Waffle Wednesday

"When the going gets tough, the tough better dig their heels in and take a stand."

file under: awesome things my mother says.

Um, nothing to report on the school front. Classes are classes. We have a test on solving tricky ethics situations, and apparently there are right answers. I ran into my undergrad adviser, who asked if the past two years were "worth it" so I could go straight to med school. (Yes.)

Midterms next week. Breakfast food obsession this week. Every day I'm wafflin'.

Found a folder with cartoons and clippings from 2005. I think this was a solid use of my time.

Whoa

"But if questions about the degree to which medical professions should be adjudicating issues of social identity are not new, they certainly have greater urgency today, for it is getting harder and harder to draw a basic philosophical distinction between the clinic and Clinique...[t]h cycle of anatomical shame attribution and medical normalization seems to be accelerating for all of us."

Assigned reading just got real, y'all.

Brain dump

Numbers seem to work well.

1. Learned yesterday that, from the perspective of a physician who has worked in both Canada and the U.S., neither healthcare system is sustainable in the long run. Interesting. Eventually, she said, people must accept that they cannot have everything, especially without wanting to pay for it. Any bets on when that will happen?

2. This essay, "Good Minus God", was extremely helpful to me. I think she does a great job of spelling out exactly why one can have morality without religious belief, and why this intrinsic/inherent morality can be more profound and valuable than something dictated by religious text.

3. Absolutely eye-opening article about human trafficking in the U.S. What surprised me most was how muddled state/federal laws seem to be on this issue, leading to confusion for law enforcement officials.

"On average, a sex slave costs $5,000 in the United States and, before escaping or dying, generates profits exceeding $135,000." mind boggled.

4. Terrible things. Just a reminder that things Joey Comeau writes make me happy or very, very worried, and really, aren't those the same thing.

5. Please listen to Lana Del Rey if you haven't already. You will feel good about yourself for knowing about her beforehand when she gets famous next year.

6. I have a hard time with the hostility of most atheism-ish blogs. But I like this one! (so far.) Especially this post. thanks, Amelia.

7. "Historians called the event the biggest women’s demonstration in modern Egyptian history, the most significant since a 1919 march against British colonialism inaugurated women’s activism here, and a rarity in the Arab world." wow, amazing. Can't believe I get to witness (well, via internet) history in the making.

8. Mildly mandatory reflections on the first semester of med school...i'm out, really. There was enough reflection during school itself. I would say though, if you're going to be an md/phd student (ahem), make sure you really want the md part. At least be good at pretending to care.

um, I'm off to go tanning (?). Re-post from facebook:

 ...I like scaring myself? (sad no one took advantage of the feminist-history-as-horror joke I set up for y'all.)

Happy end-of-december tomfoolery. happy trips, sleeping, or whatever else you're up to. I like being your friend on the internet.

time of posting: 9:43 am, Friday, Friday.

Hillary

"In each of these cases, we came to learn that no practice or tradition trumps the human rights that belong to all of us."

Hillary! Why aren't we best friends yet?

Dear Congress

Dear Congress, while you're at it, please make sure to cut funds for residency programs so there aren't enough adequately trained physicians to care for these kids in the future. Since you've already eliminated subsidized loans for graduate students, this should help make sure that even people who want to go into primary care have to second-guess that decision. I hope the generous donations of the American Frozen Food Institute (??) continue to sway your decisions more than recommendations from the Institute of Medicine, or, indeed, the well-being of Americans.

sincerely,
a satisfied citizen

Was going to post this on facebook, but blurghle, trying to not do politics there. it's so artificial to try to separate politics from the rest of your life, though.

Update! via weekend update.

Ruh roh

Coping strategies for being iffy at conversation include keeping a bunch of fun facts handy. One of mine has been that it takes 42 muscles to frown. I really thought it did! I read it somewhere.

It actually only takes two (depressor anguli oris on each side). Whoops. I'm sorry, universe!

Smiling takes a lot more (2 for a flat smile, 8 at least for showing teeth), making that adage of it's a lot more work to frown completely false.

For the record, it's 8:50 am.