't enough, we are also almost birthday buddies (she was born September 30, 1980), making me a single day older than her (which is important for reasons I'm not entirely aware of).

It'll be tough, but I hope she goes all the way and wins the title. =)

The Swiss Miss winning her match and my attention

2006-01-21T16:47:00.000-08:00

Popped Secret

The secret is out. In an attempt to eat a bit healthier, I've discovered a delicious (and surprisingly low calorie) snack: microwave popcorn. Post-popping, each bag of hot 'n buttery goodness has only 105 calories, with no cholesterol, and it's relatively low in sodium, too. Consequently, I have since stocked up on my favorite brand Pop Secret (butter flavored) at a very reasonable price ($3.29 per box of 3 bags, buy one get one free at Safeway, minus a $0.50 off coupon = $0.47 per bag). Yum-may!

A peek in Yobo's cupboard

2006-01-14T22:56:00.000-08:00

Blackpack

My backpack is falling apart. A couple of seams are coming undone, and there is a decently large rip.hole in the top of the main compartment. This bag is one that I've had since my sophomore year in college, and it's a black Gap "Ultimate Backpack" that I won in a web design contest along with some other Gap (they sponsored the event) goodies. With it's simple all-black appearance and spacious compartments, it's served me well during the past 5 years. But now, I'm thinking of getting something new and improved.

I'm planning to get a JanSport. Here are ones that I'm considering:

JanSport Bags

Any comments or suggestions?

2006-01-08T23:45:00.000-08:00

Sunriver Ski Trip

I spent this past weekend in central Oregon at the Sunriver resort and snowboarding at Mt. Bachelor. With new tires, my car handled the snowiness quite decently on the drives there and back. Despite the cold and blizzardy weather, the snow was nice and powdery for boarding. Fortunately, I had picked up a new scarf at J.Crew on Friday and started using the built-in hood on my snowboarding jacket (which helped to shield against the wind and wetness), so the cold didn't bother me much.

My cabinmates this year were a cool bunch of laidback and humorous folks. We all had a homecooked chicken dinner together on Saturday night before stopping by the all-hill party.

Of course, the trip was over too quickly, but it was a good time spent relaxing and having some fun. And now, back to work we go..

Hanging out in the cabin with Mike and Matt

Me and Jen2

At Mt. Bachelor with Shelley

Here are some more pics.

2006-01-05T23:41:00.000-08:00

Spectacular Spectacles

Over the winter break, I had my eyes checked. Fortunately, the prescriptions had not gotten much worse over the past 3 years, but the vision in my good eye (the left one) had declined. With a new prescription, I decided to purchase two new pairs of glasses from www.39dollarglasses.com. They came in the mail earlier this week, and so far, I am very pleased with them. Not only were they a great value (each pair only cost about $60, including frame and lenses), but they had a great selection of styles and the quality of the glasses is pretty good.

It took a while for me to pick which frames to get. After narrowing the choices down to 3 or 4, I asked my brother what he thought. He preferred the black-rimmed ones for making me look "more like a doctor." In some ways that's important, but in other ways it's not. I appreciated the feedback, but it's not like if I wore the gunmetal-colored ones that my future patients are going to complain about my "glasses detracting from the convincing and proper portrayal of a real doctor."

Sans spectacles, with gunmetal-rimmed glasses, and with black-rimmed glasses

At the moment, I prefer the black ones. I think it's because they're novel to me since the gunmetal ones remind me of my old glasses. I'm still not persuaded to wear corrective lenses full-time. But perhaps someday..

2006-01-04T12:11:00.000-08:00

Mabo meat

Yesterday, I made dinner for a friend during the break we had after our classes ended at 5pm before our CMDA meeting began at 6:30pm. My intention was to make mabo tofu served over rice. I had all the ingredients: tofu, ground meat, mabo sauce, and rice. Except that my tofu was expired.. I was first suspicious when I picked the bloated/puffy package out of my fridge. And then I cut a little cube of it and tasted. I normally enjoy the taste of tofu by itself, but this was not right. There was an extra flavor to it, something that was definitely wrong.

I had to scrap the idea of using tofu. So, what did I replace the tofu with? More meat, of course.

Yoshinoya-style.. no frills.. just saucy meat and rice.

2006-01-02T23:33:00.000-08:00

Halftime

With the arrival of 2006, it's interesting to note that we are now halfway done with the 2000-2010 decade. Personally, I've been pretty oblivious with the passing of the years past Y2K. But while I don't remember it all too well, it's nice to know that I've captured a lot of what happened by posting about it in this blog. I could recap, but that seems fairly redundant. So instead, I'll just say "Happy New Year!" and wish everybody the very best for this coming year.

Beautiful mountain view while driving

2006-01-02T22:26:00.000-08:00

Winter Break Pics

Here are more pics to recap some of the things I did this winter break:

Beautiful mountain view while driving

Family pic at Olive Garden

Secret Santa gift exchange at Horton Plaza

Having a Heineken at Altitude

Lunch with Vince and Lisa

Visiting the bison pen at Golden Gate Park

Hanging out at Jon's place in Pacifica

Mailbox goodies waiting upon my return to Portland

Like before, the rest of the pics can be found here.

Drinks & Karaoke

2005-12-27T01:37:00.001-08:00

Drinks & Karaoke

Earlier tonight, a few of us headed down to Prospect Drive in La Jolla for some drinks. We ended up lounging at a hotel called La Valencia. I had a Bacardi and cola (as well as some of Jenn's cranberry vodka and some wines from other friends). It was a good place to relax and catch up.

Group Pic outside of La Valencia

Afterwards, we hit up Jin's Music Studio, a karaoke place on Convoy. We spent the next 2 hours belting out some good tunes.

Me & Vince singing our lungs out

Some more pics can be found here.

2005-12-22T23:51:00.000-08:00

Festive Feasting

The holiday season always brings about good food and lots of eating. Since driving down to the Bay Area on Saturday, I've had numerous large and delicious meals. These have included:

Chinese food feasts x4
Rubio's feast ($1 fish taco Tuesdays) x4
Arby's feast (2 beef 'n cheddars for $4) x2
Denny's big breakfast x1
Souplantation buffet x1

And tomorrow, I'll be having Brazilian BBQ downtown for lunch with some high school friends.. yum-may!

To counter the fattening process, I have to work out more like what I did tonight. Over 1000 calories burned!

2005-12-16T19:00:00.000-08:00

Winter Vacation

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?
In the lane, snow is glistening,
A beautiful sight,
We're happy tonight,
Walking in a winter wonderland.

Winter break has officially begun.. here comes two weeks of non-school goodies! I'll be driving down to the Bay Area tomorrow. I've got all my in-car entertainment set.. plenty of music, movies, and tv shows to keep me occupied (besides driving) for the trip down. Here are the video choices I have lined up:

TV shows -
Friends (Seasons 1-10), Scrubs (Seasons 1-4), Futurama (Seasons 1-5)
Movies -
007 GoldenEye, Bruce Almighty, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Groundhog Day, How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days, Independence Day, Superman III, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Mask of Zorro, The Princess Bride, The Rock, The Karate Kid (Parts I and II), Top Gun

2005-12-12T13:59:00.000-08:00

"Some guys say beauty is only skin deep. But when you walk into a party, you don't see somebody's brain." ~James Caan

You're Beautiful
by James Blunt

My life is brilliant.
My love is pure.
I saw an angel.
Of that I'm sure.
She smiled at me on the subway.
She was with another man.
But I won't lose no sleep on that,
'Cause I've got a plan.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw you face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.

Yeah, she caught my eye,
As we walked on by.
She could see from my face that I was,
Flying high,
And I don't think that I'll see her again,
But we shared a moment that will last till the end.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw you face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.
You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
There must be an angel with a smile on her face,
When she thought up that I should be with you.
But it's time to face the truth,
I will never be with you.

2005-12-08T22:19:00.000-08:00

Pay to Play

The U.S. Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) is a series of exams required for practicing medicine that is divided into three steps. Step 1 is generally taken after the 2nd year of medical school and covers a plethora of basic science topics including anatomy, behavioral sciences, biochemistry, microbiology, pathology, pharmacology, physiology, genetics, aging, immunology, nutrition, and molecular and cell biology. The test consists of approximately 350 multiple-choice test items, divided into seven 60-minute blocks. Some people think multiple choice is cool (I don't particularly), but keep in mind that this is no ordinary, run-of-the-mill multiple choice. In these questions, there are up to ELEVEN potential choices.

Anyways, even though I won't be sitting for Step 1 until next June, registration starts now for the bargain price of just $455. While some people pay to play, others like me pay to pay (paying monetarily now and then paying through suffering the rigors of test taking later).

Here's a sample question.. see if you can figure out the answer:

Example Question 1
A 32-year-old woman with type 1 diabetes mellitus has had progressive renal failure over the past 2 years. She has not yet started dialysis. Examination shows no abnormalities. Her hemoglobin concentration is 9 g/dL, hematocrit is 28%, and mean corpuscular volume is 94 µm3. A blood smear shows normochromic, normocytic cells. Which of the following is the most likely cause?

A. Acute blood loss
B. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia
C. Erythrocyte enzyme deficiency
D. Erythropoietin deficiency
E. Immunohemolysis
F. Microangiopathic hemolysis
G. Polycythemia vera
H. Sickle cell disease
I. Sideroblastic anemia
J. b-Thalassemia trait

Now imagine answering questions like this 349 more times in a single day..

2005-12-04T19:12:00.000-08:00

Turnin' Up the Heat

The Heat Is On

With overnight temperatures dipping into the low 30s, I've decided that it's time to turn up the heat (literally). I actually tried to do this yesterday, since OD was coming to stay as a guest, but the burners in the wall-mounted gas heater just wouldn't stay lit for some reason. I attempted to re-light the pilot and turn on the burner many times before giving up for the night. Today, it took several tries, but finally, it's staying on now.

Hot Party

On Friday night, the OHSU School of Medicine c/o 2008 hosted a winter formal party/dance with a "007: Tomorrow Never Dies" theme. For $10/person, we had access to a nicely decorated venue for mingling, dancing, and food/drinks (with or without alcohol). It was a punctuated (only 3 hours) but fun time to see everybody dressed up and hanging out socially outside of class.

Agents 006, 007, and 009

Party Hearty

Hot Body

"A great body never goes out of style" (Synedrex commercials). I've got a hot body, but not like the ones in those commercials. Having worked out vigorously last week, many major muscle groups in my body have been sore since Thursday. Interestingly, it's true what they say about inflamed tissues (tendons/muscles). Besides feeling internally that my muscles are on fire, they are also warm to the touch. I'm looking forward to "cooling off."

2005-11-27T23:29:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving in SD

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving from sunny San Diego, CA! My vacation began on Wednesday night with a failed attempt to play some night tennis (because we weren't able to get the lights on). In lieu of something active, Shelley and I did the exact opposite and had a big dinner at a French bistro-like place serving cajun cuisine followed by some TV watching. On Thursday morning, I flew down to San Diego. While the transition wasn't as dramatic as going from snowing to sunny, the weather in Portland was about 30 degrees different than in San Diego (it was a welcome change).

Instead of turkey this year, my family went out to a Chinese restaurant and had Peking duck and lobster. If poultry dishes were ranked as royalty, Peking duck would definitely be the KING of the PEcKING order.

Friday was almost a 24-hour experience. I woke up in the morning and did random stuff before heading out with Vince, Jenn, and Noah for lunch. Afterwards, we basked at some tables outside of a Starbucks and Coldstone's until Annie (and her crew) joined us. Later, my family had dinner at one of our favorite steak places in town, Carver's. I ordered the veal chop with a mushroom brandy sauce. Following dinner, I drove over to Annie's house for some Texas Hold 'Em. Fun times, even though I was the first to get eliminated (going all-in with a suited King/10, I was beat out on the river by Jenn who paired one of her 9's). When I dropped off Jenn and Noah, I stopped by for some pecan pie (notice the rhyme?), which was made by Julie. Good stuff! We proceeded to play a few rounds of an Italian card game called "Bang!" Getting home at around 3am, I thought I was a night owl until I discovered that my brother was still out and about. When he returned home about a half an hour later, we ended up staying up for another 3 hours or so talking. By the time I got to bed, it was 6:30am and the sun was already beginning to rise.

Yesterday and today were a bit more uneventful, filled mostly with eating randomness Tomorrow, I'll probably have to get started on some studying since I'll be missing my morning classes on Monday/Tuesday (my flight returns to Portland at 11am on Tuesday).

Family Frozen in Time

Stair Kids (don't we look young?)
(pic courtesy of Annie)

2005-11-20T00:16:00.000-08:00

Palmtop

This gadget is uber-nifty.. a slightly larger than PDA-sized device that has a 1GHZ processor and the ability to run WinXP and normal (as opposed to portable) applications. Compared to current PDAs on the market, the drawbacks of this device are its hefty price tag, shorter battery life, and increased size. However, it excels in processing power, storage space (30gb), multimedia capability, and coolness.

A $1900 stocking stuffer

Thursday NBA on TNT

To advertise coverage of NBA games on Thursdays, TNT has been airing a bunch of these funny commercials. My favorites are: Kobe Ball, Steve Nash MP3, and Wallace Height.

Here's a dialogue from Kobe Ball:

Ali G: How many springs does an official ball have in it?
Kobe Bryant: How many springs? It doesn't have any springs in it.
Ali G: Why does it bounce then?
Kobe Bryant: It's air. There's air in the ball.
Ali G: Well, there's air in this room. How come this room ain't bouncing?

You can find a link to all of them here.

2005-11-18T12:01:00.000-08:00

You scored as The Amazing Spider-Man. After being bitten by a radioactive spider, Peter Parker was transformed from a nerdy high school student into New York's greatest hero. Peter enjoys the thrill of being a super hero, but he struggles with the burdens of leading a double life. He hopes someday to win the heart of his true love Mary Jane, the woman he's loved since before he even liked girls. Right now, he just wants to make it through college and pay his bills.

The Amazing Spider-Man

67%

Maximus

58%

Batman, the Dark Knight

58%

Neo, the "One"

54%

Lara Croft

50%

James Bond, Agent 007

50%

El Zorro

50%

Indiana Jones

42%

Captain Jack Sparrow

42%

William Wallace

38%

The Terminator

33%

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com

2005-11-17T02:00:00.000-08:00

Encapsulated

Recently, overnight temperatures dropped down into the mid-30s. A few weeks ago I was asked by a friend how I stayed warm at night. It's a good question, especially considering my no frills/heat and open-window policies. Interestingly, I found a discrepancy between the locations of active cooling and passive heat loss (both of which contribute to the problem of staying warm). Indeed, my night-time comfort relies on a reconfiguration of my bed coverings. The key to maximal protection against cold expousre and minimal dissipation of heat is layers. To guard against cold exposure, I use a flat sheet, a down comforter, and a second comforter on top of me. To trap heat from escaping, I use a fitted sheet, a doubled-over fleece blanket, and a second fitted sheet underneath me. Together, the layers above and below form a functional capsule of insulation, which is completely conducive to a comfortable night's rest.

20-degree bed