i've spent the last 4 days away from my erstwhile home of milwaukee, in observation of the easter holiday. and i'm looking forward to this upcoming short week, which begins tomorrow and ends at noon on thursday. then it's off the chicago to see bloc party, and from there, it's up in the air until saturday, when i return to the mil to see the brewers for the first time since i was like 8 or something. actually, i think it's been that long since i've seen a baseball game. i mean like a real one, not a little league game. for some reason i've seen plenty of those.

so the department of family medicine gave us these laptops to use while on the rotation. i've been a mac user for the past several years, so it's been kinda fun having a pc around now. windows has come a long way from win95. i can still remember windows 3.1. shit, i can remember the ms-dos prompt, when that was all there was. sheeeeit. NERD TALK NERD TALK

"the wind-up bird" chronicle has finally inhaled me. i'm about 2/3 of the way finished. it's good. it's really good. what i really enjoy about reading murakami is that some of his narrative is so out-there and surreal that i'm not even SURE that i DON'T understand what i'm reading, which makes even less sense when i type it out like that. but that's how it feels. i rarely have dreams (ones that i can remember, anyway), but reading his novels feels like i'm making up for lost time.

i got a good deal of homework done this weekend. so now i'm just gonna chill and read until i get sleepy. gotta get back to that book.

this educational lesson brought to you by dr. j around 10:44 PM |

saturday night was a small explosion in my quiet life. i ventured to the king club to watch DPC (the reigning kings of short attention span, wtf-style blink-and-its-over web cinema; go here and click on Movie of the Week, and make sure to check out the others too), and bumped into quite a few faces i hadn't seen in quite a while. also i was introduced to fran's 38 year old boyfriend who looked like an older jude law with blonde hair and an irish accent. he said he was a hem/onc physician at UIC who did his residency in saskatchewan. fran said she met him while he was on tour promoting his first joke book. honestly, i could see either being a reality, though he did seem to be able to chat knowledgeably enough about the medical school-to-residency process, so, it's kind of a crapshoot. only because this story would be soooo much better if it turns out he's really a joke book author.

sunday i spent with my parents, who have spent the past month in antarctica (for serious, i saw pictures) so my dad could run a marathon there (also for serious, it's part of the Seven Continents Club, some running club he's in. he's also in the 50 States Club or whatever), and in south korea, so my dad could run a marathon there (that's two continents off the list. i think all he has left is africa).

why (when?) did myspace get all revived? or has it always been real hott and i just never knew? i feel like it's blowing up again, or at least i'm just paying more attention to it. it's fun adding people i don't know. it's weird when people i don't know add me.

murakami update: making my way through "wind-up bird chronicle." i'm enjoying it, but it hasn't sucked me in with the urgency of "norwegian wood" or "kafka on the shore." yet. (and note to chas: sorry i missed the book club meeting this week, you were probably busy moving, anyway. let's make a raindate).

this educational lesson brought to you by dr. j around 7:52 PM |

walking into an irish pub last night to meet with old friends barbi, sara, and julie, i was approached by an older, grey-haired, missing-toothed gentleman, who in all his jameson-soaked visual acuity, announced to the bar that i must be a true irishman, and that let him guess, my name is probably shane.

i told him my name was shane.

but the rest of the night fared well. we reviewed old times, debriefed new times, and i admired julie's still-fairly-new wedding band. the bar played traditional irish drinking songs WAY too loudly (or maybe because we were at a table right next to the speakers), until they started playing the dropkick murphys at the same volume. you know it's real loud when a volume too loud for the pogues becomes the setpoint for the murphys.

the fact that i'm complaining about volume levels dismays/embarasses me.

been listening to the evens a lot. they remind me of fugazi: the softer bits. sort of like how travis reminded me of radiohead: the cutesy bits. or coldplay as dave matthews: the british bits.

i am becoming a murakami fanboy. i finished "norwegian wood" and reread the first 75 pages or so immediately after finishing, to help resolidify the story in my mind. i was genuinely sad when the novel came to an end. i'll be rereading this one again soon. i've made it a goal to get through at least 2 more murakami books before late april. currently i've moved on to "the wind-up bird chronicle", which proves to be quite an entertaining read so far. charles and i are going to get to chapter 6 by this weekend and have a mini-book-club (read: NERD PARTY) discussion on AIM. want in? chapter 6, by this weekend. exact time TBA.

i am having couscous for lunch. i loooooooooove couscous. then it's off to clinic, and then back to madison. i hope the mailboxes aren't overstuffed. i hate it when i have to go to the actual post office to pick up mail. time there seems to move in slow motion.

here's to hoping that another shitsnowstorm doesn't rain hell on I-94.

this educational lesson brought to you by dr. j around 1:11 PM |

i saw interpol on sunday night. for a band that doesn't interact with the crowd (hardly) and barely moves around on stage (with the exception of carlos d, who employs the hunched over, head down bass-playing style very reminiscent of korn), the show was excellent. the vocals were spot on, and the band played extremely well. the played a good mix of songs from both albums, although "NYC" was a notable exception. the downside of the show was the horrible, unforgiving crowd that all but booed Q And Not U off the stage. poor guys. although they DID play a bit long (almost 75mins) and their last few songs were all 8 min+.

sightings at the show: nichole (see photo), a-ron, jeff, and jesska(?). and i took a few photos with my low-res camera phone, which are all available at flickr.

tonight my roommate and i had dinner at sake tumi, an extremely hip and trendy pan-asian-fusion restaurant. it was sponsored by abbot pharmaceuticals. yes yes yes, we've been discussing it in the comments, and i realize all the ethical qualms of forwarding this sort of pharmaceutical culture. BUT! i've never been to such a fancy free dinner, and wanted to experience it at least once. and it was great. the waitresses walked around with trays of sushi and chicken satay and curry wontons, and drinks were all on the house. the downside was the booooooooring lecture (on antibiotic resistance in respiratory infections), and the entree, a miso-marinated chilean sea bass. sounds amazing, right? well it was far too salty and slathered in butter. not a good move, chef.

murakami update: i am in the middle of "norwegian wood" and absolutely loving it. it reminds me of a catcher in the rye sort of coming of age love story, with less cynicism and more sentimentalism. it's fantastic. and it's also inspiring a re-examination of the beatles' "rubber soul." i can't wait to finish this book, just so i can start another one of his novels. let's see if i can finish 4-5 of his books on this joke of a rotation.

tomorrow: late start (9:30am, NICE) and an afternoon at the peds clinic. can't wait.

this educational lesson brought to you by dr. j around 9:49 PM |

back in madison to check mail (since amy's in france), do laundry and get an oil change. i do laundry here because i don't understand or want to deal with the laundry system in our apts in milwaukee. we're supposed to get a "laundry access card" or something from the front desk, put money on it, do laundry, and return the card within 24 hours or we are fined something ridiculous. and all of this must be done within business hours. yeah, so i guess the system isn't all that complicated, but fuckit, i'd rather just feed a machine quarters.

the OC is descending into madness. the series becomes less believable every week. and i get more excited every week.

i watched "best week ever" for the first time last night. it was actually pretty funny.

DFA 1979 played conan last night, and max richter ended up taking over the drums for the last minute or so. that could best be described as dumbfounding.

i love drug reps. they buy me lunch about 3 times a week, bring me free pens, and invite me to fancy schmancy dinners on their dime. i also love my clinics in milwaukee, which not only allow me to live a normal 9-5, mon-fri life, but also welcome these drug reps with open arms, providing me with a lot of free food.

i think i've listened to ciara's "goodies" and amerie's "one thing" about a million times this past week.

i'm going to see interpol tomorrow night in milwaukee. i have this fear that the show is going to suck, that they're the sort of band that is too cool to enjoy themselves on stage, rock out, or talk to the audience. i hope i'm wrong.

i finished murakami's "kafka on the shore." i think it took me about a week, but i ended up reading the last 300 pages within 3 days or so. excellent book, surprisingly suspenseful, made me very hungry for udon noodles the entire time. now i'm working on murakami's "norwegian wood," and next up will be "the wind-up bird chronicles." color me a fan.

living in milwaukee is somewhat cleansing, in a sense. there isn't a whole hell of a lot to do there, so i find myself doing more reading (that's reading for pleasure and not assignment), working out, eating (slightly) better, and sleeping a lot more. it's been a long time since i've grown accustomed to a full 8 hours of sleep per night. the past few years i've really adapted to my 4-5 hours a night.

this educational lesson brought to you by dr. j around 1:18 PM |

seriously, this illness that has been plaguing me for the past two weeks needs to back off a bit. my mouth permanently tastes like halls menthol-lyptus and i think i'm becoming addicted to my nightly shot of nyquil.

last weekend stv slv and zaid came up and played a show and soup came up to help cheer them on. it was one of those acoustic-sit-down-and-watch shows, which i always feel a bit weird about. i think it allows the audience to become less involved in the show, and i also think it makes performing a bit weirder. like you're being evaluated or something. anyway it made for some poorly focused pictures, so i didn't bother putting any up of the performance, but plenty of the subsequent fallout over at flickr.

in other news, i've moved to milwaukee. part-time. this time i've had the good fortune of scoring the master bedroom all to myself, sharing with only one other roommate, and a surplus of television.
the primary care clerkship affords us so much time off and random days off (as in, i had all of today off) that i'm able to come back to madison quite often. tonight i go to some "interested-in-peds?" dinner and then i'm off to the mil again, to return on friday evening, in time to receive one d-saronno by the weekend.

but for now, i've got a hot date with the pediatrics faculty, pizza, and pocketful of cough drops.

this educational lesson brought to you by dr. j around 6:29 PM |