I’m Back

You know, the funny thing about having a blog that no one reads is that I don’t have to feel guilty about not updating it regularly. But I do anyway, even though no one reads it.
I’ve been very busy with my internship at the hospital. I love it, but I’m there usually from 7 am to around 3 and after that I just want to sleep and eat.
Today I followed a resident around, which was really nice, because I got a taste of what they do on a daily basis. Most of the time it was paperwork on the computer, so there was a lot of awkward downtime. I also met some medical students, one of which asked the dreaded question, “why do you want to be a doctor?”
I’ve always found it hard to put into words my reasons behind wanting to go into medicine. I don’t want to sound like Miss America (“I love to help people!”) but I also don’t want to sound to cynical about it. I told him that I enjoy the science behind medicine, and that while I haven’t done any research yet I think I would really like it. I think medicine is one of the only fields where you can actually see the impact you have on people’s lives, and any improvements made through research directly help people. What I also should have said is that I love to figure things out. Today as the residents were discussing patients with the attending, I was struck by the idea that each patient is like a puzzle. The pieces of the puzzle are their symptoms, medical history, lab work and so on, but also their emotional state, their background, their support system, their living conditions, etc. So many variables go into each person, and it’s so interesting how they fit together. I have always enjoyed games that require this sort of analytical skill, and I like to solve mysteries. It gives me a certain satisfaction when I work something out on my own.
Maybe that’s why I like Sherlock so much 🙂

This is a Great Article

About society’s warped perception of rape and sexual assault:

http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-opinion/your-vagina-is-not-a-car-20121022-28102.html

I don’t know why, but every time I read something of this nature I just feel so disappointed that in our advanced society we still have these issues. This is something I am thinking about using my career to address; I’ve always wanted to be a doctor, but I’ve had this side idea to open my own nonprofit pregnancy center/counseling center to deal with this sort of thing. I really just want to get across to people the double standard that we teach women to avoid shady places, walk with a buddy, etc. and don’t teach men that rape is not okay, ever.

I was watching a PBS documentary the other day with my mom about sexual assault in the military. It was horrifying. They have a HUGE problem, because they don’t want to acknowledge that they have a problem. The United States military actually created and distributed ads that said something like, “Wait until she’s sober, don’t risk it.”

Don’t risk it?!

Never mind the woman who’s physical and mental well-being is in jeopardy, dude, just make sure you save your own skin. Don’t want anyone saying you raped her. I hate how it makes violating someone in the grossest way possible seem like such an arbitrary decision. Like choosing if you should go to the grocery store when it’s raining. Oh, better not risk it, my hair could get wet. I’m going to go to the grocery store anyway, so I should wait until it stops raining.

Suffice it to say that both my mom and I were absolutely nauseated.

Victory!

I have produced enough pee to proceed with the tests. All credit goes to my bros:

Is it normal that my left kidney is actually in pain? Calm down there bro. You did me your service and now you may chillax.

They’re Making Me Drink Water So I Can Pee in a Cup

I have to do a drug test at the hospital before I’m employed there, which makes sense, but maybe they should have told me so I would have actually consumed liquid this morning. I didn’t pee enough in the freaking cup the first time so they made me go sit in the waiting room with creepy people while I had to drink 6-7 cups of water. I was all “I got this” because generally I’m good at downing large quantities of liquid without any qualms. But I get to the fourth cup and start feeling… pukey. Like if I drink one more sip I’m just going to vomit everywhere. (I actually have a really sensitive gag reflex so don’t judge me). I had to actively force myself to not think about puking. I slowed down considerably and forced myself to drink 7 cups of water, and now I’m just waiting for that good ‘ole gotta-go feeling. They’re blasting Jeopardy and it’s the college tournament so it’s not too bad.
So I felt like I should blog this interesting and uncomfortable experience as a lesson to others: don’t go to a drug screen dehydrated. They will do water torture on you.

The Six Best Sherlock Memes of the Interwebs (According to Me)

So I recently finished the entire Sherlock series. And by recently I mean ten minutes ago. It’s 3:28 AM and I have been finding myself hard-pressed to get to sleep lately, so I thought, hey, instead of tossing and turning and agonizing like I did last night, maybe I’ll at least enjoy myself. I ended up watching the last episode of Season 2 (Reichenbach Fall) and I was curled up in a ball, biting my nails and occasionally yelling at the characters because it’s just that good. Also ended up in tears during Watson’s little chat at Sherlock’s “grave.” Oops, spoiler alert. Even though I knew that Sherlock couldn’t possibly be dead… it’s just… Watson’s puppy dog face… EUGH I need to stop before I lose it.

Anyway, after all that I decided to look up funny Sherlock memes on the Interwebs because I am a meme addict. I found the supply of good Sherlock material strangely lacking; one would think this fan base would come up with some clever stuff. Here are my top 6 choices. I find them funny at the moment but that may only be because it’s 3:33 in the morning.

1. Watson with a Mustache Saying Something About Bitches

Yeah I laughed for way too long when I saw this one and I can’t even say why. Probably because I took 3 years of Spanish and I can’t remember what “donde esta” means.

2. Variant on the Original Mind Palace Thing

Benny’s expression in the second panel…

3. GAAAAAAYYY Walrus Watson

Throughout the series I’ve always thought the funniest moments were when people assumed Sherlock and Watson were a gay couple. Love the sweater in this one.

4. Mustached Moriarty

Heh.

5. Ermahgerd Lestrade

I admit this one took me a second.

6. Juan Watson

Not sure why all the Mexican/mustache themed Sherlock memes but I don’t question I just go with the flow and I like this flow.

My computer keeps yelling at me to restart it for some reason I can’t comprehend so I should probably turn it off. And go to bed. And get up at like ten to go fill out all my paperwork junk at the hospital. Bleh.

So the Title of This Blog is Under Construction

Right now it’s The Usual Subtexts just because I felt like the title should be something clever and meaningful. It doesn’t really mean anything though; it’s a play off the movie “The Usual Suspects.” The font in this theme kind of looks like the font on the movie poster so I guess that’s a plus.

You know when you’re typing on your laptop, and you accidentally touch the trackpad and suddenly you’re typing in the middle of a paragraph you already typed? Yeah just happened to me.

So I was inspired to create this blog because it is now summer (according to our school calendar, not the actual seasonal shifts). That means that I am no longer in college and I have nothing to do with my life until June 3rd when I start my internship at the hospital. It’s a really bizarre feeling when your life is completely consumed by academics, and then, poof, nothing. I keep thinking there should be more of a gradual transition into the great hole of boredom and listlessness of summer, instead of the free-fall off a cliff I just experienced. This morning I woke up to my phone ringing, and instantly sprung out of my bed, panicking, trying to remember what I had missed or where I was supposed to be or what I was supposed to be doing. But it was only my mom wanting to know if she should buy cheese at the grocery store or if we had enough in the refrigerator. I think in Japan they do some kind of year-round schooling thing where there isn’t this random 3-month period of forgetting everything you just learned. But then again, I’m not sure if there’s anything like that in college.Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if our entire grade wasn’t dependent on one test at the very end of the semester. I personally don’t think it’s fair if I get a bad grade in a class based on one test, and I’ve worked hard and had a good grade up until then. But I’m not here to critique the American education system. Most of my professors were fair with their final exams, and I ended up with a 4.0 for the entire year. That was hard. Don’t know if I can do that again.

My vision for this blog is a mash-up of a daily journal and somewhere for me to vent my opinions. I’m not really looking for followers but feel free to follow me or whatever if you think I’m interesting. As you can already see, I skip around on topics a lot. I’ll probably go weeks without a post, then explode like five in one day. That’s just how I am.

Maybe I’ll blog the little bedroom renovation I’m planning. We’ll see.