Good Fortune

Sometimes its better to not ask questions...just let good fortune smile upon you....

Like when I opened up my email and was greeted by this sight.

I share it with you now. Joe, this one's for you especially.

Marital Star Wars Debate

Ok, so I need some input. The other day we were driving to the Sandy library down 13th East and Meredith asks me an innocent, yet inflammatory question. "What is it with Star Wars?" I responded with the obvious incredulous look that any boy born between 1965 and the present would give, one that said, "Are you going to ask me why I love my grandmother next?" Honestly....what a ridiculous question. Only I couldn't answer her convincingly. So I come to you for help.

I thought of the obvious themes:

The black and white nature of good and evil (or is it?)
The combination of space, cowboys, pirates, robots, weird creatures, and explosions (perhaps some skeletons would have enhanced the film?)
The time period the movie came out, after the Vietnam War, and all those disaster films (Towering Inferno and the like)
The groundbreaking sound and visual effects.
The timeless story of the ordinary boy who finds out he is extraordinary?
The dialogue (hahahaha)

So what is it that makes Star Wars a given for every boy age 2 to 42? I'm looking to my nerdy friends especially on this one, you know who you are!

Tell me why it is an unquestioned part of our lives. Not that I really care to question, but when someone wants you to explain something so essential and basic to your existence, you need some ammo. So let me know what it is!!!

I would also be intrigued to hear of any dissenting opinions on the universality of the Star Wars male instinct.

Sign a copia

There are so many wonderfully ridiculous signs around SLC. My favorites are along State Street. Case in point below:



My question is...who's kitchen is it? We have three ethnicities fighting for one restaurant. Gino? David? Won't someone claim this place once and for all?

Another I have to get a picture of says simply "WIZARDS/DREAMS"

What a wonderful place that must be.

Here's a picture of my kid taking after her dad....what a sweet sweet hairdo. She's giving the camera the evil eye in the first one.




I supposedly have an early case of walking pneumonia....sounds like a bad B-movie horror film title...
I'm a bit skeptical of this diagnosis, but I'll take my z-pak like a good boy.

Oh, I thought of some more great signs on State street. As you drive by there are multiple seedy motels advertising the fleeting chance of not only a room, but "Color TV, and a Phone". Will the luxury never end?

Hey Bonesy!

I saw one of the most wondrous scenes I have ever witnessed the other day and I had to share it with you. This display was in a dinosaur museum down here in Utah. Actually it was a "museum of ancient life". If you drive past the point of the mountain you will see what I'm talking about. Well I thought it was just dinosaurs going in, but to my very very pleasant surprise, this sight greeted me as I turned one of the last corners in the museum.





There may not be anything as amusing to me as animated skeletons. I know some of you will be with me on this one. At least any of you who have any taste for the ridiculous. And just to preempt any "chicken or the egg" type theories that may develop about my fascination of skeletons and matriculation at medical school, the following will set straight the true chronology of events.













I will now attempt to defend my love of skeletons. If you find yourself in disagreement with me, please peruse the following. If you agree with me already (Joe, Mark, Cruz, etc.) just enjoy. Long ago, in a land far away (Disneyland in California) I witnessed, at the age of 5, my first animated skeleton. I'm not sure of this skeleton's name, only that his attempts at drinking from a bottle of rum were obviously quite futile.

At nearly the same time (shortly thereafter) I saw the 1929 Disney classic Silly Symphony - Dance of the Skeletons. Mr. Walt Disney began my addiction to skeletons. Every time I see a skeleton I now have the nearly irresistible urge to play its ribs like a xylophone. Highly inappropriate in many settings I find myself in currently. Numerous succeeding Halloweens could only serve to reinforce skeletons as hilarious.





And who could leave out the creations of Ray Harryhausen. See exhibit B and C below from Jason and the Argonauts and Sinbad, respectively. An honorable mention goes here to Clash of the Titans, because while lacking in skeletons, it abounds with other stop motion creatures from Mister Harryhausen (who, for the longest time, I thought was Harry Hausen, not Ray).



Exhibit B

via videosift.com


Exhibit C


Of course in this same tradition, or rather a tribute to it, is Sam Raimi's "Army of Darkness", chock full of animated skeleton goodness. The culmination of my love for skeletons came circa 2002, when Joe and I purchased a five foot tall cast skeleton. Yes Joe, you still get credit for that particular Ebay purchase despite a lack of ultimate financial backing.

"Duncan Xavier, the Duke of WellingBONE". (draw out the bone..."Booooooooowwwwennnnaaa"

I sold him to someone in Michigan for a handsome profit some months later, but not before plenty of entertainment was had by all.

Whether it be the imagined chattering mandibles or the free movement of joints unhindered by muscles and tendons, skeletons are truly natures physical comedians. The pure illogical nature of moving bones without the aid of musculature is worth diamonds in my book. So enjoy skeletons where ever you may see them. Let me know about your favorite skeleton cameos. And until we meet again I'll secretly chuckle at every x-ray I observe.

Kicked to the curb

An interesting week. Lauren has been sick all week. Our house has been like Rome under Caligula. Lots of ranting and raving and the servants are forced to just obey. She made us pronounce her teddy bear as her successor and top general. She getting a little better now, which is fortunate, because I think that means we won't have to follow through with the gladiatorial games in the kitchen.

Lk kept us both up so much lately that I missed 1 1/4 classes on Thursday. Not that that was such a bad thing, she kept us up the night before, I made it to class Wednesday, and slept right through most of an otherwise engaging discussion of the human bowel. As this is the area of the human body we are studying in earnest right now, I will not mention too much of the laboratory escapades from this week. Its better for you and better for me this way. If you find yourself disappointed or in withdrawals from this lack of explicitness, don't worry, we start the perineum next week.

With my cold I have apparently (at least this is what I'm told) started snoring. Subsequently I was summarily sent to the couch the other night. I have been subject to some master log sawers in my day, so I in no way consider this unjust treatment. And we do have a pretty comfy couch, but I do hope it resolves soon (Breath right strips are so 1995).

In truth we each taken turns on the couch. Its not because of Meredith that I was sent to the couch, the snoring just so happened to awaken the beast (Caligula), so it was really better for everyone involved that my snorting was sequestered to the living room. Otherwise LK would simply try to best my own noises with her dog whistles pitched screeching. I'm completely outmatched, I assure you.

I have two recommendations this week. One is "Word Play", an endearing little documentary about the cross word puzzle championship of the world. Oh my goodness, this must be what happens to the kids from "Spellbound" when they grow up. The next suggestion I have is that you look up Helmuth Hubener. (That's Hubener with an umlaut over the u".)
If you can find his leaflets, they're pretty astounding. He was a 17 year old german boy that resisted the nazis by tuning into the BBC and putting out leaflets refuting Goebbels progaganda. Really gutsy stuff.





Hmm...Breath Right strips are actually kind of nice....

Check
Check
and...Check..

Thank you Halls brand name menthol cough drops, for seeing, and checking off, all of my most irritating symptoms. Yes, I have come down with malignalitaloptereosis. And you've caught me Mim! That's Mad Madame Mim, not Mimi. I had to set the controls on cruise for the rest of the week starting on Wednesday because of this blasted cold. But, slid through two more tests on Thursday, skipped out on lectures Friday, and..... he's safe at Saturday. Now the weekend to recover and its back to the grind. I'm pretty sure I got this sickness from the cadaver lab. It is certain to have some sort of curse akin to that of King Tut's tomb attached to it.

Cryptosporidium?



This is LK executing a perfect swim move on her dad. She's going to be a heck of a defensive end one day.

A note to any that may be reading. Please leave a comment. It is a really sad sight to see no comments. I'm afraid "I'm just standing in the rain, talkin' to myself" If you can guess where that quote came from you win a prize*....but all entries must be made through the comment section of this blog. So get commenting people.

*Subject to availability

Goncrats to Ali!!

This post is entirely dedicated to my sister Alison and her exceptional performance in passing her CPA exam. That's an official ace of the test from my sister, definitely one of, if not tied for, the smartest person I know in the world. Yay, Ali!
Rock on, and come visit us.

Where are you going?... with beards all a wagging?

Histology test tomorrow. Have no idea how that's going to be. Histology...the study of tissues...Seems simple enough. Then its back to lectures, and back to lab (the heart tomorrow, so exciting because this man probably had bypass surgery (deduced from the nasty staples holding his sternum together)}. Wow, double brackets. Double brackets are the surest sign of a wandering mind, are they not? I was typing (then I had this thought (then this tangent) and back to this thought) and back to reality.

It's the sort of thing a guy should edit. Lauren had her immunizations on Friday. Everyone was brave. Lauren was brave while being a voodoo doll. Mom was brave waiting for it all to be over to her poor baby, and I....well, I was just cold and calculating. But honestly, which of these would you rather your kid get

this














or this

















on a more serious note, I have been referring to the cadaver I have working been on using a number of names, all of which I think are apt. The terms "patron" and "benefactor" are my favorites. I really do see this man as such. There is the strong potential for an objectification of a body under such circumstances, but I think it important to mention the rever in which I actually hold this body. This is not to say that you won't find jokes, bad puns, and maybe a limerick or two about my experiences this fall in the lab. You will... I guarantee it... It's pretty much all I have to talk about.



But in a real way this man (who's name I actually do know, though I'm not sure this was intended) is a contributor to the art of medicine in the same way that the man pictured above was the means by which so much fine art was produced in Florence. Knowing nothing else this beneficence earns this man a measure of respect. Lorenzo De Medici had his own flaws in character, ruthlessness in the struggle for power, perhaps lavish tastes at times (maybe this is more description of Cosimo) and failures in business. But his unique generosity lives on. In this same way I consider this previous owner of this cadaver as a patron.

I know nothing of his life (other than pathology evident from his anatomy, i.e. heart issues, pace maker, etc), but he has donated something beyond value that will live on in six future doctors, who will in turn treat hundreds of patients, who will in turn make donations of their own to this world. I just wanted to put in this bit, because previous posts and posts that are sure to follow are bound to be irreverent, morbid, and/or macabre. Call it a way of coping. Call it a way of celebrating. Call it a cheap way to get people to read my blog. Just understand that if I am to meet my patron in the afterlife, I will probably be at a loss to express my gratitude for his generosity.

Even more of the stryker bone saw

Just in case anyone wanted to see how delicate the art of medicine is, here are some photos of some of the tools that I have been using to finesse my way into my benefactor's spinal column and chest cavity.





It took a considerable amount of time to expose said patron's lungs. This was due mostly to the fact the a pacemaker was found in said chest. If you can be a organ donor, could you be a biotechnology donor? I wonder if someone could have used this fine piece of Medtronic hardware. Due to the aforementioned finesse, no one will be using this piece of equipment again.

I did get to watch LK for most of the night as Mer went to a function. You would never believe a grown man would make such noises to a stoic face infant and not feel ridiculous, but they do. It was still nice when Mer came home, after LK was snoozing fitfully.

Laminectomy

I put nice cutesie pictures of LK up here to fool people into reading the following which contains gruesome details of my daily life. I have always listed the smell of burning bone as one of my least favorite experiences. The first time I can distinctly remember smelling burning bone was when Bobby Wood was fashioning some sort of bridge for his guitar (if there's one thing I am totally ignorant of, its the anatomy of a musical instrument). The smell is truely awful. Well today I had the distinct pleasure of sawing through the vertebral column of a dead, but generous, man of about 250 lbs.

It didn't last too long, we soon decided to just use the chisel, chipping and tearing away part of this philantropist of the latest kind with reckless abandon. What an interesting activity to engage in. I think I understand the illicit connotation attached to such activity in previous times. It truly is utilitarian.

On a less barbaric note, our first test was today. Embryology. I passed. That is good. Actually everyone passed.

And our air conditioning works at our apartment!

Don't even know what to complain about.....

el thesis finito!

Yeah, I know, another picture of the bird of prey, but you must admit, it's better than pictures of yours truly.

Last thursday i was able to pluck off the segment of my life called "the thesis" like so much tape worm. The relief I feel is equivalent to such. It was approved 3-0, that's a shutout victory for el thesis. Looks like I may be headed to SLC after all, unless the book bindery or some such thing throws another surprise or two in my way.

So you can find us in Midvale starting in August. Everyone, come down, have a steak, sleep on my couch.

What a relief, now I start 7-10 more years of school and training... and I'm celebrating?!?!

The bird of prey is excited that we will be able to afford to feed her in about a decade, just look at the excitement on her face.

I will be cutting up dead bodies in the basement next month

Is this the sort of tagline that can get you under constant FBI surveillance?

This blog should become significantly more interesting after I am able to ditch this land of benzodiazepines and cephalosporins, move all the long way to SLC, and begin my life of extreme debt. There should be many gorey (sp?) stories. Some crazy patient interaction, maybe some tales from the free medical clinic for the homeless. I'm not as talented as Guiseppi with my creativity. I need material to work with, and right now all I have is "Pharmacy tech, Brian", four dozen times daily, and stories of how the Bird of Prey rolled over the other day. This is actually pretty exciting, in a way that only a parent, because of intimate relation to said bambino, or because said bambino has stripped life of any other form of excitement.

So I wait until experiences allow me to attempt to entertain the blog audience. Presently this blog has pleasantly surprised me in its power to reconnect me to some of my good friends of the past. Oh the times we had....bread with green frosting......Bella making me ever so nervous by nibbling with razor teeth on my ear, followed by innocent, yet incessant, licking of the same. Little things that remind me of good people.

Thank you all for commenting. Time creates curious ironies. Clemato working at the Republican white house??? I saw Farenheit 911 with him in London, staying at an apartment in the muslim district with two brazilian brothers who were generous enough to let us risk our lives with the WOP 309 psycho elevator.

My next post might have a point....or a theme....no promises

Enough messin' around, dad, it time for some blasted food!!!

A fresh blog for a different time

Hello all...

I back on the blog scene.

Why?

I don't know, a friend of mine told me it would be a good idea.

The old blog was dumb though....so I start anew.

Above is a picture of the army that will lead me to world domination. Beware my cavalry.