Music: 12/31/10

Crystal Castles' Crystal Castles (II) ** - Good but I prefer their first album.  Drake's Thank Me Later *** - Soul rap?  Ruminative but groovin'.  Yes, another Minaj appearance.  Mark Ronson & The Business Intl's Record Collection *** - This album genre-hops more than any album I remember but you're glued the whole time.  Surfer Blood's Astro Coast *** - I feel like this may be an album I'll be listening to over and over again come spring and summer.  A poppy and sunnier Sonic Youth.  Superchunk's Majesty Shredding **** - 41 minutes of pure indie rock.  No messin' around.  Ted Leo and the Pharmacists' The Brutalist Bricks *** - Ted Leo's back at it again, fierce as always. Teenage Fanclub's Shadow **** - Big Star's influence is obvious.  And in the best of ways.  Listen to "When I Still Have Thee."  Titus Andronicus' The Monitor **** - With numerous Civil War references, perhaps referring to our current nation divided, this is Bright Eyes songwriting combined with Arcade Fire's power.  Fantastic.  Two Door Cinema Club's Tourist History *** - A cross between Death Cab for Cutie and Phoenix and indie-pop that's just as good.

Cheers!

It's the final day of 2010, and here's a toast - a challenge, if you will ...

Cheers to the music!  It'll be hard to beat the likes of what I saw this year, but I have my eye on Coachella, New Orleans Jazzfest, and Lollapalooza (Kelli, you reading along?) in 2011.  I already have my tickets for ACL and Voodoofest!  Cheers to all my music buddies, friends I know and strangers I've met and will continue to meet along the way.  Those strangers at Voodoofest, thanks for making that one of my best birthdays to date!

To athletes getting paid for me to watch them do what I can't do.  To Opening Day at Turner Field; Hank Aaron throwing the first pitch to Jason Heyward and Jason Heyward smacking a HR in first MLB at-bat.  To my first soccer match.  To the Hall of Fames I saw and the rest I need to see.  To my first golf tournament.  To road trips!  A renewed quest to see all the MLB stadiums.  A renewed quest to visit all those I promised to visit.  To skylines and to nature.  My list of things to do for 2011 keeps growing ...

Ahhh, the good eats and drinks of the year!  To friends' BBQs and Guys Nights Out over the past year.  To the wineries at the Biltmore or in North Georgia.  To an appetite that's taken me, specifically, to Seattle, to Kansas City, to New York, to Philadelphia, to Boston, to New Orleans, to LA.  To old favorite places; to new places I've discovered and I hope to discover in 2011.  To Adam Richman, and my hope that his coronaries are some of the strongest in the nation.  Charleston and some low-country cuisine is up next in 2011!

To all my friends and family!  To my peers in residency: we survived three years and graduated and even passed the boards.  To everyone moving onto their next phase in their careers and their continued success.  Congratulations to those newly married or with new additions to their families.  To my peers from college and medical school who have put up with my poor contact throughout residency.  To an overdue reunion in NYC and Boston.  To new friends I've met here and across the states.  To old friends with whom I've reconnected and to our adventures ahead.  Hawaii anyone?  To best friends who time and time again prove why they are my best friends.  To my Grandma, who will never be forgotten.  To my brothers, who beat me up mentally, providing me with incredible and incredibly smart and funny role models.  To my parents for pushing me every single day of my life.  To my parents once more for finally visiting Atlanta!  To everyone I've seen this past year.  Everyone genuinely looks happier than I can remember and I'm grateful for that. 

To everyone, and I mean everyone, a Safe and Happy and Healthy and Productive and Enjoyable 2011!

Brotherly Love

There are several people I look up to for inspiration.  This is dedicated to my brother Joel who defied all odds, letting nothing stop him, in the face of all adversity.  

The day I flew to Atlanta, Joel flew to Nashville so he could spend Christmas with his in-laws in Nashville, TN.  His wife joined him a day later, held back by a last minute appointment.  It was supposed to be a simple Christmas, full of food and love and laughter.  It was.  But his plans to return soon changed.  A blizzard of untold proportions blanketed his home of New York City.  The city that never sleeps somehow had stalled and was suffocating under white fluffiness.  No one could make it back to New York; not even the New York Giants.  Just a few hundred miles north, Tom Brady couldn't even lead his Patriots, one of the best teams in history when playing in snow, on a drive back to New England.  But I have to make it back on Wednesday! he thought.  Stoic, he called his airline, looking for alternate routes.  Thursday was the first available flight and that was not acceptable.  Skipping meals and even bypassing regular email checks, he called every airline and every agent at every airline to find some way, any way, to get him to Manhattan.  I have to make it back by Wednesday!  After an exhaustive search and further depletion of funds, he found the answer in the city of brotherly love; he would fly from Nashville to Philadelphia.  But it was an early flight Wednesday morning.  As his in-laws live nearly an hour from the airport, he hatched a new plan.  The night before his flight from Nashville, he relocated to a dilapidated hotel on the outskirts of the airport perimeter, risking personal hygiene and safety.  He awoke, fought through airport security, willingly subjecting to the TSA's grope-and-feel policy, and boarded his flight.  Phase One, he told me.  Led by his street smarts, he thought ahead and booked an Amtrak ticket, later bypassing millions of other passengers with the same plan, but were an idea too slow, for a train that would take him from Philly to Manhattan, and get him back by Wednesday afternoon.  Phase Two.  I assumed his wife was with him.  No, he abandoned her in Nashville.  That's how driven he was.  I suggested a roast beef sandwich with sharp provolone and spinach at Tommy DiNic's in Reading Terminal Market.  He declined.  He was a man on a mission.  At approximately 3:30 PM, Joel successfully emerged from Penn Station.  In Penn Station! he confided in a text.  But it's not over yet, he thought.  He met up with a friend, on a similar agenda of critical importance, whose journey began in Washington DC.  They met at Penn Station and without hesitation rushed to his office in Midtown Manhattan.  They deposited their luggage so they could finally complete their task.  And they did.  No one stopped them.  No wives, brothers, or friends.  No supernatural weather conditions could outwit their dazzling display of endurance and improvisation.  At the mercy of public transportation, they prevailed.  They made it to Madison Square Garden.  They would see Prince perform after all.

Medicine: Very Superstitious

You always hear about athletes and their superstitions.  Doesn't matter what sport, there's someone in that sport who has superstitions.  I remember when I used to play goaltender in hockey I had my own superstitions.  When I got suited up - league game, pick-up game - it was the same routine: down then up, left then right.  Cup, shorts, left knee pad then right.  Stockings.  Left skate then right; tied the left then the right.  Left goalie pad then right.  Chest protector then neck protector.  Jersey.  Helmet.  Left glove (blocker) and right glove.  Goalstick.  Ready to go!  As I idolized Patrick Roy, so did I imitate him: the head jostles and talking to the goal posts.  Why?  Well, why not?  It seemed perfectly reasonable at the time.  Saint Patrick did it!

I never really paid attention to it, but I'm superstitious as a physician.  I think we all are ... to some degree.  I first realized this idea of superstition in medicine from a Scrubs episode: Dr. Cox had 27 patients in the ICU and hoped for a perfect game where no one died on his watch.  (To those who don't follow baseball, the perfect game in baseball is 27 straight outs without giving up a hit or walk.)  Dr. Cox gave a speech and walked away.  Eliot calls out to him and she's quickly hushed by the rest of the staff.  They basically tell her the following: You never talk to a pitcher when he's on a roll. 

Nowadays, superstition doesn't influence how I get dressed.  As long as my fly is zipped and no toilet paper's stuck to me, then it's a victory for me.  I don't have daily superstitions, like I did when I played hockey.  With hockey, you always dressed the same way, approached the net the same way.  None of that as a physician.  I certainly don't approach the hospital the same way, mostly due to Atlanta's el nino type traffic patterns.  But what I have noticed is that I'm situationally superstitious.  Example: How many times have you been doing something, in a certain spot and in a certain situation, and realize how long you haven't been interrupted (or in the case of doctors, paged)?  And how many times have you remained in that certain spot and certain situation hoping the trend continues?  I'm guessing I'm not the only one guilty of this.  

Or how about this, specifically to the doctors out there: Anyone seem to notice that your probability of getting paged seems to quadruple when you use the bathroom?  I don't quite understand this phenomenon.  (One of my nurse friends tells me this phenomenon happens to them too.)  So yes, you can imagine what I've done.  If not using the bathroom has correlated with a long period without pages or admissions, then I will gladly hold my urine until nearly incontinent.  Why?  As simple as superstition.  

One of the most unusual rituals I performed was during intern year on my first month of overnight call at Grady Memorial Hospital.  I remember on my first night trying to get rest in one of the 14th floor call rooms.  What transpired was a night of numerous codes (cardiopulmonary arrests).  I can't sleep in there again, I thought.  On my next overnight call, I went to one of the floor work areas, found three chairs of roughly the same height - one for the head, one for the butt, and one for the feet - and slept.  What ensued was a night of uninterrupted sleep.  Mind you, two hours of uninterrupted sleep in a hospital is considered a good night.  You can imagine how I approached each call that month.  And, at least, from what I can vaguely recall, the pattern held.  

How amusing that even medical minds, who tend to ground their practice on science and evidence-based practice, still resort to ritualistic behaviors.  Or maybe it's just me.  But I doubt it.  It might just be that superstitions are, at their core, coping mechanisms.  That being said, I still avoid using bathrooms in hospitals.  Too many interruptions.

How should I spend my $45?

I just got an email from Best Buy.  Not only have I been promoted to Silver Member Status (I'm not particularly sure what that means), but I also have $45 in Reward Zone cash that expires July 2011.  I've run into this situation before, earlier this year in fact.  I had about $30 in Reward Zone cash.  First, I didn't know how to spend it.  Then I completely forgot all about it.  Thirty free dollars - POOF! - disappeared just like that.  I am not making that mistake again!  But at the same time, I don't think having this Monopoly money justifies, say, another Playstation 3 or a 65" flat-screen TV with internet and 3-D capabilities.  Or a Macbook Air.  Or a new camera.  So how to use it?  Well, a safe bet is stockpiling ammunition: paper, blank CDs or DVDs, and printer ink.  Smart yes, but completely unsatisfying purchases.  I can already feel the judgmental stares by the cashiers when I hand them my Best Buy currency for paper, something which may become obsolete by the twenty-second century.  The new idea I had was cashing them in for music.  I don't think they have gift cards for Amazon, my music source of choice since it's much cheaper than iTunes.  But maybe iTunes gift cards are the way to go.  I have some time to debate.  Let's hope the same thing doesn't happen like last time, and I completely forget to continue debating.  

List: Top Albums 2010

After much listening and deliberation, here are my Top Albums of 2010.  This was by no means easy.  A Top 10 was impossible.  A Top 20 was at least somewhat possible.

TOP ALBUMS OF 2010

• 20. The Apples in Stereo's Travelers in Time and Space
• 19. Jonsi's Go
• 18. LCD Soundsystem's This Is Happening 
• 17. Cee Lo Green's The Lady Killer
• 16. Florence and the Machine's Lungs
• 15. The Walkmen's Lisbon
• 14. Yeasayer's Odd Blood
• 13. Deerhunter's Halcyon Digest
• 12. Eminem's Recovery
• 11. Mumford & Sons' Sigh No More
• 10. Hellogoodbye's Would It Kill You?
• 09. Sara Bareilles' Kaleidoscope Heart
• 08. KT Tunstall's Tiger Suit
• 07. Taylor Swift's Speak Now
• 06. Titus Andronicus' The Monitor
• 05. MGMT's Congratulations
• 04. Arcade Fire's The Suburbs
• 03. My Chemical Romance's Danger Days  
• 02. Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
• 01. The Black Keys' Brothers 

As for 2011, there are anticipated releases by Iron & Wine, The Strokes, Foo Fighters,  Cut Copy, The Go! Team, and Bright Eyes, to name a few.  Enjoy and let me know your thoughts!

Medicine: Pain is a Pain

It's an obvious Noble Prize.  If someone out there can take the subjective idea of pain and make it objective and measurable, this will forever change the course of medicine.  How critical is it in our medical assessments?  Well, for starters, it's often a reason why a patient seeks medical care.  Only rarely does a patient seek care for euphoria (you can make arguments for manic episodes and use of recreational drugs).  Second, pain is often part of the patient's objective assessment.  Think about it.  Temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation are all objective measures.  Even the physical exam is an objective measure: it's there or it isn't.  And if it's there, we'll describe it in excruciating detail and even rate it on scales.  And though pain is subjective it's considered a vital sign.  

Most physicians will give patients the benefit of the doubt.  When we take care of patients, one  of our goals is to minimize pain and subsequently suffering.  But if you ask any one of us, we are to some degree jaded.  There are those bad apples who are trying to scheme the system and obtain drugs for their own personal high or monetary gain.  In just my few years of practicing medicine, it's amazing how many people have had their medications stolen or left their bag of medications on some form of public transportation.  Maybe some of these people did, but really, did all of them?  We've devised ways around these issues: frequent visits, pain contracts, and even urine drug screening.  A careful eye on pharmacy and doctor visits can reveal polypharmacy and doctor shopping.  We can assume someone has pain, but how do we really know?  Ultimately, you're trusting someone's own perception.  It's a loss for the physician who trusts a patient who isn't being honest.  It's a loss for the patient who isn't trusted by the physician despite being honest.  Another reason why physicians become frustrated is the tremendous variability in not only pain's presentation but a patient's ability to tolerate pain.   How can patients who writhe in pain after major surgery decline pain medication, yet other patients who lie comfortably in bed request very specific pain medications, like Vicodin or Percocet or Dilaudid or Demerol?    

Now imagine there is a test, say, a blood test that could measure pain objectively.  A simple blood test.  A huge step would be a test that yields positive or negative results.  The ideal test would not only differentiate between true pain and false pain, but would stratify true pain, and be cheap to administer.  This would separate the true patients from the pain-seekers and malingerers.  There might be criteria for patients to meet before they could even get pain medication.  To be able to confidently address pain would also aid in monitoring pain control over time and even minimize side effects of pain medications, which range from liver and kidney toxicity to respiratory depression and coma.  It would save valuable resources and time.  So will anyone devise such a test?  I certainly hope so.  I'm currently reading a book about the discovery of insulin and how it changed the course of diabetes.  Just a century ago, we thought finding a cure for diabetes was impossible.  But insulin was discovered.  Medicine and science are forever changing fields and I hope the future holds an answer to this mystery. One day.

My Mood

Mood is a funny thing.  

I think my default mood is a pleasant one, but moods can be influenced by certain driving events.  I've been able to predict my mood on a daily basis for the past year.  At least that's how long I've been paying attention to it.  How I react to the first driving event of the day will determine how my mood will be.  Let's take an example.  One morning, I hopped into the shower.  And it was a clumsy hop; I took down the entire shower curtain and rod, all collapsing into a heap on the bathtub floor.  How did I react?  That particular morning, I was laughing hysterically.  And it was a good day.  On another day, I easily could have let off a creative string of curse words.  And I bet it that would've been a bad day.  You can't force the reaction.  And it's hard to let up a certain mood.  

That's where food comes in.  I call food the game changer.  It changes the pace of the day.  Food can augment an already pleasant mood but it can certainly turn the mood tide.  If I'm having a particularly bad day, you can bet your house that I'm thinking about a ridiculously gluttonous meal.  I don't go for alcohol, the mood-enhancing drug of choice during college.  And medical school.  And residency.  If it's a shit show, show me some beef brisket.  If it's a sandwich between a rock and a hard place, hand me a lamb sandwich.  And if I'm still in a bad mood by dinner time, oftentimes, I'll make a reservation at a pricey restaurant.  But you know what?  Nine out of ten times my mood improves and I can deal with the rest of the day.

What about music and mood?  Usually, it's easy.  Your mood often dictates your music.  If you're about to embark on a task, you pick music that you think will enhance your productivity.  If you're about to get ready for work, you tend to pick upbeat music with rhythm and beats.  But I can't use music to change my mood.  It's not as effective.  And that seems odd to me.  Finally, have you noticed what music you pick when you have absolutely no obligations and just want to listen to music?  I just woke up about an hour or so ago.  No obligations today; I'm off today.  I had a restful sleep; don't need to be woken up per se.  No driving events yet; I'm on my default mood.  I decided to go with Eminem.  I couldn't tell you why.  And that intrigues me. 

Filipino Pride

Sure, Filipinos may not dominate the limelight.  I've accepted we won't have a national soccer team.  Or an ice hockey star.  But we do have two stars at the top of their games.  And that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
  

Manny Pacquiao is Pac-Man, the Fighting Pride of the Philippines.  He holds 10 titles in 8 different weight classes.  Pound-for-pound the best fighter of recent memory and possibly of all time.  Oh, and he's a congressman.  Don't filibuster this Filipino.  Did you see the Margarito fight?  Even after moving up all these weight classes, he was still 17 lbs lighter than his opponent (Pacquiao 148 lbs, Margarito 165 lbs.) and still managed to win unanimously.   

Tim Lincecum is The Freak and The Franchise.  He's 26 years old and already has 2 Cy Youngs under his belt (he won them back-to-back).  He didn't win the Cy Young this year; instead, he managed to outduel the Cliff Lee twice to help the San Francisco Giants win the World Series.  One point though: he's half Filipino.  I'd like to think the Filipino half is what makes him excel.  

Finally, I'm at FC Barcelona fan.  Once David Villa was added to an already loaded mix featuring Messi, Xavi, and Iniesta to name a few, I was reading up on the history of FC Barcelona and came across perhaps their greatest striker.  Born in the Philippines in 1896, Paulino Alcantara was the first Asian to play on a European team, debuting at age 16, and in his career scored a mind-boggling 357 goals in 357 games.  He stopped playing soccer at age 31 to become a doctor.  According to my brother, he skipped the 1920 Olympics to take his medical boards.  He was also an international ping-pong champion. 

Books: Life of Pi

Yann Martel's Life of Pi **** - Piscine "Pi" Patel loves stories, loves animals, and loves religion.  He has two degrees, one in zoology, and one in religion.  He practices Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam.  Then at the age of sixteen, he survives a shipwreck and is stranded on a boat with a 450-pound Bengal tiger.  This book asks all the questions in society today: religion? and if so, what religion? science?  Will you take a leap of faith or are you grounded in fact?  Pi wonders the same and this book is a journey toward the answers.  It's brutal but it's funny.  It's real but it's magical.  This was a rare book that I didn't dare read in anything but extreme silence.  You feel every moment of tension, fear, joy, anxiety, hunger, pain  as if  you were on board that lifeboat.  That is how vivid Pi's world is; you're fully immersed in it.  Pi loves his stories.  And I love this story.  Yann Martel is a master storyteller.  

What on earth is that noise?

I'm currently in my office and there's this piercingly dull sound coming from the other side of this wall.  It's a long, consistent, almost blowing type noise.  It invokes thoughts of a ship leaving port or dying moose without the odor.  It's as if a five-ton teapot is finally filled with boiling water.  The noise started during the summer of this year.  Over the past few months, it has become increasingly frequent, typically starting at about five in the morning.  When I was overnight during those summer months, this sound was my alarm clock.  Over these past few weeks though, the sound is more random in its occurrence.  Sometimes for minutes, sometimes for a few seconds.  No matter how it appears, when it appears, it's consistent and its consistently annoying.  The easiest thing would be to get up and look what's on the other side of the wall ... Ahhh screw it.  I'll leave it to my imagination. 

Books: Harry Potter (Book 1)

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1) **** - I know I'm behind the times.  But I finally read it.  And I loved it!  I'm trying to remember if there were any books during my time in elementary or middle or high school that grabbed me as much as this one.  It probably is the best page-turner I've read in a long time.  And I should've read this a long time ago.  It's wildly imaginative but rooted in so much familiarity.  Wizards go to school too.  I love that they celebrate Christmas at Hogwarts.  Soccer does seem boring compared to quidditch.  Yet despite such a fantastical world, it's believable.  Maybe it's because we can relate to them, because the characters are so human.  Who hasn't been the bullied Harry Potter?  Who hasn't faced their own Draco Malfoy?  Who hasn't looked up to a Dumbledore?  It's fun, it's creative, and most of all, it's a great story.  I'll admit, when I read the last paragraph, I was disappointed the book was over.  Then again, I do have six more books to go.

Music: 12/28/10

I've been listening and re-listening to several albums as this year closes.

* - Eh.  ** - Okay.  *** - Great!  **** - Hell yeah!

Arcade Fire's The Suburbs **** - As good as their first and better than the second.  More raw but still grand.  One of my favorite live acts.  Belle & Sebastian's Write About Love **** - Consistent through the years and put out a classic.  Bitter sad lovely tunes.  No one does it better.  Best Coast's Crazy for You *** - Pop in a garage.  This could be the beginning of something beautiful.  The Black Keys' Brothers **** - As good as Rubber Factory.  Finally, they're out of the shadows of The White Stripes.  "Tighten Up" is one of the best songs of the year.  Caribou's Swim *** - Hypnotic electronica that reaches for excellence and just misses it.  Cee Lo Green's The Lady Killer **** - Imagine that "Fuck You" is not an obvious stand out on the album.  That says something.  Clinic's Bubblegum *** - Still unique and fun.  Not their best but still good.  Deerhunter's Halcyon Digest **** - Sad, beautiful, and dreamy.  And from Atlanta too!  Eminem's Recovery **** - Could have easily been called Introspection.  I can forgive him for Encore and Relapse.  Florence & the Machine's Lungs **** - What's not to love?  Incredibly voice, songs with attitude.  The album I thought Elizabeth & The Catapult were going to make.  Flying Lotus' Cosmogramma ** - When Thom Yorke likes something, I usually agree.  Too loosely bound and scattered for my taste.  Grinderman's Grinderman 2 * - And I like Nick Cave too.  Hellogoodbye's Would It Kill You? **** - Poppy, to the point, and they make their point.  Holy Fuck's Latin **** - The best electronic album this year.  P.I.G.S. is genius.  Janelle Monae's The ArchAndroid ** - I really wanted to love this album.  I don't deny her talent.  Felt a bit cluttered and claustrophobic.  Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy **** - All the adjectives of the album title are appropriate.  Plus, an A-list of guest stars, including Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj.  Love or hate him, can't deny he's one of the best.  Kid Cudi's Man on the Moon II *** - Fun and talent a-plenty.  Subtle in the same way Kanye West's is over-the-top.  KT Tunstall's Tiger Suit **** - One of my favorite female songwriter's and she shows why.  Near flawless from beginning to end.  LCD Soundsystem's This is Happening **** - The tracks are longer, but flows better than Sound of Silver.  Took a few listens, but certainly a solid album from beginning to end.  MGMT's Congratulations **** - It's not about the hits anymore.  Sophomore album trumps the first.  Didn't think they didn't have it in'em to write Siberian Breaks.  I was wrong.  M.I.A.'s Maya ** - Usually when Kanye makes an album, M.I.A. makes one that's equally as good.  Didn't happen this year.  (But XXXO rocked.)  Mumford & Son's Sigh No More **** - Wow.  Enough said.  Muse's The Resistance **** - No, they're not Radiohead, but they keep changing from album to album like Radiohead.  Creative, rocking, tender, and intelligent.  Keep'em coming boys!  My Chemical Romance's Danger Days **** - This album is kick-your-ass awesome through and through.   One of my favorite's this year.  The National's High Violet *** - Full of highs but not as consistent as Boxer.  Nicki Minaj's Pink Friday ** - Damn she's talented.   Listen to "Roman's Revenge" with Eminem.  However, I did expect a little more.  Rick Ross' Teflon Don ** - Some good songs here but wasn't floored.  Robyn's Body Talk *** - Fun with attitude.  Numerous hits.  Sara Bareilles' Kaleidoscope Heart **** - Loved it.  It's a constant stream of solid songs.  Shakira's Sale el Sol *** - I love the hips, I won't lie.  But she's a damn great pop star.  Spoon's Transference *** - Consistent, consistent.  It's not Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, but it's Spoon  and that's quite alright with me.  Sufjan Stevens' The Age of Adz ** - I felt like he's trying too hard to beat Illinoise.  Good ideas that get lost in traffic.  Taylor Swift's Speak Now **** - Sadly, I hope she continues to have heartbreak because there's no one better at singing about that stuff.  She's certainly one of the best in country.  Vampire Weekend's Contra **** - These preps are all over the place.  Tops their self-titled debut.  More fun, more creative, and  most worldly.  The Walkmen's Lisbon **** - No band like them.  Whatever type of music they're making, they've mastered in Lisbon.  "Blue as Your Blood" is genius.  Yeasayer's Odd Blood **** - Ignoring the first track, the rest is as beautiful and ethereal as an electronica album can get.

Steve Jobs, Fix My Pager!

We need to overhaul this pager system.  Maybe not even the system, but definitely the pager.  Yes, I've seen how bulky pagers used to be.  But it's hard to believe in this technology-crazed world that we're still using these archaic, melanotic, hip-bound devices.  We can video chat and face chat with people 'round the world, yet the best way we can get ahold of each other in a hospital setting is by alpha page.  Really?  And if we have no luck, we have to resort to operators who'll just try the same thing anyway?  It's all baloney.  No one wants to overhaul the sytem, for obvious reasons - resource allocation and cost of implementation, surely are the most obvious - but I think there's a fear of being more reachable.  That's baloney too.  I think the solution is simpler than that: Find a way to reach me in a less annoying way.  

When I play with my pager's alert settings, there are a mere eleven options, ranging on a scale of one (quite annoying) to eleven (incredibly annoying).  A vibrating alert is the most tolerable, but it doesn't take long to develop vibratophobia.  And as for the silent alert, I think that speaks to the overall stupidity of the pager.  It doesn't take long into intern year to develop a Pavlovian hatred towards the pager.  Often the page is accompanied by a quick groan, roll of the eyes, or four-letter expletive, even if it isn't that busy.  So why this utter hatred towards our pagers?  Well, getting paged, just the act of it, is frankly, quite annoying.  

A few months ago, my hip was getting numb from all the vibrating pages, so I moved it to my white coat pocket.  Then I moved it to tables where I worked.  But since that generated too much noise, I began placing it on sticky-note beds to dull the vibration.  Then to the floor.  Nurses often figured I was busy when they saw the pager on the floor next to my feet.  Finally, I tried something new: forwarding my pager to a work cell phone.  Though the phone calls were no less frequent than pages, and I felt more obliged to answer the phone, I found this a much more tolerable option.  I couldn't figure this out for the life of me.  But I'm contacted just as much.  And then it hit me: the option of pleasant ring tones! 

Pager alerts are mechanical buzzards and chirps, much like sirens or telemetry beeps.  They seem to achieve the opposite effect: disinterest.  Ring tones are, at least, less metallic and more melodic.  I don't groan or curse as much when my phone rings.  Is the solution as easy as creating a pager with pleasant alerts or ring tones?  Perhaps.  Or how about contacting us by text message instead?  In fact, it's possible these days to have pages forwarded to our cell phones as text messages.  (Text message bleeps are more tolerable.)  I'm opposed to this really for one major reason: I don't want my private cell phone made public.  But think about it.  If we had work cell phones with text capability (and this doesn't have to apply only to physicians), that could open a new realm of possibilities.  Maybe if we all could answer our pagers and phones in a less bitter way, communication might improve.  And that's not a bad place to start.

Too Many Rectangles

The Onion once had an article about our obsession with these glowing rectangles.  It wasn't long ago when the genres were distinct in function and size: TVs, computers, and phones.  Now with the advent of laptops and netbooks and iPads (oh my!) or even internet TV and e-readers and TV on the internet, it's ridiculous trying to choose one over the other.  All are multifunctional to some degree and we have this need to optimize and maximize whatever we have.  Each one is cool in its own right, but no one item is perfect in all respects.  One tends to be better than another in some shape or form.   Despite having a TV, computer, and phone, and even a netbook, it seems inevitable that I'll be buying another glowing rectangle.  But which one? 

I love my iPhone.  I hate AT&T.  I've accepted that.  Verizon selling the iPad is a good sign for the future to come.  I travel a lot, so portability is nice.  I've played with the iPad.  It's got the cool factor, no doubt about it, and I am an Apple fan.  But after the honeymoon phase, I don't see myself using it for games or movies or what not.  Sure, I'd surf the net, but I still like the physical keyboard.  Plus, a bit too heavy and awkward to hold for my liking.  The Samsung Galaxy Tab?  I haven't played with it, but a colleague of mine didn't like the size.  I don't like the contract; things will evolve quickly with tablets in a two-year contract window.  The Macbook Air?  Perhaps.  The thing that I love about both the iPad and Air is the flash memory: instant on!  It accentuates the pain I feel every time I see the Windows screen when my netbook boots up.  We'll see if PCs go that route.  The Nook?  I played with this at a Barnes & Noble in NYC.  It's really nice.  Books and magazines looks great.  Web sites easy to use.  I'd prefer the Nookcolor over the other Nooks, but why is it that the regular Nook has 3G and Wifi but the Nookcolor has only Wifi?  It was when I played with the Nook, that with any of these, I think I really want a good e-reader.  It can be annoying hauling books around.  Ask my brother, who's hauling Tolstoy's War & Peace.  So that leads to the new Kindle.  I think that's the one for me.   Plus given it's low price, 3G and Wifi connectivity, and hey, the Amazon Store?  Sounds like a winner.  But what about the things it can't do?  Well, I have an iPhone for that. 

Elevators Are Death Boxes

Elevators are evil.  I'm not paranoid.  Do you realize every time you step into one of these death boxes your life is in peril?  Think about it.  First, the elevator announces its presence with a sound not unlike an oven or microwave, signifying "Done!"  You step in and once the doors close, you're now insulated by its metallic force field.  All forms of communication, including cell phones, are useless.  In fact, if you scream, it's designed to amplify the sound within itself to increase the terror.  Sometimes you need an identification badge to use an elevator.  But what if you don't have one and the doors have already closed?  Think about those elevators in older buildings: it has a caged entrance and an elevator tamer.  Elevators in skyscrapers pose a larger risk.  They're operated on a weight-counterweight system; has it ever crossed your mind as you're shooting from the first floor to the higher thirties, what if the rope snaps and you've been slingshot into the upper stratosphere?  Or how about the other way around, have you ever thought about the elevator being unable to stop as you plummet towards the earth's surface at roller coaster speed?  Sure, the collision would make a loud noise, but why do you think there are those outside elevator doors?  A sound-proof barrier; no one would ever know.  Those call buttons in the elevator surely don't work.  A friend of mine was trapped inside an elevator while on an overnight MICU call and that call button was decorative at best.   Another friend of mine once noticed a pile of human excrement outside the elevator doors while exiting.  I have no doubt that person appreciated the dangers of an elevator ride.  As for an experience leading to a half floor, like in Being John Malkovich, I'm fairly positive the outcome will be slightly more horrific.  You've been warned.  My recommendation: Take the stairs.

An Ode to Beignets

This is a picture of Spoon, from an issue of Spin earlier this year.  There are several reasons why this picture rocks.  First, it's Spoon and they rock.  Second, they're in New Orleans.  How do I know this?  That leads to reason three: they're sitting exactly where I sat when I was chomping down Cafe du Monde beignets the morning after my birthday at Voodoofest featuring Muse, Metric, and news of passing the ABIM exam.  Literally, sitting in the same exact spot.  They're staring into Jackson Square, probably wondering if there is no greater thing than beignets.  Not pictured is a huge powder pile on the ground.  I know I left one.  Really the only lingering question I have every time I see this photo is, Where can one grab beignets, good beignets, outside of NOLA?

A Man & His Man Crush

I was asked this by Kendra a few weeks ago.  It's an interesting question and this has come up - strangely and no pun intended - in conversation quite frequently.  First, there appears to be this unsaid distinction between man crush (actor/musician) and boy crush (non-actor/musician).  Second, men are more likely to have man crushes than women are to have woman crushes.  I don't understand this.  Perhaps it's based on the same argument why a man finds two women making out sexy while a woman finds two men making out not-so-sexy.  Maybe the phrase woman crushes doesn't roll off the tongue ... It has taken careful deliberation.  I've heard of other guys rooting for Brad Pitt or Owen Wilson.  As for me, I would have to pick Matt Damon.  Clearly he's intelligent; something I realized when he appeared on Inside the Actors Studio.  Plus, he helped pen Good Will Hunting with that other guy (some guys have man crushes on Ben Affleck, though I don't know why).  He appears to be a cool guy to hang out with but he can also kick fucking ass as Jason Bourne.  I didn't see his other action movies, but I'm sure he's great in those.  Plus, there was that recent comedy, The Informant, which I'm sure  he's hilarious in, though, again, I haven't seen it ... Hmmm, perhaps this is all the man crush talking. 

Music Isn't Dead

This may be the hardest list to compile.  Best albums of 2010 - are you kidding me?  I'm trying to think of a good way to do this.  A part of me wants to do this list off the top of my head.  Surely, the best albums would be the most memorable?  But then there'd be a bias towards recently released albums.  Of course, it can never be comprehensive; there are still tons of albums I haven't listened to yet (and yes, that does annoy me!).  The volume of music out there is too great, but thankfully, this is the time for year-in-review lists, granted it biases me, but certainly makes the job easier.  There are certainly albums that stick out right away.  Kanye's recent album acknowledges how talented he is, despite the huge ego and lack of tact.  Which leads to Taylor Swift's album; yes, her topics tend to be about boys or revenge, but it's hard to downplay that's one of the best in country.  MGMT's Congratulations, The Black Keys' Brothers, and Arcade Fire's The Suburbs are, in my mind, no brainers.   Then there was Cee Lo Green's album; forget about the song of the year "Fuck You;" the whole album's incredible.  My Chemical Romance's album rocks from beginning to end.  But how to round out the list?  There's Belle & Sebastian, Eminem, Muse, Florence & the Machine, LCD Soundsystem, Mumford & Sons, Nicki Minaj, Hellogoodbye, Sara Bareilles, KT Tunstall, the Walkmen ... Even today, I listened to Deerhunter and was impressed.  There were some disappointments this year: Kings of Leon and M.I.A. (both favorites of mine, but their last releases were shy of their respective high bars), I still don't quite get Janelle Monae or Flying Lotus or Grinderman, and Sufjan Stevens got a little too experimental.  But alas, to pick a Top 10?  That's probably why the top lists in Spin and Q this month are no less than forty albums.  Should I mend the list to include more than 10?  I'm going to need to ponder this just a little bit more ... 

Books: The Omnivore's Dilemma

Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma *** - It was a lazy day in Seattle.  It was a bit chilly out so I ran into a downtown Barnes & Noble to warm up.  I warmed up my thoughts by grabbing a copy of Fodor's Caribbean 2010.  Then a salesperson sold me on Pollan's book.  "It's a must if you love food."  I really don't know anyone who abhors food, but I read the back cover and it certainly seemed interesting enough.  The book tries to answer the question what to have for dinner and where food comes from.  The answer, sometimes, isn't pretty.  It's not supposed to be.  The book isn't meant to condemn carnivores or really hold an opinion on anything really.  It makes you think.  It follows the path of three different meals, from production to presentation.  Supermarkets and Chicken McNuggets appear completely different.  How whole is food from Whole Foods?  (This leads to a wonderul take on the new literary genre of Supermarket Pastoral.)   Corn is the true culprit behind the obesity epidemic.  Organic is a word without meaning any more.  Food went from ritualized to convenient.  It's intriguing to see the numerous steps between production and consumption in modern agriculture, but how true organic places still do exist and their transparency is refreshing.  It's an engaging and well-written piece.  Be prepared to defend how you eat and what you eat.  Therein lies the omnivore's dilemma.  Read this book; it's a must if you love food.

List: Top Live Acts 2010

Of course, music.  We need a list for that too!  This year reaffirmed that as good as music is on speakers or headphones, it's nothing compared to listening to it live and loud.  Really, the only stipulation in this list is that no act can be mentioned more than once (otherwise The Black Keys & The National would be mentioned more than once). 

TOP LIVE ACTS IN 2010

• 10. Punch Brothers, The Variety, Atlanta, GA
• 09. The National, The Fox Theater, Atlanta, GA
• 08. Avett Brothers & Brandi Carlile, Chastain Park, Atlanta, GA
• 07. Metric, Voodoo Festival 2010, New Orleans, LA
• 06. M.I.A., Austin City Limits 2010, Austin, TX
• 05. Ingrid Michaelson, Bonnaroo 2010, Manchester, TN
• 04. Kings of Leon, Bonnaroo 2010, Manchester, TN
• 03. Arcade Fire & Spoon, Verizon Wireless Arena, Alpharetta, GA
• 02. Muse, Voodoo Festival 2010, New Orleans, LA
• 01. The Black Keys, Bonnaroo 2010, Manchester, TN

The Black Keys sound bigger than merely the two band members that make up the outfit and in my opinion, they're the best thing to have come out of Akron, Ohio.  Then, try to contain them under a tent at Bonnaroo at two in the morning, and it's a formula for music ecstasy.  Though I saw them two other times (at Austin City Limits and back in ATL opening for Kings of Leon), and were no less impressive, the setting and timing of their Bonnaroo set puts it over the top. 

I saw Muse on my birthday, post-call, about ten feet from the stage, with a group of strangers.  Musically, we know what they can do, but visually, they put on a show that rivaled my favorites Brad Paisley and Jay-Z.  Matthew Bellamy?  He's certainly one of the top frontmen. 

The ultimate concert sing-a-long happens when you see Arcade Fire.  You know a large band like this will be loud, but, go figure, they're actually louder.  Factor in the anthems where everyone sings and it's one of the most fun concerts I've attended.  "Wake Up" might be one of the best closers ever. 

M.I.A.'s on top of her game.  Ingrid Michaelson: pure joy.  Metric: pure rockin'.  The National: can kick your ass and make you cry.  Punch Brothers and The Avett Brothers: it's hard to find people having more fun doing what they do. 

There are a huge number of honorable mentions: Jay-Z, Stevie Wonder, The Dead Weather, Steve Martin, She & Him, Jeff Beck to name a few.  I can't wait to see what 2011 has in store. 

List: Top Foods 2010

I love to eat!  Big fat surprise!  To those who know me well, I'm sure my metabolism will catch up to me one day.  My brother Joel was telling me how he was thinking about his favorite foods consumed this year, which naturally, got me thinking of the yummy things I've come across.  It's hard for me to choose; there really isn't much I don't like, unless it challenges my ability to survive (I'm talking to you, nuts and peanuts!).  What about great things I've known about for years that I've had again this year (i.e. beignets at Cafe du Monde)?  I mean, it's like those beautiful people lists, when the next year past people disappear and new people appear: did those once attractive people suddenly become ugly or did those new people suddenly become hot?  What were we talking about?  Ah yes, without further ado, the list.  Ten seems like a good number.

TOP 10 FAVORITE THINGS I'VE EATEN IN 2010

• 10. Midnight Train (chicken & waffles) at Gladys Knight's, Atlanta, GA
• 09. Cheesesteak at Primanti Brothers, Pittsburgh, PA
• 08. Chicken adobo at the Asian Market in Pike Place, Seattle, WA
• 07. Barbecue sausage at The Salt Lick, Austin, TX
• 06. Belly lox & cream cheese bagel, Russ & Daughters, New York, NY
• 05. Roast beef sandwich at Tommy DiNic's, Philadelphia, PA
• 04. Bacon and avocado burger at The Habit, Los Angeles, CA
• 03. Brisket sandwich at Oklahoma Joe's, Kansas City, MO
• 02. Pastrami sandwich at Katz's Deli, New York, NY
• 01. Brisket and short ribs, Arthur Bryant's, Kansas City, MO

I do need to make an honorable mention to the chicken at Cuzco Peru in Forest Hills, NY, that was a tough one to leave off the list!

Merry Christmas!

Well, I've done it.  I've joined the world of bloggers.  No less on Christmas Day.  Even more no less is that it's the first White Christmas in Atlanta since 1880 based on a reliable source (a friend's Facebook status update).  I, myself, am trying to figure out why I've created this blog space.  Boredom?  Perhaps.  A need to write again?  Maybe that too.  The past six months ... Scratch that, the past year has been such a whirlwind ... and in a good way.  I think it reflects a way of organizing my own thoughts.  A lot of things, good things, have happened this year.  So much of everything ... people, places, food, music ... stories too.  And let me add, it's good to be picking up books again, though I'm not quite at the intellectual level of my brother, who appears to be undertaking a literary quest to conquer all biblical and classic texts.  Basically what I'm saying is, does anyone else have this fear that there's too much to do and too little time to do it in?

Why the name of my blog?  The way I see it, this blog is me talking (writing) out loud.  It so happened that Eminem's song of the same title was playing in the background and it seemed appropriate.  For those playing, let's see how many times I change my blog title ...