2010 - The Year of 101 New Adventures

The new year is upon us, and 2009 and all its ups and downs are now officially in the past. Looking forward, it's always good to have a plan, and my friend Julie helped me do just that: Below is a list of 101 things I will accomplish in 2010.

1. Create a list of 100 Things that make me happy/I’m thankful for (0/100)
2. Create a list of 100 Things about me (0/100)
3. Start training martial arts.
4. Get re-certified as an EMT.
5. Go on ambulance calls as an EMT.
6. Visit a museum.
7. See an actual live play in a theater.
8. Work out every day consecutively for 30 days.
9. Learn to play either guitar or piano.
10. Attend a surprise party (or throw one).
11. Make at least 1 movie with After Effects, the special effects program.
12. Go on a camping trip to the remote wilderness with friends for more than 3 days.
13. Go to Vegas, Hangover style!
14. Attain that elusive sixpack.
15. Attend summer school in a place other than Sioux Falls.
16. Write a book (must be more than 50 pages).
17. Transfer colleges; go to a big state university for educational diversity.
18. Have a TV-show marathon with at least 2 friends (any good show).
19. Visit Norway and family there.
20. Get a visit from someone from Norway (family or friend).
21. Go on a real Spring Break to Mexico with friends.
22. Embark on at least 3 road trips per semester (must be more than 80 miles or 1.5 hour long).
23. Walk through the streets of Sioux Falls in the spring and take pictures of anything never seen before.
24. Visit my newborn ‘nephew’ in Arizona.
25. Try out a new hair style or color that I’ve never tried, for more than a week.
26. Have a night of outrageous pickup-lines with a buddy in bars, just for fun.
27. Celebrate May 17th in style (or at least traditionally).
28. Have sushi at least twice.
29. Sing karaoke in a bar/at a party, and for at least one full song.
30. Lose the caffeine habit, for good.
31. Experiment in the kitchen, discover a new dish to make others.
32. Keep in touch with Julie and Thomas over Skype – set up weekly/bi-weekly time.
33. Get 8 hours of real sleep per night for a full month.
34. Drink a gallon of water per day for a month.
35. Visit the dentist.
36. On the preceding note: floss every day.
37. No eating after 9 pm.
38. Take a multivitamin once a day the whole year.
39. Get a WoW-character to level 40. At least.
40. Get four As in the same semester.
41. Go on 10 random dates. Without care.
42. Print Norway photos for Mike, and give them while he’s still here.
43. Finish Adobe After Effects training (DVD).
44. Attend a theme party.
45. Read 4 books for fun (1/4)
46. Go to 2 live concerts.
47. Rosetta Stone: learn Spanish to level 3.
48. Rosetta Stone: re-learn French to level 3 (minimum).
49. Rosetta Stone: Learn some Japanese (min. level 2).
50. Get all episodes of Heroes on DVD.
51. Order the cologne I used to wear from Europe.
52. Get 10 random girls’ number.
53. Try to have three real days as a Yes Man.
54. Send two handwritten letters, to anyone back home.
55. Fix up my car: floor mats, wash and scrub rugs, vacuum and wash the car. Buy a spare.
56. Develop a system of healthy foods and snacks to eat, and only stray once a week.
57. Visit a city I’ve never been to, by myself or with friends. Stay for at least a day.
58. Manage to save money: $300 per semester.
59. Watch movies I missed: The Star Wars saga, and at least 5 more (0/6).
60. Get a medically relevant job (i.e. ambulance, hospital, nursing home).
61. Back up all music and pictures on DVD storage in addition to the external hard drive.
62. Donate blood (in Norway or the US).
63. Clear out my wardrobe and give leftovers to charity.
64. Volunteer at a hospital, with hands-on patient care.
65. Delete all non-friend friends from Facebook.
66. Skydive.
67. Surprise someone in my life with a random act of kindness.
68. Learn to dance (ballroom, Latino, and club style).
69. Ask for help, and stand by it.
70. Admit being wrong, without reserve.
71. Sleep under the stars.
72. Keep working on the family tree, genealogy, with grandma.
73. Learn how to make 3 great drinks by heart.
74. Learn how to master either Rock Band or Guitar Hero.
75. Go rock climbing outdoors.
76. Learn 2 cool magic tricks.
77. Become really good at Blackjack or poker.
78. Study and take the MCAT.
79. Make a loan through kiva.com.
80. Watch 10 oldies-but-goodies:

A. Citizen Kane
B. Casablanca
C. The Godfather
D. Gone with the Wind
E. Lawrence of Arabia
F. The Wizard of Oz
G. The Graduate
H. On the Waterfront
I. Schindler's List
J. Singin' in the Rain

81. Spend a day only reading magazines. Because I can.
82. Take up yoga, as well as meditation.
83. Buy stocks. Maybe just a few, but try it.
84. Phone prank someone. I’ll never be too old.
85. Work on sensitivity training.
86. Try to regain self-control when inebriated, eliminating douchiness.
87. Buy a new phone, preferably the Google Nexus One.
88. Successfully manage an extracurricular organization on campus.
89. Stay up to date on my top 3 favorite TV shows every week.
90. See if a philosophy or psychology major or minor would fit me.
91. Make sure my carnivorous plant "Nibbler" doesn't die.
92. Keep in touch with TK.
93. Retake any previously failed classes, this time with an A.
94. Become able to do 10 pull-ups.
95. Do P90X to improve all other personal bests (pushups, running time, pulse).
96. Cultivate the ability to forgive and forget.
97. Tan twice a month.
98. Read at least 5 classics, including the Art of War.
99. Attain people mastery through Neil Strauss' literature.
100. Play more board games with friends.
101. Always put the needs of friends and family first.

That's the list. Now comes the hard part of living by it.

Labels: College Stuff, Lists, Movies, Special Events, Television

posted by CK @ 06:37

Big Fight for Petty Change

I might be a pretty busy student at times, and with the move to a college-owned theme house I figured life as a student would be easier in some ways. True.. and also false.

Now, the people I live with are great, and so is the house itself. The 50" plasma, table tennis, and ample space for studying and hanging out all make it worthwhile, despite the fact that the laundry facilities are.. well, expensive. Actually, as far as I know, the laundry in our house is way more expensive than in the rest of the theme houses (not to mention the other dorms). Laundry machines in our house charge a steep $1 per wash and $1 for drying, vs the $0.75 and $0.50 in other campus housing. If my math is correct, that means theme house residents have to pay 100% more than others for drying and 75% more for washing clothes, which you'd think would be basic, elementary services in a house that's a home to 12 students.


The math is even more frustrating when considering what a given student pays per academic year in laundry fees, given that we do laundry about twice a week. This adds up to about $184 ($2 twice a week for 46 weeks) per student (about $2,200 in profit is generated by our house for laundry alone), which is $69 more than any other student on campus (they're paying about $115). Now, factor in the higher cost of theme house living per year ($4512 vs $3856 for a single room), and it's easy to see how charging the theme house students more for laundry when they're already paying more just to live in a house simply isn't fair.

The college let us all have access through our door cards to other, cheaper laundry facilities in the dorms in the beginning, before they put the 'deluxe VIP crazy high-charge' laundry machines in the house, and then they revoked the option when that was done. In other words: stick it to the theme house students. The outrage for me is, when considering that I pay about $19,000 a year to study at Augie, that you'd think the $69 extra for laundry could've been skipped. Simply giving back the freedom to do laundry where ever we please, at the price level the masses already enjoy, would be enough of a sign of good will towards the students trying to make a difference through living in special, themed houses. Augie: stop squeezing the last dollars out of poor students unless you have to. You're rich enough.

Labels: College Stuff, Rants

posted by CK @ 19:18

Assuming Room Temperature

I am now well into my intensive one month certification, on the way to becoming an EMT. Yes, the class is 7 hours every day, and you're supposed to remember a million little sequences of interventions that you would perform depending on what the patient's chief complaint is. Fair enough, we are dealing with saving lives here, so some details are permissible. What I always knew, but never had any detailed personal knowledge of, is that in addition to this (or perhaps in spite of, or even thanks to) the sometimes serious and grim nature of the job, EMTs have developed their own twisted sense of reality and humor. And that's what I'll be talking about today.

EMTs are all action-loving adrenaline junkies, to some extent, so the first thing I encountered in our paramedic instructor was an inherent love for gory and graphic video clips. We'll either start the class off with one of these, or end it with one, and they all fall in 3 categories: funny, car accident related, or they're clips from Family Guy. To show you exactly what I mean, these are samples of what we watch in class every day:

Family Guy Clip
Fatal Car Chase, Guy Thrown Out
Tequila Commercial
5 stages of Grief

Another category, that we really haven't seen that many clips of, has been the gory kind.. the kind of thing where there's blood or brain matter everywhere, as in whenever someone films a car accident scene or suicide, or just some trauma case where paramedics and EMTs are working on someone critically injured. I love the latter kind, but the suicides and other gore from real life I can do without. (For a special treat to those who love that stuff, here is a clip of a guy who is brought in to the police station after shooting a cop - who was never searched properly - and who then shoots himself right there. WARNING: Graphic!).

EMTs must learn and use a bunch of acronyms to remember the stuff to do to a patient in different situations, since the assessment needs to be thorough and complete, and in the right order. An example is the SAMPLE history, which is a list of questions to ask a patient or relevant family members about the medical history.

S - Signs and Symptoms.
A - Allergies.
M - Medications.
P - Pertinent Past History.
L - Last Oral Intake
E - Events leading up to illness/injury.

As you can see, this can be a great tool for figuring out what is wrong with the patient, what's causing this, and what might be done by the EMT to help the patient. A different area where an EMT utilizes a lot of acronyms, though, even though it's a no-no, is in the description of the patient to each other or in their reports. A typical example is the trauma patient description FDGB, which means "Fall Down, Go Boom." Some larger patients might have BWS (Beached Whale Syndrome), and the homeless might be referred to as "urban outdoorsmen." A terminal patient might be FTD (Fixin' To Die) or CTD (Circling The Drain), and a dead patient might be ART (Assuming Room Temperature) or CC (Cancel Christmas). Gunshot wounds to the head are sometimes referred to as either 'trans-occipital implants', or simply 'acute lead poisoning' in other cases. Most people are familiar with FUBAR (Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition) patients, in which case it might be necessary to PUHA (Pick Up, Haul Ass). An IBM (Incredible Barfing Man) should probably GOMA (Get Outta My Ambulance), as he might be PD (Pretty Drunk) and a PITA (Pain In The Ass). Either way, it's always important to for EMT to CYA (Cover Your Ass).

As I have 1 online exam, 2 quizzes and 6 chapters of problems to do before tomorrow, I should probably end it there.. but hey, this is an interesting tidbit to all Europeans: Did you know that medical professionals here (from EMTs to doctors) do NOT have to stop and help at the scene of an accident or illness unless they are actually on shift? Pretty crazy to me.

Labels: College Stuff, Medical

posted by CK @ 23:09

Why Ambition is Such a Killjoy

(Before you read this, expecting stuff about my recent Miami trip, let me warn you. This is about something more abstract, but will be followed in a few days with a bigger Miami-post)


I've been thinking, and I have one big want in life. I want to be unambitious. I want whatever drives me to aspire higher and not have a regular, 9-5 life to go away. And I'd love for my ego to be fine with that. College life is so many things to people, from fun and carefree, to an everyday hassle and struggle just to keep one's head above academic water. Since I landed in SD, with the exception of that amazing Boundary Waters trip and chilling in Beresford, my life has been the latter, and it's not pleasant. As I wrote in one of my previous posts, I want my life to contain more living, and less fast-forwarding to the good parts. Making every moment, every day count for something. And that seems very hard to do nowadays. Classes have me working my tail section off for scraps (the scraps being less than stellar grades since I have 3 major science classes on my plate at the same time), and the fun times never seem to last long or even exist at times. That's not how college was intended.

I frequently hear people, older people, talk fondly about their wild and carefree college days when they never had to cook or pay bills, never had to think about much else than writing a paper now and then, before spending the weekend (or week) drinking with their friends. But they must not have been pre-med, and they can't possibly have been Augie science students. I see my own college life in contrast, and see how I go to bed at 1 am almost every day, but not because I have fun or party. I always have 146 pages to read or problems to solve, and the bad conscience that comes with letting go once in a while puts a wet blanket on any fun times that might be had. That's when I fantasize that my life minus ambition might very well be a happier one.

Ambition pushes you to do more work to attain higher goals. Reaching goals is a good thing, and makes you feel accomplished and (in theory) happy. Yet, when considering people of less ambition, lower goals, and perhaps lower aptitude, I can't help but notice that nowadays on the road to life as an adult, they're having a whole lot more fun. And they seem happier and more carefree, as well. Plus, the sad thing is, they are going to be that happy for a long while, because when your goals are low enough and you are comfortable not doing anything special or other than a 9-5 thing, you will get there, and thrive. While, paradoxically, people who strive higher and work harder to accomplish something, are less happy or content with their lives getting there.

I'd love to have both, as I usually say, and I have to find a way for that to happen. There MUST be a way to both be happy and have fun and get somewhere. I've been researching alternate majors that might still lead to the same end goal (med school), but that might still allow me more enjoyment and fun from my present-day life. My natural (sadly enough) abilities are actually more philosophy/sociology/psychology or even language based, so now my idea is to go for what I'm good at and build from there. I'd still be taking med school prerequisites like physiology and organic chemistry, but my main emphasis would be on things I naturally master. And we all know mastering something is more fun, leads to less time spent on the subject while still acing the class, and this again leads to more life to be lived. The latter is not only important, but crucial, to a happy and more carefree existence, and yes, might ultimately lead to college years I actually want to remember and re-experience.

Labels: College Stuff, Personal Issues, Ponderings

posted by CK @ 05:32

An American Deja Vù: Being Back

So I'm back. And for most of you, this is the only sign of life you have received from your favorite future doctor in the exact month (that's 30 long days to those of you with a longing for Christian and a passion for numbers). Whether you're reading this on Blogger or Facebook, man, do I have news for you. Sit down, grab your most comfy blanket, a box of tissues, and your biggest jar of nitroglycerin, because this post might just alter the course of your life.

Okay, I'll be sincere. This isn't about you (it's about time you start your own blog, I guess), it's definitely about me. And while we're on our way, let me first recap the past month of my life to you. Briefly (yeah, right).

Alicia and I landed in Sioux Falls (often referred to as SooFoo or Sucks Falls, the latter being more derogatory than it deserves) on August 11th, and her family greeted us at the airport with (silent) screams and hugs that couldn't have been more genuine. We went out to eat (count 1 of multiple fast food visits these past weeks) at Fuddruckers, and had the most amazing burgers (and my first Cherry Coke) over pleasant conversation with the family and one of Lish's friends who had tagged along. I immediately got along with her parents (I am a parent favorite, not surprisingly), and my somewhat crude, sarcastic sense of humor seemed to fit right in with the Coggins crowd. Now, our getting along was technically also the only option, because of the week we had ahead of us.

On the 13th of August we all ventured, by car, up to Grand Marais (Minnesota) and the Boundary Waters, with everything from tents, food packs, canoes, paddles, sleeping bags and matches to bug spray. We spent our first night at a camping ground at the edge of town (our last showers of the week), before we embarked on the 5-night trip into the wilderness. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness has a no-littering, no-motors, no unauthorized fires, no toilets, and no other people policy, which means the most rustic camping around. The entire rest of the week it was life as only Rambo would have preferred it: up at dawn, preparing all our meals over the campfire, 4-5 hours of intense paddling to find our next camp site, making poopsies in the woods or specially engineered latrines 150 ft from the lake, and about 14 portages (that is, carriages of 4 kevlar canoes, several oversized backbacks and food packs, paddles and so on, from one lake to another, oftentimes through dense vegetation or up steep hills). You'd be surprised, though; I ended up loving it. The camp fire bonding, healthy physical exercise, incredible starry nights, sleeping on the rocky ground, and being without a shower or shave for a week all turned out to be exactly what I needed. Disconnecting from society, from the Facebook monster, from Mr. TV, and from all our ridiculous comforts is an amazing feeling, and I'd go back and do it all again tomorrow, if I could. As aching, smelly, hurting, and tired as my body was after the trip, my soul couldn't be happier. That, my friends, is the meaning of good pain.

Returning to Beresford, Alicia's hometown, we spent our next weeks relaxing and being spoiled. Dawn, Alicia's mom, cooked us incredible meals every day, and the evenings were spent playing Rock Band (on X-Box) or Dice (the Coggins dice game that truly grows on you after a while, as simple as it is - and it doesn't hurt when you ROCK it completely every time either). One of the nights Alicia and I went back to Sioux Falls, with one mission on hand: Wal-Mart. We spent about 3 hours just walking around, taking in the atmosphere that is Wally's World, and concluded they were the exact WM dosage we'd been craving ever since leaving the US last time. You might not appreciate it now, but believe me - Wal-Mart is up there with apple pie and peach cobbler when abroad.

On the 2nd of September, I moved into the dorms, and got my room set up. Thanks to Alicia and her decision to save money (on car insurance?) and precious time on living at a friend's house, I now have the sweetest room around. I bought a black fridge, I have a black loft, a black (coooomfortable) couch, huge TV, and even my own bean bag chair. I bought a blender (for those Men's Health smoothies and occasional Jimmy Buffet nights) - and yes, that is black too. I brought 5 (!) suitcases of personal belongings and clothes (and thanks to a mistake made by United Airlines, I only paid $100 for the 3 that were both overweight and in excess - remember, technically just 2 bags of 50 lbs each), so now I have almost all my stuff in one cool room. Classes are hard (I'm taking Organic Chemistry, Terrestrial Plant Ecology, and Genetics), but I'll survive. I'll have worse later, so this is a good time to prove I can do it.

Lastly, I'm single again. But you probably knew that one. And there's nothing I feel like saying about that on a forum as public as a blog, so I'll just leave it with that. Let me just, incredibly, quote Usher: "Breaking up is a natural evolution when you try to figure out what you want in life. If you're with an individual who isn't moving in the same direction and at the same rate that you are, it ain't going to work." And I suppose it didn't.

Labels: Breaks, College Stuff, Major Updates, Personal Issues, Vacations

posted by CK @ 06:36

The South Dakotan Return

Not long to go now. A month, actually. A single month before I once again pack up my entire life, furniture, books, DVDs and all, and ship myself off to a familiar, yet unfamiliar, place. For the third time in my life I’ll fit my life into 2 overstuffed suitcases and hope that the US of A becomes my home away from home. I might not be going to the hub of civilization (or the hub of much other than corn and good manners), but South Dakota has more to offer me than you might (in your presumptive and assumptive head) think. Up until now I’ve felt that every time I answer the geographical enquiry of my destination, I’ve had to add in some form of apologetic modifier to not let the stigma of the quaint, land-locked state label me. But I’m not sorry anymore, and actually, I’m thrilled.

I have seen the scale of life play out in more than one way recently. Weighing out advantages versus disadvantages, facts versus imagination, and taking part in the decision making process that goes into making crucial life choices. Yes, I know I live in one of the richest, safest, prettiest countries in the world, and that leaving might sound as smart as the Adam and Eve exodus from Eden back in the day (which was a Wednesday, by the way. Never mind). But, just like that untimely (or maybe very timely) exit, my own sortie serves a much higher purpose. The goal justifies the means, kind of thing. No one wants to leave their comfortable lair for the vast world waiting outside, but to find food and survive, it’s necessary. My reasoning goes like this: I will be a doctor some day. To get there, I have to go to school. To go to school, I have to find an educational path that I can live with for the next (6-7) few years. I have never been as bored with school as I have been the past 2 years in Norway, and continuing here will then, of course, not be happening. This is where the life quality argument comes in. Some people are fine with being so bored with life for their entire college period that carving out their eyes with a rusty spoon sounds like a welcome and fun endeavour, since hey: you’re supposedly not meant to enjoy going to school. I have objected to this, sometimes attracting scrutiny from the Incomprehensibles, seeing as my life philosophy does not allow me to waste even a single year of living being dead inside. If you still don’t understand, take the movie “Click” (Adam Sandler) as an example. The main character uses his life remote to put his brain on pause while fast forwarding over the boring parts of life, suddenly finding himself at the end of it wondering where it all went and why his life didn’t contain more living. I couldn’t (and I refuse to) do that, and that’s why I’m willing to leave everything I know behind to pursue a more viable way of attaining my ultimate medical goal.

When life gives you lemons, you have to choice of doing that same ol’ lemonade thing, or open up your cook book on the ‘desserts’ section and get creative. Sioux Falls, South Dakota might not sound as an exciting place on paper, but the truth would surprise you. Without going into details (except for within these parentheses, where I’ll mention scenic bike trails surrounding the entire city, 3 movie theatres including one $3 one, bowling alleys, great restaurants like the HuHot Mongolian grill, the actual Sioux Falls water falls, the joyous Wal*Mart Super Center, plenty of malls for shopping, 24-hour coffee shops, and proximity to other neat cities), I can tell you it won’t be a very bohemian thing I’ll do by moving there to finish my studies. The college holds close to 2,000 students, just got a brand new library, offers plenty of on-campus dorms for that special college-life feeling, and is renowned for its science department (enter pre-med Christian). A host of appropriate and accommodating clubs, unions and other extra-curricular venues provides everything a yearning pre-med resumé might need. Next to the college two huge regional hospitals call SooFoo home, giving me exactly the range of possibilities I need. And yes, that’s what my allotted 2 years in SD is all about: possibilities. I’ll leave there well prepared for med school in some other (hopefully seaside) state, with a long list of incredible, long-lasting college memories.

So no, I’m not making a mistake. Yes, I did say I’m leaving Norway for South Dakota, USA, and yes, I’ll stay for 2 whole years. I’ll enjoy every minute, because life is too short to not make the most of your own time and place.

And no, you can’t come.

Labels: College Stuff, Philosophy, Ponderings, Special Events

posted by CK @ 02:21

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.

.

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

posted by CK @ 22:00

The British Council London Excursion 2006

Believe it or not, here I suddenly am. I was thinking I would reappear on this blog (mine, yes, so it IS very logical, you pedantic piece of snot) on some meaningful date or day like October 20th (the 5 month anniversary of my return to Norway, and coincidentally Julie's birthday),

- HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY, JULES!!

or maybe even a week before my threatening first exam this semester, but no. All clever dates passed me by since my DSL never arrived (until now), but now I'm back at least. Kind of.

I have a lot to talk about from my 5+ months since the last post, but that'll have to be next time. Now I'm in Trondheim at my dad's and trying to study for the previously mentioned scary (forget about Halloween - this one's a real massacre) exam, which is on Wed. the 8th. Meanwhile I have what has come out of the only place I went this summer, a movie from my trip to London with JuJu, for you to chillax with. That's gonna have to be it until after the exam, when I don't have to think about pulmonary embolisms, reading ECGs or even myelomatosis anymore. Now I'll get off my dad's neighbor's wireless network before he knocks on the door.. Enjoy this film!

Here is the video I've made from mine and Julie's trip to London this May. I will be back soon with more interesting tidbits from this summer. :)

Labels: Breaks, College Stuff, Medical, Vacations

posted by CK @ 12:24

College Conundrum

[This post has been recorded as audio. To listen to the post being read, click here.]

I can't sleep. Well, I don't want to sleep, either, yet, but I've actually spent the past 20 minutes trying to take an interesting picture of myself, accidentally dropping the memory card into a crack between the keyboard stand and the desk, almost tearing out the keyboard stand from the same desk in order to get my memory card back, and finally managing to get it out of there with worryingly many scratches on it. If you think that's truly a waste of precious time, I don't think you know what I've been spending my past few hours on, namely getting some kind of script for a photo album or photoblog for the vast amount of pics I want to take every day but can't store or publish anywhere, yielding nothing more than a stupid Wordpress account and a lot of worthless downloaded "free trial" programs. I finished my one single diet cherry coke hours ago, and now I've suddenly gotten the incredibly farfetched idea that I want to write a novel. Of course, what else, right? Psychological deterioration is what I call that kind of rambling, and it can't be due to anything else than the sheer lack of sleep today. Now I will move on to the real matter at hand, the reason why I wrote this post at all; my college conundrum.

Who would have known searching for good colleges would be this hard? I mean, I have a basic idea of the kind of college I want to go to this fall, and its description isn't very limiting. It can't be Augustana. It's got have more than 5,000 students, and be in an intersting area. It needs to have a good pre-med program, and it needs to be well renowned in the research and biological fields. Its students should like both their fellow students and faculty, and it shouldn't be too cold there. Nothing else. So far, by the help of princetonreview.com and various education fairs in Oslo I've gotten down to the two best ones: University of Kansas and Hawai'i Pacific University. After some encouragement from Julie I decided to research the two further, deeper if you will, and I even made a nifty Excel spreadsheet to keep track of my findings, including a nice point ranking system. The research hinted at a few negative circumstances regarding the University of Kansas, including a clique-ish and frat dominated social life, isolated city and a feeling of being 'lost' in the enormous crowd of students at the institution. HPU thus emerged as the winner of my little college test, by almost 20%, which actually to some degree surprised me. I made some calls last night to the Hawai'i university, and re-started my application process there (I had halfway applied once before), just to ensure that this apparent catch doesn't become impossible on me.

Hawai'i. Hmmm.. I've been there, and loved it, mind you, but there must be something.. fishy about it. Hawai'i is the world's paradise, the world's favorite post card and fantasy, and now I'm actually thinking of going to college there. Where are the drawbacks? Where? Is everything actually as good as it seems, and will I enjoy it? Will it gain my career? I think so. It has an actual pre-med major, which very, very few schools actually have, and small classes with nice, approachable professors. The only real concern I have is the cost of it all. For a lifetime experience like this my monetary ceiling's pretty high, but I need to make sure I can afford it all. My next step will be to contact the school regarding the real costs, and then we'll see from there. Maybe I'll have to start the search all over again... Cross thine fingers. Do it, just do it.

Labels: College Stuff, Pictures

posted by CK @ 08:07

Location: Changed

[WISH LIST FOR CHRISTIAN'S BIRTHDAY: CLICK HERE!]

I moved. Finally. I moved to my friend Landon's former room, and I love it. It might be just across the hall from where I temporarily lived the past 12 days (remember: "my penthouse"), but it feels like it's in a totally different building. The room's actually square, the ceiling's barely slanting, and it's of course bigger. But that's not the only thing on my mind these days, I have occasional periods where I can't stop thinking about my cat, H.M. King Farouk I, so I thought I'd post the first picture of him in the history of the blog, right now, while I keep thinking about and missing him.

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Here are my new keys, which obviously go together with my new room.
Just thought that'd be symbolic in a way.

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Behold, it's... new.

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This is the left side of the room, featuring my desk and the picture display.

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Same side of the room as the last one, but featuring my bookcase and microwave.

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The right side of my room, featuring my fridge, bed, Smallville poster and a flag. Now, I'm not exactly an American patriot, so don't worry - the flag's just decoration.

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My bed, Smallville and Superman posters, and the end table (hard to see) with the alarm clock (important), phone and answering machine.

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My fantastic walk-in closet, with my fascinating array of hats, and of course (almost) all my clothes.

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The East Hall TV room, or my new living room, seeing as I don't have a TV, and this room has a DVD player and a VCR as well.

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The pool room in East, somewhat old but fully useable. And we do.

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My Japanese friend, Kei, who's a devoted tennis player.

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That concludes this week's picture exclusive, straight from the prairie land of South Dakota.

Labels: College Stuff, Medical, Minor Updates, News, Pictures

posted by CK @ 06:38