This has been an awfully cold and wet weekend, but fortunately Santa provided me with an NBA season starting this afternoon. Throw in a bunch of hours spent playing Counter-Strike Source, browsing Android-related forums, submitting code snippets… and its been yet another uneventful break. In all honesty, I’d much rather take a rain check on this next week of vacation and get back to clinics where I can interact with patients and colleagues. Read more  

For as long as I can remember, “Carol of the Bells” has been my favorite Christmas carol. In particular, I love this rendition by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. Read more  

I had my last session with my preceptor on Wednesday afternoon.

Wow.
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Well it’s another New Year’s Eve spent at home except this time I’m jumping between Counter-Strike Source and First Aid USMLE Step I. In retrospect, 2009 was an incredibly unusual year because of the amount of free time I had. Once school started, I quickly become occupied with trying to get back into the swing of things. Read more  

So between watching King James and company destroy the Lakers in Los Angeles, reading some First Aid, and watching Rain Man for the millionth time (in honor of the late Kim Peek), Christmas was pretty uneventful. In fact, with each passing year, holidays seem to mean less and less.

Many of my classmates finally had the opportunity to go back home and visit their family/friends, but as a commuter from home, that’s a daily occurrence for me. Probably why winter breaks seem to be more focused on “doing what I always do when I have free time” rather than warm, fuzzy moments with the family.

I just love seeing everyone so cheery this time of the year.

What a horrible Christmas for us in Houston! My mom and I were at one of the family businesses earlier today when it was raining, and I just stared outside the window recollecting the Christmas Eve a few years ago where we had snow! Mind you, I enjoyed the snow we received on December 10th (among other things), but it’s just not the same without a “white Christmas.” Bleh, guess we’ll have to make the most of it.

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To me, this is an absurd topic to debate; however, the fact that there are those out there who are offended by the phrase “Merry Christmas” has inspired me to seek the opinions of my readership on this issue. During this holiday time, is it improper to wish a stranger “Merry Christmas?” (by “stranger”, I mean an individual whose faith is unknown)

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I’m going to give everyone a warning on the second day of December – the majority of my posts this month will involve Christmas one way or another. This post happens to involve the one of the best parts of Christmas for many children (and “children” above the age of 20) – lots and lots of presents!

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I’m so glad it’s finally December. People are cheerful for no apparent reason, random acts of kindness are seen all over the place, and most importantly, we get to reflect on the past year. As a testament to the holiday spirit, I allowed several cars to get ahead of me while waiting in traffic. Yes, that was the extent of my generosity today, but hey… it’s only the first day of December. Imagine what I’ll do tomorrow! This whole “nice” thing is going to take a while to sink in.

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I don’t know about you, but the anticipation for this Black Friday was blown way out of proportion. The deals weren’t nearly as good as last year, and a lot of stores were relatively empty after the early morning doorbuster rush. Unfortunately, a Long Island Wal-Mart store employee died due to the incoming stampede (three other individuals were injured).

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