October 04th, 2020

It's pretty incredible how quickly these days are passing by me. I've not taken a look at the site for what I thought was only a couple of days, but it turns out it's bordering on 3 weeks. There's been a reasonable amount of stuff that's happened in that amount of time, as it turns out. On the med school front, I've completed not one, but two system blocks. Cardiology went out with a bang, with what's arguably one of the most difficult exams I've ever taken (and believe me, I've sat for a lot of exams). I still wish that I would have gotten more from cardiology. My first inclination is to blame it on the remote learning, which I surely feel is the major contributing factor. I cannot, though, deny that my motivation to put in the efforts needed to master the subjects has been non-existent. To say I left the class with less than I'd hoped is certainly true, though my grasp on the field is undeniably stronger than what it was prior to the course.

The week that followed cardiology was an entire course in 5 days, that being dermatology. I'm not surprised, but it turns out dermatology is interesting as hell. There are a significant number of manifestations of local and systemic diseases that appear in the mouth, so I was introduced to a lot of concepts upon which dermatology is built in dental school. It was nice to have a reasonable foundation for the rapid course. Though I'd likely never been able to get the absurdly high grades and test scores to land a seat in a dermatology residency, I could easily see myself pursuing the field in another life. The skin truly is a window into the body and there's a huge amount of information which can be gleaned through someone's outward presentation.

At present, I sit on the late eve of starting a new block, again one I hope my previous education will set me up reasonably well for taking, which is renal. Its reputation is of a very challenging course, which I don't deny will be the case, but having given lectures on renal anatomy and physiology in the past, I again hope I'm building my castle on solid foundation rather than sand.

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Outside of med school, I've found one of the items which can propel me forward perhaps better than most is simply keeping a daily check list of to-do items. I have my notebook that I've started to use once again to make sure I don't just wake up and stare at the wall all day, lost in depression. It's gotten me through a couple projects around the apartment, including hanging a couple shelves I've planned to put up since March. I've also begun work on my cyclocross bike to get it the maintenance it needs as it sat unridden for over 2 years (an ongoing project which naturally comes with unforeseen setbacks like the new brake calipers not fitting correctly). 

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It also gave me enough of a boost to overcome my anxiety for calling the bike shop to inquire about maintenance for my mountain bike, which is being worked on, ideally to be finished by midweek. I've still made no headway on getting the road bike situation resolved, however. Canyon is holding a release event on Tuesday, which is apparently to unveil the new Aeroad, so we'll see if it's enough of a beast to warrant its purchase over the other available options.

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I've tried to get my drawing hand working a little bit, too. Unfortunately, I haven't been especially productive on that front, but I am happy with the Chozo drawing I finished yesterday. Toned paper is very satisfying to work on and in this case, I had a good reason to take out my Copic markers to add some depth to the thing. I won't be able to keep up with any ARTober prompts or any other daily projects, but hopefully I'll continue to throw something down on paper every couple of days. It's very gratifying to see a finished piece, even if it's simple...and strongly influenced by some random image I found on Google...(thanks MH for your drawing inspiration...whoever you are).

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