Entertainment tonight

On the shuffle...
-Decemberists, "Crane Wife"
-Shins, "Wincing the Night Away"

Off the shelf...
-"No Shortcuts to the Top", Ed Viesturs

Here's an idea...

How about we stop killing eachother?

Just a thought.

wish i was there...

2007 Ouray Ice Festival

Jan 10-14

Ouray, CO

what i learned in school today.

some "real" doctor stuff.

i'm learning how to read these squiggly line paper thingers. so that's good.


and really hard.

turns out, there is quite a bit of information on these things, and it takes some practice to figure out how to make sense of it all.

who knew?

my diagnosis for this one...uh...it's a heartbeat.

that's all i got.

bingo

tonight at dinner i had this feeling that ranch dressing would be good on my tacos.





my intuition did not lead me astray.

Let's go sledding!!! (no fun allowed)

New Year's Eve, Lincoln got 8 inches of snow (the first snow of the year - see blog entries on global warming). So naturally, me and TQ went sledding...






Me showing off the sweet new paint job I got on my sled, the "Snow Crusher".








After a particularly impressive face plant.









I tried to get a better "action" photo, but it was tough - she was like a bullet shooting down the slope.








So sledding has "rules" now - who knew? My least favorites:

-"Building jumps or ramps is not allowed" (Are you kidding me? That's the point of going sledding. That's like saying, "Enjoy the diving board - but no jumping or diving allowed" or "No pushes allowed on the swings.")

-"Sledders should wear appropriate head gear and padded clothing" (Yeah right. Do they mean "head gear" like dental braces head-gear? Ohhh, like a helmet. Did you notice our protective gear? Didn't think so.)

-"No fun allowed" (Basically my paraphrase of what the sign says.)

For the record, we broke 4 of the 7 rules on the sign.

What ever happened to letting kids have fun? And maybe even getting hurt once in awhile? I know, I know - lawsuits. But in my opinion, it's a pretty sad state of affairs when there are at least 7 safety rules to abide by when sledding. In my opinion, there should only be 2 rules: 1) Go fast; 2) Have fun. For a more eloquent and intelligent discussion on the subject of "playing", see my friend Christina's blog here.

Who you callin' fiduciary?

Over Christmas break, while spending time with my family, my mom retold a story about me as a little kid. At the church we grew up in, every year around Christmas-time, we would have a party in the basement. You remember the church basement get-togethers, right? That universal church basement smell from countless pot luck dinners over the years. The linoleum tile floors. The Sunday school story boards made out of felt. Etc.

Anyway, every year this particular Christmas party was easily the most anticipated of the church basement gatherings - at least to us kids. Because we all knew inevitably during the evening, Santa would make an appearance. At some predetermined time, we would all gather around, be really quiet and listen for the reindeer hooves above us on the roof. Sure enough, always on schedule, there would be a loud trampling/stomping sound upstairs, and shortly after Santa would enter through the doorway, lugging a red sack full of presents - one for each kid in attendance. We would then each take our turn to sit on Santa's lap, with everyone else watching, and proceed to tell him that "Yes, we had been a good child that year" and describe what we wanted for Christmas. Most normal kids were asking for normal kid things - you know, remote control cars, action figures, dolls, video games. When my turn came I went up and took my place on his lap. Hair neatly combed, with the face of an angel, perfect child as I was, I plainly explained to Santa how good I had been that year. And when he asked me what I wanted, my response was, "I want a dictionary and a warm sweater." I'm not sure if my parents were proud or embarassed. And looking back, I suppose I'm thankful that my friends were still too young to understand the concept of "nerd" or "brown-noser".

I think I got a dictionary that year. (The warm sweater, I'm not sure about.) And boy oh boy, did it sure pay off. I would later be crowned back-to-back Adams County Spelling Bee Runner-up in 4th and 5th grade - both years finishing behind Katie Frink (my despised spelling bee arch nemesis...we would later date in middle school). Even today I still enjoy learning words. Last year I signed up for Merriam-Webster Online's "Word of the Day" emails. Everyday they send me a different, usually obscure, word with a definition and history about its origin. That way, not only do I get to learn a new word everyday, I also get the excitement of at least one new email in my inbox everyday (kind of like having a really smart imaginary friend). Almost everyday in school (certainly at least once a week) I come across a word I don't know and I honestly get a little kick out of looking up the definition.

My point in this whole blog entry was to just tell you about an interesting word I came across yesterday when studying medical ethics: fiduciary. From Wikipedia: "A fiduciary is a person who occupies a position of trust in relation to someone else such that he is required to act for the latter's benefit within the scope of that relationship." From M-W: "held or founded in trust or confidence" (adj. form). Usually it is used in the context of finances, business, or law. But in this case it is used as: In the physician-patient relationship, the physician is a fiduciary. I like the sense of confidence and trust reciprocated with obligation and responsibility to do what is right that the word conveys. It falls under the realm of the medico-ethical principle of beneficence.

In medical ethics we have been learning about 4 guiding principles:

1) Beneficence: act in the patient's best interest.
2) Nonmaleficence: do no harm.
3) Autonomy: respect the patient as an individual and honor their preferences and decisions.
4) Justice: treat each patient with fairness and impartiality.

What if we applied these same principles to everyone everyday, not just within the physician-patient relationship? I guess you could sum it up as "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Redemption

Those of you who know me, know that I have, at times, communicated an antipathy to Starbucks. This view is not so much founded in an ethical/moral basis, like my aversion to Walmart, for example. From everything that I know and have heard, I respect what Starbucks stands for - healthcare options for all employees, even part-timers; fair trade, providing living wages for (some) coffee growers; at least some degree of social responsibility and awareness - no small feat for an enormous global corporation. Mostly, my aversion is due to my love of diversity, quirkiness, individuality, and character that is found in the local coffee shops of this world. As globalization inevitably steamrolls forward, I would like to do what little I can to resist the entire homogenization of life around me. Plus, I just enjoy supporting the little guy, the underdog.

Sidenote: I looked up the definition of "homogenize" = to blend (diverse elements) into a uniform mixture. The idea/image of that with regards to our world just makes me sad for what would be lost. I'm speaking of the diversity of cultures and ethnicities, of course. If we were speaking of living standards or opportunities - well that's for another blog entry.

However, this Christmas I received a $25 Starbucks gift card. My original gut reaction was to kindly not use it. But I quickly realized that would be: 1) wasteful; 2) exactly what Starbucks would love - $25 free dollars of pure profit with no exchange for goods. So then I decided that I would not only use my card - but I would also use their wifi to do my homework...for a long time. Ha! That would show 'em, right?

Turns out, Starbucks (in Iowa City, at least) doesn't have free wifi - you have to pay. (As if providing this service to their guests may put Starbucks in jeopardy of bankruptcy.) You better believe that I wasn't about to do that. Besides, I didn't like the impersonal, manufactured ambience in the shop anyway. Also, while I was sitting there, trying to find a way around the wifi issue, a lady walked in and ordered a "venti mocha with 7 shots". 7 shots. Now, I rarely go to Starbucks, so maybe 7 shots is the norm for a venti mocha (and you can correct me if I'm wrong). I was just impressed - to each his/her own, I guess. I ordered my "tall" (smallest size) latte with 1 shot of hazelnut (I was told the standard was 3 shots), and it was plenty (almost too) sweet for my taste.


Sidenote: I was listening to a segment on NPR a while back that was about a guy who was trying to run 50 marathons in 50 days in all 50 states. They asked him how he kept up the strength and energy between races. He said it was all about quickly replacing calories. And the best way he had found to put the max amount of calories into his body in the shortest amount of time was by going to Starbucks and ordering a venti something or other with a bunch of extra shots of something or other. At the risk of sounding a bit judgmental, I will speculate that the lady I saw was not in between marathons.

But there was one partial redemption in the partial redemption of my Starbucks gift card. They put those feel good quotes on their cups - you know what I'm talking about. On my cup was this quote:



"The world is smaller than you think, and the people on it are more beautiful than you think."
-Bertram van Munster

I like it, and I agree. My hope would be that more of us could see it that way. To see the world as our cozy, shared, beautiful little home. Something that we can trash if we so choose - or clean up, preserve, cherish, and enjoy together. To see people as they are - infinitely valuable, spiritual, funny, frustrating, difficult, confusing, complex, diverse, beautiful, needy, fallen, wondrous, eternal beings worthy of being respected and loved. We are all the same incredibly different beings placed in this enormous little world.

Thanks for reminding me, Starbucks. (And thanks for the latte, it was pretty tasty.)

12:00:00 AM 01/01/2007