an earth without maps

Decision '08 Presidential Results

2008-11-04T23:45:11Z

meran12345 @ 2008-07-01T16:24:00

2008-07-01T20:24:31Z

does anyone know of any business in the greater tampa bay area who buys VHS tapes?

meran12345 @ 2008-03-08T09:13:00

2008-03-08T14:14:48Z

this exact thing happened this morning. at 630. on my day off.

meran12345 @ 2008-02-24T20:10:00

2008-02-25T01:24:57Z

Hillary Swank, you are so elegant in Versace. You just need to eat a cheeseburger (or two).

laura linney

2008-02-25T01:07:39Z

You are just so elegant and beautiful - I hope I have some of the grace you have when I am your age. Egads! You win, you win at life.

4th annual oscars posting frenzy!

2008-02-25T01:00:11Z

that's right, it's oscars night!

on the red carpet: viggo mortensen! usually i love you, but tonight you're looking very much immunosuppressed, or malnurished.

and gary busey, don't maul jennifer garner again! that's just creepy.

meran12345 @ 2007-12-24T09:12:00

2007-12-24T14:18:55Z

AND

also...

2007-09-21T00:57:07Z

....how on earth did the temp increase a degree in the past hour? it's freaking DARK outside. how is the temp going UP???

because a non-med student friend inquired: an intro to the Gunner

2007-06-24T21:28:43Z

a gunner is a term used in the doctor field. a gunner is a person who is very highly obsessed with getting good grades/recommendations/ lookinG good to the residents/attendings, etc.....

see, those aren't bad things. you get the title of gunner when you do it at the expense of your fellow students.

common things a gunner will do:
1) "teach" their fellow students wrong information so that the fellow students get it wrong, and they get it right.
2) tell their fellow students they need to be somewhere ~1 hour after they're actually supposed to be there, making the fellow student look bad
3) talking trash about their fellow students to their residents / attendings / any supervisor
4) when another student is asked a question by an attending or resident (the attending or resident is looking to assess 'fund of knowledge' from a specific student) the gunner will pipe up with an answer before the student asked has a chance to answer.

luckily, with a lot of people aware of the gunner syndrome, they can often be spotted by the scrutinous supervisor.

here's a student-written article from harvard that describes them: http://webweekly.hms.harvard.edu/archive/2001/newyear/student_scene.html

this is a good example of gunner behavior: http://politedissent.com/archives/113/

Note: being driven and wanting to work does not a gunner make. the gunner label comes from stepping on your colleagues in order to rise above.

an ad for gunnera:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeVNaS77ijQ

and this is also gunnerness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJfL-sc5qK4

and this is just fucking funny - it's almost 10 minutes and it is worth watching EVERY SINGLE SECOND:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6ZgAJIqi24

meran12345 @ 2007-06-13T04:48:00

2007-06-13T08:53:22Z

been up for 20 minutes. taking notes from some reading i did last night to review. am v tired. drinking cherry coke zero to wake up a bit. shower soon, then hospital.

for med people: a question i can't fucking get that i emailed my path course director

2007-04-25T00:32:14Z

If you have input re: this, please please explain so I can get a decent night's sleep for the first time this week:

I have a question regarding bleeding time that convo with other students & a trip to Robbins wasn't able to clarify completely for me. I can't seem to get my head around the idea that bleeding time isn't increased with hemophilia A&B. The best I can rationalize is that the wound created in the bleeding time test is so small that limited thrombin is able to do the job that platelets start, but in bigger insults to the system, it becomes a problem, and so the issue becomes an issue of wound size. Robbins states that it's a fair question to ask "why do hemophiliacs bleed, then?" and doesn't go into any hypotheses behind it. I understand that platelet function isn't affected with hemophilia, but I'm not understanding the test itself, I guess. Would you be able to clarify further, or perhaps refer me to a paper that might explain this further? I would really appreciate it!

i generally don't like poetry unless it's ancient greek; however,

2007-04-24T21:08:22Z

an LJ friend posted this today, and i really loved it, so i'm going to share it with more people.

"Unwise Purchases"
by George Bilgere

They sit around the house
not doing much of anything: the boxed set
of the complete works of Verdi, unopened.
The complete Proust, unread:

The French-cut silk shirts
which hang like expensive ghosts in the closet
and make me look exactly
like the kind of middle-aged man
who would wear a French-cut silk shirt:

The reflector telescope I thought would unlock
the mysteries of the heavens
but which I only used once or twice
to try to find something heavenly
in the windows of the high-rise down the road,
and which now stares disconsolately at the ceiling
when it could be examining the Crab Nebula:

The 30-day course in Spanish
whose text I never opened,
whose dozen cassette tapes remain unplayed,

save for Tape One, where I never learned
whether the suave American
conversing with a sultry-sounding desk clerk
at a Madrid hotel about the possibility
of obtaining a room
actually managed to check in.

I like to think
that one thing led to another between them
and that by Tape Six or so
they're happily married
and raising a bilingual child in Seville or Terra Haute.

But I'll never know.
Suddenly I realize
I have constructed the perfect home
for a sexy, Spanish-speaking astronomer
who reads Proust while listening to Italian arias,

and I wonder if somewhere in this teeming city
there lives a woman with, say,
a fencing foil gathering dust in the corner
near her unused easel, a rainbow of oil paints
drying in their tubes

on the table where the violin
she bought on a whim
lies entombed in the permanent darkness
of its locked case
next to the abandoned chess set,

a woman who has always dreamed of becoming
the kind of woman the man I've always dreamed of becoming
has always dreamed of meeting.

And while the two of them discuss star clusters
and Cézanne, while they fence delicately
in Castilian Spanish to the strains of Rigoletto,

she and I will stand in the steamy kitchen,
fixing up a little risotto,
enjoying a modest cabernet,
while talking over a day so ordinary
as to seem miraculous.

wow

2007-03-26T05:00:45Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u6k-99qcCE

meran12345 @ 2007-02-25T23:52:00

2007-02-26T04:53:13Z

wow. phillip seymour hoffman looks like crap. :(

meran12345 @ 2007-02-25T22:59:00

2007-02-26T03:59:33Z

when celine dion sings 'ooooo', her lips look like a multiparous cervix.

on another note, that acceptance speech was the sweetest ever. i LOVE old people in love. maybe i'll get to be one some day.....yeah. right.

meran12345 @ 2007-02-25T22:12:00

2007-02-26T03:12:25Z

gwynneth. is. such. a. beautiful. lady.

oscars (4)

2007-02-26T02:46:26Z

for amapola_t:

oscars (3)

2007-02-26T02:32:49Z

1. this dance troup is awesome. they're like the stuff i used to see when i was in college and actually went to dance performances. liked the oscar interpretaion, LOVED the penguin interpretation.

2. it's hard to watch the oscars, comment on them, and watch pathology reviews at the same time.

3. i miss shehulk and maxmatahari.

4. james taylor?!!??!?! AWESOME! i love the oscar musicans. they're actually musicians, unlike the grammys. imagine that?

Long ago, but not so very long ago
The world was different, oh yes it was
You settled down and you built a town and made it live
And you watched it grow
It was your town

Time goes by, time brings changes, you change, too
Nothing comes that you can't handle, so on you go
Never see it coming, the world caves in on you
On your town
Nothing you can do.

Main street isn't main street anymore
Lights don't shine as brightly as they shone before
Tell the truth, lights don't shine at all
In our town

Sun comes up each morning
Just like it's always done
Get up, go to work, start the day,
Open up for business that's never gonna come
As the world rolls by a million miles away

Main street isn't main street anymore
No one seems to need us like they did before
It's hard to find a reason left to stay
But it's our town
Love it anyway
Come what may, it's our town.

Have I been sleeping?
I’ve been so still
Afraid of crumbling
Have I been careless?
Dismissing all the distant rumblings
Take me where I am supposed to be
To comprehend the things that I can’t see

Cause I need to move
I need to wake up
I need to change
I need to shake up
I need to speak out
Something’s got to break up
I’ve been asleep
And I need to wake up
Now

And as a child
I danced like it was 1999
My dreams were wild
The promise of this new world
Would be mine
Now I am throwing off the carelessness of youth
To listen to an inconvenient truth

That I need to move
I need to wake up
I need to change
[ Lyrics found on http://www.metrolyrics.com ]

I need to shake up
I need to speak out
Something’s got to break up
I’ve been asleep
And I need to wake up
Now

I am not an island
I am not alone
I am my intentions
Trapped here in this flesh and bone

And I need to move
I need to wake up
I need to change
I need to shake up
I need to speak out
Something’s got to break up
I’ve been asleep
And I need to wake up
Now

I want to change
I need to shake up
I need to speak out
Oh, Something’s got to break up
I’ve been asleep
And I need to wake up
Now

meran12345 @ 2007-02-25T21:21:00

2007-02-26T02:24:18Z

rachel weiss & cameron diaz have the same hairstylist. it almost works for rachel. almost.

to jessica biel

2007-02-26T02:18:34Z

what have you contributed, exactly, except for high cheekbones? from whence did you come? why are you famous? can you go away? you annoy me.

oscars (2)

2007-02-26T02:12:21Z

1. WTF don't we as americans get the chance to see these shorts? I LOVE shorts. I go to a shorts festival each year here in Tampa that accepts submissions internationally. Yet - none of the shorts seen are ever the shorts here. WTF? Where are my shorts? Where can I watch them, before the Oscars? *frustration*

2. i have so much respect for clint eastwood. i love that he wanted to portray a different side of WW2, from the japanese soldier perspective. i love that. especially these days of war and hatred of things not mcdonalds-owned.

3. sound effects choir? awesome. AWESOME! their movement effects were awesome as well!

4. what's with the sound cut-out? damn you, big brother!

5. and what's with the bags under greg kinnear's eyes?

oscars (1)

2007-02-26T02:00:46Z

1. maggie, oh maggie - seriously, ms. gyllenhaal is one of the sexiest creatures known to man these days in hollywood.

2. pan's labyrinth is taking all these awards! this is awesome! Awesome! And their dedication to Guillermo...*weeps*

3. is guillermo del toro related to benicio del toro?

4. little kid presenters!!!!! awwwwwwww! and her dress is so adorable! and his little braids make me want to tug at them!

a love letter to daniel craig

2007-02-26T01:46:05Z

dear daniel craig,
just because you're now james bond, doesn't mean you're too good for me. this little job will pass, and you'll go back to being jimmy. and i'll still heart you then. you & your blue eyes.

ellen's opening

2007-02-26T01:43:57Z

1. "no-one can fill a seat like an american." ha! ellen, your'e funny! and so so so true!

2. your outfit....i love velvet. and i love that color. but really....that suit deserves a black lacy top underneath & spikey, pointy boots. and a nice choker.

3. j-lo in short, poofy hair and poofy pink dress just doesn't work.

4. nasty rip on peter o'toole. he took it well, though.

5. who the hell is jennifer hudson? american idol unvotee with an oscar nomination? how does that work?

6. i do like al gore's sense of humor.

7. she's right, though - the diversity is awesome. "if there weren't blacks, jews & gays, there would be no oscars. or anyone named oscar." hee!

8. LOVE the gospel celebration!!!

red carpet (4)

2007-02-26T01:27:43Z

1. marky mark...you look as good as you did back in your CK underwear modeling days.

2. still need to see children of men also.

3. i wish more movies were as good as pan's labyrinth. it was dark & lovely.

4. you know, kate winslet is also so so very elegant. she's got 5 oscars? and she's 31? she's like....1.5 years older than me. i must start making more progress. i also really like how she's always given a big f-you to hollywood in terms of her weight. she's got a tummy. and it looks good in that dress.