closing statements

i've decided to close the progressive horizon. the things i wrote didn't feel like me. they didn't feel real. they were thinly veiled cliches and rather drab,...mostly because the blog was linked to me and i didn't want it to be seen by adcoms.

i can't write like this anymore. i would put the link too my new blog, but that would be defeating the purpose, wouldn't it.

goodbye ya'll.

a progression of pens

it's a shame i have horrible handwriting, because along with whiteboards, i enjoy a fine pen. and by fine pens, i of course mean a pilot precise v2 or a gel g2. the hallowed mont blancs and duponts are fairly outside of the amount of money i am willing to spend; i mean, they're not even called pens! they're called writing instruments. yeah, i don't write--i orchestrate essays. ha.

earlier in my 19 years of life, i used ballpoint pens, namely bic. they were/are normal ballpoints with normal ink, the kind of ink that leaves a rather dull, matte black, because black is the only real pen color. go away blue. i hated writing with these. plus the pens were just ugly. hence, i switched to ticonderoga, the gold standard for pencils.

in middle school i discovered the g2 and the precise v2, both respectable pens. around this time, gel pens were the 'cool thing' and they came in a variety of gaudy colors with sparkly ink. i of course went with the blacks, because, again, black is the only real pen color.

today, i went to staples to pick up a computer mouse for my dad. i made a pit stop, like i normally do, at the writing aisle and came across the pilot varsity fountain pen. it came in a pack of three of black, blue, and purple, of which i promptly discarded the unnecessary colors. the varsity is a disposable fountain pen, which is nice because you don't have to buy ink and you don't have to go through the trouble of refilling the pen or buying new nibs.

it writes rather scratchily but it's a pleasant noise. the only analogy i can really think up of right now is that it gives the same rustic charm as the click clack of a typewriter.

eh. ok. fine. well, at least they took off the analogies portion of the sat when i took it.

here's a link to it on amazon. it's only 69 cents so if you're close to getting the super free shipping or whatever it's called, then just add this to your cart and you're good to go.

how to get more website traffic

write an article about getting more website traffic.

cha'ching!

invisalign sucks

i got my braces off yesterday. before getting them off, i was super stoked: no more dental appliances. of course, right after i got my braces off, i took impressions for invisalign retainers. which suck, because i got them for both top and bottom teeth--meaning i can't quite close my mouth all the way--there is a fair gap between the top teeth and bottom teeth because of the invisalign.

and usually, i trashtalk and generally intimidate lots of people on halo. but after getting these, some guy on it said, "you sound like a geek."

thank you. jerk.

what kind of specialty should i go into?

ever since reading ben carson's gifted hands, i've always wanted to be a neurosurgeon. now, i'm not so sure--i'm not sure if it justifies all the time spent at work and little time at home. if you want a way to sort of, kind of figure out what medical specialties might be good for you, take this quiz here.

you answer a hundred something questions and it spits out a list of medical specialties you might be fit in with. here's my score.

Rank Specialty Score
1 thoracic surgery 43
2 pathology 43
3 urology 42
4 radiology 41
5 neurosurgery 41
6 emergency med 41
7 cardiology 40
8 neurology 40
9 pulmonology 40
10 gastroenterology 40
11 aerospace med 40
12 preventive med 40
13 occupational med 38
14 allergy & immunology 38
15 general internal med 37
16 dermatology 37
17 endocrinology 37
18 infectious disease 37
19 plastic surgery 37
20 psychiatry 37
21 physical med & rehabilitation 36
22 nuclear med 36
23 ophthalmology 36
24 otolaryngology 35
25 orthopaedic surgery 35
26 nephrology 35
27 rheumatology 34
28 pediatrics 34
29 family practice 32
30 anesthesiology 32
31 colon & rectal surgery 31
32 general surgery 31
33 obstetrics/gynecology 30
34 radiation oncology 30
35 hematology 28
36 med oncology 24

books that every pre-med student should read

once upon a time, i used to read novels. now i read these. not because i have to, but because they're actually quite interesting. and, dare i say it? fun. if you're pre-med, i hope you get a good idea of what medicine is truly about through these books. and the great thing is, none of the books above are over $11! thank you amazon.

1. becoming a doctor by melvin konner, md -- this follows melvin on his journey through the 4 years of med school beginning w/ the first 2 years of crunch memorizing and then 2 years of clinical rotations. it's extremely informative about medical school and is an absolute must read.

2/3. complications/better by atul gawande -- these 2 books, complications, and its sequel, better, are a compilation of stories and thoughts from dr. gawande. the books go between sharing stories of patients and commenting on different aspects of medicine and the practice of medicine. good books if you want to see a bigger picture of the practice of medicine in general.

4. hot lights, cold steel by michael collins -- following collins as we went through residency at mayo clinic as an orthopedic surgeon. if you're considering orthopedic surgery, this book overviews what you're in for. however, its a personal memoir, of sorts, of his journey through residency. collins has a natural knack for conveying stories and they are chalk full of humor and contemplation. really casts personality and wit into every sentence. it was an extremely fun read.

5. gifted hands by ben carson -- one of the more famous books about neurosurgery. carson shares his story about growing up and becoming the youngest pediatric neurosurgeon on the hopkins team. it's truly an inspiring story-- i personally grew up reading this book over and over. my copy is completely frayed and i'm sure yours will be also.

6. the surgeons by charles r. morris -- the first book i've listed here that's not written by a doctor. rather, it's written by morris, who followed a team of heart surgeons around for a while and decided to write a book on it. it deals with the more business and bureaucracy of medicine as well as discussing the different techniques and practices of heart surgery and the evolution of heart surgery as a whole. it's definitely academic driven but still an en-captivating read. future cardio-thoracic surgeons, i recommend this.

7. when the air hits your brain by frank vertosick - a moving and somewhat humorous account of neurosurgery residency. i say humorous not quite in the subject matter, but in vertosick's way of telling his story. really, there's not much to say other than read it.

8. how doctors think by jerome groopman - this books centers around doctors themselves rather than their patients. it's a book fitting for both the physician-hopeful as well as the normal layperson. it gives you a good idea of the practice of medicine in general as well as giving some chilling facts and stories.

i love whiteboards

for some reason, i love whiteboards. ever since i saw i saw this kind of whiteboard in house, i kind of freaked out and fell in love. that isn't to say i didn't like them before that. there's just something so compelling about going up to a whiteboard and scribbling down this and that. well, actually, during math classes in high school, it was horrible because you would do the problem in front of the whole class and then you would step back and realize how atrocious your handwriting was in comparison to your classmates'. well, i suppose that's just me.

the area in front of a whiteboard is one of both quiet contemplation and frenzied activity. and seriously, how academic, how intriguing is someone who paces back and forth in front of a whiteboard, trying to solve the next problem? for sure, i'm romanticizing this way too much, but, eh, whateva.

for a college student, like me, having a whiteboard is an easy way to write down messages to your roommate, do practice problems, draw out biology diagrams that should be memorized, doodle, and just serve as a place to write down ideas and notes. it's an efficent, low tech answer to microsoft entourage and ical and all those other calender, todo applications.

___

well, if you took a gander at the link above, it is a clear whiteboard--basically a piece of glass on a stand. it's just so, what's the word, beautiful. and yes, whiteboards can be beautiful. so don't hate. but why are whiteboards so expensive!? especially for the nice ones! here's some that are close to 3K! and i don't have that kind of cash to spend, being a starving student and all.

so here, here, and here are some different ways to have a luxuriously large whiteboard for relatively cheap. check them out.

why universal healthcare is not a good idea, for dummies- a general overview

the concept of universal healthcare is great. here's a quote: "John Edwards has a bold plan to transform America's health care system and provide universal health care for every man, woman and child in America." here's another from Obama's site: "Making sure every American has access to high quality health care is one of the most important challenges of our time."

but universal, government run healthcare is not going to bring "high quality" health care. sure, the 40 million uninsured americans will have access to in/out patient healthcare, and not just the emergency room. but this large influx of "consumers," per se, will put a heavy strain on the medical workforce, resulting in longer waiting times and shorter doctor/patient interaction. and of course, by longer waiting times, i am not only referring to minutes and hours spent in the lobby waiting for your name to be called, but i'm also referring to the months and years one will have to wait for a surgical procedure or whatnot. in canada, with it's universal healthcare system already in place, it can take over 6 months for women to get a pap smear, which is frankly ridiculous.

while out-of-pocket expenses may go down, UHS will need heavy funding, which will come out of our taxes, aka taxpayer dollars. if it doesn't mean an increase in taxes, it will mean cutting government programs and funding for research or anything else the government will deem "more expendable."

those w/o medical insurance now are probably not too happy w/ the current system. however, here it becomes a moral issue: should those that can't afford medical care be allowed to piggyback off taxpayer's dollars? nevertheless, medical care can always be found: emergency rooms must treat patients regardless of insurance status, and there are plenty of privately and publicly owned clinics and hospitals that will do the same. one might argue that the quality of medical care from those clinics/hospitals will be worse than one attended by someone w/ medical insurance which brings up the moral dilemma, should those with money have better care than someone without? to this i answer, no, but it will inevitably happen in capitalism, returning back to the system we have now.

finally, let me re-mention that this will be run by a branch or agency of government. do we really want the government putting their hands though our medical records? do we really want the government controlling what they could make into a "privilege?" do we really want the government to instate its consistent motifs of inefficiency and red tape? fine, you can argue since everything is done by one organization, the process becomes simplified...streamlined, you might say. well, when was the last time you walked into the dmv? you could say i'm generalizing, but i find it hard to think up of better efficiency in the governmental sector, rather than private.

this whole thing just seems like another step towards big brother.

p.s. also, this whole thing about change is complete bs. ever since obama started chanting mantras such as "we are change" and "change we can believe in," "change" has been spreading like wildfire. it's used in fruity, superficial sayings such as "be the change." i admire and commend those who want to make a difference for the better. however, changing the current healthcare plan for the sake of "we are change" and "be the change" is ridiculous. instead of fanboying change, let's make sure we see what we are changing to.

my freshman year

how to import 3g2 or 3gp files into imovie

for some reason, apple imovie will not accept .3g2 files. i usually never use imovie--i am a staunch final cut pro user, but when i want to make movies using videos i have taken from my cell phone using fcp, it's like flying a learjet to get some groceries. but, it won't accept .3g2 files, the primary video output for many cell phones.

i did a search online and there are several programs, some by iskysoft and other various companies that charge about 20-50 dollars for their programs, which usually mess up the encoding anyway and leave bits of video un-rendered. basically, a complete rip to the unknowing customer.

so, i decided to do it myself. here's how to do it.

1. open automator. if you've ne

ver run automator, it comes on every apple machine. it basically creates workflows so that that you can make your own applications. in simple terms, it makes a program to do mostly whatever you tell it to do. it's done a great deal of

handy things for me that would have taken hours for me to do alone. so after doing this, play around with it.

2.automator works through a drag and drop system. drag these 2 commands into the right hand box--ask for finder items, which should be in the files and folders drawer, and export movies which should be in the movies drawer.

3. make sure you click the box allowing for multiple selection. this way, you don't have to open this run this workflow over and over for multiple videos you want to convert.

4. as for the format, make it export to Apple TV. And create a folder to export all of your converted videos to. this will convert your .3g2 videos to .3g2.m4v

5. then open up imovie. go to file then new event. a new event will be formed. drag your newly converted files here. there you go. win win win. fail for those other converters.