1/18/2006

As previously mentioned, the next series of blog posts here will be transcribed, more or less, from the journal I kept of my trip to Guatemala, accompanied by photos I took. I will entitle these posts simply with the date of their respective journal entries. -- @ Frank & Joe The Coffee Show (a.k.a. JP's Java) in Austin, TX Here I am again, completely unprepared for a trip I know nothing about. I intend for this to be a journal of my trip to Guatemala with Christian Medical Missions, a way to catalogue my experiences not only for posterity or nostalgia, but for use in future essays, applications or interviews. My life is sure to be full of those for the next... decade? - I don't even want to think about it. I've been coming to this cafe more lately than ever, mostly due to Jerome's dislike of Spider House Cafe (or rather his inability to visit that establishment due to a fib told to a former client), but I've gained a fondness for the place, despite its strange mix of austerity and warmth, and walls hung with terrible art. Strangely, Jerome and I do not sit together, he preferring the cold metal tables, and I the inviting comfort of the oversized, worn leather chairs. The last time I was here (yesterday, though it feels more like the day before due to my recently bizarre sleep schedule), my loose tea came loose of its cup, damaging the top right corner of the front cover of my copy of Glory. I'm disappointed that happened but relieved no further damage occurred. I will recommence that book now, and hopefully it will weave itself into my experiences in Guatemala over the course of the next week. Next time:

Hello, again... hello

I'm back from Guatemala, and I've brought stories and pictures. I'll be posting both over the course of - um, however long it takes. I'll try to do at least one a day, but I don't know how much tweaking I'll need to do to the notes I've scribbled in my little Moleskine. I also don't know how long it will take to decipher the bumpy code I etched on the mountain bus rides. But to get it started, here's one of my favorite pics from the trip (it's currently my desktop; click to enlarge):

 

Time flies, and so will I

Holy crap! I can't believe I'm leaving for Guatemala in less than a week! I should maybe start thinking about packing. I should definitely start thinking about doing laundry. The funny thing is, I don't even really know what I'll be doing there. Well, I know I'm going with a group recommended by my dentist whom I respect a great deal. And I know generally that they provide medical, dental and eye care for the indigenous people there. I just don't know what my role is. But what does it matter?

We've saved some and stabilized others, we've relieved pain and anxiety and improved nutrition and vision, we've educated and been educated, we've given our services to people who could never afford them.

I'm just glad to be a part - however small - of this good work.

Neuroscience Research

I may get the chance to do very exciting, very interesting work on axon regeneration. I don't want to jinx it, so I'll just say I've got my fingers crossed, and hopefully I'll have more to report soon.

Glory

I think I'll name my firstborn Vladimir. It's a little bit sick and ridiculous how good this man is at putting words on paper. I began reading Glory today (I picked up an original pressing of the hardbound English edition in a small antique shop in New Mexico for $2), and in the first three chapters, my eyes have conveyed to my brain expressions evoking such a breadth and depth of emotion as to almost feel preternatural in origin. I'm constantly taken aback at a turn of phrase or conceptualization of something otherwise mundane transformed into a thing of pure beauty. And I'm not exaggerating. Even just in the foreward by Nabokov, there are hidden gems like:

My second wand-stroke is this: among the many gifts I showered on Martin, I was careful not to include talent. How easy it would have been to make him an artist, a writer; how hard not to let him be one, while bestowing on him the keen sensitivity that one generally associates with the creative creature; how cruel to prevent him from finding in art - not an "escape" (which is only a cleaner cell on a quieter floor), but relief from the itch of being!

I can't really describe the feeling reading that gave me - if not quite epiphany, then certainly astonishment and deep admiration. It gave me a perspective on art I had never considered. The man's work oozes with this kind of wisdom and subtle cleverness - and this is just the foreward! Here again at the end of the first chapter:

Once upon a time there prowled marvelous beasts in our country. But Sofia found Russian fairy tales clumsy, cruel, and squalid, Russian folksongs inane, and Russian riddles idiotic. She had little faith in Pushkin's famous nanny, and said that the poet himself had invented her, together with her fairy tales, knitting needles and heartache. Thus in early childhood Martin failed to become familiar with something that subsequently, through the prismatic wave of memory, might have added an extra enchantment to his life. However, he had no lack of enchantments, and no cause to regret that it was not the Russian knight-errant Ruslan but Ruslan's occidental brother that had awakened his imagination in childhood. But then what does it matter whence comes the gentle nudge that jars the soul into motion and sets it rolling, doomed never again to stop?

I shudder to imagine never having added this author's enchantment to my life.

Coding again

It's all the things I remember it to be: frustrating, fun, satisfying, challenging and boring. It's a great hobby, and a good way to make a little extra cash now and then, but I'm glad I didn't stay in the IT field. At least I think I'm glad. I may beg for a nice, quiet life behind a desk here in a few years. I'm going to sleep now, and I just put the music player on my 'sleepytime' mix. For some reason, Bic Runga's Sway and Eisley's I Wasn't Prepared make a great combo. I hadn't heard the former in ages, and I'm not aware that she has anything else worth listening to in her catalog. Eisley of course, is quite the opposite. I was searching for some audio clips to post, but ran across this amazing gem instead: Dial scan of New York’s FM band the night John Lennon died. Enjoy.

Blendor lives!

My other blog, blendor.com, is back up and running! I ended up using WordPress, which I am actually pretty pleased with. [Aside: is it weird that every time I end a sentence with a preposition, I want to go back and fix it?] The cool thing about the new Blendor is that I've opened registration to anyone, to make it truly a group blog. I'd like to think of it as my own little micro-Metafilter. I also will be maintaining this blog as more of a personal journal. One note: if you posted entries to Blendor previously, I can only attribute those to you if you register again. So check out the new Blendor - and please leave feedback on the look and feel, it really helps.

A novel method for the removal of ear cerumen -- Keegan and Bannister 173 (12): 1496 -- Canadian Medical Association Journal

A novel method for the removal of ear cerumen -- Keegan and Bannister 173 (12): 1496 -- Canadian Medical Association Journal:

The clinician operator of the device was impressed by the Super Soaker's ease of use for this procedure. Specifically, the ability to control a narrow, mildly pressurized jet of water was considered excellent. As well, the device only had to be refilled once or twice before the cerumen was removed from each ear. This is in contrast to his experience of requiring up to 10 or more refills of standard ear-syringing equipment. Using the Super Soaker in standard practice could then lead to decreased overall time spent on this procedure, resulting in shorter waiting times for patients through increased physician efficiency.

Technorati tags: medicine health funny

Big photo update

I've finally updated my photo archive over at Zoto.com. Feel free to browse them any way you like. I've uploaded some new ones, but mostly I've gone back through old photos and uploaded the ones I like. My Featured Photos may be a good place to start, and I've also added some galleries for ease of viewing (although browsing by tag would probably be just as good).

Rose Bowl

Wow. That was one of the most intense, exciting games I have ever seen. Mr. Royal, too, apparently:

An 81-year-old football lifer who thought he'd seen it all stood outside the Rose Bowl, slowly running his hand through a full head of gray hair and staring into the night sky. "Amazing," Darrell Royal said quietly. "There's just no other word for it. Amazing."

I had the exceptional fortune of being on campus and downtown in Austin last night after the game. It was exuberance en masse. I vaguely recall running down the drag with Nick, horns flying in the air, high-fiving everyone I passed. The streets were flooded with people celebrating or lined up to buy a piece of Longhorn memorabilia. I "woo!"ed so much I lost my voice. I took a bunch of pictures, but they turned out very dark. But check out Mack Brown over there. Hook 'em!