30 December 2009

Old and Busted --> New Hotness

I slept from 2am to 640am last night, had a 7am appointment at the dealership for maintenance (and a cleaning!). I don't trust their "inside-cleaning" job. Anyone recommend something for wiping down ( --> "new") leather seats? Does Armor-All work? I'll let you guys know.

Regardless, "New Hotness" is back.*

I learned a lot of things today.

1. Crop dusting. (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=crop+dusting) Absolutely hilarious.

"i crop dusted my way down the aisle at the grocery store"

2. Anchovies are fish. Anchovies are fish. Anchovies are fish. I used to think they were some sort of vegetable, probably because they sound like "chives". Then I realized that Pizza Hut offers anchovies on their pizza and it blew my mind. They put fish on pizza!? (I know they do all sorts of crazy stuff in Japan, but this is here! In Plano!) Mind blowing.

3. An "A" package consists of oil change, tire rotations, and not much else. Comes out to be about $100 in parts (yeauz @ full synthetic!). The rest $120 is probably for "labor" and let's be real, pretty awesome service. I'm due for a "B" in 12 months. $440. (lol)

4. Roadside assistance from Mercedes Benz is better than AAA. I was told to cancel my membership. Comes with the cost of the vehicle, so, "free". No more worries driving to Houston about running out of gas! Probably not the best strategy, since I always see a burning cross in the distance when I'm on my way down.** Have you guys seen that movie No Country for Old Men? There's a 150 mile stretch from Dallas to Houston that feels like that.



Do I want to meet this guy on the road while waiting for gas for New Hotness? No thanks. What a creepy character. The pneumatic-make-holes-in-people's-faces thing was well played.

It'll be almost 2010 in a day. Here's to bright, sunny skies ahead.



"When you get sad, it always seems to rain"
                    "Lots of people get sad when it rains!"
"It rains because you're sad, baby"
                    "...It's not fair"
"Never is."



*: I have a feeling facebook doesn't preserve formatting when importing. See www.piotrrcola.com
**: sort of.

29 December 2009

2010

Damn, has it been 10 years already? I am so old. But, hurrah on 5+ years of blogging! I have old posts somewhere in my email (from 2003), which I just found, which are terribly embarrassing.

Am I ever going to release them? Maybe. In spurts.

It's that time of year again. Time to make a list of resolutions. You can dig up my old ones from December 2008. So how did I fare? Pretty well actually.

List for 2010:

1. Take care of myself, for a change. In all aspects.
2. Continue without internet or cable tv.
3. Stop pirating ____/____
4. *

For those of you that know me semi-decently, you know I haven't had internet for the last 6 months (ever since I moved into my 1/1). It sucked for the first month, then I just got used to it. I still have internet on my phone, so it's not completely gone.

*: lol.

11 December 2009

End of an era.

I've been in school since, what, 6 y/o? Earlier? There are a few stories roaming around in my family folklore talking about when they tried to send me to pre-school and I threw a shitfit until my grandfather came back. I wasn't the best kid growing up, either.

Enough Hx. I think the last few posts have been mostly about things I've noticed, not enough about me. Let's face it, news happens all the time. Stuff about me? Not so often. Except these days.

I will say - 18-19 years of classroom education came to a close an hour ago. I'm still in kind of a daze, but I'll also say a few words about what's been going on. If I've come to realize anything in the last month, it's that life is about Battles. Yes, bolded with a capital B.

Let's begin with a list of battles to fight. Daily.

1. Battle against coursework. Keeping up with ARTS / Genetics / EBSE. Keeping up with knowing it at a personally satisfactory level. The EBSE thing is an epic fail waiting to happen.

2. Battle against administration for my project. Currently to remain unnamed until things become more official. I suppose only a few people know. Come on, department heads, get back to me quickly. I do have Baylor's support for the most part, but an unnamed-department likes to run things independently. Lots of strings to pull. Lots of pitches to throw. Lots of people to convince. Convince them that the M1's actually need this. Convince them to donate time. And equipment. And moral support. And a presence.

3. Battle against research. Getting my proposal / grant / rec letters. Trust me, it is another shitstorm. Also, money is on short supply these days. Even getting everything in on time and perfect doesn't mean terribly much. FML? Yeah. F.M.L. I swear I've been given a new paper to read every week.

4. Battle against ongoing physical fatigue. I'll admit, I bring this one upon myself by not eating right, eating at odd times, allowing things to cut into my sleep. This has got to change. I've spent the entire morning coughing and I can feel it in the back of my eyes every time I cough.

5. Battle against personal goals. I haven't been able to work an ER shift in the last 2 weeks. Or do anything. I've been good about volunteering every week since Fall 2 started, except for recently.

6. Battle against personal obligations. Helping a few people through their careers. Through tough times. Probably one of the hardest battles, as I have very little control over what anyone else does. But I can hope. And that's important.

7. Battle for a certain countess. Well, this last one I can't really talk about.

Well, what's the solution? Sleep comes so easily these days. I've never quite felt the wind knocked out of me, except for these recent days. Sum up all those strifes, most of which increase as the day progresses, and you might get an idea.

I scarcely have time for meetings, only a few passing words to the silently manipulating Gold Buddha in the mornings.

I find myself saying "well, today was 3 parts crappy and one part awkward. Tomorrow will be better." It doesn't work the first few times you say it, but slowly after that. 

There's only a few things I feel I can do.

1) Stick to my principles and stand your ground. Remember all those sayings about principles? A man without them is nothing at all? It's probably the 3rd thing my parents taught me. The first was archimedes' principle (buoyancy). The second was that "energy is the capacity to do work". I remember the first day in Mr. Smith's chemistry class at Jasper. I sat by myself in the awkward table in the middle of the class since I showed up late. He asked what energy was, and I blurted that out like I had been doing that dance my entire life. Mr. Smith went on to expect a lot out of my sister when she went through. :P

That was probably one of the first realizations that my parents were right about many things. And back then, I really could do that dance. These days, I have to throw cutouts of feet on the floor.

2) Smile when things go tough. What else are you going to do? 

3) Take care of people. Again, what else are you going to do? I suppose this counts as a principle. A few people openly consider me profoundly reliable. That's always nice. 

A lot of these battles will end December 18. All of these battles will end on January 1st.

And on January 4th, if the silently manipulating Gold Buddha allows it, 2 months Ob/Gyn will start, and a whole new set of battles will begin, and you will know all about them. I should be good. It's time to start learning by doing rather than reading, by allowing streams of knowledge and consciousness to meander rather than inundating the landscape with information, and by finally being able to make a difference.

I relish that opportunity to fight, just as I relish the battles above. Not everyone has the opportunities to fight for what you believe in, or what you want.

A new kind of dance starts January 4. One I've been preparing for not for the last 18 months, but for the last 18 years.

Saddle up. Lock and load.

05 December 2009

12d + After

What a bundle of win! Also, an appropriate time to post a few pictures:

Let's start with Chase's pictures of 12d.

If you missed it, well, fail.
Bitch, please. It was awesome.








The afterparty was fun too. "Bambou." lol. I wanted to leave a bit early (my calves were killing me* from the dancing), but I was reprimanded on how lame it would be if I left early. (1230 didn't seem early). I purposely didn't take my credit card.**

And then as usual, a few drunkards had to be taken home. :)

I woke up at noon, with the most intense jonesin' for a Vietnamese sandwich, evar, west of the Mississippi.***

So I made it happen.




It was glorious. Mmm, you can almost taste the awesomeness.

Then I went to the business center of my apartment, working, chatting, etc.

All of a sudden:

   me:  FUCK THEY LOCKED ME IN

This is not the first time. I'm usually in a corner hidden from the entrance. So I clamored, and they let me out. It was either that, or throw a chair through the window and rappel down the north wall, NOC-style.

One day, in another life, maybe. (The NOC thing, not rappelling around the apartment complex, already done, kthx).

Plan for rest of the day. RHCP + do laundry. 

*: Not a +Homan's sign. I checked.
**: "Purposely", meaning I assigned some purpose to losing it in my apartment.
***: Respect, if you get this reference. Without Googling it.

03 December 2009

Punctuation and communication

I'm going to start out with an email response I got from a certain unnamed genetics professor.

I asked a question. What I asked is probably not important, so I'm going to cut the bullshit and get to the response:*


I'LL ASK YOU A QUESTION: YOU'RE 12 YO PATIENT HAS A MOTHER WITH COLON CANCER DX AT AGE 32Y. WHAT DO YOU NEED TO FIGURE THIS OUT? WHY DOES THE MOTHER HAVE COLON CANCER THAT YOUNG. IS YOUR 10 YO PT AT RISK? HOW CAN YOU FIGURE THIS OUT? YOU NEED MORE INFO ABOUT HTE MOTHER FIRST AND ABOUT THE FAMILY. IF THE PATH SPECIMEN SHOWED MULTIPLE POLYPS THEN THINK FAP. YOUR PT MAY NOT HAVE POLYPS YET. ARE YOU GOING TO WAIT UNTIL THEY SHOW UP "CLINICALLY" OR WILL YOU GET A DNA TEST FIRST??? 



Let's begin.

1. All caps? Really? Sounds like you're shouting. Only John Wilson can get away with that, and only because he teaches so well, with kickaess drawings. Also, he has a booming voice. We all miss John Wilson.
2. Please don't answer questions with questions. It's like looking up a word and finding other words to describe it.**
3. The triple "?'s" in the end. Totally unnecessary. It's like getting all up in your face. huh? Huh? HUH? Like the donkey, from Shrek.

Still, you gotta give it to the prof. She has 2 genetic syndromes named after her. And that is why I will go back into my corner, and memorize all her slides. FML, son.

\\

I think I'm slowly going to transition away from GTalk (except for a select few, you know who you are), and just make phone calls. Want to talk? Pick up the phone. More personal, more time saved (GTalk wastes so much time.), less convenient (You're not that busy - get over it, have a picnic.)

Far too much text these last few posts. Next one will have a picture.

*: 18 months of med school will help you appreciate this sentiment. And if you really wanted to know, I was asking about a FAP Dx tree.
**: Not exactly, but you get my point. Dictionaries should be massive picturebooks.

01 December 2009

Wardrobe

I finally bought a pair of jeans. It's been a long time coming.* My last pair was 5 years ago, and profoundly tight. Like, cut-off-blood-supply-tight. I know a few people that writhed in agony seeing me in those jeans.

These actually fit pretty nicely, but every once in a while, the seam looks a little shiny. Yes, I made sure they were a men's pair.

Well, here go some first impressions:

1. Why does this pair cost $49? (after a discount, ON Black Friday) I can get 2 shirts and a graphic tee for around the same price.

2. What's with the 99% cotton, 1% spandex? I don't have anything with spandex in it. Should I be worried?

3. There are a lot of seams. And they're all on the outside. (Should I be worried?)

4. To be honest, the thing lacks symmetry. A coin pocket on the right side, not one on the left as well. The more you look at it, the more profoundly ugly it looks. What is this? Ford automotive? Fuck Fords.**

5. At least the thing lacks an obnoxious 4 inch dragon-creature-thing characteristic of Express. Showing that off, although not the pinnacle of douchebaggery, comes pretty close.

I guess you can come take a look in about 6 hours.

*: Just as clinics start. Yeah, fml.
**: Fuck domestics, actually. Recently they've been trying to go the Honda/Toyota/MB way with their looks. Really, just... stop trying.