Procrastination or what?

Seems I’ve been neglecting my blog lately. Not intentionally, mind you. I had every intention of writing something every day this past week to make up for final exams, but I just didn’t and I’m not sure why.

Each day I start out thinking I’ll post something, but then the day goes by and I realize that I’ve done everything else except write.

Apparently I surf and blog more when I’m supposed to be doing something else.

When blogging is what I set out to do, I can’t seem to find the time. I just don’t seem to get it done.

Strange.

Anyone else like that? Is your blog more attractive when you’re supposed to be doing something else?

A Breath of Fresh Air

Okay, it’s Neumed’s turn to be smitten.

Maybe it has something to do with spring -- or perhaps it’s just because Neumed is a sucker for a pretty face -- but wouldn’t you know it, once again he has fallen in love.

Okay, okay, I’m kidding (a little). The last thing I want to do is embarrass the poor girl, but she really is a sweetheart and I thought you ought to meet her.

Her name is Suthacha_Xiang Mei and she is a medical student in Bangkok, Thailand. I had the pleasure of discovering her from a comment she left on this site last week. How she found herself in my humble little corner of the blogosphere, I have no idea.

Angels show up in the strangest places.


Why is Neumed so taken with her?

Well, aside from the obvious, the real reason I adore her so is that we westerners are such complainers… always going on about school, patients, working conditions, money, HIPAA, the government… it’s nice to hear from someone with a fresh perspective.

To give you an example (and keep in mind I’m not quoting her directly) this is something one of her friends wrote that she considered worthy of quoting…

“We are dreamers. We dream of a day when people love each others, where the Earth is a clean and safe place, and when people start to believe in their futures again. And for that, we try to work hard, step by step, in hopes of achieving this ultimate dream.” – Her friend, Frankie


Cute couple, no?

I can gush on and on about how wonderful this girl is, but I truly believe you should visit her blog, Memories in my Life and experience her kind, gentle spirit for yourself.

I have a hunch that you too will find yourself in love with her pure heart and the wonderful way she expresses her thoughts. And I’m certain you will bookmark her page and add her link to your sidebar so that together we can introduce this girl to the rest of the world.

It’s Not Easy Building an Evil Empire

This past week has been the most fun I’ve had since I started this little excuse-not-to-study and it was all because of you guys. So thanks to everyone who was kind enough to add my link to your sidebar. You have no idea how much it means to me. (Or just how much you’ve helped me kick-start this little blog-o-mine.)

Believe me, it was getting very depressing posting stuff day after day and knowing that no one was going to read it. And I do mean, no one.

In fact, for a while there I was starting to think my sitemeter was broken. I kept tapping on the glass but the little needle just refused to budge off “E.” Day after day, other than Mom and a homicidal spambot… err, I mean friendly lovable cyborg, my stats showed little to no activity.

I felt like I was just talking to myself. (A little disconcerting to say the least.)

But all that has changed and I can now proudly proclaim that I HAVE READERS!!!

Wahoo! Happy dance!

Sure, I’m not breaking any world records, but it’s a start. Hopefully, everyone will keep coming back and we can have fun trading insults, jokes, tall tales and what not.

Suffice it to say, I like making new friends and I feel like I just gained a bunch of new friends practically overnight. This has been very exciting and only makes me want to work harder and keep coming up with new ideas.

So anyways, thanks again for the links, the advice and especially the words of encouragement. You have made my world a much brighter place.

I have to go study chem. now, or maybe neuro… no chem., wait Scrubs is on tonight, maybe I’ll go watch TV.

What the Heck is MyBlogLog?

I just added the MyBlogLog widget to my sidebar this weekend. Not really sure why.

I noticed that several of you have this on your blogs and it seemed kinda cool so I decided to take it for a test drive. Unfortunately I haven’t had the time to figure out how to operate the thing.

Too busy sleeping studying.

Here’s what I’m wondering:

1) Am I supposed to acknowledge visitors in some way?
2) Why doesn’t my name and avatar show when I visit your blog?
3) How do I add people to my community?
4) How do I join other communities?
5) Why does any of this matter?

That last question is the big one.

Other than having a cool looking iPhone-like widget decorating the sidebar, is there really any functional reason for MyBlogLog? Or is it just a colossal waste of time?

I guess we’ll find out eventually.

If you are familiar with this beast and there’s something I’m supposed to do with it that I’m not doing hit me upside the head leave me a comment and let me know.

My Master Plan for Total World Domination

I just finished up another block of tests on Friday and decided to celebrate by taking some time this week to promote the blog a little.

My master plan -- though shameless and totally void of social graces – has been to email a few other medical bloggers (most of whom don’t know me from Adam) to beg, plead, grovel (take your pick) for a link back to this site in hopes that I might lure a few of their readers into my web of deceit and corruption.

This has proven to be more time consuming than I first anticipated, however, I believe it is turning out to be a worthwhile effort…

• Several unsuspecting fools kind souls have actually taken pity on my plight and added my link to their sidebar


• A few even took the time to offer words of encouragement and advice on both blogging and medical school (Much appreciated.)


• Many of you assured me that Mom would eventually come around


• And, as expected, the more perceptive among you totally ignored me (sob)

To those of you who have honored me with a link on your blogroll, thank you so much. It is greatly appreciated and I will be forever in your debt. Any moment now, I expect the floodgates to open and my readership of 1 to skyrocket to the lofty heights of 4 or – dare I speak it aloud -- maybe even 5? (Be still my heart.)

I’m not through cultivating my own blogroll and will probably send out a few more emails as I come across interesting blogs. If I’ve somehow overlooked your blog, feel free to drop me an email at aneumed (at) yahoo (dot) com and I will gladly add you to the mix.

###

(Update: Neumed has just been informed that his 1 daily visitor is actually a spambot and not a human being. Sources close to the fledgling blogger indicate that he may be attempting to overdose on mass quantities of Little Debbie snack cakes. We will continue to monitor this situation and we’ll bring you the latest updates as they become available.)

It's Everywhere, It's Everywhere...

This week's Grand Rounds lends new meaning to the phrase, "passing the buck" and the only way to fully appreciate the insanity is to experience it firsthand. So I suggest starting at the beginning and try not to get lost.

Dinosaur Sighting

I was back home the past few days because of a family situation that fortunately turned out to be nothing. Drove back to school last night and now I’m trying to get back into study mode.

Had some down time yesterday afternoon and decided to surf the net for a bit and read a few medical blogs. While doing so, I ran across a couple of new ones that I really think would be of interest to med students. (New to me, anyway.)

I made a quick blog post yesterday about one of them (Suture for a Living) and today I’m going to take a study break and tell you about the other one, namely, Musings of a Dinosaur.

Musings is authored by a family doc in private practice; thus his use of the term, Dinosaur. I spent about an hour reading through his most recent posts and I have to tell you it was difficult to drag myself away. His writing contains a nice mix of humor, sage wisdom, and practical advice in a style that is engaging and personable.

I don’t know why, but images of “Doc” from the old “Gunsmoke” television series readily came to mind as I was reading through his posts. (Although it’s obvious he has a modern practice and he’s not that old.)

Still, I couldn’t help wondering if he has one of these.


You know, for house calls.

But seriously, I digress. If it weren’t for my Dad needing help out in the garage, I’d probably still be reading. I’m going to add this one to my regular reading list just as soon as I figure out this whole RSS thingy.

Suture for a Living

Here’s an interesting blog I ran across today written by rlbatesmd, a plastic surgeon out of Little Rock, Arkansas.

When most people (including some med students) think of plastic surgeons they automatically think of Hollywood and bizarre cases like Michael Jackson. However, most plastic surgeons are serious, highly skilled doctors that play an important role in the health care industry.

Here’s how Dr Bates describes her blog…

I am a plastic surgeon in Little Rock, AR. I may "suture for a living", but I "live to sew". When I can, I sew. These days most of my sewing is piecing quilts. I love the patterns and interplay of the fabric color. I would like to explore writing about medical/surgical topics as well as sewing/quilting topics. I will do my best to make sure both are represented accurately as I share with both colleagues and the general public.

After browsing through her blog archives a bit, it is apparent that (aside from the quilting articles) Dr Bates has a serious teaching blog. Well worth checking out.

It’s not all boob jobs and tummy tucks.

###

Reference: http://rlbatesmd.blogspot.com/

The New Blog

I’m not sure exactly what direction this blog will go. For now I’m just going to write whatever is on my mind at the moment and not worry about developing a theme.

I will probably write a little about medical school, my pre-med experience, the application process, and the decision-making process I went through (and still sometimes question) in deciding to go into this profession. But I doubt that this will strictly be a medical school blog.

In case you haven’t already picked up on the vibe, I want to try and work humor into the mix as much as possible. For me blogging is mainly an outlet for letting off steam.

I am still playing with Blogger trying to figure everything out, so posts may be spotty for a while. But please keep coming back and checking out what’s new. Any comments or advice is always welcome.

Thanks for stopping by,

Neumed