The Life of Me

Doctor-ing

2010-08-17T18:14:00.002-04:00

A much needed update:

Currently, Im in my 3rd month of Doctor-ing. Time is flying pretty fast, mainly because I'm working so damn much. The 1 hour commute isn't as bad as i thought it would be. For 1, your mind is not at use when you are being driven, you can sleep, read, have leisure time, check email/facebook (thanks iphone 4). Also I got the new iphone, and i Jb'ed it. Its awesome a HUGE upgrade from the 3G. Meanwhile, Droid phones are popping up like crazy its still nice to keep track of what they have to offer.

Doctoring has been pretty awesome, everyone has been pretty nice and I'm learning stuff. I have had some interesting patients. And I'm now trying to study for my last step of my boards. Ill be taking it end of September which is pretty early for most. Most interns take it at the very end of intern year, I'm being gutsy/stupid, so we'll see how it goes.

Living in NYC is pretty bad ass. I always treat myself to goodies to eats on my post call days. Friends visiting from out of town is always fun. And I'm reminded everytime I come home to why i pay so much rent. The place is just so freakin comfortable, I cant wait to come home after a long days of work.

I know for sure i'll update after i take my boards, hopefully sooner

Anyone who actually reads this post are always welcome to our NYC pad. Just got to inquire about dates of travel, some people have already made some reservations =P

Bored..another useless and random thing about me

2010-05-07T16:27:00.002-04:00

States I have been to (driving thru counts)

Texas

Louisiana

Mississippi

Alabama

Georgia

Florida

Arizona

New mexico

California

Washington state and D.C.

Oregon

Utah

Nevada

Colorado

Illinois

Ohio

Missouri

Pennsylvania

New york

Maryland

New jersey

Hawaii

Michigan

Almost 1/2 of all states.

Cities Ive lived in for at least 1 month

2010-03-19T10:33:00.001-04:00

Houston, TX

Sugar Land, TX

Austin, TX

Philadelphia, PA

Allentown, PA

Lakeland, FL

Miami, FL

Ft. Lauderdale, FL

very soon... New York, NY

On to my next adventure

2010-02-11T18:37:00.000-05:00

So, I now know where i will be the next 4 years.... NYC baby! Ive always wanted to live there for a little (who doesnt?) and now i get a chance to. Best of all, i get to go in the field i want to be in, Emergency Medicine! Move over george clooney, the real ER docs are comin. Looking back, miami has treated me well. I have made some life long friends, and dont regret going there for one bit. I will miss the awesome weather for sure.

Now its cruise control, until residency starts. Until then, will be going to jamaica this weekend for a wedding, got to find a place to live in NYC, deal with my own wedding, go on my epic honeymoon, move in, and relax.

It has begun..

2009-09-22T20:57:00.001-04:00

A quick update, i have passed all the boards that I have taken and am done with standardized testing until i hit residency!! Speaking of residency, I have submitted my apps and just waiting for Letters of Recs and stuff to be compiled. So far I have 4 interviews, hopefully I get wayyy more. Im only applying to Emergency Med, so hopefully i match. I applied to like 39 programs spread out but mainly in FL, northeast, chicago.. I'll keep you updated hopefully.

This month Ive been in the ICU; doing rotations. Man there are some sick ass people here. Good thing i was able to find an empty ICU room and watch the UT-Wyoming game lol. This will be my last week here, and Im off to philly to do ER.

Boreds II

2009-07-06T13:07:00.001-04:00

So tomorrow im taking the USMLE step 2. and in a week i'll be taking the DO boards part 2. Not much difference in the materials covered, but i do need that week to prepare. The next part of boards will be during my intern year..and then after that i'll take another test in the field im specializing right before the end of residency...

essentially medicine = big tests every couple of years forEVER

really envious of all you guys that dont havta study and crap =)

Oh and after my boards i'll be coming home to houston for 10 days starting from july 16th..i'll see all my buddies when im in town.

Things that i HAVE to do:

1. go see kelvins new home

2. go see mikesons new home

3. engagement party with my family and tracy's family

4. bachelor party of my roommates

5. wedding of my roommates

6. eat good ass food

7. hang out with scottie,elfy and everyone else thats going to be in town.

Me like

2009-06-05T16:20:00.001-04:00

This vid puts a smile to my face

2009-03-07T18:03:00.000-05:00

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

i think its just the fact that the world can get along and be happy for a second.

Another step in life

2009-02-20T17:42:00.000-05:00

So..on 2/18/09 i asked tracy to marry me. We have been dating for over 5 years now, and have known each other for over 10 years. We love each other, and i will always be by her side no matter what..Even tho the set up was nice and all, she had an idea that it was going to happen, nonetheless she loved it..

How it went down: So when i bought the ring a couple of months prior the case it came in had an LED light in the case, so whenever you opened the case it would turn the LED light on. My original plan was to make use of this aspect and propose on the beach at night somewhere..so th

e brightness of the light/diamond would be accentua

ted. But a couple of things went against that idea; firstly we never go on the beach at night, so doing so randomly

may arouse suspicion and secondly i wanted to get the picture of it and it is damn near impossible to have good night time photos on the fly. So a couple of months pass, hoping to draw some sort of inspiration, and when we went to see Neyo on 2/11/09 we were at the bayside marketplace for dinner prior to the show and it was located on the bay where a lot of boats and yachts were docked. We mentioned that it would be cool to go boating together, so thats how i got my inspiration. I ended up chartering a private yacht with a captain and taking her out to see the sunset and the nightlights of the miami skyline. All in all i wouldnt have changed anything. I know she expected it, but we have been talkin about marriage for at least a year now and i dont think i wouldve ever totally surprised her sinc

e she knows me so well. I am lucky to have found my best f

riend and soul mate early on and my only wish is for both of us as well as our friends and family to have good health.

I think i did a decent job of the ring, considering how TK told me that she didnt want any side diamonds on the ring, and that she just wanted it to be simple. I didnt mind because i think simple rings are timeless and elegant. It is a 1 carat round cut diamond with a platinum band

Oh ..and i hired this guy to get all the footage: hes pretty ninja... well worth the money =)

Happy Holidays

2008-12-25T20:46:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas to all..i will be heading down to houston from the 26th of dec, till the 4th of Jan 2009...wow 2009..and im class of 2010..means im getting close to finishing up school..and boy it has passed by pretty quick..Most of my friends have their own things going on as well.. My brother has been going steady with his job which im proud of, Elfy is pursuing nursing which is all good, My cousin is also pursuing nursing as well...And Sunny is doing somethign similar tho im not 100% sure what hes going to be doing..My pursuit is prolly going to be EM emergency medicine..tho recently ive been considering physiatrist medicine and rehabilitation..PM&R..the rehab docs..My passion has always been sports...so why not sports med?..yea im considering that as well..As of now EM is #1..the variety is what draws me ..anyways we'll see..Im going to be applying to residencies in a year so only time will tell.

So far this year has gone by incredibly fast.. and i only have 1.5 years left until im done..then another several years of residency

Living with TK has been good as well, she is enjoying setting up her new practice down here and so far has been doing really well..it may be tough leaving her practice when i get into a residency thats far away, but its the reality.. Im starting to enjoy FL more and more, and may be thinking of settling down here when its all said and done.. Once again way too early to say but sometimes you catch yourself day-dreaming of the future and what lies ahead..

The reality of the present is this: read read read, wake up early, try to not look dumb, read more, and try to take a nap or so in the middle of the chaos. These next 2 months will be relatively light for me..8-5..free weekends on psych and geriatrics..and the next 2 months afterwards will be tough on call every 4 nights for general surgery.

O well now its time to relax and enjoy my time in houston.. i will see your asses in tejas..

an UPdate.

2008-09-21T20:02:00.000-04:00

So Im almost done with 3 months of rotations and im going to be entering a span of 3 month internal medicine rotation with call every 4 nights...And i think it will be a good change of scenery from my outpatient pediatric office ive been at for the past month.

Oh..and also TK has finally moved in with me down here, and she bought a new car, G35 Sedan White with navi..its a good car and im glad she got it. Shes been stressing on paying for everything. Since she is now starting up as an optometrist theres a lot of initial things she has to pay for, on top of the rent and car payments so shes barely breaking even with the part time job she has now. She will eventually find something permanent, and until then will not stop worrying no matter what i say.

I hope these next 3 months will be better for us...I'll be a lot busier and wont have the time to keep her company..Just got to hang in there for a couple more years when we are both making money and it should be all good.

My life's plan is to:
1. buy the a nice house within the next 6 years.
2. buy a replacement used car around the same time

and get a Porsche GT3 by the time i retire..

Passed my boards!

2008-07-26T10:11:00.000-04:00

woohoo, now i can forget about it forever. Still looking at going into internal medicine or emergency medicine! Oh and wish tracy goodluck on her FL boards today!! She will get her results in a month or so.

Step 2 of my boards are in a year....and step 3 is during or right after my intern year (first year) of residency....sighh a life of tests.

Playing Doctor

2008-07-19T17:39:00.001-04:00

So..its been almost a month of my first rotation which happens to be pediatrics at Miami Childrens Hospital. For the first 2 weeks ive been on the hospital floors in the neurology dept. It was cool, got to see a lot of stuff that i read in books, and a lot of stuff ive never even heard of. Then this past week ive been in the outpatient clinic, more laid back, more typical stuff you will see in the everyday clinic. (allergies, eczema, asthma, obesity, well child visits, screenings, etc). So far playing doctor is good. My next rotation will be OBGYN..which im not looking forward to..but i'll try to keep an open mind and see whats it all about..

UPDATE: IM DONE WITH BOARDS

2008-06-21T18:24:00.000-04:00

YES lady and gentlemen, i am finally done with part 1 (hardest) of the boards. The saying is that it takes 2 months to prepare for step 1, 2 weeks for step 2, and 2 days for step 3.

i studied about 5 weeks, about 8 hours a day for the first week, and 12+ hours for the rest of the time

The test itself was very draining, which means i made a dumb mistake based on mental fatigue alone. It was 8 blocks of 50 questions..each block 1 hr..

Tracy is also down here interviewin for jobs...And i'll be movin to my new place within the next couple of days..here are some pics:

And a view from our balcony:

And guess what our Apt # is: 713 !! representin h-tizzle...everyone im livin w/ is from houston too..it was meant to be =)

Here is one of my crazy roommates showin off my huge closet..lol: sorry fellas she's taken (my other roommate is her fiancee)

Phone

2008-02-15T12:53:00.000-05:00

A lot of my buddies including my bro has got the iphone. And why not? it is very thin, and has goodies like a big touch screen with good resolution, wifi, ipod, visual voicemail, etc. etc. However as of now, it does not have any compatibility with medical software, although this is slowly changing.

This is why i got the Treo 750 which was meant to be a temporary solution to the qwerty keyboard/touch screen with the medical software.

the Treo 750:

I think my replacement phone will come out some time later this year. its the sony ericsson Xperia X1:

Running Windows Mobile, the XPERIA X1 arc slider comes packed with a 3 inch, 800 x 480 pixels, 65k color TFT touchscreen, 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus, video recording, 400 MB of internal memory and microSD card support.

Other features include high data transfer rate with HSDPA/HSUPA and WiFi, Internet Explorer Mobile, aGPS, stereo Bluetooth with A2DP, Windows Media Player Mobile, FM Radio, Java, USB support and yes, it has MMS.

If the medical software support isnt better by the time this comes out, i'll have to get it b4 rotations start in late june.

Bored, so here are some pics of MSMC

2008-01-28T19:55:00.000-05:00

So this is where i'll be for 3rd year ..starting in July 2008

Update: I know which hospital i'll be at this summer!

2008-01-25T18:32:00.000-05:00

So we finally finished the renal system. And the big news is that we find out what we got for rotations next year. My school has a list of affiliated hospitals all over in FL. And you rank the hospital in which you want to go. A lottery is then pulled off and students are matched according to their ranking. Well we got our match today. And i got my #1 choice. Mount Sinai Medical track. It is a big teaching hospital with tons of residency programs. So im very happy. Our school also has a swap week where ppl can swap w/ each other, then theres a appeals week where you write to the dean and appeal your case.

1.5 years down 2.5 years to go.

2007-12-17T01:58:00.000-05:00

So..the semester is finally over..5.5 months for a semester, it seemed to go by fast but also it seemed long as hell.. After this semester Id havta say that i def. do not like womens health, yet im also interested in going into internal medicine, which requires me to know that OBgyn crap. anyways school is school. Im starting to worry a lil cuz it turns out that im only an average student. hopefully i'll own the boards. Good thing internal med doesnt really require a stellar board score..I do want a damn good board score tho so i can pick whatever i want, which at this point is Internal Med, Emergency Med, anesthesiology (which to a lot of docs arent really docs)..

Well right now im in NYC. havin a good time despite the cold weather. I may apply for residencies up here, so who knows where i'll end up. The NY life style tho is kinda crazy..its not really worth living in NYC..if u dont make half a million a year...and atho it is definately possible to make that kind of money as a doc..its not likely...anesthesiology probably has the highest chance to hit that mark out of the fields im interested in.

School starts up again on 1/2/08 ...and now i havta really lock down on studyin for boards

First Tour of potential hospital i will be at next year.

2007-11-04T01:37:00.000-04:00

So on Friday i toured Mount Sinai Medical Center in South beach (Miami FL) which is a potential rotation place i may be at. At our school theres a list of core rotation sites that you rank in order of your personal preference. And there is a school lottery on how you get matched to the list you submit. Usually students get their top 3 choices. As of right now im leaning towards Broward General Hospital, Mt. Sinai hospital, Memorial Hospital, VA hospital.

So a 3rd year med student gave us a tour of Mt. Sinai which is a pretty good hospital. Its got a good amount of residency programs and fellowships. All in all i liked the hospital. It was kind of old, but it was pretty big. I got to see the VIP floor(8th floor) where the patient rooms have wood floors, sofas, etc. Pretty much the rich patients get the VIP rooms. Also got to walk thru the ICU and got a chance to see the kind of computer system they are using to input pt. logs and lab values. The library they have is small but its open 24 hrs. The place seems like a maze and our tour guide said it took him about a month to get fully comfortable on moving from place to place.

Mostly this rotation site has nothing but good things going on: free breakfast/lunch, free parking, Q3 which means i'll be on call every 3rd day - and the student said they pretty much get let out by 7pm during those call days. Another good thing is that there isnt THAT many spanish speaking patients. prolly 3:1 english to spanish speakers.

The one bad thing that he said was that opportunity to do procedures was lacking. But he said if you be proactive and ask the residents and interns if you want to do something they generally will allow it.

Here is the map of the hospital that i MAY end up this coming July! So exciting to just think about seeing patients all day. But first i have to get through 2nd year, not to mention the dreaded Boards!

Recap of Tracy's visit

2007-11-01T16:40:00.000-04:00

So TK came to see me the weekend of 10/19. It just so happens that our 4 yr anniversary had recently passed as well so we were gonna celebrate that by doing the usual. eat at a fancy place. We ate at a place called Johnny V's and it was pretty good,one of the better places me and TK have been to. The 2 best things of the place was the mushroom pancake appetizer and the creme brulee dessert.

MUSHROOM pancake:

Creme brulee:

Also during that weekend we went to Hollywood Beach which had a boardwalk and TK rollerbladed while I rode my bike down the boardwalk. The shops could use some improvements but it was fun nonetheless. Afterwards we just chilled on the beach. We also ate at a place called cafe Maxx and its a rather small place with so-so decor and decent food. We had their tasting menu which was like 4 courses and 35$/person. The best thing out of the tasting menu was probably the Beef tartar.

Beef tartar:

All in all TK coming down was awesome and i miss her already. we played a lot of guitar hero. slept alot. even went to the gym once! and just spent some quality time together. Off to study for my GI final on monday.

DAMN its been a long time since ive updated:

2007-09-26T16:14:00.000-04:00

Its finally time i updated this, that and im putting off studying cardiology.! Well.. My first semester of 2nd year is half way through..It wasnt TOO bad.. First month was intense pharmacology and pathology.. Then we started systems. So far we finished Integumentary (dermatology), Heme/Lymph (leukemias, anemias, lymphomas etc.), Respiratory (smoking is bad), and currently on Cardio, then GI, endocrine, and womens health..then i'll be on xmas break where Me and tracy will be up in NYC from 12/14-12/18 ..I dono wat it is, but we seem to always end up in NY every year. Also by then Eric will graduate from UT! He beat his big bro in graduation time so props to him! Hopefully he wont have a problem finding a job.

In non-school related stuff Rockets preseason starts oct 9th against the hornets..Regular season starts 10/30 against the Lakers. UT football is overrated, and i think LSU and OU are going to be playing for the championship. Texans are looking good despite a 6 pt loss to the colts and numerous injuries and for some reason i cant bring myself to give a rats ass about baseball. However one thing was funny. A player named Bradley got so pissed off at the refs he got tossed from the game..but as the team's manager was restraining Bradley from going after the ref he hurt his knee..i was lolling all over the place.

I started working out again about a couple of weeks now. The changes are noticable and i plan to keep it up for as long as possible. im a lot stronger then i was when i first started back up..After that first day I required a 4 day break because i was incredibly sore from that 1 hr of work out. Now i go to the gym 6 days a week..with one or 2 of those days balling, the rest of the days lifting. With the upcoming NBA season and my new work out ethic i wonder if i'll have time to get my studies in..

Tracy will be comin to visit me in oct 16th..prolly take her to key west if there are no hurricanes. Then next break for me will be in Thxgiving, I'll finally spend a night in my parents new house in Telfair. And i get to eat houston food...uh oh..all that hard work at the gym...could be history by thxgiving..

Car Situation

2007-07-09T23:26:00.000-04:00

For those of you who i didnt tell (tried to keep on the d/l) on may 7, 2007 on the morning of my biochem final I realized that my car was missing. So after i took my test (roommate took me to school) I talked to the apt. manager to see if they had towed any cars. They said that they didnt, which really started to make me worry. So i called the local towing company just to make sure and they said that they hadnt towed any cars in the complex. So now its almost certain the vehicle is stolen. I call the cops at around 10 am and file the report. In the mean time the insurance ppl got me a PT cruizer as a rental while i was in FL. I fly back home on may 22nd for summer vacation. The insurance people gave me another car to drive chevy malibu (V6). After a month or so goes by, my rental coverage expires and they said they wouldnt pay anymore because it was over my limit But they did have a supplemental coverage of about $15/day which doesnt cover anything. So then i got a Suzuki for 3 days afterwhich i returned due to the smokey smell, and then started driving a Mitsubishi Lancer. I had to pay like $10/day out of pocket cuz of the cheap ass insurance company that punishes me for their slow ass work. I finally get the check for the car that was stolen for 17,800, (i bought the car brand new for 35K back in april 2002). Obviously this money isnt going to buy me any sort of new car, so i shop for Used ones. I stumbled upon a guy who is selling his car because his company is giving him a company car and he decides to save money and sell his car. its a 2004 Black TL with Navigation only 38,500 miles compared to the 49000 miles of my old car which was a 2003 Acura TL type S. Although they are only one year apart the body is totally redesigned and there are a lot of extra features in the 2004. It has bluetooth in the car that can connect with your phone. Its got Hands Free Link where you just talk to your car. XM satellite, DVD audio, Multi Display interface where it displays all sorts of stuff in the dash from Trip info to gas mileage to hands free settings to personalized settings. I have it so that whenever the car reaches 10 mph it automatically locks all the doors. And when the Car is turned off it automatically unlocks, but i might change that to unlocking when i switch to Park. All in all the 10 extra HP (270 hp) and the navigation system make the car really nice and im very happy. I had to pay 22,500 so about 4500 out of pocket but i think its worth it.

2nd year has officially begun

2007-07-04T20:38:00.000-04:00

Yes its the 4th of july and our school started 2 days ago...thankfully we got july 4th off, but how ridiculous is that. Go to school for two days have a day off and go to school for another 2 days. Wait a minute, i actually prefer that schedule, too bad every week isnt like this. However i'd prolly prefer to just have a 3 day weekend instead, gives more opportunity to travel and see loved ones. School isnt bad so far but i know it'll get crazy later on. I just pray that i can retain the stuff that i learn. I do have a Test on monday in pathology, should be interesting.

on a totally unrelated note, the Rockets organization is retarded. They ended up drafting a 5'11 point guard from Oregon. Great yet another guard..another SHORT guard nonetheless. Sure the short ones can run fast, but they cant guard anyone to save their life, mainly because of their size. The guards we have now under contract are: mike james, rafer, john lucas, luther head, sura, snyder, and now aaron brooks. When i first saw that they drafted him, i thought for sure we were making a deal happen possibly a sign and trade. But no, the rockets are dumb they passed up on some decent PF and got the shortest guy in the draft. Great that really solves are HUGE problem at PF..we only have 2 PF (chuck hayes, and chris landry) Sure novak has the height of a PF but he shoots 3s and cant guard a rock to save his life. I hope rick adelman can convince the organization that they need to make a deal to get a PF! Drew gooden, mikki moore, camby, anyone that can get a bunch of rebounds and play good D!!! thats all we need. I check the bbs night and day hoping to read a headline that the rockets have indeed made a trade. To no avail i have been disappointed since the draft. Hopefully we'll make some moves b4 preseason starts.

SUMMER 07'

2007-06-18T13:29:00.000-04:00

So heres a recap of my summer which sadly is pretty much over since my school starts july 2nd.. Usually i would play computer games until 2-3am wake up at around 11-noon , eat lunch in chinatown at 1-2 pm and kill time for a couple of hours until tracy calls me when she gets off of her school (shes on rotations). Then i usually spend the rest of the day with her. Its been pretty relaxing and ive been trying to wake up earlier and earlier to train my body to adjust for the hectic year ahead of me. I officially leave to go back to school on Sunday jun 24th at 7 pm.

Plans for the upcoming weekend:
Friday (Tracy's Bday!)
Sat (Dinner at Taste of texas)
Sun (leave)

1st year DONE

2007-05-18T17:43:00.000-04:00

1st year done! went by super fast and all in all it was a very good experience. All that you see is the class notes, i may be missing a class or 2..but thats the majority of it.. I usually read my notes at least 4-6 times b4 a test along with textbooks which i didnt bother posting (packed in boxes).. I have never read so much in a short amount of time. And next year is going to be at a higher pace when we learn systems. Im coming back to houston may 22nd and will be there until latest late june.. My 2nd year officially starts on July 2nd (yea short ass break) ..but what can you do, they designed it like that so we would get out in early april to study for boards. study study study...it doesnt end. even during the summer i plan to study physio and biochem for the boards, nothing hardcore but hopefully at least a couple of hours a day. and maybe one day off a week...that is all see ur asses back in Tejas

Been a long time..

2007-03-24T11:19:00.000-04:00

Its been over 2 months since my last update, and the time seems to be blowing by so fast. I find it rather surprising that the time comes and goes the way it does especially since im studying all the time. They say the time flies when you're having fun...but i dont really consider studying fun.. This semester is also more busy than the previous, we dont have any week offs (except spring break) in that we dont have a week where we are exam-free. Every week from now until the end of 1st year has an exam, some weeks we have 2 exams (OUCH!) Anyway during this time, TK visited me during her spring break for about 5 days. It was a much needed visit, especially the timing. If she had arrived when she orginally was going to arive which was during the later half of her spring break, it would have really hindered my schedule to study for a huge bacteriology test i had the coming monday, which would have only given me 1.5 days to study b4 the exam. Everything worked out well and we had a good time.. Next time i'll see her will be the week after my spring break, at the EYE BALL which is tracy's prom for grad school. I dono why girls care about that crap so much, not that im hating cuz i know tracy doesnt get why i love the things i love.. So im pretty much going there to make her happy which im happy to do anyway.

My Spring break plans are: To take care of car insurance crap, study, then the last half of spring break starting on 4/3 - 4/8 i will be goin skiing/snowboarding with my cousins in Denver, CO. This will be my 1st attempt at snowboarding and i already bought the wrist pad, butt pad so im good to go...gonna tumble my way down the bunny slopes...However, the first day i will get in a good day of skiing, whizzing thru the blue runs. Im gonna try and record a run as a movie on my digicam, hopefully the cold will not turn my battery into nothing like it did to tracy's camera when we went to whistler, canada. It also turns out that a couple of my med school buddies will be in town too, 1 because shes actually from there and the other cuz he went to military school there and is a super good snowboarder.

Hopefully it wont take another 2+ months to update, but with only 8 weeks left of school, 7 if u deduct spring break...my 1st year is almost done

Recap

2007-01-19T23:52:00.000-05:00

So New york was tons of fun as usual. TK and I were there for only 2 days but we made the most of it and dragged kevin along everywhere we went, hehe. I also saw scottie and ang at Mimi's bf's bday celebration at hiro lounge which was a decent place. Then afterwards we went to the park, and i was more impressed with that place compared to hiro. They had a nice courtyard with trees wrapped in lights which gave it the wow factor since the bar/lounge looked like ass from the outside. I think everyday we were in NY we stopped by Ktown which i didnt know existed prior to this trip. Me and TK stayed at Kevin's place in manhattan its surprisingly big for NY standard and its in a good location too. I also liked staying at kevin's apt because it is way different than staying in a hotel. Besides looking at it from an economical stand point, living the apt life is a lot more representative of wat a real new yorker goes through. The hassle of grocery shopping which involves carrying a duffle bag with you so you can hall ur grocery bags in the bag on your trip back. (solution: order your groceries online and get them delivered). The hassle of not having a washer/dryer in the apt. The hassle of no elevators (elevators usually in the nicer buildings with more stories) . The pros is that everything is within a subway ride away which results in your pick of whatever genre of food your heart desires. Indian? no problem. Korean? no problem Chinese? 2easy kthx.. After living like a true new yorker for a mere 2 days, i think i could live there provided an adjustment period. Everything is so fast paced that when i came back to FL i felt exhausted. And this exhaustion lingered around for 2 days in FL. However, because TK is pretty adamant in not living in cold weather that pretty much restricts my future place of residence in the southern states and california.

back tracking to the living in NY thing: because i have been to NYC a couple of times in the past im not on that "new york high" that noobies usually get (ie. Scott) so my feelings that i can adjust and tolerate NYC is actually rather significant.. yet meaningless in the long run.

foreseeable plans: bball tomorrow mornin, study, haircut, celebrate friend's bday prolly in miami, and study some more.

2nd Semester begins

2007-01-12T21:45:00.000-05:00

Man, when i first came back to school on Jan 2nd. I was soo freaking tired. It makes me appreciate UT's schedule even more, 1 month off for xmas vacation are you kidding me. Anyways the break was good except i had no car so i didnt really get to see my old friends. I did however score a wii or 2 and pretty much ate good food, played a lot of wii, and get plenty of sleep. All of which was very much needed. The most important thing was that i got to spend a lot of time with TK.

Also big news is that i got a new laptop, because my old one died. I got the sony sz340 the same one as my bro. It is pretty much a perfect size for me, 13.3" widescreen and weighs only 4 lbs..

TK got me addicted to Heroes, a tv show on nbc.. I watched all 11 episodes so far in one day, shoulda been studying physio, o well. I highly recomend any of you guys to watch that tv shows, its pretty leet. Just d/l the torrent that has the first 11 episodes in one..

Next stop, NYC 1/13-1/15.. get to stay with kevin kwan, and hopefully see meemee. I dono if my Texan/Floridian ass can survive in the cold.. J/K i own the cold except for when i went to NYC last time and the cold owned me nearly giving me frost bite when me and tracy walked over 45 blocks in one sitting in freezing weather through central park.. lol that was awesome. Hopefully that will happen again =)

CHEERS!

2006-12-14T10:24:00.000-05:00

Only have 1 final left, Histology and it should be a relatively laid back exam considering i had physiology and gross in the same week and then i'll be done and headed back to HOUSTON 12/15 at 10 pm cst. Good news: im not gonna fail out..lol...As of now im leaning towards Internal Medicine with a fellowship in sports medicine. Now that im starting to like football more and more (NFL and NCAA. Internal med like any other primary care field is not very competitive. The competitive fields are derm, plastics, radiology, gen surg, ENT, optho, pretty much anything that will make shit loads of money. Anyways i just want all u guys to have a safe holiday season and to call my ass up whenever ur feeling bored! I get to finally be with TK and i cant wait!! Plans for break so far, to go to the Texas bowl (Rutgers vs kansas state) on 12/28 at Reliant Stadium in Houston of course. Other then that, im gonna go eat awesome food. You guys dont understand how spoiled y'all are living in houston.. You all should take full advantage like the rest of the fatties in houston!!

Raise ur glasses up high, im pretty much 1/8th doctor hehe

3 down, 3 more to go

2006-12-08T14:54:00.001-05:00

I took my biochem final b4 thxgiving..and have taken 2 more finals since then...Now all i have left is Physiology, Anatomy (booooo), Histo... then im free and will be in houston 12/15 at 9:55 pm :) AND i'll be 1/8th doctor hehe

Next semester my courses will be:

Microbiology (7 credit hours)
Neuroanatomy (3 credit hours)
Medical Physiology 2 (4 credit hours)
Medical Biochemistry 2 (3 credit hours)
Clinical Practicum 2 (2 credit hours) pass/fail
Osteopathic Practice and Principles 2 (2 credit hours)
Principles of Radiology (1 credit hours)
Public Health & Epidemiology (2 credit hours) pass/fail
Interdisciplinary Generalist Curriculum (1 credit hours)(shadowing Primary care doc)

TOTAL: 25 credit hours

25 Credit Hours similar to this semester, but the schedule is tougher (more tests, IGC sessions, fewer free weekends etc.)

how funnnnn

2006-11-29T17:11:00.000-05:00

Birfday,

I skipped class today..and just mainly sat around doing nothing, it was awesome...And my classmates got me an awesome card and my Histology prof made everyone in histo lab sing happy bday for me, fucking embarassing but hey only 1 day a year i guess. Tons of people wished me happy bday old friends and new friends alike, so its coo.. The plan is to go out for dinner and drinks Thurs nite, since we have no school on friday..i'll post up pics later. I <3 my med school buddies as well as all u guys from back home!! Miss yall!! Mark your calendars, 12/15 ill be bax in Houston

2006-11-27T19:09:00.000-05:00

The Final Push of the semester:

Clinical Practicum Final: 12/4
OPP final: 12/8
Physio final: 12/11
Anatomy Final: 12/13
Histo final: 12/15

After this i will be 1/8th doctor...lol

Got the camera today..but to my surprise it was the t50..not the t30 that i thought i ordered, checked back on the invoice and indeed i ordered the t50..o well..pretty much the same exact model except the t50 has a touch screen..mikey = picture whore?? we shall see

2006-11-19T20:05:00.000-05:00

I ordered a New toy that i should get after Thxgiving

Now everytime i skip class to go to the beach i'll take pix!! Ive realized that me and my roommate both cope with stress by buying new things.. I bought the new lebrons and this camera, and he bought like a 120 dollar backpack.. You need something to keep you sane through this madness we call med school!!

EDIT: so it turns out i ordered the wrong camera..lol instead of the DSC-T30 .. i got the DSC-T50 ..which is pretty much the EXACT same camera but it has a touchscreen on the LCD screen...I like it nonetheless and will keep the camera to avoid restocking fees...

2006-11-06T15:36:00.000-05:00

BLACK OCTOBER IS FINALLY OVERRR

The culmination of 5-6 tests in a 4 week span was rather interesting to say the least, skipping class to study, skipping sleep to study, skipping food to study, yay.. I just got back from the Beach today after my physio test ended and just hanged out there for a couple of hours, it was damn good. And also plannin to go to a party tonite with my classmates in downtown. Should be fun. Now i have until 11/20 till my biochem final woohoo, but i also need to catch up in other classes since ive neglected them to study at current tests... And head/neck part of anatomy is crazy complex so im going to have to really keep up in there, so in actuality the studying doesnt cease, but the sense of urgency is temporarily haulted, which is good because it lowers the stress level. Speaking of which, there was a girl in our class that fainted when she checked her anatomy grade.. She was checking her grade and then all of a sudden she grabbed my arm..and fell to the floor. She complained of a headache in her temple and maxillary areas and just needed to lay down. I think some medics came, but i saw her a couple days later so nothing serious happened. Its funny, because the average for the past anatomy test was a failing grade, which is unheard of in grad school (lowest ever in previous years at our school). Ridiculous. 2 weeks until i come back home, cant wait

2006-10-21T01:32:00.000-04:00

Ive stumbled upon the most ridiculous laptop:

Sony VAIO VGN-X505VP

batt life isnt that great, performance not that great, no touch pad, but jesus...11 mm thin...and lighter than a notebook...the one with papers in it...gg..im mesmorized..and the near $4000 price tag doesnt phase me at all....jeeesus this thing is a beauty.. link for more pics/reviews of the laptop

http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?page=1059&head=0

2006-10-20T17:36:00.000-04:00

11 weeks down. In anatomy we have already covered upper extremity, lower extremity, thorax, abdomen, back, and by the end of next week the perineum. Thats a lotta shit! our last unit is head and neck. In physio we are learning about cardiophysio and surprisingly there is a good amount of formulas and what not, bummer. Also EKG (ECG) arent that easy to understand, easier to read tho. Biochem is pointless as of now just random crap like Krebs cycle, glycolysis, lipid metabolism, glycogenolysis, gluconeogenesis etc. Biochem Test on Monday, then anatomy the next monday, then physio the monday after that and we get a break for a week and a half...whewww wish me luck on this crazy schedule of mine. sucks that every test has over 150-250 pgs of notes on it not to mention the book readings as a supplement which i only read for physio..yikesss

Somehow some way i will get by, Previous goal: 4.0 Current goal: 3.5 =)

2006-10-11T10:43:00.000-04:00

A very simple solution:

Instead of buying a 2000+ dollar TV, i am just going to Slingbox Tracy's tv and watch all the rockets games/espn whenever i want in my room on my 22" LCD monitor. Why i didnt think of this before is beyond me, since i already knew such technology existed months ago. For u newbies that dont know wat a slingbox does it pretty much allows me to hook up a device to a TV whether it is in houston or FL, and watch it on my computer, PDA, smartphone, etc. while im in FL. I will be hooking one up during Thxgiving and my rockets bball/ESPN craving shall be satisfied. Since i wont be buying a crazy TV, maybe i can buy that cell phone, or a new laptop..Hmmm wat to dooo

Also, xmas vacation is still up in the air, so far it looks like chill in houston or go to NY

2006-10-10T00:43:00.000-04:00

Im now in the 10th week of School..and im definately getting the hang of this. Albeit ive pretty much guaranteed that i will NOT get an A in 2 of my classes. Thats ok tho, im banking on board scores to get me the residency i want which at this point looks like anesthesiology, emergency med, internal med. Black october is in full swing, I just took my OPP test (did good) have a histo test next monday, biochem test the monday after that, anatomy the monday after that, physio the monday after that...i said jigga wat?!??! Then i have a biochem test the monday b4 i head home for thxgiving..but me and my friends are thinking of going to key west after that big round of tests..and own it...should be damn good.. Also a ritual i have after every test is to play ball, usually alone because apparently noone at my school plays at the same time as me, o well. i cant wait to get back to H-town, mmm lucky pot beef noodle soup...ok i go sleep..nitey

2006-10-08T23:48:00.000-04:00

Ive gotta OPP test tomarrow, yet im still posting..mainly because ive been thinking alot about getting this tv: 46" LCD goodness with an awesome contrast ratio for an LCD

2200 shipped =/

The thing is..i dont watch THAT much TV..But since bball season is coming closer and closer i would really like to have ESPN HD or something of the sort. to watch the highlights of the games instead of watching the full games.. I hope that if i do decide to get it that 1) it will not make me broke and 2) make me NOT fail out of school

PS. HAPPY 3 YEAR ANNIVERSARY TK =)

2006-10-05T17:31:00.000-04:00

Wow its almost been a month since i last updated: Time flies by when it constantly feels like you are preparing for finals (even tho im only taking regular tests) As u guys can imagine i have been pretty swamped and it doesnt get any better. Black october is finally here and no it has nothing to deal with awesome prices on electronics that you have to wait in line for starting at 5 in the morning. Black october is where we have a minimum of a test per week (this week i had 2) and noone usually has time to go out. Overall things are good and I still like my school and my classmates so im definately not complaining on this end. Tracy came up this past weekend and time seems to stop when im with her, and all i ever care about is pleasing her and making her happy. We celebrated our 3 year anniversary which is Technically on the 9th of october, o well close enough.

She gave me this watch:

I like it alot and all i could get her was good korean food and sushi in miami which was decent. Time seems to be flying and before you know it i'll be home for thanksgiving with the family.

Some random stuff that i want or have been thinking of buying: i need a pda functional phone by next year
HP ipaq 6900: gps + bluetoof + pdaphone + qwerty + wifi + shitty battery =(

TRUE VIDEO IPOD: (fake pic) Prolly due out by xmas time

2006-09-08T12:01:00.000-04:00

Been REALLLY busy, but ive finally got the time to update.

Firstly, After my disaster of an Anatomy Test (82.5 overall) I know now how to study for the class and I should get an A on the next test, whether i can get an A overall is yet to be determined. Anyways im moving on and i will definately do better. Afterwards we went out to the Ale house and had a couple of beers and some white guys in our class (zetty and sean) were telling me all these crazy references to sexual things i had no idea existed. For instance: The Houdini: Guy is doing a guy from behind and when he's about to cum he spits on her back, she thinks its all over, turns around and gets blasted in the face. The cajun hotstick: When she is in doggie style; the guy dips his penis in hot sauce and sticks it in, supposedly it hurts. The David Copperfield: Guy has sex with girl with friend hiding in the closet or something, They discretely switch positions during doggie style and the original guy walks outside and waves to the girl from outside. The Screaming Sea Gull; Guy has sex on beach and when girl doesnt look, guy covers penis with sand and sticks it in, and supposedly she'll scream and wave her arms around like a crazy sea gull. Theres also a Rusty Trombone, but this one is kinda sick so u'll havta IM me about it later. The Spiderman, When guy is about to cum, he pretends to have already came, then cums in his own hand, when girl turns around you throw the cum in her face while making the sound effets of the spider web that spiderman has (and dont forget the way spider man's hands is set) LOL tracy is prolly going to dump me after this post, but this was the highlight of my 2 weeks of hardcore studying.

Now onto school related crap: I went to IGC last Friday (9/1) and this is where i pretty much follow a doctor around in the clinic. This was my first time this semester to go, and it sucked hard. Only saw 1 patient out of the 4.5 hours i was there and it was a patient with ulcerative lesions around her lower belly flap and around her genitalia. Whether it was bacterial or viral (staph vs herpes) was undetermined so we sent a culture to the labs. Also in my small anatomy group of 4 ppl ive realized that our group goes extremely slow mainly because we dissect very carefully and are afraid we are cutting too deep and therefore cutting through major nerves, veins, arteries, muscles that we need to preserve. Yesterday in lab was kinda icky, i was elbow deep with ass fat (we were dissecting the lower extremities, so i literally had ass fat on me (fat in the superficial fascia of the gluteus maximus). Anyways this weekend im gonna study for physio, biochem, and anatomy even though my next test is in 3 weeks yay! I am off to IGC today and hopefully things wont be slow. That is all for now, stay tuned for the next episode of grody stuff from med school

OH YEA: im going to watch the UT/OSU game at the HardRock casino (pretty big) at the sports bookies, its only like a 10 minute drive cant waittt

2006-08-28T18:53:00.000-04:00

TEST 1 OVER: Biochem

Took my biochem test today, it was pretty good but biochem is one of the easier courses classes at my school, So there is no need to celebrate except to celebrate my friends Bday at the hardrock and since they cancelled class tomorrow. Tropical Storm Ernesto has got the school scared. They cancel school even tho it was sunny all day. Its all good im not complaining, more time to study hehe. Next test Wed 9/6 (10 days) the Wed after Labor day weekend. I will post my grade as soon as i get it, it should be a good grade so dont think im supersmart or anytin.

Today people started going crazy, gas stations were all packed, costco was packed, traffic was worse than usual blah blah blah. I could use some more canned foods but water and gas i got. If i dont update in a while, its not because im dead but because the power will be out!

UPDATE: I only missed 1 out of 60 questions = 98.4

=) i was aiming for a 95 or higher so i hit it. The mean was a 87 and median was 88. Me and my roomy got the same grade, but diff questions wrong

2006-08-20T00:03:00.000-04:00

After 2 weeks of class im hanging in there..

Tracy has been staying with me for the past 9-10 days and it has been a challenge to focus on school work. Everytime i come home from school i just want to spend time with her and do nothing else. I tried to take her to some cool places like south beach, riverfront, los olas...But i feel like i did a shitty job entertaining her. Most of the time she was bored and she ended up watching 3 seasons of Entourage and reading 2 books.. The weather is humid and stuff so going to the beach isnt as appealing.

Now back to school. I found out on friday that im going to be driving to North miami beach, FL every other week for IGC (interdisciplinary generalist curriculum) Pretty much i work with a doctor for 4 hours every other week. Its about a 20 minute drive so it wont be that bad. Its a pass/fail course so there isnt that much pressure to own it..even though i will. Its good that my roommate is pretty gunner..makes me stay on top of my game..speaking of which im going to study some more. Also this is a pic with my parents at my white coat ..a preview of what dr. mikeylu will look like in 2010 =)

2006-08-14T23:24:00.000-04:00

I conquered week 1 !!

So after 6 class days...I have realized that i like my school..everything from the facilities to my fellow classmates (collegues)..Surprisingly the 8-4 schedule isnt really bothering..I just take a 30 min-1hr nap and im good to go to study or whatever. Ive also realized that Dr. Block one of my many biochem teachers really cant speak, his first lecture i could only recognize the word carbohydrate. however the next couple of lectures were better. I guess i had to adapt my ears to decipher his muffled noises. And anatomy, one of my friends Cat who is also from houston (UH undergrad).. his cadaver was really fat (restaurant owner) and i think his cadaver had just died..because the insides were all bright red...like in the steak section at the grocery store...Yea, it was gross and it stank so bad too (i think now its rotting so they cant use that cadaver any more) The school is probably going to get a new cadaver..or they will just spread out and join other ppl's group.. Also at our school there is a dress code; scrubs or professional attire. So i just wear my scrubs i dont mind it at all..and i actually prefer it. The hardest subject so far is anatomy we have class 4 times a week and its a 8 credit hour class...

My roommates are both really cool..and we get along fine.. and i really like my apt. as well as the general area of where i live, even tho no chanktown :( Its 10 min away from downtown ft lauderdale and 30 min from miami..4o min away from south beach..1 hour from west palm beach etc etc..

All in all the environment im in will definately not make me depressed (which is why i didnt even bother applying to some TX schools like Texas Tech and A&M) You have to feel comfortable in med school.or else its gonna be really tough to endure.IMO

OH and a good friend of mine is leaving our class because she got accepted to NYU College of medicine..im happy for her (she's from NY so is her family)..but it sux that she hasta leave..I wish her the best of luck ..and a safe journey back home...

This is all i can think of!! more to come

2006-08-07T20:36:00.000-04:00

Officially a First year med student...

Thats right, the countdown is over and I have gone through my first day of class. It was surprisingly tiring to be in that room for so long. Biochem was our first class..and the first day was so noob just talked about gen chem and some nucleotides..After that was Clinical practicum...which will be extremely relevant for my future...pretty much teaches you how to interact with patients...what questions to ask and how to ask it. then came Gross Anatomy..the prof for this class is ridiculously monotonous...Good thing there are several profs teaching each class..so chances are there will be at least one good prof for each class...Oh..and today i dropped 700 bux on medical equipment...but i get like a 70 dollar rebate..lol...got a opthalmoscope, otoscope, stethoscope, reflex hammer, tuning forks, a leet BP cuff, and some other useless stuff..All in all i know im gonna get owned...but this is what i signed up for..so im not complaining...Off to study some anatomy...

2006-08-02T22:55:00.000-04:00

It has begun.....

Orientation has finally begun and all i can say is that it is brutally boring..they took half a day to congratulate us..and the other half we did a critical thinking test and a personality test.. On the second day every single organization had reps that gave a presentation on why we should join their clubs. They also gave us packets with all the information before hand so they were pretty much reading stuff straight up. They also gave us packets on how to survive med school which they ended up reading it to us anyway...And we were supposed to take pics in our white coat...but they didnt have our group's white coat..so we had to show up on our free day..wednesday..

On a brighter note..ive been partying both Monday night and Tuesday night...met tons of people and also drank alot =) i like my classmates for the most part..and i already know pretty much know who i will end up spending the most time with even though im pretty much cool with a good amount of people.

BTW..i dont think it should be the intent of orientation to wear out the students before school starts =/

2006-07-26T01:29:00.000-04:00

It feels like im changing already.

Before i used to be solely a cold/wintery guy which is why i loved skiing. Going fast in the snow not caring if i fell due to the soft snow as well as the cold wind slicing through your skin is an exhilaration that is simply addicting. But then I came to Florida for school and things are slowly changing. Today i went to South Beach in miami in the morning with my roommates...and i must say the place was nice and i wouldnt mind doing it again. I guess i was never really fond of beaches due to the internal scarring that galveston has caused me. Everytime i think of beach i think of polluted waters, stinky ass air, and dirt looking sand. South Beach on the other hand had some topless girls, white sand, and pretty waters as well as palm beaches and open land. Even though i went to Ft. lauderdale beach tonight i didnt really get to see it that clearly. I saw that there was palm trees actually on the beach..which is not the case for south beach where its just alll sand. The beach is also a lot smaller than south beach and from word of mouth it is also less populated than south beach. All in all i can see myself being a beach person and another bonus is that My Love is also a tropical person so i can finally share a passion with her :) Anytime i find something in common with Tracy theres a small weight lifted off my shoulders because i just feel bad that she is different from me..and i cant really do anything about it. And neither can she. And whenever we find something we both like we definately have to exploit it so we can make each other happy. That is all now. Orientation starts in less than a week...And i have to hit up ft. lauderdale beach and maybe west palm beach (~1 hr away) b4 school starts..

PS: im writing this because im waiting for my water to get cold (in the freezer) so i can finally sleep from a long day =) that and i had a very eventful day comparatively to the past week where ive been shopping for stuff and settling in.

2006-07-17T07:13:00.000-04:00

I finally arrived in davie, FL which is pretty much Ft. Lauderdale. The first day i drove 540 miles to pensacola, FL and the next day i drove 661 miles. I arrived at randy's place where i would later spend the night so i could finally move in to my apt the next day. I went to eat with 6 or 7 other med students that were going to be in the same class and they all seem to be cool. The LSU guy i met can drink a 24 pack of beer in one sitting...crazy white people. Anyways we ate at chilis and later came back to randys place to chill..we ended up talkin until like 2 or 3 in the morning..Anyways, cant wait to move in.and meet my roomate(s).. Trent will be in town tonite while Luis a week or so later...That is all..

The adventure is beginning..

2006-07-01T03:25:00.000-04:00

All I ever think about now is The Countdown!

Get your own countdown at BlingyBlob.com

2006-06-27T14:44:00.000-04:00

Hello Everyone, Welcome to my blog..I will be telling you stories, albeit not many, and experiences that i go through