Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! Take some time to remind yourself of all the ways in which God has blessed you and how he continues to do so! God provides us with so many earthly provisions each day, whether it be food, shelter, and even many other surplus things! However, remember to fix your heart on our one and only God who provides these to us and not on the earthly riches themselves, for they provide no certainty whatsoever.

Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. - 2 Timothy 6:17

Have a great evening and break from work or school!

Cooking Tip: Bacon in the oven

I decided to make a bacon egg sandwich today! I usually have a hard time getting my bacon to be crispy. I've tried pan-frying bacon at high heat, which is a bad idea because it burns before most of the fat is cooked off, so as a result, the outside is burnt and the inside is still too fatty and moist. I've also tried pan frying the bacon on low-medium heat, but the bacon still ended up soggy because it'd just end up swimming in it's own fat. I read somewhere that you're supposed to continually pour off the melted fat as to prevent the bacon from re-soaking it in, resulting in soggy bacon. This was really hard to do. How are you supposed to drain oil out of the pan when you still have all the bacon on it?

Anyways, today I decided to try baking my bacon. I placed the bacon on top of a baking rack and placed it on a baking pan covered with foil (easier to clean!). I baked the bacon at 400F for 15min, and to my surprise, the bacon came out crispy and not burnt! So, if you're a fan of crisp bacon, this is one way to do it!

Time Management

Time. Most people feel like they manage it inadequately. A popular prayer request is for "better time management." Why do people always feel like they're bad at time management? Do we all have so much to do that unless we carefully plan out each day in the most efficient way possible, we won't be able to get everything done?

I'll speak from my own experience. I definitely have a lot of time each day. Yes. Even as a medical student. Say I sleep for 6 hours (that's probably not enough for a lot of people, but I believe I can adequately get through the day with 6 hrs). I have about 6 hours of class + 1 hour of lunch each day. 1 hour for dinner. That leaves about 10 free hours left for each day. If I studied 10 hours each day, reviewing the day's material and perhaps pre-reading for the next day, I would most likely feel very ready before the next exam (or I would hope so!). However, this is definitely not that case. When it's weeks before an exam, I don't study even close to 10 hours each day, and once it's days before the exam, I sometimes feel like I'm running out of time!

Why is that?? Did I somehow mismanage my time? I honestly don't think I have a lack of it, so that's not the problem. Of course, my free hours aren't all dedicated to studying. Time is set aside for short naps, devotionals, and of course, working on this blog (and just dinking around on the web).

I think for one thing, it's hard for me to get motivated to study very diligently weeks in advance of an exam like I would a few days before exam day because there is very little immediate gratification to anticipate or experience. It's easy to get immediate gratification from looking for and watching entertaining YouTube videos, or playing a few games of StarCraft.

New Museum, New York

Looking for something to do in the city this weekend since it'll probably be the only "free" weekend we'll have before the work starts picking up again, we decided to go visit the New Museum. It's the only museum in Manhattan dedicated to contemporary art.

The museum consists of five stories, each filled with art pieces of very minimalistic and clean presentation. I really liked the architecture and design of the museum itself, especially since I really enjoy working on design work of my own and keep up with a lot of web design trends. I have to admit though, for a lot of the pieces presented there, I questioned the qualifications for what determined what got to be presented there and what didn't. Sometimes it seemed like it probably took more thought to come up with the blurb about the work than to complete the work itself, but I guess in this type of context, the blurb, or motivation and philosophy behind a work is the main part of the work itself.

Does an extravagant or profound philosophy behind a specific piece actually add value to the piece itself? Does it aid the piece in serving a greater or more effective purpose? Is it possible to have a piece that, without an articulated philosophy or motivation, cease to have a purpose?

Musculoskel Final, Starcraft 2, redesign, and sleep

Finally finished the musculoskeleton block, which mainly dealt with upper and lower limb skeletal and muscle structures, innervations, and the mechanics of the nervous system with regards to the spinal cord and muscle action potentials. I was getting a little tired of memorizing muscle names, their attachments, and source of innervations, but looking back, I'm kind of amazed at the amount of information we've been able to cram in such a short amount of time!!

Anyways, with that done, we were all given a day off =) The night after the final, my friend and I finally got some Starcraft 2 playtime in. Unfortunately, his laptop was overheating and shutting down, which definitely doesn't work for online play, let alone enjoyable campaign play, so here's what we did. We went to the back of the campus library and found a window that wasn't locked closed. We pulled up a nearby desk against the wall with the open window. There, we set up our laptops, right next to a constant incoming freezing breeze. Our hands were freezing, our APM well below normal, but needless to say, we were happy to be playing some uninterrupted Starcraft 2 with no school work on our minds...

I also took some time today to improve the blog design! Hopefully you guys like it.

And I slept a lot.

Stone Park Cafe: Steak Sandwich

Sovereign Grace Church is in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and in Park Slope, there are lots of nice places to eat! On 324 Fifth Avenue, corner of 3rd Street is Stone Park Cafe. I ordered the steak sandwich - 6oz New York strip, caramelized onions, white cheddar, and a side of fries. I asked to have it done medium rare, but it came cooked to more of a medium, but good thing it was still tender. The steak was nicely seasoned, and it, along with the caramelized onions, went well with the white cheddar. It was a little cold but we sat outside since the wait for an indoor table was going to be 35-45min (at least that means the place is popular!). Park Slope is a really nice neighborhood, so it was no problem sitting outside. Lots of people walking their dogs! The neighborhood definitely has a very upscale feeling to it, which means that I shouldn't be eating out every Sunday after church!

Anyways, here are a few more photos. I give the steak sandwich a 3.5/5, mainly because the steak was a little overcooked to my liking and the sandwich was good, but not awesomely unique.

Medical Student Burnout

Here is an article, "Medical Student Burnout and the Challenge to Patient Care", by Pauline W. Chen, MD, which got circulated around the Downstate '14 class. She wrote this article in response to a paper that she read, "Burnout and Suicidal Ideation Among U.S. Medical Students." She outlines some of the unshared feelings she had as she went through medical school.

Dr. Chen writes,

"Medical school was not easy for me. I knew that I wanted to become a doctor to help people, but I had given little thought to the process. I was poorly prepared for many things: the pressure to excel in ways that seemed so far from caring for people; rapidly mounting debts I signed off on every semester; a roller coaster existence from chronic lack of sleep; hazing from the more experienced students and residents; and the realities of patient suffering despite my best efforts."

Even only two months into medical school, we have been constantly reminded by faculty about the many student counseling services available to help us with any type of problems that we may be having, ranging from needing to improve study habits to having depression. Last week, we even had a lecture about how we should deal with stress, were informed again about the various student resources at school, and even touched on the subject of how to properly respond if we were to ever come across a situation where we knew that someone was contemplating suicide.

How do you spiritually prepare yourself for such an environment? On what foundations are your motivations founded? To where and whom would you turn to for help, guidance, and counsel? And what is your source of peace and contentment? I encourage you to think about these things, as you will be entering a very worldly academic environment where you must be careful to guard your heart against what the world has to offer in terms of peace and success and continue abide in Christ for peace and contentment.

Cake Decorating Competition: Winter Wonderland

So two of my friends and I entered a cake decorating contest hosted by the resident hall staff! I was quite surprised but the supplies we were given (all supplies were secret before the contest). I was expecting cupcakes or something, but each team was given a full sized plain white cake! Along with that, each team was given a large tub of white frosting, and we were free to get additional supplies from a table. Supplies included sprinkles, M&M's, gummies, etc. There were 5 teams total, with about 3-4 people per team.

Overall, I think we were all pretty happy with how the cake came out! It was a very impromptu cake design =) Snowmen were all molded using frosting, since that gave a rounder and fuller shape than using marshmallows.

Below are a few more photos of the cake!