the difference

On my way back from Houston, I met a psych doctor who was sitting next to me on the airplane. I asked him what the difference was between animals and humans.

He said: "The ability to cheat."

fear

aaah! t-16 days. I feel old, and feeble.

mEEEooow

agua

Trueism!

I'm kind of scared dudes. What are we going to do with our new found knowledge of water on the Moon? A lot of scientists are excited at the prospects of utilizing it to power rocket fuel production or having a "base" on the Moon from which we can advance explorations elsewhere (convert it to hydrogen gas powered propulsion systems). Others have hypothesized colonization, and direct utilization to counter what we've done to our sources of water on Earth. I'm sure atleast for the next few years we will just investigate what's available and what it means, but great discoveries bring great power.

And as Uncle Ben would say: "With great power comes great responsibility."

as the stars burn, heal

I remember sleeping in my backyard for nights in a row in my sleeping bag watching meteor showers. I'd think of them as God throwing burnt ideas on rough paper at us - and I would wonder what they might have said.

It's time I fell in love with stars again. It's ironic that their fall uplifts me.

I've been so engrossed in the Microscopic Universe that sometimes I forget how I'm a tiny, itty bitty speck in The Big One. Just today, a few moments ago, NASA announced the presence of WATER on the Moon! OUR MOON!

Why did this take so long?!

We've been searching Mars, and other extraterrestrial planets hundreds of light years away using sophisticated technology that for so long not once did we think to point our minds towards the closest celestial body to our own. In fact, even when we went up there and brought back the infamous "moon rocks" (for those of you who don't believe we landed - fuck you) analysis revealed no significant findings. But just because we landed on some obscure spot and scraped off superficial dirt should not have ensued in a definitive end to our explorations. I am incredibly proud of India - just the contribution that was made to such a significant finding, and the thought process behind how cold sinks could act as condensation spots for water.

I can't wait for all the havoc future results might wreak. I say - bring it. It's about time our sky held the spotlight.

"In the Full moon's light i listen to the sea,
And in between the silence, hear you calling me,
But i don't know where i am,
And i don't trust who I fear,
But If i dont wanna, will i hear them leave?
Ooh, ooh" ~Full Moon, The Black Ghosts

cruisin'

*imagine drunk hispanic patient in ER hallway in handcuffs*: "-ey! ooo hell' me? UOO HELL' ME?! FUCK U BEACHEZ! EY YOU! U HELL' ME?"
Doc: "He's got a baaad case of Jail-itis"

*overheard*
Dude: "This one food package said 'Whore Foods!'"

Nurse: "I need lotion. I'm feeling some personal dryness"
Doc: "OKAY there. Little too much info."

pancakes & chocolate chip banana bread

Yay I have awesome things to discuss...finally. Great thoughts that need to be discussed happen when one needs to procrastinate amidst the most difficult domain we're learning...aka. heme/onc.

1. For those of you who ask me "What's med school like?" this article sums it ALL. This is how I eat, breathe, sleep, and survive med school. And yes, it involves a lot of sugar, and if you're Indian, a significant amount of spice. So next time you see me, don't ask! (Also note, my mom commented on the article as "med students mom" - its kind of cute)

 http://rumorsweretrue.wordpress.com/2006/11/01/pancakes-every-morning/

2. In honor of not freaking out about med school, I made my first EVER baked american or any-can dish today. Behold, the amazing chocolate chip banana bread! *insert voila music*

3. I went to the National Interim AMA Meeting, which was in Houston this year. Lemme tell ya - ain' NOTHIN' thurr. Seriously, I know we did not have any time to hang out and do fun things in the city at all, but apart from the gorgeous skyscrapers there's not a SINGLE person on the streets! wtf?!  Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING closes at 1:30p.m. on weekdays. My friend Paul and I went to a cafe to study and they closed at 4p.m. and we were the only customers they've probably had in decades. I'm telling you - the city is immaculate, spotless, uses a ton of Spray N' Wash or something...it's beautiful, but ain' no peeps. I thought it was strange. We think it might be inhabited by zombies - except nobody "reappears" at night either.

Except for one interesting incident perhaps - Liz and I woke up to bagpipes at our hotel...walked downstairs to find there was an Irish-Indian wedding going on *cue throng of overly dressed Indians and two dudes wearing checkered skirts playing bagpipes.* Amazing. My favorite part was going up and down the elevator to the 30th floor, crapping my pants and staying as FAR AWAY from the glass window overlooking other scary skyscrapers when I got up there. I think each time I went up and down there was some sort of mathematical proof that was written into the Math Law Book (which I hereby declare an official publication):  my confidence and self-image exponentially increased as I got closer to the ground.

I did enjoy a few gorgeous sunsets though. I'll be honest - the picture does not do the moment justice. It was priceless.

4. My friend Casey hadn't seen me in a while and asked me "What do you collect?" I looked around and thought and thought and thought. I'm sure I mumbled some wondrous excuse for an answer but the truth is ever since I was a kid who collected stamps, and stones, and shells, I haven't really done much other than collect bits and pieces of information that rarely define who I truly am. Which got me thinking....Who am I...truly? (We'll save the answer for a future moment of procrastination)

5. Why is light overrated? Why is darkness stereotyped as bad, evil, scary? If anything, a majority (I think 60%?) of outer space is unoccupied by light. Morever, what do we see when we close our eyes? Mostly - darkness (I know, our mind chooses to see otherwise). But WHOA! Darkness is so powerful. Who says it could be trumped by light? And it's not fair to say that darkness exists to do light justice - you can't just appreciate darkness because it makes one appreciate the existence of light even more. In doing so the definition of darkness is slightly discounted under that of light. So I question human definition - Why is darkness not holy just as much as light? Is darkness not the moment when you find yourself without the help of your visual definitions - when you define your place in a space defined by your mind? My point is that the lack of "light" be it physically, mentally, emotionally should not be feared, but rather embraced. It hones the ability of the mind to accept different realities - in turn helping shape how we interact when a different one is presented in the presence of light. I hope you get that this is a giant metaphor.

 If not...got pancakes?