House MD, and the Joy of Random Lists

I'm sitting here fantastically numb. I just got done watching episode 1.18 of House MD, entitled "Babies and Bathwater". And it was sooo good!

It features some pretty gripping and heartwrenching choices having to be made by a young, married couple over their unborn child, and of course a intriguing twist that has to be handled by Dr. House and his team of specialists. If you've never had the chance to watch this amazing show before, this is your chance. Every episode is conclusive, so you might as well start out by watching one that you know is especially good. And it's good; I'm not gonna lie, I might even have become a little teary-eyed by the end of this one. Maybe it's just me, but some situations just get to me every time, and this episode featured one such plight, artfully depicted by accomplished guest actors in addition to the show's regular, genius cast. After, or before, watching this one, you should watch episode 1.21 ("Acceptance") too, as this one really shows you the funny side of the show.

As you might have heard (through the grapevine, grape juice, or otherwise), I have a minor sleep rhythm issue going on nowadays. The extreme traits of my B-personality (going to bed late/waking up late) have skewed the sleep schedule to its default position time after time, which in societies like ours is considered a problem as everything is tailored to the schedules of those who go to bed early and wake up just as early. The other day I managed to literally fall asleep during a conversation while catching up with a long lost friend of mine, Sabrin, after having stayed up for 34 hours in order for me to restore a healthier sleep pattern. And today I managed to fall asleep on the couch in the break room at work while on my five minute break, and ended up sleeping for close to 15 minutes in there, until being woken up by a co-worker.. Wow, I'm a mess. Now one of my Easter Resolutions (there is such a thing, see a later post) is to restore a 11-8 sleeping habit, and thus managing the rest of my life a little better. Sleeping at weird times gives rise to a whole host of problems, most based on the fact that the rest of my friend circle and most of society is waking up by the time I go to bed. And last time I checked, everyone still needs to interact with other people to make things happen, in one's life or just to be productive. There is, however, fortunately no effect derived from this on my body mass or weight, as it has more or less been proven that eating at night doesn't cause weight gain. One thing it does do, though, is to make me so distracted and unfocused I don't perform as well as I should at school or work, and that in and of itself is a problem to be reckoned with. It's a work in progress, but I 'm pretty confident I'll win the fight against that 'craving for moonlight', and that all I need to accomplish just that is to realize how serious the consequences of the opposite actually are.

I am, as you might have derived from this, up late yet again, and thus have some ponderings (from the previously mentioned Awareness phase, remember?) to share with you. I have grown pretty fond of the lists, and especially the ones bulleted with the circles (never mind), so I will organize my very disorganized thoughts in just that way. Some of the points will surely be revisited later, in their own posts.

• I love the show House, MD. I really do. Did I maybe share that already?



• I miss certain people from Augie a whole lot, and find myself smiling at some random memory almost daily. Kei Takizawa's antics and attempts to teach me Japanese, for example, and the precious coffee shop nights with the gang (Kristin, Ashley, Denise, Amber, Jennapher, Jenni, Lauren, Maren). And I miss Philosophy 110 with O'Hara, hahaha… I do!



• I also miss the small things, like singing the Daphnia song with Kayla, or going to the Commons to eat in the early afternoon when it's almost empty.



• Of course, I miss Alicia most of all.



• I love my new apartment (pics to come), and, of course, my new room. And I love the new fabric softener I have, which makes my clothes all smell so incredibly fresh and …clean. I get carried away with the little things.



• I hate doing the dishes (and by hate I mean the kind of hate I have for celery… just imagine). And I shouldn't be trusted around plants, because apparently my presence somehow kills them. Or is it my absence..?
• I am somewhat worried about my future as a medical professional. The thing is, there's no way the brain can keep all the world's medically relevant facts, there must be some memory limit to things like that. Most medicine is very complex, and it's all connected to each other in specific ways, where it's all more a web of causes and effects than a clear and exclusive chain. One symptom, 100 possibilities, even more tests, and the one could be causing the other or vice versa. It's beautifully complex, that's all.



• After getting my own place, the concept of shelf life has taken on a whole new meaning. Refrigerated items don't have a very long shelf life here, for some reason. In the US, refrigerated things have usually also undergone the infusion of a vaster array of chemicals than any 40 year old drug addict goes through in a lifetime, and thus keeps fresh for mysterious amounts of time. I don't want my milk to outlive me. It's just not biologically comfortable. But then again, the Norwegian stuff can't even handle a few days in the fridge before starting to go bad, and that can't be right either… There must be a middle ground?



• Whistling is really fun, and I enjoy it a lot. But, when other people do it, it's so incredibly irritating. Somehow I feel that whistling invades my personal sphere or something, and it just hits me as real arrogant behavior when out in public.. Loud, high-pitched sounds like that are a way for some to show dominance over other people, and thus annoys the heck out of me if I don't know the person.. Weird, huh?



• Lastly, I'm dreaming of taking a good, ol' road trip on the long and scenic US highways and byways some day. In an open convertible, roof down, sun shining.. Ah, how great wouldn't that be?

Okay, so I took the whole list thing a little too seriously, and ended up with a semi-list/semi random paragraphs thing. But, cut me some slack here. It's 4am, and I probably won't piece together more lists after this one. Next time, maybe I'll use a table?

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Labels: Episode Accounts, Lists, Personal Issues, Ponderings, Television

posted by CK @ 04:03

Draft Me Back to the Stone Age

Today's date certainly did live up to its name in so many ways. Friday the 13th. A favorite among horror flick directors, and now, not exactly a favorite of mine. Today's post is going to concern a letter I got in the mail on this day of bad luck and superstition, a letter I think is going to be a bitter landmark in my biography whenever it is published in 98 languages and outsells the Harry Potter books. I got my draft notice today, a letter telling me that I am one of the thousands of pissed youngens summoned to serve in the country's biggest playground for an entire year; the Norwegian army. Yes, you read correctly, Christian has been drafted to the military, and has thus beaten any weak story you might have had of yourself falling down and spraining your wrist on the eerie Friday 13th, missing your prom because you lacked a healthy hand to place that pink corsage on. Forget that. This, my friend, is much worse. And if being drafted when you're 21 wasn't terrible enough, I have actually been drafted to the most remote and cold place in, possibly, the world, Troms in northern Norway.

Now, let me outline for you, exactly what my problem with this whole idea is. First of all, Norway is small. Norway is tiny. And to think Norway, with its minuscule number of armed men (and some women, in all like 20,000), might ever actually carry any weight as a military power of any kind, is a foolish pursuit better left to the people who aren't all that great in neither math nor psychology. Norway is, of course, a member of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, one of the world's most powerful defense unions. If any country was to ever attack or threaten a NATO ally, all other allies would come to the country's aid immediately. So, for the sake of this post, I will admit Norway needs a viable military force in order for it to uphold its part of the treaty and in turn be deserving of other countries' aid, but what is my problem is actually the draft itself.

An army is never stronger than its weakest link. Following this analogy, and applying it to the present-day Norwegian military, Norway couldn't even win a war with Greenland if it wanted to. The thing is, the Norwegian army uses the draft to muster up the manpower to look as if it's fulfilling its obligations as set forth by the NATO agreement, which states that all member countries must have a certain number of standing troops at all times. The problem with that is, however, that you get tens of thousands of dissatisfied, disgruntled, angry, fed up, defiant, uninterested, and most importantly unmotivated young people serving and protecting whatever brown goat cheese and lefse there is to serve and protect.

Each and every teenager who is drafted to the military nowadays has a lot of things at stake. Education and careers are finally taking off, you might just have gotten yourself a girlfriend, started to settle down, and there it comes; a letter outright ordering you to pack your bags and report to whatever place they see fit, in a matter of months. If you refuse, which is the natural reaction to being ordered to do anything once you're out of high school, the penalty can be as severe as 3 years in prison and fines so big they'll deter any runt trying to have a mind of his own and make a run for it. If you ask me, this archaic practice of drafting young hopefuls, with the threat of prison lurking in the background for anyone who's not ready to accept the ultimate power of the state over its citizens, is long overdue for a revolution. The fact is, Norway is not a communist regime. Norway is supposed, although it seems to forget this when it comes down to it, to be more like its cousin the US in the battle for a individualist society. We all agree that we should be able to make our own choices, decide the course of our own lives, and decide how to spend our time and precious years on this planet. Taking away the freedom and liberties of the citizens has conventionally been thought of as something we can only do to the criminals and wrong-doers in a society, but what we also seem to forget is that we also impose the same way on a select group of young men and women who are not guilty of anything else than bad luck and falling victim to the state's unpredictable whims. It's a severe imposition on a human being's life when forced to undergo generalized military training that is, for one, never going to be used, and, for another, the person has never volunteered to participate in. The citizens' lives aren't the whimsical pawns of any state, seeing as we are all supposed to be guaranteed freedom and certain inalienable rights, and the very fact that the armed services don't try to recruit willing, young men, and make for a more motivated and goal oriented military, is beyond me. Instead, forcing and coercing thousands of not needed others into spending an entire year of the most fruitful period of their lives somewhere they themselves haven't signed up to be, or want to be, has been the path they have chosen.

The draft is unconstitutional. Yes, the draft itself might be in the constitution and all that, but it breaches one of the more basic of acts; the society is here for the good of the people. It is here as an instrument for the individual to further his or her own dreams, and to ensure the freedom and liberties of every one of its members. The society has been given the power to punish those of its citizens that cause harm to said community or society, or its members, but that power was never meant to be used against law-abiding and innocent people. The society has no right whatsoever to force its citizens to do anything, seeing as we are individuals and are supposed to be able to govern our own lives freely. A state that takes over the control of its citizens' lives, with the threat of prison time and fines for those who don't obey, sounds eerily much like the type of societies the western world is currently waging war against. Wait… is that our own tail?

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Labels: News, Personal Issues, Ponderings, Rants

posted by CK @ 19:15

I Think, Therefore I Am (Rambling)

See? I keep my promises! I told you I would post something every single day for a month, and this is the second one…! I never lie (which is, by default, a lie, but nonetheless). Here goes.. hm, a slice of bread? Never mind.

I actually went to school today. Believe it or not. Me, the guy who's been having issues (multiple, I tell you) for a month now, preventing me from attending the crucial med lectures I always forget I love. First, there was the issue of being thrown out of my house, a topic which I'll surely revisit one of these days, and then, of course, there was the magic of Alicia's visit and the subsequent delightfully distracted mind. But the point is, as I'm getting to, that I indeed did go to school today, and I actually did so after staying up all -ALL- night and day before this. And I discovered that, after the sleep deprivation had made itself known and the drunk phase (yes, there is such a thing) had worn off, I actually felt more imaginative and lucid than before. During this.. let's call it Awareness phase, I did in fact make a few fascinating observations (and a few that questions my theory of a heightened awareness), that I will outline for you here.

1. The smell of freshly grilled chicken is amazing, and I could probably donate an appendage (take a finger, please, or better yet, the appendix) to have some if I was isolated from this delicious bird for any amount of time.



2. Walking around fast, in scrubs, just looking serious and like you're rushing to get somewhere important, is the coolest thing ever. (btw, I used to do that when getting lunch in the hospital cafeteria in Sioux Falls. People stopped and just gazed admiringly as I rushed past, hahaha..)



3. A new nickname could very easily be born whenever I become a doctor. Seeing as my blood is almost pure diet Pepsi, or Pepsi Max as Norwegians call it, some coworker should mention "Mr. Pepsi Max is coming" or something, one day. And that's when I will reply "Hey! That'll be Dr. Max to you!" and thus a new nickname will be born. Dr. Max, how cool is that?



4. When I don't sleep, my mind makes up connections in my head that sounds good at the time, but that any sane person would immediately dismiss as jibberish.

That was basically what I had before I ran out of steam, and got home to take a nose dive into the pillow, which will be my home until House MD (which ROOOCKS) comes on at six.

BTW: During our medical ethics lecture today, the professor had an example of tough choices made by people concerning loved ones. A girl, 8 years old, had developed kidney failure, and her parents were asked if they wanted to test if they could be possible donors. The dad agreed to be tested, and then came back to the hospital afterwards to learn the result of his tissue matching. The doctor told him he was a very good match, and that he would be a perfect candidate for donating his kidney to the sick daughter. The man, however, had declined right then and there, and refused to do it. The doctors, puzzled, asked why he then had gotten tested, and why he now didn't want to donate to save his daughter's life. The man went on explaining that he just didn't "feel comfortable" having one of his organs taken away, and that the decision had been made even before the biopsy. He just wanted the result of the match to have been negative, so he could feel better about declining any donating, a 50% chance of feeling better about the decision he was going to make anyways. Now, if you ask me, there should be a law ordering family members to undergo unharmful and unproblematic surgery if their family member is in need of a donatable organ, but no, this guy actually got away with not saving the life of his daughter when he could/should have.. That's just not ethical. If you could, you should, because family comes with a lifetime of responsibility.

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Labels: College Stuff, Everyday, Lists, Medical, Ponderings, Television

posted by CK @ 22:00

My Self-Destructive Nature

Since I've been more than a little abscent from this blog lately (read: this past year), I have decided to start taking this literal vent more seriously and make myself write more. To start things off, I will take some advice from another blog I stumbled upon the other day, and sit down every single day for the next month and write up a post right here. And just so we're clear on the rules, this one will count as number one, and every post from now on containing more than a picture will be a consecutive post. Contents or length don't matter, as long as it's done every day and they contain little tidbits conveyed by the alphanumeric alphabet.

Easter came and went. This year, apart from a delicious and ooooh so bad Easter egg filled with too much (hm, lying) candy, Easter didn't get the usual significance it should have. Sure, I watched the gruesome (Easter themed) movie Passion of the Christ, but on the spiritual/religious side, that was as far as my efforts went. I didn't go to church, but then again that part of Easter isn't mandatory, and really shouldn't be either, but I somehow felt I should have. Alicia and I went to church the Sunday when she was here, which was nice, so to some extent the church-going for this year has been done, at least when excluding my Christmas visit. And sadly, the extent of my church participation is actually typical of the average Norwegian, all citing 'personal religion' and 'a personal relationship to the higher powers', and thus eliminating the need for a church to pray and worship. I'm of that opinion myself, to some extent, but when I visited the main city church with Alicia a couple of weeks ago, and when going to church with the US family in December, I definitely felt a calm, a warmth, and a peace, that I think is the reason why people do go to church. Churches have remained important to people throughout the ages, and are still so today, and logically I think there must be a reason why so-called educated and modern people seek out a building topped by a cross every Sunday, and sit there for an hour or more listening to one person. And thus I think houses of worship must serve some purpose, fill some important voids, in people's lives, that they can't have filled at home, no matter how good their relationship with the Almighty might be one-on-one at home on their bedside. I will, is what I'm trying to say, take my religion more seriously, and try to attend church more often than I have so far. Who knows, maybe I'll even enjoy it?

The main focus of my post this time wasn't really the individual's practice of religion, believe it or not, it was more my time management skills. This last break has thrown me totally off my normal schedule, and turned my day upside down. On a normal day last week, I'd wake up around 5 or 6 pm, have dinner by 10 or 11, and stay up until 7-8 am. And have I corrected this incredible, yet so comfortable schedule by now, you ask? Hardly. Actually, as we speak (and I type), it's 4:30 in the morning, and I have school at 9. I suck. The hard thing about having to change schedules like that fast is that you either have to stay up all night and all day to pull it off, or you have to accept having a 7 hour day before forcing yourself to go to bed again. And obviously none of the alternatives are very comfortable, so I have resisted until now..

Don't worry, I won't let this ruin anything big, I just enjoy imagining being on break for longer than I should sometimes.

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Labels: Breaks, Everyday, Personal Issues, Ponderings, Religion

posted by CK @ 03:59