my two cents, part I

Tonight I'm introducing another new feature to this blog: My Two Cents. This is a new column, somewhat akin to "Joke of the Day" and "That's Outrageous!", where I voice a strongly-held opinion on some subject or other.

So, tonight's subject is crew. I feel rather strongly about crew. When I was in college, the crew team had some of the most pompous, arrogant people on campus. They all ate together in the vegetarian section of the dining hall, and they'd come strutting out of there afterwards, full of lentil beans and bouillabaisse, like they were the healthiest damn people on the planet.

And who's to deny that crew's a healthy sport? Good aerobic workout. Also good for the biceps. Maybe too good? Is that what bred all the arrogance?

Anyhow, on the rare occasions when these hoity-toity crew people would talk to me, they seemed to have their own strongly-held opinions about ... football players. Now, I never played much football, but I've always enjoyed a good football game and been sympathetic to the cause. But these crew people ... geeaagh. It was all "Football this!" and "Football that!" They did not like football players, and talked ill about their sport.

But here's the thing, as I see it: football is actually a very complex sport. Sure, guys like Michael Vick and Ben Roethlisberger may be complete cretins, but that doesn't diminish the complexity of football. Look at what happened to Urban Meyer - he was almost done in by the nuances and endless permutations of the sport. So many offensive formations, so many defensive responses; it's not surprising that these college coaches spend 100 hours a week or whatever getting ready.

And meanwhile, do sports come any dumber than crew? Are they not doing basically the same thing as galley slaves? Just pulling an oar over and over again. And they can't even decide for themselves when to go faster or slower - they have a tiny little person, the "coxswain," yell out instructions to them! Even NASCAR requires more intellect.

I never had the guts to say any of this to the crew people in college, because they all had big ol' pipes for arms and were too fit to outrun. But I'm sayin' it now. You hear me, crew freaks? I'm calling you out, bitches! I'm calling total bullshit on your dog-and-pony show! (Except for you, Caroline; I haven't forgotten that you used to do crew. You're A-okay; you're one of the good ones.)

And that's ... my two cents.

the future is here

Nothing special to report tonight, just that I'm writing this particular entry on my laptop computer in San Francisco. I've never blogged so far from home before, people! I'm feeling very techie at the moment, kind of a dapper man-about-town. Of course, I'm in my hotel room instead of some hip SF coffeehouse. But you know what my fans in Asia say: "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

More about my laptop: it's a honey. An Acer, I think a 10.3 inch. Just a tiny step up from a netbook, but a big enough step to have Windows 7. Haven't figured out all the kinks yet, though. Like, I want to load up an image for this entry, like I normally do. How do I do that on a laptop? Is that what the camera's for? Let's try turning the camera on ... now. Trying to get a picture of myself, blogging on the laptop. It's not working. Damn.

Still, I think I've got a message for the Twenty-Teens: there's a new player in town. He's got a laptop, and he can blog on it. And he's got a cell phone, and even an MP3 player. And an electric toothbrush. Hell, I've had that for like 15 years! The future is here, everyone. It's definitely here.

health food, part II

What's up with these Taco Bell ads where the guy comes in and furtively orders this 5-layer enchilada thing, like it's some kind of a drug deal? I almost freaked when I saw that ad! For a second I thought I was on LSD.

And I thought it was just a one-time thing. But now, there's a new one with another guy coming in and asking for Denise, the 5-layer chalupa dealer! Damn! I guess Taco Bell knows their target audience pretty well ...

health food

We all know Fritos are delicious, but how many of you out there realized how healthy they are for you? I'm eating some right now. Let me read off the ingredients to you: "Whole corn, corn oil, and salt. No preservatives."

Three ingredients! That's it, baby! As long as you don't have to be on a low-sodium diet, there's nothing but goodness awaiting. Just read the nutrient panel: "cholesterol, 0 mg." Sure, there's 10 gm of fat per serving ... but nearly all of it is monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat! I shit you not. I also have a bag of peanuts in my desk, and there's actually more fat in the peanuts. (And did I mention that they're roasted and unsalted peanuts?)

Kind of ironic, isn't it? You would think Fritos'd be all bad for you, but they're not. And I do wish they were made by some mom 'n' pop company, rather than an agribusiness giant, but I'm not going to apologize for being hungry.

I'm feeling pretty good about myself right now.

the jubilation

Holy schnikes! Health care reform is really gonna happen! Hot damn.

the misery

This is normally kind of a lighthearted blog, but I'm gonna be somber here for just a few minutes while I talk about my job. I work in a hospital, primarily taking care of people who have cancer or have been treated for cancer though every so often there's someone with no history of cancer in the mix. I decided to go into medicine a few years after I'd finished my undergrad degree, and then decided during my pre-med studies to pursue oncology as a career. And that's basically how I wound up in Mad City - I'm doing my oncology training here.

Now, the first thing most people say when I tell them what I do is, "Oh, that sounds depressing." I've been hearing that since med school, basically. But really, I was prepared for it. And the way I see it, once you become an MD, there's very few areas you can go into that *aren't* depressing at some time or other. We've all gotta deal with bad situations and diseases from time to time, whether you're in primary care or neurology or psychiatry or yes, even dermatology. Another way of looking at it is that oncology is an interesting field, and I'd get down if I was doing something that I didn't find interesting.

So I was prepared for the grim side of oncology. But as Mike Tyson once said, "Everybody's got a plan until they get hit." And at times, this work can kind of pummel you. On a busy day in clinic, for instance, when you see wave after wave of patients dealing with horrible, horrendous diseases and your options for helping them are limited. And sometimes, there are things like trying to explain a very complex illness to someone who basically doesn't understand what a cell is. It can be time-consuming and frustrating, especially when you're running an hour behind schedule and you know that most of what you say to your poor patient is not sinking in.

And one of the toughest things to deal with is when a patient or family member redirects their anger/anxiety/fear about their illness at you. It actually happens quite a bit, not only for physicians but also nurses and really anyone directly involved in patient care. You can't really blame people for feeling that way, but sometimes it can be tough to deal with. (Check this out - I saw it on the NY Times website the other day.)

So obviously, it's important to have some sort of support network when you work in this field. But to be honest, I haven't had a lot of support here in Mad City. And part of that's my fault, people! I moved here by myself, and figured it wouldn't be too hard to build up a social network like I had during residency. But the situation's different here: fewer people in my program, bigger city, bigger hospital, more impersonal hospital. The director of the cancer center, who in a certain sense is my boss, hasn't said a word to me during my 2+ years in Mad City. I shit you not. And I'm finding that as one gets older, it gets harder and harder to make new friends in a new location, unless you join a church or have kids or otherwise sell your soul (just kidding ...) Anyhow, I thought this would be a friendlier place, but it's not really. It's a very liveable place, just not exactly friendly. Not hostile, but ... it's hard to explain. And it probably doesn't help that work sucks up a lot of my free time.

Don't get me wrong - I can think of a lot of people in a worse situation than mine. Many of my patients, for instance. All the wretched earthquake survivors in Haiti. The people who went through the earthquake in Chile. The impoverished. People without access to health care, or without jobs, or without hope of any kind. The New Jersey Nets. There's a lot of different varieties.

But still, if you want to know what it's like to not only work in a field like oncology, but to more or less do it on your own: well, at times it really sucks. I'm inspired by many of my patients, and there are times when I feel fortunate to be able to do this work, but I just wish I hadn't had to be so isolated. And if it seems like I'm having an off day once in a while - a bad blog entry, or some lame Facebooking, something along those lines - all I can say is that I'm dealing with this stuff the best I can. I like to think that at the very least, I'll come out the stronger for it.

in the na'vi

Guess what, Mad City readers? I finally saw "Avatar" tonight. Now, I know what you're thinking: "Huh???" And all I can say is, I've been busy. Pretty damn busy.

So I suppose you want to hear my thoughts on it, right? Well ... I think it was a technological tour-de-force. I've never seen animation like that before! And I didn't even go to the 3D version. But I also think it's a little questionable, from a certain point of view, that these native people needed an outsider to come in and rescue them from a bad situation. There's an allegory in there somewhere ... hey, you know what it's like? "Dances with Wolves." It's just like "Dances with Wolves," where you had this goy cross over the lines and help the Indians fight off the white man's attack. I mean, why couldn't one of the natives have been the leader, the chosen one?

That's what I thought. I just thought of that.

But still, when Jake Sully called bullshit on the Sky People and their crazy nonobtainium-seeking ways, I couldn't help but get stoked up. And I vow to all of you that someday when I'm on my deathbed, my last words are going to be, "Take my bow. Protect the people." And I expect all the natives will do a whole bunch of crazy swaying-around, so my spirit can successfully get linked up with my avatar.

I see you, people. I see you ...