Given all the time I spend assimilating new information for school I'm not often able to read things for pleasure during classes. When I do have free time I spend it with my wife or I play video games usually.

Over this past break I did read for pleasure and I'm glad I did. I read Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke.
http://www.amazon.com/Rendezvous-Rama-Arthur-C-Clarke/dp/0553287893
Clarke is truly one of the masters of hard science fiction. For those not familiar, hard sci-fi tries to be scientifically accurate where possible. Michael Crichton's books usually fall into this category as well. Anyway, Rendezvous with Rama is a sci-fi classic.

I enjoyed this book very much. Clarke does an excellent job instilling the wonder of exploring a new world for the first time. He gives an epic feel without the silly antics that often accompany such writing. I definitely recommend it.

visited 28 states (56%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or jurisdische veraling duits?

We're now half way through week 2 and it's a very busy schedule. On monday we gave more injections in lab procedures. We did another intramuscular (IM) injection in the arm and we did an IM injection in the butt. Tuesday we had two quizzes. We had our first pathology quiz and our first TCM quiz. I think I did ok on pathology. It was on blood vessel pathologies and so many of them are similar that it can be difficult. I did well on TCM. It was mainly introductory material about meridians. After the quiz he started lecturing on specific meridians and points. We covered the lung meridian and liver meridian.

During lunch on Wednesdays there is a skills development lab for manipulation where students can come to practice. The people we work on are any students or faculty or staff that want to be adjusted. I went today and worked on three people. I feel like I am getting a handle of manipulation, but it takes many patient contacts to be good. I'm currently in botanical materia medica. It's probably my least interesting class to me. While knowing herbs is important it's just tough listening to reading of monographs on herb after herb.

Tomorrow is my longest day. I have an evening lab for physical diagnosis that goes from 5-7PM.

Friday is my shortest day. I have manipulation class from 8-10 and lab from 10-12 and then I am done for the day.

SCNM functions on a quarter system. And we attend four quarters out of the year. This is something that is expected to change in 2010, but we'll see if that actually happens.

As it stands now I'm approaching 1 1/2 years into med school. So far, so good. This quarter, and the next quarter and particularly known to be difficult quarters. The way it works, you enter with a class and if everything goes according to plan you take all the same classes and move through the curriculum as a group.

This quarter my classes are Clinical Assessment and Case Review (CACR), Lab Procedures, Radiology, Pathology 2, Meridians and Points (TCM), Lab Diagnosis, Botanical Medicine, Physical Assessment, and Manipulative Therapy. CACR is mainly looking at clinical presentation of different conditions. It is different from pathology in that pathology looks at the disease process and CACR is focused on presentation. Lab Procedures also called "stab lab" is about injections, venipuncture, IVs etc. And actually, on Monday I gave my first intramuscular injection. It was simply a saline injection into the arm of my partner who did the same to me. Radiology is pretty self explanatory, and Lab Diagnosis is learning lab tests and what they mean. Points and Meridians is learning acupuncture points. I haven't have Botanical Medicine yet, but it is mainly learning materia medica of herbs. Physical Assessment will be learning to take vitals, listen to heart sounds, etc. And Manipulative Therapy is learning to manipulate limbs. Last quarter we learned how to adjust the spine.

It is a very busy schedule with a lot of information to assimilate.

January 31st is a day that I will remember for the rest of my life. It's the day of my wedding. My wife's name is Ashley and the wedding was back in NY because both of our families are there. We were married at the church I grew up in by one of the pastors I grew up under. It was a bit tough planning a wedding from across the country, but my mother did a lot of the work. While no wedding goes completely smoothly we got a number of compliments just how much fun people had at the wedding.






It's now been three months since the wedding and while it's not easy being married I consider myself very happily married. Ashley works in a chiropractors office and I attend school.

I'm still getting used to writing again so hopefully future posts get better.

I am considering getting back into journaling. Here is a simple entry to try it out again.

Married life is good. I have plenty to write about there, but that'll be another entry.

About a month ago we got an Xbox360. I have a live gold account and my gamertag is Saint Taylor. It's been awhile since I've done any serious gaming. So, it's really nice to be playing again. I'm definitely a casual gamer though. I like to play for fun and I really like the online component of playing. While I enjoy the campaigns of games, multiplayer is a huge aspect of gaming that's really grown on me.

It's amazing how games have grown up in the last few decades. I remember as a kid that videogames were for kids. Mario, Sonic and most other games were geared toward children. And now that people who grew up with games are now the people making games they have changed so much. Games have grown so much that they now have a rating system like movies and games range from everyone to mature to adults only. Comparable to G, R, and NC-17. Admittedly, my tastes tend toward games that are rated M. Most of the games I play are first person shooters.

My current favorites for games are Left 4 Dead (made by Valve). Which is a zombie survival game built from the ground up for four person multiplayer. This is where the online play with voice chat is very handy. The Orange Box which is made by Valve and contains Half-Life 2 and episode 1 and 2 plus Portal and Team Fortress 2. By far I would say that Valve has the most consistently good writing for it's games.

I feel that I am able to balance my schoolwork with my time playing games and everything else that needs to be done in life. As long as I can maintain that I can continue to enjoy games.

I haven't been keeping up with LJ this summer, but it is coming to an end. Tuesday morning Ashley and I will be flying from Binghamton to Phoenix. Ashley is moving to Phoenix. It's been very tough for her lately. For the last week or so she's been doing a fair amount of crying as we do each thing for the last time. This is her first big move ever. For me it wasn't such a big deal because I've lived different places, but this is her first move away from home. It's tough for her now, but I believe she'll be alright.

The summer has been good. I'm not in the mood to write it out now, but I will be soon.

Huzzah! One half year done! Just three and a half more to go. Quarter two out of sixteen is finished. Friday was the last day, and while my exams were done Thursday I had to complete and turn in a project for my physician heal thyself class. It wasn't anything too difficult, just time consuming.

So, tonight there was a party. Every time a new class enters the school a few things happen.
1) orientation
2) a week of intensive classes, one of which is philosophy of Naturopathy taught by Dr. Sensenig.
3) a party at the end of the week for the class to get to know each other a bit.

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