Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Fantasy Epic

Are David and Leigh Eddings famous? I remember reading their book a long time ago (when I was a teenager?), and loving it very much. Specifically, The Redemption of Althalus.



I barely remember the character's names, or the ending, but I remember loving the hell out of this. I cannot justify buying it for myself because I'm still a broke student on a tight budget. But it's on the re-reading list.

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Writing

I managed to get 1k words out on my novella tonight. Not sure how much of it will survive editing, but it's still a happy feeling!

Monday, July 27, 2015

Being an active blogger while in professional school . . .

I have a bunch of ideas for blog posts that I can't write because I have too many tests. So I got an idea to write a quick summary of all the tests someone has to pass while in medical school in the USA (or hoping to do residency training in the USA), because that's a fascinating subject. Right?

So where I'm going to medical school:


  • the first two years were didactic; they involved many, many, many lectures and multiple choice tests every two weeks (about 60-100 questions). 
  • every 4-6 weeks involved NBME Shelf exams (subject tests which I believe are taken from retired/unused board questions; kind of didn't listen to where they came from)
  • my school included some clinical training, but it was mostly once, maybe twice a week
  • there are these things called OSCEs, which I forgot what it stands for, but basically, they hire an actor to pretend to be sick so I can pretend to be their doctor. I am recorded and graded on this interaction. They get progressively more frequent as medical school progresses
  • at the end of the second year comes the USMLE Step 1 test (I think this one stands for United States Medical Licensing Exam). It has eight blocks with 46 questions. How you do in this test is extremely important for residency applications
  • third year of medical school involves clinical rotations of varying in lengths and difficulty; there's a Shelf and OSCE at the end of each (except there wasn't an OSCE for surgery . . . for obvious reasons)
  • sometime during fourth year of medical school, a student most take USMLE Step 2 Clinical Skills (basically a big OSCE) and the USMLE Step 2 CK (big multiple choise test); some clinical rotations this year have their own OSCE/Shelf
  • residency application/interviewing must also happen in fourth year
  • during residency, I will have to take USMLE Step 3 . . . I don't even know the acronym; there are also the tests to get licensing to prescribe medications
  • most specialties have their board exams . . .
  • and so do many sub-specialties

So basically, exams forever.

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Shoah

I've been streaming the nine-part documentary, and the interview with a middle-aged man naming the owners of some Jewish-owned shops in Auschwitz is one of the most heartbreaking things I've ever seen.

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

A great resource about violence for fiction writers




I've lead a life devoid of physical violence, which I'm very thankful for, but it does make writing violent characters and action scenes rather difficult. How-to-write books haven't worked very well for me, but I found Rory Miller's Violence: A Writer's Guide very helpful.

Instead of a typical structure/grammar/sentence length/beat type of discussion, this book simply offers some insights about what it's like to live in a violent world. One of my favorite, must useful quotes:

This is a lot to cover, but the big point of this is to try to establish a line between what you actually know about violence, and what you have been told.

  • People use violence because it works
  • There are levels of violence and the level you are comfortable with does not register as violence to you
  • Going down levels is easy, going up levels is hard
  • Violence has both direct and indirect goals
  • Professionals focus on the direct goals, amateurs on the indirect
Th point isn't whether or not I agree with this. The point is that it's a very different discussion of violence than the usual "it's always wrong/only cowards and/or idiots resort to it". It's a discussion that frames violence the way a violent person, or a person with direct experience with violence, might frame it.

The book has links to videos, forum and blog posts, and other resources that discuss violence and its effects. It was great starting point for research.



Tuesday, July 21, 2015

There things in life that are too funny

Like this:


Like, I'm just glad I was born in a time and place with the kind of technology that would allow me to see things like that :)
I have to get a professional photo today for myERAS (residency application). My medical school has contracted this photographer, so I don't have to pay (men's I already got charged for it somewhere).

I'm not very photogenic,  but maybe I should take a selfie today. That new filter on my phone works wonders.

Sunday, July 19, 2015

I have a bit of a cold, probably thanks to going from the freezing cold of the morgue out to the heat of the summer. I should be resting, but I also want to go running. I've been running in the treadmill lately, and the Zombies, Run! pedometer is being quite generous. It claims I ran 10.1 km on Thursday. In forty minutes.

I wish.

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Luxury expenses

If I was rich, I'd gleefully spend money on medical textbooks. Physical copies. Right now, I'm reading a fairly recent textbook on forensic neuropathology that I borrowed from an ME. I'll have to return it by the end of the month.

I know I could potentially google any of this information, but there's nothing like having it organized into a physical book. This might be the most hipster thing about me. Most students my age scoff at physical textbooks, but I always find it easier to read them when they're on paper. I guess it's because I didn't grow up with a computer.
It seems that any writer with even the slightest aspirations to publish should have a little presence in social media. I don't have the stamina or attention span for Facebook. I'm not pithy enough for Twitter. I'm not image-savvy enough for Tumblr.

A blog might be the best choice for me. Here, I plan to share my views about writing, and what I learn every passing day. Knowing myself, it'll be a matter of time before it dissolves into a platform about any random thing that comes to mind.

Let's see where I am a year from now.