Day Of Thanksing 2009

With the approach of the most autumnal of holidays, Your Humble Observer decided to try his hand at cooking his first every turkey. The results....well, you be the judge:

Thanksgiving dinner was enjoyed with the participation and help of friends H.A. and S.A. We ate until we were stuffed to the giblets. Much fun. On to Christmas...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

A Christmas Throwback

Just because I don't feel like re-posting the same stuff. Just watched the movie again and I remember how much I love this scene. Check it out and start getting in the Christmas mood.

Jovi & Buddy

Mind Boggling Phenomena - Bleep The Meep

I like these kids. They've got some creativity. Here's to you, kids of Danvers High School!

From the Associated Press:

Thu Nov 12, 5:13 pm ET

DANVERS, Mass. – Who knew "Meep!" was a four-letter word? The utterance favored by bungling lab assistantBeaker of "The Muppet Show" has been banned at Danvers High School in Massachusetts after students said it to repeatedly interrupt school.

Principal Thomas Murray said the word was part of a disruption planned using Facebook.

The Salem News reportsthat parents recently got an automated call about "Meep!" from Murray. He warned them that students who said or displayed the word at school could be suspended.

Murray says the warning was needed because students didn't heed his "reasonable request" to stop the meeping.

Danvers High sophomore Melanie Crane says it doesn't mean anything in particular.

Rise Of The Fall #3 - The Return of the Magi

Amidst all this color, weather, and clothing change, how does one recognize the end of the fall season and the beginning of the winter holidays? Well, thankfully, the Brooklyn holiday street decorators take care of that for you:

Rise Of The Fall #2 - The Fall Colors Strike Back

As with all times of the year, autumn in NY brings with it a unique feeling. The chilly air, the smell of smoke from the chimneys, and of course the flavors of the season: pumpkin pie, fresh ripe apples of the northwest, and cinnamon and spice lattes.

Though difficult to convey this feeling in words, some of my fellow Brooklyners (or is it -ites? I digress) have found a way to make the feeling come alive in decoration.

A Welcome Break

These days Your Humble Observer finds himself on warmer shores...or at least theoretically.

Thanks to a 2 week gap in YHO's schedule, I've temporarily relocated to California where the weather is marginally warmer, family is plentiful, and the beer flows like wine*.

I've found that it's difficult to adjust from the go-go lifestyle of clinical rotations to the nothing-to-do-no-one-to-answer-to lifestyle. One seeks out projects and such to fill one's time. So I've undertaken a Sisyphean task: The transfer of 20 years worth of home videos from 8mm video to DVD. As we say on the island: Ooooooooooooook!

My break will last until Nov. 7 when I fly back to the Medz Khuntsor to start my next rotation - Endocrinology. Until then, it's back to my Rangers pajamas and videos from 1989!

*136,000 points to the person who identifies the source of this quote

Rise Of The Fall #1 - A New Hope

This city (That's New York City for those who may not know) has so many things to offer that you'd be hard-pressed to find anywhere else. While I can sit here and enumerate this list, let me focus on one aspect that I truly love about the Big Manzana: Autumn.

That's right, Californians, listen up. In this part of the world, the leaves actually DO change color and fall from the trees, exactly like they used to teach us in those big science textbooks. You can actually feel the summer days wane, slipping into brisker weather and shorter days. There is a palpable feel that is difficult to describe, but you know it's there when you're walking down 3rd Ave in Brooklyn on a chilly October Saturday afternoon.

In this post, Your Humble Observer attempts to document, through poor-quality cell phone photos, this change in seasons. I've tried to capture the color and the feel as much as possible, but realize that there are limitations even to the best technology has to offer (not to mention I leave the house at 6 am when it's dark and don't get back until 7 pm...when it's dark). So here we go. The first photos are taken serially from roughly the same spot on my block in Brooklyn.

Children And Alphabet Soup

Residency application season is in full swing. On September 1st, the online application opened it's doors for the thousands of applicants to start flooding residency programs with shiny application, sparkly resumes, and glowing letters of recommendation (affectionately called LoR's in the application world).

To say it's a maddening system is an understatement. The whole process is dominated by what I like to call the Application Alphabet Soup. The applicant must be able to sift through more acronyms than you can shake a Bovie at. ERAS, NRMP, ECFMG, LoR, OASIS, ACGME are just a few such acronyms. However, through sheer grit and determination Your Humble Observer has somehow managed to work his way through.

The response has been fairly positive thus far with a few bumps in the road. For now, it's all about scheduling interviews and trying to decide what features of a residency program are important to the individual applicant.

In the meantime, I have found myself in one of the more rewarding rotations - Pediatrics. It's great to see the kids get better and be up and around playing in the playroom, and of course, you've got to love the well child visits where the kids are happy, healthy, and playful. It's an interesting rotation, but I doubt the field is for me.

The rotation will be over at the end of this week, then I get two glorious weeks to spend with my family back in the homeland. After that it's back to NYC for an Endocrinology rotation. Please reference schedule below.

Writing On The Wall - The Ultimate Transformer

If only there was a place versatile enough...