Another week, another blog. I should be sleeping right now, but Pops wants a post, so here goes nothing.

School continues as always. The workload has picked up slightly, but mostly it's just because I've been going to all of the Phys classes. Today I was at school for five hours, tomorrow it will be seven. That just gets old, but I told myself I wouldn't skip any of their classes, and I'm trying to stick with it. We recently finished up learning about the kidneys, and now we're on to the endocrine system. The kidney stuff was cool because it was so relevant to all of the disorders I see at the free clinic every weekend. Endocrine stuff has always fascinated me, so I'm enjoying that. Don't think I'd want to be an endocrinologist, however. Too much of a cerebral specialty, with very little in the way of procedures.

Still running. 62 miles last week, hoping to get 70 this week. There's a 5K this weekend, and it looks like it will be a fun one. A decent number of my classmates have told me that they are running it, so that will be a good time. I hope it doesn't end up being too cold or rainy or windy.

The interviews/elections for the free clinic were this evening. My top choice was the position of Research Chairman, and I was elected to it, along with an M2 friend of mine. Looks like we'll have a pretty solid Board of Directors next year, and I look forward to serving in that capacity. Three or four of my classmates were also elected to various positions.

I just finished up a decent book by Atul Gawande (general surgeon in Boston and professor at Harvard Medical School) called "The Checklist Manifesto." It's probably not as good as some of his other books, just because he doesn't say all that much, but the basic idea is great. He talks about the value of checklists. The book is full of examples and stories of where checklists have made a profound difference--particularly for safety--in the fields of medicine (surgery, in particular), aviation, construction, etc. Now I'm starting "Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan. It's about time, too. It came in the mail two weeks ago, and it's just been sitting on my desk. My roommate also loaned me a book called "The Great Influenza" by John Barry, which I'm reading. It's excellent.

Valentine's Day is coming up. What am I doing for it? Watching the movie, of course.